War Zones

The Middle East, Ukraine and public opinion

The only war the United States has won against Iran was on the football pitch during this dodgy World Cup. With the help of its FIFA gangsters the United States got its way by rigging the result. In the US’s real war against Iran, that was not possible. Meanwhile as Israel continues to target Lebanon and pressure its weak government to surrender territory, a mini Nakba unfolded.

The US and Iran’s MoU sits in tatters after the United States began attacking Iran once again, compelling the Iranians to respond by bombing US bases in the Gulf states. Iran has closed the straits of Hormuz once more and made it clear that no further attempts by the US to determine Iranian policies on the sea would be tolerated. The two countries have reached a new stalemate but for how long is difficult to predict. The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, flew to Baghdad over the weekend to report on the latest situation to the Iraqi government. Close to the airport the Iranian FM paused to lay wreaths on the tomb of the slain Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, assassinated by the CIA in 2020. The symbolism could not have been clearer. Iran is not going to give up.

At home this war has made Trump extremely unpopular. An increasing number of US citizens are raising awkward questions regarding US-Israel relations. The Economist’s Editor-in-Chief, while interviewing Tucker Carlson was rendered speechless after Carlson suggested that Israel had dragged the US into a totally irrational war and questioned Israel’s influence on US foreign policy. Millions of Americans struggling to pay their gas bills are wondering the same thing. The effects of the war on the global economy should not be underestimated, nor should the financial costs the imperial hegemon has incurred itself. Operation Epic Fury has failed. Blaming the Europeans doesn’t cut much ice at home. In fact, most NATO Europeans permitted their air bases to be used without which the US would have suffered even more damage. The exception was Spain, which refused to allow US warplanes on Moron Air Base at Moron de Frontera to be used for the moron’s war against Iran.

Meanwhile in Gaza and the West Bank the Israelis carry on with their genocidal campaign. Just today, Israeli bombs killed eight Palestinians in the West Bank, three of whom were children. This brings the number of Palestinian children killed in the West Bank since October 7 to 241 and nearly 1100 people in total. The Israelis continue to insist they’re showing restraint. The land-grabs and killings in the West Bank are ignored by the Wild West and its institutions. The late General de Gaulle once referred to states as ‘cold monsters’. It is an apt definition of the states that have supported, armed and backed Israel unconditionally, unmoved by the tragedies that are devastating thousands and thousands of Palestinian families. In other words, Western civilization is in full bloom yet again, dripping with blood. Its politicians with mask-like countenances lie endlessly while the Palestinian people grimace in pain and despair.

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On the European front where NATO is fighting a war against Russia, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a mediocre, visionless politician, has taken to boasting again. He’s delighted that Trump is back on board the NATO warship and has resumed his usual servile and tributary (buying more US weapons) displays with shameless delight. Merz imagines that Putin will now retreat. He and his colleagues in the EU show no interest in serious negotiations. To defend the mess that they have got into in Ukraine, more than a few of them are encouraging fantasies of a Russian invasion of other European states. Firing drones inside Russia is not going to help too much either. They should have realised that when it became obvious that Putin’s droning of Ukraine did not defeat the regime. The Russian Army is moving forward slowly. Choices are limited. A serious, negotiated end to the war and both sides will require concessions be made on both sides or a dangerous escalation is inevitable. There is a growing hawkish section in Russia’s military-political establishment that is arguing for Putin to attack NATO bases involved in supporting Ukraine. Were the Germans to respond with US missiles, then Russia could use nuclear missiles. The Pentagon is aware of all this and will have to insist on a settlement sooner or later. Inside Germany the far-right AfD is growing in strength, as a result partially of the country’s policies vis-a-vis Russia. The party’s leader, Alice Weidel, is arguing that Germany is destroying itself economically because of this obsession with Russia and is demanding a change of course. This demand is popular and Merz and allies can only respond with weak lies and cover-ups of one sort or another. The degree of corruption in the upper echelons of Ukraine is undeniable as is the strong influence of the Ukrainian Nazis. Rumours are circulating that the Germans want to remove Zelensky from office. But the Nazi influence within Ukraine’s ruling elite runs deep. They will insist they play a part in selecting his replacement. Zelensky’s removal therefore might not do the trick.

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Public opinion in all of Europe is opposed to the open support given by the EU (barring Spain) and the extreme centre parties in Britain to Israel and its policies. Labour Britain, in full authoritarian mode, has banned demonstrations and declared a non-violent direct action group as terrorists. Over 3000 of their supporters (average age 55) have been charged under this draconian and crazed law. Taking the madness even further, a particularly unpleasant judge is targeting one of the most brilliant civil rights barristers in England, Rajiv Menon, accusing him of contempt of court for informing jury members of their rights – apparently an unforgivable crime in the UK for which one can be stripped of the right to practice law. Police in Germany and France have brutalised demonstrators marching for Palestine and both in the US and Europe, lecturers opposed to the Israeli genocide are being fired (and Doctors too in Britain). Students are being expelled and deported. The solidarity movement with Palestine has no precedent in world history and has split the Democrats in the US where the Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, has helped to propel young DSA members to victory in the recent primaries. They were elected demanding freedom for Palestine and denouncing AIPAC as a ‘monster’. This is the first time that the Israel Lobby in the US has been dealt such a heavy blow. In the UK, a Prime Minster is being discarded after two years of unwavering fealty to Israel’s genocide tanked his popularity to historic lows. And yet the media and the Party dumping hin will not even whisper the main cause of his spectacular collapse. In France, LFI Presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon, is drawing huge crowds and the defence of Palestine is one of his key slogans at impressive mass meetings. The French Zionist outfit, CRIFF, has accused him of anti-semitism. Ironically, as I once warned at a Jewish literary Festival in London a decade or so ago, if the wild and base employees of Israeli embassies carried on denouncing opponents as anti-semites, the charge would lose its effect. This has happened all over Europe and North America. Meanwhile, Jewish support for Palestine continues to grow.