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By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Palestine
The principled stance by Hamas on the ongoing Yemeni crisis is politically sound and morally correct. It may raise some eyebrows and draw criticism in some quarters.
However, a contextual examination of Hamas's position in this regard should vindicate the Palestinian Islamic liberation movement of any wrongdoing or charges of ingratitude towards Iran, as some Shiite circles might argue.
In the final analysis, Hamas cannot sell its principles for money from any quarters, Arab or non-Arab alike.
Eric Zuesse
An alarming development is that Stephen F. Cohen, the internationally prominent scholar of Russia, is acknowledging that (1:35 on the video) “for the first time in my long life (I began in this field in the 1960s), I think the possibility of war with Russia is real,” and he clearly and unequivocally places all of the blame for it on the U.S. leadership. He calls this “possibly a fateful turning-point in history.” He also says “it could be the beginning of the end of the so-called trans-Atlantic alliance.”
He goes on to say (2:20): “This problem began in the 1990s, when the Clinton Administration adopted a winner-take-all policy toward post-Soviet Russia … Russia gives, we take. … This policy was adopted by the Clinton Administration but is pursued by every [meaning both] political party, every President, every American Congress, since President Clinton, to President Obama. This meant that the United States was entitled to a sphere or zone of influence as large as it wished, right up to Russia’s borders, and Russia was entitled to no sphere of influence, at all, not even in Georgia, … or in Ukraine (with which Russia had been intermarried for centuries).”
Eric Zuesse
The Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung reported Thursday the 26th, that the Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, whom Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko recently removed from control over Ukraine’s monopoly oil-transport firm and from being governor of a Ukrainian province, had been using his private army, augmented by forces from Dmitriy Yarosh’s Right Sector party, to rob other oligarchs, especially Ukraine’s richest one, Rinat Akhmetov.
Akhmetov's companies are mainly in eastern Ukraine, and so Akhmetov had been trying to avoid siding with either the post-coup Ukrainian government or the anti-coup residents of the far-eastern, and pro-Russian, Donbass region of Ukraine, who reject it. (That’s the dark-purple area shown on this voting map of the last Presidential election before the coup, where 90%+ of the residents had voted for Viktor Yanukovych — the man who was overthrown in the coup.) Akhmetov was thus vulnerable after the coup.
by Stephen Lendman
Yemen is Obama's war. It was planned months ago. Military campaigns require extensive preparation. They're not launched overnight as headlines suggest.
Saudi and other rogue Arab states were enlisted as US proxies to mass murder Yemenis.
Obama usurped diktat authority for wars without end. He's waging multiple direct and proxy ones - endless ones for power and profit.
Yemen is his latest naked aggression. Conflict could continue longterm. Over the weekend, airstrikes intensified. Countless thousands may die. Perhaps another refugee crisis looms.
“It is always a meritorious deed to get hold of a Palestinian’s possessions” The code of Jewish Law revised and updated - by Benjamin Netanyahu
By James Petras
Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election makes him the longest serving prime minister in Israel’s history. His 20% margin of victory (30 Knesset seats to 24 for his nearest opponent) underlines the mass base of his consolidation of power.
Most critical commentators cite Netanyahu’s racist pronouncements; his rejection of any two state solution and his overt appeal for a mass Jewish voter turnout to counteract the ‘droves of Arab voters’ for his electoral victories. There is no question that the majority of Israeli Jewish leaders and parties support Netanyahu’s racist pronouncements and ‘no-state’ solution and joined him in a coalition government. But the larger issue is the positive mass response to Netanyahu’s call to action. Nearly three quarters of the electorate turned out (73%) to elect him. Moreover, Netanyahu has been elected prime minister for four terms: between 1996-99 and more recently 2009-20.
by Stephen Lendman
Times editors are neocons masquerading as journalists. They have no credibility whatever.
They're key parts of America's Big Lying Machine. They suppress hard truths. They blast out daily managed news disinformation rubbish.
They support all war of aggression America wages or plans. They're in lockstep with imperial mass slaughter and destruction.
They serve wealth, power and privilege exclusively. They're unapologetic about where they stand.
On March 26, they featured former Bush official/unindicted war criminal/neocon hardliner John Bolton.
He took full advantage. He urged Washington bomb Iran's nonexistent nuclear weapons facilities.
He knows doing so puts millions of lives at risk. So do Times editors.
They published his war advocacy anyway. Doing so supports it.
Attacking Iran could set the whole region ablaze. What's a few million lives to eliminate Israel's main regional rival.
Lunatics like Bolton and Times editors consider them a small price to pay
Maybe they think turning the entire region to rubble is OK as long as oil in the ground remains for America to control - to plunder for profit.
Eric Zuesse
In December, a multi-billion-dollar loan [variously stated as $3-$3.5 billion] to Ukraine comes due, which Ukraine had received from Russia. The IMF has provided a new debt plan, however, dictating that existing loans to Ukraine that have an expiration-date are to be subjected to a haircut. Thus, the resource gap of the country totaling $40 billion is to be reduced.
Since the crisis, Ukraine has received several loans from the IMF and the EU [and the U.S.]. These loans must be repaid in a few years from now. However, the financial situation of the country remains vulnerable. Over the next four years overdue loans totaling $15 billion need to be paid [they’re mostly loans from Russia]. Only three billion of them are an old loan Russia that has to be paid in December of this year. The IMF might prevent it [from being repaid in full, even though it has seniority over the new loans that are coming from the West].
Eric Zuesse
“Burying the lede” is a way that ‘news’ professionals hide or "bury" things while ‘reporting’ on them; and the biggest example of this in modern times occurred when Germany’s Spiegel (Mirror) magazine headlined its cover-story on 24 November 2014, "Summit of Failure: How the EU Lost Russia over Ukraine.” On the magazine's front cover, it was instead bannered as "Kalte Krieger — Geschichte einer Machtprobe: Wie Merkel und Putin Europa an den Rand des Abgrunds brachten” which translates as: "Cold Warrior — History of a Showdown: How Merkel and Putin brought Europe to the Edge of the Abyss.” This was a very lengthy report, 7,000 words, but the historically blockbuster revelation in it, which the global press has ignored, and/or themselves buried by similarly mentioning it without headlining it or leading with it (nor even linking to it), was this (which would have been a fair headline for that news report, since it’s 99% of that news-report’s real value): “EU’s Offer to Ukraine Would Have Cost Ukraine $160B.” (I hope that the headline that I used above is even better, however.)
by Stephen Lendman
Netanyahu and other Israeli officials suppress information on its longstanding nuclear weapons program - an arsenal with thermonuclear ones and long-range delivery capability able to incinerate entire cities.
On Sunday, Netanyahu railed against Iran's known peaceful nuclear program as a March 31 deadline approaches to reach a preliminary framework deal ahead of a June 30 final one.
The whole world knows Iran's program is peaceful. It conforms to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) provisions.
It has no military component. US and Israeli intelligence assessments say so. No evidence suggests otherwise.
By Kevin Zeese
A week with Wyden shows a secret fundraiser for a secretly negotiated corporate agreement
Note: We are still hoping that Senator Wyden will listen to the people and not his big money donors. He should announce now that he will not be supporting any fast track trade authority legislation. The three treaties being negotiated in secret by Obama are too far along and cannot meet the transparency and participation requirements that Wyden has said he supports. He should come out against fast track for all the deals currently being negotiated.
In recent town hall events Sen. Wyden has said that export from Oregon to Asia is a foundation of the Oregon economy. But, as he knows, the US already has trade deals with most of the countries involved in the TPP so it will make little difference on Oregon’s exports. What is will do is give these foreign corporations the ability to move to locations with cheaper labor and resources as well as the power to sue if Oregon takes action in the public interest to protect people and planet. The TPP is a loser for the Oregon economy and for the people of Oregon. KZ
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