Israel

Even before the Iraq War, John Bolton was a leading brain behind the neoconservatives’ war-and-conquest agenda. Long ago I wrote about him, in “John Bolton and U.S. Lawlessness,” “The Bush administration’s international lawlessness did not come from nowhere. Its intellectual foundations were laid long before 9/11 by neoconservatives.” I quoted Bolton, “It is a big mistake to for us to grant any validity to international law … because over the long term, the goal of those who think that it really means anything are those who want to constrict the United States.” In fact I set up a web page, the John Bolton File, containing various links about him and the neocons.

Melania Trump told Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel’s prime minister, on Saturday that relations between the US and Israel, and between their two families, “will be wonderful,” and that she and President-elect Donald Trump are looking forward to hosting them in the United States “at the first opportunity.”

80% of the population of the USA do not trust and do not appreciate either of the two candidates. The strongest argument for voting Trump is not so much what he says as opposition to Clinton being elected. And the main argument for voting Clinton is not to have Trump elected!

It comes in the final frantic days of an election in which Orthodox Jewish votes may be critical in Ohio and Florida, and where anecdotal evidence suggests that charges of sexual assault against Trump have diminished support for him among that naturally Republican constituency. Both campaigns have targeted Jewish voters in battleground states, with a

“Mr. Trump agreed that the military assistance provided to Israel and missile defense cooperation with Israel are an excellent investment for America. Mr. Trump said that under a Trump administration, there will be extraordinary strategic, technological, military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries,” the campaign said in a statement. “Mr.

Israel’s Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said in an interview that any future hostilities between the Jewish state and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip will be the last, “because we will completely destroy them”.

By essentially denying the principle of popular sovereignty, it is also denying the principle of national sovereignty, the (relatively) independent character of the Greek state. Greece occupies a strategic place in the Eastern Mediterranean, on the route connecting Russia with the Mediterranean and Western Europe with the Middle East. Its independence was never completely tolerated by the British and then the American empires. Greeks were also suspected of leaning towards Russians, or at least this was the argument justifying the innumerable Western interventions in this country.

Since last October, the Israeli government has accused Palestinians and their allies of “inciting violence” against Israelis, despite the fact that only 34 Israelis have died in that time frame compared to 230 Palestinians. The uptick in violence has been attributed to an internationally condemned Israeli encroachment of Palestinian lands in the contested West Bank.

Like the Russian president, Mr. Erdogan did not shrink from challenging the existing status-quo, claiming for Ankara the status of leader of the Muslim world. From the point of view of the Western elite, both of these politicians have signed their own death warrants with such declarations.

The Avaaz petition does not aim to end the war and restore peace. It clearly aims to obstruct the Syrian government offensive to retake Aleppo. The Syrian army has undergone heavy losses in five years of war, its potential recruits have in effect been invited to avoid dangerous military service by going to Germany. Syria needs air power to reduce its own casualties. The Avaaz petition calls for crippling the Syrian offensive