MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : Israel’s security crisis has new political team sweating

Israel’s evolving security crisis has put a damper on the formation of a new government.

A makeup artist prepares opposition leader and chairman of Israel’s Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid before a press conference in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on May 6, 2021. –  By Mazal Mualem AL MONITOR –  May 11, 2021

Last week, it looked highly likely that a new government was about to take over in Israel. Then the security situation escalated, throwing more obstacles in the path of a new government headed by Yamina chair Naftali Bennett that would relegate current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the opposition benches.

Until around noon yesterday, the leaders of the change bloc seemed optimistic that a new government would be announced very soon. They had already allocated portfolios and were negotiating the guidelines for the new coalition. The participating party leaders all believed that by the end of the week, Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid would inform President Reuven Rivlin that he had succeeded in forming a coalition.

Such an coalition is still possible, but it faces serious new obstacles.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : OPFERSEIN ! DER NEUE PASSIVE (UMGEKEHRTER) HEROISMUS! DER VERZICHT AUF DIE SCHÖNHEIT !

Magnus Klaue  11 Mai 2021

Leute, die jede Wahrnehmung des Subjekts durch andere Subjekte für a priori repressiv, normierend, übel adressierend oder “anrufend” halten, entdecken sich unter Pandemiebedingungen völlig neu. Wie z.B. Teresa Bücker, Frontschwaflerin des Magazins der “Süddeutschen Zeitung”:

“Nicht nur die kurzen Gespräche im Büro sind weniger geworden. Auch Blickkontakte oder ein Lächeln von einer fremden Person auf der Straße oder in der S-Bahn sind im Pandemie-Alltag selten. Daher kommt das Feedback, dass wir noch da sind und aussehen, vor allem vom Blick in den eigenen Spiegel. Die Aufmerksamkeit für uns selbst ist geschärft, wir finden Spuren an uns, die wir noch nicht kennen. Vielleicht habe ich tatsächlich neue weiße Haare, vielleicht habe ich sie vorher nur nie gesehen.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS Top of the Agenda – Israel Retaliates Against Rocket Attacks From Gaza

Weeks of tensions in Jerusalem sharply escalated (Haaretz) yesterday as Israel carried out air strikes in Gaza in retaliation for dozens of rocket attacks by Hamas, the militant group that controls the territory, and other armed groups.

In the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in years, twenty-four Palestinians, including nine children, were killed in the Israeli strikes (AP), Gaza health officials said. The Israeli military said fifteen Palestinian militants were killed and that at least two hundred rockets had been fired into Israel. The rocket attacks and air strikes followed violent confrontations (NYT) at East Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque, where hundreds of Palestinians and more than twenty Israeli police officers were injured. Tensions in Jerusalem have been rising over a pending court decision (WaPo) that could result in the eviction of several Arab families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for an end to the rocket attacks and de-escalation by all sides.

Analysis
“Hamas has created a new formula,” the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Michael Herzog tells the New York Times. “They have created an equation where they try to deter Israel from taking actions in Jerusalem that they deem provocative.”

“[President Joe] Biden cannot sit this one out: Passivity in face [of] human rights violation in Jerusalem directly implicates [the] US: [the] US is not a bystander in the conflict; it is part and parcel of the asymmetry of power that unfairly hurts one side in favor of the other, while making peace more remote,” the Brookings Institution’s Shibley Telhami tweets.

MESOPOTAMIA NEWS Report: Israel, Kurds helped US plan, execute Soleimani killing

Investigative report reveals new details about the highly complex plan to remove the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, including a US-Israeli command and communications center based in Tel Aviv and Peshmerga fighters disguised as airport baggage handlers.

By  Neta Bar  – ISRAEL HAYOM –   05-09-2021 10:00 – Israeli intelligence played a direct role in the US drone attack that killed former commander of Iran’s elite Quds Corps Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 3, 2020, a new investigative piece by Yahoo News reveals.

Yahoo interviewed over 15 members of the US defense and security establishment and members of former US President Donald Trump’s administration. According to the findings, a joint US-Israel command and communications center was operating out of Tel Aviv to track Soleimani’s cellular phone use patterns.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS BACKGROUNDER : ISIS & IRANIAN-BACKED MILITIAS COMPETE TO CONTROL BAGHDAD REGION

May 6, 2021 – Eva Kahan INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR – Key Takeaway:

Iranian-backed militias are increasingly supplanting other Iraqi security forces and asserting control over Baghdad and surrounding areas, creating opportunities for ISIS to infiltrate Baghdad. Iranian-backed militias are also exerting control over populations and transit routes around Baghdad in hopes to eject US forces and set conditions to maintain a long-term demographic majority. Militia activity causes other Iraqi security forces to divide their attention between countering militias and countering ISIS, reducing the effectiveness of both efforts. ISIS is exploiting this gap to build durable support zones through the Baghdad Belts from which it can stage spectacular attacks. The Iraqi Security Forces must develop better local security strategies to more effectively counter both militia and ISIS campaigns in Baghdad and the Baghdad Belts.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS INTEL : US warship seizes massive cache of illicit weapons in North Arabian Sea

MAY 11, 2021 BY IAN ALLEN – INTEL ORG

AN AMERICAN WARSHIP HAS seized a massive cache of illicit Russian- and Chinese-made weapons, which were found hidden inside a small fishing vessel sailing in the North Arabian Sea, according to the United States Navy. A statement describing the seizure was issued on Monday by the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which is based in the Gulf state of Bahrain. It said that the seizure was carried out by a US Coast Guard Team aboard the USS Monterey, which is a guided-missile cruiser.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS KURDISTAN – IRAK – Berichte: PKK greift erneut kurdische Peschmerga-Truppen an

In der Autonomieregion um Erbil habe es erneut Zusammenstöße zwischen den kurdischen Peschmerga-Truppen und der PKK-Terrororganisation gegeben.

Von NEX24 – Mai 10, 2021 Erbil – In der Autonomieregion um Erbil habe es erneut Zusammenstöße zwischen den kurdischen Peschmerga-Truppen und der PKK-Terrororganisation gegeben.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : BIDEN ERMAHNT ISRAEL = ERGO IST BIDEN ANTISEMIT!

Unruhen in Ostjerusalem : Die Angst vor der Vertreibung

  • Von Jochen Stahnke, Jerusalem FAZ 10.05.2021- Israelische Sicherheitskräfte während einer Demonstration gegen den geplanten Räumungsprozess im Stadtteil Scheich Jarrah am 8. Mai  – In Jerusalem gärt es seit Wochen. Die mögliche Enteignung von Palästinensern hat jetzt zu den schwersten Auseinandersetzungen seit Jahren beigetragen. Selbst Washington ermahnt die Netanjahu-Regierung.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS LATEST :  Six Palestinian rockets from Gaza aimed at Jerusalem reach environs

May 10, 2021 @ 18:42 DEBKA FILES ISRAEL

A multiple rocket barrage was launched from the Gaza Strip towards Jerusalem after a Hamas ultimatum to Israel to evacuate police from Temple Mt by 1800 hours on Monday. Some were intercepted by Iron Dome. Others exploded near Bet Shemesh, Kiryat Anavim and Maaleh Hahamisha and Beit Hakerem in Jerusalem, causing damage to property. A Cornet anti-air rocket hit an Israel car and set it on fire. Kiryat Gat, Lachish, Sderot were also targeted.

Shelters wrre earlier opened in areas around the Gaza Strip including Ashkelon ready for the attack continue, after the roads in the region were cleared and hospitals alerted to prepare for casualty victims of terror. And half an hour after the first barrage, Hamas fired another 20 rockets against Ashkelon and Sderot.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS FOCUS : Anyone involved in Soleimani killing will be held responsible, Iran says

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Any entity linked to the assassination of top Iranian commander Qasim Soleimani, whether “directly or indirectly,” will be held responsible, Tehran said Monday.

The remarks came in a press briefing by Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Saeed Khatibzadeh, after an investigative report published by Yahoo News alleged the involvement of the PUK Counter Terrorism Group (CTG) in the Jan. 3, 2020 assassination of the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, Qassim Soleimani, along with his Iraqi comrade Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy leader of the Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces), the umbrella of Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

“The case of Martyr Soleimani is being pursued in the judiciary and international forums,” Khatibzadeh said, adding that “many of these reports are not hidden from us.”

“All those who directly or indirectly participated in this cowardly assassination definitely have criminal and legal responsibility,” he added.

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