MENA WATCH NEWS : Tensions rise in West Bank after settler violence
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Reports say that dozens of masked settlers came to the cave-hamlet Khirbat al-Mufaqara, throwing stones at residents and breaking windows and cars. Rina Bassist September 29, 2021 AL MONITOR – In an especially violent incident, dozens of masked Israeli settlers entered the small West Bank Palestinian shepherding camp Khirbat al-Mufaqara on Sept. 28. Reportedly, the settlers threw stones at the residents, smashed cars, damaged water tanks and injured at least twelve people, including a three-year-old boy. The injured toddler, Mohammad Bakr Hussein, was reportedly hit in the head by a stone hurled by an Israeli settler as he slept in his house. He was evacuated to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba in moderate condition. Apparently, the incident took place after settlers attacked a Palestinian shepherd from the small village. Other Palestinians then arrived on the scene to push back the settlers, prompting the arrival of more settlers from nearby outposts. The Palestinian hamlet is located between two illegal Israeli West Bank outposts – Avigayil and Havat Maon. The settlers apparently came from these outposts. Three Israelis were also injured in the clashes that erupted. One Palestinian man and one Israeli settler were arrested by Israeli troops who arrived at the scene. According to a police spokesperson, the Palestinian man is suspected of attacking a soldier; the Israeli is believed to have thrown stones and disobeyed soldiers’ instructions. Basil al-Adra, who lives in a village nearby, said, “It must have been around 100 settlers, from all the outposts near al-Mufaqara. They smashed windows, punctured car tires, entered homes. And they injured a child as they hurled stones into his home.” Al-Adra recounted that the settlers went from one house to another, using knives and hammers to break windows. As they went into the homes, some of the residents fled, terrified. Hebron Hills council head Yochai Damari said in a statement that the Israelis who had engaged in the clashes were guests, not local residents, who claimed stones were thrown at them while driving nearby. “Our way is not violence. Not against soldiers and not against Arabs,” said Damari. Khirbat al-Mufaqara is one of 12 hamlets in an area called Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills region. In the early 1980s, the IDF declared the area a restricted military zone. At the time, dozens of Palestinian families lived there, in natural or man-made caves. Some lived in the small villages all year round, while others stayed there only seasonally, earning a living as farmers and shepherds. For the past two decades, Israeli authorities have been trying to expel the residents from their homes, on the ground of living illegally in IDF fire zones. Residents and human rights groups have been petitioning for years against demolition orders. Still, dozens of structures have been demolished. The leftwing Meretz party tweeted after the Sept. 28 incident, “Settler violence is breaking records. Dozens of masked settlers attacked Palestinians, broke windows, entered houses. A 3-year-old Palestinian boy is hospitalized in moderate condition. If it was the other way around, the whole country would be engaged in it, but settlers are allowed. We will stop this violence.” Tensions have increased in recent days also in other parts of the West Bank. On Sept. 26, five Palestinian gunmen were killed by IDF fire, in clashes that erupted in the West Bank town of Bidu, not far from Jerusalem. Reportedly, IDF raided the village in an attempt to arrest operatives of a Hamas cell, who were planning terror attacks in Jerusalem. After the first raid, Israeli security forces carried out further operations, aiming to disrupt the alleged plans for major terror attacks. In one of these operations, the soldiers discovered a significant cache of explosive devices. Israeli press says the IDF continues to investigate the Hamas cell and look for more caches. |
MESOP WATCH PORTRÄT: Der rote Olaf Scholz & die Weiße Weste
Ein CHRONOLOGISCHER Blick in die Vergangenheit des Kanzlerkandidaten – von Albrecht Künstle
Vorbemerkung: Die Abfassung dieser Dokumentation fiel mir schwer; nicht wegen des dafür notwendigen Zeitaufwandes. Nein, ich war 30 Jahre bis im Jahr 2002 Mitglied der SPD und es schmerzte mich, die Verfehlungen eines Spitzenpolitikers meiner einstigen Partei zusammenzutragen. Zur Sache…
The Trump admin’s MidEast policy reconsidered- Iran empowered
One theory about the Trump admin in the Middle East is that it was tough on Iran. But let me propose a radically different take.Let’s go back to 2016 when the election was held. At the time Turkey had not yet invaded parts of northern Syria and hadn’t ethnic cleansed Afrin. The Syrian regime wouldn’t retake all of Aleppo until December 2016. The Houthis had not yet been able to reach as far as Riyadh with their ballistic missiles. Iran and its militia allies in Iraq and Syria were far from taking Albukamal and Al Qaim and creating the road to the sea. When Trump came to office Iran, Russia and Turkey were much weaker in the Middle East. Russia had intervened in Syria but the Syrian regime with its backing and Iran hadn’t retaken much of the country, and Iran had not yet established drone bases in Syria to strike at Israel. Hezbollah was no where near the Golan. Trump inherited a complex Middle East policy, to be sure. The Obama admin had shifted from strong backing for Syrian rebels to the Iran deal and fighting ISIS. The Trump admin inherited a working relationship with the SDF which had just taken Manbij from ISIS. Turkey had launched Euphrates Shield to stop the US-backed SDF advance. Under the Trump admin every US adversary was empowered in the Middle East. First, Iran was able to encourage the Iraqi government of Haider Abadi to retake Kirkuk from the Kurdish Peshmerga. The Trump admin, which was deeply anti-Kurdish, ended up working with pro-Iranian elements in Baghdad to push the pro-US Kurds out of Kirkuk so that Qasem Soleimani and Hadi al-Amiri could celebrate. It should be noted here that the admin’s first Secretary of State Tillerson had meekly tried to argue the PMU should go home, only to be summoned to Baghdad for a dressing down. The US then sidelined the Kurdish KRG in the wake of the independence referendum in the fall of 2017, reducing its influence and power it had held.Next the administration looked on as Iran rapidly increased backing for the Houthis, until drones were exported to Houthis in Yemen and missiles raining down on Saudi Arabia. The badly handled Yemen conflict was highlighted by Nikki Haley who showcased Iranian ballistic missiles in Yemen, but the admin did nothing about it. It did set up the Iran Materials Display at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in DC, but did little else. Since the admin was supporting close ties with Riyadh, this seems to show how the rhetoric lacked substance. The admin didn’t care about human rights in the Middle East, but also didn’t want to do anything when Iran’s brazen attacks grew, such as the Abqaiq raid where Iran used missiles and drones against Saudi Arabia. Iran also carried out attacks from Iraq in 2019. Iran knew it had impunity. Other human rights abusers took a cue from these incidents. Meanwhile Hezbollah massively increased its role in Syria. Soon Iran and its allies in Iraq and Syria had retaken Al-Qaim and Albukamal and set up a HQ for Kataib Hezbollah. By the summer of 2018 Iran was planning to build a base called Imam Ali there. It’s “road to the sea” was being put in place by May 2017. While the Trump admin would support Israeli strikes on that “road to the sea” and increase coordination, it would sit and watch as the Iranian tentacles grew across the region. Even Bolton’s promise that the US would stay in Syria until Iran left was an empty promise. Ballistic missiles, drones and PGMs began to flow by 2019. Iran launched a drone from T-4 base in Syria at Israel in February 2018. The Trump admin had pushed a ceasefire for southern Syria in May 2017 in talks with Russia, but when it broke down in 2018 the admin did nothing but watch the south fall and Hezbollah and Iran move bases toward the Golan. Meanwhile the Trump admin didn’t bother to take part in other talks on Syria, sidelining America’s own partners in eastern Syria so that Russia, Iran and Turkey could hold their talks in Astana, Sochi and also push their own agenda at Geneva. The US didn’t even invite its own SDF partners to the meetings. In a bizarre move, the more Turkey was anti-the US and buying S-400s, the more the US kept wanting to work with Turkey in Syria, even as Ankara threatened US forces and partners and ethnically cleansed Afrin. An entirely avoidable Turkish invasion was enabled in Oct. 2019, with the Trump admin taking near-weekly calls from Erdogan who even sent security to attack US protesters in the heart of DC. A US pastor was held hostage by Ankara, US personnel and journalists harassed. Turkey and Russia moved forward with Turkstream and Ankara hosted Hamas senior leaders more than ever in the past. Meanwhile Iran increased its role in Iraq, cementing the PMU as an official force and beginning attacks on US forces in the summer of 2019. The US withdrew from most facilities in Iraq in response. By the end of the Trump admin, Iran had total control of most of Iraq, hunting down opposition voices like Hisham al-Hashimi and moving drones and missiles to the PMU in Iraq between 2018 and 2019. By the summer of 2020 rockets were even fired at Erbil by pro-Iran militias in Nineveh plains. The Trump admin did nothing as Iraq was digested by Iran. Although the Trump admin appeared to deter Iranian naval harassment, Iran downed a US Global Hawk drone and with Russia, China, Pakistan and Qatar began to maneuver the US out of Afghanistan. Iran called Trump’s bluff numerous times until finally the US did killed IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani. But Soleimani’s death didn’t roll back Iran’s growing power. The US worked with the Taliban in Doha to sign a deal to leave under the Trump admin. Bizarrely the Trump admin’s policy of America First, systematically eroded areas where the US had been influential in the region, harming US ties with the KRG and ALSO the SDF, leading to concern that the US could not be relied upon anywhere. While the admin didn’t care about Kurds and Yazidis being ethnically cleansed from Afrin, it also didn’t care about its own partners being attacked by Turkey in October 2019, and it even enabled the UN and others to isolate eastern Syria, cutting off aid routes. The Trump admin took a relatively decent hand it had been dealt by the Obama admin, albeit with problems like the Iran deal, and systematically squandered US influence across the region. When it was over Iran was astride Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, more powerful than ever despite “maximum pressure” and despite some Trump admin officials being pro-Turkey, Turkey was more anti-US than ever and working with Russia, Iran, HTS and Hamas, and causing trouble in Libya and destabilizing the Caucasus and also northern Iraq. Key US partners like the KRG lost out on all fronts. With exceptions like the Abraham Accords, the US systematically backed itself into a corner and gave away key posts in the region, enabling Turkey, Iran and Russia. |
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Trotz Waffenruhe ist die nordsyrische Region Idlib weiterhin stark umkämpft. Die Interessen zwischen Moskau und Ankara sind grundverschieden, die Spannung nimmt zu – bei einem Gipfel sollen Lösungen gefunden werden. 30.9.2021
MESOP WATCH NEW: Iranischer General droht irakischer Autonomieregion Kurdistan wegen militanter Gruppen
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MESOP WATCH NEWS : “WIEDERGUTMACHUNG”?
Nearly 700 European financial firms backing businesses involved in Israeli settlements
Deutsche Bank + HSBC among the largest backers of 50 businesses involved in settlements highlighted in report
Israeli settlements on land taken by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war are illegal under international law By MEE staff 29 September 2021
MESOP NEWS: POSTMODERN WORLD IS POSTMODERN BLUFF!
NZZ 30.9.2021 : Die Chefökonomin der Weltbank, Carmen Reinhart, warnt im Interview mit der NZZ vor der Wiederholung der ständig gleichen Fehler. Zu diesen historisch verbürgten Irrtümern gehört, negative Schocks als vorübergehend und positive als dauerhaft zu betrachten.
Sie misstraut den Beschwichtigungen der Zentralbanken und sagt: «Die Inflation wird dauerhafter sein». Zum Interview
MESOP WATCH LATEST RED CHINA & JOE BIDEN !
- 30.9.2021 NZZ – Gespräche zwischen amerikanischen +chinesischen Militärvertretern: Beide Seiten haben diese Woche miteinander «freimütig und tiefgehend» über eine Reihe von Verteidigungsfragen gesprochen, teilte das Pentagon am Mittwoch mit. Die Gespräche fanden zwei Wochen nach der Ankündigung des neuen Aukus-Sicherheitspaktes zwischen den USA, Grossbritannien und Australien statt. Zu den neusten Entwicklungen
MESOP NEWS IN DEPTH: AFFIRMING U.S. COMMITMENTS ABROAD – THE VIEW FROM SYRIA’S DEMOCRATIC COUNCIL
Featuring Elham Ahmad, Andrew J. Tabler, and David Pollock
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The head of the council joins two Washington Institute experts for a far-ranging conversation on the U.S. role in the northeast, Kurdish threat perceptions, the effect of the Afghanistan withdrawal, and more.
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- Von Christoph Hein FAZ – 30.09.2021 Die Outdoor-Kette Globetrotter warnt ihre Kunden: Wer auf einen ganz speziellen Anorak warte, wer genau „diesen“ Wanderstiefel ins Auge fasse, drohe herb enttäuscht zu werden: Denn die Produkte stammen aus Vietnam. „Hätte, hätte, Lieferkette“ dichtet Globetrotter-Chef Andreas Vogler, um seine Käufer zu besänftigen. Denn Vietnam liefert nicht so, wie es sollte. Die neue Fabrik der Welt stöhnt unter der Corona-Pandemie, Fertigungsstraßen sind seit Monaten geschlossen, der Ausstoß lahmt. Dabei ist es eine Ironie des Schicksals – fuhr die Industrie ihre Investitionen doch gerade am Mekong hoch, um Lieferrisiken aus China zu mindern. Nun aber ergeht es potentiellen Sportschuh-Kunden von Adidas oder Nike oder den Anhängern von Mobiltelefonen von Samsung oder Apple so wie den Wanderern von Globetrotter – sie alle haben sich auf Lieferungen aus Vietnam verlassen, die ausfallen.
Die Lage hat sich so zugespitzt, dass die Kammern aus Amerika, Europa und Korea vor wenigen Tagen den Druck auf die Regierung erhöhten. In einem Brandbrief schrieben sie Ministerpräsident Pham Minh Chinh: „Umfragen unserer Verbände zeigen, dass mindestens 20 Prozent unserer Mitglieder aus dem verarbeitenden Gewerbe schon einen Teil ihrer Produktion in ein anderes Land verlagert haben, weitere Gespräche sind im Gange. Viele unserer Mitglieder telefonieren jede Nacht mit ihren Zentralen, um zu entscheiden, welche Kunden sie beliefern, welche sie abweisen und welche Produktion sie verlagern sollen. Wurde sie erst einmal verlagert, ist es schwierig, zurückkehren, vor allem wenn die Produktionslinien anderswo ausgebaut worden sind.“
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