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As the United States vacates some of the foreign outposts, China is moving in to fill up the vacuum at a fast pace. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s latest visit to the Middle East is an indication in that direction. He has vowed to work with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, UAE, Bahrain and Oman to help protect their core interests against foreign interference. China’s rhetoric has been harsh in recent times and it appears ready to back up the rhetoric with tough actions.
China’s involvement in the region is neither recent nor has been peaceful as it prefers to portray itself. In the 1950s and 60s, China associated closely with nationalist governments and movements in various countries including Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, Eritrea, and the Gulf. It provided them financial and military assistance, sold arms and ammunition (sometimes to both the warring parties). It changed the tack in the 70s but the new avatar was unveiled only in the 90s.
On the other hand U.S. President Joe Biden barely two months into presidency seems tired of dealing with the Middle East. He announced an end to U.S. support for Saudi-led operations in Yemen with in the first two weeks in the office. Latest developments as per Wall Street Journal are that U.S. has begun to reconfigure its military capabilities in the Gulf and removed at least three Patriot missile defence systems, divereted aircraft carrier and surveillance systems from the region.
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Interesting, sneaky tactics..
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If my estimation is correct, then just a millenium later, these facts shall be found in The Library of Congress, on the pages of “World History” books under the heading “List of Reasons” in the chapter “World War III”. Your analytical posts would be a part of history !
The is very kind of you, sir. Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
Thank you for your time and research!
Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. I would be delighted if you leave a comment on:
https://chanakyaforum.com/chinese-checkers-in-the-middle-east-play-or-perish/#comment-738
The late great stir-fried USA served with rice, noodles and no fortune cookie by the way!
😄
The end is near. But it most likely will be the rest of the world against Israel, after a very brief period of unparalleled peace in the region. Looking forward to how it will all play out, because I know Who will win. 😉
Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
Chinese have been following a single rule in diplomacy that there are no frnds or enemies in international politics only allies and opposition. They have tried to increase their trade whether in arms or otherwise in all zones without getting involved in morality. They see their interest only host country be damned
The problem in the current scenario is as usual we are sleeping
Keep up the good work , maybe somebody will read and wake up
Thank you so much Sukhi for stopping by and enlightening us with your immense experience and wisdom. Do share these thoughts on chanakyaforum.com for the benefit of a larger group of readers.
In China the government basically controls the corporations, whereas Western virtual-corpocratic governances, notably the U.S. and Canada, are basically steered by corporations’ economic intimidation or extortion. Indeed, corporate representatives actually write bills for our governing representatives to vote for and have implemented, typically word for word, supposedly to save the elected officials their time.
China is taking advantage of this serious flaw in the virtual corpocratic rule (corpocracy?) here in the West — profit before individual and even national interests. Generally, both American and Canadian governances commonly maintain thinly veiled yet firm ties to large corporations; it’s as though elected heads are meant to represent big money interests over those of the working citizenry and poor. (I believe it is basically why those powerful $$$ interests generally resist proportional representation electoral systems of governance, the latter which tends to dilute the corporate lobbyist influence on the former.) Accordingly, major political decisions will normally foremost reflect what is in big business’s best interests. And don’t expect to hear this fact readily reported by the mainstream news-media, which is concentratedly corporate owned.
Those doubting the powerful persuasion of huge business interests need to consider how high-level elected governing officials can become crippled by implicit or explicit corporate threats to transfer or eliminate jobs and capital investment, thus economic stability — a crippling that is made even worse by a blaring news-media that’s permitted to be naturally critical of incumbent governments.
I would be glad if you put these comments on https://chanakyaforum.com/chinese-checkers-in-the-middle-east-play-or-perish
I just did. Thanks.
Thanks.
You have enormous insight, Sandomina.
Thank you so much, Anna.
It is “interesting” to see that all those islamic countries cooperate with China, considering how China treats its own muslim minority.
Bingo. Not only its own Muslim minorities, but the religion as such.
Thank you so much for stopping by Stella.
Was not the primary reason the Iranian Revolution and Western-nation expulsion occurred that foreign oil companies, notably those of the U.S. (though perhaps even of Canada and/or of major European nations), were exploiting Iranian resources?
Though I didn’t hear it through Western mainstream news-media, I understand that their expulsion was a big-profit-losing lesson learned by the foreign-nation oil corporation CEOs, which they (by way of accessing always-willing domestic political thus military muscle) would not allow to happen to them again …
If the above is true, I feel that if the relevant oil company CEOs were/are against Iran, then very likely so are their related Western governments and, usually by extension (via mainstream news-media support), so are the citizens.
Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
I’m glad to.
Pleasure.
What was justified few decades ago cannot be justified today. What is happening today will also not be justified tomorrow.
Very well articulated thoughts, QUAD may become the cornerstone of the political, economic and military engagements required to check China. The Chinese juggernaut has shortened the OODA loop of all its competitors and adversaries. Look forward to more from you
Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your immense experience.
Wow! And the leaders in the Middle East are falling for China’s BS- hook, line, and sinker. I guess they haven’t heard about the millions of Uhger Muslims in China, who are being tortured andd killed in CCP death camps. China’s goals is only to take over the middle east as they’re slyly working toward world dominance! It amazes me that people are this stupid and can be lead so easily. 😮
And Joe Biden is an idiot and we’re totally ashamed of him. It makes me think that animals are smarter than some people because no way animals in the animal kingdom would allow the dumbest of the herd to lead them!
Thank you so much, Cherie, for stopping by. Sorry, could not reply earlier. Hope you are doing good and keeping yourself safe. ChinaVirus has really made life hell across the globe. We shall not give up and get rid of this menace once for all.
You’re so welcome. And I’m with you there. It may take a while but we will win! And I completely understand, life gets in the way sometimes.
Thanks💐
Rabbi Moscker, with sincere respect…..the parallel you draw between the American Revolution and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not valid. The War of Independence between England and the American Patriots fought that war for a number of reasons. Not the least of those reasons was that the ” Crown” was thousands of miles away and the Patriots demanded, “NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION”. Our money in the USA says
“IN GOD WE TRUST”. QUESTION… DID “GOD” CONDONE THE THEFT OF LAND FROM THE INDIGENEOUS POPULATION THAT LIVED THERE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS? I THINK NOT. IT WAS THE BEGINIING OF THE REDICULOUS CONCEEPT OF MANIFEST DESTINY EVEN THOUGH THE TERM OF “MANIFEST DESTINY” DID NOT EXIST UNTIL APPROX. 1850 AND THE TERM WAS USED TO JUSTIFY THAT SAME CRIME OF AQUISITION FOR ALL THE LAND TO THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. ISRAEL AND PALESTINE BOTH HAVE ANCIENT CLAIMS TO THAT LAND. BIBLICALLY, THE PALESTINIANS MAY HAVE BEEN THERE FIRST AND THAT IS DOCUMENTED BIBLICALLY WHEN MOSES SENT HIS SPIES INTO THE LAND NOW CALLED ISRAEL. WAS THIS ALSO A MANIFEST DESTINY MANDATE ? WAS IT ORDAINED BY GOD? I ASK YOU THIS QUESTION BECAUSE I DO NOT KNOW THE ANSWER. THESE TWO COUNTRIES ARE NOT THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY FROM EACH OTHER. WHAT IS CLEAR TO ME IS THAT ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS ARE CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH. ABRAHAM ! SARAH, HAGAR, ISHMAEL AND ISAAC. ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS ARE COUSINS. I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT. YOUR LAND HAS SOAKED UP ENOUGH BLOOD. I HAVE CLOSE RELATIONS THAT I DO NOT CHOOSE TO SEE OR SPEAK TO. I UNDERSTAND THE INTENSITY OF FAMILY FEUDS.
I UNDERSTAND THE HATRED. I HAVE KNOWN AND WORKED WITH MANY SABRES. ALL I AM SAYING IS THAT THIS CONFLICT WILL NEVER BE RESOLVED BY FORCE. IT CAN ONLY BE RESOLVED BY TRUE RECONCILLIATION. THERE ARE 10 OTHER TRIBES IN THE WORLD THAT HAVE LOST THEIR IDENTITY.
IF WE WANT TO REUNITE ISRAEL, THE PALESTINIANS MUST BE RECOGNIZED AS PART OF THE FAMILY.
Marc David Baker @ docofthebay.blog
Its a pleasure to hold this dialogue with you Marc. The idea that stateless Arabs refugees have any claim to Israel, simply does not compare to the Manifest Destiny made to justify and encourage the conversion of territories into States of the Union. Arab armies conquered Syria in 8th Century. The Roman name Palaestina, imposed by Rome following the Bar Kochba revolt in 125 CE. Palestine originates from European imperialism NOT Arab imperialism. Arabs cannot even pronounce the letter P!
The Ottoman Turks – not Arabs but rather Muslims, an important distinction. The Ottoman Turks conquered what became known to that imperialist empire as Greater Syria from the Arab Mamluk Sultanate in about 1517. Turkish land laws remain the law within Israel to this very day! When I sought to buy a piece of property, the best I could do – open a 99 year lease from the State of Israel. The State “owns” all land. Arab properties like Abu Gosh, fall outside of this law/Tabu. The Tabu land registry in Israel dates back to Ottoman rule.
Therefore at best since the 16th Century Arabs could work the land of “Greater Syria” as share croppers. A share cropper does not “own” the land. The notion of Arabs as “native inhabitants” stems from the propaganda made by Yasser Arafat since early 1964, a far cry from “thousands of years”, when that Arab – born in Egypt – established the name of his movement as the “Palestine Liberation Army”. Palestine, modern European imperialism sought to impose that name as a stamp upon the Middle East … as opposed to the Ottoman “stamp” of “Greater Syria”. In the 19th Century, the Ottoman empire, also known as the “Sick Man of Europe”, had degenerated into a permanent decay. The Ottoman empire could not afford cartographers/map makers, even from the 18th Century. Consequently the Ottoman empire bought European maps of the Middle East! Hence the European imperialist name “Palestine”.
Following WW1, the Allies ie Britain and France, they broke up the Ottoman empire just as they did the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. During the Great War the Allies contracted two great treaties among themselves which determined how these European empires would carve up and determine the borders of the Middle East. The secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 and the Balfour Declaration of 1917. President Wilson’s only peace proposal accepted by the post war Allied Powers established the League of Nations. Senator Long lead the Republican Opposition which prevented America from joining the League of Nations. Following the Senate rejection of that treaty, President Wilson suffered a stroke. Wilson rejected and opposed any and all secret treaties. But since Washington did not join the League of Nations, the Wilson Government could not oppose the imposition of the Sykes-Picot agreement upon establishment of borders in the Middle East!
In the early 1920s the League of Nations gave to the British and French mandates by which these imperialist empires carved up between themselves Ottoman Greater Syria. The League of Nations based its “Palestine Mandate” upon the Balfour Declaration!!! Again 1922, that’s a far cry from “thousands of years”, as you claim. Arabs under the Palestine Mandate refused to refer to themselves as “Palestinians”. Why?The question “Why”, Western propaganda so conveniently ignores today. Simply answered: For Arabs to refer to themselves as “Palestinians”, this would directly imply that they accepted the British “Palestine Mandate” – which they most emphatically did not. The 1936 Arab Revolt definitively proves this without any margin of error. Arab Revolt NOT Palestinian Revolt! The Arabs to this very day absolutely reject the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration served as the basis for the awarding by the League of Nations the “Palestine Mandate” unto the British in 1922!!!
Only after Ben Gurion named the newly declared “Jewish State” named “Israel”, did Yasser Arafat opportunistically embrace the name Palestine. Again 1964 hardly qualifies as “thousands of years”. The problem of “native inhabitants” Arafat’s propaganda employed the lie of the Arabs genetically linked to the ancient Philistines. Only problem with such a bald face lie as this, the extinct Philistines originated from Greek Islands; these “boat people” have no connection what so ever with post Mohammad “Arabs”, originally established in the 7th Century CE!!!
The notion of reunite Israel with stateless Arab refugee populations – utterly and totally absurd. Jews define the term “refugee”. For over 2000 years Jews scatter across the face of the Planet Earth existed as Stateless Refugees. Stateless refugees have no rights, because they have no country of their own!!! The European name “Palestine” exists as a propaganda fiction on par with Arafat’s “Philistine” lie. Arabs have no portion with the Jewish family any more than did Jews have equality during the empires of the Arab Caliphate. Both the Umayyad and the Abbasid Caliphates, both Jews and Xtians existed under the legal status of dhimmis. The Jewish State does in its own turn NOT recognize Arabs refugee populations as equals. The justice known as measure for measure applies. Yes some assimilated Yidden validate citizenship to Arabs living in Israel, but no Israeli government has ever included Arab Knesset members within the leadership of the Government. Israel exists as the only Jewish State on the planet Earth. Arabs and Muslims have 57 countries. No Arab in Saudi Arabia or Muslim in Iran or Turkey views Jews as “PART OF THE FAMILY”. That’s an absurd and totally false argument whereby you conclude your last posting. Best regards Moshe Kerr@moshekerr@gmail.com
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What does the mitzva of Tzitzit teach? The 2nd paragraph of kre’a shma: “ובלכתך בדרך” links the mitzva of tefillin together with the mitzva of tzitzit, as commanded in the 3rd paragraph of the kre’a shama. All Torah mitzvot command mussar. What mussar does the language of: “וראיתם אתו וזכרתם את כל מצות” come to teach? In our ובלכתך בדרך walk as the chosen brit Cohen nation, the Torah commands us to search for the אצבע אלהים/finger of HaShem within our lives. All mitzvot learn from the mitzva of tzitzit on this score. Remembering with thanks giving the “finger of God” within and throughout our lives defines the k’vanna of all the תרי”ג Commandments.
An Israeli Response to the Rome Treaty in General and the International Criminal Court in Particular.
The Versailles Treaty condemned Germany for total guilt of the deaths, damages, and anguish – resultant of WW1. Britain and France demanded war reparations from Germany consequent to Germany’s invasion of the low countries & France, which caused a chain reaction domino effect of atrocities against humanity.Israeli foreign policy – post Shoah – views the EU and Britain, based upon the precedent of the Versailles Treaty, upon this model Israeli diplomats conducts diplomacy with EU States; comparable to how early America sought to establish the Monroe Doctrine as the basis of the United States relations with hostile European empires.
European cruelty, injustice and oppression of Jewish refugees for over 2000 years, branches out from ancient Roman imperialism, which originally expelled the Jewish people from our homelands in Judea. Europeans, not just ancient Rome, they bear the mark of Cain – guilty for all eternity, of committing criminal crimes against humanity, black slavery and 19th Century barbarity in Africa serve as degrading examples of European guilt. The Israeli government must hold the European peoples accountable for their mass crimes against humanity. Israel opposes any and all European governments sitting as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. All Europeans, not just the Nazis, lost WW2. Shoah guilt expels all European governments from the ‘Great Powers’ status.
No European Court ever, not even once, forced Xtian Church leaders to stand trial for war crimes committed against humanity. Not for the Roma People, nor for differing Xtian sects who opposed the dominant Catholic or Protestant belief system Creeds, nor the blatant injustice of the persecution and cruel murder of women accused of witchcraft – guilty of the crime of healing the sick or serving as midwives! Therefore, the Rome Treaty merits nothing other than total contempt; the ICC has no jurisdiction to judge Jews in general and Israel in particular.
The key issue of writing a Sefer Torah, the sofer has to write the Name of HaShem לשמה. Doing a mitzva לשמה requires a subject and a predicate. The latter informs what the subject does. For example, P’sach Jews remove all leaven products from their possessions. Korbanot have a halachic prohibition to switch from one korban type to another korban type. Tanning the hide of an animal intended by the sofer to write a Sefer Torah: that hide requires a dedication for the purpose of writing a Safer Torah.
Therefore what predicate sets the Name of HaShem apart, when the sofer writes the Name לשמה?
גיטין: המביא גט ממדינת הים, צריך שיאמר בפני נכתב ובפני נחתם
This opening Mishna describes the services of a notary, an individual officially licensed by a governmental body to perform certain actions in legal matters. The Rosh did not require the sofer to נחתם an impressed seal whenever the sofer wrote the Name of HaShem. The masoret of writing a Sefer Torah permits the sofer to inscribe straight lines. Consequently it appears to me that the language נחתם implies some type of impressed seal, which all notaries employ today. The notary seal impressed upon the margin of the Torah on the identical line as written the Name of HaShem, serves as evidence that the sofer wrote the Name לשמה.
However, what precisely defines the k’vanna of the sofer when he writes the Name of HaShem לשמה? Forty days after the sin of the Golden Calf, on Yom Kippor, Moshe heard the voice of HaShem declare the 13 tohor middot. Why the second repetition of the Name of HaShem in the revelation that addresses the tohor middot of logic? The second Name of HaShem comes to teach that the middot thereafter, beginning with אל, that these middot serve as pronoun extensions of the noun HaShem. Therefore the sofer should set aside 13 specific “Crowns” to precisely indicate which middah of HaShem which the sofer holds as his k’vanna at that moment in time, when he writes the Name of HaShem לשמה.
A safer Torah which does not נחתם with a defined tohor midda crown, the question stands: what proof exists which testifies that the sofer wrote the Name of HaShem לשמה? The opening Gemara of גיטין teaches that g’lut Jewry do not know how to do mitzvot לשמה. Consequently, it appears to me that a sofer has an obligation to prove his k’vanna when he writes the Name of HaShem לשמה. This requirement which this commentator strongly advises, it compares to the time of Ezra, when he changed the shape of the letters of the א – ב.
Thank you so much for sharing your empirical knowledge.