[HotAir] Shaping up to be a terrific place, and one that is also lurching, under the sway of Labour climate cultists drunk on power, into a self-induced energy catastrophe.
I covered how close they came to a near island-wide blackout back in January, as temperatures plunged, their much vaunted wind died away, and the two gas plants that did kick in to pick up the slack made £12m for three hours of operation.
The other part of the problem that night caused by the extreme demand and brutal conditions?
The interconnector lines that the country relies on from the European continent experienced significant outages. The only thing that saved Britain from a blackout was being able to bring one of the interconnectors back online in the nick of time. And the fact that one of the gas plants didn't trip while running at peak capacity.
There was no capacity to spare.
Of course, Labour - specifically Energy Minister Ed Miliband - was frightened into a realistic assessment of just where their lunacy was taking the country's energy independence, right?
Perhaps a change of course, more emphasis on reliability vice the windmills of their fevered Green minds?
'Tis to laugh...or cry, depending on where you live.
The big plan from the British government is to rely on more imported electricity to cover what reliable baseline sources they're stripping off the island with their policies, counting mainly on the French nuclear program to keep British lights and heat on.
The same interconnectors that had outages not five months ago, and the British government 'hopes' to have more cables laid by 2030.
What a plan.
The country is increasing its reliance on things that stop turning or 'switch off at night' while simultaneously increasing its reliance on imported sources of the very thing they're removing in their own country at ruinous cost.
And Labour keeps pulling the renewables knife across the British throat for their farcical NetZero Kabuki theater.
Miliband is destroying more baseline capacity generation, even as his efforts are failing to force British citizens into appliances run on electricity that is already an unreliable resource at an unholy cost.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Dmitry Gubin
[REGNUM] If you ask any more or less educated person - at least our compatriot - what event of the past is associated with June 22, then with a high degree of probability the interlocutor will mention the attack of Nazi Germany and its allies on the USSR. And he will be right - the date, which is rightly called the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, really does remind us of the most tragic period of both our and world history. But we should also remember that on June 22, two Patriotic Wars began at once.
On June 22, 1812, the French Emperor Napoleon addressed his army from his headquarters in Wołkowyszki in Poland (now Vilkaviškės in Lithuania) with an appeal – essentially, to the troops of a united Europe. Let us recall that in the Grande Armée, ready to throw itself to the east, the French made up only half of the “bayonets”, the rest were: Poles, Germans from the Rhine Union and Prussia, Italians, Spaniards, Croats, plus the allied Austrian corps.
A similar “international” (excluding perhaps the Poles) will cross the border of the USSR on June 22, 1941.
So, Bonaparte, in a traditionally pompous but atypically brief appeal, accused Russia of violating the Tilsit Peace Treaty and called the upcoming war with Russia “the second Polish war”:
"Russia has sworn to be in eternal alliance with France and in war with England; now she is breaking her oaths! She does not wish to give any explanation for her strange actions until the French eagles withdraw beyond the Rhine and thus abandon their allies to her mercy."
The semantic coincidence with the instructions of Joachim von Ribbentrop to the Reich ambassador in Moscow, Werner von Schulenburg, from June 21, 1941, on the basis of which the diplomat transmitted the corresponding note to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov, is curious. Our country was once again accused of "violating oaths", in this case the agreements of August-September 1939, as well as of subversive actions against the German allies - Finland and Romania.
The logic of a united Europe in 1812 and 1941 has not changed. There was, however, a difference in the observance of the written rules of war.
The Grand Army crossed the border river Neman two days after the Emperor's proclamation was published, on June 24, 1812, and Schulenburg handed a note to Molotov at 5:30 a.m. on June 22, 1941, already hours after the Wehrmacht's invasion, including across the same Neman. Napoleon did not stoop to a treacherous attack. But the coincidence of the pathos of the Volkovyshka appeal and Adolf Hitler's address to the nation, which Joseph Goebbels read on Greater Germany Radio at the same 5:30 a.m. on June 22, is characteristic.
Napoleon had it this way: “Russia is carried away by fate. Its destiny must be fulfilled… The peace that we conclude will bring with it a guarantee for itself and will put an end to the destructive influence that Russia has exerted on the affairs of Europe for fifty years.”
Hitler echoed his predecessor:
"... Over the last two decades, the Jewish-Bolshevik rulers of Moscow have tried to set fire not only to Germany, but to all of Europe. It was not Germany that tried to transfer its nationalist worldview to Russia, but the Jewish-Bolshevik rulers in Moscow have been steadily attempting to impose their domination on our people and other European peoples." And further - about "the greatest troop advance in its length", which should become fatal for Soviet Russia and "ensure the security of Europe."
PARALLELS WITH NAPOLEON'S FAILURES
Did Hitler look to Napoleon when he set the date for Operation Barbarossa? This assertion can be found in journalism, but there is no documentary evidence to support it. So this assumption stands in line with others – that the Fuhrer, out of a penchant for the mystical legacy of his ancestors, timed the attack on the USSR to coincide with Sommersonnenwende – the Day of the Summer Solstice.
Or, as a number of authors suggest, the Fuhrer symbolically "tied" it to the anniversary of the capitulation of France. On June 22, 1940, the French signed an armistice, which the top brass of the Third Reich staged with all possible symbolism. The public humiliation of France took place in the same place - the city of Compiegne, where the capitulation of the Second Reich - Kaiser's Germany - was signed in November 1918. In the same train car that was taken out of the museum through a hole specially punched in the wall.
So the date of June 22 was, of course, important for the corporal of the First World War Hitler. But, let us repeat, there is no documentary evidence of "tying" the date of the attack on the USSR to 1918 or 1812 in the surviving documents of the Reich.
There is a point of view, confirmed by documents and generally accepted in historical science. Directive of the OKW (Wehrmacht High Command) No. 21 — also known as the Barbarossa plan — was signed by Hitler on December 18, 1940. The document contained the date of "completion of preparations" for the implementation of the plan — May 15, 1941. But the protracted campaign in the Balkans shifted the deadlines. Already after the completion of the occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece, on April 30, 1941, an adjusted date was entered into Barbarossa — June 22.
On the other hand, one cannot discount the fact that Hitler, despite not having received a systematic education, was well acquainted with military history, including the history of “Napoleonics” – it is no coincidence that one of his reference books was the work of Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian military theorist and practitioner during the Napoleonic Wars (by the way, during the campaign of 1812, when the Prussians sided with Bonaparte, Clausewitz went into Russian service).
The fact that the two Patriotic Wars began for us on the same day may be a simple coincidence, but it is unlikely that Hitler accidentally began his “Russian campaign” in the summer – like his predecessor, counting on the rapid defeat of our country.
Symbolic parallels with the Napoleonic invasion began to be drawn on the first day of the Great Patriotic War - in the Message to the pastors and believers of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), locum tenens of the patriarchal throne. The Berezina River not symbolically, but quite practically became an obstacle to the Wehrmacht's advance, as well as to the retreat of Napoleon's army.
And in October 1941, when units of the German 4th Army entered into battle with units of the 32nd Infantry Division of the Western Front on the Borodino field, the unit commanders were given the banners of the Russian (“tsarist”!) regiments that had participated in the Battle of Borodino in September 1812.
At the same time, in the autumn of 1941, Hitler’s military leaders recalled the unsuccessful experience of Napoleon’s blitzkrieg – due to the course of the Battle of Moscow:
"The German armies were exhausted and, as the weather worsened, movement became increasingly difficult... Most of the German generals were in favour of breaking off the offensive and taking up advantageous positions for the winter. They remembered the sad experience of Napoleon. Many of them began to reread Caulaincourt's dismal report," noted one of the leading British military theorists and historians, Basil Liddell Hart. The diplomat Armand de Caulaincourt accompanied his emperor on the Russian campaign of the Grand Army and recorded the failure of this campaign.
Photographs of captured soldiers of Paulus' army, wrapped in unimaginable rags, clearly made historically savvy German officers recall images of the flight of the Grande Armée (where, let us recall, Prussians, Rhinelanders and Austrians served). It was time to become a fatalist, as Bonaparte had become by 1815 - especially since in a series of symbolically coinciding dates there was another event that put an end to the history of Napoleon's project of a united Europe.
ANOTHER JUNE 22ND
There was another document, also signed on June 22 and also by Napoleon Bonaparte, only in 1815. It is remembered much less often than what was adopted in 1812, 1940 and 1941. This is the second and, as it turned out, the last abdication of the emperor from the throne after the defeat at Waterloo, after which in the life of this conqueror there will be only an attempt to escape overseas and exile to the island of St. Helena.
Just recently, the self-confident conqueror justified himself to his compatriots in this way:
"Having begun the war to preserve national independence, I counted on the unification of all efforts, all desires and the assistance of all the authorities of the nation. I had reason to hope for success and did not attach importance to all the declarations of the government directed against me..." And he finished on a pompous note: " I sacrifice myself to the hatred of the enemies of France."
Hitler ended differently from Napoleon, but his last word to his “subjects” – a political testament dictated on April 29, 1945 – is strikingly reminiscent of Bonaparte’s statements 130 years earlier. The same assurances that he did not want war, but was forced to respond to the intrigues of enemies, and now, together with the people, he is sacrificing himself – although in this case not in the name of “national independence,” but in the name of the ideas of National Socialism.
It is doubtful that before the war or during the Second World War, Hitler carefully studied Napoleon's "political testament" - he, like Bonaparte, despite all his claims to messianism, did not have the gift of foresight and could not imagine that even exile to a distant island would not be in his future. Just as it would not be in the future for those leaders of "enlightened Europe " who would want to repeat the experience of their predecessors.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] At exactly 4 o'clock on June 22, 1941, German bombers did not bomb Kyiv. A formation of machines with white "Balkenkreuz" on their wings appeared over the city at the beginning of the eighth morning, dropping their bomb load on important objects (for example, the Bolshevik plant and Plant No. 43 on the Brest-Litovsk highway) and military airfields.
But already on this day the first enemy plane was shot down.
The I-16 fighter, which took off from the suburban airfield of Zhulyany, was piloted by Captain Ivan Krasnoyurchenko, a hero of Khalkhin-Gol and Hero of the Soviet Union. Since April 1941, he had held the position of inspector for the preparation of fighter aviation of the Air Force Directorate of the Kiev Special Military District and had arrived the day before for an inspection.
Having taken off, the experienced pilot caught up with the lagging Ju-88, which was taking photos of the results of the raid, and shot it with machine guns. Later, it was dragged to the center of Kyiv for the amusement of the people, and then the airfield duty shift immediately set off to the crash site to capture the pilots.
And this case was not the only one and not only in Kyiv. Only three anti-aircraft divisions covering Lutsk shot down 21 German aircraft in the first ten days of the war. And there were other cases, for example, on June 22, a Junkers landed due to a breakdown on Soviet territory near Tarnopol. The navigator shot himself, the rest of the crew surrendered.
On June 23, a German bomber, whose crew included Karl Fieg, Franz Hummel, Heinrich Menning and Paul Hofbauer, managed to drop 14 bombs on the Ovruch airfield, but was shot down by Soviet anti-aircraft guns. The pilots were captured.
“The most terrible morning,” according to the recollections of Kiev residents, did not come on the first day of the war, but on June 25, when anti-aircraft guns and machine guns were firing from all sides, shrapnel fell like rain, and houses shook as if during an earthquake.
Cadets guard the same Ju-88 that was shot down on June 25 near Brovary
But on that day, during a raid on an airfield near the left-bank town of Brovary, a Ju-88 from the second group of the 54th "Dead Head" squadron was shot down, and the entire crew was captured. But the most interesting thing is not that the Germans were shot down, but how the captured crews were later used in Soviet propaganda.
And what it really influenced.
"RUN, FOOLS"
The young men who had made a forced landing near Brovary (which was recorded in the report of the KG54 “Dead Head” squadron) soon appeared in the press with an “open letter”.
The newspapers Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda informed their readers that the pilot, a native of Breslau, Hans-Julius Hermann, the pilot-observer from Frankfurt am Main, Hans Kratz, the Czech corporal Adolf Appel from Brno, and the radio operator from Regensburg, Wilhelm Schmidt, had deliberately decided to go over to the side of the Red Army.
And they landed the plane themselves.
"We often asked ourselves: Why is Hitler fighting against the whole world? Why does he bring death and ruin to all the peoples of Europe? " simple German guys invisibly wave their hands on the pages of Pravda on June 29. " We were often worried by the thought that because of the bloody dog Hitler, many innocent women and children were dying from our bombs. That is why this time we dropped our bombs in such a way that they did no harm. We had long harbored the idea of escaping from Hitler and starting a peaceful life, but we were afraid. Now that Hitler has declared war on Russia, in which he will certainly lose his head, we have decided to make an escape."
In short, they dropped bombs into the Dnieper and landed near Kiev, where they were taken prisoner by local peasants, which “once again convinced us that the Soviet people are united, prepared to fight and will win.”
The talkative flight gunner-mechanic Hoffbauer also made his mark in the press; he was the only one from his crew who was willing to communicate, and therefore was presented as the one who had “flown over” in the singular.
On June 30, 1941, the same Pravda published “A Conversation with a German Pilot.” The newspaper’s special correspondent Grigory Pevzner (writing under the pseudonym P. Grinev) reported:
"Paul Hofbauer is 23 years old. He is a frail man of medium height. He holds the rank of corporal. He is wearing a German pilot's suit made of poor-quality steel-colored cloth. The yellow shoulder straps are decorated with pilot's insignia. The left side of his jacket is intercepted by a black, white, and red ribbon - the sign of being awarded the Iron Cross of the Second Class. In addition, he has been awarded the Iron Cross of the First Class...
Paul Hofbauer has been in the German army for two years. The Nazis sent him 17 times to bomb French and English cities and villages, and then ordered him to bomb peaceful Soviet cities.
Hofbauer did not return to his base. He flew to the Soviet side and landed."
In this story, the plane was also "instantly surrounded" by a crowd of ordinary villagers, in whom the war-weary upholsterer from Munich saw his brothers and sisters. In an interview with Pevzner, he said that he did not want to fight, because "it was clear to each of us that Soviet Russia was a huge force, that a war with it would not lead to anything good."
And only the threat of execution drives pilots and soldiers of other branches of the armed forces to war, while the German people do not want war, because “fascism and Hitler are hateful to every working German.”
The next day, July 1, Hofbauer’s appeal to German pilots and soldiers was published in Krasnaya Zvezda and other Soviet newspapers, which generally repeated the main set of ideas: the mad Hitler had begun a treacherous campaign against Soviet Russia and would lose, we were blind, brothers, we cannot fight against a country “where the working man feels like a true man, where everyone works for his own good and the good of his homeland.”
All German pilots, oppressed by the Hitlerite fascists, were offered not to drop bombs on peaceful Russian cities and to fly to Soviet Russia to help destroy bloody fascism.
However, all this had no visible effect, since Soviet propagandists preferred to work in the picture of the world that was in their heads. Without taking into account the realities of the other side and the life principles of the "oppressed pilots". Although the prisoners gave fairly detailed testimony during interrogations in the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR - these documents were preserved in the archive.
And at the same time they told how the bombing of Kyiv was organized.
So we have a great opportunity to find out what the real answers of the upholsterer Hofbauer were and what the members of Kratz's crew, who in the photo in the case do not look as inspired as in the newspaper, thought about what was happening.
AN INCOMPREHENSIBLE ENEMY
Despite his 24 years of age, Hans Georgievich Kratz (as he was called in the protocol by the NKGB officers) was, in the terminology of the newspaper Pravda, a seasoned Hitlerite ace. He volunteered for the army in 1936, and after graduating from the school for observer pilots, he flew a fair amount. In 1940–41, he took part in the bombing of London, Portsmouth, Plymouth, and sank ships in the Atlantic.
There is even a photo of its crew during service in Paris, where the 54th Bomber Squadron of the Luftwaffe "Totenkopf" was based, taking part in all campaigns and major battles in the European theater of war.
And in June the unit was transferred to Lublin, not far from which, near the village of Malkiew, there was a field airfield. It was from here that flights were carried out at the end of June 1941 to bomb Lutsk, Rivne, Rava-Ruska, Kovel, Zhitomir, Berdichev and Kyiv.
The "voluntarily flown" crew of the "Ju-88" on June 22 as part of a group carried out three raids on Lutsk (in the morning, at noon and in the evening) with the aim of bombing the airfield. On June 23 they worked to search for tank formations. On June 24 they bombed the Vladimir-Volynsky airfield twice and were hit, the plane caught fire.
From the beginning of the war until the plane was shot down, they carried out combat sorties over Soviet territory seven times, without experiencing any pangs of conscience at all.
"The mood of the soldiers of the German army is good. The soldiers are fed well, they receive food three times a day, for each flight the soldiers receive a separate ration. The soldiers go into battle with enthusiasm," Kratz reports to the head of the 3rd department of the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR, state security captain Zavgorodniy.
At 4 a.m. on June 25, two dozen aircraft under the command of Major Kraft took off from the airfield near Lublin. They flew blindly above the clouds straight through Kovel, Sarny, Ovruch to the Dnieper, and then turned south in the direction of the Brovary airfield. The task was to drop the entire load of SC high-explosive bombs, and then take photographs of Kyiv.
This task was completed, but the plane was hit by anti-aircraft guns.
Later, during interrogations, all crew members behaved very reservedly, answered questions sparingly, and the investigators’ questions about the number and location of the paratroopers’ drop (since the Soviet command from top to bottom was simply obsessed with enemy landings) looked downright funny.
At the same time, pilot Herman briefly reports that the command announced to the personnel several hours before the raid: the USSR intends to seize new territories, and to prevent this, it is necessary to enter the war.
“After concluding a pact with Germany, the Soviet Union forcibly seized part of the territory of former Poland, Bessarabia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and that Germany will no longer allow the USSR to expand its territory at the expense of other states,” in this quote from a non-commissioned officer one can easily recognize the source of inspiration for Viktor Suvorov-Rezun.
The concept of German propaganda throughout the war was built exclusively on defensive motives: enemies are all around, everyone wishes harm to the peaceful Reich, and it is literally forced to defend itself. And from some point on, it literally became a war "for the survival of the nation" - approximately the same thing is being done by Ukrainian propaganda today.
The talkative Hofbauer (in the protocol - Paul Georgievich) happily explains all geopolitics to the state security officers.
The Munich upholsterer was clearly interested in the issue, since he quite clearly gives an outline of the problems of international relations: after the friendship treaty of 1939, the USSR began to strengthen its positions in the western regions of Ukraine and to pull up large units of troops to the border. Then there were claims to control over the Dardanelles Strait, friction with Germany's allies - Bulgaria and Romania.
"With the help of the USSR, a government coup was carried out in Yugoslavia, and in the event of war with Germany, the Soviet Union was obliged to help Yugoslavia with military materials. In confirmation of this, Germany found the relevant documents in Yugoslavia. This aid to Yugoslavia was proof that the USSR was no longer helping Germany. Soon before the start of the war, Soviet troops invaded German territory, and Germany became convinced that the time had come to take up arms," says the knowledgeable Paul Georgievich.
And he adds that the German people were shocked by such betrayal: everyone thought that the Soviet country, a brotherly one, would help the Germans, who would transfer troops through the USSR to Asia to conquer the colonies of the hated English.
And here they had to take up arms. The soldiers were very confused, because they consider the USSR a powerful state that will be difficult to defeat. But the order must be carried out, how else?
By the way, Hoffbauer is the only one who talks about some discontent among the flight crew. Only it concerns the unexpected continuation of the war for everyone: his colleagues hoped to rest after England and go home. But the appeals through Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda had nothing to do with demotivation and, of course, did not affect the readiness of the bombers to continue to rain bombs from the sky.
They clearly did not feel like "workers and farmers in soldiers' uniforms" fighting against the USSR under duress, as the Bureau of Military-Political Propaganda assured the Soviet audience. And they cooperated mainly to save their lives.
Of course, there were exceptions.
The pilot of the Ju-88, Eberhard Kazirius, who was captured near Tarnopol, forgot about his membership in the NSDAP, graduated from the school of the Anti-Fascist Front in the Comintern structure, actively worked in propaganda, and in the post-war GDR headed the People's Police.
But in general, ideological work in relation to the enemy turned out to be an absolute failure, and by the summer of 1942, another formula was put into use: “Kill the German!”
[GatewayPundit] Lessons from Taiwan’s defense planning reveal serious vulnerabilities in U.S. homeland security, particularly the risk that Beijing could activate sleeper cells composed of gangsters already inside the United States.
Each year, Taiwan conducts the Han Kuang military exercises, a nationwide defense drill in which the military, public servants, civilians, and even schoolchildren participate in simulated responses to a Chinese invasion.
These scenarios are drawn from ongoing assessments of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and recent Chinese military activity, using U.S.-designed simulation software that models invasion strategies based on current PLA trends.
These exercises test Taiwan’s preparedness against a wide range of threats far beyond a conventional military assault. Scenarios include cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining public morale, naval blockades to cripple the economy, and amphibious assaults targeting key ports and airports.
The U.S. intelligence community and Department of Defense monitor these exercises and use the information to assess how a Chinese attack might unfold, taking steps to deter or counter such tactics.
However, one scenario emphasized in Taiwan’s planning remains largely overlooked in the United States: the potential presence of a Chinese fifth column.
This refers to sleeper agents, sympathizers, or covert operatives already inside the country who could activate pre-positioned assets and conduct sabotage operations targeting power grids, telecom networks, and transportation infrastructure, seriously undermining national defense and internal stability.
Chinese criminal networks are firmly established in the United States. These organizations include traditional triads such as the 14K Triad, led by Wan Kuok Koi, “Broken Tooth,” a key figure in global organized crime.
While the 14K dominates meth trafficking in the Asia-Pacific, it also exemplifies a criminal enterprise providing services to the Chinese government.
Other major networks include Sun Yee On, Wo Shing Wo, and Tongs like the Fuk Ching and Flying Dragons.
Additional actors include Snakehead smugglers involved in human trafficking, the Fujian Gang, the Cantonese Mafia, and diaspora gangs with mainland links that operate through business fronts and student associations.
Chinese organized crime in America operates through a loose but disciplined confederation overseen from New York by mafias rooted in southern China, according to U.S. officials.
Known as “triads” after historic secret society emblems, these groups wield influence both within China and across the diaspora, and are believed to maintain ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The coordination is extensive. In 2019, the DEA discovered that triad bosses had traveled from China to New York for sit-downs to issue directives and broker peace among factions. New York had become a command hub for narcotics and money laundering.
Even more concerning is the documented connection between Chinese organized crime and state intelligence services. Beijing has built a broad surveillance network on U.S. soil.
Between 2016 and 2022, four Chinese public security bureaus reportedly established 102 overseas police service stations across 53 countries.
In the U.S., these stations have been identified in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Houston, and San Francisco, as well as in smaller communities in Nebraska and Minnesota.
In the event of a conflict, Beijing could activate Chinese criminal networks to advance broader strategic objectives.
These groups, with technical expertise and ties to the Chinese government, are well-positioned to support both cyber and physical operations.
Chinese cybercriminals—early adopters of artificial intelligence—could assist state-sponsored attacks targeting ports, railways, airports, 5G infrastructure, fiber-optic lines, power grids, energy facilities, and water treatment plants.
U.S. agencies including CISA, the NSA, and the FBI have already warned that PRC cyber actors are pre-positioning themselves within American IT networks in preparation for potential attacks.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kamran Gasanov
[REGNUM] The Middle East conflict has emerged on three levels: Israel's attacks on Iranian proxies, its strikes on Iran itself, and, finally, the United States' strikes on the Islamic Republic.
And Turkey has its position at every level. At the first level, its position is crystal clear. One of Iran's proxies, Hamas, is also an ally of Turkey. That is why Ankara is most active when rockets fall on the Gaza Strip. Here, Netanyahu is accused of both genocide and fascism.
Lebanon's Hezbollah is not a friend of Turkey, to put it mildly: they were at odds during the civil war in Syria. But the violation of Lebanon's sovereignty as such is also unacceptable for Ankara.
The change of power in Syria has opened another front in the confrontation with Tel Aviv: it has set its sights on the Turkish bases being built in Syria.
At the second level, it would seem that Turkey's position should sound less definite. After all, Iran is its historical rival and competitor in the Middle East and, at the present stage, in the South Caucasus. But nevertheless, since the instigator of the war is Israel, here too Erdogan takes the side of the Muslim neighbor. Well, that's a load of bullshit
The topics of Iran and Gaza are closely linked for the Turkish president. As Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, Israel's attacks on Iran are attempts to "distract attention from the genocide in Gaza." The more Iran weakens, the stronger Israel becomes, and its journalists are planning to outplay Turkey itself in the future.
But everything becomes much more complicated when the United States comes out against the same Iran. Here it is not only the fact that Türkiye is a member of NATO: this factor has never stopped the two countries from mutual reproaches and pressure.
Washington has tried to overthrow Erdogan several times, put a spoke in his wheel in Syria and supported the “Kurdistan” project. The US has tried to limit the multi-vector foreign policy of the Turks by imposing sanctions for parallel trade and the deal to supply S-400 systems to Russia.
At the same time, when relations between Turkey and Russia worsened in November 2015 due to the downing of a Russian Su-24, NATO, led by the United States, disowned Turkey, and in October 2023, shot down a Turkish drone in Syria.
Trump, who came to the White House, was not considered a true friend of Turkey. In his last term, he caused considerable damage to its economy when, in the wake of the arrest of American pastor Andrew Brunson and Erdogan’s operations against Kurdish separatists in Syria, he announced new tariffs on steel and aluminum, threatening to collapse the Turkish economy.
This time there were no illusions about him either. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in his assessments allowed for the possibility of reaching an agreement with Trump on Syria, but was not entirely confident in the possibility of concluding a profitable deal.
But Trump 2.0 proved more accommodating. He began showering Erdogan with compliments, calling him smart and noting Turkey’s strength in “taking over Syria.”
In Ankara, they couldn’t get enough of such compliments: Erdogan values personal “chemistry.” But at the same time, he can’t help but understand that the sympathy across the ocean was far from altruistic.
The American leader respects power, and Turkey has much more of it. Ankara did not become the hegemon of the Middle East, but after the change of power in Damascus, it made both America and Europe respect it.
The existence of American bases in Kurdish territories now largely depends on the goodwill of the "Turkish Sultan." And having sensed the breath of Trump's isolationism in Ukraine, Europeans have begun to treat Ankara more warmly, seeing it as an integral part of the new security architecture of the Old World.
Trump's current sympathy for Turkey is felt in two key areas of world politics at once. Thanks to Erdogan's mediation and call, the occupant of the Oval Office took an unprecedented step - he met with the new Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, for whose head the US had previously promised $10 million.
The US also partially lifted sanctions on Syria and restored the ability of its banks to use the SWIFT system. However, Turkey is outraged that for some reason the restrictions on the supply of the latest American fighters have not been lifted.
In parallel with organizing negotiations with Syria, Trump asked Erdogan to host a meeting between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul.
Moreover, Erdogan's weight increased even more when Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be more reasonable and not to conflict with Turkey in Syria. And Israel went to de-escalation talks in Baku.
Trump's close relationship with Erdogan should have influenced Turkey's response to the American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on the night of June 21-22. And in fact, it did.
Unlike the bombing of Gaza and the Israeli strikes on Iran, Türkiye has refrained from making aggressive and emotional statements in response to the American strikes.
The country's Foreign Ministry is merely "deeply concerned about the possible consequences of a US attack on Iran's nuclear facilities." Turkish diplomacy is trying to shift the blame to Israel as the main instigator of the war.
"We always pay attention to the risk of the conflict in the region, which began with Israeli aggression, spreading and destabilizing the security situation. Today's US attack on Iran's nuclear facilities has raised this risk to the highest level," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on June 22.
Erdogan does not want to break ties with Trump. After all, if confrontation is allowed even at the rhetorical level, the unpredictable and emotional Trump may escalate the situation with Turkey.
In a situation of financial and economic volatility, new US sanctions would be tangible and would become an additional motivation for the revival of barely subsided protests due to the arrest of Erdogan's political opponent, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
In such a conflict, it would be dangerous for the Turks to count on the hypocritical European leaders: neither the EU nor Britain will cover them. London itself is determined to overthrow the Iranian regime, Germany has fallen under Trump, and Erdogan has his own scores to settle with Macron.
One explanation for Turkey’s flexibility is its attempts to act as a peacemaker. Before the American strikes, Erdogan received Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and said he was making diplomatic efforts to end the fighting and return to dialogue.
Axios reported that Erdogan offered Trump to organize a meeting of Iranian and American representatives in Istanbul. The Turkish president contacted Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Araghchi, but the latter allegedly failed to contact Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In addition, Erdogan is trying to present himself as the leader of the Islamic world. During the attacks on Gaza, he proposed that fellow Muslim countries form an Islamic coalition against Israel.
On June 21-22, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was held in Istanbul. Erdogan organized exactly the same summit when Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israeli. So the demands on Ankara as the leader of the Muslim world are considerable, and this puts a lot of pressure on the Turkish president.
The only problem is that, despite the verbal condemnation, few Arab and, more broadly, Islamic countries are ready to seriously oppose Trump.
As long as military actions in Iran do not go beyond strikes on nuclear facilities, Turkey, like a number of countries in the region that have multi-billion dollar businesses with the US, military cooperation and warm personal relations with Trump, will be able to maneuver.
Ankara will bet on peacekeeping, hoping to pull the negotiations from Oman and Rome to Istanbul.
At the same time, increasing the degree of escalation will put Turkey in a very uncomfortable position. Of course, one can try to remove the geopolitical competitor with Trump's hands, but the price of a potential war could be very high for Turkey.
The country is already suffering from millions of Syrian refugees. Destabilization of the region threatens oil and gas supplies from the Persian Gulf, rising energy prices and many other things - man-made disasters, increased terrorist activity and other troubles.
And in domestic affairs, US support will not add points to Erdogan - the Turkish population, like the population of Arab countries, has become more anti-American in recent years.
[IsraelTimes] In pre-recorded press conference, premier says he expects campaign in Iran to help Israel achieve goals in Gaza; predicts it will ultimately lead to expansion of Abraham Accords
Israel is very close to achieving its goals in Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, having inflicted significant damage both to its ballistic missile program and its nuclear facilities.
He promised not to let Israel be dragged into a "war of attrition" with the Islamic Theocratic Republic, but stressed that this did not mean he would be prepared to end the campaign before all its objectives had been met.
The prime minister was speaking to news hounds in a pre-recorded presser on Sunday evening, following the US strikes on Iran’s key nuclear facilities the night before.
He said that the US had inflicted "very serious damage" on Iran’s hard-to-reach Fordo nuclear site, but declined to go into detail about the extent of the damage.
"We are sending them back, we are removing the threat," he said of Iran’s nuclear program.
"We won’t pursue our actions beyond what is needed to achieve [the goals], but we also won’t finish too soon," Netanyahu said, vowing to avoid entering a war of attrition. "When the objectives are achieved, then the operation is complete and the fighting will stop," he told Israeli news hounds.
"I have no doubt that this is a regime that wants to wipe us out, and that’s why we embarked on this operation to eliminate the two concrete threats to our existence: the nuclear threat and the ballistic missile threat. We are moving step by step towards achieving these goals. We are very, very close to completing them," he said.
Asked about the whereabouts of Iran’s 400 kilograms of 60-percent enriched uranium, Netanyahu claimed that Israel has "interesting intel" pertaining to the issue, but declined to go into detail.
"We’ve been following that very closely. I can tell you that it’s an important component of a nuclear program," he said. "It’s not the sole component. It’s not a sufficient component. But it is an important component and we have interesting intel on that, which you will excuse me if I don’t share with you," he said.
At least until Israel launched its opening strikes against Iran’s nuclear program on June 13, the Islamic Theocratic Republic had been refining uranium to up to 60% purity, a short step from the roughly 90% that is bomb-grade and far higher than the 3.67% cap imposed by a 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump pulled out of in 2018. It is the only non-nuclear weapon state to enrich uranium to that degree, which has no civilian use.
Regarding the timing of Israel’s campaign against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Netanyahu said Israel "had to act" because Tehran was rushing toward nuclear weaponization after the killing of Hezbollah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> in September 2024.
Hezbollah, once Tehran’s strongest proxy, was severely weakened by Israel over more than a year of conflict, including several months of all-out war in southern Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... , after the Lebanese terror group began attacking communities and army posts on Israel’s northern border in the immediate aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... terror onslaught in southern Israel.
Netanyahu also cited Iran’s plans to build 300 ballistic missiles per month as a deciding factor in launching the campaign at this time. He said more than half the ballistic missile launchers in the Islamic Theocratic Republic had been taken out in the past 10 days.
The premier said he had shared his concerns with US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... , whom he said understood the magnitude of the threat.
"I told him of our need to act, and he understood it very well. And I knew that when push comes to shove, he would do the right thing," said Netanyahu. "He would do the right thing for America. He would do the right thing for the free world. He would do the right thing for civilization."
GAZA WAR ’COULD END TOMORROW’
Turning to Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , where Israel’s war against Hamas is now in its 20th month with no end in sight, Netanyahu insisted that the attacks in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... would help Israel achieve its goals in the Strip.
"Without the Iranian scaffolding, it all collapses," he asserted.
He claimed that the war there "could end tomorrow."
"It could end today if Hamas surrenders, lays down all its arms, releases all the hostages. It’s over in a moment," he said. "We think we can give Gaza a different future."
The war in the enclave was triggered by the Hamas-led onslaught in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
Paleostinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 kidnapped on October 7, as well as the body of a soldier killed in 2014. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others.
Negotiations for their release and an end to the war have been at an impasse in recent weeks, following Hamas’s response to US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal for a temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal.
The US proposal had offered a 60-day truce in the war-torn Gaza Strip, accompanied by a partial Israeli military withdrawal and increased humanitarian aid deliveries, in exchange for the release of 10 living hostages and 18 deceased hostages.
Hamas’s response, deemed unacceptable by Israel and Witkoff, had included a demand that would make it more difficult for Israel to resume fighting if talks on a permanent ceasefire were not completed by the end of the 60-day truce. It also envisioned the release of the 10 living hostages being spread out throughout the truce, rather than in two batches on the first and seventh day, as the US offer had stipulated.
Yet despite the impasse and the new conflict with Iran, Netanyahu indicated that Israel was still in contact with mediators, and was trying to get Hamas to agree to a 60-day ceasefire during which half the hostages would be released.
"I have a plan for permanent peace," he insisted. "We’re prepared to enter negotiations right now on the proposal that Mr. Witkoff gave."
VISIONS OF A BRIGHT FUTURE
Looking beyond Gaza, Netanyahu said he believed the operation in Iran would also lead to an expansion of the Abraham Accords, a series of normalization deals between Israel and Arab countries that were brokered during Trump’s previous term.
"Extraordinary opportunities are being opened up here," he said, and reiterated that Israel’s show of strength "is opening up opportunities that we can’t even imagine."
"I can imagine a massive expansion of the peace agreements," he continued. "I can see collaborations that might seem fantastical right now, but maybe you understand they’re not fantastical."
"We will see a bright future of security, of prosperity, of hope, and also of peace."
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[IsraelTimes] In pre-recorded press conference, premier says he expects campaign in Iran to help Israel achieve goals in Gaza; predicts it will ultimately lead to expansion of Abraham Accords
Asked about the whereabouts of Iran’s 400 kilograms of 60-percent enriched uranium, Netanyahu claimed that Israel has "interesting intel" pertaining to the issue, but declined to go into detail.
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
