the correct choice.....

Putin made the right choice, which was always motivated by his rational calculation of what was in the objective interest of Russia as a state, and not because of “Zionist influence” as some in the alternative media community are now ridiculously claiming to smear him after being furious that he did not lift a finger to save the Resistance.

by Andrew Korybko

The Iranian-led Axis of Resistance was defeated by Israel. Hamas' terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, triggered Israel's collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza, which sparked a series of conflicts that spread to Lebanon and Syria. Israel also bombed Yemen and Iran. The leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah was destroyed, leading to a ceasefire in Lebanon, while the Assad government has just been overthrown by a Turkish-backed terrorist offensive that disrupted Iran's military logistics for Hezbollah.

These results were already quite surprising for those who believed the late Nasrallah who claimed that "Israel is weaker than a spider's web", but many were shocked that they happened without Russia lifting a finger to save the Resistance, which they thought had allied itself with against Israel long ago. This second misconception will go down in history as one of the most successful psychological operations ever carried out against the alternative media community (CMA), and, ironically enough, by its own influencers.

We explained at the beginning of October:Why Misperceptions About Russian Policy Toward Israel Continue to Proliferate", which readers should consult for more details, but can be summarized as follows: The CMA's top influencers told their audiences what they thought they wanted to hear for reasons of self-interest. This included generating influence, promoting their ideology, and/or soliciting donations from well-meaning but naive members of their audience, depending on the personality involved.

The previous analysis also lists five related ones on Russian policy toward Israel since the beginning of the West Asian Wars, including this one:Lavrov's comparison of last war between Israel and Hamas with Russia's special operation clarified", which itself refers to several dozen others. All of them also refer to this May 2018 report on "President Putin on Israel: Quotes from the Kremlin website (2000-2018)" All of these documents rely on official and authoritative Russian sources to reach their conclusions.

They prove that Putin is a proud lifelong philo-Semite who has never shared the unifying anti-Zionist ideology of the Resistance, instead always expressing a very deep respect for Jews and the State of Israel. Accordingly, as the final decision-maker of Russian foreign policy, he has instructed his diplomats to strike a balance between Israel and the Resistance. To this end, Russia has never taken sides with either side and has always remained neutral in their disputes, especially in the Middle East wars.

At most, he has personally condemned Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinians, but always in the same breath as the condemnation of the infamous Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023. As for Russia, it has been content to repeat the same rhetoric and occasionally condemn Israeli strikes against the IRGC and Hezbollah in Syria, in which it has never intervened. Not once has it tried to dissuade or intercept them, to retaliate afterwards, or to give Syria the capacity and authorization from do it.

This was due to the deconfliction mechanism which Putin and Bibi had agreed on in late September 2015, shortly before the Syrian operation. This was never confirmed for obvious diplomatic reasons, but these actions (or rather their absence) suggested that Putin believed that Iran's anti-Israeli activities in Syria represented a legitimate threat to Israel. This is why Russia has always stood aside when Israel bombed Iran in that country, but has occasionally complained because Israel's attacks formally violated international law.

It is an objectively existing and easily verifiable fact that Russia’s opposition to Israel’s regional activities, whether in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen or Iran, has always remained strictly confined to the political realm of official statements. Not once has Russia threatened to unilaterally sanction Israel, much less hinted at military action against it as punishment. Russia does not even symbolically designate Israel as an “unfriendly state,” even if it is because it does not comply with US sanctions and does not arm Ukraine.

Herein lies another fact that most CMA members were unaware of or denied, namely that Israel is not a puppet of the United States, otherwise it would have done both of these things long ago. It is beyond the scope of this article to explain this, as well as the reasons why the Biden administration tried to destabilize and overthrow Bibi, but this analysis between in detail and cites articles on the subject. The fact is that Russian-Israeli relations remain cordial and the two countries are far from being the enemies some thought.

It was therefore never logical to imagine that Putin, who considers himself a consummate pragmatist, would burn the bridge that he personally invested nearly a quarter of a century of his time to build with Bibi between their two countries. After all, Putin boasted in 2019 that "Russians and Israelis have family and friendship ties. This is a real common family, I can say it without exaggeration. About 2 million Russian speakers live in Israel. We consider Israel a Russian-speaking country.».

He was speaking before the Keren Heyesod Foundation, one of the oldest Zionist lobbying organizations in the world, at its annual conference in Moscow that year. Whenever CMA members were confronted with these “politically inconvenient” facts from official and authoritative sources, such as the Kremlin website, they spun a conspiracy theory based on a “5-dimensional chess plan,” alleging that it was simply a “psychological operation against the Zionists.” Key influencers also aggressively “cancelled” anyone who brought up the topic.

Ultimately, these misperceptions of Russian-Israeli relations and Putin’s views on them continued to proliferate unchallenged by the CMA, creating the impression that they were secretly allied with Iran because of their supposedly shared anti-Zionist ideals. This notion became dogma for many CMA members and, therefore, an axiom of international relations. Anyone who claimed otherwise was branded a “Zionist.”

It is now known, since Russia failed to lift a finger to save the Resistance, that they were never true allies. Some of those who still cannot accept that they were deceived by trusted CMA people who duped them for self-serving reasons (influence, ideology and/or solicitation of donations) are now speculating that Russia has “betrayed” the Resistance and “sold out to the Zionists,” even though Russia was never on either side. If they do not get rid of their cognitive dissonance soon, they will become even more detached from reality.

In retrospect, Russia dodged a bullet by wisely choosing not to ally with the now-defeated Resistance Axis, as it would have needlessly ruined its relations with Israel, the undisputed victor in the Middle East wars. Putin made the right choice, which was always motivated by his rational calculation of what was in Russia’s objective interest as a state, and not because of “Zionist influence” as some in the CMA now ridiculously claim to smear him after being furious that he did not lift a finger to save the Resistance.

There are several lessons to be learned from all this:

1) Putin and his representatives do not play “5D chess”, they always say what they really think;

2) Russia is neither anti-Israeli nor anti-Zionist, but it is neither anti-Iranian nor anti-Resistance;

3) the CMA is full of charlatans who, for self-interested reasons, tell their audience whatever they think they want to hear;

4) their audience should therefore hold them accountable for lying about Russian-Israeli and Russian-resistance relations;

5) and the CMA must be urgently reformed.

Andrew Korybko

https://en.reseauinternational.net/la-russie-a-evite-une-balle-en-choisissant-sagement-de-ne-pas-sallier-a-laxe-de-la-resistance-aujourdhui-vaincu/

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

Gus Leonisky

POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

By Gus Leonisky at 14 Dec 2024 - 4:28am
Gus Leonisky's blog
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al qaeda chums...

By Alan MacLeod / MintPress News

Corporate media is heralding the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the emergence of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani as the new leader of Syria, despite his deep ties to both al-Qaeda and ISIS.

“How Syria’s ‘diversity-friendly’ jihadists plan on building a state,” runs the headline from an article in Britain’s Daily Telegraph that suggests that Jolani will construct a new Syria, respectful of minority rights. The same newspaper also labeled him a “moderate Jihadist.” The Washington Post described him as a pragmatic and charismatic leader, while CNN portrayed him as a “blazer-wearing revolutionary.”

Meanwhile, an in-depth portrait from Rolling Stone describes him as a “ruthlessly pragmatic, astute politician who has renounced ‘global jihad’” and intends to “unite Syria.” His “strategic acumen is apparent,” writes Rolling Stone, between paragraphs praising Jolani for leading a successful movement against a dictator.

CNN even scored an exclusive, sit-down interview with Jolani, even as his movement was storming Damascus. When asked by host Jomana Karadsheh about his past actions, he responded by saying, “I believe that everyone in life goes through phases and experiences…As you grow, you learn, and you continue to learn until the very last day of your life,” as if he were discussing embarrassing teenage mistakes, not establishing and leading the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s franchise in Syria.

This is a far cry from the first time CNN covered Jolani. In 2013, the network labeled him one of “the world’s 10 most dangerous terrorists,” known for abducting, torturing and slaughtering racial and religious minorities.

Still on the U.S. terrorist list today, the FBI is offering a $10 million reward for information about his whereabouts. Washington and other Western governments consider Jolani’s new organization, Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as one and the same as Al-Qaeda/Al-Nusra.

This poses a serious public relations dilemma for Western nations, who supported the HTS-led overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad. And thus, Politico and others report there is a “huge scramble” in Washington to remove HTS and Jolani from the terrorist list as quickly as possible.

The Making of a Radical

Jolani has sought to distance himself from his past and present himself as a moderating force that can attempt to unite an intensely divided Syria. While he has, in recent years, displayed a willingness to compromise with other forces and factions, it is far from clear whether the tens of thousands of soldiers he commands – units made up primarily of former fighters from al-Qaeda/al-Nusra and ISIS – will be in a charitable mood once they cement their power.

“Syria is being purified,” he told a crowd in Damascus on Sunday. “This victory is born from the people who have languished in prison, and the fighters broke their chains,” he added.

Jolani – whose real name is Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a – was born in 1982 in Saudi Arabia to parents who fled the Golan Heights area of Syria after the 1967 Israeli invasion. In 2003, he went to Iraq to fight against American forces. After three years of war, he was captured by the U.S. military and spent over five years in prison, including a stint at the notorious Abu Ghraib torture center.

While in Iraq, Jolani fought with ISIS and was even a deputy to its founder. Immediately upon release in 2011, ISIS sent him to Syria with a rumored $1 billion to found the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda and participate in the armed protest movement against Assad that arose out of the Arab Spring.

Realizing the extremely poor reputation al-Qaeda had in the region and across the world, Jolani attempted to rebrand his forces, officially shuttering the al-Nusra Front in January 2017 and, on the same day, founding HTS. He claimed that HTS preaches a very different ideology and that it will respect Syrian diversity. Not everyone is convinced of this, least of all the British government, who immediately proscribed HTS, describing it as merely an alias of Al-Qaeda.

“Al-Qaeda/ISIS man didn’t ‘reinvent himself.’ He had the whole propaganda and intelligence apparatus of the ‘West,’ including the BBC, doing it for him,” remarked co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah.

The New Government: Likes Israel, Hates Hezbollah

The name “al-Jolani” translates to “From the Golan Heights.” And yet, the leader appears distinctly unconcerned with the Israeli invasion of his homeland. The IDF has taken much of southern Syria, including the strategic Mount Hermon, overlooking Damascus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that this is part of a permanent operation. “The Golan Heights…will forever be an inseparable part of the State of Israel,” he proclaimed.

Jolani has already said that he has no intention of confronting Israel. “Syria is not ready for war and does not intend to go into another war. The source of concern was the Iranian militias, and Hezbollah, and the danger has passed,” he said – a strange thing to say while Israel is carrying out the largest Air Force operation in its history, pounding military targets all over Syria. Other HTS spokespersons have also categorically refused to comment on Israel’s attack on the country, even when pressed by incredulous Western journalists.

Jolani’s comments, singling out two Shia forces rather than Israel as enemies of the state, will have many concerned that this could signal a return to the process of Shia slaughter ISIS waged over much of Syria and Iraq. In 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 383-0 to classify this process as a genocide.

Fortunately, the new government will likely be a coalition of disparate and moderating forces. However, these groups seem to share a common thread: they all appear to be pro-Israel. A commander of the secular Free Syrian Army, for example, recently gave an interview to The Times of Israel, where he looked forward to a new era of “friendship” and “harmony” with its neighbor to the south. “We will go for full peace with Israel… Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, we have never made any critical comments against Israel, unlike Hezbollah, who stated they aim to liberate Jerusalem and the Golan Heights,” he said.

The commander added that “Israel will plant a rose in the Syrian garden” and asked for the country’s financial support in forming a new government.

Other anti-Assad forces have gone even further, with one individual stating that Israel “Isn’t hostile to those who are not hostile toward it. We don’t hate you, we love you very much…we were quite happy when you attacked Hezbollah, really happy, and we’re glad that you won.”

Statements like these might surprise a casual observer. But the reality is that Israel has been funding, training and arming much of the Syrian opposition since its inception. This includes Al-Qaeda, whose wounded fighters are treated by Israel.

And while radical Islamist forces appeared to be enemies with everyone, the one group they fastidiously avoided any confrontation with was Israel. Indeed, in 2016, ISIS fighters accidentally fired upon an Israeli position in the Golan Heights, thinking they were Syrian government forces, then quickly issued an apology for doing so.

From the Golan Heights, the year-long Israeli campaign against Hezbollah and Syrian Army positions also seriously weakened both forces, aiding the opposition in their victory.

Al-Qaeda and the U.S.: A Complicated Relationship

While both journalists and politicians in the U.S. are scrambling to change their opinions on Jolani and HTS, the reality is that, for much of its existence, Washington has enjoyed a very close relationship with al-Qaeda. The organization was born in Afghanistan in the 1980s, thanks in no small part to the CIA. Between 1979 and 1992, the CIA spent billions of dollars funding, arming, and training Afghan Mujahideen militiamen (like Osama bin Laden) in an attempt to bleed the Soviet occupation dry. It was from the ranks of the Mujahideen that bin Laden built his organization.

During the 1990s, bin Laden’s relationship with the U.S. soured, and it eventually became a principal target for al-Qaeda, culminating in the infamous September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

The Bush administration would use these attacks as a pretext to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq, claiming that America could never be safe if al-Qaeda were not thoroughly destroyed. Bin Laden became perhaps the most notorious individual in the world, and American society was turned upside down in a self-described effort to rout Islamic extremism.

And yet, by the 2010s, even as the U.S. was ostensibly at war with al-Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was secretly working with it in Syria on a plan to overthrow Assad. The CIA spent around $1 billion per year training and arming a wide network of rebel groups to this end. As National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a leaked 2012 email, “AQ [al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria.”

Thus, while many casual observers may be shocked to see the media and political class embrace the leader of al-Qaeda in Syria as a modern, progressive champion, the reality is that the U.S. relationship with the group is merely reverting to a position it has previously held. Consequently, it appears that the War on Terror will come to an end with the “terrorists” being redesignated as “moderate rebels” and “freedom fighters.”

Who Gets to Define “Terrorist”?

Of course, many have argued that the U.S. Terrorist List is entirely arbitrary to begin with and is merely a barometer of who is in Washington’s good books at any given time. In 2020, the Trump administration removed Sudan from its state sponsors of terror list in exchange for the country normalizing relations with Israel, proving how transactional the list was.

A few months later, it removed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (a Uyghur militia currently active in Syria) from its list because of its hardening attitude towards China, seeing ETIM as a useful pawn to play against Beijing.

Washington also continues to keep Cuba on its terror list despite there being no evidence of the island supporting terror groups.

And the U.S. refused to remove Nelson Mandela from its list of the world’s most notorious terrorists until 2008 – 14 years after he became President of South Africa. In comparison, Jolani’s redesignation might take fewer than fourteen days.

A giant rebranding operation is taking place. Both corporate media and the U.S. government have attempted to transform the founder and head of an al-Qaeda affiliate organization into a woke, progressive actor. It remains to be seen how exactly Jolani will govern and whether he can maintain support from a wide range of Syrian groups. Given what we have seen in the past week, however, he can be confident of enjoying strong support from the Western press.

https://scheerpost.com/2024/12/13/from-terrorist-to-freedom-fighter-how-the-west-rebranded-al-qaedas-jolani-as-syrias-woke-new-leader/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

Gus Leonisky

POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

avoiding WW3....

Just 12 hours before the fall of Damascus, Russia, Iran and Türkiye met on the sidelines of the Doha Forum.

Top of the agenda: the impending collapse of the Syrian regime.

The trio were trying to determine if Bashar al-Assad's government was salvageable.

The three countries issued a strong statement calling for the preservation of Syria's territorial integrity, and for negotiations between rebel group Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Bashar al-Assad.

But by this point, the diplomats most likely knew it was all over.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov became increasingly frustrated as the interviewer pressed him on the unfolding situation.

"If you want me to say we lost in Syria, we are so desperate … if this is what you need, let's continue," Mr Lavrov said.

"But my point is I am not in the business of guessing what is going to happen. We are trying to not allow terrorists to prevail, even if they say they are no longer terrorists."

Hours later, Damascus fell.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-15/vladimir-putin-bashar-al-assad-syria-regime-houthi-rebels/104705392

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

Gus Leonisky

POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

By Gus Leonisky at 15 Dec 2024 - 7:37am
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"nice" terrorists....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK6o7EHiNmw

Is Syria's Collapse a Strategic Move by BRICS?

Syria’s collapse in just 10 days has sparked intense debates: was this a chaotic downfall or a deliberate geopolitical strategy? This video dives deep into the Syrian crisis, analyzing whether the swift fall of the Assad regime was a strategic maneuver tied to the BRICS nations. Based on the thought-provoking analysis of Alex Krainer, a seasoned market analyst, we examine how the events in Syria might signify a broader Middle Eastern power shift orchestrated by Russia, Iran, and their allies. Could this sudden collapse reshape global power dynamics in 2024? From the rise of HTS in Syria to the intricate interplay between BRICS and Middle Eastern geopolitics, we uncover how this crisis could serve as a linchpin in the BRICS strategy.

Explore theories surrounding Syria’s sudden collapse, HTS's offensive, and the potential role of Russia and Iran in setting a strategic trap for Western forces. Could this be the BRICS nations’ play to dismantle Western influence in the Middle East? With a focus on global geopolitics, this video navigates the connections between Syria, Ukraine, and the larger Eurasian security dynamics, presenting a compelling narrative that challenges conventional views, all through the lens of Alex Krainer’s incisive perspectives.

This video doesn’t delve into the individual motivations of Western actors like the U.S., Turkey, or Israel. It avoids granular analysis of the HTS internal factions or the Kurdish dynamics along the Syrian-Turkish border. Instead, the focus remains on the broader geopolitical chessboard and how the Syrian crisis might serve as a pivotal moment for BRICS nations and their strategic influence in the Middle East.

READ FROM TOP.

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

Gus Leonisky

POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

By Gus Leonisky at 15 Dec 2024 - 10:42am
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