The Hidden Calculation Behind the Yom Kippur War | It’s long been the greatest question about the war: why Israel waited to be attacked. But what if it was convinced to wait by its closest ally, the United States? | My latest essay.
This Palestinian photographer in Gaza has complete confidence in the trustworthiness of the Israeli Air Force, which announced its target in advance, allowing the building to be evacuated. He, whose life depends on it, trusts Israel’s statements more than does the Western media.
The things I love most about the Biden era include the return to normalcy, the soaring national confidence, and, above all, the competence of our leadership. Friends, America is back!
This was in 2019. I've said the same thing since 2016 & will be proven correct: the US will leave, & the Turks will dismantle the SDF. Critics of Ankara will scream and cry, but this outcome was written in stone. Failure to recognize it from the beginning was the height of folly.
I heard that too. I also heard that just before this fight, Trump ripped off his shirt, revealing his new chest tattoo: “Live Free or Die!” (His nipples form the dots on the i’s.) Then, he downed a jar of Cheez Whiz, insisting it was tiger blood and saying it made him invincible.
Cassidy Hutchinson testifies that she was told that as then-President Donald Trump was being driven back to the White House after the Jan. 6 rally that he demanded to be taken to the Capitol and tried to grab the steering wheel from a Secret Service agent.
Ataturk is one of the greatest figures of the 20th Century. A world historical figure, a genius, and a hero. America is a great nation with a world historical destiny. It must not allow bitter and petty lobbyists pursuing parochial interests do its thinking for it.
The world’s greatest mystery | "I don't think there is sufficient information to know why he targeted that synagogue why he insisted on the release of someone who's been in prison for over 10 years... why he was using anti-Semitic & anti-Israeli comments."
A graphic artist in Germany works from home. His wife goes off to work, so he looks after their baby girl. In response to her frequent texts to see how he's doing with the baby, he sends humorous responses back.
In Germany, PKK supporters set fire to humanitarian aid collected for earthquake victims in Turkey. A police spokesman said, “The footage recorded by surveillance cameras is being studied. In the footage, we see how two people removed the Turkish flag and threw it into the fire.”
Putin: “Did you order the assassination of the woman who walked into the Congress & who was shot & killed by a policeman? ...450 individuals were arrested.... They’re facing jail time.... [T]hey came to Congress w/political demands. Isn’t that persecution for political opinions?”
British doctor who worked at al-Shifa hospital says that a lower ward leading to a basement was off limits to medical staff. Clear implication was that it was under the control of Hamas, which struck fear in the hearts of everyone else.
When
@BariWeiss
describes the kind of madness that we have all witnessed,
@BrianStelter
pretends as if he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Such gaslighting is of course a big part of the problem. |
Many Turks believe that the CIA supported the attempted coup that the Gulen movement launched in 2016. For the CIA director to have himself photographed with the most prominent Gulenist in America is, to put it mildly, unwise.
This is a must watch. Neil Oliver (
@thecoastguy
), a Scottish TV presenter and historian, asks the questions that everyone should be asking. It’s btw the first time I’ve seen a British TV presenter call out Net Zero for what it is — a power grab |
این فکر بسیار ساده که به نظر من واضح و درست است. اگر یک قدرت یا قدرت های خارجی سر رژیم تهران را از تن جدا کنند، مردم ایران بقیه کار را به تنهایی تمام خواهند کرد. من از هیچ قدرتی دعوت به این اقدام نمیکنم، فقط میگویم جمهوری مخوف اسلامی بیش از هر زمان دیگری آسیبپذیر است.
This is false. "Permanent resident" means green card holder. Khashoggi was in the US on a visa. Doesn't the
@SecBlinken
have a staff to fact check his statements?
The murder of journalist and U.S. lawful permanent resident Jamal Khashoggi shocked the world. Starting today, we will have a new global policy bearing his name to impose visa restrictions on those who engage in extraterritorial attacks on journalists or activists.
Just talked to a friend with contacts in Ukraine who are experienced observers of war. The situation, particularly in Kiev, is worse than it seems on social media. The Russian vice is closing. The West is congratulating itself for standing up to Putin, but he's winning.
A 64-year-old music teacher in LA is charged with child abuse | “We are extremely disturbed by [what] occurred at Maywood Academy High School,” the LA Unified School District said in a statement. “We…do not condone violence or intolerance of any kind.”
Blinken to Israel: we will allow you to kill Hamas terrorists hiding behind civilians, schools, and hospitals provided you do no harm to civilians, schools, and hospitals. We expect you to attack using your magic ray guns, the ones that kill terrorists but damage nothing else.
With tensions between Ankara and Washington rising over events in NE Syria, allow me to pull this clip from the archives and dust it off. We held this session in 2019, and my views have not changed. US policy is pathological.
When Putin did this to Syrian cities, Obama said he was in "a quagmire" (and so the US didn't have to sanction him). If the US had imposed heavy sanctions on Russia in 2014 for Crimea, or 2016-17 for Syria, we wouldn't have this problem now. Instead we looked for off-ramps.
Turkey has done more for Ukraine than almost any country—& at great risk to itself. Turkey imports gas from Russia, and the two economies are interlinked in myriad other ways. At a moment of economic weakness, Erdogan sent TB2s. The anti-Turkey lobby endangers Western security.
Dear
@aykan_erdemir
& friends at ANCA, Hellenic Council, FDD, other lock-jawed opponents of Turkey (b/c of AKP)...who has frustrated Russian plans, proxies, & allies in Libya, Syria, occupied Azerbaijan, now Ukraine? Despite your enmity, grant the point. Turkey has backed Ukraine
When Mehmed the Conqueror took Constantinople in 1453, he assumed the title of Kayser-i Rum (Roman Caesar). So thanks to that, it's President Erdogan who has the strongest claim.
Turkey has convening power. It can make Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, openly pray just a few seats away from the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
🇹🇷 Türkiye tells the US it cannot use Turkish airspace against Iran. Ankara said it would close its airspace to military aircraft in the event of a possible US air attack on Iran.
The Congo produces 70% of the world's cobalt, an essential part of the lithium-ion batteries that give electric vehicles the range and durability needed. Cobalt mines often collapse. Remember this image next time you hear John Kerry say “climate justice.”
A clip from the archives. Everyone knows that Hamas and Hezbollah use reporters as human shields. EVERYONE. And the reporters go along with it, to preserve access, among other motives.
Americans do not realize that when attacks like this take place, a politically significant segment of Turkish opinion sees the hand of the US behind them, due to the cozy relationship between the US military and the PKK in Syria. This relationship poisons US-Turkish relations.
The PKK killed a random civilian in Kayseri, a veterinarian, to steal his car to conduct Ankara attack yesterday
The veterinarian was recently wed and survived by a wife and an infant.
Five lions start to feast on a water buffalo, when a quarrel breaks out among them. As the feasters fight, the feast stands up and casually walks off. This feels like a metaphor for something, but I’m not sure what.
When Saudi Arabia cuts oil production Biden says it is “siding with Russia.” He intends to “re-evaluate the relationship.”
But when Iran actually sides w/Russia, by giving kamikaze drones to murder civilians, Biden says next to nothing. Why? I explain:
If the US is not careful it’s going to spark a Greco-Turkish war. I have no doubt who will win that war. Hint: it won’t be the country that hasn’t won a military engagement in the modern era.
For the NeverTrump Republicans who presented Biden as the candidate who best represented responsible statecraft, this would be an opportune moment to reconsider core assumptions.
When it comes to the Middle East, argue
@Doranimated
and
@AcrossTheBay
, everybody in the Biden administration, from the president on down, agrees about the need to complete what Obama started—which means that the worst is yet to come. |
“How is it possible that in a building full of federal law enforcement agents, it took a postal service inspector to uncover the two men?” asks
@LeeSmithDC
.
Enes Kanter is the leading representative in the US of the Gulen movement, which is a bizarre Islamist cult that attempted to overthrow the government of Turkey by force. It's a big mistake to get close to him.
She needs to fix the label on the back of her top so that it doesn’t show. Small, seemingly insignificant details like that really influence how people think of you.
Your periodic reminder. A democratic army places itself between its civilians and the enemy. A terrorist army places its civilians between it and its enemy. This distinction is simple, fundamental, and all important today. Much commentary in Gaza seeks to blur it.
Big deal for Red Sea Security and expansion of Turkey’s footprint:
Today, Somalia’s Council of Ministers has approved a 10-year Maritime Security Agreement with Turkey, granting Turkey full authority over Somalia's territorial waters.
Only in Israel. Tonight in Jerusalem there’s a huge demonstration in support of the judicial reform. So one guy turned to his WhatsApp group and asked if anyone had an Israeli flag to lend him. Another guy responded, saying, no problem, but you must return it to me by Saturday.…
Look how Azerbaijan delivers the weather report to Iran! Ethnic Azerbaijanis make up between 20% and 30% of the population of Iran, and they receive television transmissions from Baku.
This is just crazy. If we learned anything from the Ukraine crisis, it's that the forced transition to renewable energy has handed power to Russia and China, undermined our industries, raised prices, and imposed a tax on poor people.
Joe Biden has a great idea! Congress should pass a law mandating the use of paper ballots in federal elections, says Biden. I mean, "said." That was Joe Biden in 2007.
When Americans call on the Turks to reject Hamas, nearly every Turk thinks, “Why don’t you reject the PKK?” The moral voice of the US in Türkiye has been nearly destroyed by US support for an anti-Turkish terror organization. It’s time to divorce the YPG.
Turkey’s Islamic relief organisation IHH calls for a pro-Palestine rally outside the Incirlik airbase, which is mostly used by the US Airforce, tomorrow.
The base is a symbol of American and Nato presence in the country.
IHH was the leading organisation in 2010 Gaza Flotilla.
This is the point where I admit that my dream of a new dawn in Turkish-Israeli relations is fading.
“Israel, how did you end up here? How did you get here? You are an occupier. You are a group, not a state,” President Erdogan said at the rally in Istanbul
“The West owes you…
The Turks will win this conflict. The smartest thing that Biden could do right now is to vacate northeast Syria and work with Ankara to stabilize the region by cutting out Iran. The choice before the US is Iran-Russia or Türkiye. Any other option is a delusion.
If this description turns out to be accurate and complete, it should be a major scandal. But after Russiagate, I no longer have faith that major abuses of civil rights will generate the appropriate backlash.
“Today we join Azerbaijanis in mourning the hundreds who were killed in Khojaly in 1992. On behalf of the United States, I extend my deepest sympathy to the families of those killed, injured, and displaced in Khojaly. We have a duty to work for peace in the region and ensure such…
Without Turkey, there is no NATO. As an effective military counterbalance to Russia, NATO relies overwhelmingly on four key countries: the US, Turkey, Poland, and the UK. All those people who argued over the last few years that Turkey should be expelled from NATO were smoking…
Yesterday, Türkiye reached a historic agreement on the admission of Sweden into NATO. President Erdoğan, thank you for your courage, leadership, and diplomacy.
This summit reaffirms our commitment to the NATO defense, and I hope we can continue to make it even stronger.
The beautiful thing about being a leader of the Progressive movement is that you make the rules, but they don't apply to you personally. The rules are for the little people. My advice? If you know what's good for you, you'll become a Progressive leader.