Tensions spike with Tehran’s threat of revenge after IDF hits al Qods assets in Syria.
November 19, 2020
The IDF exposed the secretive Iranian al Qods Unit 840 operating in Syria on Thursday, November 19 while drawing a threat from Tehran to “enemies and terrorists” of a “harsh revenge” for their “crimes against the Iranian nation.”
This followed a multiple Israel air strike Tuesday night on a row of eight Iranian and Syrian sites in southwest Syria. Ali Shamkhani, Iran’s national security chief, said, “There is no safe and impenetrable haven for criminals and ill-wishers… that the “powerful hands of the Islamic Republic’s defenders cannot reach, sooner or later…”
The semi-clandestine Iranian al Qods Unit 840 that planted on the Israeli Golan the the anti-personnel mines and improvised explosive devices which the IDF defused on Tuesday, IDF spokesman Brigadier-General Hidai Zilberman revealed on Thursday.
Unit 840 is responsible among other things, for planning and establishing terror infrastructure outside Iran, against Western targets and opposition groups. He reported that the anti-personnel mines discovered on Monday were planted several weeks ago by local Syrians under the command of the IRGC’s Qods Force, under the close watch of Israeli patrols and drones.
The targets included in Israel’s response were an Iranian military complex near Damascus International Airport, a secret military barracks housing high-ranking Iranian officials as well as visiting delegations, a command post for Division 7 of the Syrian army which cooperates with the Quds force, and mobile surface-to-air missile trucks which aimed fire at the Israeli jets during the strikes.
Syrian opposition sources reported at least 10 killed, including 5 members of Iran’s al Qods Force, three Syrian officers and air defence operators, two Iraqi or Lebanese troops and several seriously wounded.
The Syrian state SANA news agency earlier reported three military personnel dead. Syrian air defences were said to have intercepted the “Israeli aggression” in the south of the country and downed a number of missiles.
Israel rarely confirms its air strikes over Syria. The last such episode occurred 68 days ago, relatively long pause in those Israeli attacks. However, the IDF spokesman this time issued several detailed statements after the event and released several videos and satellite images.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who was inspecting the Northern Command on Tuesday, held Syria responsible for any aggression emanating from its territory. “We have long been prepared for the possibility of terror attacks in the northern sector,” he said.
“The IDF has the capabilities and the determination to respond severely to any incident both on the Lebanese and Syrian fronts.” Iron Dome batteries are deployed to the northern borders and ground units are on elevated alert for any further escalation.
Anti-Israel Radical Karine Jean-Pierre Named as Possible Joe Biden Press Secretary.....
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20 November 2020
“Multiple sources” Wednesday were saying that Jean-Pierre, [left above with new best friend] currently an aide to Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris, was the top candidate for the position. If Jean-Pierre is chosen, she would be the first woman of colour to serve as press secretary.
Karine Jean-Pierre, once a national spokesperson and senior adviser for the George Soros-funded left-wing group MoveOn.org, lauded the 2020 presidential candidates for boycotting AIPAC, the annual bipartisan pro-Israel gathering, in 2019. AIPAC stands for American-Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Writing in Newsweek, Jean-Pierre maintained that the Democratic candidates “made the right call,” and that AIPAC’s policies and values “are not progressive.”
“You cannot call yourself a progressive while continuing to associate yourself with an organization like AIPAC that has often been the antithesis of what it means to be progressive,” she wrote.
She blasted AIPAC’s opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, as well as its decision to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak (as it does with every Israeli prime minister), saying that “under his leadership of Israel, according to the United Nations, Israel may have committed war crimes in its attacks on Gazan protesters.”
The protests she referred to along the Gaza border were violent riots in which firebombs, rocks and explosive devices were routinely hurled at Israeli soldiers. Rioters also made holes in the border fence and infiltrated into Israeli territory.
Say hello to the enemies of Israel:
Jean-Pierre falsely accused AIPAC of “alarming,” and “severely racist, Islamophobic rhetoric,” as well as “trafficking in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric while lifting up Islamophobic voices and attitudes.”
Ironically, AIPAC itself is often accused by pro-Israel groups to its right as being too pro-Palestinian.
AIPAC has staunchly defended the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which calls for a state of Palestine on Jewish areas of the West Bank. AIPAC did not immediately back the Taylor Force Act, which cut U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority over its so-called “pay-for-slay” scheme paying terrorists and their families.
Karine Jean-Pierre has courted controversy in the past. Prior to her stint as a senior advisor to the Biden campaign, she had said that no one who had been “accused of sexual harassment or assault” should run for office. As Breitbart’s editor-at-large Joel Pollak noted Wednesday, Biden has been accused of sexual assault by Tara Reade — accusations that Harris said she believed.
Welcome to the Israel-loving possible Biden/Harris administration! May God forbid?
China will race to expand 'empire' and attack Taiwan during window of opportunity, experts fear.
20 November 2020
Chinese “military harassment” of Taiwan is stoking suspicions that Beijing will attempt to seize control of the territory before the U.S. military finishes reorienting to stymy such attacks.
“It is just a matter of time before things backfire and seriously harm the CCP’s image on the international stage,” Taiwanese cabinet minister Ming-Tong Chen said during a Heritage Foundation webinar Wednesday morning.
Beijing’s desire for a good reputation may soon be outweighed by the perceived balance of power off the coasts of China, officials and analysts fear. Former White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster suspects that Chinese officials feel a “relative advantage” over the United States that they worry is dwindling as Pentagon officials overhaul their plans for how to position U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific.
That, the retired general believes, suggests the world has entered “a dangerous time.”
“They may also believe that the United States is weakened these days,” McMaster told the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday. "Those leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, maybe, believe they're now in a position of relative advantage … [which] may lead them to the belief that there is just only a fleeting window of opportunity that they have to take advantage of, now. Or maybe between now and the communist party congress in 2022.”
U.S. leaders value Taiwan as a model for how an authoritarian government can turn into a functioning democracy, as well as for its strategic placement off the coast of mainland China — an impediment to Beijing’s ability to project naval power into the Pacific Ocean.
“At a time when the CCP’s appetite for aggression continues to grow, Taiwan is really on the very front lines of the CCP’s belligerence and is probably directly in the crosshairs of the CCP,” Senator Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, told the Heritage Foundation, echoing Chen.
Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping was scheduled to step down in 2022, prior to his 2018 manoeuvre to repeal term limits.
“It's a Leninist empire, meaning Xi Jinping has exerted enormous centralized control over this empire through Leninist means,” AEI Asian Studies director Dan Blumenthal, author of a newly released book, The China Nightmare, said during the event with McMaster. “It has a very strong view, in short, of the way it wants the world in order to look: much more authoritarian.”
Xi’s internal control has exposed him to “enormous pressure” due to the mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Blumenthal, who suggested that the domestic issues raise the political value of foreign policy disputes.
The land borders of Xi’s “empire” are “very, very similar” to the historic outlines of China’s Qing Dynasty, which ruled for 300 years from Tibet to Taiwan — and that contributes to Beijing’s appetite to absorb Taiwan.
“It’s something we all should be extremely concerned about, given the level of military power that China is projecting over and around the Taiwan Strait right now,” Blumenthal said, adding that they see Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s “very existence as ... an affront to this imperial mindset and an affront to Xi Jinping’s rule.”
Xi has refused to meet with Tsai unless she acknowledges first that Taiwan, the last stronghold of the government overthrown during the Chinese Communist Revolution, is subordinate to “one China.” In 2019, he unveiled a “one country, two systems” proposal for Taiwan modelled on the arrangement between Beijing and Hong Kong, but Chinese authorities proceeded to deprive Hong Kong of its traditional autonomy under that deal soon after.
“The root cause of the continuous deteriorations in cross-strait relations today is the political preconditions pressed unilaterally by the CCP authority on cross-strait interactions,” Chen said. "We call on the Beijing authorities to stop imposing their framework on Taiwan.”
President Trump’s administration has approved a steady stream of arms sales to the island, the most recent of which included a large batch of coastal defence cruise missiles to target invading ships. Yet Blumenthal suspects Beijing plans something subtler than “a full invasion.”
Instead, he foresees aggression designed to humiliate Tsai and make the U.S. look weak, perhaps by seizing outlying islands while stopping short of provoking an American military response.
“I think that's what they're looking for . . . uses of force that are less than invasion, that shows the U.S. to be impotent, that tells the Taiwanese, ‘you are alone; [pick] a more accommodating leader and we’ll work with you,’” he said.
That is EXACTLY the plan Biden and Harris would welcome? That scenario could deprive the U.S. of a valuable partner in the intensifying competition with China.
“The great struggle of our time is between two battling [systems] that are vying for influence and allies throughout the world,” Toomey said. “Every step forward that the other side takes is a danger to our security and our financial and economic well-being. And, Taiwan is arguably the tip of the spear in this contest.”
We should be thankful that the Morrison government in Australia has had the good sense to strengthen ties with militarily powerful JAPAN! We may need their help VERY soon?
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