Submitted by: M Mulukin
France is upping its role in naval security ties from East Mediterranean to Asia....
FROM THE JERUSALEM POST: A recent drill by the Israeli navy called Noble Dina included France and Cyprus for the first time last week. It usually includes Israel and Greece. These types of drills are important and symbolic.
They also appear to increasingly link countries like France, India and Greece with a group of countries that have shared interests. These include the UAE, India, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, France, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel. A wider strategic pattern also links some of these countries to the Quad nations; Japan, Australia, the US and India.
France appears to be increasing its role in these drills.
It is partnering with India and the UAE in an exercise in late April, according to the Hindustan Times. This will take place in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman in late April. According to that report the “UAE will be joining India and France for the first time in a trilateral naval exercise in the strategically important Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman under the Varuna banner.” Varuna is a French-India exercise usually. The UAE has grown closer to India in recent years.
Why does this matter? India recently took part in the first virtual Quad summit with the US, Australia and Japan. It comes a decade and a half after these four countries entered into this limited strategic relationship.
Much more can be done and it is clear that France and other states like the UAE want to do more with some of these countries. India’s Prime Minister, who also has a close relationship with Israel’s Prime Minister, praised the Quad meeting on Friday. “Reiterated India’s commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific in line with our vision of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region),” he wrote.
Naval exercises that may unite France, the UAE, the US, Japan and Australia could provide a major message of strategic partnering linking an immense amount of ocean, from Australia to France, some 12,000km. Various interpretations of this grouping of countries or the potential for cooperation tend to see it as responding to a more aggressive China.
The US national security strategy foresees a need to confront China, a “near-peer” adversary. However, there is division on how the US will do that. Some see this as a new “cold war” and other was diplomacy “engagement.”
Regardless of how things play out in the Pacific in US-China potential rivalry, one that may also include Australia and Japan or other states, the picture from Australia to France, across the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman and then via Suez to the Eastern Mediterranean is potentially a more interesting strategic tie and corridor.
Prominent Rabbis Ask Netanyahu to Allow the Passover Sacrifice on Temple Mount.....
13 March 2021
Kohanim (priests/ descendants of the first High Priest
Aaron), conduct a re-enactment of the Temple ceremony
on Shavuot (Feast of Weeks)
A group of prominent rabbis have sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, requesting that a Passover offering be allowed on the Temple Mount this coming Passover....
Letter to Netanyahu: Passover is Time for Freedom
To the esteemed Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu,
We bless you that you should have great success in the upcoming elections. May it be the will of the Lord of all, whose Holy presence dwells in Zion and whose chosen city is Jerusalem, that you should continue to lead the State of Israel and the people of Israel in the coming years for good.
The harassment of you personally and the people of Israel in general by internal and external parties such as the criminal court in The Hague requires that harassment of all types be put in its place. This can be done through a statement and action that signals to all governments, friends, enemies, and all parties competing in the elections where Israel has been heading since the dawn of history.
We are going to worship God, the God of Israel, the Creator of the world in the place that God has chosen. From there comes light and instruction to the whole world.
Law, justice, love and kindness.
The duty of worship and the right of worship of the people of Israel as in the days of the Exodus from Egypt is the clearest expression of the Exodus of the people of Israel into the world of freedom. With this message, all the harassers will be silenced.
Therefore, we ask you to allow us, as the representatives of the Jewish people, to carry out the Passover sacrifice this year and every year from now on to illustrate and observe the freedom of worship on the 14th of Nisan in the evening.
We ask that you speak out about this publicly in the coming days, stating openly that the State of Israel, the state of the Jewish people, intends to allow Jews, by virtue of their religious and national rights, to maintain a measured and modest freedom of worship on the Temple Mount.
This message is especially important in the days before Passover, our time of freedom, and to give time to properly prepare one Passover sacrifice that will be for all of the nation of Yisrael while signalling to the whole world that the God of Israel has granted us the Exodus from Egypt and commanded us to perform the Torah commandments intended to bring Israel and all nations to freedom To do this, we must perform the main national mitzvah; the Passover sacrifice!
Sincerely and with great respect
The United Temple movements for the Temple and the Temple Mount, in the name of the whole house of Israel
Rabbi Israel Ariel President of the Temple Institute
Rabbi Baruch Kahana, head of the priestly watch
Rabbi Aryeh Lipo, Secretary
“Despite various issues of Jewish law, such as ritual impurity and lack of a high priest, Jews are still required and technically able to bring the sacrifice,” Rabbi Weiss said. “The only thing preventing the Jewish People from performing the Passover sacrifice is the Israeli government.”
Rabbi Weiss suggested the possibility that the guilt of preventing the Passover sacrifice may have led to the political troubles plaguing both Trump and Netanyahu over the last year.
How the US military is preparing for a war with China.
13 March 2021
The Atlantic Council's publication of The Longer Telegram, which lays out a sweeping blueprint for a U.S. strategy to face China, provides significant clues about a new lay-down of American forces around east Asia.
Whether the new Biden administration fully embraces the paper's aggressive stance remains to be seen, [we may be about to find that out?] but elements are under serious consideration. Certainly, the new team at the National Security Council, led by highly respected Asia hand Kurt Campbell and a deep bench of Asia experts, will be looking at a wide variety of options for the military component of a new overall strategic posture.
One of the key elements in the military component is a series of "red lines" to which the U.S. would respond militarily.
These include "any nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons action by China against the U.S. or its allies or by North Korea; any Chinese military attack against Taiwan or its offshore islands, including an economic blockade or major cyberattack against Taiwanese public infrastructure and institutions; any Chinese attack against Japanese forces in their defence of Japanese sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands, which China claims as the Diaoyu, and their surrounding exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea; any major Chinese hostile action in the South China Sea to further reclaim and militarize islands, to deploy force against other claimant states, or to prevent full freedom of navigation operations by the U.S. and allied maritime forces; and any Chinese attack against the sovereign territory or military assets of U.S. treaty allies."
At U.S. Indo-Pacific headquarters, strategic, operational and tactical teams are putting together new approaches for deploying American forces. These new options will be sent back to the Pentagon as part of the overall "posture review" being undertaken by new Secretary of Defence General Lloyd Austin.
What will emerge?
One option is an enhanced role for the U.S. Marine Corps, which traces so much of its pre-9/11 operational history to the Pacific going back to World War II. Under the dynamic intellectual leadership of Marine Corps Commandant Dave Berger, gone are the large troop formations, armoured capability and land-based Marine tactics of the "forever wars" in the Middle East.
Instead, in the context of a U.S.-China strategy, the Marines will be resolutely sea-based and able to sail into the waters of the South China Sea, well inside the island chains China relies on for defence.
Once inside, they will use armed drones, offensive cyber capabilities, Marine Raiders -- highly capable special forces -- anti-air missiles and even ship-killer strike weapons to attack Chinese maritime forces, and perhaps even their land bases of operations. The Chinese militarized artificial islands in the South China Sea would be juicy targets, for example. In essence, this will be guerrilla warfare from the sea.
In addition to a new Marine tactical and operational approach, the U.S. Navy will be undertaking more aggressive patrols throughout the waters off China. Some will say this is merely the military equivalent of "driving doughnut holes in your neighbour's lawn." But the strategic concept is clever: to gradually include other allied warships in this aggressive freedom of navigation patrols. Doing so internationalizes the pushback on Chinese claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea.
In particular, the Pentagon is hoping to include British, French and other NATO allies in the effort. Indeed the recent NATO defence ministerial in Brussels involved consultations over the alliance's role in facing the rising military capability of China. [See following article]
Over time, the U.S. would like to convince Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam to participate in such deployments. The U.S. overall maritime strategic posture is predicated on creating a global maritime coalition to face the Chinese People's Liberation Army's highly capable forces.
In addition to the sea service's activities, the U.S. Air Force will likely be shifting additional long-range land-attack bombers and fighters to Pacific bases that are widely distributed across Asia, including some very remote sites on smaller islands. These so-called spokes will be supported from larger bases in Guam, Japan, Australia and South Korea. The concept, dubbed Agile Combat Employment, adds a high degree of mobility to the currently concentrated combat power of both fighter and attack aircraft deployed in the region.
Finally, the U.S. Army will increase both combat power and mobility to deploy units forward in support of the red lines along those advocated in the telegram, including enhanced capability based in South Korea and Japan but easily capable of deploying to smaller islands throughout the region.
Both the Army and Air Force would be on the forward edge of additional training and exercises with the Taiwanese as well. Look for increased emphasis from the new American Space Force to focus intelligence and reconnaissance on the theatre, as well as enhanced offensive cyber options from the U.S. Cyber Command, in coordination with the National Security Agency.
Taken together, it seems clear that the U.S. military is stepping up its presence and combat capability in the Western Pacific, and positioning for a conflict with China over the coming decades.
The Longer Telegram provides an important clue as to what options the Pentagon and the White House are considering as part of an expected new strategy to face the rise of China. Hopefully, skilful diplomacy and the intertwined economies of the two great powers will preclude the outbreak of war -- but U.S. military planners are busy these days.
Nevertheless, with the now revealed deep compromise the Biden family have with the Chinese Communist Party, it remains to be see just what strength the new American president can project to combat the coming further Chines aggression in this region?
War Games Showed U.S. Would "Lose Fast" Against China if it Invaded Taiwan: U.S. General.....
13 March 2021
A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be devastating to the U.S. military as a result of Beijing’s aggressive military development in recent years, according to a U.S. Air Force general.
The outcome was based on a classified Pentagon war game simulation carried out over the years, Air Force Lieutenant General S. Clinton Hinote said in a recent interview with Yahoo News. He said that U.S. forces were losing more quickly in recent simulations after taking into consideration the Chinese regime’s new military capabilities.
“After the 2018 war game, I distinctly remember one of our gurus of war-gaming standing in front of the Air Force secretary and chief of staff, and telling them that we should never play this war game scenario [of a Chinese attack on Taiwan] again, because we know what is going to happen,” Hinote said.
“The definitive answer if the U.S. military doesn’t change course is that we’re going to lose fast. In that case, an American president would likely be presented with almost a fait accompli.”
"At that point the trend in our war games was not just that we were losing, but we were losing faster."
Last fall, the U.S. Air Force simulated a conflict set more than a decade in the future that began with a Chinese biological-weapon attack that swept through U.S. bases and warships in the Indo-Pacific region. Then a major Chinese military exercise was used as cover for the deployment of a massive invasion force. The simulation culminated with Chinese missile strikes raining down on U.S. bases and warships in the region, and a lightning air and amphibious assault on the island of Taiwan.
This is the first time that the outcome of that simulation has been made public.
Since President Joe Biden took office on January 20, and the Biden family deal with the Chinese has been largely ignored by the media, the Chinese Communist Party has escalated its war-mongering toward Taiwan, a democratic self-ruled island that Beijing claims as a part of its territory. In late January, a Chinese military official threatened war against the island.
Beijing also has sent military planes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on a nearly daily basis since the start of this year. Most recently on March 10, a Chinese anti-submarine warfare aircraft entered south-western Taiwan’s ADIZ, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence.
Earlier this week, Admiral Philip Davidson, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, warned during a Senate hearing that the Chinese regime could invade Taiwan in the “next six years.”
When asked by a senator about the United States’ ability to defend Taiwan, Davidson said, “I think our conventional deterrent is actually eroding in the region,” citing the Chinese military’s “vast advances” in size over the past decade, and also in capability.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is now larger than the U.S. Navy. By 2025, the PLA is projected to have three aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific to the United States’ one, 12 amphibious assault ships to the United States’ four, and 108 modern multi-warfare combatant ships to the United States’ 12, according to estimates by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command submitted to Congress.
Hinote [pictured above] told Yahoo News that certain adjustments are needed to tilt a possible war with China in favour of the United States. They include moving away from relying on large military bases, ports, and aircraft carriers while fighting the Chinese military, as well as deploying dispersed and mobile forces with large numbers of long-range, mobile strike systems, anti-ship cruise missile batteries, mobile rocket artillery systems, and unmanned mini-submarines, according to Hinote.
What’s more, the adjustments call for greater use of surveillance and reconnaissance sources to allow U.S. policymakers to make quicker decisions.
“If we can design a force that creates that level of uncertainty and causes Chinese leaders to question whether they can accomplish their goals militarily, I think that’s what deterrence looks like in the future,” Hinote said.
Koenig’s Eye View...
13 March 2021
The aftermath in the U.S. and Israel following Trump’s Peace to Prosperity “land for peace plan” of January 28, 2020, is startling.
The following is the cause and effect that we are observing and have been living the consequences weekly since January 28, 2020.
The COVID crisis led to mail-in ballots and election fraud, which led to Trump’s removal from office.
Overview
Spineless Republicans at all levels of federal and the state governments did nothing about the alleged election fraud. The Republicans in the U.S. Supreme Court were worried about Biden packing the court and cowardly dismissed all election cases.
Many of Trump’s Georgia supporters were angry over the lack of Republican support and didn’t turn out in the two runoff elections on January 5, which led to two extreme Democrat Senators taking office (both the general and rerun alleged election fraud are under investigation).
This cost the Republicans the majority in the Senate, which led to Democrat control of the House, Senate and the White House made possible by vote fraud.
Biden established 60 plus executive orders in his first two weeks of office. Biden’s mental health decline is more evident weekly with the increasing possibility of his being replaced by Kamala Harris, possibly as soon as late spring, summer or later in the fall.
The Democratic Party’s total assault on Christians/conservatives and our values has become more vigorous and apparent.
Legislation such as HR-1; the equality gender act; the $1.9 trillion-dollar so-called stimulus plan that benefits poorly run blue states, taxpayer funding of abortions in the U.S. and overseas; migration crisis on the southern border; radical appointees in most areas of government; and much more has been introduced and/or passed.
Israeli consequences
Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu was an enthusiastic supporter of the Trump/Kushner peace plan on January 28, 2020, and since then. He also agreed to shelve the extended sovereignty over Israeli settlement communities in support of the Abraham Accords.
How should Joe Biden respond to Russia’s Middle East Strategy?
March 12, 2021
Washington has prioritized counterterrorism for years and is only now shifting to great-power competition, but Moscow has never lost sight of geopolitics, and its actions in the region should be seen through that lens.
The challenge of Russia in the Middle East may appear a narrow one. And given the strong domestic push to end “forever wars” and withdraw American troops from the Middle East, it would be unrealistic to expect it as a top priority. “More than at any other time in my career—maybe in my lifetime—distinctions between domestic and foreign policy have simply fallen away,” said Tony Blinken pictured below] in his first major speech as State secretary last week.
In this context, the Biden administration should look at the big picture when it comes to Russia in the Middle East—at Moscow’s overall aims and how they fit with its activities in Europe and the Middle East, as well as Russia’s relationship with China, a country which presents the “biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century” for the U.S. according to Blinken. [pictured below]
The Middle East has always been part of Russia’s vulnerable southern underbelly, a region the Russian state sought to secure as it pushed to play a key role in European politics and gain great power recognition.
The Middle East matters to the Kremlin not only for its own sake but because control there also creates more opportunities for Russia to undermine the West on other fronts. Greater influence in the Middle East will bring the Kremlin closer to its top priority—weakening the U.S.-led liberal global order; for Russia to win, the U.S. has to lose.
Syria is a key piece of this bigger puzzle primarily due to its strategic location. The pursuit of warm water ports, including on the Eastern Mediterranean, has been a consistent priority for Russian rulers since at least Peter the Great.
In this sense, Vladimir Putin is no different, and his intervention in Syria allowed him to succeed where his Czarist and Soviet predecessors failed—establish a permanent military presence from which it can project power in multiple directions.
Syria remains the key arena of the Kremlin’s interests.
Nothing says it more clearly perhaps than the recent unveiling of a monument to the patron saint of the Russian army, Prince Alexander Nevsky, at the Russian Kheimim airbase in Syria. The order of Alexander Nevsky represents the defence of the Fatherland.
And her soon coming disastrous involvement in the invasion of Israel graphically depicted in the writings of the prophet Ezekiel.
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