Putin's Off Ramp in Ukraine

 

The closest this world ever came to nuclear war was in October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

America demanded the removal of Soviet nuclear missiles located in Cuba, 90 miles from the US coast. It imposed a blockade of the Florida straits and the world held its collective breath as Soviet warships confronted the US navy. One false move – nuclear holocaust.

Demonstrating true statesmanship, President John F Kennedy gave Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev an ‘off ramp’ to end the crisis without losing face. This brought back the world from the brink of a nuclear exchange in which all humanity’s achievements would have been destroyed in the space of a day, and a nuclear winter would still not by now have ended.

President Biden (if he is really cognisant of what is going on) is failing to learn from his Democrat presidential forbear. He is decidedly NOT providing Putin with any kind of ‘off ramp’ and seems determined to grind him and his Russia into the dust. That is clearly not going to happen with a cornered animal with nuclear power.

When Trump says he would end the war in a day, he clearly means to assure Putin retention of Crimea (which was so ignominiously surrendered by Obama) and to tell Zelensky that he either accepts that reality or the stoppage of all American aid. It’s that simple. War over.

The Soviet Union fell under pressure from its people. Russia will ultimately crumble under the pressure of its own people seeking freedom and Alexei Navalny’s day will come. It does not need Biden or NATO’s help right now.

It is said that Republican presidents bolster the US military but the Democrats take it to war. Never more true than today.

Everyone knows that Putin would never have invaded Ukraine with Trump in the Oval Office. Putin watched the ignominious surrender of Baghram to the Taliban and saw his chance. Just like China now salivates over Taiwan. And why Saudi Arabia cosies up to Iran and its new ally China.

As Bin Laden famously said: Arabs will always side with the strong horse. And, sadly, Biden is a dead horse.

What kind of Independence is this?

Days after Israel celebrated its 75th independence day, a demonstration of Israel's non-independence played out behind the closed doors of Israel's supreme court.

It concerned a tiny Bedouin settlement of ramshackle dwellings illegally-built on the outskirts of Jerusalem within Area C; a designation of full Israeli control under the Oslo Accords.

In a bizarre scenario, Israel’s supreme court ruled these to be illegal dwellings and ordered them to be demolished. 15 years after that ruling, the eyesore, called Khan Al-Ahmar remains standing.

The court wants it demolished. The government wants it demolished. And I daresay even its 35 families would like to take up the Israeli government’s offer to relocate them to brand new housing units a stone’s throw away, which are connected to mains water, sewerage and electricity – all free of charge.

What is standing in the way of this ideal solution? It is foreign-funded NGOs like B’tselem who have turned Khan Al Ahmar into an international cause célèbre which has left successive Israeli governments fearful of implementing the supreme court’s ruling.

You only have to look at this UK Government page on Khan Al Amar to see the furore that has been stirred up, as if this is a major priority for the UK or Finland or any other foreign government. Of course it’s not. If any of the foreign service mandarins of protesting countries cared a fig for Palestinian Arabs, they would want them to be properly housed like human beings. Instead, their visceral hatred of the Jewish state and nausea over its very existence means that the families of Khan Al Ahmar are to be treated as pawns just as they are treated by the corrupt Palestinian leadership which soaks up foreign aid for its own enrichment (Google: Hamas Billionaires).

I have said this many times before. Israel may celebrate its independence each year with parades, fireworks and all manner of pomp. But it will not be truly independent until it acts like a sovereign state. If the Netanyahu government does not finally lance this abscess, the infection will spread to other parts of Area C and we may then be forced to amputate parts of it. Which is exactly what the PLO and its foreign funded NGOs seek as their goal: the dismemberment of the Jewish state.