#Blinken visit

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

I'm sure these too things are a total coincidence and have nooothing to do with each other. 🙄🙄🙄

Btw, Ze wanted to visit together with Blinken.

So ... WTF, ISRAEL?!?!? Really? You not only miss out on such great, awesome opportunity (Ze and Blinken visiting together would have been a hell of a message) ... you also treat Ze like that after everything?!

Yeah, no. That's a bad look. There was no need to say it like that, too. That's just a very, very dumb decision.

[infosisraelnews]

Antony Blinken a annulé sa visite en Israël à la dernière minute

Le secrétaire d’État américain Antony Blinken a reporté sa visite prévue au Moyen-Orient, qui devait commencer aujourd’hui. Cette décision intervient dans un contexte d’incertitude quant à une éventuelle attaque iranienne contre Israël, a rapporté Haaretz, citant deux personnes connaissant le sujet.  Blinken avait initialement prévu de se rendre au Qatar, en Égypte et en Israël pour discuter des…

[xtruss]

“Demented Old Man Biden” Equates China's Xi with 'Dictators' at California Fundraiser

US president's remarks come a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a trip to Beijing that was aimed at easing tensions between the two rivals.

Braindead Biden says Xi had been concerned by Quad strategic security group, which includes Japan, Australia, India and US / Photo: Reuters

US President Joe Biden has called Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator, adding that Xi was very embarrassed when a Chinese balloon was blown off course over the US recently.

Biden made the remarks on Tuesday at a fundraiser in California a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Xi on a trip to China that was aimed at easing tensions between the two countries.

"The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it was he didn't know it was there," Biden said in the fundraiser.

"That's a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn't know what happened, that wasn't supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course," Biden added.

A suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over US airspace in February.

That incident and exchanges of visits by US and Taiwanese officials have recently magnified US-China tensions.

Blinken's Failed Trip To China

Blinken and Xi on Monday agreed in their meeting to stabilise the intense rivalry between Washington and Beijing so it does not veer into conflict, but failed to produce any major breakthrough during a rare visit to China by the secretary of state.

They did agree to continue diplomatic engagement with more visits by US officials in the coming weeks and months.

Biden himself said on Monday that he thought relations between the two countries were on the right path, and he indicated that progress was made during Blinken's trip.

Biden said on Tuesday that Xi had been concerned by the so-called Quad strategic security group, which includes Japan, Australia, India and the United States.

The US president said he previously told Xi the US was not trying to encircle China with the Quad.

Later this week, Biden will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China is expected to be a topic of discussion between the two leaders.

[eveningnetwork]

Blinken Visit Reveals Chasm in How U.S. and China Perceive Rivalry

A solemn greeting was held on the Beijing airport tarmac without a red carpet. A firm handshake from a senior Chinese foreign policy official. Seated at the head of a long desk, looking up at Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Bringing Secretary of State Anthony J. Brinken’s Optics to a Global Audience 2 days visit I hardly frowned when I went to Beijing. Foreign ministers are seldom, if ever, greeted in…

[sayruq]

I wouldn't worry about this too much. It's all bluster. If Netanyahu was seeking absolute victory, the IDF wouldn't have withdrawn from the north and started withdrawing from central Gaza, Khan Younis to be specific.

The IDF would also not be making announcements that they've eliminated 20,000+ Hamas operatives from central Gaza, implying that they're winning and will soon 'complete' the mission. Obviously, 20,000 Hamas fighters haven't been killed anywhere but this number is meant to reassure the average Israeli and give them a sense of victory (not that its working). You only do that when you're winding down war efforts (and that's, as horrifying as it sounds, what the catastrophic assault on Rafah is supposed to be).

Plus the US Senate is about to send $17 billion - Netanyahu can't indicate that a ceasefire is just around the corner if he wants that money, the Israeli war machine needs it desperately.

Lastly, the more extreme members of the cabinet hate the ceasefire proposal Hamas sent because it kills their dreams of occupying Gaza. It will take time to convince them or at least twist their arms as Israel cannot take a long war

[read-marx-and-lenin]

Dude. Kamala Harris has called for a ceasefire several times. Stop spreading dangerous misinformation.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/10/harris-tells-pro-palestine-protesters-now-is-time-for-ceasefire-in-gaza

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/25/politics/harris-netanyahu-israel-hamas-ceasefire/index.html

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/04/1234822836/kamala-harris-benny-gantz-gaza-cease-fire-israel-hamas

https://guccifloralsuits.tumblr.com/post/758399118733426688/im-not-voting-until-they-call-for-a

Dangerous misinformation? Like this?

What about this dangerous misinformation?

Biden has called for a ceasefire too, and we can see how his tactics are going. Is Kamala going to be any different?

Oh well. Maybe the ceasefire deal is at least a realistic goal acceptable to both sides that would result in meaningful change and an end to hostilities?

Nope! Turns out the "ceasefire" these lovely kindhearted liberals are calling for would not be a permanent ceasefire nor would it even require Israel to withdraw troops from Gaza!

If anyone here is spreading "dangerous misinformation", it's you, anon.

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #17

May 3-10 2024

Vice President Harris announced 5.5 billion dollars to build affordable housing and address homelessness. The grants will go to 1,200 communities across all 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico. 1.3 billion will go to HUD's HOME program which builds, buys, and rehabs affordable housing for rent or ownership. 3.3 billion is headed to Community Development Block Grants which supports housing as well as homeless services, and expanding economic opportunities. Remaining funds focus on building housing for extremely low- and very low-income households, Housing for people struggling with HIV/AIDS, transitional housing for those with substance-use disorder, and money to support homeless shelters and homeless prevention programs.

At the 3rd meeting of the Los Angeles Declaration group in Guatemala Security of State Blinken announced $578 million in new US aid to Latin America. The Los Angeles Declaration is a partnership between the US and 20 other nations in the Americas to address immigration, combat human trafficking, and support economic development and improved quality of life for people in poor nations in the Americas. The bulk of the aid, over $400 million will go to humanitarian assistance to the Venezuelan people. Inside of Venezuela over 7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance due to decades of political and economic instability. Over 7 million more have been forced to flee the country and live in poverty across the Americas. The aid will help Venezuelans both inside and outside of Venezuela.

The Department of Energy lead an effort to get the G7 to agree to phase out coal by the early 2030s. The G7 is a collection of the 7 largest Industrial economies on Earth, the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy. To avoid catastrophic climate change the International Energy Agency believes coal needs to be phased out by 2035. However this has been a sticking point with the G7 since 1/3rd of Japan and 1/4th of Germany's energy comes from Coal. This agreement to phase out represents a major breakthrough and the US plans to press for even wider agreement on the issue at the G20 meeting in November.

President Biden announced a major investment deal in Racine, Wisconsin, site of the failed Trump Foxconn deal. In 2018 then President Trump visited Racine and declared the planned Foxconn plant "the eighth wonder of the world.". However the promised 13,000 jobs never materialized and the Taiwan based Foxconn after bulldozing 100s of homes and farms decided not to build. President Biden inked a deal with Microsoft for the land formally given to Foxconn which will bring 2,000 new jobs to Racine to help replace the 1,000 job losses during Trump's Presidency in the community.

200 tribal governments and the US territories of American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, published climate action plans. The plans were paid for by the Biden Administration as part of a 5 billion dollar Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program. The federal government is supporting all 50 states, territories, DC, and tribal governments to draft climate action plans, which will be used to apply for more than 4 billion dollars in grants to help turn plans into reality

As part of marking Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), the Biden Administration announced a number of action aimed at combating antisemitism and supporting the Jewish Community. This included $400 million in new funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. The Program has supported Synagogues and Jewish Community Centers with security improvements like bullet proof windows and trainings for staff in how to handle active shooter and hostage situations. The Department of Education issued guidance to all schools districts and federally funded colleges stressing that antisemitism is banned under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These actions come as part of the Biden Administration's National Strategy To Counter Antisemitism, the first ever national strategy addressing the issue by any Administration.

USAID announced $220 million in additional humanitarian aid to Yemen. This new funding will bring US aid to Yemen over the last 10 years to nearly $6 billion. Currently 18 million Yemenis are estimated as needing humanitarian assistance, 9 million of them children, and the UN believes nearly 14 million face imminent risk of famine. The US remains the single largest donor nation to humanitarian relief in Yemen.

The Department of Interior announced nearly $150 million to help communities fight drought. The funds will support 42 projects across 10 western states. This is part of the President's $8.3 billion dollar investment in the nations water infrastructure over the next 5 five years.

[vyorei]

Live coverage of the 8th of January 2024 is now closed.

Here is a recap of today's major events.

It is 12am in Ireland now so I have to go to bed.

I'll be back to resume live updates on Wednesday due to work.

For continuous updates while I'm gone, click the link below:

[darkeagleruins]

Polish people are concerned the USA is about to start WW3.

Polish MEP Braun on Antony Blinken visiting Poland today:

"Blinken, go home as soon as possible. Get lost! We don't want you here.

We don't want Polish people paying and dying for your wars."

[papasmoke]

If Sanders or even Warren or Buttigieg were president I don't think we'd still be giving Israel a blank check to the US arsenal right now, that isn't to exculpate the rest of the democratic party and the other members of the current administration for their demonic behavior but to point out how uniquely awful Biden has been on this genocide. Dem loyalists keep making the claim that behind the scenes Biden is using our influence to mitigate the worst possible outcomes with Israel but there is zero fucking evidence of that being successful. In fact all evidence points to Israel explicitly rejecting the Biden administration's advice and seeking to make him look like a moron whenever possible. When the IDF was preparing for their ground invasion the fucking military advisor we sent over came back basically saying he washes his hands of the nightmare they were about to unleash. Every time Blinken or Biden visit Israel celebrates their arrival and departure with mass murders via airstrike. Biden is a loser and his inner circle and insane blue maga supporters gassing him up are fully responsible for when Trump obliterates him next year.

[zvaigzdelasas]

5 Sep 24

[girlactionfigure]

🟠 IDF ATTACKS MISSILE DEPOT / HEZBOLLAH ATTACKS KATRIN - MORNING NEWS

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( VIDEO 1 - IDF strike(s) Hezbollah weapons warehouses in Baalbek, northeast Lebanon. )

( VIDEO 2 - HOME hit by Hezbollah rocket in Katzrin, Golan Heights. )

⚠️(6:30) Warnings to Golan towns and Katzrin to remain close to protected spaces, minimize gatherings, etc.

♦️IDF DEEP ATTACKS (4) ON HEZBOLLAH.. in Baalbek, northeast Lebanon, hitting surface-to-surface ballistic missile depots.

▪️NASTY HAMAS PROPAGANDA ATTACK..  threatening messages and calls received by families of hostages - some from the phone numbers of their loved ones (via taken phones).  Messages sent by Hamas and Iran per the Defense Ministry. ,The messages included threats such as: if you don't fight you won't see your loved one, or demands to pay a ransom in exchange for information.

▪️AVNEI HEFETZ UNDER FIRE.. Avnei Hefetz is a Jewish town in Samaria near Tulkarm.  Fatah's Khalli al-Aqsa takes responsibility for gunfire at the town, many rounds of attacks.

▪️TERROR ATTACK THWARTED.. Police just reported this event from 2 weeks ago: by the Gilon intersection Route 85, terror-minors set up with Molotov cocktails at 4:30 AM.  Spotted by police, arrested.

▪️SIREN TESTS.. Moshav Shadi Hamad, Moshav Mishmatar, Matan and Nirit from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.  In upgraded tests, some of these tests are regular up-down alert sounds with Home Front soldiers stationed around the area to register siren sound levels.

▪️PROTEST - ANTI-CONSCRIPTION - JERUSALEM.. by Shaarei Yisroel street.  Large police forces present.  Charedi anti-draft protest.

⭕50 ROCKET BARRAGE by HEZBOLLAH - GOLAN.. Katzrin area, several HITS including on a home in Katzrin, man injured.  Katzin is a small city, the population is NOT evacuated.

⭕ATTEMPTED MINE LAYING BLOWS UP.. in Temon, by Tubas, as it was being buried to attack the IDF.

⭕SHIA MILITIAS IRAQ (Iranian proxies) SAYS ATTACKED EILAT.. via suicide drones.  No such arrival of attack reported.

♦️COUNTER-TERROR OPS.. overnight in Shechem, and Shawika.

🔸DEAL NEWS.. Fox News reporter says Hamas sent him the points of dispute (in a PowerPoint presentation):

-The Philadelphi (Egypt border) Corridor (as in, who controls it, the IDF inspecting it)

-The Netzarim route (divides Gaza) (as in, the IDF manning in and preventing the free movement of Gazans and terrorists)

-Inspection of displaced civilians returning to northern Gaza (which might include hostages! And terrorists!  And rockets!)

-Changes to the hostage/prisoner exchange details (Hamas demands the most senior biggest mass murderers be freed, and first).

-Tying aid/reconstruction to acceptance of other conditions (they demand reconstruction BEFORE even releasing hostages).

.. President Biden: Blinken - "We must bring the deal to the finish line.  The United States will not accept Israel's long-term occupation of the Gaza Strip.”

.. At the end of his visit to Doha, US Sec State Blinken sent a message to Netanyahu: It is important that the negotiating teams working on the details of the agreement have "maximum flexibility" so that we can reach a deal.  (Note he is not hassling Hamas, who has refused to send delegates in person.)

.. Politico: Senior US officials say the ceasefire deal is on the verge of collapse.

🇺🇸Not Israel related:  In March President Biden ordered US forces to prepare for possible nuclear confrontations with Russia, China and North Korea.

[boreal-sea]

So Israel and Hamas have rejected the most recent ceasefire deal.

One of Hamas' demands is an actual ceasefire, and Netanyahu won't agree to an actual ceasefire. Netanyahu and his generals have stated that no matter what, they will continue fighting until Hamas is "wiped out". That currently involves attacking Rafah, the last single "safe" place in Gaza for Palestinians.

"President Joe Biden has called a Rafah invasion a “red line,” and he and other top US officials have repeatedly warned that Israel must not launch such an attack without protecting civilians. During a visit to Tel Aviv last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “we’ve not seen such a plan.’ Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Monday. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden had again made clear the US view about “operations in Rafah that could potentially put more than a million innocent people at greater risk.” - Bloomberg article (May 6th)

The Israeli government claims it cares about getting the hostages back but that it won't stop attacking Gaza, so that feels very untrue. I feel sorry for every Palestinian his war has killed, I am so sad for every Israeli who has been protesting this entire time for Netanyahu to stop; I feel the pain of all the families with loved ones still in Hamas's hands, I feel the fear of every Jew in the diaspora being held accountable for a conflict they have nothing to do with.

I feel sorry for the hostages who have endured 6 months of torture because of Netanyahu's stubbornness. Their continued imprisonment is squarely on his shoulders; he has had many opportunities to get them back, but has rejected those chances every single time so he can continue to attack Hamas. That's not me placing my opinions on his actions, that's literally what he has said he is doing. He will not accept any deal that involves him stopping his attack on Hamas.

Link to an article on Bloomberg

Link to an article on Reuter's

[mariacallous]

The fundamental problem for American presidents who have attempted to work with Benjamin Netanyahu is that Benjamin Netanyahu does not care what American presidents think. An exceptional English orator who was raised in Philadelphia, Netanyahu believes that he can outmaneuver and outlast American politicians on their own turf. “I know America,” he said in a private 2001 conversation that later leaked. “America is something that can easily be moved.” This attitude constituted a sharp break; in the past, even hard-line politicians like the maverick general turned premier Ariel Sharon responded to pressure from American presidents.

But during Bill Clinton’s presidency and again during Barack Obama’s, Netanyahu changed the equation. He repeatedly blew off American entreaties on issues including the peace process and Iran, and turned his willingness to stand up to U.S. presidents into an electoral selling point with his base. Faced with this unprecedented recalcitrance, different Democratic administrations tried different tactics for wrangling Bibi. Some attempted to compel his compliance with hard public pressure, only to have Netanyahu wait out a U.S.-imposed settlement freeze, then agitate against the Iran nuclear deal in Congress and the American media. Others attempted to settle disputes privately with Netanyahu, on the assumption that the Israeli leader would respond better if not openly antagonized.

None of this worked and none of it arrested Netanyahu’s drift further to the right. As both vice president and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joe Biden had a front-row seat to these failures. So did his close-knit foreign-policy team, including longtime staffers such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Recognizing the errors of the past, they have charted a different course aimed at outmaneuvering Netanyahu, seeking to succeed where their predecessors did not. This approach predates the current Gaza conflict, but has reached full expression in the past months. It explains why Biden has full-throatedly supported Israel against Hamas while simultaneously assailing the country’s hard-right governing coalition. And it offers a glimpse at the administration’s intended endgame for the war—and for Netanyahu himself.

In 2015, I visited another country with an ascendant right-wing populist leader: Hungary. Today, the country is essentially aligned with Russia against America and its allies. At the time, its prime minister, Viktor Orbán, was escalating his rhetoric against the European Union and the West. As part of the trip, my group met with officials at the American embassy, who explained their impossible predicament: Whenever Western countries would publicly pressure Orbán on his policies, he would refashion that pressure into electoral support, leaving his critics with no good options. Stay silent and he would win; speak up and he would also win.

Right-wing populists such as Orbán and Netanyahu thrive on posturing against outside antagonists, using external criticism to bolster their bona fides as strongmen who can stand up to the international community. This insight has shaped Biden’s approach to Netanyahu—not by preventing the president from publicly fighting with the prime minister, but by influencing which fights he picks. Simply put, Biden has opted to challenge Netanyahu on issues that splinter his support rather than consolidate it. In practice, this means strategically targeting policies where Netanyahu is on the wrong side of Israeli public opinion and forcing him to choose between his hard-right partners and the rest of the country.

Netanyahu’s disastrous attempt to overhaul the Israeli judiciary offers a case in point. The proposed legislation was drafted by right-wing hard-liners with no opposition input and would have subordinated Israel’s courts to its parliament. The attempted power grab provoked the largest sustained protest movement in Israeli history. Polls repeatedly showed that most Israelis opposed the overhaul and wanted lawmakers to come up with new compromise reforms conceived by consensus. And so that’s precisely what the Biden administration began calling for.

“Hopefully, the prime minister will act in a way that he is going to try to work out some genuine compromise,” Biden told reporters in March. “But that remains to be seen.” In July, he repeated the same point to Netanyahu, then reiterated it to the press: “The focus should be on pulling people together and finding consensus.” As the State Department emphasized at the time, “We believe that fundamental changes should be pursued with the broadest possible base of support.” By placing himself firmly on the side of the Israeli majority, Biden was able to prevent Netanyahu from turning his criticism into an electoral asset. After all, it’s hard to paint someone as anti-Israel, as Netanyahu once did with Obama, when they are expressing the opinion of most Israelis.

Biden understands that Netanyahu’s position is a precarious one. His governing coalition received just 48.4 percent of the vote, and took power only because of a quirk of the Israeli electoral system. The coalition relies on an alliance of unpopular far-right parties to stay afloat, whom Netanyahu must appease to remain in office. Biden has exploited this weakness and repeatedly poked at it. Rather than directly confronting Netanyahu, he has called out his extremist partners and in this way heightened the contradictions within Netanyahu’s coalition, undermining its stability and gradually eroding its support in the polls.

In July, Biden told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that Netanyahu’s government has “the most extremist members of cabinets that I’ve seen” in Israel, noting that “I go all the way back to Golda Meir.” This past week, at a campaign event hosted by a former chair of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, Biden went even further, singling out a far-right minister by name. “This is the most conservative government in Israel’s history,” the president said. Itamar “Ben-Gvir and company and the new folks, they don’t want anything remotely approaching a two-state solution.” This was Biden’s approach in action: criticizing Israel during wartime in front of a pro-Israel crowd, and doing so in a way that nonetheless denied Netanyahu any opening. As long as it’s Biden versus Ben-Gvir, rather than Biden versus Bibi, the president holds the upper hand.

Biden has brought the same strategy to bear on the issue of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which has accelerated under the cover of Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Netanyahu’s coalition is unable to clamp down on these extremists and their terrorism because it is beholden to these extremists. But most Israelis have no desire to mortgage the security of Israel and its indispensable relationship to the United States in favor of some far-flung hilltop settlers in West Bank regions that few Israelis could locate on a map.

Knowing this, Biden has begun unrolling a series of unilateral measures intended to raise the price of settler violence and pit Netanyahu and his allies against the Israeli public. Earlier this month, the administration announced visa bans on those implicated in settler violence, spurring similar actions by the EU, Britain, and France. “We have underscored to the Israeli government the need to do more to hold accountable extremist settlers who have committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank,” Blinken said. “As President Biden has repeatedly said, those attacks are unacceptable.” This past week, the U.S. froze the sale of more than 20,000 M16 rifles to Israel over concerns that they might find their way into the hands of violent settlers.

Hamas’s October 7 slaughter has put Biden’s approach to the ultimate test. Like most Israelis, he wants to see Hamas vanquished. And like most Israelis, he does not trust Netanyahu and his far-right allies to do it. This has left the president with few appealing options. Publicly denying Israel support during what it sees as an existential war wouldn’t just go against Biden’s personal values. It would collapse all the credibility he has accrued with the Israeli public through his careful diplomacy during his presidency. And it would give Netanyahu the American antagonist he desperately craves, providing the floundering premier with a lifeline he would use to reunite the right behind him.

To avoid this outcome, Biden has backed Israel’s military campaign, but worked nonstop to shape its contours and limit its fallout on civilians and the rest of the region, tapping into the reservoir of goodwill he has built with the Israeli public. The president has also upped the pressure on Netanyahu by assailing his coalition partners and explicitly calling for a new, more moderate Israeli government. U.S. officials have leaked that they think Netanyahu will not last, and Biden has told the Israeli leader to think about what lessons he’d impart to his successor.

In other words, Biden has once again placed himself on the side of the Israeli majority, in order to undermine Netanyahu and shape the political future of the entire country. It’s one of the biggest bets of his presidency, and when the guns finally fall silent, it could determine the fate of the broader Middle East.