#anti-government pro-eu protests

[thoughtlessarse]

Amid negotiations and accusations of blackmail, the Georgian government’s suspension of talks to join the EU has sparked major protests in a country where the population is largely in favor of membership. In Georgia, the government of the Georgian Dream (RG) party, which came out on top in the October 26 parliamentary elections, recently announced the suspension of negotiations to join the European Union. Demonstrations against the decision broke out, particularly in the capital, with protesters demanding new parliamentary elections. While analysts often reduce the dynamics in Georgia to a conflict between pro-Russian parties on the one hand and pro-European parties on the other, the political situation is much more complex. On November 28, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the suspension of talks with the European Union until 2028 and accused Brussels of “blackmail.” This announcement came just hours after the European Parliament voted not to recognize the results of the October 26 general elections, in which the ruling party won the majority of seats in the Georgian parliament. This decision by the European Parliament, which has been downplayed or pushed into the background in the mainstream press, is in fact a form of interference in a country that is being fought over by Western imperialism and Russia and its allies. Added to this is the fact that, for the time being, there isn’t sufficient evidence of possible fraud by the ruling party. Furthermore, the RG has a majority of only 54 percent, which does not allow it to change the constitution as its leaders wanted. So, if the party’s intention was to completely manipulate the election, why would they have stopped short of full power? Demonstrations and Bonapartist Maneuvers of the Opposition For her part, the country’s pro-European president, Salome Zourabishvili, who has only a ceremonial role in the Georgian political system, announced, following the government’s statement, that she would not leave the presidency, claiming “we are facing stolen elections, an illegitimate parliament; and an illegitimate parliament can elect nothing other than an illegitimate government and an illegitimate president.” Zourabichvili became president thanks to the support of RG, and she acts as a direct agent of imperialism within Georgia. Previously, she was the French ambassador to Georgia. Her family emigrated to France in 1921, fleeing the Bolshevik revolution. She only obtained Georgian citizenship after the so-called “Rose Revolution” of 2003. Zourabichvili is indeed trying to lead a small institutional coup d’état to force the ruling party to give in to the demands of the EU. This Bonapartist and pro-imperialist attempt was made quite clear when she declared to Le Monde, 

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[komsomolka]

The Ukrainian state is US/Western controlled and, in its alliance and arming, is effectively NATO-like. Washington, according to coup-happy Victoria Nuland in 2014, pumped some $5 billion into Ukraine since the Western-intelligence induced “Orange” revolution in 2004; an additional $15-$18 billion in arms, loans, and grants (from the US and EU) were poured into Ukraine since the 2013-2014 CIA-backed, far-right enforced regime change of the democratically elected Ukrainian government and until before the war began.

With on-the-ground CIA direction, power in Ukraine was consolidated among a small sociopolitical base of venal Russophobes, political pluralism representing genuinely alternative visions to the essentially nationalist, ultranationalist, pro-NATO parties disbanded. The Ukraine army, neo-fascist death squads, and small, Nazi-throwback extreme right-wing parties, celebrated by the new leaders and incorporated into the Ukrainian state, went on a repression spree, a terror campaign, to crush protests and dissent against those who were unhappy with what transpired and to erase all things Russian, including an eight-year shelling and sniping war on civilians designed to create terror and ethnic cleansing in eastern Donbass. This was not a democracy but a monopoly on power to consolidate a vociferously, fanatically anti-Russian state.

Ukraine is (or now, was) merely a platform for a Western proxy war against Russia, a forward operations base, a front line state, its “foreign policy” directed by the American proconsul, its institutions “advised” by American/Western intelligence functionaries and embassy officials, whose job since 2014 was to ensure continuing aggravation and antagonism in Donbass to elicit, in fact, a Russian response justifying long-prepared sanctions, escalation and pretext for “confronting” Russia. [...]

The Russian offensive, therefore, occurred for a much more ominous reason than the Ukrainian state terrorism visited upon eastern Donbass: the US/West’s wordless wish is no less than demoralizing, weakening, bankrupting, and territorially fragmenting the Russian Federation, controlling its markets and resources, indebting its people and rendering them dependent on US-dominated financial institutions, and bringing Russia under American dependency.

A pivotal principle of American hegemony is to obstruct and destroy friendly, normal ties, much less integration, between Russia and Europe, Germany being the fulcrum.

More simply, the strategic US/CIA goal is to ensnare Russia in a protracted war, deplete it, damage it, regime-change it, install a supine leader—all as a prelude to the big fantasy: bringing down China.

The multifaceted war on Russia has been ongoing since at least the late 1990s, but really, it never stopped with the Soviet state’s disappearance. This veiled hostility and aggression certainly existed when Boris Yeltsin was in power (a good vassal according to Washington, this silly and funny man that made Bill Clinton laugh) but took off around 2005, after Washington understood that Vladimir Putin was putting Russia on an independent course, reversing the conditions overseen under the preceding, deplorable Yeltsin era, including steep economic, social, military, and developmental decline and the immiseration of the vast majority of the population, looting oligarchs, and economic “liberalization” designed in Washington. [...]

Russia has literally allowed itself to be cornered since 2014, though it needed time to achieve a conventional and nuclear deterrent. It’s not hard to see reality: Russia is given no quarter, no voice, its real concerns and grievances dismissed, its leader demonized, its marginalization doggedly pursued at every level of international and bilateral social and cultural interactions. No appeal to reason, to international law, to security, to evidence will do for the West, no amount of patient legal argument, explanation of Russian concerns, appeals, professional warnings, consummate diplomacy and transparency of Russian interests made an impression. Instead, the Western response was and is always to double down. [...]

Finance capitalism, the system of speculative bubbles, derivatives, debt, declining standards of living, and hyperinflation, is ruining Western economies, states and societies, destroying the middle classes. The US cannot tolerate Eurasian integration and China’s Belt and Road Initiative, determined to stop any alternative development model to hyper-capitalism enriching the few, cannibalizing the many; that reduces the US to one of a handful of important multipolar players.

Washington’s grave mismanagement of international relations, its self-defeating policies, has actually weakened genuine American interests and national security and the well-being and safety of the American people, a phenomenon that cannot be naively attributed to Democrats or Republicans, this or that president. Instead, the war-state is deeply embedded in the American political economy, in factions such as the “intelligence community,” the military-industrial complex, influential establishment neo-cons, and liberal interventionists, all living in a world of yesterday.

We are rushing headlong into extremely dangerous times in which facts are a threat to the state narrative and any dissent or differing opinion is treachery. Fascism does not come from below, always from the top.

[sailorsally]

Yesterday, May 28 Georgian Parliament overrode the President's veto and finally adopted the foreign influence law.

According to this law, following an anonymous tip, the government is allowed to demand any type of personal information from you - including sexual and health history - and use it against you.

Every organisation getting more than 20% of funding from foreign countries will be considered to be a foreign agent and so will be the people who work within these organisations. This directly threatens legitimate elections this coming October because most NGO's that guarantee fair elections are in fact financed from outside of Georgia by the EU or the USA and will be banned from the election process following this law.

This exactly has been the whole point of passing the law. The Georgian Dream ruling party knows that there is no way they can stay in power legitimately so they are engaging all their resources to falsify the votes and do it illegally.

It's important to me as a Georgian that everyone knows none of the laws Georgian parliament is passing are what people want. There have been 200k+ people protesting this daily since mid April while being beaten up, blackmailed, and incarcerated for their protest.

We need all the support we can get from the international community in this fight against our pro Russian government. The situation is very dire - the existence of Georgia as a country will be decided in coming days/weeks/months.

This exact law was passed in Russia in 2012 and then edited several times since in order to strengthen the regime over the years. It has been used as the main tool to scare and terrorize the few free thinkers in Russia and throw them into jail.

According to the latest addition to the law (just last month) nobody who works in a company that gets 20% or more of its money from outside Russia is allowed to vote in elections.

This law has also been passed in Belarus some years ago and is greatly contributing to banning any anti government/ anti Russia opinions within the county.

I ask everyone who is a friend of Georgia and my friend to please talk to the representatives in your governments and ask them to sanction the members of Georgian parliament and the ruling party, as well as their family members so these traitors who have been stealing our money and storing it in European and American banks, going on long vacations with their families financed by corruption and have been bringing their wives to the US to give birth and get residence card will at least feel some type of discomfort following their decision to insult the Georgian people in the worst possible way and give over our hard fought & won independence to Russia willingly.

[mariacallous]

BERLIN — For the first time since the Nazi era, a far-right party in Germany has won the largest piece of the electoral pie in a state election.

Mainstream politicians and Jewish leaders are expressing alarm following Sunday’s elections, in which the anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic and pro-Russia Alternative for Germany party came out on top in the state of Thuringia, with 32.8% of the vote.

The 11-year-old party also earned second place to the traditional conservative Christian Democratic Union party in the neighboring state of Saxony. Both states are in the former East Germany.

“No one can brush this off as a ‘protest’ vote anymore,” Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Jewish community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, said in a statement late Sunday.

“Exactly 85 years after the start of World War II, Germany is in danger of becoming a different country again: more unstable, colder and poorer, less secure, less worth living in,” said Knobloch, a former head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany who herself survived the Holocaust in hiding.

The election came just over a week since a Syrian refugee was arrested after a deadly stabbing spree at a festival in the city of Solingen, and only days after Germany resumed its program of deporting refugees convicted of crimes. The knife attack, in which three people were killed, reignited popular anxiety about social unrest connected with the more than 1 million refugees admitted to Germany since 2015.

AfD stresses isolationism, takes an anti-EU and pro-Russian stance, and is accused of fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment. Some of its most extreme representatives have also belittled the Holocaust, saying that Germany has paid enough penance for the sins of an older generation.

Mass protests against the party took place earlier this year following revelations that the party had held a secret meeting at a lakeside villa to discuss plans to deport foreigners, including those who had become German citizens. Prominent neo-Nazis attended the meeting, according to the news organization that broke the story, inducing painful echoes of the gathering of Nazi leaders at nearby Wannsee in 1942 to devise a plan to deport and then murder Jews.

But while support for the AfD dipped in polls at the time, it soon rebounded and then accelerated. Now, it has achieved breakthrough results in state elections and raised concerns for next year’s national elections.

The party — whose Thuringen leader, Bjoern Hoecke, has been convicted twice of using a Nazi slogan to boost his party — is unlikely to form a ruling coalition in either state, since it is shunned by other parties. Still, it will have additional seats in the state legislatures and will have the numbers, particularly in Thuringia, to interfere with some governing decisions.

A far-left party, Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance or BSW, also produced notable results, coming in third in Thuringia with 15.8% of the vote. Last month, the current head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, warned that the party, which has accused Israel of genocide in its war in Gaza, was “fueling hatred of Israel in Germany.”

The new election results bode ill for Germany’s future, Schuster said on Sunday.

“Can we recover from this hit?” Schuster wrote in a column in the Bild newspaper. “Our free society must not fall, especially in the face of Islamist terror. Unvarnished truths — honesty and sincerity — are needed, not populist pseudo-answers from radical parties.”

In Thuringia, the mainstream Social Democratic Party barely squeaked in, with 6.1%. Several parties, including the Greens and Free Democratic Party, received so few votes that they will not have any seats at all.

BSW also came in third in Saxony, with 11.8% of the vote, following the AfD with 30.6% and the CDU with a narrow win at 31.9%.

Younger voters overwhelmingly favored the AfD in this week’s elections, according to an NTV-Infratest exit poll.

“The survivors are asking themselves: ‘Didn’t we do enough to teach, to tell, to show?” Christoph Heubner of the International Auschwitz Committee, told the Guardian.

Some Jewish leaders say German politicians would do well to address the concerns apparently expressed by voters this weekend.

“The election results in the German federal states of Thuringia and Saxony are a clear wake-up call to the centrist parties in Germany to listen to the real concerns and fears of the people,” Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said in a statement. “When half the population votes for parties on the extreme fringes, their problems must be addressed openly and honestly.”

Sunday was an “insanely sad” election day, German Jewish journalist Samira Lazarovic wrote on Facebook. She said her 96-year-old father compared the outcome to the opening salvo of World War II, exactly 85 years ago.

Lazarovic said it was is urgent to reach out to younger voters. “It’s not that we know better than they; but we should shape the future together.”

Obviously, it wasn’t enough to take to the streets and protest against the far right, she added: “Populists all over the world have one thing in common. They mean exactly what they say and do everything they can to turn their words to deeds.”

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Victor Davis Hanson

Scan news accounts of anti-Israel campus and street protestors. Read their demands and manifestos. Collate the confusion after October 7 from the Biden administration.

“Progressive Hamas”: Gay and transgendered student protestors in America would be in mortal danger in Gaza under a fascistic Hamas that has banned homosexual acts and lifestyles. Anyone protesting publicly against Hamas or its allies would be arrested and severely punished.

Women are segregated in most Hamas-run educational institutions. Under the Hamas charter, women are valued mostly as child-bearers. By design, there are almost no women in high positions in business or in government under Hamas.

“Colonists and Settlers”: Students scream that Israelis are “settlers” and “colonists” and sometimes yell at Jewish students to “go back to Poland.”

But the Jewish presence in present-day Israel is deeply rooted in ancient tradition. Dating back at least three millennia, the concept of “Israel” as a distinct Jewish state, situated roughly in its current location, is ingrained in history.

By contrast, the much later Arab invasions of the Byzantine-controlled Levant and their arrival in Palestine occurred about 1800 years after the establishment of a Jewish Israel.

“Two-state Solution”: When student protestors scream “from the river to the sea,” that is not advocacy for a two-state solution. It is a call to eliminate the state of Israel—lying in between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea—and its 10 million Jewish and Arab citizens. The Hamas charter is a one-state/no-Israel agenda, which we saw attempted on October 7.

“Occupied Gaza”: Gaza was autonomous. The Israeli border is closed, but so is the Egyptian border. There have not been any Jews in Gaza for nearly two decades.

So on October 7, Gaza was not occupied by Israel. It was under the control of Hamas, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. After being elected to power in 2006, Hamas cancelled all subsequent elections and ruled as a dictatorship. Gaza forbids Jews from entering Gaza and has driven out most Christians. Israel hosts two million Arabs, both as Israeli citizens and residents.

“Netanyahu is the Problem”: The U.S. and Europe claim that the conservative government of Benjamin Netanyahu is alone behind the Israeli tough response in Gaza. Thus, both the EU and the U.S. are doing their best to undermine or even overthrow the elected Netanyahu administration.

Yet, most Israelis support Netanyahu’s coalition government’s agenda of destroying Hamas in Gaza. There is no evidence that any other alternative Israeli government would do anything differently from the present policies toward Hamas.

“Targeting Civilians”: After murdering nearly 1,200 Israelis on October 7, Hamas scurried back to Gaza and hid in tunnels and bases beneath hospitals, schools, and mosques. Its preplanned strategy was to survive by ensuring Gaza civilians would be killed. Hamas has indiscriminately launched more than 7,000 rockets at Israel, all designed to kill Jewish civilians.

Outside assessors have concluded that Israel has not inadvertently killed a greater ratio of civilians to terrorists compared to most other urban fighting conflicts elsewhere, and perhaps even fewer than American engagements in Mosul and Fallujah.

“Protestors Are Pro-Palestine”: Increasingly, protestors make no distinction between supporting “Palestine” and Hamas. Their chants often echo the original Hamas eliminationist charter and recent genocidal ravings of its leadership. Some protestors wear Hamas logos and wave its flag. Many cheered the Hamas massacre of October 7.

“Anti-Israel Is Not Anti-Semitic”: When protestors scream to Jewish students to “go back to Poland” or call for the “Final Solution,” or assault them or bar them from campus facilities, they do not ask whether they are pro-Israeli. For protestors, anyone identifiable as Jewish becomes a target of their anti-Semitic invective and violence.

“Genocide”: Israel has not tried to wipe out the Palestinian people in the fashion of Hamas’s one-state solution plan for Jews. Before October 7, some 20,000 Gazans a day requested to work in Israel—on the correct expectation of much higher wages and humane treatment.

If Hamas had come out of its tunnels, separated from its impressed civilian shields, released its surviving Israeli hostages, and either openly fought the Israeli Defense Forces or surrendered the organizers of the October 7 massacre, no Gaza civilians would have died.

According to Hamas’s questionable “genocide” figures, roughly 4 percent of the Gazan population died during the Israeli response to October 7. At least a third to almost half of those deaths, according to various international observers, were Hamas terrorists.

“Disproportionate Response”: Iran tried to send 320 missiles and rockets into Israel. Israel replied with three. Hamas launched 7,000 rockets into Israel and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis before the IDF responded in Gaza, often dropping leaflets and sending texts to forewarn citizens.

Israel has been disproportionate only in the effectiveness of its response. Hamas and its Iranian benefactor intended disproportionately to hurt Israel but utterly failed.

So Israel proved to be competent, and Hamas incompetent in their similar efforts to use disproportionate force.

[beardedmrbean]

King Willem-Alexander has said Jewish people must feel safe in the Netherlands, after a night of rioting targeted Israeli football fans in the centre of Amsterdam.

Youths on scooters had criss-crossed the Dutch capital in "hit-and-run" attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters who were visiting Amsterdam for a Europa League match, the city's mayor said.

Police said five people were treated in hospital and others suffered minor injuries, while 62 arrests had been made.

The king spoke of a lesson from history and said "we cannot turn a blind eye to antisemitic behaviour on our streets".

"My heart goes out to the victims and to their families here and in Israel as well." Amsterdam's Mayor Femke Halsema told a press conference on Friday.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof flew back early from a summit of EU leaders in Budapest where he said he had been following developments with horror.

"The perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted," he promised.

Coming on the eve of commemorations marking the Nazi pogroms against Germany's Jews in 1938, the events that unfolded overnight into Friday were condemned by leaders in Germany and France, and led to shock in Israel.

Israeli fans describe violence in Amsterdam

Are you in Amsterdam? Please share your experiences here.

There had already been trouble and some arrests the night before Thursday's match, involving Maccabi fans as well as pro-Palestinian protesters.

Police chief Peter Holla confirmed there had been incidents "on both sides". Israeli supporters had removed a Palestinian flag from a wall and set it alight and attacked a taxi, although there had been no further trouble until the following night, he said.

There were also reports of supporters setting off fireworks and one unverified video showed fans going down an escalator chanting anti-Arab slogans.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned "anti-Arab chants" and an "attack on the Palestinian flag", calling on the Dutch government to "protect Palestinians and Arabs" living in the Netherlands.

There was widespread shock in the Netherlands that such an outbreak of antisemitism could happen in the Dutch capital, especially on the eve of the Nazi pogroms. Three-quarters of Dutch Jews were murdered during the Holocaust in World War Two.

The king said history had shown how intimidation could go from bad to worse, with terrible consequences: "Jews must feel safe in the Netherlands, everywhere and at all times. We put our arms around them and will not let them go.”

The national co-ordinator for combating antisemitism in the Netherlands said a line had been crossed and the "readiness to commit such violence was disgusting".

Mayor Halsema said Dutch counter-terror co-ordinator NCTV had not flagged any concrete threat about the game itself as there was no animosity between the fans of the two clubs. There was no trouble at the game in which Ajax inflicted a heavy 5-0 defeat on the visiting team.

But the unrest spiralled out of control soon afterwards. Halsema spoke of fans being "attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks" as they walked from the Johan Cruyff Arena to the centre of Amsterdam.

Police initially said it was unclear who had taken part in the riots, although the mayor later spoke of young men on scooters. The mayor was careful not to give details about the ethnic backgrounds of those involved in the attack, emphasising that it was part of the police investigation.

Several videos circulated on social media, with one showing a man being kicked and beaten on the ground and another showing someone being run over. In some videos, people could be heard shouting pro-Palestinian slogans, although the footage was not verified by the BBC. Two British visitors said they came under attack as they tried to help an Israeli beaten up by people on mopeds. Jacob, 33, told the BBC he saw "10 people stamping and kicking" the man, and that they had seen "lots of little gangs chasing people".

Asked whether locals had been provoked by a Palestinian flag being torn down in the city, the mayor said what had happened in the centre of her city had nothing to do with protests about the situation in the Middle East, it was a crime.

"I am deeply ashamed of the behaviour that unfolded," Halsema told reporters. "On Telegram [messaging] groups people talked of going to hunt down Jews. It's so terrible I can't find the words for it."

The mayor confirmed reports that taxi drivers had been involved in the attacks, after the head of the Netherlands' Central Jewish Committee (CJO) said they had "moved in groups and cornered their targets".

Chanan Hertzberger said "videos are circulating of assaults and attempts to run over Israelis". Amsterdam's biggest taxi company said its drivers had not been involved.

Israeli airline El Al said it was operating two "rescue flights" to Amsterdam to bring passengers back to Israel.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke of a "pogrom" against Maccabi fans and Israeli citizens. Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders who leads the biggest party in parliament also spoke of a pogrom, saying "authorities will be held accountable for their failure to protect the Israeli citizens".

Herzog said on X that he trusted the Dutch authorities would act immediately to "protect, locate and rescue all Israelis and Jews under attack".

The violence in Amsterdam has raised questions about security for Israeli fans elsewhere in Europe.

Israel's national security council urged fans to avoid a basketball game in the Italian city of Bologna on Friday evening because of the risk of "copycat actions".

[girlactionfigure]

🔵 MONDAY - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

▪️UK & FRANCE.. Within two days, we got very problematic governments in France and Great Britain that rely partially on anti-Israeli elements. (Amit Segal)

▪️HAMAS SPOKESMAN.. Armed Hamasniks recruit thousands of unarmed Gaza youths, give them courses in shooting and placing charges and take them out to act against the IDF.

▪️TUNNELS LOCATED THAT RUN UP TO ISRAEL FROM GAZA.. located in Sheja'iya - some of them are up to the border fence.

▪️GAZANS WARNED TO EVAC.. includes the Tuffah, Daraj, and Old City neighborhoods of Gaza City.

▪️STRANGE TIDBIT.. Defense source to Reuters: NATO will need 35-50 more brigades to defend against Russia. (( Are they assuming Western Europe invasion by Russia??? ))

▪️ROAD BLOCKING PROTEST.. Afek Junction, Krayot - anti-govt.

▪️THE STRANGE STORY OF ISRAEL’S ERITREANS.. There is a Tel Aviv neighborhood which is mostly illegal immigrants from Eritrea (African country).  Within this group there appear other be Eritrea anti-dictator people, the majority as it is the reason some fled their country, and pro-Eritrean-dictator people.  Every few weeks there are reports of violence between the groups.

.. An Eritrean was murdered and another was seriously injured during a street battle on Hagana Street in Tel Aviv. The police arrested eight suspects with weapons (axes and clubs) and dispersed rioters.

▪️TAX AUTHORITY PUBLISHES A PROPOSED EMERGENCY REGULATION.. to allow people who have a Keren Hishtalmut savings fund (common for teachers, managers, hi-tech workers - where people put in a few percent and the company matches) to withdraw from their fund at a reduced tax rate of 15% - even if the minimum 6 year waiting period after deposit has not passed.  This would only be until the end of 2024.

Assuming this is to allow people in need from the war to access their assets without any of the normal penalties or waiting period.  (Normally can only access after 6 years from deposit, and pay as if normal income.)

♦️The IDF attacked terrorists and destroyed an IED production site that Hamas had set up in the area of ​​a school in Gaza City.

♦️ELIMINATION.. terrorist Ihab al-Redin, the deputy director of the Hamas Ministry of Labor in Gaza City in an attack in the west of the city.

♦️Palestinian media report that Israeli ground forces advanced into Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa neighborhood overnight, following a large wave of airstrikes.

♦️US & EU FORCES SHOOT DOWN 4 HOUTHI DRONES fired at cargo ships in the Gulf of Aden.

⭕ ANTI-TANK MISSILE fired by Hezbollah at METULLA.  Started a fire.

⭕ HAMAS ROCKETS at Nachal Oz, Talmei Eliyahu.

[mightyflamethrower]

can news accounts of anti-Israel campus and street protestors. Read their demands and manifestos. Collate the confusion after October 7 from the Biden administration.

Here are ten of their most common untruths about October 7 and the war that followed.

“Progressive Hamas”: Gay and transgendered student protestors in America would be in mortal danger in Gaza under a fascistic Hamas that has banned homosexual acts and lifestyles. Anyone protesting publicly against Hamas or its allies would be arrested and severely punished.

Women are segregated in most Hamas-run educational institutions. Under the Hamas charter, women are valued mostly as child-bearers. By design, there are almost no women in high positions in business or in government under Hamas.

AD

“Colonists and Settlers”: Students scream that Israelis are “settlers” and “colonists” and sometimes yell at Jewish students to “go back to Poland.”

But the Jewish presence in present-day Israel is deeply rooted in ancient tradition. Dating back at least three millennia, the concept of “Israel” as a distinct Jewish state, situated roughly in its current location, is ingrained in history.

By contrast, the much later Arab invasions of the Byzantine-controlled Levant and their arrival in Palestine occurred about 1800 years after the establishment of a Jewish Israel.

“Two-state Solution”: When student protestors scream “from the river to the sea,” that is not advocacy for a two-state solution. It is a call to eliminate the state of Israel—lying in between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea—and its 10 million Jewish and Arab citizens. The Hamas charter is a one-state/no-Israel agenda, which we saw attempted on October 7.

AD

“Occupied Gaza” 

Gaza was autonomous. The Israeli border is closed, but so is the Egyptian border. There have not been any Jews in Gaza for nearly two decades.

So on October 7, Gaza was not occupied by Israel. It was under the control of Hamas, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. After being elected to power in 2006, Hamas cancelled all subsequent elections and ruled as a dictatorship. Gaza forbids Jews from entering Gaza and has driven out most Christians. Israel hosts two million Arabs, both as Israeli citizens and residents.

“Netanyahu is the Problem”

The U.S. and Europe claim that the conservative government of Benjamin Netanyahu is alone behind the Israeli tough response in Gaza. Thus, both the EU and the U.S. are doing their best to undermine or even overthrow the elected Netanyahu administration.

Yet, most Israelis support Netanyahu’s coalition government’s agenda of destroying Hamas in Gaza. There is no evidence that any other alternative Israeli government would do anything differently from the present policies toward Hamas.

“Targeting Civilians”

After murdering nearly 1,200 Israelis on October 7, Hamas scurried back to Gaza and hid in tunnels and bases beneath hospitals, schools, and mosques. Its preplanned strategy was to survive by ensuring Gaza civilians would be killed. Hamas has indiscriminately launched more than 7,000 rockets at Israel, all designed to kill Jewish civilians.

Outside assessors have concluded that Israel has not inadvertently killed a greater ratio of civilians to terrorists compared to most other urban fighting conflicts elsewhere, and perhaps even fewer than American engagements in Mosul and Fallujah.

“Protestors Are Pro-Palestine”

Increasingly, protestors make no distinction between supporting “Palestine” and Hamas. Their chants often echo the original Hamas eliminationist charter and recent genocidal ravings of its leadership. Some protestors wear Hamas logos and wave its flag. Many cheered the Hamas massacre of October 7.

“Anti-Israel Is Not Anti-Semitic”

When protestors scream to Jewish students to “go back to Poland” or call for the “Final Solution,” or assault them or bar them from campus facilities, they do not ask whether they are pro-Israeli. For protestors, anyone identifiable as Jewish becomes a target of their anti-Semitic invective and violence.

“Genocide”

Israel has not tried to wipe out the Palestinian people in the fashion of Hamas’s one-state solution plan for Jews. Before October 7, some 20,000 Gazans a day requested to work in Israel—on the correct expectation of much higher wages and humane treatment.

If Hamas had come out of its tunnels, separated from its impressed civilian shields, released its surviving Israeli hostages, and either openly fought the Israeli Defense Forces or surrendered the organizers of the October 7 massacre, no Gaza civilians would have died.

According to Hamas’s questionable “genocide” figures, roughly 4 percent of the Gazan population died during the Israeli response to October 7. At least a third to almost half of those deaths, according to various international observers, were Hamas terrorists.

“Disproportionate Response” 

Iran tried to send 320 missiles and rockets into Israel. Israel replied with three. Hamas launched 7,000 rockets into Israel and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis before the IDF responded in Gaza, often dropping leaflets and sending texts to forewarn citizens.

Israel has been disproportionate only in the effectiveness of its response. Hamas and its Iranian benefactor intended disproportionately to hurt Israel but utterly failed.

So Israel proved to be competent, and Hamas incompetent in their similar efforts to use disproportionate force.

[junawer]

By Hebh Jamal. Nov 9, 2023

It is no secret Germany has taken a vehement pro-Israel stance with unconditional support for their genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. However, their weaponization of antisemitism against migrant communities has presented itself as vehemently authoritarian, anti-democratic, and just plain racist.

So here’s a list just so you know. Each bullet point can have its own dissertation written on it.

Ban the pro-Palestinian organization Samidoun in Germany

Ban pro- Palestinian or anti-Israel protests across the country, leading to many instances of police violence, brutality and racial profiling

Ban keffiyehs, colors of the Palestinian flag, or stickers that say “Free Palestine” in Berlin primary and secondary schools. If violated, the teacher holds the right to call the police.

CDU Leader, Freidrich Merz says: “If there are refugees from Gaza then these are initially an issue for the neighboring countries. Germany cannot absorb any more refugees. We have enough antisemitic young men in the country.”

German President Steinmeier calls for Arab communities to condemn antisemitism

FDP Vice President Kubicki calls for an upper limit for migrants in city districts

“A quarter of the city must not have more than 25 percent migrants, so that no parallel societies emerge. What we see on German streets today is the result of parallel societies that developed because people came together in certain neighborhoods.”

“we can already legally deport people to third countries that are willing to accept them, and i would recommend that the federal government not only talk to countries of origin, but also to African countries, for example of which we know that theyd be willing to take people for a small fee. And we could do that today.”

Olaf Scholz vowing to “deport people on a large scale”

Then he does it. German government passed a “historic cross party deal” to clamp down on immigration and will “explore setting up asylum processing centres outside the EU”

it will open migrant centres in Albania

scales back social benefits for refugees, increases federal financial support for state governments and sets ambitious targets to speed up deportations

CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann says Scholz’s plan is not enough

“Asylum seekers should only be distributed among the municipalities if there is a right to remain. In addition, family reunification should be restricted and asylum procedures should be carried out in third countries.”

CDU General Linnemann calls for migrant quotas in schools

“35 percent - in the opinion of CDU General Secretary Linnemann, there should not be more migrants in German schools. He can also imagine a quota for residential areas.”

Linnemann advocated the introduction of compulsory preschool education followed by a language test . “I would only enroll young people who really know the German language.”

“Liberal” politician calls for stripping of German citizenship for people who he believes is “antisemitic.” He also urges that an antisemitism test be present in German naturalisation applications.

Give Israel an extra 300 million euros to continue their genocide of Palestinians

ARD tells its journalists how to talk about dead Palestinians - you guessed it, only in the context of its Hamas’ fault.

Berlin Senate is trying to strip funding from a cultural center in Berlin, Oyoun, because it gave space to anti-Zionist Jews.

I can go on and on and on, but it seems gravely more clear that Germany is utilizing the war on Gaza to carry out their right wing authoritarian fantasies. We can see and expect more to come.

[sun-in-retrograde]

Uranus Conjunct Jupiter - Hope Just Spat Out a Tooth

The Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction is a lot of things, but one way to think of it is basically the new moon of the way the two planets relate - the end of a cycle that started at the last Jupiter Uranus conjunction and the start of something new. I wanted to give a little time to thinking about what we’re putting down, and what we might be able to do with the new energy.

An Aries Cycle

Uranus entered Aries 27 May and stayed there till mid August before retrograde. The conjunction completed 8 June. 

Here’s the astro-seek data:

For the first half of the cycle, the energy of the relationship was pretty intense - Jupiter aspected Uranus, then went retrograde and aspected in again, then moved on. It was a slow build up, reaching a pinnacle in 2016/7 before winding down. 

Think of this in terms of a lunar cycle. While Jupiter is waxing, building upon the Uranus energy it picked up in its conjunction, Uranus was in Aries. The process was laborious, intense. 

Uranus in Aries came with promises - it started with the Arab Spring. Uranus in Aries was a freedom fighter establishing itself. It had rebel without a cause vibes. It came in with riots in the UK over the London Metropolitan Police shooting a black man, the Occupy Movement, the student fees protests and anti-austerity. It came in, fundamentally, with the first Conservative government since 1997.

The last one is important. 1997 was the last election in the UK where power changed hands. Power didn’t change hands in 1983, but the structure of the system changed fundamentally. Uranus and Jupiter can oversee revolutions. 

What house is your Aries in? Where was the energy of Uranus active in your life while it was there? Was there anything that took time to develop? Any lessons that had to be learned again and again?

It feels to me almost like Uranus in Aries built up power and worked and grew, then the waning end of the cycle was a release of pressure. For example, in 2010 Britain elected a Conservative government under a Jupiter-Uranus conjunction. The Conservatives got in under a plan to unify the right and temper it’s weirdest and worst aspects. Or at least make it palatable. In 2014, under the square, a right of conservative party group called UKIP became a major party. In 2016 as the opposition completed itself, Britain voted to leave the EU. 

In 2018, Uranus entered Taurus - traditional, slow moving and comfortable Taurus is a weird place for Uranus. What happens when Conservatives encounter the nervous energy of Uranus with its connections to queerness and difference? They react with fear. Since the Uranus-Jupiter cycle reached its waning phase, mainstream conservative movements in Britain have been ideologically captured by increasingly deranged conspiracy theorists. This process has felt relatively easy, and fast.

Another example: in 2010 the Lib Dems confirmed they wanted to bring in gay marriage and they had the power to push for it. In 2014, the square gave us gay marriage, but also Time Magazine’s “Transgender tipping point” - the key issues and demands of queer activism started to change. In 2017, at the opposition point of this cycle, the government announced that it would hold a consultation on gender recognition act reform. Then in 2018 Uranus entered Taurus and Gender Critical reactionary anti-trans rhetoric really stepped up. The tenor of the conversation has changed. In 2017 the Tories wanted to be pro-LGBT to be on “the right side of history”. These days the prime minister jokes about murdered trans children in front of their parents. 

Cycles and cycles

Of course, we haven’t lost every cultural battle since Uranus entered Taurus, and the Uranus Jupiter Cycle isn’t the only cycle that’s going on. But it has been a tough old cycle. Maybe it was tough for you personally, or maybe the area Uranus has been active in has been blessed with luck from Jupiter. Maybe for you it feels like on a personal level the hard work of Uranus in Aries paid off in an easeful period of Uranus in Taurus. Maybe you’ve even won your political struggles. 

It’s worth considering the public and personal issues you’ve been through in this period, and whether they may be coming towards the possibility for something new. 

The future

In the next cycle, while it starts in Taurus it’s not there for long - just the conjunction. Then for 14 years Uranus will be active in Gemini, then Cancer. 

Taking the last phase as a pattern, the first part of this stage feels relatively easeful - there are no repetitions. In Gemini I wonder if we may find Uranus active in how we respond to, incorporate, and resist technology. This seems reasonable. We appear to have entered one of those periods where technology is shifting.

What interests me is the 2030s. Uranus enters Cancer and we do the work of coming home, nurturing, integrating something. Looking at the cycle we’re about to start - it starts with Uranus in a sign where it’s deeply reactive, and uncomfortable (arguably, Uranus has its fall in Taurus). But, I hope, it’s heading to a kind of integration and better wholeness. There’s the potential in this cycle to learn cool shit and, ultimately, to learn to live with it. To maybe even heal a bit, if we’re lucky. 

But, more importantly, it’s a new revolution. Revolutions go around. We didn’t win every fight in the last Jupiter-Uranus cycle, but we won some, and we can win some this time, too.

[notasapleasure]

A tale of two Georgias

Note: I wouldn't normally share subscriber-exclusive content from this news site, but I think Shota Kincha's opinions are too important to hide away in an exclusive email this time. If you're so minded, please consider supporting open journalism in the Caucasus anyway and sending some money OCMedia's way.

Highlighting is my own. Of course I support Georgia joining the EU, but absolutely not under conditions that ignore the recent rolling back of democratic freedoms.

---

By Shota Kincha, for OC Media.

On Wednesday, Georgians celebrated a long-awaited recommendation from the European Commission for their nation’s candidacy for EU membership, leaving the country’s candidacy pending just final approval from the heads of EU member states in mid-December. But the Commission’s assessment of the government’s ‘progress’ seemed to be based on wishful thinking, rather than its actions. 

On denying Georgia the status last year, the European Commission outlined 12 ‘priorities’ Georgia would need to address for the decision to be reconsidered — preconditions that largely reflected the spirit of the April 2021 agreement brokered by European Council President Charles Michel between the government and opposition groups.

When the unforeseen possibility for Georgia to formally apply for membership presented itself in early 2022, Georgia’s leadership had already failed on some of the key components of the previous year’s accord. 

Instead of addressing the ‘perception of politicised justice,’ an apparent euphemism for the imprisonment of opposition leaders, most notably Nika Melia in early 2021, the Georgian court imprisoned another prominent government critic, Nika Gvaramia, only five weeks before the European Commission was due to assess Georgia’s readiness for EU membership candidacy.

Instead of the ambitious judicial reform promised in the 2021 Michel deal and mentioned in the EU’s ‘12 priorities’ last year, the ruling Georgian Dream party has continued to shield corrupt judicial officials with a stranglehold on Georgian courts, resulting in more politicised administrative fines and criminal cases against civil activists, political leaders, media managers, or youth with ‘confused orientation’ who risked their freedom to defend Georgia’s pro-Western choice on the streets.

In the run-up to the European Commission’s latest decision on Georgia, the government and security services run by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili’s goons artificially created an anti-Western parliamentary group, gifted them private channel PosTV, and made violent extremist pro-Russian Alt Info immune to obstruction or challenge. 

If the last five years under Georgian Dream rule had been a steady decline in democratic freedoms, the government’s actions in the months since it applied to join the European Union — including their recent initiatives to clamp down on Georgia’s civil society and constrain protest — far surpassed any and all negative predictions.

But listening to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, one could have assumed she was discussing an entirely different country. 

Despite Georgia’s government persecuting free media, parroting Russian propaganda against the West, refusing to undertake institutional reforms in a way that included other groups and stakeholders, and satisfying only three of the twelve conditions set last year, the European Commission complimented them with no substantial criticism.

I do not believe the EU should approve Georgian membership candidacy later this year, as the move looks set to validate and entrench the government’s precipitous lurch towards authoritarianism. 

The European Commission’s approach may be based on the belief that denying Georgia candidate status could lead to Georgians becoming disillusioned with the EU and the West. But Georgians have been staunchly pro-Western for decades, perhaps even centuries. 

The real danger to Georgians’ trust in the West comes from the West’s indifference to anti-democratic moves by Georgia’s government, which, if left unchecked, will continue to use state institutions to slowly but steadily shift popular mood and policies towards Russia. 

Even were we to allow that recommending EU candidacy status was a justified decision in Georgia’s best interests, doing so did not obligate the institution’s leaders to legitimise the country’s government in the way they did.

Listening to the widely televised announcement by the European Commission on Wednesday, Georgians could reasonably have concluded that democratic backsliding, state capture by big capital, and a politicised judiciary are consistent with Georgia’s pro-Western aspirations, or that related warnings from local activists and media have been baseless or overblown. 

The announcement could also have created the impression that the ruling party has been delivering on reforms demanded by the EU, a powerful notion less than a year before the country’s next general elections. 

The truth is, however, that in inviting Georgia to join the club while neglecting to call out the government’s shortcomings, the EU is playing a dangerous game, and one it has played before. The EU does not want another Orban, and the South Caucasus definitely does not need another Aliyev.

I may be wrong: perhaps granting Georgia candidate status will still be a wise choice on the EU’s part. But even in its recommendation, the European Commission could have sent a clear message that business as usual would no longer be tolerated. 

What Georgia’s leadership heard instead will become abundantly clear in the coming months. 

[thoughtlessarse]

Georgian ex-footballer turned far-right politician Mikheil Kavelashvili is set to become Tbilisi's next figurehead president in an indirect election denounced as "illegitimate" by the current pro-EU leader. Picked by the governing Georgian Dream party as a loyalist, the former forward for the English Premier League's Manchester City is known for his expletive-laden parliament speeches and tirades against government critics and LGBTQ people. He is expected to be voted into the role by an electoral college controlled by Georgian Dream, after the party abolished the use of popular votes to elect the president under controversial constitutional changes passed in 2017. Kavelashvili being catapulted to the role comes at a dramatic moment as thousands of anti-government protesters have flooded Tbilisi for weeks, furious at Georgian Dream for shelving EU accession talks. Protesters have described Kavelashvili as a "puppet" of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream's founder, who in turn has called him "the embodiment of a Georgian man". Sporting a moustache and combed back hair, his comments on LGBTQ people have raised alarm, as Georgian Dream has adopted Kremlin-style laws curbing their rights. The ex-footballer slammed the West for wanting "as many people as possible (to be) neutral and tolerant toward the LGBTQ ideology, which supposedly defends the weak but is, in fact, an act against humanity."

continue reading

[boome11]

By Felix Light TBILISI (Reuters) -Georgian lawmakers elected Mikheil Kavelashvili, a hardline critic of the West, as president on Saturday, setting him up to replace a pro-Western incumbent amid major protests against the government over a halt to the country’s European Union accession talks last month. The ruling Georgian Dream party’s move to freeze the EU accession process until 2028, abruptly halting a long-standing national goal that is written into the country’s constitution, has provoked widespread anger in Georgia, where opinion polls show that seeking EU membership is overwhelmingly popular. Kavelashvili, a former professional soccer player, has strongly anti-Western, often conspiratorial views. In public speeches this year, he has repeatedly alleged that Western intelligence agencies are seeking to drive Georgia into war with Russia, which ruled Georgia for 200 years until 1991. Hundreds of protesters gathered in light snowfall outside parliament ahead of the presidential vote. Some played soccer in the street outside and waved red cards at the parliament building, a mocking reference to Kavelashvili’s sporting career. Protester Vezi Kokhodze described the vote as "treason" against what he said was Georgians' desire to integrate with the West. "Today's election represents the clear wish of the system to bring Georgia back to its Soviet roots," he said. Georgian presidents are picked by a college of electors composed of MPs and representatives of local government. Of 225 electors present, 224 voted for Kavelashvili, who was the only candidate nominated. All opposition parties have boycotted parliament since an October election in which official results gave Georgian Dream almost 54% of the vote, but which the opposition say was fraudulent. Kavelashvili was nominated for the mostly ceremonial presidency last month by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister who is widely seen as the country’s paramount leader and has moved to deepen ties with neighbouring Russia, which polls show many Georgians dislike. Kavelashvili is a leader of People’s Power, an anti-Western splinter group of the ruling party, and was a co-author of a law on “foreign agents” that requires organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as agents of foreign influence, and imposes heavy fines for violations. Outgoing President Salome Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of the ruling Georgian Dream party, has positioned herself as a leader of the protest movement and has said she will remain president after her term ends. She considers parliament illegitimate as a result of alleged fraud in the October election. In a post on X shortly before the vote, Zourabichvili said her successor's election represented "a mockery of democracy". Opposition parties have said they will continue to regard Zourabichvili as the legitimate president, even after Kavelashvili is inaugurated on Dec. 29. At a briefing after the vote, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze congratulated Kavelashvili, and referred to the outgoing president as an "agent" of unspecified foreign powers. SOURING RELATIONS WITH WEST Georgia had been seen for decades as one of the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union’s successor states, but relations with the West have soured this year, with Georgian Dream forcing through laws on foreign agents and LGBT rights that critics say are Russian-inspired and draconian. Western countries have raised the alarm at Georgia’s apparent foreign policy pivot and authoritarian drift, with the EU threatening sanctions over a crackdown on protests that has seen hundreds arrested. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Georgian Dream has moved to improve ties with Russia, which backs two breakaway Georgian regions and defeated Georgia in a five-day war in 2008. Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied outside parliament nightly for more than two weeks. Some have hurled fireworks at police, who have used water cannon and tear gas to break up demonstrations. The government has repeatedly said the protests represent an attempt to stage a pro-EU revolution and a violent seizure of power. Georgia's interior ministry has said that more than 150 officers have been injured during the protests. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); https://i-invdn-com.investing.com/news/world_news_3_69x52._800x533_L_1419494235.jpg 2024-12-14 19:06:51

[mariacallous]

Georgia is at a turning point. Demonstrations have spread across the country in response to the ruling Georgian Dream’s shocking decision to suspend Georgia’s European Union membership process, started in 2022, after the opposition accused it of rigging a victory in the October parliamentary elections. The events bring to mind the 2014 Maidan Revolution, when Ukrainians protested then-President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to pull Ukraine away from the EU and closer to Russia.

Georgian authorities have responded to protesters with heavy-handed tactics. They have used water cannons, tear gas, and anti-riot forces, targeting journalists and arresting activists in an effort to weaken the protests and deter further dissent. These tactics, reminiscent of those used by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, indicate a dangerous shift toward authoritarianism.

It is unclear why Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced Georgia’s withdrawal from the EU accession process until 2028 now, but he wouldn’t have done so without the direction of Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man and founder of Georgian Dream. While Kobakhidze accused the EU of blackmailing Georgia in his Nov. 28 statement announcing the move, his party had just campaigned for reelection promising to support EU membership. Perhaps the move was intended to preempt the expected suspension of the accession process by the EU in December; the European Parliament last week described the voting process in the October elections as “neither free nor fair” and adopted a resolution declaring the results invalid. Or perhaps it was intended to provoke protests, thus giving the government an opportunity to crush all dissent, just as Lukashenko did in Belarus in 2020.

If the latter is true, though, that strategy appears to be failing. The scale and scope of ongoing protests are unprecedented in Georgia. They are self-organized, with no single political leader or organization driving them, and are occurring in Tbilisi, the capital, but also in other large cities and even some villages. This grassroots mobilization highlights the Georgian people’s determination to keep their country on a European path.

Georgia’s institutions are showing signs of cracks. Civil servants from the ministries of defense, foreign affairs, education, and justice and other agencies have issued joint statements to distance themselves from the prime minister’s announcement. Several diplomats, including Georgia’s ambassador to the United States, have resigned.

The outcome of this standoff may hinge on the actions of security forces, law enforcement, and the military. If there are more high-ranking resignations, especially from the security services, Georgian Dream’s grip could slip. Another tipping point could be if police disobey orders to use lethal force against protesters. Already, the silence of Georgia’s military may indicate its preference to side with the country’s commander in chief, President Salome Zourabichvili.

For her part, Zourabichvili has refused to recognize the seating of Parliament, which four parties backing a pro-European charter have boycotted. Her refusal renders the current actions of the Georgian Dream-only Parliament unconstitutional. Zourabichvili has stood with protesters in the streets and has created a national unity council, designed to prepare the way for new elections.

Her efforts have borne fruit, with opposition parties showing unusual cohesion. But the president’s ability to drive change will remain limited without strong, immediate support from Brussels and Washington, even as the latter is distracted with its own presidential transition.

The days ahead will be critical. Georgia’s future remains deeply uncertain, and the stakes for the country’s democracy, let alone its European aspirations, could not be higher. Over the weekend, the United States suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia, but U.S. and European leaders can and should do more—and fast.

To this end, Georgia’s Western allies should declare that the October elections were fraudulent and thus the seating of the new Parliament and reestablishment of a Georgian Dream government—without the required approval of the Georgian president—are illegitimate and unconstitutional; there will be no recognition of Georgia’s government until new, free and fair elections are held.

They should also impose immediate and public sanctions on Ivanishvili and his associated business interests as a direct consequence for his role in undermining democratic processes, as well as provide strong political and diplomatic backing for Zourabichvili in her efforts to bring about new, free and fair elections, thus creating a path for democratic renewal. Lastly, they should call on the Georgian military and security services to uphold the country’s constitution, even if this means refusing to obey orders from the illegitimate government.

Russia is determined to flip governments in its near neighborhood, whether through presidential elections in Romania, general elections in Bulgaria, gas price pressure in Moldova, or fraudulent elections in Georgia. The West needs its own strategy to prevent Russia from succeeding. Georgia is now ground zero. The decisions made in the coming days will determine whether the country reinforces its democracy and moves closer to Europe or slides further into authoritarianism and Moscow’s orbit. And this, in turn, will inform Russia’s policies in the wider region.

[beardedmrbean]

Some 20,000 Georgians staged a "March for Europe" Sunday, calling on the government to scrap a controversial "foreign influence" bill which the EU has warned would undermine Tbilisi's European aspirations.

There have been mass anti-government protests since mid-April, when the ruling Georgian Dream party reintroduced plans to pass a law critics say resembles Russian legislation used to silence dissent.

Waves of similar street protests -- during which police used tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators -- forced the party to drop a similar measure in 2023.

Police have again clashed with protesters during the latest rallies.

On Sunday evening -- before staging what organisers called a "March for Europe" -- at least 20,000 people turned out at Tbilisi's central Republic Square, according to an AFP estimate.

The kilometre-long procession, which featured a huge EU flag at its head, stretched out along Tbilisi's main thoroughfare towards parliament.

"I am here to protect Georgia's European future," said 19-year-old Lasha Chkheidze. "No to Russia, no to the Russian law, yes to Europe."

The rally was organised by around 100 Georgian rights groups and opposition parties, which have until now kept a low profile at the youth-dominated daily protests.

"The authorities, which have reintroduced the Russian bill, are going beyond the constitutional framework and changing the country's orientation, betraying the unwavering will of the people," the organisers said in a statement.

At one point during the largely peaceful rally, demonstrators attempted to break through a police cordon outside the parliament building to hoist an EU flag there, an AFP journalist witnessed.

Police used pepper spray without warning.

The interior ministry said in a statement that "the protest turned violent" and that "demonstrators physically and verbally confronted law enforcement."

Past midnight, hundreds of riot police were deployed in the area.

'Further away from EU' 

To counter days of anti-government protests, Georgia's ruling party announced its own rally on Monday, when a parliamentary committee is set to hold a second reading of the bill.

If adopted, the law would require any independent NGO and media organisation receiving more than 20 percent of its funding from abroad to register as an "organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power".

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili -- who is at loggerheads with the ruling party -- has said she will veto the law.

But Georgian Dream holds a commanding majority in the legislature, allowing it to pass laws and to vote down a presidential veto without needing the support of any opposition MPs.

Georgia's bid for membership of the EU and NATO is enshrined in its constitution and -- according to opinion polls -- supported by more than 80 percent of the population.

Georgian Dream insists it is staunchly pro-European and that the proposed law aims only to "boost transparency" of the foreign funding of NGOs.

But critics accuse it of steering the former Soviet republic toward closer ties with Russia.

"This law, as well as this government, are incompatible with Georgia's historic choice to be an EU member," the leader of the opposition Akhali party, Nika Gvaramia, told AFP at the protest.

EU chief Charles Michel has said the bill "is not consistent" with Georgia's bid for EU membership. It "will bring Georgia further away from the EU and not closer", he said.

In December, the EU granted Georgia official candidate status.

But before membership talks can be formally launched, Tbilisi will have to reform its judicial and electoral systems, reduce political polarisation, improve press freedom and curtail the power of oligarchs, said Brussels.

Once seen as leading the democratic transformation of ex-Soviet countries, Georgia has in recent years been criticised for perceived democratic backsliding.

[darkmaga-returns]

Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.

The West is increasingly intervening in Georgia’s internal affairs. In an attempt to prevent progress of the Parliament’s diplomatic, pro-peace agenda, Western countries are funding extremely violent protests, which have resulted in a serious social crisis. There is clearly an intention on the part of the West to overthrow the legitimate government in the country and establish a pro-NATO junta, as happened in Ukraine in 2014.

The Georgian capital Tbilisi is gradually looking like an actual civil war scenario. Radical militants are attacking the police and trying to destroy government buildings in protest against the policies of the Georgia Dream party – which won the parliamentary elections and has implemented a series of conservative and nationalist reforms.

Georgian Dream has been unfairly accused of being “pro-Russian” simply because it has prioritized Georgian national interests over Western interventionist agendas. Among the main measures of the Georgian Dream are the imposition of restrictions on the work of foreign NGOs, the freezing of negotiations for accession to the EU until 2028 and the banning of Western-backed anti-Russian sanctions. Obviously, the EU and NATO are disappointed with the Georgian political administration, doing everything possible to allow a regime change.