By Felix Quigley
August 24, 2008
There is no doubt that the Israeli state, Israeli leaders and Israeli get rich quick business opportunists were involved in the attack on South Ossetia by Georgia.
Also the whole of the Israeli Media and especially the Jewish American Blogs have been totally disgraceful in how they have systematically backed Saakashvili and promoted lies about the attack, essentially covering up for this Monster, who is an enemy of ordinary Georgians too.
They (these Jewish American and Canadian Blogs) have been slavish followers of US Imperialism, Bush, Rice, McCain and Obama. There is no doubt about this at all.
But remember this is NOT the Jewish people, the ordinary Jewish people of Israel or ordinary Jewish people in America and Diaspora.
Zionism is the right of all Jews to have a Homeland and no nation deserves this more.
The Arabs are filled with much antisemitic feeling towards Jews and Israel. The Islamofascists in Iran threaten to wipe Israel off the map.
So it would appear that Russia is NOT rushing opportunist fashion to join forces with these Antisemites. But you would not know this from the American and Canadian Jewish blogs and Media. They actually are the ones who are full of lies!
[Begin report here]
Arms Talks With Syria Likely to Rile the West
Staff Writer
MOSCOW — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may have been hoping to capitalize on Moscow’s current diplomatic isolation to expand military cooperation with Russia as he met with President Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi on Thursday.
But even though a defiant Kremlin might be taking some perverse pleasure in welcoming the leader of what the United States has branded a “rogue state” at a time when some voices in the West suggest that Russia is on its own way to pariah status, analysts said it was unlikely that any significant arms deals would be signed.
In interviews given to Russian media ahead of his visit, Assad said he hoped to speed up bilateral military cooperation.
“Arms purchases are very important,” Assad said in an interview published Wednesday in Kommersant.
Analysts said any significant new deals with Damascus, already the fourth-largest purchaser of Russian arms, are unlikely, as Russia will want to be careful not to upset Israel, with which its relations of late have moderately improved.
At the same time, when Russia’s ties with the West perhaps at their lowest since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow could be looking for any international support it can get.
“As the French saying goes, in the absence of better options, the king sleeps with the queen,” said Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.
The visit to Sochi, where Medvedev is on a working vacation, comes at the invitation of the Kremlin.
On Tuesday, Medvedev hosted Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, who offered Russia his support and said its handling of the conflict in Georgia was “excellent, very calm, wise and beautiful.”
After Russian forces drove back an attempt by the Georgian military to retake control of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia and moved into Georgia, U.S. President George W. Bush gave unambiguous support to Tbilisi and threatened Russia with serious consequences if it did not withdraw from Georgia proper.
European leaders took a more measured approach, but many charged Russia with overreacting and also promised consequences if the Kremlin did not cooperate fully.
Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, said that by refusing even to consider Moscow’s position on the conflict, Washington “is pushing Russia to join the forces that the United States wants to weaken.”
Assad said the Georgian conflict only highlighted the need for Russia and Syria to forge closer ties, as the countries were now in a similar international position.
“The war unleashed by Georgia is the culmination of attempts to encircle and isolate Russia, “ he said in the Kommersant interview. “I think the role of Israel and its consultants in the Georgian crisis is now clear in Russia and in the world.”
Assad also said Syria was willing to help boost Russia’s security in any way it could. In an interview with Gazeta, also published Wednesday, he said he was open to cooperation in relation to the Syrian port of Tartus.
The two countries were preparing a series of deals involving anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems, Interfax reported Wednesday, citing a diplomatic source.
“Damascus is Moscow’s long-standing partner in the military sphere, and we expect to reach agreement in principle on new weapons deals,” the source said.
Analysts were skeptical that Thursday’s talks would yield any significant new agreements.
Pukhov said Russia was reluctant to upset Israel, because it could be a “valuable source of modern military technologies.”
He was joined by Lukyanov, of Russia in Global Affairs, in pointing out that Israel had recalled its military consultants from Georgia before the start of the conflict.
“Israel cooperated, and it should be noted that Moscow appreciated this,” Lukyanov said.
Moscow has said Israel supplied explosives and military vehicles to Georgia, as well as the consultants.
Syria, meanwhile, is a poor country, Pukhov said, and therefore has little to offer Russia.
Russia also does not have the necessary modern vessels to establish a naval base in Syria, Pukhov said.
Top Story Friday August 22, 2008
St. Petersburg Times
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