Bolton terms hostage swap a very bad deal

Former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton has slammed the Hamas hostage and cease-fire agreement reached as a very bad deal for Israel.

“The deal itself, at least as I understand the terms as they’ve been announced, is a very bad deal for Israel,” Bolton said. “It’s another swap of hostages — innocent victims — for criminals that are in Israeli jails at a ratio of 3:1 in favor of the Hamas terrorists.”

Bolton made the comments Wednesday on the Cats & Cosby radio show with host John Catsimatidis.

The deal was announced late Tuesday after hours of difficult negotiations within the Israeli cabinet. It frees about 50 of the approximately 240 hostages held by Hamas over the course of four days, beginning no sooner than Friday. An undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners will also be released.

Fighting in the ongoing war between the two sides will cease during the exchanges, a halt which will be extended by one day for every 10 hostages released.

The agreement was the culmination of weeks of negotiations between the United States, Qatar, Israel and Hamas, and is expected to result in a window for increased humanitarian aid for the enclave.

Bolton said Israel folded, accepting the deal due to pressure from the Biden administration, which he claims is no longer backing Israel as strongly as it has previously.

“I don’t see how this, on net, benefits Israel strategically,” he said. “I’m sure the Israeli Defense forces get some benefit from a pause…but fundamentally, time is on Hamas’ side here.”

“I do understand humanitarian concerns, but there are 220 hostages and 9 million other Israeli citizens who are threatened, not just by Hamas but by Hezbollah and fundamentally by Iran,” he continued.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced extreme domestic pressure to focus efforts on rescuing the hostages taken by Hamas militants at the beginning of the conflict early last month.

Over 1,200 Israelis died at the start of the war, in the attack which resulted in the hostage-taking. Israel’s air and ground campaign since has killed over 12,000 Palestinians, including over 4,600 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

 

United States seeks to militarize unrest in Iran

The former US national security advisor, John Bolton, has said that rioters in Iran are getting weapons, an allegation reminiscent of how Syria plunged into a civil war.

In an interview with the Persian service of the BBC, Johan Bolton said the recent unrest in Iran is different from what happened in previous times because this time, protesters are receiving weapons from the Iraqi Kurdistan. 

Bolton is known for his hawkish stances against Iran and has long been the fiercest advocate of regime change in Iran. He has openly called for bombing Iran.

Bolton’s remarks come at a time when the Iranian elites are warning of a Syria blueprint for Iran aimed at bringing about the disintegration of Iran into smaller states fractured along ethnic and religious lines.

On Tuesday, Mohammad Dehghan, advisor to the Iranian president on legal affairs, said the recent developments in Iran were beyond protests and that the enemy seeks to use the unrest to disintegrate Iran.

“The recent incidents in the country have been beyond protests and as was admitted by a Pahlavi regime official, the enemy, using everything in its power, especially the media, is seeking to disintegrate Iran through regime change,” Dehghan was quoted as saying on Tuesday by IRNA.

Adding substance to that is the repetitive announcements by Iranian officials in recent days that border guards have detained several shipments of weapons headed to Iran. A senior border guard commander has said that the seizure of weapons shipments has risen as compared to last year. According to the commander, more than 600 contraband rifles have been seized by border guards over the last 45 days. 

This speaks to the efforts currently underway to militarize unrest in Iran, which suffers from many hardships. Iranian officials and analysts have said that the enemies seek to turn Iran into another Syria using public grievances. 

Many Iranians from all walks of life have fallen victim to that effort. Over the course of the unrest, many Basij members and clerics, along with ordinary people, have been targeted and in some cases martyred. A case in point is Sajad Shahraki, the prayer Imam of Zahedan’s Molaye Mottaqian Mosque who was assassinated in a drive-by shooting.

The police chief of Sistan-Baluchistan province said mask-wearing gunmen, using two Pride and Peugeot 405 sedans, fired into the car of Shahraki at point-blank range, hitting him in the head and chest.

Many Iranian analysts believe such incidents are meant to foment sedition in Iran with the ultimate goal of breaking up Iran. The disintegration of Iran is now even acknowledged by those who work for foreign countries.

A recently leaked private conversation between a BBC Persian anchor with her mother showed that the enemies have placed the goal of disintegrating Iran high on their agenda.

The anchor, Rana Rahimpour, told her mother that the enemies do not want a unified Iran and that their support for the unrest in the country isn’t sincere. Instead, she said, they seek to break up Iran through the unrest because a weaker Iran will ensure their interests. 

 

Have Trump and Adelson cut a deal on annexation of West Bank?

As back as May 2019, I had written a blog and its title was “Sheldon Adelson: Jackpot for Israel”. Its opening paragraph was, “A bet on Donald Trump for president may have seemed risky two years ago, but for billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson the payout has been spectacular. Adelson (85-year old) and his wife Miriam gave around US$82 million to Republicans and candidate Trump in 2016 and within two years his two major asks were met: moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and withdrawing of US from Iran nuclear deal”. Today I have managed to gather some details, which are worth reading.

Sheldon Adelson, the Israel-loving, Iran-war-craving casino baron, talks to Donald Trump all the time, and for good reason, he and wife Miriam are the biggest Republican donors, poised to give as much as US$200 million this year. Now that the White House appears to be lying down for the Israeli government as it moves to annex portions of the West Bank despite a growing chorus of international condemnation, the focus should be on Adelson. He has always been a strong supporter of Israeli expansion, a man who says, “There’s no such thing as a Palestinian.”

Adelsons have gotten everything they wanted from US President: tearing up the Iran deal, moving the embassy to Jerusalem, defunding Palestinians, recognizing the Golan annexation, treating settlement expansion as legitimate, even a presidential medal of freedom for Miriam, etc. Right up to yesterday — a Trump attack on the ICC in the name of Israel. As Trump once said when a Republican rival was getting Adelson’s money, Adelson wanted a “perfect little puppet.”

Most important, the Adelsons got the Trump “peace plan,” which paves the way for annexation of the West Bank. When Trump announced his “vision,” there they were in the front row. Especially if Trump loses in November, as appears more and more likely — this is the Adelsons’ last chance to get annexation. They speak to Trump all the time.

Look at it from Trump’s point of view. He doesn’t care about peace in the Middle East or Palestinian human rights. He wants one thing, to win in November, and he needs money. Why would the Adelsons risk US$200 million on a loser? Well, because it’s not a losing cause; they get their payback now. They figure that Israeli annexation is permanent no matter what happens to Trump. “Facts on the ground” is the Israeli way of expansion. The embassy move will never be reversed by a Joe Biden. So let’s annex.

Sheldon’s Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom is promoting annexation. He believes, annexation is Israel’s right, and it poses no threat to the interests of either the United States or the Jewish state. The paper is an important rightwing voice in Israel, and the Adelsons have been big supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu. So they may also play a role in Netanyahu’s zeal to annex, when he had a lot of opportunities to dismiss that policy.

The Guardian said in February that insiders expect the Adelsons to donate between US$100 and US$200 million to Trump’s reelection hopes this year. If that seems like a big lift, look at their track record: The Adelsons gave more than US$100 million to Republican causes in 2016 and another US$123 million during the 2018 election.

McClatchy reported last year that the Adelsons were putting off their big donations in 2020 until as late as possible, so as not to excite negative publicity. Adelson is a funder and board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition that calls Trump the most pro-Israel president ever and, big coincidence, the RJC “is launching a lobbying effort on Capitol Hill to rally support for Israeli annexation.

The RJC is chaired by the ex-senator Norm Coleman. . . who is said to have strong ties to Adelson that benefit the RJC and other Super Pacs and dark money outfits where Coleman is a big player.

Coleman helps lead fundraising for a Super Pac, the Congressional Leadership Fund, and a dark money outfit, the American Action Network, that respectively back Republican House members and their policies and have received seven-figure checks from the Adelsons in recent elections.

The Adelsons have seemed to have their way on annexation so far. Annexation of large parts of the West Bank is green lighted in Trump’s deal of the century. Adelsons wanted the plan out well ahead of the election, Dan Raviv of i24 said, so that Israel would be freed to set its own border this year before November comes and possibly limits its autonomy. Adelsons may be the most important actors in this entire foreign policy discussion. Maybe the media should be telling us more about them now. . .

Bolton adamant at instigating war between United States and Iran

While there is growing consensus that United States should abstain from instigating a war with Iran, warmongers like US National Security Adviser, John Bolton, spare no chance accusing Iran and creating war hype. Lately he said that naval mines “almost certainly from Iran” were used to attack oil tankers off the United Arab Emirates this month, and warned Tehran against conducting new operations.

According to a Reuters report, Bolton said the “prudent and responsible” approach taken by the United States, which has beefed up its military presence in the region, had made it clear to Iran and its proxies that such actions risked a “very strong” U.S. response.

He was speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi ahead of emergency summits of Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia on Thursday called to discuss the implications of the tanker attacks, and drone strikes two days later, on oil pumping stations in the kingdom.

Tehran has denied involvement in either of the attacks and Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi dismissed Bolton’s latest remarks as a “ludicrous claim”.

The UAE has not yet blamed anyone for the sabotage of four vessels, including two Saudi tankers, near Fujairah emirate, a major bunkering hub just outside the Strait of Hormuz.

Riyadh has accused Tehran of ordering the drone strikes, which were claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthis who have been battling a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen in a four-year conflict seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

 Bolton said without providing evidence, “There is no doubt in anybody’s mind in Washington who is responsible for this and I think it’s important that the leadership in Iran know that we know.”

He declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation into the attacks in which the United States, France, Norway and Saudi Arabia are taking part, but said those other countries and ship owners involved could do so.

Bolton said the tanker attacks were connected to the strike on oil pumping stations on the kingdom’s East-West pipeline and a rocket attack on the Green Zone in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

He said there had been a fourth unsuccessful attack on Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port a few days before the tanker operation but that it was unclear if it was linked to the others. Saudi officials were not immediately available to comment.

Tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated since President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 multinational nuclear pact with Iran and re-imposed sanctions, notably targeting Tehran’s key oil exports. Iran says it will not be cowed by what it has called psychological warfare.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signaled on Wednesday that talks with the United States might be possible if Washington lifted sanctions and met its commitments under the nuclear deal, state television said.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have backed sanctions against Iran, a fellow OPEC producer but a regional foe, and have lobbied Washington to contain Tehran.

Bolton said the United States was discussing next steps with Gulf allies and the goal was “to make it clear to Iran and its surrogates that these kinds of activities risk a very strong response from the Americans.”

“We are very concerned about the Quds Force and Qassem Soleimani using Shi’ite militia groups and others in Iraq as indirect ways to attack our embassy in Baghdad, consulate in Erbil, our various bases around the country,” he said.

The U.S. Combined Air Operations Center is based in Qatar and its navy Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. The U.S. air force also uses al-Dhafra airbase in Abu Dhabi.

Washington said it was sending 1,500 troops to the region after speeding up deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and sending bombers and additional Patriot missiles.

Bolton also voiced concern about perceived threats from the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Sheldon Adelson: Jackpot for Israel

A bet on Donald Trump for president may have seemed risky two years ago, but for billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the payout has been spectacular. Adelson (85-year old) and his wife Miriam gave around US$82 million to Republicans and candidate Trump in 2016, and within two years his two major asks were met: moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and withdrawing of US from Iran nuclear deal.

This was accomplished in consultation with Adelson comprador John Bolton, who in December 2016 promised members of the American Friends of Beit El that Trump would not only move the embassy by declaring Jerusalem the true capital of Israel, but he would not oppose any Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank territories. Adelson is also credited with opening the door for Bolton’s appointment to national security adviser in March

Adelson has enjoyed a direct line to Trump, speaking with him in person and on the phone at least once a month. Most recently, he was able to convince the president to cut off US aid to Palestinian refugees living in crowded, dirty, and unrelentingly hopeless refugee camps outside Israel. Around the same time, Trump withdrew US$25 million in assistance from impoverished East Jerusalem hospitals that also serve Palestinian cancer patients allowed in from the West Bank and Gaza for treatment.

Of course, Adelson’s pro Zionist agenda, which includes expanding the settlements as far as they can go most recently, is pouring his money into a huge new Israeli medical university on one of those settlements, in sync with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party. It’s been a great year for all involved.

For the first time in recent presidential history, there is no pretense of peace with the Arabs. Trump’s endorsement of a two-state solution at the recent United Nations General Assembly in September may have appeared hopeful, but it was as lame as it was patronizing. “I like two state solutions,” Trump offered spontaneously, posing for smiling photographs with Netanyahu. “That’s what I think works best. That’s my feeling.”

For someone who supposedly has a “peace plan” but hasn’t announced it after two years in office, his “feelings” are as worthless as poker chips outside a casino. Maybe that’s why Bibi didn’t offer much of a response. After declaring he would consider Trump’s non-existent plan “with a keen and open mind,” Netanyahu reiterated that any Palestinian state endorsed by Israel will be an unarmed one, not really a state at all.

Not long after Adelson, Netanyahu also encouraged Trump to stop all funding (an estimated US$300 million allocated in 2018) from a UN agency tasked since 1950 with providing aid for Palestinian refugees, Trump abruptly closed the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) offices in Washington, the only diplomatic conduit between the US and the Palestinian National Authority. The reason given was “PLO leadership has condemned a US peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the US government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise.”

Trump’s point man for the peace plan is none other than his son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose family has generously supported the aforementioned Beit El settlement and is old friends with Netanyahu. Kushner was the primary agitator behind yanking the refugee funding, calling the aid entitlement program and withholding of it a punishment for Palestinian leaders who vilify the administration.

More cynically, reports indicate he is merely helping Israel end right of return for Palestinians and their kin displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Similarly, the embassy move was designed to take the contested issue of Jerusalem off the table. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s government just passed a nation-state law that declares Israel a Jewish state, one that affirms Jewish settlements and the right to self-determination for Israeli Jews only, codifying, in essence, that 1.8 million Arabs living there are second-class citizens. This loads the dice before the games even begin.

Only people like Kushner and Adelson, who at a net worth of US$42.5 billion is the 16th richest man on the planet, would see withholding food, education, and healthcare as way of disappearing a problem to gain leverage in future negotiations. Only Trump would consider that the art of the deal.