MORE OF ROBERT.....

 

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are engaged in the wholesale demolition of the federal government, shutting down entire agencies, breaking into financial payment systems, and firing thousands of government workers while utterly ignoring the courts, law, and Constitution.

There’s a term for what Musk and Trump are doing. It’s a coup d’etat. But the mainstream media is refusing to say it — and that’s a huge problem.

Because if the American people aren’t adequately warned about the wildly illegal and unconstitutional coup d'état that we’re facing, then Trump and Musk may actually succeed in the goal of fully dismantling American democracy.

Americans must call out the oligarchs who are buying up media platforms and turning them into rightwing cesspools. They must call out the billionaires making gigantic campaign contributions in exchange for tax cuts and rollbacks of protections. And they must stop drinking from the corporate money trough themselves, and get Big Money out of American politics.

Again , few expressive words of Mr. Robert Reich, to sum up the entire actual scene in the US. Mr. Trump, Elon Musk and their well funded oligarchy are dismantling the American democracy, and rapidly, then they will have a free and absolute hand in imposing whatever they want, be it economical, social, educational, military or personal profit and grabbing power, indeed it is a very dangerous situation for the nation presently and its future.

As always, all my thanks to my good readers and friends.  

DICTATORS, OLIGARCHIES, AND OTHER FORMS OF GOVERNING......

 

Will the US Become Hungary?

Some say that under Trump, the US will become like Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Hungary: an illiberal democracy in which elections take place, but institutions like the courts and media are largely subverted to authoritarian rule. Having watched Russia slide into authoritarianism, M. Gessen made that case on The New York Times’ The Opinions podcast in November. Others think it’s less likely. Pointing to the difficulty of changing the US Constitution, the power distributed to states, and other factors, Bálint Madlovics and Bálint Magyar argue in a Foreign Affairs essay that Trump would find it more difficult to achieve the same thing here. They write: “Trump’s rampage through the federal bureaucracy and efforts to begin purges of civil servants, along with his flurry of executive orders that demonstratively challenge constitutional limitations on executive power, may seem shocking to U.S. democratic norms. But none of these plans have been put before Congress, and many of them will face legal and legislative roadblocks before they can be fully implemented. By contrast, Orban has been able to use his disciplined supermajority in parliament to formally change Hungary’s legal foundations: tax laws, reforms, and even electoral amendments are regularly passed within days. Even the new constitution of Hungary has been amended 14 times by [Orbán’s party] Fidesz without public debate—something impossible in the United States, where constitutional amendments have been comparatively rare, requiring not only broad congressional approval but a laborious process of state ratification.” Some worry more actively. In another Foreign Affairs essay, Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way write that America’s “vaunted constitutional checks are failing. Trump violated the cardinal rule of democracy” when he refused to accept his 2020 election loss, as MAGA supporters attempted to block the transfer of power. Trump now has more experience in government and more fulsome control of the GOP. “[A]authoritarianism does not require the destruction of the constitutional order,” they write. “What lies ahead is not fascist or single-party dictatorship but competitive authoritarianism—a system in which parties compete in elections but the incumbent’s abuse of power tilts the playing field against the opposition. Most autocracies that have emerged since the end of the Cold War fall into this category, including Alberto Fujimori’s Peru, Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela, and contemporary El Salvador, Hungary, India, Tunisia, and Turkey. … [T]he system is not democratic, because incumbents rig the game by deploying the machinery of government to attack opponents and co-opt critics. Competition is real but unfair.  Competitive authoritarianism will transform political life in the United States. … Democratic Party donors may be targeted by the IRS; businesses that fund civil rights groups may face heightened tax and legal scrutiny or find their ventures stymied by regulators.  Critical media outlets will likely confront costly defamation suits or other legal actions as well as retaliatory policies against their parent companies. Americans will still be able to oppose the government, but opposition will be harder and riskier, leading many elites and citizens to decide that the fight is not worth it.” A good analysis from a longer page by the talented columnist and CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria, a factual situation in many spots of the world including America.  Through our blog I write my ideas and analysis to the benefit of my readers and friends, and sometimes take the liberty of copying an article or open discussion as it reflects well my own thoughts and opinions, and better expressed than my own writings....        As always, many thanks to all my good readers

MAN SHOOTS ISRAELIS IN US, THINKING THEY ARE PALESTINIANS....

 

A Florida man has been arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder after shooting at a car carrying two men he believed were Palestinians but turned out to be Israeli visitors, local authorities and media reports said.
The Miami-Dade County Corrections Department website says the suspect, 27-year-old Mordechai Brafman, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and was taken into custody Sunday in connection with the Saturday shooting.

A police official confirmed earlier reports from local media that Brafman told police during questioning that while driving his truck in Miami Beach, he saw two people he believed were Palestinians, stopped them and shot and killed them.

They survived the incident. Police officials said one was shot in the shoulder and the other in the forearm. They turned out to be Israeli visitors, not Palestinians.

Human rights advocates say there has been a surge in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hatred and anti-Semitism in the United States since Israel, a U.S. ally, began its war on the Gaza Strip following an attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

I cannot believe that this news of a cold murder attempt, reported by Annahar, a Lebanese leading newspaper, copied from Reuters, and heard once on national news, then totally suppressed and pulled out of the news and stored away, again I wonder, who decides what to be told to the public or not, and what's safe and suitable news and what's not ??? A repeating occurrence that is not comfortable and not compatible with liberty and the free press. 

My many thanks to all.    

POLITICS, STRATEGY AND TACTICS.....

 

Lebanon

What is the "Hezbollah Alternative" in Lebanon? 

Translation of "Lebanon 24"

The website "arabnews" published a new report in which it said that the Israeli withdrawal from the south...Lebanon , will be in the interest of all parties concerned.

The report, translated by Lebanon 24, says, “Following the ceasefire agreement reached on November 27 of last year, it was supposed that…Israel withdraws from Lebanese territory by January 26. Last month, the deadline was extended to February 18. But as we approach that date, it is not clear nor any indication that Israel will withdraw on schedule. In fact, the withdrawal of Israel is necessary For Lebanon So that the country can achieve any kind of stability or state building.

The report continued: "Israel succeeded in beheading leaders of Hezbollah, and used advanced technology to assassinate the latter's field commanders. Later, it carried out an attack on the communications equipment of Hezbollah whereby thousands of  its elements were targeted, and this was followed by an Israeli attack that was accompanied by an intensive bombing campaign, in which all the party’s leaders were killed, starting with Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.”

It added: “Under the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah Withdrawal North of the Litani River The agreement also includes the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which orders all Lebanese militias to disarm. At the same time, the Israelis were supposed to withdraw By the end of an initial 60-day period, they have not, and the argument they made was that Israel needs to cleanse the south of the country of all weapons depots and pockets of resistance, and for this reason it continues to bomb parts of the south and the Bekaa from time to time.”

"It is clear that," the report said, that Israel and the new American administration do not believe in soft power or in narrative ideas and precise details, but only in hard power, and they believe that the only way to get rid of Hezbollah is to kill all its members and dry up all its sources of funding. But what they do not realize is that by adopting this method, they are working to  undermine the Lebanese state.

The report stated that "the military force of Hezbollah can be weakened, but the idea of Hezbollah cannot be eliminated as long as there is any form of Israeli occupation or violation of Lebanese sovereignty,” it added. “The argument that Hezbollah, on which the legitimacy of its existence is based, is that the Lebanese army cannot protect Lebanon From the Israeli aggression. Hence, there will be an urgent need for a guerrilla force.”

It added: "Israel, If it wants to play smart, it should withdraw before the next deadline and allow the Lebanese state to take credit. In this way, Beirut can prove to the Lebanese people, including Hezbollah, That the Lebanese state is capable of repelling the Israelis and protecting the country from their aggression using diplomacy, but the arrogance of Israeli leaders, coupled with American leniency, is undermining the Lebanese state.”

It added: "Despite the weakening of Hezbollah Militarily, its narrative is strengthened at the expense of the Lebanese state. When the sixty-day period ended, the people of the south rushed to return to their homes, Israel and "The shooting of 22 people was a blow to the Lebanese state. What happened showed that the state is unable to protect its people."

The report continued: "It will not weaken Hezbollah as long as its audience feels they need protection. Maybe Israel can kill The leader and chain of command are disrupted, however, it will only be a matter of time before the group restores its chain of command and prepares new leaders.”

The report believed that “the United States, which mediated the ceasefire, must show respect for the Lebanese state and enhance its position so that the Lebanese people will trust it,” It continued: “If ordinary Lebanese citizens, especially in the south, do not feel that the state is able to protect them from Israeli aggression, they will resort to Hezbollah Seeking protection, they will send their children to join the party, and will contribute their hard-earned money to finance  it.”

"In fact, the report continued; "The United States does not act as we say," During her visit to Lebanon Last week, the deputy of Special Envoy For the Middle East "Morgan Ortagus thanked Israel for her defeat of Hezbollah, Note that Tel Aviv has just destroyed half of Lebanon Ortagus’s words from the Baabda presidential Palace have undermined the Lebanese state, exacerbated internal divisions in the country, and reinforced the perception among Lebanese Shiites that the state cannot protect them. In the context, Shiites feel isolated and harmed, and Hezbollah is exploiting That."

It continued: "What is happening in Lebanon is a watershed moment for the citizens, a moment when the people should rally around the state and focus on building institutions and making reforms. But the Israeli presence creates a point of contention among the Lebanese who are happy to see the defeat of Hezbollah. The latter’s supporters feel isolated from the rest of Lebanese society. The Israeli presence is also a distraction from state building and a gift to corrupt politicians to obstruct progress towards reforms.”

It continued: “The United States, which has the upper hand, must adopt a strategic vision, and it must pressure Israel To force it to withdraw, while obtaining sufficient guarantees from the Lebanese state that it will pressure Hezbollah to get it to disarm and become a political party on an equal footing with other parties in the country. But the United States seems to prefer a hard power and a frank approach, and this approach carries the risk of internal unrest.”

It concluded: "The United States must realize that the only viable alternative For Hezbollah is a strong Lebanese state, capable of providing security and services to its citizens, and this cannot happen as long as Israel Occupies parts of Lebanon and violates its security. Also, the United States must put pressure on Israel To force it to withdraw by the deadline set for February 18th. 

One day before the dead-line of the application of the ceasefire, a good look and analysis by the Arabnews site, sent to me through Lebanon 24, my translation from Arabic and copied on our blog for the sake of better understanding of the current situation between Israel and Lebanon. 

As always , all my thanks to all.

ACTUAL MIDDLE-EAST TACTICS AND GAMES.....

 

How Trump and Netanyahu forced Mohammed bin Salman to draw a line on Palestine

David Hearst

10 February 2025 11:03 GMT | Last update: 1 day 6 hours ago

Statements by Washington and Tel Aviv endorsing ethnic cleansing plans in Palestine have forced Saudi foreign policy to revert back to the Arab nationalist days of King Faisal

A covert relationship claimed by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Saudi Arabia, one that was years in the making, has been unravelling in a matter of days.

Netanyahu talked about it explicitly in an interview with Channel 14 during his visit to Washington last week.

"We had covert relations for nearly three years. On our side, apart from me, three people knew about it. On their side there were also a very small number of people who were involved in this, as was the case on the American side," Netanyahu boasted.

If true, and not another of Netanyahu’s fabrications, you can either reveal this relationship with the other side’s consent, or when it is over. The third possibility is that this statement is the act of a bully, like many others in the past week.

But the relationship between the kingdom and Israel has been as much based on personal as state ambitions.

As an unknown prince facing stiff opposition from powerful members of the royal family, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) realised that his path to power at home lay via Tel Aviv and Washington.

Once installed as crown prince, Bin Salman continued to court Israel, making a covert visit in 2017. He flattered American Jewish opinion expressing headline-making disdain for the Palestinian cause. 

A year later, he castigated the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying Palestinians should negotiate with Israel or "shut up". 

Before the Hamas-led attack on Israel, MBS inched ever closer to putting his signature on the Abraham Accords. 

Even after the Hamas attacks, Saudi Arabia maintained business as usual.  

No room for manoeuvre 

For 15 long months, no pro Palestinian protests were tolerated and the festivals continued while Gaza wept. Even raising a Palestinian flag or praying for Gaza by pilgrims at Mecca was banned. 

Neither the death toll in Gaza, nor the invasion of Lebanon, nor the military operation in the Occupied West Bank changed the Saudi line. 

Trump's plan to colonise Gaza echoes failed 19th-century American missions

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The crown prince was even prepared to tolerate a degree of humiliation at the hands of US President Donald Trump. Asked which country he would visit first, Trump said Saudi Arabia would have to pay $500bn in US contracts for the privilege of his presence. 

After a warm phonecall from MBS, the kingdom promised $600bn. Trump then upped the demand, saying the figure should be more like $1 trillion.

"I think they’ll do that because we've been very good to them," Trump said to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

When Trump revealed his plan to own Gaza after the mass transfer of the Palestinians, he said that the bill for the clean up operation would go to the Gulf states, by which he meant Saudi Arabia. This particularly irked Riyadh. 

Trump also bragged that Saudi Arabia would normalize with Israel without a Palestinian state. "So, Saudi Arabia is going to be very helpful. And they have been very helpful. They want peace in the Middle East. It's very simple," Trump said.

It took Riyadh just 45 minutes to reply in what has become known as the dawn statement.

It left little room for maneuver.

"His Royal Highness emphasized that Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and will not establish relations with Israel without that."

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also reaffirms its unequivocal rejection of any infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, land annexation or attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land....The kingdom of Saudi Arabia emphasizes that this unwavering position is non-negotiable and not subject to compromises."

The war of words has hotted up since.

In his interview with Channel 14, Netanyahu performed a victory roll. He said if the Saudis were so keen on creating a Palestinian state, they could do it on their territory. "The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there."

This provoked a further chorus of condemnation from the Arab world including Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait. 

In its second statement of the week, on Sunday, Riyadh said it categorically rejected statements that "aim to divert attention from the continuous crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are subjected to".

The statement again left little to the imagination: "This extremist, occupying mentality does not understand what the Palestinian land means to the brotherly people of Palestine and their emotional, historical and legal connection to this land," it said.

Palestinians have a right to their land and "are not intruders or immigrants to it who can be expelled whenever the brutal Israeli occupation wishes". 

A bygone era

In just a few days, Trump and Netanyahu have undone all their own work. They were the ones who arm-twisted the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco to sign the Abraham Accords.

In his interview with Fox News, Netanyahu made no bones about the purpose of doing this. He said it was done to sideline the Palestinians. Netanyahu poured scorn on Saudi sensibilities.

Netanyahu is now saying he would impose peace on the Arab world by force, that the Arab world will come crawling to him when Israel has conquered all

"When we complete the changeover in the Middle East, when we cut the Iranian axis down even further, when we make sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons, when we destroy Hamas, that will set the stage for an additional agreement with the Saudis and with others.

"By the way, I also believe in the Muslim world. Because it's peace through strength. When we are very strong and we stand together, the objections that are raised now that it's insurmountable are going to change," he said.

Until today, Netanyahu had been telling MBS and Mohammed Bin Zayed, UAE president, that he would deal with them as allies.

Now he was saying he would impose peace on them by force, that this is not a relation of equals and the Arab world will come crawling to him when Israel has conquered all. 

All of this has now forced Saudi foreign policy to revert back five decades to the Arab nationalist days of King Faisal. 

And for the first time in 15 months, there is now a real prospect of a frontline of Arab states emerging, formed from the countries which have been so quiescent to Israel.

Wearing, significantly, a keffiyeh, the former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal warned of "collective action" not only by the Arab and Muslim world but Europe as well.

Late on Sunday, Egypt announced that it would host an emergency Arab summit on 27 February to discuss "new and dangerous developments" after Trump proposed to resettle Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

A bridge too far

What triggered this change was the adoption of mass population transfer as the official policy of Israel and the United States.

For decades, it had lingered untouched on the dusty shelves of political debate in the extremist wings of religious Zionism. Now it’s mainstream policy in Israel and America.

The Gaza 'war' was a lie, as is the ceasefire. Trump just told you

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Far from just challenging Israel’s immediate neighbours, Egypt and Jordan, a forcible transfer of two million Palestinians would affect every Arab state, particularly the Saudi kingdom.

As Trump doubled down on mass transfer, and with Netanyahu calling it the "purest, freshest idea in years", the threat perceived in Arab capitals has only grown. 

For the religious Zionist movement claims territory far beyond the current borders with Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Daniella Weiss, the leader of the settler movement, is not shy about expressing the territorial reach of the land promised to Jews by God.

"This is the promise of God to the Patriarchs of the Jewish Nation. It's three thousand kilometres. It's almost as big as the Sahara Desert. It's Iraq and Syria, and part of Saudi Arabia."

Even without Itamar Ben Gvir, the former extremist national security minister, in charge, Israel is occupying more Syrian land than the Gaza Strip, not counting the Occupied Golan Heights. It refuses to leave Lebanon. It makes no secret of its plan to divide Syria up into cantons and is employing increasingly hostile rhetoric to Turkey. 

It's only a matter of time before Israel’s territorial expansion destabilises the whole region with dire consequences for the Saudi kingdom.

Quite apart from which, the factors that brought the quiescence of the Gulf states to the Palestinian conflict no longer exist with quite the clarity they did in 2017.

Israel and the first Trump administration sold the Abraham Accords as part of an anti-Iranian pact.

But now that Iran’s axis of resistance has been weakened by the loss of Syria and the battering that Hezbollah took in the war, the Saudis calculate rightly that it is not in their interests to push Iran further into a corner. 

Particularly as the first oil installations to feel a retaliatory Iranian drone strike would be theirs. Relations between Riyadh and the new Iranian president are warm, and MBS wants to keep them that way.

MBS is also in a different position. He is in firm control of his kingdom and is seen as a popular, modernising leader - by those younger than him. The repression he used to climb up the greasy pole of power is, for the moment, behind him.

Shedding Israel and distancing himself from Trump now gives him and the kingdom the opportunity to return to the moral as well as economic epicentre of the Arab and Islamic world. 

Shedding Israel and distancing himself from Trump now gives him the opportunity to return to the moral and economic epicentre of the Arab and Islamic world

The kingdom is no longer isolated from the Muslim world in the way it was when MBS came to power. It enjoys warm relations with Turkey. There is a $6bn deal in the offing, with Riyadh in the market to buy warships, tanks and missiles from Ankara.

MBS also now knows how popular the Palestinian cause has become at home. According to the Atlantic’s account of his conversation with former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he said that while he personally does not care about the Palestinian issue, 70 percent of his people who are younger than him do.

"For most of them, they never really knew much about the Palestinian issue. And so they’re being introduced to it for the first time through this conflict. It’s a huge problem. Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don’t, but my people do, so I need to make sure this is meaningful," MBS is reported to have said. 

What would MBS get from shaking Netanyahu's blood-soaked hands in public? 

Today there is only a long list of negatives for him in such a photo-op.

Too late

On Tuesday, King Abdullah of Jordan arrives in Washington with a message from the Arab world to which Trump would do well to listen. It's not bluster. It's not spoken out of weakness. It's the truth.

Gaza is a Palestinian homeland, not Trump's luxury resort

Read More »

The consequences of allowing Israel to flatten Gaza, expel over two million people, force Jordan and Egypt to accept them, and the rich Arab states to reconstruct it, would indeed change the Middle East beyond all recognition. Netanyahu is right about that.

It would embroil the US in a religious conflict that would boil away long after Trump’s or Netanyahu’s body had been lowered into the ground. 

The pragmatist in Trump should wake up.

The only lesson of the futile wars America has waged this century under Republican and Democrat presidents is that they start in certainty and end in chaos, and go on much longer than America wants them to.

It is Trump’s task to end war. It is Netanyahu’s openly proclaimed task to keep this one going, and to expand it to tame the whole region. 

That is why it is in the best interests of an isolationist, nationalist, inward turning America to dump Netanyahu and his dreams of greater Israel today. 

Because tomorrow might be too late. 

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

David Hearst is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye. He is a commentator and speaker on the region and analyst on Saudi Arabia. He was the Guardian's foreign leader writer, and was correspondent in Russia, Europe, and Belfast. He joined the Guardian from The Scotsman, where he was education correspondent.

An excellent and very factual analysis by Mr. Hearst, as it's circulating widely in many social media platforms, I received it by e-mail, and decided to share it with my good readers through our blog, please take the time to fully read it.         As always , my many thanks to all.