Tuesday, August 31, 2021
From Ian:
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Joe Biden is deaf, dumb and blind to the chaos the US has unleashed
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Joe Biden is deaf, dumb and blind to the chaos the US has unleashed
In the eyes of the Taliban, the Afghans who worked with the Nato-backed Afghan government and those who worked in any capacity with US armed forces are traitors. The Taliban have already begun the work of retribution. Other jihadi and tribal groups in Afghanistan will be glad to lend a hand.David Singer: Bennett kowtows to Biden and jettisons Trump
We’ve seen this throughout history. Think back to the French-Algerian war in the mid-20th century. There was a group of French citizens living in Algeria, the pieds-noirs, who supported the French in the war. There was another group of Algerian Muslims who supported the French too, known as the harkis. When war broke out, both groups were viewed as enemy collaborators by the Algerian Front de Libération nationale. When the French withdrew, thousands of pieds-noirs and harkis managed to escape to France, but those left behind were hunted down and forced to face the Algerian nationals alone. In 2012, then French president Nicolas Sarkozy acknowledged that “France should have protected the harkis from history, it did not do so.”
The US has, itself, been in parallel situations. The Montagnards, a mountainous ethnic group from Vietnam, faced brutal reprisals for working with US Special Forces during the Vietnam War. After the war, many Montagnards fled to Cambodia, as the victorious North Vietnamese targeted them for working with the enemy. Several American Green Berets and veterans fought to evacuate their Montagnards allies to the US. Some got out, but many were captured, tortured, imprisoned or killed.
In Afghanistan, too, ethnic divisions will play a part in the conflicts that will follow the US exit. After the failure of the Soviet occupation, the USSR signed the Geneva accords in 1988, along with the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, leaving tribal animosity to fester. The Taliban, consisting mostly of Pashtuns, rose to power in the 1990s and systematically targeted non-Pashtuns. As Amy Chua writes in her book Political Tribes, in 1998, “the Taliban massacred 2,000 Uzbeks and Hazaras (who for their part had massacred Taliban Pashtuns in 1997)”. Following the US invasion of 2001, the Americans allied with the Uzbek warlords of the Northern Alliance, which in turn took revenge on the Taliban soldiers by “mercilessly” killing thousands.
Earlier this week, US secretary of state Antony Blinken stated that the Taliban “have made public and private commitments to provide and permit safe passage for Americans, for third-country nationals, and Afghans at risk going forward past August 31.” But we’ve already heard many reports to the contrary. Some wishful thinkers would like us to believe that this is a newer, modern version of the Taliban. However, this is not the Taliban 2.0. They are showing us who they are before we’ve even left. Soon after the collapse of the Afghan government, reports stated that they were “going door-to-door and screening names at Kabul checkpoints as they hunt for people who worked with US-led forces or the previous Afghan government”.
The recklessness of the Biden team continues to astound me. It really is as if they are deaf, dumb, and blind – ignoring not only what is happening on the ground in Afghanistan but also what has happened in multiple similar situations throughout history.
Bennett articulated Israel’s national interests in Area C when presenting his comprehensive Israel Stability Initiative in February 2012:Amb. Alan Baker: To Secretary of State Blinken: Repatriating Israeli Captives Is a Basic Humanitarian Right under International Conventions
1. Israel unilaterally extending sovereignty over Area C:
“Through this initiative, Israel will secure vital interests: providing security to Jerusalem and the Gush Dan Region, protecting Israeli communities, and maintaining sovereignty over our National Heritage Sites. The world will not recognize our claim to sovereignty, as it does not recognize our sovereignty over the Western Wall, the Ramot and Gilo neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Yet eventually the world will adjust to the de facto reality.
"Further, the areas coming under Israel’s sovereignty will create territorial contiguity and will include the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, Ariel, Maale Adumim, the mountains above Ben Gurion Airport, and all of the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. As a result, residents of Tel Aviv, the Gush Dan Region, Jerusalem, and Israel will live in full security, protected against threats from the east.”
2. Full naturalization of the 50,000 Arabs living in Area C:
“This will counter any claims of apartheid. Currently there are 350,000 Jewish residents, and only 50,000 Arab residents of Area C. Irrespective of religion, all residents of the area will receive full citizenship. Based on this outline, no Arabs or Jews will be evicted or expelled from their properties.”
3. A full Israeli security umbrella for all of Judea and Samaria:
“The success of the initiative is conditional on keeping the territories peaceful and quiet. Peace can only be achieved with the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] maintaining a strong presence in, and complete security control over, Judea and Samaria. If the IDF leaves, Hamas will rapidly infiltrate the area. This is how Hamas took control of Gaza, and how Hizballah took control of southern Lebanon”
Abandonment of these objectives by Israel’s present Government for the next four years can only be regarded as:
- an attempt to curry favour with Biden, the Democrat Party and his administration
- a missed opportunity to advance President Trump’s detailed peace plan to extend Israeli sovereignty into approximately 50% of Area C (see diagram following)
The mutual backslapping and expressions of self-admiration by Bennett and Biden for each other at their White House meeting on 27 August took place as the US was reeling from the deaths of 13 US military personnel, 18 more wounded and at least 169 Afghani citizens killed in two suicide-bombing attacks following Biden’s disastrous decision to unilaterally withdraw from Afghanistan.
Forgotten was Bennett’s own assessment of Trump in May 2020:
“Israel has never had a friend like Donald Trump. But it cannot guarantee that of his successors. His bold peace vision creates new possibilities that we believe should be pursued—but not at any price.”
Taking flight from – rather than fighting for – Bennett’s own and Trump’s carefully crafted proposals to provide Israel with secure, defensible and recognized borders – is not in Israel’s national interests.
Kowtowing to Biden and jettisoning Trump does not augur well for Bennett’s coalition Government or Israel.
UN Security Council Resolution 2474, unanimously adopted in 2019, called upon parties to armed conflict to take all appropriate measures to actively search for persons reported missing, to enable the return of their remains and to account for persons reported missing “without adverse distinction.”3
This landmark call for the return of missing persons and the remains of those killed “without adverse distinction” clearly emphasizes the importance for all involved parties to refrain from making such return conditional on other negotiating items, including obviously the passage of fuel and electricity.
These rights and obligations exist beneath and beyond specific tactical or strategic issues arising during negotiations for any political or military deal or settlement between conflicting parties. They cannot and should not be conditioned on such mundane issues as provision of fuel and electricity.
Clearly, trading the return of missing soldiers and civilians for other less humanitarian negotiating items is tantamount to ignoring or downgrading the basic humanitarian obligations to unconditionally return missing soldiers and civilians.
The return of Israel’s missing civilians and the remains of its soldiers should override all other matters in contacts between Israel, the UN, Egypt, Qatar and Hamas. It should not be relegated, conditioned or linked to negotiating issues such as civil economic and humanitarian development projects in the Gaza Strip or transfer of funds to Hamas.
Since the obligation to repatriate the missing is fully accepted by the international community, and is an inherent element in the world’s great religions, it is incumbent upon all countries and organizations to do everything in their power to bring the missing soldiers and civilians back to their families, without any condition or adverse distinction, and without any political connection.
One might hope that Secretary Blinken will be correctly briefed by his advisors as to the genuine, internationally accepted humanitarian priorities, and will refrain from sanctioning a false and dual standard regarding Israel’s missing civilians and remains of its soldiers.
