Islam > Erdogan still trying to recreate the Ottoman Empire with himself as Caliph, but he has to go through Israel

 

Erdogan’s Excellent Adventure:

An ‘Islamic Alliance’ to Destroy Israel

Sep 9, 2024 4:00 pm By Hugh Fitzgerald

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been busy re-Islamizing Turkey and removing the last vestiges of Kemalism. He has changed the Turkish Army, replacing Kemalist generals who favor secularism with Islamist officers. This new officer corps, instead of being wary of soldiers who are “too pious,” as their predecessors had been, now promote those “pious soldiers” up through the ranks. Erdogan has jailed Turkish academics, lawyers, university rectors, and journalists who are opposed to his re-Islamizing program and to his despotism. Erdogan has built more than 20,000 new mosques during his more than 20 years in power. And he has built about 1,800 Imam Hatip schools, serving ten percent of the pre-university population, which provide a rigorous religious education along with training in secular subjects. Under Erdogan’s rule, the graduates of these Imam Hatip schools can expect favorable treatment when they apply to university, or for jobs, especially in the government bureaucracy. Erdogan himself attended an Imam Hatip school, and sees them as a way to forge a “pious generation” in largely Muslim Turkey. He has continued investing in the schools, building more of them every year.

And now this anti-Ataturk has called for the 57 Muslim nations to form a military alliance against Israel. It’s not a new theme for him. A few years ago, he spoke of a possible future war between the “crescent and the cross,” and left no doubt as to which side Turkey would be on. In fact, it was clear that he expected that Turkey would be the natural leader of the forces of Islam and he, as the leader of Turkey, would lead the entire group. More on his latest invoking of a pan-Islamic alliance to defeat Israel can be found here: 

Turkey’s Erdogan: Islamic countries should form alliance against ‘Israel’s growing expansionism'

Jerusalem Post, September 7, 2024:

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Islamic countries should form an alliance against what he called “the growing threat of expansionism” from Israel.

He made the comment after describing what Palestinian and Turkish officials said was the killing by Israeli troops of a Turkish-American woman taking part in a protest on Friday against settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, Israeli banditry, and Israeli state terrorism is the alliance of Islamic countries,” Erdogan said at an Islamic schools’ association event near Istanbul.

Perhaps Erdogan has been asleep for the past eleven months. When 6,000 Hamas operatives smashed into Israel from Gaza on October 7, they proceeded to rape, torture, mutilate, and murder 1,200 Israelis and kidnap another 251. This started a war that Israel did not want and did not expect. What he calls “Israeli arrogance” and “Israeli banditry” is simply the stout resolve of the Jewish state to defend itself and to prevent another genocidal attack by Hamas in the future. There has been no “state terrorism” by the IDF, which makes colossal efforts to minimize civilian casualties. As the main part of that effort, already by March the IDF had dropped nine million leaflets, sent sixteen million messages, and made fifteen million robocalls, all to warn civilians away from areas, and buildings, that were soon to be targeted. Does that sound like “banditry” and “state terrorism” to you?

He said recent steps that Turkey has taken to improve ties with Egypt and Syria are aimed at “forming a line of solidarity against the growing threat of expansionism,” which he said also threatened Lebanon and Syria.

“The threat of expansionism”? What can Erdogan be thinking of? Israel has no desire to be in Gaza; every last Israeli was pulled out of the Strip in 2005. And right now, just as soon as a permanent ceasefirecan be achieved, the Israelis are looking forward to withdrawing from every part of Gaza except, possibly, the nine-mile-long strip on the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, where they might remain to prevent renewed arms smuggling by Hamas. No one in Israel wants to stay in Gaza a moment longer than necessary. And in Lebanon, similarly, Israel has no desire to “expand” into southern Lebanon. Its only goal is to inflict so much pain on the terror group Hezbollah that it will stop firing rockets into the Galilee, thus allowing 60,000 displaced Israelis to return to their homes in the north. Nor does Israel want to “expand” into Syria. All it wants is to prevent Iran from using Syria as a waystation in its transshipment of weapons to Hamas. Erdogan can prate all he wants about the “danger” of “expansionism” by the Jewish state, but he knows it is nonsense. The real power that is expanding, not in land area but in its ever-deepening hold on its proxies in the region, is Iran, which supplies weapons, and money, to Hamas in Gaza, to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and to the Houthis in Yemen, and to the Kata’ib Hezbollah, a Shiite militia in Iraq.

Military Madness > Russia and Iran snuggle up closer, apparently, is it part of the Ezekiel prophecy of End Times?

If this is true, and Russia is drawing closer to Iran, it could be another step in the alignment of mostly Islamic countries and Russia preparing for the invasion of Israel as prophecied in Ezekiel 38 and 39. On the other hand, it could just be more NATO/American propaganda.

 

US sounds alarm as Russia, Iran move toward

full defence ‘partnership’

The Biden administration is accusing Russia of moving to provide advanced military assistance to Iran, including air defense systems, helicopters and fighter jets, part of deepening cooperation between the two nations as Tehran provides drones to support Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

By:NEWS WIRES

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Friday cited US intelligence assessments for the allegations, saying Russia was offering Iran “an unprecedented level of military and technical support that is transforming their relationship into a full-fledged defence partnership.”

Kirby said Russia and Iran were considering standing up a drone assembly line in Russia for the Ukraine conflict, while Russia was training Iranian pilots on the Sukhoi Su-35 fighter and Iran could receive deliveries of the plane within the year.

“These fighter planes will significantly strengthen Iran’s air force relative to its regional neighbors,” Kirby said.

The US allegations are part of a deliberate effort by the US to drive global isolation of Russia, in this case targeted at Arab nations who have looked to contain Iran's regional malevolence and who have not taken a strong stance against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration accused Saudi Arabia of siding with Russia in the conflict by shepherding cuts by the OPEC+ cartel to boost the price of oil, crucial to funding Moscow's war effort. Saudi Arabia and Iran have been on opposite sides of a yearslong proxy war in Yemen.

Kirby said the arms transfers were in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and that the US would be “using the tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt these activities."

Concerns about the “deepening and a burgeoning defense partnership” between Russia and Iran come as the Biden administration has repeatedly accused Iran of assisting Russia with its invasion of Ukraine.

The administration says Iran sold hundreds of attack drones to Russian over the summer. Kirby on Friday reiterated the administration's belief that Iran is considering the sale of hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia, but acknowledged that the U.S. doesn’t have "perfect visibility into Iranian thinking on why" the deal hasn't been consummated.

Britain’s UN ambassador, Barbara Woodward, on Friday accused Russia of attempting to obtain more weapons from Iran, including hundreds of ballistic missiles, in return for “an unprecedented level of military and technical support” to Tehran.

“We are concerned that Russia intends to provide Iran with more advanced military components, which will allow Iran to strengthen their weapons capability,” she said. “So it is imperative that the truth about Iran’s supply to Russia is exposed, and is investigated by the UN as soon as possible.”

At a UN Security Council meeting called by Russia to assess the impact of Western weapons pumped into Ukraine, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia again denied that Iran is supplying weapons to Ukraine.

“The military industrial complex in Russia can work perfectly fine and doesn’t need anyone’s assistance, whereas the Ukrainian military industry does not basically exist and is being assisted by the Western industry and Western companies,” he said.

The White House says Russia has also turned to North Korea for artillery as the nine-month war grinds on. North Korea has denied the claim.

The White House has repeatedly sought to spotlight Russia’s reliance on Iran and North Korea, another broadly isolated nation on the international stage, for support as it prosecutes its war against Ukraine.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly called the Iran-Russia collaboration a “desperate alliance.”

“Iran is now one of Russia’s top military backers,” he said. “Their sordid deals have seen the Iranian regime send hundreds of drones to Moscow, which have been used to attack Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and kill civilians.

“In return, Russia is offering military and technical support to the Iranian regime, which will increase the risk it poses to our partners in the Middle East and to international security.”

Are these just words from an unreliable source, words that are just made up out of thin air, or, is there some proof that this is going on? I have long since given up believing anything that comes out of western intelligence sources as being anything other than fantasy.

The Biden administration recently unveiled sanctions against Iranian firms and entities involved in the transfer of Iranian drones to Russia for use in Ukraine.

It all comes as the administration has condemned the Islamic republic’s violent squelching of protests that erupted throughout Iran after the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while she was held by the morality police.

Even as the White House has accused Iran of backing Russia’s war effort, the administration has not abandoned the possibility of reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — scuttled by the Trump administration in 2018.

The pact, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, would provide Tehran with billions in sanctions relief in exchange for the country agreeing to roll back its nuclear program to the limits set by the 2015 deal.

(AP)

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North Korea’s Ultimatum to America

Interesting breakdown of Washington's dilemma with North Korea

Washington and Pyongyang exchange threats as the latter continues to evoke the wrath of world powers with its latest nuclear test.

Caroline Glick 

The nuclear confrontation between the US and North Korea entered a critical phase Sunday with North Korea’s conduct of an underground test of a thermonuclear bomb.

If the previous round of this confrontation earlier this summer revolved around Pyongyang’s threat to attack the US territory of Guam, Sunday’s test, together with North Korea’s recent tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the continental US, was a direct threat to US cities.

In other words, the current confrontation isn’t about US superpower status in Asia, and the credibility of US deterrence or the capabilities of US military forces in the Pacific. The confrontation is now about the US’s ability to protect the lives of its citizens.

The distinction tells us a number of important things. All of them are alarming.

First, because this is about the lives of Americans, rather than allied populations like Japan and South Korea, the US cannot be diffident in its response to North Korea’s provocation. While attenuated during the Obama administration, the US’s position has always been that US military forces alone are responsible for guaranteeing the collective security of the American people.

Pyongyang is now directly threatening that security with hydrogen bombs. So if the Trump administration punts North Korea’s direct threat to attack US population centers with nuclear weapons to the UN Security Council, it will communicate profound weakness to its allies and adversaries alike.

Obviously, this limits the options that the Trump administration has. But it also clarifies the challenge it faces.

The second implication of North Korea’s test of their plutonium-based bomb is that the US’s security guarantees, which form the basis of its global power and its alliance system are on the verge of becoming completely discredited.

In an interview Sunday with Fox News’s Trish Regan, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton was asked about the possible repercussions of a US military assault against North Korea for the security of South Korea.

Regan asked, “What are we risking though if we say we’re going to go in with strategic military strength?... Are we going to end up with so many people’s lives gone in South Korea, in Seoul because we make that move?” Bolton responded with brutal honesty.

“Let me ask you this: how do you feel about dead Americans?” In other words, Bolton said that under prevailing conditions, the US faces the painful choice between imperiling its own citizens and imperiling the citizens of an allied nation. And things will only get worse. Bolton warned that if North Korea’s nuclear threat is left unaddressed, US options will only become more problematic and limited in the years to come.

This then brings us to the third lesson of the current round of confrontation between the US and North Korea.

If you appease an enemy on behalf of an ally then you aren’t an ally.

And eventually your alliance become empty of all meaning.

For 25 years, three successive US administrations opted to turn a blind eye to North Korea’s nuclear program in large part out of concern for South Korea.

Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all sought to appease North Korea’s aggressive nuclear adventurism because they didn’t believe they had a credible military option to deal with it.

In the 1980s, North Korea developed and deployed a conventional arsenal of bombs and artillery along the demilitarized zone capable of vaporizing Seoul.

Any US military strike against North Korea’s nuclear installation it was and continues to be argued, would cause the destruction of Seoul and the murder of millions of South Koreans.

So US efforts to appease Pyongyang on behalf of Seoul emptied the US-South Korean alliance of meaning. The US can only serve as the protector of its allies, and so assert its great power status in the Pacific and worldwide, if it prevents its allies from being held hostage by its enemies.

And now, not only does the US lack a clear means of defending South Korea, and Japan, America itself is threatened by the criminal regime it demurred from effectively confronting.

Regardless of the means US President Donald Trump decides to use to respond to North Korea’s provocative actions and threats to America’s national security, given the nature of the situation, it is clear that the balance of forces on the ground cannot and will not remain as they have been.

If the US strikes North Korea in a credible manner and successfully diminishes its capacity to physically threaten the US, America will have taken the first step towards rebuilding its alliances in Asia.

On the other hand, if the current round of hostilities does not end with a significant reduction of North Korea’s offensive capabilities, either against the US or its allies, then the US will be hard pressed to maintain its posture as a Pacific power. So long as Pyongyang has the ability to directly threaten the US and its allies, US strategic credibility in East Asia will be shattered.

This then brings us to China.

China has been the main beneficiary of North Korea’s conventional and nuclear aggression and brinksmanship.

This state of affairs was laid bare in a critical way last month.

In mid-August, Trump’s then chief strategist Steve Bannon was preparing a speech Trump was set to deliver that would have effectively declared a trade war against China in retaliation for its predatory trade practices against US companies and technology. The speech was placed in the deep freeze – and Bannon was forced to resign his position – when North Korea threatened to attack the US territory of Guam with nuclear weapons. The US, Trump’s other senior advisers argued, couldn’t declare a trade war against China when it needed China’s help to restrain North Korea.

So by enabling North Korea’s aggression against the US and its allies, China has created a situation where the US has become neutralized as a strategic competitor.

Rather than advance its bilateral interests – like curbing China’s naval aggression in the South China Sea – in its contacts with China, the US is forced into the position of supplicant, begging China to restrain North Korea in order to avert war.

If the US does not act to significantly downgrade North Korea’s offensive capabilities now, when its own territory is being threatened, it is difficult to see how the US will be able to develop an effective strategy for coping with China’s rise as an economic and strategic rival in Asia and beyond. That is, the US’s actions now in response to North Korea’s threat to its national security will determine whether or not the US will be in a position to develop and implement a wider strategy for maintaining its capacity to project its economic and military power in the Pacific in the near and long term.

Finally, part of the considerations that need to inform US action now involve what North Korea’s success in developing a nuclear arsenal under the noses of successive US administrations means for the future of nuclear proliferation.

In all likelihood, unless the North Korean nuclear arsenal is obliterated, Pyongyang’s nuclear triumphalism will precipitate a spasm of nuclear proliferation in Asia and in the Middle East. The implications of this for the US and its allies will be far reaching.

Not only can Japan and South Korea be reasonably expected to develop nuclear arsenals. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other inherently unstable Arab states can be expected to develop or purchase nuclear arsenals in response to concerns over North Korea and its ally Iran with its nuclear weapons program linked to Pyongyang’s.

In other words, if the US does not respond in a strategically profound way to Pyongyang now, it will not only lose its alliance system in Asia, it will see the rapid collapse of its alliance system and superpower status in the Middle East.

Israel, for one, will be imperiled by the sudden diffusion of nuclear power.

Monday morning, North Korea followed up its thermonuclear bomb test with a spate of threats to destroy the United States. These threats are deadly even if North Korea doesn’t attack the US with its nuclear weapons. If the US does not directly defeat North Korea in a clear-cut way now, its position as a superpower in Asia and worldwide will be destroyed and its ability to defend its own citizens will be called into question with increasing frequency and lethality.