Europe and Israel Decline & Fragment; Trump Starts A War On Yemen

That’s the title of the Glenn Diesen video that features Alastair Crooke and Alexander Mercouris. In this post I’ll present a partial transcript that starts from about the 45:12 mark and continues to the end. Having switched from the US - Russia negotiations, the discussion turns to a very big picture view of Israel and Europe and their shared nihilism:

Europe and Israel Decline & Fragment - Alastair Crooke, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen

AC: Secular Conflict Management--the Trumpian sort of reductive transactional politics--doesn't work if you tell the people you're dealing with, 'You know, hell will break loose if you don't do what I tell you,' or, 'If you don't release these hostages it will break loose,' but what if they say: 'Great! Let's bring it on! Go ahead! That's what we want! We want Armageddon!'

AM: Especially if, at a certain level, they also see Armageddon as the mechanism to solve what look like insoluble problems. If there are enormous tensions growing within your society and you say that you can't coexist with the Palestinians, you have to find some way to resolve this problem of the Palestinians. So you have the biblical injunction to seek Armageddon, and at the same time Armageddon is the way out of the insoluble problem. So you can see the potential power of this kind of thinking and why ...

AC: Can I interrupt just for a second to say that, you know, the Ben Gurion Dilemma was resolved by having a smaller professional Army and reservists and deterrence. And the breaches of the Iron Wall would be expected and would take place, but with the new paradigm--which is to treat the rest of the region as Amalek. How does Israel survive in this wider context? Does it just go on? They're now doing this in Syria and Lebanon and Yemen. Does this constitute a real future for a state? I think this is why this breakdown is so bitterly felt and so argued. I just want to say--because I'm sure you'll get lots of people coming back to you, saying, 'But we don't see that in Haaretz!' It's not in English, particularly in the English mainstream media. This is an internal discussion that is conducted almost entirely in Hebrew. It is not for Outsiders--not even for American Reform Jews living in New York. It's not something that's widely seen. But once I explain the sort of mechanics of this it becomes obvious why there is such a big division and why it could explode. If Netanyahu goes--they're planning to remove him by coup d'etat--if that happens, you know what happen in Israel? What will be the consequence? I don't answer that question. I don't know.

AM: And just just to follow up on your point about New York, because one of the questions you ask in your article is, 'Does Trump understand this?' I don't think he does, because his knowledge of Jews, of Jewish people, come from the people he has interacted with and they are from New York. He interacts with the Jewish community in New York and he interacts with the Jewish community in Florida. This is his conception of what Jewish people are all about.

I am quite sure that he doesn't really understand any of this because it never presents itself to him.

One caveat here. Trump actually has fairly extensive contacts in the Middle East, especially among Lebanese. This goes back years and is not limited to his new in laws.

I'm just going to finish with one thing. I mean, eschatology, apocalypse, we see this in a particularly terrifying form in Israel and I think--as you correctly say--when these kind of things take hold, a society which embraces them is going to fracture, inevitably. I'm not going to say that we're quite as apocalyptic, and we don't have the same eschatology in Europe, but in a kind of way, going back to what you were saying about embracing militarism as the way out of our problems--not just our geostrategic and security problems but our economic and social problems--it's not ultimately that different. It's as much of a blind alley and a route through to disaster as anything that is being argued about in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and other places.

AC: I think that you hit the nail on the head. Just as I've tried to show in terms of Israel, the idea of Germany and France and Europe seriously militarizing towards an imaginary war launched by Russia against Europe is just a recipe for economic disaster, because they will be overwhelmed by the debt that they incur. It will not lead to any good result. They will become more and more isolated from the world. They won't be wanted as partners by other states. All the business will go between Russia and the United States and also China. Europe will be left isolated as a sort of forlorn, unloved partner on our little promontory of Eurasia.

GD: This is why I find the narratives that prevail in Europe so dangerous because we do have possible solutions ahead of us. There are compromises that can be made with Russia. The basic sources of this conflict don't have to be defined as a zero sum game. ... It's very sad to see, and it's all being done to the great applause and the conviction in their own self-righteousness and how important this fight is. It's so extraordinary also when you see the Europeans addressing the rest of the world as if we we are standing on our principles while they are not. I think a large part of the world is starting to look at us like we lost our minds to some extent, and I guess they're not wrong.

AC: The distinction I always make, particularly when I go to Russia, is: I tell them, Zakharova, don't talk about the Europeans. These are the elites--that's what you mean. ... The elites are becoming increasingly divorced from their own base, isolated internationally and running out of money. It's a grim picture but sooner or later I think the paradigm is going to break. I don't know when, but it is going to break and then I think we will see--just as we've seen in America--it shifts really quite suddenly. I said some time ago when I was in Russia, I said the first break will come in America, then there'll be a long pause and then we will see Europe following suit. I still think that's going to happen. It'll come, but we have to go through a sort of period of catharsis.

AM: I agree and it will be a very hard and grim time for young people, especially, because they're the people in front of whom the bridges have been destroyed, in effect. So it's not surprising that they're becoming disaffected and disillusion. There are always alternatives. There are alternatives for Europe, and there were alternatives for Israel, before. It's just that conscious decisions were always made to reject them [in Israel], and it's the same here [in Europe].

---

Has Trump become captive to the Armageddon crowd? He’s launched a war on Yemen, er, terrorists. It’s always terrorists, because that’s the key word that allows us to ignore what grievances they may have. Whatever happened to Declarations of War? This strikes me as a very bad idea. He’s also threatening Iran again—another bad idea. I wonder whether Russia and China will welcome this new entanglement for the Anglo-Zionists? And whether the Houthis will have any new tricks to play.

Mega Geopolitics @MegaGeopolitics

BREAKING: US launches large strikes in Yemen as Trump promises 'overwhelming lethal force' until Houthis cease shipping attacks - AP

Megatron @Megatron_ron

BREAKING:

 The U.S. has launched a major offensive against the Houthis in Yemen, striking radars, air defenses, and missile systems, in the name of Israel.

US officials describe strikes on pro-Iran Houthis in Yemen as a warning signal to Iran.

MenchOsint @MenchOsint

 Trump issues statement regarding US Airstrikes on Yemen, admits for the first time Yemen's action deeply hurt their economy endangers their Navy.

"Today, I have ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen.

They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones.

Joe Biden's response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going. It has been over a year since a U.S. flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden.

The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times.

Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk.

The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.

The Houthis have choked off shipping in one of the most important Waterways of the World, grinding vast swaths of Global Commerce to a halt, and attacking the core principle of Freedom of Navigation upon which International Trade and Commerce depends.

Our brave Warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorists' bases, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom. No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.

To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON'T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!

To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end

IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won't be nice about it!"

MenchOsint @MenchOsint

"The US raids on Yemen are a blatant aggression against an independent state and encourage the Israeli enemy entity to continue its unjust siege on Gaza.

The US president's claims about the threat to international navigation in the Bab al-Mandab Strait are false and misleading to international public opinion. The naval blockade declared by Yemen in support of Gaza is limited to Israeli shipping until humanitarian aid is delivered to the people of Gaza, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement between the Palestinian resistance and the enemy entity. The Yemeni blockade came after a four-day grace period was granted to mediators.

We affirm that international navigation in the Red Sea will remain safe from the Yemeni side, and that the US raids represent a return to the militarization of the Red Sea, which is the real threat to international navigation in the region."