Mothers Day Roundup: Putin, Trump, More

First up, we look briefly at how Putin used his judo skills to easily handle the gaggle of Eurotwits. The likes of Macron and the rest thought they’d somehow embarrass Putin by urging a 30 day ceasefire to follow the 3 day ceasefire Putin had declared for Victory Day. Zelensky joined in. Putin totally turned the tables on them by making a counter: Maybe it’s time to start up again where we left off in Istanbul. Then maybe we can consider a ceasefire.

That, of course, was a complete non-starter for the Euros and Zelensky. The Istanbul negotiations were face to face between Russia and Ukraine alone. Putin’s counter suggestion would

1. require Ukraine to repeal their ban on face to face negotiations with Russia, and

2. it would also cut out the US and NATO from any role in the negotiations.

3. Putin adroitly slipped out of any PR trap, knowing that the point at which Istanbul ended would be utterly unpalatable to the West.

Now, all of that was pretty much by the book—you knew that the maladroit would be Eurotwit dips were no match for Putin. The real surprise came from Trump:

-- GEROMAN -- time will tell -  -- @GeromanAT

 "Ukraine should IMMEDIATELY agree to Putin's proposal" - Trump

Russia does not need a ceasefire agreement. Instead, Moscow offers to hold direct talks in Turkey, and Kyiv should not ignore this, he writes.

The American president also noted that he is “beginning to doubt that Ukraine will agree to a deal.”

Earlier, Putin proposed holding talks on settling the Ukrainian conflict on May 15 in Istanbul.

12:04 PM · May 11, 2025

If you read that closely it’s pretty much a conceptual mess, but Trump gets it right in the very first words: Putin doesn’t want a ceasefire:

-- GEROMAN -- time will tell - -- @GeromanAT

Air raid alerts...

6:34 AM · May 11, 2025

However, as we go to press, another trap is being set for Putin. Zelensky is saying he’s ready to meet Putin face to face:

Zelenskyy agrees to meet with Putin on Thursday

But, of course, there’s a catch.

"We await a full and lasting ceasefire, starting from tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy. There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses," Zelenskyy wrote.

Putin is not to be so easily trapped:

The Russian leader said he does not rule out that Moscow and Kyiv will agree on "some new truces, a new ceasefire" during negotiations in Turkey, saying that the talks would be the first step towards a "sustainable" peace.

Zelensky will have to come to Istanbul “without preconditions”—like, for a ceasefire.

---

Moving on, commenter dissonant1 linked to an excellent—a must read—substack by Simplicius. To set the context for my own remarks, let me recall my years ago appearance on the Michael Savage show. That was long before October 7. The whole topic under discussion was the war on Russia, which Savage was very uneasy about. To me surprise he asked me whether I thought the war on Russia would lead to a wave of anti-semitism in America. My own view was that Savage was giving Americans far too much credit for historical insight. Yes, the war on Russia has always, to a major extent, been a Jewish war on Russia, but few Americans understood that—despite the prominence of the Nulands and Blinkens in mongering for that war. At that time I didn’t want to go there of the cuff, so I basically brushed the question aside—while noting Savage’s very obvious concern. I continue to doubt that most Americans will ever be able to put 2 + 2 together on that issue.

In his article Simplicius isn’t talking about the Jewish Nationalist connection to the war on Russia, but in this era of global warfare everything is connected. While the Jewish connection to the war on Russia isn’t so visible to casual observers, the connection of Jewish Nationalism to the genocide on Arabs is impossible to miss. Thus, Simplicius addresses the rising concerns among at least some prominent Jews that serious damage is being done to the Jewish brand by the genocide in Gaza. The Jewish brand, of course, is Jews as the ultimate Victim Nation—Armenians and others should just butt out. The over the top savagery of the Jewish Nationalist assault and genocide on Arabs is threatening that brand. Simplicius doesn’t mention another significant aspect of this that must be causing great disquiet among many American Jews—Trump’s empowerment of Jewish Nationalist Thought Police, now explicitly recognized in federal cases involving attempted deportations, to hunt down “anti-semites” as defined by Jewish Nationalists.

What to do about the building crisis? Simplicius suggests that the American Jewish establishment has come to the conclusion that one man should die rather than the whole nation—in other words, it’s time for Netanyahu to go lest the West turn on Israel in its revulsion for what’s going on:

The Establishment Slowly Wearies of Netanyahu and Israel

Simplicius’ main exhibit is an article by Thomas Friedman:

https://archive.ph/CkW7G

The operative word, of course, is “this”. Friedman wants to pin the blame on the unpopular Netanyahu, despite the well known fact that, while Netanyahu is widely disliked, his actual genocidal policies are overwhelmingly supported in Israel. This is called deflection. And so Friedman continues:

Yes, Friedman actually refers to “ultranationalist” and, elsewhere in the article, “Jewish supremacists”. But he wants American readers to somehow believe that these are traits of this particular Israeli government—a government we are to presume appeared out of nowhere in Israel and that gets no support from Jewish Nationalists in America. As if any criticism of Israel and its history of racist policies has not been suppressed by Jewish Nationalists in America as a manifestation of “anti-semitism.”

Now, the immediate context for Simplicius’ article—as well as Friedman’s—is the sudden turn by Trump against the Netanyahu government. Trump—an avid consumer of polling—has finally realized that allowing his foreign policy to be dictated by Jewish Nationalist donors is not good for him. And Friedman recognizes that, when a US president begins to see Israel as a liability, that’s bad for Israel. So it’s time for Netanyahu to go.

But Simplicius, to his credit, isn’t fooled by Friedman’s plausible sounding narrative. In doing so, Simplicius affirms what I have also contended—that American supremacy is, for Jewish Nationalist, key for their own continued supremacy. America is a vehicle for fulfilling Jewish Nationalist ambitions:

More and more the entire establishment appears to be turning against the apartheid state; it seems even the elites can no longer stomach the brazenness of Israel’s crimes—which is saying something. Either that, or they’re resentful of how bad Israel is making them look by so openly flaunting its genocidal appetites. “Can’t you murder those Palestinians a little more quietly?” the elites seem to groan.

…

But before you get misty-eyed at Friedman’s virtuous redemption arc, read the next part, where he essentially explains that the current geopolitical layout of the Mideast was fashioned in the ‘70s by Nixon and Kissinger primarily to boot out Russia and ensure America’s strategic supremacy over the region.

This means the gripes coming from him and his ilk have nothing to really do with the suffering of the Palestinians—but rather come down to the age-old geopolitical worry that Israel is going too far for its own good, and could find itself left without support—which would inevitably lead to its demise. In short: this is a cry of alarm for Israel to moderate its behavior before it invites doom; the Palestinian cause celebre, as always, is merely the currency of exchange for continued Israeli dominance.

The one thing Friedman did achieve, however, was the normalization and acceptance of concepts like ‘messianicism’ and ‘Jewish supremacism’ as central to the problem in Israel’s fatal trajectory:

Ah, thank you, Simplicius.

Netanyahu refused to do it, because the Jewish supremacists in his cabinet said if he did so they would topple his government — and with Netanyahu on trial on multiple charges of corruption, he could not afford to give up the protection of being prime minister to drag out his trial and forestall a possible jail term.

He reiterates the chief thesis outlined above, that by moderating its actions, Israel can preserve American supremacy—and thus its own:

Normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the most important Muslim power — built on an effort to forge a two-state solution with moderate Palestinians — would have opened the whole Muslim world to Israeli tourists, investors and innovators, eased tensions between Jews and Muslims the world over and consolidated U.S. advantages in the Middle East set in motion by Nixon and Kissinger for another decade or more.

And, yes, Friedman does manage to work in an anti-Russian angle to US support for Israel, despite Israel’s serial cooperation with Russia. Just so you’ll know it really is all connected.

He cites another important recent update—that the US reportedly no longer views normalization with Israel as a pre-requisite for Saudi Arabian cooperation on upcoming civil nuclear projects.

As I wrote yesterday, the scuttling of the pre-requisite for KSA to normalize with Israel means that Hamas has defeated Kushner/Trump. As long as the savagery looked like it might work it was OK with Trump. Now it’s clearly not working—not anywhere in the Middle East and not in the polling back home—and it’s increasingly endangering a presidency that should be cruising from one victory to another. It’s time for a change. Here’s a concept: America first!