Thanks for the write-up and time involved in doing so;
I’m not endorsing everything Pat Buchanan says in this article; but what if someone said to you as the article reads, “Well, Netanyahu has visited Moscow 3 times in the last year and Putin has gone to Israel once.”
Source: http://buchanan.org/blog/bibi-backs-trump-putin-125707
So, Iran and Russia have an alliance; that can be seen; but Bibi is no fool either; 3 times is quite a few times.
Israel also would not condemn Russia on some sort of UN action condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine. I think the article says that too.
I only bring up that article for the info in it.
Donald Trump slammed President Obama Thursday on TODAY for failing to take a stronger line against President Vladimir Putin in dealing with Ukraine, saying he feared Obama would now make up for lost time with imprudent moves to "show his manhood."
The real estate mogul and reality-TV star, who has criticized Putin for sending military troops into Crimea, said Obama must now take fierce steps to prevent the situation from escalating further.
"We should definitely do sanctions and we have to show some strengths. I mean, Putin has eaten Obama's lunch, therefore our lunch, for a long period of time," Trump said. ..."
http://www.today.com/news/donald-trump-putin-has-eaten-obamas-lunch-ukraine-2D79372098
In a phone interview with CNN Tuesday evening, Trump claimed that there's "something in the Iran deal" that "people don't understand" saying if someone attacks Iran, "we have to come to their defense."
"Does that include Israel?" Trump asked. "And most people say yes, they don't have an exclusion for Israel. So if Israel attacks Iran, according to that deal, I believe, the way it reads, unless they have a codicil or they have something to it, that we have to fight with Iran against Israel." ..."
Trump was most probably referring to language highlighted by the opponents of the deal. On page 142, the deal includes a clause that states, "Co-operation through training and workshops to strengthen Iran's ability to protect against, and respond to nuclear security threats, including sabotage, as well as to enable effective and sustainable nuclear security and physical protection systems."
Washington-based Center for Security Policy asserted that Annex III appears "to commit the United States and other world powers to the defense of Iran's nuclear program."
September 7, 2016.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was a Soviet spy in Damascus in the 1980s, Israel’s Channel 1 television reported Wednesday, citing information it said was included in an archive smuggled out of the USSR.
According to Channel 1’s foreign news editor Oren Nahari, the famed Mitrokhin archive, kept by KGB defector Vasily Mitrokhin, revealed that Abbas was a Soviet mole in Damascus in 1983.
The documents — obtained by Israeli researchers Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez — purportedly show that Abbas, code-named Krotov (mole), was involved with the Soviets while Mikhail Bogdanov, today Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Middle East. was stationed in Damascus.
Bogdanov was caught in a diplomatic tussle earlier this week after trying to broker a summit between Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow, who both claimed a willingness to meet while decrying the other for allegedly refusing. ..."
http://www.timesofisrael.com/soviet-documents-said-to-reveal-abbas-was-kgb-agent-in-syria/
#77. You raise some good points about what Netanyahu is thinking in going to see Putin and vice versa.
Could be the old “Keep your friends close, but your enemies (or potential enemies, or those who arm your enemies), closer.
I don’t know but I do know that Bibi will do whatever is possible (with a few restraints imposed by Obama) to preserve the very existence of Israel, and that might include a nuclear strike on Iran’s nuclear sites and weapons systems (ICBMs etc).
He might be letting Putin know that he is just the man who will do it. Putin is no fool. He has to way his desires to redominate a lot of Europe while keeping a friendly psychopathic regime with nuclear weapons (in existence or easily to assembly and use), or to risk losing all of the Middle East influence he has built up in the past 10 years (Syrian bases, Iran as a shield against Sunni/Wahabist terrorism, oil supplies, etc).
This is more than a “Game of Thrones”. It is a game of survival and dominance. Right now the US is losing in both arenas and it isn’t going to get any better.
The Russians launched more airstrikes in Syria against everyone in a month than we did in a year. That says it all.
Remember about 75% of our aircraft, for a long time, never dropped their ordnance on targets in Iraq (ISIS, esp. convoys), or in Syria (for fear of hitting civilians - ROE).
That is no way to win a war, and JCS (under Gen. Dempsey, a curse on his cowardice)folded before Obama like a cheap suit in the sun.
As a reporter I used to cover the Pentagon, SVN/Cambodia, etc. and got to meet a lot of real generals and admirals, as I have often mentioned at FR before. Just a brief recap (Adm. Arleigh Burke, Dan Galley, Middendorf, McCain (CINCOMPAC), Jerry Denton; Generals Lemniter, Taylor, Chappie James (USAF); Ed Lansdale’s top aide in SVN Gen. Bernie Yoh (SACO - Kuomintang; Gen. John Singlaub (WW2, VN-SOG, So. Korea -fought Carter on troop withdrawals; Gen. Daniel Graham, DIA, CIA, US Military Chief in VN, and post-war classmate of mine.
These were realistic fighters. They knew who the enemy was and that they had to be fought and defeated when allowed. They were not risk-taskers, but very smart men who had to make tremendous life and death decisions. Obviously they were right because we are still here and free (in VN they were betrayed at home by a weak president and a Democrat-red Congress). Otherwise we would have won the war much earlier than anyone could have thought. (I even got that from a No. Vietnamese Colonel and a possible General (my notes list him as a General) who defected. I interviewed in Saigon in 1970. They knew we could defeat them.
Long comment but I’ve been in the journalism/research/internal security fields since 1968 and have met our “best and bravest”. They always served/fought to win. Today, our gutless “leaders” only fight to keep their seats in Congress and political positions. Some are still trying to sell us out and it looks like they are winning.
Obama can proudly say about his efforts to “fundamentally transform America” and to “disarm it”, “YES I DID”. Clinton would only be the next batter in line to finish the game.