Actuality | Non-fiction

We really should defend Israel as a “bulwark of the West”?
by

western Israel
 
 
THIS IS WHY’ EUROPE HAS NO ROOTS “JUDEO-CHRISTIAN” BUT ONLY CHRISTIAN ROOTS AND TRADITION
Of Adriano Scianca
Israel? It is the "bulwark of the West". How many times have we read it, even these days, especially on the right, even among the visitors of this site. They are therefore defending “the West”, Israeli soldiers shooting at Palestinians? E, above all, they are defending us too? It's important to ask yourself this, because if the Jewish State has always divided public opinion on the basis of often pre-political criteria and if the objections raised against it are often of a moral nature, then they exist, more coldly, of the political categories that should be drawn upon to bring the issue back to less slippery terrain.
Ora, that Europeans use the category of the West to define themselves is in itself rather paradoxical if one only considers that the very concept of the West was explicitly created in an anti-European key. In practice, Europeans today claim with passionate fervor belonging to a community of values ​​that was created precisely to exclude them and which has partly accepted them within itself, as vassals, except that they were defeated in a world war. For their part, Americans famously began to conceive of themselves as the West not to incorporate Europe into a broader Atlantic context, but to underline the firm break with everything that the Old Continent represented. It was President Thomas Jefferson who stated that America represents a "separate hemisphere", evoking a meridian - more moral than geographical - to separate the land where "the lamb and the lion will live in peace with each other" from corrupt Europe and its vices. In reality he was merely repeating Washington's teachings, that in 1793 he had already declared: “I am sure that the will of the United States is to have nothing to do with the intrigues and political disputes of the European nations”. President Monroe expressed the same concept when enunciating his famous theory aimed at excluding any European intervention in the New Continent (essentially “America for the Americans”). In fact, the meridian evoked by Jefferson was supposed to separate Good and Evil, the kingdom of equality and freedom from the land of hierarchy and oppression. Ora, mind you America believed it could embody this rejection of Europe by electing itself the Promised Land, that is, the New Israel based on membership (OR BETTER, AMERICANIST INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLICAL STATEMENT, N.D.R.) as stringent as possible with the biblical dictate. Read More

Share
Actuality | WORLD CONFLICT

The embassy of death
by

Of Niccolò Inturrisi
The embassy of death
Source: The dissident intellectual
After the months spent amidst controversy and mockery, was held on the day of the seventieth anniversary of the birth of the State of Israel the official inauguration of the new US embassy in Jerusalem. However, what the American president had naively declared as a day dedicated to the hope of a "pace” was resolved, as was predictable, in a massacre by Israeli soldiers against the Palestinian civilian population. We don't just want to dwell on the almosts 2000 injured and beyond 50 dead killed by Israeli bullets – packed, shipped and sold directly from the same country that believes itself to be the bulwark of the survival of democracy in the world - to underline an obscene and deplorable situation that no European country deigns to condemn with due attention. It's precisely this lack of coherence, not just media, but sincerely political, which leaves those astonished (like all of us) has witnessed a real transformation over the last twenty years diktat by the government of Israel: not only political and economic dominance, but above all social and cultural compared to a population that has seen its native land usurped, forced to live on a strip of land and, not humiliated enough, denigrated and left to their own devices by the great world powers. Read More

Share
Actuality | WORLD CONFLICT

Towards the end of the West?
by

Of Luigi Tedeschi
Towards the end of the West?
Source: Italicum
With the implosion of the West, Europe will also end?
Trump's decision to have the US withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran, with the relative restoration of the economic embargo, could lead to a rift with serious consequences in relations between Europe and the United States. Probably Trump's breakup, with the doctrine of America First, compared to Obama's foreign policy, it will mean the end of the West itself, as a geopolitical area that identified itself in the Atlantic alliance between the USA and Western Europe, arose at the end of the Second World War.
With Trump, American unilateralism in foreign policy is reaffirmed and Obama's multilateralism declines, as a phase of American geopolitics characterized by the decline of the world primacy of the USA, due to the emergence of new continental powers, such as Russia, at dinner, India and to a lesser extent Iran itself. Emerging powers have brought about the end of the era of American expansionism on a global scale, established following the collapse of the USSR.
Europe's role in the world itself has undergone a drastic reduction, both economic and political. In fact, Europe is not a unitary political institution, but only an economic-monetary union, which from a geopolitical point of view has not been able to free itself from American dominance. Therefore Europe remained strongly involved in American decline in the world, paying the consequences of their subordination. Read More

Share
Actuality | events

United States and Iran: Europe to the test
by

Of Fulvio Scaglione
United States and Iran: Europe to the test
Source: Fulvio Scaglione

The Iranian crisis, much announced and finally exploded, will test the European Union. It is not the first time that the EU has had to demonstrate its virtues, and the results were not brilliant. This, but, it could be the last because the cancellation of the Treaty signed in 2015 with the government of Hassan Rouhani it could decree the end of any attempt to give Europe a political physiognomy.

The question is very simple. According to the European Union (and also the UN and Russia, moreover), the agreement of 2015, built to block Iran's path to military nuclear power, works, Iran respects the pacts and there is no reason to cancel it after such a short time. According to the USA (and also Israel and Saudi Arabia), on the contrary, the agreement is full of holes, it offers no security guarantees and Iran lies, because he continues to try to prepare the atomic bomb.

It would be difficult to imagine a sharper difference of opinion than this. Which is furthermore broadened by questions of economic interest. The USA wants to favor traditional partners in the Persian Gulf, who are, among other things, much richer than the Iranians. Europe has a long and cordial commercial tradition with Iran, enjoyed above all by Italy and Germany. Our country is now the second largest exporter to Iran (especially mechanical and chemical industries) and the second importer (especially oil) after Germany, first in both sectors. In the 2011 commercial relationships between Italy and Iran they reached their peak, with a value of 11 billions of euros. In the 2012 sanctions, also imposed by the EU, they caused the value of a to collapse 1,3 billion, but the projections for the 2018 they talk about 3 billion, therefore we are rapidly regaining our former positions. Read More

Share
Actuality | events

Iran will replace the US dollar with the euro in financial relations
by

Of Saeed Jalili
Iran will replace the US dollar with the euro in financial relations.
Source: Comedonchisciotte

Iran will replace the US dollar with the euro in financial relations.

In the midst of the currency crisis, with this change we attempt to circumvent restrictions on the accessibility of the US dollar and prevent market instability.

The Iranian Riyal has lost nearly two-thirds of its US dollar value over the past three years [Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters]

Friday's move (ndt 13 apr.) is considered part of efforts to circumvent restrictions on the accessibility of the dollar currency, as a result of tensions with Washington, as well as preventing general instability on the markets generated by fluctuations of the Iranian Rial against the dollar.

In a cabinet meeting, the government has decided that all ministries, State organizations and companies should refer to the exchange rate with the euro, which the Central Bank of Iran will have the task of communicating frequently, the IRNA news agency reported.
It is unclear when this decision will take effect, but the entrepreneurs have said that they will wait to know the implementation methods before these new conditions can take effect.
“I suppose if they use the euro as their official currency, this will reduce the psychological impact of the rial fluctuations on the dollar”, he said, ad Al Jazeera, Newsha Sheikh Soleimani, which imports raw materials for the processing of bricks and ceramics in Tehran.
“Our company operates mainly in euros, but some invoices are issued based on the rial-dollar exchange rate” but his company recently had to suspend all transactions due to uncertainty over the value of the foreign currency.
“I welcome any move that can bring stability to the foreign exchange market”.
The loss of value
Valiollah Seif, head of the Central Bank, he had already said that the use of the dollar in financial transactions is not "logical"..
Iran's trade revenue is mainly in euros due to sanctions on the US dollar, he stated. Therefore, Seif added, the country's financial reporting should use a more stable and widely used reference currency in trade.
As part of the agreement Iranian nuclear power of the 2015 with world powers, all sanctions related to Iran's controversial nuclear program have been lifted.
Despite this, due above all to persistent tensions with the United States, There are still limitations on Iran's accessibility to US currency.
These restrictions have contributed to the fall in the value of the rial against the dollar in recent months.
The dollar traded at an all-time high of 60.000 Rial last week, teasing, among Iranians, serious concerns about the stability that the President Hassan Rouhani had brought about the economy by controlling exchange rates.
Since last year, the rial lost approximately 50% of its value compared to the US currency, which some Iranians buy in large quantities as an investment in times of great economic uncertainty.
A sudden drop in the value of the Rial is expected to cause an increase in the price of imported goods and increase the inflation rate.
To control the currency crisis, the government last week froze free trade in the us currency by introducing an official rate of 42.000 rials for every dollar.
The Central Bank said it would provide dollars only to those registered to use them for specific purposes, while the free exchange of foreign currency will be deemed illegal.

Seif, Head of the Central Bank, faced lawmakers' fury last week, when he took the parliamentary podium to explain the new forex policies. He suggested to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the use of the euro in foreign trade to replace the US dollar.
A short term fix?

In the meantime, a currency trader told Al Jazeera that these new policies are “good news for importers and exporters”, but which have generated confusion for its business.
“Even if the government replaces the dollar with the euro, the dollar is still traded and used as an investment by many in the free market.", he said, preferring to remain anonymous.
“I hope these decisions are not just temporary measures – like a fever-reducing pill – because international restrictions on the dollar affect our economic stability”.
There have been growing concerns among Iranian businesses about a possible US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.
US President Donald Trump should decide the 12 May if his administration confirms sanctions that were lifted as part of the nuclear deal.
He believes the deal isn't working because it doesn't address Iran's missile program, as well as its military presence in the region.
Iran says its missiles are for defensive purposes.
*****

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com
Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2018/04/iran-replace-dollar-euro-financial-reports-180418183855096.html
18.04.2018
The text of this article can be freely used for non-commercial purposes, citing the source comedonchisciotte.org and the author of the translation Primary Forest

Read More

Share
Actuality

The American New World Order is officially dead
by

Of Henry Tougha
The American New World Order is officially dead
Source: Voices from abroad
A mainstream source such as Bloomberg states The American dream of imposing its own system of global control is officially dead. Russia, after recovering from the collapse of the Soviet Union, together with a new power like China, they have escaped US leadership by creating alternative poles of influence. Naturally Bloomberg takes an absolutely favorable and rosy point of view on the new peaceful and collaborative world order that the United States would try to pursue and considers its end negatively, casting the responsibility on the authoritarianism and power aims of China and Russia. In essence, however, this official renunciation of the ambition to integrate these countries under the American empire does not mean peace: according to Bloomberg the consequence will be that the USA will have to commit itself in an increasingly aggressive manner to militarily defend the hitherto consolidated American empire.
at Hal Brands, 27 September 2017
American foreign policy has reached a historic turning point, and here's the surprise: it has little to do with Donald Trump's exhausting and controversial presidency. Read More

Share
Actuality | WORLD CONFLICT

L'eterno salvacondotto della Shoah
by

Of Massimo Fini
The eternal safe conduct of the Shoah
Source: Massimo Fini
That Abu Mazen's statements (the Jews would be somehow responsible for the Shoah) are unacceptable, as he immediately declared, among others, also the European Union, there's no need to even say it. One wonders though, as a reader of Il Fatto did (27.4), Mauro Chiostri, talking about today and not about the codified yesterday, whether the State of Israel does not enjoy a special safe conduct based precisely on the Jewish extermination of three-quarters of a century ago. It's a question, for the truth, which many people do but which they do not dare to express publicly for fear of being immediately branded as anti-Semitic, deniers, racists, Nazis. But Israel is a state and should not be confused with the international Jewish community. In less Manichaean years than the ones we are currently experiencing, it was the Jewish community itself that did not want such confusion to arise. And it was logical that this should be the case. Because Israel is a state and, as such, can perform objectionable actions, and even nefarious, but that doesn't mean he has to answer for it, let's say, a Jew from the Rome ghetto. Today, however, this confusion exists and Israel can carry out acts with impunity that would cost other states indignant condemnation, if not worse, of the so-called 'international community'. Read More

Share
Actuality | WORLD CONFLICT

Israel prepares for war?
by

Of Alastair Crooke
Israel prepares for war?
Source: Aurora site
General Mattis told the US Senate Armed Services Committee that he believes a military confrontation between Israel and Iran in Syria is increasingly likely: “I can see how it might start, but I'm not sure when or where“. This shouldn't be surprising. Anyone peeking through the membrane of the Western bubble, can see the main dynamics “bridging and strengthening” such that they inexorably close in on Israel. It becomes “inexorable”: not so much because the states of the Middle East desire war (they don't want it); but because Israel feels culturally forced to bind itself to President Trump and his team of extremists, placing itself as the first collaborator in the United States' "war" to repel China, Russia, Iran and make their commercial project an ineffective and weakened entity. The belligerent rhetoric of Pompeo and Bolton may seem like an intoxicating elixir to some Israelis; but the Middle East is simply not the place to collaborate in this new US hybrid "war" against the new emerging dynamics. Read More

Share
Actuality | WORLD CONFLICT

Gli USA contro l'Iran: a choice of field that reveals their arrogance
by

Of Pietro Batacchi
The USA against Iran: a choice of field that reveals their arrogance
Source: Italian Defense Magazine

All that was missing was the official status, which arrived yesterday at 20:00 Italian time. President Trump has decided to withdraw America from the Treaty with Iran on the nuclear program and to reintroduce it, we will see how later, the sanctions regime. An important decision, which follows what was promised in the election campaign, which makes the Administration hawks happy, e, above all, Israelis and Saudis, who had been pressuring Trump for months to make him withdraw from the agreement, but which dissatisfied the European allies, starting with Italy. A decision, Then, which raises the big question of America's credibility with respect to the maintenance of signed commitments and which could have significant repercussions in the future and in other geopolitical arenas. But let's go step by step. This Administration has made a precise choice of field.
It sided with the Saudis and Israelis – now practically allies – to stop the growth of Iranian influence in the Middle East which occurred through the Syrian civil war, ma, before that, let's not forget it, as a result of the removal of Saddam and the disintegration of Sunni Iraq desired by the Americans themselves in 2003. Exiting the agreement, therefore, it could signal the American intention to move from the passive containment phase of Iran to the active containment phase, Perhaps, in "roll back", or recovery of “portions” of influence within the perimeter “Persian” progressively expanded by Tehran in recent years with a pragmatic indirect strategy. For sure, Trump's decision strengthens the radical faction of the Iranian regime, which has been pressing the Supreme Leader for months to react to the continuous Israeli attacks in Syria, to the detriment of the reformist component, grappling with a serious internal economic crisis that the new sanctions would only exacerbate. And then there are the consequences for transatlantic relations. After the climate agreements, tensions over duties and trade policies, the USA once again radically distances itself from Europe which, in this case, marches in unison stating that it wants to continue to respect the agreement with Iran and claiming its functioning and benefits. A clear difference in views which demonstrates how the United States is willing to let the transatlantic relationship slide into the background when interests considered to be of primary importance are at stake, and exclusive, relevance. After all, Trump's new National Security Strategy was clear on this, as well as in underlining the change in the international scenario towards a new era of competition between powers. Right, the powers “hostile” are identified in the document with China and Russia, but reading between the lines you can also see a veiled reference to Europe – in terms of economic-industrial competition – with respect to which the USA has lost its traditional instrument of influence/interference as a result of Brexit, read the UK. The battle over the sale of the F-35 to Germany, fought openly even in the last ILA show in Berlin, it's there to prove it. In the end, no less important, the plan of consequences for Italy. Rome and Tehran are linked by solid commercial relations, never interrupted even in the darkest years of Khomeinism, and that with the partial removal of the sanctions regime they had blossomed again, in different sectors: from the energy one, to that of infrastructure. Trump's decision affects them again.

Read More

Share
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9