Israel vs Palestine/Lebanon/Iran/Yemen/Syria: a New Middle East War

[Rizotto]

The Israeli lobby was once considered the most powerful and untouchable force in American politics. That era is over. The war on Iran — driven by the Zionist lobby and sold to Trump as an easy victory — has instead become what neoconservatives themselves are calling the "greatest strategic loss" in American history. And the American people have had enough.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• How the Iran war permanently shattered the Israeli lobby's grip on US policy
• White House counter-terrorism official Joe Kent resigns, blaming the lobby for dragging America into another catastrophic Middle East conflict
• Pro-Zionist media now admits the war was Israel's choice — and Trump was sold a lie
• Neocon architect Robert Kagan calls the Iran decision the "greatest strategic loss" in US history
• Over half of Americans now support Palestine over Israel — a fundamental shift, not a trend
• Zohran Mamdani's landslide NYC mayoral victory over AIPAC-backed Andrew Cuomo proves the lobby can't buy elections anymore
• AIPAC wastes millions on candidates who openly accuse Israel of genocide
• Grassroots organizations like Track AIPAC expose the lobby's funding, tactics, and candidate-purchasing schemes — fear was their greatest weapon, and it's gone
• Why the lobby's collapse could open the door to congressional bills ending military aid to Israel
• Why the Zionist lobby won't die quietly — it still has billions and will fight back

❌ YouTube Demonetized Our Channel Because We Expose Israel ❌"

SHOCK: Israel Lobby Faces TOTAL Financial and Political Collapse!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FrLKyxirqgM

[Ravenlocke]

DD Geopolitics

BREAKING: Iran has seized the Honduras-flagged vessel HUI CHUAN, a Chinese-operated "floating armory," 38 nautical miles northeast of Fujairah, UAE, and is towing it toward Iranian territorial waters.

What is the HUI CHUAN?

The vessel is described as a "floating armory"—a weapons storage ship used by private military contractors and maritime security firms to arm commercial vessels transiting pirate-prone waters. These ships store rifles, ammunition, and defensive equipment that security teams pick up and drop off as needed.

The HUI CHUAN, flying a false Honduras flag, was operated by Chinese private military contractors. It had been anchored in the Gulf of Oman for the past month, positioned to supply weapons to ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz to defend against Somali, Houthi, and Iranian threats.

The timing: Iran seized this vessel during Trump's summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing, where the two leaders discussed the Strait of Hormuz crisis. Trump said Xi agreed that "the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy."

What this likely means: Iran is clearing the maritime security infrastructure that enables commercial shipping to bypass its control. The HUI CHUAN was arming vessels so they could transit the Strait without Iranian approval. Iran just confiscated the weapons depot.

This doesn't appear to be a message to China, it's more likely that Iran is taking the weapons to inspect them, possibly redistribute them to allied forces, or eliminate a private security operation it views as a Western proxy in its waters.

This is at least the third vessel Iran has seized since February

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/2055028522209730981

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by shaberon (here)
It looks to me like ...

How it looks to you differs sufficiently from how it looks to me that I cannot close the gap. I do not know how to present my views in a way that you will likely understand what I am saying, or where we might differ.

However Juan O Savin, in this discussion with David Nino Rodriguez earlier today, does a better (more articulate, more practiced, and better informed) job that I know how to do, of presenting what I mostly agree with. So I will let his words "speak for me":

• BREAKING: Could Snowden Get a Trump Pardon & Testify Against Comey and Brennan? (Youtube)

Juan's portion begins at the 22:44 mark.

[shaberon]

Another episode in blowing the lid off:

Mastermind behind Netanyahu’s UAE visit, chief architect of Abraham Accords hacked: Handala
Friday, 15 May 2026 1:38 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 15 May 2026 1:38 AM ]

Samuel Shay

The Handala hacker group has announced that it has breached Samuel Shay, the planner behind Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United Arab Emirates in March and the principal architect of the Abraham Accords, noting that it has exposed his covert network.

In a Thursday statement accompanied by published images, the group said it had targeted the "mastermind behind Netanyahu’s UAE visit" and the central figure behind the United States-backed normalization agreements between the Israeli regime and regional states, asserting that his communications and network has been compromised.

Handala said Shay was a key coordinator of behind-the-scenes arrangements between the regime and Persian Gulf states, and a central facilitator of covert economic, political, and "security" relations between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi.

The group stated that, through entities such as Gulf Technology Systems, Shay has established an extensive network of joint projects spanning technology, energy, investment, agriculture, and strategic infrastructure involving the regime, the UAE, and other Arab states.

According to Handala, the network represents “corruption, money laundering, the transfer of Israeli 'security' technologies to suppress people in the region, and betrayal of the Palestinian cause."

It further noted that "all secret contracts, financial transfers, training of 'security' forces, and even economic and intelligence espionage against the Axis of Resistance" were directly overseen by Shay and his team.

The group also said that, based on the released materials, Shay’s involvement in "freezing Hezbollah's assets and weakening resistance in Lebanon" is fully documented.

Handala stated that published files showed Shay introduced late convicted sex trafficker and financier Epstein to Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, leading to the involvement of Emirati figures in Epstein’s network. It added that Israeli spy agency Mossad used this channel to pressure individuals into compliance.

The group announced it has released 265 pages of Shay’s communications, financial partners, and confidential contacts on its website.

It also said it has shared related financial intelligence data concerning the network with pro-resistance countries.

Addressing audiences in the United States and Europe, Handala stated, "The truth is not what has been portrayed through massive spending, corrupt media, and joint projects."

Epstein and others "spent billions presenting regional agents as ‘honorable role models and symbols of prosperity,’" but these funds "brought nothing but poverty, corruption, repression, and betrayal to Muslim lands."

[shaberon]

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
Could Snowden Get a Trump Pardon & Testify Against Comey and Brennan?

Not in the opinion of Heritage Foundation 2020:

Trump once called Snowden a “terrible traitor” and a “terrible threat.” He was right then and he is right now to want him back in the United States. What is necessary, however, is a move that will hold him accountable for his crimes and assure that the intelligence community has a total idea of the damage that he has unleashed on our national security.

Source of the idea in 2020:

The comments came as the Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, a Republican, made a surprising call on Friday for Snowden to receive a presidential pardon.

Massie, whom Trump has previously attacked, tweeted that Trump “should pardon” Snowden, 37.

Something similar to the implication has in fact happened on April 26:

Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted again Tuesday, this time over a social media photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat against President Donald Trump.

The prosecution arises from a May post on Instagram in which Comey shared a photo of seashells he saw on a walk in the arrangement of “86 47.” He has said he assumed that the numbers reflected a political message, not a call to violence. Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and “I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

Nonetheless, Comey was swiftly interviewed by the Secret Service after Trump administration officials asserted that he was advocating the assassination of Trump, the 47th president.

The case was filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the state where Comey found the seashells.

“Well, they’re back – this time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago, and this won’t be the end of it,” Comey said in a video statement Tuesday. “But nothing has changed with me. I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. So let’s go.”

The two-count indictment charges Comey with “knowingly and willfully” making a threat to “take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon" Trump and with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. It does not provide evidence that Comey knowingly threatened Trump, especially since Comey has said the opposite, but suggested a “reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret” the message as a threat.

One gets the sense of a bit of infighting.

[Rizotto]

Mind-boggling, how could most Israelis persist in such cruelty, which at the same time they deny committing. Personally, I think it's the ZIONISM effect, this idea that they're the chosen people, above the law, and look they've even managed to almost completely reduce the USA to subservience to Israel. What a master psyop!

The following is hard to listen to, but it must be heard. For one thing that exposure spells the end of the zionist experiment. No one can recover from committing such depravity.
This systematic Israeli sexual torture of Palestinian hostages is also a form of terrorism. To terrorize Palestinians into leaving their Palestinian lands.

It's high time for the international community to remove the terrorist label from Hamas, and put it on Israel, because it is Israel that behaves like a terrorist.
_____________________________________________________

"The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal joins former US representative and One America News host Matt Gaetz to discuss the New York Times article reporting what was already well known to close observers of Israel-Palestine:
Israel has adopted sexual abuse on a systematic level to torture Palestinians kidnapped from Gaza since Oct 7, and much of its society has mobilized in defense of the torturers.
Max explains why Netanyahu's extreme legal threats against the NY Times will never lead to concrete action, and how they could blow back on Israel if they went to trial."

NY Times exposes Israel's r*pe dungeons, Netanyahu threatens to sue

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qe6bT4ieJ1w

[shaberon]

Posted by Rizotto (here)
It's high time for the international community to remove the terrorist label from Hamas, and put it on Israel, because it is Israel that behaves like a terrorist.
_____________________________________________________

Indeed. Only seventy some-odd years late.


We tend to think western ears cannot hear it, or, the brain is unable to process information not from its own toolkit.

Some do happen to remember this never ends:

Marking the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, Islamic Jihad and Hamas Palestinian resistance groups reaffirmed their commitment to the path of resistance, condemning what the ongoing Israeli aggression, while voicing rejection to disarmament calls.

In a statement, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement said the anniversary in which Palestine was occupied by Zionists, comes amid an escalation of the US-backed Israeli aggression, stressing that the confrontation is not limited to Palestine but extends across the wider region.

The movement warned that the Israeli project is part of broader ambitions for expansion and regional dominance, citing statements by Israeli leaders on territorial control and references to a so-called “Greater Israel,” which pose a growing threat to Arab and Islamic national security amid continued military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

The Islamic Jihad further described ongoing developments as continuous crimes, including killings, arrests, siege measures, and the destruction of infrastructure in both Gaza and the West Bank, in addition to repeated incursions into Islamic and Christian holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque.

On the issue of prisoners, Islamic Jihad said measures targeting detainees amount to a retaliatory policy linked to the Israeli occupation’s inability to confront resistance.

Palestinian prisoners

It also accused ‘Israel’ of targeting Palestinian refugees and undermining the work of UNRWA, warning of efforts to erode the right of return. The movement concluded by stating that Israeli occupation is facing an existential crisis despite its military operations, reiterating its commitment to armed resistance and calling for broader regional and international support for the Palestinian cause.

For its part, Hamas stressed that the Palestinian resistance is a natural right and linked the existence of its armed wing to the continued Israeli occupation. In a statement, the Palestinian resistance movement rejected any discussion of disarmament while the occupation and the ongoing Israeli crimes persist, affirming that such calls amount to alignment with the Israeli agenda.

Hamas said the root of the regional conflict lies in the presence of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian land, adding that decades of Israeli actions represent “a stain on the conscience of those who remain silent or inactive.”

Iraq is re-launching itself after American interference in its elections:

Al-Zaidi, 40, was sworn in on Thursday as Iraq's youngest prime minister after parliament approved 14 of his proposed 23 cabinet ministers, according to the official Iraqi News Agency (INA).

Key portfolios, including interior and defense, remain under negotiation among political factions.

Al-Zaidi emerged as a compromise candidate after Washington's pressure and bullying, including its threat to freeze Iraqi oil money in US bank accounts, forcing former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to abandon his candidacy, which had been put forward by the Coordination Framework.

The new prime minister has not held an elected or administrative office and hence lacks a political base, building his profile through banking, logistics and government contracts.

[shaberon]

On the peninsula, UAE is trying to get out from Saudi dominance, which undermines the Persian Gulf Cooperative Council that it, itself, started:

Ironically, Iran once served as the driver that brought the monarchies together into the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981, and now Iran is being used again — this time as a pretext — to justify the UAE's defiance.

The PGCC was announced from within the UAE in May 1981, with Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain as founding members, officially justified by the Iraq-Iran War.

Those same Persian Gulf states that supported Saddam Hussein against Iran did not defend Baghdad against the US invasion in 2003 and have shown no real "chivalry" in defending Palestine, Lebanon, or Syria.

The UAE's withdrawal from OPEC was announced on April 27, 2026 — the same day an Emirati official spoke about reshaping the image of the Persian Gulf in global media, insisting that disagreements are minor compared to five decades of achievements. But Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash has openly criticized the PGCC, describing its stance as historically weak in the face of Iranian challenges.

The episode argues that the very country that announced the founding of the PGCC is now delivering the blow that will bring about its end, at least in the form known for over forty years.

That's what happened to the Islamic Republic as soon as it started.

Iraq War, Gulf States, then the elimination of Iraq, now a new Iraq of nobodies...all raised Iran to a regional power.

Currently, the proposed swap lines are the way to keep all that Arab oil money from leaving the United States.

Otherwise, they have to liquify the assets, towards any buyers outside of the country or possibly outside its main sphere of influence. Such as the Saudi $1T sovereign fund -- what do you do if suddenly you need it to run de-salination plants, or pay the interest on some loan.

Unanticipated.

Not only is the present-day arrangement useless, the forty years of benefits can disappear rather quickly.


For the future, countries suggested by Iran as security architects are Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey. That's to negate Israel and US presence in these Gulf countries. Obviously it's not a thing yet, but, force has been applied to those bases. That equation is rather clear.

[shaberon]

Further on that subject, it would have been dismissed until they wanted to make themselves sound important:

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has revealed that Tehran deliberately avoided exposing the UAE’s role in the US-Israeli aggression during recent BRICS meetings, only speaking out after Emirati representatives raised the issue first.

Speaking on the sidelines of the BRICS foreign ministers’ gathering in New Delhi on Thursday, held amid ongoing economic and energy fallout from the US-Israeli war on Iran, Araqchi asserted that the bloc’s member states now view Iran through a fundamentally different lens following what he called the failure of American aggression.

“All countries now acknowledge that Iran emerged victorious from the war, thwarting its enemies’ objectives, asserting its will, and gaining a new standing,” Araqchi stated.

The Iranian top diplomat emphasized that his country has proven itself a regional power capable of confronting even the greatest forces. He noted that other nations recognize the need for a fresh perspective on the region’s future and its mechanisms, adding that the realities emerging from the recent conflict must be taken into account.

Araqchi described the war as a turning point for the region that significantly elevated Iran’s status, concluding that Tehran must now “consolidate its position and highlight its regional role more than ever before.”

Tehran’s Warning to Abu Dhabi

In pointed remarks directed at the UAE, Araqchi said that Iran had previously advised Emirati leaders that neither Israel nor the United States could guarantee their security.

Offering advice to the UAE, Araqchi said: “BRICS countries view us differently after the failure of the American aggression.”

He asserted that the UAE had sided with Washington and Tel Aviv against Iran, claiming Tehran possesses precise information and clear documents to prove this. Araqchi clarified that Iran deliberately targeted only American interests on Emirati soil during the confrontation.

“It is better for the UAE to change its policies toward Iran,” Araqchi said. “We are neighboring countries with a shared history and future, and this necessitates seeking security through cooperation among the countries of the region, not reliance on foreign powers.”

The Iranian foreign minister noted that Tehran had initially chosen not to delve into these issues in order to preserve the unity and cohesion of the BRICS group. However, he explained that when the UAE representative raised the matter during the meetings, Iran was compelled to reveal the facts to the international community.

[Kryztian]

German government now criminalizes the image of a Watermelon.

The country that carries out an enormous geneocide in the 1940s is now vigorously supporting a second one in the 2020's.

Watermelons and Handala: Germany outlines symbols of 'secular pro-Palestinian extremism'
Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution offers insights into the 'symbolism of the cut watermelon' and other signs of extremism
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/g...nian-extremism

By Oscar Rickett
Published date: 13 May 2026 15:41 BST | Last update: 2 days 21 hours ago

Germany’s domestic intelligence services have produced a dossier detailing “secular pro-Palestinian extremism” in the country.

The report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) includes sections on “antisemitism in secular pro-Palestinian extremism”, “symbols and identifying marks”, and “networking between pro-Palestinian extremists, left-wing extremists and Islamists”.

“Secular pro-Palestinian extremism in this country is extremely heterogeneous and comprises various organisations, movements, networks, and individuals,” the report says, mentioning the existence of long-standing groups and ones that formed after the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023.

The BfV describes these groups and individuals as being united in “their hostility towards Israel, whose right to exist they regularly refuse to recognise and against which they often agitate in a manner contrary to international understanding”.

Referring to protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Germany’s BfV says that, particularly in Berlin, “statements or displays with anti-Israel, and sometimes antisemitic, content are regularly made or displayed”.

German police have cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests since they began. Protests have been banned and leading German politicians have reiterated the country’s “staatsrason”, or reason of state, a principle that places support for Israel at the core of Germany's national identity.

Last month, police in Berlin arrested demonstrators, including minors. Footage taken over the course of multiple days showed officers forcing people to the ground, dragging them away and aggressively restraining them. The demonstrations remained non-violent before police intervened, the footage showed.

“They [have been] arrest[ing] us for three years until now,” one protester said. “Just because we are Palestinian, and they are committed to a genocide. They are fascism.”

In March, the families and lawyers of anti-arms trade activists accused of breaking into a facility owned by Israel's largest weapons manufacturer in Germany said the detainees faced “extreme isolation” in prison under highly restrictive conditions.

Shortly after the genocide in Gaza began, Robert Habeck, then Germany’s vice chancellor, addressed Israelis in a video message, promising them that “we stand at your side, and we have forgotten nothing” - an apparent reference to his country's role in the Holocaust.

Between 1941 and 1945, Germany’s Nazi government and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million Jews.

Germany is Israel’s second-largest supplier of arms behind the US, though it briefly suspended some shipments in October 2025 after Israel approved a ground offensive to take over Gaza City. Arms transfers from Germany to Israel resumed in November.

On 21 April, Germany, together with Italy, blocked a motion by Spain, Ireland and Slovenia to suspend the EU-Israel trade agreement.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul declared the three countries’ move to be “inappropriate”, saying: “We have to talk with Israel about the critical issues… that has to be done in a critical, constructive dialogue with Israel.”

Israel's right to exist

The BfV states in its dossier: “Secular pro-Palestinian extremists regularly deny Israel's right to exist and its security interest in maintaining the integrity of its territory.”

However, it does not cite examples.

The report features a map of Israel and the Palestinian territories.

he concept of Israel's “right to exist” is regularly aired by its defenders, despite there being no provision in international law guaranteeing such a right to any country, with statehood generally deemed as a political rather than legal reality.

While liberal democracies have typically enacted laws to protect the rights of individuals, fascist regimes such as Nazi Germany removed protections for civil rights and free speech, empowering the state and enabling its expansion.

The State of Israel has expanded since its creation - by force, following the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes - and its borders have continued to change since the genocide in Gaza began, with Israel now occupying more than half of the strip and advancing into southern Lebanon.

“Behind apparent criticism of the Israeli state, antisemitic agitation is often concealed, as no distinction is made between the actions of the Israeli state and those of the Jewish religious community, and anti-Jewish stereotypes are projected onto Israel,” the BfV says of pro-Palestinian protesters.

This statement is followed by a picture of a house in Germany sprayed with two slogans: “Free Palestine!” and “Fck Isr”.

'Symbolism of a cut watermelon'

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency names “relevant actors” in the “secular pro-Palestinian extremism” world, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

“The aforementioned actors ostensibly demand the implementation of the two-state solution, but directly or implicitly endorse the terrorism of Hamas, PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad], and PFLP, and describe the terrorist attack of 7 October 2023, as a legitimate ‘act of resistance’,” the BfV says about BDS-affiliated groups.

The report also mentions “extremist Palestinian individuals” who “contribute significantly to the further increase in radicalisation and the willingness to use violence”.

It then goes on to a section on “symbols and identifying marks”, which includes the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and the “symbolism of a cut watermelon”.

“The watermelon, alluding to the colours of the Palestinian flag, is a symbol of solidarity with Palestine. Here, the outline of the entire state of Israel is depicted in the colours of the Palestinian flag (as a sliced watermelon), thereby denying Israel's right to exist,” the BfV says.

Handala, the 10-year-old refugee boy was created in 1969 by cartoonist Naji Al-Ali as a means of expressing the Palestinian experience, is also one of the "Symbols and identifying marks" of the network mapped out by the BfV.

In its section on “networking between pro-Palestinian extremists, left-wing extremists and Islamists”, the BfV states: “Hatred of Israel and antisemitism serve as a common narrative between the different extremist spectrums, ideologies and groups. This applies to Islamist Palestinian organisations, German and Turkish left-wing extremists, but also to Turkish right-wing extremists.

“Secular pro-Palestinian extremists act as a link between the various extremist factions.

“They create ideological connections between Islamist and left-wing narratives and form new networks. In doing so, they exploit the precarious humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to make pro-Palestinian protests appealing to diverse political movements, as well as to civil society.”

The word “genocide” is mentioned once by the BfV to refer to accusations levelled at Israel. The destruction of Gaza and killing of more than 73,000 Palestinians by Israel is referred to as a “situation”.

The slogan “if Gaza burns, Berlin burns” is mentioned as a threat and an example of extremism.

[Vicus]

Weekend story

Did you know the US and Israel helped create Iran's nuclear project? Here's the story


Elizaveta Naumova
RT
Tue, 05 May 2026- Article extract:

From research reactors and Western contracts to blockades and threats of war, Iran's nuclear history is also a history of Western reversal.

While Trump supplied the performance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio supplied the doctrine. When Trump spoke of military victory, royal agreement, and Iran never being allowed to possess a nuclear weapon, Rubio framed the same position as strategic necessity: Iran's government cannot be trusted, its future intentions are already known, and any deal that fails to address the nuclear question is unacceptable.

The nuclear question, he said, is "the reason why we're in this in the first place." He insisted that if Iran's "radical clerical regime" remained in power, it would eventually decide to pursue a nuclear weapon. Therefore, in his view, the issue has to be confronted immediately.

But there is something deeply ironic in this entire spectacle. Listening to Trump and Rubio, one might think Iran's nuclear program appeared out of nowhere - a dark project born entirely from anti-Western ideology and clerical ambition. This is far from the case.

Iran's nuclear program did not begin with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It did not begin with the Islamic Republic. It did not begin as an anti-American project. It began under the Shah, when Iran was a close US ally. And it began with direct American assistance.

When Iran's nuclear dream was a Western project

The origins of Iran's nuclear program were actually a pro-Western modernization project of the Shah's era, and it was the Western countries that acted as the architects in the early stages, Nikolay Sukhov, a leading researcher at the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations and professor at the HSE University in Moscow, told RT.

The Atoms for Peace program, launched by the Eisenhower administration, was designed to export nuclear technology to US allies for peaceful purposes: Research, energy, and medicine, Sukhov said.

Under the Shah, Iran was one of Washington's priority partners.

Practical implementation began in the late 1950s, when Iran and the US signed an agreement on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Under the agreement, Washington committed to supplying Tehran with nuclear installations and equipment, and to helping train Iranian specialists.

Later, in 1967, the US delivered Iran's first research reactor. Iranian nuclear experts were trained not only in the US, but also in Britain, Belgium, West Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France. Specialists from Israel, West Germany, France, and the US agreed to work on the project and started laying the foundation for a reactor at Bushehr in southern Iran and a research reactor in Isfahan. Iran signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and ratified it in 1970, formally confirming the peaceful status of its nuclear program.

At the time, few in the West described Iran's nuclear program as a nightmare, and very few warned that the world was about to be held hostage by Tehran's atomic ambitions. The reason was simple: Iran was ruled by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah, a close American ally and a central pillar of US strategy in the Middle East.

The Shah's nuclear ambitions, however, weren't limited to a peaceful project. The whole thing was part of a much larger project, the 'White Revolution' launched in 1963 - a sweeping modernization program that he called the "revolution of the Shah and the people."

Over the next decade and a half, Iran was transformed at extraordinary speed. A country that had recently been largely agrarian began building steel plants, machine-building factories, petrochemical complexes, automobile and tractor plants, gas and aluminum industries, and even the foundations of national shipbuilding and aircraft production.

Sukhov said:

"The Shah placed his bet on large-scale nuclear energy as a pillar of industrialization and as a way to reduce dependence on oil. Paradoxically, that was precisely the logic: Nuclear power would free up more oil for export."

Israeli advisers, who Mohammad Reza Pahlavi reportedly listened to carefully, were among those who convinced him that a country with such vast oil wealth deserved its own nuclear power plants. This is an important detail. Today Israel presents Iran's nuclear infrastructure as an intolerable threat by definition. But in the Shah's Iran, Israeli involvement in strategic and technological modernization was not unusual. Iran and Israel maintained close security, intelligence, and technical ties. The same Iran that is now described as a permanent danger was then part of a regional order that Washington and its allies wanted to strengthen.

continue: https://www.sott.net/article/506306-...eres-the-story

[Szymon]

It seems that an event has recently occurred in Israel.

Massive explosion in Beit Shemesh, with Israeli media saying it was a controlled detonation.

There was no warnings or information about a planned "controlled explosion" in local media, so it looks more like an accident.

The media is stating that the army is preventing emergency vehicles from entering the scene, clarified that the explosion likely occurred in a sensitive facility.

Hopefully it's not biological or nuclear related.

[Kryztian]

Posted by Szymon (here)
It seems that an event has recently occurred in Israel.

Massive explosion in Beit Shemesh, with Israeli media saying it was a controlled detonation.

There was no warnings or information about a planned "controlled explosion" in local media, so it looks more like an accident.

Sounds like Israel is trying to send out some warning about what they plan to do next to escalate things.


Defense firm says large explosion near Beit Shemesh was part of ‘pre-planned experiment’
By Emanuel Fabian
16 May 2026, 11:36 pm
https://www.timesofisrael.com/livebl...ed-experiment/

A large blast was heard near the Jerusalem-area city of Beit Shemesh this evening, at a testing ground belonging to the state-owned Tomer defense firm.

In a statement, Tomer — which develops engines for rockets and missiles — says that the blast was “a pre-planned experiment that was carried out according to plan.”

Translated from Hebrew
Documentation: Residents in the Beit Shemesh area reported a loud explosion and fire visible from afar. A somewhat apocalyptic sight.

It turns out it was a controlled explosion carried out inside a civilian factory. No damage or casualties. You can relax.


What an ironic statement at the end. As long as the world's most psychopathic nation has nuclear weapons and other horrible weapons, no one is going to relax.

[Szymon]

I'm not so sure, guys; this doesn't look good.





Remember what Krzysztof said about an accident that will prompt people to leave the Middle East.

Hopefully, that wasn't it.

[Ravenlocke]

“This was meticulously planned”. Pepe Escobar

Danny Haiphong is joined by Pepe Escobar who is in Shanghai, to discuss the significance of Trump’s trip to China

(Putin is going to China this coming week and he will get the lowdown of what was discussed between Trump and Xi straight from Xi.

Pepe Escobar

Straight outta Shanghai.

Soooo many horrors emerging from Barbaria in Beijing + trouble for BRICS in Delhi.

Yet Ghalibaf gets it - quoting Xi. Banger.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FoSWn5sIfLY&t=695s

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...29627307704523

Trump in Panic! Iran and China just wiped out his WW3 plan

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FoSWn5sIfLY

[Ravenlocke]

محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf
@mb_ghalibaf
The world stands at the cusp of a new order.

As President Xi said “The transformation unseen in a century is accelerating across the globe,” and I emphasize that the Iranian nation’s 70-day resistance has accelerated this transformation.

The future belongs to the Global South.

https://x.com/mb_ghalibaf/status/2055729079777652950

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar

May 16
Trump pays tribute to the Temple of Heaven.

It's all here:
https://sovereignista.com/2026/05/15...ple-of-heaven/

And on Tuesday, Putin hits Beijing.

Barbaria is absolutely clueless - as China imposes its centrality in the new, multipolar world.

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...14823090766107

https://sovereignista.com/2026/05/15...ple-of-heaven/

Pepe Escobar : Trump pays tribute to the Temple of Heaven

If all of us are magnanimous enough, we might infer that Xi and Trump agreed on a three-year stability framework.

Strategic Culture

SHANGHAI – The headline on the front page of China Daily this past Thursday was a thunder and lightning “Red-carpet welcome for Trump in Beijing”.

Well, complete with electric jumpin’ children waving flowers and a visit to the Temple of Heaven, built in 1420, symbolizing the connection between heaven and humanity.

Youth meet tradition. The generation that will lead fully modernized China meets deep History. A dazed and confused POTUS could barely absorb a running masterclass in civilization.

Xi Dada was proverbially sharp: “We should be partners, not rivals.” The Exceptionals were stunned. All that after the non-stop litany of trade wars, tech sanctions, non-stop Taiwan hysteria, military encirclement, geoconomic confrontation, anti-China rhetoric.

Cool down. Be cool.

Oh, the twists and turns of the most important bilateral relation on the planet. Even as both economies are quite intertwined, bilateral trade in goods reached 4.01 trillion yuan ($590 million) in 2025. In global terms, that’s not exactly groundbreaking: only 8.8% of China’s total foreign trade.

At the state banquet, Xi’s sharp rhetorical dagger performed the feat of uniting MAGA and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation:

“The people of China and the United States are both great peoples, achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and making America great again, can go hand in hand.”

The barbarians were puzzled. Again.

Then Xi explained where we are, concisely. It took only one sentence:

“The transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent.”

Compare it to when he first referred to the “transformation”, in public, for a global audience: right after the meeting with Putin in the Kremlin in the Spring of 2023.

And then Xi immediately asked: “Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides Trap and create a new paradigm of major-country relations?”

As much as the Thucydides Trap is yet another feeble US ThinkTankland concoction – the best analysts of Thucydides are Greeks and Italians, not the Beltway gang – Xi’s metaphor was actually stressing that China, now, is the leader of the new emerging order.

And it got here without firing a shot.

That “constructive strategic stability”

Xi then deployed his new vision for US-China relations – at least for the next 3 years – via a quite startling slogan: “constructive strategic stability” (italics mine).

Yet that presents three serious problems.

The Empire of Chaos is not constructive: it’s destructive.

It’s not strategic: at best it’s crudely tactical, tactics changing all the time.

And it’s not about stability: it’s about instilling and deploying chaos, alongside lies, plunder and, as we see in Venezuela and especially Iran, piracy.

So Xi, rationally, cannot possibly expect “cooperation” from the Empire as “the mainstay” of the relationship, much less “healthy stability with competition within proper limits.”

If all of us are magnanimous enough, we might infer that Xi and Trump agreed on a three-year stability framework which should be interpreted as a structural reset – featuring cooperation first, then managed competition, and predictable peace as the end result.

Well, never forget we are dealing, in the immortal definition of Grandmaster Lavrov, with a “non-agreement capable” US.

And of course there’s the “Taiwan question”. Xi at his sharpest: “’Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water”. The Americans must exercise “extra caution” in “handling the Taiwan question”.

Xi called it “the most important issue in China-US relations”. For Beijing, this is the ultimate red line. Team Trump may still not understand the stakes. Taiwan is the variable with the potential to reset the whole, optimistic three-year “peaceful” equation to zero.

And incidentally, American MSM spin that Xi traded non-interference by the US in Taiwan for “helping” the US in Iran is absolutely ridiculous. China and Iran have an all-evolving strategic partnership.

While all that was proceeding in Beijing, I had the pleasure of spending a long geopolitical lunch in Shanghai with the remarkable Li Bo, the general director of Guancha, the number one independent media in China, with at least 120 million daily followers.

Among other nuggets, Li Bo explained that Taiwan is not a problem for Beijing: it’s an internal matter that will be solved peacefully. The real problem is the rearming of Japan, especially now when under the frankly militaristic Sanae Takaichi administration.

Now for the real VIPs in the Trump-Xi show. After all the “evil empire” craze, the decoupling hysteria, the de-risking paranoia, the sanctions tsunami, the tariff tsunami, the war rhetoric, we have an oligarchic bunch with a collective market capitalization of over $10 trillion flying to Beijing to literally beg Xi Jinping, in person, for…deals.

Trump was ecstatic: “I wanted the number one from each empire! Jensen Huang, Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and the other titans… the best in the world are here, right in front of you.”

Then, the clincher: “They’re here today to pay respect to you and to China. They come hungry to do business, invest, and create. From our side, it’ll be 100% reciprocal.”

The “indispensable” nation paying tribute to the real 21st century geo-economic empire. History will have a ball with it.

The keys to the new Temple of Heaven

Tesla, Apple, Boeing, GE Aerospace, everyone may desperately need China’s rare earths: China controls nearly 99% of the global processing capacity for rare-earth minerals. Yet China, structurally, and increasingly, does not need these American behemoths.

The combined revenue exposure to China across the top 12 companies represented by their CEOs on this trip is over $300 billion a year.

Musk needs to keep building Teslas – the Gigafactory, his primary export hub, is outside of Shanghai – without a 100% tariff. Jensen Huang needs chip export licenses so Nvidia may sell into this immense AI market (but China doesn’t need Nvidia anymore). Tim Cook needs Apple’s $70 billion China supply chain to remain steady.

The real problem is BlackRock’s Larry Fink avid for Chinese financial markets to “open up” for extra Wall Street profits (Li Bo told me at best the Chinese will let them open a little office in Hainan island…) Fink, moreover, is the actual new leader of the Davos gang, directly responsible for the funding of AI surveillance data centers all over the US.

The White House readout was beaming on “expanding market access for US businesses into China and increasing Chinese investment into US industries”; “increasing Chinese purchases of US agricultural products”; and Xi expressing “interest in purchasing more US oil”.

Yet there’s not a single word about any “trade discussions” coming from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

So in theory we had this trillionaire CEO party eager to “open up” China for American business/trade. Business in Shanghai was definitely not impressed. After all China is actively building its own independence – it’s all enshrined in the targets of the new Five-Year Plan – while the US, via these trillionaire CEOs, essentially demonstrated the formalization of its own dependence.

While all this sound and fury was going on in Beijing, the Foreign Ministers of Russia, China (not Wang Yi, he remained in Beijing side by side with Xi), India and, crucially, Iran, and others, were in New Delhi for a very important BRICS summit focused on what Moscow defined as reforming the system of “global governance” with a predominant role for the Global South.

BRICS may be in a coma. But if there’s anyone capable of resurrecting it, it’s Grandmaster Lavrov and Russia, side by side with China and emerging global power Iran. Once again: it’s the new Primakov triangle, RIC (Russia-Iran-China) which will find the real keys to open a new Temple of Heaven.

[Ravenlocke]

DD Geopolitics

🇺🇸🇮🇷 The US has presented Iran with five conditions for continuing settlement talks, per Fars News:

🔸No compensation for damages caused during the bombing of Iranian territory

🔸400kg of enriched uranium to be shipped from Iran to the US

🔸Only one active nuclear facility to remain operational on Iranian soil

🔸No more than 25% of frozen Iranian assets to be released

🔸Ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon, to be resolved as part of the negotiations

https://x.com/TheGarlandNixon/status...40219418243271

[Ravenlocke]

Iran Observer

May 16
⚡️JUST IN

Iran has created an Insurance Company to guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz

Vessels pay their Insurance Premiums in Bitcoin

This move will hurt the World's largest Marine insurers

https://x.com/IranObserver0/status/2055716544596922700

[Ravenlocke]

New Direction AFRICA

🚨 🇾🇪 BREAKING: Yemeni forces just shot down another US MQ-9 Reaper drone.

Yemeni Armed Forces announced today they downed the American drone over Safer, Marib Governorate.

Photos released show clear wreckage on the ground — charred remains, debris, and visible parts of the MQ-9.

This continues the pattern of multiple Reaper shootdowns by Yemen in recent years using local air defenses.

Red Sea tensions keep escalating.

https://x.com/Its_ereko/status/2056113080895975482

https://x.com/AryJeayBackup/status/2056099224505262127