July 14, 2017 – Astute News

July 14, 2017

The New Silk Road Will Go Through Syria

Amid the proverbial doom and gloom pervading all things Syria, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune sometimes yield, well, good fortune. Take what happened this past Sunday in Beijing. The China-Arab Exchange Association and the Syrian Embassy organized a Syria Day Expo crammed with hundreds of Chinese specialists in infrastructure investment. It was a sort of mini-gathering of the Asia...

Opinion Comments: 0

July 14, 2017

The Protocols of Zion “Forgery” Argument is Flawed

Jewish apologists claim that the Protocols of Zion were a direct plagiarism of this book published in 1864. However, this universally-accepted claim does not withstand scrutiny. Next to the Bible The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is perhaps the mostly widely read book in the world. Published in Russia in 1903, it purports to be the leaked master plan...

Opinion Comment: 1

July 14, 2017

Israel’s Ever-More Sadistic Reprisals Help Shore up a Sense of Victimhood

When Israel passed a new counter-terrorism law last year, Ayman Odeh, a leader of the country’s large minority of Palestinian citizens, described its draconian measures as colonialism’s “last gasp”. He said: “I see … the panic of the French at the end of the occupation of Algeria.” The panic and cruelty plumbed new depths last week, when Israeli officials launched...

Opinion Comments: 0

July 14, 2017

The Fatal Flaw in Washington’s New Energy Strategy

If the feeling of pity would be worth a damn one would be tempted to feel sorry for the hapless Poles. Now Poland’s leaders have again been seduced, this time by a dangerous Washington stratagem: to try to become the Natural Gas Hub of the EU displacing Germany and pushing Russia out. The Poles seem to have a penchant to...

Opinion Comments: 0

July 14, 2017

Counting the Dead in Mosul

“There were very few Daesh [ISIS fighters] in our neighbourhood, but they dropped a lot of bombs on them,” says Qais, 47, a resident of the al-Jadida district of Mosul. “We reckon that the airstrikes here killed between 600 and 1,000 people.” He shows pictures on his phone of a house that had stood beside his own before it was hit by...

Opinion Comments: 0

July 14, 2017

Behind Trump’s Trip to Poland

Perhaps the most overlooked part of President Donald Trump’s trip to Europe last week was his 18-hour visit to Poland as the guest of political ally and fellow nationalist, President Andrzej Duda. I interviewed Ronald Cox, a professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, about the significance of Trump’s decision to make an early visit...

Opinion Comments: 0

July 14, 2017

Pentagon Wants to Build New US Facilities in Iraq, Syria

The Donald Trump administration is pushing Congress for the authority to build new “temporary” facilities in Iraq and Syria as part of the US-led campaign against the Islamic State. In a policy statement released Tuesday night, the White House argues that US troops are hamstrung by legal restrictions on their ability to expand US military infrastructure “in both Iraq and Syria.” The administration...

Military Comments: 3

July 14, 2017

Gaza In Crisis as Last Power Plant Shuts Down

Gaza’s last functioning turbine was shut down late last night due to a severe shortage of fuel, plunging the Strip into near total darkness, according to Haaretz. The besieged coastal enclave is home to more than two million people and has been suffering a fuel crisis since April due to a dispute over taxes between Hamas, which governs the Strip, and...

Middle East Comments: 0

Daily Archive: July 14, 2017

The New Silk Road Will Go Through Syria

The Protocols of Zion “Forgery” Argument is Flawed

Israel’s Ever-More Sadistic Reprisals Help Shore up a Sense of Victimhood

The Fatal Flaw in Washington’s New Energy Strategy

Counting the Dead in Mosul

Behind Trump’s Trip to Poland

Pentagon Wants to Build New US Facilities in Iraq, Syria

Gaza In Crisis as Last Power Plant Shuts Down