My new Taki's Magazine column is out.
I certainly don’t know what’s going to happen next in Eastern Europe, but I’d like to sketch out a scenario that is, while admittedly implausible, even less often contemplated.
Russia increasingly resembles another country with similar paranoiac geopolitical attitudes and a culture that is yearly becoming less Northwest European: Israel. A rapprochement between Russia and Israeli nationalists remains unlikely, but the chances are growing.
Read the whole thing there.
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45 comments:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bush-wins-texas-gop-land-commissioner-nomination
Peewee is back.
"Russia has long been a baleful state, the biggest, toughest flatheads out on the Eurasian plain."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpFNC7puU2M
Russia has something Israel wants. That is to stop cooperating with Iran on her nuke program. I am surprised Russia hasn't told Israel to call off the dogs in Washington in exchange for discontinuing its building of Iranian reactors.
Steve- your first link ('column') looks broken.
A good column which ties together a lot of isteve themes - even Amy Chua appears. Only omission was mentioning Libya without an exotic Quaadaffi spelling reference.
I can't agree with you Steve.
Russians, real Russians that is, have a very strong and almost instinctive distrust for Jews and everything Jewish, a prejudice that is basically overwhelming and deep-seated and present in virtually every etnic Russian.
The fact that the Yeltsin administration was packed with Jews tells us more about Yeltsin than we need to know - I'm not saying he was of Jewish descent, he was far too dumb and cack-handed for that, but basically he was owned by Jews.
Of course that galacticall stupid dumb bastard, Gorbachev ruined Russia, Gorbachev I can state here categorically is definitely not of Jewish blood, he also is far too dumb and unintelligent for that - actually that's a good giveaway for any prominent politician Russian or otherwise *not* to be Jewish, you will always but always find that the biggest, dumbest, stupidest most incompetent bastards out there are *never* of Jewish descent. That is the Russian paradox, yes Jews might be self-interested and corrupt, but basically their the only ones with the mental actuity to run the show - look what happens when a son-of-a-pig like Gorbachev gets his hooves on the levers of power.
Anyhow, in these days of a rising China and a terminally declining west, which, of course, means a black/brown majority USA in 30 years time and a black/brown dominated EU not that much later, if Putin is wise enough to play the long-game, he'd realise that the EU/USA is not only finished but headed straight for the toilet. China is all that counts, it's China that has the hard cash and instaiable appetite for raw materials, it's China that ensures that the coming black/brown west will remain pauperized and discontented, if Putin is wise, and I believe he is, the focus of Russian trade and energy exports must turn eastwards as a 'double punishment' ie building up China to squeeze the west and depriving the west of vital resources.
Israelis are cowboys. Russians are fascists who are over-compensating for their impotence at the world stage.
I am surprised Russia hasn't told Israel to call off the dogs in Washington
Maybe because they see that Israel can't even "call off the dogs" asking it to withdraw from the West Bank.
Are you totally unaware of John Kerry's mischief in the Middle East in the past few months?
On should never say never, but in this case I am going to say its never going to happen. Israeli lobbying, Hollywood, Finance etc. are so tightly intertwined that America will always be Israels bitch, except they call it rosier words like "special relationship" or "strategic partnership".
Russia needs Iran and vice versa. There is no comity of interests with Israel.
The USSR was much more of a supporter to Israel in its early days than the USA was. But I don't suppose that the USSR would ever have become Israel's poodle.
Sincerely doubt it, Russian street would never accept it, I had to dispell a rumour I was jewish when I was living there, damaging.
Jews don't forgive and forget but they are waning in the West.
Link is f*cked.
American Right's alliance with neocons led to Bush II and rise of Christian Right(cynically favored by neocons only for their rabid support of Israel). Bad.
Whatever benefits such an alliance might have had, it led to the American Right's totally shutting up about Jewish power and agendas in order to appease neocons.
Meanwhile, Lib Jews kept dumping on Republicans.
Putin shouldn't be anti-Israel and shouldn't be anti-Jewish for the hell of it, but he needs to be more critical of Jewish power when it hurts Russia. He shouldn't clam up like American cons who, btw, bark for their Jewish masters.
A necessary alliance is Russians and American conservatives. While loss of Jewish support will hurt the right in the short term, it will finally allow the right to openly speak truth to Jewish power. Without that, nothing is possible.
Sailer's Israel strategy is defeatist.
It says Jews are masters of the world and Jews hate Russians and white conservatives. So, the most we can hope for is to plead with Zionist Jews to talk to Liberal Jews to go a little easy on us.
It's like Manzo in the beginning of Seven Samurai saying that they shouldn't fight back against the bandits but plead with them to leave some food so that the peasants don't starve.
Russians need to appeal to American conservatives. And conservatives need to learn from Russian conservatism. Buchanan is right.
MANZO:
But we haven’t a chance. What if we lost? They’d kill us all! They’d kill the pregnant women, even. And the babies!
We were born to suffer. It’s our
lot in life.
If they come, let’s not fight.
Let’s give them the harvest...
...but ask for just enough so we
don’t starve. We’ll beg, we’ll go
down on our knees.
I'm not sure the power relationship works that way.
The banking mafia in America might dominate US foreign policy and skew it in Israel's favor regionally but globally they play their own games and part of that is simply about loot.
If the banking mafia in the US put Israel first before their own wealth they wouldn't have off-shored the US economy.
For the banking mafia it's:
Banking mafia first
Israel second
America third
'double punishment' ie building up China to squeeze the west and depriving the west of vital resources.
---------------------
LOL. Excellent. Excellent.
Russian IQ isn't lower than Germans'.
What Russians need is to develop a new national character that is like 19th century Germanism. Russians are too messy.
German elites ran much of Germany in the 19th century and German influence was gradually having its impact on Russian elites.
The German-Russian rift was a great tragedy. If pan-Germanism and pan-Slavism hadn't clashed, both sides could have done much good to the other.
If the rift hadn't happened and if Russian elites had continued to learn from German elites, the Russian national character might have changed.
Gorbachev was not stupid, he was somewhat naive but the biggest problem was that by 1990 it turned out he had no stomach to order the deaths of a few thousand people. (An action by interior troops that resulted in the death of a few hundred, yes, but definitely not a few thousand. And definitely never directly ordering the death of those.)
I actually tend to think it was good the USSR disappeared, but of course Gorbachev was incompetent. But definitely not because he was stupid.
wild but interesting
What would happen in Putin suddenly died?
I think is possible this type of ''alliance'' because, inside of the show, Israel, Russian Federation and ''western powers'' are secretly in same group. War are greater spectacles like in roman arenas during the Jesus times. The wild and dangerous animals and the gladiator serves to same masters like russians and ilimited cia. Real smart people will solve this problem with diplomacy. Ukraine is like Tchecoslovakia in the end of 80's. This is possible to solve this ''paradox'' with diplomacy, but c'mmon, is ''nice'' the conflict, make us feel lives.
Only barely OT but breaking news:
Kiev snipers hired by Maidan leaders - leaked EU's Ashton phone tape
In a leaked phone conversation the Estonian Foreign Minister tells the EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton that he has been told by the doctor treating victims in Kiev that both the police and civilian gunshot victims were shot by the same snipers. “I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh,” Ashton answered
France sells Russia a helicopter carrier.
Look what Putin ordered: Helicopter carrier built by the FRENCH for Russian navy gets first test run
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2573727/Just-Putin-needs-Helicopter-carrier-built-French-navy-gets-test-run.html#ixzz2v6nIdtBv
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Fun stuff, though I agree it's very unlikely to happen mainly because of Russian domestic politics. A Russian pivot to Israel would presumably leave Syria without a great-power sponsor, which in turn would give China an opportunity to acquire a client in the Middle East. They would probably find Syria's direct access to the Mediterranean to be worth a modest sum in "development aid" and arms; they certainly aren't going to get it any other way any time soon.
Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.
Even so, it came to a showdown between Michael and Roth.
"Russia has long been a baleful state, the biggest, toughest flatheads out on the Eurasian plain. You always hear about two times Russia was attacked—by Napoleon in 1812 and by Hitler in 1941—but Russia didn’t get that big through diplomacy. In late czarist times, the Foreign Office commemorated a royal anniversary by commissioning a research project in the archives. In its ceremonial memorandum to the czar, the foreign minister announced that they had reviewed the last 40 wars the state had fought and were proud to declare that Russia had started 38 of them."
Purely an accident of geography. Russia got big for the same reason China and US got big. And Australia got big and why Canada got big and why Brazil got big.
Power tends to spread from concentrated areas to empty areas.
Russia got big because most of Siberia and Central Asia were pushover territories--and vastly underpopulated or empty. But Russians rarely conquered densely populated areas. Poland was an exception, but then it was swallowed by other powers too.
Same with US. US spread westward cuz it was easy. Indians were pushovers. And US took SW territories cuz Mexico was a pushover. But in the war of 1812 when the Brit-Canadians fought back hard, US learned its lesson and respected Canadian territory.
Russians generally avoided major wars with major powers with huge populations. Russians drew the line between themselves and the Ottomans. The fighting was in the hazy grey areas between the empires. Russia never wanted to swallow the Ottoman Empire.
When Prussians, Austrians, and Russians picked at the Polish empire, it was because the Polish empire was falling apart from within. When a animal is wounded, vultures descend.
But Russia mostly avoided wars with major powers--as did America.
America had a winning streak up to the Vietnam War because they fought pushovers, dying empires(like the Spanish empire that was falling apart like the Polish empire) and because it entered WWI and WWII with mostly other powers doing the heavy work. Even in the war with Japan, US mostly avoided land wars--except on some islands--and used air power and navy. US told Russia to fight Japanese on land in North Asia.
So, both US and Russia were careful in choosing whom to fight and when to fight and where to fight. US met its match in the jungles of Vietnam. And Russia met its match in the mountains of Afghanistan.
Russia's one truly great victory against a great power was against Germany in WWII. That took great courage, determination, will, and organization.
But in the case of Napoleon, it was more the case that the French defeated themselves by advancing with supplies and food. Though there were some major battles, the Russians mostly retreated and just let the elements take care of the French. French didn't retreat from Russian soldiers but from Russian elements during winter. Russian troops picked off French as they were falling like flies from the elements.
Russia lost WWI. Russia lost to Japan in 1905(or at best ended with a tie). Stupid fools sold Alaska to the US. (What would have happened to Alaska during Cold War if Russia held it? Maybe US would have helped White Russians take it over and rule it like a Russian Taiwan.)
As for Mongols, they just faded away. It was not like Russians suddenly rose up and defeated the Mongols.
The Crimean War was a mess for all sides.
So, the one truly great Russian victory in a major war was in WWII. They not only rolled back the Germans but took over eastern europe and half of Germany. That was awesome, but then, it was a war Russians didn't want to fight. It was forced on them by Germany.
So, the notion that Russia got big out of war-mongering is false. Russia got big cuz, like the Anglos in America and Han Chinese in China, they were faced with vast empty spaces to take over with ease. On a flat table, if you pour water in one area, it naturally flows outward to empty areas. So, Russian size is deceptive.
Interesting analysis of a few potentially interesting cultural links between the two countries but I just don't see what Israel and Russia would have to offer each other of much significance, beyond a few deals at the margins. Israel isn't likely to ever have to worry about support from the US, so why would they need Russia? The added value of a second UN Security Council veto when you only need one is minimal. A loss of Russian support to their enemies (possibly with the exception of Iran and its nuclear program, which is one of the few likely possibilities for a deal) isn't really in Israel's interests when it keeps winning wars anyway. Russia doesn't have much to offer Israel.
And what would the Russians get? You suggest a bit of favor from the neocons but most of them are either too obtuse and reflexively anti-Russian to notice or else sensitive enough to respond to marginal moves like a deal on Iran. They'd definitely be alienating the Arab and Muslim worlds, from which they've had allies and clients of long standing. One of the few good things I could say about the Russians is that they're not as craven, treacherous, and mercurial towards their friends as the US is. They'd possibly lose buyers in the Middle East for their weapons (the only real category of manufactured goods that Russia exports in any significant degree). And they would probably anger a lot of Muslims, which they have an abundance of in parts of their country and along their southern borders, and who occasionally come into Russia proper to blow things up and kill people.
"There is no comity of interests with Israel."
Yeah, that's the real problem. Nobody has anything important to gain by being allied with Israel. The oil is with the Arabs, and the terrorism comes with supporting Israel.
And how much positive PR would come in any case from allying with Israel, considering how Israel is by the day getting more embarrassing to Jews outside of Israel?
I'm sure that Putin is more than happy to see the tar baby of Israel in our hands, not his. We're the ones who look like crap throughout the civilized world for embracing Israel.
"Russia increasingly resembles another country with similar paranoiac geopolitical attitudes and a culture that is yearly becoming less Northwest European: Israel. A rapprochement between Russia and Israeli nationalists remains unlikely, but the chances are growing."
Falser words have never been spoken.
Israel's situation is akin to that of Germany or Japan from WWI to WWII.
Germans(going back to Prussian mentality) and Japanese were filled with a sense of national superiority but exasperated with their geographical inferiority.
They felt, 'we are a great people but we got little land and almost no resources. We got great talent but little to work with.'
Germans and Japanese thought some nations were blessed with huge amounts of land, especially Chiner and Russiar and Ameriker. And they envied France and Brits with huge overseas empires.
Japan and Germany felt like little giants. Giant in ambition but small in size. So, they eyed the territories around them, and things got heated in WWII when Japan sought to own Asia and Germany sought to conquer Russia.
Israel feels this way toward the Arabs and Muslims. Jews figure, 'we are so smart and advanced but have this dinky little land. All those Arabs and Muslims are dumb untermensch but they got lots of land and lots of oil'. Though Jews don't intend to invade the Middle East, they want to control what happens there.
It's the bigger Arab and Muslim nations that feel like Russia against Israel. Just as Russians trailed Germans in quality but made up for it in quantity, Muslims and Arabs feel the same way in relation to Israel--and of course, quantity and scale are what saved China from Japan that couldn't control what they conquered.
What Jews understand about Russia/Ukraine is something Hitler willfully chose to ignore. There were divisions within the USSR that could have been exploited. If Germans had treated Ukrainians and anti-communist Russians nice, they might have won the war. But in treating everyone like shit, even many Ukrainians joined with soviets to defeat Germany. Germans unified everyone in the USSR by treating almost everyone like shit.
USSR is no more but there are both links and gaps between Russia and Ukraine. Jews learned from history. They'd rather not antagonize Ukraine and make it closer to Russia. So, Jews are even willing to side with neo-Nazi elements to drive a wedge between Ukraine and Russia--what Hitler should have done but failed to do out of his ideological fixation about race. Politics and wars must be pragmatic and ideologies must be shelved in order to win.
Jews understand this. Ideologically, Israelis have more in common with secular Assad than with theocratic Saudis. But Jews are working closely with Saudis(as with the Christian Right whom Jews really loathe) against the secular Assad since Assad is allied to Iran. Jews have their core goals but are willing to be politically zeligish to get what they want. Divide and rule the Muslim world.
Now, Putin needs to work with Jews. He cannot ignore Jewish power. But the idea of goodwill on part of Jews IF Putin forms a hard alliance with rightwing Jews is fantastic. Also, the problem with the rightwing alliances is that any rightism can be the toughest enemy of other rightisms. Chinese rightists and Japanese rightists hate one another the most. During WWI, German rightists and Russian rightists hated each other the most.
So, Russian rightism and Jewish rightism can never see eye to eye on anything for long.
Maybe because they see that Israel can't even "call off the dogs" asking it to withdraw from the West Bank.
Are you totally unaware of John Kerry's mischief in the Middle East in the past few months?
Give me a break. So Kerry has been saying things that Israel might not like. But he also just stated that Israel's security is our top priority. Additionally, Israel's annual $3 billion stipend hasn't ended Nor has Uncle Sam ended loan guarantees or favorable trade status.
Israel knows they don't have to withdraw from the West Bank. The US is just saying that to publicly save face and make the world believe that they really are fair and unbiased.
If our position on Israel were comparable to the way we'd treat Russia, we'd end the annual subsidy and probably threaten to freeze Israeli assets in America.
Maybe. If the US wakes up and stops helping China become a mega power, the US would ally with Russia. That seems very unlikely while US hyper capitalism is making vast profits from turning China into a potential global hegemon.
Only if a loudspeaker goes off and a voice says, 'All Jews gather in Times Square,' would Israel get friendly with Russia. Israeli will always choose a US relationship over any thing Russia has to offer. The US has all the wealth and power for military security. And in soft power it is totally dominant too. Where would young Israelis rather be, in LA or Moscow?
"What would happen in Putin suddenly died?"
There would be political turmoil, with power likely passing to true nationalists as opposed to the current soft power technocrats.
Steve, you are inching toward weird conspiracy theorist territory. Maybe you are there and your veil is slipping. I was reminded of the nutty right last week when a 9/11 Truther cornered me at a party.
Your article does not pass the Occam's Razor test.
Israel already has excellent relations with Russia -- but also with Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic...pretty much with all those European countries that didn't become decadent and stupid thanks to too much poat-WWII peace and prosperity. Stupidified (ie western) Europe's anti-Israel politics grows out of the same tendencies that gave birth to those countries' anti-white, anti-Christian, and pro-buggery politics.
"Stupidified (ie western) Europe's anti-Israel politics"
That's why they're all imposing sanctions on Iran.
Russia cooperates with the West on sanctions against Iran, but did that do it any good?
Still vilifying Russia.
Putin needs to destroy Israel to keep its gas from European markets, US media hate a plus for him and he can win an arms race against northetn Mexico.
You and that Israeli gas comment never fail to show up. If the EU ever became dependent upon Israel for gas, it would be worse for them than being dependent upon Russia. You think Russia plays hardball with business interests, just wait to you meet the Israelis.
Remember the Israelis reportedly would nuke Rome and the other capitals of Europe in retaliation for those nations not coming to Israel's defense if Israel were about to go under. Israel wouldn't just nuke her attackers, she'd nuke the Europeans for not protecting her.
I'd rather be dependent upon the Russians.
Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.
Even so, it came to a showdown between Michael and Roth.
Silly saying from a movie should not be taken as sound advice for international relations. At least "to crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women," came from a real historical figure.
Those sanctions have collapsed since Obama/Kerry's diplomatic "triumph".
In any case, a nuclear-armed Iran wouldn't be good for anyone; that's what explains what cooperation there ever was on Iran sanctions.
The still coalescing alliance is Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Armenia, Serbia, Shitties everywhere, Christians in predominantly Muslim countries and nationalists in Western/Southern Europe.
"Silly saying from a movie"
If it's silly, why did Michael win?
"That's why they're all imposing sanctions on Iran."
Maybe its obvious that both liberals and conservatives have an interest in not allowing insane jihadists to get nuclear weapons. Do you really think they'll stop at Tel Aviv?
Speaking of paranoia, you should go to YouTube and look up a show called FightQuest and then watch the episode on Krav Maga.
"Speaking of paranoia, you should go to YouTube and look up a show called FightQuest and then watch the episode on Krav Maga."
Evolution in action.
It's like how extremely aggressive densely packed ad hominems and straw men is an ethnic signature online.
Verbal Krav Maga.
"The absolute nightmare scenario of European statesmen is that a new round of redrawing borders in Eastern Europe sets off a rebirth of German irredentism"
About as likely as the British trying to reconquer India (and not much less practicable) for a country with the demographic structure of modern Germany to behave like a Germany with a huge youth bulge, that hadn't disastrously ended up fighting most of the world twice.
Americans like to think there is a 'European formula' nationalism. Sorry, but it's like 'European formula' baldness cures. For instance 20% of births to Polish mothers in Britain have black fathers. Interracial people are already as common in the UK as in the US. And this is in a few decades. Pretty obvious where it's going.
Sure many like Merkel claim it's their way or the the Nazis coming back in Germany (or other west European country). Don't you believe it.
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