The South Korean military reported that North Korea fired three Rodong-type midrange missiles just after midday. The missiles landed in the Sea of Japan after reaching about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles).
The missile launch comes on the back of the G-20 summit in Beijing, China. South Korea has pleaded with China to drop its opposition to a US backed missile defense shield. The North Korean bravado has made the shield seem far more necessary. As China continues to rise in global stature, most indications are that their opposition will stay.
Despite China’s opposition, South Korea is committed to deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad, missile defense system by the end of 2017.
The Iran Link
It has been known by observers for years that a secret pact between Iran and North Korea allows both to continue development separately and yet merge success together. It is clear that while Iran has pushed forward with its nuclear program, the North Koreans have worked hard at perfect ballistic missiles. Now that Iran has begun to see itself normalized within a broader international framework, continued cooperation between the Iranians and North Koreans is assured.
This cooperation not only endangers the South Koreans, but Israel as well. With neither the Iranians or North Koreans prevented from building weapons of mass destruction, both sides can work together in sowing destruction on their enemies.
On Saturday more Turkish tanks crossed the Syrian border into the Syrian rebel-controlled town of al-Rai in order to support the new operation Euphrates Shield
Al-Rai is about 55 kilometers west of Jarablus, and part of a 90-kilometer strip near the Turkish border that Erdogan’s government says it is clearing of jihadis while making sure the YPG or Syrian Kurdish Army keeps away.
The Turkish backed rebels buoyed by the Turkish tanks spread out and then seized villages to the east and the south of al-Rai.
“They took several villages, about eight villages. At first they took two and withdrew from them, but then reinforcements came and there was an advance,” Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim group said.
While Ankara claims the The Turkish-backed operation’s goal is to put pressure on ISIS, most observers believe that Turkey’s real goal is to block the YPG from expanding and forming a formidable Kurdish state.
While Turkey views the Kurdish Army as a terrorist organization, NATO as a whole sees the group as the vanguard of their anti-ISIS strategy. This conflict of interest has caused stress between NATO and Turkey.
At the G20 summit Erdogan spelled out his view of the YPG to China’s CCTV:
“There is no good terrorist. All terrorists are bad. All organizations involved in terrorism are cursed. This is how we see things and how we put up our struggle.”
For Erdogan, the label of terrorist is a ruse to allow for a non-measured response to his Kurdish foes. Loosely applied, the Turkish military can be unleashed to finish them off.
For the first time since 2014 a major international investigative body is coming to Israel. In the past the ICC took one-sided stances as far as Israel and the “Palestinian” Arab, yet the International Criminal Court has promised that this time would be different.
For one, neither of the past two commissioners of previous investigations have been allowed in the country. Secondly, the ICC and Israel out of mutual interest will be carrying joint press conferences. The question for observers is why?
There are no real answers, but Bibi Netanyahu’s seeming change in approach is most likely due to the ICC coming down from its own tree. Afterall the region has changed from bad to worse, with the Syrian conflict overshadowing anything the ICC has accused Israel of in the past. Furthermore, past investigations have been so one-sided the ICC has lost a great deal of legitimacy.
Perhaps the about-face by Israel has more to do with its new-found involvement in Sub Saharan Africa and increased integration as a tech giant with many of the emerging economies. After all, most of the attacks on Israel throughout the years have been directed from developing nations that have been cajoled to support Arab causes. With this the Arab block losing its leverage on these countries, Israel has far more wiggle room in the international arena.
Don’t Trust Them
That being said, the trip is not just for PR, but to determine whether the ICC needs to step in and run its own investigation on Israel’s actions. This is the same ICC that declared its support for a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria.
The government may feel it is in its best interest to placate the court with a warmer visit, but the ICC as an arm of Western ambitions throughout the region and the developing world does not have Israel’s interest in mind.
Part of the trip, led by chief investigator Fatou Bensouda is to find out if Israel can be trusted to run its own investigation into the 2014 Gaza war as well as the “Palestinian” territories in Judea and Samaria. Although Bensouda recognized Palestinian statehood as per the recommendation of UN General Assembly in 2015, she has since struck a far more conciliatory tone.
Fatou Bensouda
In an interview earlier in the year with the Jerusalem Post Bensouda insists she will only follow the Rome Statute:
“We are not looking, judging the whole judicial system of any state or any system that is supposed to have jurisdiction or that could exercise jurisdiction. We are not looking at the judicial system and how it is functioning. We are looking particularly at specific crimes and we are looking at specific conduct, we’re looking at specific persons, who bear responsibility for those crimes and what is being done with regard to that…and as I always say [we are doing this] in an independent and very dispassionate way and this is very critical whether it is in…any other situation.”
Yet, given Israel’s experience in the past and the wide ability for the ICC to operate once it is allowed to do so, should give Israel pause in how much leeway it gives the court. For now it is still deliberating on keeping the trip to a series of photo-ops or allowing the court to bring reps into Arab villages inside Judea and Samaria.
When the reusable SpaceX rocket was destroyed on Thursday after suffering a catastrophic explosion on launch at Cape Canaveral more than just some expensive satellites were destroyed.
Part of the payload was Israel’s Amos 6 satellite, considered the most advanced Israeli satellite ever. Its destruction was more than 200 million dollars, it was the last straw for a government that has pulled away from backing Israel’s satellite industry. Although, Israel has committed quite a bit to the IAI and Israel’s space agency, the once dominant satellite industry is seeing less and less.
Yet, as much as Israel space agency felt the pain from the SpaceX destruction, Amos 6 was meant to help Facebook beam internet to Sub-Saharan Africa. Although Zuckerberg claims he is pained at the loss of his altruistic pet project, there was nothing altruistic about it.
Ever since Edward Snowden released sensitive information about Facebook’s founding and use as an NSA global data collection tool, the company’s luster has dulled.
“He’s [Zuckerberg] the unemployed nephew of a ranking NSA official, whose aspirations of becoming an actor never materialized…until plans for ‘Operation Code Name: Facemash’ were drawn up and executed around 2003,” Snowden told reporters from various Chinese news agencies, as well as The Washington Post and the British paper Guardian. “Mark Zuckerberg is a fictional character.”
More intrusive than a massice govenment spying platform, Facebook now is being used to ensure society is fed certain perception of reality. While everyone has the ability to produce content on Facebook, its algorithm seems to only back those articles or posts that promote a certain agenda.
With the explosion of the SpaceX rocket, the globalist drive to force feed even more areas in the world with their agenda has been severely pushed back. With all of this in mind, the question should not be was the rocket intentionally destroyed, but rather who destroyed it?
If it is possible to believe Erdogan, his foray into Syria was for the purpose of driving ISIS from Jarablus, the only piece of land the Syrian Kurds did not control. Erdogan’s forces were of such mass that Turkey was accused of invading Syria. ISIS quickly melted away and the Turkish military set its sights on the true “nemesis” to the Turkish homeland YPG or the Kurdish army in Syria.
One thing has become clear. Erdogan’s actions have put NATO in a very uncomfortable spot. On one hand they have backed the Syrian Kurds as their vanguard attack force against ISIS and on the other they have the second largest NATO force in Turkey openly trying to wipe them out through a fake anti-ISIS operation.
Turkey has long maintained that a contiguous Kurdish state along its border running from the Mediterranean to Iran was an existential threat. In pushing the Kurds back over the Euphrates they are risking the NATO coalition’s strategy against ISIS. The Euphrates must be Washington’s red line. If Turkey is allowed to press on, the Kurds will be forced to pivot elsewhere and not only NATO will lose a valuable indigenous ally, Israel will have squandered years of covert training and arms deals.
