By Richard Cottrell

Contributing writer for End the Lie

Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Developments in the Middle East turn more fascinating by the hour.  Turkey’s breach with Israel yawns wider. Premier Erdoğan is heading for Egypt to strike a tryst with the new regime on the future status of Gaza and no doubt a range of related regional problems that concern both countries.

He arrives at a time when the Egyptians are hopping mad over the recent shooting of five border policemen by Israeli ‘defense’ forces. Israel, predictably, refuses to apologize. We are back in the Mavi Marmara flotilla affair all over again.

In  Israel itself, one of those famous ‘color’ street manifestations is under way, bearing all the hallmarks of a regime change opera designed by the famous CIA impresario, Gene Sharp.  Protests against the brutal inhumanity of the Israel’s present leadership and the apparent slow drift to Zionist fascism regularly draw up to half a million protestors.

But no one in the lame Western corporate media has a word to say about it.

The silence in Washington is deafening, or shall we say from the perspective of the present Israeli government, ominous.

Of course it is no co-incidence that a key UN vote is approaching on Palestinian sovereignty. The vote is largely symbolic in practical terms, since the US and one or more of its Security Council lackeys can be counted on to exercise the veto.

The PR backlash throughout the Islamic world is predictable. However the State Department is more worried that the unruly and increasingly unpredictable Israeli junta will seek revenge with yet another bloody lunge at Gaza, loaded with simulated attacks false-flagged by the Israel Defense Force.

End the Lie readers already know from my previous post that Turkey’s shock and awe rupture with Israel probably frustrated her ability to mark the 9/11 anniversary this coming Sunday with a Pearl Harbor dive bomber raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Undoubtedly this will infuriate the pro-Zionist neocon hawks in Washington.  What I begin to understand, however, as the latest Middle East crisis unfolds is the extent to which the United States is really the wizard pulling the levers behind the curtains. That might bare a very radical explanation.

Could it be that the Obama administration would not mind very much if the Turks chose to take the Israelis down a peg or two?

Ergo, if  Turkey took over Gaza, probably by an amphibian invasion, the Egyptians assisting with a land force passing through the Rafah eye-of-the-needle border crossing, then effectively the Palestinian imbroglio responsible for contaminating American foreign policy in the Middle East would fold like a pack of cards.

I detect an interesting parallel with the Berlin Wall. When that fell in 1989, so did the government of the German Democratic Republic in a matter of days. I suspect the Administration has similar expectations for the repulsive and increasingly erratic government of  Binyamin Netanyahu.

The United States understands perfectly well the two-state solution (as originally proposed by the UN in 1947) is the only one likely to defuse the  Palestinian time bomb.

If  that comes about by means of the iron fist, then so be it,  just so long as it is not America’s (or visibly so).

The ranting extremism of  Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, has embarrassed even the most committed Zionist supporters in America.

How appealing the fragrant Lipzi Livni, the current leader of the Opposition, the ex-nationalist born-again ardent supporter of the two-state solution, seems when compared Lieberman’s blood-curdling, uber-racialist histrionics.

The only force capable of confronting Israel in the Middle East is Turkey.

I do not believe anyone is seriously looking for diplomatic solutions to the present crisis. Negotiating with the current Israeli authorities is in any case a daunting prospect at the best of times.

The Palestinian issue begs to be defused, permanently, and that can only be achieved in two ways: Gaza comes under the wing of a strong protecting power (the Turks) and progresses peacefully along the path to statehood; second, the protests in Israel become the focus of regime change hinged on the Livni-Shimon Peres (the current president, a close friend of Turkey) axis.

Let’s be clear: America desperately needs a home run in the Islamic homelands.  But if I am right, introducing the successors to the Ottoman Empire to the role of supervising power in the Middle East will have lasting and as yet unclear consequences.

For certain Turkey will be seen displacing American power in the former realms of the Sultans. The message will not be lost on those countries (Egypt, Syria, Yemen) that are genuinely seeking the tonic of security and remarkable economic prosperity Turkey’s Islamic rulers have achieved at home.

The United States, by contrast, is associated with invasion, war, ruin, torture and exploitation, and of course the Palestinian prison camp.  Her unrelenting support of Israel for so many years came at a heavy price. Turkey is ‘local.’ America is foreign, like the Crusaders. Ephemeral, a passing phenomenon. In contrast Turkey has been in these parts for centuries.

I believe that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made that calculation.

Has America?

UPDATE:

There’s no longer any doubt that my assessment of what’s happening in the Middle East is spot on. (I wouldn’t rule out a US abstention on Palestine by the way, when it comes to the UN vote).

Todays Zaman

According to a headlining story in the Sabah daily on Tuesday, Turkish naval forces are expanding their operations in the Mediterranean. The daily claimed that the naval forces will implement the “Barbaros Plan” to expand the “Mediterranean Shield,” which it is expected will increase naval support as the number of frigates will increase from two to four, the number of assault ships from three to five and coast guard vessels from one to three. The news report further indicated that the Konya 3rd Main Jet Base Commandership and the İzmir 2nd Main Jet Base Commandership are also expected to provide support for the Mediterranean naval forces.

Translation: order of battle. Practically doubling the number of assault vessels a clear sign of preparing an amphibian operation, quite obviously focused on Gaza. Note also the massive amount of air cover required to protect the fleet from Israeli fighters. I guess about 3 wings from each base operating in wave formation. That’s  about 40 planes in the sky at the same time. Formidable!

And from Anti-War, a real corker.

Gates: Israel an ‘Ungrateful Ally’

Tensions Rise as Whistleblower Reveals Israeli Effort to Start a US War With Iran

Though tensions in the relationship between the US and Israeli governments rarely get aired in public, there is a general sense in media reporting that difficulties between the two are on the rise, with comments by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates underscoring the seriousness.

In comments at the National Security Council Principals Committee, former Secretary Gates termed the Israeli government an “ungrateful ally,” insisting they had offered “nothing in return” for massive amounts of US aid and high level intel sharing.

Gates is confirming my assessment that the US has cut the mooring ropes to the state of Israel under present management. Reading between the lines, it seems clear that the US does not want an attack on Iran – at least for now – and certainly not by Israel in any circumstances.

Richard Cottrell is a writer, journalist and former European MP (Conservative). His new book Gladio: NATO’s Dagger At The Heart Of Europe is coming shortly from Progressive Press.

Edited by Madison Ruppert