Tag: Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Trump Considering US-Led Iraq-Style Occupation Of Gaza

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Officials are reportedly looking at the Coalition Provisional Authority as a model

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Hardline neoconservative think tank Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, or JINSA, and the Vandenberg Coalition released a plan last year — with similar contours to what Reuters reported — that called for the creation of a private entity, the “International Trust for Gaza Relief and Reconstruction” to be led by “a group of Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates” and “supported by the United States and other nations.”

Trump Considering US-Led Iraq-Style Occupation Of Gaza

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Israel’s foreign minister is looking for a way to spend $150 million on hasbara

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Israel’s foreign minister is looking for a way to spend $150 million on hasbara

Sa’ar insisted on the major budget increase when he and his United Right Party joined the governing coalition last month and he became foreign minister. At the time, Sa’ar said the budget will go towards “media campaigns abroad, in the foreign press, on social media, and more,” including “concentrated activity on U.S. campuses to change their attitude towards Israel and its policies.”

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Pro-Israel leaders encouraged by Brian Hook’s role on State Department transition team

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

As questions emerge about how President-elect Donald Trump will handle the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East during a second term, some pro-Israel foreign policy voices say they have been reassured by recent news reports that Brian Hook, a special envoy for Iran in the first Trump administration, is expected to lead the transition team at the State Department.

Hook, who previously worked in the State Department under former President George W. Bush and is now the vice chairman of Cerberus Global Investments, helped to oversee Trump’s so-called “maximum pressure” campaign toward Iran, including punishing sanctions after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal. He was also a key player on the team that negotiated the Abraham Accords, Trump’s signature foreign policy achievement, which the president-elect has pledged to expand when he returns to office.

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Among the candidates rumored to be under consideration for secretary of state are Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a former ambassador to Japan; Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former national security advisor; and Ric Grenell, who served as the former president’s ambassador to Germany as well as his acting director of national intelligence.

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But conservative foreign policy experts surveyed by JI said they did not envision ideological tensions between Hook and Grenell emerging should they serve together. “Grenell mirrors Trump in being a champion-level supporter of Israel and Iran hawk,” said a former official on Trump’s National Security Council, who was granted anonymity to discuss the transition. “There would be no reason for friction.”

Pro-Israel leaders encouraged by Brian Hook’s role on State Department transition team

Previously:

Making Excuses for Trump: Where Does the Buck Stop?

But Trump’s seemingly aimless foreign and national security policies are only part of the problem. More to the point, the president keeps appointing people to senior level positions where they have a hand in shaping the policies ranging from hardline on civil liberties issues to complete interventionism vis-à-vis America’s role worldwide. The list is long and includes John Bolton, Rick Grenell, Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook, James Jeffrey, Robert O’Brien, John Ratcliffe and Gina Haspel. And one might suggest that the latest move might very well be the worst of all, naming Eliot Abrams as Special Envoy on Iran.

Navy to sideline 17 vessels due to manpower shortage

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Full video

The Navy will reportedly sideline 17 vessels due to a manpower shortage that makes it difficult to properly crew and operate ships across the fleet. 

Navy to sideline 17 vessels due to manpower shortage, operating crews will be redistributed: report

Related:

Navy Could Sideline 17 Support Ships Due to Manpower Issues

“This is basically the result of many years of neglect and mismanagement of their force,” Sal Mercogliano, former MSC mariner and associate professor of history at Campbell University told USNI News on Thursday.
“They are just burning through people.”

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While the order has yet to be signed, Mercogliano has tracked EPFs beginning to return to the U.S. from aboard far from the end of their expected service lives.

“These ships have a lot of life in them,” he said.

U.S. to Invest Billions to Replace China-Made Cranes at Nation’s Ports

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

U.S. to Invest Billions to Replace China-Made Cranes at Nation’s Ports

Administration officials said more than $20 billion would be invested in port security, including domestic cargo-crane production, over the next five years. The money, tapped from the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021, would support a U.S. subsidiary of Mitsui, a Japanese company, to produce the cranes, which officials said would be the first time in 30 years that they would be built domestically.

Related:

How Much Would It Cost To End Homelessness In America?

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it would cost $20 billion to end homelessness in the United States. 

WSJ conceals Saudi funding of pro-Saudi nuke deal source

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that “Israeli officials are quietly working with the Biden administration on a polarizing proposal to set up a U.S.-run uranium-enrichment operation in Saudi Arabia as part of a complex three-way deal to establish official diplomatic relations between the two Middle Eastern countries,” according to U.S. and Israeli officials.

WSJ conceals Saudi funding of pro-Saudi nuke deal source

Actually, China’s military isn’t going global

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Yesterday, the New York Times published a guest essay by Craig Singleton, a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, entitled “China’s Military is Going Global.” Singleton argues that Beijing is well on its way to building a globe-spanning network of “strategic strong points along China’s major trade, energy, and resource routes” that pose a dire military threat to the United States.

Actually, China’s military isn’t going global