	Generational Dynamics
	Forecasting America's Destiny ... and the World's

\| HOME \| WEB LOG \| COUNTRY WIKI \| COMMENT \| FORUM \| DOWNLOADS \| ABOUT \|

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 3-Sep-2014
3-Sep-14 World View -- Mideast realignment continues following the Gaza war

Web Log - September, 2014

3-Sep-14 World View -- Mideast realignment continues following the Gaza war

Doctors Without Borders: We're losing the battle against Ebola

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

1950s FBI trained Alaskans to prepare for a Soviet invasion
Egypt, Saudis, Palestinian Authority develop a new 'peace initiative'
Poll shows that Hamas's popularity surged after Gaza war
The continuing realignment of the Mideast
Obama orders 350 more troops into Iraq
Doctors Without Borders: We're losing the battle against Ebola

1950s FBI trained Alaskans to prepare for a Soviet invasion

Nome, Alaska (Reuters)

Nome, Alaska (Reuters)

Declassified documents reveal that in the 1950s the FBI trained Alaskan residents to become agents behind enemy lines if the Soviets invaded. The US government feared that the Soviet Union was planning an intervention and occupation of Alaska. The US military believed that the Soviet invasion would be airborne, with bombing preceding dropping of paratroopers to Alaska's major inhabited localities, namely Anchorage, Fairbanks, Nome and Seward. Russia Today and Proposed Plan for Intelligence Coverage in Alaska in the Event of an Invasion (FBI, 1954) (PDF)

Egypt, Saudis, Palestinian Authority develop a new 'peace initiative'

In the wake of the Gaza war, Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas, Egypt's president Abdel al-Fattah al-Sisi, and officials from other Arab nations are developing an initiative to bring peace to the Mideast by "ending the occupation" within a "definite timetable."

The initiative comprises three phases:

In the first four-month phase, Israel and the U.S. will draw up maps representing their suggestion for the borders of the Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Next, all sides will commence negotiations for a limited time period.

If that fails, then the Palestinians and the Arab League go to the United Nations Security Council and the International Criminal Court to pressure Israel to agree.

According to an Egyptian government editorial:

"This is a unique juncture, and with the steady [worsening] of the situation in Gaza and Israel's war crimes against the Palestinian people, we can no longer content ourselves with trying to find [temporary] arrangements while being certain that the conflict will erupt again. Like President 'Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sisi stressed, there is a real chance to end the Gaza crisis and solve the Palestinian problem... The international community should not pass up this chance, which was born of the ruin, destruction, killing, and violent battles. The parties to the conflict must sympathize with the suffering of their peoples and make brave choices for peace... If this chance, as well as Egypt's support for the efforts [to attain] a permanent solution to the Palestinian problem, are not utilized, then all signs indicate that the future will be worse. If there is no just and real peace, the alternative is extremism and terrorism at the hands of ISIS and its ilk. Israel is not distant from the rest of the world, and therefore terrorism will not only target it, but the rest of the world as well, starting with Europe and America."

Memri

Poll shows that Hamas's popularity surged after Gaza war

A new poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) shows that the Gaza war was an enormous political victory for Hamas, with a great increase in its popularity and support for its approach to armed resistance. At the same time, there was a major decline in the popularity of the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas. Similar changes occurred in previous wars between Hamas and Israel, but this time the changes in popularity were unprecedented in size.

According to the poll findings:

An overwhelming majority of Palestinians view Hamas as the winner, and Israel as the loser of the war.

A similar majority believe that armed confrontation with Israel is the most effective means of ending Israeli occupation.

Palestinians in the West Bank overwhelmingly want to adopt the "Hamas way" in the West Bank.

Palestinians see Iran, Turkey and Qatar as the most instrumental in supporting Hamas and helping against the Israeli attacks. By contrast, Egypt’s role is seen as weak and unhelpful. Indeed, a majority believes that Egypt played a negative role in the ceasefire negotiations.

The logic of this poll is that it clearly contradicts the intention of the new "peace initiative" by Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, and the Saudis, as described above. According to the PCPSR, Hamas's renewed popularity "might be temporary and things might revert in the next several months to where they were before the war."

The clear implication of this is that there will be another war in the "next several months," because Hamas is going to want to maintain its popularity and remain in power. Hamas has absolutely no motivation whatsoever to accede to a "peace agreement," and all Hamas has to do to start a new war with Israel is to launch a few rockets. Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research

The continuing realignment of the Mideast

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal was quoted as saying that "only peace will ensure Israel's endurance as a state."

He's right about that, but the problem is that there isn't going to be peace. As I wrote in May, 2003, and repeated dozens of time since then, there will be a major new war between Jews and Arabs, re-fighting the 1948 war that followed the partitioning of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel.

Writing about this new peace initiative by Egypt, the PA and Saudi Arabia almost gives me a headache because we've gone down this road so many times before. It's suggestive of that old joke defining insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes.

One thing that's becoming increasingly clear, however, is that it's not going to be a war between Jews and ALL Arabs. The fault line between Israel plus Egypt plus Saudi Arabia versus the Palestinians plus Qatar plus (non-Arab) Turkey is becoming wider every day. This indicates that the Israelis will have allies among the Arabs, and that Arabs will be fighting each other, as well as the Israelis.

The rise of the Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria (IS or ISIS) could not have been predicted, but what was predicted was the war outlined above, and that the Syria civil war would end. This has happened in a remarkable way, as the Syria civil war has long since morphed into a proxy war involving Syria, various al-Qaeda militias, ISIS, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, and soon the U.S. It's my personal opinion that the "Nation of IS" will not last as long as many people fear or expect, but at the very least we can expect to see ISIS subsumed into the larger regional war, almost certainly on the side of the Palestinians and Qatar.

I've left Iran mostly out of the above discussion because it continues its schizophrenic path. Several long-time readers have written to me recently saying that they never believed that Iran would become our ally, as I've predicted many times in the last ten years, based on a Generational Dynamics analysis, and now they're totally astonished to see this prediction come true right before our eyes.

In fact, even the editors of the New York Times appear to be completely astonished by this development, as indicated in this article:

"The fight in northern Iraq appeared to be the first time U.S. warplanes and militias backed by Iran had worked with a common purpose on a battlefield against militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, even though the Obama administration said there was no direct coordination with the militias.
Should such military actions continue, they could mark a dramatic shift for the United States and Iran, which have long vied for control in Iraq. They could also align the interests of the Americans with their longtime sworn enemies in the Shiite militias, whose fighters killed many U.S. soldiers during the long occupation of Iraq. ...
[In] a worst case scenario, more Sunnis could align with ISIS fighters."

This realignment, which was predicted by Generational Dynamics, is how the Mideast is going.

Iran, which is in a generational Awakening era, with one generation having passed since the 1979 Great Islamic Revolution and the Iran/Iraq war, is pursuing a schizophrenic policy characterized by a major generational split between the Revolution survivors, who can't shake off their old policies and are still fighting the last war, versus the younger generations who grew up afterwards, who like the West, and don't particularly dislike Israel. Right now the old geezers are still setting national policy, but when forced to choose, the younger generations will win out, and they will be aligned with the West. New York Times

Obama orders 350 more troops into Iraq

President Obama has ordered 350 additional troops into Iraq, "to provide the necessary security for U.S. personnel and facilities." The administration has authorized 775 troops since mid-June, so this new order brings the total up to 1,125. The order came a few hours after ISIS published another video on Tuesday showing the group had beheaded another American journalist, freelancer Steven Joel Sotloff. The Hill

Doctors Without Borders: We're losing the battle against Ebola

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF - Doctors without Borders) has treated more than 1,000 Ebola patients in West Africa since March, and is completely overwhelmed. According to MSF president Joanne Liu:

"Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it. Ebola treatment centers are reduced to places where people go to die alone, where little more than palliative care is offered."

She says that infectious bodies are rotting in the street, and that Liberia had to build a new crematorium instead of new Ebola care centers. AP

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 3-Sep-14 World View -- Mideast realignment continues following the Gaza war thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (3-Sep-2014) Permanent Link
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Donate to Generational Dynamics via PayPal

Web Log Pages

Current Web Log

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 3-Sep-2014 3-Sep-14 World View -- Mideast realignment continues following the Gaza war

1950s FBI trained Alaskans to prepare for a Soviet invasion

Egypt, Saudis, Palestinian Authority develop a new 'peace initiative'

Poll shows that Hamas's popularity surged after Gaza war

The continuing realignment of the Mideast

Obama orders 350 more troops into Iraq

Doctors Without Borders: We're losing the battle against Ebola

Web Log Pages

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 3-Sep-2014
3-Sep-14 World View -- Mideast realignment continues following the Gaza war