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Do you want to travel around the Middle East? Think twice!

Text and Photos by Andre Vltchek

A flight from Doha to Nairobi


Do you think it is that simple to travel around the Middle East? Think twice!
Ask Palestinians, about trying to get from a point A to a point B in their own nation.
Some time ago, sitting in an old Ottoman hotel in Bethlehem, I asked a waiter what it takes to travel from there to Gaza, where he said, several of his relatives were living. He looked at me as if I had fallen from the Moon:
“There is no way I could travel there. If my relatives get very sick or die, then, in theory, I could apply for an Israeli travel permit to go there, but there is absolutely no guarantee that they would approve, or that I could get to Gaza on time…”
I tried to appear naïve: “And what if someone from an Arab country which does not recognize Israel, wants to come here, to Bethlehem? Like, a Lebanese pilgrim or just a tourist? Could he or she enter from Jordan?”
The waiter weighed for a while whether to reply at all, but then had mercy on me:
“West Bank… You know, it only appears on the maps as some sort of autonomous or independent territory. In reality, the borders and movement of the people have been fully controlled by the Israelis.”

Israeli tank being moved toward Gaza


My friend, a legendary left-wing Israeli human rights lawyer and a staunch Palestinian independence supporter, Linda Brayer, downed another cup of coffee and made several cynical remarks. She was actually illegally ‘smuggled’ by me into Bethlehem. As an Israeli citizen, she was not allowed to enter the West Bank at all, but since I was driving and she was with me, a foreigner, and on top of it she wore a headscarf (she converted to Islam several years earlier), the Israeli soldiers just let us pass without asking too many uncomfortable questions.
Bizarre, disgusting, and even mind-blowing? Not for us who live or operate in this part of the world! All this is by now considered as “business as usual”.
During the last Intifada, I hired a taxi in Jerusalem to the border with Gaza driven by a Russian-Israeli Jew, a student, who literally clashed with a border guard, demanding to be allowed to enter Gaza, in order to “see what my fxxxxing government is doing to the Palestinian people.”
They did not let him into Gaza. They detained him. As a foreigner, I entered. During my work in Gaza, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired at my hired car. It missed…But at least I was allowed to enter and work in Gaza. It is like Russian roulette: sometimes you get in, sometimes you don’t, and no explanations are given.
That was the time when the new Gaza International Airport had just opened. After few days of fighting, the runway was bombed by the Israelis, all flights cancelled, and I had to, eventually make my way out through Egyptian Sinai.
Later, I also witnessed how brutal the Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights has been; how it has divided countless families and communities. People are forced to shout at each other through the Israeli barbed-wire electric fences. The only way for the families to reunite, at least for a day or two, was to somehow get to Jordan.
The Syrian Golan Heights used to be famous for its delicious apples and ancient Druze community. It used to attract travelers from all over the world. Now it is occupied by Israel, and it is de-populated and monstrously militarized.
You want to travel there? You cannot; not anymore. It is off limits.

*

For years and decades, this insanity of travel bans and restrictions, as well as barbed wire and watch towers, has been applying mainly (although not exclusively) to the territories occupied by Israel. However, now almost the entire Middle East is divided by conflicts, insane regulations and travel prohibitions.

A bridge in Mosul, destroyed by ISIS.


Unless you are a war correspondent, a Western ‘advisor’, an intelligence agent or a ‘development worker’, don’t even think about going to Iraq. Almost like Afghanistan and Libya, Iraq had been thoroughly wrecked by the Western coalition and its allies. On top of it, to get a visa there is now close to impossible. In the recent past, the Westerners flooded Erbil and its surroundings; the main city of what was called, unofficially, ‘Iraqi Kurdistan’. The place used to be governed by the independence-seeking and shamelessly pro-Western ‘elites’, and it used to have its own visa regime. Now even this area is more or less off limits to foreigners.
Syria is still a war zone, although its government, which is supported by the majority of the Syrian people, is clearly winning the brutal conflict ignited and fueled by the West and its ‘client’ states.
Syria used to be one of the safest, the most educated and advanced countries in the region, built on solid socialist principles. It used to have an impressive scientific base, as well as dozens of world-class tourist attractions. Therefore, applying Western imperialist logic, it had to be first smeared, and then attacked and destroyed.
Logically, Syria is not issuing tourist visas to the citizens of the countries that are trying to destroy it.
Next door, Lebanon is still suffering from the flood of refugees, from geographical isolation and from the various dormant and semi-active terrorist cells.
Travelling from Lebanon to Syria is now almost impossible, or at least very dangerous and difficult. Lebanese citizens can still enter, but ‘at their own risk’.
In the not so distant past, people used to drive from Beirut to Europe and vice-versa, via Turkey and Syria. Now this option is just a sweet memory. But then again, in the very distant past, I am often reminded, it was not unusual for the Lebanese middle class to spend a weekend in Haifa, driving their own cars. Now the border between Lebanon and Israel is hermetically sealed. Both countries are technically at war. The U.N. patrols the so-called Blue Line. Apart from drones and Israeli war planes en-route to bombing Syria, nothing can cross.
All along the Turkish-Syrian border, both sides are suffering. Of course, the Syrian people are suffering much more, being victims of the direct Turkish military adventures. But also Turks are now paying a very high price for the war: they are suffering from terrorist attacks, as well as from the total collapse of trade between the two countries. Many villages around Hatay and Gaziantep are quickly turning into ghost towns.
For instance, cities like Adana in Turkey and Aleppo in Syria used to be connected by motorways, enjoying constant flows of people from both ends. There was bustling trade, as well as tourism, and social visits. Now, Ankara has been building an enormous concrete wall between the two countries. No traffic can pass through the border, except Turkish military convoys.

*

For years and decades, it has been impossible to enter Saudi Arabia as a tourist. This fundamentalist Wahabbi ‘client’ state of the West simply does not recognize the existence of tourism, or leisure travel. To enter the KSA, it has to be either for business or religious pilgrimage.
With its huge territory, the KSA effectively divides the entire Gulf region, when it comes to transportation and the movement of people. There are some loopholes, and ‘transit visas’ can be obtained (with some luck, difficulties and expense), for instance, for those people driving their own vehicles or taking a bus from Jordan to Bahrain, or to Oman.
Traveling to culturally the most exciting country in the Gulf – Yemen – is now absolutely impossible. Yemen used to be one of the jewels of historic architecture and civilization, counting such cities as Sanaa, Zabid and Shiban. Now the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is occupying the city of Aden and the coast, while Saudi forces are brutally bombing the rest of the country, which is controlled by the rebels.
Then, there is a bizarre conflict which brewing between Qatar (the richest country in the Gulf with the substantial U.S. military presence as well as huge local business-controlled media conglomerate Al-Jazeera), and several other Arab allies of the West, including Saudi Arabia. Borders are presently closed and insults are flying. There is the growing possibility of a military confrontation. Qatar is being accused, cynically, of ‘supporting terrorism’, as if the KSA was not doing precisely the same.

*

Flying around the region has become a Kafkaesque experience.
All Middle Eastern and Gulf airlines are avoiding Israel. Some fly over Syria but most of them, don’t. The once mighty and now deteriorating Qatar Airways is clearly forbidden to enter the airspace of Saudi Arabia as well as of the United Arab Emirates.
Recently I travelled with Qatar from Beirut to Nairobi, Kenya. It used to be a simple, comfortable commute, which has recently turned into a terrible nightmare. Unable to fly over Syrian and Saudi airspace, a plane has to first fly in totally the opposite direction, northwest, over Turkish airspace, then over Iran, making a huge, almost 90 minutes detour. On the second leg, a trip of less than 4 hours now takes more than 5 hours and 30 minutes! The plane flies directly away from Africa, towards Iran, and then makes a huge loop, avoiding both the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Lebanese MEA (Middle Eastern Airlines) is one of the few airlines that ignores all this, flying directly over Syria, and towards the Gulf states. Most of the others don’t dare. But MEA has to avoid Israeli airspace, making often interesting final approaches to Rafik Hariri Int’l Airport.
The exception is Turkish Airlines which basically flies over everything and into everywhere, including Israel itself.

*

This essay is not only about the politics and what has led to the present situation, although it is clear that we are talking here, above all, about the neo-colonialist arrangement of the world.
Political nightmare unleashed by the ‘traditional’ Western colonialist powers and their ‘client states’, has led to the geographical divisions; to a perverse state of affairs in this part of the world. Increasingly, the people are losing control over their own nations and the entire region. They have already lost the ability to move about freely through it.
Of course, something similar exists in many other places, including the South Pacific. There, I described the situation in my book Oceania. An entire huge part of the world has been literally cut to pieces by the neo-colonialist powers and their geo-political interests and designs: the U.S., France, Australia and New Zealand have plainly overrun and shackled Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. A once proud and unique part of the world has been fragmented internally: people are brutally separated and forced to depend almost exclusively on the West.
In the Middle East, divisions, walls and barbed wire, are now everywhere; they are visible to the naked eye, but they are also ‘inside’ peoples’ minds, damaging the human psyche, making dreams of unity and a common future look very unlikely, and sometimes even impossible.
This used to be one of the cradles of our civilization – a deep, sane and stunningly beautiful part of the world. Now everything is fragmented. The West rules, mainly through its ‘client’ states, such as Israel, the KSA and Turkey. It controls everything. It governs almost the entire Middle East; nothing moves without its knowledge and permission.
Yes, nothing and no one moves here, unless it suits the West. We don’t read about it often. It is not discussed. But that is how it is. This bizarre concept of ‘freedom’ implanted from the outside. The rulers who were injected into the Gulf and various other occupied nations. The result is horrid: the electric wires, walls and travel restrictions everywhere; the old pathological British ‘divide and rule’ concept.

*

As I am working on this essay, my plane which is supposed to be flying south-west, is actually hovering north-east, in order to avoid the airspaces of the various so-called hostile states.
Local people may be getting used to the fact that their part of the world has already been ‘re-arranged’. Or perhaps they have already stopped noticing.
The computer, however, keeps showing the absurd flying path of the airliner. Computers can be programmed and re-programmed, but they cannot be indoctrinated. Without judging, they are simply demonstrating the absurdity that is unrolling around them, on their screens.

This article was originally published on New East Outlook
Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Three of his latest books are his tribute to “The Great October Socialist Revolution” a revolutionary novel “Aurora” and a bestselling work of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire” View his other books here. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky “On Western Terrorism”. Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his Twitter.

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Chris Hastings
Chris Hastings
May 19, 2018 4:11 AM

Hey,
If I google “holiday’s in Saudi Arabia” – contrary to this article’s claim – I find quite a few listed..

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 19, 2018 9:45 AM
Reply to  Chris Hastings

There will always be detemined individuals ready to defy rules imposed by unelected tyrants.

Yarkob
Yarkob
May 19, 2018 12:44 PM
Reply to  Chris Hastings

The article claimed it was near impossible to gain a visa to enter KSA “as a tourist” which implies having a visa. There are still “holidays” advertised to Tibet, but try getting a tourist visa..Who on earth would want to holiday in KSA, anyway. The mind boggles

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 20, 2018 1:00 AM
Reply to  Yarkob

Tourism in Tibet is booming. Visa difficulties? What visa difficulties?

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 20, 2018 7:50 AM
Reply to  Yarkob

There is no problem in getting a ‘tourism pass’ for Tibet. You simply need to apply for the Tibet Region permit alongside your Chinese Visa. (Whether we like it or not, Tibet today is wholly situated within the borders of the modern PRC). In theory you need to show a copy of a hotel reservation or tour program that you’ve booked in Tibet. Considering the punishing terrain and sparse infrastructure in most of Tibet, you would be unwise to set off without transport of some kind anyhow (a vehicle, or horses, or some other pack animals). The severity (or laxity) with which this rule is enforced varies hugely from Consulate to Consulate – and according to whether there are any upcoming ‘events’ in the PRC or Tibet which raise the level of checks. I’ve experienced both cheerful cooperation (and an extra 10 GBP fee for the Pass), and utter bloodymindedness (by coincidence I was going a month before a Women’s Conference).
I strongly recommend getting the Tibet Region permit before arriving in China – they are much more punctilious about it there (frankly, just a prompt for you to pay a bribe – although they will never say so openly). Any Chinese Embassy in an EU country can issue one, or you can pick one up in Nepal (if you plan coming in that way). You can’t easily skip getting the Pass – although they are not always checked on arrival in Tibet, you can be spot-checked locally, especially if you are in any vehicle with registration plates from outside the local region. Again, this is more of a shakedown for a bribe than a real threat of arrest.. but if you don’t ‘contribute’ you can make your own personal inspection of a Tibet-region police station. There are road blocks on the main arterial roads leading into Tibet proper. You also need the pass if you hope to travel on the new Tibet Rail line.
While supporting the Chinese administration of Tibet is not something anyone likes, there is no practical alternative to compliance with their rules. If your moral principles won’t permit that, then you won’t be able to visit.
Bear in mind that the the Tibet Pass is only needed if you plan visiting the area which is today designated as ‘Tibet’ by the Chinese authorities. There are huge areas of ‘China’ which aren’t inside that artificially-drawn border (since, of course, Tibetan Buddhism was one of Imperial China’s most prominent religions prior to the Revolution). You can visit those regions with no formal restrictions – and all of the temples, monasteries and lamaseries in those regions too.

tomiejones
tomiejones
May 16, 2018 4:32 PM

Reblogged this on circusbuoy.

David Icke's Love-Child
David Icke's Love-Child
May 16, 2018 1:04 PM

The Law is of a nature that governs all existence throughout eternity. It is a Law that accommodates evil up to a certain critical point, offering the perpetrators of evil countless opportunities to reflect upon the offences they have committed over centuries, this critical mass of evil-doing, borne of the greed and vanity of the perverse, will soon find an expression in natural disasters of unprecedented scale which will visit the United States of America, the prime cause of misery in this world. These disasters which will be brought by nature will be on a scale hitherto unseen and will finally focus the psychopathic mind of the administration of the USA and its deluded leadership on saving the entire country from oblivion. They will no longer have the resources to interfere in the governance of countries they have no business with as there will be damage on such a scale that the military will finally be pressed into action on the correct premise of their existence, that is to work to alleviate the suffering of millions who will be affected by these cataclysmic events within the borders of their own country. Furthermore, when these events occur in the very near future, we will see Russia and China offering aid to the bruised and broken USA which will bring the ultimate hubris upon this hegemony of greed, vanity and ignorance.

BigB
BigB
May 16, 2018 3:51 PM

That’s some Biblical Babe, your conception of Mother Nature. I fear the catastrophe of which you speak will visit us all …without discrimination. Not that Nature is capricious, its just it is a holistic system that affects all equally …the great equilibrium we failed to read or the way we failed to follow.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 16, 2018 11:05 PM
Reply to  BigB

The destabilisation of the planet’s life-support systems over the last 200 years is probably unprecedented in planetary history, certainly for hundreds of millions of years. Even the impacts of meteors and comets pale into insignificance, as their effects, although devastating in the short-term, soon, in geological terms, dissipate. Now we have not only destabilised the climate by more, and at a much faster rate, than at any time we know of for those hundreds of millions of years, but we have also drowned the planet in every type of polluting filth, from depleted uranium and other radiological poisons, tens of thousands of novel chemicals, mountains of mining and industrial waste, GE organisms etc. We have devastated the forests, mined the oceans and poisoned the air. We are so far gone that it is almost tragi-comic that the Meanswells are still urging the monster parasites that rule us to, please, do ‘something’.

vierotchka
vierotchka
May 17, 2018 3:39 AM

My thoughts exactly. I have been aware of this for years. I do my best to counter it by recycling, using water very sparingly, buying only locally grown fruit and vegetables and locally bred freerange cattle, pigs, mutton and chicken. A tiny drop in an ocean of need.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 17, 2018 7:31 AM
Reply to  vierotchka

I can see the Meanswells finally waking up, all around me. Their piss pathetic proposals to ‘save the planet’ are still ludicrously inadequate, and most still propose using ‘The Market’ to solve our crisis, rather like treating terminal cancer with daily injections of cancer cells. Unfortunately, as the public, slowly, far too late, gets the message, the Rightwing enemies of Life on Earth just grow ever more fanatic and vicious. Well, in Austfailure and the USA, they do, that’s for sure.

Peter
Peter
May 17, 2018 10:08 AM
Reply to  vierotchka

OK, vierotchka, I do that too but we’ve both got computers and an Internet connection (and therefore electricity), TV, a fridge, a gas or electric cooker, perhaps a car and all the rest of the consumer paraphenalia. We thus depend on electricity generation (85% nuclear here in France, where the so-called experts’ ideas for dealing with the waste are all worse than each other), fracking, rare-earth mining, the gas industry (largely behind the conflict with Russia), the oil industry (one of the main causes of the ME wars) and all the rest of it.
I haven’t got a solution, unfortunately, and a large number of people don’t even see the problem. So it’s probably as bad as Mumblebrain says.

vierotchka
vierotchka
May 18, 2018 3:31 PM
Reply to  Peter

I don’t have a fridge, I don’t have a cooker (I eat raw veggies, fruit and meat), and I don’t have a car. I either walk or use public transport. My only luxuries are – as you stated – my laptop, my internet connection (optic fibre) and my little TV. I consume very little electricity, and the electricity I do consume is hydroelectric power (J’habite à Genève).

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 20, 2018 1:03 AM
Reply to  vierotchka

Raw meat-I thought so!

vierotchka
vierotchka
May 20, 2018 4:54 AM
vierotchka
vierotchka
May 20, 2018 4:55 AM

Steak Tartare, of course, with a raw egg yolk or two. Delicious!

vexarb
vexarb
May 18, 2018 4:49 PM
Reply to  vierotchka

Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.
Thus the little minutes,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages
Of eternity.

  -- Julia Abigail Carney
Dave Massingham
Dave Massingham
May 16, 2018 9:42 AM

Interesting article, but a few puzzling comments-
If Israelis are banned from entering the West Bank, how do settlers get in /out ? Or are the settlements connected by special roads considered to be part of Israel?
So really, Palestine / West Bank IS effectively part of Israel? So much for the ‘2 state solution’!

Harry Law
Harry Law
May 16, 2018 11:46 AM

Dave Massingham, “So really, Palestine/West Bank IS part of Israel” That’s what Zionists have been saying for many years it is called ‘the greater Israel project’ or ‘the Land of Israel’ as far as the two state solution is concerned these people think it is dead, in its place is the Bantustan project. Naftali Bennett writing an opinion piece in the New York Times spells out his thinking on the fate of the Palestinians…
“First, we would work to upgrade the Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank, in the areas largely under Palestinian control (known as Areas A and B, according to the Oslo Accords). Ideally, this will be done in coordination with the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinians will have political independence, hold their own elections, select their own leadership, run their own schools, maintain their own social services and issue their own building permits. They should govern themselves and run their day-to-day lives. Israel should not interfere. Much of this already exists, but we can do better.
This Palestinian entity will be short of a state. It will not control its own borders and will not be allowed to have a military.
Gaza already functions like a state, but the Hamas government in control there is bent on Israel’s destruction. As long as Gaza remains on this path, it cannot be a party to any agreement”. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/opinion/naftali-bennett-for-israel-two-state-is-no-solution.html
Areas A and B comprise approx 10% of historic Palestine, no Palestinian from these areas would be able to vote in the Knesset, they would be surrounded by Israeli settlements and they would have no soveriegnty. I suppose Gaza could be called area G. These areas A,B and G would be bantustans or similar to American Indian reservations. Instead of infected blankets and cansinos, the Saudis, EU and US will be invited to make these places at least livable, provided the natives keep their heads down. If the EU and US were going to do anything about Israeli war crimes, they would already have done it, the Israelis know they can and will act with impunity, knowing the ‘West’ will do nothing.

Freedom Fighter
Freedom Fighter
May 16, 2018 12:48 PM
Reply to  Harry Law

It’s not only the West that will do nothing – Russia is behind Israel all the way and even Iran is more interested in bickering with Sunnis than helping the Palestinians.
The only country that is really doing anything is Malaysia and their economic reliance on China makes it difficult as China is working with Israel very closely on the One Belt, One Road project.
Ultimately the only people you can really stop Israel are the American people especially genuinely patriotic American military and military intelligence personnel. These people must be directly contacted and informed of the large-scale treachery of Israel against the United States and humanity.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 16, 2018 11:10 PM
Reply to  Harry Law

Not quite a Bantustan-more a larger Warsaw Ghetto. There’s a tragic irony. And isn’t Bennett’s racist contempt and arrogance something to behold? But so VERY typical.

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
May 16, 2018 9:33 AM

Ordinary people trying to go about their daily lives as the PSYCHOPATHS at the top of the pyramid spew their bile, venom, toxins and insanity on top of them.

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 16, 2018 9:47 AM
Reply to  Fair dinkum

You people can watch while I’m scrubbing these floors
And I’m scrubbin’ the floors while you’re gawking
Maybe once you tip me and it makes you feel swell
In this crummy Southern town, in this crummy old hotel
But you’ll never guess to who you’re talkin’
No, you couldn’t ever guess to who you’re talkin’
Then one night there’s a scream in the night
And you’ll wonder who could that have been
And you see me kinda grinnin’ while I’m scrubbin’
And you say, «What’s she got to grin?»
I’ll tell you
There’s a ship
The Black Freighter
With a skull on its masthead
Will be coming in
Pirate Jenny’s Song (Bertholt Brecht/Kurt Weill)
(Translation as sung by Nina Simone)

Anandamide
Anandamide
May 16, 2018 8:37 AM

It’s a terrible thing to witness and to know that there’s very little we can do, outwith protesting on the streets and making our voices heard more clearly, so that the sleepers who are stirring, hear the message and wake up some more…
Along with sending potent and benevolent thought forms of support to the people being brutalised by the insidious agendas, so that they know there are many people around the world standing in solidarity with them, and that our governments aren’t acting in our name…. If anybody can link me with online forums to connect with oppressed people in Palestine that is appreciated.
On a personal level, all i can do is to resolve more deeply my quest to more fully understand my human nature and to more deeply embrace and master the inner forces which political/military/capitalist leaders are possessed with and in service of… In that sense they are teachers for us all through adversity, in that they should inspire us to truly dig deep and wake up to what it means to be truly human and to step out of our comfort slave complacency… Refusing to align with tyrannical forces inside ourselves and also the tyrannical forces of government, and waking up the fire which is inside us, may well bring about the necessary change which is needed for the survival and evolution of our species, as this same warmongering spirit which is dividing and destroying all that is beautiful and sacred within humanity, is also destroying the very environment which we are an integral part of and utterly depend upon for survival…
It may be too late already, but we may as well dedicate the rest of our life to evolutionary activism… I believe that there’s a higher power, which is greater than the demonic forces waging the wars and we can all wake up to that as a reality… Only out of that comes change, which will serve humanity and the planet… Time to shift the paradigm of power outwith the sphere of politics and military…
Most revolutions have been driven by people who are still controlled by their own inner tyrant, and all it has accomplished is for one tyrant to be replaced by a tyrant with a different flavour.
We’ve bowed to them for too long out of fear, or have become embroiled in a conflict which only serves to maintain the dynamic..

Dave Hansell
Dave Hansell
May 16, 2018 9:18 AM
Reply to  Anandamide
Frankly Speaking
Frankly Speaking
May 16, 2018 6:54 AM

These evil thugs are now at work breaking apart the EU, it became too civilised and successful and independent from the neoliberal US and Britain, so now it’s divide them and rule. They are all members of NATO so that’s easy, they will all quickly fall into line.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 16, 2018 8:03 AM

The Europeans, having castrated themselves in obeisance to the USA and Israel, will now be forced to consume their detached organs-while bloody well smiling!

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 16, 2018 8:16 AM

They’re queuing up to take the bullet for their American masters.
Tourism from Russia to Montenegro – formerly a favoured destination for Russians, since it ddn’t need a Schengen Visa – has fallen through the floor since they joined NATO. Their tourism attache proudly told me how numbers are up from EU countries. He didn’t look so happy when I pointed out that all cruise-line shore-excursion passengers leave behind on their 4-hour stop in Kotor is 350ml of urine in the harbour toilets. Most of them don’t even buy a coffee – since it’s free on board their ship.

Freedom Fighter
Freedom Fighter
May 16, 2018 12:37 PM
Reply to  reinertorheit

It’s interesting that Russia attempted a coup against the Montenegrin attempt to join NATO.
This along with the actions in Ukraine show that Russia under Putin is willing to resort to violence and covert regime change to keep countries under its sphere of influence.
Incidently the Montenegrin people voted for the pro-Nato party in the 2016 elections when it was a hot topic of debate.
The Russian attack on Montenegrin democracy was planned immediately after that election.

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 16, 2018 1:16 PM

I see you’ve got a new nick for disseminating Nazi bilge?
Kiev Arrests Russian State News Director Over ‘Information War’ Against Ukraine (Moscow Times)
https://themoscowtimes.com/news/kiev-arrests-russian-state-news-director-over-information-war-against-ukraine-61454

Freedom Fighter
Freedom Fighter
May 16, 2018 1:21 PM
Reply to  reinertorheit

Are you denying that there was an attempted coup against the Montenegrin government?

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 16, 2018 1:24 PM

There was a popular uprising against rigged elections in Montenegro.

Freedom Fighter
Freedom Fighter
May 16, 2018 1:27 PM
Reply to  reinertorheit

Do you have any evidence for that at all?
Why were Russian intelligence officers indicted? Including those previously expelled by Poland?

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 16, 2018 1:31 PM

Who else could your NATO pals blame?

Freedom Fighter
Freedom Fighter
May 16, 2018 1:37 PM
Reply to  reinertorheit

You aren’t doing a very good job of arguing your case.
Where is the evidence of a “mass uprising” – I’m talking large protests here and especially sustained ones?
What evidence do you have that the election was rigged?
Are the polls rigged too as they show increased support for NATO membership after the attempted coup than before the coup?

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 16, 2018 1:43 PM

You’ve mistaken the location here. This isn’t Rebel Media or Breitbart, Buddy. Take a hike, and take your Nazi baggage when you leave.
Don’t come back.

Freedom Fighter
Freedom Fighter
May 16, 2018 1:38 PM
Reply to  reinertorheit

Also do you believe the referendum in Crimea to be fully above board and not rigged at all?
If so why do you believe that to be done right but the Montenegrin elections (that follow the previous pattern of Montenegrin elections) to be rigged?

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 16, 2018 11:18 PM

Of course the freedom referendum in Crimea was free and fair. The Russians there did not want Ukronazi death-squad butchers like you running amuk, as they did in Odessa and in eastern Ukraine, and as their filthy forbears did during WW2.

bevin
bevin
May 16, 2018 1:35 PM

Your argument forms a perfect circle FFS

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 16, 2018 1:45 PM
Reply to  bevin

Another day, another alt-Right troll, eh? :-)) Ho-hum!

Freedom Fighter
Freedom Fighter
May 16, 2018 2:08 PM
Reply to  reinertorheit

Is this all you have? Seriously poor argumentation. Maybe Russia need to pay their trolls more to attract a higher quality of intellect.
BTW the alt-right is generally quite pro-Russia – see Richard Spencer with his Duginite connections and parroting of Kremlin talking points on Ukraine.

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 16, 2018 2:29 PM

I already told you to take a hike, Buddy, I don’t waste my time on alt-right trolls, NATO sock-puppets, or other pond life.
You are on my Ignore List. That’s a non-negotiable and final position.
Leave.

Jen
Jen
May 18, 2018 1:41 AM

That officers from the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies were involved in a coup attempt in Montenegro in 2016 in itself is not evidence of the complicity of the Russian government in the coup, any more than CIA activity in other countries is evidence of White House complicity in that activity. Government agencies are quite capable of acting off their own bat to enhance their own agendas in defiance of what their employers want. Freedom Fighter, you will need to produce a chain of evidence linking Moscow to the actions of RISS officers and showing that Moscow approved of or condoned their actions.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 16, 2018 11:16 PM

Are you denying that there was a Nazi coup in Kiev, organised by the USA? I’d bet you were part of it.

Freedom Fighter
Freedom Fighter
May 17, 2018 9:34 AM

You’ve resorted to cheap ad-hominems as you don’t really have much of an argument,
There were some neo-nazis in Ukraine that supported the toppling of Yanukovych however they certaintly won’t the only people and it was clearly a popular move especially in Western Ukraine.

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 17, 2018 9:22 PM

Here are your Nazi friends in W Ukraine, commemorating the Nazi Wehrmacht. You can see the crowd carrying ‘Wolfsangel’ symbols (a symbol of the Waffen-SS. Unlike the swastika, it it not banned from use in Ukraine).
https://youtu.be/GvRXWlcXE-4
Notice too the posters of Bandera – the Ukrainian Nazi who worked for the Third Reich, and now considered a ‘national hero’ in Ukropistan.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 18, 2018 1:07 AM

West Ukraine, the Nazi homeland, where if you’re not an enthusiastic neo-Nazi, you’re in trouble. In eastern Ukraine, your Nazi death-squad idols just kill Moskali ‘cockroaches’, just like the good old days.

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 16, 2018 1:17 PM

Welcome back to the site, Luke!

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 16, 2018 11:14 PM

Yep-a Ukronazi. Smelled of it, and the stench just worsened.

vexarb
vexarb
May 16, 2018 5:23 AM

Another reason for the AZC to get their grubby hands on the ME: wheat. From SANA, this year’s wheat crop in Syria alone is worth 144 Million GP Pounds. Chickenfeed by oil / gas standards, but still a nice little earner for some Anglo Zio Capitalists. Like palm oil in Polynesia, minerals in the Congo, etc, etc. But why these divisive wars and borders; I thought the AZC were globalists, One-Worlders? Are they playing on primitive territorial and biological instincts to further the supremacy of the ruling class? Is “Rule and Divide” an inevitable stage of Imperialism after “Divide and Rule”?

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 16, 2018 8:05 AM
Reply to  vexarb

They like to watch-their victims’ suffering.

vexarb
vexarb
May 16, 2018 4:56 AM

Thanks for letting me know what is happening in the Israel I used to admire — and where I live. Left one Apart Hate state to end my years in a worse. Via a Britain which turns out to be not a Beacon of Light but The Heart of Darkness, the creator and supporter of both Apart Hate states: Racist British South Africa and Racist Israel. Instigator of both wars that made your plane take the detours you describe: to avoid the AZC war over Syria, and the AZC war over Yemen. As you say further:
“An entire huge part of the world has been literally cut to pieces by the neo-colonialist powers and their geo-political interests and designs: the U.S., France, Australia and New Zealand have plainly overrun and shackled Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. A once proud and unique part of the world has been fragmented internally: people are brutally separated and forced to depend almost exclusively on the West.”
Being an optimist, and non-political, I take encouragement from people like you and others who fight for humanity. I have seen it work in South Africa, and I hope to see it work in the ME. The victory of Dr.Assad in Syria, the election of Hezb’Allah in Lebanon, the steadfastness of Iran, and yesterday’s result in Iraq all seem to me a sign of what I call The Arch of Stability in the ME: a bridge of tolerant, non-racist, civilized countries across the ME: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran. In such a climate of stability and tolerance, Apart Hate in Israel will follow the Apart Hate in South Africa: “erased from the pages of History”.
But as you have written, the “Rule and Divide” mischief spread by the AZC is global: not only the MENA but sub-Saharan Africa, Polynesia, South Asia — and now even Europe again, with NATZO wars splitting Yugoslavia and the Ukraina, and preparing one again to divide Europe between West and East.

Freedom Fighter
Freedom Fighter
May 16, 2018 12:40 PM
Reply to  vexarb

Yes “non-racist” Iraq where Iranian backed Shia militia forces have essentially taken over and are oppressing the Sunnis.
The same Shia forces are actually working with the US military to a large extent. More opportunists working for Iran than “resistance fighters”.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 16, 2018 11:21 PM

These Ukronazis are pretty low down the invertebrate hierarchy.

Roger
Roger
May 19, 2018 12:39 PM

Earth-worms? Or slugs?

vierotchka
vierotchka
May 20, 2018 4:45 AM
Reply to  Roger

Amoebas!

rilme
rilme
May 16, 2018 12:44 PM
Reply to  vexarb

Wouldn’t you say that “israelis” should just get out of Palestine? End the century-long crime spree and set up somewhere legally: Siberia, Montana, Nevada.

vierotchka
vierotchka
May 18, 2018 3:37 PM
Reply to  rilme

Oh please, I beg you, NOT in beautiful Siberia!

reinertorheit
reinertorheit
May 19, 2018 9:03 PM
Reply to  rilme

I assume the mention of Siberia is a mocking reference to the existence (in E Siberia) of the so-called ‘Autonomous Jewish Republic’, based around the town of Birobidjan.
As some kind of sadistic experiment, Stalin allocated a swathe of undeveloped wasteland in Far-Eastern Siberia to the Jews. At the time of his kind ‘gift’, the area was not only without the slightest cultural or historic link to Russia’s long and extensive Jewish culture – it was also without electricity, sewage, or the most elementary utilities. Nevetheless, there’s a dupe born every day – and Jews from all over Russia – and unbelievably, even from the USA and Europe too – began to head to Birobidjan (the name comes the confluence of the rivers Bira and Bidja), where they had allegedly been promised land. Having effectively kettled Russia’s Jews in a remote and unpleasant hellhole, Stalin then proceeded to eliminate them – including even the dopes who’d written Land Of Milk & Honey articles about Birobidjan for American magazines. Amazingly, Birobidjan continues to exist today, and has even re-established a Jewish community there. Some of my Jewish friends in Moscow were originally from there, and remain uniformly glum and tight-lipped about its alleged attractions.

Mike S Goodmann
Mike S Goodmann
May 16, 2018 4:11 AM

Also, don’t forget the “Frontier Provinces” of Pakistan which are inhospitable and dangerous, as well as off-limits to all foreigners.

rtj1211
rtj1211
May 16, 2018 6:21 AM

Various areas of many American cities are off limits to anyone who wishes to remain alive…..

vexarb
vexarb
May 16, 2018 3:33 PM
Reply to  rtj1211

London too? I read of a murder rate now greater than in New York City. If this is true I would not be surprised.
“When a fish goes rotten, the stink starts from the head”. — Israeli saying.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
May 16, 2018 11:22 PM
Reply to  vexarb

Vexarb, that saying is centuries older than Israel.

vierotchka
vierotchka
May 18, 2018 3:41 PM
Reply to  vexarb
vierotchka
vierotchka
May 18, 2018 3:38 PM

I spent some time in the Northwestern Frontier in Pakistan in the early seventies – a fantastic and beautiful place with great and very hospitable people when I was there.