Israel Receives Fifth German Nuclear-Capable Submarine

The Israeli regime has received of a fifth submarine from Germany, amid pressure on Berlin to halt the delivery of the state-of-the-art weaponry that is capable of being armed with nuclear warheads. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday welcomed the delivery of the advanced Dolphin-class submarine at the Haifa port north of the occupied Palestinian territories. The submarine, said to be capable of remaining submerged for up to seven days, can be equipped with missiles armed with nuclear warheads.

A German-made Dolphin-class submarine arrives at the military port north of the occupied Palestinian territories on January 12, 2016.

The Tel Aviv regime pursues a 'policy of ambiguity' over its nuclear arsenal, which is widely believed to contain up to 400 nukes. The new submarine has cost Israel about 500 million euros (USD 540 million), with the German government paying one third of the cost. Berlin is also to deliver a sixth submarine in two or three years. Many have criticized Germany for the sales of the modern military equipment to Israel. The administration of German Chancellor Angela Markel claims Germany has an obligation to guarantee the security of Israel.

German media say the delivery of the four previous Dolphin-class submarines have cost German taxpayers over 1 billion euros (USD 1.12 billion). Israel’s ministry of military affairs announced in May 2015 that it had reached a deal with a German shipbuilding company to have four major warships built for the Tel Aviv regime. It said the government in Berlin would pay for one fourth of the deal, which was reported to be more than 400 million euros.

Arabs had ‘crossed the Rubicon’ and ‘don’t want to fight Israel anymore”

Israel Saudi Arabia Allies.

 The reality of this unlikely alliance has even reached the mainstream U.S. media. For instance, Time magazine correspondent Joe Klein described the new coziness in an article in the Jan. 19, 2015 issue: “On May 26, 2014, an unprecedented public conversation took place in Brussels. Two former high-ranking spymasters of Israel and Saudi Arabia – Amos Yadlin and Prince Turki al-Faisal – sat together for more than an hour, talking regional politics in a conversation moderated by the Washington Post’s David Ignatius.The most striking statement came from Prince Turki. He said the Arabs had "crossed the Rubicon’ and ‘don’t want to fight Israel anymore."

US-ISRAEL SECRET DEAL IN 1987!

Map: The countries that recognize Palestine as a state - The Washington Post

The 135th member (Sweden) of the United Nations to officially recognize Palestine as an independent state. The act sparked a tetchy diplomatic incident with Israel.

 

 Map of the countries that recognize Palestine as a state.

 

On the ground, a separate, viable Palestinian state is far from a reality. Israel occupies the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and it partially blockades the Gaza Strip, the territories that would comprise it. The continued expansion of Israeli settlements into the West Bank makes tackling the question of Palestinian sovereignty all the more difficult. So, too, the apparentcollapse of talks between the Israeli government and its Palestinian interlocutors.

Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said her government's decision was aimed at supporting the Palestinian Authority and its beleaguered President Mahmoud Abbas, particularly given the present tensions in Jerusalem. "It is important to support those who believe in negotiations and not violence," she told Al Jazeera. "This will give hope to young Palestinians and Israelis that there is an alternative to violence."

In the absence of progress in negotiations with Israel, Abbas has taken the Palestinians' case to the United Nations in recent years. The effort is mostly symbolic — a bid to deepen the political isolation of the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sweden's move reflects a wider European frustration with Netanyahu. This week, French socialist lawmakers said they were preparing a bill calling on the government to recognize Palestine. In mid-October, British lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a motion indicating "that the Government should recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel, as a contribution to securing a negotiated two state solution."

The motion is nonbinding, but serves as one more sign of Europe's growing impatience with the Mideast status quo. The United States would want to see the two-state solution come into fruition before conferring official recognition upon Palestine. But that is, at present, a naive hope: A number of prominent ministers in Netanyahu's government reject outright the possibility of the two-state solution ever being realized.

Before Sweden's decision, tiny Iceland was the only Western European country to recognize Palestine.

As you can see in the map, most of the other nations that have not officially recognized Palestine are in the E.U. or are U.S. partners who wouldn't want to ruffle Washington's feathers. These include South Pacific island nations like Kiribati and Nauru.

Even then, it's quite likely that the U.S. will find itself on this map within a steadily shrinking patch of gray in the months and years to come.

Source: The Washington Post