ROD THOMSON: A new axis of Western enemies is emerging

We have been witnessing a quietly emerging realignment of world powers that could paint a very different future for America and the free West from what we have known since the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

This weekend’s barbaric attacks by roaming Hamas death squads slaughtering of men, women and children — a la Nazi Germany’s Einsatzgruppen that slaughtered civilians in German-occupied Europe — may be a portent of things to come.

While the state of Israel and its intelligence and military leadership grapple with how this happened and what to do about the two million Palestinians in Gaza, American leaders need to wake up to the much bigger picture behind the shock invasion. This big picture is little discussed because of the immediacy of the Israeli situation and because it starts presenting dicey issues for the entire world, not least of which the United States and our allies.

But make no mistake, this currently isolated regional war could become geopolitical in a hurry; the underpinnings already are. It is not just a war between Israel and Hamas.

Iran has been firmly linked to helping Hamas with the necessary planning and equipment to carry out the attacks that were far beyond Hamas’ crude methods. This was easily deduced from the start as Hamas and Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border in Lebanon are both clients of the Mullahs in Iran. But it is now confirmed, including by Hamas and Hezbollah in public statements.

Hezbollah has more sophisticated weapons, including missiles, than Hamas and is a much larger terrorist army overall. With the Israeli Defense Forces surging into Gaza with the short-term goal of eradicating every element of Hamas, and an unknown long-term goal, Hezbollah could create a very dangerous two-front war for Israel by attacking their back as the bulk of Israel’s army is in Gaza. A betting person would say Iran already has this plotted, with the question being whether Israel’s response in Gaza dissuades them.

But too many people are stopping the analysis at Iran. This disruptive, terrorist-supporting nation is not the end. As a result most recently of the Russia-Ukraine war, Iran has become closer to Russia, which was already an ally, and closer to China, which was already a growing trade partner. China is buying more oil from Iran than ever this year, pumping billions of dollars into the Iranian economy and ultimately its theocratic state coffers.

So America has its two most dangerous enemies in China and Russia tightening their relationships with each other and with America’s most vicious enemy in Iran. As the Hamas Einsatzgruppen action against Jewish civilians — depressing how familiar that all sounds — was happening, Iranian leadership and its parliament chanted “death to Israel” and “Israel will be destroyed.” The same genocidal human misfits frequently chant “death to America” — which makes the Obama and Biden administrations constant flirtation with them inexplicably stupid and self-destructive.

But there is more brewing beyond the China-Russia-Iran axis. There is, bubbling up, an Islamic renewal. It’s in fits and starts, but is a dangerous variety closer to ISIS than Islam’s “Golden Age.” We see it in Afghanistan with the Taliban back in charge yet again. In Iraq with the return of more theocracy than democracy.

Threading this all together with the new axis is Iran and Turkey.

As dangerous and radical as Iran is, Turkey is maybe the most problematic. It is a member of NATO with the largest standing army in the alliance after the United States. It has been trending more fundamentally Islamic since 2014 and the election of President Recep Erdogan. Turkey has a long and nasty history with fellow NATO member Greece and just recently threatened that one day missiles would be raining down on the smaller country, also a member of NATO. 

Further, the Wall Street Journal reported that in the first year of the Ukraine war, Turkish companies “exported tens of millions of dollars worth of machinery, electronics, spare parts and other items that Russia needs for its military…At least 13 Turkish firms exported a total of at least $18.5 million worth of items, including plastics, rubber items and vehicles, to at least 10 Russian companies sanctioned by the U.S. for their role in Russia’s assault on Ukraine.”

As part of the global realignment, Russia is now the largest trade partner with Turkey and the Muslim country has no intentions of stopping that profitable relationship. And as of this year, China is Turkey’s second largest trade partner, increasing trade volume from 2000 to 2023 from $1 billion to $35.9 billion.

And finally on this front, Muslim Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed 135,000 Christian Armenians from the former Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh this year. This will likely end the long strife in that area, but at a great cost and by the assertion of another Muslim nation’s power.

So in the global realignment, we have the major secular powers of China and Russia linking with Islamic powers of Iran and Turkey and all of their allies to form a new power bloc, all at a time when America is at its weakest point since pre-WWII — not militarily weakest, but weakest within. This bloc is an alliance of convenience and common enemy, and cannot last forever. But it may last long enough.

Which brings us to the Fifth Column within America, which is stronger than ever and perhaps the most existential threat that the free West faces.

Progressives in America, England, Australia and elsewhere in the West sickeningly took to the streets chanting their support for Palestinians and their disdain for Israel. They cloak the newest antisemitism in the “decolonization” verbiage of America’s anti-American college radicals. They want to “deconstruct” America, vilify western civilization and “fundamentally transform the United States of America,” to borrow from Barack Obama.

But far up the influence ladder from bullhorns in the streets, the same view pervades American newsrooms. It was most radically put by Teen Vogue and InStyle magazine journalist Najma Sharif, who appeared to celebrate the rape and slaughter of innocence with: “what did y’all think decolonization meant? vibes? papers? essays? losers.” Her tweet was panned by thousands but also had 100,000 likes before she made it private.

One of those who “liked” it was Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, who also tweeted this: “We are forced to see state violence as justified + moral, while violence by non-state actors isn’t. This is changing.” She further justified the barbarians with this: “I suspect that what we have instead are mostly people who believe that violence is only the legitimate province of some people, and what is morally required of everyone else is submission.”

This Fifth Column support can be seen more subtly in the news reporting, with stories focusing on Israel’s response, their bombings, the destruction in Gaza, and virtually nothing of Hamas beheading 40 babies in their death cult, filming it and posting it for the world to see. All of the story lines will converge on Israel’s “disproportionate” response with the goal of turning world opinion against Israel, which will inevitably happen because of all of world history and the nest of vipers known as the United Nations.

And within the Permanent State, the Fifth Column continues on beyond undermining an elected President and violating the Constitution. The U.S. State Department has had to take down at least two tweets that were in substance intended to cripple Israel’s response.

The response of American progressives to Hamas civilian slaughter over the weekend is a mere harbinger to their response to the new Axis of Western Enemies.
 

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