Israel Kasnett: A Saudi media report noted that Jerusalem and Moscow have in recent years “maintained a hotline that allowed the Israeli military to alert Russian forces of incoming strikes,” though now, “communication through the Israel-Russia deconfliction mechanism has effectively ceased.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin served to increase the paranoia about him to an all-time high...writes Isi Leibler.
Defusing the Syria–Israel conflict and resurrecting the primacy of Security Council Resolution 242 in resolving the Arab-Jewish conflict have emerged as positive outcomes from the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki this week...writes David Singer.
“It is clear that our focus is on Syria and Iran. Our view that Iran needs to leave Syria is well-known; it is not new to you,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The possibility of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott shirt-fronting Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Brisbane next month over the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH 17 in Ukrainian sovereign territory with the loss of all on board - including 38 Australians - has receded following Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s 25 minute meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the Asian Europe Summit held in Milan this week.
President Obama’s abysmal failure to provide leadership during the Syrian crisis represents a turning point in the Middle East and has paved the way for President Putin’s Russia to emerge as the dominant regional force, a position it had surrendered after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
The swift agreement between Russia and America to collect and destroy Syria's chemical weapons has been an impressive diplomatic achievement - marred only by the fact that it has taken three weeks longer to reach this point because of their joint failure to focus on ending the use of chemical weapons in Syria - rather than focusing on who was responsible for the atrocity that caused the deaths of 1429 Syrians on 21 August.
At some stage most children have played the game hide and seek where a designated individual closes his/her eyes, counts to 20 or 50 or 100 while the other kids run and hide as quickly as possible.
