By Shashi P.B.B. Malla
Gaza War: Biden Should Tell Hard Truths to Israelis – Directly
After Hamas’ horrific massacres if Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, President Joe Biden appeared to have a strategy for approaching Israel and reining in its forceful reprisal in Gaza a military campaign estimated to have cost tens of thousands of lives and one that has stirred sharp and widespread backlash against the Jewish state, particularly in the Arab world.
Fareed Zakaria, the CNN-host of the Global Public Square, writes in his latest The Washington Post column that Biden seemed to be thinking: Hug Israel close, show Israelis and their leaders that America stands with them, and then use the accrued leverage to influence Israel’s prosecution of the war.
“The United States has repeatedly pressured Israel to make greater efforts to protect innocent civilians, but to little avail,” Zakaria writes.
“Now it has been counseling against an invasion of Rafah, the city nestled close to Egypt where more than 1 million Palestinians have huddled together….
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to invade Rafah, whether another hostage deal is made or not…
“Washington has warned that after the war there should be no Israeli seizure of land in Gaza and no new Israeli occupation of the territory…
“The Israeli government’s plans to do both…
“The result is that American policy on the Gaza war now appears hapless, ineffective and immoral. The image of U.S. officials wringing their hands about civilian casualties while providing ever-more weapons is grotesque.”
As for what to do about this, Zakaria echoes recommendations made by seasoned US foreign policy hands Richard Haass and Martin Indyk.
Biden should circumvent Netanyahu and address Israeli lawmakers and/or citizens directly and argue for abandoning “policies that they will regret deeply…
“ Biden should go to Israel and show the country his love for it by speaking these hard truths…
“He would also show America and the world that he still has the energy, moral clarity and wisdom to lead” (Zakaria).
Transnistria & Moldova: Russia’s Next War?
Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria has asked Moscow for protection. Although President Putin made no mention of the dubious appeal in his annual address to the nation, pundits are speculating whether Russia’s next war is immanent (DW/Deutsche Welle: Vitalie Calugareanu/Keno Verseck).
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Russia has almost continually been waging, or at least provoking wars against its neighbours.
The first of these came just over two months after the collapse of the Soviet empire, namely in early March 1992 in the small
Two years previously, pro-Russian separatists in Transnistria, a thin strip of land on the eastern bank of the Dniester River in eastern Moldova, proclaimed a republic under the pretext of protecting Russians and the Russian language. To this day, this secessionist territory hasn’t been recognized by any sovereign country in the world.
The extremely bloody hostilities in spring 1992 lasted only a few months. But Russian troops have been stationed in Transnistria ever since, despite the fact the Kremlin signed an agreement pledging to withdraw them 25 years ago!
Throwback to the Soviet Era
Outwardly, Transnistria is like a gigantic Soviet outdoor museum, with monuments to Lenin, red flags and hammer-and sickle symbols everywhere.
Behind all this Soviet memorabilia, however, this sliver of land could more accurately be described as the extensive premises of a commercial company and a military depot run by a small group of former KGB officers (like Vladimir Putin himself), who are probably also working for the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service.
Under the guise of Sheriff, a huge holding company, they run money laundering and smuggling operations and practically control all economic activity in the enclave.
“President” of Transnistria speaks of ‘Genocide’
Whenever these Mafia-like operations are threatened, the region’s powerless parliament, the Supreme Council of Transnistria, or other forums come together and ask Moscow for help, protection or accession to the Russian Federation.
And every time this happens, the threat of a hot war in an otherwise frozen conflict increases.
It would be like a comic opera, were it not so serious and tragic for the suffering inhabitants.
Most recently, last week Wednesday, a so-called “congress of deputies of all levels” convened in Tiraspol, Transnistria’s nominal capital, and passed a resolution to ask Russia for protection in the face of “increasing pressure” and the “economic war” unleashed by Moldova!
Vadim Krasnoselsky, the “president” of Transnistria and Sheriff’s head of security, accused the authorities in Chisinau (Moldova’s capital) of “genocide” against the people of Transnistria.
Chisinau seeks more control over Transnistria
What made Tiraspol’s appeal to Moscow so explosive was its timing, just a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin was to make his annual address to the nation.
There was widespread speculation as to whether Putin would use the appeal as a pretext for announcing some kind of military intervention in Moldova or the annexion of the so-called republic. But Putin made no mention whatsoever of Moldova in his annual address last Thursday.
Ahead of Putin’s address, Moldovan politicians and media alike spoke of a “feint” and a “propaganda bluff” on the part of Transnistria that should not be taken seriously.
But what led up to the appeal this time around?
Since January 1, 2024, companies in Transnistria have had to pay customs duties when exporting goods to Moldova proper.
It is part of a catalog of measures the government in Chisinau is applying in an attempt to gain more control over Transnistria.
Ukraine’s border with Transnistria remains closed
Sandwiched between Ukraine and Moldova, Transnistria has been an uncontrolled hub for illegal trade, smuggling and money laundering for the past 30 years.
Moldova’s pro-Western president, Maia Sandu, who was a civil rights, anti-corruption activist before being elected head of state, has made every effort since coming to power in 2020 to stop illegal economic transactions with Transnistria.
Paradoxically, Russia’s war against Ukraine helped Sandu in nthis undertaking.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine authorities closed the country’s border with Transnistria to prevent any acts of sabotage or attacks by Russian soldiers on the port city of Odesa and the surrounding region, which is only 70 kilometres from Transnistria.
As a result, Transnistria’s role as a hub for smuggling and money laundering has diminished drastically.
“Signs of weakness and a collapse” in Transnistria
Oleg Serebrian, Moldova’s deputy prime minister and minister for the reintegration of Transnistria, said after Putin’s address that he was optimistic that Russia’s grip on the separatist region was slipping.
In Tiraspol, he said there were “several centres of power and, therefore, signs of weakness and a collapse” (DW).
Serebrian described Transnistria’s appeal to Russia for protection as an “operation designed to paper over the problems of the separatist regime.”
[If Putin chose to help Transnistria, he would face insurmountable logistical difficulties, as well as, the possibility of an unintended clash with NATO and the European Union, as Moldova and Ukraine are both candidate-members of the EU].
“Things are going badly both economically and socially in Transnistria,” he said, “and the people there need an explanation. The one they are given is that Chisinau and the new customs duties are the mother of all evils and that is why things are going badly in the region. The reality is, however, that things have been going badly in Transnistria for a long time” (DW).
The fact is that for want of direct land access to Moldova, Russia has practically no way of attacking the country.
That said, Moscow has between 1,500 and 2,000 soldiersin the country in addition to Transnistria’s own armed forces. Together, they are probably much stronger than Moldova’s small, very badly equipped 5,000-strong army.
What’s more, near the village of Cobasna in northern Transnistria is Europe’s largest ammunition depot, which houses about 20,000 tons of Soviet-era ammunition and equipment.
Should Russia succeed in advancing into Ukraine’s Odesa region, it could herald the start of an invasion of Moldova.
Russia would attack – under the right circumstances
From a political perspective, Moldova is just as lost to Russia as Ukraine.
Last December, the EU decided to open accession negotiations with Moldova. The majority of Moldovans are pro-Europe, many hold Romanian – and therefore EU – passports, and hundreds of thousands work in EU countries.
Nevertheless, Moscow’s hybrid war against the country shows it has not yet given up its claims on Moldova and would indeed attack it if the circumstances were right.
Pro-Russian parties, which are finances among others by the
Israel-based pro-Russian oligarch Ilan Shor, are waging bitter campaigns against President Sandu and the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Dorin Recean.
Social media there are also awash with pro-Russian propaganda and disinformation.
A presidential election and a referendum on the country’s accession to the EU are due to be held this autumn.
According to Moldovan Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi, the authorities are “already seeing attempts to destabilize the situation” in the country (DW).
Navalnaya Calls for a “Russia of the future”
In an emotional speech, Yulia Navalnaya told the European Parliament that it was time for the world to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin’s close circle, galvanize opposition and see to a “Russia of the future”(DW).
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, addressed the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France last week.
“This House and its members condemn his killing in the strongest possible terms…the world is owed justice,” said European Parliament President Roberta Metsola as she opened a session honouring Navalny’s life.
Navalny inspired millions
Navalny had new ideas for everything, but especially in politics and in the struggle for the Russian opposition to forge itself as ab opposition party, Navalnaya said in the speech. But Putin has suppressed the opposition.
But in spite of the Russian state repression, Navalny “was able to inspire millions of people with his ideas,” Navalnaya said. He managed to pass on ideas that “would make the Kremlin panic.”
“If you really want to defeat Putin, you have to become an innovator,” she said. Simply slapping sanctions will not achieve the set goal of defeating Putin because he was not just a politician. She twice accused him of being a “leader of a criminal gang.”
The people close to Putin were whom the world had to fight. “Putin must answer for everything he has done to Alexei” Navaalnaya said. She said her husband would not live to see what a “beautiful Russia of the future will look like, but we must seeit.”
“I will continue the struggle for our country”
Navalnaya who had long steered clear of the spotlight, has stepped up to a new role following Navalny’s death in a remote penal colony in the Russian Arctic Circle on February 16.
In a lengthy video she released three days later, Navalnaya blamed Putin for her husband’s death, saying: “Putin killed half of me, half of my heart, half of my soul.”
“But I have the other half left, and it’s telling me that I don’t have the right to give up,” she had said during the 9-minute video adding: “I will continue Alexei Navalny’s work, I will continue the struggle for our country.”
The writer can be reached at: shashipbmalla@hotmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect People’s Review’s editorial stance.
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