To Discuss Strategic And Military Cooperation
Rob Miller, AMERICAN THINKER
This is one of those important stories you won’t see reported on much.
General Chen Bingde, Chief of General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army of China arrived in Israel on an official 3 day visit to discuss military cooperation between the two countries.
General Bingde’s position is equivalent to the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and this is the first time a Chinese officer of that rank has ever visited Israel. He was received with full honors upon his arrival and came at the invitation of IDF Chief of Staff Benny Ganz. His visit will include conferences with Ganz, Israeli defense Minister Ehud Barak, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel military figures as well as a visit of the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and a visit to a military base in the Negev.
This is not the first high-level meeting between Israeli and Chinese military figures. In 2010, an Israeli military delegation visited China for an extended visit and in May, 2011 Barak and Israeli Navy Commander Admiral Eliezer Merom met with Admiral Wu Shengli, the head of the Chinese Navy.
In his public remarks, General Bingde said that the development of Sino-Israeli cooperation in the defense sector would contribute to strengthening peace and stability in the Middle East. Barak, in response said that China and Israel must work together to counter the different threats and challenges facing the two countries.
I predicted about two and a half years ago when the Obama Administration’s assault on America and Israel’s alliance was getting underway that Israel might very well increase its ties with China. The two countries already have significant trade agreements, and in many ways are a natural fit.
While China currently backs countries like Iran and the Sudan in the UN, this is basically a matter of protecting oil and gas sources for its expanding economy. In fact China’s press coverage of Israel is fairly balanced and the overall image of Israel in China is relatively good. Unlike Russia and the EU, there has never been any history of anti-Semitism in China and the two cultures share a number of attributes.
The Chinese have a huge need for what Israel has to sell, electronic, medical, agricultural and industrial technology and expertise as well as military hardware. And as trade with certain countries in the EU becomes more problematical because of active attempts to boycott Israeli products and restive Muslim populations, countries like China and India with large populations and expanding economies represent major new markets for Israel. And the Chinese are also not unaware of the huge discoveries of oil and natural gas in Israel that are scheduled to begin producing in a year or so.
Aside from markets, the Israelis stand to gain a relationship with a rising power as leverage against an increasingly the untrustworthy and anti-Israel Obama administration in Washington. Based on what’s occurred since President Obama took office, you can hardly blame them.
During the Cold War, Israel threw the Soviets out of the Middle East without a single US soldier having to be based there. This time, they’re hedging their bets.
Rob Miller blogs at Joshuapundit
My reply to Vinnie #15 was Botted…. again.
@ Vinnie:
The media is only criticized as a tool of the ruling elites. Large Corporations and government. What is the merger of Corporations and Government? It’s called FASCISM!!!
Professor Richard Wolff: S&P Downgrade of U.S. Debt: What It Means
Read more: Economist Nouriel Roubini says the risk of a global recession is greater than 50 percent, and the next two to three months will reveal the economy’s direction. In an interview with WSJ’s Simon Constable, Roubini also says he’s putting his money in cash. “This is not the time to be in risky assets,” he says.
The Fed in various traunches has supplied to the Global financial system over 20 trillion dollars in back door loans most under 1% interest in secret with no transparency of congressional disclosure and oversight. They are not based on the recent Dodd-Frank Law required to disclose until a min of two years has passed. This is public money and it enriches the friends of the too Big to fails while selecting those who will be enriched and who not. They have destroyed the dollar and the American economy in the process.-
hab+ee+
It is for the very reason that the Nation an extremely leftist publication has chosen to publish the Straford disclosure that has been all over the reight wing blogs for months that has given merit to the disclosure. Obama only claim so far for anything positive has been his claim of getting OBL. If this is debunked by two pro Obama organs and supported by many if not most of the right wing blogs I take it as significant and probably true.
Any moron knows that all of the Bush wars and Obama wars are based on controlling the worlds oil wealth, the routes of transport and keeping them out of the hands of China and Russia. All of the Governments reasons are sop for the morons who still believe in government honesty and that big business if allowed to be free of the shakels imposed by government will be beneficial to all Americans. That the 1% of Americans who own and contro; over 50% of all the wealth of America will share their wealth by investing their wealth in America thereby creating more jobs. The exact opposite is the truth.
I am no Marxist but Marx was right re: Capitalism …That Capitalism contains the seeds of it’s own destruction and it is destroying itself from the top down.
Yamit,
First, you don’t need to alert me as to how corrupt most of the media is. I see it every day. It is like some kind of surreal nightmare, and yes, I too have often compared it to the old Soviet Union.
Second, The Nation is not the most credible source. My late mum – G-d rest her soul – used to subscribe years ago, and passed a lot of the issues onto me. Back in my young liberal days, I found it entertaining. My mum let her subscription lapse due to the increasingly rabid Israel-bashing behavior of that publication, the same reason why I let my own subscription to the Atlantic Monthly lapse more recently. The Nation is nothing but a far left liberal rag.
Third, Stratfor is also not a credible source. George Friedman, who heads them up, is a favorite of Obama’s, which should tell you something. I saw Georgie being interviewd on FOX a while back, and in this particular interview, he predicted that ultimately, a second war between the U.S. and Japan (!) was all but inevitable. His analysis in general ranges from the boringly obvious to the fringes of outright lunacy. His is a singularly unimpressive operation.
C’mon, Yamit, you disappoint me. I was expecting some juicy inside info that may shed light on the pros and cons of a hypothetical Sino-Israeli alignment.
Back to that subject, a little anecdote about China:
As reported on Beck’s program last year, in one case, a young woman made some joke during a cell phone conversation to a friend about a state-sponsored demonstration against Japan. On the eve of her wedding, she disappeared. Her family was notified the following week by the authorities that she had been arrested for said joke, and was sentenced to a year of hard labor/re-education for her little “crime”.
Israel, so far as I am aware, has no death penalty.
In the U.S., anytime someone is executed, it is a big news event, at least at the state level, and sometimes, at the national level.
China executes thousands every year.
Is this the kind of “friend”, in terms of a primary strategic partner, Israelis want to be identified with? Wait till they finally invade Taiwan. If and when they do that, it will be as vicious and bloody as you can imagine. Want to be a party to that?
Things may slowly liberalize in China, but for the time being, they are an authoritarian state with almost no respect for individual/human rights as we understand these. This will be the case for decades to come.
Behind the most obvious human rights issues, the regulation of the banking/financial system there is very murky. They don’t have the transparency of developed, Western-style democracies, and it is authoritatively rumored to be very corrupt and unstable. This could turn out very badly for them; their big economic “miracle” could become a nightmare very quickly.
But again, if the U.S. winds up like the UK – effectively a semi-autonomous self-governing colony of Saudi Arabia that automatically toes the Saudi line on foreign policy on all relevant issues, especially Israel – Israel may have little choice but to align with China.
A final cautiously optimistic word about the U.S.:
For all our massive problems, I recall an Israel of the 1980s/90s that experienced rampant inflation, unemployment, all sorts of terrible troubles. I didn’t and don’t live there, so those who went through this first-hand can perhaps offer a more detailed picture. But what I do know is that the “New Israeli Shekel” is called that because the old variety became worthless. You went through all of that, yet you are thriving today.
Also, U.S. manufacturing output is STILL the greatest in the world, 40% higher than that of China’s, even now. You may not find a lot of that on store shelves; a lot of this is in industrial goods and big-ticket items like jet planes, but we still make an awful lot of stuff. So why such high unemployment? A big reason is automation, but that is another subject.
We are down but we are not out (Obama is working on that, though). I remember back in the late 70s, under Carter, a lot of people thought we were finished then, too. Even in the 80s, in the wake of the big recession then, the “sophisticated” set talked a big game about how the Japanese were going to take over the world. Look at where Japan is now.
Comment in moderation again. Now I have 4 out of 5 going to moderation. sucks!!!!
Vinnie and anyone else interested just look what is going mainstream…..!
Stratfor disputes OBL killing in Abbottabad
First appeared in the online “THE NATION”
Read More
Vinnie
READ!!
The House of “Presstitution” in OBAMA’S SOVIET America!! #1
The House of “Presstitution” in OBAMA’S SOVIET America!! #2
My Comment to Vinnie got botted
@ Vinnie:
Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Fed’s Secret Loans
Who got the money: Get ready to be shocked
Public money given out to the Friends of the Fed and all the major banks around the world in secret with no accountability and no public oversight. They printed digital money devalued and debased the dollar and screwed the American public. They should be put in Jail.
The preestitutes are silent. I wonder why? most got some of the handouts or bailouts behind the public’s backs.
comment to an observer #6 in moderation!! every second post is in moderation : Fix the damn thing, dump it or get another.
@ AnObserver:
Aryeh Zelasko Said:
The west is not dead yet but it is waning, This century seems to be trending towards an Asian Century.` It could take decades before the situation stabilizes where there is a dominant Super power power other than America. China is not immune from the coming world economic depression.
No one can say with certainty what will be next week let alone decades. In 4-5 years when Israel’s gas and oil begin to to have a market impact, how will this impact on Israels economy it’s relative global importance? The energy wealth could make Israel a military target just as Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya were targeted by Western Imperialists. No one can say for sure how the coming global depression will impact on Europe, America, Asia and Israel but I’ll bet we will be pulled into it probably we will be at the center.
Israel needs to diversify her global relationships and not have all her eggs in Americas basket, similarly to the situation that existed on the eve. of the 6 Day War. We had good relationships with Romania, South Africa, Iran and for over 10 years with France. America then was not a big factor either in our economic development or weapons procurment and manufacturing for Israel. Yet our economic growth was spectacular
I am fairly certian – very certain – that if Obama is re-elected, or if the Republicans nominate an Obama-clone on the issue of Israel (i.e., Ron Paul or Chris Christie), then the U.S.-Israeli “special relationship” is finished, and that Israel will be thrust right into the arms of China.
India is often mentioned in this context, but India’s large Muslim minority makes if very difficult for India to act in a manner approximating that of an ally in places such as the UN. Where was India during that UN vote in February? They backed the PA. As did China. In the latter case, I’d say this has more to do with the perception among China’s “old guard” communist/military elite segment, that China’s role in the world is to “oppose the West”, which includes Israel. There is also the technocratic/business elite faction, which would likely be far more receptive to Israel. The conflict between these two major factions is ongoing, there is no organized, institutionalized mechanism for sorting out their differences, and it is not clear which side will prevail in the long run. For this reason, anyone intending to “count on China” for anything should beware.
But China has no significant Muslim minority. Yes, they buy a lot of oil, but the Arabs need to sell that oil. As Yamit has often pointed out, it is not so much the need for oil, but the need for markets for manufactured goods going the other way, bought with the proceeds from oil, that drives Western butt-kissing of Arabs. China isn’t selling airliners or fighter-bombers to the oil states, at least not yet, in contrast to the U.S. and Europe.
China, with her huge population, most of if still living in abject poverty, and unstable political system, is a very greedy and acquisitive country. They will only do what is in their immediate and direct material ineterests. If that means betraying Israel, they will. There won’t be any pro-Israel lobby in China to push back against this if such a scenario develops down the road. Also, most of Israel’s military hardware is American, and there will be substantial logistical issues to overcome if Israel “switches sides”.
All that said, at least China, as the article above points out, has no real history of anti-Semitism. And while there is much infighting between elites in that country as I note above, at least there is, so far as I am aware, no real “Arab lobby” to contend with. At least Israelis know they are dealing with CHINESE leaders, who are pursuing CHINESE interests, and not front-men for the towel-heads who are perfectly willing to sell out their own country’s objective interests for the sake of their petrodollar-stuffed Swiss bank accounts, as we so often see both here in the U.S., and in Europe, with Obama being the most obvious – but by no means unique – example. You’ll never see a Chinese leader bowing to a Saudi king, that’s for sure.
It is a complicated situation. Clearly, Israel is hedging her bets even now, and who can blame them? In the shoes of Israeli leaders, I’d sure be pretty fed up with this “ally”, the U.S., as represented by Obama, but even by Bush, or Clinton, or Bush the Elder.
I hope – and expect – to see Obama on his butt in 2012, replaced by an adult who clearly sees the value of the U.S.-Israeli strategic partnership (again, I believe that includes every current or prospective Republican candidate, besides Ron Paul and Chris Christie). That would be best for both countries. But if the U.S. collectively insists at the voting booth (or via a rigged election…I put nothing past Obama and his people) on going down the drain, Israel must do what she must do.
Oh, and forget about Russia. Now that is a sick joke. Among the most anti-Semitic people in the world, and corrupt to the point of making even the U.S. look pristine by comparison. They stood out at the recent Quartet meeting as explicitly backing the PA on not recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. They’ll suck whatever they can out of Israel, and sell her out in the worst way just for fun, even if it is against their objetive interests.
No, if America “loses” Israel, it will be to China.
Aryeh Zelasko Said:
Geologically speaking, being to the west of the Jordan River along the African – Syrian Rift, Eretz Yisrael is on the African Tectonic Plate. Since Hashem gave Eretz Yisrael to the Jewish people while letting the other nations of the world keep whatever they could steal, the Jews of Israel are the only true Africans on Earth. This makes one wonder why liberal Jews don’t like Israelis more. This is more proof that liberals are “racist”.
The West is dead. Long live the East.
It is worthwhile to occasionally look at a map. Despite what New Yorkers might think, Israel is not somewhere at the end of Long Island. We are in fact an Asian nation. Historically we have been the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe and have shifted the direction of our focus depending on which area was the dominate power.
Europe has already started its degeneration into anarchy and America is not far behind. Why should we go down with them?
Aryeh Zelasko
Beit Shemesh
I will stand with my original statement, Charlie. The State of Israel belongs to the Jewish nation, not to the United States of America, the United Nations Organization, the European Union, NATO or anyone else. Israel’s government and its rapidly-growing industries will trade with whomever wants to purchase their products or the well-known expertise of the Jews. They will do this for the same reason that in running my little web-based business service, I sell to whomever wants to do business with me.
India indeed has hundreds of millions of Moslems. But India is predominantly Hindu, and their country is the permanent national enemy of Pakistan, which is the only Moslem state that thus far has developed nuclear weapons. China indeed in bed with the Islamic oil states. But so too is the USA, Great Britain, France and most of the West. The oil barons of those countries, including ours, would sell out Israel in a split second if by so doing they could either increase their profits or provide them promise of a limitless supply of petroleum. So Israel is practicing reality, not treachery.
I too support Michelle Bachmann as one of the possible US presidential candidates. But I do not think she will be the nominee. The Iowa Straw Poll counts for next to nothing from the national perspective. My projection right now is still Romney, who I think will be the winner in all the big state by state Republican Party primary elections early next spring.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ charlie:
You and American eagle are truly soul brothers. 🙂 We supporters like you two, Obama is a shoe-in 2012 even if the economy really tanks and it will.
America today; Record Breaking Poverty in America: 52.8 Million and Growing; 46 Million on Food Stamps; 34 Million in Need of Work; Over 1 Million Deaths Annually; World’s Largest Prison Population. The Economic Devastation
Snapshot: According to most recent Census Bureau data, from 2005 – 2009, average US household wealth declined by 28%. This represents a loss of $27,000 per household. Currently, at least 62 million Americans, 20% of US households, have zero or negative net worth. Read More
America owes more than all the money in existence #1) If all money owned by all American banks, businesses and individuals was gathered up today and sent to the U.S. government, there would not be enough to pay off the U.S. national debt.
#2) The only way to create more money is to go into even more debt which makes the problem even worse. this is what the whole Federal Reserve System was designed to do. It was designed to slowly drain the massive wealth of the American people and transfer it to the elite international bankers.
It is a game that is designed so that the U.S. government cannot win. As soon as they create more money by borrowing it, the U.S. government owes more than what was created because of interest.
If you owe more money than ever was created you can never pay it back.
That means perpetual debt for as long as the system exists.
China, Russia and India are beginning to look good.
It is a system designed to force the U.S. government into ever-increasing amounts of debt because there is no escape. The great Ponzi Scheme known to most as Capitalism is about to implode back on it’s promoters.
This is a system called fractional banking where the Fed can create money out of nothing and charge interest for that same money creation. This is the same Fed that gave near zero interest loans to member of the financial community around the world , even some International corporations like GE.
Degraw world war 3
ArnoldHarris Said:
uh huh Arnold Harris? how many musloids does india have and china is in bed with the musloid oil states, u r clueless they have no interest in opposing islam,
this is treachery.Israel should not be expanding military relations with China. US of A is Israels ally. Do you want us to invade and take Israel? Stop this treachery or Israel will be officially part of the US of A, Shock and Awe. Mood God dome down. Control Temple Mount. Knesset Down. Control Israel. Marxists will be declared traitors and given death penalty. End of Problem. Kick China Butt. Nuke. Ditto Iran. Ditto Syria. Roll on Bachman.
Expanded military-industrial relations between Israel, China and India have been developments which I have been expecting for many years. I hope the same trend will apply also to Russia. The military power of those three states, along with the economic power of Japan, will dominate not only East Asia in coming decades, but also much else of the world. And all three of these giants have reason to oppose the spread of Islam, using both cultural and military means to effectuate that opposition.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI