It is important to correct the current massive imbalance of the news we receive for we are continually being led to draw the wrong conclusions, even the most balanced among us.
Let me begin with the conflict in the Middle East which has now spread beyond what we usually consider as the Middle East.
The conflict between Israelites and Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims has been going on for many centuries.
But the current conflict saw its beginning on 7 October 2023 when thousands of Palestinian fighters invaded the areas of Israel next to the frontier and massacred in cold blood thousands of Israeli women and children and others gathered for an end of summer rave, took hundreds of prisoners and caused maximum damage until they were pushed back.
Now, after a massive Israeli fightback, Gaza is practically inexistent, most buildings have been destroyed and the population has been forced back behind an imaginary yellow line.
Thousands have been killed in bombings.
Gaza is no more and it doesn’t make sense any more to speak of the two-states solution for the Palestinian state is non-existent.
There was a time when it looked like Palestine could become a reality, when there was even an airport and the beginnings of a state. But then Hamas came to power and no more elections were held. Instead, Hamas dug tunnels, manufactured bombs and prepared itself for the war it was preparing to wage against Israel.
There was an aggressor and there was a victim. But still the world was led to think that Israel was the aggressor and the Palestinians the victims.
More or less the same happened in Ukraine. It was Russia which invaded Ukraine, a sovereign nation which indeed formed part of the Soviet Union but which when the Union collapsed in the late Nineties chose to become an independent state.
Russia under Putin refused to accept this and in 2014 invaded and captured back Crimea, thanks to a fake referendum.
Not content with this, Russia in 2022 invaded the rest of Ukraine thinking this would be a two-week thing. But it faced a very stiff resistance and so far only a small part of Ukraine can be said to be under Russian control.
Again, here we have the same playing around with words. It is clear Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine the victim. But Russian double-speak sees Ukraine as the aggressor.
What is the state of play now? It is clear Gaza is no more. Israel is the clear winner. And it is getting every day clearer the Ukrainian forces are winning against vastly superior Russian forces which have enforced conscription, brought in fighters from North Korea etc. Today, the Ukrainians have developed a drone industry and have carried the fight deep into Russia.
And still Russia and its accomplices like Hungary’s Viktor Orban speak of an Ukrainian aggressor.
Onto the third focal point of a troubled world – Iran. The man in the street has been led to believe that the US is the aggressor but ask any Iranian not part of the ruling party and you will be told: Iran has been ruled by the religious Ayatollahs for 47 years who rule the country with an iron fist and who last January killed more than 40,000 just because they protested in the streets.
So who is the aggressor here? So skewed is the information given out in Malta that I doubt if we have been told about the incredible rescue of the second aviator from the downed F-15 who, wounded, and lightly-armed hid in a crevice high in the mountains while a massive manhount was mounted to capture him (and most probably make a show of him).
Contrary to what happened in other conflicts where the Americans had “boots on the ground”, this time there were minimal US deaths.
So, to conclude, three conflicts and the US and its allies, especially Israel, are winning or on their way to win.
And there was yet another victory which we in Malta have not heard about. The Parliament of Moldova has approved these very same days a resolution pulling the country out of CIS, the sort of common market to rival the EU Common Market.
A rather long time will have to pass until this change of direction becomes operational but it reinforces the trend of a Russia getting fractured. There may be others to follow Moldova in the coming months.
And, as regards ourselves, the Royal Opera House must be rebuilt exactly as it was.
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