RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.newsweek.com/opinion

Bulls usually lose bullfights not because they fail to charge, but because they charge at the matador’s cape rather than at the matador himself. President Trump has no qualms about charging at China’s national champion Huawei, but he is charging at the equivalent of the matador’s cape.

Consider Huawei’s handset business, which depends on high-end chips manufactured by Taiwanese foundries. Because the Taiwanese use some American equipment to manufacture the chips, the U.S. has imposed an effective blockade on Huawei’s outsourcing, and China does not (yet) have the domestic capability to make high-end chips. A similar ban blocks Huawei’s access to key American chip-design software.

Huawei will lose market share in the low-margin handset business, and Chinese competitors like Xiaomi will pick up the slack (which explains why the latter’s stock price has jumped this year from HK$8 to HK$22). Huawei will have little difficulty using older chips for 5G base stations, installing the lion’s share of the six million units that China has ordered to build out its 5G network over the next two years.

Huawei’s most important business, though, will emerge unscathed from U.S. sanctions. American strategists think that Huawei is a telecom equipment company. Among other things, Huawei is the world’s largest telecom equipment manufacturer, with a 31 percent market share during the first half of 2020—more than the combined share of the second and third position companies, Ericsson and Nokia. Huawei, though, is first and foremost a big data and artificial intelligence (AI) company—the most inventive and imaginative one in the world. Let’s call this combination “BD/AI,” for short.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16608/erdogan-declares-war-on-arabs

“Some countries in our region did not exist yesterday, and they may not exist in the future….” — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing parliament on October 1, 2020.

“His [Erdogan’s] crimes against the Arab peoples must be exposed, such as his massacres against the Syrian people, against the Kurds in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and in Libya….” — Abdel Aziz Razan, a Saudi adviser at the Center for Arab-Russia Studies, Okaz, October 4, 2020.

Such powerful responses made by Saudis and other Arabs to Erdogan’s contemptuous statements show that the Arabs now understand it is Erdogan and his friends in Iran whom they should fear. In the eyes of these Arabs, Erdogan and his Iranian connections represent the real threat to their security and stability.

In light of such reactions, perhaps more Arab countries will follow the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in signing diplomatic agreements with Israel. The State of Israel, as it turns out, is a strategic and strong ally that can help Arab countries stop Turkey and Iran from spreading their contagion of terror in the Middle East.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is continuing to insult and threaten Arabs, specifically those living in the Gulf.

Many Arabs are concerned about Erdogan’s threats against their countries and his ongoing meddling in their internal affairs. Some Arabs are saying that the time has come to stand up to Erdogan and end his “malicious” schemes against Arab countries.

In the past few days, many Arabs took to social media and other platforms to condemn Erdogan’s latest offensive remarks and veiled threats against their countries.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/10/china-faces-historical-turning-poin

China appears to be on the brink.

The communist regime is threatening our ally, Taiwan — one of several Asian countries seeking closer ties with the United States while China’s domestic turmoil grows.

In a recent column in China’s state-sponsored Global Times, editor-in-chief Hu Xijin warned, “As the secessionist forces’ arrogance continues to swell, the historical turning point is getting closer.”

“The only way forward is for the mainland to fully prepare itself for war and to give Taiwan secessionist forces a decisive punishment at any time,” he wrote.

Taiwan’s opposition party has been seeking closer cooperation with the United States. But, Hu wrote: “The more trouble Taiwan creates, the sooner the mainland will decide to teach Taiwan independence forces a hard lesson.”

China has been angered by the ongoing tour of Asia by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is seeking support for U.S. efforts to contain China. Recently, the Taiwanese Kuomintang Party, or KMT, renewed its effort for the government to reestablish diplomatic ties with the U.S.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16643/iran-weapons-south-america

In August, [Colombia’s] President Ivan Duque… claimed that the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela is looking to acquire medium-to-long-range missiles from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

For two decades, Iran has built a covert procurement and acquisition network in Latin America through joint military projects with Venezuela. The network is seemingly aimed at acquiring prohibited parts, minerals, metals, and technology for Iran’s strategic weapons programs, banned by the UN arms embargo… While gasoline is needed in Venezuela, the fuel shipments from Iran are likely an excuse to operationalize its once latent IRGC network in the country.

With the Bolivian election less than a week away… and on the same date as the expiration of the UN arms embargo — October 18 — there is a chance that Iran could restart its strategic cooperation with Bolivia if Morales’ political party, the MAS, returns to power.

For casual observers, the ramped-up presence in Venezuela… will seem as if Iran’s recent activities are a product of “maximum pressure” against Iran and Venezuela. To informed analysts, however, it is clear that Iran has gradually built up the IRGC’s presence and capabilities in the region for almost 20 years — while using commercial and energy contracts, military-industrial cooperation, high-technology transfers, and other Iranian niche industries to cover its tracks.

Come October 18, the Iran-Latin America problem may become more complex if any of the three situations — lifting the UN arms embargo, a Morales-MAS electoral victory in Bolivia, or a missile transfer to Maduro in Venezuela — comes to pass.

By the end of October, the security landscape in South America could change, with the Islamic Republic of Iran setting up arms sales in South America, from Venezuela to Bolivia. But first, any of these three things must happen:

The United Nations would have to ignore its security council resolutions and effectively let the decades-old Iran arms embargo expire on October 18.
Evo Morales’ political party Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) in Bolivia would have to win the presidential elections, set for the same date (October 18).
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro regime would need to initiate a potential weapons transfer from Tehran, as reported in late August by Colombian President Ivan Duque.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/289142

It is said that “powerlessness frustrates and absolute powerlessness frustrates absolutely; absolute frustration is a dangerous emotion to run a world with.”

Sometimes I wonder why I am so restless, why I cannot cease thinking! It seems like the world we live in reveals to us incessantly, at certain moments or in certain circumstances, just how little we are and how vast the universe is. This world of ours is very complex. The world we live in is a world of many brutal voices. It is a world of heavy blows and delirious trances, but it is the only world that we know.

Everyone knows that life is too short and no one lives forever. We all know that the situation in Iran is dire and at any moment this brutal regime could collapse. Although Iran is saturated with great minds and leaders who could navigate the ship to safety, as they have done for the past 2,500 years, society invents its own heroes who will rise to the occasion. Heroes appear when circumstances call upon them. Heroes are those extraordinary people who make sacrifices and become agents of historical and social change.

Neither President Trump, nor Dr. Foroutan was obligated to engage, endanger, and inconvenience their lives. But, perhaps they both were predestined to be the agents of change. It would be fantastic to see a meeting between these two men, a landmark step towards regime change in Iran.

For those who have not heard of this brave son of Iran, it is time for you to get to know him. He has the support of many Iranians both in Iran and abroad.

Dr. Iman Foroutan is an Iranian patriot who has selflessly dedicated his life to free his beloved homeland from the hands of tyrannical butchers: The Mullahs of Iran. For the past twenty-one years, each and every day, Iman has labored tirelessly, with utmost courage, and integrity in the defense of liberty, freedom and for the rights of Iranians inside Iran. He hopes more and more people will join him in this powerful movement to end the rule of the Islamic regime.