Talking Point IL

The two “leaders” Starmer and Macron- never fail to emphasize over and over the irrelevance and timidity that were brought upon the Western European nations, by their governments during the latest decades.

📚
Here is Starmer, speaking yesterday- following the Russian frigate firing warning shots at a British private civilian yacht with two pensioners onboard, in the La Manche- Also known as The English channel:

🙄
​"What happened in the Channel was deeply concerning. It was reckless... That shouldn't have happened. It is reckless, and the couple on the yacht must've been terrified."

So a foreign battleship fires at a vessel with your citizens in the La Manche-
The same channel Napoleon and the German dictator were too afraid to cross,
And the British prime minister is “concerned”. The citizens “must’ve been terrified”.

The former “Mistress of the Seas”- the British navy, contained the incident by sending a speedboat to check whether the couple on the yacht is ok…

🙄
In the same forum (the G7),
Macron has stated: “It is important that Iran, it’s proxy in Lebanon and Israel do not resume fighting”.
Rephrasing his month old Tweet on X:
“[The Iranian proxy in Lebanon] must lay down its weapons, and Israel must respect Lebanese sovereignty and stop the war”.

🤦🏻
Rihanna’s song would have come in handy now: “Where have you been all my life?..”-
What would the world do without your precious advice, Emmanuel?

No matter whose side you are on- in the conflict that is unfolding for the latest 2.5 years- Macron’s statements keep emphasizing how politically irrelevant he, and frankly all of Western Europe have become.

✍️
These are the same people who are trying to dictate security policies to Israel.
It appears, that one of the wisest things that Israel does- is not listening to them.

The negotiations team could have also asked some of the dozens of millions of people who have common sense- on the street or the internet.
But then I guess the CIA is gotta make a living too…

A history lesson we seem to have forgotten:
Remember the promise Roosevelt received from the Soviet leadership in 1945 during the Yalta conference?
There, the latter have explicitly committed, in a written manner that they will allow “free and unfettered elections” in Poland and other liberated Eastern European nations.

📚
Two months later, Roosevelt passed away- passing the presidency to Harry Truman.

Naturally, the promised free elections started being systematically delayed, and not through pluralistic and democratic means.
By 1947- Poland’s role as a Soviet satellite state was officially sealed for the upcoming 43 years.

✍️
Bottom line:
The administration that signed the agreement has simply been waited out.

What do you think will happen this time to the agreements signed by an autocratic regime with the current American administration?

The quote in the post belongs to Dr. Mordechai Kedar,
Who provided it in a debate held in Arabic language on Al Jazeera in December 2017.

And if you think he was being hyperbolic,
Go to the pinned comment for some examples of what the Palestinians endured at the hand of their “brothers”- including other Palestinians- for causing much less trouble than they constantly do to Israel.

Did you know that Israel has Sharia courts?
Officially run, state-sponsored ones.

📚
It should perhaps be mentioned that they address only family matters such as marriage status, guardianship and inheritance.
Any other legal matters, for Muslims or anyone else in Israel- are addressed in a regular court.

Moreover, the Israeli Supreme Court is highly unlikely to interfere with the decisions made by the Sharia courts, other than in cases of explicit violation of civil or universal rights.
Just like it would do with Jewish, Christian or Druze ones- who also operate on Israeli soil.

📚
The salary of the Qadis (the Sharia courts judges), if you wondered- is equal by law to the salaries of the regular Israeli civil judges.

➡️ Their base monthly salary is ~34000 NIS, which is ~9700 USD.
➡️ A regional Qadi can earn as much as 55000 NIS, or 15700 USD a month.
➡️ An appeals court Qadi, can take home ~78000 NIS or 22300 USD every month.

Courtesy of the Israeli taxpayers.

➡️ For contrast, the average monthly salary in Israel is 14300 NIS. Less than 4100 USD.

📚
By the way, you know who doesn’t have Sharia courts?

Turkey.
The same country whose president is repeatedly playing the Islamic cause card every time he needs to boost his popularity- doesn’t have a single Sharia court.
Moreover, they are banned by law in that country.

Only in Israel:
You are sitting in a shelter under a barrage, on the phone with a friend who is stuck in an airport abroad. He is pi**ed that his flight to Tel Aviv, which is under a barrage as you speak- might get cancelled because of that.
So you are the one calming him down…

The new Supreme Leader of Iran- Mujtaba Khamenei, has neither been seen nor heard since his appointment on the 8th of March, 2026.

From a Western perspective, it looks strange- to say the least.
An absent leader is an opening for all kinds of rivalries, misinterpretations and people saying whatever they like “in his name”.
It surely does not project stability nor power.

📚
But the regime in Iran plays this hand entirely differently, giving us a chance to better understand the way they think.

Spoiler: they do not think the way we do.

➡️ The Religious foundation of the regime in Iran is Twelver Shia Islam.

➡️ The essence of it is that the twelfth Imam (since Muhammad)- Mahdi, who was born in the 9th century- did not die but went into a divine occultation.

➡️ The reason for that, was the political persecution he faced srtarting the first days of his mission in 874 CE.

➡️ Since that moment on-
His messages to the believers were passed through a chain of successive messengers.

➡️ After his last messenger passed away in 941, Mahdi entered a total occultation and it is believed that he will come back at the end of days.

📚
I think you already see where this is going.

The regime actively draws parallels to the Shia narrative I have just described.

Regional outlets like “The Media Line” and “The Beiruter”- have pointed out that regime-aligned Telegram channels, religious speakers and local Imams- have explicitly started telling their loyalists that Mojtaba’s hidden status is a contemporary reflection of the Twelfth Imam’s occultation.
Meaning the public should embrace the idea of a leader they cannot see.

(Orwell’s Big Brother, anyone?)

✍️
This is the regime that the West has been trying to negotiate with for decades- using conventional methods and premises.

These people are wired differently.
They do not share the same values, and their perception of reality is not like ours.

A few months ago, the United Arab Emirates removed the UK universities from its list for state-funded scholarships.
The reason, is concern about young people being indoctrinated in the British campuses, by organizations that are banned in the UAE.

Yep. You did not misread that.

How did we arrive there?
Obviously, everything has numerous aspects and causes to it.
However, here is a telling example:

➡️ In 1975, nationals from other Arab countries (Egyptians, Yemenis, Palestinians, Syrians) made up 72% of the total foreign workforce in the Gulf countries (the UAE among them).

➡️ In 1985, the Arab countries share was reduced to 56%.

➡️ In 1996, after the war in Kuwait in 1991- it dropped to 31%.

➡️ Today, this share is ~15-20%
Most of which are highly skilled professionals in fields like management, medicine, accounting, etc.
Not the regular working-class.

Instead, the Gulf countries shifted their foreign workforce toward South Asians, who now make up over 65% of it.

📚
The main reason behind this shift is simple:
The South Asian workers largely do not speak Arabic, have no political stakes and can be instantly deported under the Kafala system (ties a worker’s legal residency to their employer) if they attempt to unionize or organize.

On the other hand, working-class young men from Egypt, Syria, Palestinian Territories, Yemen and Tunisia- may on arrival already belong to religious-political organizations, be hardline ideologues and have their opinions and interests as to how the Gulf states should be run.

For that reason, they are given a very hard time if they try to obtain a work permit.

📚
By contrast, I don’t need to tell you about what is going on in Western Europe in terms of migration and “tolerance” to individuals and ideologies that are not compatible with the West. (And not even with moderate Muslim states).

✍️
A clear demonstration of the difference between those who understand the Middle East and those who think in election cycles and assume that all cultures are the same.

What lesson should we learn from that?

How come Saudi Arabia, for as long as most of us remember, has always leaned toward the U.S.?
Diplomatically and economically.
Why for example- not Russia, or previously the USSR?

Spoiler: it has little to do with spiritual affinity to Western values.

📚
The vast majority of significant historical shifts take root in a series of events.
Not this one.

📚
How many of you have ever heard the name Karim Khakimov?
It was largely thanks to this man that, back in the 1920s and 1930s, the USSR was actually still leading the geopolitical race in the Arabian Peninsula.

He was a Soviet diplomat who managed to learn Arabic, immerse himself in the local customs of the newly unified kingdom, and become a personal friend of King Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud).

As a representative of the radically left-wing Soviet government, the guy was smart enough not to try to export the class struggle and the “oppressor-oppressed” narrative into Bedouin society, where it could not exist.
Instead, he operated in categories relatable to the King- honor, trust, and respect for local customs.

For Ibn Saud, who needed a counterweight to the British colonial presence, an alliance with the USSR- which in 1926 was the first to recognize his country's independence- became convenient.

However, this alliance came to a sudden halt not due to the interests of the two countries gradually parting ways, but due to a single decision taken in Moscow.

For those who are unfamiliar, the 1930s in the USSR were a period of extreme political upheavals carried out by Stalin.
Seven to eleven million Soviet citizens (!) are estimated to have vanished in that decade at the hands of their own regime.
One to two million of them- through official executions between 1936 and 1938, during what is called today “The Great Purge.”

Precisely during that period, in 1937, Khakimov was recalled to Moscow, and in January 1938 he met his end.

📚
Ibn Saud, a man of nomadic morals, took such treatment of his trusted friend very personally.
Enraged, he simply cut ties with the USSR.
A move that left a geopolitical vacuum.

📚
Enter the U.S.
To be fair, five years prior to this incident, the King had signed an oil concession with Standard Oil of California (known to some of you today as Aramco).
The reason for this agreement was the severe financial strain on the kingdom, the inability of the Soviets to provide a sufficient economical aid, and the fact that Ibn Saud preferred dealing with a distant American commercial company over British or Soviet entities, which he saw as imperialist.
I know some of you are chuckling right now.

However, only two months after Khakimov was gone, American geologists uncovered the true potential of the Saudi oil reserves, and the Soviets were already in no position to take part in the upcoming oil party.

Ibn Saud on the other hand, has also been left without much leverage in his negotiations with the Americans- due to lack of alternatives.

That being the case, the American dominance over Saudi oil was sealed in February 1945 with the Quincy Pact- effectively exchanging oil for money and military protection.
This status quo remains to this day.

✍️
It appears that Khakimov’s life came at a price that keeps unfolding for Moscow to this day.