Under this scenario Russia would have military and economic control of occupied Ukraine under its own governing body, imitating Israel’s de facto rule of Palestinian territory seized from Jordan in 1967.
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Witkoff, who is also tasked by Trump with bringing peace to the Middle East, is understood to support the idea, which the Americans believe circumvents barriers in the Ukrainian constitution to ceding territory without holding an “all-Ukraine” referendum.
They really think Ukrainians are that stupid, don’t they.
It isn’t a question of stupidity. It’s a question of power.
Without Western arms and armor to hold territory, both Israel and Russia can just seize the land and kill anyone who objects.
Ukrainians can know it’s bullshit in the same way the Palestinians (or Armenians or Tutsis or Rohingra Muslims) can know they are getting a raw deal. But what are they going to do about it, except eat lead?
The way to deal with a raw deal is to say “no deal”. Appeasement of tyrants and bullies just strengthens their position and encourages them to take more. They’ll never stop, because they’re never actually satisfied, there is no such thing as having “taken enough” and eventually they’re going to make up reasons they need more. It never ends. That’s why we must fight tyranny to the death, to the last man, never give in, and be willing to die for what we believe in. Maybe what we believe in is wrong, but it’s better than living in a world you can’t accept anymore. Vichy France is not a good place to be. We learned these lessons after WW2, we knew tyranny had taken refuge in the Soviet Union and called itself communism, but eventually they too fell, and we thought we had found the answer to it, because we had defeated the Soviet Union with trade and peace and prosperity, we thought we could kill tyranny itself with trade and peace and prosperity. The long peace throughout and afterwards made us lazy and apathetic to the inherent dangers of tyranny and fascism, but nope, it wasn’t gone at all, it was festering below the surface and now it’s come back, seemingly everywhere all at once. And we’re going to have to learn these lessons again and understand why people were willing to die for our freedom.
Obviously the folks in the West Bank are just too stupid to take this advise.
It’s not their fault the entire western world supports Israel’s genocidal zionist ideals. They have been put in a no-win situation. By us. We are sometimes the baddies. Just like we were when we genocided the peoples of the Americas and enslaved Africa. I am not trying to excuse whataboutisms going back centuries and millennia. We are not our ancestors, and I am not my government. But we have inherited and participated in the systems they put in place, and no matter how entrenched and complex those things we must continue trying to fix them. Giving up and accepting “the reality” is not an option.
Ukrainians are exceptionally innovative on the battlefield. The longer this drags on, the more likely Russia will lose. Putin needs a win for internal optics just as much as Ukraine needs arms and fighters.