Europe Fractures

Following yesterday's summary of the utter farce that the Minsk Summit/Ukraine "peace" deal talks have become, the various parties involved appear to be fracturing even faster today. The headlines are coming thick and fast but most prescient appears to be: Despite John Kerry's denial of any split between Germany and US over arms deliveries to Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Steinmeier slammed Washington's strategy for being "not just risky but counterproductive." But perhaps most significantly is France's continued apparent pivot towards Russia.

Following Francois Hollande's calls for greater autonomy for Eastern Ukraine, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has come out in apparent support of Russia (and specifically against the US), "we are part of a common civilization with Russia,” adding, "the interests of the Americans with the Russians are not the interests of Europe and Russia." Even NATO appears to have given up hope of peace as Stoltenberg's statements show little optimism and the decision by Cyprus to allow Russia to use its soil for military facilities suggests all is not at all well in the European 'union'.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-08/europe-fractures-france-pivots-putin-cyprus-offers-moscow-military-base-germany-us-s

No one in the US is asking the obvious question - After decades of peace and relative stability in Europe, why are we intentionally driving a wedge between Europe and Russia?

One possibility involves Israel. Many people in Europe, Russia, and even the US want Israel to stop building settlements, to stop persecuting the Palestinians, and to engage in an actual peace process. Israel refuses to do any of this, so some folks now want to boycott, sanction, and divest Israel into compliance.

And just when that might happen, someone (the Israeli fifth column?) gets our "diplomats" and CIA to overthrow the government of Ukraine, drive a wedge between Europe and Russia, and march the US to the brink of World War Three.

All so Israel can have their way.

Another possibility involves the TTIP. The BRICS are threatening to overthrow the dollar, so the US is waging economic war against them. Turning Russia into everyone's enemy drives the EU firmly over into the US camp (or should I say trap?).

In either case, few of us will benefit from having Russia as our enemy.

And whatever happened to that "reset button" that Hillary gave the Russkies? Apparently she screwed that up too:

Russian media have been poking fun at the US secretary of state over a translation error on a gift she presented to her Russian counterpart. Hillary Clinton gave Sergei Lavrov a mock "reset" button, symbolising US hopes to mend frayed ties with Moscow. But he said the word the Americans chose, "peregruzka", meant "overloaded" or "overcharged", rather than "reset".

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2014/07/24/hillary-no-seriously-our-russian-reset-worked-n1865556

Amateurs.

Update: The German Economic News reports that the US is pressuring Merkel to do more to support the TTIP, the next nail in the coffin of the US economy:

http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2015/02/09/usa-wollen-merkel-zu-mehr-engagement-fuer-das-ttip-motivieren/

[You may have to translate from the original German to read the report.]

Second update: Here is a confirmation that my suspicions about Israeli involvement were correct:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/aipac-behind-new-us-eu-trade-legislation-designed-to-thwart-the-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-bds-against-israel/5431017