While the precise details of #COFA agreements—which have only ever been extended to the small island nations of #Micronesia, the #MarshallIslands & #Palau—vary depending on the signatory, the US govt typically provides many essential services, from mail delivery to emergency management [which under #Trump’s #FEMA reductions isn’t even provided in the US] to #military protection. In exchange, the #USmilitary operates freely in COFA countries & #trade w/the US is largely duty-free.

#Greenland

Times of Malta’s latest summary of the drone attack on the #FreedomFlotilla worth a read.

Includes #Palau connection, precise timings and sense that #Israel and #Malta governments don’t want or intend to shed any light on this premeditated attack.

There are bigger stories afoot with #Israel’s threat of entirely destroying #Gaza today. Media attention is rightly on these genocidal plans, so this is last post.

https://timesofmalta.com/article/why-gazabound-aid-ship-attacked-near-malta.1109225

It’s been a very illuminating couple of days…those that have followed and boosted must be aware by now there is strong circumstantial evidence to link #Israel to the drone bombing of an unarmed civilian ship carrying humanitarian aid to #Gaza which was due to pick up Greta #Thunberg at the time it was hit.

She attempted to join it at sea 17km off
#Malta as the day before #Palau (who we now know to be Israel’s best buddy at UN) suddenly deregistered it.

But who will call this out?

It seems that relations between Israel and Palau are coincidentally tight:

‘#Israel was the first non-Pacific nation to declare diplomatic relations with #Palau at its independence in 1994. Israel favored Palau's admission into the UN and offered economic aid to the young state.

As of 2006, Palau had the highest voting coincidence with Israel in the United Nations’

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–Palau_relations

@Tooden

It seems that relations between Israel and Palau are coincidentally tight:

‘#Israel was the first non-Pacific nation to declare diplomatic relations with #Palau at its independence in 1994. Israel favored Palau's admission into the UN and offered economic aid to the young state.

As of 2006, Palau had the highest voting coincidence with Israel in the United Nations’

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–Palau_relations

#Palau, along with #Guam & #PapuaNewGuinea, are part of the Second Island Chain, a string of islands that the #US sees as a bulwark against #China’s access to the Western Pacific.

Now, that outsized strategic value has made Palau the target of a concerted #influence campaign by individuals w/ties to the Chinese govt, acc/to intelligence reports, police files, court records & land filings…, as well as interviews with >20 diplomats & local law enforcement officials.

#geopolitics #AsiaPacific

The #democratic island nation of just 17,000 people hosts American-controlled airstrips & soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the #USmilitary describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water & airspace. It is also a key piece of the Second Island Chain, a string of strategically located islets that #America is fortifying in an effort to deny #China access to the #WesternPacific.

#geopolitics #Palau #UnitedStates #AsiaPacific