Dispatches from Vilnius

Paul McCartney Live at Red Square, 2005 It's really hard to figure out what is going on these days.  Moldova recently survived a massive propaganda assault by the Kremlin and voted for a pro-EU government by just over 50% - a clear majority. The Russian backed party finished a distant second with 24 percent. Meanwhile in the Czech Republic, a pro-Russian party headed by Billionaire Andrej Babiš won that country's parliamentary elections with 35 percent.  I don't know if he will be able to form a ruling coalition but the threat is clear, as the Czech Republic has been a major military and logistical supporter of Ukraine the past three-and-a-half years and Babiš actively campaigned against lending any more support to Ukraine. What makes this odd is that Moldova is much more readily threatened by Russia, as the Kremlin has vowed to beef up its military presence in Transnistria to 10,000 troops.  Transnistria never accepted Moldovan independence in 1991 and has remained a ...

Everything is fine until you get to line 9 of Donald Trump's 20-point Peace Plan where he is proclaimed head of the new governing body of Gaza with Tony Blair named as one of the board members.  What on earth compelled him to be chief other than a late bid for the Nobel Peace Prize, which he so desperately wants?  Even if he showed any interest in the administration of this "deradicalized terror-free zone" there isn't much he could do as he knows nothing of the situation. The plan was apparently written by Tony Blair and Jared Kushner. The irony is that Hamas no longer has any control over Gaza.  Its remaining leaders are in hiding in other Arab countries and what you have left in the strip are some rebel factions that may or may not still have a relative handful of Israeli hostages.  Hamas had long ceased to have any real control over Gaza, operating pretty much as a militant faction.  Gaza has been in chaos for decades with the Palestinian Authority (PA) unab...