Rosbif, étant né qqpart, j'admire surtout Georges Brassens- My articles on Plato, Wittgenstein, & Iris Murdoch (some about all 3) listed @RobjantDavid
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Joined October 2019
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I wrote a thing about Orwell and "patriotism"; the odd and interesting "love" part in "love of country", that isn't dinner dates but might be to do with possession and jealousy. You should read it because it is amusing, some think insightful.
abc.net.au/religion/the-patr…
David Robjant retweeted
Barnier has actually made the point that Britain would NOT have to join the euro or Schengen if it rejoins the EU, but the BBC failed to mention that - focusing instead on his unsurprising point that the single market cannot be cherry picked.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9kg…
indeed
Je répète et répéterai et redémontrerai jour après jour: les programmes du RN et de LFI sont inconstitutionnels et infinancables . La mise en œuvre de leurs principales promesses conduira à la sortie de la France de l’Union européenne et à la ruine de leurs propres electeurs. Ces candidats le savent et s’en moquent. Au pouvoir ils appliqueront leur programme et ruineront le pays plus vite encore que ceux qui viennent d’échouer. Il est tragique qu’aucun candidat actuel à gauche ou à droite ne réussisse à faire entendre ce message .
David Robjant retweeted
In the 1930s, the Soviets killed my ancestors and laughed at their resistance.
In the 1980s, they arrested my father for his dissident activities. They laughed at him, too.
Then came 1994. I was a little boy visiting Moscow, and my father had one particular request: he wanted a photograph of me standing in front of the Kremlin, laughing.
At the time, I didn't think much of it. I was a child on a trip to Moscow, smiling for a picture. I had no real understanding of what those walls represented to my family, or why my father wanted that particular photograph.
But looking at it today, I understand.
The Soviet Union had collapsed just a few years earlier. The same system that had murdered members of my family, imprisoned my father and tried to silence generations before me was gone. And there I was, a little boy from Azerbaijan, smiling in front of the Kremlin as if none of its former power could intimidate me.
My father wasn't even in Russia at the time. Yet somehow, through that simple photograph, he managed to make a statement that I would only fully understand decades later.
I often wonder what he felt when he first saw it. Perhaps satisfaction, perhaps a sense of justice, or perhaps simply happiness that his son would grow up in a world different from the one he had known.
What moves me most today is that he didn't ask me to raise a fist or make an angry gesture. He just wanted me to laugh.
I suppose that was his way of telling me that no matter what history had done to our family, it had never managed to break our spirit against Kremlin's ongoing terror for centuries.
And more than thirty years later, I carry that same spirit with me.
My father had every reason to teach me to fear those walls. Instead, he taught me to laugh at them.
Bravo, to the man and to the hall.
All’Università di Firenze eravate così tanti che abbiamo dovuto cambiare aula. Tantissime domande, difficili, profonde, sui grandi temi internazionali ed europei.
Poi alcuni ragazzi hanno interrotto il nostro confronto gridando: Noi non vogliamo la guerra.
E sapete, neanche io. Nessuno di noi la vuole. Ma non possiamo nemmeno pensare di costruire la pace consegnando l’Ucraina a Putin come pensano loro.
E proprio per questo mi ha riempito il cuore sentire quel «NOI!» gridato dall’aula stracolma quando questi ragazzi hanno chiesto chi fosse favorevole a mandare armi all’Ucraina. Perché in quel grido c’è la consapevolezza del sacrificio di tanti loro coetanei ucraini, che oggi combattono per difendere la propria e la nostra libertà.
Ecco a cosa serve un esercito europeo: perché nessuno dei nostri ragazzi debba mai essere costretto a fare lo stesso.
Finally
A year ago, I published a long essay in @Quillette debunking the “Gaza genocide” calumny and exposing the disingenuousness of its proponents.
It was translated into French by the magazine @LePoint, as well as into Polish and German. And in my own language Dutch? Every single newspaper I pitched it to in Belgium and the Netherlands turned it down. No dissent on this question is tolerated in the Low Countries — not in the press, and certainly not at the university, where my rector declared that anyone questioning the genocide narrative was “crossing a line that should not be crossed”.
But I have finally found a way to publish at least part of the essay in Dutch: it will appear as the foreword to Genocide en Gaza, the Dutch translation of an excellent new book by political scientist and genocide expert Joël Kotek of @ULBruxelles.
Did I mention that this internationally renowned genocide scholar (fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%…) happens to agree entirely with my thesis? Are you listening, rector De Sutter (who deleted her account @pdsutter)?
David Robjant retweeted
@jaredkushner @SEPeaceMissions Your "new" European security architecture already exists. Moscow signed it in 1975 and 1990, then shredded it. My latest Diplomatic Cable: we need a Ukraine deal first, one European voice, and real diplomats to get it done. newsletter.ivodaalder.com/p/…
Comme les intellectuels russes aiment l’intensification dans le mot “intrinsiquement” omit ici, sans quoi, un non-lieu.
yes
I love how the administration somehow can’t understand or willingly ignores who the aggressor is.
It’s fairly straightforward: russia is the aggressor in this war. russia is to blame for the countless dead and wounded, destroyed cities, heightened tension/escalatory actions and dissolved relations in the eurosphere vs russia.
Also why does every post russian meeting press release contain absurd amounts of russian talking points. It’s almost like russia hands them a paper, they translate it and then add a few ridiculous words to puff it up and then release it as their own statement.
David Robjant retweeted
Face aux accusations de génocide, « Joël Kotek nous donne une leçon d’histoire et de droit, mais aussi de rigueur : la gravité d’un crime ne dispense jamais de le qualifier avec précision. Et la force d’une accusation ne saurait tenir lieu de démonstration ».
@Knobel7 @laregledujeuorg
Derrière la querelle des mots, une exigence de rigueur. L'historien @Knobel7 lit Joël Kotek et sa critique des usages politiques du terme « génocide ».
laregledujeu.org/2026/11/05/…
David Robjant retweeted
Thank you, Mr. Kushner. Those five principles are important. However, Moscow subscribed to these principles in documents signed in 1975 (Helsinki Final Act) and 1990 (Charter of Paris).
The problem isn't agreeing to principles, but Moscow's failure to abide by them. 🧵 /1
President Trump today advanced an important discussion with several European leaders about the need for a broader European security architecture that can help establish the conditions for lasting peace.
Building on his leadership and the substantive work undertaken this week in Brussels with Ukraine, NATO, and our European partners, @SEPeaceMissions and I wanted to share some of the objectives guiding our ongoing discussions.
For more than 30 years, Europe and Russia have struggled to establish a sustainable security framework. Decades of mistrust, competing security concerns, and the devastating consequences of this war make this an extraordinarily difficult challenge, but one that is essential to lasting peace.
Our objective is to develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides, reduce the risk of future conflict, and create a more stable and predictable security environment.
We are exploring five principal goals: permanent security consultations, reliable crisis communications, greater military transparency, reciprocal measures to reduce escalation risks, and an enduring framework for long-term European security and stability.
Any arrangements must fully respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independent decision-making of every nation. Each country will retain authority over its own security and alliances, and no country would have a veto over another’s sovereign choices. NATO will remain central to European collective defense, and this initiative would build upon existing institutions and commitments.
We will continue consultations through the Shell Bay format with Ukraine, NATO, the EU, and our European partners, expanding engagement to ensure that all relevant perspectives and ideas are considered. We will also engage Russia as part of the peace negotiations.
Next week in Abu Dhabi, the United States will convene the first trilateral peace discussions with Ukraine and Russia since February. All parties remain intensely engaged in preparing for substantive and productive negotiations. We will consult closely with our European partners on the sidelines and, if progress is made, aim to move toward a broader multilateral format with their direct participation.
These ideas continue to evolve, and we welcome thoughtful input. Creating the right structure will be critical to ending this war and transitioning from conflict toward conditions that make possible a durable peace.
This is difficult, detailed work. There are no easy solutions. But the opportunity to help end this devastating war and build a foundation for a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous Europe for generations to come makes it a challenge well worth undertaking.
We will see how these discussions develop and continue working intensively with all parties toward President Trump’s objective of a comprehensive and lasting peace.
Probably it would improve american government to move it to a suburb of Amsterdam. The Dutch otoh may have objections. Piet too.
David Robjant retweeted
This reads as if it was written by russian diplomats. Don’t fall for it. Russia has never had any reason to fear Europe. Ru was included, consulted and accommodated but it chose invasions. A European security architecture WITH Ru is like letting the fox in the hen house.
President Trump today advanced an important discussion with several European leaders about the need for a broader European security architecture that can help establish the conditions for lasting peace.
Building on his leadership and the substantive work undertaken this week in Brussels with Ukraine, NATO, and our European partners, @SEPeaceMissions and I wanted to share some of the objectives guiding our ongoing discussions.
For more than 30 years, Europe and Russia have struggled to establish a sustainable security framework. Decades of mistrust, competing security concerns, and the devastating consequences of this war make this an extraordinarily difficult challenge, but one that is essential to lasting peace.
Our objective is to develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides, reduce the risk of future conflict, and create a more stable and predictable security environment.
We are exploring five principal goals: permanent security consultations, reliable crisis communications, greater military transparency, reciprocal measures to reduce escalation risks, and an enduring framework for long-term European security and stability.
Any arrangements must fully respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independent decision-making of every nation. Each country will retain authority over its own security and alliances, and no country would have a veto over another’s sovereign choices. NATO will remain central to European collective defense, and this initiative would build upon existing institutions and commitments.
We will continue consultations through the Shell Bay format with Ukraine, NATO, the EU, and our European partners, expanding engagement to ensure that all relevant perspectives and ideas are considered. We will also engage Russia as part of the peace negotiations.
Next week in Abu Dhabi, the United States will convene the first trilateral peace discussions with Ukraine and Russia since February. All parties remain intensely engaged in preparing for substantive and productive negotiations. We will consult closely with our European partners on the sidelines and, if progress is made, aim to move toward a broader multilateral format with their direct participation.
These ideas continue to evolve, and we welcome thoughtful input. Creating the right structure will be critical to ending this war and transitioning from conflict toward conditions that make possible a durable peace.
This is difficult, detailed work. There are no easy solutions. But the opportunity to help end this devastating war and build a foundation for a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous Europe for generations to come makes it a challenge well worth undertaking.
We will see how these discussions develop and continue working intensively with all parties toward President Trump’s objective of a comprehensive and lasting peace.
David Robjant retweeted
Despite all the glaring evidence to the contrary in the last almost 2 years, the Trump administration persist in their fantasies that (a) Russia is a great power and (b) the great powers get to make all the consequential decisions. But the world just doesn't work like that.
David Robjant retweeted
It was also Miklos Nemeth (here in 1990) who opened the iron curtain for East Germans … and who negotiated Russian troop withdrawal from Hungary.
Not Orban, obviously.
@panyiszabolcs
🔥EXCLUSIVE: In a written memorandum filed with Hungary’s state security archives, former PM Miklós Németh (1988–1990) says he read three informant reports written by a young Viktor Orbán for communist military counterintelligence. @VSquare_Project vsquare.org/hungarys-former-…
David Robjant retweeted
Turns out Viktor Orbán was an informant for Hungary's Soviet-era secret police. No wonder he got on so well with Putin (who would, of course, have known this).
🔥EXCLUSIVE: In a written memorandum filed with Hungary’s state security archives, former PM Miklós Németh (1988–1990) says he read three informant reports written by a young Viktor Orbán for communist military counterintelligence. @VSquare_Project vsquare.org/hungarys-former-…
David Robjant retweeted
As expected.
Lajos Simicska revealed that Orban was secret police for Kádár's security network--a "security agent" just like his father. An extension of Moscow's sercurity services.
Orban among others pivoted to the rightwing. Just the same ol communists
🔥EXCLUSIVE: In a written memorandum filed with Hungary’s state security archives, former PM Miklós Németh (1988–1990) says he read three informant reports written by a young Viktor Orbán for communist military counterintelligence. @VSquare_Project vsquare.org/hungarys-former-…
David Robjant retweeted
She's a lunatic.
