Quote:I have previously written about Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, calling it “the most successful military raid of this century.”

I have described the Hamas action as a military operation, while Israel and its allies have called it a terrorist action on the scale of what transpired against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

“The difference between the two terms,” I noted,
is night and day — by labeling the events of October 7 as acts of terrorism, Israel transfers blame for the huge losses away from its military, security, and intelligence services, and onto Hamas. If Israel were, however, to acknowledge that what Hamas did was in fact a raid — a military operation — then the competency of the Israeli military, security, and intelligence services would be called into question, as would the political leadership responsible for overseeing and directing their operations.

Terrorism employs strategies that seek victory through attrition and intimidation — to wear an enemy down and create a sense of helplessness on the part of the enemy. Terrorists by nature avoid decisive existential conflict, but rather pursue asymmetrical battle which pits their strengths against the weaknesses of their enemies.

The war that has gripped the Levant since Oct. 7, 2023, is not your traditional anti-terrorism operation. The Hamas-Israeli conflict has morphed into a conflict between Israel and the so-called axis of resistance involving Hamas, Hezbollah, Ansarullah (the Houthi of Yemen), the Popular Mobilization Forces, i.e. militias of Iraq, Syria and Iran. It is a regional war in every way, shape, or form that must be assessed as such.

The Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz noted in his classic work, On War, that “war is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.”

From a purely military perspective, the Hamas raid on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was a relatively minor engagement, involving a few thousand combatants from each side. 
As a global geopolitical event, however, it has no contemporary counterpart.

The Hamas raid triggered a number of varied responses, some of which were by design, such as luring the Israeli Defense Forces into Gaza, where they would become trapped in a forever war they could not win, triggering the dual Israeli doctrines governing military response to hostage taking of the “Hannibal Doctrine” and the Israeli practice of collective punishment, the “Dahiya Doctrine.” 

Both of these doctrines put the IDF on display to the world as the antithesis of the “world’s most moral military” by exposing the murderous intent ingrained into the DNA of the IDF, a propensity for violence against innocents which defines the Israeli way of war and, by extension, the Israeli nation.
Prior to Oct. 7, 2023, Israel was able to disguise its true character to the outside world, convincing all but a handful of activists that its actions in targeting “terrorists” were proportional and humane. 
Today the world knows Israel as the genocidal apartheid state it really is.
The consequences of this new global enlightenment are manifest. 

Changing the ‘Face of the Middle East’
President Joe Biden, on Sept. 9, 2023, during the G20 summit in India, announced a major policy initiative, the India-Middle East-European Economic Corridor, or IMEC, a proposed rail, ship, pipeline and digital cable corridor connecting Europe, the Middle East and India. 

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, commenting on Biden’s announcement, called the IMEC “a cooperation project that is the greatest in our history” that “takes us to a new era of regional and global integration and cooperation, unprecedented and unique in its scope” adding that  it “will bring to fruition a years-long vision that will change the face of the Middle East and of Israel.”

But because the world now sees Israel as a criminal enterprise, the IMEC looks for all intents and purposes to be no more — the greatest cooperation project in Israeli history that would have changed the Middle East likely will never reach fruition.

For one thing, Saudi Arabia, a key player in the scheme, having invested $20 billion in it, says it will not normalize relations with Israel, necessary for the project, until the wars end and a Palestinian state is recognized by Israel, something the Knesset voted earlier this year would never happen. 

The demise of the IMEC is just part of the $67 billion economic hit Israel has taken since the Gaza conflict began. 

Tourism is down 80 percent. The southern port of Eilat no longer functions because of the anti-shipping campaign run by the Houthi in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Workforce stability has been disrupted by the displacement of tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes because of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks as well as the mobilization of more than 300,000 reservists. All this combine to create a perfect storm of economy-killing issues, which will plague Israel so long as the current conflict continues.

The bottom line is that, left unchecked, Israel is looking at economic collapse. Investments are down, the economy is shrinking, and confidence in an economic future has evaporated. In short, Israel is no longer an ideal place to retire, raise a family, work…or live. The biblical “land flowing with milk and honey,” if it ever existed, is no more.

This is an existential problem for Israel. 

For there to be a viable “Jewish homeland,” demographics dictate there must be a discernable Jewish majority in Israel. There are just short of 10 million people living in Israel. About 7.3 million are Jews; another 2.1 million are Arabs (Druze and other non-Arab minorities comprise the reminder.) 

There are some 5.1 million Palestinians under occupation, leaving a roughly 50-50 split when looking at the combined totals between Arab and Jew. An estimated 350,000 Israelis hold dual citizenship with an EU country, while more than 200,000 hold dual citizenship with the United States. 

Likewise, many Israelis of European descent can easily apply for a passport simply by showing that either they, their parents, or even their grandparents resided in a European country. Another 1.5 million Israelis are of Russian descent, with many of those holding valid Russian passports. 

While the main reasons for maintaining this dual-citizen status are convenience and economic, many view the second passport as “an insurance policy” — a place to run to if life in Israel becomes untenable. 
Life in Israel is about to become untenable.

Escape From Israel 

Israel had already suffered from a growing emigration problem derived from dissatisfaction with the policies of the Netanyahu government — some 34,000 Israelis permanently left Israel between July and October 2023, primarily in protest over the judicial reforms being enacted by Netanyahu. 
While there was a spike in emigration immediately after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks (some 12,300 Israelis permanently emigrated in the month following the Hamas attack), the number of permanent emigrants in 2024 was around 30,000, a drop from the previous year.

But now Israel is being bombarded on a near-daily basis by long-range drones, rockets, and missiles fired from Hezbollah, militias in Iraq, and the Houthi in Yemen. The Iranian ballistic missile attack of Oct. 1 vividly demonstrated to all Israelis the reality that there is no viable defense against these attacks. 

Moreover, if the Israel-Iran conflict continues to escalate (and Israel has promised a retaliation of immense proportions), Iran has indicated it will destroy Israel’s critical infrastructure — power plants, water desalinization plants, energy production and distribution centers — in short, Israel will cease being able to function as a modern nation state.

At that point, insurance policies will be cashed in as hundreds of thousands of Israelis holding dual passports vote with their feet. Russia has already told its citizens to leave. And if millions of other Israelis who qualify for European passports opt to exercise that option, Israel will face its ultimate nightmare — a precipitous drop in the Jewish population that skews the demographic balance decisively toward non-Jews, making moot the notion of an exclusive homeland for the Jews.
Israel is rapidly becoming unsustainable, both as a concept (the world is rapidly tiring of the genocidal reality of Zionism) and in practice (i.e., economic and demographic collapse.)

The Changing View From the US

This is the current reality of Israel — in one year’s time, it went from “changing the face of the Middle East” to being an unsustainable pariah whose only salvation is the fact that it has the continued support of the United States to prop it up militarily, economically, and diplomatically.

And herein lies the rub.

That which made Israel attractive to the United States — the strategic advantage of a pro-American Jewish enclave in a sea of Arab uncertainty — no longer holds as firmly as it previously did. The Cold War is long gone, and the geopolitical benefits accrued in the U.S.-Israeli relationship are no longer evident. 

The era of American unilateralism is fading, rapidly being replaced by a multi-polarity with a center of gravity in Moscow, Beijing and New Delhi. As the United States adapts to this new reality, it finds itself engaged in a struggle for the hearts and minds of the “global south” — the rest of the world outside the EU, NATO, and a handful of pro-Western Pacific nations. 

The moral clarity that American leadership seeks to bring to the global stage is significantly clouded over by its ongoing unquestioned support for Israel.

Israel has, in its post-Oct. 7, 2023, actions, self-identified as a genocidal state totally incompatible with any notion of international law or the basic precepts of humanity.

Even some Holocaust survivors recognize that modern-day Israel has become the living manifestation of the very evil that served as the justification for its creation — the brutally racist ideology of Nazi Germany.  
Israel is anathema for everything modern civilization stands for.
The world is gradually awakening to this reality.

So, to, is the United States. 

For the moment the pro-Israeli lobby is mounting a rear-guard action, throwing its weight behind political candidates in a desperate attempt to buy the continued support of their American benefactors.

But geopolitical reality dictates that the United States, in the end, will not commit suicide on behalf of an Israeli state that has lost all moral legitimacy in the eyes of most of the world. 

There are economic consequences attached to American support for Israel, especially in the increased gravitational pull of the BRICS forum, whose growing list of members and those who are seeking membership reads as a who’s who of nations fundamentally opposed to the Israeli state.
The deepening social and economic crisis in America today will create a new political reality where American leaders will be compelled by electoral realities to address problems which manifest on American soil. 
The day when Congress can allocate billions of dollars without question to oversees wars, including those involving Israel, is coming to an end. 

Political operative James Carville’s famous adage, “It’s the economy, stupid” resonates as strongly today as it did when he penned it back in 1992. To survive economically, America will have to adjust its domestic and international priorities, requiring conformity not only with the will of the American people, but a new, law-based international order which largely rejects the ongoing Israeli genocide. 
Apart from die-hard Zionists who will hold out in the unelected “establishment” of government civil service, academia, and mass media, Americans will gravitate toward a new policy reality where unquestioned support for Israel is no longer accepted.
This will be the final straw for Israel. 

The perfect storm of global rejection of genocide, sustained resistance on the part of the Iranian-led “axis of resistance,” economic collapse and realignment of American priorities will result in the nullification of Israel as a viable political entity. The timeline for this nullification is dictated by the pace of collapse of Israeli society — it could happen in a year, or it could unfold over the course of the next decade.
But it will happen.
The end of Israel.

And it all began on Oct. 7, 2023 — the day that changed the world.

Quote:Over 100 Ukrainian drones downed in Russia overnight – MOD
Four firefighters have been injured in an attack on Nizhny Novgorod Region, the local governor has said
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Russian forces destroyed more than 100 Ukrainian drones attempting to target facilities in several regions overnight, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Sunday.

The military thwarted “an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an aircraft-type UAV against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said.
Air defenses intercepted or destroyed 110 UAVs, 43 of which were taken down over the Kursk Region near the border, where fighting has been raging since early August.

Another 27 were destroyed over Lipetsk Region, 18 over Oryol Region, and eight over Nizhny Novgorod Region. Seven and six UAVs, respectively, were destroyed over the Belgorod and Bryansk Regions, and one was downed over Moscow Region.
Nizhny Novgorod Region Governor Gleb Nikitin said the local attack targeted an industrial zone outside region’s main city, located 800 km from the frontline. Citing preliminary data, he said four firefighters suffered minor shrapnel wounds.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said a Ukrainian drone, which was flying towards the Russian capital, was downed to the southeast of the city, but that no casualties or destruction have been reported. 
Ukraine routinely launches drone attacks deep into Russia, with raids targeting energy facilities and other civilian structures.

Quote: Russian UAV operators using ramming tactics against Ukrainian drones

The hunt for Ukrainian ‘Baba Yaga’ bomber drones continues round the clock, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said

A Russian FPV-drone ramming a heavy Ukrainian attack UAV.
The Russian military has been successfully using ramming tactics to deal with large Ukrainian attack drones, the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
On Saturday, it published a clip showing two drones of the ‘Baba Yaga’ class, operated by Kiev’s forces, being eliminated by smaller Russian unmanned aerial vehicles.
"FPV-drone crews are on duty around the clock in the skies above Kharkov Region, working to identify enemy attack UAVs,” the ministry said.

The Russian forces are implementing a “seek and destroy” strategy against the Ukrainian drones, it added.
Named after a witch-like character from Slavic folklore, the 'Baba Yaga' hexacopters are former agricultural UAVs converted into attack drones by Ukraine. The devices are known for their large size – some reportedly have a wingspan of up to 3 meters – and ability to carry payloads of up to 50kg.

’Baba Yaga’ UAVs are relatively slow, while their rotors emit a loud noise as they travel. However, they remain a difficult target as their autonomous flight capability makes them highly resistant to electronic warfare.

Ale dzisiaj piekny wschod slonca  

Haha, move your ass lazy brits on the doll! :-P

or stop eating so much junk! :P

Quote:Weight loss jabs are not a “quick fix” and the health secretary’s plan to use them to help people get back to work could backfire, experts have warned.

Wes Streeting announced a real-world trial of the medication’s impact on worklessness this week, saying that “widening waistbands” were placing a burden on the NHS. He suggested that as well as bringing benefits to the health service, the jabs could help people get back into employment.

But scientists have said deploying the medications specifically for that purpose would carry serious logistical and ethical problems.

Wegovy, which contains the drug semaglutide, is already being prescribed on the NHS for obesity, however this is not yet the case for Mounjaro, which contains tirzepatide. There have also been concerns about worldwide shortages, although the NHS is thought to have enough.

While the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has said Wegovy should only be prescribed through specialist weight loss services, it has suggested Mounjaro could be prescribed by GPs.

Experts have welcomed the recognition of obesity as a health issue that affects quality of life, and are excited about the potential of these drugs. But they say serious problems could arise should the medications be used to specifically tackle unemployment.

“Streeting is correct in saying that for some people their weight will be a burden to their ability to work, and for people who have significant levels of obesity, it is almost certain that their biology has led them to that weight. Providing people with proven, effective medications to help them lose weight may lead to them being able to enter the workforce,” said Dr Simon Cork, senior lecturer in physiology at Anglia Ruskin University. “But this is not a quick-fix solution.”

One major issue, he said, is that access is already hugely problematic. While he said that specialist services are the best approach to maximise results and ensure patient safety, overwhelming demand has already resulted in some trusts pausing all referrals to obesity services.

“The whole system is designed to bottleneck patients through the pipeline and reduce access to specialist services, but alternative provisions through primary care risk the NHS wasting money on partially effective medications and risks patient health,” he added, noting a complete overhaul of the system is needed.

Cork added that, should unemployed people end up being prioritised for the medications, one possibility is that people will quit their jobs, noting patients have been known to put on weight to become eligible for bariatric surgery.

“People will do things to get access to help because they’re desperate,” he said.

Some have also raised ethical concerns should access to weight loss medications be linked to employment potential, not least as people may not be in work because of caring responsibilities.

“In my view, let’s treat everyone who needs to be treated,” said Prof Giles Yeo, an expert in obesity at the University of Cambridge. “If we segment society into whether or not you have economic value, and hence whether or not I would treat you, where does that lead us to?”

Yeo added that it is also important people have the right to refuse medications.

“I think these drugs are effective and powerful, I think they’re a tool which should be used appropriately. I think not enough people are getting it at the moment and they should be, and the people who need to [have them] should be getting them,” he said. “We should not be blackmailing people into taking the drugs if they don’t wish to take it.”

And then there are fears that focusing on weight loss jabs risks distracting from preventing obesity. “People already suffering from obesity need help to manage their weight loss journey,” said Cork. “However, altering the environment which has led to the obesity crisis also needs to happen.”

Yeo agreed. “The drugs treat a disease, they don’t prevent a disease,” he said. “I don’t want [the government] to use [these medications] as an excuse not to make the hard policy decisions.”

Streeting’s comments came alongside the announcement of a new five-year study by Health Innovation Manchester and the pharma company Lilly, which is set to explore whether the drugs can not only bring clinical benefits but also have a health economic impact, including changing participants’ employment status.

“For many people, these jabs will be life-changing, help them get back to work, and ease the demands on our NHS,” he wrote in an opinion piece for the Daily Telegraph this week.

Quote:Payments such as universal credit linked to previous September’s figure, meaning a rise of just 1.7% in April

Last month’s surprise fall in UK inflation lands with bad timing for millions of people who receive state benefits linked to the figure, who can now expect their payments to rise by just 1.7% next April.

A number of benefits, including universal credit, are increased each tax year in line with the cost of living figure for the previous September.

The decline in the annual price growth figure in September, driven by falling air fares and transport costs, disguised larger increases in some categories, including food and drink, which recorded inflation of 1.8%.

The Resolution Foundation thinktank said the 1.7% figure would mean that a typical low-income family, with two children, on universal credit would receive an increase of £253 in their annual payment from next April.

It said the fall in the headline rate was likely to be temporary as previous falls in energy prices dropped out of the 12-month inflation calculation, and suggested inflation could increase again in October to 2.2%. If that higher figure were used, the same family would be £74 better off as the annual increase would be £327.

By contrast, state pensioners are protected by the triple lock, which stipulates that their annual increase in payments is in line with whichever is highest of earnings, inflation or 2.5%. Next year, the rise will be in line with wages, meaning an increase of 4.1% in April – adding £473 a year to the full state pension.

Lalitha Try, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “This temporary [inflation] fall is badly timed for millions of low- to middle-income families as it will result in a lower increase in their benefits next year. A more timely measure of benefit uprating would deliver a cash gain to a low-income family with kids of around £74 next year. The government needs to address the age divide in benefits which has left working-age support fall further behind rising wages and living standards.”

September’s inflation figure has also increased market bets that the Bank of England will cut interest rates again to 4.75% when it meets next month, which would be good news for borrowers but would be likely to lead to a cut in savings rates.

Why ukrainians? Why not africans/pakistanis? huh?

Quote:The EU must take into account its limited resources when deciding what to do with the millions of Ukrainians living as refugees in the bloc, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said.
There are currently around 4.5 million Ukrainian refugees living in the EU. Back in June, the European Commission extended temporary protection status for these asylum seekers until March 2026, guaranteeing them residence, work permits, welfare benefits, and access to healthcare and education until that date.
“We should urgently reflect together on the way forward,” von der Leyen wrote to EU leaders on Monday, stressing that whatever system is put in place after March 2026 should respect “Ukraine’s own needs” and “the limits on our resources.”
“Based on that reflection, the Commission will be able to present proposals” aimed at “managing the situation as long as necessary,” she added.

Von der Leyen’s letter also called for a bloc-wide tightening of immigration rules and border security, including the construction of “return hubs” outside the EU to hold non-Ukrainian migrants whose asylum claims are rejected. The letter came after a string of right-wing victories in regional, national, and European elections this summer, and after a group of 17 member states called on Brussels to allow them to carry out more deportations.

Meanwhile, individual member states are slashing benefits for Ukrainian refugees. In Ireland, where Ukrainians now account for 2% of the population, the government recently cut welfare payments for the refugees in state-provided accommodation from €232 ($253) per week to €39 ($42.55). Irish Minister of State James Browne said last year that Ireland’s generous benefits had caused a “significant increase in secondary movements” of Ukrainians to Ireland from other EU countries.
Ireland is also considering abolishing its program of free housing for Ukrainians next year, the Irish Times reported last week.
As of June 2024, Germany has received almost 1.2 million Ukrainians, making the country their top destination in the EU. With record numbers of migrants arriving from Africa and the Middle East too, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned last month that state and federal resources had been “almost exhausted” dealing with the influx.
In August, another EU member state, Hungary, announced that refugees coming from areas of Ukraine deemed by Budapest to be unaffected by the conflict would no longer be entitled to free accommodation, with exceptions made for vulnerable individuals.

Quote:Hungary could block EU sanctions on Russia if the union’s policies jeopardize its own energy security, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has warned. Budapest will only permit the imposition of restrictions if they retain current exemptions on Russian energy supplies, he said.
The EU prohibited the transport of Russian crude oil by sea in December 2022 as part of its large-scale sanctions campaign against Moscow over the Ukraine conflict. However, landlocked Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic insisted on being granted waivers from the measure due to the lack of alternative supply sources.
“The sanctions are being reviewed in a cycle of six months usually, and as long as the sanctions are on, these exemptions must stay there, because otherwise we would veto the sanctions,” Szijjarto said in an interview with RIA Novosti, published on Tuesday. He emphasized that, for Hungary, the question of sourcing energy from Russia is not a political issue, but a matter of energy security.
Szijjarto recalled that, apart from targeting Russian oil with sanctions, Brussels has also set a goal of abandoning Russian gas by 2028 as part of its REPowerEU plan. He slammed the plan as an “absolutely irrational,” politically motivated decision.

“This approach has nothing to do with physics, with economic competitiveness… with the green transition. This is purely a political commitment, and making political commitments in the field of energy simply doesn’t make sense,” he said, accusing the EU of taking a “dogmatic ideological approach” which is a “no go” for Hungary.
“You replace a source of energy in two cases – number one is if you are unsatisfied with cooperation… two – if you have a better offer… So why would we change an already existing source of energy based on reliable cooperation to something uncertain which on top of that is more expensive?” Szijjarto argued, referring to the EU’s attempts to source supplies in alternative markets, such as the Middle East and the US.
Hungary’s imports of oil from Russia were put in jeopardy earlier this year after Kiev halted the transit of crude supplied by Russian energy giant Lukoil via the Druzhba pipeline, citing sanctions on the company. Budapest slammed the move as “blackmail” over its refusal to cut ties with Russia. It appealed to the European Commission to intervene, but was refused on the grounds that Kiev’s move does not affect the bloc’s energy security. The situation has still not been resolved.

Hungary relies on Russia for roughly 70% of its crude imports, with Lukoil accounting for nearly half of that figure. However, it also receives oil from other Russian companies, such as Rosneft and Tatneft, which have not been sanctioned and continue to pump the commodity through Druzhba.

wow ;o

Apparently, a lot of refugees come to Russia from Palestine!

https://slavlandchronicles.substack.com/...ted-a-plan

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/1...source=rss

wow! :P
really?

Quote:Poland is set to temporarily suspend the right to asylum as part of a broader strategy aimed at reducing irregular migration, driven by escalating tensions with Belarus.
The Polish government accuses Belarus of facilitating the movement of migrants across their shared border.