Monday 6 November 2023

Israel's Final Solution for the Palestinians

Gaza is the start. The West Bank is next.  

I tend to agree with Chris Hedges, he says “When Jewish extremists, fanatic Zionists, religious zealots, ultranationalists and crypto-fascists in the apartheid state of Israel say they want to wipe Gaza off the face of the earth, believe them”.

He covered the birth of Jewish fascism in Israel. He reported on the extremist Meir Kahane, who was barred from running for office and whose Kach Party was outlawed in 1994 and declared a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States. He attended political rallies held by Benjamin Netanyahu, who received lavish funding from rightwing Americans, when he ran against Yitzhak Rabin, who was negotiating a peace settlement with the Palestinians. Netanyahu’s supporters chanted “Death to Rabin.” They burned an effigy of Rabin dressed in a Nazi uniform. Netanyahu marched in front of a mock funeral for Rabin. 

Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated on November 04, 1995 by a Jewish fanatic, said Rabin’s widow, Lehea, blamed Netanyahu and his supporters for her husband’s murder.

Netanyahu, who first became prime minister in 1996, has spent his political career nurturing Jewish extremists, including Avigdor Lieberman, Gideon Sa’ar, Naftali Bennett, and Ayelet Shaked. His father, Benzion — who worked as an assistant to the Zionist pioneer Vladimir Jabotinsky, who Benito Mussolini referred to as “a good fascist” — was a leader in the Herut Party that called on the Jewish state to seize all the land of historic Palestine. Many of those who formed the Herut Party carried out terrorist attacks during the 1948 war that established the state of Israel. Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Sidney Hook and other Jewish intellectuals, described the Herut Party in a statement published in The New York Times as a “political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to Nazi and Fascist parties.”

There has always been a strain of Jewish fascism within the Zionist project. Now it has taken control of the Israeli state.

“The left is no longer capable of overcoming the toxic ultra-nationalism that has evolved here,” Zeev Sternhell, a Holocaust survivor and Israel’s foremost authority on fascism, warned in 2018, “The kind whose European strain almost wiped out a majority of the Jewish people.” Sternhell added, “[W]e see not just a growing Israeli fascism but racism akin to Nazism in its early stages.” 

The decision to obliterate Gaza has long been the dream of Israel’s crypto-fascists, heirs of Kahane’s movement. These Jewish extremists, who make up the ruling coalition government, are orchestrating the genocide in Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians are dying daily. They champion the iconography and language of their homegrown fascism.

Jewish identity and Jewish nationalism are the Zionist versions of blood and soil. Jewish supremacy is sanctified by God, as is the slaughter of the Palestinians, who Netanyahu compared to the Biblical Ammonites, massacred by the Israelites. Enemies — usually Muslims — slated for extinction are subhuman who embody evil. Violence and the threat of violence are the only forms of communication those outside the magical circle of Jewish nationalism understand. Millions of Muslims and Christians, including those with Israeli citizenship, are to be purged. 

A leaked 10-page document from the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence dated October13, 2023 recommends the forcible and permanent transfer of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. 

It is a grave mistake not to take the blood curdling calls for the wholesale eradication and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians seriously. This rhetoric is not hyperbolic. It is a literal prescription.

Netanyahu in a tweet, later removed, described the battle with Hamas as a “struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle.” 

These Jewish fanatics have begun their version of the final solution to the Palestinian problem.

They dropped 12,000 tons of explosives on Gaza in the first two weeks of assault to obliterate at least 45 percent of Gaza’s housing units, according to the U.N.’s humanitarian office. They have no intention of being detoured, even by Washington.

“It became evident to US officials that Israeli leaders believed mass civilian casualties were an acceptable price in the military campaign,” The New York Times reported.

“In private conversations with American counterparts, Israeli officials referred to how the United States and other allied powers resorted to devastating bombings in Germany and Japan during World War II — including the dropping of the two atomic warheads in Hiroshima and Nagasaki — to try to defeat those countries,” the paper continued.

The goal is a “pure” Israel, cleansed of Palestinian contaminants. Gaza is to become a wasteland. The Palestinians in Gaza will be killed or forced into refugee camps over the border in Egypt. Messianic redemption will take place once the Palestinians are expelled.

Jewish extremists call for the Al-Aqsa mosque – the third holiest shrine for Muslims, built on the ruins of the Jewish Second Temple, which was destroyed in 70 CE by the Roman army – to be demolished. The mosque is to be replaced by a “Third” Jewish temple, a move that would set the Muslim world alight.

The West Bank, which the zealots call “Judea and Samaria,” will be formally annexed by Israel. Israel, governed by the religious laws imposed by the ultra-orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, will be a Jewish version of Iran.

It is a short step to total Israeli control over Palestinian land. Israel’s illegal Jewish settlements, restricted military zones, closed highways and army compounds have seized over 60% of the West Bank, turning Palestinian towns and villages into ringed ghettos.

There are over 65 laws which discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinian citizens of Israel and those living in the occupied territories. The campaign of indiscriminate killing of Palestinians in the West Bank, many by rogue Jewish militias, along with house and school demolitions and the seizure of remaining Palestinian land will explode.

Over 133 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by the Israeli army and Jewish settlers since the October 07 incursion by Hamas and thousands of Palestinians have been rounded up by the Israeli military, beaten, humiliated and imprisoned.

Israel, at the same time, is turning on “Jewish traitors” who refuse to embrace the demented vision of the ruling Jewish fascists and who denounce the horrific violence of the state.

The familiar enemies of fascism — journalists, human rights advocates, intellectuals, artists, feminists, liberals, the left, homosexuals and pacifists — are already being targeted. The judiciary, according to plans put forward by Netanyahu, will be neutered. Public debate will wither. Civil society and the rule of law will cease to exist. Those branded as “disloyal” will be deported.

Fascists do not respect the sanctity of life. Human beings, even from their own tribe, are expendable to build their deranged utopia. The zealots in power in Israel could have exchanged the hostages held by Hamas for the thousands of Palestinian hostages held in Israeli prisons, which is why the Israeli hostages were seized. And there is evidence that in the chaotic fighting that took place once Hamas militants entered Israel, the Israeli military decided to target not only Hamas fighters, but the Israeli captives with them. 

“Several new testimonies by Israeli witnesses to the October 07 Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel adds to growing evidence that the Israeli military killed its own citizens as they fought to neutralize Palestinian gunmen,” Max Blumenthal writes in The Grayzone.

Tuval Escapa, a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be’eri, Blumenthal notes, set up a hotline to coordinate between kibbutz residents and the Israeli army. 

Escapa told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that as desperation began to set in, the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.

The newspaper reported that Israeli commanders were compelled to request an aerial strike against its own facility inside the Erez Crossing to Gaza in order to repulse the terrorists who had seized control. That base housed Israeli Civil Administration officers and soldiers.

Israel, in 1986, instituted a military policy called the Hannibal Directive, apparently named for the Carthaginian general who poisoned himself rather than be captured by the Romans, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. The directive is designed to prevent Israeli troops from falling into enemy hands through the maximum use of force, even at the cost of killing the captured soldiers and civilians. 

The directive was executed during the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza known as Operation Protective Edge. Hamas fighters on August 01, 2014 captured an Israeli officer, Lt. Hadar Goldin.

In response, Israel dropped more than 2,000 bombs, missiles and shells on the area where he was being held. Goldin was killed along with over 100 Palestinian civilians. The directive was supposedly rescinded in 2016.

 

 

Netanyahu has killed more than ten thousand people in Gaza

Israeli forces pounded northern Gaza with intense airstrikes overnight into Monday night as the Palestinian death toll from a month of fighting exceeded 10,000.

As Israeli troops have pushed into the dense confines of Gaza, an even bloodier phase is expected.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, around 10,022 Palestinians have been martyred so far.

Child casualties crossed 4,000 as Israeli raids expanded, Al Jazeera reported.

The Israeli military said late Sunday that it had cut off northern Gaza from the south, calling it a significant stage in the war. On Monday, it said that aircraft struck 450 targets overnight and ground troops took over a Hamas compound, ABC News reported. 

On Sunday afternoon, an Israeli air strike hit several houses near a school at the Bureji refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 13 people, according to officials at Al-Aqsa Hospital. 

It was the third refugee camp to be hit by Israeli air strikes in the past 24 hours. More than 50 Palestinians were killed in attacks on Gaza’s al-Maghazi and Jabalia refugee camps, Al Jazeera said.

Arafat Abu Mashaia, a resident of the al-Maghazi camp, said the Israeli air strike flattened several multi-story homes where people forced out of other parts of Gaza were sheltering.

“It was a true massacre,” he said early on Sunday as he stood on the wreckage of destroyed homes. “All here are peaceful people. I challenge anyone who says there were resistance (fighters) here.”

The camp, a built-up residential area, was located in the evacuation zone.

“These repeated air strikes on refugee camps in central and southern Gaza are the reason why people are not taking the Israeli announcement of guaranteeing safe corridors to travel to the south seriously,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said.

According to the United Nations, 1.5 million people are now internally displaced in Gaza out of a population of 2.3 million.

Food, medicine, fuel, and water are running low, and UN-run schools that have been turned into shelters, are beyond capacity, with many Palestinians sleeping on the streets outside. 

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected the idea of halting the offensive, ignoring appeals and protests across the world.

“There will be no ceasefire without the return of our hostages; we say this to both our enemies and our friends. We will continue until we beat them,” Netanyahu told air and ground crews at the Ramon Air Force Base in southern Israel on Sunday.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets, accusing the group of using civilians as human shields. Critics say Israel’s strikes are disproportionate, considering the large number of civilians killed.

This is while UN leaders are saying "enough is enough" and demanded a humanitarian ceasefire on Monday nearly a month into the war, as the enclave's health authorities said dozens more people were killed in overnight attacks by Israeli fighter jets and troops, Reuters reported.

 

Pakistan: US arms recovered from terrorists attacking Mianwali Airbase

Reports on Monday revealed that the terrorists who attacked Mianwali Airbase used weapons manufactured in the United States.

The weapons recovered from the terrorists killed during the operation are RPG-7s, AK-74s, M-4s, and M-16/A4 rifles.

Furthermore, these reports highlight that the weapons, initially intended for use in Afghanistan, are now openly available for sale following the fall of Kabul.

Similar instances of the US weaponry being found were also documented after an attack on the Zhob cantonment in Balochistan.

The security forces effectively neutralized nine terrorists following the attack on the Pakistan Air Force base in Mianwali on Saturday.

A statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations noted that three aircraft were grounded at the facility, and a fuel bowser had sustained minor damage.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has reported that Pakistan Air Force’s Mianwali Training Air Base successfully prevented a terrorist attack in the early hours of Saturday, November 4, 2023. Thanks to the swift and effective response by the security forces, the attack was thwarted, ensuring the safety of personnel and assets at the base.

According to the ISPR, three militants attempting to infiltrate the base were neutralized, while the remaining three were isolated by the troops’ timely and courageous response. Unfortunately, during the attack, three grounded aircraft and a fuel bowser suffered some damage.

The statement also mentioned that a comprehensive joint operation is in its final stages to completely clear the area of any potential threats.

The ISPR emphasized the unwavering commitment of the Pakistan Armed Forces to eradicate terrorism from the country at any cost.

 

Declining Chinese investment in US Treasury holdings

China continues to pare its holdings of US Treasuries, leading to market speculations over its motives. The country's stockpile of US government debt hit the lowest level in 14 years at the end of August 2023, with the pace of decline accelerating.

Some analysts said Chinese monetary authorities are leading the move to shore up the yuan, while others blame it for a recent bond rout in the United States.

"Maybe China is behind the rise in US long rates," said Apollo Global Management economist Torsten Slok in a blog posted in early October, when yields on long-term US bonds reached a 16-year high.

China's Treasury holdings started falling steadily after peaking in 2013.

The balance of US Treasurys held by China totaled US$805.4 billion in August, down 40% from a decade earlier, according to data from the US Treasury Department.

China once actively bought the securities with its ample foreign exchange reserves, becoming the second-biggest foreign investor in US Treasuries after Japan. Given the size of its holdings, China's selling could roil US bond prices, pushing up interest rates.

Not everyone, however, agrees with Slok's views, contending that China could just as easily move its holdings to overseas custodians without selling them. Yet many analysts focus on the decline in the country's Treasury balance as a sign of Beijing's strong determination to defend its own currency.

China is facing serious capital flight caused by rising concern about its economic growth and debt burden. In September, capital outflows reached US$75 billion, the biggest such monthly amount since 2016, according to an estimate by Goldman Sachs. This exerts strong downward pressure on the yuan, which now trades at around 7.3 against the dollar, the lowest since 2007.

"China's state-run banks likely dumped the dollar around October 01, National Day," said a currency trader at a foreign bank, echoing the views of his peers. It appears that Chinese authorities urged state-run banks to shore up the yuan against dollars and they responded by selling Treasuries to raise needed funds.

Beijing has spent hundreds of billions of dollars out of its foreign exchange reserves on market interventions since 2015, when its devaluation of the yuan led to declines both in stock and currency prices.

Eager to maintain the current level of foreign reserve balances, Beijing may have pushed state-owned lenders to support the yuan on its behalf, according to analysts.

The yuan's daily reference rates announced by the People's Bank of China show the sense of crisis being felt by authorities. While the gap between the reference rate and the market value has widened to a record level, the official midpoint remains pegged at 7.17 to the dollar since mid-September. As China allows the yuan to fluctuate only within 2% on either side of the midpoint, it looks as if the country has reverted to a fixed-rate system.

Taking advantage of the country's lower interest rates spurred by monetary easing, some speculators engage in carry trade by borrowing in yuan and converting the money into currencies with higher interest rates. Goldman Sachs has proposed clients use borrowed yuan to fund bets on higher-yielding currencies like the Brazilian real and other South American money.

As speculators seek profits by selling the yuan to buy other currencies, an increase in carry trade could further weaken the Chinese currency. Many analysts expect that if such speculative trading increases, Chinese authorities will have no choice but to step in to bolster the yuan -- possibly by unloading Treasuries.

However, the country's foreign currency reserves -- the source of Treasury purchases -- are unlikely to increase as in the past as export growth slows and the amount of foreign investment declines. Efforts by Western countries to de-risk economic ties with China have only begun to take effect.

If China continues to trim its Treasury holdings, market players may see it as a factor pushing up bond yields and thus as a matter of concern for the US Federal Reserve. The unsteady Chinese economy has added yet another unpredictable variable to global financial markets.

 

Sunday 5 November 2023

Saudi Arabia extends voluntary oil production cut

Saudi Arabia has decided to continue its voluntary cut of one million barrels per day, initially implemented in July 2023 and previously extended, until the end of December 2023.

This decision maintains the Kingdom’s production at approximately 9 million barrels per day for the month of December 2023, an official statement from the Ministry of Energy read.

The official source emphasized that a comprehensive review of this voluntary cut’s efficacy will take place next month, determining whether to extend, deepen, or adjust the production cut.

It was highlighted that this measure is an additional step following the voluntary cut announced by Saudi Arabia in April 2023, persisting until December 2024.

The source clarified that this supplementary voluntary cut aligns with OPEC Plus countries’ collective efforts to ensure the stability and equilibrium of global oil markets.

Oil posts weekly loss despite geopolitical risks

According to Reuters, crude oil prices settled more than 2% lower on Friday as supply concerns driven by Middle East tensions eased, while jobs data raised expectations the US Federal Reserve could be done hiking interest rates in the biggest oil consuming economy.

Brent crude futures were down 2.3%, to US$84.89 a barrel. WTI futures also declined 2.4%, to US$80.51 a barrel. Both the benchmarks settled down more than 6% on the week.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, speaking for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, warned on Friday that a wider conflict in the Middle East was possible but did not commit to opening another front on Israel's border with Lebanon.

"The market is taking this conflict in its stride, as it looks to be neither a significant demand or supply disruption event," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.

US job growth slowed more than expected in October, while wage inflation cooled, pointing to an easing in labor market conditions.

The data bolstered the view that the Federal Reserve need not raise interest rates further.

The Fed held interest rates steady this week, while the Bank of England kept rates at a 15-year peak, supporting oil prices as some risk appetite returned to markets.

A private sector survey on Friday showed that while China's services activity expanded at a slightly faster pace in October, sales grew at the softest rate in 10 months and employment stagnated as business confidence waned.

The data followed a reading from the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday that showed China's manufacturing activity unexpectedly contracted in October.

On the supply side, Saudi Arabia is expected to reconfirm an extension of its voluntary oil output cut of one million barrels per day through December 2023, based on analyst expectations.

The US House of Representatives easily passed a bill to bolster sanctions on Iranian oil in a strong bipartisan vote, but it was unclear how effective the legislation would be if signed into law.

While Congress can pass sanctions legislation, such measures often come with national security waivers that allow presidents discretion in applying the law.

China could also continue to import the oil despite new sanctions.

US energy firms this week cut the number of oil and natural gas rigs operating to their lowest since February 2022, energy services firm Baker Hughes said on Friday.

Saturday 4 November 2023

Saudi fundraising campaign to aid Palestinians

The donations in Saudi Arabia's fundraising campaign to aid Palestinians in Gaza Strip exceeded SR294 million within 2 days from its launch. The number of donors so far has reached 499,313.

The fundraising campaign to aid Palestinians in Gaza Strip, which is being carried out through the Sahem platform affiliated with the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief), was launched on Thursday.

The fundraising campaign is in implementation of the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman.

KSrelief has announced that the Sahem platform is the only platform that collects donations from abroad in Saudi Arabia, pointing out that the platform does not charge any fees for the donation process, while it goes through governance stages befitting the name of the Kingdom.

The Center noted that Gaza is in need of relief, and the aid that has reached there is not enough.

It is noteworthy that donations to the fundraising campaign were opened with a donation from King Salman, who donated SR30 million, and the Crown Prince, who donated SR20 million.

Donations to the campaign can be made via the Sahem platform through the following link https://sahem.ksrelief.org/Gaza, or through the Sahem mobile app via Apple Store and Google Play.

Donors can also send their contributions directly to the campaign bank account (SA5580000504608018899998) at Al Rajhi Bank.