[ZeroHedge] In recent years, particularly around mid-July (the peak of the Northern Hemisphere summer), there has been a noticeable surge in headlines featuring the "hottest day" ever on record in corporate media outlets - which is of course pushed by climate alarmist journalists citing questionable studies. This timing coincides with hot weather, so naturally, it's quite convincing to persuade readers that the world's oceans are boiling and planet Earth will ignite into a fireball unless drastic actions are taken - such as more climate taxes, 'carbon credits,' banning cow farts, prohibiting new petrol-powered vehicle sales by X date, and pushing spending bills to procure more solar panels from China, to save the planet.
The problem is that corporate media only focuses on recent history - and not "in context" (as they love to say). Context is particularly important when it comes to climate change - as their narrative collapses when looking at a long enough timeline.
To wit... a funny thing happened when the Washington Post tried to map out half a billion years of global temperatures and the "disaster of global warming" ...
WaPo journalists cited a new study about Earth's global surface temperatures over the last 485 million years. In 2023, Earth's average temperature reached 58.96 F (14.98 C), well below the average 96.8 degrees F (36 degrees Celsius) the study showed around 100 million years ago. The trend shows Earth's temperatures have been sliding for 50 million years.
A funny thing happened as the WaPo tried to map out half a billion years of global temperatures and the "disaster of global warming" pic.twitter.com/HA6yxpf9V7
Of course, all they can focus on is the most recent blip (supported, as astute readers know, by faulty data).
[A] growing chorus of climate scientists are saying the temperature readings are faulty and that the trillions of dollars pouring in are based on a problem that doesn’t exist.
More than 90 percent of NOAA’s temperature monitoring stations have a heat bias, according to Anthony Watts, a meteorologist, senior fellow for environment and climate at The Heartland Institute, author of climate website Watts Up With That, and director of a study that examined NOAA’s climate stations.
“And with that large of a number, over 90 percent, the methods that NOAA employs to try to reduce this don’t work because the bias is so overwhelming,” Mr. Watts told The Epoch Times.
“The few stations that are left that are not biased because they are, for example, outside of town in a field and are an agricultural research station that’s been around for 100 years ... their data gets completely swamped by the much larger set of biased data. There’s no way you can adjust that out.” -Epoch Times
Maybe, just maybe, the level of human-caused global warming doom porn pushed by the government, corporate media outlets, global NGOs, and far-left billionaires is not as apocalyptic as they make it sound.
Which of course means (and as we knew), all those idiot kids running around the West, throwing paint on private jets and artwork, and gluing their hands to highways, are doing it for nothing - and are indeed in a cult.
Posted by: NoMoreBS ||
09/22/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
Worthless people looking for meaning in their lives.
#2
But it looks like the Original WaPo story, dated Sep 19, could draw no conclusions, just hinting it was more evidence of the dangers of climate change.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/22/2024 7:38 Comments ||
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#3
Don't confuse them with actual science, their brains will explode.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Russian Ministry of Defense has declassified documents testifying to the atrocities of the Nazi invaders and Estonian fascists in the occupied Estonian SSR. The relevant documents are presented in the historical section “Liberated Tallinn was Drowned in Flowers,” dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Tallinn.
Were the Estonians truly better off after being liberated, or only differently tormented?
"The Omaskaitse units carried out the main repressive work. The murders of children, old people, women, torture and abuse of civilians largely lie with these units," says the statement accompanying the report of the political department of the Leningrad Front on the activities of the Estonian fascist organization Omaskaitse.
Also on the territory of the occupied Estonian SSR there were concentration camps, where the slave labor of prisoners of war, political prisoners and Jews was used, mass shootings and executions were carried out. Most of them died at the hands of guards, among whom were ethnic Estonians.
One of the concentration camps was located in the area of the village of Klooga, 30 kilometers from Tallinn. The concentration camp held about 2 thousand Jews.
"On the morning of September 19 of this year, a special SS or Gestapo team of 60 Germans arrived at the camp and during the day shot more than 1,600 people - men, women and children of Jewish nationality. No more than 80 people were accidentally saved from death," the special report of the NKVD of the Estonian SSR says.
In addition, the Russian Ministry of Defense presented documents showing that the Nazi occupiers did not hesitate to conduct vile and false propaganda among Estonians, in which they intimidated the local population with the arrival of the Red Army.
The capital of the Estonian SSR was liberated on September 22, 1944, during the Baltic Strategic Offensive Operation by troops of the Leningrad Front under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov, with the support of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and the 13th Air Army.
#3
Murder of the Jews of the Baltic States The day after the German invasion of the Soviet Union and even before the Germans arrived at the major Jewish settlements, murderous riots perpetrated by the Lithuanians broke out against the Jews . At the encouragement of the Germans, the riots continued and thousands of Jews were murdered.
M1 Supply y/y growth weakest/sharpest drop in decades
Suggests 20% collapse in imports
RED FLAG FOR RED CHINA
The advantage of tracking container volumes is that we can bypass inflation and price distortions.
Simply put, on a container volume basis, Chinese imports are struggling: -7% y/y. Container throughput has fallen 20% in the last 2 years.
The Chinese economic miracle is fading. Unemployment is 5.3% in the cities and 17% among youth 17-24 years old (ex students). Goldman, Citi, JP Morgan are all expecting growth of <5%.
The housing sector is the point of focus. Housing asset values supported the consumer economy but prices have collapsed. The latest month: -7% y/y. The Chinese consumer won't spend until housing prices stabilize. The housing bubble must be reinflated. Lots of stats and graphs follow
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2024 08:13 ||
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#1
I've been hoping to dance on the grave of the PRC for many years, in fact, ever since Gordon Chang's book "The Coming Collapse of China" came out in 2001.
always disappointed
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
09/22/2024 8:50 Comments ||
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#2
ZH has sung the same tune for years. Imports have decreased because they make their own copies. Dramatic increase in workers pay also. Increased housing production was to handle future growth. Belt road and other major projects in the works. China is not Japan.
#3
Turn on printing press is the worst thing China could do. Purchasing gold is what they are currently doing. The trap of inflation as seen in the western world is the result of excessive printing of money.
[Breitbart] A study by the Manhattan Institute’s Daniel Di Martino finds that mass deportation of the millions of unskilled, uneducated migrants who have flooded this country thanks to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s disastrous border policies would greatly improve the national deficit.
In his study, titled “The Lifetime Fiscal Impact of Immigrants,” Di Martino found that the onslaught of Biden’s unskilled, uneducated migrants is a net loss to the U.S taxpayer, costing up to $130,000 per migrant over the migrant’s lifetime should they choose to stay in the U.S.A., he explained in an op-ed published by Fox News on Friday.
Illegal aliens that came here before the recent Biden waves are an even greater drain on America, imposing a net cost of $196,000 per migrant on the U.S. taxpayer.
Di Martino went on to explain that the reason his analysis differs so sharply from the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) claims, which state that migrants will reduce the budget deficit by $900 billion, is because the CBO does not bother to add up all the welfare and freebies that migrants receive, all of which are paid for by taxpayers and which seriously impact the deficit.
“The immigration status quo is a threat to America’s national interest. Most recent immigrants have entered unvetted and illegally and are likely to cost taxpayers trillions of dollars in the long run,” Di Martino wrote.
Di Martino does not call for an end to immigration, though, and noted his analysis found that importing more educated, white-collar migrants into the U.S., will actually have a positive impact on the deficit.
The researcher said the U.S. could reduce the deficit by $150 billion after just one year of being more selective in the criteria for allowing migrants to enter the country and another $25 billion a year for many years afterward. But leaving the door wide open for millions of poor, uneducated, and unskilled migrants is a disastrous policy.
Donald Trump has repeatedly said he would move to greatly increase the number of deportations if he were to retake the White House. Early this year he even said he would authorize the National Guard to help man an expanded deportation system.
The former president’s ideas on deportation are very popular with voters, too. In June a poll found that a strong majority of 62 percent support an increase in deportation of illegal border crossers, and another poll that same month found the number favoring deportation was even higher. And in August, half of respondents of another study illegal migration is a “critical threat” to the U.S.A.
As to Trump’s plan to initiate mass deportations of unskilled, uneducated — and often dangerous — illegals, Di Martino says it would absolutely not be the disaster Trump’s critics claim it would be.
“I looked at whether the mass deportation program promised by former President Donald Trump would be the disaster that its critics claim,” Di Martino wrote in his op-ed. “My study shows that mass deportations would actually reduce the debt over the long run by over $1 trillion. But again, selectivity is better: Were a mass deportation policy combined with legalization of college-educated Dreamers, the U.S. could potentially reduce the federal debt by $1.9 trillion — nearly doubling its savings.”
What percent of the college-educated Dreamers studied something useful instead of X Studies? Because the latter are marching around with the Hamas-loving Antifa, screaming about burning it all down and killing the JewsIsrael the Jews just like their native-born siblings-in-arms.
Di Martino concluded, “As the federal debt keeps rising toward unsustainable levels and the border stays wide open, America cannot afford to ignore the fiscal consequences of immigration.”
It seems to me the primary criteria we should want in immigrants are that they are law-abiding, hard-working, and love the idea of America. It’s the criminals who are expensive, and those who want to be supported in the style to which they demand to be accustomed. The law-biding educated who come here only because they will have a better lifestyle than they would back home, but sneer at what they think of as American vulgarity? We grow enough of our own of that — we don’t need to import it like Canada does.
Believe it or not, it takes a lot for the blue-state diehards of the Big Apple to start paying attention to a conservative commentator.
But when Steven Crowder published a secretly recorded video, it cut right through the jugular of our political divides, exposing the open hatred we seem to all share for one type of villain.
This human nature is best explained by the poet Dante in The Inferno.
Past the heretics, far-beyond the gluttons and usurers, and even below the murderers and blasphemers, the eighth circle of hell is the realm of false prophets and hypocrites.
Today, Dr. Jay Varma finds himself bobbing alone on a raft on the River Styx.
I hope he is wearing his mask.
We now know that while dictating the rules altering the lives of millions of New Yorkers, Dr. Varma was violating those very same dictates on distancing, lockdowns and presumably masks, all while secretly partying at underground dance clubs and sex parties.
The reason for New Yorkers’ ire is simple.
There can only be two reasons for his duplicitous actions.
Option "A" is that Dr. Varma had some secret Covid potion or genetic elixir that made him impervious to even the most virulent of strains.
Delta, Omicron, Tri-Lambda?
No difference for his special immune system.
Though I doubt this is the case, I wouldn’t be the least surprised if he spun this yarn to impress the woman in the video.
Option "B" is the more likely answer.
Dr. Varma, the Covid Czar of New York, implemented draconian regulations that he felt either did little to protect humans from the virus, or that the risk of the virus from these actions was not as ominous as he publicly claimed.
For we peasants, the penalty for violating any of his rules could be the loss of our freedoms or livelihood.
For him?
Dance clubs.
Fast forward to 2024 and unfortunately for Dr. Varma, the societal drama of this period has not faded from memory.
Who can forget six-foot signs in city parks telling us to "keep this far apart" in closed playgrounds?
Who can forget struggling to find childcare so our kids can sit home and fumble through zoom school?
Who can forget that restaurant they used to go to that isn’t there anymore?
Who can forget the mass firings of city workers who refused to get the vaccine or the unconstitutional private sector mandate?
Who can forget the senior prom they never had?
Who can forget watching a relative die from afar?
Who can forget having to order ’Cuomo Chips’ with your beer?
Who can forget losing their job?
Few have let those memories slip, and now no one is going to forget the words of our hypocritical Covid Czar.
Certainly not the 9,000 city workers who were placed on unpaid leave, most of whom eventually took an untested and unproven vaccine against their free will.
Certainly not the hundreds of city workers who are still unemployed and involved in lawsuits to get their old jobs back.
Certainly not the 1,400 Northwell healthcare workers fired from their jobs.
Certainly not the owners and employees of the 5,000 businesses closed in Manhattan.
Certainly not the parents who see the learning loss in their children.
That final point leads us to what was the most egregious revelation in the video — the admission that Mayor de Blasio, and in effect Governor Cuomo, gave in to the teacher’s union in spite of the opinions of the Covid Czar and others.
Dr. Varma was well aware that "when your 8 or 9, kids can’t sit in front of a f-cking zoom all day" but chose to share his opinion only two years later to some honeypot he thought he was dating, rather than irk elected officials at the time who "need them for votes."
Now it seems he is really sorry.
Well, many of us aren’t going to accept that.
Because even after the emergency ended and the current mayor relaxed the rules, our holier-than-though former Czar took to the media to denounce the actions to end indoor vax rules, allowing city workers back, and the easing of school openings.
Gotham Gazette called him "one of the most prominent critics of Mayor Adams’ unwinding of pandemic-era health measures."
In 2022, he outrageously demanded we add new lockdown rules on nail salons!
So, is he really sorry?
I don’t think so.
As he admitted on the secret video, he was more concerned that he would be spotted, found out, and taken to task for his hypocrisy.
He was not then, nor is now, sorry for implementing the rules that affected the lives of millions that he knew to be unnecessary and overkill.
Dr. Varma owes us a very public accounting of his record.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2024 07:55 ||
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[NY Post] Michael Goodwin Op-Ed
The good news trickled out quietly, and despite the huge significance, is not getting the attention it deserves.
The White House now believes it won’t get a cease-fire deal in Gaza before Joe Biden leaves office.
"No deal is imminent," a US official told The Wall Street Journal.
"I’m not sure it ever gets done."
Hold the tears — cue the celebrations.
No deal is the best deal available.
Israel and the entire civilized world are saved from the awful consequences of an American bid to appease evil in the name of peace.
And politics.
For months, Biden and Kamala Harris have tried to force Israel to accept fatally flawed terms with Hamas in Gaza and, by extension, Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Democrats are motivated by fear that anti-Israel voters in the upper Midwest, especially Muslim Americans in Michigan, will abandon the party.
The result has been a relentless pressure campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, complete with attempts to undermine him politically at home and hamper Israel’s military by withholding munitions.
Recall that Secretary of State Antony Blinken sat in on cabinet meetings to dictate which targets Israel could attack.
The disgraceful effort, which included following the same playbook as anti-Israel mobs at the United Nations, prolonged the war and gave Hamas incentives to hold out for better deals.
EMBOLDENING HAMAS
Although some details remain unknown, the US was pushing for Israel to get back the remaining hostages abducted during the horrors of Oct. 7, some of them American citizens.
In exchange, it would release thousands of Palestinians arrested on terrorism charges.
Even worse, Hamas would have survived in some capacity, letting its leaders again plunder international aid, gain government control in Gaza and attack Israel again.
Even as Hamas kept upping its demands, Washington kept the heat on Israel.
Finally, Netanyahu spoke in the only language terrorists understand.
He rejected the Biden-Harris demand to halt Israel’s ground operation in Gaza and green-lighted last week’s sensational beepers-go-boom operation in Beirut.
Like a story line from "Fauda," the hit streaming series about Israeli secret agents, disrupting Hezbollah’s communications delivered a psychological blow in addition to killing scores of fighters and injuring several thousand others.
Netanyahu followed with attacks on Hezbollah rocket launching sites and the targeted killing of one of the group’s top leaders.
Given that the leader, Ibrahim Aqil, was a US-designated terrorist linked to the 1983 bombings of our Marines barracks and embassy in Beirut that killed nearly 400 people, most of them US citizens, the White House should be celebrating.
Aqil had a $7 million American bounty on his head, and if Biden had any sense, he would send the check to Israel with a big thank you.
Instead, watch for long faces in the Harris campaign now that it’s clear she won’t get the Michigan political benefit of a pre-election cease-fire.
Shattered, too, is Biden’s fantasy of getting a Nobel Peace Prize for forging a deal on a Palestinian state.
The weakest link in the offers the White House pushed was that Iran’s malignant role would have remained intact.
It finances and directs Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen, yet its money and vow to eliminate Israel were virtually ignored in the talks.
OCT. 7 REALITY CHECK
No prime minister of Israel could accept that fact given Oct. 7 and the displacement of 60,000 Israelis in the north by Hezbollah shelling.
For the same reasons, a separate Palestinian state is a pipe dream.
Palestinians used their self-rule to turn Gaza into a terror state, and Israel would be suicidal to believe an Arab state that included the much-larger West Bank would be a peace-loving neighbor.
Indeed, the significance of Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah, which includes moving ground forces north, is the message that it will no longer tolerate the daily tit-for-tat exchange of fire.
By one count, Hezbollah has fired some 7,500 rockets at Israel since October, making much of northern Israel uninhabitable.
Unfortunately, giving Iran a pass has become routine during the Biden-Harris term.
Copying the delusions of the Obama-Biden administration, the White House still harbors fantasies that the mad mullahs can be coaxed into playing a constructive role on the global stage.
The facts prove otherwise.
In recent years, Iran has helped Syrian butcher Bashar al-Assad kill his own people and, through Hezbollah, taken over much of Lebanon.
It is supplying arms to Russia, including short-range ballistic missiles for use against Ukraine.
Yet Biden still acts as if Iran is not central to the coordinated attacks on Israel.
Since taking office, he and Harris have lifted sanctions on oil sales, yielding Tehran hundreds of billions of dollars, much of which goes to funding its terror proxies.
The White House also paid $6 billion for the release of five American hostages, and released five Iranian prisoners in a deal widely seen as rewarding the hostage takers.
Iran has also plotted to assassinate Trump and several of his foreign policy aides, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the FBI says.
The mullahs also hacked Trump’s campaign website and sent the contents to the Harris campaign, officials say.
That’s obvious election interference and illustrates that Iran wants Harris to win.
The reasons are obvious: Its leaders view Dems as a soft touch and believe their aim to wipe Israel off the map will make more progress under a Harris administration.
Trump has been saying as much, including in a speech last week where he warned: "If I don’t win, I believe Israel will be eradicated."
It seems like eons ago that his administration countered Iran’s export of terrorism by droning Quds force general Qasem Soleimani.
He also moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem and recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, making him enormously popular in the Jewish state.
Trump’s Mideast hope
The historic breakthrough of the Abraham Accords likely would have expanded to include Saudi Arabia had Trump been re-elected.
But the Saudis now say a Palestinian state is required before they recognize Israel, which could be a roadblock to more normalizations.
Meanwhile, Trump has made some cringe-worthy statements about American Jews and their support for Dems.
Because of Biden’s terrible Mideast policies, Trump has accused Jewish Dems of being disloyal to Israel, which is an odd charge given that antisemites often accuse Jews of being loyal only to Israel.
Then last week, after promising to be the best friend American Jews have ever had in the White House, Trump added that if he loses, "Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss."
Ironically, he said that at an event billed as "Fighting Antisemitism in America," leading to complaints he was actually stoking antisemitism with talk of blame and disloyalty.
The crude remark suggests a good rule of thumb for voters this year: Judge the candidates by what they have done, not what they say.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2024 07:46 ||
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[IsraelTimes]The visibility of ties with Bahrain, Morocco and the UAE has changed since Hamas’s attacks on October 7, but Israel’s newest Arab partners remain committed to strategic choice.
When the Bahraini and Emirati foreign ministers stood proudly on either side of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... to sign the Abraham Accords four years ago, all four men — and their governments — imagined an era of steadily expanding ties between Israel and the Arab world.
"We’re here this afternoon to change the course of history," Trump beamed from a balcony overlooking the South Lawn. "After decades of division and conflict, we mark the dawn of a new Middle East."
Netanyahu said the new peace momentum could end the Arab-Israeli conflict "once and for all."
UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed predicted that the accord’s "reverberations will be reflected on the entire region."
"For too long, the Middle East has been set back by conflict and mistrust, causing untold destruction" and thwarting hopes of the region’s "youngest and brightest," lamented Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani. "Now I am convinced we can change that."
On the fourth anniversary of the Abraham Accords — which were followed by normalization between Israel and Morocco — it is clear that the nature of Jerusalem’s ties with its newest Arab partners has changed as a result of the war.
At the same time, while 11 months of war between Israel and Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... have put significant strain on the accords, there are also reasons for optimism about the durability of Israel’s relationships with the Arab world.
A STRATEGIC DECISION
Officials familiar with topic don’t deny the tension the war against Hamas has placed on its relations with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.
"Naturally, the war creates a very significant test in relations, and creates some tension with countries that have peace agreements," one official told The Times of Israel last week.
Since the war started, the only overt visits by senior Israeli officials were made by President Isaac Herzog and Finance Minister Nir Barkat. Both were in the UAE to take part in international events, not in a bilateral capacity.
New cooperation agreements, signed in highly publicized ceremonies before the war, have also been suspended. At the same time, officials emphasize that despite the "very low glass ceiling" the war has placed on the relationships, one fact is undeniable — the accords are here to stay.
"Despite the tensions, the understanding is that there is a clear ratification of the path from all of the partners, and that the strategic choice of peace and cooperation is the correct choice," an official involved in the Abraham Accords told The Times of Israel.
Despite regular criticism of Israeli policies in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... and on the Temple Mount in official statements from its Arab partners, Jordan is the only one to officially recall its ambassador from Israel during the war. The Moroccan, Bahraini and Emirati envoys have avoided public events and the media, but regularly fly between the countries to continue their work behind the scenes.
The foreign ministries of all three countries declined to comment on the anniversary of the accords.
Notably, despite the change in the tenor of the ties, Israel’s bilateral trade has grown significantly with all three countries. Compared to the same period in 2023, bilateral trade with Bahrain in the first seven months of 2024 was up over 900%, with the UAE 4% and with Morocco 56%, according to the Abraham Accords Peace Institute.
The regional unrest has also helped cement Israel’s position as a hub for trade between Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and Gulf countries. Trade that once flowed through Beirut’s port onto trucks bound for the Gulf has been sharply reduced because of the Syrian civil war and instability in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... . The Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s have deterred much of the cargo that would sail through the alternative route, the Suez Canal.
"The land route through Israel became the safest trade route between Europe and Asia," said Ben Shabbat. "What was impossible before the Abraham Accords because of the boycott in the Arab world against Israel, became the preferred and most worthwhile route."
" The traffic jams and the congestion at the border crossings with Jordan and Egypt verify the dry numbers, and indicate that despite the war, business continues."
Though reduced, direct flights continue from Morocco and the UAE to Israel.
The war has also opened up new opportunities for the UAE, which has historically had a strained relationship with the Paleostinians, to say the least.
In May 2020, the Paleostinian Authority refused to accept medical aid from the UAE after it arrived on the first known direct commercial flight between Israel and Abu Dhabi, PA sources told multiple Arab media outlets. Paleostinian media quoted a government source saying the aid had been rejected, explaining Ramallah was refusing to be used as a "tool for normalization" between Israel and the UAE.
In April, a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm... and a group of Arab counterparts in Riyadh deteriorated into a shouting match between the UAE foreign minister and a senior Paleostinian official. Bin Zayed said during the meeting that there was no real reform in the Paleostinian Authority, accused the Paleostinian leadership of being "Ali Baba and the 40 thieves" and said all of the PA leadership is "useless."
Despite the tension with the PA and Abu Dhabi, the UAE has used its trust with Israel and Egypt to become a leader in aid to the Gaza Strip, and has shown an interest in being a decisive player in rebuilding the war-torn territory, though with conditions like a pathway to a Paleostinian state. The Emiratis are deeply involved in all aspects of aid to Gaza, including desalination plants, aid convoys, airdrops and field hospitals. Think tanks in the UAE have also begun discussing the country’s role in post-war Gaza.
There are several reasons for the UAE to display a newfound and intense interest in Gaza and the Paleostinian theater. There is an economic benefit to be had from the assistance that will flow to the Strip when fighting ends. Taking the lead on reconstruction is also a sign of the UAE’s regional leadership. And, perhaps most importantly, it allows the Emirati rulers to show to the public the benefit to the Paleostinians that their ties with Israel bring.
REASONS TO WORRY
Despite the reasons for long-term optimism, there are warning signs.
Even before the war, the Abraham Accords were becoming less popular on the streets of Israel’s new allies.
Washington Institute polling showed 45% of Bahrainis holding very or somewhat positive views of the agreements in November 2020. That support had steadily eroded to a paltry 20% by March 2022.
The trend is the same in the UAE. The 49% of the country that disapproved of the Abraham Accords in 2020 has grown to over two-thirds as of August 2022. And only 31% of Moroccans favored normalization at that time, according to Arab Barometer.
Moreover, much of the trade is not truly bilateral. Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics counts cargo from China and India that is transferred at Dubai’s Jebel Ali port to ships heading for Israel as bilateral trade with the UAE, explained Moran Zaga, an expert on the Gulf region at Mitvim — The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies.
And the preexisting diamond trade also makes up a slice of the total.
Emiratis are avoiding Israelis and business opportunities with Israelis, said Joshua Krasna, director of the Center for Emerging Energy Politics in the Middle East. "Why take the risk these days?" he asked.
"Businesses seem to be holding back, for reputational — afraid of criticism and boycotts — and personal reasons," Krasna continued. "Some of the big anticipated deals have been abandoned or not come to fruition. And the people-to-people relationship seems to be frozen."
While Emiratis will not criticize government policy, said Krasna, "they as individuals sympathize with the Paleostinian suffering and are not enthusiastic about deepening ties to Israel at this time."
Moreover, the drastic change in the visibility of ties started well before Hamas’s attacks: "Things changed with the current government," Zaga argued.
Though the UAE signed the Abraham Accords with Netanyahu, it blocked a formal visit by the premier in 2021, as it did not want to be seen as interfering in domestic Israeli politics ahead of an election.
Ambassadors from Israel’s Gulf allies stayed away from an iftar dinner hosted by the Foreign Ministry in April 2023 to send a message to Jerusalem.
"The UAE did want ties to be warm, and worked with all ministries, students, NGOs," said Zaga. "The people-to-people relationship is disappearing. What is left is what truly interests the Emiratis — infrastructure, technology and involvement in Gaza."
WESTERN SAHARA AND DEFENSE
Morocco, whose normalization agreement with Israel isn’t officially part of the Abraham Accords, did not experience a significant downturn under the current government. Though Rabat refused to convene the second Negev Forum over West Bank violence, Netanyahu announced Israel’s recognition of Morocco’s illusory sovereignty over Western Sahara in July, after which King Mohammed VI invited Netanyahu to his country.
Israel also appointed its first-ever military attaché to the kingdom, and the Knesset speaker and interior minister made official visits as a series of agreements were signed.
After October 7, protests have been a regular feature on Morocco’s streets. Officials visits have been suspended, and many bilateral projects are paused.
But the defense relationship continued apace. Morocco reportedly signed a $1 billion deal with Israel’s Ofek spy satellites in July, to go with air defense systems and drones Israel sold to Rabat before the war.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NY Post] Hypocrite, thy name is Varma.
...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...
