Welcome to the New Daily Alert! We’d be happy to hear your feedback about the updated newsletter format and our new website. You can contact us by replying to this email. The Leadby Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 Saturday saw the convening of an emergency peace conference in Cairo, aiming to halt the rapid escalations in the Israel/Palestine theater. Heads of state and other government representatives came from across the world to add their voice for peace and call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The host of the event, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, in regards to the unfolding events, asked: “Where are the values of human civilization that we have built over long millennia and decades? Where is equality of human souls without discrimination or segregation or double standards?” As far as slowing the developments on the ground, however, no let-up has been seen. Israel is apparently continuing with its plans to launch a ground invasion into Gaza, and at the same time is doubling down on its right to starve residents in the northern part of Gaza of water and humanitarian aid. As Israel’s Ambassador to Russia Alexander Ben Zvi said: “It is very simple why it [water] is not being provided to the northern part. You remember, we suggested that all the residents of the northern part relocate to the south. Therefore, we decided to supply water there so that no extra problems would emerge.…” Never mind the reality that evacuating nearly a million people from their homes without anywhere to go is a death sentence, and will never work. In addition, daily bombings continue to exact a horrific toll in Gaza, which, if not stopped, are threatening to ignite a much larger and rageful explosion throughout the region—sure to evoke the worst aspects of mankind. This danger was usefully pointed out by former Col. Douglas Macgregor (ret.), who is certainly no peacenik, but who sees the obvious danger of this situation spiraling out of control. In interviews over the last few days, Macgregor said that the Southwest Asia region, which is now “armed to the teeth,” is “on the threshold of total war.” “Israel is on the path of suicide,” Macgregor stressed, and said that the only way out of this thing is through negotiations. What Macgregor didn’t mention was the context in which this conflict exists—namely as an element of the U.S. and NATO war against Russia and China. This is not an isolated war between Israel, Palestine, and implicitly Iran, as the pundits want you to conveniently to believe, in the same way that there is no Ukraine-Russia war. Rather, these conflicts only exist as expressions of a dying imperial order, along with all the outbursts of insanity that comes with that. The world’s major powers now sit between two major conflicts, waiting only for the smallest trip wire to trigger a larger conflict. Add to this the dangerous rhetoric coming out of Western nations, such as a demented Joe Biden, who last week called to “put down” Russian President Putin; or similarly, the report that the State Department has ordered that diplomats cannot use the phrases “restoring calm,” “end of violence/bloodshed,” or “ceasefire/de-escalation.” Not surprisingly, this is leading to a surge in resistance from within staff throughout the U.S. and Europe, including a letter from over 400 Muslim and Jewish congressional staffers urging their bosses to push for a ceasefire, while at the same time admitting they might lose their jobs if found out. Will this kind of opposition be enough? Don’t count on it. A broader mobilization from within every element of society is needed. As Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Schiller Institute has laid out, only a resolution to these conflicts based on a higher principle will work—anything less will fail. If moved on, even if hinted at from enough leading voices, the shift to an entirely different orientation—one of optimism and human creative growth already taking place around the world—can take off. The visible failure of Western neoliberal policy is evident for all to see, from the current situation in Palestine and Ukraine, to the two decades of failed wars throughout Southwest Asia, to the upheaval against colonialism throughout the Global South, to the blowout of the Wall Street/City of London financial bubbles—humanity is looking to move on. What is needed now is strong and decisive action that resists the “thought police” of perpetual war and fear of the other, and instead puts its trust in the truthful principle of the goodness of mankind. It has been said: “There is a limit to the tyrant’s power.” Now you must decide to actually believe that. ContentsNew World ParadigmStrategic War DangerIn-DepthNew World Paradigmby Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 In an article in Sputnik, Pepe Escobar reports that the Third Belt and Road Forum and Putin’s in-depth meeting Xi Jinping “was a graphic illustration of Russia-China co-hosting the drive towards a multipolar world.” Putin, as the main guest of honor by President Xi, brought along with him a full delegation, including: two Deputy Prime Ministers, heads of the Foreign Ministry, the Economic Development Ministry, the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, the Central Bank governor and some other agencies. Business representatives also joined, including the heads of Gazprom and Rosneft, and the heads of Sberbank and VTB, according to TASS. Escobar reports that the two Presidents “signed the largest deal in their shared history for the supply of grain; 2.5 trillion rubles ($26 billion) for 70 million tons of grain, leguminous and oilseed cargo delivered for 12 years.” However the news is even more dramatic with natural gas agreements. Alexey Miller, CEO of Gazprom, and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Chairman Dai Houliang, met on the sidelines of the forum in Beijing, and “signed an Additional Agreement to the Gas Purchase and Sale Agreement along the Eastern Route for additional volumes of Russian gas supplies to China until the end of 2023,”Gazprom wrote on its Telegram channel. The numbers for the growing China-Russia trade in gas are as follows: In 2022, Russia sold 15.5 billion cubic meters of gas to China via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. In 2023, this number is expected to reach 22 billion cubic meters. With the extended agreements, the pipeline is expected to reach its designed capacity of 38 billion cubic meters by 2025, but will grow to 48 billion cubic meters shortly thereafter by implementing the Far Eastern Route. However, Gazprom is also considering utilizing the Power of Siberia 2, which runs through Mongolia, to increase gas supplies to China, in which case the total annual export to China would grow to 100 billion cubic meters. As Alexey Miller pointed out on Russia’s Rossiya-1 TV channel Oct. 18: “Pipeline supplies to China only may reach the level of volumes exported to Western Europe in the near future.” The gas exported to Europe via Nord Stream 1 before the attacks on Sept. 26, 2022 amounted to around 110 billion cubic meters/year—an amount Russia is moving rapidly to replace by trade with new allies. It is also being reported that Russia-China trade has now exceeded $200 billion/year, a feat which Putin called “really impressive” considering it was only at $100 billion in 2019. Sputnik quotes one analyst saying the growth in trade between the two countries is 30% year-on-year, and that amidst struggling Western economies. by Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 In parallel with the announced $97 billion in new projects at the Oct. 17-18 Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing,Russian President Putin has given the world another taste of just what kind of future is in store with the new development paradigm coming out of the expanded BRICS. During his speech at the Forum, Putin focused on transportation and trade corridors, which he summarily described as crisscrossing the entirety of the Eurasian continent. He mentioned the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), whose rail connectivity, he said will run seamlessly from Murmansk in the north of Russia to Bandar Abbas in Iran, then went on to outline a major network of rail projects: Another railroad will run via the Urals region and Siberia, including a project to modernize part of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which will traverse across several regions of Siberia. There is the construction of the Northern Latitudinal Railway, towards the ports on the Arctic Ocean and the Yamal Peninsula, and a new North Siberian Railway towards the network comprising the Trans-Siberian Railway and Baikal-Amur Mainline. “At the same time, we are working jointly with our foreign partners to build railway lines from Central Siberia towards the south of the country, towards China, Mongolia and the ports of the Indian and Pacific oceans,” Putin said. This includes plans to build one more Arctic-South corridor in the Far East, which will include a railway from the Baikal-Amur Mainline to Yakutia, bridges across the Lena and Amur Rivers, the Pacific Railway Line, the modernization of highways, and the creation of deep-water ports in the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route. “These north-south transport corridors in European Russia, Siberia and the Far East will allow us to directly connect the Northern Sea Route and to integrate it into major logistics hubs in the south of our continent on the Indian and Pacific oceans,” the President said. On the Northern Sea Route, Putin said that Russia is not only inviting its partners to use it, but that “we are inviting all interested countries to get directly involved in its development, and we are ready to provide reliable icebreaker escort, communications and supplies.” He added that by next year, navigation for ice-class vessels will be available year-round along the entire Northern Sea Route. In summary, Putin said: “The creation of the international and regional logistics and trade routes I have mentioned objectively reflects the deep changes that are ongoing in the global economy and the new role the Asia-Pacific and Global South countries and other centers of growth and development are playing now.” It is in this context which Russia will assume the chairmanship of the expanded BRICS next year. Strategic War Dangerby Carl Osgood (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 Retired army Col. Douglas Macgregor is warning that President Joe Biden’s stupidity is moving the world closer to World War III. “We are on the threshold of total war,” Macgregor said in X/Twitter on Oct. 19, linking to an interview he did with Judge Andrew Napolitano that same day. “If the Israeli’s march into Gaza they will fail to root out the thousands of Hamas fighters there. The arsenal of rockets and missiles in the region is enormous. The rest of the region is prepared to go to war. It’s not just a Iran.” “First of all, the weapons have changed,” Macgregor said, according to an excerpt posted separately by Napolitano. “The arsenal of rockets and missiles in the region is enormous. People are quoting numbers in the realm of a 130,000 rockets and missiles from Hezbollah alone. We don’t even need to mention others in the region, that kind of arsenal is enough in and of itself to destroy much of Israel.” Earlier in an interview on Real America on Oct. 20, Macgregor similarly warned of the conflict erupting into a larger war. “The region is not what it was 20, 30, 40 years ago. The region is armed to the teeth,” he said. The footage of attacks on civilians and children are being watched like hawks by everyone in the region, Macgregor added, saying “No one is gonna sit still and watch the Israeli’s pulverize Gaza, and drive the population into the desert.… It’s our obligation to save Israel from itself. Israel is on the path of suicide in this war.” As far as the way out, Macgregor said that “Military power is not the answer,” and that “It’s best to negotiate and end to this thing.” by Carl Osgood (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 The Cairo Peace Summit convened in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital this morning. According to Egypt’s Al Ahram newspaper, the summit was to bring together leaders from over a dozen Arab and Western nations, along with high-level representatives from the European Union. The Summit was set to address de-escalating the war in Gaza, pursue a ceasefire, and seek a resolution to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict via the two-state solution. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi delivered what Al Ahramdescribed as an “impassioned address,” in which he reaffirmed Egypt’s unwavering support for the Palestinian Cause, and suggested a roadmap to end the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza and revive the path of peace. “Where are the values of human civilization that we have built over long millennia and decades? Where is equality of human souls without discrimination or segregation or double standards?” he asked. The Egyptian President reiterated that Cairo categorically rejects the displacement of Palestinians from their land under any circumstances. He stressed that “the liquidation of the Palestinian cause without a just solution is beyond the realm of possibility, and in all cases, it will never happen at the expense of Egypt.” “The only solution for the Palestinian Cause is the achievement of justice through a fair and equitable resolution that upholds the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people,” El-Sisi said. Discussions on reviving the peace process, El-Sisi said, “should commence to implement the two-state solution and establish an independent Palestinian State, living alongside Israel based on international legitimacy resolutions.” He added that this plan should occur concurrently with efforts to strengthen the Palestinian Authority to fully assume its duties in the Palestinian territories. Arab leaders who are confirmed to attend are Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Kuwait Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and the President of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Zayed. European leaders who are confirmed to attend are Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni; Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez; Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis; Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades; German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock; British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly; and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa are also confirmed to attend the summit. President of the European Council Charles Michel and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell are also confirmed. by Carl Osgood (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 The White House sent President Biden’s supplemental war budget to Capitol Hill yesterday. According to press reports, it amounts to $105 billion. Of that total, $50 billion goes directly into expanding the capacity of the defense industrial base and is being sold as a jobs program. “The funding will expand production lines, strengthen the American economy, keep us safe, and create new American jobs,” Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young said during a conference call with reporters. The total request is divided among the wars in Ukraine and Israel, “deterrence” in East Asia and for U.S. border security. It calls for $44.4 billion for weapons for Ukraine, though $30 billion will really be for replenishing stocks of weapons that the Pentagon has already sent there, reported Defense News. The request also includes $14.3 billion in more military aid for Israel, including $10.6 billion for air and missile defense support as well as replenishment funds to backfill U.S. stocks of weapons the Biden administration has already sent to Israel. The package also earmarks $2 billion in foreign military financing for “allies and partners” in the Asia-Pacific region and $3.4 billion for the submarine industrial base to meet the demands of the AUKUS deal. by Carl Osgood (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 On Oct. 18, the National Nuclear Security Agency, the organization within the Department of Energy responsible for building nuclear warheads, announced that it had conducted a subsurface chemical explosion at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) to improve the United States’ ability to detect low-yield nuclear explosions around the world. “These experiments advance our efforts to develop new technology in support of U.S. nuclear nonproliferation goals,” theDOE press release quoted Corey Hinderstein, NNSA’s Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, as saying. “They will help reduce global nuclear threats by improving the detection of underground nuclear explosive tests.” The release further reports that the experiment will help validate new predictive explosion models and detection algorithms. Measurements were collected using accelerometers, seismometers, infrasound sensors, electromagnetic sensors, chemical and radiotracer samplers, and meteorological sensors. The Russians are awaiting verification that the test was what the DOE said it was. “If this information is true (it is presently being verified), this does not involve a nuclear weapon testing and this blast does not contradict either the U.S. moratorium on nuclear tests or the provisions of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that has not come into force,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in a commentary posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website, reported TASS. “We keep monitoring the situation and want to mention what Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on February 21, 2023: ‘Naturally, we will not be the first to do it, but if the United States conducts a nuclear test, we will also carry it out,’” he added. The DOE announcement came the same day that the Russian State Duma passed legislation withdrawing Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). “Our position is very clear. Now the de jure situation is equalized. Now both the U.S. and Russia are signatories to the treaty, but it has not been ratified by either country. So we are monitoring [the situation] very closely,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked yesterday about the Nevada test. by Carl Osgood (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alexander Ben Zvi made clear in an interview with TASS that Israel is using water as a weapon to try to force the Palestinian population out of the northern half of Gaza. “In the north, as people are moving away from there, we will not be providing water there,” he said. “Water is being supplied to the southern part. It is very simple [to explain] why it is not being provided to the northern part. You remember, we suggested that all the residents of the northern part relocate to the south. Therefore, we decided to supply water there so that no extra problems would emerge in the south for the civilians who have evacuated from the north. Prior to this, we thought that we would not do that until Hamas made some moves concerning our hostages. However, as we do not want a dire humanitarian crisis there, we decided to provide water supplies,” Ben Zvi said. But Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Abdel Hafiz Nofal told TASS in a separate interview that for the most part, people are not relocating from the north to the south. “The fact is that people may be leaving, but only in very small numbers. Israel would like for them to go to Egypt or Jordan. But, we say that this is our land. We are not leaving it; we will stay right here,” he stressed. “Palestinians have suffered for 75 years; our refugees are [scattered] in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. We do not wish to see a repeat of that. Although the situation is very difficult now, no one wants to leave the Gaza Strip.” “Of course. We are saying that this war needs to be stopped. Hamas is ready to return the people it took hostage: They are Europeans, Americans. Help is needed for the Gaza Strip: health care, medicine and equipment. And then we can negotiate,” Nofal continued. When asked whether both sides of the conflict could stop hostilities at the same time, he replied: “We think it would be better if Israel stopped the war. Because it’s the civilians who will suffer the most.” by Carl Osgood (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 The Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza opened this morning, but only for the 20 trucks that Israel agreed to let in. A UN official said that the next convoy might not be allowed to cross until Monday, Oct. 23 reported Al Ahram. The UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said in a statement from Cairo on Oct. 21 that the humanitarian situation in Gaza “has reached catastrophic levels.” He said he is “confident” that the delivery will mark the start of a “sustainable effort to provide essential supplies” safely and unimpeded. But he warned that it is “critical” that sufficient aid reaches people across Gaza, adding: “The international community cannot continue to fail them.” Hamas officials said that the 20 trucks of aid “will not be able to change the humanitarian catastrophe that Gaza is currently enduring,” instead calling for a secure corridor operating around the clock. Hamas believes the notion of delivering humanitarian assistance only to southern parts of the Gaza Strip is an attempt by Israel to drive Palestinians into Egypt. “Delivering aid exclusively to Gaza’s southern areas is a measure that will allow the occupation authorities to continue exerting pressure on our people, forcing them to move from the north to the south under devastating bombardments and attacks in a bid to drive them into to Egypt,” Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram, reported TASS. Hamas also stressed that 20 trucks are not enough, since “Gaza needs much more medicine and food.” “Around 500 trucks have been entering the enclave daily for the past 17 years,” and that was not enough either, it said. “We insist that the Rafah checkpoint be opened on a permanent basis to evacuate those wounded for treatment abroad, as well as to deliver assistance to all parts of the Gaza Strip, to the north and south,” Hamas said. by Harley Schlanger (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 Frederick Kempe, the CEO of the oligarch’s think tank Atlantic Council, published a glowing review of President Biden’s Oct. 19 national address. Titled “Biden’s Inflection Point and History’s Sobering Lessons,” Kempe described the speech as one which was “as eloquent and compelling as any he has delivered in his lifetime.” He fully endorsed the intent of the speech, to tie together funding the Ukraine and Israeli war efforts, as one which may serve as a “defining ‘moment’ in history,” such as the period after two world wars and after the Cold War, as three previous defining moments. Writing that Biden “looked sharp” and “spoke with vigor,” he said he “connected the dots between Russia’s criminal war in Ukraine and Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel, assisted by Iran.” He also praised the message delivered in Washington by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said “Our democracies are under sustained and systemic attack by those who abhor freedom because it threatens their rule.” The division of the world into “democracies,” led by the U.S. and Europe, against terrorists and dictators, fits the narrative of the Summit of Democracies, which was hatched by the Atlantic Council. That Kempe is aware that the order defended by the Atlantic Council and Western “democracies” is under attack is clear in his juxtaposition of Biden’s speech and stand for Ukraine and Israel, with the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. He wrote, “As if scripted by a grand dramatist, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were meeting in China as Biden traveled to Israel, doubling down on their common cause to rewrite the rules of the global order.” Further down in his self-congratulatory message, he refers back to an Atlantic Council weekly column he wrote in 2018 titled “Inflection Points,” which he describes as “defining moments in history when U.S. leadership alongside partners and allies would be decisive.” by Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 Justin Amash, former Republican and Libertarian Congressman from Michigan, who served from 2011-2021, has announced that some of his family were killed in the Christian Orthodox Church which was bombed by Israel on Oct. 19. Amash, though born in the U.S., has a mother who is Syrian and a father who is Palestinian, the latter of whom was expelled by Israel in 1948, according to Wikipedia. Amash posted on X on Oct. 20: “With great sadness, I have now confirmed that several of my relatives (including Viola and Yara pictured here) were killed at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they had been sheltering.” He included a photo of the two young women. “The Palestinian Christian community has endured so much. Our family is hurting badly. May God watch over all Christians in Gaza—and all Israelis and Palestinians who are suffering, whatever their religion or creed,” the former congressman added. by Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — Oct. 21, 2023 A reporter from the Daily Beast, Wajahat Ali, has claimed that there are a large number of Muslim employees within the Biden Administration who “are strongly considering resigning,” following the administration’s stance in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. Ali posted on X on Oct. 18: “The Biden [administration] isn’t listening to them during this crisis, their communities are frustrated [with] them, & Islamophobes are targeting them and questioning their loyalties.” An article in MSN reports on a similar development, which is a lettersent to Congress, reportedly from 411 congressional staff members. They write, as “Jewish and Muslim staffers,” that “we write to implore our bosses … to join calls for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Millions of lives hang in the balance.” They also write: “Nationwide and in Congress, the voices calling for de-escalation and peace have been drowned out by those beating the drums of war. As Muslims and Jews, we are tired of reliving generation fears of genocide and ethnic cleansing… We all are calling on our elected officials to find a new way forward together, through unbreakable solidarity motivated by our humanity.” The letter was posted on the X account of The Intercept’s D.C. bureau chief Ryan Grim on Oct. 19. The staffers add that they signed the letter anonymously, “out of concern for our personal safety, risk of violence,” and the fear “that we could lose our jobs.” | 
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten