MY MOHAWK RACEWAY PREDICTIONS 2022 RD 213 MON DEC 12, 2022

    MOHAWK STANDARDBREAD HARNESS RACEWAY 2022 - RESULTS AS OF MON DEC-12, 2022 - DAY-213

MOHAWK PICKS
01-4-9-3-1 4TH WBP (3.2)
02-4-6-8-7 W-9.50 - 9.50
03-5-4-6-1 W-2.90, 4TH WBP (16-1), DD-12.50 - 24.90
04-4-5-7-8 P-3.50 - 28.40
05-8-9-3-2 W-2.50, 4TH WBP (20-1) - 30.90
06-2-8-5-4 W-4.40, DD-5.40 - 40.70
07-1-2-6-3 4TH WBP (13-1)
08-5-3-2-8 W-6.90, 4TH WBP (7-1) - 47.60
09-2-5-4-0 W-5.60, P-2.30, SEX-12.10, DD-21.80 -  89.40
10-7-5-6-8 P-6.40, 4TH WBP (7.2) - 95.80
11-4-1-7-9-8
MOHAWKS TONIGHTS TOTAL $95.80 OVERALL TOTAL $62,038.70

STANS PICKS
01-1-8-3-6-4 4TH WBP (17-1)
02-7-1-8-4-6 4TH WBP (7.2)
03-8-5-3-4-6 4TH WBP (5.2)
04-7-6-5-1-4
05-8-9-2-6-3 W-2.50, S-5.10, 4TH (8-1) - 7.60
06-2-1-8-7-4 W-4.40, 4TH WBP (36-1), DD-5.40 - 17.40
07-2-1-6-10-4
08-5-3-2-7-8 W-6.90 - 24.30
09-5-2-4-3-1 4TH WBP (16-1), MEX-12.10 - 36.40
10-6-7-2-3-5 4TH WBP (35-1)
11-1-5-6-4-3 4TH (4.5)
HI-5 MONEY BEFORE TONIGHT = $321,834.92
STANS TONIGHTS TOTAL $36.40 OVERALL TOTAL $74,552.85

HERE WAS MY HI-5 TICKET TONIGHT
Dec 12, 2022
6:39 PM-Bet-80054188333776-Woodbine Stbd, Race 11, $0.20 HI5 1,3,5 / 1,3,5 / 3,4,6 / 3,4,6 / 3,4,6  - $2.40    
IF I WOULD HAVE HAD THE 8 IN 3RD I WOULD HAVE WON THE $336,533.29 MYSELF.
A $1.00 HI-5 STILL PAYED $27,019.00 AND THE $0.20 PAYED $5,403.80

ACTUAL RACE RESULTS
01-7 (10-1)-1 (3.2)-6 (17-1)-2 (37-1)
02-4 (7.2)-8 (7.5)-5 (5-1)-6 (5.2)
03-5 (2.5)-1 (16-1)-4 (5.2)-3 (23-1)
04-6 (5.2)-5 (9.5)-2 (34-1)-3 (18-1)
05-8 (1.5)-3 (13-1)-2 (20-1)-6 (8-1)
06-2 (6.5)-6 (5-1)-7 (36-1)-9 (31-1)
07-6 (6.5)-3 (13-1)-5 (17-1)-1 (7.5)
08-5 (2-1)-8 (7-1)-4 (30-1)-6 (62-1)
09-2 (9.5 )-5 (4.5)-3 (16-1)-6 (15-1) (7-SCR)
10-8 (7.2)-5 (8-1)-3 (35-1)-4 (18-1) (1-SCR)
11-5 (10-1)-3 (43-1)-8 (7-1)-4 (4.5)-6 (15-1) (10-SCR)

MOHAWK PREDICTIONS)-RECORD 2022

01-790-BIG-$18.20 (JAN 29-8TH) (8-1), 17.60 (OCT 07-7TH) (7-1), 17.20 (FEB 24-1ST) (7-1),  
02-452-BIG-$13.40 (MAY 05-10TH) (10-1), $12.50 (SEP 05-3RD) (12-1), $11.10 (OCT 29-12TH) (12-1),  
03-354-BIG-$16.60 (JAN 27-2ND) (17-1), $10.10 (NOV 11-5TH) (10-1), $9.60 (APR 21-9TH) (8-1),
04-296-BIG-48-1 (OCT 29-9TH), 36-1 (SEP 03-6TH), 34-1 (FEB 21-2ND), 34-1 (NOV 05-5TH),   
04-787-W B P-BIG-61-1 (SEP 19-10TH), 44-1 (DEC 10-4TH), 41-1 (MAR 24-3RD), 40-1 (NOV 05-2ND),
DD-1,2-32-BIG-$36.00 (FEB 24-2ND)
DD-2,3-33-BIG-$34.30 (SEP 17-3RD)
DD-3,4-28-BIG-$27.00 (AUG 16-4TH)
DD-4,5-23-BIG-$30.50 (FEB 19-5TH)
DD-5,6-26-BIG-$46.70 (MAR 17-6TH)
DD-6,7-23-BIG-$36.40 (JAN 03-7TH)
DD-7,8-31-BIG-$27.90 (JAN 29-8TH)
DD-8,9-27-BIG-$33.10 (MAY16-9TH)
DD-9,10-27-BIG-$29.90 (NOV 26-10TH)
DD-10,11-14-BIG-$87.80 (MAY 09-11TH)
DD-11,12-03-BIG-$13.60 (OCT 28-12TH)
DD-12,13-01-BIG-$08.80 (JUN 18-13TH)
S EX-250-BIG-$44.10 (JAN 01-1ST)
M EX-165-BIG-$76.70 (MAR 25-10TH)
S TRI-65-BIG-$49.50 (JAN 01-1ST)
M TRI-192-BIG-$231.30 (OCT 27-1ST)
S SUP-18-BIG-$91.55 (JUN 03-10TH)
M SUP-189-BIG-$988.30 (NOV 04-10TH)
P3 (1-3)-12-BIG-$25.40 (FEB 24-3RD)
P3 (2-4)-13-BIG-$32.40 (SEP 13-4TH)
P3 (3-5)-10-BIG-$28.75 (NOV 12-5TH)
P3 (4-6)-09-BIG-$25.40 (MAR 17-6TH)
P3 (5-7)-09-BIG-$68.80 (MAR 17-7TH)
P3 (6-8)-06-BIG-$27.30 (JU 04-8TH)
P3 (7-9)-09-BIG-$6.60 (JAN 28-9TH)
P3 (8-10)-08-BIG-$36.65 (MAR 24-10TH)
P3 (9-11)-05-BIG-$53.50 (MAY 09-11TH)
P3 (10-12)-02-BIG-$16.25 (OCT 17-12TH)
P3 (11-13)-01-BIG-$09.45 (JUN 18-13TH)
P4 (4-7)-05-BIG-$66.80 (MAR 17-7TH)
P4 (7-10)-02-BIG-$19.35 (JAN 13-10TH)
P4 (8-11)-01-BIG-$81.80 (MAY 09-11TH)
P4 (9-12)-01-BIG-$54.25 (OCT 17-12TH)
P4 (10-13)-01-BIG-$14.45 (JUN 18-13TH)
P5 (1-5)-02-BIG-$80.55 (MAY 05-5TH)
P5 (6-10)-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-10TH)
10TH -P5 (HF)-S-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-10TH)
10TH -P5 (HF)-M-04-BIG-$976.00 (FEB 28-10TH)
11TH -P5 (HF)-S-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-11TH)
11TH -P5 (HF)-M-02-BIG-$3,708.70 (JUL 08-11TH)
12TH -P5 (HF)-S-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-12TH)
12TH -P5 (HF)-M-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-12TH)
13TH -P5 (HF)-S-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-13TH)
13TH -P5 (HF)-M-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-13TH)
5-1+ LONG-(02)-827
5-1+ LONG TOT-(19)-3,077-26.9%
LONGEST LONG-32-1 (FEB 03-8TH), 19-1 (JAN 08-9TH)
LONGS THIS NIGHT T3-0-19-1 (JAN 08-9TH),
4TH PLACE PICKED CORRECT-0
4TH PLACE WRONG BUT PICKED 5-1+ ONLY-0
PICK 4 PLACINGS-23-44
OA PICK 4 PLAC TOT-5,481-8,740-62.7%
TOTAL RACES-(11)-2,185
TOP 4 PICKS EACH RACE-01-01,02-03,03-03,04-01,05-03,06-01,07-03,08-02,09-03,10-02,11-01,12-00,13-00=23-44-OATOT-5,481-8,740-62.7%

(STANS PREDICTIONS)-RECORD AT MOHAWK 2022

01-635-BIG-$116.90 (JUL 26-4TH) (57-1), $65.30 (JUL 26-5TH) (31-1), $59.80 (SEP 05-9TH) (28-1),  
02-372-BIG-$58.70 (JUL 28-2ND (17-1), $28.70 (JAN 20-7TH) (31-1), $27.70 (OCT 21-9TH) (50-1),
03-337-BIG-$20.50 (SEP 19-10TH) (61-1), $18.70 (JUN 20-2ND) (25-1), $18.40 (JAN 20-1ST) (55-1),
04-292-BIG-85-1 (AUG 20-6TH), 74-1 (AUG 18-1ST), 71-1 (FEB 12-3RD), 60-1 (SEP 24-10TH)     
04-834-W B P-BIG-84-1 (SEP 06-3RD),71-1 (FEB 12-4TH), 64-1 (JUL 04-4TH), 63-1 (SEP 12-6TH),  
DD-1,2-21-BIG-$42.10 (FEB 19-2ND)
DD-2,3-17-BIG-$63.20 (FEB 14-3RD)
DD-3,4-20-BIG-$38.10 (JUL 01-4TH)
DD-4,5-10-BIG-$2,322.10 (JUL 26-5TH)
DD-5,6-21-BIG-$111.70 (MAR 11-6TH)
DD-6,7-14-BIG-$47.30 (JUN 17-7TH)
DD-7,8-17-BIG-$240.30 (OCT 07-8TH)
DD-8,9-17-BIG-$69.50 (JUL 04-9TH)
DD-9,10-13-BIG-$73.60 (SEP 10-10TH)
DD-10,11-02-BIG-$4.80 (JAN 01-11TH)
DD-11,12-00-BIG-$0.00 (JUN 00-12TH)
DD-12,13-00-BIG-$0.00 (JUN 00-13TH)
S EX-165-BIG-$209.10 (AUG 16-9TH)
M EX-111-BIG-$223.90 (FEB 07-10TH)
S TRI-38-BIG-$138.00 (APR 22-7TH)
M TRI-112-BIG-$532.30 (JAN 20-7TH)
S SUP-10-BIG-$1,060.40 (AUG 25-7TH)
M SUP-122-BIG-$4,176.70 (JAN 20-7TH)
P3 (1-3)-03-BIG-$22.75 (JUN 07-3RD)
P3 (2-4)-06-BIG-$46.60 (JUL 01-4TH)
P3 (3-5)-03-BIG-$42.20 (MAR 18-5TH)
P3 (4-6)-04-BIG-$136.15 (MAR 11-6TH)
P3 (5-7)-04-BIG-$19.95 (MAY 05-7TH)
P3 (6-8)-05-BIG-$27.00 (APR 22-8TH)
P3 (7-9)-05-BIG-$139.55 (OCT 07-9TH)
P3 (8-10)-06-BIG-$94.35 (NOV 04-10TH)
P3 (9-11)-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-10TH)
P3 (10-12)-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-10TH)
P3 (11-13)-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-10TH)
P4 (4-7)-01-BIG-$20.00 (AUG 18-7TH)
P4 (7-10)-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-10TH)
P5 (1-5)-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-5TH)
P5 (6-10)-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-5TH)
10TH -P5 (HF)-S-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-10TH)
10TH -P5 (HF)-M-03-BIG-$2,780.00 (JUN 28-10TH)
11TH -P5 (HF)-S-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-11TH)
11TH -P5 (HF)-M-01-BIG-$99.60 (JAN 10-11TH)
12TH -P5 (HF)-S-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-12TH)
12TH -P5 (HF)-M-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-12TH)
13TH -P5 (HF)-S-00-BIG-$0.00 (JAN 00-13TH)
13TH -P5 (HF)-M-01-BIG-$1,135.20 (AUG 12-13TH)
5-1+ LONG-(02)-1,015
5-1+ LONG TOT-(19)-3,077-33.0%
LONGEST LONG-74-1 (AUG 18-1ST), 67-1 (FEB 12-7TH), 67-1 (JUL 30-10TH), 61-1 (JUN 06-6TH), 61-1 (SEP 19-10TH),
LONGS THIS NIGHT T3-90-1 (JAN 31,3RD), 57-1 (JUL 26-4TH), 55-1 (JAN 20-1ST), 48-1 (JAN 21-73H),
4TH PLACE PICKED CORRECT-0
4TH PLACE WRONG BUT PICKED 5-1+ ONLY-0
PICK 4 PLACINGS-21-44
OA PICK 4 PLAC TOT-5,295-8,740-60.6%
TOTAL RACES-(11)-2,185
TOP 4 PICKS EACH RACE-01-02,02-02,03-03,04-02,05-01,06-02,07-02,08-01,09-03,10-01,11-02,12-00,13-00=21-44-OATOT-5,295-8,740-60.6%

THE UKRAINE WAR IS USA VS RUSSIA. MORE ON THE COVID SCAM.

JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)

 THE UKRAINE WAR IS USA VS RUSSIA. MORE ON THE COVID SCAM.

Doctors and Victims Detail Massive Death & Adverse Reactions From COVID Vaccines-Infowars.com-December 10th 2022, 10:30 am
https://www.infowars.com/posts/catastrophic-contagion-bill-gates-johns-hopkins-who-conduct-another-pandemic-simulation-with-deadlier-virus-that-targets-children/
https://www.banned.video/watch?id=63950155ba9ae416e190e0ac (DEPOPULATION)(HUFF ON JONES)
https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/b6531e40-e6ec-4e5d-b5c8-76e02c945347/page/Wsm9C?s=rBUf2BKcPvo (HUFFS BOOK)
https://www.infowars.com/posts/doctors-and-victims-detail-massive-death-adverse-reactions-from-covid-vaccines/
https://www.infowars.com/posts/elon-musk-calls-for-prosecution-of-fauci-as-world-nears-realization-of-crimes-against-humanity-committed-in-name-of-covid-sunday-night-live/

Congressional testimony from experts across the medical field reveal litany of deadly side effects of the experimental COVID injection.U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) held a public forum titled, “Covid-19 Vaccines: What They Are, How They Work, and Possible Causes of Injuries” on Capitol Hill earlier this week.Speakers detailing Covid vaccine injuries included Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Pierre Kory, Dr. Paul Marik, Dr. Robert Malone, ICAN Attorney, Aaron Siri, Esq., OpenVAERS Founder, Liz Willner, Edward Dowd, Dr. Harvey Risch, Dr. Ryan Cole, Journalist, Del Bigtree, and more.

 COVID man-made, former Wuhan-based scientist says-Scientist Andrew Huff, who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, blamed authorities for the “biggest U.S. intelligence failure since 9/11,” Britain’s the Sun is reporting.Author of the article:Kevin Connor-Publishing date:Dec 06, 2022

COVID is a man-made virus, a scientist who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China says.Scientist Andrew Huff, who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, blamed authorities for the “biggest U.S. intelligence failure since 9/11,” Britain’s the Sun is reporting.
The lab has been involved in debates about the origins of COVID.Huff, an epidemiologist, said in his recent book, The Truth About Wuhan, that the pandemic was the result of the U.S. government’s funding of coronaviruses in China.He said China’s gain-of-function experiments were carried out with lax security.“Foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management, ultimately resulting in the lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Huff said in his book.There are experts who believe that the virus could have escaped through an infected scientist or the improper disposal of waste at the lab.Huff is a former vice-president of EcoHealth Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit that studies infectious diseases.The group has been studying different coronaviruses in bats for more than a decade.Huff, who worked at EcoHealth Alliance, said the nonprofit helped the Wuhan lab put together the “best existing methods to engineer bat coronaviruses to attack other species” for many years.“Foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management,” Huff wrote in his book.“China knew from day one that this was a genetically engineered agent. The U.S. government is to blame for the transfer of dangerous biotechnology to the Chinese. I was terrified by what I saw. We were just handing them bioweapon technology.”EcoHealth Alliance issued a statement regarding Huff’s book, saying “The actual “truth about Wuhan” is: “1) Mr. Huff was employed by the EcoHealth Alliance from 2014 to 2016. However, reports that he worked at or with the Wuhan Institute of Virology during that time are untrue. He was assigned to a completely different project working on computer-based algorithms to assess emerging disease threats. 2) Mr. Huff alleges that EcoHealth Alliance was engaged in gain of function research to create SARS-CoV-2. This is not true.3) Mr. Huff makes a number of other speculations and allegations about the nature of the collaboration between EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Given that he never worked at or with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, his assertions along these lines cannot be trusted.4) Mr. Huff claims that SARS-CoV-2 emerged as a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology based on research conducted there on bat coronaviruses and, further, that this research was related to U.S. intelligence gathering efforts. This is not true.”

Uncovering the biology behind the RSV vaccine

Unveiling Integrated Functional Pathways Leading to Enhanced Respiratory Disease Associated With Inactivated Respiratory Syncytial Viral Vaccine. Russell MS, Creskey M, Muralidharan A, Li C, Gao J, Chen W, Larocque L, Lavoie JR, Farnsworth A, Rosu-Myles M, Hashem AM, Yauk CL, Cao J*, Van Domselaar G*, Cyr T, Li X. Front Immunol 2019 Mar 29;10:597. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2019.00597

This science story explains how an integrated systems biology approach was used to unravel a complex, abnormal immune response to a respiratory virus vaccine. The research provides a biological explanation for previously unexplained phenomena and may inform future efforts to understand the effects of vaccines.What was known about this area prior to your work, and why was the research done?
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common respiratory virus that can result in mild, cold-like symptoms in healthy adults. Yet, it is the most frequent cause of serious respiratory illness in infants, the elderly, and the immunocompromised and commonly results in lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia or bronchiolitis. Despite decades of research, there is currently no approved vaccine against RSV. Viruses used in vaccines are commonly inactivated (killed) by chemicals, such as formalin. These viruses are too weak to establish an infection, but they can trigger an immune response, thereby providing protection. A clinical trial conducted in the 1960s with a formalin-inactivated RSV vaccine resulted in severe respiratory disease—including deaths—in vaccinated children that were later infected with RSV during a seasonal outbreak. This phenomenon is termed vaccine-associated enhanced respiratory disease (VERD). Later attempts to develop alternatives to formalin-inactivation failed and were also believed to induce VERD. In order to develop a safe and effective RSV vaccine, it is important to understand the mechanisms that lead to VERD. This research used a systems biology approach to examine how VERD progresses in cotton rats, an animal that mirrors the human response in RSV infection. Systems biology is a method that analyzes the interactions of complex biological systems at the molecular and cellular level.What are your most significant findings from this work? The study found an increase in activity for several important genetic pathways responsible for the production of specific immune-related substances, known as cytokines. Some of these cytokines play an important role in smooth muscle contraction and contribute to lung constriction, consistent with the laboured breathing and airway obstruction observed for cotton rats vaccinated with formalin-inactivated RSV. Other biological responses to these cytokines include an increase of different types of white blood cells, a hallmark of immune infection response. These outcomes related to VERD further our understanding of molecular response to vaccines. Interestingly, an imbalance in substances controlling how blot clots are formed and degraded was observed with VERD for the first time. This finding illuminates the mechanisms contributing to bronchiolitis symptoms.What are the implications or impact of the research? Host response to vaccines involves complex and interdependent biological pathways resulting in changes to host genetic activity and immune-related cell populations. The integrated systems biology approach used in this research attempts to examine the interplay between biological systems to understand complications associated with certain vaccine formulations. The work illuminates the molecular mechanisms underlying the abnormal immune response that can occur after vaccination with formalin-inactivated RSV. This information will contribute to the development and evaluation of safe and effective vaccines against RSV infection.

Lawmakers react to Musk's call to prosecute Fauci-Ivana Saric-DEC 11,22

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle responded on Sunday to Twitter owner Elon Musk's call to prosecute National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci.Driving the news: "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci," Musk tweeted early Sunday morning, prompting a barrage of replies from officials.He also tweeted out a meme of Fauci and President Biden with the caption, "Just one more lockdown, my king."Musk hinted at a fifth "Twitter files" release of internal documents that purport to reveal how Twitter operated under prior management and which Musk has framed as an effort to show that his predecessors at the company engaged in censorship. In response to a Twitter user asking, "when will we get the twitter files on covid?" Musk replied, "oh it is coming bigtime..."What they're saying: "Re Musk tweet? Courting vaccine-deniers doesn’t seem like a smart business strategy, but the issue is this: could you just leave a good man alone in your seemingly endless quest for attention?" Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) tweeted Sunday. "Elon Musk wants to criminalize Anthony Fauci because he disagrees with him. Elon is no champion of free speech," Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) tweeted."It’s America. You can select any pronouns you damn well please. But Anthony Fauci has likely saved more human lives than any living person in the world. Shame on you," Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) tweeted. "Dr. Fauci is a national hero who will be remembered for generations to come for his innate goodness & many contributions to public health. Despite your business success, you will be remembered most for fueling public hate & divisions. You may have money, but you have no class," former CIA director John Brennan tweeted.The other side: "I affirm your pronouns Elon," Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted in response to Musk.The big picture: Fauci, who served as President Biden's chief medical adviser since January 2021, announced in August that he would be retiring from government service in December to "pursue the next chapter" of his career. As the nation's top infectious disease expert, Fauci has led the NIAID since 1984 and emerged as the face of the nation's coronavirus response in the early days of the pandemic in 2020.Republicans made clear prior to the 2022 midterm elections they intended to investigate Fauci's role in the COVID pandemic if they won control of the House or Senate. Fauci has previously said he would testify before Congress if called to do so.  "If I become a punching bag, I’m a punching bag. But I am very happy to testify before any congressional oversight committee, I have nothing to hide, I can explain and validate everything that I’ve done," Fauci said during an interview in a new episode of "Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace" that dropped Friday."It’s going to be inconvenient if they actually are out there, essentially threatening to make my life miserable," he added, reiterating that, "I’m going to do what I need to do, and that is cooperate fully."Expert:

 ‘don’t panic’ but know dangers-RSV hospitalizations jump 31% in a week, stoking ‘tripledemic’ fear-As doctors battle COVID and flu, they are also facing fast-spreading Respiratory Syncytial Virus, in apparent knock-on effect of pandemic By Nathan Jeffay-Today, 12:13 pm 1

A trio of viruses is on the rise, causing some experts to warn of a “tripledemic” of COVID-19, flu and the far lesser known RSV.Respiratory Syncytial Virus is an upper respiratory virus, and cases in Europe, America and Israel are growing fast. The Health Ministry reported on Thursday that in the last week, the number of patients hospitalized with RSV jumped 31 percent. Since the beginning of October, 696 people have been hospitalized with RSV, including 229 in the past week.Most children catch RSV in their first two or three years, but parents normally don’t give it a name and just say their children are “feeling unwell” or “have a virus.”As with COVID, the concern is when it hits the vulnerable. For young babies, the elderly, and those with health complications, it can cause more severe illness such as infection of the lungs, bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the small airways in the lung, and pneumonia. RSV causes more cases of bronchiolitis and pneumonia before age 1 than any other pathogen.Normally, morbidity is spread out, and hospitals can easily handle the flow of serious cases that filters through. But there is currently a sudden rise, and it is coming during a winter when hospitals are also dealing with two other major respiratory diseases — COVID-19 and flu.“Israel is now experiencing what we’ve already seen in North America and some other places, with the rise in RSV,” the leading pediatrician Prof. Moshe Ashkenazi, deputy director of the children’s hospital at Sheba Medical Center, told The Times of Israel. “It’s spreading more violently than in previous years.“People shouldn’t panic, but they should be aware that it’s a virus that is dangerous to young babies, especially preterm babies, and to children with heart and lung diseases.”What makes RSV the odd one out alongside flu and COVID-19 is vaccine availability. The latter two viruses have easily accessible vaccines that are cheap for health providers to source. “There is a vaccine for RSV, but it is only given to the most at-risk as it’s a special antibody injection given in five shots and costs $20,000 to $30,000 per person, per season.”It’s not known for sure why RSV is spiking now, after declining at the height of the COVID pandemic. But there is a strong belief among medical experts that masking and social distancing meant people were exposed to fewer viruses than normal and therefore now have reduced immunity.“There’s a theory that for a long time we were masked and we weren’t exposed to regular viruses as we normally would have been, and therefore immunity levels against general viruses are low,” Ashkenazi said. “Now that masks are worn less, RSV is spreading more.”Science supports the theory that masks may have been keeping RSV at bay. Like COVID, it spreads largely via droplets from an infected person — normally their coughs or sneezes — entering the airways of somebody else.The World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control just highlighted the threat of RSV alongside COVID and flu. “RSV has been on the rise since October, with some 20 countries and areas experiencing intensified RSV activity,” they said in a joint statement.“COVID-19 case rates, hospital and intensive care unit admissions, and death rates are currently low compared to the past 12 months, but this situation could change as new variants emerge, and the disease continues to strain health care resources,” the statement said.“With the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the circulation and health impact of other respiratory pathogens, it is challenging to predict how the new winter period will develop.”Ashkenazi said that RSV normally starts with a cough and a runny nose, sometimes alongside sneezing, fever and/or an impact on appetite.“On a practical level, if people have anything more severe than a runny nose, they should stay home or protect their surroundings by wearing a mask,” he said.By the time symptoms show, people may have been contagious for a day or two. They normally remain contagious for three to eight days — in some cases longer.Ashkenazi said that when symptoms are mild, people who aren’t at elevated risk don’t normally need to seek medical advice. However, if there is a “red flag,” they should take a home coronavirus test to eliminate COVID-19, and go to the doctor if it is negative.“Red flags include shortness of breath, inability to sleep because of a cough, coughing with a large amount of phlegm, or a change in mental state,” he said. “The best thing we can do is to vaccinate against the viruses for which we do have shots — flu and COVID — so that we reduce cases of respiratory illnesses wherever possible.”

Digital Currency: The Fed Moves toward Monetary Totalitarianism-by André Marques | Mises Institute-December 9th 2022, 2:23 pm

The end of cash would mean less privacy for individuals and would allow central banks to maintain a monetary policy of negative interest rates with greater ease.The Federal Reserve is sowing the seeds for its central bank digital currency (CBDC).It may seem that the purpose of a CBDC is to facilitate transactions and enhance economic activity, but CBDCs are mainly about more government control over individuals. If a CBDC were implemented, the central bank would have access to all transactions in addition to being capable of freezing accounts.It may seem dystopian—something that only totalitarian governments would do—but there have been recent cases of asset freezing in Canada and Brazil. Moreover, a CBDC would give the government the power to determine how much a person can spend, establish expiration dates for deposits, and even penalize people who saved money.The war on cash is also a reason why governments want to implement CBDCs. The end of cash would mean less privacy for individuals and would allow central banks to maintain a monetary policy of negative interest rates with greater ease (since individuals would be unable to withdraw money commercial banks to avoid losses).Once the CBDC arrives, instead of a deposit being a commercial bank’s liability, a deposit would be the central bank’s liability.In 2020, China launched a digital yuan pilot program. As mentioned by Seeking Alpha, China wants to implement a CBDC because “this would give [the government] a remarkable amount of information about what consumers are spending their money on.”The government could easily track digital payments with a CBDC. Bloomberg noted in an article published when the digital yuan pilot program was launched that the digital currency “offers China’s authorities a degree of control never possible with cash.” A CBDC could allow the Chinese government to monitor mobile app purchases (which accounted for about 16 percent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2020) more closely. Bloomberg describes how much control a CBDC could give Chinese authorities: The PBOC [People’s Bank of China] has also indicated that it could put limits on the sizes of some transactions, or even require an appointment to make large ones. Some observers wonder whether payments could be linked to the emerging social-credit system, wherein citizens with exemplary behavior are “whitelisted” for privileges, while those with criminal and other infractions find themselves left out.The Chinese government is waging war on cash. And they are not alone. In 2017, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a document offering suggestions to governments—even in the face of strong public opposition—on how to move toward a cashless society. Governments and central bankers claim that the shift to a cashless society will help prevent crime and increase convenience for ordinary people. But the real motivation behind the war on cash is more government control over the individual.And the US is getting ready to establish its own CBDC (or something similar). The first step was taken in August, when the Fed announced FedNow. FedNow will be an instant payment system and is scheduled to be launched between May and July 2023.FedNow is practically identical to Brazil’s PIX. PIX was implemented by the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) in November 2020. It is a convenient instant payment system (using mobile devices) without user fees, and a reputation as being safe to use.A year after its launch, PIX already had 112 million people registered, or just over half of the Brazilian population. Of course, frauds and scams do occur over PIX, but most are social engineering scams (see here, here, and here) and are not system flaws; that is, they are scams that exploit the public’s lack of knowledge of PIX technology.Bear in mind that PIX is not the Brazilian CBDC. It is just a payment system. However, the BCB has access to transactions made through PIX; therefore, PIX can be considered the seed of the Brazilian CBDC. It is already an invasion of the privacy of Brazilians. And FedNow is set to follow suit.Additionally, the New York Fed has recently launched a twelve-week pilot program with several commercial banks to test the feasibility of a CBDC in the US. The program will use digital tokens to represent bank deposits. Institutions involved in the program will make simulated transactions to test the system. According to Reuters, “the pilot [program] will test how banks using digital dollar tokens in a common database can help speed up payments.”Banks involved in the pilot program include BNY Mellon, Citi, HSBC, Mastercard, PNC Bank, TD Bank, Truist, US Bank, and Wells Fargo. The global financial messaging service provider SWIFT is also participating to “support interoperability across the international financial ecosystem.” (This video details the pilot program and how the US CBDC would work.)-The IMF is also thinking of a way to connect different CBDCs under a single system. In other words, the IMF plans to create a PIX/FedNow for CBDCs around the globe: Things could change as money becomes tokenized; that is, accessible to anyone with the right private key and transferable to anyone with access to the same network. Examples of tokenized money include so-called stablecoins, such as USD Coin, and central bank digital currency.The reception of Brazil’s PIX shows that FedNow will likely be widely adopted due to its convenience; however, this positive economic and technological element should not overshadow the increased control instant payment systems will give to central banks. The BCB has access to all transactions made by Brazilians through PIX, and this would only get worse should a CBDC be implemented. With a CBDC, it would be easier for the government to carry out expansionary monetary policies (which cause misallocations of resources and business cycles) and exert greater control over citizens’ finances.Majority of right-wingers also wary of proposed changes-Few Israelis support religion-and-state blitz mulled by incoming coalition –

poll-Less than one-third back changing the Law of Return, revoking recognition of Reform conversions, or permitting gender segregation at public events, survey finds-By Judah Ari Gross-DEC 9-Today, 9:29 am

20.Less than a third of Israelis support the main religion-and-state legislation demands issued by the parties expected to serve in the next government coalition, according to a survey released Friday.The poll, which was conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute think tank, asked some 750 Israeli men and women if they supported seven specific legislative proposals that have been raised by members of the presumed next coalition, five of them dealing with religious issues, one with the roles of government legal advisers and one with settlements. None of the seven received more than 40 percent support overall, and only two got majority support from Israelis who categorize themselves as right-wing.The five religion-related proposals were: canceling recognition of non-Orthodox conversions for the purposes of citizenship; permitting gender-segregation at publicly sponsored events; canceling the Law of Return’s so-called “grandchild clause,” which allows anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent to receive Israeli citizenship, provided they don’t practice another religion; increasing government benefits to men studying in religious institutions; and canceling a reform passed in the previous Knesset to privatize kashrut certification.Each of these were raised by at least one of the four religious parties — United Torah Judaism, Shas, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit — that are expected to join Likud in the next government.Only one of the proposals — permitting gender segregation in publicly funded spaces — garnered majority support from right-wing Jewish Israelis, with 52.7% saying they approved of it. Just 15% of Jewish centrists and 7% of left-wing Jewish Israelis said they supported it. Overall, 28% of Israelis — Arabs and Jews — supported the idea.Revoking recognition for non-Orthodox conversions was supported by 30.5% of Israelis, removing the “grandchild clause” had 29% support, increasing benefits to seminary students had 25%, and canceling the kashrut reform had 28% support.The other two legislative proposals that the pollsters asked about that did not deal with religious issues garnered greater support, but still well shy of a majority.Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they supported allowing ministers to appoint their own legal advisers, which would end their current independent status. And 36% said they supported retroactively authorizing illegally constructed outposts, a figure that grew to nearly 60% among right-wing respondents.Though the paltry support, even among right-wing Israelis, for many of the proposals does not affect the government’s ability to pass legislation, it does potentially give Likud MKs and other members of the coalition a basis for voicing their opposition for such moves.

Russia ramping up production of ‘most powerful’ weapons, ex-president boasts-Dmitry Medvedev accuses Western allies of siding with ‘the Nazi,’ repeating falsehood about Ukraine; does not provide details on nature of new armaments in development-By AFP-11 December 2022, 1:05 pm

MOSCOW, Russia — Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday the country was ramping up production of new-generation weapons to protect itself from enemies in Europe, the United States and Australia.“We are increasing production of the most powerful means of destruction. Including those based on new principles,” Medvedev said on messaging app Telegram.“Our enemy dug in not only in the Kyiv province of our native Malorossiya,” Medvedev said, using the term to describe territories of modern-day Ukraine that were part of the Russian Empire under the tsars.“It is Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and a whole number of other places that pledged allegiance to the Nazi,” repeating debunked claims by the Kremlin that Kyiv’s government is a neo-Nazi regime, used to justify its invasion.Medvedev, who serves as deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, did not provide details of the weapons.
President Vladimir Putin repeatedly said that Russia has been developing new types of weapons including hypersonic weapons that he boasts can circumvent all existing missile defense systems.Since Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, 57-year-old Medvedev has regularly taken to social media to write increasingly bombastic posts.With Moscow on the back foot in its offensive in pro-Western Ukraine, the military stalemate has raised fears that Russia could resort to its nuclear arsenal to achieve a military breakthrough.On Friday, Putin said Russia could amend its military doctrine by introducing the possibility of a preemptive strike to disarm an enemy, in an apparent reference to a nuclear attack.The Kremlin chief claimed that Russia’s cruise missiles and hypersonic systems were “more modern and even more efficient” than those of the United States.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

The NATO vs. Russia Proxy War in Ukraine Could Become a Real War-Washington is running a growing risk that its current proxy war, dangerous as that gambit is, may culminate in something far worse: a direct war between Russia and NATO.October 12, 2022 -Commentary
By Ted Galen Carpenter

Blueprint for Disaster; Confusing a Proxy War and a Direct War with Russia in Ukraine: The United States has been waging a proxy war against Russia since Vladimir Putin’s government launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine in late February. Washington has spent billions of dollars to flood Ukraine with increasingly potent weaponry. At the same time, the Biden administration has emphasized repeatedly that the United States will not become a direct participant in the fighting.Nevertheless, the line between proxy war and direct war in Ukraine is becoming dangerously thin.In addition to the deluge of weaponry that the United States and some of its NATO partners are pouring into Ukraine, Washington is providing Kyiv with extensive military intelligence on the deployment of Russian forces. Such intelligence appears to have helped Ukrainian forces score some impressive victories, including the downing of a Russian troop transport plane, the assassination of several Russian generals, and the sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of the Kremlin’s Black Sea fleet. There are even credible reports that U.S. special operations forces are now operating inside Ukraine. Russian complaints about U.S./NATO actions are getting louder and angrier. Washington is running a growing risk that its current proxy war, dangerous as that gambit is, may culminate in something far worse: a direct war between Russia and NATO.The model for the Biden administration’s current approach appears to be the strategy that Washington pursued against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. Both the Carter and Reagan administration provided financial and military aid to Afghan mujahidin fighters who were resisting the Soviet occupation of their country. Washington’s goal was to bleed Soviet forces without becoming a belligerent in the war, relying instead on its Afghan proxies to inflict serious damage.Washington is running a growing risk that its current proxy war, dangerous as that gambit is, may culminate in something far worse: a direct war between Russia and NATO.Most members of the U.S. political and foreign policy establishment still consider Washington’s proxy war in Afghanistan to have been a smashing success, since it caused significant damage and frustration to America’s superpower rival without direct U.S. involvement in the fighting. The disruptions that the war caused even appeared to have played a role in the subsequent political implosion of the Soviet Union itself. True, assisting the mujahidin empowered Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and throughout the Muslim world, but that danger was not easily discernible at the time. In the short term, Washington’s strategy achieved its objective without leading to a direct military clash between the United States and the Soviet Union.What U.S. officials and members of the foreign policy blob do not seem to grasp is that Ukraine is far more important to Moscow than Afghanistan ever was. That difference explains why there are more and more dark hints emanating from the Kremlin about the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons if Russia faces an overall military defeat in Ukraine. As I’ve written elsewhere, Ukraine is a vital security interest to Russia, and the Putin government will do whatever is necessary militarily, including using tactical nukes in Ukraine, to prevent such a humiliation.Nevertheless, hawkish and even some centrist foreign policy pundits have proposed a variety of reckless U.S. responses if Russia crosses the nuclear threshold in Ukraine. Most of those proposals obliterate the distinction between a proxy war and a direct war between the United States and Russia. Joe Cirincione, a longtime expert on nuclear warfare and supposed moderate, mused that the United States “could destroy the Russian forces in Ukraine in a matter of days” with purely conventional weapons.Destroying Russia’s Black Sea fleet using conventional air and missile strikes if Putin violates the nuclear taboo, has long been a favorite “solution” of Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. In early May, he stated confidently that “even without resorting to nuclear weapons of their own, NATO could launch airstrikes that would rapidly sink the entire Russian Black Sea fleet and destroy much of the Russian army in and around Ukraine. That would shake Putin’s criminal regime to its foundations.” Boot remained equally confident in late September. “President Biden needs to deter Putin by signaling that the response to any nuclear attack would be devastating. It would not even require a nuclear response; NATO air forces could probably destroy the Russian army in Ukraine with conventional munitions.”Both Cirincione and Boot implicitly assume that Moscow would view a direct U.S. attack on the Russian military as no more provocative than providing weapons and training to Ukrainian forces who are fighting Russians. It is an illogical and extremely dangerous assumption. The former carries excessive risks to defend a country that is not even remotely a vital U.S. interest, but the latter would be a blatant act of war against the Russian Federation. Russia is not likely to cower and slink away from such an existential threat.Even if Moscow uses tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the ongoing war—awful as it is—would remain a bilateral Russia‐​Ukraine conflict. A U.S. attack on Russian targets changes that equation totally. Such a dramatic escalation means war between two major powers armed to the teeth with both tactical and strategic nuclear weapons. What starts out as even a limited war between 2 nuclear powers entails an awful risk of escalation to the thermonuclear level, bringing Armageddon into play. It is shocking that supposedly knowledgeable foreign policy experts can’t grasp such a crucial distinction.Washington’s current proxy war already is alarmingly dangerous, but a direct war in Ukraine could be catastrophic for the American people. The recommendations of pundits advocating the latter course must be summarily rejected.

Only the US Can End the Ukraine War and Protect Europe

Thank you, America.I write these words, in the wake of the midterm elections, as a European expressing gratitude for Washington’s $45 billion-plus support for Ukraine. This sentiment deserves to keep being cried from the rooftops of our own continent, because even after a poor week for former President Donald Trump, the spirit of “America First” isolationism still suffuses the Republican Party, and with it the danger of a US pivot away from Europe.Everybody who knows anything about the Ukraine war recognizes a harsh truth: But for the US, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s nation would be toast. Russian President Vladimir Putin would long since have presided over a victory parade in Kyiv. The crisis that began in February with the Russian invasion has emphasized the largest fact in geopolitics since 1945: Western security is absolutely dependent upon US leadership.President Bill Clinton said in his second presidential inauguration speech, in 1997: “At the dawn of the 21st century … America stands alone as the world’s indispensable nation.” This remains true. Without Washington, almost nothing big can get done. To be sure, there have been disasters — the Vietnam War and 2003 Iraq invasion foremost among them. But the historic outcome of America’s global activism has been benign for almost everyone save the enemies of freedom.America’s allies have been foolish, even reckless, to take this sword and shield for granted. The midterms may have been less disastrous for President Joe Biden’s Democrats than was feared, but they show how precarious the international leadership of the indispensable nation has become. Many Republicans threaten to slash support for Ukraine and may prove able to do so, even without control of the White House.Thus far, the Biden administration has managed its role in the war with an exemplary mingling of resolution and restraint. It has provided backing for Zelenskiy’s war effort but held back from measures such as enforcing a no-fly zone. It recognizes — as some bellicose voices in Washington, London and Kyiv refuse to acknowledge — the menace of escalation.The White House and Pentagon appear to have concluded, probably rightly, that neither side on the battlefield is capable of achieving absolute military victory. The shooting will stop, probably many months and perhaps years from now, only when both Ukraine and Russia acknowledge the necessity of a conversation, maybe after a change of leadership in the Kremlin.The US must sustain at least private dialogues with Russia and China, less because these offer a promise of good ends than because they may help to prevent very bad ones. America cannot realistically aspire to change the loathsome nature of the Moscow and Beijing regimes; that can be achieved only by the Russians and Chinese. Henry Kissinger seems right to have argued for decades that China and Russia must be treated as realities — not nice realities, but inescapable ones.It is especially important to remind ourselves of all this amid the likely Republican recapture of the House. My Bloomberg Opinion colleague Ian Buruma wrote in 2016, after Trump’s election and the UK’s vote to quit the European Union: “Brexit Britain and Trump’s America are linked in their desire to pull down the pillars of Pax Americana and European unification. In a perverse way, this may herald a revival of a ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the US, a case of history repeating itself not exactly as farce but as tragi-farce.”Six years on, it is apparent that both events have weakened the Western front against the autocracies.  In a September 2021 essay, foreign policy analyst Robert Kagan observed that the very future of the US now hangs in the balance, amid the threat of a second presidency under someone who shares Trump’s nationalistic vision — this includes Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is shaping up to be the former president’s strongest competitor.Europeans cannot assume that US support will remain a constant. We need to think hard and urgently, both about what this has meant to us since World War II, and about how best we can manage our relationship when so many Americans question the value of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, of Ukraine, of spending billions in defense of allies who do relatively little to defend ourselves.By World Bank estimates, US GDP is only a quarter larger than that of the combined EU nations. Yet the latter’s commitments to Ukraine have thus far totaled less than half the US contribution. (This week, the European Commission announced a proposed package of some $18 billion to help the Ukrainian government meet its short-term funding needs in 2023.) And much of the pledged European money and equipment is reaching Zelenskiy’s people only after long delays.The UK has provided $4 billion worth of military, humanitarian and economic support — roughly the same percentage of GDP as the Americans (0.24%). Yet the absolute amount of British military kit shipped is modest by comparison, and we have little more left in our cupboard.It was the same in the 1950-53 Korean War; through all those Cold War decades of confronting the Warsaw Pact in Germany; and in turning back Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1991. The US provided the overwhelming bulk of forces and high-tech weapons. Although in those days, allies including Germany and Britain still possessed credible armies, nobody doubted that other NATO nations prospered on the back of American might.Today’s Republicans sometimes talk as if sustaining the peace had been selfless and thankless. Historians and policy analysts rightly disagree. Even during World War II, from the stage of US neutrality into that of belligerence, the nation reaped handsome profits from arms sales to France and the UK. The US leveraged the Lend-Lease program of 1941-45 so that it emerged from World War II as the only combatant to have become richer. Through the subsequent Cold War, US leadership of the West enabled Washington to exercise its enormous clout for economic and political advantage. Self-interest, although often enlightened, has always been at work.Yet today, America’s European allies appear to be sleepwalking while our principal protector is prey to political forces likely to give progressively less to Ukraine, and indeed to Europe’s defense as a whole. Last month, the Pentagon announced a $275 million military aid package, which is significantly smaller than previous tranches.Republicans refuse to endorse Democratic proposals to dispatch billions of dollars in seized Russian assets to bolster Ukraine, which would provide some small compensation for the estimated $500 billion of devastation Putin’s forces have inflicted on the country.The putative next House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has signaled his opposition to increased aid with a clarity that must delight the Kremlin: “I think people are going to be sitting in a recession,” he said last month, “and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine.”Europeans with a memory for history cannot fail to see echoes of 1939-41 Republican isolationist sentiment. It required every ounce of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s authority — incomparably greater than Biden’s — to circumvent congressional opposition and provide aid to Britain.A recent Pew Research Center poll shows that the percentage of Americans who are “extremely” or “very” concerned about a Ukrainian defeat dropped from 55% in May to 38% in September. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning voters, 32% say the US is providing too much support for Kyiv, against only 9% in March.The 30 liberal House Democrats who last month urged Biden to start negotiating with Russia, and to offer some form of sanctions relief as an inducement, were pressured into recanting. But such sentiment is out there on the left as well as the right, and strengthening. Many Americans who do not know or care much about Ukraine notice how relatively little Western Europeans are doing, and spending, to support the cause.Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote recently of “a confluence of old and new threats that have begun to intersect at a moment the US is ill-positioned to contend with them … American democracy and political cohesion are at risk to a degree not seen since the middle of the nineteenth century” — the Civil War era.Some analysts argue that a new kind of federalism is weakening American power and authority abroad, as individual states increasingly pursue policies at odds with those of the national government. Jenna Bednar and Mariano-Florentino Cuellar wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine last month that other nations must now view the US as “a vast entity with presumed national interests but also as an archipelago of powerful, competing jurisdictions.”Non-Americans can do little to influence US politics. But every European nation with an instinct for self-preservation should acknowledge an imperative to rearm, to be seen to possess the will to do much more to defend.Moreover, French and German attempts to make friends with China win Europe no friends in Washington. Arguably, the best hope for sustaining US support in a Republican-dominated era is for the EU to be seen to make a common front with the US on China. But this is today conspicuously absent: Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, just symbolically bowed the knee in Beijing to President Xi Jinping.Some Europeans argue that Russia’s wretched military performance against Ukraine shows that it represents a negligible menace to the West. This seems rashly sanguine. Violent Russian adventurism is unlikely to end either with Putin or Ukraine; it will only be made more menacing because of the ailing state’s fundamental weakness.We Europeans need to show foes, notably the Kremlin, that we are less enfeebled than Putin supposes us to be. Just as important and urgent, we need to demonstrate to Americans that Trump was wrong — that Europeans are willing to accept a fair share of the defense burden.Yet this is not happening. After a flurry of rhetoric from EU capitals in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion, pathetically little action has followed. During Liz Truss’s 44-day UK premiership, she proposed to increase defense spending to 3% GDP by 2030. However, there is little sign that her successor, Rishi Sunak, will do anything like that, facing an economic crisis.Germany’s performance is worse: Having announced a $100 billion rearmament program earlier this year, progress to implement it has stalled amid popular resistance to military spending. France’s material support for Ukraine has been almost invisible. Other Western European nations, reeling from soaring energy costs, are dragging their feet about fulfilling earlier defense-spending pledges.Zbigniew Brzezinski, the US national security adviser under President Jimmy Carter, wrote with contempt of the EU in a strategic study in 2012: “It acts as if its central political goal is to become the world’s most comfortable retirement home.” Today, there is less European naivete than was evident a decade ago about coexisting amicably with the Russians. But a deep-rooted continental antimilitarism persists, even as Ukraine bleeds.American largesse, the massive shipments to Kyiv, have bought a breathing space. But responsible European policymaking ought to be based on a recognition of the tightening Republican grip on power; on awareness that in 2025, a very different sort of president may occupy the White House. In little more than two years, if not sooner, our continent could be obliged to defend itself from Russian aggression with vastly less US aid.There is a further point. Sooner or later, perhaps after the fall of Vladimir Putin, there will need to be a conversation with Russia about stopping the shooting in Ukraine. It is not credible that this should merely be a bilateral negotiation between Moscow and Kyiv, or that the EU and Britain should take the diplomatic strain. Only the US can parley with Russia backed by the power to enforce security guarantees for Ukraine.This contradicts the current Western position: that Zelenskiy must decide the parameters and duration of his nation’s war. A growing number of smart people argue that this posture is no longer credible. Sooner or later, the US, as Ukraine’s mentor, oxygen-provider and giant protector, must do the talking to Moscow. As Haass writes: “At the end of the day, the United States cannot sub-contract out its foreign policy to Ukraine or anybody else. We never do that.”All the above goes far to explain why Europeans, and many other people around the world, should give thanks to the US far more often and publicly than we do. Whatever the failures of Washington’s governance, and indeed of the tragically crippled US Constitution, hundreds of millions around the world yearn to emulate Americans, and almost none feel a matching envy of the Russian or Chinese people.It would be naive to suggest that gratitude will suffice to prevent Republicans from turning their backs on us, but it would constitute a start. For Europeans, and indeed for friends of freedom around the world, the US remains the only superpower we’ve got. Even allowing the numerous disasters since 1945, it has served us all pretty well. We shall need to strive harder if we are to sustain the privilege of shelter beneath its might.

US warns Russia giving Iran ‘unprecedented military and technical support’White House says Moscow moving toward full defense ‘partnership’ with Tehran, including air defense systems and fighter jets in exchange for drones supplied for Ukraine war
By AAMER MADHANI and Zeke Miller    Today, 9:14 pm 1

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration accused Russia on Friday of moving to provide advanced military assistance to Iran, including air defense systems, helicopters and fighter jets, part of deepening cooperation between the two nations as Tehran provides drones to support Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby cited US intelligence assessments for the allegations, saying Russia was offering Iran “an unprecedented level of military and technical support that is transforming their relationship into a full-fledged defense partnership.”Kirby said Russia and Iran were considering standing up a drone assembly line in Russia for the Ukraine conflict, while Russia was training Iranian pilots on the Sukhoi Su-35 fighter and Iran could receive deliveries of the plane within the year.“These fighter planes will significantly strengthen Iran’s air force relative to its regional neighbors,” Kirby said.The US allegations are part of a deliberate effort by the US to drive global isolation of Russia, in this case targeted at Arab nations who have looked to contain Iran’s regional malevolence and who have not taken a strong stance against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Earlier this year, the Biden administration accused Saudi Arabia of siding with Russia in the conflict by shepherding cuts by the OPEC+ cartel to boost the price of oil, crucial to funding Moscow’s war effort. Saudi Arabia and Iran have been on opposite sides of a yearslong proxy war in Yemen.Kirby said the arms transfers were in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and that the US would be “using the tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt these activities.”Concerns about the “deepening and a burgeoning defense partnership” between Russia and Iran come as the Biden administration has repeatedly accused Iran of assisting Russia with its invasion of Ukraine.The administration says Iran sold hundreds of attack drones to Russian over the summer. Kirby on Friday reiterated the administration’s belief that Iran is considering the sale of hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia, but acknowledged that the US doesn’t have “perfect visibility into Iranian thinking on why” the deal hasn’t been consummated.The White House says Russia has also turned to North Korea for artillery as the nine-month war grinds on.The White House has repeatedly sought to spotlight Russia’s reliance on Iran and North Korea, another broadly isolated nation on the international stage, for support as it prosecutes its war against Ukraine.UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly called the Iran-Russia collaboration a “desperate alliance.”“Iran is now one of Russia’s top military backers,” he said. “Their sordid deals have seen the Iranian regime send hundreds of drones to Moscow, which have been used to attack Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and kill civilians.“In return, Russia is offering military and technical support to the Iranian regime, which will increase the risk it poses to our partners in the Middle East and to international security.”The Biden administration recently unveiled sanctions against Iranian firms and entities involved in the transfer of Iranian drones to Russia for use in Ukraine. It all comes as the administration has condemned the Islamic republic’s violent squelching of protests that erupted throughout Iran after the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while she was held by the morality police.Even as the White House has accused Iran of backing Russia’s war effort, the administration has not abandoned the possibility of reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — scuttled by the Trump administration in 2018. The pact, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, would provide Tehran with billions in sanctions relief in exchange for the country agreeing to roll back its nuclear program to the limits set by the 2015 deal.

Iran claims uranium traces found at undeclared sites came in waste from abroad-UN nuclear watchdog has been pressing Tehran for months for a credible explanation, saying until one was received it could not guarantee the integrity of Iran’s nuclear program
By AFP    Today, 4:37 pm 1

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s nuclear chief has said traces of enriched uranium found on its territory by UN inspectors were brought into the country from abroad, disputing claims of secret nuclear activity.The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, has for months been pressing Tehran to explain the presence of the nuclear material at three undeclared sites.The discovery further complicated efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that has been hanging by a thread since the United States unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump.In remarks published Thursday by Hamshahri newspaper, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said the traces came from waste brought into Iran from other countries.Eslami said the places visited by UN inspectors were a cattle farm, an abandoned mine and a landfill.“In the landfill, they took samples from the waste that entered Iran from different countries,” the report quoted him as saying.“This does not mean the place of discovery was a nuclear site or that it was an undeclared nuclear activity.”“The waste came from Iraq and from other countries,” Eslami said.“We have prevented the entry of much of this waste… They were not nuclear substances from our own manufacturing but perhaps traces from previous use in the country of origin.”In a resolution, last month, the IAEA’s board of governors deplored the lack of cooperation and “technically credible” answers from Tehran.As a result, the agency said it was unable to guarantee the authenticity and integrity of Iran’s nuclear program.But Eslami said Tehran has “provided documented and argued answers to the request” of the UN nuclear watchdog.An IAEA delegation had planned to travel to Tehran in November, but the visit did not take place.The 2015 deal was designed to prevent Iran from covertly developing a nuclear bomb, a goal the Islamic republic has always denied.Efforts to get Iran and the United States back on board with the agreement have stalled.

In phone call, Erdogan tells Putin to clear Kurdish forces from northern Syria-Turkish president urges his Russian counterpart to implement terms of 2019 agreement that called for a 30-kilometer-deep buffer zone on border-By Agencies-11 December 2022, 5:29 pm 0

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sunday that it was imperative the Kremlin “clear” Kurdish forces from northern Syria.Erdogan has been threatening to launch a new incursion into northern Syria to push out Kurdish forces he blames for a November bomb blast that killed six people in Istanbul.A 2019 agreement between Moscow and Ankara ended another offensive by setting up a 30-kilometer (19-mile) “safe zone” to protect Turkey against cross-border attacks from Syrian territory.Erdogan accuses Russia — a key player in the Syria conflict which backs President Bashar Assad — of failing to follow through on the deal.Erdogan told Putin in a phone call it was “important to clear the (Kurdish fighters) from the border to a depth of at least 30 kilometers,” his office said.Erdogan stated it was a “priority,” the Turkish presidency said.Some of the Kurdish forces are stationed in areas under Russian military control.Others have been fighting with the United States against jihadists from the Islamic State group.The Kremlin confirmed the 2019 agreement was discussed in the call.“The two countries’ defense and foreign services will maintain close contacts in this regard,” a Kremlin statement said.Both Moscow and Washington have been putting diplomatic pressure on Ankara not to launch a new ground campaign.Turkey has been pummeling Kurdish positions near the border with artillery fire and drone strikes since November 20 in response to the bomb blast.The Turkish government has blamed the bombing on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and its Syrian affiliate the People’s Protection Units, or YPG. But it has not yet poured in any major forces to support the ones it already has stationed in the area.Kurdish groups deny involvement in the Istanbul attack.The PKK has waged a 38-year insurgency against Turkey that has led to the loss of tens of thousands of lives. It is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. The YPG, however, is not designated as a terror group by Washington or Brussels and has spearheaded the US-led fight against IS in Syria.Erdogan has threatened to follow up strikes on northern Syria with a ground offensive. A planned Turkish invasion earlier this year was halted amid opposition by the US and Russia, both of which have military posts in the region.Moscow has closely cooperated with Turkey in northern Syria in the past and in recent months has pushed for reconciliation between Ankara and Damascus.The call between Erdogan and Putin follows a visit to Turkey this week by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin for talks on the situation in Syria.Erdogan’s office said the presidents also discussed energy — Russia has offered to make Turkey a hub for the sale of its natural gas — as well as the deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that safeguards the export of Ukrainian grain from its Black Sea ports.Erdogan told Putin that the agreement could be expanded to “different food products and other commodities gradually,” his office added without providing further detail.Israeli politics told straightI joined The Times of Israel after many years covering US and Israeli politics for Hebrew news outlets.I believe responsible coverage of Israeli politicians means presenting a 360 degree view of their words and deeds – not only conveying what occurs, but also what that means in the broader context of Israeli society and the region.That’s hard to do because you can rarely take politicians at face value – you must go the extra mile to present full context and try to overcome your own biases.I’m proud of our work that tells the story of Israeli politics straight and comprehensively. I believe Israel is stronger and more democratic when professional journalists do that tough job well.

Virginia’s Republican-led antisemitism panel blasts BDS, subtly critiques Trump-Commission to Combat Antisemitism established by state’s GOP Governor Glenn Youngkin recommends improving Holocaust education and prohibiting Israel boycotts
By Andrew Lapin    Today, 11:42 pm 0

JTA — A Republican-led commission tasked with studying antisemitism in Virginia recommended a suite of actions, from improving Holocaust education to prohibiting Israel boycotts, while also referring to former US president Donald Trump’s recent dinner with a pair of prominent antisemitic figures.The Virginia Commission to Combat Antisemitism, established by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, also concluded in a report released earlier this week that “political advocacy in the classroom has been associated with subsequent antisemitic actions.”The report, which Youngkin ordered on his first day in office in January, comes just weeks after the US Department of Education opened an investigation into allegations of antisemitic harassment at a Fairfax County school district, filed by the right-wing Zionist Organization of America. Congress has since 2004 mandated an annual report on antisemitism worldwide, and a number of states have commissions on how best to advance Holocaust education and broader anti-hate measures.In Virginia, the state that hosted the deadly 2017 Charlottesville march that thrust right-wing white nationalism into the American consciousness, the forming of such a commission to fight antisemitism was a potential model for other states to follow. While the report does touch on Charlottesville, it lays as much blame for antisemitism on anti-Israel activists and the state education system as it does on white nationalists.Mirroring Youngkin’s own language about what he refers to as liberal bias in public schools, the report encouraged Virginia’s legislature to pass laws “prohibiting partisan political or ideological indoctrination in classrooms and curricula at state-supported K-12 schools and higher education institutions.”
Jennifer Goss, the program manager for the Holocaust education group Echoes & Reflections who was on the commission’s education subcommittee, said those recommendations were born out of “some members of the commission feeling concern over reported instances of antisemitism of educators, particularly in higher education institutions, making comments related to the concurrent political situation in Israel.”For examples of such instances of anti-Israel bias among college educators, the report cited a study from the conservative Heritage Foundation alleging that university administrators tweet more negative comments about Israel than about “oppressive regimes”; its other examples involved reports of antisemitism and anti-Israel activity among university students.By making the topic a cornerstone of his successful gubernatorial campaign and current legislative priorities, Youngkin helped turn Virginia into a hotbed for Republican-led claims that public schools are indoctrinating students with “critical race theory,” an academic concept that analyzes different aspects of society through the lens of race and ethnicity. Legislative attempts to curb such classroom instruction nationwide have sparked controversy, including in the realm of Holocaust education; school officials and lawmakers have argued students should learn about the Holocaust from the Nazis’ perspective, and multiple incidents have resulted in schools briefly or permanently removing Holocaust books from their shelves.Democratic Virginia legislators criticized the report for what they saw as leaning into one of Youngkin’s pet issues. “You can count on him to go to the lowest common denominator and then try to politicize our children’s classrooms,” the state’s House Minority Leader, Don Scott Jr., told The Washington Post.The commission was chaired by Jeffrey Rosen, who is Jewish and served as the acting US Attorney General in the final month of the Trump administration; his work as chair was highly praised by commissioners who spoke to JTA. The commission’s other members, all appointed by Youngkin, included representatives from B’nai B’rith International, local law enforcement and non-Jewish organizations such as defense contractor Vanguard Research Inc.Without mentioning Trump by name, the report included the passage, “Even a former president recently met with two notorious antisemites,” referring to Trump’s recent Mar-a-Lago dinner with rapper Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, whom the ADL deems a white supremacist.Trump’s name was not mentioned because “we didn’t want it to be partisan,” said Bruce Hoffman, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization and a member of the commission.The report largely cited data from the Anti-Defamation League and the FBI’s hate crimes division when discussing antisemitism, but it also cited the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a pro-Israel legal group that frequently files challenges against US universities. The AMCHA Initiative — which launches campaigns against supporters of the Israel boycott movement in higher education — along with prominent pro-Israel attorney and frequent Trump ally Alan Dershowitz are also quoted in the report, in sections on the rise of antisemitism on college campuses.The report echoed some Brandeis Center language that some criticized as inflammatory, including its chair’s claims that the University of California-Berkeley had instituted “Jew-free zones” after some law students adopted a bylaw boycotting Zionist guest speakers.The commission recommended that Virginia create a law prohibiting the state from doing business with entities that boycott Israel, similar to laws in several other states. It also recommended that Youngkin use an executive order banning “academic boycotts of foreign countries,” without specifying which countries.The commission did not mention Youngkin’s own brushes with antisemitism controversies, including his 2021 assertion that Jewish Democratic megadonor George Soros was secretly inserting liberal operatives into the state’s school boards. His political action committee also financially supported a Republican state House candidate who in an ad depicted his Jewish opponent with a digitally enlarged nose, surrounded by gold coins.“Hatred, intolerance, and antisemitism have no place in Virginia and I appreciate the committee’s hard work to highlight and grapple with these matters,” Youngkin said Monday in a statement.Sam Asher, director of the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, said his main contribution as a member of the commission was to push for the state to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which other states and countries have done. He also pushed for more Holocaust education across the state, and both of those recommendations made the final report.“I think it’s a very good report,” he said. “Now we need to put things into legislation.”The executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington told The Washington Post that he was generally “thrilled” by the report, but he added that he wants local Jewish leaders to get time to digest its recommendations.“I would hope that the governor and legislative leaders would not take steps on any of these things until they’ve consulted with the people who it’s going to have the most impact on,” Ron Halber said.

IDF Cyber Defense unit holds drill with US Cyber Command-Joint exercise this week included training for ‘several real-world scenarios… with an emphasis on the Middle East,’ Israeli military says-By Emanuel Fabian    Today, 11:23 am 0

The Israeli military said Thursday that its Cyber Defense Brigade and the United States Cyber Command held a joint exercise over the past week.The drill included training for “several real-world scenarios… with an emphasis on the Middle East,” the Israel Defense Forces said.“This exercise is a continuation of the IDF’s close cooperation with USCYBERCOM and expresses the growing partnership between the US Armed Forces and the IDF in the cyber domain, which is reflected in joint and intensive operational activities in various arenas,” the IDF added.The Cyber Defense Brigade, part of the IDF’s Computer Service Directorate, is a technological operational body that is in charge of providing the Israeli army and all of its systems with the defense it needs from cyberattacks.The drill took place at the Georgia Cyber Center, in Augusta, Georgia, and is the seventh such joint exercise between the IDF and the US Cyber ​​Command, the military said.
“Cyberspace ​​is a combat dimension that has been developing at a significant pace in recent years. Cyberwarfare takes place continuously around the world, and has a diverse potential for influence in different circles,” said Maj. Gen. Eran Niv, head of the Computer Service Directorate.“The exercise, which is not the first or the last, practically reflects the challenges of the cyber dimension, which changes from year to year and presents us with strategic challenges,” said the commander of the Cyber Defense Brigade, Brig. Gen. “Resh” — who can only be identified by the initial of his first name and rank due to security concerns.In September, a senior IDF officer said the military had foiled dozens of attempted Iranian cyberattacks — mostly on Israeli civilian infrastructure — over the past year.Israel and Iran have been engaged for years in a largely clandestine cyberwar that occasionally bubbles to the surface. Israeli officials accused Iran of attempting to hack Israel’s water system in 2020, while Iran has blamed Israel for cyberattacks on the country’s infrastructure.The IDF believes that one of Iran’s main goals when it comes to cyberattacks is to instill fear within Israeli society. Therefore, Iran primarily targets civilian sites that do not necessarily cause damage to the military, but cause panic among the public.Aside from the attempted attack on Israel’s water systems in 2020, a cyberattack in June thought to have been carried out by an Iranian group caused false rocket sirens to ring out in Jerusalem and Eilat.Last year, a hospital in central Israel came under a major cyberattack, and its systems remained down for several days until military officials and other experts assisted in restoring its data.The IDF says it has assessed that Iran has invested enormous resources into the development of offensive cyber capabilities.At the same time, the IDF says it has invested its own resources into expanding its existing cyber defense capabilities, including holding routine drills with American counterparts at the United States Cyber Command.Meanwhile, Iran has accused the United States and Israel of cyberattacks that have impaired the country’s infrastructure.In June, an alleged Israeli cyberattack caused a large fire at a major Iranian steel plant. The attack was claimed by an anonymous group, but footage of the incident was published by Israeli TV, hinting that the operation had been carried out by Military Intelligence.Iran disconnected much of its government infrastructure from the internet after the Stuxnet computer virus — widely believed to be a joint US-Israeli creation — disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges in the country’s nuclear sites in the late 2000s.In a major incident last year, a cyberattack on Iran’s fuel distribution system paralyzed gas stations across the country, leading to long lines of angry motorists. The same anonymous hacking group, Gonjeshke Darande, claimed responsibility for the attack on fuel pumps.Israel generally maintains a policy of ambiguity regarding its operations against Iran and does not disclose its responsibility for them.

4 European envoys told by Brussels to ditch tour of Western Wall by Israel’s Erdan-Ambassadors to UN from Italy, Slovenia, Romania and Moldova pull out at last minute due to EU policy that does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem-By TOI staff    Today, 7:15 pm 1

Four European envoys to the UN pulled out of a visit to the Western Wall led by Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan after receiving a directive from Brussels not to participate given that the EU doesn’t recognize Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem.Envoys from Italy, Slovenia and Romania followed the order, as did the ambassador to Moldova, which is not an EU member but is closely aligned with Romania.The tour through the Old City and the Western Wall went ahead with seven other ambassadors from Serbia, Haiti, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Costa Rica, Belize and Georgia.A representative from the US Mission to the UN has also been traveling with the delegation, but he bowed out of the Old City tour, having already visited the Western Wall before. Another ambassador from Malta was also supposed to be on Friday’s tour but had not arrived in Israel yet.Erdan blasted their “cowardly” decision, saying in a statement that it only strengthened his resolve “to reveal our truth.”“The visit of the ambassadors that I am leading to Israel is part of my war in the UN to expose the lies of the Palestinians and their attempt to erase our thousand-year-old connection to Jerusalem,” he said While Israel annexed East Jerusalem, including the Old City after capturing it in the 1967 Six Day War, most of the international community hasn’t recognized the step. Former US president Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and several countries have followed the US in moving their embassies there. However, none have taken a position on the borders of the city, and Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.In total, 13 ambassadors are part of the delegation led by Erdan and UAE Ambassador to the UN Lana Nusseibah. Nusseibah wasn’t pictured at the Western Wall either. The group started their trip in the UAE and met with President Mohammed bin Zayed.While in Israel, the UN envoys will meet with President Isaac Herzog, prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Yad Vashem and tour a Hezbollah terror tunnel on the northern border with IDF officials.

At Abraham Accords confab, Likud MK claims Saudi peace likely within a year-Danny Danon, former envoy to the UN, says Netanyahu’s priority upon taking office is to expand agreements-By Lazar Berman-11 December 2022, 11:26 pm 0

Likud MK Danny Danon told an international Abraham Accords forum on Thursday that he expects to “see an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia in the coming year.”Danon, a former envoy to the UN, told The Times of Israel that his assessment is “based on conversations and talks” he has had recently, but would not refer to a specific effort underway.“Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu will have the expansion of the Abraham Accords as one of his top priorities,” he added, stressing that the presumptive incoming premier would make the United Arab Emirates his first international stop upon taking office.Dozens of diplomats, clergy, business leaders, and academics gathered in Rome at the Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit to discuss ways to expand on the agreements.In September 2020, Israel signed normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. It signed a similar agreement with Morocco months later.Sunni power Saudi Arabia is seen as the big prize, and quiet cooperation exists between Riyadh and Jerusalem. But Israel is eager to turn the security ties into full-fledge diplomatic recognition.In July, Saudi Arabia announced that its airspace would be open to all commercial airliners, in a nod to Israel, which was believed to be the only country barred from flying over the Gulf kingdom. The US and Israel characterized the move as a step toward normalization between Riyadh and Jerusalem, though Saudi Arabia sought to downplay the gesture, saying it was not a precursor to any additional moves so long as there is no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The accords have been the cause of much excitement in Israel, but there is reason for concern. While headlines tell of comfortable and joyous encounters between Israelis and Arabs in the Gulf and in Morocco, the data show a worrying trend: As time goes on, the Abraham Accords are becoming less popular on the streets of Israel’s new allies.Washington Institute polling showed 45 percent of Bahrainis held very or somewhat positive views of the agreements in November 2020. That support had steadily eroded to a paltry 20% by March of this year.The trend is the same in the UAE. The 49% of the country that disapproved of the Abraham Accords in 2020 had grown to over two-thirds as of last month. And only 31% of Moroccans favor normalization, according to Arab Barometer.However, the message coming out of Rome on Thursday was one of optimism.“I come here today, as a free Iranian to tell you that peace between Israel, Iran, and even between the Shi’a and the Sunni world is closer than ever,” said Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, an Iranian-born Shi’ite cleric living in Australia.“The people of Iran have seen the fruits of the Abraham Accords, they have witnessed how fast peace can be built and many remember the days of Israeli tourists visiting Tehran and long for those days to return.”Georgi Velikov Panayotov, Bulgaria’s envoy to the US, said the accords should serve as a model to Europe at war.“We don’t need politicians who are adjusting their opinions according to opinion polls, but we need politicians with vision,” he told The Times of Israel. “We need politicians that do the right thing in order to secure peace and the common good.”Panayatov even imagined the agreements growing into a political body similar to the European Union, which began as an economic partnership. “They understood that economic cooperation is key to stability and peace,” he said.Among the attendees from over 30 countries were Houda Nonoo, Bahrain’s former envoy in Washington; Alojz Peterle, past Slovenian premier; former Finnish foreign minister Timo Soini; South Sudanese diplomat Akuei Bona Malwal; and Katharina Von Schnurbein, the European Commission antisemitism czar.

Netanyahu meets with delegation of visiting UN ambassadors, touts Abraham Accords-Presumed incoming PM also discusses the ‘ongoing struggle’ against Iran’s attempts to gain nuclear weapons-By TOI staff-11 December 2022, 10:01 pm 0

Presumed prime minister-to-be Benjamin Netanyahu met on Sunday with a group of 13 United Nations ambassadors who are visiting Israel.
Netanyahu spoke with the delegation — which visited the United Arab Emirates before arriving in Israel — about the “historical importance of the Abraham Accords,” according to his office.The office did not say which nations the delegation members were from.
Netanyahu also discussed the “ongoing struggle” against Iran’s attempts to gain nuclear weapons, as well as the possibilities of expanding the Abraham Accords to other nations.He highlighted what he said were opportunities for additional agreements and collaborations with Israel’s regional neighbors, his office said.The visit was led and organized by the Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN Gilad Erdan, in collaboration with the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the UAE to the UN Lana Nusseibeh.
Netanyahu and the right-religious bloc he leads won 64 of the 120 Knesset seats in general elections last month. He has until December 21 to form a government — set to be the most right-wing in Israeli history — after President Isaac Herzog on Friday granted him 10 additional days to finish the task, one which has proven more complicated than Netanyahu had initially hoped.Also on Friday, Hadash-Ta’al chairman MK Ayman Odeh met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and expressed concerns about the incoming government.During their meeting at UN Headquarters in New York, Odeh said Israel’s Arab population was fearful of the far-right incoming government and asked for “international intervention” to protect it from potential harm from the presumed incoming national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir.In a letter he presented to Guterres during the meeting, Odeh wrote that Ben Gvir “has defended and glorified Jewish terrorists who have murdered Arab Palestinians and called for Arabs to be forcibly transferred from the state.”Jacob Magid contributed to this report.

PA’s Abbas says he opposes armed resistance, for now-In rare interview, Palestinian Authority president attributes recent attacks against Israelis to ‘oppression,’ calls Israel’s UN membership ‘illegal’ By Jack Mukand    Today, 9:12 am 5

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday in a rare interview that he is opposed to taking up arms against Israel, but warned he might change his mind.“I do not support armed Palestinian resistance, but that could change. It could change — tomorrow, the next day or some other time. Everything changes,” Abbas told the Saudi Arabian news station Al Arabiya.He also rationalized recent violence when asked about the high number of Palestinian attacks against Israelis.“The [Palestinian] people are being oppressed and oppressed and oppressed to the point where they explode,” he said, adding that “Palestinians are being made to lose their patience.”
Abbas has long advocated non-violent resistance and negotiations with Israel rather than organized terrorism or militant activity. The stance has helped Abbas maintain power, enabling foreign partners to feel more at ease bankrolling the PA, and leading some Israeli leaders to trust him enough to coordinate on issues of shared concern, such as security.The declared renunciation of terror by the Palestine Liberation Organization under Yasser Arafat in 1988, though never universally accepted as genuine by Israelis, was an important step toward convincing Israeli governments at the time to recognize the PLO as the Palestinians’ political representative and eventually as a partner for negotiations.Abbas’s preference for what he calls “popular resistance” rather than armed struggle has sometimes put him at odds with members of his Fatah party and with the Palestinian general public, 56 percent of which supports armed attacks against Israelis, according to a June 2022 poll.Earlier this year, Abbas condemned two terrorist attacks — in Tel Aviv in April and in Elad in May. While often speaking out against terrorism in general, the statements were rare instances of Abbas condemning individual attacks.The Israeli military and PA security forces work together to tamp down terrorism in the West Bank, coordination that is condemned by a significant majority of Palestinians, according to opinion polls.In response to that criticism, Abbas said in Wednesday’s interview, “Security coordination is a part of the agreements [with Israel]. When it comes to security coordination our approach is to fight terrorism no matter where.”He noted that the PA has signed agreements to combat violence and terrorism with 85 countries worldwide.Soon after mentioning the agreements with Israel, Abbas hedged, however.“We are, along with Israel, against terrorism and violence. But if Israel continues with its behavior, I will not be bound by the security agreement. I will cancel my commitment to it,” he said.The PA briefly suspended security coordination with Israel in 2020 due to the government’s stated intention at the time to annex all or parts of the West Bank. Then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu later that year axed those plans after it became clear that the Trump Administration would not support them and, subsequently, in order to establish the Abraham Accords.Netanyahu is currently holding coalition negotiations after his bloc won a majority in last month’s election and is expected to become prime minister again in the coming weeks.“I will work with [Netanyahu],” Abbas said, “without giving up any of my longstanding commitments.”He claimed that the incoming Netanyahu government — slated to be the most right-wing in Israeli history — would in no way differ from previous Israeli governments, including the one in power when Israel was established in 1948, which he accused of committing massacres against Palestinian civilians.Abbas also highlighted his recent efforts to raise awareness on the international stage, such as the PA’s appeals to international courts for advisory opinions on Israel’s military rule in the West Bank.He described a growing international consensus in support of the Palestinians but said the US was standing in the way of UN resolutions against Israel being implemented on the ground.Abbas argued that Israel’s membership in the UN is in fact “illegal” because of Israel’s failure to implement two resolutions in particular. He claimed Israel’s admittance to the UN as a full member in 1949 was conditioned on compliance with Resolution 181, from 1947, which partitioned Mandatory Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state, and 1948’s Resolution 194, often interpreted to enshrine Palestinians’ right to return to the places from which they left, fled or were expelled during the War of Independence.Israel’s promises to comply are in fact noted in the text of the resolution admitting Israel, but they’re not portrayed as having been necessary conditions for the new state’s accession. Palestinian political representatives rejected Resolution 181 when it was passed by the UN.Abbas has long fought for full member status in the UN in order to strengthen Palestinians’ diplomatic position. Currently, the “State of Palestine” is an “observer non-member,” a status it shares only with the Holy See.Critics say Palestinian appeals to the international community are a way to pressure Israel while avoiding direct negotiations.

Gaza officials: Over 60 tombs discovered in Roman era burial site-Work crews have been excavating the site since it was discovered in January, during preparations for a new housing project-By Agencies-11 December 2022, 8:13 pm 1

GAZA STRIP — Authorities in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip announced on Sunday the discovery of over 60 tombs in an ancient burial site dating back to the Roman era.Work crews have been excavating the site since it was discovered in January during preparations for an Egyptian-funded housing project.Hiyam al-Bitar, a researcher from the Hamas-run Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, said a total of 63 graves have been identified and that a set of bones and artifacts from one tomb was dated back to the 2nd century CE.She said the ministry is working with a team of French experts to learn more about the site. On Sunday, workers sifted through the soil and removed piles of dirt in wheelbarrows.Although the ancient cemetery is now blocked off from the public, construction on the housing project has continued and the site is surrounded by apartment buildings. Local media reported looting when the site was first discovered, with people using donkey-drawn carts to haul away items like a covered casket and inscribed bricks.The discovery was first made by construction workers in Jabaliya, in the northern part of the coastal enclave, as part of a reconstruction project carried out by Egypt following the 2021 May conflict between Israel and Hamas.Gaza, a coastal enclave home to more than 2 million people, is known for its rich history stemming from its location on ancient trade routes between Egypt and the Levant.While Israel has many archaeologists reporting on an impressive number of ancient treasures, the sector is largely neglected in Gaza.Authorities periodically announce discoveries in the territory, but tourism at archaeological sites is limited.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

NASA’s Orion returns from lunar flyby, 50 years to the day since last moon landing-Spacecraft splashes down off coast of California, paving the way for live astronauts on the next flyby; capsule carries test dummy wearing Israeli radiation tech-By AP and TOI staff    11 December 2022, 11:01 pm 0

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — NASA’s new Orion capsule made a blisteringly fast return from the moon Sunday, parachuting into the Pacific Ocean, off Mexico, to conclude a test flight that should clear the way for astronauts on the next lunar flyby.The incoming capsule hit the atmosphere at Mach 32, or 32 times the speed of sound, and endured reentry temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) before splashing down west of Baja California near Guadalupe Island. A Navy ship quickly moved in to recover the spacecraft and its silent occupants — three test dummies rigged with vibration sensors and radiation monitors.Israeli technology was a key part of the mission, with StemRad participating in the mission in a demonstration of its unique product.  The company develops radiation protection suits for space explorers, emergency responders, defense forces, nuclear industry workers and medical personnel.As part of the uncrewed Artemis I mission, StemRad was assessing the protective qualities of the AstroRad, an anti-radiation suit co-developed with Lockheed Martin to protect astronauts’ vital organs from harmful gamma radiation. The suit was placed on a mannequin aboard the Orion.The humanoid stand-ins, called “anthropometric radiation phantoms,” were provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), a partner that will study the AstroRad’s performance in space. Dubbed the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE), the study will provide a comparative analysis of two female phantoms — one named Zohar, in a nod to Israel, which wore the AstroRad — and its unprotected counterpart, Helga, named by the German team.NASA hailed the descent and splashdown as close to perfect.“I’m overwhelmed,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said from Mission Control in Houston. “This is an extraordinary day… It’s historic because we are now going back into space — deep space — with a new generation.”The space agency needed a successful splashdown to stay on track for the next Orion flight around the moon, currently targeted for 2024. Four astronauts will make the trip. That will be followed by a two-person lunar landing as early as 2025.Astronauts last landed on the moon exactly 50 years ago Sunday. After touching down on December 11, 1972, Apollo 17’s Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent three days exploring the valley of Taurus-Littrow, the longest stay of the Apollo era. They were the last of the 12 moonwalkers.Orion was the first capsule to visit the moon since then, launching on NASA’s new mega moon rocket from Kennedy Space Center on November 16. It was the first flight of NASA’s new Artemis moon program, named after Apollo’s mythological twin sister.“From Tranquility Base to Taurus-Littrow to the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the latest chapter of NASA’s journey to the moon comes to a close. Orion back on Earth,” announced Mission Control commentator Rob Navias.While no one was on the $4 billion test flight, NASA managers were thrilled to pull off the dress rehearsal, especially after so many years of flight delays and busted budgets. Fuel leaks and hurricanes conspired for additional postponements in late summer and fall.In an Apollo throwback, NASA held a splashdown party at Houston’s Johnson Space Center on Sunday, with employees and their families gathering to watch the broadcast of Orion’s homecoming. Next door, the visitor center threw a bash for the public.Getting Orion back intact after the 25-day flight was NASA’s top objective. With a return speed of 25,000 mph (40,000 kph) — considerably faster than coming in from low-Earth orbit — the capsule used a new, advanced heat shield never tested before in spaceflight. To reduce the gravity or G loads, it dipped into the atmosphere and briefly skipped out, also helping to pinpoint the splashdown area.All that unfolded in spectacular fashion, Nelson noted, allowing for Orion’s safe return.The splashdown occurred more than 300 miles (482 kilometers) south of the original target zone. Forecasts calling for choppy seas and high wind off the Southern California coast prompted NASA to switch the location.Orion logged 1.4 million miles (2.25 million kilometers) as it zoomed to the moon and then entered a wide, swooping orbit for nearly a week before heading home.It came within 80 miles (130 kilometers) of the moon twice. At its farthest, the capsule was more than 268,000 miles (430,000 kilometers) from Earth.Orion beamed back stunning photos of not only the gray, pitted moon, but also the home planet. As a parting shot, the capsule revealed a crescent Earth — Earthrise — that left the mission team speechless.Nottingham Trent University astronomer Daniel Brown said the flight’s many accomplishments illustrate NASA’s capability to put astronauts on the next Artemis moonshot. The space agency expects to announce the crew within the next six months. Orion, meanwhile, should be back at Kennedy by the end of this December for further inspections.“This was the nail-biting end of an amazing and important journey for NASA’s Orion spacecraft,” Brown said in a statement from England.The moon has never been hotter. Just hours earlier Sunday, a spacecraft rocketed toward the moon from Cape Canaveral. The lunar lander belongs to ispace, a Tokyo company intent on developing an economy up there. Two US companies, meanwhile, have lunar landers launching early next year.