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INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

SHOULD 

COMPLICITY IN GENOCIDE BE NEXT?

Israel Keeps Killing Civilians and Rejects Any Sovereignty for Palestinians By Philip Giraldi, February 02, 2024

Israel’s Starvation Strategy By Mike Whitney, February 02, 2024

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PLEASE NOTICE THAT THE US-EU-NATO ARE IN PRACTICE SUPPORTING THE KILLING OF THOUSANDS OF NEWBORNS AND CHILDREN BY DEHYDRATION AND FAMINE.

THE BOTTON OF DEPRAVITY HAS CONSEQUENTLY BEEN REACHED NOW.

FORWARDED BY PEPE ESCOBAR – TELEGRAM

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HIGHLIGHT

Are We Turning the Corner Away from Genocide and the Criminality Inherent in the Rules-Based International Order?

Why Did the ICJ Put the Netanyahu Government in Charge of Preventing and Punishing the Gaza Genocide?

By Prof. Anthony J. Hall

Global Research, February 06, 2024

Region: Middle East & North AfricaUSA

Theme: Law and JusticeUnited Nations

In-depth Report: PALESTINE

*Featured image is from the author

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Prof. Anthony J. Hall, Global Research, 2024

Are We Turning the Corner Away from Genocide and the Criminality Inherent in the Rules-Based International Order? By Prof. Anthony J. Hall, February 06, 2024 *

“Fake Justice” at The Hague: The ICJ “Appoints” Netanyahu to “Prevent” and “Punish” Those Responsible for “Genocidal Acts” By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, February 04, 2024

Netanyahu, Galant, Ben-Gvir, Katz, Smotrich, et al are the architects of Genocide. Yet they have been assigned by the ICJ with a mandate “To Prevent and Punish” those who have committed “genocidal acts”

[*] [Excerpts from Prof. Anthony Hall, “Are we turning thecorner … ]:- “As Prof. Chossudovsky sees it, the ICJ has framed its ruling in ways meant to cushion the executive branch of the Israeli government from prosecution for genocide. The scholar is very suspicious of the role of the Chairman of the World Court, Joan Donoghue, a former lawyer for Hillary Clinton when she was US Secretary of State. Prof. Chossudovsky believes Judge Donoghue is taking signals from the US government and that she should have recused herself from the proceedings for having a conflict of interest.

In setting up an obstacle to the prosecution of the executive branch of the Israeli government, Judge Donoghue is by implication also protecting the executive branch of the US government. The US government can be viewed as a full partner in the Gaza genocide in spite of the unconvincing play acting by some in the Biden administration.”

A “False Flag” Operation to Justify The Israel-U.S. Genocide against the People of Palestine By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, February 08, 2024

*

Israel’s “false flag” is a complex military-intelligence undertaking, carefully planned, in liaison with the US. “Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 … more than a year before it happened” (NYT).

SNAPSHOT INTERNET –

FOTO – Claus Schwab e seu pai Eugenio Wilhelm Schwab, membro do Partido Nazista. Eugenio Wilhelm Schwab serviu o “Terceiro Reich”, entre outras coisas, no papel de diretor da Escher Wyss AG

Escher Wyss AG – na época uma corporação industrial construtora, entre outras coisas, do lança-chamas usado para matar militares da coalizão anti-hitleriana, assim como incendiar e incinerar povoados ao redor de Ratynín. QUARTO REICH?

A Firma de [Eugenio Wilhelm] Schwab esteve sob proteção especial de Hitler – Essa companhia entrava em vigor como uma importante parte do complexo da indústria militar do Terceiro Reich e ela foi até mesmo agraciada com o título de honra de “Empresa Nacional-Socialista de Educação”. Em essência ela se tornou na “Empresa de Graduação/ Empresa Modelo” da cidade de Ravensburgo. Nesse sentido o pai de Claus Schwab não só dirigiu a companhia, mas sim a própria cidade também, cidade essa que ficou conhecida pelo fato de que nela, na prática, implementavam-se os métodos e princípios (- inclusive vacinações-) eugênicos. Isso sendo feito para matar “comedores/pessoas inúteis”. Em forma concentrada informações a respeito do chefe do “WEF” (na sigla inglesa) foram compiladas e publicadas na imprensa ocidental em 18 de março no material–  “Claus Schwab e o Quarto Reich”.

QUARTO REICH?

SNAPSHOT INTERNET

[TO UNDERSTAND THE CONNECTIONS SUGGESTED ABOVE TRY HERE, ON THIS SITE, THE PAGES “QUARTA REVOLUÇÃO?” AND “OTAN-NATO-E-O-CHE“] 

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GLOBAL RESEARCH

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THE SILENCE OF THE DAMNED

OUR LEADIND HUMANITARIAN AND CIVIC INSTITUTIONS, INCLUDING MAJOR MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS, REFUSE TO DENOUNCE ISRAEL´S GENOCIDE IN GAZA. THIS EXPOSES THEIR HYPOCRISY AND COMPLICITY.

CHRIS HEDGES, 31 JAN. 2024

THE CHRIS HEDGES REPORT

There is no effective health care system left in Gaza. Infants are dying. Children are having their limbs amputated without anesthesia. Thousands of cancer patients and those in need of dialysis lack treatment. The last cancer hospital in Gaza has ceased functioning. An estimated 50,000 pregnant women have no safe place to give birth. They undergo cesarean sections without anesthesia. Miscarriage rates are up 300 percent since the Israeli assault began. The wounded bleed to death. There is no sanitation or clean water. Hospitals have been bombed and shelled. Nasser Hospital, one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza, is “near collapse.” Clinics, along with ambulances – 79 in Gaza and over 212 in the West Bank – have been destroyed. Some 400 doctors, nurses, medics and healthcare workers have been killed — more than the total of all healthcare workers killed in conflicts around the world combined since 2016. Over 100 more have been detained, interrogated, beaten and tortured, or disappeared by Israeli soldiers. 

Israeli soldiers routinely enter hospitals to carry out forced evacuations – on Wednesday troops entered al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis and demanded doctors and displaced Palestinians leave – as well as round up detainees, including the wounded, sick and medical staff. On Tuesday, disguised as hospital workers and civilians, Israeli soldiers entered Jenin’s Ibn Sina Hospital in the West Bank and assassinated three Palestinians as they slept. 

The cuts to funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) — collective punishment for the alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 attack of 12 of its 13,000 UNRWA workers  —  will accelerate the horror, turning the attacks, starvation, lack of health care and spread of infectious diseases in Gaza into a tidal wave of death. 

The evidence-free charges, which include the accusation that 10 percent of all of UNRWA’s Gaza staff have ties to Islamist militant groups, appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The reporter, Carrie-Keller Lynn, served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Given the numerous lies Israel has employed to justify its genocide, including “beheaded babies” and “mass rape,” it is reasonable to assume this may be another fabrication. 

The allegations, of which details remain scant, are apparently based on confessions by Palestinian detainees — most certainly after being beaten or tortured. These allegations were enough to see 17 countries including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Australia and Japan cut or delay funding to the vital U.N. agency. UNRWA is all that stands between the Palestinians in Gaza and famine. A handful of countries, including Ireland, Norway and Turkey, maintain their funding. 

Eight of the UNRWA employees accused of participating in the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, where 1,139 people were killed and 240 abducted, were fired. Two have been suspended. UNRWA has promised an investigation. They account for 0.04 percent of UNRWA’s staff. 

Israel is seeking to destroy not only Gaza’s health care system and infrastructure, but UNRWA which provides food and aid to 2 million Palestinians. The object is to make Gaza uninhabitable and ethnically cleanse the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands are already starving. Over 70 percent of the housing has been destroyed. More than 26,700 people have been killed and over 65,600 have been injured. Thousands are missing. Some 90 percent of Gaza’s pre-war population has been displaced, with many living in the open. Palestinians have been reduced to eating grass and drinking contaminated water.

Noga Arbell, a former Israeli foreign ministry official, during a discussion in the Israeli parliament on Jan. 4, stated: “It will be impossible to win the war if we do not destroy UNRWA, and this destruction must begin immediately.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, saying UNWRA was “totally infiltrated by Hamas,” reiterated the call to shut UNRWA down.

If UNWRA is abolished it puts into question the Palestinian’s status as refugees, imperiling the “Right of Return,” the demand, long rejected by Israel, that Palestinians be allowed to go back to their homes in what is now Israel.

“It’s time for the international community and the UN itself to understand that UNRWA’s mission must be terminated,” Netanyahu told visiting UN delegates, according to a statement from his office. “It seeks to preserve the issue of Palestinian refugees. We must replace UNRWA with other UN agencies and other aid agencies, if we want to solve the Gaza problem as we plan to do.”

More than 152 of UNRWA’s employees in Gaza — including school principals, teachers, health workers, a gynecologist, engineers, support staff and a psychologist — have been killed since the Israeli attacks began. Over 141 UNRWA facilities have been bombed into rubble. The death toll is the largest loss of staff during a conflict in the U.N.’s history.

The destruction of healthcare facilities and targeting of doctors, nurses, medics and staff is especially repugnant. It means the most vulnerable, the sick, infants, the wounded and elderly, and those who care for them, are often condemned to death.

Palestinian doctors are pleading with doctors and medical organizations from around the world to decry the assault on the healthcare system and mobilize their institutions to protest. 

“The world must condemn the acts against medical professionals happening in Gaza,” writes the director of Al-Shifa hospital, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, who was arrested along with other medical personnel by the Israelis in November 2023 while evacuating with a World Health Organization (WHO) convoy, and who remains in custody. “This Correspondence is a call for every human being, all medical communities, and all health-care professionals around the world to call for these anti-hospital activities inside and around the hospitals to stop, which is a civilian obligation according to international law, the UN, and WHO.”

But these institutions — with a few notable exceptions such as The American Public Health Association that has called for a ceasefire — have either remained silent or, as with Dr. Matthew K. Wynia, the director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado, attempted to justify Israeli war crimes. These doctors — who somehow find it acceptable that in Gaza a child is killed every 10 minutes on average — are accomplices to genocide and stand in violation of the Geneva Convention. They embrace death as a solution, not life. 

Robert Jay Lifton in his book “The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide” writes that “genocidal projects require the active participation of educated professionals — physicians, scientists, engineers, military leaders, lawyers, clergy, university professors and other teachers — who combine to create not only the technology of genocide but much of its ideological rationale, moral climate, and organizational process.” 

A group of 100 Israeli doctors in November 2023 defended the bombing of hospitals in Gaza, claiming they were used as Hamas command centers, a charge Israel has been unable to verify. 

The deans of U.S. medical schools and leading medical organizations, especially the American Medical Association (AMA), have joined the ranks of universities, law schools, churches and the media to turn their backs on the Palestinians. The AMA shut down a debate on a ceasefire resolution among its members and has called for “medical neutrality,” although it abandoned “medical neutrality” to denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

There is a cost to denouncing this genocide, a cost they do not intend to pay. They fear being attacked. They fear destroying their careers. They fear losing funding. They fear a loss of status. They fear persecution. They fear social isolation. This fear makes them complicit. 

And what of those who do speak out? They are branded as antisemites and supporters of terrorism. George Washington University clinical psychology professor Lara Sheehi was pushed out of her job. The former head of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, was denied a fellowship at Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy because of his alleged “anti-Israel bias.” San Francisco professor Rabab Abdulhadi was sued for supporting Palestinian rights. Shahd Abusalama was suspended from Sheffield Hallam University in the U.K after a vicious smear campaign, although the institution later settled her discrimination claim against it. Professor Jasbir Puar at Rutgers University is an ongoing target for the Israel lobby and endures constant harassment. Medical students and faculty in Canada face suspension or expulsion if they publicly criticize Israel. 

The danger is not only that the Israeli crimes are denounced. The danger, more importantly, is that the moral bankruptcy and cowardice of the institutions and their leaders are exposed.

This brings me to Dr. Rupa Marya, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), whose call to halt bombing hospitals and to examine the impact of Zionism as a racist ideology unleashed a torrent of vitriolic attacks against her, attacks tacitly endorsed by the medical school where she works. 

She has been slandered as an antisemite and targeted by the Canary Mission, a Zionist organization that seeks to defame and destroy the careers of students and faculty that criticize Israel and defend Palestinian rights. She has had speaking engagements rescinded and received death threats and messages such as: “kill yourself you retarded grifting n*gger,” “Jew baiting c*nt,” and “White people are the greatest people on Earth. You know this.” 

You can see her statement on the campaign against her here.

There is a striking contrast between the treatment of Dr. Marya and the physicians who cheer on the genocide. UCSF physician Matt Cooperberg, who is the Helen Diller Family Chair in Urology, ‘liked’ social media posts such as “REMOVE Palestinians FORM [sic] MAP” and a quote by former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir: “We are able to forgive the the [sic] arabs for killing our children. We are unable to forgive the arabs for forcing us to kill their children.”

“Cooperberg’s endowed chair comes from the Helen Diller Family Foundation, UCSF’s largest donor, which to date has gifted some $1.15 billion dollars to the health campus,” Dr. Marya writes. “In 2018, due to a mistake on a tax form, the Helen Diller Family Foundation was exposed as a funder of the Canary Mission. The Foundation attempted to erase its connection after this exposure.”

She continues:

As a faculty member at UCSF, disgraced dermatologist Howard Maibach exposed and injected over 2,600 imprisoned Black and brown people with chemicals in experiments that echoed the experiments put on trial at the Doctors’ Trial just a few years before he went to medical school in Pennsylvania. There he studied under Albert Kligman, who taught him how to exploit Black people for medical experimentation, documented extensively in the horror nonfiction book, Acres of Skin.  Maibach also advanced notions of racial differences in skin, furthering racist ideas from the pseudoscience of eugenics. Race is a social construct that enshrines supremacism. It is not a biological reality.

Most of Maibach’s experiments were conducted without informed consent, and while UCSF issued an apology, Maibach is still employed by the University of California. His family supports the Friends of the IDF, and he is represented by Alan Dershowitz, who also argued for the bombing of hospitals in Gaza. Dershowitz attempted to prevent me from speaking at the AMA’s first National Health Equity Grand Rounds, where scholar Harriet Washington, who studies medical experimentation on Black people, highlighted Maibach’s racist practices. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, UCSF faculty, trainees and students of color brought Maibach’s story to light, and many have expressed their horror that they have to continue to sit in the same room as this man during Dermatology Grand Rounds. But the problem is not just one man. It is a system that allows someone with these values and actions to continue to be present in our learning and practicing community.

The dehumanization of Palestinians is lifted from the playbook of all settler colonial projects, including our own. This racism, where people of color are branded as “human animals,” is coded within the DNA of our institutions. It infects those chosen to lead these institutions. It lies at the core of our national identity. It is why the two ruling parties and the institutions that sustain them side with Israel. It feeds the perverted logic of funneling weapons and billions of dollars in support to sustain Israel’s occupation and genocide. 

History will not judge us kindly. But it will revere those who, under siege, found the courage to say no. 

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SHOULD COMPLICITY IN GENOCIDE BE

THE NEXT ONE TO BE JUDGED IN

INTERNATIONAL COURTS?

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Big Money Agenda. Confiscating Palestine’s Maritime Natural Gas Reserves

Introduction

Israel has launched an invasion (October 7, 2023) of the Gaza Strip.

As outlined by Felicity Arbuthnot with foresight 10 years ago in a December, 30 2013 article: 

“Israel is set to become a major exporter of gas and some oil, “If All Goes to Plan”.

In the current context, Israel’s “All Goes to Plan” option consists in bypassing Palestine and “Wiping Gaza off the Map”,  as well confiscating ALL Gaza’s maritime offshore gas reserves, worth billions of dollars. 

The ultimate objective is not only to exclude Palestinians from their homeland, it consists in 

confiscating PALESTINE´S multi-billion dollar Gaza offshore Natural Gas reserves, 

namely those pertaining to the BG (BG Group) in 1999as well the Levant discoveries of 2013. 

Update. Israel’s Secret Intelligence Memorandum

An official “secret” memorandum authored by Israel’s  Ministry of Intelligence “is recommending the forcible and permanent transfer of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million Palestinian residents to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula”, namely to a refugee camp in Egyptian territory. There are indications of Israel-Egypt negotiations  as well as consultations with the U.S. 

The 10-page document, dated Oct. 13, 2023, bears the logo of the Intelligence Ministry … assesses three options regarding the future of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip … It recommends a full population transfer as its preferred course of action. … The document, whose authenticity was confirmed by the ministry, has been translated into English in full here on +972. See below, click here or below to access complete document (10 pages)

First published on October  22, 2023. Video added on October 27, 2023, Update, November 1, 2023

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Video: Michel Chossudovsky, Interview with Caroline Mailloux, Lux Media

TO VIEW THE VIDEO PLEASE USE THE LINK BELOW AFTER THIS PHOTO

MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY – FOLLOW THE MONEY: CONFISCATING PALESTINE’S NATURAL GAS RESERVE

TO VIEW THE VIDEO PLEASE USE THE LINK ABOVE

[TRADUZIDO EM PORTUGUÊS LOGO DEPOIS DO ORIGINAL AQUI EM INGLÊS]

Felicity Arbuthnot’s 2013 Analysis 

“The Giant Leviathan natural gas field, in the eastern Mediterranean, discovered in December 2010, widely described [by governments and media] as “off the coast of Israel.”

These Levant reserves must be distinguished from those discovered in Gaza in 1999 by British Gas, which belong to Palestine. Felicity Arbuthnot’s analysis nonetheless confirms that “Part of the Leviathan Gas fields lie in Gazan territorial waters” (See Map Below). 

Whilst Israel claims them as her very own treasure trove, only a fraction of the sea’s wealth lies in Israel’s bailiwick as maps. Much is still [, but currently Palestine’s Gaza and the West Bank between them show the greatest discoveries… (Felicity Arbuthnot, 2013) 

SEE THE MAP ABOVE: “LEVANT BASIN PROVINCE ASSESSMENT AREA” – WEST BANK-GAZA-ISRAEL. Big Money Agenda. Confiscating Palestine’s Maritime Natural Gas Reserves

Flash Forward to October 2023

Netanyahu’s October 2023 declaration of war against 2.3 million people of the Gaza Strip is a continuation of its 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza under “Operation Cast Lead.” 

The underlying objective is the outright military occupation of Gaza by Israel’s IDF forces and the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland.

I should however mention that there are powerful financial interests which stand to benefit from Israel’s criminal undertaking (Genocide) directed against Gaza. 

.The ultimate objective is not only to exclude Palestinians from their homeland, it consists in confiscating the multi-billion dollar Gaza offshore Natural Gas reserves, namely those pertaining to the BG (BG Group) in 1999as well the Levant discoveries of 2013. 

Egypt-Israel “Secret Bilateral Talks” 

In 2021-22, Egypt and Israel were involved in “secret bilateral talks” regarding “the extraction of natural gas off the coast of the Gaza Strip. 

“Egypt succeeded in persuading Israel to start extracting natural gas off the coast of the Gaza Strip, after several months of secret bilateral talks.

This development … comes after years of Israeli objections to extract natural gas off the coast of Gaza on [alleged] security grounds, … 

British Gas (BG Group) has also been dealing with the Tel Aviv government.

What is significant is that the civilian arm of the Hamas Gaza government has been bypassed in regards to exploration and development rights over the gas fields: 

The field, which lies about 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of the Gaza coast, was discovered in 2000 by British Gas (currently BG Group) and is estimated to contain more than 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas

The official in the Egyptian intelligence service told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “An Egyptian economic and security delegation discussed with the Israeli side for several months the issue of allowing the extraction of natural gas off the coast of Gaza. …Al-Monitor, October 22, 2022

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Egypt and Israel, which had the rubber-stamp of the Palestinian National Authority (PA):

“The Egyptian official explained that Israel required the start of practical measures to extract gas from the Gaza fields at the beginning of 2024, to ensure its own security. (Al-Monitor, October 22, 2022

Netanyahu’s Timeline: “Before The Beginning of 2024”

The timeline resulting from these bilateral Israel-Egypt “secret talks” i.e. confiscation of Palestine’s offshore Maritime Gas Reserves is “The Beginning of 2024”.

United Nations Assessment

An important United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2019) report describes Palestine’s predicament as follows: 

Geologists and natural resources economists have confirmed that the Occupied Palestinian Territory lies above sizeable reservoirs of oil and natural gas wealth, in Area C of the occupied West Bank and the Mediterranean coast off the Gaza Strip.

However, occupation continues to prevent Palestinians from developing their energy fields so as to exploit and benefit from such assets. As such, the Palestinian people have been denied the benefits of using this natural resource to finance socioeconomic development and meet their need for energy.

The accumulated losses are estimated in the billions of dollars. The longer Israel prevents Palestinians from exploiting their own oil and natural gas reserves, the greater the opportunity costs and the greater the total costs of the occupation borne by Palestinians become.

This study identifies and assesses existing and potential Palestinian oil and natural gas reserves that could be exploited for the benefit of the Palestinian people, which Israel is either preventing them from exploiting or is exploiting without due regard for international law. (UNCTAD, August 2019, emphasis added, download complete report)

Crimes against Humanity

In the words of Netanyahu who is on Record for Supporting and Financing a faction within Hamas:  

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas … This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

(Benjamin Netanyahu, statement at a March 2019 meeting of his Likud Party’s Knesset members, Haaretz, October 9, 2023, emphasis added)

“Hamas was treated as a partner to the detriment of the Palestinian Authority to prevent Abbas from moving towards creating a Palestinian State. Hamas was promoted from a terrorist group to an organization with which Israel conducted negotiations through Egypt, and which was allowed to receive suitcases containing millions of dollars from Qatar through the Gaza crossings.”

(Times of Israel, October 8, 2023, emphasis added)

Crimes against humanity beyond description by the Netanyahu government against the People of Palestine,

Crimes also committed against the People of Israel who are the victims of the Hamas “False Flag Attack” carefully engineered by Mossad-IDF.

There are deep-seated divisions within Hamas. Our “False Flag” analysis pertains to a military-intelligence faction within Hamas which cooperates with Israeli and U.S. intelligence.  See:

Is the Gaza-Israel Fighting “A False Flag”? They Let it Happen? Their Objective Is “to Wipe Gaza Off the Map”?

By Philip Giraldi and Prof Michel Chossudovsky, October 20, 2023

Michel Chossudovsky,  Global Research, October 21, 2023

Below is the 2013 article by Felicity Arbuthnot

Israel Gas-Oil and Trouble in the Levant

by Felicity Arbuthnot 

Global Research, 

December 13, 2013

Israel is set to become a major exporter of gas and some oil, if all goes to plan. The giant Leviathan natural gas field, in the eastern Mediterranean, discovered in December 2010, is widely described as “off the coast of Israel.”

 At the time the gas field was:

“ … the most prominent field ever found in the sub-explored area of the Levantine Basin, which covers about 83,000 square kilometres of the eastern Mediterranean region.” (i)

Coupled with Tamar field, in the same location, discovered in 2009, the prospects are for an energy bonanza for Israel, for Houston, Texas based Noble Energy and partners Delek Drilling, Avner Oil Exploration and Ratio Oil Exploration.

Also involved is Perth, Australia-based Woodside Petroleum, which has signed a memorandum of understanding for a thirty percent stake in the project, in negotiations which have been described as “up and down.”

There is currently speculation that Woodside might pull out of the deal: “ …since the original plans to refrigerate the gas for export were pursued when relations between Israel and Turkey were strained. That has changed, more recently, which has opened the door for gas to be piped to Turkey.”

The spoils of the Leviathan field has already expanded from an estimated 16.7 trillion cubic feet (tcf ) of gas to nineteen trillion – and counting:

”We’ve discovered nearly 40 tcf of gas, and we have roughly 19 tcf of that gas that’s available for export to both regional and extra-regional markets. We see exports reaching 2 billion cubic feet a day in capacity in the next decade. And we continue to explore.”, stated Noble Vice Chairman Keith Elliot (ii) There are also estimated to be possibly six hundred million barrels of oil, according to Michael Economides of energytribune.com (“Eastern Mediterranean Energy – the next Great Game.”)

 However, even these estimates may prove modest. In their: “Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the Levant Basin Province, Eastern Mediterranean”, the US Department of the Interior’s US Geological Survey, wrote in 2010:

“We estimated a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and a mean of 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas in this province using a geology based assessment methodology.”

Nevertheless, Woodside Petroleum, might also be hesitant to become involved in further disputes, since they are already embroiled, with the Australian government, in a protracted one in East Timor relating to the bonanaza of energy and minerals beneath the Timor Sea, which has even led to East Timor accusing Australia “of bugging East Timorese officials during the negotiations over the agreement.”(iii)

Woodside’s conflict in East Timor however, may well pale against what might well erupt over the Leviathan and Tamar fields. The area is not for nothing called the Levantine Basin.

Whilst Israel claims them as her very own treasure trove, only a fraction of the sea’s wealth lies in Israel’s bailiwick as maps (iv, v, see below) clearly show.

Much is still unexplored, but currently Palestine’s Gaza and the West Bank between them show the greatest discoveries, with anything found in Lebanon and Syria’s territorial waters sure to involve claims from both countries.

SEE THE MAP ABOVE: “LEVANT BASIN PROVINCE ASSESSMENT AREA” – WEST BANK-GAZA-ISRAEL. Big Money Agenda. Confiscating Palestine’s Maritime Natural Gas Reserves

In a pre-emptive move, on Christmas Day, Syria announced a deal with Russia to explore 2,190 kilometres (850 Sq. miles) for oil and gas off its Mediterranean coast, to be: “… financed by Russia, and should oil and gas be discovered in commercial quantities, Moscow will recover the exploration costs.”

Syrian Oil Minister, Ali Abbas said during the signing ceremony that the contract covers “25 years, over several phases.”

Syria, increasingly crippled by international sanctions, has seen oil production plummet by ninety percent since the largely Western fermented unrest began in March 2011. Gas production has nearly halved, from thirty million cubic metres a day, to 16.7 cubic metres daily.

The agreement is reported to have resulted from “months of long negotiations” between the two countries. Russia, as one of the Syrian government’s main backers, looks set to also become a major player in the Levant Basin’s energy wealth. (vi)

Lebanon disputes Israel’s map of the Israeli-Lebanese maritime border, filing their own map and claims with the UN in 2010. Israel claims Lebanon is in the process of granting oil and gas exploration licenses in what Israel claims as its “exclusive economic zone.”

That the US in the guise of Vice President Joe Biden, as honest broker, acting peace negotiator in the maritime border dispute would be laughable, were it not potential for Israel to attack their neighbour again. In a visit to Israel in March 2010, Biden announced: “There is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security- none at all”, also announcing on arrival in Israel:”It’s good to be home.”

Given US decades of  “peace brokering” between Israel and Palestine, this is already a road of pitfalls, one sidedness and duplicity, well traveled. There is trouble ahead.

Oh, and in demonology, Leviathan is one of the seven princes of Hell.

Notes

i. http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/leviathan-gas-field-levantine-israel/

ii. http://m.theage.com.au/business/options-widen-for-woodsides-leviathan-partners-20131219-2znu6.html

iii. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-04/east-timor-offers-funds-for-onshore- gas-processing/4933106

iv. http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/leviathan-gas-field-levantine-israel/leviathan-gas-field-levantine-israel1.html

v. http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Leviathan+gas+project+Israel+map&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ntC2UvO7IcPE7Ab7rIDYCQ&ved=0CEQQsAQ&biw=1017&bih=598

vi. http://www.phantomreport.com/syria-inks-oil-gas-deal-with-russia-firm#more-20238

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Felicity Arbuthnot and Prof Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2023

EM PORTUGUÊS

Israel: Gás, Petróleo e Problemas no Levante By Felicity Arbuthnot, January 07, 2014

[https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-gas-petroleo-e-problemas-no-levante/5364106]

[TRADUÇAO REVISADA 30 DE JANEIRO DE 2024]

Israel: Gás, Petróleo e Problemas no Levante

By Felicity Arbuthnot

Global Research, January 07, 2014

Israel se prepara para tornar-se um dos principais exportadores de gás assim como de algum petróleo, se tudo sair de acordo com os planos. O gigante campo de gás do “Leviathan”, no Leste do mar Mediterrâneo, descoberto em 2010, é apontado [na corrupta  mídia ocidental] como que “nas costas de Israel.”  Quando da descoberta o campo de gás era: “… o mais prominente campo jamais encontrado na área da Bacia do Leviathan, a qual cobre cerca de 83.000 km2 da região leste do  Mediterrâneo.” (1)

Esse campo de gás está ligado ao campo Tamar, o qual foi descoberto em 2009 e que se encontra nessa mesma localização. Isso representa um prospecto de muito dinheiro para Israel, para Houston, para Noble Energy baseada no Texas, e para os parceiros Delek Drilling, Ayner Oil Exploration assim como para o Ratio Oil Exploration. [drilling=perfuração/prospecção; exploration=exploração] – [de acordo com o original de 2013-14]

Também envolvida está Perth, Woodside Petroleum, o qual é baseado na Austrália, tendo já assinado um memorandum de entendimento para 30% do resultado do projeto. [2013-14] em negociações que foram descritas como que um “Yô-Yô”, indo prá-cima-e-prá-baixo continuamente. Especula-se que a Woodside poderia se retirar do acordo: “ … porque os planos originais de refrigerar o gás para exportação tinha sido conseguido de quando as relações entre Israel e Turquia estavam tensas. Isso teria depois mudado, o que abriria então as portas para entubar o gás para a Turquia.”

As avaliações dos potenciais dos campos do Leviathan já subiram dos estimados 16.7 trilhões cúbicos/feet (tcf) de gás, para dezenove trilhões … e ainda se continua a contar…

“Nós descobrimos quase 40 tcf de gás, e temos aproxidamente 19 tcf de gás em condições de exportação para mercados regionais e também para os além-de-regionais. Estamos olhando para capacidades de exportação alcançando 2 bilhões cúbicos-feet por dia, nos próximos dez anos. E ainda continuamos a explorar.”, declarou o vice-presidente da Noble, Keith Elliot (2). Lá também há a avaliação da possibilidade de seiscentos milhões de barrís de petróleo por dia, de acordo com Michael Economides da energytribune.com (“Eastern Mediterranean Energy – the next Great Game.”) [Mediterrâneo do Leste – O próximo Grande Jogo].

Entretanto, mesmo essas estimações poderiam entretanto ser modestas demais.

[“Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the Levant Basin Province, Eastern Mediterranean”, the US Department of the Interior’s US Geological Survey]

“Avaliações dos ainda por Descobrir Gás e Petróleo Recursos na Bacia da Província do Levante, Mediterrâneo Leste”, Pesquisa Geologica do Departamente do Interior  dos Estados Unidos  –  em 2010: “Nós estimamos uma média de 1.7 bilhões de barrís de petróleo de recuperação capaz (recoverable oil) e uma media de 122 trilhões cúbicos-feet de “recoverable” gas nessa província, baseados numa metodologia de avaliação geológica.”

Pode ser também que Woodside Petroleum possa estar hesitando quanto a se envolver em futuras disputas, porque está atualmente em prolongadas disputas no Timor Leste com a Austrália, quanto a riqueza (bonanza) energética e de minerais no sub-solo do Mar do Timor Leste, a qual já levou o o Timor Leste a acusar a Austrália de “espionar oficiais leste timorenses durante as negociações do acordo.” (3)

SEE THE MAP ABOVE: “LEVANT BASIN PROVINCE ASSESSMENT AREA” – WEST BANK-GAZA-ISRAEL. Big Money Agenda. Confiscating Palestine’s Maritime Natural Gas Reserves (CASO NÃO VEJA OS MAPAS AQUI CLICK PARA VER NO ORIGINAL)

Guerra y gas natural: la invasión israelí y los campos de gas marinos de Gaza – Israel: Gás, Petróleo e Problemas no Levante – Video: “Wiping Gaza Off The Map”: Big Money Agenda. Confiscating Palestine’s Maritime Natural Gas Reserves
Guerra y gas natural: la invasión israelí y los campos de gas marinos de Gaza – Israel: Gás, Petróleo e Problemas no Levante – Video: “Wiping Gaza Off The Map”: Big Money Agenda. Confiscating Palestine’s Maritime Natural Gas Reserves

Entretanto, o conflito da Woodside no Timor Leste pode muito bem se mostrar como que nada em comparação com o que pode ser levantado a respeito dos campos do Leviathan e Tamar. Não é por acaso que a região é conhecida como a Bacia do Levante (Levantine Basin).

Conquanto Israel as assuma como fazendo parte do seu próprio tesouro pessoal, só uma fracção das riquezas desse mar se encontram na região, no território, ou na zona de Israel, como mapas (4, 5) claramente o demonstram. Muito ainda não está explorado, mas actualmente a Gaza Palestiniana e o “West Bank”, respectivamente entre eles, mostram as maiores descobertas, tendo-se também que qualquer descoberta encontrada nas águas territoriais do Líbano e da Síria levantaria reinvidicações por parte de ambos.

Como que num passo de prevenção, no dia de natal, a Síria anunciou um acordo com a Rússia a respeito da exploração de 2.190 km (850 Square miles) de gás e petróleo na sua costa territorial, a ser:  “ …financiada pela Rússia. No caso de gás ou petróleo, ou ambos, serem descobertos em quantidades comerciais, Moscow iria poder cobrir os gastos da exploração.”  O  ministro de enrgia e petróleo da Síria – Syrian Oil Minister Ali Abbas, disse durante a cerimônia de assinatura, que esse contrato cobria “25 anos, durante várias fases.”

A Síria que está cada vez mais sendo impiedosamente atacada pelas sanções internacionais, já viu sua produção de petróleo diminuida em 90% (noventa porcento) desde que as graves sequências de acontecimentos e erupções, em grande parte incitados pelo ocidente, começaram em março de 2011.  A produção do gás ficou quase que pela metade, indo de 30 (trinta) milhões m3 por dia, a 16.7m3 por dia.

O acordo entre a Síria e a Rússia foi resultado de meses de longas negociações entre os dois países. A Rússia, como um dos dos principais apoiantes do governo da Síria, projeta-se aqui então como um dos principais atores quanto a riqueza energética da Bacia do Levante. (Levant Basin no original) (6)

O Líbano contesta o mapa de Israel quanto as fronteiras marítimas Israel-Líbano, tendo apresentado seu próprio mapa e suas reinvidicações para a ONU, em 2010. Israel reclama o fato, afirmando que o Líbano está concedendo licenças para a exploração de gás e petróleo no que Israel reinvidica como sua  “exclusiva zona econômica.”

Que os Estados Unidos através do seu vice-presidente Joe Biden, se disfarçe apresentando-se no papél de um honesto intermediário, agindo como um negociador de paz na disputa das fronteiras marítimas, seria caso de piada, se não fosse pelo potencial de um novo ataque de Israel ao seu vizinho. Numa visita a Israel em março de 2010 Biden declarou que: “Não há absolutamente nenhum espaço livre entre os Estados Unidos e Israel quanto ao que se refere a segurança de Israel – absolutamente nenhum. Ele disse também então  de quando chegando em Israel: “Que bom estar  em casa, ou como no original – It´s good to be home.” [!]

Tendo-se em conta as décades em que os Estados Unidos se apresentaram como “intermediários no processo de paz” entre Israel e Palestina, isso se apresenta como um caminho de armadilhas, tomadas de partido, e duplicidade, com o chão já muito bem batido e pisado.

Que se esperem muitos problemas a frente.

Ah!… e quanto a Demonologia… Leviathan é um dos sete príncipes do Inferno.

 Felicity Arbuthnot

30 de Dezembro de 2013

Artigo original

http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-gas-oil-and-trouble-in-the-levant/5362955

Tradução Anna Malm: https://artigospoliticos.wordpress.com

[TRADUÇAO REVISADA EM 30 DE JANEIRO DE 2024- ENFASES ADICIONADAS]

Referências e Notas:

1. http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/leviathan-gas-field-levantine-israel/

2. http://m.theage.com.au/business/options-widen-for-woodsides-leviathan-partners-20131219-2znu6.html

3. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-04/east-timor-offers-funds-for-onshore- gas-processing/4933106

4. http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/leviathan-gas-field-levantine-israel/leviathan-gas-field-levantine-israel1.html

5. http://www.google.co.uk/searchq=Leviathan+gas+project+Israel+map&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ntC2UvO7IcPE7Ab7rIDYCQ&ved=0CEQQsAQ&biw=1017&bih=598

6. http://www.phantomreport.com/syria-inks-oil-gas-deal-with-russia-firm#more-20238

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Felicity Arbuthnot, Global Research, 2014

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UNRWA Funding Cuts Threaten Palestinian Lives in Gaza and Region

By Norwegian Refugee Council

Global Research, January 30, 2024

Norwegian Refugee Council 29 January 2024

Region: Middle East & North Africa

Theme: Law and Justice

In-depth Report: PALESTINE

As aid organisations, we are deeply concerned and outraged that some of the largest donors have united to suspend funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main aid provider for millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the region. This comes amid a rapidly worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

The suspension of funding by donor states will impact life-saving assistance for over two million civilians, over half of whom are children, who rely on UNRWA aid in Gaza. The population faces starvation, looming famine and an outbreak of disease under Israel’s continued indiscriminate bombardment and deliberate deprivation of aid in Gaza.

We welcome UNRWA’s swift investigation into the alleged involvement of a small number of UN staff members in the October 7th  attacks. We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job. This decision comes as the International Court of Justice ordered immediate and effective action to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.

152 UNRWA staff have already been killed and 145 UNRWA facilities damaged by bombardment. UNRWA is the largest humanitarian agency in Gaza and their delivery of humanitarian assistance cannot be replaced by other agencies working in Gaza. If the funding suspensions are not reversed we may see a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza.

With approximately over one million displaced Palestinians taking shelter in or around 154 UNRWA shelters, the agency and aid organisations have continued to work in near impossible circumstances to provide food, vaccinations, and freshwater. The countries suspending funds risk further depriving Palestinians in the region of essential food, water, medical assistance and supplies, education and protection.

We urge donor states to reaffirm support for the vital work that UNRWA and its partners do to help Palestinians survive one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our times. Countries must reverse these funding suspensions, uphold their duties towards the Palestinian people and scale up humanitarian assistance for civilians in dire need in Gaza and the region.

Signed

ActionAid
American Friends Service Committee
The Association of International Development Agencies – Aida
Caritas Internationalis
CCFD-Terre Solidaire
DanChurchAid
Danish Refugee Council
Diakonia
Humanity & Inclusion/ Handicap International (HI)
International Council for Voluntary Agencies
INTERSOS
Johanniter International Assistance
Médecins du Monde France, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Germany
Norwegian Church Aid
Norwegian People’s Aid
Norwegian Refugee Council
Oxfam
Plateforme des ONG françaises pour la Palestine
Première Urgence Internationale
Save the Children
War Child Alliance

Featured image: A view of a United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Khan Yunis, Gaza on October 22, 2023 [Abed Zagout/Anadolu Agency]

Freezing Aid to Gaza: Israel’s International War Against the UNRWA

The original source of this article is Norwegian Refugee Council

Copyright © Norwegian Refugee CouncilNorwegian Refugee Council, 2024

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“FAMINE RISK IN GAZA AFTER WESTERN RETALIATION ON UNRWA AGENCY DUE TO 12 EMPLOYEES (AMONG 13,000) HAVE SUPPORT HAMAS ON SOCIAL …” – BY FABIO G.C.CARISIO, JANUARY 29, 2024. VETERANS TODAY

“The countries pausing funding include the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Canada, Finland and the Netherlands.

In the news in Sweden one could thereafter read the following: “Sweden suspends aid to UNRWA.” A Minister in the current government put it this way: “It is a very wise decision by the authorities given that…”(18:00, 2024-01-30, SVT)

WELL … HERE WE HAVE THEN

“FAMINE RISK IN GAZA AFTER WESTERN RETALIATION ON UNRWA AGENCY DUE TO 12 EMPLOYEES (AMONG 13,000) HAVE SUPPORT HAMAS ON SOCIAL …” – BY FABIO G.C.CARISIO, JANUARY 29, 2024. VETERANS TODAY

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INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

SHOULD COMPLICITY IN GENOCIDE BE NEXT?

***

U.S. SUPREME COURT REJECTS ATTEMPT TO SILENCE PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY

Jewish National Fund lawsuit tried to allege support for terrorism by US Campaign for Palestinian Rights; SCOTUS ended their baseless case

By Center for Constitutional Rights

Global Research, January 27, 2024

Center for Constitutional Rights 22 January 2024

Region: USA

Theme: Law and Justice

In-depth Report: PALESTINE

***

Crimes against Palestinian Women and New Born Babies, No Water, No Sanitation, Caesarians without Anesthetics, Cut Up Tents for Period Products

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WAR N GAZA: ARAB DESPOTS´FAILURE TO STAND UP TO ISRAEL …

As the Palestinian death toll mounts, anger is boiling across the region. The rulers of Egypt and the Gulf states should beware

By David Hearst

Global Research, January 27, 2024

Middle East Eye 19 January 2024

***

Guerra y gas natural: la invasión israelí y los campos de gas marinos de Gaza

Por: Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Globalizacion, 16 de enero 2024

Región: Medio Oriente

Tema: GeopolíticaGuerra

Guerra y gas natural: la invasión israelí y los campos de gas marinos de Gaza

Por: Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Globalizacion, 16 de enero 2024

Región: Medio Oriente

Tema: GeopolíticaGuerra

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

SHOULD COMPLICITY IN GENOCIDE BE NEXT?

MIDDLE EAST-ORIENTE MÉDIO

CEASE FIRE- CESSAR FOGO

NOW

ARTIGOS POLITICOS

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MICHAEL HUDSON:

FINANCE- REAL ESTATE- THE POWERS OF NEOLIBERALISM

ARTIGOS POLITICOS MICHAEL HUDSON

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JAN 4 – JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER

GENOCIDE IN GAZA

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Gaza War: “I Wish I Could Have Died with Them.”

By Peter Koenig

Global Research, January 05, 2024

Region: Middle East & North Africa

Theme: Law and Justice

In-depth Report: PALESTINE

“I wish I could have died with them” – crying Hamada Abu Sleyma told Al-Mayadeen Media Network, an independent Arab satellite news channel. He said he just left home for five minutes trying to buy some bread from a nearby bakery, when an Israeli airstrike hit his family’s house, destroyed it completely and buried his entire family alive.

He reckoned they are all dead. He built his tent on the rubble of his family house, as he wanted to be close to his loved ones, even in death – and just in case, he said, tears in his eyes, I may hear calls for help from under the debris.

Israeli Genocide – No End and the World Looks On

This 2-min video-clip speaks for itself, recorded by Al-Mayadeen Media Network.

There are simply no words to describe the ever-increasing intensity of the horror, the atrocities, the relentless, merciless genocide – targeting mostly civilian populations, and in particular women and children. It is clearly an act of eradicating and brutally eliminating Palestinian people. Targeting children and women is wiping out the next generation – children and the bearers of children.

Up to now, more than 22,000 people were murdered by the Zionist-directed Israel Defense Forces (IDF); and there is no end in sight for the killing. To the contrary, the Biden Administration has just declared gearing up American armament for the Middle East, by sending two aircraft carriers, loaded with about 50 fully armed war planes to the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf area. Nuclear weapons were not mentioned, but they are for sure part and parcel of the weaponry – ready to step up the killing and risking a never-seen before worldwide catastrophe.

When will the world be interfering in this atrocious grand-scale homicide?

World, wake up!

Intervene!

The killing orgy you are allowing to happen today to Palestine, may hit YOU tomorrow.

*

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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Peter Koenig, Global Research, 2024

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POPULAÇÃO E ECONOMIA DOS PAÍSES BRICS+ 

POPULATION AND ECONOMY OF BRICS+ COUNTRIES

The group of countries, called BRICS+, will include almost half of the world’s population and more than a third of global GDP. About the population and economic parameters of these states – in our infographic

On the table: The BRICS+ in the first column. The population of each country in the second column. The Gross Domestic Product of each country In the third column

RUSSIA

Is IMF Pushing ‘Russian Propaganda’ Now? By Drago Bosnic, February 02, 2024

By Drago Bosnic

Global Research, February 02, 2024

Region: Russia and FSU

Theme: Global Economy

In the aftermath of the special military operation (SMO), the political West insisted that Russia was finished. Its economy was supposed to be in tatters, while the Kremlin was even expected to default after much of its foreign exchange (forex) reserves were frozen (i.e. stolen) by Western banks. After all this failed, the US-led belligerent power pole tried to impose the laughable price cap on Russian oil, one that even some of the most prominent Western nations tried to circumvent, including Japan and even the infamously Russophobic United Kingdom. As for the United States, it continued buying Russian commodities while criticizing everyone else who did. Still, through its Kiev puppets, the political West launched a virtual total war on Moscow in an attempt to disrupt its economic activity and cause as much damage as possible without engaging it directly.

Once again, it all failed. The Kremlin managed to secure stability despite being forced to conduct the SMO against the entire political West. What’s more, Russia overtook Germany as the world’s fifth and Europe’s largest economy, a humiliating defeat for its Western rivals who expected quite the contrary. Berlin did much worse than in decades, while London’s economic performance was at its lowest in over 300 years. And yet, to “add insult to injury”, now even Western data shows that the initial estimates of Moscow’s economic performance were wrong and that it will actually be even better in 2024. Namely, the new IMF’s forecast of 2.6% GDP growth doubles its previous assessment. According to the Financial Times, this increase of 1.5% is the largest for any economy featured in an update to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, released on January 30.

US Imported $6 Billion From Russia as It Forces Others to Quit Doing Business with Moscow

Given the numbers, even the FT questioned the effectiveness of the political West’s unprecedented sanctions against Russia. What’s more, the report reveals that the IMF has significantly upgraded its forecasts for Moscow, but downgraded expectations for Japan and the European Union (particularly the eurozone). Interestingly, the IMF’s forecast paints a stronger picture of Russian economic performance than even that predicted by the Kremlin itself, whose Central Bank assessed no more than 1.5% back in November.

“It is definitely the case that the Russian economy has been doing better than we were expecting and many others were expecting,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s chief economist, told the FT in an interview. 

Interestingly, as the report claims, Russian President Vladimir Putin, usually not as involved in shaping the macroeconomic policy as his top experts in the field, has himself predicted that GDP would grow above the official assessment. Namely, he recently said that the growth could rise above 3.5% and possibly even over 4%. The mainstream propaganda machine essentially laughed it off. However, its reaction after the IMF’s upgrade is that of shock and disbelief. In addition, Putin stated that the growth is based primarily on domestic consumer and investment demand, including record spending on construction, production industry, agriculture, tourism and freight transport. The financial sector is also breaking records. In a separate report published on January 30, the FT concluded that Russian banks have posted record profits despite Western sanctions.

The report claims that this was fuelled by a rush to take out subsidized mortgages, as well as a boom in financing to purchase assets sold by Western companies leaving Russia. As the FT posits, despite severe sanctions that were supposed to isolate Moscow’s financial system, Russian banks generated 3.3 trillion roubles in 2023, which amounts to approximately $37 billion. This is a staggering 16 times more than in 2022. This came as a shock even to the Russian Central Bank (CBR), whose Chief of Banking Regulation Alexander Danilov previously estimated that profits would only exceed one trillion roubles (approximately $11 billion). The FT admits that this is yet another proof of Moscow’s resilience in the face of the political West’s (now failed) economic siege. This success is particularly puzzling to the belligerent power pole, as Russia has been almost entirely cut off from Western capital markets.

In the meantime, the Kremlin’s former “partners”, particularly in the EU, are faced with rapidly escalating instability. Namely, Europe is burning as its delusional Brussels bureaucrats are completely oblivious to the needs of their own populace. They see the fact they were able to blackmail Hungary into the financially suicidal “aid” deal for the Neo-Nazi junta as a supposed “success”. Germany is faking its own data on economic growth to “get out of recession”, while farmers across the bloc’s largest and most important members are protesting, unfazed by threats and police brutality. In the meantime, the political crisis in the US is worsening, with over half of American states directly opposing the federal institutions run by the troubled Biden administration. This is a potentially even more dangerous escalation than the previous banning of presidential candidates.

Either way, the political West is in for a rough ride. Instead of accepting the multipolar world’s offer of peaceful transition toward a more fair international order, one in which even the belligerent power pole would keep an important role, the US-led political West chose to keep pushing its so-called “rules-based world order“, a remnant of the dying (neo)colonialist global structure that benefited only them. The world will not turn back and renounce its chance for a fair, equal, mutually beneficial and truly diverse future (certainly not the so-called “woke” ultra-liberal extremist one pushed by the US, EU and NATO). The political West seems to be ready to push the world to the brink of yet another abyss, this time by destabilizing the planet, almost to the point of causing WW3. And yet, the world is not standing in silence, as multipolarity is pushing back. There’s simply no other way.

*

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Drago Bosnic, Global Research, 2024

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