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Because they 'care' so much: Health official says Israel may need to 'medically annex' West Bank

Sari Bashi
Responsible Statecraft
Mon, 30 Mar 2020 21:42 UTC
checkpoint bethlehem jerusalem IDF Israel
© Ryan Rodrick Beiler / Shutterstock.com
Cars wait to pass through the Israeli military checkpoint in the separation wall controlling movement between Bethlehem and Jerusalem
The threat of COVID-19 in Israel/Palestine has created unprecedented cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities, including the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip, to limit travel.

Israel has a genuine interest in preventing the coronavirus from spreading among Palestinians, too. But the newly imposed travel restrictions serve an additional goal: furthering Israeli annexation of the West Bank, as outlined by the Trump administration's Mideast peace plan.

In contrast to federal, state, and local governments in the U.S., the Israeli and Palestinian authorities began cooperating relatively early to contain COVID-19. They required travelers from at least some countries to self-quarantine in early February, they closed Palestinian schools on March 5 and Israeli schools on March 12, and as of last week, they mostly closed external borders and ordered residents of Israel and the West Bank to stay home.
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Eye 1

How a police state is born

Steve McCann
American Thinker
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 12:00 UTC
drone shaming quarantine UK

Many will have seen the films, pictured, taken by Derbyshire (UK) police drones, of lonely walkers on the remote, empty hills, publicly pillorying them for not obeying the regulations. It is genuinely hard to see what damage these walkers have done.
The United States and much of the western world, by utilizing the most draconian of tactics, is plunging many nations into potential economic and societal chaos as they attempt to stem the tide of the Chinese Coronavirus. Relying on dubious and error-prone projections, politicians and bureaucrats constitutionally or statutorily limited in their power, are now exercising near-dictatorial authority in their edicts, which are effectively suspending or terminating numerous freedoms under the guise of protecting their respective nations.

All Americans, not be just those with first-hand experience dealing with World War II and its aftermath or living in Eastern Europe under iron boot of the Soviet Union or escaping the Communist/socialist hellholes of Cuba, Southeast Asia or Venezuela, should view these actions with considerable trepidation.

When societies lose their freedom, it is not ordinarily because autocrats or tyrants have forcibly taken it away. It is usually the result of the population willingly surrendering their freedom in return for protection against an external threat. While the threat is oftentimes real, it is invariably exaggerated.

Comment: See also: Coronavirus as a substitute for world war

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Eye 1

UK government chose Covid-19 lock down model despite reputable alternatives, why?

Rob Lyons
RT
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 07:01 UTC
Enfield
© Reuters / John Sibley
A sign is seen on a trolley at a closed store in Crews Hill as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues, Enfield, Britain on March 31, 2020.
It may beggar belief that the UK government took the advice of a professor who's messed up before. But let's not forget that it's our leaders who chose to implement the measures causing long-term harm to our economy and society.

In the UK government's daily press conference on Covid-19 on Sunday, the deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries, explained the government's approach to the unprecedented measures put in place to tackle the pandemic. Her manner was calm, but her message depressing: "Three weeks for review, two or three months to see if we've really squashed it, three to six months ideally, there's lots of uncertainty in that, to see at what point we can get back to normal, it is plausible it could go further than that."

The measures are astonishing by the standards of wartime, never mind peacetime. Essentially, the UK is now under a form of house arrest. Healthy citizens under the age of 70 are allowed out only for exercise, to buy essentials, to go to work if they really can't work from home, and to help with the needs of others. For everyone over 70 or who has a health condition that leaves them particularly vulnerable to Covid-19, the strong advice is not to leave their homes at all till mid-June at the earliest.

Comment: It's more probable that the government simply used the research that supported their chosen course of action:

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Rocket

Exploiting corona: Israel attacks Homs in Syria again


Sputnik
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 21:52 UTC
homs missile
The Lebanese media outlet earlier reported about a significant presence of Israeli warplanes flying low over the districts of Keserwan and Matn in northern Lebanon.

Alleged videos of Syrian air defences repelling a missile attack over Syria's Homs have emerged online.

According to the state news agency SANA, the air defence systems downed Israeli missiles. There were no immediate reports of damages or casualties.

The Syrian military often accuses Israeli Air Force jets of violating its airspace in order to conduct airstrikes on the country's territory.


Comment: Sputnik also reports the following:
Syrian air defences have intercepted Israeli missiles flying through the airspace above the city of Homs, Syria's SANA news agency reported. The agency added that none of the missiles succeeded in reaching their targets as a result.

Damascus has not officially commented on SANA's report.

Prior to the attack, Lebanon's Sham FM reported that Israeli jets were spotted flying low above the country's Kesrouan province, which lies on the way between the territory of Israel and the Syrian city of Homs. Alleged witnesses claim that the jets fired missiles while travelling through Lebanese airspace.


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Black Magic

Technology of death: The not-so-shocking report on Israeli weapons exports

Ramzy Baroud
The Jordan Times
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 21:07 UTC
netanyahu modi
The Middle East region, battered by wars and adjoining humanitarian crises that have left millions of people stateless, hungry and diseased, is in urgent need for peace, security and reconstruction. Thanks to the US, Russian, French, Israeli and other weapons manufacturers, however, it is now the dumping ground for military hardware, an ominous sign for the years ahead.

Data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on March 9, paints a grim picture of the world, in general, and the Middle East, in particular. According to the report, the demand for weapons in the warring region has increased by a whopping 61 per cent between 2015 and 2019.

The correlation between arms, war and casualty count needs no elaborate algorithm to be deciphered, as facts on the ground amply demonstrate. Syria remains the epicenter of conflict in the Middle East, with Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Palestine and South Sudan trailing, but not far behind.

The top five merchants of death, according to SIPRI, are the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China. Interestingly, while US arms exports have increased exponentially by 76 per cent in the last five years, Russia's arms exports fell by 18 per cent.

The US market is in constant expansion as it now includes 96 client countries, while Russia has, essentially, lost one of its most significant clients, India.

Ruled by a right-wing Hindu nationalist government, Delhi has found in Tel Aviv a more ideologically like-minded supplier. The special 'friendship' between India's Narendra Modi and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu has made India Israel's largest weapons market.
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Airplane

Magic, morphing US satellite evidence for MH17: Now you see it, now you don't

John Helmer
Dances with Bears
Tue, 31 Mar 2020 20:43 UTC
MH17 trial lawyers

John Kerry, Fred Westerbeke, Tjibbe Joustra, John Tefft
The US satellite images proving that a BUK missile brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, have existed for twenty-three days - between July 20 and August 12, 2014. Since then they ceased to exist. Since then too, for almost six years, no US Government official has claimed in public, nor told Dutch police, prosecutors, or military intelligence officials in secret, that the images can be viewed with the naked eye.

A week ago, on March 23, Hendrik Steenhuis, a judge of The Hague District Court, ordered the production and disclosure of these US satellite images as evidence in the trial of four men accused of transporting the missile to its launch site, participating in the order to fire, and intending to kill all 298 people on board the aircraft.

Steenhuis, the presiding trial judge, gave Dutch prosecutors until June 8 to comply with the order and prove the satellite images exist. If they do not, the foundation of the case against the four accused, and against the Russian military and political command for ordering the BUK launched, will collapse.
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Corona

Corona-circus updates: Putin grants govt emergency powers if Covid-19 worsens, global stocks dive again, Germany extends lockdown


RT
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 20:12 UTC
putin
© Sputnik / Aleksey Druzhinin
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing the government to declare a nationwide emergency should the current efforts not be enough to keep the situation with coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, under control.

In a case of emergency, the government would be able to directly control all medical goods and drugs trade within a special response system as well as introduce stricter quarantine measures. It would also be able to temporarily freeze all potential bankruptcy cases. The new legislation also separately introduces additional measures to support Russia's tourism industry.

Most of the country has already imposed some form of lockdown anyway. Residents of Moscow, where more than a half of all confirmed coronavirus cases are registered, have to comply with a strict home-isolation regime.

Comment: The Russian military plane with medical aid landed in the New York today. If there's one good thing to come out of this, it would be better relations with Russia! Chances are slim, though. In Russia, the number of new cases dropped, and while RT says it is "cause for alarm" that almost half of those infected are under 45, that's actually not a bad thing. Younger people have a better chance of surviving. (Alcohol sales in Moscow are up 148%.)

European and American markets took another dive, after Trump quoted guesses that "up to 240k" Americans could die. Where are they getting these numbers, especially given that China, a nation with a population several times larger than the U.S., experienced a fraction of that? The Pentagon refused one aircraft carrier captain's plea to evacuate and quarantine his ship after over 100 tested positive. Do they know something we don't? Cruise ships sequestered off the U.S. east coast have been ordered to remain at sea and prepare to treat passengers who get the virus on-ship.

Germany extended their lockdown until April 19. Georgia (the country) declared a curfew. These unnecessary lockdowns will have an effect: many right now are fully supporting them and acting like Gestapo informants on their neighbors, while some are growing resentful. The latter will probably increase in numbers as the lockdowns continue. For example, an Arab neighborhood in Jaffa rioted after Israel cops targeted an alleged "quarantine-breaker".


Over 400 Spanish journalists rejected a new press conference format in which questions are filtered by government press officers. US nurses are protesting over lack of safety gear. And over in the UK, only 15% of the number of medical personnel self-isolating or under quarantine have tested positive. It turns out that the vast majority are fine and fit for work. What a great way to ensure health facilities are ready for the alleged expected "surge" in patients: make sure health workers can't actually work! They can't even follow through on a plan that was already dumb to begin with. But that's government for you.

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Attention

Six months of Covid-19 means the state will be in control

Norman Lewis
RT
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 09:19 UTC
sheep
© Jo-Anne McArthur
Predicting the future is always notoriously difficult. The unprecedented response to the Covid-19 crisis means most bets are off on what may happen, apart from reinforcing the idea there is no alternative to state intervention.

Albert Einstein famously quipped that he never thought about the future because it came soon enough. He might have been a genius, but he didn't experience the coronavirus crisis - and thus could not imagine a time when society would be so obsessed with thinking about the future.

There are a number of difficulties with trying to anticipate what society might be like after this crisis. In the first instance, we have no idea how long this will go on. Experts disagree. Some suggest lockdowns could be relaxed in three months. The UK government is now planning on at least six months. In each case, the outcomes could be significantly different.

Second, whatever happens in the future we can be sure there will be continuities and disruptions, and destructive and constructive dynamics at play. Crises are never one-way streets.

But - and this is critical - the coronavirus crisis will not bring year zero, a new era or clean slate in which what happened in the past will disappear or can be ignored. Nor will pandemics be the new normal. The exceptional peacetime actions taken by governments and central banks, and the reorganisation of society and the economy around lockdowns - which is inducing some behavioural changes - are temporary, not permanent.


Comment: For now. A trial run, anyone?


Comment: What better way to tame the public beast than threaten its health and wellbeing with a sudden and traumatic event that has the capacity to circle the globe and unite mankind under false pretenses too scary to be properly examined? What comes up in resistance will then be negated and its opposite supported by appropriate propaganda. Test run almost complete...a few tweaks and next?

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Target

UAE's rapprochement with Syria is aimed at Turkey

Paul Antonopoulos
InfoBrics
Tue, 31 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Assad/Al Nahan
© sana.sy
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad • Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahan
In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the head of United Arab Emirates (UAE), spoke by phone on Friday in the first such communication since the Syrian War began in 2011. This shows a metamorphosis of alliances and geopolitics in the Middle East and the wider region considering the UAE was one of the main backers of terrorist organizations who fought to remove Assad from power. However, for more than a year, the UAE has been sending signals showing a change in policy towards Syria. The phone call was after a long series of rapprochement that began in late 2018 with the reopening of the Emirati embassy in Damascus.

Prince Mohammed said on Twitter:
"I have discussed with the Syrian president... updates on the coronavirus. I assured him of the support of the UAE and its willingness to help the Syrian people. Humanitarian solidarity during trying times supersedes all matters, and Syria and her people will not stand alone."
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Dollar

More oversight, not less! Pentagon want its future spending plans to remain secret

Danielle Ryan
RT
Tue, 31 Mar 2020 23:47 UTC
Pentagon/money
© Frontpage/Shutterstock/KJN
With the Covid-19 crisis occupying the national psyche and political agenda for the foreseeable future, the US Department of Defense has quietly asked Congress to allow it to make its future spending projections a secret.

The submission of an unclassified version of the 'Future Years Defense Program' (FYDP), which estimates defense spending for five to seven years, has been a legal requirement since 1989 — in other words, roughly since the end of the Cold War.

The details of the request to scrap that long-standing obligation (which has curiously flown under the radar for weeks) were published by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) on Monday. The March 6 proposal would "remove the statutory requirement" to submit spending projections to congress and would also "remove the requirement to certify the accuracy of the input" to the FYDP.
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