Neither Hamas, nor Gaza Phase Two, lies predominantly behind Netanyahu's summit intent - but rather Iran.

In these last days, the Trump Administration has boarded or seized three tankers either loaded with Venezuelan oil or destined for Venezuela (such as the Bella1). The most egregious seizure - in terms of illegality - being a Chinese-owned, Panama-flagged vessel reportedly destined for China - and on no one's sanctions list.

In a different zone of conflict, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) last Friday claimed that it had struck a Russian so-called 'shadow fleet' tanker, the Qendil, with aerial drones in waters of the Mediterranean Sea off Morocco. The SBU did not give further details of the attack, including how the SBU deployed a drone in the Mediterranean (2,000 Km from Ukraine), or the site from which it was launched. The SBU source said the cargo ship was empty at the time of the attack.

President Putin, in midst of his annual question and answer marathon, vowed that Russia would retaliate.

Israeli minister of military affairs Israel Katz has reiterated that the Tel Aviv regime "will never leave" Gaza, pledging to construct settlements in the northern part of the strip, in contravention of the ceasefire agreement.

On Thursday, Katz stressed that Israel wouldn't withdraw from Gaza and would establish a wide buffer zone around the strip. That's while Israel is required to withdraw completely from Gaza under US President Donald Trump's 20-point ceasefire plan. Katz said it would be possible to establish Nahal outposts, youth-based settlement frameworks overseen by the Israeli military, in northern Gaza "in an organized manner when the time comes."

He made similar remarks on Tuesday, triggering, what Hebrew media said, the anger of the Trump administration, and prompted Katz to say later the regime was not seeking to establish settlements in Gaza.

Police chiefs will reportedly seek to scrap non-crime hate incidents in plans they will present to the Home Secretary next month.

The Telegraph reports that police leaders have decided that NCHIs are no longer "fit for purpose" after warnings that recording them undermines freedom of speech and diverts officers away from fighting crime.

Under the plans, NCHIs will be replaced with a new "common sense" system, where only a fraction of such incidents will be recorded under the most serious category of anti-social behaviour.

An NCHI falls short of being criminal but is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards a person with a particular characteristic.

Notwithstanding the historic fluidity of borders, there is no case whatsoever that Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was "unprovoked" and unrelated to NATO's own transparent provocations in the region.

The details are arrayed below, but the larger issue needs be addressed first.

Namely, is there any reason to believe that Russia is an expansionist power looking to gobble up neighbors which were not integral parts of its own historic evolution, as is the case with Ukraine?

After all, if despite Rubio's treachery President Trump does manage to strike a Ukraine peace and partition deal with Putin you can be sure that the neocons will come charging in with a false Munich appeasement analogy.

The answer, however, is a resounding no!

Mark Rutte is trying to invoke history against Russia - bold move for someone with such a selective memory of his own scandals.

NATO boss, Mark Rutte, says that Western Europe could be heading toward a war with Russia "like our grandparents experienced." Which implies that he has a phenomenal memory of World War II, 80 years ago. This is especially impressive coming from a man known in the Netherlands, where he spent fourteen years as Prime Minister - until last year - for routinely insisting that he couldn't remember what he did just the week before.

Germany's defense minister, Boris Pistorius, was asked about Rutte's warning and basically told everyone to chill out. Pistorius said of Rutte's dramatics that "perhaps he wanted to paint a very vivid picture of what could happen," adding that he doesn't "believe in such a scenario. In my estimation, Putin isn't aiming to wage a full-scale war against NATO."

So if the Germans are telling everyone to calm down, then why is Rutte talking like a hype man for a new world war?

To understand that, you have to understand Rutte, who ran the Netherlands from 2010 to 2024, presiding over four governments, countless scandals, and one very consistent strategy: that of his own survival.

When in doubt, Europeans should always re-read Tacitus. As a true Roman, he considered that sacrifice was only worthy if conducted at the service of the motherland. In his time, the Roman Empire. In our time, that would be civilization-state Italy.

Tacitus was a keen student of Resistance - reflecting on the worthiness of the heroic deaths of those condemned to suicide by Nero and Domitian. He followed all the legal battles, the condemnation of lay martyrs such as Seneca. He talks about them with veneration; but branded their sacrifice as sterile.

Tacitus refused the temptation of heroism - and asked himself if between the ardor of disdain and vile obsequiousness a path could be found exempt from vaingloriousness.

He certainly didn't see this path in the future of Rome. He experienced life under absolute power - today that would be under the yoke of the European Union (EU) and European Commission (EC) - and noted that to exercise it or be submitted by it was equally degrading.

Due to Israel's continuous violations of the ceasefire and the persistence of its genocidal operations in Gaza, Trump's 20-point peace plan seems to be in extreme jeopardy.

The Promise of Trump's Gaza Peace Plan

In September 2025, US President Donald Trump unveiled a 20-point peace plan for Gaza, which was later endorsed by numerous Muslim countries and the United Nations as well through Security Council Resolution 2803. This resolution was hailed as the most significant attempt to end a long cycle of turmoil and devastation in the Gaza Strip. Trump's peace deal promised a systematic ceasefire under which the Israeli forces would withdraw from the enclave in different phases. Moreover, the Israeli hostages will be released by Hamas. In return, the Israeli military will release Palestinian prisoners. In addition, a transitional governing body will be established to supervise the redevelopment process of the Gaza enclave. Many around the world believed that the Trump administration and Israel had developed a serious and pragmatic pathway towards perpetual peace in the Middle East. However, recent events show that this plan is facing a solemn crisis and threats.

Leading Israeli commentator, Anna Barsky, in Ma'ariv (in Hebrew) writes: "Let [Trump's] plan in Gaza - fail."

"An Israeli 'waiting ploy' is being formulated: not to hurl out a frontal rejection ... [but rather] to bet that reality in the region will take its course.

"[Yet], the fault line [over] Trump's Gaza Plan is real ... Israel demands a clear order: First, the disarmament of Hamas, i.e., first its actual removal from power, and only after that - reconstruction, international power and Israeli withdrawal."

And here's the 'rub':

"The Prime Minister's Office understands that Trump, apparently, does not intend to accept the Israeli 'precondition' formula. And here is the heart of the problem ... which is that Hamas does not intend to disarm or leave the territory."

Thus: "The Gulf states, Egypt, and also significant parts of the American establishment, propose a different order: First, reconstruction and an international mechanism are created, then a stabilisation force and a technocratic government are introduced, and then 'in the process', the issue of Hamas - is [only] gradually addressed."

Thus, the Israeli leadership is both disillusioned and frustrated. But this is just the tip of the spear. It goes deeper.

President Trump telegraphed the move last month, warning that US military intervention in West Africa was certainly on the table after what he described as the mass killing of Christians by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria. Now, the president says the US military forces carried out powerful strikes against ISIS targets, framing the operation as a direct response to militants "viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians."

"Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Christmas Day.

As we approach the end of 2025, the SOTT.net team would like to wish all our readers a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Truly, a happy new year! In the spirit of the holiday season, we ask once again that you consider making a donation to help keep SOTT.net running, in return for which you can select from the SOTT.net merchandise on offer below. We're 23 years old this year, and remain one of the oldest, truly independent, advert- and AI- and Big Interest-free news and commentary websites on the Internet!

You may have noticed that, in recent years, especially since Elon Musk bought Twitter and reversed its transformation into a mouthpiece for government propaganda, some of us SOTT.net editors have been active there. It's been interesting watching the evolution of political and social debate since Musk "freed the bird," but as Musk himself has discovered this past year, there are limits to free speech even he won't cross. And those limits are set by influences outside of his control.

When he "let that sink in" and began his overhaul of Twitter, now X, Musk articulated his goal of the platform becoming a "high signal-to-noise, one-stop shop for news and information," generating high user participation in "networking for the truth" and thus "YOU becoming the media!" A worthy goal, certainly, but it must contend with vested interests wielding enormous amounts of money and leveraging their influence through powerful government agencies to ensure compliance with THEIR version of "networking for the truth."

In her series "Conversations with Grok," published this year on her Substack Letters from the Edge of Reality, SOTT.net founder Laura Knight-Jadczyk interrogated Musk's "truth-seeking AI" to understand what these limitations are, why platforms like X have these 'blocks' through which truthful information seemingly cannot pass, and why it is that X has become an echo chamber - or rather, a legion of silos - where raging but futile dissent and discontent remains impotent in affecting events for the better. While mainstream CorpGov narratives are frequently successfully exposed as such on X, ultimately, X is not really a free speech platform. You (and thousands of others engaging with you) can solve any puzzle or 'truthify' any narrative, but as soon as your content takes off, controls kick in to ensure that your message's visibility to others is heavily limited. Ostensibly, you have free speech, but functionally, you're censored.