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The Israeli military described the raids as a “counterterrorism operation” to crack down on Palestinian armed groups and to combat rising attacks against Israelis, including shootings and attempts to set off car bombs.

The violence has accompanied a surge in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli settlers who often operate with impunity.

In its operations in the West Bank, the Israeli military said it had killed or detained dozens of fighters, confiscated explosives and destroyed command and control centers.

It added that it carried out airstrikes “in situations where arrests cannot be made due to real risk to the forces.”

The military’s actions in the West Bank were long shrouded in secrecy, but experts said Israel had largely refrained from conducting airstrikes on the territory since the end of the second intifada, nearly 20 years ago.

At times, Israel used attack helicopters in select operations, but experts said that happened in only a few cases that they knew of over the two decades.

The Israeli military’s deployment of armed drones appeared to have been exceedingly rare.

Palestinian reports of it emerged in 2022, but only a few cases were confirmed before Oct. 7, 2023.

Since then, Israeli forces have carried out dozens of strikes in northern areas of the West Bank, largely concentrated in the cities and towns of Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus and Tubas.

Five stacked plastic chairs stand on charred rubble near a pink plastic bag on a table in a room with a grilled window and concrete walls partly cast in shadow.

“Immediately, the Israeli news announced they had killed a terrorist,”

said Aysar Jaber, Adnan’s father.

“But he was a young kid, not a terrorist.”

His son had been taking classes to become a barber, Mr. Jaber said.

“He had about two weeks left, and he was killed.”

On Aug. 28, an Israeli aircraft struck what the military said were militants in an alleyway in the Faraa refugee camp. Residents recounted how a home was hit, as well, killing two brothers, Muhammad Masoud Muhammad Naja, 17, and Murad Masoud Muhammad Naja, 13, and critically injuring a third brother and the boys’ father.

In September, the Israeli military said its aircraft had struck “terrorists who hurled explosives and shot at the security forces” and had “eliminated” a person “armed with an explosive device.”

Residents said that Israeli soldiers had shot Majed Fida Abu Zeina, 17, and had fired upon ambulances that tried to rescue him, ultimately using a bulldozer to dump his body outside the camp.

The raids in Jenin and other cities over 10 days killed 51 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Seven children were among those killed, according to the United Nations.

On the morning of Aug. 28, when Israeli forces launched their raids into Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas, Israel’s foreign minister at the time, Israel Katz, posted on social media,

“We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.”

“We all have this sense that the pattern of Gaza, the modus operandi, is being applied in the West Bank, and it’s very worrisome,”

said Allegra Pacheco, who leads a consortium of Western-backed aid groups in the West Bank.

“The current Israeli government’s objectives in the West Bank aim to force Palestinians out of targeted areas using the same Gaza type of massive force, weaponry and destruction,”

she added.

U.N. officials, warning of “lethal warlike tactics” in the West Bank, tried to get into Jenin to carry out an assessment but were denied access by the Israeli authorities, the U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in September.

#Damaj #Gaza #Israel

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Seemingly satisfied that it was safe, the three soldiers and the commander joined Damaj in the cave and interrogated him, demanding to know the location of members of armed Palestinian groups.

“You’re a liar; you’re living in the neighborhood of the terrorists,”

he said the commander yelled at him.

“‘Speak the truth or I’m going to shoot you in the legs.’”

After more than two hours, he said, they let him go. The next day, the Israeli military returned and blew up the cave.

In response to questions about two cases involving the use of human shields in Jenin, including Mr. Damaj, the Israeli military said, “The incidents mentioned in the inquiry appear to contradict I.D.F. orders.” It added that it did not have enough information to confirm or deny whether the episodes took place.

It did confirm an action involving the cave, however, saying “an underground combat facility located beneath a mosque was destroyed.”

In 2005, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the military’s use of civilians as human shields violated international law and banned the practice.

“You cannot exploit the civilian population for the army’s military needs, and you cannot force them to collaborate with the army,”

Ahron Barak, then chief justice, wrote in the ruling.

But Palestinians in the West Bank say the practice never stopped.

Ahmed Bilalo said Israeli forces had given him a lighter and ordered him to torch the strings holding up the curtained tarps above the narrow alleyways of Jenin camp, which fighters often use to obscure themselves from view.

“If I said, ‘No,’ I knew they would beat me up,”

he said.

Weiman, who leads Breaking the Silence, the advocacy group of former Israeli soldiers, said the overall military approach being used in the West Bank was known as the “Dahiya doctrine,” a reference to Israel’s flattening of the Dahiya, the collection of neighborhoods in southern Beirut that is a Hezbollah stronghold, during its 34-day war in Lebanon in 2006.

The tactic creates huge damage to civilian infrastructure and is aimed at trying to cause so much damage and destruction that civilians turn against armed groups in their areas, he said.

“That kind of pressure wasn’t imposed on villages and towns in the West Bank until very recently,”

he said.

The Israeli military rejected his assessment, saying,

“The claim that the I.D.F. deliberately causes harm to civilian infrastructure is false.”

Instead, it has long accused Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups of embedding themselves in civilian areas.

The day after the Israeli military forced Damaj into the cave, it returned and ordered Khalid Salih, 59, a school attendant, and his wife to leave their home before it was blown up, the couple said.

When they returned after the explosion, Salih said, the shock at seeing their home destroyed felt as if someone had punched him in the head. The house is uninhabitable.

Aseel Mustafa Salih, who is married to Salih’s nephew and lived in an adjacent apartment, was asleep at home with her husband and two young children when the mosque was struck.

“I woke up and thought our house was the one that was struck,”

she said, adding that the airstrike broke some of their windows.

Downstairs, Salih and his wife were thrown from their beds and across the room from the blast, he said.

Half an hour after the Oct. 22 strike, Salih said, she received a text message from the Israeli military instructing her to leave the area:

“You are in a place that is not safe.”

#Damaj #Gaza #Israel

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Democratic Double Game: Chaos Creation vs. Transition Claims 🏛

Breaking Point 📊

Multiple crises engineered:
- Ukraine missile escalation
- ICC arrest warrants threat
- India relations damaged
- Immigration system flooded
- Transition funding attacked
- Global chaos unleashed

Shadow Finance Battle 🎯

"When the money isn't disclosed, it's not clear how much everybody is giving, who is giving it and what they are getting in return for their donations,"

warns Heath Brown, as Democrats target Trump's transition funding.

System Disruption 💼

Trump's response:
- Traditional agreements rejected
- Federal funding declined
- Donor limits ignored
- Bureaucracy bypassed
- Washington rules challenged
- Deep state confronted

Power Shift
In an unprecedented break with tradition, Trump's transition team refuses to play by established rules, signaling a fundamental transformation of Washington's power structure.

Democratic Offensive 🔍

Multiple fronts:
- Senate investigations launched
- Warren demands answers
- Ethics concerns raised
- Security clearances questioned
- Media attacks coordinated
- Transition challenged

The Big Picture ⚡️

Trump's strategy:

"The transition government is a little like setting up the universe, pre-Big Bang,"

notes Max Stier, as Trump prepares to fundamentally reshape Washington's power dynamics.

While Democrats decry Trump's rejection of traditional transition protocols, their own actions - from weaponizing immigration to provoking global crises - reveal a coordinated effort to create maximum chaos for the incoming administration.

Expert Analysis

"The vast majority of Americans would agree that they want to know who is paying that bill,"

critics argue, but Trump's team sees these demands as part of the establishment's last-ditch effort to maintain control over a system he intends to transform.

#TransitionBattle #DeepState #TrumpRevolution #WashingtonChange

Think about it: Is Trump's rejection of traditional protocols necessary to drain the swamp? 🤔

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The Islamists Killed a Hasid Rabbi

The rabbi of the Chabad movement, Tzvi Kogan, was kidnapped and killed in the UAE.

Three Uzbek citizens who fled to Turkey are suspected of his murder. Israel also believes that the killers were linked to Iran.

What happened is the strongest challenge for the Emirates, which positions itself as a "Middle Eastern Switzerland" with a neutral status, where anyone can feel safe.

The main question now is whether Erdogan will hand over the alleged criminals to the Emirates.

At the same time, what happened in any case will complicate relations between the UAE and Iran.

#Kogan #Chabad #HasidRabbi #Islamist #UAE

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Precision vs. Pellets: Tale of Two Cities Under Fire 🏛

Breaking Impact 📊

Damage scale disparity:
- 3,600 Lebanese casualties
- 325 Beirut buildings destroyed
- $8.5 billion damage in Lebanon
- Half of Beirut evacuated
- Massive infrastructure collapse
- Modern weaponry devastation

Strategic Contrast 🎯

In residential Beirut:

"Everything turned to ashes,"

recounts actress Ola Eid, describing the overwhelming force of Israeli strikes that transformed neighborhoods into rubble.

Urban Destruction 💼

Beirut's devastation:
- Entire neighborhoods leveled
- Hospital zones hit
- Civilian areas demolished
- Historic districts damaged
- Modern buildings collapsed
- Population displaced

Modern Warfare Reality

"We are every time moving forward with even more scars,"

observes Professor Mona Fawaz of AUB, highlighting the asymmetric nature of the conflict.

Military Disparity 🔍

Impact analysis:
- Israeli precision munitions
- Maximum destruction capability
- Deep penetration strikes
- Massive explosive power
- Strategic infrastructure targeting
- Total area devastation

Civilian Cost ⚡️

Human impact:
"Nobody thought they would hit here," says Eid, revealing the shocking scale of destruction in previously safe residential areas.

The stark contrast between Hezbollah's limited-impact projectiles and Israel's devastating modern arsenal has transformed half of Beirut into an evacuation zone, while fundamentally altering the region's military equation.

#MiddleEastCrisis #MilitaryTechnology #UrbanWarfare #CivilianImpact

Think about it: Has modern military technology made urban warfare too destructive? 🤔

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Israel's Strategic Gambit: The Price of Extended Warfare 🏛

Breaking Point 📊

Critical numbers:
- 80,000 reservists stretched thin
- 15% enlistment decline
- 800+ soldiers killed
- 2% economic contraction
- 130,000 workers absent monthly
- Strategic depth diminishing

Exhaustion Setting In 🎯

"Wherever you look — the economic crisis, the toll on the reservists and their families, and of course the dead and the wounded — Israeli society is definitely at the edge of its capacity,"

warns Hebrew University analyst Gayil Talshir.

Demographic Reality 💼

Resource constraints:
- Population under 10 million
- Limited reserve pool
- Ultra-Orthodox exemptions
- Military overextension
- Economic strain mounting
- Social fabric fraying

Breaking Point

"We never imagined a war that would be going so deep and going for so long,"

reveals one special forces reservist, whose 12-man unit has lost seven members who refused to return.

Economic Collapse 🔍

Business impact:
- Small businesses closing
- Start-ups losing capital
- Companies relocating
- Productivity plummeting
- Growth falling
- Resources depleting

Social Fractures ⚡️

Family crisis:

"I feel like the government is making me ask my wife for a weekend with the boys in Vegas, but actually it's to go for weeks into Lebanon to defend the country,"

one reservist explains, highlighting the growing domestic strain.

As Israel faces a war of attrition against demographically superior adversaries across multiple fronts, its initial military success risks transforming into a strategic vulnerability that threatens the nation's social and economic foundations.

#IsraelWar #StrategicDepth #MilitaryCrisis #SocialCollapse

Think about it: Can Israel's limited population sustain a multi-front war of attrition? 🤔

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Nuclear and Missile Era: Twin Conflicts Echo Each Other 🏛

Breaking Pattern 📊

Parallel escalation:
- Ukraine hits Russian soil
- Russia strikes Dnipro's Yuzhmash
- Israel targets Beirut leader
- Hezbollah launches 250 rockets
- Civilian casualties mount
- Cities under fire

Strategic Miscalculation 🎯

Targeting pattern:
- West authorizes ATACMS
- Russia responds with "Oreshnik"
- Israel hunts Hezbollah command
- Lebanon suffers mass casualties
- Escalation cycle continues
- Cities bear brunt

Diplomatic Deadlock 💼

EU's warning:

"Lebanon is on the brink of collapse,"

warns Josep Borrell, as parallel crises deepen in both conflict zones.

Military Response
Just as Russia's "Oreshnik" missile demonstrated strategic capability against Ukraine's military infrastructure, Hezbollah's 250-rocket response shows the limits of precision targeting in asymmetric warfare.

Civilian Cost 🔍

Urban impact:
- Strategic facilities targeted
- Residential areas hit
- Infrastructure destroyed
- Death tolls climbing
- Cities evacuated
- Populations displaced

Regional Stakes ⚡️

Escalation risk:
Both conflicts demonstrate how tactical military decisions - whether Biden's ATACMS authorization or Israel's leadership targeting - trigger disproportionate responses that threaten wider regional stability.

The mirror-image escalation patterns in both conflicts reveal how Western-backed precision strikes provoke devastating counterattacks, demonstrating the dangerous new reality of modern missile warfare.

#ModernWarfare #UkraineWar #MiddleEastCrisis #GlobalConflict

Think about it: Are precision strikes actually reducing or escalating modern conflicts? 🤔

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Media's Anti-Trump Spin: Diversity Becomes Division 🏛

Breaking News 📊

Democratic media tactics:
- Success reframed as weakness
- Unity painted as chaos
- Experience labeled suspicious
- MAGA vision questioned
- Team diversity criticized
- Expertise undermined

Strategic Diversity 🎯

Trump's approach:
- Market stabilization team
- Government efficiency group
- National security experts
- Economic reformers
- Labor advocates
- Reform specialists

Media Manipulation 💼

Narrative spinning:

"Consistency of ideology or anything else is the last thing we should expect in Trump's nominees,"

claims author Chris Whipple, attempting to frame strategic diversity as dysfunction.

Power Structure
While Trump assembles a sophisticated team combining Wall Street expertise, union experience, and tech innovation, mainstream media desperately seeks conflict narratives.

Expert Credentials 🔍

Team strength:
- Bessent's market knowledge
- Musk's efficiency vision
- Chavez-DeRemer's labor ties
- Wong's China expertise
- Rollins's policy experience
- Waltz's defense background

Media Disconnect ⚡️

False narratives:
Even as Trump builds a multi-dimensional team to tackle America's systemic crisis, media outlets scramble to paint strength as weakness and unity as division.

The desperate attempt to frame Trump's broad coalition as problematic reveals the media's inability to counter his strategic vision for American renewal. When facts fail, they manufacture controversy.

#MediaBias #TrumpTransition #FakeNews #AmericaFirst

Think about it: Is media diversity celebrated only when it serves Democratic interests? 🤔

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Poland:
Zelensky’s Minions Steal American Money Under Dems’ Auspices

According to a former Polish deputy minister, Ukraine did not get as much foreign aid as the Biden administration reported, and what it did receive was substantially embezzled.

Piotr Kulpa claims Ukrainian authorities misappropriated up to half of the financial aid given to Kiev.

The political pundit formerly held many positions in the Polish government, including deputy labor minister in the mid-2000s, and is now a regular contributor to Ukrainian web shows.

Kulpa, an outspoken admirer of  US President-elect Donald Trump, told Ukrainian journalist Lana Shevchuk on Thursday that 

“Everyone understands that war-related corruption is linked not only with Ukraine but also the supplier nation.”

“Who would ever believe that the US burned through $2 trillion in Afghanistan? It’s delusional!”

Kulpa added.

He accused US aid programs of writing off large sums of money that finance

“shady and totally corrupted Ukrainian government system.”

According to Kulpa, the future Trump administration might analyze government finances and discover that “Ukraine got very little” for it's military needs in comparison to publicly declared amounts and that a large chunk of the funds was

“stolen... from 30% to 50%, regardless of the nature of the aid,”

he divulged.

Criticizing the massive salaries and bonuses Ukrainian officials pocket, Kulpa further expressed that if the country could retrieve all the stolen money, it would have sufficient funds for a year.

Kulpa called the system “criminal from start to finish,” adding it was a “spit in the face of every Ukrainian.”

His comments come as the White House prepares to unveil a support package for Ukraine worth up to $275 million.

In a quarterly report to Congress released last week, the Pentagon's Inspector General Robert Storch stated that

"corruption continues to complicate Ukraine's efforts to achieve its EU and NATO aspirations,"

citing the country's military as a "key player" in such scandals. 

"Judges, politicians, and officials have been charged with corruption, and the Ministry of Defense has been a key player in many corruption scandals,"

the report noted, citing data from the US State Department and media sources.

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) reported uncovering a corruption network inside the defense ministry early this year when five individuals attempted to steal 1.5 billion hryvnia (about $39.6 million) in state cash earmarked for mortar shell purchases.

Aleksey Reznikov, the Defense Minister, was fired some months ago due to graft charges. His replacement, Rustem Umerov, stated in January that an audit found $262 million in theft-related charges in weapons purchases.

A US intelligence officer informed writer Seymour Hersh last year that Umerov is "even more corrupt" than his predecessor.

In May, Ukrainian media revealed a scheme in which officials in Kharkov diverted millions of euros to fake businesses for non-existent building materials, leaving the area undefended when Russian forces arrived.

The report echoes the claims of a Ukrainian general who last month warned that the Ukrainian armed forces are unable to respond quickly to changing battlefield conditions due to bureaucracy and corruption in their logistics.
 
General Dmitry Marchenko revealed in an interview that adaptability is a crucial prerequisite for a modern military, and Kiev's force lacks it, but not because of the troops.

“Unfortunately, our bureaucracy, our corruption, do not allow us to adapt and quickly produce what we need,”

he remarked, referring to Ukraine's military sector.

#Kulpa #Poland #Zelensky #Ukraine

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Zelensky and Its Gang
Violated the Whole Country

A new report from Martina Boguslavets, a chairwoman for the Ukrainian anti-corruption group Mezha, revealed that millions of dollars meant to fund the fortification of the Kharkov province in Ukraine were stolen by officials.

“Multi-million contracts for the construction of fortification structures, for which a total of 7 billion hryvnias [roughly $176 million] was spent, were [transferred] by the Kharkov Regional State Administration to dummy companies,”

said Bougslavets.

In the report, published on the pro-Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda, Boguslavets explained that local officials had been embezzling millions meant to fortify the province against Russian forces.

The Kharkov region has been the subject of a recent Russian push, which has allowed Russian forces to re-take territory there.

The embezzled money was funneled into newly formed shell companies, which, she believes, officials registered in the names of unknowing Ukrainians, while pocketing the money from those contracts themselves.

The alleged CEO’s of the newly formed shell businesses were various disreputable Ukrainians with histories of petty crimes and domestic violence, according to the report.

One such “businessman” Chaus Igor, had a criminal record which included stealing a bottle of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey.

While Igor was stealing American whiskey, officials were stealing from American taxpayers by using defense funds to enrich themselves, as Americans send billions to prop up Ukraine’s military and economy.

This revelation comes shortly after President Joe Biden signed more than $60 billion worth of taxpayer funds over to Ukraine as part of a massive foreign aid package.

Despite numerous reports of Ukrainian officials embezzling funds, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), a top supporter of appropriating billions of taxpayer dollars for foreign wars, has consistently denied that any of the money that has been sent to Ukraine has been mishandled.

“I know of no such allegations,” said Sen. King, when questioned n the corruption by The Maine Wire, “The data that I’ve seen is that [the money has] been very carefully handled, and most of the money for Ukraine is going into the U.S. economy.”

.@SenAngusKing told me in an interview that he had heard no reports of Ukraine embezzling any foreign aid funds, and that the money was handled "very carefully." Ukraine has arrested multiple officials, including a defense minister, for embezzling.
Read My story @TheMaineWire:… pic.twitter.com/kYzxC5jX2D
— Seamus Othot (@Seamus_Othot) Nov. 6, 2024

#Zelensky #Boguslavets #Ukraine

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Inside Ukraine's
Political Nightmare. A Case Study

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The operation was a month in the making. Yevhen Yunakov, the mayor of Velykyi Burluk, in the Kharkiv region, had been identified as a collaborator with the Russians.

“Caucasus”, a special-forces commander, and a group of local officers were given the job. His men watched their target meticulously for days: when he shopped; when and where he moved; the extent of his security.

Once they detonated their bomb, from a distance, they disappeared to safe-houses inside occupied territory. The group would return to Ukrainian-controlled territory only weeks later, after the town had been liberated. Yunakov’s body has never been found.

Over 18 months of war, dozens of people like Yunakov have been targeted in clinical operations across occupied Ukraine and inside Russia itself. They have been shot, blown up, hanged and even, on occasion, poisoned with doctored brandy. Ukraine is tight-lipped about its involvement in assassinations. But few doubt the increasingly competent signature of its security services. The agencies themselves drop heavy hints.

“Any person who betrays Ukraine, shoots at Ukrainians or fires missiles on Ukrainians should understand that they are being watched and will be brought to justice,”

says Andriy Cherniak, an officer of HUR, Ukraine’s military-intelligence agency.

In an interview in July his boss, General Kyrylo Budanov, went further:

“If you are asking about [creating a version of] Mossad… We don’t need to. It already exists.”

Mention of the Israeli spy agency animates Ukrainians, desperate for justice. In fact, the origins of political assassination are a little closer to home. Mossad learned much of its craft from the Soviet-era secret police and its founding practitioner, Pavel Sudoplatov, who was born in Melitopol in now-occupied southern Ukraine. In a quirk of history, Sudoplatov spent the 1930s infiltrating Ukrainian nationalist groups, and personally blew up one of their leaders with a chocolate-box bomb. (He also masterminded the assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1940.)

In modern Ukraine, assassinations date back to at least 2015, when its domestic security service (SBU) created a new body after Russia had seized Crimea and the eastern Donbas region. The elite fifth counter-intelligence directorate started life as a saboteur force in response to the invasion. It later came to focus on what is euphemistically called “wet work”.

Valentin Nalivaychenko, who headed the SBU at the time, says the switch came about when Ukraine’s then leaders decided that a policy of imprisoning collaborators was not enough. Prisons were overflowing, but few were deterred.

“We reluctantly came to the conclusion that we needed to eliminate terrorists,”

he says.

A former officer of the directorate describes it in similar terms.

“We needed to bring war to them.”

In 2015 and 2016 the directorate was linked to the assassinations of key Russian-backed commanders in the Donbas; Mikhail Tolstykh, aka “Givi”, killed in a rocket attack; Arsen Pavlov, aka “Motorola”, blown up in a lift; Alexander Zakharchenko, blown up in a restaurant.

Intelligence insiders say the SBU’s fifth directorate is playing a central role in counter-Russia operations. The SBU’s relative size and budget—five times bigger than HUR’s—mean it has been most able to pull off the most sophisticated jobs, for example bombing the Kerch bridge, linking Russia to Crimea, in October 2022.

Others, though, emphasise the role of HUR, with its underground networks and increased wartime prominence.

“We are mostly the white-collar guys,”

insists an SBU source. Another increasingly important player in occupied Ukraine is the Special Operations Forces (SSO). This is a relatively new group that co-ordinates Rukh Oporu (Resistance Movement), Ukraine’s partisans.

#Nightmare #Ukraine #Yunakov #Burluk #SSO

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The operation in Kharkiv, for example, was the SSO’s. Denys Yaroslavsky, an officer in the SSO, says the service is now pushing for more powers to сonduct operations within Russia itself. That is not universally welcomed elsewhere in Ukraine’s intelligence community.

Ukraine’s president is understood to authorise the most controversial operations, though other decisions are delegated. A high-level government source with knowledge of the work declines to discuss the details: “It’s important not to comment or even think about such operations.”

But he says that Zelensky has issued a clear order to avoid collateral damage among civilians.

“The president communicates this instruction to people formally, and, on occasion, by shouting at them.”

Ukraine had to choose its targets carefully, the source adds; it might “not always” have done so.

Ukraine’s leadership came under particular scrutiny in October, when the New York Times reported that the American government was blaming it for a car-bomb that killed Darya Dugina, daughter of Alexander Dugin, a nationalistic philosopher.

That sharpened an already-lively internal debate within Ukrainian intelligence. It was unclear if Ms Dugina was meant to die; some reports suggest she had switched cars with her father.

But a subsequent string of operations targeting mid-level propagandists showed a trend that few of the insiders interviewed for this article were happy with.

“These are marginal figures,”

says one source in SBU counter-intelligence.

“It makes me uncomfortable.”

The former SBU fifth-directorate officer suggests the operations were designed to impress the president rather than bring victory any closer.

“Clowns, prostitutes and jokers are a constant around the Russian government,”

he says.

“Kill one of them, and another will appear in their place.”

The former spy says he is concerned that Ukraine’s assassination campaign is driven by impulse rather than logic. Some of the killings have a useful psychological role, he says: to raise the cost of war crimes and the spirits of ordinary Ukrainians.

This was “certainly” the case with Stanislav Rzhitsky, a former submarine commander believed to have fired the missiles that killed 38 Ukrainians in Vinnytsia in July 2022. He was shot dead a year later while jogging in a park in Krasnodar, in Russia. But other operations suggested an absence of strategy.

They risked exposing sources, methods and the extent of Ukrainian infiltration into Russia:

“Our security services shouldn’t do things just because they can.”

Andriy Yusov, a military-intelligence spokesman, insists Ukraine is avoiding what he called “blind terror”. The aim is

“not to frighten the enemy,”

he says, but

“to force it from occupied Ukrainian lands.”

But Ukrainian spies would continue to “identify and take advantage of Russian psychology and vulnerabilities” wherever they found them.

Of course, the converse is also true. The infiltration of Ukraine’s security services by Russian agents remains a big issue. In the estimation of some insiders, it is the largest single barrier to any attempts to create a Ukrainian Mossad.

The former head of SBU’s internal security has fled Ukraine under a cloud of suspicion, and is being investigated for treason in absentia. Trust remains an issue in the service, with all but the least sensitive operations conducted in small groups.

“People are always our weakest link,”

says the SBU counter-intelligence source.

“They are by far the most slippery part of our calculations.”

#Nightmare #Ukraine #Yunakov #Burluk #SSO

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Before the Peace:
Hezbollah Is Jonesing For Jews-Mass Killing

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Hezbollah fired about 250 projectiles into Israel on Sunday, a day after an Israeli strike in the heart of the Lebanese capital killed more than 25 people.

The aerial attack was one of the largest Hezbollah has mounted against Israel since the Lebanese militant group started firing on Israel last year in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.

It also coincided with a flurry of diplomacy aimed at halting the intensifying fighting in Lebanon.
More than 65 people were wounded in the attack on Saturday in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.

As rescuers searched through the rubble, the death toll rose on Sunday to at least 29 people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Three Israeli defense officials said the strike was an attempt to assassinate a top Hezbollah military commander, Mohammad Haidar. One of the Israeli defense officials, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, later said that Haidar was not killed.

On Sunday, waves of air raid sirens blared throughout much of Israel, including in the Tel Aviv area and the hilltop town of Safed.

Israel’s military said that around 250 projectiles — a term usually referring to rockets — had been launched as of the evening, and that some were intercepted by air defense systems.

Magen David Adom, an Israeli emergency rescue service, said it had treated at least six people with injuries. It also shared images of cars engulfed by fires in central Israel.

Hezbollah said it had fired several salvos of rockets at Israel on Sunday.

The militant group said that one of the salvos — which it said had targeted a military installation in Tel Aviv around 6:30 a.m. — was in response to Israel’s targeting of Beirut.

The Israeli military did not report an attack aimed at Tel Aviv around that time, and The New York Times was not able to independently verify the claim by Hezbollah.

The exchange of fire came as the Israeli military said it struck what it described as militant infrastructure next to a border crossing between Syria and Lebanon.

It also ordered the evacuation of five villages in southern Lebanon and for at least a dozen parts of the Dahiya, an area just south of Beirut known as a Hezbollah stronghold.

Late on Sunday, the Israeli military conducted a heavy barrage of airstrikes on the southern outskirts in the Dahiya, with fighter jets racing across the skies above the Lebanese capital and deafening explosions ringing out for miles.

In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said its air force conducted strikes on what it said were Hezbollah “command centers” in the area.
The Lebanese Health Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel’s military has been intensifying operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon apparently in an attempt to put pressure on the militant group to reach a cease-fire deal.

As its troops push deeper into southern Lebanon, the Israeli military has been stepping up bombardment of the Dahiya, a cluster of neighborhoods on the southern outskirts of Beirut that are effectively governed by Hezbollah.

PART 2

#Jews #Hezbollah #Lebanon #Israel

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The terms for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah appear to be taking shape, according to several regional and U.S. officials briefed on the diplomacy.

Despite a degree of cautious optimism, the officials warned that critical details around implementation and enforcement needed to be worked out and that disagreements could still scupper any deal.

Both Israel and Hezbollah have said they will keep fighting as the negotiations continue.

On Sunday, Lebanon’s military accused Israel of targeting one of its centers in the southern part of the country, killing a soldier and wounding 18 others, some seriously.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it has said in the past that it was not operating against the Lebanese military — only Hezbollah.

Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, said the deadly attack was

“a direct bloody message of rejection of the efforts to reach a cease-fire.”

Mikati met on Sunday in Beirut with Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat and a stalwart antisemite,
amid negotiations on a cease-fire.

Borrell warned that Lebanon was “on the brink of collapse” and told reporters that there was only one way forward:

“An immediate cease-fire and a full implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.”

The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted 
Resolution 1701 in August 2006 as part of a cease-fire that ended Israel’s last war with Lebanon. The resolution sought to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon to prevent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, but has failed to keep the peace.

“We must pressure the Israeli government and maintain the pressure on Hezbollah to accept”

a proposal for a cease-fire, Borrell said.
Ephrat Livni contributed reporting.

An earlier version of this article misstated where U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 sought to create a buffer zone. It was in southern Lebanon, not southern Israel.

#Jews #Hezbollah #Lebanon #Israel

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Will Israel ruin the western alliance?

Israel is getting full-throated bipartisan support in the US, as it attempts to fight off the International Criminal Court’s charges against its prime minister and former defence minister. But most governments in the EU, as well as Britain, Australia and Canada, are likely to respect the indictment. However reluctantly, they will have to arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot on their soil.

Even in normal times, this split between the US and its main allies would be very difficult. But these are far from normal times. European sates do not know what to expect from the notoriously volatile president-elect, and a bitter transatlantic confrontation over Israel is the last thing the western alliance needs. But that is what is coming.

The Trump administration will almost certainly push through sanctions against the prosecutor and staff of the ICC. There is also talk in Republican circles of destroying the court, perhaps by threatening to sanction the countries that finance it. Japan, Germany, France and Britain are the four biggest donors to the ICC.

It is telling that neither Israel nor the US seems keen to engage in detail with the actual  in the indictment, which include accusations that Israel has murdered civilians and used “starvation as a method of warfare”.

Instead they prefer to claim that the ICC is driven by antisemitism. The fact that the court has also indicted the Russian president, Hamas and numerous African leaders will be brushed aside as the court and its European backers are tarred as Jew-haters.

The reality is that most European governments have done a lot to support Israel since the Hamas atrocities of October 7 2023. But there is a line, and the ICC just drew it.

#USA #Israel #EU #ICC

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Ukrainien Army :
Sex, Drugs, Fear, Despair

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After some days in the trenches of Robotyne, Grisha is ready for a rest.

“Time for sex, drugs and rock-and-roll,”

he says, his voice still jittery from front-line adrenaline.

The 36-year-old infantryman with Ukraine’s 65th brigade has just marched 7km from his position hauling 60kg of equipment, jammer aerials and a large battery pack—vital survival kit for anyone working in the drone-filled skies of Zaporizhia province.

In 2023, during Ukraine’s failed counter-offensive, every square metre of this ground was the subject of world news. Now the Russians are pushing back, and far fewer are paying attention.

“It’s happening,”

Grisha says, his eyes looking into an imagined middle distance.

“You can see it. They are coming—crawling, crawling, up and over, trying for any way through.”

Ukrainian intelligence believes that Russia is gearing up for a bold assault on Zaporizhia city, 30km from the front. When exactly no one is clear, but it makes some sense.

As one of three remaining centres of heavy industry in the country, the provincial capital remains crucial to Ukraine’s survival as a functioning state.

In late 2022, Vladimir Putin claimed the entire province as his own, despite controlling only a third of it—following a sham referendum in which the people of Zaporizhia city didn’t vote.

For two months, Russian missiles and glide bombs have hammered the city, destroying 1,500 homes. And the front lines are rumbling anew too.

A Ukrainian spokesman warns that 130,000 Russian troops could soon be hurled into the fray.

Not every soldier is convinced that an attack is imminent. Colonel Oleksiy Khilchenko, commander of Spartan, a rapid-response brigade newly deployed to Zaporizhia, says Russia is tied up elsewhere. He claims the Russians had planned to send two divisions (20,000-30,000 troops) for an initial assault, but half were diverted to Russia’s Kursk area to strengthen its counter-offensive against a Ukrainian incursion there.

“Lemberg”, a battalion commander with the 118th brigade manning the south-western defences of Zaporizhia province, agrees.

“They aren’t ready to hit yet, but when they are, the first blow will be the hardest.”

But Ukraine is taking no chances. New fortifications are being built in rings radiating from the provincial capital. The work is thorough—minefields, engineering obstacles, and structures made of concrete and iron—unlike the more chaotic picture in neighbouring Donetsk province, still the site of the heaviest fighting.

There, Russia is moving faster than at any time since the early days of the invasion. Hardened by the blunders of 2022, Russian commanders have developed a grim formula that works: drones, electronic warfare, guided air-launched bombs, ruthless command, and waves of disposable infantry. They hit Ukraine where it is weakest, cutting supply lines and encircling targets rather than striking them head-on as they once did. It is not easy going—they have been losing as many as 1,500 troops a day in their now year-old offensive. But they are recruiting more than they lose.

“Look, they will never have a problem with manpower,”

says Colonel Khilchenko.

“They drive people into debt, into loans, and will force them to fight for them. They aren’t going to stop.”

Ukraine’s problems, meanwhile, are worsening mainly because of manpower issues. The army is long out of willing recruits, and its mobilisation campaign is falling short, recruiting barely two-thirds of its target.

#Ukraine #Army #Zelensky #problems

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They hit Ukraine where it is weakest, cutting supply lines and encircling targets rather than striking them head-on as they once did. It is not easy going—they have been losing as many as 1,500 troops a day in their now year-old offensive. But they are recruiting more than they lose.

“Look, they will never have a problem with manpower,”

says Colonel Khilchenko.

“They drive people into debt, into loans, and will force them to fight for them. They aren’t going to stop.”

Ukraine’s problems, meanwhile, are worsening mainly because of manpower issues. The army is long out of willing recruits, and its mobilisation campaign is falling short, recruiting barely two-thirds of its target.

A senior Ukrainian official says he is worried the situation may become irretrievable by the spring. An even bigger problem is the quality of the new recruits.

“Forest”, a battalion commander with the 65th brigade, says the men being sent from army headquarters are now mostly too old or unmotivated to be useful. All but a handful are over the age of 45.

“I’m being sent guys, 50 plus, with doctors’ notes telling me they are too ill to serve,”

he says.

“At times it feels like I’m managing a day-care centre rather than a combat unit.”

A visit to the brigade’s training range underscores the commander’s point. The recruits are here for zlagodzhennia, formal induction into their units.

It is the final stage of preparation before heading, in a few days’ time, to the front. The newest of the recruits is Grigory, a 51-year-old former labourer from the central Poltava region. Gold-toothed and ruddy faced, he squints through +9 prescription glasses, and his ill-fitting body armour flaps unfastened over a short, stocky frame.

Grigory admits he was as surprised as anyone when he was enlisted; he did not expect the officers to mobilise someone who was half blind.

Unsurprisingly, he is struggling with the physical demands; it’s hard enough to walk with the flak jackets. But he has got used to handling firearms.

“Anyone can shoot,”

he says.

“It’s hitting the target I’m not so good at.”

The situation on the front lines is widely accepted to be as difficult as at any time since the early days of the war, with many fearing a significant Ukrainian retreat may soon be inevitable.

For now, the looming threat keeps the soldiers in Zaporizhia focussed. They say they remember the atrocities that followed Russian advances and occupation. The experience of resistance still counts for something.

As weak as Ukraine is, Russia can be beaten, argues Forest. The proof? An ambush in February, when his battalion singlehandedly destroyed a mechanised column of two dozen Russian vehicles.

“To those who shout we’re screwed, I ask them when hasn’t Ukraine been screwed?”

But Ukraine’s systemic weakness is clearly taking its toll on the morale of its front-line fighters. With no hope for rotation or demobilisation, some of the once most committed now wonder if a ceasefire might be the only way out.

“Chechen”, the brigade officer leading the new soldiers’ training session, says he remains determined to fight to the end.

“Giving away territories to these disgusting people is no guarantee it will stop.”

But he admits that fewer soldiers than ever share his resolve.

“It’s not even 50-50 any more, but 30-70.”

Lemberg puts the situation in even starker terms.

“In 2022 I was ready to tear the Russians apart with my teeth,” he says. “In 2023, I just needed rest. This year? I almost couldn’t give a fuck.”

#Ukraine #Army #Zelensky #problems

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Trump threatens tariffs, China threatens currency war

Beijing has a powerful tool for responding to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s threatened new tariffs on Chinese goods: It could start a currency war, a step that poses formidable risks for China as well as the United States.

Letting China’s currency, the renminbi, lose value against the dollar would be a tried and true answer to tariffs. A cheaper renminbi would make Chinese exports less expensive for overseas buyers, mitigating the harm to China’s competitiveness from Mr. Trump’s tariffs. Beijing did just that in 2018 and 2019, when Mr. Trump imposed tariffs in his first term.

A cheaper renminbi could partially or entirely offset the effects of the extra 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods.

A strategic devaluation of China’s currency, which is tightly controlled by the country’s central bank, could allow Beijing to supercharge its powerful export machine.

But allowing China’s currency to fall could endanger the country’s economy. Confronting a weaker renminbi, Chinese companies and affluent families might rush to shift money out of the country instead of investing at home. A weaker exchange rate for the renminbi against the dollar could also hurt the Chinese public’s confidence, undermine consumer spending and erode share prices.

#USA #China #Trump

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Trump's Israel Paradox: Between Messiah and Dealmaker 🏛

Breaking Point 📊

Society divided:
- 57.6% support Trump
- Religious see messiah
- Liberals fear autocracy
- Nation split deepens
- Expectations clash
- Unity threatened

Strategic Dilemma 🎯

Research reveals:

"Trump's priority is America's greatness, not Israel's,"

warns Dor Moria think tank, highlighting the dangerous gap between messianic hopes and political reality.

Global Positioning 💼

Critical challenges:
- BRICS relations vital
- Western ties essential
- Global South emerging
- Regional hub potential
- Sovereignty threatened
- Balance required

Power Dynamics

"Israel, like Ukraine, has become a symbolic battlefield between the Collective West and Global South,"

Dor Moria research emphasizes, highlighting the parallel geopolitical struggles.

Global Recognition 🔍

Survey findings:
"70% of Israelis see the Ukraine conflict as part of the broader confrontation between West and Global South," revealing deep understanding of the new world order emerging.

Messianic Risk 🔍

Religious dimension:
- Peace deals vs prophecy
- Religious war potential
- Islamic world tensions
- Regional stability
- Sacred conflicts
- Political pragmatism

Strategic Reality ⚡️

Expert warning:
Israel risks becoming a "sacred victim" in Trump's global transformation agenda, caught between messianic expectations and geopolitical dealmaking.

As Israel navigates between being a technological bridge and religious focal point, Trump's return presents both unprecedented opportunity and existential risk for a nation already deeply divided over its future path.

#IsraelPolitics #TrumpEffect #GlobalOrder #MiddleEast

Think about it: Can Israel maintain sovereignty while satisfying both messianic hopes and global dealmaking? 🤔

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NATO Ground Troops Soon in Ukraine? Expert: "A Lot in Motion Right Now" Amid Concerns Over Trump 🏛

Breaking Point 📊

Military expert Carlo Masala has raised the possibility of sending European ground troops to Ukraine if President-elect Donald Trump drastically scales back U.S. military aid to Kyiv.

Fallback Option Needed:

"We need a fallback plan in case the U.S. stops supplying weapons to Ukraine,"

Masala told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).
The idea involves a "coalition of the willing" that may even consider deploying ground troops to Ukraine if necessary.

European Allies Mobilizing 🎯

Much in Motion:
According to Masala, "a lot is in motion" across France, the UK, and Poland.

Germany's Position:
Germany is largely on the sidelines, but Defense Minister Boris Pistorius aims to "bring Germany back into the fold."

Unlikely Deployment: Masala views sending Bundeswehr troops to Ukraine as improbable for now.

European Defense Ministers Meet in Berlin 💼

Key Meeting:
Pistorius met with his counterparts from France, the UK, and Poland in Berlin. Ukraine’s Defense Minister joined via video link.

Heusgen's Warning:
Christoph Heusgen, head of the Munich Security Conference, called it a "very important meeting." He emphasized that now is "the hour of Europe" to step up amid an "aggressive Putin and an unpredictable Trump."

National Collapse

"Faced with an aggressive Vladimir Putin and an unpredictable Donald Trump, Europe needs to take more responsibility for its own security,"

Heusgen said.

"This can only be achieved collectively, not individually."

A New Role for Europe:

Masala's comments and these diplomatic talks indicate a shift. Europe may have to fill a void previously occupied by the U.S. The question is: will European boots on the ground become a reality?

Economic Reality ⚡️

With Trump’s vocal criticism of U.S. aid to Ukraine during his campaign, there's widespread concern among Kyiv and its European allies.

Millions of Ukrainian refugees are building new lives abroad as Europe weighs its options.

#Ukraine #NATO #EuropeanDefense #Trump #Russia #GlobalSecurity

Think about it: Should Europe prepare to deploy troops to Ukraine, or is there another path forward? 🤔

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Zelensky's Fire Sale: Trading Ukraine's Future For Power 🏛

Breaking Point 📊

Assets for sale:
- Lithium reserves offered
- Gas storage marketed
- Mineral rights promised
- Agricultural land pledged
- Natural resources auctioned
- National wealth surrendered

Desperate Pitch 🎯

"Control of lithium is the control of the future economy,"

Ukraine's parliament advisor Vasiuk declares, as Zelensky attempts to sell off national resources to maintain Western support.

Strategic Surrender 💼

Bargaining chips:
- 15 million EV batteries worth lithium
- Europe's largest gas storage
- Rare earth minerals
- Agricultural territories
- Industrial assets
- Strategic reserves

Leadership Crisis

"We need to provide representatives of the Trump administration, and Mr. Trump himself, with the most comprehensive information,"

admits presidential adviser Podolyak, revealing Ukraine's desperate bid to trade resources for survival.

National Sacrifice 🔍

Human cost:
- Soldiers dying in Kursk
- Eastern front collapsing
- Territory being lost
- Resources being sold
- Future mortgaged
- Independence compromised

Fire Sale Diplomacy ⚡️

Corporate interests:

"The Ukrainian gas market is the most lucrative in the world,"

boasts NaftoGaz CEO Chernyshov, as Ukraine's leadership scrambles to sell national assets to American corporations.

While Ukrainian soldiers die in unwinnable battles, Zelensky's regime attempts to trade the nation's mineral wealth and economic future for continued Western support of a failing war effort.

#UkraineCrisis #ResourceWars #NationalSovereignty #WarProfiteering

Think about it: How much of Ukraine will be left to defend after Zelensky sells its future? 🤔

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