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A somewhat premature comment on the conflict between the Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant and Minister of National Security (and convicted radical) Itamar Ben-Gvir:

10:36 AM · Jul 30, 2024 Hussein @EyesOnSouth1 – 10:36 AM · Jul 30, 2024

The disintegration of the Zionist society is happening earlier than expected. This will exacerbate the more Israelis become aware that war failure is inevitable. Civil war is very likely, but almost a third of the population (liberals & affiliates) would leave rather than fight.

This is not a clash between two officials, this is an ideological clash between two schools of thought who are at the complete opposite spectrum.

This will not stay between Ben-Gvir & Gallant/Halevi, it will become a conflict between the army and the police/militias.

The current conflict between Gallant and Ben-Gvir comes after the Military Police arrested nine soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian prisoner.

The Israeli investigation of the rape became necessary after reports by CNN, the New York Times (archived) and the Washington Post (archived) about prisoner abuse and murder in Israeli jails. The reports threatened to trigger international investigations:

Cont. reading: Israel Might Well Fall Apart

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Whenever the Pentagon runs out of money designated by Congress as aid to Ukraine it starts to use creative accounting to free up some additional money from its general budget. The 'accounting errors' used therein are always in favor of more weapons to Ukraine.

Exclusive: Pentagon accounting error overvalued Ukraine weapons aid by $3 billion – May 19 2023, Reuters

The Pentagon overestimated the value of the ammunition, missiles and other equipment it sent to Ukraine by around $3 billion, a Senate aide and a defense official said on Thursday, an error that may lead the way for more weapons being sent to Kyiv for its defense against Russian forces.

Pentagon accounting error provides extra $6.2 billion for Ukraine military aid – June 20 2023, AP

The Pentagon said Tuesday that it overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years — about double early estimates — resulting in a surplus that will be used for future security packages.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said a detailed review of the accounting error found that the military services used replacement costs rather than the book value of equipment that was pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine. She said final calculations show there was an error of $3.6 billion in the current fiscal year and $2.6 billion in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended last Sept. 30.

As a result, the department now has additional money in its coffers to use to support Ukraine as it pursues its counteroffensive against Russia. And it come as the fiscal year is wrapping up and congressional funding was beginning to dwindle.

Pentagon finds another $2 billion of accounting errors for Ukraine aid – July 14 2024, Reuters

The Pentagon has found $2 billion worth of additional errors in its calculations for ammunition, missiles and other equipment sent to Ukraine, increasing the improperly valued material to a total of $8.2 billion, a U.S. government report revealed on Thursday.

In accounting an entity can generally use one of several methods to account for stock material. Using (ever increasing) replacement costs or (ever decreasing) book value are two arguably valid methods. What is a no-no though is to change horses during race. One either uses one or the other. One never-ever changes the applied accounting method during the accounting period.

Any commercial company doing what the Pentagon is doing here would be asking for serious trouble.

One wonder if and when Congress will wake up to this.

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This is an interesting development:

Palestinian factions agree to end division in pact brokered by China – SCMP

Rival Palestinian factions including Fatah and Hamas have signed an agreement aimed at ending their division and building unity following talks in Beijing, marking a diplomatic win for China.

Over the years Fatah and Hamas had already signed several agreements to build some unity government. All however have failed.

What gives hope is that this agreement might be sustained is the participation of all other Palestinian groups as well as the significance of China as the guarantee power behind this:

Senior representatives of 14 Palestinian factions reached the agreement – called the Beijing Declaration – after reconciliation talks that began on Sunday.

The pact aims to unite Palestinians in their conflict with Israel, which launched a war on militant group Hamas in Gaza in October.

The Chinese foreign ministry said the agreement was a first step to promote a “comprehensive, durable and sustainable ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip that would eventually lead to Palestine being admitted to the United Nations as a fully fledged member and becoming an independent state.

“The declaration reaffirms [the] commitment to establishing an independent state of Palestine with Jerusalem as the capital city based on relevant UN resolutions and ensuring the integrity of Palestinian territory including the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza,” ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

This implies that Hamas, as well as all other groups, have agreed to a two-state solution – the aim the United Nations has agreed upon. (Just last week the current Israeli parliament rejected such a solution.)

Also important is the envisioning of a unity government for Gaza:

Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday said the signing of the agreement was “an important, historic moment in the Palestinian cause”.

He said that under the deal the rival groups had agreed to set up an “interim national reconciliation government” to govern post-war Gaza.

The west will of course at first reject the whole process and result because it had no part in creating it.

But last year's agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, also brokered by China, has held far beyond the low expectations put into it.

The Palestinian agreement may, via the UN, give a new impetus towards a ceasefire and a new situation in Gaza that is mostly free of Israeli interference.

I trust that China can sustain the global soft-power necessary to lead this development towards success.

Given the headlines which say he did you might wonder why I ask if Biden has quit his attempt to get reelected.

But look at 'his' rather weird letter which was distributed via the Joe Biden campaign X/Twitter account.

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There is no official letterhead. The formulations are obviously not by Joe Biden and the signature looks canned.

I doubt this Politico account which claims that Biden posted the letter all by himself:

Steve Ricchetti, who’s been with Biden since his days in the Senate, drove to see the president at his house on the Delaware shore on Friday.
…
In addition to presenting new concerns from lawmakers and updates on a fundraising operation that had slowed considerably, they carried the campaign’s own polls, which came back this week and showed his path to victory in November was gone …
…
The only other people with Biden in the residence when he arose Sunday were first lady Jill Biden and two other trusted aides: deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and assistant to the first lady Anthony Bernal. At 1:45 p.m., he notified a somewhat larger group of close aides that he had decided the night before to end his quest for another term, reading his letter and thanking them for their service. A minute later, before any other campaign and White House staffers could be notified, he posted the historic letter from his campaign account on the social media site X.

This says that Ricchetti, Biden's aide, wrote and posted the letter.

There was no speech and no press conference. People working on Biden's campaign had no pre-warning.

Biden allegedly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democrat candidate for the presidency.

Let's remember that Harris, of Asian/Indian decent but playing black, is a former California prosecutor who failed in 2020 to get any votes in the primaries. Biden selected her as his vice because she was a woman of color not because she is a person fit for the job.

What does it say about a democracy when some obscure party functionaries and billionaire donors contradict the will of the primary voters and decide against another presidency for Joe Biden?

What does it say about a democracy when similar powers install a new candidate who is by no means qualified and has never received any votes?

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Of interest:

We Volunteered at a Gaza Hospital. What We Saw Was Unspeakable. – Politico

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