The European Union’s ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, has warned once again that European states were “losing patience” with the continued growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
The comment came Friday, after Spain and Italy joined France, Germany and the UK in warning its citizens against engaging in commercial ties with West Bank settlements. France had issued a similar declaration last week, while the foreign offices of Germany and Britain had done the same several months ago.
“These warnings don’t surprise us,” Faaborg-Andersen told journalists at a Geneva Initiative event on Friday. “The states [of the EU] are losing patience when it comes to continued construction in the settlements, and if the trend continues, more countries will join these warnings against businesses operating over the Green Line,” he warned, according to the Israeli Hebrew-language media.
According to a Friday report in the Italian La Stampa daily, Italy’s Foreign Minister Federico Mogherini cautioned Italians “not to get involved in financial activity and investments” in settlements. The warning is given “in accord with other European countries” and reflects Italy’s implementation of “a political decision taken earlier,” Mogherini said, according to the paper.
The international community regards most Israeli building over the Green Line as contrary to international law, though most rounds of peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians centered on negotiating a new, agree-upon boundary that would keep most Israeli settlers within Israel, as most settlers live adjacent to the Green Line that divides Israel and the West Bank.
The warnings by Spain and Italy on Friday included specific mention of financial investments and the use of Israeli tourism services in the region. The West Bank is home to many sites holy to Christianity, including the city of Bethlehem, which the Biblical narrative considers the birthplace of Jesus.
The warnings call the settlements “obstacles to peace” which “threaten to make the two-state solution impossible.”
An Israeli diplomatic official shrugged off the warnings, calling them “a political statement disguised as a legal one, and as such one that merely reiterates old and well-known European positions,” according to the Hebrew-language NRG news site.
The “vague wording of the statements points to the weak legal foundations of the warning,” the official said.
Thursday, June 26, the day before US Secretary of State John Kerry was due in Riyadh, King Abdullah summoned a National Security Council meeting “upon the current security events in the region, especially in Iraq,” and ordered “all necessary measures to protect the kingdom against terrorist threats.” This meant a general call-up of military units for a high level of preparedness.
debkafile’s military sources disclose that Egypt is assembling an expeditionary commando force to fly to Saudi Arabia and bolster its border defenses.
This flurry of Saudi-Egyptian military steps comes in the wake of intelligence gathered by Saudi reconnaissance planes showing Iraqi Al Qaeda-linked Sunni fighters (ISIS) heading for the Saudi border and aiming to seize control of the Iraqi-Saudi crossing at Ar Ar (pop: 200,000).
This flurry of Saudi-Egyptian military steps comes in the wake of intelligence gathered by Saudi reconnaissance planes showing Iraqi Al Qaeda-linked Sunni fighters (ISIS) heading for the Saudi border and aiming to seize control of the Iraqi-Saudi crossing at Ar Ar (pop: 200,000).
ISIS and its Sunni allies are still on the march after capturing Iraq’s border crossings with Syria and Jordan earlier this week.
On Wednesday, Kerry warned Mideast nations against taking new military action in Iraq that might heighten sectarian divisions.
By then, he had been overtaken by a rush of events, as debkafile reported this morning.
By then, he had been overtaken by a rush of events, as debkafile reported this morning.
At the same time, Saudi arms are flowing to the Iraqi Sunni tribes fighting alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) against the Iraqi army and the Shiite Nouri al-Maliki's government.
They are coming in both overland and by airlift.
Saudi arms convoys are crossing the border into Iraq with Saudi and Jordanian air force cover and heading north up to the Al-Qa'im district near the Syrian border. There, Sunni and ISIS fighters, after capturing this key Anbar district, have begun refurbishing the bases and runways at H-2, once one of Saddam Hussein’s largest airbases. Situated 350 kilometers west of Baghdad, this air base has two long runways and hangars for fighter planes and helicopters.
Saudi arms convoys are crossing the border into Iraq with Saudi and Jordanian air force cover and heading north up to the Al-Qa'im district near the Syrian border. There, Sunni and ISIS fighters, after capturing this key Anbar district, have begun refurbishing the bases and runways at H-2, once one of Saddam Hussein’s largest airbases. Situated 350 kilometers west of Baghdad, this air base has two long runways and hangars for fighter planes and helicopters.
The response was swift. Syrian warplanes, on their first bombing mission inside Iraq, tried to damage the partially repaired runways at H-2 to prevent any more Saudi air shipments from landing.
Military sources in Washington confirmed Wednesday June 25 that those air strikes were conducted by the Syrian Air Force “in Anbar province” and left at least 57 people dead and 120 wounded - most of them Iraqi civilians. They declined to say what was attacked, referring only to ISIS-related targets.
Military sources in Washington confirmed Wednesday June 25 that those air strikes were conducted by the Syrian Air Force “in Anbar province” and left at least 57 people dead and 120 wounded - most of them Iraqi civilians. They declined to say what was attacked, referring only to ISIS-related targets.
That incident was a striking demonstration of the tight operational sync between the Iranian command centers in Damascus and Baghdad, which are attached respectively to the high commands of the Syrian and Iraqi armies. This coordination offers Tehran the flexibility for its command centers in both Arab capitals to send Iranian drones aloft from Syrian or Iraqi airbases to feed those centers with the intelligence they need for the strategic planning of military operations to be conducted by the Syrian and Iraqi armies.
Well, at least someone gets it.
While just about every other central bank on the planet is giving everyone two thumbs up on the economy, the deputy chair of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (Lim Hng Kiang) said last night at a dinner that “an uneasy calm seems to have settled in markets” and that “we remain in uncharted waters.”
It was pretty amazing, really, to see such pointed language from a central banking official.
Mr. Lim jabbed at the “obvious” risks and said there would be “bumps on the road” ahead. That’s putting it mildly.
But banks with razor thin capital ratios (i.e. a bank’s net equity as a percentage of total assets) will fold. Or go to the taxpayer with their hats in their hand claiming to be too big to fail.
This is precisely what happened to the US financial system back in 2009. Lehman Brothers. Wachovia. Washington Mutual. Etc. They were all swimming naked, with very little liquidity and miniscule capital levels.
Singapore’s monetary authority is obviously concerned about financial markets. They understand that you can’t expect to conjure trillions of dollars out of thin air without creating epic bubbles and even more epic consequences.
Sure, you can shuffle those consequences out a few months… even a few years. But at some point those bubbles must be reckoned with.
Perhaps the greatest concern is how few people seem to care.
Central banks and institutional investors turn a deaf ear to obvious risks and fundamentals that are screaming out in desperation hoping some conservative steward will notice that we are tap dancing on a knife’s edge, where nearly every single financial market is simultaneous at/near an all-time high, and central bankers keep pumping money into economies that they claim to be ‘recovered’.
This is the ‘uneasy calm’ that Mr. Lim discussed– a prevailing attitude that there’s nothing to see here; keep calm and buy the all-time high.
And he’s telling banks to get ready for something to happen.
An Ebola outbreak that began in Guinea has turned into a cross-border crisis that could spread to more countries, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, calling for drastic action to halt the deadly epidemic.
Despite efforts by national health authorities and international aid organizations to contain its spread, the WHO has recorded 635 infections, including 399 deaths, in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since the outbreak began in February.
The crisis is already the deadliest outbreak since Ebola first emerged in central Africa in 1976, and the number of infections continues to rise.
"WHO is gravely concerned by the on-going cross-border transmission into neighboring countries as well as the potential for further international spread," he said.
In response to the worsening crisis, the WHO said it will convene a special meeting of health ministers from 11 countries in Accra, Ghana on July 2 and 3 to develop a comprehensive inter-country response plan.
Ebola - with a fatality rate of up to 90 percent, no vaccine and no known cure - has not previously occurred in the West Africa region. People there have become frightened of health facilities, blaming them for importing and spreading the virus.
The Ebola virus initially causes raging fever, headaches, muscle pain, conjunctivitis and weakness, before moving into more severe phases with vomiting, diarrhoea and internal and external haemorrhaging.
"There is an urgent need to intensify response efforts; to promote cross-border collaboration and information sharing of suspected cases and contacts...and to mobilise all sectors of the community," Sambo said. "This is the only way that the outbreak will be effectively addressed."
Along with many of the immigrants are hitchhikers of a much smaller variety, namely bacteria and other microorganisms that may cause far greater problems than the human toll of the border tsunami.
A whistleblower from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)characterized the flow of illegal immigrants across the border as, “bringing with it tuberculosis and other communicable diseases.” ICE isn’t screening for infectious diseases, instead relying on self-reporting. Immigrants are not detained for further health screening, “unless they tell us they’re sick,”according to the ICE agent.
Symptoms of TB, according to the CDC, include a persistent cough, weakness, fatigue, weight loss, and night sweats. Most everyone crossing the Mexican desert, hiding from authorities, with limited food and water, for weeks on end will have these symptoms. So who gets screened? Everyone or no one? Likely the latter, based on the sheer volume of immigrants.
Preventing the spread of TB, according to the Mayo Clinic, means staying home, avoiding closed spaces without ventilation, and covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing. The holding areas for the immigrants are quite the opposite, conducive for spreading infectious diseases. Holding facilities in Brownsville Texas are characterized by “the pungent odor that comes with keeping people in close quarters.” Sounds like ideal conditions for spreading a communicable disease.
Once across the U.S. border, immigrant children are being sent to New York City, California, and other states. What a perfect way to disseminate an infectious disease, especially since the children will again be living in close quarters in makeshift detention centers, coughing and sneezing on each other.
The discussion so far has been about standard TB that is treatable by a variety of medications. What about “multi-drug resistant TB” or even worse, “extensively drug-resistant TB”? Both, according to the CDC, are much more difficult to treat.
One third of the world’s population are infected with TB,” per the CDC. Last year, “64% of all TB cases and 91% of multidrug–resistant TB cases in the United States occurred among people born in other countries.” And Latin American slums are described by USAID as “a breeding ground for tuberculosis.” Guess which “other countries” most of those crossing our southern border are coming from.
It’s not only TB crossing the border. Other infectious diseases such as scabies, MRSA staph infections, hepatitis, and chicken pox are being brought into the U.S. Scientific American warns of tropical diseases, “endemic in warmer, wetter and poorer areas of the world, often closer to the equator,” such as schistosomiasis, Chagas disease, dengue, and Chikungunya making their way to the U.S. as, “immigration may become a greater disease pipeline.”
-An unaccompanied minor from Central America who entered the U.S. illegally has been confirmed as having the Swine Flu, also known as the H1N1 flu.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that the sick child is at the Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio, according to KRGV. 2,000 H1N1 vaccinations are being brought to the air base, where more than 1,000 illegal immigrant minors are currently staying.
Congressman Louie Gohmert told Breitbart Texas that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services--the agency currently caring for many of the unaccompanied minors--is not doing an adequate job of screening and treating diseases.
"Having spent the weekend on our border, I can tell you that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is not taking charge of the undocumented children in any kind of reasonable time frame as they are absolutely required to do," Gohmert said. "It is becoming more and more apparent that the Obama administration’s reckless disregard for enforcing this nation’s laws at the border has become a reckless disregard for human health and life. Even when they spend a hundred times more than necessary, they can’t even build a website."
This is not the first time health concerns have been raised regarding the illegal immigrant population.
Breitbart Texas previously reported on an outbreak of scabies among the migrants. Several Border Patrol agents contracted the skin infestation.
Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol spokesman Omar Zamora told Breitbart Texas, "We don't screen for diseases. All we are is a processing center, so we don't do that."
The denial of the reality of jihad is thicker than ever, even as jihadis advance around the world. And it endangers us all.
Former CIA officer John Maguire revealed this week that the CIA was blindsided by the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which now controls so much of Syria and Iraq and has designs on a great deal more territory. Maguire attributed the CIA’s underestimating of ISIL’s threat to The Company’s reduced presence in Iraq: “This is a glaring example of the erosion of our street craft and our tradecraft and our capability to operate in a hard place. The U.S. taxpayer is not getting their money’s worth.”
The willful ignorance is all-pervasive. It is a fundamental dogma of our age that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Western countries are enthusiastic democratic pluralists who reject and abhor not only jihad terrorism, but the elements of Sharia that are at variance with otherwise universally held principles of human rights. This dogma keeps running up against the buzz-saw of reality, but that never seems to make a difference to authorities.
Even terrorism may be peaceful nowadays. Mohamed Hassan Hersi, a Muslim in Toronto who has been convicted of trying to join the jihad terror group al Shabaab, was only engaged, according to his lawyer, in “non-violent terrorism.”
“Non-violent terrorism”? The phrase is as stupid and devoid of content as another popular term these days, “moderate Islamist.”
The world is in flames because of Islamic jihad. Will those flames finally burn away the all-blanketing fog of disinformation, misinformation, and willful ignorance concerning the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat? Perhaps. But there is no telling how much else will be burned away along with it.
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