The Prophecy is much more than seeing into the future. For the Prophecy sees without the element of time. For the Prophecy sees what is, what was, and what always shall be. 11:11 LLC
Faults Underlying Exercise Vigilant GuardStory by: (Author NameStaff Sgt. Raymond Drumsta – 138th Public Affairs Detachment Dated: Thu, Nov 5, 2009 This map illustrates the earthquake fault lines in Western New York. An earthquake in the region is a likely event, says University of Buffalo Professor Dr. Robert Jacobi. TONAWANDA, NY — An earthquake in western New York, the scenario that Exercise Vigilant Guard is built around, is not that far-fetched, according to University of Buffalo geology professor Dr. Robert Jacobi. When asked about earthquakes in the area, Jacobi pulls out a computer-generated state map, cross-hatched with diagonal lines representing geological faults. The faults show that past earthquakes in the state were not random, and could occur again on the same fault systems, he said. “In western New York, 6.5 magnitude earthquakes are possible,” he said. This possibility underlies Exercise Vigilant Guard, a joint training opportunity for National Guard and emergency response organizations to build relationships with local, state, regional and federal partners against a variety of different homeland security threats including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks. The exercise was based on an earthquake scenario, and a rubble pile at the Spaulding Fibre site here was used to simulate a collapsed building. The scenario was chosen as a result of extensive consultations with the earthquake experts at the University of Buffalo’s Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), said Brig. Gen. Mike Swezey, commander of 53rd Troop Command, who visited the site on Monday. Earthquakes of up to 7 magnitude have occurred in the Northeastern part of the continent, and this scenario was calibrated on the magnitude 5.9 earthquake which occurred in Saguenay, Quebec in 1988, said Jacobi and Professor Andre Filiatrault, MCEER director. “A 5.9 magnitude earthquake in this area is not an unrealistic scenario,” said Filiatrault. Closer to home, a 1.9 magnitude earthquake occurred about 2.5 miles from the Spaulding Fibre site within the last decade, Jacobi said. He and other earthquake experts impaneled by the Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada in 1997 found that there’s a 40 percent chance of 6.5 magnitude earthquake occurring along the Clareden-Linden fault system, which lies about halfway between Buffalo and Rochester, Jacobi added. Jacobi and Filiatrault said the soft soil of western New York, especially in part of downtown Buffalo, would amplify tremors, causing more damage. “It’s like jello in a bowl,” said Jacobi. The area’s old infrastructure is vulnerable because it was built without reinforcing steel, said Filiatrault. Damage to industrial areas could release hazardous materials, he added. “You’ll have significant damage,” Filiatrault said. Exercise Vigilant Guard involved an earthquake’s aftermath, including infrastructure damage, injuries, deaths, displaced citizens and hazardous material incidents. All this week, more than 1,300 National Guard troops and hundreds of local and regional emergency response professionals have been training at several sites in western New York to respond these types of incidents. Jacobi called Exercise Vigilant Guard “important and illuminating.” “I’m proud of the National Guard for organizing and carrying out such an excellent exercise,” he said. Training concluded Thursday.
Israeli Minister Says Iran Giving Militants Drone Training Near Esfahan
Sunday, 12 Sep 2021 13:42
HERZLIYA, Israel, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Israel’s defence minister accused Iran on Sunday of providing foreign militias with drone training at an airbase near the city of Isfahan, a month after Tehran came under global scrutiny over a suspected drone attack on an Israeli-managed tanker off Oman.
Israel has combined military strikes with diplomatic pressure to beat back what it describes as an effort by its arch-foe, whose nuclear negotiations with the West are deadlocked, to beef up regional clout through allied guerrillas.
In what his office described as a new disclosure, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said Iran was using Kashan airbase north of Isfahan to train “terror operatives from Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in flying Iranian-made UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)”.
Iran was also trying to “transfer know-how that would allow the manufacturing of UAVs in the Gaza Strip,” on Israel’s southern border, Gantz told a conference at Reichman University near Tel Aviv.
His office provided what it said were satellite images showing UAVs on the runways at Kashan. There was no immediate comment from Iran.
A July 29 blast aboard the Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned petroleum product tanker managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime, near the mouth of the Gulf, a key oil shipping route, killed two crew – a Briton and a Romanian.
The U.S. military said explosives experts from the Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier – which deployed to assist the Mercer Street – concluded the explosion was from a drone produced in Iran, which was accused by other world powers in the attack.
To say we live in difficult times is not to belabor the obvious or be trite. The four horsemen of our apocalypse are well known.
The pandemic is still with us in a profound way, and many developing countries do not have access to sufficient vaccines to inoculate a significant part of their population. They may not until next year. Meanwhile, the US and Europe debate the protocols of a third jab. Unfortunately, Mother Nature is not waiting for humans to get their act together. New variants, like Mu, which was first detected in Colombia and shows “a constellation of mutations” that may overcome the immunity response of the vaccines, are emerging. Mu has been officially recognized and is being tracked by the World Health Organization.
Next to the public health crisis rides the bizarro world of finance. There is a widely shared sense that something is profoundly wrong and ultimately unsustainable. There are around $14.5 trillion of negatively yielding bonds from Europe and Japan. The ECB has lent funds to member banks at minus 1% if they re-lend the money. The flood of capital has seen credit spreads narrow. The price-discovery process is dysfunctional. Savers get paid little (and below zero in real terms) to lend to most major countries and are not rewarded commensurately for taking on more risk. Central government deficits have become the “normal” feature in high-income countries since the Great Depression. Central banks’ balance sheets emerged as a policy tool in the Great Financial Crisis. It never fully left, and it appears now the struggle is to normalize it. Valuations in other asset markets, including equities and house prices, especially in the Anglo-American countries and parts of Europe, are stretched. New assets, like Bitcoin, appear to be based on nothing but a limited supply generated by a computer algorithm and non-fungible tokens, are the rave.
The next horseman bears some relation to the world of finance, but it was independently sired. The disparity of wealth and income is powerful. It acts as a corrosive force, weakening bonds of social trust and undermining the legitimacy of the political and economic elite. The social contract lies in ruins. Parents in the US and other high-income countries can no longer be confident that their children will live better than they do. College education can cost more than a house in the US and not lead to the upward class mobility of earlier generations. If negative interest rates mean that capital cannot reproduce itself, then the disparity of wealth and income is such that the middle class is struggling to reproduce itself. The pandemic underscores the fact that poverty itself is a comorbidity. Indeed, wealthy people have better access to health care, nutrition, and education. It is hardly surprising that longevity itself is a class issue.
The fourth horseman is the largest and most potent threat. It goes by the sanitized name “climate change,” which does not do justice to the radical changes we are only on the cusp of now. We have known about it for a generation. Initially, the focus was on conservation and the limited resources for an increasing population, like Limits to Growth (1972), an updated-Malthusian critique. But the thrust morphed, and in 1980, the Green Party was founded in Germany, which may participate in the next national coalition government. A noted American ecologist, Barry Commoner, helped launch the Citizens’ Party and ran for president of the United States in 1980. The warming temperatures, rising sea levels, and greater weather volatility are not unexpected. It is the pace of change that is surprising. The UN’s latest report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) warns that mitigation efforts need to be more ambitious. The extinction rate of animal and plant life puts our era in the sixth place in earth’s history. This horseman can reshape continents and dramatically alter coastlines. Roughly 40% of the human species presently lives within 100 kilometers of an ocean. Let that sink in.
However, as powerful and notable as the four horsemen are, it is the fifth that brings us here today. What is most notable about it is its stealth. The other horsemen are well known, discussed, and debated. Yet, it seems that only a specialized audience even recognizes the fifth one. It does not have a name, but if it did, it might be called Eris, after the Greek goddess of strife, or Gungnir, after Odin’s spear. This horseman announces the waning of nuclear deterrence and the risk of a new arms race. It is about diverting resources that may be needed to defend against the other horsemen and endangering life as we know it.
From a high level, the achievement of nuclear stability can be understood as the preservation of second-strike capability. The first strike is the initial attack. The second strike is retaliatory. The capability of it deters the first strike, hence mutually assured destruction. One consideration that follows from this is that defensive weapons that could deny an adversary second-strike capability would be destabilizing. At first, this was not a problem because it was beyond the scientific capabilities of the Americans or Soviets. And when defenses began being more practical, the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty was signed between the US and the Soviet Union, limiting the number and scope of the deployment of defense systems.
Things change. The rising nuclear threat seemed to come from rogue states (e.g., North Korea and Iran) and possibly non-state entities. For this kind of threat, a missile shield could be desirable but risks undermining the stability of the second strike. Technology continued to evolve, and Israel’s Iron Dome has demonstrated its efficacy for various kinds of projectiles (e.g., mortar shells, unmanned aerial vehicles, rockets). Some reports give it an 85-90% success rate since the first deployment in 2011. Moreover, the technology has been exported. It has, for example, been deployed and helped defend Saudi oilpipelines.
Technology evolves. At first, the precision of the missiles was lacking. But if the idea is to signal to the adversary that one will have sufficient resources after absorbing the hit from their strike that can destroy large population centers (Mutual Assured Destruction), then the missile’s accuracy may not be so important. If a missile is off even a few miles from its target, it may not make much of a difference. Military strategists call this counter-value targeting. However, technology has developed remarkably, and the precision capability allows for a different strategy: counter-force. Consider being able to target enemy missiles in their silos.
Now, put these things together: The US withdrew from the ABM treaty in 2002 and continued to develop missile defenses. A few months ago, it tested one of the two Iron Dome defense batteries in the United States purchased from Israel. The idea is to integrate it into the US defense array but also possibly be portable. Under President Trump, the US successfully tested the “Ground-based Midcourse Defense” system, the only US missile defense system built specifically to address Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)-class of threats. When the defensive capabilities are joined by the precision and number of US missiles and warheads, its first strike capability can be daunting.
Leaving aside the particulars about Russia and China’s current leaders, simply assume rational actors, at least as the base case. What kind of response is likely? What would we advise if the US found itself in a similar position?
The country in the subordinate position would use asymmetrical warfare, like George Washington and the Continental Army did against the British. It is an often-used tactic by the militarily inferior position. It was deployed by the Israelis against the British and is used by the Palestineans against the Israelis. It is time-tested and is even recounted in Bible stories. If an adversary can dominate the top of the escalation ladder, one may be tempted to dominate lower rungs of the ladder and seek marginal advantages that will not be raised to the nuclear level, like North Vietnam did and North Korea continues to do.
The enhanced first-strike capability of an adversary would also argue in favor of building more missiles to bolster the chances that a sufficient number survive to make a credible second-strike threat. It cannot really be unexpected that China is building an estimated 250 nuclear missile silos across three locations. Silos are not missiles, and there may be multiple silos per ICBM like the US maintains. One tactic would be to have some decoy silos. Another would be to move the missiles around, like a shell game, so the precise location may not be known, thereby preserving second-strike capability. Yet, another response that does not preclude the others is to hide the second-strike capability, such as on quiet submarines or perhaps, in orbit.
While the number of missiles is an important metric, remember that a single missile can carry multiple warheads, and each warhead can be aimed at a different target. The Federation of American Scientists estimates that China has about 350 warheads, while the US and Russia have 4000 warheads. China may be seeking military power commensurate with its considerable economic heft. It may be watching the rise of India’s nuclear capability. As often seems the case, Beijing’s policies could be aimed at achieving more than one objective. Assuming rational actors, the US absolute and relative capability can only provide additional incentive to modernize and expand China’s nuclear and conventional capability.
There are many ways the Xi has deviated from the course that China had appeared to be on since the late 1970s and Deng Xiaoping’s political and economic reforms. It previously had a minimum deterrence strategy, shy of the Mutual Assured Destruction level but still quite powerful. In this way, it was like France’s Force de Frappe. It might not have been able to kill the bear, but it could tear off one of its legs, leaving it vulnerable to internal convulsions or external pressure. Presently, France is estimated to have about 300 warheads, which is sufficient to raise the cost of a first strike to apparently unacceptable levels. Xi may have decided that the given the technological developments of precision-guided weapons and defense capability, even a minimum deterrence needs to be larger.
America, NATO, and some of China’s neighbors are worried about the modernization and expansion of China’s military capability. The concern is only heightened by Beijing’s continued aggressiveness in the region and not just in Taiwan’s airspace. It is perceived to be the neighborhood bully. China’s build-up will be used to justify more military spending in the US and in others in the Asia Pacific region.
Our species’ ability to hurt its own and foul its own nest seems to be nearly boundless and unique in the animal kingdom. Every era has its own threats and challenges. Perhaps to be aware of them is also uniquely human. Today’s horsemen shake the very root of our civilization. Public health and class mobility had been taken for granted in a way that they cannot be anymore. We live in a Gilded Age., which is showing its age. The vast amount of negative-yielding bonds is like an alarm warning that something is wrong. It has become part of the white noise we tune out. Amidst the elevated state of distrust and nationalist impulses, the fifth horseman of the apocalypse strides and pulls the carpet from underneath where nuclear deterrence stood for a generation.
TYRANTS across the world are set to exploit America’s weakness following the shambolic fall of Afghanistan, experts warn.
As Joe Biden’s US retreats, countries such as Iran, China, Russia and North Korea are forging ahead with ramping up their military at a pace that until recently would have sparked alarm bells in Washington DC.
After Al-Qaeda hijackers slaughtered nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001, the US instantly launched its “war on terror”.
Soon after President George W Bush launched his battle against “weapons of mass destruction” and the “Axis of Evil” which included Iran and North Korea.
But nearly 20 years on, the chaotic fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban has shattered the image of the once invincible US megapower.
Already, they are racing to create massive weapons arsenals just as American pulls back as the world’s policeman.
Whether it is a new world order, it might be more like a ‘new world of disorder’… it could get quite turbulent for a while
Dr Nigel Gould-DaviesInternational Institute for Strategic Studies
Dr Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told The Sun Online, the chaotic fall of Afghanistan would be seen as American weakness.
He said: “Of course if your adversary shows who shows these negative qualities then of course you will take advantage.
“They will feel embolden and try to test whether Americans really do maintain resolve and strength and commitment.”
Dr Gould-Davies, added: “We are entering an unsettled condition. There will be more contests rather than less. It could get quite turbulent for a while.”
“Whether it is a new world order, it might be more like a ‘new world of disorder’.”
Meanwhile, strongmen including Vladimir Putin are flexing their military muscles and bolstering their arsenals.
Moscow even offered warm words for Afghanistan’s new rulers, with Putin’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, praising the Taliban for “immaculately” upholding its side of the Doha peace agreement.
Relations with the West have plunged to post-Cold War lows after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, and he is planning to boost his army by 60,000 troops over the next four years in a bid to scare the West and extend his power.
Fears are now growing for the rest of Ukraine, which run by a pro-West government.
Vladimir Putin and his government have been finds the Afghan debacle as ‘encouraging’Credit: PA
‘GLOATING RUSSIA’
Dr Gould-Davies said there was a “degree of satisfaction and gloating”‘ about the Taliban rout of the US-backed government — and what that shows about the limits of American power.
He said: “Influential voices that are saying well look, this has implications for American resolve and commitment elsewhere.
A case in point, Dr Gould-Davies says, is a hardliner called Nicolia Patrochev, who is a secretary at the Russian security council.
He said: “He has very expressively warned Ukraine and said ‘Ukraine well look you may find yourself in due course in the same situation as Afghanistan: America may simply disappear’.”
The results are already deeply negative, and China and Russia are invested in making them worse
Professor Anthony Glees, from Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, told The Sun Online: “Biden has made it clear that the era where ‘the US uses military power to remake other countries’ is over.
“Instead, America would lead by ‘speaking out’ by the use of ‘over the horizon’ attacks (drone attacks) and ‘economic’ and ‘cyber’ to assert US authority.
“We are so vulnerable to our adversaries and enemies precisely because we have global interests.
“This is whether it’s Putin who sees that Nato may not protect the new democracies of eastern Europe from his missiles and special forces, or Xi Jinping who wants to advance Chinese hegemony throughout the Asia-Pacific using Chinese cash alongside Chinese armed might.”
Former White House military adviser, John Bolton said the West’s main global adversaries were already seeking to reap advantages from the gaping power vacuum.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he said: “The results are already deeply negative, and China and Russia are invested in making them worse. Over to us.”
EXPANSIONIST CHINA
Like Russia, China seems to be cozying up to the Taliban, with the country’s foreign minister Wang Yi holding a profile meeting with nine jihadi representatives at the end of July.
The unprecedented gathering saw Chinese state councillor Wang publicly recognise the terror group as a legitimate political force in Afghanistan.
Taliban leaders have confirmed they hope to work with their “great neighbour” China in a further blow to the West.
“We are ready to exchange views with China on how to forge ahead in terms of boosting our mutual relations, establishing peace in the region, and its assistance in the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told This Week in Asia.”
President Xi Jinping has been increasingly expanding China’s military and political power across the worldCredit: APChina and Russia staged joint war games in a chilling message to the West as the Taliban seized AfghanistanCredit: East2West
The Taliban spokesman added: “China, our great neighbouring country, can have a constructive and positive role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and also in the economic development and prosperity of the people of Afghanistan. It is expected [that] China [will] play its role”
Now, Beijing has emerged as a leading voice calling for the Taliban to be given a chance to prove themselves, with Yi telling US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call on Sunday that the international community should engage with Afghanistan’s new rulers and “positively guide” them.
In the desert, 1,200 miles west of Beijing, the Chinese government has been digging a new field of what look to be 110 silos for launching nuclear missiles — the second such field discovered by analysts surveying commercial satellite images in recent weeks.
Add to this, was an estimated 13,000 troops from the People’s Liberation Army joining the Russian Army for huge war games.
KIM REOPENS NUKE FACTORY
Meanwhile, it is feared the fall of Kabul into the Taliban’s hands could encourage North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
At the start of July, Kim Jong-un appeared to restart operations at his nuclear reactorthat’s been shut down for three years — around the same time the US fully vacated its largest military base, Bagram Airfield, handing control to Afghan forces.
The plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon has stood inactive since December 2018 — but last month was reportedly seen discharging cooling water, according to a watchdog.
Plutonium — one of the two key ingredients used to build nuclear weapons along with highly enriched uranium — is produced at the complex, which has a 5-megawatt reactor.
The complex, which North Korea calls the heart of its nuclear program and research, has been at the centre of international concerns for decades.
Kim Jong un is reopened his nuke factory after he agreed with ex-president Donald Trump to close itCredit: APOperations have reportedly restarted Kim Jong-un’s main nuke siteCredit: APChina has launched its ‘biggest nuclear expansion’ everCredit: AP:Associated Press
A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency reveals this and other activity indicates Kim’s nuke site is back in action, in a development branded “deeply troubling” by the organisation.
The Asian country also looks set to use the crisis to press its anti-US rhetoric, by demanding American troops leave South Korea.
Earlier this month, Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong warned: “For peace to settle on the peninsula, it is imperative for the U.S. to withdraw its aggression troops and war hardware deployed in South Korea.”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said: “America’s military defeat must become an opportunity to restore life, security, and durable peace in Afghanistan.”
In a show of force, Iran’s Air Defense Force has been testing a new high-speed missile system.
Second Brigadier General Mohammad Youssef Khoshqalb, deputy chief of operations at the Army’s Air Defense Force, said for the first time the “new generation” system was put under the control of the integrated air defense network to intercept, identify, engage and destroy designated targets, reports PressTV.
The missile system, Mersad-16, is capable of travelling at high speeds and low altitudes, with a more optimised version set to be unveiled.
In June fake footage of the US Capitol being blown up was released by Iran as Joe Biden comes under increasing pressure to take action from a GOP senator.
The video leaked on state-controlled Iranian TV before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s speech depicted a missile being fired as the Washington DC building is engulfed in flames.
And this this month, Iran resumed fuel exports to Afghanistan as relationships grow between Tehran and the Taliban.
Iran sits on the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves, but the latest round of US sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump in 2018, has significantly reduced Iranian oil exports.
But the Taliban’s willingness to trade with Tehran gives the country rare access to US dollars needed to import essential goods, while the arrangement also aids the jihadi army who are cut off from international trade.
September 11, 2021Hamas has released a statement on Saturday morning, stating that the captureof four of the escaped Gilboa fugitives is “yet another” round of confrontation with Israel.”
“The escape the Palestinian revived peoplehope it’s just a matter of time until the West Bank ‘blows’ up’ in Israel’s face”The Terrorist” organization said.
Palestinian factions vowed to end all talks of a ceasefire with Israel after the re-capture of the Gilboa Prison fugitives they called”heroic”says Palestinian media.
In response to the new arrests of Yakoub Mohammed Qadri and Mohammed Ardah late on On Friday evening, Hamas launched a rocket at the Eshkol . Regional Council in South Israel. The IDF responded by wearing out an air raid in the Gaza Strip.Violent riots in the West Bank were going on all week as hundreds of Palestinians protested in solidarity with escaped from Gilboa prison.
“The catches are the driving force for us and our people in the West Bank to step up protests,” Hamas said.
“As the six prisoners can escape the narrow, busy prison, than the Palestinian people can stop the occupation,” Joint List head MK Ayman Odeh wrote: on facebook.
viceminister Defense Department Alon Schuster told Ynet that “the two remaining fugitives will be returned to” prison soon.”
Schuster also denied claims the fugitives will face the death penalty, insisting “we have no intention of” of killing anyone, even if there is blood on their hands.”
“Nothing will be done at any cost, but rather by appropriate measures. Ze [the fugitives] will be detained and returned to the state of Israel,” Schuster told Ynet.
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The Israel Defense Forces overnight Saturday-Sunday carried out another round of retaliatory airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, following two rocket attacks on southern Israel in less than 24 hours.
Earlier Saturday night, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket at southern Israel, raising the specter of renewed conflict. The rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. The attack triggered sirens in the town of Sderot and surrounding communities in southern Israel.
A 29-year-old man sustained a light head wound after he fell while running to a bomb shelter. He was taken to Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center for treatment, medics said.
Shortly after 11 p.m. on Friday, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a single rocket towards Israel that was intercepted by the Iron Dome system, the army said. The rocket triggered warning sirens in the Eshkol region and local residents reported hearing several explosions. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
In response to the rocket fire on Friday night, the IDF carried out strikes on terror targets in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Saturday morning, the military said.
The IDF said that it struck a Hamas position used to carry out machine gun fire, and a storage site located near a school and mosques. There were no further details given on what the IDF believed was stored at the facility.
The IDF also said that it hit a compound used to produce the concrete used to build the terror group’s underground tunnel network, which is said to be located near cultural sites. There were no immediate reports of injuries.Advertisement
In the statement, the IDF reiterated that it holds Hamas responsible for all terror activities in the enclave.
Meanwhile in the West Bank on Saturday evening, several hundred Palestinians clashed with Israel Defense Forces troops in a number of areas. IDF troops responded with riot control means.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that it treated eight people suffering from injuries from rubber bullets and another 15 cases of tear gas inhalation during clashes at Hawara checkpoint, south of Nablus.
The Saturday night rocket fire came soon after Israel captured two more Islamic Jihad security prisoners who escaped from a high-security prison on Monday, after arresting two others the day before.
This also comes a day after Qatar’s envoy to Gaza said that efforts to send aid from his country to the Gaza Strip, including to employees of the Hamas government, had failed after the Palestinian Authority backed out of the deal.
Qatar pledged $500 million for Gaza following the May 10-21 conflict that saw heavy bombardments in the Strip and intense rocket fire into Israel.Advertisement
The collapse of the deal was expected to further inflame tensions between Israel and Hamas, which has frequently stepped up provocations in a bid to pressure Israel to allow in money.
The rocket was likely fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, coming just after Israel announced it had caught two Islamic Jihad fugitives who broke out of the Gilboa prison on Monday along with four other security prisoners.
Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi said that the deal was off because a mechanism agreed earlier in the week where Palestinian Authority banks would transfer the money to Hamas employees was no longer an option.
He said that the banks had refused to take part, fearing they could be targeted by sanctions for transferring money to a terror group.
The issue of the civil servants had been a sticking point in setting up a mechanism to transfer the money. On Monday, al-Emadi said that the issue had been resolved “following an agreement by the different parties.”
The report came as Channel 12 news quotes sources close to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as saying that Israel sees a new round of violence with Hamas as a foregone conclusion — possibly within weeks — and was completing drawing up military plans.
The report said that Israel wanted to deal with Hamas on its own terms and at a time of its choosing, and not be drawn into a conflict that would suit the terror group.
Qatari support is considered a crucial lifeline for impoverished Palestinians living in Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade since 2007, the year the Hamas terror group took power.
Israel, which still allows many goods into the Strip, views the blockade as a necessary measure to keep terror groups from being able to freely arm themselves and present a much greater threat.Advertisement
Before the latest Gaza conflict between Israel and Hamas-led fighters in May, the flow of funds from Qatar was considered vital to maintaining relative calm between the Jewish state and the Islamists.
In 1999, the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) published a report titled ‘A Primer on the Future Threat: the Decades Ahead 1999-2020,’ estimating Pakistan’s nuclear weapons to be between 60 and 80. In september 2021, according to a nuclear notebook published in the journal Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile had grown to over 165 weapons. The Federation of American Scientists estimates that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal may reach about 200 weapons by 2025 if present trends continue. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal has never been made public. Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities are expected to grow in the next years, according to the newspaper. According to experts, analysing Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities is riddled with ambiguity because the government has never officially declared the amount of its arsenal. In early 2020, pakistan possessed around 3,900 kg of weapon-grade highly enriched uranium and about 410 kg of weapons-grade plutonium, according to the study. According to a report, the National Defence Complex in the Kala Chitta Dahr mountain range is where nuclear-capable missiles and launchers are developed. The pakistan Ordnance facilities in Wah are suspected of being involved in the development of nuclear warheads, according to researchers. At least six nuclear-capable land-based ballistic missiles are active in Pakistan. The Shaheen-III missiles, with an estimated range of 2,750 kilometres, would bring israel inside range for the first time, according to researchers. The nuclear capabilities of Pakistan’s F-16s and JF-17s aircraft are not included in the notebook due to “uncertainties.”
The Prophecy Blog 