3 Crises - Ukraine to Iran, Greater Israel, Bio-Digital ID

Conquest, pestilence, famine and variations on enslavement

• Ukraine may end fighting without regaining 20% of land lost to Russia

• Western press reports waning enthusiasm to lend further aid

• Council of the EU imposes new sanctions on Iranian entities and individuals

• War with Iran 'could last 10 years and if the U.S. got involved it would not win'

• Religious Zionism party said Israel would take Palestinian territories & six nations

• EC rolls out Vaccination Beyond COVID-19 drive - and cards

• Bank of England to launch Central Bank Digital Currency in 2025 on a trial basis.

See also: Whose Agenda Is The Woke Agenda? - From climate change to vaccine mandates, the greater good spreads its tentacles (Mar 17, 2023)
When The Skies Were Free - Clouds, currency and carbon: the only thing that is sequestered is the truth (Jun 12, 2022)
Feudalism Incoming As The State Reinvents Itself As King - Part 6 of Rival For Power: The meta monarch shall reign in a virtual realm (Jan 07, 2023)
Central Banks Ready Currency Handcuffs - CBDC would control much more than individual lives (Apr 01, 2024)

(2,000 words or 10 minutes of your company)

We are heading for a droning on multiple fronts

Oct 15, 2024

Crisis one, Ukraine's loss

Ukraine may abandon any hope of regaining territory to end the war, an official has told Der Spiegel. Over 20 per cent of Ukraine's territory is controlled by, or has voted to join, Russia.

According to Spiegel's source, the government is now holding "serious discussions" about relinquishing its aim of full territorial restoration.

"We believed that victory had to mean the unconditional surrender of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's Russia," the source told the journal.

This was "a mistaken view of victory," he went on, saying an end to the war would require concessions.

The new secretary general of NATO, former Dutch PM Mark Rutte said NATO weapons hitting Russian targets is "legally possible." [1]

But the Western press has reported on waning enthusiasm to help Ukraine — Politico, The Guardian, The Economist, Fox News, The Washington Post, Le Figaro, Stern, Spiegel in the past week.

Most notably, president Joe Biden bailed out of a much trumpeted meeting on Oct 12 of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group of 50 countries, also known as the Ramstein Group.

Russian troops continue, slowly, to advance westwards across Ukraine. This will continue into the new year, until the spring thaw.

The EC shifted its focus to West Asia, in response to Iran’s missile transfer to Russia. On Oct 14 the Council of the EU (ministerial level) adopted measures against seven individuals and seven entities.

The U.S. introduced new sanctions against Iran on Oct 1 after its missile attack on Israel. Moscow and Tehran deny any arms have been supplied for use in Ukraine.

Iran's new president Masoud Pezeshkian has called for Russia to actively support Tehran in its conflict with Israel.

As for Ukraine, the West seems to have opted against escalation, but a peace treaty would be embarrassing, since Ukraine would be giving up more land than it would have lost under the Istanbul deal in May 2022.

So the EU/NATO seems to consider trying to freeze the conflict, which Russia would not accept, according to opinions carried by Russian news agency TASS, since this would leave Ukraine in NATO's control as a long term proxy tool against Russia.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy got no guarantees when he met Germany's chancellor Olaf Scholz to request long-range German Taurus missiles.

The leak of an audio recording with the head of the Luftwaffe earlier this year showed that German operators would be required to launch the missiles, and that would mean escalation.

Crisis two, West Asia

War with Iran could last 10 years and if the U.S. got involved it would not win according to Col Lawrence Wilkerson.

Hasten to add, Israel and Iran are not yet formally at war but rather a proxy conflict is under way.

Yet Israel's retaliation in Lebanon is looking increasingly like its strategy in Gaza: Israel bombs civilian homes and facilities whenever it thinks there may be a Hezbollah target. If it continues on this trajectory it could flatten the north of the country as it has Gaza.

And last week finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, 44 year-old leader of the National Religious Party-Religious Zionism, said Israel would expand “little by little” to take all Palestinian territories as well as Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. [2]

At a conference in Istanbul for the anniversary of Oct 7, 2023, the London-based historian Ilan Pappé said his country is locked in a fight to the death between the state of Israel and the state of Judea. The latter comprises Benjamin Netanyahu's support base.

Pappé set out this view in New Left Review in June.

"The State of Judea wants Israel to become a theocracy that stretches over the entirety of historical Palestine. To achieve this, it is determined to reduce the number of Palestinians to a bare minimum, and it is contemplating the construction of a Third Temple in place of al-Aqsa.

"Its members believe this will enable them to renew the golden era of the Biblical Kingdoms. For them, secular Jews are as heretical as the Palestinians if they refuse to join in this endeavour." [3]

Historical echoes...