Ex-CIA chief: In my experience, the Israelis usually fire and then ask questions https://www.aljazeera.com/news/live...e-ahead-of-weekend-truce-talks?update=2821074 In an interview with CNN, former CIA Director Leon Panetta urged Israel to take “some real and concrete steps” to “improve” its standard military operations in Gaza to avoid more civilian casualties, including aid workers. “You have to be able to verify, to take time to make sure that the information you’re getting is accurate with regards to targets. And I have to tell you that in the past, at least in my experience, the Israelis usually fire and then ask questions.” Panetta, who also served as defence secretary under US President Barack Obama, said if Israel does not take those steps, or “take initial steps and then go back to business as usual”, the US should consider imposing conditions on providing weapons to its closest ally in the Middle East. Panetta said Israel has been “badly damaged in terms of reputation” for its military conduct against Palestinians in Gaza.
Right, so you have known that a long time but willingly supply Israel military with weapons? "US has been badly damaged in terms of reputation, credibility of US honesty and democracy torn to shreds.”
Antony Blinken warns allies of deepening Chinese support for Russia US secretary of state says Beijing’s assistance to Moscow’s military-industry complex is at ‘concerning scale’ https://www.ft.com/content/ba524406-ee6c-4c39-9ac2-110a2549569a Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, raised concerns about China in every session of a meeting of Nato foreign ministers on Wednesday and Thursday © Johanna Geron/Pool/AP The US has warned its European allies that China is deepening its support for Russia’s military-industrial complex with assistance that is both helping its invasion of Ukraine and threatening other countries. Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, used meetings with EU and Nato foreign ministers this week to warn Beijing was assisting Moscow “at a concerning scale”, and providing “tools, inputs and technical expertise”, according to three people familiar with the discussions. They quoted Blinken as saying the assistance was particularly focused on Russia’s production of optical equipment and propellants and its space sector, which he said “not only contributes to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine but threatens other countries”. Blinken raised the concerns about China in every session of a meeting of Nato foreign ministers on Wednesday and Thursday, one of the people said. “The warnings were explicit,” the person said. “There has been a shift and it was felt in the room . . . this was a new development. It was very striking.” Western countries have imposed dozens of rounds of sanctions and trade embargoes against Russia in a bid to cripple its economy, starve it of military supplies and halt its two-year war against Ukraine. But Moscow has been able to keep its economy running and scale up its defence industry thanks in large part to expanded trade with China, imports from third countries of so-called dual-use goods that can be used to make weapons, and direct military supplies from North Korea and Iran.
Question for ya! What's the difference between Russian allies supply weapons and US supplying lethal weapons to autocrats and right wing tyrants? Answer: Nothing! Hypocrisy once again? Blinken, you haven't got a leg to stand on, but you already knew that. If anything, US reprehensible behavior has opened the door for China to emulate.
Water off a duck's back! What Blinken does best - talk talk talk and zero results because he's nothing more than a talking zionest/Biden puppet. Gotta laugh! Lecturing China on supplying weapons, LMAO.
Gaza war: Where does Israel get its weapons? 20 hours ago By David Gritten, BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68737412 AFP The US has supplied Israel's air force with F-35s, the most advanced fighter jets ever made. Western governments are coming under growing pressure to halt arms sales to Israel over how it is waging the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel is a major weapons exporter, but its military has been heavily reliant on imported aircraft, guided bombs and missiles to conduct what experts have described as one of the most intense and destructive aerial campaigns in recent history. Campaign groups and some politicians among Israel's Western allies say arms exports should be suspended because, they say, Israel is failing to do enough to protect the lives of civilians and ensure enough humanitarian aid reaches them. On Friday, the UN Human Rights Council backed a weapons ban, with 28 countries voting in favour, six against and 13 abstentions. The US and Germany - which account for the vast majority of Israel's arms imports - both voted against. Germany said it did so because the resolution did not explicitly condemn Hamas. The war was triggered by Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October, which killed about 1,200 people, mainly civilians, according Israeli tallies. More than 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza, 70% of them children and women, the Hamas-run health ministry says. Israel insists that its forces are working to avoid civilian casualties, accuses Hamas of deliberately putting civilians in the line of fire and has said there are no limits on aid deliveries. United States The US is by far the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, having helped it build one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the world. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US accounted for 69% of Israel's arms imports between 2019 and 2023. The US provides Israel with $3.8bn (£3bn) in annual military aid under a 10-year agreement that is intended to allow its ally to maintain what it calls a "qualitative military edge" over neighbouring countries. Israel has used the grants to finance orders of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, a stealth aircraft considered the most advanced ever made. It has so far ordered 75 and taken delivery of more than 30 of the aircraft. It was the first country other than the US to receive an F-35 and the first to use one in combat. Part of the aid - $500m annually - is set aside to fund missile defence programmes, including the jointly-developed Iron Dome, Arrow and David's Sling systems. Israel has relied on them during the war to defend itself against rocket, missile and drone attacks by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, as well as other Iran-backed armed groups based in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. In the days after Hamas's 7 October attack, President Joe Biden said the US was "surging additional military assistance" to Israel. Since the start of the war, only two US military sales to Israel have been made public after receiving emergency approval - one for 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth $106m and the other for $147m of components to make 155mm artillery shells. But US media report that President Joe Biden's administration has also quietly made more than 100 military sales to Israel, most falling below the dollar amount that would require Congress to be formally notified. They are said to include thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters and small arms. Reuters Israel's Iron Dome batteries help protect cities and towns from rocket and missile fire However, SIPRI's report says that despite the deliveries, the total volume of Israeli arms imports from the US in 2023 was almost the same as in 2022. One deal that is large enough to require Congressional notification is the $18bn sale of up to 50 F-15 fighter jets, news about which emerged this week. Congress has not yet approved the deal. Even though the aircraft would need to be built from scratch and would not be delivered immediately, the sale is expected to be hotly debated by Mr Biden's Democratic Party, many of whose representatives in Congress and supporters are increasingly concerned by Israel's actions in Gaza. Senator Elizabeth Warren has said she is prepared to block the deal and has accused Israel of "indiscriminate bombing" in Gaza. Germany Germany is the next biggest arms exporter to Israel, accounting for 30% of imports between 2019 and 2023, according to SIPRI. As of early November, the European nation's weapons sales to Israel last year were worth €300m ($326m; $257m) - a 10-fold increase compared with 2022 - with the majority of those export licences granted after the 7 October attacks. Components for air defence systems and communications equipment accounted for most of the sales, according to the DPA news agency. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been a staunch supporter of Israel's right to self-defence throughout the war and, although his tone on Israeli actions in Gaza has shifted in recent weeks and there has been some debate in Germany, the arms sales do not appear to be at risk of suspension. Reuters Israel rejects accusations that it is failing to do enough to protect civilians in Gaza and instead blames Hamas. Italy Italy is the third-biggest arms exporter to Israel, but it accounted for only 0.9% of Israeli imports between 2019 and 2023. They have reportedly included helicopters and naval artillery. The sales amounted to €13.7m ($14.8m; £11.7m) last year, according to national statistics bureau ISTAT. Some €2.1m of exports were approved between October and December, despite the government's assurances that it was blocking them under a law which bans weapons sales to countries that are waging war or are deemed to be violating human rights. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told parliament last month that Italy had honoured existing contracts after checking them on a case-by-case basis and ensuring "they did not concern materials that could be used against civilians". Other countries The UK's arms exports to Israel are "relatively small", according to the UK government, amounting to only £42m ($53m) in 2022. The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) says that since 2008, the UK has granted arms export licences to Israel worth £574m ($727m) in total. Much of those are for components used in US-made warplanes that end up in Israel. But the British government is coming under growing pressure to suspend even those exports. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the UK has a "very careful export licensing regime" and said Israel must "act in accordance with international humanitarian law". The UK government is also preparing an assessment that will advise on the risk of Israel breaching international law in its actions from early 2024. But a senior government source told the BBC that an arms embargo on Israel was "not going to happen". The government of Canada, whose arms sales to Israel were worth 21.3m Canadian dollars ($15.7m; £12.4m) in 2022, said in January that it had suspended approving new exit permits for weapons until it could ensure they were being used in accordance with Canadian law. However, pre-existing permits remained valid. Israeli defence industry AFP Israel's Elbit Systems developed the Hermes 450 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) being used in Gaza. Israel has also built up its own defence industry with US help and now ranks as the ninth-largest arms exporter in the world, with a focus on advanced technological products rather than large-scale hardware. It held a 2.3% share of global sales between 2019 and 2023, according to SIPRI, with India (37%), the Philippines (12%) and the US (8.7%) the three main recipients. The sales were worth $12.5bn (£9.9bn) in 2022, according to the Israeli defence ministry. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) made up 25% of those exports, followed by missiles, rockets and air defence systems (19%) and radar and electronic warfare systems (13%), the ministry said. In September, just before the war began, Germany agreed a $3.5bn deal with Israel to buy the sophisticated Arrow 3 missile defence system, which intercepts long-range ballistic missiles. The deal - Israel's largest-ever - had to be approved by the US because it jointly developed the system. US military stockpile in Israel EPA The US has reportedly allowed Israel to draw artillery shells from its reserve stockpile there. Israel is also home to a vast US arms depot set up in 1984 to pre-position supplies for its troops in case of a regional conflict, as well as to give Israel quick access to weapons in emergencies. The Pentagon shipped about 300,000 155mm artillery shells from the War Reserve Stockpile Ammunition-Israel to Ukraine following the Russian invasion. Stockpiled munitions at the depot have also reportedly been supplied to Israel since the start of the Gaza war.
The swing of the pendulum, one extreme to the next, from guilt of atrocities committed during WW2 to now being complicit in arming Israeli with an overkill of weapons to erradicate Palestinian civilians, ethnic cleansing MK2.
Zelenskyy can always go begging cap in hand to his mate Netanyahu...... Oh wait! Netanyahu is a Putin sympathizer! Dang, nearly forgot that small detail. Ukraine’s ‘Mad Max’ Trawls Swamps and Minefields for Shells Kyiv’s ammunition shortage is so acute that a soldier who hunts for Russian shells—and makes his own bombs—has become an important supplier for some units Part scavenger, part backyard bomb-maker Max Polyukhovich estimates he has supplied at least 14,000 shells to troops in Ukraine’s east. By Ian Lovett and Nikita Nikolaienko | Photographs by Serhii Korovayny for The Wall Street Journal April 5, 2024 11:00 pm ET https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/ukraine-mad-max-shells-minefields-6f3b1243?mod=mhp KAMYANKA, Ukraine—At the edge of a stream in this decimated village, Max Polyukhovich dug through the mud with his hands in search of an elusive grail. After a few moments, he pulled out a smooth gray hunk of metal, several feet long: an unused Russian artillery shell. Ukraine is so short on ammunition that Polyukhovich, a 36-year-old soldier, has become an important source of shells for brigades across the eastern front. Weapons deliveries from the U.S. are held up in Congress, and the shortage has driven Kyiv to resort to shoestring solutions—such asexplosive drones and leftover Russian shells—to try to hold back Moscow’s forces. Part scavenger, part backyard bomb-maker, Polyukhovich has dived into swamps and hiked for miles through minefields in search of the unused munitions Russian troops left behind when they retreated. Some of what he finds can be fired by Ukraine’s artillery right away; some of it he takes back to his makeshift laboratory, where he reshapes the explosive into ammunition for attack drones. Known by the call sign “Mad Max,” he has supplied at least 14,000 shells to brigades across Ukraine’s east, plus 4,000 munitions for aerial drones to drop on Russian troops and vehicles, he estimates. Polyukhovich survived an injury last summer and has made finding and making ammunition his full-time job since. “Commanders’ appetite is increasing,” he said. “If I send 100 rounds, they call the next day asking for more ammo.” Officers in Ukraine’s 92nd Assault Brigade, which is fighting around the destroyed eastern village of Andriivka, said the shortage of artillery shells is so critical that even when drones spot Russian targets, the brigade can’t always fire at them. “If the Russians made a large-scale attack later, we’d be out of shells,” said a major from the brigade, who goes by the call sign Angel. “We’re in constant economy mode.” Though Polyukhovich’s contributions help, they can’t compensate entirely for Kyiv’s huge deficit in shells, with commanders estimating Russia fires around five times as many a day. A hulking figure, with an unruly dark beard and bright green eyes, Polyukhovich has been fighting for eight years in eastern Ukraine, where the war has been raging since the covert Russian invasion in 2014. Polyukhovich has dived into swamps and hiked through minefields in search of the unused munitions Russian troops left behind when they retreated. Some of the shells can be sent to front-line troops right away, others Polyukhovich repurposes to be dropped from Ukraine’s attack drones. Though he worked mostly as a de-miner, he sometimes joined assaults in the first year of the full-scale war, which began in February 2022. Then, last summer, he was shot. His body armor saved him from major injury, and he saw the growing hunger for shells during his recovery. Since then, he has turned finding and making ammunition into his full-time job. He concentrates his searches on areas that Moscow occupied early in the war. Just from the swamps around Izyum, in the northeastern Kharkiv region, he said he has recovered 2,500 usable shells, which the Russians dumped into the water before fleeing in September 2022, when Ukraine retook the area during a lightning offensive. “If you liberate an area, you should check the swamps,” Polyukhovich said, noting that this was a common strategy Russians used to try to prevent the Ukrainians from using their ammunition. The water didn’t damage the shells, he said. But if he finds even a tiny ding on the body of one, he throws it away. The dent could change the shell’s trajectory, putting artillery teams at risk of accidentally hitting their own troops. Before dawn, Polyukhovich scours the no man’s land between Russian and Ukrainian lines gathering unexploded or abandoned munitions. A collection of mines in Polyukhovich’s compound, which he sometimes uses to craft bombs for drones. While his job was mostly to disarm mines, Polyukhovich also joined the fighting following Russia’s invasion in 2022. The dangerous work has seen a member of Polyukhovich’s team killed when trying to deactivate an antipersonnel mine. On a recent afternoon, The Wall Street Journal accompanied Polyukhovich to Kamyanka, a village in the Kharkiv region, where Russian forces had set up several artillery positions early in the war. The roofs on all but a few homes had been blown out. Only a handful of locals remained in town. Polyukhovich had already made dozens of trips to the village, searching every home and recovering about 1,000 shells. When he arrived, two local women greeted him with a plate of meat-filled pancakes. “I found something near the stream,” one of the women, Svitlana Kordyenko, said. “Go look.” Wooden boxes used to transport shells littered the bank. Polyukhovich soon pulled a shell out of the mud. But he was looking for a larger bounty—the sites where Russian forces kept their shells during the occupation. From talking to locals, he knew the Russians had three artillery positions in the area. “There have to be more shells,” he said. “Given the amount of artillery guns they had, there should be 10,000 shells in this village.” In a field, near one of the artillery positions, he found a few wooden planks in the ground. “There could be more underneath,” he said. He decided he would need to come back with excavating equipment to look. Polyukhovich is known among the few residents left in the Kamyanka area, who help point him in the direction of abandoned Russian shells. Polyukhovich often focuses his search on the region’s swamps—a popular dumping spot for retreating Russian soldiers. After searching Kamyanka, Polyukhovich headed back to his laboratory. His wife lives not far from the village, but he said he didn’t have time to visit her. He had seen her only a few times since the full-scale war began. His ex-wife and son have left the country—he’s not sure where they are. During his last vacation, he spent one of his two days off looking for shells. “How can I explain to my wife that she’s not the most important thing for me right now?” he said. Israel and Ukraine Both Need 155mm Artillery Shells. Can the U.S. Meet Demand? Israel and Ukraine Both Need 155mm Artillery Shells. Can the U.S. Meet Demand?Play video: Israel and Ukraine Both Need 155mm Artillery Shells. Can the U.S. Meet Demand? The 155mm shell is the most requested artillery munition of the war in Ukraine. And now Israel needs it as well for its war in Gaza. WSJ’s Alistair MacDonald explains why it is so popular and whether the U.S. and other global arms suppliers can cope with the demand. Photo: Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters Officers from the 92nd Brigade said Polyukhovich had supplied them with more than 8,000 shells. Still, Polyukhovich’s stocks don’t compensate for the drop in deliveries from the West. Ukrainian forces are now firing about 2,000 shells a day, down sharply from last summer. Polyukhovich mostly finds 152mm caliber shells, which work with Soviet-era artillery guns. Ukraine is also increasing its production of 152mm ammunition, the officers said. But the brigade’s Western artillery pieces take 155mm shells, and the supply of such ammunition from abroad has dwindled. “The problem is we have three times more 155-caliber pieces than 152-caliber,” Angel said, adding that the 155mm shells were also more accurate. As a result, most of the brigade’s guns are sitting idle. An officer in Ukraine’s 92nd Assault Brigade, who goes by the call sign Angel. The brigade's lack of shells means targets spotted by drones often can't be fired on, officers say. In addition to searching for Russian shells, Polyukhovich has set up an operation to make bombs for drones, which have become increasingly important in recent months, as Western ammunition has been depleted. Polyukhovich is usually up by 4 a.m. “I don’t sleep well,” he said, adding that when he does doze off, “I see the horrible things I’ve witnessed in this war.” Before dawn, he often drives toward the front line, then walks into the no man’s land between Ukrainian and Russian positions. He carefully steps through the fields, disarming Russian antitank mines and taking them with him. By the time the sun is fully up, he is bringing the loot to his lab. “Max” is scrawled on the rusted gate outside Polyukhovich’s compound, along with a spray-painted skull and crossbones. In the courtyard, he steps around piles of antitank mines and artillery shells. He sleeps in one of the houses. The other he has turned into a bomb factory. He cuts open the antitank mines and empties the explosive powder into slow cookers. A mask of Guy Fawkes, who plotted to blow up the English Parliament in the 17th century, hangs from a beam above. “I’m the head chef here,” he said. Once the explosive is liquefied, he and a few assistants pour it into homemade shells. He held up one of his creations: a plastic sheath, filled with explosive and duct-taped to a ball of shrapnel, which a drone could drop onto infantry. “These bastards cover my motherland with their f—ing mines,” Polyukhovich said. “We collect them, reassemble them, and then send them back.” A mask of Guy Fawkes hangs in Max Polyukhovich’s workshop. As the shortage of artillery shells has grown more acute, some brigades have sent their de-miners to learn Polyukhovich’s methods. As the shortage of artillery shells has grown more acute in recent weeks, brigades have started sending their de-miners to Polyukhovich, hoping he’ll teach them how to find more ammunition. It is dangerous work. Several months ago, while Polyukhovich was out, his team tried to deactivate an antipersonnel mine, which is more sensitive than the antitank mines they normally work with. It went off, killing one of them and pockmarking the side of Polyukhovich’s house. “I’ve become the kind of person who can’t comfort someone as he’s dying,” Polyukhovich said. “I prefer to just turn away. It’s impossible to forget the eyes of a dying person.” For now, he has taken on one protégé, a 40-year-old sergeant who goes by the call sign Tikhy, meaning quiet. He lives with Polyukhovich in his house and helps him run the lab. In the past couple of weeks, Polyukhovich has started to let Tikhy come with him to collect mines. Recently they have also found downed Russian surveillance drones, which Ukrainian commanders had been looking for, so they can analyze and find a way to jam them. Though Tikhy has been trained as a de-miner, Polyukhovich keeps an eye on him as they step through the fields. “I worry about him too much,” Polyukhovich said. “He’s too kind, too polite. It’s not the attitude you need in war.” Polyukhovich’s protégé, a 40-year-old sergeant who goes by the call sign Tikhy, which means 'quiet,' helps run his lab.