Is the Gaza famine a myth? The data say yes https://nypost.com/2024/04/05/opini.../amp/?utm_campaign=nypost&utm_medium=referral The tragic accidental deaths of seven food aid workers in an IDF airstrike has ignited yet more interest in one of the main charges around the Jewish state’s humane and justified war against Hamas: that Israel’s attacks are causing famine in Gaza. The claim is outlined neatly by Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affair and security rep, in his mid-March bluster that“starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine.” But the data suggests that this, like so many other claims against Israel, is simply incorrect. For starters, nearly 300,000 tons of food and beverages have been delivered to Gaza since the start of the war. That alone, under parameters established by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Office, should be enough to secure approximately half of Gazans’ food needs on its own (assuming they get fully distributed). Plus, the vast majority of Gaza’s greenhouse acreage was still available as of mid-February (per the latest UN survey) — and the Strip was exporting fruit and vegetables until Hamas broke the ceasefire with its Oct. 7 mass terror attack on Israel. And all the fighting and bombing has focused on urban areas, where Hamas’ 600 miles of tunnels and bases are concentrated. Note, too, that President Biden’s plan to build a pier off Gaza to provide some 2 million meals per day was first suggested by none other than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the first weeks of the war. Why, oh why would a nation bent on “using famine as a weapon of war” behave in such a self-defeating manner? Or could it be that the problem here does not lie with Israel, which is making historic efforts to ensure the minimum of civilian harm from the war? Could the blame lie rather with the group that put the civilians in harm’s way to begin with — Hamas? We know for a fact that Hamas steals monetary aid and other crucial supplies meant for Palestinians and appropriates them to its own members. We know Hamas lies — badly! — about the number and composition of civilian deaths in the war. All evidence, in other words, points at them as the real culprits here. But reality’s never stopped the delusional antisemites at the UN, within the Biden administration or anywhere else before. And it won’t now.
This is your daily reminder that Hamas is the sole entity holding up an internationally-brokered ceasefire deal. Biden urges Egypt, Qatar leaders to press Hamas to come to agreement for Israeli hostages in Gaza https://apnews.com/article/biden-israel-gaza-hostages-16a39e89f1d7b5e6cf86eb65cfbdb7b4
Biden urges Egypt, Qatar leaders to press Hamas to come to agreement for Israeli hostages in Gaza, while simultaneously urging them to ignore it's the US hypocritically feeding the war and Israel's intent is to steal land because a book they wrote centuries ago tells them they say God says they're entitled to the land.
Report: Israeli doctor says detained Palestinians are undergoing ‘routine’ amputations for handcuff injuries By Lauren Kent, CNN Sat April 6, 2024 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/06/middleeast/doctor-israel-hospital-conditions-intl/index.html Soldiers with the Israel Defense Forces stand near a military vehicle on March 4, 2024. Amir Levy/Getty Images CNN — A doctor at a field hospital for detained Palestinians at Israel’s Sde Teiman army base has described “deplorable conditions” and “routine” amputations due to handcuff injuries, according to an exclusive report from the newspaper Haaretz. In a letter to Israel’s attorney general and defense and health ministers, obtained by Haaretz, the doctor said the conditions at Sde Teiman field hospital compromise inmates’ health and violate medical ethics. “Just this week, two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event,” the doctor said in the letter, according to the Haaretz report on Thursday. He wrote that inappropriate care at the detention facility has led to “complications and sometimes even in the patient’s death,” adding that “this makes all of us – the medical teams and you, those in charge of us in the health and defense ministries, complicit in the violation of Israeli law.” Haaretz reported that the doctor said “inmates are fed through straws, defecate in diapers and are held [in] constant restraints, which violate medical ethics and the law.” It is not clear when the doctor penned the letter. In a written statement to CNN responding to the claims, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said: “The IDF operates according to the law and within the framework of the law when it comes to the treatment of detainees. Every procedure is documented and supervised, and is done with extreme care for the human dignity of the detainees, in accordance with the principles of Israeli and international law.” The IDF statement continued, “The handcuffing of the detainees is carried out in accordance with the procedures, their health condition and the level of danger posed by them, in order to ensure the safety of the forces and the medical staff.” “According to the IDF’s instructions, violence against detainees is absolutely prohibited. The IDF protects the rights of the detainees held in the detention facilities, and regularly briefs the forces regarding the required conduct towards detainees, including the prohibition of resorting to violence,” the IDF statement said.. “Any allegation of violence or humiliation for which concrete details will be provided will be examined and dealt with individually,” the IDF said A spokesperson for Israel’s health ministry said they had nothing further to add. CNN spoke to a source who has a medical background and previously visited the Sde Teiman field hospital. They confirmed seeing detainees held in constant restraints. The medical source, who spoke to CNN on Thursday on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said all the Gazan detainees they saw at the field hospital had all four limbs shackled, which the source said increases the risk of blood clotting and other health concerns. The source said the detainees were blindfolded and that at least three patients they saw were wearing diapers. The medical source highlighted the systematic “dehumanizing” of detainees at the field hospital, which they described as a large “tent” that is “not insulated” from the elements. “We were asked not to use our names,” the medical source told CNN, adding that the Gazan prisoners were identified by serial numbers, rather than their names. The medical source told CNN it appeared that nursing and medical staff at the facility tried to give the detainees appropriate care and “the treatment they deserve,” but they were limited by what they could do. ‘Ethical failures’ at Sde Teiman The Sde Teiman field hospital and detention facility, located on an army base in southern Israel near the city of Beer Sheva, was established by the Israeli military shortly after Hamas’ October 7 attacks. The field hospital was created after Israeli civilian hospitals declined to admit Gazan detainees or terror suspects, according to a report from the non-profit organization Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. The Physicians for Human Rights-Israel report on Sde Teiman, which documents ‘ethical failures’ at the field hospital, also highlighted that “security forces at the field hospital require all detained persons to remain handcuffed and blindfolded at all times, including during medical treatment.” “Media reports indicate that Gaza residents held at this military facility endure harsh conditions, being restrained with their hands behind their backs and occasionally bound to a fence for prolonged periods, spanning entire and consecutive days. These circumstances lead to substantial physical and psychological harm,” the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel report added. According to the Haaretz report, the doctor said in his letter to the Israeli health and defense ministries that the field hospital “is staffed most of the day by a single doctor, accompanied by a nursing team, some with no more than medic training,” and in some cases the doctor on shift is an orthopedist or gynecologist. “This ends in complications and sometimes even in the patient’s death,” the doctor wrote, Haaretz reported.
Israel–Russia relations The State of Israel is represented in the Russian Federation through an embassy in Moscow and a consulate-general (to be opened)[when?] in Yekaterinburg. Russia is represented in Israel through an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate in Haifa. Russia is a member of the Quartet on the Middle East. For many years, Israel was a haven for Russian Jews. This was especially the case during the aliyah from the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1990s. Israel and the Soviet Union, Russia's predecessor state, were on opposing sides during the Cold War. However, the relationship between Israel and Russia has improved significantly since the early 2000s, with the election of the more pro-Israel Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and the election of the more pro-Russia Israeli leader Ariel Sharon.[1] Putin has had a close relationship with long-serving Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[2] Israel–Russia relations Russian president Vladimir Putin and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2016. The two long-serving leaders have had a close relationship. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Israel-Russia relations took a downturn during Yair Lapid's tenure as Prime Minister of Israel.[3][4] Relations improved after Netanyahu's return as Prime Minister, although cooler than they were before the invasion.[5] Unlike many Western countries, Israel has maintained relations with the Kremlin, refused to impose sanctions against Russia, and rejected calls to send defensive weaponry to Ukraine.[6] Relations became strained during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.[7] The Russian language is the third-most widely spoken first language in Israel after Hebrew and Arabic; Israel has the third-largest number of Russian speakers outside of the post-Soviet states and the highest as a proportion of the total population; in 2017 it was estimated that 1.5 million Israelis could speak Russian, which would amount to 17.25% of Israel's population.[8][9] Over 100,000 Israeli citizens live in Russia,[10] with 80,000 of them living in Moscow,[11] while hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens live in Israel.[12] WIKI
Biden allowing both Russia and Israel to steal land, reminds me of the hymn; "Oh what a friend we have in Jesus". Ukraine's Zelenskiy warns of dwindling air defence missiles By Tom Balmforth and Yuliia Dysa April 7, 2024 https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...es-if-russia-keeps-up-bombardment-2024-04-06/ KYIV, April 6 (Reuters) - Ukraine could run out of air defence missiles if Russia keeps up its intense long-range bombing campaign, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned in remarks aired on Saturday. The Ukrainian leader's starkest warning to date of the deteriorating situation faced by his country's air defences follows weeks of Russian strikes on the energy system, towns and cities using a broad arsenal of missiles and drones. "If they keep hitting (Ukraine) every day the way they have for the last month, we might run out of missiles, and the partners know it," he said in an interview that aired on Ukrainian television. Zelenskiy, who has been appealing to allies for weeks to rush in more air defences, said that Ukraine had enough stockpiles to cope for the moment, but that it was already having to make difficult choices about what to protect. He singled out in particular the need for Patriot air defence systems and said Ukraine needed 25 of them. The sophisticated U.S. air defence system has been vital during Russian attacks with ballistic and hypersonic missiles which can hit targets within a matter of minutes. His remarks followed a fresh spate of attacks that Ukrainian officials said killed civilians. Two Russian missile and drone strikes, one in the early hours of Saturday and a second in the afternoon, killed eight people and wounded at least 10 more people in northeastern Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city. In the eastern region of Donetsk, artillery shelling killed four people in the village of Kurakhivka including a 38-year-old woman and her 16-year-old daughter, and a 25-year-old man in the village of Krasnohorivka was killed, while in Odesa in the south, a missile strike killed one civilian. Ukraine's largest private power company DTEK says the strikes had hit 80% of its generating capacity and the grid has introduced rolling blackouts to stabilise the system. The battlefield momentum has moved against Ukraine in recent months as Kyiv grappled with a slowdown in military assistance from the West and in particular from the United States. "The situation is difficult, but nevertheless stabilized. The enemy does not advance: when it takes steps forward, ours repel (them), and it retreats. On the contrary, our guys are taking some steps forward," he said. Zelenskiy said he still believed that a major aid package would be approved by Congress where it has been stuck in deliberations since late last year facing determined Republican opposition. "I still believe that we can get a positive vote in the United States Congress," he said. Asked by the interviewer about the possibility of Ukraine receiving the package in the form of a loan, he said: "We will agree to any options." He added that some artillery shells were being supplied to Ukraine under foreign initiatives that he did not name and that they were being used for defensive operations. "We don't have shells for counteroffensive actions, as for the defence - there are several initiatives, and we're receiving weapons," he said. The interview was recorded next to a military fortification in northeastern Chernihiv region, which borders Russia. It was not clear exactly which day the interview was recorded, but Zelenskiy met with a bipartisan group of members of Congress in the region on Friday.
Let's hope they make some progress... Hamas, Israel negotiators headed to Egypt to resume cease-fire talks https://nypost.com/2024/04/06/world...rs-headed-to-egypt-to-resume-ceasefire-talks/
What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer! 2 Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged, Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness, Take it to the Lord in prayer. 3 Are we weak and heavy-laden, Cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge— Take it to the Lord in prayer; Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer; In His arms He’ll take and shield thee, Thou wilt find a solace there.
Which is a good thing seeming it's all bs. How's yur prayers going Biden and Putin and Netanyahu and Zelinskyy and Trump.....?