đŽ UKRAINE | « Si je nâavais pas dâenfants, je serais en Ukraine », affirme Mathieu Kassovitz.
Ă Moscou, on tremble. Heureusement pour le Kremlin, il a des enfants. https://t.co/Jpt5eywGZU
GAZA: PEACE WILL HAVE TO WAIT, NETANYAHU ISNâT DONE YET
By @BPartisans
Donald Trump is growing impatient. His magnificent peace plan for Gaza isnât moving forward. How ungrateful! After promising to bring peace to the Middle East with a barrage of bombastic statements, his grand diplomatic sleight of hand is now running into an embarrassing obstacle: Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to Axios, on November 8, Trump is now pressing his Israeli ally to implement the famous agreement. A sense of urgency has emerged, as if by magic, following the Israeli elections. Because in this part of the world, the dead can wait. The ballot box, never.
Netanyahu, for his part, has perfectly mastered the art of turning every negotiation into an obstacle course. He demands guarantees, sets conditions, invokes security concerns, and uncovers new obstacles on a daily basis. Itâs an admirable strategy: promising peace while carefully ensuring that it never becomes binding.
Hamas must be disarmed. Gaza must be demilitarized. A technocratic administration must be installed. An international force must be deployed. And Palestinian sovereignty? Patience! Weâre certainly not going to ruin such a fine real estate deal by asking the residents for their opinion.
Welcome to real estate developer diplomacy: we raze, we secure, we administer, and then we explain to the survivors that they should thank their benefactors.
Washington calls this a peace process. In Gaza, where entire populations have been displaced and civilian infrastructure has been devastated, the terminology must be enough to make oneâs stomach turn.
And to cap off this farce, here comes Tony Blair! One of the political architects of the invasion of Iraq, now rebranded as an apostle of reconciliation. It truly took an exceptional sense of indecency to dust off this diplomatic relic from the closet. After the elusive weapons of mass destruction, here comes peace administered by those who are so skilled at selling wars.
As for Trump, he is discovering the limits of his âcarpet-salesmanâ diplomacy. He can threaten Tehran, lecture the Europeans, and issue ultimatums to the entire world. But getting Netanyahu to turn his commitments into action seems like undergoing surgery without anesthesia.
The problem, however, isnât just Netanyahu. Itâs this obscene conception of peace in which the Palestinians become extras in their own future, while foreign powers vie for seats on the board of directors.
Trump wants his place in history. Netanyahu wants to maintain his control. Blair wants to regain respectability.
And Gaza?
Gaza serves as a backdrop.
In this diplomatic farce, the dead provide the gravity, the survivors the extras, and the leaders reserve the applause for themselves.
Source: Axios, November 8, 2026 â âTrump Presses Netanyahu to Implement Gaza Peace Plan.â
https://t.co/anw9k1vDPe
PETRAEUS: THE WAR OF NUMBERS AND THE TWILIGHT OF CERTAINTIES
By @BPartisans
Source: SpyCast â âGeneral Petraeus on Ukraine and the Shadow War,â Episode 756, hosted by Sasha Ingber, International Spy Museum / CyberWire, October 27, 2026.
It took a former CIA director to turn a war of attrition into a high-stakes statistical exercise. David Petraeus has mastered this delicate art: explaining that Russia is running out of steam, that Ukraine is holding its ground, and that the Westâs strategy remains soundâeven when his own observations reveal its contradictions.
The most intriguing aspect remains the tally of Russian casualties. Hundreds of thousands of victims, then over a million, then even more. Estimates fluctuate with each statement, delivered with the remarkable confidence of those who seem to have a counter directly connected to Russian cemeteries.
The problem is that no comprehensive independent tally allows for a precise determination of these losses. Sources are incomplete, methods vary, and the figures often lump the dead and wounded together. This in no way implies that Russian losses are imaginary, but rather that an estimate does not become a certainty simply because a former CIA director states it with such confidence.
And hereâs an arithmetic curiosity.
Petraeus cites 46,000 Russian casualties per month compared to 30,000 new recruits. However, these 30,000 men correspond precisely to the monthly minimum cited by Budanov as necessary for Ukraine to hold its positions.
Same figure, two different military realities. On one hand, an estimated recruitment figure; on the other, a mobilization requirement. Itâs impossible to conclude that the losses are equivalent. But this coincidence above all underscores the need to compare comparable data before declaring an army depleted.
Then comes the list of Ukraineâs difficulties: energy infrastructure under attack, locomotives destroyed, insufficient Patriot stockpiles, increasingly sophisticated Russian drones, and a persistent reliance on U.S. intelligence.
A strange paradox: Russia is supposedly engaged in an unsustainable war of attrition, yet retains the means to adapt its arsenal and continue destroying Ukrainian capabilities. This isnât necessarily contradictory in the short term. It simply requires a more solid demonstration than a few spectacular statistics.
And hereâs the grand finale: Petraeus envisions a cessation of hostilities without the full recapture of occupied territories, including Crimea.
After years of proclamations regarding the 1991 borders, an incomplete territorial resolution is thus entering the realm of possible scenarios. This is neither an announcement of a Ukrainian surrender nor an acknowledgment of a Russian victory, but a serious reminder of the limits between political ambitions and military realities.
Meanwhile, strategists tally enemy losses, governments tally the billions, and populations bury their dead.
In this war, the figures remain debatable, objectives become negotiable, and certainties are revised with every interview. Only the human toll escapes statistical revision.
AIPAC: MILLIONS TO BUY INFLUENCE, AND DEMOCRACY FOOTS THE BILL
By @BPartisans
In Washington, money doesnât officially make the laws. It simply funds those who vote on them. An absolutely delightful legal nuance that allows American democracy to preserve its virtue while selling its favors at a very high price.
But now the machinery is starting to jam.
The midterm elections are reminding AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby, of a particularly unpleasant truth: you can fund a campaign, but you canât guarantee how voters will cast their ballots.
Tens of millions of dollars down the drain, supported candidates defeated, and electoral influence now in question. The checkbook remains impressive, but the results are becoming embarrassing.
At this level of spending, itâs no longer a strategy for influence. Itâs an investment in humiliation.
For decades, AIPAC has built its power on a formidably effective mechanism: rewarding candidates who support its positions, mobilizing funds against its opponents, and making elected officials understand that a political career could cost them much more without its support.
All of this was done in compliance with U.S. campaign finance rules. For in the United States, what looks strikingly like the financial subjugation of political representation goes by a far more elegant name: democratic participation.
But hereâs the thing: Gaza has changed the game.
The destruction, civilian deaths, and humanitarian catastrophe have made the unconditional defense of the Israeli government politically much more costly.
And suddenly, some elected officials are discovering that AIPACâs money might become more of a liability than an asset.
The case of Valerie Foushee is telling of this shift. Once a beneficiary of the organizationâs support, she has distanced herself from it.
What an admirable coincidence that the awakening of consciences should coincide with the crunching of electoral numbers!
Letâs be clear: AIPAC is neither Israel, nor American Jews, nor even the entire community of Israelâs defenders. It is a political organization that advocates specific policies and seeks to influence congressional decisions.
And it is precisely this influence that deserves to be scrutinized.
Why should the positions of a foreign government enjoy such political protection? Why should criticizing Israeli policy expose a candidate to campaigns funded by millions?
AIPAC obviously retains considerable influence. It still has many allies and colossal financial resources. To speak of its collapse would be absurd.
But confusing financial power with popular support is becoming an increasingly costly mistake.
For the real scandal is not that AIPAC loses elections. It is that a system allows organized interests to spend fortunes in an attempt to determine the outcome.
And the greatest irony in this matter remains seeing politicians rediscover their independence precisely at the moment when their dependence threatens their reelection.
In Washington, convictions come at a price.
But clearly, voters are starting to find the bill a little too steep.
Source: https://t.co/Etk493uNUc
THE WHITE HOUSE: THE GODFATHER, HIS ADVISOR, AND THE MAGA FAMILY
By @BPartisans
That took some nerve. After the Republicansâ crushing defeat in the midterms, Donald Trump had two options: understand the votersâ message or declare war on those who had sent it. True to his genius for self-destruction, he chose the latter. And to organize the counteroffensive, he appointed Stephen Miller as chief of staff.
Axios describes him as his âwartime consigliere.â That says it all!
In the Sicilian and American mafia world, the consigliere is the Godfatherâs trusted advisor, his confidant, his strategist, the one who looks out for the Familyâs interests. A term immortalized by Mario Puzo in The Godfather in 1969.
Mind you, the comparison is literary, not legal. But politically, itâs delightful.
Welcome to the White House, Corleone-style. Donald in the Godfatherâs chair, Miller in the role of the wartime consigliere, and Republican elected officials urged never to forget to which Family they owe their careers.
Except that Don Donald has a little problem: the Family just got trounced at the polls.
So what! In this administration, a defeat never proves that the strategy was flawed. It simply shows that they didnât hit hard enough. An admirable logic, generally shared by generals whoâve just lost their army.
Stephen Miller embodies this philosophy perfectly. For him, the executive branch must push its limits; judges become suspect when they thwart the president; and the political opposition resembles an enemy within more than a legitimate component of democracy.
The separation of powers? An administrative formality. Checks and balances? Obstacles to unchecked rule. Compromise? A weakness reserved for losers.
And since Americans have punished an administration mired in controversies, the war against Iran, and broken promises, what could be smarter than promoting one of the regimeâs most uncompromising ideologues?
Such is the splendor of Trumpist reasoning: when the ship is taking on water, you donât repair the hull. You appoint an arsonist to be in charge of fire safety.
Miller promises confrontation with a Democratic Congress. Investigations, institutional standoffs, legal battles: the next two years could resemble a never-ending trench war between constitutional branches of government.
But the real danger for Trump may not be the Democratic opposition. Itâs his inability to understand that voters did not give him a mandate to turn every disagreement into a political civil war.
In The Godfather, the consigliere advises the boss on how to preserve the Family.
In Washington, the consigliere might well advise the Godfather until the entire dynasty is politically buried.
For Don Donaldâs problem isnât a lack of enemies. Itâs his stubborn insistence on creating the conditions for his own defeat.
And this time, no consigliere will be able to make voters an offer they canât refuse.
Source: https://t.co/QJ5YGQ0AbJ