Marco Eff

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

The same Milo who now says "I wouldn't wish it on anyone" wishing it on "millions and millions and millions of people."

There is a name for people who can't understand others' suffering until it's inflicted on them...

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Wow. François Fillon, the 2nd longest serving Prime Minister in France's 5th republic, just said that "the most significant foreign interference" that Europe faces is "first and foremost, that of the Americans," and that "the Americans are constantly interfering in the organization of European countries."

We all knew it, of course, but it's quite stunning for someone of Fillon's stature to say it out loud.

Full transcript:

"When I was Prime Minister [2007-2012], I already had the opportunity to say this: the most significant foreign interference was, first and foremost, that of the Americans.

Here in our country, the Americans are of course constantly interfering in the organization of European countries, and in particular through a very insidious mechanism that allows them to sanction Western companies. That is how, for example, BNP was ordered to pay several billion in fines to America. That is how America can sanction a Western company like Airbus, for instance, to give an advantage to Boeing.

So the most effective interference - and I'm not even talking about social media, about big tech which are all American, and so on - I'm speaking simply about the actions of the American government."

Full interview here (from 2 days ago): https://t.co/adAGp5xTfs

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

To be clear, "China derails" is the US's narrative of it: this was essentially the US setting up a communiqué designed to contain China, and China predictably refusing to sign it.

It's even comical: for instance the communiqué (which you can read here: https://t.co/pzAe0W94qR) endorsed in paragraph 11 the IMF's "surveillance of global imbalances" - essentially asking the IMF, controlled by the US, to play watchdog on surplus countries.

It's basically the US attempting to be judge and jury: "we'll define what counts as an 'imbalance,' have our own institution monitor it, and then prescribe the remedy - which, conveniently, is that you dismantle your economic model in our favor."

Pretty funny that China is then blamed for "derailing the consensus" when refusing to sign this: it's akin to saying that the turkey "derailed Thanksgiving" by declining to climb into the oven.

The communiqué even literally has an entire chapter called "addressing global imbalances" which is essentially all about telling China to change its economic model - referring to "countries with excessive and persistent external surpluses" whose "policies and practices result in harmful spillovers."

China signing this would essentially be them acknowledging officially that their development model was "harmful" and a "distortion" the world needs to be protected from.

You'd have to be insane to sign that: again, akin to our turkey saying he deserves the oven.

The real story here, however, that the FT should have written and which is in fact worrying for China, is that everyone else - the 19 other countries of the G20, including Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov who attended in person - apparently signed the communiqué.

Which, it's got to be said, is pretty cynical in the case of Russia given that the communiqué also includes anti-Iran language on the Strait of Hormuz, and that some of the anti-"non-market economy" language could just as well apply to their own economic model.

That being said, there is no denying that it's inconvenient for China: cynically or not, the 19 biggest economies in the world did sign a paper that said China's surplus is a problem for them, which makes it a problem for China.

Back in June I wrote about China's ancient tribute system (朝贡, "Chaogong", see my article here: https://t.co/v1X8Eg83FR) and how, contrary to what many people believe, it was built on the principle of 厚往薄来 (giving out much more than you take in), making the relationship so valuable that countries fought to get in.

In essence, the logic of Chaogong was that China's centrality had to be worth it for everyone else - that there needs to be a carrot - otherwise it's unsustainable.

And, as I wrote back then, the irony is that when the West pushes China to boost domestic consumption and reduce surpluses, in effect it is them asking China to revive a Chaogong-like system, and asking for a carrot that makes it worth their while.

I'd be ready to bet this is the direction of travel for China: not as a response to US pressure but because their own strategic tradition tells them that power needs to be sustained by generosity.

Ironically, this means that the real story of this communiqué is this: we're at a unique historical moment where the rest of the world is practically begging to become Chinese tributary states.

[Il conte rosso- @ilconterosso1]

36 generali, 2 primi ministri Israeliani hanno firmato una lettera in cui affermano che Israele sta commettendo atti di terrorismo e pulizia etnica in Cisgiordania.Simili agli orrori commessi dai nazisti durante l'Olocausto. Ci sono voluti 2 anni per ammetterlo?
@samgam75

[Ami Dar @AmiDar]

This piece by the great Amira Hass, published in Haaretz today, is too urgent and important to be behind a paywall, so I've copied the whole thing here. Please read and share.

* * * * * * *

Israel Isn't Debating a Palestinian State. It's Preparing for Expulsion.

Gadi Eisenkot's position on Palestinian statehood is beside the point. Across Gaza, the West Bank and Israel itself, the machinery for making Palestinian life impossible is already operating, laying the groundwork for mass expulsion

Gadi Eisenkot, the election frontrunner and leader of the Yashar party, has a stance on a Palestinian state that is ultimately irrelevant. What is at stake today is not a "diplomatic solution," but the very existence of the Palestinian people between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The Israeli forces striving to "erase" them recognize no limits or restraints. Their supporters are too numerous for us to rely solely on the steadfastness and resilience of a people that has already endured expulsion plans carried out by Israel.

The world stands by. The left is tiny, weak and hoarse from sounding too many warnings. The anti-Bibi opposition oscillates among downplaying the danger, remaining indifferent to it and outright supporting expulsion. The sporadic condemnations, prompted mainly by something the U.S. ambassador posted on X, are about as useful as a sieve in a rainstorm. The Jewish Phalangists attack constantly and everywhere, not only in Qusra.

The debate over one state, two states or a federation is more theoretical than ever. Any agreed-upon solution requires first acknowledging the problem and agreeing on what it is. Too many Jews in Israel have been conditioned to believe that the problem is the very presence in this land of a Palestinian people with roots, historical and economic continuity, cultural capital and material assets, a rich agricultural heritage and a profound love of homeland.

"Erasure" is the nightmare solution being written into reality every day. Knesset laws, politicians' declarations, military orders, school textbooks and the holy real estate battalions operating in Gaza, the West Bank and the Negev all work, together and separately, to advance this "solution" diligently and without fear of international condemnation.

Israeli policy is directed toward making life unbearable for Palestinians wherever they live, so that their emigration can be described as an act of free will. Within Israel itself, the authorities give Arab crime organizations free rein to arm themselves and kill Palestinian citizens in their homes. In the West Bank, those same Israeli authorities give "God's battalions" free rein to arm themselves, kill and expel, while the official army continues its raids day and night. In devastated and thirsty Gaza, the government and the army cultivate armed militias of criminal collaborators, while Israeli pilots continue to launch missiles of revenge and retribution that claim the lives of still more children. All these testosterone-fueled displays are interconnected.

At the same time, Israel is destroying or severely restricting Palestinians' ability to earn a living. In Gaza, that mission has been completed. A "living dead" population of aid recipients, two million people carrying the weight of some 74,000 fresh graves, families and memories, talents and professions, and evaporated savings, is crammed into roughly 150 square kilometers of scorched earth. Creativity, resourcefulness and mutual aid are dwarfed by the scale of the destruction and by Israel's prohibition on rebuilding and recovery.

In the West Bank, the Finance Ministry's financial noose is tightening around the necks of approximately three million people and the Palestinian Authority. The systematic theft of revenues is compounded by the army's campaigns of destruction in cities and refugee camps, as well as by the other methods used to prevent Palestinians from cultivating and developing their land: checkpoints, bureaucratic prohibitions, fences and Israeli-Jewish shepherds.

Within Israel itself, the "Judaization of the Galilee and Negev" was and remains code for stealing land and resources from Palestinian citizens of Israel. Discrimination against them in allocations, subsidies and employment, along with building prohibitions and demolitions, has always featured prominently in official policy within the Green Line.

Let me reiterate: The very existence of the Palestinian people between the sea and the river is now in danger. Too many active forces are creating that danger: Israel's military might and capabilities; the cult of military service under all conditions and under every government; obedience as a value; weapons and military attacks as the default modus operandi; the normalization of PTSD among soldiers and of soldiers dying by suicide; the attractions of a military career and the doors it opens; the lure of an affordable villa in a Galilee exclusionary community or a settler suburb in Samaria; the falsehoods of official and unofficial propaganda; indifference to the hell on earth Israel has created in the Gaza Strip; denial of 60 years of occupation and forced rule; the Pavlovian response, "But October 7"; the synergy among the army, the government, the rabbis and the kippa-wearing militias in the West Bank; equanimity in the face of Lebanon's destruction; disregard for the occupation of more parts of Syria; the normalization of expulsion discourse; justice and education systems tainted by secular and religious racism; and the army of jailers who abuse thousands of Palestinian prisoners, both under orders and by choice.

Together, these and similar forces are creating the material, ideological and psychological infrastructure within Israeli-Jewish society for another mass expulsion of Palestinians and for what might accompany it: mass slaughter.

The heroes of the settler militias openly declare that expulsion is their goal. They clearly recognize the readiness of large segments of Israeli-Jewish society to participate in carrying it out, actively or passively, directly or indirectly. Through their daily provocations and crimes, committed in broad daylight and made possible only by institutional support, the Phalangists constantly seek to provoke a Palestinian act of rage and revenge that "succeeds," so that it can be exploited as the match that ignites a new holy war.

The Jewish Phalangists and the right-wing organizations that fuel them are counting on broad mobilization, including from the leaders, voters and supporters of Yashar and the liberal Democrats party, for a war that could already be given the slogan: "One people, one army, one land cleansed of Arabs."

[Ben Schalman @OfficialT_P_V]

israel will kill your humanitarian aid worker, and then send the killers to run in your marathon.

[raffaele oriani @rafforiani]

Mark Etkin, figlio di un sopravvissuto all'Olocausto: "La principale causa di antisemitismo oggi nel mondo è il fatto che Israele rivendica di rappresentare tutti gli Ebrei e sta commettendo un g******** a Gaza nel nome di tutti gli Ebrei". No all'osceno #ddlantisemitismo.

[Alonso Gurmendi @Alonso_GD]

Ben Gvir deleted his call for building extermination camps for Palestinians. Make no mistake, this is what he wants. When someone tells you they are a Nazi, believe them

[Bruno Maçães @MacaesBruno]

People miss the meaning of this. It’s not or not just that an Israeli minister is advertising a Nazi concentration camp but that he is doing it to win (or try to do well) an election in Israel. Think that through a little

[Alonso Gurmendi @Alonso_GD]

People laughing at Muslims being called donkeys, at Mohammed being called a pedophile, people cheering calls for violence against all Muslims. This is a Hate Gathering. So of course Gad Saad loved it

[Nathan J Robinson @NathanJRobinson]

is Ben-Gvir violating the IHRA definition of antisemitism by comparing himself to a Nazi

[Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין @MairavZ]

Zionism in Israel has become a euphemism for Jewish supremacy (yes it always had those elements as Jewish nationalist movement but wasn’t as deterministic)

Rejection of Palestinian statehood has become a euphemism for killing/ expulsion of Palestinians btw the river and the sea

[Sahak Ibrahimkhil @S_Ibrahimkhil]

Well, @vonderleyen is the EU’s lawyer for war criminal Netanyahu and the two terrorists Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. So, these are supposedly the EU’s “values.”

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

Tra un annuncio di difesa patria e l'altro, mi auguro che il governo italiano trovi il tempo di difendere la sovranità del proprio sistema finanziario affinché, tra le varie, chi viene sanzionato dagli 'alleati' USA per reati d'opinione, possa avere un conto corrente in Italia.

[Lorenzo Kamel @lorenzokamel]

penso a #Gaza e #Cisgiordania (e a coloro che, pur senza competenze storico-linguistiche né vissuto locale, mi hanno insultato quando ho iniziato a parlare in🇮🇹di rischio di pulizia etnica).

[Stefano Barazzetta @stebaraz]

Mario Calabresi è il candidato perfetto per continuare l'opera di @beppesala: tappeto rosso agli immobiliaristi, distruzione di quel poco di pubblico che ancora funziona a Milano, sionismo granitico in Giunta (si parla di @LiaQuartapelle sua vice)

Non ci credete?

[Stefano Barazzetta @stebaraz]

L'amico di @graziano_delrio minaccia rappresaglie in caso di sanzioni a Israele.

Quando te ne vai Graziano?

[Stefano Barazzetta @stebaraz]

Quel che ho letto contro Di Battista rivela la statura dei suoi oppositori.

Vi porta a spasso anche da un letto di ospedale.
Cubano.

Auguri per una pronta guarigione!

[Stefano Barazzetta @stebaraz]

Questa è la tregua di @beppesala, @DanieleNahum, @FianoEmanuele, @nomfup e @LiaQuartapelle.

[Lorenzo Kamel @lorenzokamel]

@stebaraz @DanieleNahum @BeppeSala c'è chi usa (in modo inesatto) liste per corroborare le proprie ideologie e ignora altre liste quando non supportano quelle stesse ideologie. coerenza.