[TheDarkBox] As the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur collapsed under a ferocious assault by Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a silent weapon played the most decisive role in the fall: total communications blackout.
According to soldiers, commanders, and a telecom technician who spoke to Dark Box, the sudden loss of all communications systems on 26 October caused total disarray among Sudanese defenders and Joint Forces aligned with the army. Units became isolated, commands went unheard, and withdrawal orders failed to reach front-line troops, many of whom died unaware they had been abandoned.
What happened in el-Fasher was not merely a battlefield rout — it was a premeditated technological siege enabled by sophisticated electronic warfare tools supplied by the United Arab Emirates.
FROM COORDINATION TO CHAOS: THE BLACKOUT BEGINS
For over 18 months, el-Fasher resisted the RSF’s siege using trench warfare, tunnel ambushes, and scarce munitions. Four layers of defense ringed the city, including barricaded frontlines, tunnel-based assault squads, and drone-operating artillery regiments.
But on 26 October, everything changed.
At a crucial moment in the battle, every means of communication — from handheld radios to Thuraya satellite phones and even Starlink connections — suddenly went dead. Operations rooms were cut off from field units, the Sudanese army’s Sixth Infantry base lost contact with the high command, and Joint Forces commanders could no longer issue coordinated orders.
What followed was catastrophic: the defenders, unable to coordinate or receive intelligence, could neither regroup nor retreat effectively. Commanders who understood the scope of the collapse fled first. Those left behind were either slaughtered, captured, or fled independently into the surrounding chaos.
THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND THE SILENCE
Exclusive testimonies obtained by Dark Box confirm that the blackout was caused by electronic jamming systems deployed by the RSF, but supplied, funded, and trained on by the UAE. More at the link
Commentary by RUssian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
[ColonelCassad] France has legalized the activities of private military companies (PMCs) in conflict zones. These companies will be able to assist or fully replace national armed forces in international missions, including in conflict zones.
This follows from Decree No. 2025-1030 of October 31, 2025, published in the Official Journal of the French Republic, which was analyzed by TASS. The document describes the PMCs as "reference operators of the Ministry of the Armed Forces." According to the decree, their involvement is necessary to "maintain and develop France's influence in a changing geopolitical context."
The PMCs are called upon to "accompany and extend the actions of the state" in the area of international military cooperation. As TASS has learned, the decree allows the French Ministry of Defense to entrust these companies with missions to train, exercise, support, or maintain combat readiness of the armies of partner states.
PMCs will ensure the "controlled transfer, direct or indirect, of military know-how" of the French Armed Forces. The decree explicitly authorizes the use of PMCs to provide assistance to "a third State facing a crisis or armed conflict." They can also operate within the framework of an "operational military partnership" or to "support the export" of French military products.
Their areas of activity cover land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. These companies, which must be established in the EU or the European Economic Area, will be granted "exclusive or special rights" for up to 10 years. To carry out their tasks, they may obtain permission to use documents containing French state and military secrets.
The decree, signed by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin, also authorizes the French Ministry of Defense to impose sanctions, including financial ones, or to suspend or completely terminate the rights of PMCs in the event of serious violations or "for reasons of public interest." The decree came into effect on November 2.
This is either for future use/legalization in Ukraine, or for planned operations in Africa, where France will cling to the remnants of its colonial empire and also attempt to undermine the governments of those African countries that have thrown off the French yoke.
PMCs will be able to absorb both regular army and special forces personnel, as well as Foreign Legion personnel, especially in areas where France will be uninterested in exposing either.
As in Ukraine, for example, where deployment plans specifically called for the use of a combination of regulars and legionnaires.Well, PMCs (primarily American ones) have been operating in Ukraine since March 2014.
[IsraelTimes] South African activist alleges Israel deliberately neglected to stamp passports of some 160 Palestinians who arrived on charter flight; COGAT says they had visas from South Africa
Some 160 Paleostinians fleeing Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... were stranded on their plane at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo Airport for hours on Thursday before eventually being allowed entry by South African Authorities.
Footage circulating on social media showed a Paleostinian woman on the plane in tears over the situation.
After "two straight days of hardship and toil, between buses and planes, we received a very sad surprise," she said. "The state is unable to receive us just because we’re people coming from a war." "That we started"
"My home is gone. I don’t have anywhere to go, any shelter. Where will we go? Enough," she cried, adding: "Why us?"
According to Haaretz, the group left Gaza early Wednesday morning, via the Strip’s southern Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, following Israeli vetting.
Members of the group were then taken by bus to Israel’s Ramon Airport, near Eilat, where they boarded a chartered plane to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and from there boarded the chartered flight to Johannesburg.
2025
An earlier group departing Gaza made an identical trip some two weeks ago and disembarked in Johannesburg without incident, Haaretz said. Both journeys were organized by an otherwise unknown organization called al-Majd, which has received many requests from Gazooks who want to leave the Strip, according to Haaretz.
The incident sparked widespread criticism of South Africa on social media as the country, which has led the allegations of genocide against Israel, was seen as unwilling to actually assist Paleostinians.
However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... a South African activist who has been helping the Gazooks blamed Israel, saying that they had sent the plane without coordinating with South Africa and had failed to put exit stamps on passports.
The activist, Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of South African NGO Gift of the Givers, told the South African Broadcasting Corporation that the Gazooks included a pregnant woman and several children, and that they were left hungry on a poorly kept plane with insufficient bathrooms, "really distraught coming from two years of genocide."
Sooliman, said the first flight included 176 Gazooks, and that his and other aid groups attended to their needs upon learning of their arrival in Johannesburg on October 28.
"These people were displaced. They didn’t know where to go. They had no contact numbers, no phone numbers," said Sooliman.
According to Sooliman, the first group’s relatives informed his organization on Wednesday that a second group was scheduled to arrive the next day.
"Nobody knew about that plane," he said. "It seems... Israel is voluntarily removing people from Gaza — you know, this is ethnic cleansing at its best — and taking away their goods, their hygiene packs, their food, sending them onto chartered planes."
Sooliman urged authorities to "investigate how people are coming on chartered planes without stamps. Israel did not stamp the passports." As a result, he said, South African border control officers "couldn’t allow them to get off the plane, simply because they were following rules" by not letting passengers alight in the country without valid travel documents.
Following Sooliman’s personal appeal to South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola and to the ministry’s director-general Zane Dangor, the Gazooks were let off the plane "eight to ten hours" after landing, the activist said.
"A lot of people have already offered food, clothing medical support" for the Gazooks who arrived in South Africa on Thursday, said Sooliman.
"We’re really grateful for South Africans, grateful for the government for making this happen, in keeping with our policy" of encouraging sanctions against Israel and pursuing genocide charges against the country at the International Court of Justice, said Sooliman.
Israel has vehemently rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza and accused Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... of using Gazooks as human shields.
It was unclear from Sooliman’s account how the Paleostinians would have traveled to and from Kenya.
Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which oversees the flow of people and goods to and from Gaza, told Haaretz that the Paleostinians had received visas from South Africa ahead of time. COGAT was also cited by the newspaper as saying that, as a rule, Israel always makes sure that there is a country that will accept Gazooks departing the Strip.
The foreign ministries of Israel and South Africa did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Haaretz said.
A security source cited by the newspaper said Israel has made the departure of Gazooks easier, and approved over 95 percent of requests to leave the Strip, ever since US President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... , in February, presented a plan to oust Gaza’s residents and rebuild the Strip as a Mediterranean Riviera.
Trump appeared to back away from that plan in the comprehensive Gaza ceasefire plan he presented in September, which states: "No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza."
It’s unclear how many people have left the devastated Strip since the war, sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, though Hebrew media reports have placed the number at around 38,000.
Fighters of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS) faction of Boko Haram are reportedly mobilising for renewed hostilities in parts of Borno… pic.twitter.com/LVL4twwvtJ
Fighters of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS) faction of Boko Haram are reportedly mobilising for renewed hostilities in parts of Borno State, sources have revealed.
According to credible intelligence obtained on Wednesday, ISWAP fighters, led by their naval commander, Abubakar Buduma, have mobilised several waterborne units from different hubs in Marte Local Government Area towards the central and upper Lake Chad region.
The movement, which reportedly began around 5 p.m. on Nov. 10, involved fighters and commanders drawn from ISWAP strongholds in Kusuma, Sabon Toumbun, Koleram, Jibillaram, and Ngelewa, all within Marte axis.
The convoy of fighters was last sighted around Dabar Wazam in Kukawa Local Government Area, suggesting a coordinated effort to launch reprisal attacks on areas recently captured by the rival JAS faction.
[IsraelTimes] Senior US official tells Axios message to MBS, expected at White House next week, is: ‘We did all the things you asked for. Now, there are things President Trump wants’.
It’s odd how often Axios reports scoops — that often enough turn out to be entirely invented. So we’ll see. Details at the link.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/14/2025 2025-11-14 02:09 ||
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…narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood – and we will protect it.”
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] An interesting forecast for Venezuela and the deployment of the American fleet off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia from military historian Ilya Topchy. Regarding the Ford''s approach to the Venezuelan coast (and, most importantly, the fact that it will likely be more than just the Ford). I made this forecast two weeks ago (October 30):
The reason for this post was a report that the US could deploy the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford toward Venezuela. So far, that''s how I see it. The Ford''s carrier strike group was until recently in the Mediterranean (somewhere off the coast of Albania). It may not arrive in Venezuela until mid-November (if it arrives at all).
The Bush and Truman carrier strike groups conducted exercises off the US east coast and returned to Norfolk in October and late September, respectively. If all three carrier strike groups were to deploy and assemble against Venezuela under the vice admiral''s flag, it could create a carrier force consisting of three carriers, three or four cruisers, 10-15 destroyers, several submarines, and other minor details. But that''s just theoretical.
The harsh times will tell how things play out in practice. It looks like it''s starting to come true. In addition to the Ford, which has arrived, the Bush has been off the coast of Florida for several days now for exercises. Theoretically, the Truman could also deploy (it returned from naval exercises a month and a half ago). The Nimitz is also heading west across the Pacific.
Formally, it''s returning from a deployment in the Arabian Sea. However, the Roosevelt, which is currently off the coast of California and could join up with the Nimitz, has departed San Diego for exercises. The last two ("Nimitz" and "Roosevelt") could form a second carrier group off the coast of Colombia, whose air groups would have the opportunity to fly, respectively, via Colombia.
And in Colombia, 9 out of 10 American bases are air bases. It could turn out like against Iraq in 2003. 4-5 aircraft carriers: two in the Pacific and two or three in the Atlantic. Two carrier groups. In total, these groups could be assembled by the end of November.
In total, in a remote war - strikes from the air and sea, with the support of sabotage and reconnaissance groups - the following force structure could be formed (for the US): - up to 150,000 military personnel, up to 1,000 aircraft (half sea-based), several dozen ships. Including 50-60 thousand on ships, 30 thousand in Colombia, the rest from bases north of Venezuela.
We''ll find out soon enough whether Trump will decide on a direct intervention in Venezuela with the aim of regime change and establishing control over Venezuelan oil. Venezuela previously announced a mobilization. SAM systems and radars are on high alert.
Senior US military officials presented President Donald Trump with updated plans for potential operations against Venezuela. CBS reported this on November 13.
It was reported that during a meeting at the White House, Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Kaine presented military operations plans to Trump. It was noted that the updated plans include strikes against ground targets in Venezuela, but no further details were provided.
It is emphasized that the Washington administration has not made any final decisions on this issue.
On November 1, The Washington Post reported that the United States is increasing its military presence off the coast of Venezuela. The total number of American troops in the region could reach 16,000. The US Navy's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is expected to arrive off the coast of Venezuela in the coming days, accompanied by five other vessels.
[IsraelTimes] Khaled al-Halabi, charged over suppressing protests in Raqqa, lived in Vienna in apartment paid for by Israeli spy agency that got him into country, NY Times says
A top Syrian suspect accused of torture crimes under the Assad regime was smuggled into Austria by Mosssd ...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end... , the Israeli spy agency, which arranged asylum for him there because he was a double agent, the New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, which cited nonprofit Sherlocks and prosecutors, Brig. Gen. Khaled al-Halabi, 62, had lived in a Vienna apartment that was paid for by Mossad.
The report came as Halabi was charged in Vienna for torture. He had been held by Austria since December and is the highest-ranking former Syrian official in Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... accused of war crimes.
Another senior former Syrian official, Lt. Col. Musab Abu Rukbah, 53, was also charged Wednesday, but the NY Times said was not clear if he has been detained by Austrian authorities.
The charges relate to their activities in suppressing an uprising in Raqqa during the Arab Spring uprising from 2011 to 2013 against the Assad regime.
Halabi joined Syrian intelligence in 2001 and, in 2008, was given responsibility for Security Branch 335 in Raqqa, the newspaper said. When anti-government protests broke out in 2011, the security services worked to find the organizers and those passing videos to international media, torture victims have said.
Victims have described being tortured in the branch Halabi led, with one saying he was abused for hours in his office, though not by Halabi himself, but by Abu Rukbah.
Halabi was a double agent working for Mossad, according to the report. He left Syria in 2013 for The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... and then, via Jordan, headed to Gay Paree in 2015 but later fled when French authorities began probing asylum applicants over possible war crimes.
Mossad and a group of Austrian intelligence officers aided Halabi in traveling by car from the French capital to the Austrian border. Halabi was taken to Vienna, and he hid out in an apartment paid for by Mossad.
The Austrian officers’ part in the affair was later discovered — prosecutors said they acted on their own initiative — and they were charged in 2023 with abuse of office for arranging Halabi’s asylum under a deal with Mossad. Prosecutors said that the head of Austria’s domestic intelligence agency, BVT, had made a trip to Israel in 2015 when the deal on cooperation was reached.
Prosecutors in the case said Mossad requested that Halabi be brought to Austria as he had been an agent for the spy agency.
Four of the defendants were eventually acquitted due to a lack of evidence that they harmed the state, and the fifth was not at the trial due to health issues.
In January 2016, the Austrian Justice Ministry began searching for Halabi after receiving information about his alleged torture crimes from activists. The search led to suspicions that the country’s intelligence service was hiding him.
"The Austrian government and intelligence service helped Mossad and helped their war criminals," said Asyad Almousa, a lawyer who was tortured in a Syrian prison. "This is the worst level of criminality."
The Israeli government and Mossad did not respond to questions about Halabi, the NY Times said. The Austrian Interior Ministry and Justice Ministry said they do not comment on specific cases due to privacy issues.
Austria’s public prosecutor’s office in Vienna did not give Halabi or Abu Rukbah’s names when announcing the indictments, but, according to the report, attorneys and victims identified the two men.
Prosecutors who filed the indictment against Halabi said in a statement that 21 torture victims have been identified.
Both men deny the charges, and lawyers for them could not be reached for comment on the charges, the NY Times said.
[IsraelTimes] Amsterdam’s Royal Concert Hall has rescinded its decision not to allow a Hanukkah concert featuring the IDF’s chief cantor, Shai Abramson.
Last week, the Royal Concert Hall, or Concertgebouw, said in a statement that it had canceled the December 14 performance because organizers had not removed Abramson, a retired IDF lieutenant colonel, from the program.
That caused an international uproar, and the Chanukkah Concert Foundation threatened to pursue legal action against the Concertgebouw.
Concertgebouw says today it has reached a compromise agreement with the Chanukkah Concert Foundation. The original concert, scheduled for that Sunday afternoon, will be held without Abramson’s presence. Later in the evening, Abramson will perform as the cantor at two private concerts exclusively for invited guests.
“The Concertgebouw remains of the opinion that – in the current polarized climate – the cantor, who is also Chief Cantor of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), cannot perform at the Concertgebouw. This is due to his symbolic role in the IDF, which is involved in a war that divides our society,” it notes in a statement.
Proceeds from the latter events will be donated to a charity that promotes social cohesion in the city, Concertgebouw adds.
[IsraelTimes] Berlin police detain six activists who illegally scaled the Brandenburg Gate, an iconic city landmark, to display a banner reading “Never again genocide. Freedom for Palestine” and wave Palestinian flags. Video from the scene shows the activists chanting “Yalla, yalla, intifada.”
The pro-Palestinian activists reached the top of the monument using a cherry picker. Police announce this afternoon that 75 officers were deployed, and rescue climbers were utilized to detain the protesters.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany sharply condemns the action.
“The banner on the Brandenburg Gate, shortly after the commemoration day for Pogrom Night [Kristallnacht], abuses the phrase ‘Never again’ and directs it against the only Jewish state,” the group writes on X. “This action was accompanied by ‘intifada’ calls, which call for worldwide violence against Jews.”
Central Council President Josef Schuster says, “The fact that something like this is happening in Germany in 2025 is a perversion of history.”
UNGLAUBLICH, WAS HIER ABGEHT! Mehrere Palästina-Flaggen auf dem Brandenburger Tor! Hochgezogen von vermutlich linken Aktivisten. Berlin erlebte heute den nächsten Protest-Wahnsinn #b1311pic.twitter.com/AddTfzNdJ0
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The White House administration has officially designated four European groups associated with the Antifa movement as international terrorist organizations. This was reported on November 13 by The New York Post, citing a written statement from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The US State Department added the German-based Antifa Ost, the Italian Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front, and the Greek Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense to the sanctions list related to the fight against international terrorism.
The State Department believes that members of these groups have repeatedly resorted to violence against those they perceive as opponents of their projects. The measures imposed against these organizations are aimed at denying them access to the US financial system and other resources they need to carry out their attacks.
On September 18, US President Donald Trump declared Antifa a terrorist organization. This came in the wake of the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on September 10. Law enforcement officers found the rifle allegedly used in the shooting of Kirk in a store, along with bullets engraved with slogans, some of which were associated with the Antifa movement.
#6
No need for war when their connections will be easily traced, leading to wves of arrests — just like is now happening with the worst of the illegals and criminals.
[GEO.TV] Turkiye's main expectation from a planned International Stabilisation Force in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... is for it to provide guarantees that the fragile ceasefire will last, its Defence Ministry said.
Oh dear. And they think themselves subtle and sophisticated?
NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... member Turkiye has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel's devastating two-year assault on Gaza, calling it a genocide.
It has emerged as a critical player and mediator in ceasefire efforts, voicing a desire to join the stabilisation force despite Israel's repeated objections.
At a briefing in Ankara, the ministry also said Turkiye believed the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) must ensure unhindered humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza in line with international law.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2025 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
Sunshine is the best medicine. This is one of those small acts with huge consequences.
[FoxNews] Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, is set to revoke commercial driver's licenses (CDLs) issued to 17,000 immigrants colonists after pressure from the Trump administration.
The licenses that are expected to be revoked would have expired after the driver was legally allowed to be in the country.
"After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Governor Hair Gel Newsom ...mayor of San Franciscoas it transformed itself into Poopville, currently governor of Californiaas it transforms itself into Cinderland... and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. "This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every undocumented Democrat from behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses."
The Transportation Department said that those impacted by the decision have been notified that their licenses no longer meet federal requirements and will expire in 60 days. However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said in a post on X that the federal requirements referenced were not in effect when the licenses were issued.
[IsraelTimes] US calls on Security Council to back its plan, warns ‘attempts to sow discord’ will have ‘grave, tangible and entirely avoidable consequences for Palestinians’.
Details of the sausage making at the link, for those interested. I’m willing to wait until the thing is finalized, if it is finalized at all.
[GEO.TV] US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... said Wednesday he was optimistic that the UN Security Council would finalise a resolution on Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... that would back an international security force.
"We feel optimistic that it's going to happen," Rubio told news hounds after G7 foreign ministers met in Canada. "I think we're making good progress on the language of the resolution, and hopefully we'll have action on it very soon."
Rubio said the United States was speaking with different countries on ways to "balance their interests here, and how that's structured beyond just the security force."
While the Trump administration has long criticised the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... , several countries have said that they need the authorisation of the Security Council before they can deploy troops to Gaza.
Rubio said that the deployment of the international force was crucial to allowing more assistance into the Paleostinian territory and sidelining Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... He also expressed concern that the latest spate of violence by Israeli settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank could spill over and undermine US-backed peace efforts in Gaza.
"I hope not," Rubio told news hounds after a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers in Canada, when asked whether the West Bank events could endanger the Gaza ceasefire. "We don't expect it to. We'll do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2025 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
[IsraelTimes] Israel is angling for a 20-year security agreement with the US with “America first” elements, Axios reports, citing Israeli and US officials.
The current 10-year memorandum of understanding between the two countries — the third such agreement signed — expires in 2028. It includes around $4 billion of aid to Israel.
With growing skepticism around foreign aid, including to Israel, in the Republican Party, the next MOU faces challenges that the previous ones did not.
Discussions on the next MOU began in recent weeks, according to the report, after a long delay because of the war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel proposed a 20-year deal that would end on the country’s centennial in 2048, and the use of some of the funds for joint R&D, according to Axios.
“This is out-of-the-box thinking,” an Israeli official tells Axios. “We want to change the way we handled past agreements and put more emphasis on US-Israel cooperation. The Americans like this idea.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies the report in an interview with Australian TV host Erin Molan. “I don’t know what they’re talking about. My direction is the exact opposite,” he insists.
“I think it’s time to ensure that Israel is independent,” he continues. “Understand that our military aid is like a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of what the US spent in Afghanistan or spent in the Middle East. It’s tiny. But I think that we have a very strong economy. We have a very strong arms industry. It’s true that even though we get what we get, which we appreciate, 80% of that is spent in the United States. It produces jobs in the United States. But nevertheless, I’d like to see a much more independent Israeli, an even more independent Israeli defense industry.”
Trump has referred publicly to the billions in aid given to Israel in both of his terms. In 2018, he dismissed concerns that pulling US troops out of Syria could endanger Israel. “You know, we give Israel $4.5 billion a year. And they’re doing very well defending themselves, if you take a look,” he said.
During a rocky White House visit in April, Trump brought it up again as Netanyahu listened beside him: “Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot. We give Israel $4 billion a year, that’s a lot.”
[IsraelTimes] Military representatives have notified the family of Meny Godard that his body was returned to Israel by Hamas tonight, after forensic experts completed their identification.
Godard, 73, was murdered by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023, alongside his wife Ayelet, 63, and his body was abducted to Gaza by the Hamas-allied terror group.
The couple is survived by their children, Mor, Gal, Bar, and Goni, a number of grandchildren, and several siblings.
In March, troops recovered findings belonging to Godard at an Islamic Jihad post in southern Gaza’s Rafah. The findings found at the post were taken to Israel and identified as belonging to Godard, but his body remained held in Gaza.
Hamas, in a joint statement with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said that the body had been located in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza on Thursday.
The bodies of three slain hostages now remain held in the Strip — two Israelis and one Thai national: Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, Dror Or, and Sudthisak Rinthalak.
“The Israeli government shares in the deep sorrow of the Godard family and of all the families of the fallen hostages,” the Prime Minister’s Office says in a statement.
The PMO says that Israel is “determined, committed, and working tirelessly” to bring back the remaining three slain hostages for burial, adding that Hamas is “required to fulfill its commitments to the mediators and return them as part of the implementation of the agreement.”
[IsraelTimes] Iranian authorities arrested two men after a video went viral showing them dressed in military uniforms while carrying the flag used during the rule of the shah prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, local media reported on Thursday.
The video, filmed inside a Tehran metro station, showed the two men brandishing a flag carrying the “lion and sun” emblem associated with Iran’s former monarchy.
It was circulated widely on social media in Iran, according to the Fars news agency.
Fars said that an investigation determined that the two men were not members of the Iranian armed forces, but did not specify their identity.
“The two men were arrested for abusing the military uniforms,” said Fars, with other media also reporting the incident.
Iran’s national flag — green, white, and red — was changed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and replaced him with the current theocracy.
The “lion and sun” emblem was replaced with the current red insignia representing the word Allah, designed in the form of a tulip.
From Skidmark’s link in comments, one of them is Col. Ebrahim Aghaie Komazani, of the Iranian Regular Army’s Aviation Division
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2025 00:00 ||
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#1
Korean War Trivia: US Army didn't like handing out grenades to soldiers travelling over bumpy mounted roads. Some idiot would toss the grenade back in the box with a loose restraining pin and rattle, rattle ...BOOM!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...
...mayor of San Franciscoas it transformed itself into Poopville, currently governor of Californiaas it transforms itself into Cinderland...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
