[AT] Much of the mainstream news this week has been, in my opinion, partisan or devoted to less-than-significant matters. Does it really matter if the Trump-appointed board that saved the Kennedy Center from going to wrack and ruin has added his name to the building? Were you really surprised that Bill Clinton, not Trump, was pictured in the released Epstein files cavorting with women whose faces were blacked out because they were either minors or victims? Were you so daft that you thought Biden, who had these files, was protecting his arch-enemy Trump from exposure?
On the internet, the focus was on the shootings at Brown University and Brookline and the manifest incompetence of the Providence police force and the grossly bloated and overcompensated Brown administration. A Reddit poster broke the case, having observed suspicious behavior by the perpetrator. The poster was a homeless Brown grad living in the basement of the engineering building who stands to receive a $50,000 reward for breaking the case. The question remains, if the police had been competent and given consideration to the first report, would the shooter, who finally committed suicide, have been free to murder a second time? The other hot topic was how Ben Shapiro, speaking at a major TPUSA event, eviscerated the grifting Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. It remains to be seen how J.D. Vance extricates himself from Tucker’s embrace, essential, in my view, if he runs for the presidency.
I think the important and underreported stories of the week, are different -- the growing fractures in the European Union and the Administration’s lowering the boom on richly rewarded migration sponsors.
IMMIGRATION SPONSOR BOONDOGGLE
It’s no secret that Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have been cleaning up on bringing migrants into the country and placing them on a variety of welfare plans to the detriment of taxpayers and the communities which are forced to host them. Respecting the unaccompanied children program:
The Free Press examined three of the most prominent NGOs that have benefited: Global Refuge, Southwest Key Programs, and Endeavors, Inc. These organizations have seen their combined revenue grow from $597 million in 2019 to an astonishing $2 billion by 2022, the last year for which federal disclosure documents are available. And the CEOs of all three nonprofits reap more than $500,000 each in annual compensation, with one of them -- the chief executive of Southwest Key -- making more than $1 million.
The picture is the same for adult migrants. Via the departments of Homeland Security and HHS, these NGOs have raked in billions of dollars under the prior administrations.
Compensation packages for executives of these organizations tend to be lavish. The latest account I can find, i.e., for Catholic Charities, reports that the CEO receives almost $1 million per annum. Doubtless there are other financial perks.
That’s about to come to an end. The Department of Justice reversed a Clinton era interpretation of welfare laws and is seeking recompense from these sponsors for welfare and other tax-funded benefits, Deputy Secretary of HHS Jim O’Neill, relying on this reinterpretation of the regulations, demanded repayment from these sponsors.
“Am I,” Cain once innocently asked, “my brother’s keeper?” Until very recently, the answer was ‘no’ for the highly compensated commercial sponsors of foreign aliens resettled here under Biden’s various dumb plans. That may have changed yesterday. An article from the New American (selected because corporate media is ignoring the story) was headlined, “HHS to Immigrant Sponsors: Pay What You Owe for Immigrants Who Use Medicaid or Face Collection.”
Under various laws and programs, foreign citizens can ‘permanently reside’ in the U.S. as non-citizens. It’s not U.S. citizenship, but it’s not not citizenship, either. Biden used one of these programs, for example, to submerge midwestern towns with Haitians who can’t drive. (Ditto for Somalis and many other failed-state refugees.) The rules are complex and arcane, which is why Biden also paid lawyers to help the migrants.
One of the rules requires each permanent resident to have a sponsor, an individual who demonstrates sufficient assets and income to support the person if they ever become a financial burden on the state.
There’s even a sponsor form, the I-864, which includes a contract. The contract puts the sponsor on the hook for any welfare given to the immigrant by any local, state, or Federal agency. [snip]
Right about now, you’re probably thinking this sounds great, and wondering why you never heard of it before. The reason is simple. The Democrats passed this law to ‘prove’ immigrants wouldn’t be a burden, and then promptly broomed it via their favorite tactic: selective non-enforcement. Two tiers of justice are better than one!
So far as I can tell from court records, the government has never before sued a sponsor. After all, the contract only says the agency “may ask for reimbursement.” May. Not “must.”
FISSURES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
The leaders of the EU tried to sequester frozen Russian funds to support Ukraine. That move failed. The U.S. is no longer funding Ukrainian kleptocrats in a war Ukraine cannot possibly win, and now the Europeans can prolong the war only by using their own money. Zelensky should be worried, as Wolfgang Munchau notes.
“There is a lot of sugar-coating going on this morning. The sequestration deal is truly dead. The EU will pay the €90bn for Ukraine out of its own pockets. Now that it is the EU’s own money at stake, diplomacy is already starting to shift. Macron said last night EU should reconnect with Putin. The war-mongering in the EU was to a large extent a money illusion -- other people paying for it. Now that the EU is having to put its own money where its mouth is, expect to hear a lot more people calling for peace.”
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2025 05:28 ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Gevorg Mirzayan
[REGNUM] Russia's vision of relations with European countries and the West as a whole also became one of the topics of Vladimir Putin's major direct line, combined with a press conference.
In which Western journalists preferred to ask questions that had been asked many times before – in order to then state that “Putin has repeated this many times.”
BBC journalist Steve Rosenberg inquired whether new special military operations were planned in the future, meaning whether Russia would "attack Europe." The Russian leader assured that Russia has no intention of attacking Western countries, and that statements to that effect were being made by European politicians "based on domestic political considerations" to "create an image of the enemy."
In outlining his vision for the coming year, the Russian president made it clear that Moscow is not aiming for confrontation for the sake of confrontation, and that it is always prepared to seek some modus vivendi.
But only if the partners are also interested in finding a format for coexistence, and not in suppressing Russia, inflicting a strategic defeat on it, or imposing some discriminatory format for cooperation.
"There will be no [special military] operations if you treat us with respect. You will respect our interests just as we have always tried to respect yours, if you don't cheat us, as you did with NATO's eastward expansion," the president declared.
The same applies to large-scale provocations and tests of Russia's weakness—for example, the blockade of the Kaliningrad region.
"Actions of this kind will simply lead to an unprecedented escalation of the conflict, taking it to a completely different level and expanding it to a full-scale armed conflict. Everyone must be aware of this," the Russian leader emphasized.
As, apparently, those who want to engage in provocations in other areas—for example, in Transnistria or the Black Sea—should also be aware.
And here, of course, Putin is doing Western countries a huge favor.
For three years, they've been effectively waging a war against Russia using the Ukrainian army. They're undermining the Russian economy, funding the Kyiv regime—and losing this war. Instead of seeking revenge, the president is suggesting they reconsider, outlining a way to reformulate relations that's perfectly acceptable to all reasonable people.
“We are ready to work with you, with Great Britain, with Europe as a whole, and with the United States, but on an equal footing, with respect for each other,” he says.
Some, of course, accepted the conditions.
For example, American President Donald Trump, who sees the world (including his relations with Moscow) not through the prism of an ideological crusade or a culture war, but through pragmatism and minimizing unnecessary costs.
"Trump doesn't view Russia as a natural adversary of the United States, much less as its main or one of its main adversaries. He sees Russia more as a potential economic partner," Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies, explained to Regnum News Agency .
According to him, cooperation in the Arctic and the extraction of rare earth elements all create opportunities for equal and mutually beneficial Russian-American cooperation.
Unfortunately, not everyone in the US shares this view. "Within the US, the overwhelming majority of remaining forces, such as the Democrats, the deep state, and the old-guard Republicans, do not want improved relations with Russia," Suslov continues.
They view Russia as an adversary and would like to see the current process of, let's say, cautious improvement of Russian-American relations disrupted.
And in this matter they rely on Europe, which has taken an extremely radical position.
It not only refuses to recognize Russia's right to national interests, but is also trying to openly rob it—in particular, to steal Russian foreign currency assets located on its territory.
Yes, this was not achieved at the EU summit on December 18–19, but Brussels will undoubtedly continue its attempts.
However, Vladimir Putin clearly warned Europeans how this would end for them. Specifically, three extremely unpleasant consequences.
Firstly, by the courts.
According to the president, Russia will try to find a jurisdiction that is independent of political decisions and will uncompromisingly defend its position there. And Moscow will win these cases, since the theft of state assets is expressly prohibited by European law.
“Whatever they steal, no matter how they do it, they will have to give it back someday,” Putin says.
Secondly, problems for European budgets – and not only because of the courts.
The head of state emphasizes that any loans—whether regular or so-called reparations—will place a heavy burden on the European economy. Specifically, the public debt and budget deficit will increase. It will be very interesting to see how the European opposition and electorate react to this.
Putin gave a telling example: France's public debt is 120% of its GDP, while Russia's is 17.7%; the budget deficit is 6% (in Russia, it's 1.6%). Consequently, new commitments to support Ukraine would simply derail the situation.
Thirdly, this creates problems for the eurozone economy as a whole.
Its financial stability depends largely on investments made there by non-European countries, primarily those with resources, i.e., oil-producing countries that don't conform to European liberal norms.
And now it turns out that, by creating a precedent (taking money from the Russian Federation based on ideological “concepts”), Europe can do the same with other countries that keep their gold and foreign exchange reserves in European banks.
"Now some people don't like the special military operation and the fight against neo-Nazism in Ukraine. And then someone might dislike, say, the policy regarding the LGBT community. And in Muslim countries, in Islamic countries, there are many very strict laws protecting their values, and, in essence, our shared, traditional values... So there you have it, a pretext for confiscating sovereign wealth funds, sovereign resources, and money," Putin says.
Clearly, third countries are closely monitoring developments and are already filled with apprehension. It's also clear that some of them, without waiting for European liberalism to manifest itself, will prefer to withdraw their funds from the eurozone to third countries.
This means that Europe will continue to become poor and suffer – as befits robbers who must answer for their actions.
#2
There *does* seem to be a persistent dream out there on the web about breaking Russia up, with peaces going to the Europeans, China, and the Umma respectively. Thus three of the world's great civilizations (The West, China, and Islam) would have a titanic team up to eliminate a fourth.
Text taken from the Telegram channel of darpaandcia
[ColonelCassad] AI with a Double Bottom Line Retraining large models is time-consuming, expensive, and risky: a neural network can forget old knowledge or, conversely, retain things that need to be hidden (for example, classified data). DARPA has long been searching for a way to make AI manageable rather than a "black box."
A recently published patent by Georgia Tech scientists (DARPA grant) offers a solution: abandon retraining and turn knowledge into removable files. The authors devised a way to isolate a specific skill—be it mathematics or drone guidance—into a separate, compact file (patch).
While the idea of adapters (LoRA) is not new, the patent's innovation lies in the algorithm for "cleanly separating" skills. A standard LoRA can only add knowledge on top of old knowledge (the "dirty" layer). DARPA's technology can surgically separate skills so they don't mix.
This allows for safe knowledge subtraction without breaking the model's logic.
Two operating modes:
1. LEARN (Add): Upload a file (5–50 MB)—the model instantly becomes smarter.
2. UNLEARN (Remove): Subtract a file—the model mathematically loses access to a specific skill, while remaining functional.
This turns the AI into a LEGO set, where the parts (skills) fit perfectly and do not conflict.
Three scenarios:
1. Export control (Irreversible purge): The US will be able to sell "defatted" versions of the AI. UNLEARN mode allows for the surgical removal of cyberattack skills. Restoring them without the original "cartridge" is impossible—the buyer simply does not have the necessary scales on hand.
2. Camouflage ("Perfect false bottom"): A solution for drones. On board is a sterile civilian model (code check will not find anything). Before the attack, a micro-patch with tactics is loaded. After the attack, the patch is erased, leaving a perfectly clean "peaceful courier".
3. Access Hierarchy (Conflict-Free): One model for everyone. A private sees instructions, an officer connects their module and sees secrets. Thanks to the new algorithm, the secret module doesn't break the basic logic of the model and doesn't cause glitches.
The authors acknowledge the problem of knowledge interweaving. By removing the "chemistry of explosives," one can accidentally corrupt the "school chemistry." The more such edits, the more unstable the model becomes—it can turn into a "Frankenstein monster" and start hallucinating. The era of "black boxes" is over. The era of "boxes with double bottoms" has begun.
[JustTheNews] Former FBI agent and Navy SEAL Jonathan Gilliam says Trump should name a “Justice Czar” to coordinate both prosecutions and policy fixes. "This would be a slam dunk case for any US Attorney," he said.
A retired FBI agent who assembled major crime cases for years says Attorney General Pam Bondi has a “slam dunk” conspiracy case to prosecute former federal agents and prosecutors for election meddling for relentlessly pursuing Donald Trump for political purposes while protecting prominent Democrats like Hillary Clinton in the face of damning evidence.
Jonathan Gilliam, a retired FBI agent and Navy SEAL, told the Just the News, No Noise television show that Trump should name a “Justice Czar” to coordinate both prosecutions and policy fixes after documents turned over to Congress by Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel showed that FBI agents were repeatedly thwarted from pursuing corruption allegations against Clinton and her family foundation.
The agents were overruled when they told prosecutors there was no probable cause to raid Trump’s home in Florida.
CREATING AND FALSIFYING EVIDENCE, EX-AGENT SAYS
“It's the same cast of characters every time.” Gilliam said. “We had a tremendous amount of evidence that they were trying to create evidence and falsify evidence to go after Trump. Now we see that they're trying to stop investigations and get rid of real evidence for the purpose of protecting the Clintons.
“I think this really does lead to bigger charges such as conspiracy to overthrow an election, I would say, potentially treason, if you could put that in there, but definitely sedition,” he added.
Gilliam suggested the Justice Department treat the key players accused of weaponizing law enforcement and intelligence powers just like a drug cartel or mafia family.
“This is a group of people that continue to come up in one case of building cases against Trump, falsifying information. But now it shows that the same people were conspiring to do a second overall crime, or second conspiracy to protect the political candidate that they agree with,” he said.
“I mean, honestly, if this was a mafia case, and we had this clear-cut of an example of a group of people committing two or more crimes for the furtherance of their political group or their enterprise. This would be a slam dunk case for any US Attorney. So I think this is something that they should look at,” Gilliam continued.
“This is years of individuals working their way up and getting together or being pulled up and put together so that they could conspire to stop one individual from becoming president and push the other person forward,” he added.
DHILLON: ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO PURSUE CONSPIRACY CHARGES
Gilliam’s comments came the same week that Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told the Just the News, No Noise television show that she believes there’s enough evidence to pursue a conspiracy case alleging the federal agents and state prosecutors conspired to infringe the civil liberties of Trump and his MAGA followers.
Gilliam suggested such a case would be massive in scope and complicated in mission, and it would be best served by having a central quarterback.
“We need real investigators under a justice czar to look at these people and criminally investigate and charge them,” he said.
#1
Harmeet Dhillion on the recalcitrance and legacy resistance within the DOJ: "She said efforts to set new standards and priorities within her department led to widespread departures....
“I had about 400 attorneys plus working in my department, I have 1/3 of that now, because when I set the rules of what we’re going to do here in this department, two thirds of the people pieced out and quit,” Dhillon said."
"She also said some remaining staff have leaked internal actions to the press. “That’s the fight in my department,” she said."
"Dhillon said the challenge extends beyond her immediate office and reflects the size and structure of the federal bureaucracy. She noted that more than 100,000 people work at the Department of Justice, many within the FBI, and said only a small portion of leadership positions are politically appointed."
“It’s only the very top, top, top layer of that that is politically appointed and committed to the President’s agenda,” she said."
According to Dhillon, most personnel are long-serving staff who continue operating under established practices."
“I would say the vast majority of that agency is, you know, legacy, doing what they’re doing, much of which was not good for America,” she said."
#2
/\ “I would say the vast majority of that agency is, you know, legacy, doing what they’re doing, much of which was not good for America,” she said."
#3
I had about 400 attorneys plus working in my department, I have 1/3 of that now,
A major reduction in department overhead, plus the added benefit of a significant reduction in Deep State fighting against the Trumo agenda. So they’re probably getting more done with a much lower head count.
#4
Assuming average annual pay of $150,000, 400 people costs $60million, and one third of that is $20million. If the entire Department of Justice dropped to a third of the previous 100,000 headcount, payroll at that assumed $150,000 average would drop from $45 billion to $15 billion… and then there are all the associated overhead things, which I assume is at least as much, if not more (this is absolutely what I know nothing about, so if someone who has a clue would put better numbers here, that would be great).
How much closer are we getting to Elon Musk’s $1 trillion in savings?
…who peaked in the 1970s — Mr. Hersh is forever chasing the feeling of getting a prestigious award for whatever it was he got right that first time, except ever since he’s been neglecting the getting right part. But he hates America, which is all that matters for some people...
latest Substack article on the prospects a successful outcome of the US attempt to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is important because it reveals the pathetic incompetence of the CIA. It appears that Sy reported what senior Trump officials told him about the on going negotiations with the Russians and Ukrainians, and that those officials were sharing their understanding of the capabilities of Russia and Ukraine based on intelligence reports and intelligence analysis provided principally by CIA analysts. Here are some of the more egregious claims by these officials:
Both nations are on the verge of economic and military collapse…
Putin is facing economic, political, military, and public pressure…
Putin is facing increasing political, economic, and military opposition in Moscow—mortgage rates are soaring and the Russian military is in serious disarray—has realized that he must end the war…
Ongoing warfare is not going to change the balance of forces. Putin is under pressure to end the war from his military and from a public staggered by its continuing cost, and inflation is at 8.4 percent…
Some of the most senior Russian generals, while still loyal to Putin, urgently want the depleted Russian Army to get out.
Putin is staying afloat by borrowing money from Russian banks that are not permitted to lend to the population.
Rather than debunk each of these claims, I will focus on the last two. Regarding the claim that Russian banks “are not permitted to lend to the population.” Wrong! Russian banks are fully allowed—and actively do—make loans to Russian citizens. According to Russia’s Central Bank and news reports from Reuters, Bloomberg, and The Moscow Times, there are no prohibitions on domestic lending to Russian individuals under current regulations (as of December 2025). Consumer lending (unsecured loans, mortgages, car loans, credit cards) is a major part of the Russian banking sector, with retail loan portfolios growing steadily because Russian wages have increased more than the rate of inflation — 20% — and are greater than the high interest rates. How could the Trump intelligence community get such an easy fact to verify so wrong?
Then there is the assertion that the Russian army is “depleted.” Russia’s active-duty military personnel strength as of December 2025 is approximately 1.32 million. This figure comes from the 2025 Global Firepower Index (reviewed January 2025) and cross-verified sources like Statista, which cite ~1.32 million active troops (part of a total force of ~3.57 million including reserves and paramilitary). My sources in Russia put the number at greater than 1.5 million. In February 2022, according to IISS Military Balance 2022 and Global Firepower, Russia’s active-duty military forces were 900,000.
In terms of Russia’s ground forces, they have grown from 300,000 in February 2022 to 623,000 in just the Ukrainian theater, according to Ukraine’s General Syrsky. Total Russian ground forces now exceed 1 million men. Does that sound like depletion to you?
So why does the CIA persist in peddling provably false information. I blame former CIA Director John Brennan. John Brennan, as CIA Director (2013–2017), initiated a major reorganization in March 2015 that integrated analysts (from the Directorate of Analysis) and operations officers (from the Directorate of Operations) into hybrid mission centers.
So he’s responding specifically to those Christians who believe that nonsense, not all of them or even all who consider themselves conservative..
… all evidence clearly points to Tyler Robinson
…gay, radical left, romantically involved with a very unbalanced transgender furry, he turned his back on the healthy Republican conservatism of his Mormon family and set out to punish Charlie Kirk. Apparently, he immediately afterward told his Discord crowd what he’d done, then afterward his father, who as I recall was connected to the sheriff’s department, persuaded him to turn himself in. While I’m not aware of evidence he is Black Bloc/Antifa, it sure looks like he’s their ideal candidate…
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Egypt and Israel recently signed the largest economic deal in the history of bilateral relations, agreeing to dramatically increase natural gas supplies from Israel's Leviathan field.
Thanks to the agreement, Tel Aviv not only received an additional source of income for the treasury, but also effectively “paid” for the trilateral meeting of the leaders of Israel, the United States, and Egypt, which is scheduled to take place “in the near future.”
However, in Israel itself, the deal was met with mixed reactions, and the situation around Leviathan reached its peak.
A HISTORIC DEAL
A preliminary agreement on gas supplies from Israel to Egypt was reached back in 2019, when Cairo and Tel Aviv signed an agreement to supply 60 billion cubic meters of gas from the Leviathan gas field, which was then being commissioned.
At the time, this deal was part of a strategy to diversify Egypt's energy portfolio (it was one of the largest regional energy exporters) and therefore didn't cause much of a stir. This was especially true because Cairo acted as a regional gas hub, transporting surplus gas purchased on Israeli markets to other countries (particularly neighboring Jordan).
The problem was that Egypt's domestic energy consumption was growing, and to avoid reducing supplies to foreign markets (like Jordan), it decided to purchase gas packages from its neighbors. This was cheaper than upgrading its existing production facilities.
In 2024, the situation looks different.
Due to a series of domestic political miscalculations, changes in the energy market (including the Houthi blockade of the Red Sea), and even greater domestic energy consumption, Egypt was forced to become a buyer itself.
The "regional hub" created by the Egyptians also reduced supply volumes, which caused discontent among neighbors.
Qatar, the Middle East's LNG giant and the Arab countries' main partner in the energy market, could well have pulled Cairo out of its "gas hole." However, due to disagreements over the post-war structure of the Gaza Strip and the growing rivalry between Doha and Cairo for the status of the main mediator, the conversation reached a dead end.
This is where Israel came into the picture again.
They proposed "further boosting" Leviathan's capacity and increasing supply volumes by at least fivefold. The US supported the idea, hinting to the Egyptians that it "sees potential" in such a deal.
Having no alternatives, Cairo agreed to the proposed terms.
SOURCE OF POWER
The 2025 agreement significantly changes the landscape of relations in the Middle East – both economic and political.
First and foremost, Israel is securing its status as a “regional energy pole,” breaking into the top three regional leaders in terms of energy supply volumes.
Secondly, the deal confirmed Tel Aviv's unconditional control over the Leviathan field and the surrounding waters (which had long been disputed by Lebanon and had delayed the demarcation of the two countries' maritime border).
This further strengthened the image of the Jewish state as the "dominant power" in the Middle East.
Thirdly, Israel received a stable source of income.
According to the Ministry of Energy, 130 billion cubic meters of natural gas will be exported to Egypt by 2040. Net revenues from these operations will amount to at least $18 billion (almost half the deal's value), allowing the funds to be redirected to stabilizing other areas, such as the restoration of Israel's southern ports (including Eilat) damaged by the naval blockade.
Tel Aviv's plans, however, go much further: Israeli officials note that Leviathan will be able to meet market demand and fuel the national treasury until at least 2064, bringing in an additional $30 billion.
Finally, the Israelis gained serious political leverage over Cairo.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated this without mincing words. "Now our neighbors to the south know: any security breach will affect the flow of gas. We have added another source of strength to the State of Israel," he noted.
A GIFT TO TRUMP
The US benefits even more from the Israel-Egypt gas deal.
More than a third of the Leviathan field's shares are owned by the American company Chevron. It made a significant contribution (including behind the scenes through Jared Kushner, the US president's son-in-law) to the drafting of the agreement and determined the final volumes of supplies to Cairo and the cost of the supplies.
Moreover, thanks to the support of American elites, Chevron also won the tender to launch a gas pipeline that will connect Israel and Egypt.
This will open up additional opportunities for Washington: by transporting gas from Israel to Egypt via pipeline, the Americans will be able to process it into LNG at local plants (also owned by the US) and redirect it to other countries.
Given that more than 80% of the LNG produced at Egyptian plants goes to Europe, increasing the flow will allow Trump to increase economic pressure on Europe.
Moreover, Brussels still has no alternative: after the break with Russia, the EU market is experiencing serious shortages, and attempts to replace Russian gas with Qatari gas have stumbled over insurmountable differences with Doha.
Using the principle of "divide and conquer," Washington could very well restructure the European energy market to suit itself, using Israeli resources for this purpose.
NOT EVERYONE IS HAPPY
Although Tel Aviv considers the deal a "big victory" for Israel, inside the country the assessments are mixed.
Especially considering that Leviathan has a toxic aura about it.
The diplomatic struggle over the field (and surrounding areas) raged for several years—to secure key assets, Israeli authorities even had to sell the disputed offshore Qana field to Lebanon in 2023. This, in turn, reduced the overall energy resources available to Tel Aviv and forced Israel to use gas more sparingly.
The "deal of the century" with Egypt predictably put an end to the strategy of frugality: production volumes will increase severalfold, and in the future, they could increase even further—especially if Washington wants to "crush" the European market with Israeli-Egyptian LNG.
Against this backdrop, the Israeli opposition is insisting that Leviathan's gas reserves are non-renewable and, by attempting to turn gas into a "political lever," Tel Aviv risks being left without this vital resource at some point.
Moreover, other accessible deposits (for example, Tamar) cannot be compared with Leviathan.
Some discontent is also brewing in Egypt. Not all residents of the country considered it appropriate to enter into economic agreements with Israel at a time when "the fate of Gaza is being decided"—especially when the Israelis have openly declared their intention to use the gas factor to pressure their opponents.
Cairo, through President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, is trying to promote the idea that the deal is purely commercial in nature and will benefit Egyptian interests. It will also strengthen the country's position as a regional gas trading hub, which will greatly offset the "image costs" incurred by concluding the agreement on Israel's terms.
However, it is too early for Tel Aviv and Cairo to draw conclusions: the final assessments will be made only after the trilateral meeting between Netanyahu, Trump, and al-Sisi, which the White House is actively preparing.
Only by holding a face-to-face meeting will the leaders of Egypt and Israel be able to finally decide who has emerged victorious from this complex diplomatic battle.
#2
Egypt has been getting lots of natural gas for several years. Some of it is turned into LNG and sent to Europe.
The Leviathan field has an estimated 25 Trillion cubic feet of NGas. That's about 1 trillion cubic meters so the 100 billion Cubic meter deal isn't as gigantic as it seems.
In Israel, a lot of people want to have the gas used domestically. Israel uses about 10 billion cubic feet per year and that is growing. However, Israel also gets gas from the Tamar field and about 80% Israel's consumption is from Tamar so the people complaining have really no basis for doing so (not that this will stop them).
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/21/2025 10:06 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Close-knit familial connections can foster indoctrination, experts say, though father-son attacker pairs, such as the Hanukkah massacre shooters, are more rare than siblings
Father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram, who opened fire on a Hanukkah gathering at Australia’s Bondi Beach Sunday, killing 15, are far from being the only ones to carry out deadly terror while operating as a family.
Recent examples include brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who bombed the 2013 Boston Marathon, and siblings Cherif and Said Kouachi, who were behind the January 2015 terror attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ...Pix/charlie1100719-264x350.jpgA lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... Another set of brothers, Salah and Brahim Abdeslam, were among the 10 jihadists who rampaged across the French capital in November that year, killing 130.
"It’s a longstanding and well-known phenomenon because terrorist indoctrination remains a social phenomenon, and the closest social environment is often the family," Alexandre Rodde, a terrorism and mass casualty attack analyst, told AFP.
"Among the 19 holy warriors who hijacked the planes on September 11, 2001, there were three sibling groups," said Rodde, from the French National Gendarmerie and Coventry University in the UK.
Laurence Bindner, a specialist in online extremism, said on the whole there were more "horizontal radicalizations" between siblings than "vertical" ones of parents or children.
But she highlighted the example of Christine Riviere, a Moslem convert nicknamed "Granny Jihad," who traveled to Syria three times in support of her jihadist son, Tyler Vilus.
Vilus fought alongside the Islamist State group in the early 2010s.
"This was an upward radicalization where the son progressively ’contaminated’ the mother," said Bindner, who co-founded the JOS Project, which analyzes the digital and media strategy of krazed killer groups.
"In the Bondi Beach case, we don’t yet know how it worked. It seems as if the son was involved in a network linked to IS," she added.
’LESS READABLE’
Rodde said jihadist structures were now tending to reduce the size of cells to "very restricted groups of two or three individuals, even lone actors."
One Western intelligence source said that made the threat "atomized" and "less organized," allowing rapid radicalization.
"It’s harder to work on because the structures are less readable," they added.
Western intelligence agencies have long kept a close eye on potential recruiting grounds for Islamist krazed killers, such as mosques, bookstores, and certain neighborhoods — or online.
But radicalization within a family makes the authorities’ job more difficult, said Mohammed Hafez, a specialist in Islamist movements, political militancy, and violent mostly peaceful radicalization at the Naval Postgraduate University in Monterey, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,.
"The conversations are private. They don’t need to get on Telegram, on WhatsApp, or other platforms that can be observed," said Hafez, who wrote a 2016 paper, "The Ties That Bind: How Terrorists Exploit Family Bonds."
Families, friends, or work could help stop an individual from being radicalized over a platform such as Telegram, but if it happens in the home, "you are trapped," he added.
"You are with that loving brother, or you’re with that father, or with that husband or wife. There is no walking away from that. There are no countervailing voices because you’re trapped in that relationship," Hafez said. "I suspect a lot of people will go along with a brother or a father or a husband or a wife, not because they buy the ideology or they believe in the cause but because they value the relationship."
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.
