COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, December 28, 2014

A ship carrying approximately 400 sailors who have been training for months on the French-built Mistral were seen leaving the western port on Thursday




Russians training on Mistral warship 'leave France' 



© Jean-Sébastien Evrard, AFP | The "Vladivostok" 
Text by FRANCE 24 
Latest update : 2014-12-18

The Russians training on a Mistral-class warship have left the French shipyard of Saint-Nazaire without the vessel, after months of speculation over whether Paris would deliver the helicopter carrier to Moscow in the face of intense NATO pressure.

A ship carrying approximately 400 sailors who have been training for months on the French-built Mistral were seen leaving the western port on Thursday, French media reported.
 It remains unclear if France will ever fulfill its contract with Russia.
Their ship, the Smolny, headed out to sea shortly after 12 noon, and was presumably headed back to Russia. The sailors were spotted stocking up at local retailers this week.
The sailors have been training since June on board the “Vladivostok”, one of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers adapted for the Russian navy according to the terms of a €1.2 billion ($1.58 billion) deal signed in 2011.
The deal has been subject to months of intense deliberation, with Paris coming under intense pressure from its NATO allies to scrap delivery of the ships due to Russia’s alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis.
President François Hollande suspended the delivery of the first of the two ships “until further notice” last month citing lack of progress in Ukraine, where Russia is accused of arming pro-Moscow rebels in the country’s east.
High stakes
His defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, later said the ships might “never be delivered”.
Russia has warned Paris of "serious" consequences if France reneges on the deal.
Last month, Deputy Defence Minister Yuri Borisov told the ITAR-TASS news agency that if France ultimately fails to fulfil its side of the deal, Russia will “go to court and impose fines”.
France’s naval industry considers the Mistral one of its engineering jewels, with the navy dubbing the ship the “Swiss army knife”.
It is designed to carry as many as a dozen assault helicopters, sixty armoured vehicles, and a dozen tanks. It can also host up to 700 troops and a full hospital. 




79 comments:

  1. Israel warned the United States in recent days that Russia plans to sell advanced ground-to-air missile systems to Syria despite Western pressure on Moscow to hold off on such a move, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

    The newspaper said US officials had confirmed they were analyzing the Israeli reports but would not comment on whether they believed the sale of S-300 missile batteries was near.

    No comment was immediately available from officials at the Pentagon or US State Department.

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    1. Ground to Air ...

      That is a purely defensive system.

      No offensive capabilities are manifested by deploying or maintaining Ground to Air missile systems.

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    2. As I recall, Israeli planes were attacking Syria, not the other way around. Syria is under continuous threat from an air attack by Israel.

      Israel generates the demand for Syrian air defenses and then runs to their bitches in the US government to help Israel stop Syria so the IDF can keep assaulting Syria.

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    3. All of this while the most significant external partner to the US fight against ISIS is Iran. The Israeli air assaults were in support of ISIS attacks against Syrian forces.

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    4. As I recall, Syria is helping supply Hezbollah in Lebanon with over 100,000 rockets, missiles and other aggressive game changing weapons all supplied from Iran.

      You guys act as if Israel is attacking Syria in a vacuum.

      Your denial of Syria and Iran's culpability of the region's destabiliztion is astounding.


      As for you comment: All of this while the most significant external partner to the US fight against ISIS is Iran. The Israeli air assaults were in support of ISIS attacks against Syrian forces.

      ISIS was CREATED in reaction to the Iranian/Syria mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Sunnis in Iraq and Syria.

      Once again, you look at events from a timeline of convenience.

      Remember that old oath: I swear to tell the truth, the WHOLE truth and nothing but the truth?


      You tell the truth, the absolute out of context truth, the unconnected and disjointed truth that in effect becomes a LIE in context.

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  2. Now follow this:


    In July, the US released $572 million in military aid to Egypt. This was followed in early November by the US’s decision to offer Egypt $200 million in annual programming aid. This pushed the rating agency Moody’s Investors Service to rate the move as “credit positive,” which makes the possibility of an upward revision in Egypt’s sovereign rating high.

    Egypt is the second-largest recipient of American aid after Israel, most of which comes in the form of military arms contracts.

    In October Bloomberg quoted a US Congressional Research Service report that estimated the US aid provided to Egypt between 1948 and 2014 at $74.65 billion. This includes the $1.3 billion a year in military aid from 1987 to the present.

    In early November the US sent its biggest ever delegation to Cairo, with representatives of 70 companies including Apache and Coca Cola, to study investment opportunities. The visit was seen by many as a clear indication that the rift between the two countries is being repaired.

    US investments in Egypt reached $654 million in the first quarter of 2012-2013, the last available figure, compared to $577.6 million in 2011-2012 as a whole.

    and this

    Russian Federation: While political and economic relations with the US improved this year, Cairo also started courting Moscow, its Nasser-era ally and main arms supplier, once again.

    The first official visit of Al-Sisi to a non-Arab country after his election as president was to Moscow, where he discussed setting up a Russian Industrial Zone in the Suez Canal area and negotiating a free-trade zone between Egypt and the Moscow-led Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The two nations were also said to have agreed to a $3 billion weapons deal.

    Tensions between Moscow and the EU and other Western countries over the crisis in Ukraine bolstered economic cooperation between the two old allies. When Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia, Moscow retaliated by banning most food imports from the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway.This gave Egypt a new export opportunity: Egyptian exports of agricultural goods to Russia increased by 30 per cent, and wheat imports from Russia also rose.

    Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer and the largest single buyer of Russian wheat. It bought 3.6 million tons of Russian wheat in the marketing year to the end of June. Russia also has an impact on Egypt’s tourism industry, hammered by three years of political turmoil since the 2011 Revolution: more than 40 per cent of all European tourists who visit Egypt come from Russia.

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  3. Now the good part
    Israel: Amid its worst-ever energy shortage, Egypt has been considering cooperation with Israel in the gas sector, but this time as an importer. After months of unconfirmed rumours, it was announced that Israeli Nobel Energy and the Delek Group were in negotiation with Egyptian Dolphinus Holdings to export gas from the Israeli Tamar natural gas field to the Egyptian market.

    According to reports, the Israeli group will be supplying 2.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas over seven years to the Egyptian private-sector consortium. The imports will be transferred through the same pipeline Egypt used to export its low-priced gas to Israel between 2005 and 2010.

    Earlier this year a report issued by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an independent human rights organisation, revealed that contracts signed during the rule of former president Hosni Mubarak had allowed the export of billions of cubic metres of underpriced natural gas to Jordan, Spain and Israel. The estimated losses to Egypt were put at $10 billion.

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    1. Egypt offered Israel and Jordan a deal on natural gas, at a time when the prices were low in the world market.

      Prices DROPPED! Then Jihadists blewup the pipelines dozens of times, only to then rip up the international commerce contracts with Israel.

      Now that's responsible business. Make a long term deal and rip it up when prices in the market shift.

      Delete
  4. From this morning’s Washington Post:


    Iranian military involvement has dramatically increased in Iraq over the past year as Tehran has delivered desperately needed aid to Baghdad in its fight against Islamic State militants, say U.S., Iraqi and Iranian sources. In the eyes of Obama administration officials, equally concerned about the rise of the brutal Islamist group, that’s an acceptable role — for now.

    Yet as U.S. troops return to a limited mission in Iraq, American officials remain apprehensive about the potential for renewed friction with Iran, either directly or via Iranian-backed militias that once attacked U.S. personnel on a regular basis.

    A senior Iranian cleric with close ties to Tehran’s leadership, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, said that since the Islamic State’s capture of much of northern Iraq in June, Iran has sent more than 1,000 military advisers to Iraq, as well as elite units, and has conducted airstrikes and spent more than $1 billion on military aid.

    “The areas that have been liberated from Daesh have been thanks to Iran’s advice, command, leaders and support,” the cleric said, using the Arabic acronym for the group.

    At the same time, Iraq’s Shiite-led government is increasingly reliant on the powerful militias and a massive Shiite volunteer force, which together may now equal the size of Iraq’s security forces.

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  5. Iran is fighting on the side of civilization.

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  6. Mikhail Margelov: For the Russian Federation the threat of international terrorism has been a real threat since, I guess, 1999 when houses exploded in Moscow, when there was an attack of international terrorism against Dagestan. And Russia was strongly criticized by our Western partners during the so-called second Chechen war, which we normally call the antiterrorist operation. But then, 9\11 came and it has become clear that what Russia was talking about long ago was not a theory, it was a real threat and that was a real war against the civilized world.

    So, I think that today, when we hear threats from different terrorist groups, when we hear that Russia will be attacked again in the Caucasus or elsewhere, we are not surprised, because we stand firmly in the same trench with all the others who are fighting against the international terrorism, and we do not make a secret of that. We will never find a common ground with those who fight against the civilization.

    So, Russia is ready to face the threats. Russia is ready to face the challenges and we are seeking for more international cooperation. We think that it is high time to stop arguing and quarreling on the matters with divide us and it is time to find common ground on the real problems which may unite us.

    The threat of radical Islam today is similar to the threat of Nazism of the 1930’es and it is time to unite. We all remember how deep the contradictions were, how deep the misunderstanding was between the USSR, the UK, the US, France even in 1939. But then, in 1941, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, we all became united under one banner of antifascist coalition. So, it is time to think about history.

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  7. Yes indeed, the contradictions do run deep.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. "Every time anyone says that Israel is our only friend in the Middle East, I can't help but think that before Israel, we had no enemies in the Middle East"

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  8. Iran and Russia discussed facilitation of ruble-rial exchange as a means to boost bilateral trade in 2015.

    In a meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei, the two sides announced facilitating ruble-rial exchange and opening a joint account for boosting the trade in 2015, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported on Dec. 27.

    The two countries will sign a visa issuance facilitation agreement, a joint investment agreement, and an insurance cooperation agreement in the next year.

    Head of Iran World Trade Center Mohammad Reza Sabzalipour told Trend on December 1 that Tehran should take the opportunity to boost bilateral trade with Moscow in the short term.

    Iran can benefit from the western sanctions imposed on Russia, he added.

    “Moscow has voluntarily banned importing certain items from the western countries,” he said, adding that the country needs to find new providers.

    Asadollah Asgaroladi, head of the Iran-Russia Joint Chamber of Commerce, said September 30 that Russia and Iran plan to replace the US dollar with their national currencies for the settlement of bilateral trade transactions.

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  9. Hold on

    TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian and Russian officials said that enhancement of ties between the two friendly countries is moving on the right track, and called for more coordination to utilize the created economic opportunities in the best way possible.
    In a meeting between Iran's Ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanaei and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov on Saturday, the two sides reviewed relations between the two neighboring countries in 2014, and called for boosting relations in 2015.

    Morgulov, in the meeting, said that despite obstacles on the way of expansion of Iran-Russia relations, consultations between the two countries on different international issues, including Iran nuclear talks and crises in Syria and Iraq, were significant and helpful.

    In the meantime, the Iranian ambassador underlined the need to adopt a strategy that in addition to enhanced relations, would give a boost to cooperation on regional issues.

    The two sides also discussed ways for development of mutual cooperation in the new year, including signing agreements on facilitating visa issuance, encouraging joint investments, and starting bilateral trade based on national currencies.

    Over the last several years, Iran and Russia have had vast cooperation in different fields, specially in political and economic spheres.

    The two states also enjoy special positions on the international scene and have long had constant and regular consultations on key regional and global issues.

    Last month, Sanayee said that Tehran pays special heed to the further broadening of ties with Moscow.

    "The Russian Federation has one of top ten economies in the world and we consider expansion of ties with Russia of strategic value," Sanayee said.

    He pointed to the strategic Iran-Russia relations, and said, "Both countries’ presidents believe a new era has begun in our bilateral relations and they met four times during past year in addition to several phone conversations.

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  10. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-22/china-offers-russia-help-with-suggestion-of-wider-currency-swap.html

    China Offers Russia Help With Currency Swap Suggestion

    Two Chinese ministers offered support for Russia as President Vladimir Putin seeks to shore up the ruble without depleting foreign-exchange reserves.

    China will provide help if needed and is confident Russia can overcome its economic difficulties, Foreign Minister Wang Yi was cited as saying in Bangkok in a Dec. 20 report by Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV. Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said expanding a currency swap between the two nations and making increased use of yuan for bilateral trade would have the greatest impact in aiding Russia, according to the broadcaster.

    While the offer won’t relieve the main sources of pressure on the ruble -- capital outflow tied to plunging oil prices and sanctions linked to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine - - the currency gained 3.1 percent against the dollar by 12:37 p.m. in Moscow. The Micex Index (INDEXCF) was little changed, and the yield on Russia’s 10-year bond fell 30 basis points to 13.3 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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  11. A senior Iranian military officer has lost his life in the battle against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists in Iraq.

    The Public Relations Department of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) stated on Sunday that Brigadier General Hamid Taqavi was killed while on “an advisory mission” in the holy city of Samarra.

    The statement added that Taghavi was killed while conducting the mission in cooperation with the “Iraqi army and popular mobilization (forces) to counter the ISIL Takfiri militants in the vicinity of the shrine of (the eleventh Shia Imam) Hasan al-Askari (peace be upon him).”

    Samarra , located around 110 kilometers (68 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, is home to the shrines of the tenth and eleventh Shia Imams, Ali al-Hadi (peace be upon him) and Hasan al-Askari (peace be upon him).

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  12. Senior U.S. officials have acknowledged publicly that the rebels in the north were failing and needed more support. Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier this month the U.S. was engaging in new efforts to save the so-called moderate (i.e. not Sunni Islamic extremist) rebels from total defeat. Those forces, he said, "did not fare well in their battles and one or two of them folded into al-Nusra, which is disturbing." The rebels are, according to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., "on the verge of collapse."

    The U.S. administration has said publicly that it currently has a strict “ISIS first” strategy in Syria, meaning all other imperatives take a backseat to eradicating the jihadist force -- even if that effectively helps Assad. “In Syria, our actions against ISIL are focused,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a House hearing last month. "Our military aims in Syria are limited to isolating and destroying ISIL’s safe havens.”

    Some prominent observers now say the very notion of arming moderates has been exposed as bankrupt. Others assert that the Obama administration now confronts an overdue reckoning with a discomfiting reality: It could soon be forced to accept the continued rule of its sworn enemy Assad -- or otherwise risk the victory of the Islamic State group, whose tactics have been denounced as too brutal by none other than al Qaeda.

    http://www.ibtimes.com/syrian-rebels-merge-levant-front-gain-ground-north-1767562

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  13. Libya Burns

    Fires reach fifth oil depot

    Meanwhile, more storage tanks were ablaze Saturday at Al-Sidara after a rocket attack by Islamist militants, officials said as the U.N. denounced attacks on oil installations.

    The rocket was fired on Thursday by militiamen from Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn), a coalition of Islamist fighters.

    One oil tank was hit, said the region’s security spokesman Ali al-Hassi, before the fire spread on Friday to two other full tanks at Al-Sidra terminal.

    On Saturday the flames engulfed another two storage tanks at al-Sidra, which is in the eastern region known as the “oil crescent” and home to other key terminals, he said.


    Libya will not be permitted to export that million barrels a day of sweet light crude that Colonel Q shipped with regularity.
    The Wahhabi radicals will see to that.

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  14. Deuce ☂Sun Dec 28, 08:38:00 AM EST

    Iran is fighting on the side of civilization.


    Ah.

    I see it all now.

    :):)

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    1. Deuce ☂Sun Dec 28, 08:49:00 AM EST

      Confused yet?

      Not so confused as you, not yet.

      ;)

      Thank the gods the Seahawks are on today.

      Delete
    2. Professional football, the "Opiate of the Dumb Ass Class"

      Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, he just needs that circus.
      He has stored his monthly allotment of bread and the casino is 'right there'.

      Delete
    3. Professional football is a think game, a graceful ballet of thoughtful hard hitting dance.

      You don't like ballet, nor thought, nor dance do you ratty criminal?

      Really all you love is hate.

      Delete
    4. Jack is hate.

      Nothing more, nothing less

      Delete
  15. Hezbollah joins calls for Lebanon oil drilling -

    BEIRUT: Hezbollah deputy head Naim Qassem Sunday joined calls for Lebanon to start drilling for oil and gas off its southern coast to prevent Israel from stealing it.

    “If we act now on this subject, Israel will not be able to take or steal our wealth," Qassem said during a private meeting with mukhtars, mayors and members of municipal councils in the southern city of Tyre.

    The comments come in light of a controversy surrounding Lebanon’s offshore oil and gas, and Israel’s suspicious activities inside the area that Lebanon considers its Exclusive Economic Zone.

    The EEZs claimed by Israel and Lebanon overlap, and Lebanese officials accuse Israel of drilling to extract oil from a roughly 850 square kilometer area of sea that Beirut says is its own.

    In August, the Lebanese government postponed for the fifth time the first round of licensing for offshore gas exploration due to political disagreements.

    In his meeting Sunday, Qassem also touched on the Future-Hezbollah dialogue that kicked off last week, saying it was "beneficial for Lebanon because it brings closer the points of views on how to deal with many issues.”


    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/Dec-28/282404-hezbollah-deputy-chief-joins-calls-for-lebanon-oil-drilling.ashx

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    1. Maybe the Lebanese should get rid of the Iranian Brigade called Hezbollah 1st?

      Delete
  16. If I act now, and hire some Basque herders, I can prevent rat from stealing my sheep.

    heh

    You people are possessed.

    Thankfully my wife wants to go into town to buy groceries.......

    Cheers !!

    ReplyDelete
  17. BEIRUT, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon has recently received a number of international envoys who held meetings with various political leaders to discuss means of preserving the country's stability and sparing it from the ongoing regional turmoil, especially in Syria.

    UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhael Bogdanov, head of the Middle East and North Africa office at the French Foreign Ministry Jean Francois Gerault, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Mathieu Spence and Iranian Speaker Parliament Ali Larijani all were in Lebanon in December.

    The envoys mainly tackled the election of a new president, ways of supporting the Lebanese army in its fight against the Islamic State (IS) group and helping Lebanon overcome burdens of the Syrian refugees, according to a well-placed diplomatic source in Beirut, who spoke to Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    The source said that they were deeply concerned over the abduction of Lebanese military personnel by the IS and al-Nusra Front.

    In August, the Lebanese army engaged in five-day clashes with militants from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and the IS group, who overran the eastern border town of Arsal following the arrest of the al-Nusra front leader, Imad Jomaa.

    While withdrawing back to Syria, the gunmen abducted at least 28 soldiers and policemen. Al-Nusra later executed three of them, while the IS beheaded another one. The Lebanese government is currently negotiating with the kidnappers to secure the safe release of the soldiers.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Why Israel Cannot Ignore the World Any LongerShifting Geopolitical Sands Make Status Quo Unsustainable

    In very short order, Jerusalem will face a “diplomatic tsunami,” in the words of the newest recruit to the Israeli peace camp, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

    Lieberman told a closed business forum at Tel Aviv University December 23 that Israel urgently needs to seize the diplomatic initiative before the storm hits. Otherwise, he said, it will end up like Russia, isolated, sanctioned and economically battered.

    His solution is a “regional peace agreement.” In current Israeli political discourse, that’s code for a settlement with the Palestinians under the aegis of the Saudis and the Arab League. That’s roughly the same plan that Yair Lapid, Tzipi Livni and a brigade of former IDF generals, Mossad and Shin Bet directors and police commissioners have been calling for since the summer.

    As long as he’s in office, Prime Minister Netanyahu will be working furiously to head off any such initiative. He’ll mobilize an army of American Jewish organizations to descend on Washington and demand that the administration leave Israel alone. They’ll respond loudly and enthusiastically, as they always have. If Netanyahu is returned to office after the election, they’ll keep it up for months. If he loses, a new Israeli government will take office that will throw itself urgently behind the initiative, and Israel’s friends here will end up looking very silly.



    http://forward.com/articles/211721/why-israel-cannot-ignore-the-world-any-longer/

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  19. Gas Change-of-Mind Has BlueStar, Artemis Dubious: Israel Markets

    Foreign investors are starting to abandon Israeli stocks after the antitrust regulator backtracked on an agreement underpinning the country’s largest energy project.

    The Tel Aviv Oil & Gas Index fell to the lowest in more than two years on Dec. 23, the day the regulator said it would reconsider a March 2014 agreement to let a partnership retain its stakes in Israel’s two largest natural gas reserves. The announcement echoed last year’s government policy change on potash royalties that sent Israel Chemicals Ltd.’s shares tumbling.

    “Investors with other places to put their cash may say it’s not worth the effort, let’s invest our money elsewhere,” Bruce Schoenfeld, research director at New York-based BlueStar Global Investors LLC, said by phone Dec. 24.


    Bloomberg ...

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    1. “Israel is increasingly impossible to invest in,” Jacob de Tusch-Lec, who helps oversee 19 billion pounds ($30 billion) in equities at London-based Artemis Investment Management LLP, wrote in an e-mail Dec. 25.

      “The regulatory and political environment over a number of years in different sectors has provided a changing, challenging and inconsistent environment,” he said, adding that he has decreased investments in the country.

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    5. Referenced and quoted piece, vs not so much.

      There were just 'celebrations' concerning the discoveries of Lebanese energy reserves, by the Zionists.
      Now, the 'Energy Market" in Tel Aviv is a shambles ....

      {;-)

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    6. Israel is a Socialist Paradise ...

      Only 7% of the land is privately owned.

      {;-)

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  20. Jack HawkinsSun Dec 28, 11:32:00 AM EST
    Israel is a Socialist Paradise ...

    Only 7% of the land is privately owned.

    {;-)


    Much of America is Federal and State owned as well.

    As for the total land of Israel?

    As pointed out about the same size as New Jersey 8,019 sq miles

    America holds over 3.5 MILLION square miles in federal, which is 29%, add in what states hold? that number boosts to over 60% of all lands in America.

    So... America hold in real land, over 7 million square millions of lands... Israel's total land mass? 8 thousand square miles...

    Once again, in context Jack your point is shit...

    As you are...

    Shit.

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    1. the arab world holds 899/900th of the middle east. less than 1% is privately owned.

      Delete
  21. Jack HawkinsSun Dec 28, 11:29:00 AM EST
    Referenced and quoted piece, vs not so much.

    There were just 'celebrations' concerning the discoveries of Lebanese energy reserves, by the Zionists.
    Now, the 'Energy Market" in Tel Aviv is a shambles ....

    {;-)

    Always spinning to shit Jack.

    Sept your cut and paste out of context doesn't tell much of a story.

    I suggest you read more than the headlines to learn the facts...

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    1. The Tamar gas field is a natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. The field is located in Israel's exclusive economic zone, roughly 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Haifa in waters 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) deep. While there have been small oil and gas discoveries in Israel over the decades, Tamar was the first large-scale hydrocarbon resource discovered in the country. It was also the first gas discovery made in geological layers dating back to the Oligo–Miocene era in the up-until-then little-explored Levant basin of the Eastern Mediterranean. Since Tamar's discovery in 2009, large gas discoveries have been made in other analogous geological formations of the same age in the region. Since Tamar was the first such discovery, these gas containing formations have become collectively known as Tamar sands.

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  22. Jack HawkinsSun Dec 28, 11:13:00 AM EST
    “Israel is increasingly impossible to invest in,” Jacob de Tusch-Lec, who helps oversee 19 billion pounds ($30 billion) in equities at London-based Artemis Investment Management LLP, wrote in an e-mail Dec. 25.

    “The regulatory and political environment over a number of years in different sectors has provided a changing, challenging and inconsistent environment,” he said, adding that he has decreased investments in the country.


    Jack HawkinsSun Dec 28, 11:29:00 AM EST
    Referenced and quoted piece, vs not so much.

    There were just 'celebrations' concerning the discoveries of Lebanese energy reserves, by the Zionists.
    Now, the 'Energy Market" in Tel Aviv is a shambles ....




    Notice the double standard of Jack?

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  24. Historically, Israel relied on external imports for meeting most of its energy needs, spending an amount equivalent to over 5% of its GDP per year in 2009 on imports of energy products.[86] The transportation sector relies mainly on gasoline and diesel fuel, while the majority of electricity production is generated using imported coal. The country possesses negligible reserves of crude oil but does have abundant domestic natural gas resources which were discovered in large quantities starting in 2009, after many decades of previously unsuccessful exploration.[13][87][88][89][90]

    Natural gas[edit]
    Until the early 2000s, natural gas use in Israel was minimal. In the late 1990s, the government of Israel decided to encourage the usage of natural gas because of environmental, cost, and resource diversification reasons. At the time however, there were no domestic sources of natural gas and the expectation was that gas would be supplied from overseas in the form of LNG and by a future pipeline from Egypt (which eventually became the Arish–Ashkelon pipeline). Plans were made for the Israel Electric Corporation to construct several gas-driven power plants, for erecting a national gas distribution grid, and for an LNG import terminal. Soon thereafter, gas began to be located within Israeli territory, first in modest amounts and a decade later in very large quantities located in deep water off the Israeli coastline. This has greatly intensified the utilization of natural gas within the Israeli economy, especially in the electrical generation and industrial sectors, with consumption growing from an annual average of 350 million cubic feet between 2000 and 2002 to 129 billion cubic feet in 2010.[87]

    Natural Gas Usage in Israel[91]
    2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2014* 2016* 2018* 2020* 2022* 2024* 2026* 2028* 2030*
    1.2 1.6 2.3 2.7 3.7 4.2 5.2 8.1 9.5 10.1 11.1 11.7 13 14.3 15.3 16.8
    Figures are in Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) per year. *Estimated.

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    1. Sorry the chart didn't work

      SO Israel went from spending 5% of GDP on foreign imports of energy... To zero and having natural gas to export.

      SHAMBLES...


      LOL

      Soda Stream, went from ZERO 5 years ago to 42 million a year in net profit... regardless of stock prices, a CASH cow selling across the globe..

      Delete
  25. LOL

    the arabs having been winning the propaganda war for a decade..

    No new news..

    But every time another nation imports a jihadist population into it's midst in fellowship with the arabs/moslems/palestinians?

    They bring in rape, crime, looting, murder and islamic violence.

    Karma is a bitch...

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    2. Was just listening to John Bolton on Fox News.

      There's a guy that makes lots of sense.

      Of course, he happens to agree with me........O'bozo is the direct cause of all this chaos for taking troops out too soon, against all the good solid military and political advice he was given.

      Now we are in a pickle.
      '
      (I love that word, pickle, my Aunt used it lot......'well, we're in a hell of a pickle now'....)

      Delete
    3. O'bozo has unleashed the forces of evil around the world and in the USA.

      an unintended consequence?

      Blowback from those that refuse to submit and die to those forces..

      :)

      Delete
    4. Yep Deuce is a mossad plant..

      helping expose the Israel bashers out there...

      Delete
    5. Bob OreilleSun Dec 28, 12:05:00 PM EST
      I thought the tread was going to be about some ship the French were building for the Russkies but Deuce immediately took out against Israel again.

      Happens again and again, this obsession, no matter what the purported topic.


      Check out the Book of Ruth. Look for Haman.

      Delete
  27. More details of the Iranian General of the IOF (Iranian Occupation Forces) death in Iraq...

    A sniper killed an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander who was training Iraqi troops and Shi'ite militia fighting Islamic State (IS) militants in the Iraqi city of Samarra, official Iranian media reported on Sunday.

    Brigadier General Hamid Taqavi, a veteran of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, was killed by snipers hiding behind a power transformer in Samarra, an embattled city north of Baghdad and home to holy Shi'ite shrines, they said, quoting a Revolutionary Guards' statement.

    Several people with him were wounded in the rain of sniper fire, they said.

    "Taqavi became a martyr while fulfilling his duty as a military adviser in the fight against Daesh (IS) revisionist terrorists, a glorious end to a long valuable service to advance the cause of (Iran's 1979) Islamic revolution." said the official Defense Ministry site.

    And as I would say...

    DEAD...

    another insane shiite bites the dust..

    ReplyDelete
  28. ...doing something Israel is incapable of doing, taking on ISIS.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    2. 'Often in error, but never in doubt'

      Fits both Deuce and rat - O - rooter.

      Delete
    3. 'Never in doubt, often in error'

      Fits Q.

      Delete
    4. 'Often in doubt, seldom in error'

      Fits Bob.

      Delete
    5. Bob's got some white whiskers, and has learned caution, Anon.

      Delete
  29. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Deuce ☂Sun Dec 28, 01:32:00 PM EST
    ...doing something Israel is incapable of doing, taking on ISIS.


    :-)

    By the way, how is Syria doing these days? A lot has changed since 2006.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is Assad still throwing chemical weapons around?

      Or has he stayed behind The O'bozo Line in the Sand?

      I hear he is using 'barrel bombs' indiscriminately.

      Delete
  31. What the hell are the French doing building war ships for Russia anyway?

    And selling machetes to Rwanda?

    I don't like the French much.

    ReplyDelete