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Wednesday, April 3, 2024
IDF Drone Bombed World Central Kitchen Aid Convoy Three Times, Targeting Armed Hamas Member Who Wasn't There - Israel News - Haaretz.com
IDF Drone Bombed World Central Kitchen Aid Convoy Three Times, Targeting Armed Hamas Member Who Wasn't There - Israel News - Haaretz.com
FM: John Whitbeck writes:
While all Israeli explanations/justifications for slaughtering people in Gaza merit extreme skepticism, Israel's explanation/justification for "unintentionally" (according to Prime Minister Netanyahu) killing the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, as reported in the HAARETZ article transmitted below, merits careful consideration.
According to the "defense sources" cited by HAARETZ, Israeli military decision-makers thought that they saw an armed man (hence, a suspected "terrorist") on an aid truck which entered the WCK food warehouse with the three cars carrying the WCK aid workers. When the three clearly marked WCK cars were not accompanied by this truck when they left the warehouse, the military decision-makers, on the off-chance that a possible "terrorist" might be in one of the three cars carrying the aid workers, decided to kill everyone in those three cars, firing three missiles in succession as temporary survivors fled from one car to another car.
Such a decision is, of course, consistent with Israel's past explanations/justifications, widely accepted in the West, for destroying entire apartment buildings in which Israel suspected that one person associated with Hamas might be present.
However, this new explanation/justification for this new slaughter reflects sufficiently badly on the self-proclaimed "world's most moral army" that it just might be true.
It is worth noting in this context that many Palestinian aid workers, including 175 UNWRA aid workers, are among the roughly 40,000 Palestinians confirmed killed by Israel since October 7 or presumed dead under the rubble.
The clearly intentional killing of five "white" Western aid workers has, unsurprisingly, attracted much more attention and aroused much stronger emotions in the West than the routine killings of mere Palestinians.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Epic Fail - TomDispatch.com
Epic Fail - TomDispatch.com
Nick Turse, The Forever Failure of America’s Failed Forever Wars
April 2, 2024
TomDispatch is distinctly a forever-war creation. When I began it almost 23 years ago, the U.S. had just invaded Afghanistan and, of course, there wasn't the faintest sense that what had been launched then, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on this country, would still be going on globally so many years later, or that, in all those years, the best-funded military on the planet would achieve so remarkably little (except perhaps in getting itself funded at ever more astronomical levels).
If, in fact, you had told me then that, by March 2024, the U.S. military would have been decisively defeated in Afghanistan, largely defeated in Iraq, and would never have managed to come anywhere close to eradicating the still-expanding terror groups on this planet in what was already (all too ominously) known then as the Global War on Terror, I doubt I would have believed you. If you had told me that, in March 2024, a newly formed junta in Niger (a country I then knew nothing about), five of whose members had been trained by the U.S. military, would be threatening to kick our forces out of their country because our war on terror had failed so dismally in the region, leaving behind an airbase built there for a genuine fortune, I would have thought you nuts.
And yet, here we are. As TomDispatch's Nick Turse -- who, in all these years, has followed the grim war on terror into Africa in a way no other journalist has -- suggests, it's another one down for the home team (which has been all too far from home all too regularly since September 11, 2001). Consider his striking report just one more nightmare in the Global War That Never Ends, or GWTNE. Tom
[Salon] Saudi Arabia and a Slow Boat to China - ArabDigest.org
[Salon] Saudi Arabia and a Slow Boat to China - micheletkearney@gmail.com - Gmail
Saudi Arabia and a Slow Boat to China
Summary: by fostering close tech ties with Beijing, Riyadh risks falling victim to US sanctions aimed at cutting China off from state-of-the-art semiconductor technology to the detriment of Mohammed bin Salman’s vision for Saudi Arabia.
We thank our regular contributor Alastair Newton for today’s newsletter. Alastair worked as a professional political analyst in the City of London from 2005 to 2015. Before that he spent 20 years as a career diplomat with the British Diplomatic Service. In 2015 he co-founded and is a director of Alavan Business Advisory Ltd. You can find Alastair’s latest AD podcast, Oil: the long good-bye here.
In late February, a combination of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) 26-29 February biennial ministerial meeting and the possible return of Donald Trump to the White House triggered a flurry of articles on — seemingly unremittingly gloomy — prospects for the global trading system in general and China/US trade relations in particular. The two focal points of these articles were the ‘big picture’ of China’s efforts to move away from export dependency primarily on Europe and the US and Mr Trump’s threat to impose across-the-board tariffs of 60 percent on imports from China.
By concentrating more or less exclusively on the ‘big picture’, the commentariat collectively missed two key points. First, highlighting (as the FT’s James Kynge put it in a 26 February op-ed) Beijing’s “main strategy” of capitalising “on ties with the ‘global south’ fostered through its $1tn Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).…,” effectively underplayed the potentially critical role which at least a majority of China’s BRICS partners, including the new members such as Saudi Arabia, will need to play if Beijing is to realise its vision of “an alternative trade architecture that is insulated from US influence and centred upon the developing world.” Second, and even more importantly, by seemingly focusing more or less exclusively on trade in goods, the media failed even to mention how sanctions imposed by the US and (albeit often reluctantly) its allies on China since October 2022 are driving a bifurcation of technology standards worldwide with both economic and geopolitical implications which go far beyond the tech sector.
Burgeoning tech sector cooperation between Saudi Arabia and China was the subject of an FT article by Eleanor Olcott just one week earlier. Therein, Ms Olcott wrote as follows of Chinese tech companies looking to invest in the Kingdom:
In some cases, Chinese companies have to share technical expertise with their new Saudi partners…. The Saudi strategy echoes the tactics of local governments in China towards foreign companies decades ago, granting market access in exchange for training local teams and investment.
Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Al-Sawaha unveiling the manufacture of the first Saudi-made smart chip at a technology conference in Dammam in 2021 [photo credit: Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones]
Superficially, Chinese investment in its tech sector in return for access to Chinese IP is a good move by Saudi Arabia. However, Ms Olcott is correct to acknowledge that the “marriage between [China and Saudi Arabia] on tech deals carries risks for the kingdom….” Nevertheless, by offering little by way of elaboration, Ms Olcott is doing her readers a disservice consistent with much of the media's failure to understand the true impact of US tech sanctions against China.
As I posted on the Arab Digest Facebook page on 20 February, one of the principle US aims, successfully achieved to date, is to deny China access to lithographic machines which use Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) to manufacture microchips, technology in which the Dutch company ASML pretty much has a global monopoly. EUV is a prerequisite for manufacturing the advanced 3nm and 2nm chips dominated by Taiwan’s TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), and even commercially viable 5nm and 7nm chips.
It is the case that Huawei's Mate 60 Pro mobile phone, launched late last year, runs a 7nm chip manufactured by China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC); but this depends on outdated Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) which is expensive in any case and has waste rates up to 70 percent through faulty chips meaning that state subsidies are a sine qua non. In short, the Mate 60 Pro is principally a politically-driven project intended to persuade the world that China can do 'state-of-the-art' despite US sanctions. The reality is that it cannot.
This being said, there are two related caveats to this.
First, China may manage to develop EUV technology on its own as it doubles down on its xinchuang project which aims to replace foreign suppliers of, inter alia, semiconductor technology with domestic ones. However, given the extreme and increasing secrecy which surrounds Chinese research, one can only speculate.
Second, we need to be careful about Xi Jinping’s definition of ‘self-sufficiency’ and how soon it can be realised. Christopher Thomas and Sarah Kreps note in a 26 January essay for Foreign Affairs:
Because technology competition is not just a race between two countries or two sets of companies, it will not be won by a government lab or a company delivering singular, specific technological capabilities. The mark of a successful technology is that it is delivered as a product or service to thousands of businesses or millions of consumers. Achieving this scale requires an ecosystem of companies working together…. The Chinese government is starting to cater to its global tech ecosystem rather than focus only on its national technology industry. The incentives built into the Digital Silk Road initiative, as well as loan guarantees and subsidies for technology purchases, are encouraging foreign governments across Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East to adopt Chinese technologies…. For countries with ambitions to advance their digital and AI technologies, Chinese financing and foundational Chinese technologies are a welcome solution.
Thus, not least thanks to cooperation with the likes of Saudi Arabia, we should assume that China will achieve important technological breakthroughs at some point. However, as Don Weinland wrote in The Economist on 13 November, this: “…is likely to take many years — and TSMC will continue to race ahead in the meantime.”
So what has all this got to do with Frank Loesser’s 1945 song On a slow boat to China? Most frequently, and based on the Loesser lyrics, the idiom is taken today simply to mean a long, slow journey to a desirable destination, in the Saudi case the destination is Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s Vision 2030. However, the origin of the title lies in the game of poker where it was used, back in the day, to describe someone who loses “steadily and handsomely.” Putting to one side “handsomely” it is, in my view, this second course to which MbS, together with China’s Helmsman Xi Jinping, risks condemning his country.
Monday, April 1, 2024
Netanyahu Says Israel Will Shut Down Al Jazeera in Israel - The New York Times
Netanyahu Says Israel Will Shut Down Al Jazeera in Israel - The New York Times
FM: John Whitbeck writes:
In the immediate wake of the passage of a new law permitting the shutting down of foreign media outlets that the prime minister determines undermine Israel's "national security", Prime Minister Netanyahu has today asserted that Al Jazeera "actively participated in the October 7 massacre" and pledged: "The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel."
One doesn't need to be a picky lawyer to wonder how he defines "Israel". Presumably, he could also wipe the West Bank clean of Al Jazeera journalists, but, in Gaza, he would have to continue -- or intensify -- the existing Israeli policy of assassinating journalists and their families.
Frankly, in light of the uparalleled quantity and quality of Al Jazeera's reporting from Gaza, the West Bank and Israel since October 7, one may wonder why Israel has not already shut down the world's principal source of accurate information about Israel's ongoing genocide.
The NEW YORK TIMES report transmitted below notes the key role which Qatar has been playing in ceasefire/hostage-swap negotiations.
A decision to shut Al Jazeera down now may effectively signal that Netanyahu has written off the remaining hostages, is preparing to launch even worse horrors and no longer needs Qatar.
Happy Easter: Proclamation and Commitment
Happy Easter: Proclamation and Commitment
Happy Easter: Proclamation and Commitment
‘Unless there is Good Friday, there will never be Easter Sunday’
“The Lord is Risen!” is resounding throughout the world this Easter Sunday with hearers proclaiming the refrain, “Indeed, He has Risen!”
The greeting on its surface bespeaks a confident belief in the good news of the Resurrection of Our Lord, the spiritual linchpin of the Christian faith.
The importance of the spiritually seismic event can’t be overstated. St. Paul spelled out the all-or-nothing stakes, telling the Church at Corinth: "...if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."
But despite jubilant Easter greetings, it’s worth asking how many people actually believe in what they are saying. How many believe in the bodily Resurrection of Jesus? And, more significantly, how does this belief in the resurrection manifest itself in a world of growing fear and gathering darkness?
Remarkably, a recent State of Theology poll found that two-thirds of Americans (Protestants and Catholics) say they believe “biblical accounts of the physical resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate.”
The study, commissioned by Ligonier Ministries and conducted by Lifeway Research, also reported that in the Midwest and the Southern parts of the country, a whopping 70% of the surveyed believe in the Biblical account of the empty tomb. Even in the predominantly left-leaning West and Northeast, at least 60% affirm the event.
Adding to the good news, over a majority (58%) of younger Americans between the ages of 18-34 accept that the resurrection event “actually occurred.”
These numbers are even more significant given an ever-increasing secular culture, as well as a general decline in church attendance and core beliefs in a post-COVID country.
But, despite the positive findings, the same study gives evidence of what could be called “spiritual dissonance,” i.e., proclaiming one thing and acting otherwise.
For example, over half of the respondents say that while the Bible contains helpful accounts of ancient myths, it is not literally true.
The poll, conducted intermittently since 2014, shows a growing percentage, up to a high of 32%, who say God is unconcerned with their day-to-day decisions. And 3 in 5 say religious belief is a matter of personal opinion, not objective truth.
Sixty-six report that worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regularly attending church –– the same percentage as those who say they believe in the physical rising of Jesus.
Christian apologist and author Rebecca McLaughlin says this dissonance between believing and doing leaves her both “heartbroken” and “hopeful.”
The author of “Is Easter Unbelievable? Four Questions Everyone Should Ask About the Resurrection Story,” concedes that the disparity suggests a “huge opportunity” for evangelization efforts.
“Church attendance isn’t the ultimate goal, of course,” she explains. “But connecting these people, who must on some level think they are Christians, with regular Bible teaching and real Christian community would be a major step toward them trusting in Christ.”
She also argues, “[T]he idea that someone would say they believe Jesus actually rose from the dead but that this belief would have so little impact on their life that they weren’t even part of a church is truly tragic.”
For McLaughlin, the discrepancy “exposes the danger of cultural Christianity,” which she defines as “the vague assent to Christian beliefs without any evidence of actual faith in Christ.”
At first glance, cultural Christianity can strike us as benign, even good –– at least it’s “Christianity,” one can reason.
But in a world of growing fear and gathering darkness, “assenting to Christian beliefs without demonstrating actual faith in Christ,” is a benign, blunt instrument that can’t compete with the sharpened swords of atheist forces surrounding us.
It’s obvious God never intended for us to claim to be Christian but not to live and preach the faith. The Acts of the Apostles is a powerful testament to this tenet.
One danger of cultural Christianity stands out: the quick and easy slide from culturally Christian values to socially acceptable secular values. One writer puts it this way: “When there is a conflict between the virtues of Jesus and the virtues of culture, cultural Christians tend to choose cultural virtues.”
In such a world, political correctness, “my truth,” and mercy for everyone’s lifestyle can easily trump fraternal correction, the Truth and justice. The Decalogue will slide, too, to a relative point of reference or be simply forgotten. Virtue signaling will carry more cachet than virtue itself.
In such a world, mercy is used as an absolute to negotiate right and wrong. The limitations of mercy used in and of itself can be seen in the comprehensive beauty of Jesus Christ’s response to the Pharisees who bring a woman caught in adultery –– and whom they are ready to stone –– before Him.
Jesus does three things. He admonishes them saying, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he extends mercy to the woman, finally saying to her: “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”
St. Thomas Aquinas also fleshes out a fuller picture of mercy in the Summa Theologica. For Aquinas, the acts of mercy surpass the acts of all other virtues that relate to our neighbor; however, he argues that acts of mercy are not the greatest with respect to acts that refer to God.
For Aquinas, the virtue of obedience is greater than all the moral virtues, including mercy, insofar as we align our will to God.
Aligning our wills to God is not easy, to say the least. The Apostles managed to work up the courage only with an infusion of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday. Ten were eventually tortured and martyred for it.
Reflecting on torture and death may seem inappropriate next to the joy of Easter. But the Triduum is a package deal. As Ven. Fulton Sheen said, “Unless there is a Good Friday in our lives, there will never be an Easter Sunday. The Cross is the condition of the empty tomb, and the crown of thorns is the preface to the halo of light.”
In any event –– whatever polls reveal –– it’s good to consider that our joyful Easter greetings are not merely proclamations, but also commitments to our faith.
Dr. Barbara Toth has a doctorate in rhetoric and composition from Bowling Green State University. She has taught at universities in the US, China and Saudi Arabia. Her work in setting up a writing center at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahmen University, an all-women's university in Riyadh, has been cited in American journals. Toth has published academic and non-academic articles and poems internationally.
A Spirit-Led Encounter - Renewal Ministries
A Spirit-Led Encounter - Renewal Ministries
This article is condensed from one originally published by the Archdiocese of Detroit.
The powerful Spirit-led encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian in Acts 8:27-35 gives us a roadmap for unleashing the Gospel during this season of Eucharistic revival! Here are three simple points to implement today:
Obey the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go . . .’”
Be open, available, and aware that the Holy Spirit wants to help you bring others to Jesus. He is the principal agent of the Church’s mission (CCC 852).
Meet people where they are: “Philip ran to him . . .”
At the Ethiopian’s invitation, Philip sat with him and inquired if he understood what he was reading.
Proclaim the Gospel: “Then Philip opened his mouth . . .”
Without hesitation, Philip answers the deepest longing of this man’s heart by sharing the “good news of Jesus.”
Last year, at the start of the National Eucharistic Revival on Corpus Christi Sunday, a few hundred parishioners attended a eucharistic procession my parish organized in a public park. During adoration, a sixty-five-year-old man with a skateboard (whom I will call Don) sat down at the front of the crowd. I sensed the Holy Spirit’s still, small voice urging me to go to him. I introduced myself and asked if he understood what was happening. Reeking of alcohol and perhaps expecting me to escort him from the premises, Don responded angrily, “I know you came over here to tell me something, so just get it over with!”
The Holy Spirit guided my response, “I have four things to say. First, God created you in his image and likeness because He loves you.” This provoked an onslaught of cussing. Once he calmed down, I continued, “But you have the same problem I do—sin. Your sin separates you from God and his love.” Verbal persecution followed. Not giving up, I proclaimed the good news to him. “Jesus came for you, died for you, and rose again for you.” Once Don finished his third rebuttal, I invited him to repent and respond to the Gospel. By the grace of God, when I asked to pray with him, Don was ready and willing. I gently placed my hand on his shoulder and invited the Holy Spirit to come.
Moments later, the eucharistic procession began and I invited Don to join us. Picking up his skateboard, we began to follow Jesus, who was just as present as when He walked the streets of Jerusalem. As we walked, I shared more about God’s love. Slowly, Don’s heart softened.
I asked if he remembered the story of the Last Supper. He did, so I asked if he could finish these quotes, “Take and eat” and “Take and drink.” As Don finished each sentence about Christ’s body and blood, I pointed to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, drawing near us in the procession. Don soberly asked if this was Communion. I declared boldly: “That’s Him!”
Just then, Jesus in the Eucharist passed directly in front of Don. Without any prompting, he fell to his knees, faced the ground, and reached his hands out on the grass. Moments later, with his demeanor completely changed, Don rose and wiped tears from his eyes.
When we obey the Spirit, meet people where they are, and unleash the Gospel with God’s uncompromising love, we will encounter true eucharistic revival! Authentic adoration leads us to proclaim the Gospel to others just as proclaiming the Gospel leads us and those around us to recognize and adore Jesus in the Eucharist. In this way, unleashing the Gospel is eucharistic revival!
Holy Spirit, please consume my heart with the blazing fire of God’s love in the Eucharist that not only transforms me but leads me to unleash the Gospel into the lives of the lost and broken.
This post originally appeared in Renewal Ministries’ March 2024 newsletter.
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