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Al-Aqsa Flood gives Israeli economy ‘COVID-19 like symptoms’

The Cradle | October 30, 2023

The historic Al-Aqsa Flood operation has not only battered Israeli settlements and the security forces, but the war has also taken flight against the Israeli market.

Economists are looking at the operation that hit the $520 Billion economy with memories of the COVID-19 effects, saying that orders for schools, offices, and building sites to close or only open for a few hours are like the days of the pandemic. 

Adding to the affected workforce, the Israeli government amassed 350,000 reservists for its much-awaited ground invasion, draining about eight percent of the Israeli workforce. 

Mizrahi-Tefahot, a top Israeli bank, says that the mass mobilization order and partial economic freezes are costing the government the equivalent of $2.5 billion per month. The Israeli central bank has said that the economic state will only worsen as the war goes on. 

Israeli stocks are the world’s worst performing since the beginning of the war. The Shekel is at its weakest level since 2012, despite the $45 billion emergency package or the selling off of $30 Billion in foreign reserves to try and save the currency from sinking further.

Markets won’t fair well with a long war, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of a “long war” as he prepares for a ground invasion. 

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the US multinational financial services firm, has said that they believe the Israeli economy is shrinking 11 percent on an annualized basis, saying that their initial projections about the economic impact were “too optimistic.”

The financial firm’s projections are among Wall Street’s most cynical, but investors have been selling off Israeli assets heavily. 

“Gauging the impact of the war on Israel’s economy remains difficult both due to still very high uncertainty about the scale and duration of the conflict and the lack of high-frequency data at hand,” JPMorgan analysts said. 

Having one of the strongest economies in the world, Israel hasn’t seen an economic hit this bad since the 2006 war between them and Hezbollah, the physical damage cost of which has already been topped by the Palestinian factions.  

The Israeli business press has said the nation has entered a recession. Israeli daily The Market has previously written that “Israel has entered the war, and it is in a recession, and trade is currently zero.”

October 31, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , | Leave a comment

Chinese tech giants cancel Israel

RT | October 31, 2023

Israel can no longer be found on China’s leading online digital maps on platforms including Baidu and Alibaba, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing web users.

According to the report, Baidu’s Chinese language maps still show the borders of both Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as key cities in the region. However, they no longer identify Israel by name.

Alibaba’s Amap also no longer displays the name of Israel on its maps. According to the report, the platform is usually known for its attention to details, with even small countries like Luxembourg clearly labeled.

The companies did not respond to media requests for comment. According to the publication, it is unclear when exactly the name Israel disappeared from their maps, but web users have apparently been discussing the development since the escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict earlier this month.

According to local reports, the Chinese internet has been overflowing with anti-Semitic [sic] comments over the past month, which may be the reason behind the disappearance of Israel’s name from the maps. The Israeli Embassy in China was recently forced to close the comment section under its official account on China’s X-like platform Weibo, after a slew of verbal attacks from users.

The Chinese government has not taken sides in the Mideast conflict, calling on the belligerents to end the hostilities and condemning attacks on civilians. However, Beijing has a long history of supporting Palestine. It recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964 and Palestinian sovereignty in 1988, and later established full diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority in 1989.

During his visit to Saudi Arabia in 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping called the fact that the global community still largely does not recognize Palestine as a country a “historical injustice,” and said China will support the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

October 31, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | 1 Comment

Both major UK parties have made an example of an MP calling for a Gaza ceasefire

This is a moment of great moral clarity. The values of our political system stand starkly exposed.

BY JONATHAN COOK | OCTOBER 31, 2023

Britain’s two main political parties each made an example this week of an MP brave enough to break ranks and call for an end to the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.

The ruling Conservative party sacked Paul Bristow MP from his government post after he wrote to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak: “A permanent ceasefire would save lives and allow for a continued column of humanitarian aid [to] reach the people who need it the most.”

Labour withdrew the whip from Andy McDonald MP, effectively kicking him out of the parliamentary party. McDonald had said at a rally against the killing in Gaza: “We won’t rest until we have justice, until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty.”

This should be a moment of great moral clarity for all of us.

It is shameful enough that both major British political parties – in what is effectively a two-horse race – back to the hilt Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians through weeks of indiscriminate bombing.

It is shameful enough that both parties term this “self-defence”, giving Israel licence for as long as it wants to carry on murdering civilians, including killing by its rain of bombs a Palestinian child every few minutes.

It is shameful enough that both parties want to continue arming Israel, meaning British weapons are helping to blow up entire Palestinian families.

It is shameful enough that both parties enthusiastically support Israel’s genocidal policy of starving 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza of food, water, medicines and the power needed to keep hospitals running, as well as destroying infrastructure essential to the maintenance of life.

It is shameful enough that both parties have refused to raise their voices in protest at the ethnic cleansing of 1 million Palestinians from northern Gaza – for some of them a third expulsion in their lifetime by Israel – into what was supposedly a ‘safe zone’ that Israel is bombing just as aggressively as the ‘evacuation zone’.

All of that is shameful enough. But now we are supposed to swallow a further moral outrage. That neither party will tolerate even the mildest dissent from this licence for depravity.

Neither party will allow a solitary MP to say “Not in my name”.

Neither party will permit an MP to represent the large majority in Britain that is appalled by the tidal wave of blood being spilt in Gaza and wants it to end through a ceasefire.

This is moment of great moral clarity. We see who leads us, and what they value. And it is not life. It is not humanity.

October 31, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | 1 Comment

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