Ineffective Coronavirus Vaccine
By Adam Dick | Ron Paul Institute | July 26, 2021
On Thursday, United States President Joe Biden was hyping the supposed effectiveness of experimental coronavirus vaccine shots. He claimed in a CNN event that people who take the shots will not “get covid,” “be hospitalized,” “be in an ICU unit,” or “die.” It turns out Biden’s assurance is wrong.
The experimental coronavirus vaccines, some of which are not even vaccines under the normal meaning of the term, are not miracle drugs. Indeed, recent information from Israel, where shots were given very widely and early, indicates that whatever effectiveness the shots may have in countering coronavirus appears to wear off mighty quickly.
Nathan Jeffay provided in a Sunday Times of Israel article some of the details from experience in Israel, where Pfizer-BioNTech provides the “vaccine” of choice. Jeffay relates a new report from health care provider Leumit indicating that “[p]eople vaccinated before late February are twice as likely to catch the coronavirus than other inoculated Israelis.” Further, notes Jeffay, the Israel government’s Health Ministry released data on Thursday suggesting “that people vaccinated in January were said to have just 16% protection against infection now, while in those vaccinated in April the effectiveness was at 75%.”
So what’s the solution to the problem of the experimental coronavirus vaccines not being effective in countering coronavirus? Many people looking at the situation would conclude that it is wise for people to consider forgetting about taking the shots altogether, thereby forgoing subjecting themselves to the known and unknown risks that come with the less advantageous than advertised shots. People could pursue alternative actions to protect themselves, including taking certain vitamins and long-available drugs such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. They need not just wait to seek hospital admission if symptoms become severe, even if that is what government health “experts” tend to suggest.
Considering such an alternative approach makes sense. But, politicians and big money media seem to be on a tireless quest to promote people taking the experimental coronavirus vaccine shots no matter what.
Sadly, in the Times of Israel article, the only solution offered is to keep pumping more doses of experimental coronavirus vaccines into people’s arms: the shots did not work well the first time, so give everyone another dose after a few months. Oh yeah, and keep ignoring the continually piling up reports of deaths and major sickness after shots.
Copyright © 2021 by RonPaul Institute
Taliban Claim Control of Some 90% of Afghanistan’s Border Areas
Sputnik – 22.07.2021
The Taliban controls approximately 90% of Afghanistan’s border with neighbouring countries, Zabiullah Mujahid, the movement’s spokesman, told Sputnik on Thursday.
“The borders of Afghanistan with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran — about 90% of the borders are under our control … The border with Turkmenistan and the border with Iran are completely under our control. The borders of Pakistan (with the exception of a few small sections) are also under our control”, Mujahid said.
The statement comes after Moscow noted earlier in the day that the hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan had resulted in a major shift, with the Taliban taking almost complete control of the Tajik border.
The war-torn nation has been witnessing major clashes between the Taliban movement and government forces in recent months. The militants gained momentum as American troops started pulling out on 1 May, in accordance with an agreement that the Taliban and the United States struck in Doha in February 2020.
According to the Taliban, its forces are now in control of nearly 85 percent of Afghanistan.
California utility PG&E admits it probably started yet ANOTHER devastating wildfire
RT | July 20, 2021
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) seems to have once again helped ignite a deadly wildfire in California, contributing to the carnage in the most populous US state for the fourth year in a row, according to a report on its website.
Documents posted to the utility’s website on Monday and filed with the California Public Utilities Commission indicate that a PG&E employee saw “blown fuses in a conductor on top of a pole, a tree leaning into the conductor, and a fire at the base of the tree” when he responded to a reported circuit outage around 7am local time last Tuesday. The equipment problem is believed to have helped contribute to the start of the Dixie Fire in Feather River Canyon, a devastating blaze that is still just 15% contained.
Unable to access the pole until nearly 12 hours after first taking note of the fire, due to “challenging terrain and road work resulting in a bridge closure,” the employee reported that upon returning to the site around 4:40pm local time, he encountered “a fire on the ground near the base of the tree” plus “two of three fuses blown and what appeared to him to be a healthy green tree leaning into the Bucks Creek 1101 12 kV conductor, which was still intact and suspended on the poles,” according to the report.
Only then did the worker call his supervisor – who subsequently called 911. Given PG&E’s abysmal track record of responding to wildfires (especially those linked to its equipment), it is perhaps unsurprising that the utility reportedly waited five days – rather than the required two to four hours – to report the nascent blaze to the state regulatory agency.
The Dixie Fire has already consumed more than 30,000 acres as of Monday, and continues to force evacuations in Plumas and Butte counties. PG&E’s systems reportedly showed an outage near Cresta Dam in the area of Feather River Canyon where the fire began. Mandatory evacuation orders remain in force in High Lakes, Bucks Lake, and Meadow Valley in Plumas County; Jonesville and Philbrook in Butte County are also under evacuation order. Cal Fire reported on Monday that 800 structures remain under threat.
PG&E has become notorious for its dysfunctional equipment’s apparent contributions to the increasingly devastating wildfires plaguing the region. PG&E equipment has been connected to at least one wildfire every year for the past four years, starting with the deadly 2018 Camp Fire.
The utility pleaded guilty last year to 84 counts of manslaughter, each count representing one life lost in the Camp Fire. The deadly blaze began in October in the town of Pulga, eventually engulfing 140,000 acres aided by high winds and low humidity. Some 8,700 homes were destroyed and tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate, while even those whose homes were spared the destruction were unable to go outside due to the extremely unhealthy air quality. The worst wildfire in California history, the Camp Fire killed 85 people and all but wiped out the town of Paradise.
The judgment pitched PG&E into a bankruptcy from which it finally emerged last year, with a promise to compensate fire victims for whatever damages had not been covered by their insurance – a sum of $13.5 billion that will be partially paid in company stock.
Last year, PG&E equipment was found to be partially responsible for the Zogg Fire in Shasta County. The company is still facing a criminal investigation over that blaze and was forced to pay out $43 million to local governments for that fire and the previous year’s Kincade Fire in Sonoma County. The utility still faces prosecution in Sonoma County over the 2019 fire.
Should PG&E continue to perform not just poorly but criminally, the utility could ultimately be taken over by the state, though California’s Public Utilities Commission requires the firm to progress through six ‘tiers’ of its so-called enhanced oversight program first. PG&E is already on the first tier, having been nailed for the shoddy job it did clearing out tree limbs and other kindling from its riskiest lines since November, and has pledged to spend $4.9 billion on “wildfire safety” this year.
Its promise to “do better” after four years of contributing to the devastating losses experienced by California residents was made as a condition for exiting bankruptcy. Meanwhile, company officials have attempted to blame drought and climate change, instead of taking responsibility.
PG&E has also outraged and alienated customers by shutting off the power supply during peak usage hours for hundreds of thousands of people, hoping to prevent the sparking that has been known to cause wildfires out of fear that high winds could topple the power lines altogether.
An investigation by the CPUC accused the utility of lacking even a rudimentary safety strategy, noting it only makes “positive changes” when forced to do so by dire accidents like fires and explosions. The CPUC report itself was issued seven years after the explosion of a gas pipeline in 2010, which killed eight people and uncovered poor if not criminal business practices such as overcharging customers, underspending on maintenance, and in general placing profit over everything – including but not limited to safety.
This year’s fire season is already predicted to be especially devastating, with expectations it will be longer, drier, and riskier than previous years’ even as PG&E struggles to fix its decaying infrastructure.
Over 158,000 acres of Northern California forest have burned so far this season, including the Tamarack Fire, which grew to 23,000 acres as of Monday morning and remains entirely uncontained. It was reportedly ignited by a lightning strike earlier this month, and local firefighters made the questionable decision not to dispatch fire crews “because of safety concerns,” leaving Alpine County Sheriff Rick Stephens to explain the bizarre response to local residents who now face losing their homes to the inferno. The Beckwourth Complex Fire has burned over 105,000 acres as of Monday and is 82% contained.
Facebook employees were caught spying on users
By Cindy Harper | Reclaim the Net | July 17, 2021
In a story that shows just how much detail Facebook has on the lives of its users, a new report says that Facebook fired 52 employees who were involved in obtaining location data of women they were romantically interested in.
Male programmers were able to view women’s whereabouts, personal messages, deleted photographs, and more because of their access to user data through Facebook’s internal systems.
This story follows an engineer who was on vacation with a woman in Europe. After a fight, the woman left the room they were sharing. The Facebook developer then used the location information he had access to locate her down at a hotel nearby.
In another case, following their date, a woman stopped replying to a Facebook engineer’s messages. He then surreptitiously spied on her using the position. He had exposure to years of private Facebook messages with contacts, events attended, photos shared, and postings she had remarked about or clicked on. He could also track her real-time location because she has Facebook installed.
In September 2015, Facebook’s top security officer, Alex Stamos, apparently informed Mark Zuckerberg about the situation.
According to Stamos, Facebook staff spied on individuals “almost every month.” At the time, over 16,000 workers had access to confidential user data. Stamos made many suggestions, including limiting access and forcing workers to submit formal requests for data access.
According to the article, male Facebook engineers were able to exploit their access to the information to access private conversations, whereabouts, and even deleted photographs of women they were intrigued with, based on an excerpt from a newly released book by New York Times writers Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang.
According to the report, one of Facebook’s developers obtained the location data of a woman he liked and discovered she visited Dolores Park in San Francisco, so he started visiting there in the hopes of stumbling into her.
Facebook responded to this saying that they’ve always maintained a zero-tolerance policy for data misuse and have dismissed any employee found to be doing so. They’ve been working to improve staff training, harassment detection, and preventative processes since 2015.
Explosion hits Israel’s Ashdod reactor facility
Press TV – July 13, 2021
An explosion has been reported at the Israeli regime’s Ashdod reactor facility in the south of the occupied territories, with reports not providing details on the cause of the blast or the number of possible casualties.
The blast was reported by the Israeli journalist Edy Cohen, who posted a video on his Twitter account on Tuesday and said the explosion had taken place at the Ashdod reactor facility in southern Israel.
Israeli media sources said the blast had rocked the regime’s Ashdod oil refinery and that firefighters had been dispatched to the scene after hearing the sound of the explosion. Hebrew-language sources said the blast caused fuel leaks at the refinery and efforts were underway to stop the leakage.
The sources have not yet mentioned the cause of the explosion and whether there were any casualties.
In recent months, similar incidents have taken place in important facilities run by the Israeli regime.
In April, a powerful explosion rocked a sensitive Israeli missile factory allegedly during a test for advanced weapons in the city of Ramla.
Mexican President Says Protests in Cuba Manipulated From Outside
Sputnik – July 12, 2021
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday that US-funded organizations were behind the recent protests in Cuba.
On Sunday, Cuba witnessed its largest protests since 1994, fueled by anger over shortages of basic goods. Thousands of people demanded free elections and the resolution of social issues. According to local media, protests and gatherings took place in eight Cuban cities, including Havana. In response, government and Communist Party supporters held their own marches following President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s calls to take to the streets and repel provocations.
“I see that there is meddling. For example, yesterday I saw a social media post from a group called Article 19, which is an association of journalists in Mexico funded by the US government, the US embassy … They condemned President Diaz-Canel’s call for confrontation …,” Lopez Obrador told reporters.
The Mexican president expressed solidarity with the people of Cuba and said the only way out of this crisis was through dialogue, without the use of force, confrontation and violence.
“Mexico has always been in solidarity with Cuba and with all the peoples of the world, if the Cuban government deems it necessary and its people demand it, the Mexican government could help with medicines, vaccines, supplies and food, without the interventionist political manipulation … because health and food are fundamental human rights,” Lopez Obrador added.
The president further noted that the US economic embargo of Cuba should be brought to an end.
“If you want to help Cuba, the first thing that would have to be done is to lift the blockade of Cuba, as required by most of the countries of the world. It would be a true humanitarian gesture, no country in the world can be fenced off, blocked. This is worse than the violation of human rights,” Lopez Obrador stressed.
Bolivian President Luis Arce echoed his Mexican counterpart’s sentiment, saying that Cuba’s domestic affairs must be handled internally.
US restrictions on trade with Cuba date back to the island nation’s communist revolution in the late 1950s and involve at least half a dozen different US laws. Former President Barack Obama took steps to normalize bilateral relations, but many of those steps were reversed by the Trump administration.
Current President Joe Biden has promised that he would return Obama’s policy on Cuba but has yet to reverse his predecessor’s steps.
On June 23, the United States voted against a UN General Assembly resolution condemning the embargo on Cuba, which was adopted by the overwhelming majority of 184 other nations.
US vaccine-related deaths increasing rapidly
The latest weekly US VAERS update added a shocking 2,083 post-vaccination deaths
USA: Reported post-vaccination deaths, 1990 to 2021 (OpenVAERS)
Swiss Policy Research | July 11, 2021
The latest weekly US VAERS update added a shocking 2,083 post-vaccination deaths – by far the largest weekly increase to date – raising the total of reported post-vaccination deaths to 9,048. Not all of these 2,083 deaths occurred within a week, as there is a very significant reporting backlog.
In total, close to 1,000 post-vaccination miscarriages, more than 3,000 heart attacks, about 7,500 disabilities, close to 20,000 severe allergic reactions, and close to 1,000 cases of heart muscle inflammation in people under 25 have already been reported to VAERS.
A recent analysis by researchers at Queen Mary University in London found that even in senior citizens, about 85% of deaths reported to VAERS were definitively, likely or possibly caused by the vaccine. Moreover, due to significant under-reporting, the true number of vaccine-related deaths may already be significantly higher, possibly in the range of 10,000 to 50,000 deaths in the US alone.
Indeed, despite very few covid deaths, there continues to be unexplained excess all-cause mortality in all US age groups below the age of 75, with all-cause mortality having reached record levels in age groups below 45 since the beginning of the vaccination campaign. In people over 75, potential vaccine-related mortality may be masked by post-winter wave negative excess mortality.
There has been much discussion recently about an ultimately retracted paper that claimed covid vaccines kill 2 people for every 3 people they save. The two major points of criticism were that the paper underestimated vaccine protection by considering only a three-week period, and that the paper overestimated vaccine-related deaths by counting all reported post-vaccination deaths.
The first point is valid: vaccine protection should be estimated based on a near-100% population infection rate, not just a three-week window. But the second point is misguided: due to under-reporting, reported deaths are a lower bound, not an upper bound, of vaccine-related deaths.
Yet there is an even more important point to be considered: age-based risk-stratification. Below a certain age, covid-related mortality is so low that covid vaccines are bound to kill or severely injure more healthy people than they save. In some western European countries, this age threshold may in fact be as high as 60 years (for healthy people).
It has been argued that vaccination against covid may at least prevent “long covid” or multi-system inflammatory syndrome (MIS) in children and young adults; however, new reports from Israel and the US indicate that, to the contrary, covid vaccines may themselves cause MIS as well as “long covid”-like conditions, often lasting for months or possibly even longer.
Going forward, three covid vaccine-related potential risks should be kept in mind:
- In addition to immediate adverse events (such as strokes and heart attacks), are covid vaccines causing cardiovascular damage that will become apparent only later?
- In the face of new immune-escape coronavirus variants, such as the Indian and Peruvian variants (delta and lambda), how long will vaccine protection last, especially in senior citizens?
- Once new coronavirus variants achieve full immune escape, will the very high levels of vaccine-induced, non-neutralizing antibodies cause antibody-dependent disease enhancement (ADE)?
As a potential alternative to current covid vaccines, three options could be considered:
- Natural infection, combined with early treatment to avoid disease progression
- Medically supervised, low-dose oral live virus challenge (using least virulent strain)
- Fast-tracking possibly safer nasal/oral covid vaccines currently being developed
Latest US Sanctions Against Russian Firms Contradict Geneva Summit Statements, Embassy Says
Sputnik – 09.07.2021
The latest sanctions imposed by the United States against Russian companies contradicts the Geneva summit statements that call for normalization of bilateral relations, the Russian Embassy in Washington said in a statement.
“This is another confrontational step as part of Washington’s deliberate efforts to restrict the access of domestic enterprises to high-precision technologies from abroad,” the statement said on Friday. “This fundamentally contradicts with the statements of the United States authorities, including during the summit in Geneva, about the need to normalize the entire range of bilateral relations.”
The US government blacklisted 34 foreign entities, including 23 from China, in connection to the situation in the Xinjiang province as well as six companies from Russia for procurement of military electronic components, according to the Commerce Department ruling published on Monday.
“We paid attention to the conclusion of the Commerce Department. It concerns export control lists, which included Moscow firms working with microelectronics,” the Russian Embassy said. “At the same time, the American side again did not provide any specifics as to which violations were revealed.”
Most Chinese companies added to the economic blacklist “have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” according to the ruling. However, China has routinely denied any wrongdoing.
The Russian entities found themselves on the US black list due to their alleged involvement in the procurement of US-made electronic components which are deemed by Washington as capable of advancing Russian military programs, according to the document.
The Commerce Department blacklisted three Russian companies, OOO Teson, OOO Trade-Component, and Radiant Group of Companies, along with three individuals, Andrey Kuznetsov, Dmitry Kravchenko, and Margarita Kuznetsova.
Other additions to the blacklist include entities from Canada, Iran, Lebanon, Netherlands, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
Israel’s Flu/Covid Mass-Jabbing Problem
By Stephen Lendman | July 6, 2021
Israel is one of the world’s most extensively jabbed nation for flu/covid protection — not gotten, despite false claims otherwise.
Through mid-year, over 80% of its adult population got one or more flu/covid jabs, nearly 60% overall.
Last April while still prime minister, Netanyahu called Israeli mass-jabbing “enormously successful (sic)” — ignoring its harm to health, its deadly consequences to show up in the months and years ahead.
Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat defied reality by calling flu/covid mass-jabbing “the solution” to the viral illness (sic).
Yet late last month, outbreaks began increasing — in summer when decreasing should be more likely.
On June 27, head of Israel’s health ministry, Chezy Levy, resigned.
Roni Numa replaced him as a Bennett regime flu/covid czar.
Nachman Ash was appointed new health ministry head.
What Netanyahu falsely called the world’s first country to “beat” flu/covid has a renewed viral illness outbreak problem on its hands.
Bennett falsely attributed increased outbreaks to what he called a “national weak point (at) Ben-Gurion airport,” adding:
“(I)n coordination with the transportation minister, the health minister and the interior minister, we decided to appoint a special director to handle transitions and prevent the entry of this virus and future variants and viruses from around the world into Israel.”
Everyone arriving in Israel from abroad who’s not jabbed or recovered from flu/covid is now quarantined until set free.
According to Bennett, his regime’s flu/covid policy is “maximum protection for Israeli citizens (sic), with minimum harm (sic) to routine and the economy in Israel; masks instead of restrictions (sic), (and toxic Pfizer mRNA jabs) instead of lockdowns.”
The above ignores that up to half of flu/covid outbreaks occurred in Israelis already jabbed.
On Tuesday, Israel’s health ministry reported a 50% increase in Monday outbreaks from the previous day, the highest number since March 30.
A 42% total of outbreaks occurred in flu/covid jabbed Israelis.
Falsely blaming them on the highly publicized Delta scariant ignores that it’s no more hazardous than other strains.
Yet Israel’s health ministry attributed over 90% of new outbreaks to what it falsely called the “highly contagious delta variant (sic).”
The health ministry also admitted that the efficacy of Pfizer’s mRNA drug is far removed from what Netanyahu called “enormously successful (sic).”
High-outbreak areas in the country are now labeled red, orange or yellow zones.
Despite mass-jabbing responsibility for increased outbreaks, the Bennett regime’s health ministry may call for a third one and new restrictions.
Flu/covid season runs from October through May when outbreaks are highest.
With large numbers of people jabbed for protection from the viral illness not gotten in the West, Israel and elsewhere, perhaps record numbers of outbreaks will occur from early this fall until year year’s warm weather season.
A Final Comment
According to the pro-Western, pro-toxic flu/covid mass-jabbing, pro-inflicting maximum harm on maximum numbers of people WHO, it’s too soon to resume normal activities (sic).
On Monday, the agency’s so-called top emergency expert Mike Ryan warned about increased outbreaks ahead.
“It’s not like this thing has gone away. It isn’t over,” he said — perhaps with the Delta scariant in mind that’s all about mind-manipulating refusniks to get theirs.
Indeed, flu/covid outbreaks are never over. They’ve showed up annually for time immemorial.
They will ahead during the 2021/22 flu-renamed covid season and others to follow.
United States Bribes Cape Verde $440 Million in Exchange for Alex Saab’s Extradition
Attendees of the groundbreaking ceremony of the future headquarters of the US Embassy in Cape Verde. (Photo: Inforpress)
MISIÓN VERDAD* | July 6, 2021
On the eve of Cape Verde’s independence day, coincidentally the same day as Venezuela’s—July 5—the United States government announced an investment of $439 million to build a new US embassy facility on a 4.5-hectare area of land adjacent to the Government Palace in Praia, capital of the West African country. Of that money $100 million will go directly into the Cape Verdean economy.
The project would “pay tribute to the long-standing relations” between Praia and Washington, US Ambassador to Cape Verde Jeff Daigle said when he made the announcement on Sunday, July 4.
The disproportionately high figure for the construction of the building is striking, since it is equivalent to more than half of Cape Verde’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecast for the current year.
The news outlet Justiciafuser pointed to the obvious connection between the “investment” and the case of diplomat Alex Saab, who is illegally imprisoned by the government of Cape Verde due to US political influence: “Local observers… have questioned the timing of this announcement coming as it does only days before the Cape Verde Constitutional Court is expected to decide on Alex Saab’s appeal against his extradition to the United States.”
Jeff Daigle has been charged with directing the pressure on the government of Cape Verde for Saab to be extradited to Miami, Florida, under the custody of agents of the Drug Control Administration (DEA).
“Much work remains to be completed” before the expansion of the embassy is secured, the US diplomat said. Local analysts, quoted by Justiciafuser, singled out this statement as an implication that the US is awaiting reciprocation for its investment on behalf of Cape Verde.
Alex Saab was abducted in Cape Verde while returning from Iran on a diplomatic mission, one day before Interpol issued a Red Notice to justify his arrest. The government of Venezuela has demanded his release and has denounced the violations of international law represented by Washington’s actions with the collaboration of the African country.
The Court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) recently ruled in favor of ending the extradition process of Alex Saab, and demanded his release.
* SOMOS UN GRUPO DE INVESTIGADORES INDEPENDIENTES DEDICADOS A ANALIZAR EL PROCESO DE GUERRA CONTRA VENEZUELA Y SUS IMPLICACIONES GLOBALES. DESDE EL PRINCIPIO NUESTRO CONTENIDO HA SIDO DE LIBRE USO. DEPENDEMOS DE DONACIONES Y COLABORACIONES PARA SOSTENER ESTE PROYECTO, SI DESEAS CONTRIBUIR CON MISIÓN VERDAD PUEDES HACERLO AQUÍ
Translation by Orinoco Tribune
Where the Abraham Accords are (and aren’t) going
Israel has improved its relationship with the UAE, but what about other Gulf countries?
By Giorgio Cafiero and Kristian Coates Ulrichsen | Responsible Statecraft | July 7, 2021
On June 29, Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid arrived in the United Arab Emirates, marking the first official trip by any chief Israeli diplomat to the Gulf country. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had wanted to visit Abu Dhabi while in office, so the timing of the visit so soon after the new Netanyahu-less government was sworn in was notable.
While Lapid was in the UAE, Israel inaugurated an embassy in Abu Dhabi and a consulate in Dubai, representing an important milestone in Emirati-Israeli relations nine months after the Abraham Accords were signed in Washington last September.
Lapid’s trip highlighted how the bilateral relationship has overcome challenges posed by the recent 11-day Gaza-Israel war. Although Emirati officialdom publicly condemned Israel’s conduct in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and called on both Hamas and Israel to halt attacks (which notably did not single out Israel) in May, the UAE is not cooling its relations with Israel. To the contrary, Abu Dhabi is keen to find ways to build on the Abraham Accords and enhance its ties with the Israelis notwithstanding the unresolved question of Palestine.
While with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Lapid signed an economic and commercial cooperation agreement. The two also co-authored a highly optimistic article in Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper where they outlined their outlook for the Emirati-Israeli relationship as well as for “peace” across the greater region: “Peace isn’t an agreement you sign – it’s a way of life. The ceremonies we held this week aren’t the end of the road. They are just the beginning.” (Technically, the UAE-Israel accord is not a “peace” agreement because the UAE, which gained its independence in 1971, has never been at war with Israel.)
Beyond the rhetoric and the symbolism, what are this relationship’s substantive elements and what does this partnership truly mean in practice nine months after the accord’s signing?
Bilateral trade since September 2020 has reached around $675 million. The two countries have signed a long list of trade and cooperation agreements. Media, education, and tourism are all promising sectors that are starting to take off. It is significant that amid the global pandemic, which greatly harmed the UAE and all other Gulf Cooperation Council states’ tourism sectors, 200,000 Israeli tourists visited the UAE with most flying to Dubai.
Technology may be the area where the Emiratis have the highest hopes for this relationship. The potential benefits of formalized ties with the region’s most technologically innovative and advanced country are clear to the UAE. This is particularly true with respect to cybersecurity and to the potential acquisition of offensive cyber-capabilities by the UAE. As Sheikh Abdullah stated, the Emiratis are pleased that the Israelis will participate in Expo2020, an event to be held later this year in Dubai that will bring 192 countries together through technology, innovation, science, and art.
Nonetheless, the Emirati-Israeli trade relationship has thus far not lived up to its expectations. There has also been a degree of disappointment among those who were expecting the partnership to take off much faster following then-President Donald Trump’s announcement of the Abraham Accords.
Some anticipated deals have not taken place. For example, there was the suspension of the 50 percent sale of Beitar Jerusalem (a Jerusalem-based professional football club with an anti-Arab image) to a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family in Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan. In addition, an Israeli energy firm that planned to sell its share of a gas field to Mubadala Petroleum (a subsidiary of the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Investment Company) missed a deadline for completing the agreement, although, according to the UAE’s side, the deal remains set to proceed. Time will tell how many and how soon major government-to-government and private sector transactions will indeed take place.
Abraham Accords, the Gulf, and Africa
Despite the political risks for any Arab state that normalizes relations with Israel, the UAE has vocally stood by the Abraham Accords, which, in the words of its ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, “move the region beyond a troubled legacy of hostility and strife to a more hopeful destiny of peace and prosperity.” But Abu Dhabi at this point does not appear to be leading any trend within the Gulf region toward the formalization of relations with Israel.
In Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative remains popular and the only viable means of reaching a fair and lasting settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. This is true at the highest levels of government and among these countries’ general publics. But Tel Aviv almost certainly will not under any foreseeable circumstances agree to the API’s terms, which require Israel to return to the 1949-1967 borders and permit the Palestinians to have an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital in exchange for opening diplomatic relations. Therefore, among GCC states, the UAE, along with Bahrain, will probably stand alone on the normalization question for some time.
As the GCC state with the most pro-Palestinian stance, Kuwait is most strongly opposed to normalization and unlikely to change its position. Oman maintains pragmatic, albeit unofficial, relations with Israel as highlighted by Lapid’s phone call with Oman’s foreign minister Badr al Busaidi on June 24, plus Netanyahu and other Israeli prime ministers’ visits to Muscat since the 1990s. But Oman remains committed to the API, as affirmed by Muscat’s chief diplomat at an Atlantic Council event held on February 11.
Qatar has a special role to play in Gaza that would be jeopardized by “abandoning” the Palestinians in exchange for normalization with Israel. Through Al Jazeera, which focuses heavily on the plight of Palestinians, and the tendency of Qatari diplomats to advocate on behalf of Palestinians in international forums, Doha’s regional and global image has much to do with its ability to take firm positions on certain international issues that contribute to the image of a pro-human rights foreign policy.
Finally, Saudi Arabia, due to its special role across the wider Islamic world, its authorship of the API, and its own internal dynamics that are fundamentally different than the smaller GCC states, will likely continue seeing normalization of relations with Israel as too risky, at least so long as King Salman remains on the throne.
Within this context, Israel will likely have its next diplomatic openings in the Islamic world not in the Persian Gulf, but instead in impoverished parts of sub-Saharan Africa where countries such as Niger, Mali, and Mauritania could have their economic interests advanced by joining the Abraham Accords. It will be important to see what actions Abu Dhabi might take to incentivize these African countries, many of which are major recipients of Emirati aid, to formalize ties with Israel. Enhanced Emirati assistance in exchange for normalization with Israel was already evident in Sudan’s decision to normalize ties with Israel, and the UAE may take a similar approach with these and other predominantly Muslim and poor African states.
Wow! What a load of Covid propaganda!
By Sally Beck | The Conservative Woman | July 5, 2021
WOW! What a Year! That’s a sentiment none of us would disagree with. Except that this is the title of a primary school musical production promoting Covid vaccines and face masks to children aged four to 11.
The Key Stage II musical, performed by the leavers of year 6, has been condemned as ‘unethical’ by some parents. They have complained to Leicestershire-based Edgy Productions, who charge schools £39 for a script.
Two songs in the production, which is about living in times of Covid, prompted the most outrage. One is A Shot In The Arm, the chorus of which cheerily tells children: ‘We’ll all roll up our sleeves and send it on its way . . . Because with just a little prick, we won’t get sick, And that will be an end to it!’ The other is Put That Mask On, with the chorus: ‘Put that mask on your face, Give each other some space, Wash your hands every chance you get. We’ll beat this yet! Ha! No sweat!’
Sorrel Scott, a physiotherapist from south-west London, said in a letter to Dr David Lewis, the director of Edgy Productions: ‘My immediate reaction to reading these lyrics was horror. The UK Government have not made the decision to vaccinate children currently and so it is hard to understand why your musical is trying to normalise and push vaccines for children when there is no medium or long term safety data, and these vaccines are still very much in experimental stages (none of the vaccines finish their experimental stage until 2023).
‘To promote vaccinations for young children who are unable to understand the real harms that may affect them in the short and long term is unethical.
‘To promote face masks for young children goes against current Government guidelines and it is important to note that there are very real harms that can come from wearing face masks, especially in children. These harms include headaches from a build-up of CO2, respiratory and heart problems, microbial contamination, and psychological harms. It has also been noted that facemasks offer little or no protection from tiny virus particles.
‘Have we come to a point where we want to promote mask wearing in small children who are not at risk of the virus and do not pass it on? Have you given a second thought to what effect these songs could have on young children by pushing these messages?’
The musical is not the only way in which children are being bombarded with vaccine propaganda for a jab many experts say they don’t need.
The Stephen Hawking Foundation has produced a slide presentation for schools called Are Vaccines Safe? Slide 11 shows horrific pictures of a child locked in spasm suffering ‘painful muscle contractions of tetanus’, a boy covered in smallpox pustules and a child post-polio in callipers. In almost all cases, Covid is mild or unnoticed in healthy under-18s, so these scare stories are totally irrelevant.
Former headteacher Nigel Utton, education co-ordinator for the World Freedom Alliance, one of a number of organisations fighting for medical freedom, wrote an open letter in May debunking the presentation slide by slide.
He said: ‘Scientists, doctors, lawyers, teachers and citizens are alarmed at the way schools are being used as a vehicle for taking away parental responsibility for the well-being of their children.
‘By allowing this propaganda in your school, you would be acting in loco parentis and you would therefore be morally responsible for any ill effects that the vaccine has on the children in your care. Children have already died in the vaccine studies and others have had life-threatening side effects.’
Adding weight to the campaign to prevent under-18s being vaccinated, Professor Robert Dingwall penned an eight-part heartfelt Twitter post last Wednesday. Professor Dingwall is a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination (JCVI) who advise the government on vaccination.
His post said: ‘Teenagers are at intrinsically low risk from Covid. Vaccines must be exceptionally safe to beat this. Given the low risk of Covid for most teenagers, it is not immoral to think that they may be better protected by natural immunity generated through infection than by asking them to take the *possible* risk of a vaccine.
‘Covid is now a long way from being an important cause of mortality.
‘A reminder: medicine cannot deliver immortality and it is profoundly damaging to society to imply that it can, if only we try hard enough.
‘As Rene Dubos [French-American microbiologist and Pulitzer Prize winning author of So Human An Animal] noted 60 years ago, humans, viruses and bacteria form an ecosystem which has evolved over millennia.
‘Surely we have enough experience of the unintended consequences of humans reshaping other ecosystems to suit their own ends not to rush into reshaping this one without really understanding what it would mean for human lives and immune systems.’
Edgy say that ‘hundreds’ of schools across the country are busy rehearsing Wow! What a Year!
Director Dr Lewis defended the production. He said: ‘It celebrates heroes: nurses, doctors, shop assistants, teachers, delivery drivers, parents who home-schooled their children, (and the children who were home-schooled), those who struggled financially but still managed to feed their families, those who missed closeness to their loved ones, and those that led by example to show resilience in the face of adversity. This is the message that children are presented with.’
He said that if teachers do not like any of the songs, they may remove them: ‘If the teachers don’t like the content or don’t deem it appropriate, their children will not perform it.’
He added: ‘Any accusations that this musical is propaganda for a vaccine or mask agenda, have come exclusively from individuals who have not read the entire script or heard the songs in context. We encourage them to do so.’
Peter Cansell, spokesman for the National Association for Primary Education, said: ‘We would be unwise to offer an opinion as it is straying into requiring medical knowledge rather than educational understanding, but we feel that you have done the right thing in contacting the producers/publishers in this instance.’
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