Israel At War

"As the chief of staff said this week, the war will continue many more months."

"My policy is clear. We will continue to fight until we have achieved all the objectives of the war, first and foremost the annihilation of Hamas and the release of all the hostages."

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu

 

"We don't have water. We don't have enough food."

"The kids wake  up in the morning wanting to eat, wanting to drink. It took us one hour to find water for them."

"We couldn't bring them flour. Even when we wanted to take them to toilets, it took us one hour to walk."

Nour Daher, displaced woman, tent camp, Rafah, Gaza 

People inspect the damage to buildings after Israeli airstrikes on Khan Younis. Photograph: Mohammed Dahman/AP

 

A dreadful plight. Twofold, in the sense that a country that has never known acceptance and peaceful neighbourliness, always vigilant against renewed attacks and seemingly unstoppable violent assaults against its citizens, has been forced by these circumstances to focus on building a regional military presence, to acquire self-protecting high technology weaponry and finally has been placed in the position where no option was left but to respond forcefully to the most heinous, sadistic savagery that slaughtered its citizens in an orgy of organized mayhem.

An assault so dreadful its baleful depths are still being unearthed months after the mind-numbing assault. An assault heralded by the citizenry of the belligerent neighbourhood in Gaza as a glorious moment to be savoured and celebrated, that their heroes had taken the lives of 1,200 human beings in a matter of hours, raped and mutilated and butchered innocent civilians that lived close to their border, civilians of the 'other' who had in fact, commiserated with those now celebrating, attempting to improve their miserable lives.  Their celebratory congratulations to the terrorists have turned to ashes in their mouths.

The Hamas heroes of 'liberation' from 'oppression' who cared nothing for the welfare of the citizens under their care deliberately created a predictable situation that the now-internally-displaced grieve over. Hamas, proudly confident that sacrificing Palestinian lives and that of their children would be agreeable to those desperately seeking to escape retaliatory bombing aimed at liquidating future opportunities for Hamas to repeat the atrocity, in the face of the terrorist group's repetitive promise it planned to do just that.

The international community calls for ceasefires. They don't face these threats, as Israel does. A ceasefire that would allow Hamas to regroup, rearm, re-strategize and repeat its lethal attacks on Israel. Even without the 'ceasefire', Hamas continues to send rockets into Israel. Humanitarian aid that is brought in to the zone of conflict is being commandeered by the terrorist group, denying medications, food, water, fuel, to the population that Hamas deliberately placed in harm's way. As Hamas continues its attacks over the border with rocket fire, it continues to shield itself behind the population, where its rockets are launched from within crowded civilian enclaves.

 

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, January 1, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

 

The tunnel system burrowed deep and wide under cities and towns as weapons depots and command posts, reflect the deliberate strategy of Hamas. To ensure its military installations are directly within the crowded confines of civilian life. Deliberately placed in, under and beside schools, hospitals, multiple-stacked dwellings to deter the humanitarian instincts of an Israeli fighting force with defined scruples and instincts deterring it from inflicting casualties on civilians as opposed to their terrorist targets' lack of humanity. 

 

Yet when the Israel Defense Forces despite attempts at accuracy and avoidance and pre-warning of the population at risk, does cause deaths, that too is a victory for Hamas which then uses the collateral damage and destruction of human life to paint Israel as embarking on a genocide. 

 

Israeli warplanes struck urban refugee camps of Nuseirat and Bureij in Gaza's central region while ground forces moved deeper into the city of Khan Younis in the south. According to the Gaza Health Ministry over 21,600 Palestinians have died in the numerous air and ground offensives since October 7's terrorist attack in southern Israel. The number of deaths declared makes no distinction between civilian and terrorist deaths. Of the number cited having died in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry announced that 70 percent were women and children. Another favourite emphasis of Hamas.

An estimated 85 percent of Gaza's over two million residents have been displaced. Great swaths of people seek shelter where Israeli warnings have directed them to, out of harm's way. Yet while warning civilians, that warning informs Hamas operatives where they too may find shelter from Israeli bombardments, moving along with the civilians. And since they are the targets, the Israeli military then finds itself in need of moving to bomb those areas as well, leaving no place 'safe' for either the terrorists or the people they boast are willing martyrs for their cause.

Displaced Palestinians at a tent camp in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

An increased tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed into the crowded city of Rafah in southern Gaza, with Israeli forces expanding its ground offensive this week. Displaced people arriving on foot, on trucks and carts piled with household goods. With space scarce in overwhelmed shelters by UN warehouses, thousands of tents and makeshift shacks sprang up. This is the humanitarian catastrophe that Hamas in its arrogant belligerence and lust for carnage and a bloodbath in Israel has brought Israel to, in its military quest to destroy the threat of future barbaric savagery victimizing Israelis.

And ultimately, it is a reflection of a hatred so intense through a death-cult's resolve to destroy a neighbour whose intent is to remain a beacon of freedom and salvation for the world's Jews eternally escaping from a hostile global community whose intolerance for their presence is so great that millennia of residence among them has not inured them to the allure of humanity's reviling the presence of Jews. Impelling a Zionist movement into existence to return to an ancient homeland for no less purpose than to provide that minuscule proportion of humanity identified as Jews a haven in their ancestral home.

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, 31 December 2023. ABIR SULTAN/Pool via REUTERS

"The World Is Unfair"

"There are moments in everyone’s life when you walk through the wrong door."

"In these difficult times, heroic times, an artist of my calibre, a people’s artist, cannot and should not be so irresponsible when participating in various events."

Filipp Kirkorov, Russia’s king of pop

 

"[I] realized [that attending and sharing images from Ivleeva’s party was inappropriate at a time when Russian troops were fighting in Ukraine]."

"If anyone was offended by my appearance, I apologize for that."

"I don’t want to cause hatred and anger toward myself and other artists because of this stupid accident."

Ksenia Sobchak, media personality, rumoured Putin goddaughter

 

"Тhey say that Russia knows how to forgive. If so, I would like to ask you, the people, for a second chance."

"If the answer is no, then I’m ready for my public execution. I won’t shy away. I’m ready for any outcome."

Instagram influencer Anastasia Ivleeva

 

"Moscow has become similar to Chechnya: public apologies from party participants trembling with fear, tax audits, the prospect of criminal cases."

"Totalitarian regimes differ from the authoritarian ones in that it lives not somewhere on the street, but in your kitchen, sleeps in your bed, listens to your conversations with friends and relatives."

"It is time to understand that no one will let you live as before in exchange for quietly consenting to the regime’s policies. You are required to actively participate in all the disgusting actions and activities of this government."

Alexander Rodnyansky, Ukrainian producer

People attend an 'almost naked' party organized by Anastasia Ivleeva at Mutabor nightclub in Moscow in an image published Dec. 21. (Ostorozhno Novosti via Reuters)

 The now-notorious 'almost naked' party that took place in Moscow that the public responded to with outrage has seen the celebrities who attended being punished. Placating the outrage of the public at the lead-up to Russia's upcoming federal election for which Vladimir Putin views the event as a gift to win the voting approval of the public. Viewing photographs of the event at which pop stars, actors, even the daughter of his former political mentor enjoyed themselves in a display of scantily dressed decadence, he expressed his distaste, a signal for an official crackdown.

It now becomes part of Vladimir Putin's re-election campaign to humble the Russian elite for the conduct of these stars. It is from among this class of entrepreneurs, celebrities and oligarchs that an undercurrent of opposition to the war that the Kremlin unleashed on Ukraine emanates. For one thing the opprobrium by much of the civilized world at the unwarranted invasion with its consequential bloodshed involves them in Western sanctions; not good for their personal and financial affairs.

Political consultant Sergei Markov, an insider with the presidential administration, voiced his opinion: "It was decided to punish them at the highest level". This, despite that Moscow had enjoyed an image as a hedonistic party city following the collapse of Communism. Now, two years into Vladimir Putin's war with Ukraine the Kremlin promotes Mr. Putin as a defender of traditional Russian values translated as a confrontation with the 'liberal' West.

Traditional Russian values probably don't match with leaving one's wife and bearer of his children for a  younger woman and creating a luxurious secret nest for her and their resulting children. However, the traditional values of leaders siphoning off state funds to build magnificent palaces and have luxurious yachts built for their personal enjoyment seems to reflect the Soviet years of equality when the leadership enjoyed their dachas while the population laboured to produce inferior crop yields and automobiles.

"The country is at war and these people are having fun", commented Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of R.Politik, political consultancy, and senior fellow, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. As for the shock of the Russian elite: "They've all understood now that for the regime this is a sacred cow", she expanded. And for a change, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman who is rarely at a loss for words, felt little inclined to comment. 

TV presenter and actress Anastasia Ivleeva, centre, performs during the VK Festival in Moscow on July 15. In December, Ivleeva was criticized for hosting a bash at a Moscow nightclub with the stated dress code of 'almost naked.' (The Associated Press)

Some of the revellers at the Moscow Mutabor club who attended the December party "where the dress code was 'almost naked", prompted the conservative backlash, that led the erstwhile party-goers to apologize -- almost grovelling -- asking for forgiveness on social media. Not that it has helped them in any observable manner. And oh, how the mighty have fallen, delivering no end of malicious satisfaction to the great public that both admired and envied them.

Maria Zakharova, foreign ministry spokeswoman, at viewing photographs of the event, expressed her disgust, informing an interviewer: "We won't tolerate this filth any longer". I regret "If anyone was offended by my appearance" (at the party) went the apology of Ksenia Sobchak, whose late father Anatoly, was mayor of St.Petersburg in the 1990s, and acted as Putin's political mentor. But she also had other things to say:

"The world is unfair -- it was, it is and always will be."

"Somewhere they're killing, somewhere children are starving, and somewhere at this time they're drinking champagne."

Ksenia Sobchak, socialite, former 2018 presidential candidate

 

Russian stars' semi-naked party sparks wartime backlash – video report

 

 

Yemen's Houthi Terrorists Gaining an International Piracy Reputation

"While the U.S.-led coalition might appear successful militarily, it might not be sufficient for major shipping companies to resume Red Sea transits."

"The longer the Houthi attacks continue, the more pressure the U.S. will face to go on the offensive, which risks regional escalation."

Gerard DiPippo, senior geo-economic analyst, Bloomberg Economics 

"That's happening [clamber to track new arrival times for companies with cargo on detouring ships] en masse on every ship that got diverted."

"Teams are working overtime right now to try to keep up with this."

Ryan Petersen, chief executive and founder, Flexport Inc.

A Houthi fighter on the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, which was seized in the Red Sea, off Yemen’s west coast, in November. Photograph: Houthi Military Media/Reuters

 

The situation has become so dire for shipping that half of the container-ship fleet normally transiting the Red Sea and Suez Canal on a regular basis now avoid the route as a result of the threat of attacks. New industry data tallied and compiled by Flexport Inc. indicate that 299 vessels with a combined capacity to carry 4.3 million containers have changed course or plan to. Double the number of a week earlier, equating to roughly 18 percent of global capacity.

According to Flexport, diverted journeys around Africa can take up to 25 percent longer in transit than the use of the Suez Canal shortcut between Asia and Europe. Trips that have greater cost will ultimately lead to higher prices on everything from footwear to food, to oil for consumers, should the need for these longer journeys persist. Yemen-based Houthis claim their targets are ships linked to Israel, leading them to the attacks. However, ships with no direct links to Israel also find themselves being targeted.

As the conflict escalates, global trade is threatened, leading to the formation of a United States-led task force attempting to increase security on the key regional waterway. Even ships that broadcast neutrality while using the route have come under attack. Flexport's statistics mirror another count by Swiss Freight-forwarder Kuehne + Nagel International AG that, as of December 27, show 364 vessels with capacity for five million, 20-foot container units rerouted around Africa.

 

A screen grab captured from a video shows Yemen’s Houthi fighters’ takeover of the cargo ship Galaxy Leader in the Red Sea on November 20, 2023 

Houthi Movement via Getty Images

 

Houthis launched over 100 attacks on commercial ships in the past month alone. The MSC United VIII container ship en route to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia became a target on December 26, while fifteen container vessels -- ten operated by A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S -- have stayed on course or abandoned diversion plans, planning to cross into the Red Sea toward Suez, according to Flexport's analysis.

The number two container line, Maersk, is preparing to resume Red Sea transits "as soon as operationally possible". Not since pirates off the coast of Somalia some years back attacked commercial and international vessels has the world seen a situation parallel to the present one. Arrivals into the Gulf of Aden declined 40 percent between December 22 and December 26, according to Clarksons Research data, in comparison with the average for the first half of the month.

Data indicate that container ship arrivals decreased 87 percent, gas tankers down about 30 percent and car carriers about 25 percent. Suez Canal transits reflect a similar pattern where transits were down about 45 percent between December 22 and 26 for vessels heading south. Diversions around Africa's southern tip are stretching shipping capacity and boosting freight rates; the worst-case scenario is a 20 percent reduction in global capacity, reports Flexport.

Photo shows tanker and freight ships near the entrance of the Suez Canal, by Egypt’s Red Sea port city of Suez [AHMED HASAN/AFP via Getty Images]

Impacts of a Good Night's Sleep

"There  has been decades of research showing that poor sleep health is a major causal factor for either the onset of or worsening of physical and mental conditions."

Sleep is really a public health matter. It is a health imperative."

"Historically, we have been neglecting our sleep quite seriously and it is clear now that this has massive impacts on a lot of areas in terms of physical health, mental health and general functioning, including productivity in the workplace. There are a lot of different aspects of life that are affected by sleep."

"We know that sleep contributes to either the onset or worsening of physical and mental health conditions and we know that fixing sleep is also improving these health outcomes. Trying to fix sleep is a modifiable factor to improve health."

"For a long time, the sleep community has been pretty vocal about the damage that daylight time is causing. Not only are we artificially shifting the time, we are not just gaining or losing an hour, we are also messing up the internal clock in our brain that keeps time. The whole idea was to save energy during wartime. This is no longer a valid argument."

Dr. Rebecca Robillard, associate professor, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa

Insufficient sleep has been identified as a causative of, or for worsening chronic physical conditions, including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes along with mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. It can even lead to obesity. It has links to pregnancy complications and is capable of undermining other practices for good health such as exercise and diet. Dr. Robillard, a scientist in the sleep research unit at the Institute on Mental Health at the Royal and co-chair of the Canadian Sleep Research Consortium, feels not enough attention has been paid to lack of adequate sleep and its consequences.

It is her opinion that there is a long-overdue recognition of insufficient sleep as a public-health issue, which it should be. The Canadian Sleep Research Consortium in March is scheduled to assist in the organizing of Canada's first national Sleep Week in an effort to draw attention to the vital importance of sufficient sleep for people of all age groups. Researchers hope to produce a live map to indicate how people across Canada are faring in their need to have proper sleep patterns nightly, hoping the public will respond by tracking their sleep habits.

Researchers in 2015 estimated that 23.8 percent of Canadian adults reported nighttime insomnia. That number is now closer to 40 percent, a 2021 survey reveals. Reports revealed that 6.4 percent of Canadians in 2015 and 2016 were diagnosed by a health care professional with sleep apnea, along with insomnia, the leading sleep disorder among Canadians. Sleep deprivation has significant widespread health, social and economic consequences on health.

Researchers feel that governments would do well for the health of the general public by cancelling the twice-yearly imposition of daylight-saving time, known to contribute to various health and safety issues that erupt in the immediate days following the universally disliked time change, into longer term health impacts. Sleep researchers would ideally like to see a return to permanent standard time.

Increases in heart attacks, strokes, pregnancy issues, traffic accidents and digestive system impacts among other issues have been demonstrated through data accrued from American studies and elsewhere globally, associated with the time changes. In the same token, researchers are focusing on the collection of Canadian data on the twice-yearly time change impacts "to make the case stronger to abolish the practice."

 

People, Dr. Robillard, cautions, should have realistic expectations about the quality and duration of their nightly sleep. Individuals on average, should sleep between seven to nine hours nightly, varying from person to person. Some people manage well with fewer hours of sleep, while the majority of the public requires an average of eight hours of sleep to optimize health effects and normal daily performances. As well, although sleep patterns resulting in a good night's sleep is important, being overly obsessed with sleep quality can be stressful. It's called Orthosomnia.  

Self-Protective Gun Ownership in the US

"An estimated 2.9 percent of U.S. adults [7.5 million] became new gun owners from January 1, 2019 to April 26, 2021."

"Most [5.4 million] had lived in homes without guns."

2021 study: Annals of Internal Medicine

"It may be that a percentage of firearm owners are concerned that their information will be leaked and the government will take their firearms or that researchers who are from universities that are typically seen as liberal and anti-firearm access will paint firearm owners in a bad light."

New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center, Rutgers University

"[A year after New Jersey restricted an estimated 100,000 to 300,000] assault weapons [in the state in 1990, the New York Times reported] only four military-style weapons have been turned in to the State Police and another 14 were confiscated."

"[Officials knew the locations of] fewer than 2,000 other guns."

J.D. Tuccille, National Post

"Currently, fewer than two-in-ten Americans say they trust the government in Washington to do what is right 'just about always' [one percent] or 'most of the time' [15 percent]."

"This is among the lowest trust measures in nearly seven decades of polling."

Pew Research

"I'm one of at least ten Jewish men in the [gun safety] class, many wearing yarmulkes."

"Jewish New Yorkers have come to appreciate how fortunate they are to live in a country that protects their right to self-defence."

New York University law professor Max Raskin

A firearms instructor with nonprofit Jewish organization Magen Am demonstrates how to unload a gun safely.  CNN

 

The cascades of blatant, in-your-face antisemitism accompanied by threats and violence have alarmed American Jews to the extent that they have done the formerly unthinkable; arming themselves for self-protection in view of the very real perceived potential of becoming a victim of now-viral Jew-hate. They're buying firearms and taking training lessons in their use; yet another subgroup of American citizens until recently not thought of as a demographic of gun owners.

Self defence is the motivation. But they're not alone. Muslims, Blacks, women and those with ultra-left politics appear to have reached similar conclusions; government seems either incapable or disinterested in the responsibility inherent in their mandate to protect their citizens. People are now taking it upon themselves to ensure that they are themselves responsible for their singular self-preservation.

Since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, firearms instructors and Jewish security groups in the U.S. have been 'flooded' with new and anxious clients. A similar pattern has been noted among Jewish and Muslim Americans, attributed not only to the conflict in Gaza, but motivated by fear related to "attacks on Jewish and Muslim communities in the U.S.", as well.

Tensions across the United States have been exacerbated with protests, street clashes and fatalities emanating from the violence that Jews in particular have been facing. Gallup pollsters in October were informed by 63 percent of respondents that crime is an "extremely or very serious" problem; that following years of political violence and pandemic lockdown-fuelled social disruptions people conclude that officials in government are failing their public security obligations.

Gun owners now are no longer overwhelmingly conservative, white, male good ol' boys, but rather look and live as a reflection of the full range of American citizenry.                                                          Rutgers University published a report in the summer suggesting as many as 40 percent of people claiming they do not own guns may be lying. They identified unmarried urban women of colour constituting close to half of those thought to be denying being armed, when they are.

American Jews and Muslims -- just as women, Blacks, Hispanics and liberals -- have taken to buying guns in the belief government is no longer willing or able to maintain community safety. That belief appears to them to be supported by government officials appearing to shed both public support and confidence.

Authorities continue to believe in passing restrictive laws backed by government force. But the world appears more dangerous than ever and repeated government failures has earned it the public's skepticism toward officialdom.

David Kowalsky, owner of Florida Gun Store, teaches Mendy Duchman gun safety and proper ways to handle a firearm at Kowalsky’s gun range in Hollywood, Fla., on Friday. Duchman knows Kowalsky through their synagogue, Shul of the Lakes, and approached him about getting his firearm training done. Kowalsky said local synagogues had reached out to him to host gun training seminars and shooting sessions in the past week. Scott McIntyre for NBC News

Setting the Right Mood for the Year Ahead: Zelenskyy

"The stronger our air defence, the fewer Russian devils will be in our skies and on our land."

"[In praise of Ukraine's] capabilities in negotiations with partners, capabilities in bolstering our sky shield, capabilities in defending our homeland from Russian terrorists."

"This Christmas sets the right mood for the entire year ahead." 

"Every Russian pilot must make a clear choice whether to continue participating in this war."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelanskyy

File image of a Russian Sukhoi Su-34 shot down by Ukrainian anti-aircraft guns.

Nicola Marfisi/AGF/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

President Zelenskyy's message belies concern emanating from Western sources murmuring of battlefield disappointment and the future of Western support in material aid for the Ukraine war effort. His message was upbeat, and coincided with Ukraine's first official observation of Christmas on December 25 instead of its traditional observation of the holiday on January 7. His announcement was a gift to his audience as he addressed the nation, informing them that another three Russian fighter planes had been shot down and destroyed by Ukrainian forces.

Russia too had a statement of their own, of a battlefield advance, when Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Moscow forces have control of Marinka, now deserted, but considered important for its strategic value located some 20 kilometres west of Donetsk, the largest city in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. "This allows us today to more effectively protect Donetsk from attacks", said Shoigu, meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

 

Attacks, needless to say, from a country reclaiming its own territory. Ukraine announced that its air defence forces had intercepted 28 Russian drones, along with having shot down the three Russian warplanes. The total number of drones over Ukraine came to 31, but it remains unknown what occurred with the three that hadn't been intercepted and where they may have struck. The Kherson region, under Ukrainian control continues to experience frequent attacks.

Legislation was signed in July to move the traditional Orthodox Christmas holiday date. There are two Orthodox Christian churches in Ukraine; one with long affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, separate from the authority of the Russian church had been granted full recognition by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Orthodox Christianity's top authority, in 2019.

 

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church operated as a branch of the Russian church, but soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it announced its intention to break its ties with Moscow. Even so, its parishes still follow the same calendar as the Russian church, observing Christmas on January 7. And for that special occasion gifts keep piling up, as Ukraine demonstrates its military proficiency not only in the air, and on land but also at sea.

"[Latest developments indicate that Russia’s dominance in the Black Sea] is now challenged."

"This latest destruction of Putin’s navy demonstrates that those who believe there’s a stalemate in the Ukraine war are wrong."

"They haven’t noticed that over the past four months, 20% of Russia’s Black Sea fleet has been destroyed."

British defence secretary, Grant Shapps

A file photo of the Novocherkassk. Photograph: Yoruk Isik/Reuters

The winter counteroffensive is starting out very nicely indeed for Ukraine. Perseverance, endurance and courage, all requisite endowments in the Ukrainian spirit of self-defence in its determination to shove Moscow's troops back into Russia, recover its east, and demonstrate unequivocally to Vladimir Putin that Ukraine is indivisible and sovereign. The Russian landing ship Novocherkassk stationed in the Crimean port city of Feoddosia was struck by the Ukrainian air force.

"The fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller! Thanks to the air force pilots and everyone involved for the filigree work!" the commander of Ukraine’s air force, Mykola Oleshchuk announced on Tuesday.

Russia-appointed head of occupied Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, issued a statement that there had been "an enemy attack in [the] Feodosia area, [that] detonation has stopped and the fire has been localized", without adding such inconvenient details such as that the ship was totally destroyed.

 

Large explosion in Crimea as Ukrainian airstrike hits Russian warship – video

 

An Unsung Hero of Ukraine

"There are fewer [bionic] arms available than lost ones."

"I now know a lot not only from textbooks but also from my own experience."

"I feel uncomfortable when I'm without the prosthesis."

"But when I have the bionic arm on, I feel comfortable. It's like a part of you."

Alexis Cholas, volunteer combat medic, hospital rehabilitation specialist, Ukraine

Engineer Oleksandr collects bionic prostheses for Ukrainian soldiers at the Esper Bionics office in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023.  Credit: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka

Since the conflict that Russia inflicted on Ukraine in February 2022, an estimated 20,000 Ukrainians have suffered amputations; soldiers for the most part, whom blast wounds caused the loss of arms or legs. Ukrainians can access artificial limbs through the country's public health-care system. Artificial limbs are available to anyone who needs them, free of charge. Conventional artificial limbs cost between $800 and $2,800. But a bionic artificial limb, a far more sophisticated device enabling the wearer to perform tasks of a delicate nature, have a far higher cost, up to $50,000.

So, while the state steps in to provide a basic replacement of an amputated limb, anyone with thoughts of being able to replace natural fine motor skills to allow for an amputee to continue working in a profession requiring delicacy of movement in fine-tuned mode, would yearn for a bionic arm. That type of costly prosthetic enables natural and fluid movements, unlike the functionality of the basic artificial limb. 

26-year-old Alexis Cholas lost his right arm while operating as a volunteer combat medic close to the front lines in eastern Ukraine. With that, his profession as a surgeon was no longer possible. Despite which, as one of a small number of amputees, he was fitted with a bionic prosthesis, far more advanced than the basic, providing greater mobility. Thanks to his bionic hand, his movements are natural and fluid, enabling him to remove a bandage with ease, and dress a patient's wounds on his own, without nursing assistance.

Bionic artificial limbs are sophisticated replacements picking up electrical signals from the muscles above the amputation site in bioelectric technology that functions in carrying out an intended motion. Before 2022, the manufacturer of the bionic arm installed for Dr. Cholas by Esper Bionics targeted the U.S. market until a sharp rise in demand in Ukraine for prosthetic limbs leading to Esper distributing 70 percent of its products now in Ukraine.

 

Dr. Alexis Cholas, left, examines the amputated limbs of Ukrainian soldier Volodymyr Symyshyn at the hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. Credit: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka

Produced in Kyiv, the company is working at full tilt, over 30 workers producing roughly a dozen bionic hands monthly. A small group of engineers program, assemble and test the bionic arms known as Esper Hand. Despite ramping up production, the company struggles to meet demand. Close to 120 people are on the wait list for the prosthetic which, in Ukraine, the company absorbs no profit for, selling the arm for about $7,000, enough to just cover production, whereas the hand sells in the U.S. for over $20,000.

Another feature of the Esper Hand is artificial intelligence, powering an ability to adapt over time, as it learns the wearer's unique interactions with the hand. Dr. Cholas returned to volunteering as a combat medic on the front lines once he was outfitted with his bionic arm. He maintains his day job in Kyiv as a rehabilitation specialist in a public hospital, where his patients are members of the military or civilians who have lost limbs. His own amputation experience aids him in developing rapport with his patients.

Dr. Alexis Cholas, left, examines an amputated limb of a Ukrainian soldier at the hospital's rehabilitation center in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023.  Credit: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka

No, COVID-19 Is Not Like The Flu

"We have a much better understanding of the nature of COVID today. COVID damages the inner linings of the blood vessels."

"[COVID] causes inflammation of the blood vessels that can increase the risk of blood clots. We know it can, over time, lead to increased risk of having a heart attack, stroke, heart failure and things like that."

"Since cardiovascular disease can be silent, it's important to get your blood pressure checked and do further screening for cardiovascular disease if there are concerns."

"The severity of the infection doesn't seem to make a difference. These complications can occur even in people who have very mild symptoms. The big surprise is how much this can affect younger people. Studies are showing that even young, active people can experience heightened risk of these complications."

"So the benefit of vaccines far outweighs the risk when it comes to COVID, especially now we realize hos COVID can be so insidious and harmful for our cardiovascular system."

"The message here is you don't want to get COVID-19 if you can help it."

Dr. Peter Liu, chief scientific officer/vice-president research, University of Ottawa Heart Institute

Foam cells, which accumulate within arteries to form plaques in atherosclerosis, proved particularly susceptible to infection with SARS-CoV-2. Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock

We've lived with SARS-Cov-2 for over three years, ever since it surprised the world with its lightning-fast infection, moving through the planet with amazing ease, infecting populations and leading to a panic within governments, desperately seeking answers from the medical community, urging scientists to decipher the virus that was bringing havoc and sickness and death, burdening hospitals beyond their capacity to care for desperately ill people.

 

That panic is gone. We understand that the virus causing COVID is here and it will remain a threat to people's health as it continuously evolves, becomes more infectious, but somewhat less immediately lethal than the original strain. Yet its impact on human health as it mutates and appears less of a threat has led to a prevailing attitude that like the seasonal flu, it's nothing to be all that concerned about. The cautions of the first year from medical experts to isolate, mask, perform strict hygiene protocols have given way to alert-fatigue.

 

Even when new strains appear that once again are responsible for a resumption of mass infections showing up in waste water as a warning that communities are facing another epidemic resulting in new vaccines designed with the new strains at target, the uptake on vaccines being urged to keep the vulnerable up to date on their immunity levels now fails to convince people they are needed. The message seems to be that since the virus is endemic it's no more threatening than another flu virus.

 

But while during the early pandemic the scientific understanding was that the virus represented a respiratory disease, that perception has now changed, with experience showing that it is also a vascular disease, placing people at heightened risk for heart attack and stroke. COVID-19 is now viewed as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, joining ranks with high cholesterol and diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking.

  

The research team members say they have long known that infections such as the flu can increase risk for heart disease and heart attack, but the sharp rise in heart attack deaths is like nothing seen before. Photo by Getty.

 

People with pre-existing cardiovascular risk factors are of course susceptible for a worsening of their conditions as medically vulnerable, but the general public is also at greater risk with COVID onset. Infectious disease specialists now link increased risk of myocardial infarction along with heart rhythm abnormalities, heart failure and myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) with COVID-19 infection of recent vintage. Additionally, mRNA COVID-19 vaccines too can increase myocarditis risk. Even so, the risks associated with COVID are seen to be much grater than potential risk from the vaccine.

The risk of myocarditis was found over seven times higher in people who had been infected with COVID-19 than in those who received the vaccine, according to a 2022 study published in Frontiers of Cardiovascular Medicine. As well, the risk of developing a blood clot after an infection with COVID-19 is multiple times greater than after inoculation with  COVID vaccine. Neurological systems of the body are also affected by COVID-19.

Complications from COVID can be reduced by vaccines, even at infection. The tried-and-true masking and attention to public health advice are also seen to be effective in reducing risk of infection. Over 11 percent of Canadians following COVID infections have experienced long time COVID symptoms. Children vaccinated against COVID-19 were less likely to be left with long COVID, which can last for years, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature.

"I don't think we are going to get rid of COVID, so we need to protect ourselves against it", commented Dr. Liu.

In the year before the pandemic, there were 143,787 heart attack deaths; within the first year of the pandemic, this number had increased by 14% to 164,096.

The excess in acute myocardial infarction-associated mortality has persisted throughout the pandemic, even during the most recent period marked by a surge of the presumed less-virulent Omicron variant. 

Researchers found that although acute myocardial infarction deaths during the pandemic increased across all age groups, the relative rise was most significant for the youngest group, ages 25 to 44. 

By the second year of the pandemic, the “observed” compared to “predicted” rates of heart attack death had increased by 29.9% for adults ages 25-44, by 19.6% for adults ages 45-64, and by 13.7% for adults age 65 and older.

Cedar Sinai Medical Center

Canada: A Haven for Gazans, a Threat for Jews

"[The government is going to be granting three-year temporary resident visas for extended family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents] so they can come to Canada and be reunited with their family members residing here."

"Israelis and Palestinians already in Canada who feel unsafe returning home at this time will also be eligible for the fee-exempt study or open work permits."

"The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has created a humanitarian catastrophe of an unprecedented scale in Gaza."

"If you extrapolate from the number of people that we have brought out, and look at perhaps what their family relations are, it looks like it could be in the hundreds but we don't have a clear precise sense at this time."

"We will continue to work with our partners in the region to facilitate the exit of Canadian citizens, permanent residents and eligible family members."

Immigration Minister Marc Miller  

Protesters hold Palestinian flags outside the United States consulate, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada November 4, 2023. Photo by Kyaw Soe Oo/REUTERS

Palestinians living in Canada feel perfectly safe, Muslims living in Canada now vastly outnumber the the total Jewish population. While there has been a slight uptick of hostility from some sources against the Muslim population, antisemitic attacks and violence has skyrocketed in Canada, in lock step with the growing numbers of Muslims immigrating to Canada from all majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Jews are finding it increasingly fear-inducing in their introduction to the new viral antisemitism. Yet it is mostly the Muslim population that shrieks 'Islamophobia'. 

 

It seems the Trudeau government feels Canada hasn't had enough just yet of the insufferable protests by admirers of Hamas terrorism posing as 'pro-Palestinian' supporters upsetting life for ordinary Canadians not linked to, affiliated with, or admirers of the psychopathic terrorist group that committed a horrific mass slaughter in southern Israel on October 7, and the population is yearning for greater numbers to come out and disrupt Canadian cities, blocking roads, shouting their genocidal threats to Israel. 

 

Amazing enough that a democratic country that has made a sharp turn to autocratic rule where loyal Canadians lawfully protest against government COVID mandates imposed upon the population, found themselves classified as 'racists' for calling out Justin Trudeau's totalitarian approach to unity, having federal, provincial and municipal police brought out to crack down on their 'illegal' protest of the Truckers' Convoy that settled into central Ottawa last winter. 

 

The pro-Palestinian raucous, disruptive, illegal and racist bigotry demonstrated in full view of police, however, mounted by Hamas supporters, with Hamas flags partnering with those of the Palestinian Authority brings out no governmental outrage, much less a crackdown on their presence, not only in public spaces, but private ones as well, where criminal behaviour disrupting Christmas markets take place and no moves are made by police to apprehend and arrest those responsible.

 

Instead, the Trudeau virtuous humanitarian reaction has gone into overdrive, amending current immigration law to extend a welcome to extended Palestinian family members in the Gaza Strip, to bring them to 'safety'. This, of course, is the same government that took over a month to make public note of condemnation at the rape and mutilation of Jewish women in Israel. The very government that berated Israel for bombing a Gazan hospital, taking the word of Hamas over that of Israel.

Everyone deplores the loss of life, and in Gaza now, there is a reflection of the shellshock that has overtaken Israel in the wake of the Hamas atrocities where terrorists were followed across the border into Israel after both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, by ordinary Palestinian citizens, some of whom had benefited from having work permits for construction and farm work in Israel. Both the terrorists and the citizens attacked border villages and kibbutzim, slaughtering over 1,200 people, raping girls and women, abducting children and the elderly, and looting and destroying the towns and Kibbutzim.

Israel's campaign in response to the atrocities is meant to eradicate Hamas and Islamic Jihad completely from the region. The Israel Defense Forces have attacked the vast tunnel networks built by Hamas under Gaza's towns and cities and 'refugee' camps. Where weapons storage, command posts and terror operatives find shelter in the crowded enclave, and where rocket launchers are deliberately placed near mosques, hospitals, schools and apartment blocks to ensure maximum deaths occur when Israel responds to rockets launched across the border.

The greater the number of civilian deaths and particularly those of children, the more the terrorist publicity campaigns accusing Israel of genocide can resonate in empathetic compassion from the West, to apply pressure on Israel to stand down from its mission, despite the Hamas mission to eradicate the Jewish state. When civilians are used as human shields, when children are taught from primary school onward the glories of violence and tutored in the use of weapons while being infused with a martyrdom complex, the world is silent.

But Canada's government has now committed to absorbing as a humanitarian gesture in sympathy with the plight of Palestinians suffering the blowback of what their leaders inflicted on Israel, a temporary visa program operational by January 9. Where applications will be accepted for people with extended family connections to Canada, which will include parents, grandparents, siblings and grandchildren; categories ordinarily outside the framework of Canada's legal family unification program.

In addition to which spouses and children of Canadian citizens and permanent residents already in Canada since leaving Gaza in the aftermath of October 7 can also apply for a free study or an open work permit, courtesy of the Canadian government. The warped psychopathy of hatred for Jews prevalent among Palestinians who have been steeped in racist hatred all their lives will be imported along with those being brought to Canada. Where the rise in antisemitism is threatening the future of Jews in the country they have lived in for over 300 years. 

Surviving The Unthinkable

"It [her captivity] reminded me of the Holocaust. I thought I was going crazy."

"I was really afraid, and without barely any light or food I felt that I was going crazy."

"I said if Anne Frank could write, why couldn't I."

"I said to myself, 'Where are our planes? When I heard them [overhead], I was very happy, and was not afraid."

"After being held alone for so long, I was back with my family."

Ofelia Roitman, 77, former Hamas hostage

Ofelia Roitman, 77, was taken captive from her Kibbutz Nir Oz home on October 7, 2023, after Hamas terrorists attacked the community. She was freed on November 28, 2023. (Courtesy)

The grandmother of nine was recounting her experience as an Israeli hostage taken into captivity by Hamas terrorists in their orgy of slaughter, rape, mass murder and abduction on October 7. Her home was in Kibbutz Nir Oz, and on that morning the former educator had taken shelter in her safe room following siren warnings of incoming rockets from the Gaza Strip. She was alone in her home, her husband was recuperating in hospital from a recent surgery.

She called her daughter Natalie Madmon at 9:37 that morning with the message: "They are here, please, please!" The safe room's steel door was sprayed with bullets, one of which hit her arm. She was now a prisoner, as an elderly civilian Israeli, of terrorists. One of the attackers thoughtfully used a shoelace as a tourniquet to wrap her arm. And then she was thrown face down in a tractor for the drive back to Gaza with her captors. 

 

When Israeli soldiers arrived there were no signs of a struggle, and days later notification was forwarded to her family that she was a hostage in Gaza.

When Ofelia Roitman arrived in Gaza with her captors she was taken to a tunnel, and there a female Palestinian medic refused to tend to her wound. In English, she said "I don't treat Jews". She was overruled by the man who had taken charge of Roitman, insisting she be given basic medical attention, and then placed in a wheelchair, she was wheeled through the streets for a 20 minute trip to an apartment. There she would be held for the following 46 days.

From there her injuries were treated by a doctor periodically who was dressed in full burqa covering with an eye slit. She was warned not to say a word to anyone. When her captors wanted her family phone numbers she responded they were in her cellphone back at her house. For the following month and a half she was unaware whether it was night or day. Both light and food withheld, but for the very basic, to keep her alive.

Her days seemed endless, and gnawing hunger beset her, as she paced around in circles. Given a pita with za'atar daily, she would tear it into pieces and eat it through the day. She was given dry rice at night. "The food issue for me was like in the Holocaust", she said, on her eventual release. Noticing a pen and notebook she asked for permission to write in it, and after that, the next 53 days had her keeping a diary where, as an Argentinian-born, she wrote in Spanish.

Under the building where she was kept captive, tunnels stretched beneath, from where Hamas fighters would fire rockets at Israel and when a projectile was fired, the building shook. She heard crowds outside the building erupt into celebratory calls any time a missile reached Tel Aviv or Beersheva. On day 47 of her captivity, Ofelia Roitman was taken to a hospital, and there was reunited with two of her kibbutz neighbours.

The following day the three neighbours were delivered to the care of the Red Cross, and from there,  they were returned to Israel. Her nephew in Buenos Aeries, a popular sports broadcaster, began each game's broadcast during her captivity with a public reminder of his aunt's abduction along with other Israeli captives. In Argentina she became known as "Aunt Ofelia". 

Her kibbutz and home destroyed, she lives now in  an Israeli retirement centre, with her husband.

Palestinian terrorists transport a captured Israeli civilian, Adina Moshe, from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz to be held as a hostage in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. (AP Photo)

Surrender or Die

"We will continue the war until the end. It will continue until Hamas is destroyed, until victory."

"Whoever thinks we will stop is detached from reality."

"[Every member of Hamas is] marked for death."

"Surrender or die."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Trucks with humanitarian aid wait to enter the Palestinian side of Rafah on the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip on December 11, 2023. (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP)

Skilled at perpetually extracting compassion from the world community, portraying itself as the champion of Palestinian human rights, Hamas has never hesitated to sacrifice the lives of Palestinians for the greater cause of destroying Israel and accomplishing the mass murder of Jews, for their charter sets out just that very goal it is determined to bring to fruition. And while Hamas trains Palestinian children in Gaza to become the next generation of dedicated shaheeds fully incorporated into holy jihad as their purpose in life for the glory inherent in killing Jews, it portrays itself abroad as both liberator and victim.

 

Palestinians generally have taken great pains to persuade the outside world that they are victims of Israeli aggression, that Jews have committed the greatest of sins in 'occupying' land consecrated to Islam by reinstating their ancient ancestral lands into 20th Century Israel for all future generations of Jews to find haven from a hostile world. Jews have rediscovered anew just how hostile the world is to their presence after an all-too-brief post-Holocaust interregnum from discrimination and persecution. 

 

Palestinian public relations campaigns have convinced the gullible West that Palestinians are invested in the concept of a state of their own alongside that of Israel, that perpetual slogan of a 'two-state' solution to the current state of simmering conflict. But it's really a one-state 'solution' that they hold dear, the prospect of which they shield from the West, but pursue by indoctrinating their young to consider Israel an interloper, illegally and immorally sitting on Palestinian geography, and it is the duty of all Palestinians to 'resist the occupation'.

 

Smoke trails are seen as a salvo of rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, as seen from southern Israel, December 21, 2023. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Funding terrorist attacks is a great inducement in support of appealing to Palestinians' sense of nationalism and victimhood. Fatah's campaign is more subtle but it is one of total reclamation of the land and destruction of Israel; Hamas is more upfront about its ambitions, hiding from no outside source its lethal intentions against Israel and Jews living in their ancestral homeland. The savagery of the October 7 incursion into Israel with its planned sadistic rapes, mutilations and mass murder was Hamas showing the world what it is dedicated to: pure terrorism.

 

And show the world it did, in evidence they produced themselves through videos proudly demonstrating their capacity to inflict pain and suffering on the innocent, from babies to the elderly and infirm, from girls and women being repeatedly raped, tortured, mutilated and finally murdered; even dead bodies of old men, of African farm workers, of women are desecrated, driven through the streets of Gaza City, eliciting great whoops of joy at the bodies of dead Israelis, whipping up enthusiasm for striking at the corpses. Incredibly, even the airing of these monstrous atrocities failed to convince the world that Israel's loss is worth mourning.

 

Yet now that Israel is responding, even while Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad continue bombarding Israel with rockets, the world condemns Israel for the deaths of Palestinians. While Israel warns civilians to remove themselves from harm's way, Hamas orders its civilian population to remain in place, and will even shoot to kill those who waver and intend to move to safety. Western media hang on every statistic that the Hamas Health Ministry publishes of Palestinian death numbers attributed to Israeli bombing in Gaza. Wildly inflated numbers to elicit greater sympathy cannot be validated.

 

Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in this handout picture released on December 21, 2023. Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS

 

That bombing is strategic and meant to  target Hamas infrastructure, including the vast network of tunnels it has built under the Gaza Strip's cities, towns and 'refugee camps'. The tunnels and their shafts are built into and under mosques, hospitals, UNRWA-operated schools, apartment complexes and ordinary houses. In those tunnels, weapons caches are stored, and Hamas operatives find safe haven when they shoot off rockets from depots placed in crowded civilian areas, inviting a response from the IDF. The greater the number of civilian casualties, the lustier the outcry from the press and Western governments, playing right into Hamas's schemes.

The tunnels have been useful in providing hiding places for some of the hundreds of Israeli children, elderly, women and men that the terrorist groups and ordinary Palestinian civilians have taken  hostage. Each time rockets are aimed at Israel, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank cheer and applaud when they reach their goals. Support among the Palestinians, whether in Gaza or the West Bank, is robust, the majority support Hamas and feel the atrocities of October 7 were justified in the name of 'freedom' for Palestinians. 

Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been playing host and interveners between Israel and Hamas in negotiations for temporary ceasefires when prisoners in Israeli jails can be exchanged for hostages. It is in very fact, Hamas terrorist elites that are giving the orders and calling the shots. All of the commanders of the terrorist groups, in the wake of October 7 made themselves very scarce, going into hiding to preserve their lives, leaving their lower-order operatives to battle with the IDF under their instructions.

Their lives are expendable, those of the civilian population are ultra-disposable, while the commanders shield themselves from repercussions of their wholesale slaughter of Israelis and foreign farm workers on October 7. With pressure on Israel to be 'proportionate', and empathy for the plight of the Palestinians brought upon them by their psychopathic leadership Hamas leaders feel emboldened to dictate acceptable strategic variances from combat for access to humanitarian shipments of aid to the embattled Strip.

 

Armed, masked men reportedly affiliated with Hamas can be seen atop trucks carrying humanitarian aid that arrived in the Gaza Strip via Egypt's Rafah crossing, December 17, 2023. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

 

When agreement is secured to open border crossings, another opportunity is presented to terrorist leaders to slip out of the Gaza Strip in an escape from the punishment meted out by Israel's military. At the same time, while tractor-trailers stuffed with needed food, water, medical supplies, oil and gas are brought in to relieve the crisis for civilians to endure the conflict, the trucks and their humanitarian goods are commandeered by Hamas operatives for their own use, once more depriving the civilian population of access to life-saving food and medicine.

Drone footage