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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: bull_dozer who wrote (207002)7/23/2024 7:42:34 PM
From: TobagoJack  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 217549
 
am now-now committing to Paxo Gold to start balancing Ethereum holdings which gained, with block-chained gold

I think both shall rise, because USD must fall in order for the empire to re-industrialise, re-militarise, re-infrastructurize, and realise more and more and still more devaluations necessary for national security

Meaning, in a manner of speaking, Team USA national security imperative necessitate rise of somethings else, and ETH / PAXG qualify



To: bull_dozer who wrote (207002)7/24/2024 6:00:05 AM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 217549
 
China bad-bad-bad, for including the Hamas



foreignpolicy.com

Beijing Declaration: China's Hamas-Fatah Unity Agreement Unlikely to Succeed
Amy MackinnonJuly 23, 2024, 6:20 PM

Mahmoud Aloul of Fatah, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Moussa Abu Marzouk of Hamas attend an event at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.
From left: Mahmoud Aloul of Fatah, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Moussa Abu Marzouk of Hamas attend an event at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on July 23. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

More than a dozen Palestinian factions, including bitter rivals Fatah and Hamas, signed a joint declaration in Beijing on Tuesday vowing to form an interim unity government, although experts are skeptical that the diplomatic push brokered by China will succeed in bridging long-standing animosity between the groups.

The talks, which began on Sunday, marked the second time representatives from Hamas and Fatah had convened in the Chinese capital this year, as Beijing has cautiously sought to expand its diplomatic footprint in the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hailed the agreement, dubbed the Beijing Declaration, as a “historic moment for the cause of Palestine’s liberation” in a speech following the talks.

Chinese state media was quick to portray the declaration as a major breakthrough. “China has made another significant contribution to the peace and stability of a world in turbulence,” according to the Global Times, an English-language daily, while state news agency Xinhua described the deal as a “vivid manifestation of China’s concrete actions to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.”

The document calls for the creation of a Palestinian unity government to oversee the Palestinian territories—including both Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank—and lay the groundwork for eventual general elections.

Hamas—the Islamist militant group that, until this latest war, governed the Gaza Strip—and Fatah—the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority, which governs portions of the Israeli-occupied West Bank—fought a bitter civil war in the mid-2000s as the militant group seized control of Gaza and have remained bitterly opposed since.

The agreement came just weeks after a rhetorical tit-for-tat between the two groups appeared to escalate tensions, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads Fatah, accusing Hamas of “legal, moral, and political” responsibility for the continuation of the war and senior Hamas officials accusing Fatah of aligning with Israel.

Multiple diplomatic efforts over the years to bridge the two groups that dominate Palestinian politics have failed, said Khaled Elgindy, the director of the Middle East Institute’s program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian affairs, and experts doubt that the Beijing Declaration will fare any better.

“I don’t think there’s a whole lot that’s new here,” Elgindy said. “There have been so many agreements, starting in Cairo in 2011. Not too long ago, there was the Moscow statement,” he added, speaking of previous mediation efforts. Russia has hosted a number of talks among Palestinian factions in Moscow, most recently this February.

Crucially, the Beijing Declaration lacks any description of an implementation mechanism to turn its pledges into a reality, Elgindy said. An unnamed senior Fatah official told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the deal had largely been signed out of respect for their Chinese hosts.

Regional experts said China was likely using the talks to bolster its diplomatic credentials as it increasingly seeks to rival the United States on the world stage.

“I think this is a quest for a cheap diplomatic reputation, optics mostly, enabling China to portray itself as a significant power broker in the Middle East, which used to be the realm of the U.S.,” said Assaf Orion, the director of the Israel-China program at the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think tank.

Beijing has long-standing ties to the Palestinians, and in 1988, China became one of the first countries in the world to recognize a Palestinian state. In June 2023, China signed a strategic partnership agreement with the PA in Beijing, where Abbas met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China’s diplomatic push for Palestinian unity also sends a powerful message to countries in the global south and across the Islamic world, where there has been a strong backlash against Israel’s punishing military campaign in Gaza, said Ahmed Aboudouh, an expert on China’s rising influence in the Middle East at Chatham House, as Beijing seeks to position itself as an alternative to the Western-led order in an increasingly multipolar world.

But no one in Israel is seriously considering China as a mediator, Orion said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned the agreement in a statement on X. “Instead of rejecting terrorism, Mahmoud Abbas embraces the murderers and rapists of Hamas,” he said. “In reality, this won’t happen because Hamas’s rule will be crushed, and Abbas will be watching Gaza from afar.” Washington has historically provided the backbone for diplomatic efforts between the Israelis and Palestinians and is party to the ongoing efforts with Qatar and Egypt to broker a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

China’s attempt to secure a deal among the Palestinian factions, on the other hand, speaks to Beijing’s approach to high-stakes crises, in which it narrows in on a subsection of the crisis. “China plays a very crucial role in small initiatives to hand it over to the United Nations and to sideline the United States,” Aboudouh said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was also in Beijing on Tuesday to discuss paths to end the war with Russia, in his first visit to China since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

While few breakthroughs are expected as a result of the recent talks in Beijing involving the Palestinian factions, political rapprochement between Hamas and Fatah will be critical for effective governance in Gaza after the war, Elgindy said. With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set on eradicating Hamas after its attack on Oct. 7, 2023, the United States has viewed the Fatah-dominated PA as the best candidate to fill the power vacuum in the strip after the fighting ends—a proposal that Netanyahu has adamantly rejected.

But although the war has significantly diminished Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, U.S. officials and experts are skeptical that the group and its ideology can be fully eradicated. That raises the possibility that, without some kind of detente agreed between the two groups, Hamas could continue to play spoiler in Gaza, should the PA return to govern the strip.

“There’s no way for the PA to return to Gaza and be able to function without Hamas’s acquiescence at a minimum,” Elgindy said. “Even if they’re not in government, they have the ability to disrupt.”



To: bull_dozer who wrote (207002)7/24/2024 4:57:50 PM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 217549
 
Let us watch and see if the ME situation is totally intractable or just very difficult

scmp.com
China’s Middle East peace drive faces ‘big challenges’ after brokering Palestinian deal
Published: 10:00pm, 24 Jul 2024


Getting Israel on board could be Beijing’s “biggest challenge”. Photo: AFP

China’s success in bringing together rival Palestinian factions is only a first step, according to diplomatic observers who warned it faces a bigger challenge in making the deal stick and getting Israel on board.
“The declaration is a great breakthrough, but it will not be easy to advance it,” said Ma Xiaolin, an international relations specialist at Zhejiang International Studies University.

“The first step is to push for a ceasefire, but Israel has not changed its position on Hamas and has rejected Hamas involvement in the post-war governance of Gaza, and this will be the biggest challenge,” he said. “Maybe the next step for China is to send a special envoy to persuade Israel.”

Beijing has not released the full details of the deal between Fatah, Hamas and 12 smaller Palestinian factions. But the outlines of the agreement would see a Palestinian unity government being formed to oversee Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem with elections to be held as soon as possible.

Although this implies acceptance of a two-state solution, both the United States and Israel have rejected any role for Hamas.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted on X, formerly Twitter, “this won’t happen because Hamas’s rule will be crushed”.

Discover news and insights on women trailblazers, social issues and gender diversity in Asia

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mathew Miller said the Palestinian Authority should be the one “governing a unified Gaza and West Bank”.

The US is continuing to push for a ceasefire agreement that would see Hamas freeing all remaining hostages seized last October, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected to visit the White House on Thursday.

The deal signed in Beijing is the latest attempt to bring rival Palestinian factions together, but none have been able to stick.

A 2017 reconciliation deal signed by Hamas and Fatah in Cairo in 2017 under pressure from Arab states would have led to the creation of a unity government in Gaza, but it collapsed over a disagreement about who would control the borders.

To make matters worse, the following year the then Palestinian Authority prime minister Rami Hamdallah blamed Hamas for an assassination attempt against him during a visit to Gaza.

News portal Middle East Monitor reported that the Beijing agreement incorporated other previous deals, including the 2011 National Accord Agreement signed in Cairo and the 2022 Algeria Declaration, to be implemented “with the help of Egypt, Algeria, China and Russia”.

Ma said previous failures were largely due to underrepresentation and the lack of a monitoring system to oversee implementation.

“Only countries such as China and Russia can take care of the Palestinian cause in the framework of the United Nations and counteract the unfair US position against Palestine,” he added.

It’s more symbolic than substantialClemens Chay, National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute
China has been trying to promote its image as a peace broker after negotiating a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic relations last year.
But Clemens Chay, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute, said that while the Iranians and Saudis had both given clear signals they were willing to engage with each other, “there are inherent differences, which are difficult to overcome” among the rival Palestinian factions.

These include disagreements over whether to commit to non-violent means of securing statehood and how a post-war Palestinian state would be governed.

“I would say that Beijing managed to achieve a kind of lowest denominator from all factors and perhaps also dangling some carrots,” Chay said.

“In other words, some concessions for the parties involved. It’s more symbolic than substantial.”

Looking forward, Chay said it would take a great deal of political capital on Beijing’s part to hold the Palestinian factions to their word – and there was still the additional hurdle of getting Israel to stop fighting and accept whatever national unity government was formed.


(From left) Mahmoud al-Aloul, vice-chairman of the Central Committee of Fatah, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and senior Hamas member Mousa Abu Marzouk at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Rival Palestinian factions including Fatah and Hamas have signed an agreement aimed at ending their division and building unity following talks in Beijing, marking a diplomatic win for China.

Senior representatives of 14 Palestinian factions reached the agreement – called the Beijing Declaration – after reconciliation talks that began on Sunday.

The pact aims to unite Palestinians in their conflict with Israel, which launched a war on militant group Hamas in Gaza in October.


Senior representatives of 14 Palestinian factions signed the agreement in Beijing. Photo: AFP

The Chinese foreign ministry said the agreement was a first step to promote a “comprehensive, durable and sustainable ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip that would eventually lead to Palestine being admitted to the United Nations as a fully fledged member and becoming an independent state.

“The declaration reaffirms [the] commitment to establishing an independent state of Palestine with Jerusalem as the capital city based on relevant UN resolutions and ensuring the integrity of Palestinian territory including the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza,” ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday said the signing of the agreement was “an important, historic moment in the Palestinian cause”.
He said that under the deal the rival groups had agreed to set up an “interim national reconciliation government” to govern post-war Gaza.

Signatories included senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk and Fatah envoy Mahmoud al-Aloul along with emissaries from 12 other Palestinian groups.

The Chinese foreign ministry said it was the first time the 14 rival groups had gathered together in Beijing for reconciliation talks, and that the ambassadors of Egypt, Russia and Algeria also attended the meetings.

“Reconciliation is an internal matter for the Palestinian factions, but at the same time it cannot be achieved without the support of the international community,” Wang said.

He added that China was keen to “play a constructive role in safeguarding peace and stability in the Middle East”.

Hamas and the Palestinian Authority – the two dominant Palestinian political parties in the Palestinian territories – have held multiple rounds of unity talks since Hamas defeated President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party in parliamentary elections in 2006.

In 2007 Hamas became de facto ruler in the Gaza Strip while Fatah led the Palestinian Authority in the Israel-controlled West Bank.

But reconciliation efforts have floundered, with tensions between Fatah and Hamas escalating and spilling over in the region.

Hamas and Fatah have tried and failed several times to reach an agreement to unite the two separate Palestinian territories under one governance, with a 2017 agreement brokered by Egypt quickly falling apart. A 2022 agreement to hold elections within a year was not followed through.

The West has refused to accept any government that includes Hamas unless it expressly recognises Israel.

Ma Xiaolin, an international relations specialist at Zhejiang International Studies University, said the agreement was a significant breakthrough.

Recognising the Palestine Liberation Organisation as the only legitimate representative of Palestine meant rival groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) might join a coalition sometime in the future, he said.

The deal also reaffirmed the two-state solution, Ma noted, adding: “This would signify that Hamas and PIJ accept Israel as a state and they don’t intend to recover all of Palestine but East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank – and this is a great step forward.”

Tuesday’s agreement comes as China seeks to position itself as a mediator in Gaza. In March last year, it brokered a peace deal between Middle East rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.

It is also trying to mediate in Russia’s war in Ukraine, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Beijing this week to discuss China’s role in ending the war as well as economic cooperation.

Observers in China said it remained to be seen what prospects for the Palestinian agreement were, given that previous reconciliation deals had failed to hold. National unity achieved now would strengthen Palestine’s position in future negotiations with Israel and the West, they said.

“If the factions could reach a certain level of strategic unity and form one voice for the sake of the people, that could help Palestine to win support from the Arab and Islamic world and strengthen its position in future peace talks with Israel,” said Liu Xinlu, dean of the school of Arabic studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

“This is a big step forward.”

He also said the deal was a diplomatic victory for China, whose growing leverage and influence in the Middle East had created a “demonstration effect” after it brokered the detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran last spring.

“It means China’s position, whether as a mediator or guarantor, is accepted by these countries and, as a global power, China is capable of this.”



To: bull_dozer who wrote (207002)7/24/2024 5:51:58 PM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 217549
 
I think the de-grossing dominance by hedge funds and such shall afford us another opportunity to loot the vault, for when speculators de-gross, they ought to and often do sell some of everything, and amongst the everything bag be miners and such

a bit of patience might yield some goodies at less princely sums

yeah, interest rate matters also, and I am hoping for disappoint on that front by one more round

I prefer to get back my paper gold even as am holding tight to my miners - I know, tactically makes no sense that I do not sell miners, but simply because I cannot be sure and harder to catch up to the miners if I let go

bloomberg.com



To: bull_dozer who wrote (207002)7/24/2024 9:37:00 PM
From: bull_dozer  Read Replies (9) | Respond to of 217549
 
>> THE F*CKING F*CKS



China, China, China...How do I get paid for mentioning China in the post? <G>