Tag: China

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Qatar-Saudi Deal A Pushback Against Iranian-Chinese Dominance

The recently concluded Qatar-Saudi deal to end the blockade on Qatar has once again changed the equation and calibration of peace in the Middle East. There are those naysayers who believe the deal was concluded in time for a potential Biden administration, but that is improbable.

Remember the embargo on Qatar was led by Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States precisely because of Qatar’s connections to Iran and its funding of the Muslim Brotherhood.

A Biden administration that is ready to cozy up to the Mullah’s in Iran would elicit a continuing of the present Saudi led embargo.

Most likely, Qatar has realized which way the wind is blowing in the Middle East when it comes to their Sunni friends. Qatar’s strength has always come from its ability to play all sides – the embargo proved to its leadership in Doha that this strategy is no longer an option.

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Qatar Wants In On A Potential UAE-Israel Pipeline

With a reported pipeline between the UAE and Israel in the works, Qatar’s reliance and drive to build one with Turkey has now become obsolete. The main reason for its support for Turkey’s pro ISIS policies during Obama’s tenure was due to the building of this joint Turkey-Qatar pipeline.

Without the ability to build a secure pipeline and the UAE-Israel potentially being far more lucrative, Qatar has less reasons to hold back from returning to the Sunni block.

True, Biden’s team views things differently and this is the reason for Qatar’s decision to pick sides now. With the White House’s foreign policy potentially being run through Beijing, Qatar’s historic “neutrality” in the region is not longer relevant after Jan. 20th.

A Different Middle East – New Opportunities

President Trump’s team has left the region in a very different situation. The Muslim Brotherhood is fast being pushed out after the signing of the Abraham Accords and with it Qatar’s reason and ability to push against its Sunni neighbors and more importantly Israel.

Qatar’s choice to rejoin the Saudi led block also means that it accepts the centrality and necessity of Israel’s role within that block. Biden can certainly try to partner with Iran. However, the block’s strength is its ability to utilize Israel’s innovation economy, military prowess, and geopolitical connections around the world to sidestep a hapless Biden administration and a rising China without losing ground to Iran.

Qatar’s growing communication with Israel concerning Gaza has also made it less obstinate in dealing with the Jewish state on other issues. It also has a working relationship with Jerusalem and will now benefit from the Abraham Accords in an indirect way.

The Qatar-Saudi deal may appear to have come out of nowhere, but it needed to be done before Biden takes over in order to ensure that Iranian influence does not pollute the negotiations. Qatar wants to keep its revenues rising and influence steady and sees the Sunni block as the key to doing it.

This agreement will make it harder for Biden and company to push for rejoining the already broken Iran nuclear deal. More than that, it is a message for China who recently upgraded their military pact with Iran, that the Abraham Accords and the Sunni block will not be broken up.

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MIKETZ: SolarWinds, China, and Crossing The Rubicon

I want to start by repeating the opening paragraph of my post on IsraelUnwired from earlier today:

“From chaos to chaos, the US is experiencing perhaps the most trying moment in its history. All of the fears about the 2020 election have come to pass and now with the revelation that the SolarWinds platform has been hacked with an active infiltration for more than six months has essentially, all assumptions about security and the efficacy of the elections themselves should be thrown out.”

What is happening is something far deeper than a mere cyber attack on the US. The SolarWinds hack and the subsequent confusion over just how bad it still, especially when it comes to trusting the election results cannot be overstated.

With trust in the US government and its various institutions at an all time low and with factionalism and tribalism growing by the day, the US is on verge of a true systemic collapse.

The Chinese Communist Party, along with other state actors like Russia, North Korea, and their allies have been waiting for the final execution of their plan to take down the US. After all, communist leaders have always believed the US could be taken “without firing a shot.”

There are serious military leaders in the US, both retired and active urging President Trump to take action. Those retired leaders are openly asking him to “cross the Rubicon” the way Caesar did and “restore the Republic.”

This is not about the Rubicon. This is about an inflection point in world history; what we call a Ketz or end in Hebrew. An end is obviously not a final moment in time, but an end of one period and a beginning of another. A Ketz is the transitional moment when that happens.

That is what this Torah portion is about. Joseph spent two years in the dungeon in Egypt and in the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, the end of that period, the Ketz occured and he was taken out into the light.

Enemies of freedom surround us all. Chassidut teaches us that these physical enemies are just manifestations of the spiritual enemies we are fighting within. We are at a Ketz, much the same as Joseph and the Maccabees – both of who went from darkness to light.

Over the next few weeks and months our enemies will attempt to sow fear and division across the world. They will attempt to keep us in darkness and yet if we understand that the Rubicon people are urging President Trump to cross is not just his, but in truth it exists within each of us, then we have nothing to fear at all.

Most of humanity lives in a universe of distraction, which is the darkness we are fighting against. They want to forget about the pressures of the world and inject the noise and darkness further in. They want to remain in the “dungeon of Egypt.”

This is the Ketz we are in. The darkness may feel unnavigable, but at the end we will be lifted out into the light.

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Patience and Faith In A Time Of Trouble

We are all experiencing stress and while there is a part of us that just wants to ignore the events swirling around us, that is not the point. Each of us are on a mission. We were sent here to work out our challenges and issues and ultimately we must confront all of the pain and sorrow in our world, not by succumbing to it, but by accepting it and then transcending it. The current coronavirus pandemic is all about fear.

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While the virus is actually happening, we must not succumb to the fear it is causing, but rather us this opportunity to isolate the tests involved with it and then understand why Hashem has sent such a virus now, when we are so close to meeting our universal goals.

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Coronavirus and the War of Gog U’Magog

When coronavirus broke onto the world scene, it was first seen as a Chinese problem and then an Asian problem. Of course now this pandemic is ravaging Italy and has penetrated throughout the world. Countries are racing to catch up as the most dangerous part of the virus is the exponential spread in rapid fashion that puts a strain on ICU units.

Economies are collapsing, fear is spreading, and the world is literally shutting down.

The assumption has always been that this was a naturally caused pathogen that mutated. That is if you believe the official statements from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Much of the world media bought into, despite the body of evidence that this was anything but a naturally occurring pathogen.

The question is what is it and where is really from?

The Chinese Communist Party ran a P-4 bio lab that dealt with coronavirus’ in Wuhan. Senator Tom Cotton spoke about this connection early on, but was panned as a conspiracy theorists.

Now people are beginning to wake up. There is a realization that in the beginning world society wanted to believe this was manageable. That the Chinese had just messed up, but evidence shows otherwise.

After all the Chinese Communist Party knew of the spread of the virus in Wuhan just before their New Years, but decided to allow 5 million migrant workers to leave Wuhan and Ubey province to go home.

That was no accident. That was a purposeful decision. The question is why? Why would the CCP allow their own citizens to infect a wide percentage of China. The CCP eventually shut down 700 million people with the hope that this would freeze the virus from destroying their country.

We know their reports of the amount of dead is not true and we know now that their recovery is a lie. So why?

China was beginning to lose against the Trump administration. The trade war was beginning to take its toll on the country and so it has fought back with the most insidious economic weapon available, but unfortunately this weapon has now mutated and gone out of control. The Chinese understood they would have to leak this out carefully. For them a few thousand citizens is nothing, but it grew beyond their control and while their intentions in shutting down the West has worked, they have destroyed themselves in the process.

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How Is This Connected To Gog U Magog?

The war of Gog U Magog is a global war and it is a war that finishes off the hegemonic rule of the global powers making way for a new paradigm. Rebbe Nachman teaches in the 13th lesson in the Likutey Moharan that before the Redemption occurs, the insatiable desire for money must be destroyed. China was that engine. It produced cheap products that lured humanity after the desires of this world – causing all of us to forget our innate connection to the Creator. This caused us to fall into a deep spiritual slumber.

The Baal Shem Tov teaches that the war of Gog U Magog is a spiritual war. The numerical value of Gog U Magog is in fact 70 – mirroring the 70 root nations of the world. Each of these nations according to Rebbe Nachman as taught over in the 36th lesson of Likutey Moharan has a specific weapon specialized to hold us back from our true potential.

According to this lesson, a person’s soul comes into this world in order to break through these 70 nations. This occurs on an individual level and national level.

The spelling of China in Hebrew is made up of Samech, Yud, and Nun. This equals 120. More interestingly, if you separate the nun from the word you are left with 70. Nun is 50 and as we learn in the first lesson in the Likutey Moharan it is synonymous with kingship. Essentially China is the source of power for the Kingdom of Gog U Magog. It is its life blood. This is the kingdom which controls the world at the End of Days.

While none of us know where any of this is going, it is important to understand that the collapse we are witnessing is not ours. It is the collapse of the Kingdom which has covered up our ability to truly to connect to our most authentic selves. We are after all an expression of the Creator. We are sent down into this world to uplift and to reveal the holiness hidden within. Everything that is happening may seem scary, but it really doesn’t have to be if we understand that this happening for our own benefit.

The statue is falling. Are we ready to take advantage of the situation and free the Lost Princess buried deep within us once and for all? We have the most powerful weapon of all – prayer. It is time we begin to use it.

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CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: The End of the Exile is Here

The Coronavirus can no longer be ignored. It is a fast spreading and very deadly pandemic that has broken out of the 700 million person quarantine in China to have no begun spreading around the world. While the virus itself is scary enough most of the world’s pharmaceuticals are dependent on base ingredients found in China.

As the stock markets are beginning to crash as supply chains are being disrupted across the world.

So why is this connected to the end of the exile?

Exile is a corruption in the universal divine expression. In a sense, everything is in exile, because the universe lacks the divine harmony it was meant to have. This final stage of the exile comes when we are already back in our Land and yet we feel distanced from the Creator who has brought us back.

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We have created vessels of sovereignty and yet have never used them in the Divine manner they are meant to be used. Instead the world and especially us have been redirected to a world of products, which are in of themselves the means of distraction that has pulled most of us towards the abyss of endless darkness.

Rebbe Nachman teaches that excess brings depression and as we know depression leads to exile. Where does this excess come from. It comes from the lust after money and as Rebbe Nachman teaches it is this uncontrollable desire for money which in today’s world really means products that has kept us as a world from reaching the final Redemption.

China is the engine of the West’s ability to mass produce endless products. Do we need them?

No. But we want them. We want and we want and we want.

Now the engine is being taken away and with it the last mirage of the Exile’s power over us. This will be painful. Many things will change, but the corona pandemic is the weapon that is knocking down the statue Daniel saw in his dream.

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Tariffs, Tax Cuts and the FED – The US Strategy to Defeat China

China Petrodollar

The current trade war underscores China’s role as the number one geopolitical competitor to the U.S. The Trump administration, with the support of the Federal Reserve Bank (FED), has embarked on a plan to economically defeat China. Back in April, President Trump could not deny that in the midst of a trade war that ‘there won’t be a little pain’ but predicted the U.S. will ‘have a much stronger country when we are finished’. But, at a rally last week in Montana, President Trump confidently stated ‘The war was lost on trade many years ago… but now we’re gonna win it and because we have all the cards’. This was somewhat puzzling as China has been slowly devaluing the yuan over the past two months and has withheld implementing its biggest card (the sale of its U.S. treasury holdings).

Tariffs
Last year, the U.S. posted a $375.6 billion deficit in goods with China with a large segment due to computer and electronics imports. In addition, an often-overlooked cause of this trade deficit is the manner in which China acquired its technology. A recent internal investigation found Chinese theft of American intellectual property costing between $225 billion and $600 billion annually. American trade officials cited the Chinese government’s method for acquiring valuable trade secrets as motivation for additional tariffs. The NY Times outlined how China stole designs from Micron Technology to enable it to build a $5.7 billion microchip factory. President Trump has effectively stopped prior administration’s ‘sellout’ policy of allowing Chinese purchases of strategic U.S. assets. While the Chinese government currently owns approximately $1.18 trillion of U.S. treasuries, any chance to swap this debt to equity and effectively colonize the U.S. is virtually zero.

Tax Cuts
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 signed into law by President Trump last December has met optimistic expectations as revenues from federal income taxes were $76 billion higher in the first half of this year, compared with the first half of 2017. It may be why President Trump recently hinted at a second phase of tax cuts that would involve a further reduction in the U.S. corporate tax rate and more stimulus for the middle class. One of the consequences of this tax cut have been greater budget deficits. While undoubtedly a long-term concern, the short-term results have yielded great benefits.

The FED
Large budget deficits, a trade war with China are being coordinated with the policies of the Federal Reserve. As summarized by a report from Palisade Research:

  • The always-rapidly-growing U.S. deficit requires constant funding from foreigners. But with the Federal Reserve raising rates and unwinding their balance sheet through Quantitative Tightening (QT) – meaning they’re sucking money out of the banking system.
  • These two situations are creating the shortage abroad. The U.S. Treasury’s soaking up more dollars at a time when the Fed is sucking capital out of the economy.
  • Not to[o] mention the strengthening dollar and higher short-term yields are making it more difficult for foreigners to borrow in dollars. Especially at a time when Emerging Market’s are imploding.

Clearly, the Trump administration views China as a greater threat to US interests than the Federal Reserve Bank at this time. As a candidate, President Trump had harsh words for Wall Street such as ‘I know Wall Street. I know the people on Wall Street…. I’m not going to let Wall Street get away with murder. Wall Street has caused tremendous problems for us.’ and ‘I don’t care about the Wall Street guys… I’m not taking any of their money.’. He even tweeted about the importance of auditing the FED. To date, his administration has not matched his prior rhetoric as they openly sided with banks and waived punishment over prior crimes. While some would question any type of coordination with a central bank, the President obviously does not share any such rigid ideology to constrain him. Still, alliances can be transitory and there is nothing to preclude the Trump administration from shifting policy at a later date.

China’s Options
We learned a few weeks ago that in fact Russia sold off half of their U.S. treasury holdings in the month of April. This coincided with a spike of 35 basis points on 10-year treasury bond yields. Perhaps, this was a test in preparation for a larger future sell-off. A treasury sale by the Chinese government could potentially have a devastating impact on the U.S. economy. Note that seven out of nine previous yield curve inversions have preceded a recession.

While China has launched the heavily anticipated yuan oil futures contract, it has not been implemented by Saudi Arabia as of yet, thereby delaying the death of the petrodollar.

Conclusion
So, the immediate goal for the U.S. is to starve China of US dollars until it makes satisfactory concessions. There have been reports of China’s economy slowing. Historically, the initiation of trade wars is bad economic policy. However, this unconventional strategy may be the only way for the U.S. to economically defeat China.
If this plan does not work as well as the President thinks it will, it could spur more people to question the current system of debt and centralized banking. The answer to what replaces the current system is anyone’s guess.

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Trump Puts the Screws on North Korea and Iran

News today that President Trump decided to pull out of his much vaunted summit with North Korean despot Kim Jong Un sent shockwaves around the world.  US markets dipped on the news.  Once Trump pulled out of the JCPOA (aka Iran nuclear agreement) this should not have been a surprise to anyone.  There has been overwhelming evidence for some time now that Iran and North Korea have been working together.  Iran was essentially helping North Korea financially with all the oil cash it began to receive in order for North Korea to test Iranian advances in their nuclear program.

Ultimately Trump understands that a true hardline approach is needed with these actors.  As China threatens Taiwan and Iran moves towards resuming nuclear development in order to reach full breakout, North Korea’s true intentions never matched their photo ops.



With Israel and Jordan increasingly cornered by Iran and Hezbollah, the Trump administration sees war on the horizon.  In a situation with war against Iran, having North Korea play games with diplomacy is downright dangerous.  The Trump administration has decided to take a hardline against North Korea and thus be ready for the coming hot war on the verge of breaking out.

In the months to come watch for Iran to make moves against Israel by way of Hezbollah, while it directly pushes against Saudi Arabia.  Kim Jong Un is now embarrassed. With China threathening Taiwan and Iran on the move, North Korea has nothing holding it back from going all in.




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ISRAEL-INDIA ALLIANCE: Israeli Defense Contracts to India Continue to Soar

Despite India’s publicly cool reception over Washington’s embassy move to Jerusalem, the Modi government continues to build on its alliance with Israel by becoming the top Israeli arms and defense importer for 2017.

In general, there has been a very large increase of Israeli defense contracts to the Asia-Pacific region.  The Asia-Pacific region holds 58 percent of Israeli defense deals making it by far the largest region for Israeli defense contracts.  Israel’s top three customers, all from the region, include India, Vietnam, and Azerbaijan.

India leads with US$715 million worth of purchase, then Vietnam at US$142 million and Azerbaijan at US$137 million follows next.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Israel’s military exports rose by 41 percent in 2017, the third consecutive year of increased defense exports, which brought in nearly US$9.2 billion in contracts.



Last month, India ended its ban it had placed on Aerospace Industries and the Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd both of Israel, which remained blacklisted since 2006 due to allegations of bribery.

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a lawsuit demanding the closure of the criminal investigation against the two companies, which led to US$2 billion deal between India and Israel’s Aerospace Industries. The lawsuit closure led to an agreement between the two nations under which the Israeli company would supply India with Barak 8 surface-to-air missiles.

India’s Concern About China and Pakistan Has Strengthened the Military Cooperation With Israel

Most India-Israel observers have always noted the warm cultural relations between the two ancient countries.  Yet, in today’s geopolitical upheavels along with Chinese economic expansion westward by way of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Chinese military alliance with Pakistan, India’s military cooperation with Israel has taken a front seat to the growing trade and cultural ties.

With Pakistan arming itself with Chinese weapons and excacerbating tensions in Kashmir, India and Israel have now grown even closer.

While India may have skipped the US embassy dedication, it barely uttered a peep over Israel’s border defense against Hamas terrorists who posed as civilians.  Perhaps this is because, India too has begn to face a militant Pakistan prepared to utilize similar tactics against the only Hindu majority country in the world.




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[Premium] Trump’s Tariff’s Will Force Israel to Choose Between India and China

With all the flack President Trump has received on his steel tariff’s from the MSM, most observers are missing the point of the decision. Trump understands that China and the USA are already engaged in economic warfare, with China winning.  The tariffs are designed to balance out China’s trade policy.

More important than the effects of the tariffs, the signal from the Trump administration is that China is essentially American enemy number one.  This has a tremendous effect across the world.  With alliances consolidating from the east to west, Trump is trying to nudge allies to make a decision.

Israel is not immune to this challenge.  Since the early 2000’s it has courted both India and China with tremendous success.  Of course India is seen as more important and has been raised to the level of a strategic ally, which places Israel in the middle of the Indo-Chinese rivalry.

Up until now, Israel has been able to stay neutral on issues of dispute between China and India, yet with the USA making China into enemy number one, Israel appears to be heading towards a crossroads.  Of course, the decision in many ways was helped along by China’s actions towards India and its support of Pakistan which is an enemy of India and adversary of Israel.  China’s disregard of civil rights, persecution of opposition dissent, and the now appointement of President Xi for life make Israel’s decision that much easier.

What About the Chinese Investment Potential

While its true Israel will have to do away with Chinese money, the investments China has made seem to be part of a larger strategy of control.  One just needs to ask Zambia on how their ability to have self determination has gone since the Chinese have taken over the copper and coal industry there.

Zambia Reports published the following a few days ago: “The Zambia Association of Timber and Forestry Based Industry has alleged that about 5,000 mukula laden containers from Zambia have been exported to China following the ban on the exportation of timber species in 2017.”

According to the report the government appears to be working with China to help illegally export the mukula.  Of course China loves to insist that it is positively investing in Zambia.

Israel has deftly avoided going down the same route as Zambia and although the lure of Chinese investments can be great, Jerusalem realized early on that dealing with China is like a drug that feels great in the beginning but can be deadly down the line.

Trump’s tariff decision has now begun to force the concretization of new alignments that have already been underway.  As the trade wars and potential direct conflicts between China and the USA heat up, look for even more increased partnerships between Israel and India and a dampening of Israel-Chinese relations.