Daily Briefing: PURIMSPEIL PURIMSPIEL PURIMSPIEL

FOR CONTEXTUAL REFERENCE:

Jerusalem Post, Mar.5, J.P. staff, “El Al finds alternative crew after pilots refuse to fly Netanyahu to Italy“— Israel’s national airline, El Al pilots left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, high and dry after no one volunteered to fly Israel’s couple out to Rome for a state visit to Italy scheduled for later this week, El Al Airlines said on Sunday. 

The deadline of a tender issued by Israel’s national airline, as is required when the prime minister is set to depart on a commercial airline, expired at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday and was met with indifference by El Al pilots and flight attendants, who refused to take up the opportunity.  Later on Sunday evening, at an opposition rally in Tel Aviv, El Al announced that it had finally found a crew from Iran Air to fly the Netanyahu couple out to Italy. 

(Meanwhile, as crisis loomed over Iran’s final sprint to nuclear capability.  IDF reserve pilots, in a principled stand [which sounds like a Purimspiel joke!]”, have gone on strike “to defend democracy and the Supreme Court,” declaring they will refuse to serve should the Netanyahu-led government call them up.). 

Toronto Globe and Mole, Mar.4, Ainslie Clydesdale-Hoof, “Trudeau Announces Emergency Aid to Ukraine” — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, under heavy U.S. and NATO-EU pressure, has announced that, as a token of his support for the great patriotic Ukrainian struggle against a renewed Russian offensive, he would finally authorize a shipment of heavy equipment to Kyiv, drawn from Canadian military stocks.   Five used vehicles (confiscated from last year’s truckers’ protests), four war surplus [World War Two–Ed.] Sherman tanks and 500 rounds of Romanian-sourced [World War One] artillery shells will be shipped out as soon as they can be located.  (Defence Department officials estimated this could take one to two years). 

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GAS-STOVE CRISIS RESOLVED ON BI-PARTISAN REP.- DEM.  BASIS (Washington) —A major culinary crisis was resolved last week in D.C. when, after a threatened nationwide strike by chefs and cooks at restaurants, hotels, diners, fast food outlets, and coffee shops, Democrats relented and backed the Republicans’ alternative legislation.  This solved two “woke” problems simultaneously by proposing bovine flatulence be channelled into the national pipe-line system, thus keeping rising prices down by preserving natural gas supplies and cutting back on claimed atmospheric pollution.–  Tuchus Fahrtz, (Algedeiner, Feb.25, 2023) 

TOP SENATE REPUBLICAN PRESSES GRANHOLM ON CLIMATE REPORT CALLING TO DITCH CARS — INCLUDING EVS (Washington) –A climate report from university and think tank researchers with ties to the Department of Energy that advocates for the U.S. to eliminate vehicle ownership — gas-powered and electric cars alike — and moving the suburban population to dense cities, in order to combat climate change, is raising alarm bells for a top congressional Republican.  Sen. John Barrasso (R.-WY) is pressing Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm about a January study advocating relocating to urban areas with public transportation to reduce dependency on lithium mining, which is harmful to the environment. 

“The notion that the federal government should tell people where to live or how to get around is on its face ridiculous,” Mr. Barrasso, Wyoming Republican, wrote in a letter to Ms. Granholm on Wednesday.  “People live in Wyoming to escape federal overreach, not to have Washington bureaucrats dictate their lifestyles.” (Ms. Granholm, who was reportedly on a cross-country driving vacation in her Cadillac SUV, has not yet replied.) —  Doremi Fasilatido (Wall Sheet Journal, Feb. 28, 2023) 

PUTIN OVERTHROWN BY WAGNER MERCENARY LEADER PRIGOZHIN (Moscow)—In this growing world crisis and uncertainty, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been overthrown in a coup led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group, following the successful Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Donbas.  Prigozhin, a convicted criminal and close associate of Putin known as “the chef” because he owned restaurants that catered to the Kremlin, organized a mercenary army mainly drawn from convicted criminals, which—undersupplied by the General Staff–was decimated in the Donbas fighting.  (As of this writing, Prigozhin is reportedly in the Kremlin, and a Cossack rising in favor of Czarist restoration is rumored, but Putin’s whereabouts are unknown {rivers, and sidewalks under high buildings, are being searched). —  Seemehr Harsh (New Yuk Times, Mar.7, 2023) 
 
XI RESIGNS AFTER HUNTER BIDEN REVEALED TO BE A COUNTER-AGENT (Beijing) – Washington is in a state of shock following the sudden resignation of China’s President Xi Jin-Ping after Hunter Biden was revealed to be a counter-agent who had penetrated the highest reaches of the Chinese Communist Party.   Unnamed sources indicated that Hunter’s CIA handlers (including the double-agent in DC, Fan-Fang) had arranged his Chinese contacts, and—to lend creditability to the deception—the planting of the bogus laptop containing completely falsified information.  (One of the key items he uncovered was a Chinese plan to invade Taiwan on July 4, 2023). —  Esmeralda Divina (New York Putz, Mar. 8, 2023)

“We shall fight in the Walmarts, on the Malibu beaches.  Every Macdonald’s shall be a fortress.

“We shall never give up, we shall overcome, we shall bring peace and stability to America, Big Macs in every pot, we will be Number One, and we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!” — Willie Wynne, from the decoded transcript of an intercepted radio transmission radio from “somewhere in Mexico.”  (Washington Excaliber, Mar. 7, 2023)  [see too “Xi Resigns” in Short Takes, above, Ed.].        
      
“I want to thank all the true patriots in our armed forces who have rallied to the cause of defending America’s freedom and liberty.  I pledge to you today that we shall not rest until Biden is found and indicted, and Austen and Milley, who have fled to Beijing seeking asylum after our forces marched on Washington, will be found, indicted, and brought to justice.  With malice for all our opponents and justice for all our supporters, we shall return triumphantly to our beloved homeland, where I stand ready to assume the heavy but glorious burden of the Presidency.”    
  
“Dissident leader Mike Pompeo, speaking from the Trumpistas’ hideout on the Mexican border opposite San Diego (where the former Defense Secretary had fled following  S. Mendrick Goiter’s proclamation that he and Trump and the others, was a white racist Q-Anon activist and fascist disinformation criminal.  Asked if his statement meant that he did not support Trump’s Presidential candidacy,  Pompeo responded acidly, “Are you deaf, as well as blind?” (Washington Excaliber, Mar. 7, 2023) from the decoded transcript of an intercepted radio transmission radio from “somewhere in Mexico.”  [see too “Xi Resigns”, in Short Takes, above, again. — Ed.].    

   
 FOR CONTEXTUAL CLOSURE

CIJR Briefing (Mar.8, 2023), Matchless Abramsson, “World Stumbling into World War III?”—The sudden crisis associated with Iran’s production of bomb-grade uranium and the turmoil and tumult in Russia and China, spooked already on-edge nations into moves threatening outright world war. . . .Moldava, mistaking Russian troop movement along its border with Ukraine for an invasion, panicked and declared war on. . .China!  (Chisenau quickly apologized for the mistake, but too late).  China, declaring that the U.S. was behind this aggression, quickly threatened to occupy America’s Pacific outpost, Guam, , and Guam—already terrified by the steadily encroaching rise of the Pacific on its shores, and hoping for “Belt and Road” aid from Beijing– happily surrendered.  At this point, a ragged army of elderly Japanese soldiers shouting “Banzai” emerged from inland tropical forests to claim the island for Japan, which warned  China against interfering with its nationals. 

Ukraine, with new tanks and artillery from the U.S. and NATO, now launched a massive counter-offensive against Russia, paralyzed by the still-unsettled coup against Putin.  China, facing its own succession crisis after Chairman Xi’s resignation, already embroiled with the U.S. over Guam and fearful that its long and costly support for Russia was about to be shattered, put its formidable nuclear assets on DEFCON 1 alert.  This, in turn, triggered similar responses in Great Britain and France, and even as far away as Pakistan, which fearing India might take advantage of the crisis, prepared its own nuclear force de frappe for action.  

 In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia — fearing Iran — prepared the long-hidden missiles purchased from China years ago for action; Egypt stirred its long-dormant army into life, while in Syria, the Russian force still there, with one eye on Turkey and another on Iran, alerted its still-potent forces.  Australia, the West’s Pacific outlier, braced for all eventualities, and even South Africa did what it could to prepare for the worst.  (Only Canada, headed by a somnolent Trudeau supported by the beturbaned leader of the socialist NDP, seemed to continue the sleep-walking and passivity which had preceded, and led into, the deepening crisis.) 

Now, in a manner eerily reminiscent of the origins of the two World Wars, the great and small powers of the globe and their respective blocs and alliances, anxious about now instantly-triggered electronic military time-tables and ballistic missile count-down schedules, moved quickly to mobilize, declaring emergencies and suspending civil and legal rights. 
 
As day faded into the night on March 6, who knew what tragedy dawn might bring on the 7^th?   

Lost Angels Times, March 7, Shane Gay Fissionne, “M.E., World Plunged into Crisis As Tehran Achieves 90% Enrichment, Bomb on Horizon” — The IAEA has announced that Iran is now enriching uranium at 90%, the threshold for a nuclear weapon, and already has enough accumulated to make eight or nine bombs.  The E.U. countries and Britain immediately cautioned Israel and the U.S. not to “take hasty steps,” the U.N. had already blamed the Jews for the spreading crisis, and now U.S. President Biden was pleading with Tehran to revive the JCPOA nuclear deal, offering to double the initial multi-billion-dollar U.S. payment if only they would do so/
         
Meanwhile, several submarines with Israeli markings were spotted near Iran’s coasts, and Israel’s new Super F18I long-distance attack jets were seen to be fueling, as elite paratrooper battalions were being loaded onto C-130J Super-Hercules transports.  (One observer reported that ballistic missiles in the Negev, usually used to loft satellites into orbit, were being readied for launching, tipped by what looked strangely like war-heads…) 

 As Israel’s cabinet, lead by P.M. Netanyahu, met in secret emergency sessions, in Israeli and American synagogues, messianic Biblical passages in Deuteronymy and Isaiah noting that at the End of Days “From Zion and Jerusalem shall come forth Torah”, that lions would lie down with lambs, and that all mankind would be one, were being studied.  Would Israel and the Jewish People, whose belief in one just and good eternal God created the ethical monotheism upon which Western civilization had originally been based, now, finally and alone, realize millennial Biblical teachings and save Western civilization by eliminating the Islamist-terrorist mullahcracy’s nuclear threat?   Could the world, on the brink of mindless self-destructiveness, seemingly impotent to prevent its own annihilation, be saved by resolute Jewish action?  Was it an accident that the fuselage of the lead F18I, ready to fly east, carried the name of his beloved wife, Esther, and that the date was 14 Adar 5783/7 March, 2023: Purim?

 FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

Children During a Purim Celebration in the Lodz Ghetto:  Yad Vashem Photo Archives, 4062/194 — On 8 September 1939, the Germans occupied Lodz. Brutal persecution of the Jews began as soon as the city was occupied. From January to May 1942, 55,000 Jews were deported to the Chelmno death camp. From September 1942 until May 1944 there was a halt in the deportations, after which the transports to Chelmno were renewed. In early August, the Nazis rerouted the deportations to Auschwitz. By 30 August 1944 some 70,000 Jews from Lodz had been sent to Auschwitz. Lodz was home to 223,000 Jews on the eve of World War II. At the war’s end, no more than 7,000 Jews from the Lodz ghetto had survived the camps.