Thomas Wictor

Have you heard the adage “A candle burns brightest before it goes out”? That’s what’s happening with the Palestinian candle of depravity. I prefer the original phrasing, from The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580), by Sir Philip Sidney.

Like a Candle, which a little before it goes out,
gives then the greatest blaze

Today I watched a video of a Palestinian subhuman ramming his van into three elderly Jewish Israelis. Then he got out and hacked at them with a large meat cleaver. It took forever for armed security to kill the murderer. I won’t post the video.

Instead, I want to reassure Israelis that soon this utter insanity and evil will end. Believe me. There’s tons of evidence that this is so, and the frenzied actions of Palestinians show that they agree with me.

First, this.

Bahrain and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are in negotiations to buy the Israeli-developed Iron Dome anti-missile system to defend against “a growing arsenal of Iranian missiles”.

The Israeli weapon, which has reduced the effectiveness of rockets fired out of Gaza into Israel by about 90% would be bought through Raytheon and other American contractors who developed the Iron Dome with Israeli arms giant Rafael.

A deal for the whole of the GCC, which includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait, would be worth tens, perhaps hundreds, of billions of dollars.

It would also include longer range interceptor missiles such as David’s Sling, and the Arrow I and Arrow II which are capable of intercepting supersonic intercontinental ballistic missiles - also a joint venture between Israel and the US.

Don’t let the “bought through Raytheon” fool you. This is proof that Israel and the Gulf Cooperation Council are now allies. There’s absolutely no way that Israel would approve this sale unless she had ironclad reassurance that the GCC would never turn against her. That means that Israel and the Arab League have created a clandestine Joint Force Command. There has to be a way that Israel can monitor communications that would indicate preparations for an Arab attack.

This pending sale is truly monumental. It’s not possible to overstate its importance. I’m sure that it’s one of the reasons that 91-year-old Shimon Peres would say this.

Do you think that you will see peace in your lifetime?

Oh yes. Things have changed. The Middle East is in a transitional period…

We have to seek to mobilize all measures to stop terror, because today terror became a greater danger to the Arab world than ever Israel has been in their eyes. And today there are either open or hidden joint interests [between] many Arab countries and Israel to stop terror. That’s a new element.

There are other new elements. Remember a few days ago how everyone was saying that Russian air strikes in Syria had turned the tide of the war in favor of Assad? Well, I’m not afraid to make SWAGs. Here’s what I think: The Russians set a trap for Bashar al-Assad. They convinced him to launch a suicidal offensive. Reuters published an article that it then stealth-edited to completely change the impression given. I was able to find the original piece in only five places on the entire Internet.

The original credits: Tom Perry. Additional reporting by Laila Bassam and Sylvia Westall; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Giles Elgood.

Here’s how the article begins now, complete with new title.

Syria’s army, allies plan offensive against insurgents in Aleppo

Syria’s army along with Iranian and Hezbollah allies will soon launch a ground attack supported by Russian air strikes against insurgents in the Aleppo area, two senior regional officials told Reuters on Tuesday.

Control of Aleppo city and the surrounding province in the area near the Turkish border is divided among the Syrian government, insurgent groups fighting Assad and the Islamic State group that controls some rural areas near the city.

“The big battle preparations in that area are clear,” said one of the officials familiar with the plans. “There is a large mobilization of the Syrian army … elite Hezbollah fighters, and thousands of Iranians who arrived in stages in recent days.”

Islamic State and other insurgents, including groups backed by Assad’s foreign enemies, have been fighting each other north of the city in an area of territory where Turkey and the United States have been laying plans to crush Islamic State, which controls large swathes of Syria and Iraq.

The offensive, which both officials said would begin soon, would expand on a ground attack by the same alliance last week that is targeting rebels in Hama province farther west. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said thousands of Iranian troops had arrived to take part in the offensives in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Earlier on Tuesday, rebel commanders said Syrian insurgents were deploying extensive supplies of anti-tank missiles provided by their foreign backers to counter ground attacks by the Syrian army and its allies, supported by heavy Russian air strikes.

With support from Russian air strikes, which began on Sept. 30, and help from Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iranian soldiers, the Syrian army is trying to drive insurgents from western areas crucial to Assad’s survival, and has recaptured a number of towns in the provinces of Hama and Latakia.

Why did Reuters turn the piece on its head? In the first version, we read that the rebels are using enormous quantities of American TOW antitank guided missiles (ATGMs) to stop the Syrian offensive. The rewritten piece barely mentions the ATGMs, gives Assad the upper hand, adds “thousands” of Iranians, and removes the reference to Americans airdropping weapons to the rebels.

Now the credits are as follows: Laila Bassam and Tom Perry. Additional reporting by Sylvia Westall, and David Brunnstrom and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Dominic Evans and Peter Cooney; Editing by Giles Elgood and Ken Wills.

I’ll tell you what happened: Someone in Washington got on the phone to Reuters and threatened to cut off access unless the piece was rewritten. President Obama doesn’t want his base to know how deeply involved the US is in Syria. The Democratic base opposes all military action taken by the US under all circumstances. And the president is concealing the Russian role in all this double dealing, intrigue, and hugger-mugger.

More circumstantial evidence that massive change has already taken place.

White House: Iran missile test a likely UN violation

There are “strong indications” that Iran violated U.N. Security Council resolutions related to ballistic missiles when it test fired a new missile, the White House said Tuesday .

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that when it comes to Iran’s ballistic missile program, “unfortunately, that’s not new.”

“We have seen Iran almost serially violate the international community’s concerns about their ballistic missile program,” Earnest said.

But nobody cares! Not the US, not Israel, and not the Gulf Cooperation Council. It’s because everyone knows that the mullahs aren’t going to be around long enough to play with their new toys.

Finally, one of my main SWAGs has been confirmed by the Houthis of Yemen. Listen to what the man says at 1:30.

“For instance, Israel did target two regions in Yemen with the sort of weapon that is solely possessed by Israel in the Middle East. The weapon was used for the first time in Yemen.”

He’s talking about the high-velocity penetrating weapon (HVPW), a hypersonic bunker buster used at Faj Attan on April 20, 2015.

All of my SWAGs are based on reading open sources. Nobody’s feeding me any information. To make a SWAG, you draw on your knowledge and experience. On March 25, 2014, this is what I wrote about the Russian adventure in the Ukraine.

The tragedy for [my former friend] is that this will end very badly for Russia. The US is preparing to supply Europe with its natural gas, which will lead to the collapse of the Russian economy. Also, if Russia makes a military move on the Baltic states and Moldova, as is predicted, we might end up in a shooting war. Believe me, the Russian armed forces will be utterly defeated by their western counterparts. It’s all in the tactics, not the hardware.

And guess what happened?

As Russia enters war in Syria, conflict in Ukraine begins to wind down

The conflict in Ukraine sees less shelling each week, while hawks and rebel leaders are being told by Moscow to pipe down and toe the line

As Russia ratchets up military action in Syria, the fighting in east Ukraine is winding down. The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany will meet in Paris on Friday for talks on Ukraine, and while a lasting political solution still seems some way off, there is confidence on all sides that the military action could finally be over, a year after the first ill-fated, and largely ignored, ceasefire agreement was signed in Minsk, Belarus.

With all sides tired of military conflict, the most likely outcome appears to be Moscow pushing the territories back to Ukraine legally, with an ensuing period of uncertain peace as both Moscow and Kiev decide how far they are ready to compromise on their goals.

The reason Russia is backing out of the Ukraine is that of the 10,000 men deployed, over 2000 were killed and 3200 wounded, a casualty rate of more than 50 percent in eleven months.

At the height of the ferocious fighting during the “troop surge” in Iraq, the US military suffered a killed-in-action (KIA) rate of 34 per 10,000 and a wounded-in-action (WIA) rate of 175 per 10,000.

Russia: 2000 dead and 3200 wounded per 10,000.

The US: 34 dead and 175 wounded per 10,000.

I predicted the Ukrainian outcome over a year ago. Now I predict that we’re seeing the last of Palestinian depravity on a mass scale. So keep calm and get ready to rub your enemies’ roasted faces in their utter defeat.