Those of us who served time in the corporate sphere know only too well how the financial skeletons are hidden from shareholders and the market until they can be buried in an avalanche of unrelated bad news or can be “explained” by “circumstance beyond management control”.
For example, if a company had overextended credit to a customer that later went bad, such bad debt will stay on the books as normal trading debt until something else happens, something that will enable a quite write-off, no ‘irritating’ questions asked.
The current economic crisis is a godsend opportunity to many management teams allowing them to clean out their closets and they do. Take a look at how many skeletons that are bought out are bone dry, they have been dead for years but now is the time to bring them out and blame the death of the respective bodies on the current global financial crisis as if it had just happened … Thank God there is a global economic crises.
In corporate politics, as in political politics there are two simple rules, the first is that your success are in facts your boss’s successes and your bosses stuff-ups are yours. The second rule is that no matter how certain the anticipated benefits are, you ONLY take actions that you can “EXPLAIN” should thing turn sour. Global economic crisis is an ideal excuse, it is big enough to bury just about anything in it. … Thanks God there is a global economic crises.
* * * * *
No difference in politics. Our illustrious PM Kevin707 who is just back from yet another globe trotting exercise embraced the global economic crisis with both hands with the normal clichés such as “global challenges require global solutions”, “acting now will cost less acting later” (hey didn’t we heard this argument in relation to global warming?) and of course the continuing mantra about “free” trade, but that is another issue.
In the midst of all this, our Government is rushing through legislation, that although part of their election campaign, is strengthening the unions and have the potential to increase unemployment.
Until now the government was reluctant to introduce that legislation, to the great infuriation of the unions, because of the risk that it may increase unemployment and as we all know Kevin707 is a fiscal conservative, at least a self professed one (didn’t I hear this term elsewhere? Yes I did!) .
So you can now see, when we all busy watching and reading about government assistance, guarantees, bailouts, stimulus, insolvent banks, crushing car makers etc, Kevin707 slip this stunt on us and sure enough, I bet my bottom dollar that the resultant unemployment will be blamed on the economic crisis. Thank God there is a global economic crises.
Similarly, our government is pushing ahead with their Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) which apart from being a total deception, going it alone is and economic suicide bomb. What would happen to the little manufacture base left here if they have to pay such heavy fine for the privilege of having factories here? You got it! The will offshore themselves more people out work but …. Thank God there is a global economic crises.
And that is not all. The socialist have some more “progressive” policies such as (government) paid maternity and paternity leave. I bet you that we are going to get an influx of “family reunions” from the Middle East shortly, but … Thank God there is a global economic crises.
* * * * *
How is that relevant to my friends outside Australia? As I showed in my previous blog The Hollow Man there is very little differences in socialist policies no matter where you are. It appears that with the election of Barack Obama in the USA he is not only the first African-American president but also the first Labour president of the USA. from January 20th 2009 we will have wall to wall Labor governments in USA, UK and Europe as well as Australia, all following similar policies which are to economic depression what gasoline is to bushfire, but … Thank God there is a global economic crises.
The rhetoric is virtually identical, global warming (climate change), fiscal conservatives, free trade, stimulus, Keynesian economics (of government intervention) etc and are not unique to Australia. What also is not unique to Australia is when such socialist policies will do what socialist policies normally do our politicians around the glob will be quick to point out to the global economic crisis with or without some more summits, but … Thank God there is a global economic crises.
Amazingly all our Labour governments, since the 1970’s all suffered from global economic downturn that led a government of a population equal to that of New York City, to a debt of $90 billion in 1996. It took our conservative government 11½ years to dig us out of our of hard labour sentence, pay our debts and build some nice cushion surpluses, the Asian financial meltdown of 1997 notwithstanding, but a mere year in our current hard labour sentence we already hear something we had not heard for a decade and that is the “D” word, DEFICIT but … Thank God there is a global economic crises.
Posted in Islam & Terror on November 22nd, 2008 by Jacob
22 November, 2008.
ll tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
(Thomas Jefferson)
Finally! I was glad to see that notwithstanding of all impotent naval so-called powers, the Indian Navy has blown a Somali pirate mother-ship out of the water, literally that is. Good on you India, go after the bastards!
Gulf Of Aden
The area in the Indian Ocean between near the entrance to the Red Sea (also know as the Gulf of Aden) and the Somali and the Kenyan coasts are notorious in their sea pirates activities going back to the 1980’s, this is not a new phenomena.
We, in the shipping industry are well aware of it, so are the marine insurance companies who require that shipowners, pay additional insurance premium know as extra war insurance cover, for vessels passing through that area and other areas piracy infested areas to cover additional underwriting risks.
Whilst in early days the attacks were only on small and slow ship and were concentrated around the Island of Socotra, as no action has been taken over the years, the audacity of the Pirate increased to a point that they are now endanger the global oil supply as we have just seen with the hijacking of the 318,000 deadweight tonnes (DWT, about 2.3 million barrels) Saudi owned tanker Sirius Star about 450 nautical miles (520 statue miles) from the coast of East Africa.
Sirius Star
At US$55.00 per barrel, the Sirius Star cargo is valued at about $130 millions add to it the value of the ship at $120 million, that gives the pirates a “catch” of a quarter of a billion dollars, not bad for a day’s work
Apart from the historical event (can I say it?) of being the largest vessel ever hijacked, the Sirius Star hijacking represent a new level as she was hijacked in a position that until now was considered safe from piracy attacks. The vessel if far too large to transit the Suez Canal (or the Panama for that matter) thus must go around Africa. She was hijacked on the shipping route used by the thousands of oil tankers sailing from the Persian Gulf into the Atlantic Ocean around Africa.
The Sirius Star was enroute to the USA.
* * * * *
Have you ever wondered how a small bunch of Somali lowlives are able to disrupt world shipping whilst the great navies of the world are seemingly powerless? The answer is two words: Human rights! No, this is not some kind of a joke.
You see, according to the various UN treaties on Human Rights, should any other signatory country’ ship, capture and arrest the pirates, once they are onboard a ship, they are in fact in on a territory of the flag of the ship, thus they can immediately claim asylum seekers status.
Consequently the Navy commanders who are there to protect shipping are under strict instructions not to capture the pirates or if they captured to let them go immediately, but NOT turn them to the authorities.
The ground on which asylum can be sought is that should the pirate be returned to Somalia, according to the Sharia Law the applicable law in that country, they, the pirates, may face the death penalty for piracy or at least getting their hands chopped off for stealing. It sure looks like the inmate running the asylum.
Did I say Sharia Law? Yes I did, and yes the pirates are Muslims but oh no! We should mention it because it may offend some people!
The emotional “compassionate” liberals claimIslamophobia. They are quick to point out that it is all to do with the fact that Somalia is a dysfunction country, that the pirates being Muslims is only incidental because all Somalis are Muslims and thus their crimes have got nothing to do with Islam.
Oh really? Let us see; There are ten major areas around the world that are notorious piracy activities, those are:
The Straits of Malacca; between the Island of Sumatra (Indonesia) and the coast of Southern Thailand, West Malaysia and Singapore.
Bay of Bengal; off the coast of Bangladesh.
South China Sea; off the Island of Borneo (shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei) and the northern Philippines island.
Philippines; Off the (Muslim) Island of Sulawesi.
Sunda Straits; between the Indonesian Islands of Java and Sumatra.
East Africa; off the coast of Mozambique.
Gulf Of Guinea; off the coast of Nigeria.
South America;off all counties, and
Gulf of Aden; Between Yemen and Somalia.
( The Straits Of Hormuz, the entrance to the Persian Gulf, was also in the list until the navies of the USA, Britain and Australia started to patrol it to avoid smuggling of arms into Iraq)
Further, according to Associated press, one of the fighting splinter groups claimed to have been going after the pirate that hijacked a Muslim ship. Strictly speaking, by my own past dealing with her owners, the ship is not own in Saudi Arabia but the point is that it is thought to be thus according to the LA Times of 21 November:
MOGADISHU, Somalia — A radical Islamic group in Somalia said Friday it will fight the pirates holding a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil.
Abdelghafar Musa, a fighter with al-Shabab who claims to speak on behalf of all Islamic fighters in the Horn of Africa nation, said ships belonging to Muslim countries should not be seized.
“We are really sorry to hear that the Saudi ship has been held in Somalia. We will fight them (the pirates),” Musa told AP Television News
Who do you think finance this “radical Islamic group”? Chances are the same people who finance other “Islamic groups”, any suggestion? Could it be that some of the ransom money find its way to such group as protection money?
Do they think that we are all morons to believe that there is no relations between the “Islamic groups” in Somalia and the pirates or that being Muslim is not a factor in sea piracy.
* * * * *
No concept has ever been abused more then the notion of Human Rights and more so by, for and on behalf of people who preach total submission under a religion by that name, Islam. Islam, submission in Arabic, is not a religion as we know it in Christianity or Judaism, slam is a religion, a way of life, a law and a political movement, all in the name of Allah and his prophet Muhammad.
Unlike Judeo-Christianity whereby the general rule that is that anything which is not specifically prohibited is permitted, in Islam anything which is not specifically permitted is prima facie prohibited, except perhaps riding Rolls-Royce when it comes to replacing camels.
This is why we see Falafel stands and music shops burned in Baghdad or their owners executed under the Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
Nothing demonstrates the abuse of human rights in Islam as the status of women. Under Islam, women have a few rights, must mostly obligations. For example, a woman is not permitted to leave her houses without permission from the man of the house (typically husband, father, or brother), she must be obedient to her husband at all times, she must be “ready and willing to have sex any time here husband wishes (except when she menstruates) and a husband has the right to beat his wife.
A child may be married and such marriage may be consummated, when a non-Muslim does it is both child abuse and paedophilia but when a Muslim does it, it is diversity of culture. So what is so bad if a woman must obey her father in arranging her marriage or the fact that in (Islamic) court woman evidence valued half that of a man.
And there is the question of honour. The whole honour of her family lays between any young Muslim girl’s leg, failing to maintain, what Muslim call honour may and will cause the young women her life, she will be beaten, stoned or otherwise murdered by her father and/or her brothers. Mind you, being raped is not a valid excuse to “loss” of honour.
Can you imagine the outcry if our respective parliaments would make a law that prohibits women from leaving their houses without permission of their husband or, if unmarried, their father or brother. Yet such law exists right under our noses but our governments afraid of dealing with it, for a fear of being labelled racist or Islamophobic .
In the very first paragraph of their book Fleeced, co-authors Dick Morris and Eileen McGann say:
FACT: The mainstream media in America is distorting the news to deliberately downplay terrorism. The Society of Professional Journalist has actually recommended that reporters “avoid using word combinations such as ‘Islamic terrorist’ or ‘Muslim extremist’.”
… on the day that four Islamist suicide bombers blew themselves and more than fifty London commuters to bits, the [Metropolitan] deputy commissioner [of Police], Brian Paddick, stood before the television cameras and made the noteworthy comment: “As far as I am concerned, Islam and terrorist are two words that do not go together”*
[* The quote is attributed to Ian Herbert of ‘The Independent’ of 8 July, 2005]
Astonishing, to say the least. Now, would you trust the media and the multicultural infested authorities to tell that sea piracy is a Muslim problem too when they have such evidence? Not a chance!
* * * * *
If you think that Muslims that enjoy human and other rights, far and beyond anything they had imagined possible in their original countries, are grateful for the hospitality their new home countries extend to them, you are wrong! Not only they are ungrateful and in some cases hostile, many consider any gesture of goodwill as a weakness on the part of their host countries. I experienced that attitude in person I am sorry to say.
Too “racist” for you liking? Listen to what Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali asylum seeker in Holland at the time (1), has to say about her countrymen and women, asylum seekers, in her bookInfidel she says:
We had always been sure that we, as Muslims and Somalis, were superior to the unbelievers …
[the Somali Muslims’] reaction was to crate a fantasy that they as Somalis knew better about everything then the inferior white people.” you don’t need to teach me how to use a thermometer, our Somali thermometers are much more advance” – that kind of attitude. His breath smells of pig. He’s only a bus driver. How dare he think he can tell me how to behave”
Sure there are decent people who were born into Islam and go about their day like most of us, but how many of them actually condemn those who carry abuse of human rights, let alone atrocities?
So you see, whilst the Political Correct brigade is in complete denial of the evil of Islam “superior” Muslim Somali pirates putting innocent seamen life at risk, much like be FBI before 9/11 and the British police before 7/7, who displayed more concerned for potential terrorist Miranda Rights then their own citizens’ lives.
How difficult is it to proclaim a law by which convicted sea pirates cannot apply for asylum? Then send the navy down and blow the Pirates out of the water.
______
(1) Ayaan Hirsi Ali went on to become a member of the Dutch Parliament, she renounced Islam became a vocal critic of Islam, particularly the treatment of women. She came into international fame with the murder of the Dutch film maker Theo Van Gough who was murdered by a Muslim.
Once upon a time there was a hollow man with a large ego who, since he was ten years old, dreamed that one day he would become the leader of his people.
Not much is known the man’s childhood because the man had been quite vague about these days and in some cases downright deceitful.
From the little we know, the man’s father died, some said from effect of alcohol, when he was a young boy, leaving the men’s mother to car for him. Notwithstanding the hollow man did well at school and proceed to one of the best universities from which he graduated with high distinctions.
University life also served as a stepping stone for politics for the hollow man. Like some many student his age, he joined the student branch of the party that believe in social reform, trade unions, redistribution of wealth and socialism albeit the word itself does not form a portion of the name of The Party.
After graduation the man went to “work” on his dream. He carefully selected his place of employment on the basis of their political potential; mixing with powerful and wealthy people who can advance his ambitions. He was particular careful to avoid real responsibilities as those can lead for the occasional failure that may blot future résumés.
The hollow man was elected to the legislature when he was in his early forties. His arrival was marked by his famous inaugural speech, hollow or not, his self publicity machine went to work as he waited the opportunity to spring into the limelight.
Indeed when the opportunity arrived he challenged the “establishment” of the party for the party nomination and despite “family ties” and the experience of his opponent the hollow won his party nomination. A bitter election campaign followed.
The hollow man’s opponent now was a conservative man named John, much senior in age and with over 25 years experience as an elected member who also enjoys the benefits of incumbency. The hollow man would need all his wits to and a lots of money to win this battle.
The ensuing election campaign was one that was never seen before. The conservative opponent experience and age were portrayed as stuck in the past, the same old failed policies of the past in clear reference to his opponent’s age whilst the hollow man himself was portrayed as “young” and “cool”.
The hollow man has prove himself as a great orator although despite the hysteria of the young generation, his rhetoric was somewhat lacking when it came to the older generation. He was further greatly assisted by the mainstream media who almost in unison were all openly actively supporting him.
He opposed the war in Iraq but supported the War in Afghanistan (and saw no inconsistence in that) he supported socialistic program but described himself as economic conservative in fact many people said that he walked the two sides of the streets on just about any issue as he modified his policies to suit his audiences
He stuck to meaningless, yet emotional slogan such as change, hope and working families. He was the first to exploit the power of the Internet for political campaigning.
He won the election in the following November decisively, although not in what you would all a landslide.
*****
No, my friends, this is not the story of Barack Obama, that was the story of the election of Kevin Rudd in November 2007 as the Prime Minister of Australia by removing John, Mr. John Howard from office.
*****
I was struck by the similarities between the two from the first time I heard Barack Obama and I often mentioned it to my American conservative friends. As we down under have an handicap of 12 months on you Americans, let me tell you about the “achievements” of our hollow man whilst you were busy with your elections, a sort of Back To The Future, as I dubbed it at the time.
Firstly soon after taking office, our government ratified the Kyoto Protocol an utterly symbolic step but nevertheless gained a round of applause by the world greenery convention in Bali. You see our hollow man LOVES the world stage.
At the same time, and in an attempt to further impress the global eco-whackos, our illustrious Prime Minister and our Minister for the environment and stupid statements, inflated their chests and ordered the Australian Navy into the Southern Oceans to chase away the Japanese Whaler to discover that, according to the Antarctic Treaty to which Australia is a member, no military vessels are allowed – what started in a blast ended in a whimper by sending a “Custom Vessel” to “monitor the whaling.
This was only the first of making policy on the run as we have learned since.
Next the government celebrated a sorry day to the indigenous people of Australia, another divisive feel-good symbolic act that socialists are really good at. You see, this was our equivalent of the race card or the coming together cliché we often hear (and I thought that coming together is something people do in the privacy of their bedrooms 🙂
Next we had a funfest summit of one thousand of the brightest and smartest in the country to “recommend” future action Australia should take in the 21st century. Before the election Kevin07 had told Australians that he had a plan for the country, after the election he needed Kate Blanchett and her like to tell him what to do.
In fact he did not need them to tell him what to do, going by the list of invitees, he needed them to tell him to do what he wanted to hear – the diversity of opinion was limited only by Kevin Rudd’s opinion. It was totally a Kevin07‘s scripted event.
Talking about Kevin07, Within a few month after taking office, our PM was dubbed Kevin707 after the RAAF (the Australian air force) Boeing 707 that used by the PM. By last September, when he was in office for merely 10 months, Kevin707 had accomplished 16 overseas trips, the man really likes the world’s stages which he spins to portray him as international statement. He enhances his image further by selectively leaking private conversation he has with word’s leaders to big note himself.
And of course there is climate change, the imaginary “crisis” that politicians love to exploit by spreading fear that enable them to push their agenda. Until about one year ago, it was only Australia and the US that stood firm against that global deception, Australia “fell” last November with the election of the Rudd government and the USA will no doubt follow under Obama.
It will not be long before we all can play the “spot the difference” game between Kevin07 and Obama08, In the meantime I have placed my bullshit detector on “silent”
I have no idea why my Google Desktop brought up an article from 6th June, 1967 in my news tracking but it certainly brought up a blast from the past.
It was one year to the day since I had completed my (compulsory) military service in the Israeli Navy. I was a young third officer on a merchant marine ship, named Har Bashan. Our usual employment was to carry Chiquita Bananas from Central and South America to the Gulf (of Mexico) ports, the US East Coast and to Europe.
On the day, 6th June, 1967, we were in a “port” named Turbo in the Gulf Of Darien in Colombia (I dare you to find it on the map) which was in fact an anchorage, about 2 miles away from shore, where ships were loaded bananas from barges.
You have to bear in mind prior to the Six Days War, Israel was not perceived as a militarily strong country, that war in fact changed the perception about Israel for ever. Nor had Israel particularly strong relations with the United States at the time who had more then their own share in Vietnam. Israel’s main supplier of arms were France and Britain (in this order) for which Israel paid in hard cash whilst the Soviets armed Egypt and Syria to the teeth mostly by grants and on the never never “loans”.
For the previous two weeks we were getting worrying news from home about the pending invasion of Israel by Egypt and Syria. Nasser’s grandstanding about the forthcoming elimination of the Zionist state and the return of the Arabrefugees to their homes – the term Palestinians in the context of Arab refugees was not invented yet – the United Nation was quite, there was neither calls for “restraint” nor was anyone was labelled as “the aggressor”, just silence.
Despite the fact that the ship flew the Israeli flag, I was the only Israeli officer onboard, all other Israeli nationals were “ratings” (non ranking officers crew members) and there were not many of them either. The captain and Radio Operator (sparky) were Italians, the Chief Officer was Norwegian, the second Officer was Dutch, a (semi deaf) Irish Electrician and down in the Engine Room they were Spaniards, Italians and the odd Yugoslavian – a tower of Babylon. Perhaps my position on the ship symbolised the state of Israel those days, near TOTAL ISOLATION.
For the preceding ten or eleven days we had crossed the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Turbo. The only sources of news we had were the short waves services of the BBC and the Voice Of America (VOA). Kol Israel (Israel radio) in Jerusalem was out of range since we entered the tropics as it’s relative low output could not penetrate the atmospheric noise typical to that part of the world (the fact that Kol Israel beams its signal towards Europe and North America made compound the difficulty). Unfortunately the shop’s Italian Radio Officer (sparky) showed little interest in getting the Israeli national on board, the daily news bulletins from our home maritime shore station Haifa Radio.
The little news we got was not good, to put it mildly. The UN Peace Keeping forces in the Sinai Peninsula folded up and went hone at the first “request” by the ruler of Egypt, Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser, leaving the Egyptian army a clear path to the border with Israel. I Israel there was a full and general call up of all the military reserves (all men till the age of 45 and beyond), the civil defence and volunteers literally dug up the country with trenches and shelters in schools yards, near residential buildings, in parks and around towns, villages and the kibbutzim.
The mood in Israel was sober indeed, every Israeli “knew” that this was going to be a bloody war with many civilian casualties, some went as far as doubt Israel ability to withstand a coordinated attack by Egypt and Syria, with a possibility of Jordan joining in, and a massive support they received from the Soviet Union, that may, it was thought, extend to sending their own troops to assist. A second Holocaust in 22 years was a distinct possibility in many people’s minds.
The tones of the BBC and the VOA progressively resembled obituary rather then news reporting. Its resonated as “oh well the experiment of a Jewish state was a good idea at the time, but”, of course no one said it out right out in that many words, or did they?
About a day or so before we arrived to Turbo, my immediate superior the Norwegian Chief Officer “declared”, with some satisfaction as I recall it, that there will be no Israel within a few days and added Israel is finished, kaput. Whilst I am not a betting man, I was willing to bet him that he was wrong and he took the bet. Until this day I don’t know whether it was my patriotism or my belief in Israel’s strong will to survive that made be bet. I was far from certain of collecting on the bet and not because I thought that should I win the Chief will not pay up.
We arrive at Turbo in early morning hours of 5th June, the day the war erupted. Because of a 7 hours time difference with Israel, we already knew that the war had started but no more then that. The BBC reported that the IDF (the Israeli Army) spokesman confirm that “there are military clashes in the south” (or words to that effect) and that there was a complete blackout on news from the front.
From the other side of the border, the Egyptian media reported that their forces reached a point two hours away from Tel Aviv. We knew not whether there are Soviet troops on the ground and/or Soviet pilot up in the air.
There was nothing coming from the United Nation or any of the then four “Great Powers”, USA, USSR, UK and France. Despite the lousy reception I had my short wave radio tuned to Kol Israel in Jerusalem just in case I decipher some useful news in the myriad atmospheric noises of the tropics and more important to confirm to myself that they, in Jerusalem, are still transmitting, a scary thought indeed. I also asked the sparky if he can still get 4XO (Haifa Radio) which he confirmed. Not much comfort but some hope, I thought.
The following day, 6th June, I suddenly heard it on the BBC from their man in Jerusalem, the report was much like to the Guardian story quoted below, down here. My initial reaction was a total disbelief, I truly thought and said it out loud that if Israel needs to revert to such exaggerations as the Arabs do, we are gone! it was a frightening few hours indeed.
As we all learned many times since that day, it was the United Nations that got me out of my misery. Sure enough the Soviets were calling for a cease fire, the Americans the Brits and the French declared that they are “neutral”, in the words of the Guardian:
President Johnson last night condemned the war as “needless and destructive” and gave first priority to trying to end it through the United Nations Security Council.
Yes! We are in business again.
Had it erupted today under similar circumstances, instead of needless and destructive the six days would have probably be worded as disproportionate or inordinate use of force or such UN politically correct Newspeak.
AS a side comment, it is interesting to note that there is no mention of the term Palestinians in the Guardian article below. The reason is simply that in 1967 the Arab refugees were just that Arabs, they became Palestinians with the raise of the Palestinian terror, but this is a whole separate subject.
*****
[Quote]
This article appeared in the Guardian on Tuesday June 06 1967 . It was last updated at 15:17 on January 06 2006.
Israel claims land and air successes as Britain and US declare neutrality
Israel claimed early today than it had achieved victory in the air by destroying 374 Arab aircraft. It also claimed that Israeli ground forces had captured the towns of Rafah astride the main road from the Gaza strip to the Suez canal and El Arish, farther west.
A tank battle involving more armour that was used at Alamein was reported to be in progress between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai desert. After a day of confused reports this sector and the Gaza strip, in which Israel claimed to have made important advances, were emerging as key areas in the war.
Attempts were being made at the United Nations last night to sponsor a Security Council resolution agreeable to the four big Powers calling for a ceasefire, but the Soviet delegate said he had heard of no agreement. In Moscow the Soviet Government condemned Israel for an act of aggression and demanded that it should immediately and unconditionally stop all military action. Tass reported that the Soviet Government “reserves the right to take all the steps that may be necessitated by the situation” and resolutely supported the Arab Governments and peoples.
The American State Department declared US neutrality “in thought, word, and deed”; Mr Brown told the House of Commons that Britain’s concern was not to take sides but to restore peace to the area; and the French Government announced the suspension of arms shipments to the Middle East, where Israel is its main customer. The American statement of neutrality aroused controversy in Washington where the White House denied that it meant the US did not care what happened.
Reports from Tel-Aviv last night said that Israeli troops were advancing in the Sinai desert and had captured the southern end of the Gaza strip, thus cutting off the rest of the strip from Egyptian forces. The Egyptian Supreme Command said that its armour had penetrated into Israeli territory after fierce fighting in which it had beaten off Israeli attacks and “annihilated the enemy force.”
The scale of the fighting outside Sinai is not yet known. Official Israeli statements said the attack had been launched by the Arabs in the divided city of Jerusalem, and along the Syrian frontier near Dagania. Israel also claimed that Syrian aircraft had attacked the HaifaBay region and the Megiddo had been bombed by Jordanians.
In the battle for control of the air Israel claimed to have destroyed 302 Egyptian, 20 Jordanian, and 52 Syrian aircraft. Egypt said that 70 Israeli aircraft had been destroyed during attacks on airfields in Cairo and in the Suez Canal zone while Damascus Radio claimed 54 Israeli aircraft shot down over Syria.
Each side claims that the other struck first. Israel alleges that the first onslaught came from Egyptian tanks and planes in the Negev early yesterday. Cairo claims that the fighting started when Israeli aircraft raided Cairo and other parts of Egypt at 9 o’clock local time.
Mr Eshkol said in a broadcast that he hoped all peace-loving nations “will not stand by but will understand the right of Israel to live its life without the sword of aggression hanging over its head.” General Dayan, the Defence Minister and architect of the Sinai campaign of 1956, said: “We have no aims of conquest. Our only aim is to foil the attempt of the Arab armies to conquer our country.”
The Arab oil-producing countries meeting in Baghdad unanimously decided to stop the flow of oil to any country taking part in an attack on any ArabState or its territorial waters.
President Johnson last night condemned the war as “needless and destructive” and gave first priority to trying to end it through the United Nations Security Council. For the time being it appeared that the United States would not intervene directly to try to halt the fighting.
At an emergency session of the Security Council which adjourned after 50 minutes, U Thant, the United Nations Secretary-General, reported that UN Emergency Force (UNEF) units in the Gaza had been fired on by Israeli planes and three Indian soldiers killed.
