Author: BlackMask Financial

United States President Joe Biden is allegedly considering conditioning future military aid to Israel if the country goes forward with a sizeable invasion of Rafah, Politico reported, citing four US officials. “It’s something he’s definitely thought about,” one of the officials told the news agency. Biden shared with MSNBC on Saturday that “The defense of Israel is still critical. So there’s no red line [where] I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them,” stressing, however, that “You cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead.” Officials cited by the news agency claimed that Biden may limit future weapons transfers to Israel should the country launch a new military operation that would further endanger Palestinian lives.

Netanyahu responds to Biden hot mic remark

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded Monday to President Biden’s hot mic remark after the State of the Union address where he suggested he needs to have a meeting with the prime minister over the escalating situation in Gaza. Netanyahu was asked Monday on “Fox & Friends” to respond to Biden’s comment that he planned to have a “come to Jesus” meeting with the prime minister about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. Fox News host Will Cain asked Netanyahu what a “come to Jesus meeting” means to him. “I don’t know. I’m not familiar with the term, even though Jesus wasn’t born that far away from here,” Netanyahu responded. “I can tell you that if it means having a heart-to-heart conversation, we’ve had that plenty of times over the 40 years that I’ve known Joe Biden and over the 12 or 13 conversations that we’ve had since the beginning of the war.” Netanyahu said on “Fox & Friends” that Israel will not be “getting off the gas” in its Gaza attacks. He said that while Israel will try to minimize civilian casualties, its priority is to defeat Hamas, even if that means invading Rafah. “Well, I’m telling you that we’re not getting off the gas. I’m telling you that we have to take care of Israel’s security in our future, and that requires eliminating the terrorist army. That’s a prerequisite for victory. That victory is important not only for us, it’s important for the civilized world as we’re fighting these barbarians.

“And that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to defeat Hamas. We’re going to do what is necessary to minimize civilian casualties, do the humanitarian aid, something that we believe in. But we have to destroy this terrorist Nazi army. Otherwise, there’s no future for anyone in the Middle East,” he added later on.

Biden has been ramping up his public frustrations with Netanyahu in recent weeks as Israel plans to invade the Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million civilians had fled to seek refuge from the war. He announced during his State of the Union address that the U.S. would be setting up a temporary pier near the territory to deliver more humanitarian supplies. Biden said in an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart on Saturday that Netanyahu was “hurting Israel more than helping.”

“What’s happening is he has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,” Biden said. “But he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”

Netanyahu responded to Biden’s remarks to Capehart in an interview with Politico. “I don’t know exactly what the president meant, but if he meant by that, that I’m pursuing private policies against the majority, the wish of the majority of Israelis, and that this is hurting the interests of Israel, then he’s wrong on both counts,” Netanyahu said. NN: Biden is feeling the heat as the world turns on Israel.

NN:

Psalm 83

O God, Do Not Keep Silence

A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.

1O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
2For behold, your enemies make an uproar;
those who hate you have raised their heads.
3They lay crafty plans against your people;
they consult together against your treasured ones.
4They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
5For they conspire with one accord;
against you they make a covenant—
6the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
7Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8Asshur also has joined them;
they are the strong arm of the children of Lot

In a recent address, Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, Highlighted the group’s conditions for truce negotiations in the ongoing conflict with Israel in Gaza.Haniyeh emphasized the need for a ceasefire, a demand yet to be accepted by Israel. Despite reaching out to interlocutors just before the speech, Haniyeh expressed disappointment, noting the lack of confirmation from the occupation forces about halting the conflict. He further stated that Israel has not committed to allowing displaced individuals to return to their original areas.

Guterres: Rafah attack to push Gazans into new ‘circle of hell’

Producer prices in Germany saw an annual decline of 4.4% in January, the country’s statistical office Destatis revealed in a report on Friday. Month on month, the index rose 0.2%. In the reported month, energy prices dropped 11.7% compared to the same timeframe a year ago and edged down 0.1% compared to December 2023. Prices of intermediate goods slid by 3.7% from January 2023 and rose 0.2% from the prior month. Meanwhile, prices of capital goods jumped 3% annually and grew 0.7% month-on-month. An annual rise of 1.6% and a monthly increase of 0.3% were observed in the prices of durable consumer goods. Non-durable consumer goods prices were 1.1% higher year-over-year and up 0.1% in comparison to the previous month.

Israel has rejected a proposal for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip tabled by Hamas, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday. Hamas submitted its conditions earlier this week in response to terms proposed by Egyptian and Qatari mediators. The Palestinian group later accused Israel of “evading” its proposal. The report cited unnamed sources as saying that the latest round of ceasefire negotiations in Cairo ended unsuccessfully as Israel “rejected Hamas’ request for a permanent ceasefire, the army’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the return of the displaced without conditions.” NN: This  is how negotiations work with terrorists. Once again Israel will be forced to stop before it kills the beast.

Seasonally and price-adjusted new factory orders in Germany declined by 11.3% in January compared to the previous month, the country’s Federal Statistical Office Destatis revealed in a report published on Thursday. Foreign orders dropped by 11.4% compared to December, while domestic orders declined by 11.2%. New orders from the euro area plunged by 25.7%, while new orders from other countries increased by 1.6% month on month. New orders of intermediate goods decreased by 9.3% and capital goods orders plummeted by 13.1%, while orders of consumer goods declined by 5.7%. On an annual basis, calendar-adjusted new factory orders decreased by 6% in January. NN:  This is known as a economic slow own. No matter how much blue sky them try to blow up your ass oil demand is plunging.

Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 423,000 barrels in the week that ended March 1st, private data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) reportedly showed on Tuesday. Distillate inventories are said to have declined by 1.8 million barrels, whereas gasoline stockpiles saw a decline of 2.8 million barrels. During the corresponding week, reserves in Cushing, Oklahoma, allegedly added 500,000 barrels.

On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by 0.7 million barrels as of March 1. Inventories are now at 361 million barrels—the highest level since May 2023.

Cushing inventories rose again this week, by 500,000 barrels after rising by 1.825 million barrels in the previous week.

Retail trade in the euro area slipped by 1% in January compared to the same month a year ago, while in the entire European Union, the figure fell by 0.6%, Eurostat revealed in its report on Wednesday. On a monthly basis, the reading was up 0.1% in the Eurozone and rose 0.3% in the entire EU. The sales of non-food products in the Eurozone and the EU decreased by 0.2% and increased by 0.1% month on month, while food, drinks, and tobacco retail trade rose by 1% and 0.8% in the corresponding regions. The sales of automotive fuels grew by 1.7% in the euro area and were up by 1.2% in the EU. Countries marking the highest monthly growth in retail sales were Luxembourg with 7.6%, Romania with 3.8%, and Cyprus with 1.5%. Conversely, the biggest falls were observed in Estonia, where they reached negative 2.6%, and Slovakia and Latvia, which recorded negative 1% and negative 0.8%.

US factory orders down by 3.6% in January