We know what’s coming and we are prepared.
ANALYSIS: What's next for Israel between now and January 20, 2025?
During President Biden's 10 weeks left in office, Prime Minister Netanyahu will have to decide whether to heed his policy directives or treat him as a lame duck and effectively "hold" until Trump gets into office. The Washington Post reports that senior officials in the Biden administration know that their influence on other countries is waning and that their ability to make policy decisions may be limited once Trump is inaugurated on January 20.
Of the three separate conflicts in which Israel is currently involved—Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran—none are expected to be resolved before Trump takes office.
Next week, the Biden administration will face a decision on whether to impose an arms embargo on Israel. The 30-day deadline set by the U.S. for the Israeli government to increase humanitarian aid to northern Gaza expires, and if unmet, Israel could face a suspension of arms shipments and other assistance from the U.S. Senior officials from both the U.S. and Israel have held intensive talks about it, but little action has been taken by Israel so far.
One factor complicating the administration's decision is the knowledge that if Biden were to cut off military supplies to Israel, Trump—who has reportedly been in regular contact with PM Netanyahu and last month urged him to "do what you have to do" to win the war—could revoke the decision immediately upon taking office. In the meantime, Israel could completely block humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Hams knows that time is of the essence for them. As soon as Trump becomes President, he is not likely to push Israel to supply aid to Gaza, and Hams will lose any ability to control Gaza, so we may see a hostage deal very soon.
Estimates suggest that the chances of reaching an agreement in Lebanon under Biden may be higher than reaching one in Gaza. The administration has a detailed plan for Lebanon, which Israel might be more willing to accept now that it has mostly achieved its goals, including dismantling Hezbollah’s leadership and infrastructure and evacuating the organization's terrorists from the south of the country near the border.
And then there's Iran, which is facing a major dilemma. The threats they've made in recent weeks seem to be pushing them toward an attack on Israel, but with Trump now elected, they might hold back.
It's also not clear how Tehran will react to another term of Trump, who may try to renew the campaign of "maximum pressure" on the Islamic Republic from his previous term in the White House in the form of sanctions and direct military actions against senior Iranian generals.
In the meantime, the dramatic dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Galant by PM Netanyahu may further complicate the ability of the Biden administration to advance its policy goals in the Middle East. During the war that followed the October 7 massacre, senior American officials viewed Gallant as an "indispensable partner" and a key ally in the fight against the right in Netanyahu's coalition, some of whom strongly oppose providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and some of whom would like to see Jewish settlement in Gaza.
(Raylan Givens on X)
Ukrainian forces have begun training and testing exoskeletons for battlefield use. Soldiers from the 147th Separate Artillery Brigade are using them in the Pokrovsk sector for both logistics and frontline operations. The goal is to reduce physical strain, especially when loading heavy artillery shells into howitzers without automatic loaders. Artillery crews can handle up to 1200 kg of ammunition per day, and early tests show that exoskeletons help them work faster and with less fatigue Above all, by improving the conditions for those soldiers on the front lines who handle such heavy loads, plus the stress of work. Seeking to reduce overall fatigue in the troops
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🇮🇷🇮🇱 - 14 wounded in Iranian missile strike in central Israel, according to Israeli media.
🇬🇧🇮🇶 - A drone struck British Castrol oil warehouses in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, causing extensive damage.
🇮🇷🇮🇱 - Iran launched 9 missiles towards Israel this morning alone, with at least 3 of them being cluster missiles.
🇱🇧🇮🇱 - Over the past 12 hours, Hezbollah launched counterattacks in Khiam and Qantara, in the Nabatieh direction, southeast Lebanon. Hezbollah recaptured northern Khiam, with fighting ongoing for the south of the town. Hezbollah units also re-entered Qantara; frontline sources reported clashes in the center of the town last night.
🇱🇧🇮🇱 - 48 IDF soldiers have been wounded in clashes with Hezbollah over the last 24 hours in southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli Army.
🇱🇧🇮🇱 - "The Israeli army is barely catching its breath in southern Lebanon, and its resources are less than in the previous round of fighting," - Haaretz....
🇺🇸 Blue Owl Capital just disclosed that investors tried to pull 40.7% of one fund and 21.9% of another in a single quarter, and both funds gave the same answer, you can only have 5% back, and everyone else waits in line.
This is a bank run, not a normal withdrawal.
Wall Street spent the last decade selling millions of investors on something called semi-liquid private credit, higher yields, steady income and the promise you could get your money back every quarter if you needed it. What they buried in the fine print was what happens when too many people try to leave at the same time.
Analysts who have covered private credit for decades say nothing on this scale has ever been reported before at any major private credit manager.
These funds do not hold stocks you can sell on a Tuesday afternoon, they hold private loans to mid sized companies that cannot be liquidated quickly without destroying the price for every investor still trapped inside.
This product was originally designed for ...
🇺🇸 President Trump wants to switch to war economy in 2027 with massive increase in military spending and massive cuts to healthcare and other domestic agencies
Once a deficit hawk — he said in 2016 that he thought he could balance the budget in five years — Trump ended his first term with $7.8 trillion in added debt. His 2027 proposal is expected to give an update on 10-year deficit projections currently estimated at around $16 trillion.
The GOP's message for the Midterms will be focused on the "need" for a massive defense build up while the Democrats' message will be focused on affordability.
The fiscal 2027 budget will be the first time Trump puts his second-term governing agenda into one comprehensive document — with the numbers to back it up. The budget he released last year lacked detailed line-by-line spending targets and the economic assumptions necessary to project the long-term cost of his proposals.
Investors in US Treasuries will be looking to see if the debt and ...
