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diamonds for gaza.....

Mazal u’ Bracha has been the Hebrew expression for sealing transactions in the international diamond trade for hundreds of years – in Amsterdam until World War II, and Antwerp since then. Literally, it means “luck and blessing”. Sociologically, it means that if you default, the community of Jewish diamantaires will impose the sanction of religious law,  redline your credit, and you will be unable to take goods on approval, buy, borrow, trade, or continue in the business.

 

by John Helmer, Moscow 
     @bears_with

 

In the major Jewish diamond business centres – Antwerp, Ramat Gan (Tel Aviv), New York – the potency of this  blessing has been waning under pressure of falling consumer demand, rising borrowing costs, company bankruptcies, government sanctions, and sanctions-busting.    And that was before the Palestine war began.

On March 1, after heavy lobbying by Israeli and American diamantaires  – and despite resistance from the Belgian businesses  – new restrictions were imposed with the aim of driving Russian diamonds – rough and polished – out of the major jewellery markets of Europe and the US.  The new scheme has a catch, however.  It is now the US Customs Service with whom diamond buyers and traders must shake hands.

In a rule issued on March 1, the US Government requires importers to sign a statement declaring: “I certify that the non-industrial diamonds in this shipment were not mined, extracted, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in the Russian Federation, notwithstanding whether such diamonds have been substantially transformed into other products outside of the Russian Federation.”  

The US Customs Service doesn’t speak Hebrew and it lacks Talmudic authority. Even if it did, there is increasing doubt among trade lawyers that there is anything equivalent to the traditional Jewish community sanction to support the blessing. Israel’s engagement in what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled to be “plausible genocide”  also exposes the Tel Aviv-New York trade to the charge of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity.  

This is more than a case of the pot calling the kettle black. It’s a case of the Israeli diamantaires financing the genocide of Gaza and the war against the Arabs at the same time as they attempt to drive competing diamond producers and rival diamond traders out of the market. The so-called blood diamond sanction of the Kimberley Process, which was first intended to curtail central and west African diamond supply since 2003,    is now being applied to Russian diamonds by the Israelis, the Jewish communities engaged in the diamond trade, and the US Government.

Martin Rapaport, a Tel Aviv-New York diamond trader and publisher of an industry bible called Rapaport.com,   has published a warning that the new system is not only an unenforceable mazal-bracha system, but it is also a devious scheme to channel diamond certification through loopholes in Antwerp, at the expense of alternative, stricter channels in Tel Aviv and New York; and also to favour the Anglo-South African De Beers diamond group over the Russian rival miner Alrosa and other diamond miners in Africa.

“Previously, goods ‘substantially transformed’ (i.e., manufactured) in countries such as India were technically legal in the US,” Joshua Freedman of the Rapaport group reported on March 11. “The US and other member countries have released information on how enforcement will work, but many questions remain. The industry is still unsure how the ban will work in both the short and the long term. Dealers have begun sending goods to the US with self-declaration statements, but there is uncertainty about what will happen if customs authorities ask for evidence about a particular shipment and whether the US will add more complex requirements later…[there are] allegations that Belgium is using the sanctions to benefit its own diamond sector…Those importing diamonds into the EU [European Union] between March 1 and August 31 may choose between doing so via the Diamond Office [DO]  in Antwerp, ‘leading to the issuance of a G7 certificate,’ or by providing documentary evidence with detailed information about the diamond and its origin. Single-origin Kimberley Process (KP) certificates — or mixed origin for De Beers DTC [Diamond Trading Company] goods — qualify as acceptable proof of origin, according to question 12 of the EU’s FAQs. However, there is an important caveat: documentary evidence is accepted only ‘provided that goods of CN codes 7102 31 00 and 7102 10 00 with a weight equal to or above 1 carat are submitted without delay’ to the Antwerp Diamond Office. These codes are for rough diamonds. In other words, all 1-carat or larger rough diamonds entering the EU must go to this Belgian entry point.”  

In an international marketplace in which weak demand for diamonds is already squeezing the profitability of the trade in key jewellery manufacturing centres in India and China (Hong Kong),  the Russian strategy is to bust the sanctions, defeat De Beers and the hostile Israeli-American  operations, and create alternative businesses structures, Of course,  the details are now secret.  

There are diamantaires in the market who express confidence that Alrosa, Russia’s dominant diamond miner, will be as successful as the Russian oil, gas, and coal exporters who have been under sanctions for longer. “The market will be in a state of shock for the first few months,” comments a Russian diamantaire now based in Dubai.   “Most likely, the cost of stones may increase by 10% to 20%, but after the first shock, a correction will occur. Eventually, workarounds will be found for the export of Russian diamonds. To establish parallel imports — from Russia to the outside — will not be so difficult.”

There are also sources who claim Alrosa will fail. Says a diamantaire in Europe, “even before Putin’s invasion, the Russian share of rough production was under 30% in value and volume. Since then of course, all production and sales figures coming out of Alrosa have been pure make-believe and are up for the next Nobel prize for fiction. It could be said there will be more incentive to prospect for future rough in Africa or Canada, or for De Beers and others to lengthen the life of some of their mines – as they are already doing at Venetia [South Africa]. I don’t see any real change in the trading and polishing centres, in the diamond jewellery-consuming countries, and in the structure of the pipeline  generally. Just less legal Russian rough.”

In outcome, these two diamond industry sources may be predicting the same thing. The reason is what in the Russian diamond business is called submarining. 

For the past thirty years, as Russian language diamond publications have come and gone, this website — and before it the diamond media of London and Johannesburg — have reported on Russian diamond mining, manufacturing, exports,  and submarining. By contrast, diamond industry reporters in the US, Belgium, UK, and Israel generally follow the Russian war line of their governments; in South Africa diamond reporters follow the De Beers line. Click to open the archive.  

The most recent chapter in Rapaport’s attempt to mobilize the US and EU sanctions agencies against Alrosa was published last December. But at that time the Russians made an alliance with the African miners against the Rapaport scheme for tightening US sanctions. The Indian diamantaires attempted to play both sides – “neutral, waiting to see who would win”.   

In the December 6 report, the prediction for 2024 was uncertain. “If the diamond market cracks in half, as the oil market has done, the value of market price-setters like Rapaport’s Rapnet will be erased. No one in the trade is ready to predict with confidence what the alternative diamond trade will look like, and what impact it will have on diamond pricing.”

https://johnhelmer.net/when-it-comes-to-fighting-russian-diamonds-the-jewish-diamond-trade-and-de-beers-are-a-busted-flush/#more-89570

 

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in the cross-hairs of destiny.....

 

Will the US Government Assassinate Benjamin Netanyahu?

 

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You may think that Benjamin Netanyahu would be just about the least likely foreign government leader for the United States government to assassinate. After all, he is the prime minister of Israel, a nation to which US President Joe Biden and all top congressional leaders — Democratic and Republican — have expressed their devotion. Also, it appears that Netanyahu will soon address a joint session of the US Congress. But, before disregarding the possibility, consider the fate of South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem.

Diem was held out by the US government as the heroic leader advancing American ideals and opposing the expansion of communism in Vietnam. In May of 1957, two years after Diem became president, Diem was treated as a hero by top United States politicians through his two week visit to America.

Andrew Glass related the spectacle in a May 9, 2018 Politico article. Highlights of the trip included Diem being flown to America on US President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s airplane. Upon the plane landing in the vicinity of Washington, DC, Diem was greeted by Eisenhower and the US secretary of state as well as “full military honors — including a 21-gun salute.” Then, “[a]bout 50,000 people lined the route taken by Diem’s motorcade from the airport to his country’s embassy.” Glass also recounted that, during the visit to America, Diem presented a speech before a joint meeting of the US Senate and House of Representatives at which assembled Congress members gave him a standing ovation.

And the US government and Diem lived happily ever after, right? Wrong. In the final paragraph of his article, Glass noted the fate of Diem five and a half years later:

He was assassinated on Nov. 2, 1963, during a military coup that toppled his regime. President John F. Kennedy secretly sanctioned Diem’s downfall.

It turned out the “hero” Diem was expendable. Ultimately, so also was the Vietnam cause. The US churned through enormous resources and American military members to impose vast destruction in the Vietnam War until abandoning the effort in 1975, leaving the communists to control all of Vietnam.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on March 14 presented a speech on the Senate floor containing substantial discussion of Netanyahu that may serve as the signal that the US government is in the process of turning against Netanyahu as it did against Diem six decades ago. In the speech, Schumer called himself “a guardian of the people of Israel” and “a staunch defender of Israel.” He also included himself among people who “love Israel in our bones.” Schumer argued in his speech that a two-state solution is in the best interest of Israel and that Netanyahu is one of “four major obstacles” to achieving that objective, while also criticizing Netanyahu’s actions more broadly.

Schumer’s criticism of Netanyahu is quite harsh. Schumer stated:

I have known Prime Minister Netanyahu for a very long time. While we have vehemently disagreed on many occasions, I will always respect his extraordinary bravery for Israel on the battlefield as a younger man.

I believe in his heart he has his highest priority as the security of Israel. However, I also believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take the precedence over the best interests of Israel.

He has put himself in coalition with far-right extremists like Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, and, as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has also weakened Israel’s political and moral fabric through his attempts to co-opt the judiciary. And he has shown zero interest in doing the courageous and visionary work required to pave the way for peace, even before this present conflict.

As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October seventh. The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past.

Nobody expects Prime Minister Netanyahu to do the things that must be done to break the cycle of violence, to preserve Israel’s credibility on the world stage, and to work towards a two-state solution.

Those comments by Schumer bring to mind the transition of Diem from hero for the cause to impediment to the cause decades back.

Schumer further asserted in his speech that the cause to which Schumer is committed relative to Israel now requires that Netanyahu be moved out of the way. “The US government should demand that Israel conduct itself with a future two-state solution in mind,” declared Schumer. Schumer, in particular, demanded that an election be held so that Netanyahu and his coalition can be removed from power. But, if such an election does not occur or if it occurs without bringing about the regime change Schumer desires, then Schumer demanded further US action to thwart that Israel government. Schumer Stated:

If Prime Minister Netanyahu’s current coalition remains in power after the war begins to wind down, and continues to pursue dangerous and inflammatory policies that test existing US standards for assistance, then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course.

The day after Schumer presented his speech, US president Joe Biden chimed in that it was “a good speech” and that Biden thought Schumer had “expressed serious concerns shared not only by him but by many Americans.”

Schumer’s speech looks like advocacy for the US government, with its long history of bringing about “regime change” across the world, to jettison Netanyahu from power, all in the name of helping Israel. Indeed, Netanyahu took the comments this way. Regarding Schumer’s comments about him in the Senate speech, Netanyahu stated in a Sunday interview at the CNN show State of the Union:

I think what he said is totally inappropriate. It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. That’s something that Israel, the Israeli public, does on its own, and we’re not a banana republic.

A US effort to remove Netanyahu from power in Israel may be accomplishable without assassinating him. Still, the Diem example suggests assassination could be an option chosen in the effort to achieve this goal. Maybe also, as with Vietnam, we are in the early stage of the disintegration of the US government’s supposed unbreakable devotion to Israel.

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/will-the-us-government-assassinate-benjamin-netanyahu/

 

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diam-mayhem....

Western restrictions on Russian diamond imports have destabilized the entire industry, as traders struggle to verify gems heading to the EU, the Sunday Times has reported, citing market players.

A direct EU and G7 ban on Russian diamonds came into effect in January, and was followed by phased-in restrictions on indirect imports from March 1. A tracking mechanism is also being planned before September to help Western authorities identify the origin of imported diamonds in an effort to avoid sanctions violations.

Shortly after the ban came into force, the European Commission ordered that all diamonds entering the EU should go via Antwerp in Belgium to be verified as non-Russian. As of the start of March, the measure covers rough diamonds larger than one carat, although that will be expanded from September to include stones larger than 0.5 carat.   

Officials are demanding onerous paperwork to prove the origin of each batch of gems, forcing diamantaires to deal with lengthy delays, additional expenses, and disgruntled customers, the Sunday Times reported at the weekend, citing multiple traders.

They also highlighted that it previously took around 48 hours to get diamonds out of Africa, after which gems would be processed and sent to a client. “Now, with all the bureaucracy, it’s taking up to two weeks. With interest rates at 10 or 11%, I would be losing money every single day,” one trader told the British paper.

Diamonds coming from different countries are chemically almost identical, another trader said, emphasizing “the absurdity of the new legislation that is causing mayhem in the international jewelry market.”

Shortly after Moscow launched its military campaign against Ukraine in 2022, the West imposed numerous sanctions on Russia’s natural resources, including a ban on imports of oil, gold, and even caviar. Diamonds, however, were exempt partially due to a strong lobby from Belgium that warned that Antwerp, through which 90% of the world’s diamonds pass, could risk losing business to other trading hubs. Belgium changed its position and supported the idea of the diamond tracking system.

“There used to be 4,000 diamond cutters in Antwerp,” Pieter Bombeke, one of the city’s master craftsmen, told the Sunday Times. “Now it’s 120. Most of the work has gone to India where the labor is cheap.”

Traders are reportedly concerned that dealers could be forced to follow suit and leave for India, Dubai, or Tel Aviv, which haven’t imposed sanctions on Russian gems. Ten companies are planning “to move to Dubai or India because of these new rules,” according to a financial adviser to Antwerp’s diamond industry, as quoted by the British newspaper.

https://www.rt.com/business/594936-russia-diamond-ban-mayhem-eu/

 

 

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