CONNECT THE DOTS - PALESTINE TO EASTERN UKRAINE AND BACK

• Yesterday we saw reports that up to 800 of Kiev's military were surrounded by self-defense forces in the eastern part of the country.  Reports said that up to half of them had already been killed and it appeared like many had taken off their uniforms and surrendered.  I saw that up to 100 wounded Kiev's forces were being treated inside Russia, quite good of them under the circumstances.  

• In a clear rejection of western IMF and World Bank economic supremacy the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have created not only a new $100 billion Development Bank, but also a $100 billion foreign currency reserves pool. This was done officially yesterday and then today a Malaysian airliner was shot down over Ukraine.

•  Interesting post on Facbook today:
  

  Please friends....I forward this information. There is a Spanish aircontroller working at Kiev Borispol airport...he said that the Malaysian airplane was shot down by two Ukrainian jets. Even the Ukrainian militars know that. Also it looks that the Ukrainian military were organizing a coup against Poroshenko. He says that the air traffic control tower where he is working is now occupied by foreign agents. I reproduce here his twitts. He says that the order to shoot down the Malaysian airline is not coming from the military but from the interior ministry or from outside.

•  Another interesting Facebook post today:
  

  Yesterday the US put huge sanctions on Russia. Today paypal have blocked customers who support the Russian backed separatists. Ukrainin SU25 shot down. Separatists rout the Ukrainians. It was all going wrong for Kiev. It is easy to work out. At 33,000ft. It would need to be a large radar controlled missile. The separatists would not have a missile that large but Kiev would. 
  

• Ayman Mohyeldin, the NBC News correspondent who personally witnessed yesterday’s killing by Israel of four Palestinian boys on a Gazan beach and who has received widespread praise for his brave and innovative coverage of the conflict, has been told by NBC executives to leave Gaza immediately. According to an NBC source upset at his treatment, the executives claimed the decision was motivated by “security concerns” as Israel prepares a ground invasion, a claim repeated to me by an NBC executive. But late yesterday, NBC sent another correspondent, Richard Engel, along with an American producer who has never been to Gaza and speaks no Arabic, into Gaza to cover the ongoing Israeli assault (both Mohyeldin and Engel speak Arabic).

• The Israeli military has destroyed el-Wafa orthopedic hospital in the Gaza Strip, after first targeting the facility with five missiles on July 11, 2014. The Israeli military began striking the building around 8:oo pm this evening [July 17] and within two hours all hospital staff and patients had evacuated the only rehabilitation center in the Gaza Strip. As they departed what remained intact from the medical center burned to the ground. 
• The Ukrainian military reportedly deployed a battery of Buk surface-to-air missile systems, capable of bringing down high-flying jets, to the Donetsk region the day before the Malaysian passenger plane crashed in the area. Itar-Tass and Interfax news agencies are citing a source familiar with the issue, who said that another battery of Buk systems is currently being prepared for shipment to Donetsk region from the Ukrainian city of Kharkov.