There are the official declarations, the superficial ones, then there is the reality, that of business, oil and gas, the arms market and conveniences. The faces of hell flow undisturbed between a living room and a tennis match. Between an IV tied as best as possible with the laces of what remains of those shoes left torn apart without feet in the war terrain and wheelbarrows transformed into funeral litters for the last journey, of children or adults. We see what we can, all sweetened by the geopolitics of business and Western strategies, by the rigor for the faces of the infants to be protected, despite the "civilian" bombs having destroyed their lives forever.

Not their business

The conflict between Israel and Palestine, between Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas, is the bloodiest representation of a war engraved in the chromosomes of that land, always soaked in blood and weapons. It's their business, one could say in a Pilatesque way, if it weren't for that mediation and arming, selling death and making deals, to be consummated precisely on those conflicts that everyone, in words, would like to stop, but on which, instead, with the sound of bombs and missiles fodder relentlessly. In that corner of the world, the richest in oil and gas, made up of Emirs and potentates, of dollars and euros, the most perverse Western contradictions have always been hidden. On the one hand, bombastic proclamations for the defense of denied civil rights, on the other, an economic-business subjugation that is recorded on two indissoluble fronts, weapons & oil.

Contradictions

Tracing the map of war and energy affairs in the Middle Eastern area is like entrusting the synthesis of an infinitely contradictory and controversial chessboard to a spider's web. Red-light relationships passed off as relationships between boarders and Ursulines, full-blown enemies on the front of denied rights, fraternal friends when there are what the Farnesina, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, call "Agreements between the Government of the Italian Republic and the Government of the State" to sign “xy” on cooperation in the defense sector”. Everything theoretically out in the open, only to then forget about it when there is a bloody conflict at stake capable of bringing the world to the brink of a global war. The hell of the Gaza Strip is just the tip of a Middle Eastern iceberg which in many ways not only touches but, for some relevant elements, makes Sardinia dramatically protagonist. A land, the Sardinian one, theoretically aimed at peace, engulfed in a thousand high-risk affairs, called into question by state relations ranging from the production and sale of bombs to the foreign use of military servitudes stolen from the island, passing through the missions " sardines” in the lands of conflict, such as that of Unifil in Lebanon, between Israel and Hezbollah with the use of the Sassari Brigade. All with a dossier kept strictly dormant on the robbery of the Sardinian sea by the Muslim Brotherhood of Algeria, who have declared their Exclusive Economic Zone on the coast between Carloforte and Bosa.

The question of weapons

The first big issue is that of weapons. Sardinia, which dramatically hit the news due to the use by Saudi Arabia against the population of Yemen of the bombs produced in the depths of Sulcis by the Germans of Rwm, of the Rheinmetall group, has, in spite of itself, become a Middle Eastern crossroads for the nefarious market of the productions of death. The history of the German factory in Sardinia, with the majority of employees hired on quarterly contracts "administered" by temporary agencies, is known throughout the world. The rich Germans produce the bombs in Domusnovas, exploiting the employment poverty of Sulcis, to sell them, for example, to the rich Emirs of Saudi Arabia who used them to bomb the poorest populations in the world, those of Yemen. Sales of four hundred million euros were blocked only after years of protests due to the violation of the rules on arms trade, Law 185/90, which prevents them from being sold to countries in conflict. And it is precisely from that story that the journey into the hell of the "Sardinian" weapons that ended up in the tangle of the Middle East begins. In this case, an emblematic fact emerges: the weapons of Rwm and Rheinmetall on the side of the conflict ended up largely in the arsenals of the states opposing Israel. Italy, Germany and Europe, openly aligned with Israel, with the bomb factory located in Sardinia, supply the cyclopean and devastating «MK» precisely to those Arab countries that openly support Hamas, in every way, from money to weapons. Yesterday, the parent company Rheinmetall recorded on the Berlin Stock Exchange an increase in its shares of more than 60% since the beginning of the year and more than 200% since the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In this scenario, the Middle Eastern conflict is yet another gift for war affairs. The report presented in 2022 by the Prime Minister to Parliament on the arms trade reveals a disturbing picture: the weapons produced in Sardinia mostly ended up in the hands of Arab countries openly aligned against Israel. In the lead in purchases of "Sardinian-German bombs" is Kuwait, a country that has always declared itself to be aligned with the Palestinian cause. Between Rwm and Rheinmetall, in the last year recorded, the emirs of Kuwait paid out the beauty of almost forty million euros.

Qatar & Rwm

In the ranking they are followed by Hamas' first ally, Qatar, the same as Mater Olbia, Costa Smeralda and the bankruptcy of Air Italy. Emir Al-Thani went shopping for Sardinian-German weapons worth fifteen million euros. There is no shortage of Turkey with almost four million euros, also very much aligned with Hamas, to reach the United Arab Emirates with an expense of five and a half million euros in bombs. Rheinmetall-Sardinia's total Middle Eastern sales over the past year are 69 million euros. The count, however, does not include contracts blocked due to the conflict in Yemen. During 2021, six authorizations for the RWM for the export of aircraft bombs were blocked, three to the United Arab Emirates and three to Saudi Arabia. The revocation canceled supplies worth 328 million euros. Contracts for which the Italian government has recently given the green light for reactivation. In this scenario, Israel is not missing, having made purchases in the Sardinian factory, the same one where its sworn enemies get supplies, for just 387 thousand euros. Marginal purchases that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is, however, considering blocking due to the ongoing conflict.

Sardinian-Israeli weapons

In reality, however, the Israelis go hand in hand with the Domusnovas factory. UVision, the first of the Israeli arms factories, the same one that sends thousands of its employees on company holidays to the first resort on the coast of Pula, has, in fact, signed a «strategic agreement for the licensed production of the kamikaze drones". A disruptive partnership that will allow the Israeli factory, through the Sardinian factory, direct access to the European market. It is no coincidence that the first to buy those Kamikaze drones was the Italian Ministry of Defense. Therefore, in Sardinia, in the same Sulcis factory, drones will be produced for Israel's friends and at the same time bombs to fill the arsenals of its bitterest enemies. It's not over, though.

Exercises & missions

The crossed saraband of the Middle Eastern war with the island of Sardinia is a senseless plot. There are at least two other chapters: the Italian mission in Lebanon, with the Sassari Brigade going up and down in that fiery land, and the exercises of the sworn enemies in the military ranges of Sardinia. On the Israeli border with Lebanon, NATO has placed the "buffer" mission between Israel and Hezbollah. Italy, most of the time with the "Sassarini", does not intend to take a step aside: it has allocated a good 149 million euros for 2023. High risk mission, with the Sardinian military forced to face the contenders, most of them armed with weapons produced on the island. And then the air exercises, those aimed at destroying territories and hospitals with bombs. Qatar and Saudi Arabia train at Decimomannu, but also Israeli pilots. They bomb the Sardinian coasts to then wage war at home. The economy of death, in Sardinian-Middle Eastern style, knows no borders. Mountains of money, to the sound of bombs and death. Coherence and conscience are not at home here, between the West and the Promised Land.

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