✝️ 🇵🇸 🇮🇱 Israel is banning Christians in Gaza from their annual Christmas pilgrimage to Bethlehem for the third consecutive year.

Only two churches are currently operating in Gaza, the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, and the Catholic Church of the Holy Family. They are currently sheltering approximately 900 Christians who fled their homes since the beginning of the Israeli bombardment of the Strip. Gaza’s Christian community, which is among the oldest in the world, only numbers at about 1,000 individuals.

Like so many others in Gaza’s Christian community, Ayad was personally affected by the bombing of the Greek Orthodox Church. “The moment the church was bombed was difficult for all Christians and Muslims in Gaza,” he stressed to BreakThrough News. “They crossed all boundaries in their targeting and spared no one. In that bombing, I lost my cousin, her husband, and their child. An entire family was wiped off the civil registry… That’s why we decided to leave until the war ended, but the war dragged on.”

https://breakthroughnews.org/three-years-without-christmas-in-gaza/

—❗️🇮🇷/🇹🇷 NEW: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will visit Tehran next week

He will meet with President Masoud Pezeshkian and likely Iran's Supreme Leader.

@Middle_East_Spectator

⚡🦌🎅 An unknown high-altitude object is currently cruising over Eastern Europe.

The aircraft has a ground speed of ~Mach 7, allowing it to travel around the globe in a few hours only.

@wfwitnes

📊 🇮🇱 🇹🇷 Israel Ranks Turkey as Second-Largest Threat

A JPPI survey shows Israelis rank Türkiye as the second-largest threat after Iran, citing defense industry advances and regional operations. The poll also finds 50% favor greater independence from U.S. pressure amid Gaza war fallout

The survey underscores how Türkiye’s operational footprint beyond its own borders has factored into Israeli perceptions. Military engagements and security operations stretching from Syria to Africa were cited as evidence of a wider strategic reach, reinforcing the sense that Türkiye is no longer confined to a narrow defensive role.

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/israel-poll-ranks-turkiye-as-threat-owyqg6jhsva

📖 🌍 ⛓️ Volume and direction of the trans-Atlantic slave trade
from all African to all American regions

This map summarizes and combines the many different paths by which captives left Africa and reached the Americas. While there were strong connections between particular embarkation and disembarkation regions, it was also the case that captives from any of the major regions of Africa could disembark in almost any of the major regions of the Americas. Even captives leaving Southeast Africa, the region most remote from the Americas, could disembark in mainland North America, as well as the Caribbean and South America. The data in this map are based on estimates of the total slave trade rather than documented departures and arrivals.

https://www.slavevoyages.org/blog/-volume-and-direction-of-the-transatlantic-slave-trade/123

📖 ✝️ 🐑 Many people don’t know that when the Bible says Jesus was laid in a manger, the Greek word for manger is “phatnē” which refers to a feeding trough, and many in Bethlehem were made of stone.

Here’s what’s powerful:
Shepherds in the Bethlehem region were known for raising sacrificial lambs for the Temple. When a lamb was born, it was carefully inspected for blemishes and often placed in a manger or trough to protect it from injury because a damaged lamb could not be offered to God.
So when the Lamb of God entered the world, He was laid in the *very place* where sacrificial lambs were kept.

And who did the angels announce His birth to?
Shepherds. Not kings. Not priests. Shepherds—men who understood sacrifice, blood, purity, and lambs without blemish.

When the angels said, “You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12), it was a sign they would immediately recognize.

This child wasn’t just a baby. He was the final Lamb. The One who would take away the sin of the world. From the moment He was born, Jesus was marked for sacrifice—not by men, but by God.

✨ “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

📎 Moe Bible Verses

🤱 ✝️ 🎄 A Charlie Brown Christmas - True Meaning

In 1965, CBS executives were terrified of A Charlie Brown Christmas special. They told creator Charles Schulz that having Linus read from the Gospel of Luke was "too religious" for television and would offend the audience.

Schulz, a devout Christian, refused to back down. He told them: "If we don't tell the true meaning of Christmas, who will?"

It aired, unedited. It became the second most-watched show of the year and won an Emmy.

Even in the 60s, the world wanted to erase Christ from Christmas. One man's integrity kept Him on the screen for 50+ years. - Trad West


📎 PeanutsOnline

🇵🇸 🇮🇱 🇪🇬 Israel moved its “Yellow Line” buffer zone deeper into Palestinian territory in Gaza [dashed yellow line is where they were as of a few weeks ago] even though the solid line is where they’re supposed to be per the Sharm El Sheikh Agreement with Egypt’s General Intelligence Service (G.I.S.) & the U.S. White House. Israel’s Minister of Defense Katz has also been talking about the return of Israeli settlements to Gaza, and has cited the prevention of a repeat of the 10/7/2023 events as the reason for a deeper buffer zone [don’t ask me how further IDF occupation will prevent that]. Egypt’s G.I.S. for its part has managed to unify all the various Palestinian factions in Cairo in recent days to form a Palestinian government to run Gaza as opposed to having some sort of foreign-imposed committee [which is what the U.S. White House had preferred]

Israel also has serious differences with Egypt on Phase II of the Sharm El Sheikh Agreement, the militarization of both sides of the border, the IDF-occupied “Philadelphi Corridor” [Gaza’s border with Egypt], Rafah Crossing, and the $35B energy deal [Israel hasn’t approved export certificates for US firm Chevron yet as far as I know]. Some other disagreements include files such as Lebanon where Egypt’s G.I.S. has held high profile mediation talks involving Hezbollah/Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) & Israel as well as the US; both to prevent an internal conflict as well as an Israeli offensive.

📎 CAIRO X

🇨🇳⚡️- New images show a Chinese cargo ship packed with containerized missile launchers, radars, and close in defenses. Like China's Taiwan Strait ferries used as troop transports or fishing fleets used for intelligence, this is part of a broader effort to militarize commercial hulls, blurring the line between civilian vessels and the PLA Navy.

🚢 🇨🇳 🏹 First Generation Modern Q-Ship/Arsenal ship from China has 60 VLS cells giving it

●60% firepower of an Arleigh Burke
●60% firepower of an Atago
●46% firepower of Sejong the Great

Slightly more firepower than Iver Huitfeldt class frigate. 1.25x-3.75x more firepower than all other European ships.

This is a relatively small container ship and unknown number of reloads stored below and we're going to need our own arsenal ship and a large surface combatant that can tank multiple hits without splitting in half on the first hit.

VLS count estimate for this specific configuration:
- 4x VLS per ISO container
- 4-5x containers abreast
- 3x containers longitudinally placed at full fitout

48-60 VLS onboard total?

These seem like full sized VLS too, could be H/AJK-16, UVLS or something in between.

📎 Intelschizo