07 Nov 14. Israel went to “extraordinary lengths” to limit civilian casualties during the conflict in Gaza earlier this year, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. Israel dropped leaflets and did “roof-knocking, to have something knock on the roof” to warn civilians to move out of the area, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said during a forum at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York. “They did some extraordinary things to try to limit civilian casualties, to include calling out, making it known that they were going to destroy a particular structure,” Dempsey said. The chairman said the U.S. military sent a “lessons learned team” of senior commissioned and noncommissioned officers to work with the Israel Defense Force about three months ago. The U.S. military members were interested in learning about the measures the Israeli forces took to prevent civilian casualties during the operation and how they dealt with tunnels, he added. Hamas had become “very nearly a subterranean society,” Dempsey said, adding that this has caused Israel some significant challenges. “The IDF is not interested in creating civilian casualties,” the chairman said. “They’re interested in stopping the shooting of rockets and missiles out of the Gaza Strip and into Israel.” The civilian casualties are tragic, Dempsey said. “In this kind of conflict, where you are held to a standard that your enemy is not held to, you’re going to be criticized for civilian casualties,” he added. Dempsey said the Israeli forces “did what they could” to prevent civilian casualties. “It’s an incredibly difficult environment, but I can say to you with confidence that I think that they acted responsibly,” the general said. (Source: US DoD)
07 Nov 14. Sharp Russian rouble gyrations stoke currency crisis worries. Dramatic gyrations in the rouble revived concerns of a full-blown currency crisis amid signs that a shaky ceasefire between Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and Kiev was falling apart. Fighting in the seven-month conflict which has claimed more than 4,000 lives had subsided after fierce August battles gave way to a September ceasefire agreement. But the so-called Minsk accords started to swiftly unravel after separatists last Sunday held an election considered illegitimate by Kiev and the west. The Bank of Russia said on Wednesday it would from now on sell no more than US$350m a day to support the rouble, arguing that from now on market forces would be key in determining the exchange rate. It did, however, stick to its commitment of unlimited one-off interventions if financial stability was at risk. Some analysts said the central bank was likely to resort to such moves very soon. “The continued slide in the rouble is likely to force the Central Bank of Russia into making a one-off intervention in the currency market, permitted under its new exchange rate policy, rather more quickly than it had initially hoped,” said Neil Shearing, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics. The extreme volatility drove many analysts as well as ordinary Russians to compare the situation with the country’s recent financial crises both in 2008-09 and in 1998 – a scenario which could threaten the grip president Vladimir Putin has on power in the long term. According to the latest Russian polls, Mr Putin’s popular support is at all-time highs of over 80 per cent on the back of his annexation of Crimea in March and his subsequent assertive stance towards the west. While the public has appeared indifferent towards stagnating growth, real incomes have started sliding in the wake of western sanctions against Russia. The last drop in real incomes in 2011 preceded large-scale protests by the Moscow middle class against Mr Putin. “My guess is that the bank will likely need to hike rates to at least 15 per cent and undertake large scale forceful intervention, in order to reintroduce two-way risk in the currency. This was the level required