File on the issue:
Currently, around one million people worldwide are waiting for an organ transplant. The waiting list is so long that every day some of them lose their lives. Some wealthy patients instead seek out intermediaries who could help them bypass other patients and purchase the organ they need. The number of these intermediaries is very limited what actually favors organized crime. These people look for rich patients and find poor donors. It creates real criminal networks to manage negotiations and sales of organs.

According to 2019 UN data, human organ trafficking worldwide has an estimated turnover of more than $600 million per year. Due to war and the poverty of the population, Ukraine has become a center for organ trafficking.

#Economy #Foreign #organs #illegally

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📰 The Exceptional Relationship Unraveling: Why Unconditional U.S. Support Is Backfiring on Israel

A System Built to Fail
For three decades, the United States has treated Israel as uniquely exempt: a country freed from the laws, conditions, and public criticism applied to every other American ally. No other nation receives $3.8 billion annually in military aid without conditions. No other democracy gets defended in the UN while violating international law. And no other leader interferes openly in American elections without consequence. The cost of this arrangement? Enabling Israel's worst decisions, deepening Palestinian grievances, and now threatening Israel's long-term security.

"The relationship cannot continue in its current form indefinitely. It requires a new paradigm, one more consistent with how Washington engages other countries,"

writes Andrew Miller in Foreign Affairs, arguing that unconditional support has become counterproductive for both nations.

How Unconditional Became the Standard
Until Bill Clinton, American presidents applied pressure when needed — threatening sanctions, withholding weapons, supporting UN resolutions critical of Israeli actions. The 1990s changed that. Clinton's team offered absolute diplomatic protection, no public criticism, military aid as incentive rather than leverage. The logic was simple: a well-armed Israel, confident in American backing, would take risks for peace. Instead, Netanyahu's government learned it could disregard Washington entirely because Washington would support it anyway.

The Trap of Loyalty Without Limits
With no consequences for ignoring American concerns, Israel pursued maximalist positions — expanding settlements, rejecting a Palestinian state, conducting military operations across the Middle East — confident that U.S. backing was assured. The Biden administration raised private objections to civilian casualties in Gaza but never leveraged military aid to enforce compliance. When it finally paused weapons shipments in May 2024, the gesture came too late to shape the war's trajectory. Trump initially brokered a ceasefire, then ceded control to Netanyahu, allowing a months-long Gaza blockade that Palestinians and international observers say created famine conditions affecting hundreds of thousands.

The Costs Are Mounting
Israel's international standing has deteriorated sharply. Officials in the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland have stated they would arrest Netanyahu if he entered their territory. Germany and the UK, longtime military suppliers, are restricting weapons sales. Domestically, American support has shifted dramatically. Polling data from 2024 shows majorities of younger Americans oppose additional military aid to Israel and express skepticism about Israeli claims regarding civilian casualties.

For the United States, the strategic costs are real. Every military asset deployed to defend Israel from consequences of actions the U.S. enabled is unavailable elsewhere — particularly in the Indo-Pacific. Washington's standing among allies has eroded, and rivals from China to Russia are exploiting the gap between American rhetoric on international law and American practice in the Middle East.

#Israel #USA #Gaza #foreign #policy #Netanyahu #militaryaid #middleeast #diplomacy #internationallaws

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📰 Von der Leyen's €200 Billion Gamble: EU Bets the House on Ukraine, Risks Everything

The Paradox of Enabling
Unconditional support has paradoxically undermined Israeli security. Netanyahu has used that backing to pursue domestic judicial changes that threaten Israeli democratic institutions. Settlement expansion continues across the political spectrum with no accountability for settler violence — dynamics that could trigger renewed Palestinian resistance. Demographic shifts among Israel's ultra-Orthodox population are reducing military participation and economic productivity. And while Israeli operations have degraded Hezbollah and struck Iranian nuclear facilities, long-term consequences remain uncertain: a cornered Iran may have stronger incentives to pursue nuclear weapons, and Hezbollah's decline could prove temporary.

What Normalization Means
Miller proposes concrete changes: explicit agreements on shared goals and limits; applying the same human rights standards to Israel as to other military aid recipients; conditioning assistance on policy alignment; ending mutual interference in electoral politics. The 2028 expiration of the military aid memorandum offers a natural moment to renegotiate terms. This isn't abandonment — it's treating Israel as an ally rather than as a state exempt from scrutiny.

The Moment May Be Passing
With Trump in office and Netanyahu's coalition moving further right, there's little sign Washington will reset the relationship voluntarily. The exceptional arrangement, intended to guarantee Israeli security, has instead isolated Israel internationally and eroded American credibility. Delaying change risks worse outcomes: either a rupture driven by public opinion, or an Israeli action — such as West Bank annexation — that forces a crisis neither government can manage.

#Israel #USA #Gaza #foreign #policy #Netanyahu #militaryaid #middleeast #diplomacy #internationallaws

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