“Escalation” Is a Word That You Will Hear a Lot This Year as the Globe Erupts in Flames

(End of the American Dream)—2024 has just started, and already we have seen major escalations in the Middle East and in Ukraine.  Unfortunately, I believe that both of those conflicts will spiral out of control in 2024, and the U.S. military is simply not ready for such a scenario.  This year, we will see things happen that once would have been unimaginable.  But there is no turning back now.  World War III has begun, and over the next 12 months things are going to get really crazy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to kill the leaders of Hamas wherever they are found, and on Tuesday the IDF got a really big one.

Saleh Arouri had been hiding in a very heavily populated area of Beirut, and it was there that he was taken out by an Israeli drone strike…

An apparent Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut killed Hamas’ No. 2 political leader Tuesday, marking a potentially significant escalation of Israel’s war against the militant group and heightening the risk of a wider Middle East conflict.

Saleh Arouri, who was the most senior Hamas figure killed since the war with Israel began, was also a founder of the group’s military wing. His death could provoke major retaliation by Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah militia.

Seeing more indications from a few reliable sources on social media that the explosion tonight in Dahiyeh, a #Hezbollah stronghold, may have been targeting a Palestinian HVT. Lots of #Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders frequent Beirut. pic.twitter.com/U2xNnYo8m7

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) January 2, 2024

This was a very bold move.

It is being reported that the drone “hit an apartment in a building in a Shiite district of Beirut that is a Hezbollah stronghold”…

The strike hit an apartment in a building in a Shiite district of Beirut that is a Hezbollah stronghold, and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to strike back against any Israeli targeting of Palestinian officials in Lebanon.

This is extremely embarrassing for Hezbollah, because this happened very close to Hezbollah’s headquarters right in the heart of Beirut.

So what will Hezbollah do now?

Will they strike back?

Following the attack, they released a very ominous statement that warned of “response and punishment”…

Hezbollah said in a statement that the targeting of Arouri “in the heart of the southern suburbs of Beirut” constituted “a serious attack on Lebanon, its people, its security, sovereignty and resistance.”

“We affirm that this crime will never pass without response and punishment,” it said.

I fully expect Hezbollah to respond very forcefully. And Israel will respond even more forcefully to whatever Hezbollah does.

Hopefully things will settle down after a few days. But even if that happens, there will be war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Netanyahu and other high ranking Israeli officials have clearly stated that Hezbollah must pull back beyond the Litani River. Of course Hezbollah will never go willingly, and so the IDF will be used to push them back. And once that happens missiles will start flying all over the place.

Needless to say, the war in the Middle East is already deeply dividing our own society. There is so much anger and frustration on both sides, and we are seeing some very ugly public confrontations.  Here is just one example…

A Jewish family of four was subjected to foul-mouthed harassment at the American Dream Mall in New Jersey on New Year’s Day, according to video of the incident shared by a watchdog group.

The Jewish couple and their children, ages 12 and 16, were the target of screaming abuse hurled by two pro-Palestinian supporters at the mall in East Rutherford, the video showed.

StopAntisemitism, the watchdog group that shared the video, said the abuse was triggered by the 16-year-old daughter’s sweatshirt, which showed support for the Israeli Defense Force.

We are going to see much more of this in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine continues to escalate as well.

Following Ukraine’s shelling of civilians in Belgorod, the Russians launched approximately 100 missiles at major Ukrainian cities on Tuesday…

Later in the day Tuesday the scale of the attack on Kiev has come to light, showing that the Kremlin is clearly trying to send a ‘message’. The New York Times writes that “The barrage — which the Ukrainian Air Force said involved about 100 missiles, including hypersonic weapons that fly at several times the speed of sound — was the latest in an escalating cycle of air assaults between the two countries, as both sides look for ways to inflict damage away from the largely deadlocked front line.”

This is exactly what the Ukrainian leaders want.

They want escalation, because they know that it will mean more money will start flowing in from western nations.

But in the process areas of Ukraine that were once so beautiful are now being turned into piles of rubble…

This is the terrifying moment a missile exploded in Ukraine as Putin launched a monumental attack today, including a record 11 hypersonic Dagger missiles simultaneously.

Strikes hit Kyiv and other cities as Putin showed his wrath at Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod on New Year’s Eve.

Footage shows a super-fast missile exploding close to the Derzhprom building on Freedom Square in Kharkiv, the Soviet Union’s first skyscraper.

Sirens can he heard in the background as flames are seen engulfing a woodland area before the huge explosion shakes the entire scene.

It has been said that “war is hell”, and that is so accurate.

Unfortunately, 2024 is going to be a year of war, and so many precious people are going to die during the months to come.

Of course war is just one of the things that is going to cause widespread chaos all over the planet in 2024.

The most chaotic election season in U.S. history is looming, global hunger is rapidly growing, major pestilences are spreading, and historic natural disasters are happening all around us.

We really are in the early chapters of a “perfect storm”, but most people in the general population still have no idea what is ahead.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.