Wednesday 10pm. A US Air Force plane that took off from Sigonella airfield near Catania has been patrolling the sea to the East of Malta for some hours going over and over the same area.
If the war between Israel and Iran were to degenerate any further and Iran to start attacking US bases as it has threatened to do, this Sicilian base could come under attack.
Especially with the new missiles that Iran has developed which have a range of 2000 km which puts Sigonella well within reach.
We are that far away from the war zone.
And yet all we seem to worry about is who will be the new leader of the PN after the sudden and so far inexplicable and unexplained resignation of Bernard Grech, the decision by Roberta Metsola to focus on her Brussels role. Even Claudette Buttigieg has been reported to renounce to be a candidate.
What's going on? Former leader Adrian Delia has been said to be rethinking about becoming a candidate. And Franco Debono keeps telling us he might think of becoming a candidate. And Gozitan candidate Alex Borg is said by the Times to be in pole position. While so many new faces mill around and pre-campaign.
Meanwhile Paceville, the prime entertainment venue created over the past half century mostly by private sector entrepreneurs and with very limited government involvement or planning, is trying hard to resemble Gaza with apartment blocks reduced to rubble not due to any war but because of faulty construction and more likely massive rock excavation next door.
But mainly this Thursday morning attention is focused on the Israeli hospital that suffered a direct hit from an Iranian missile, a scene already played out in multiple cases in Gaza.
While Israel rejoices it has stymied Iran's Central Bank and blocked all or most ATMs at petrol stations and destroyed the small Iranian Bitcoins.
The way the world looks, this Thursday morning, the two nations each with a glorious past, seem destined to continue this battle to its gory end unless someone, somewhere, intervenes.
Cultural note
Writing on Storja 2015, Mariana Grech provides a riveting account of Gozo fifteen years after the 1551 invasion by the Turks and while Malta was facing the 1565 Great Siege.
The first revelation is that life had more or less picked up on Gozo. Farms were being leased, animals purchased and trade with the neighboring Sicily had resumed.
All this information is gleaned from the notarial accounts of Notary Tommaso Gauci.
[email protected]