The New Arab
Gaza war: At least 40,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured by Israel
At least 40,000 people have been killed or injured or have gone missing since Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip began on 7 October, Gaza's government media office has said.
At least 10,328 Palestinians, including 4,237 children, 2,719 women, 631 elderly people have been killed, spokesperson Salama Marouf of the media office said Tuesday.
Nearly 26,000 others have been injured and more than 3,000 people are missing, Marouf said.
The death toll includes 1,021 residents of Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip who wereﾠevacuated to the south of the Gaza Strip, after an Israeli warning, Marouf added.
In addition, 49 journalists were killed - a figure that was also confirmed by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Marouf said that 192 medical and health personnel had been killed, while 40 ambulances and 113 health institutions were destroyed or significantly damaged.
Eighteen hospitals and 40 health centres have been put out of service as result of fuel shortages- which brings the total number of hospitals not operating right now in the besieged Strip to 18 out of 35.
Marouf argued that "the occupation committed 1,071 massacres against Palestinian families [...] while 1.5 million citizens were displaced from their homes".
Israel launched air and ground attacks on Gaza following the surprise 7 October attack by Hamas, which killed at least 1,200 Israelis, including over 350 soldiers.
https://www.newarab.com/news/gaza-least-40000-palestinians-killed-injured-israel
A Day of War against Gaza Hospitals - Al-Shifa Chief
"We are taking difficult decisions between who to save and who to let die … as I speak to you, I am standing in front of 100 dead bodies," said the head of Al-Shifa Hospital, Muhammad Abu Salmiya.
On Friday, Israeli tanks approached at least four hospitals in northern Gaza from all directions, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported.
Amid escalating attacks by Israeli occupation forces in their advance on the besieged enclave, Gaza's largest medical complex, Al-Shifa, is facing total collapse.
"This day was a day of war on hospitals," said the head of Al-Shifa Hospital, Muhammad Abu Salmiya in statements to the press. Salmiya voiced great concern, as "the sick and injured occupy all the corridors of the hospital, and we are unable to perform surgery."
Throughout the day, hospitals sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza have been hit directly and several casualties among patients have been reported.
The Al-Shifa director said there is "not a single bed to place the victims in," while "we are making difficult decisions between who to save and who to let die...as I speak to you I am standing in front of 100 dead bodies," Salmiya said.
According to Al Jazeera news agency, the Israeli military has closed a perimeter of about 100 meters around three hospitals in Gaza City and the Indonesian Hospital in the north, using tanks and armored vehicles.
Israel had ordered the evacuation of the facilities however, the correspondent Hani Mahmoud reported from Khan Younis that people inside Al-Rantisi Hospital and Nasser Hospital are afraid to flee the area as there is no guarantee of a safe passage.
The route from these hospitals to east of Salah al-Din Street in Gaza City "is very dangerous and has suffered repeated airstrikes," Mahmoud said.
Early Friday, Israel struck the courtyard and obstetrics department of Al-Shifa hospital, killing at least 13 people and injuring several others, spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qudra said.
According to the spokesman, the hospital buildings were shelled five times by the Zionist regime since Thursday night. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry also reported another attack near the Al-Nasr Medical Center, which includes two children's hospitals, in which two people were killed.
Twenty-one hospitals out of a total of 35 in Gaza are currently out of service due to heavy airstrikes, but also due to a lack of fuel, the Palestinian ministry said in a statement released today.
It also noted that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks since October 7 has risen to 11,208 in Gaza and the West Bank, with those injured exceeding 28,500.
Daily Sabah – November 10, 2023
Screams, prayers: Gaza victims endure medical procedures without anesthetic
Cries, screams and moans of agony fill the halls of Gaza's hospitals as doctors lacking proper supplies desperately try to treat those wounded in Israel's incessant attacks.
A little girl was weeping in pain and screaming "Mummy, Mummy," while the nurse stitched up her head wound without using any anesthetic because none was available at the time at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
That was one of the worst moments nurse Abu Emad Hassanein could recall as he described the struggle to deal with an unprecedented influx of wounded people and a dearth of pain relief medication since the war in Gaza started a month ago.
"Sometimes we give some of them sterile gauze (to bite on) to reduce the pain," said Hassanein.
"We know that the pain they feel is more than someone would imagine, beyond what someone their age would stand," he said, referring to children like the girl with the head wound.
Arriving at Al-Shifa to have the dressing changed and disinfectant applied to a wound on his back caused by an airstrike, Nemer Abu Thair, a middle-aged man, said that he was given no pain relief when the wound was originally stitched up.
"I kept reciting the Quran until they finished," he said.
The war started on Oct. 7 when Hamas gunmen burst through the Gaza Strip's border fence with southern Israel. Israel says Hamas killed 1,400 people and abducted 240, on the worst day of carnage in Israel's history.
Israel responded with an air, sea and ground assault on the densely populated, Hamas-controlled enclave, which health officials in Gaza say has killed more than 10,800 Palestinians.
Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, said that when very large numbers of injured people have been brought in at the same time, there has been no choice but to deal with them on the floor, without adequate pain relief.
He gave as an example the immediate aftermath of an explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Oct. 17, when he said some 250 injured people arrived at Al-Shifa, which has only 12 operating theaters.
"If we had waited to operate on them one by one, we would have lost many of the wounded," said Abu Selmeyah.
"We were forced to operate on the ground and without anesthesia, or using simple anesthesia or weak painkillers to save lives," he said.
Procedures that have been performed by staff at Al-Shifa under such circumstances have included amputating limbs and fingers, stitching up serious wounds, and treating serious burns, said Abu Selmeyah, without elaborating.
Pain or death
"It is painful for the medical team. It is not simple. It is either the patient suffers pain or loses his life," he said.
Israel said the blast at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike.
Israel's ally the United States said its own intelligence assessment supported Israel's explanation.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, director Dr. Mohammad Zaqout said there had been a period early on in the war when anesthetic supplies ran out completely until aid trucks were allowed in.
"Some procedures were carried out without anesthesia, including Caesarian sections on women, and we were also forced to operate on some burns that way too," said Zaqout.
He said that staff did their best to alleviate patients' pain with other, weaker medications, but this was inadequate.
"This is not the ideal solution for a patient inside an operating theater, who we want to operate on with full anesthesia," he said.
For the first 12 days of the war, no aid was allowed into Gaza. On Oct. 21, the first convoy of aid trucks came in through the Rafah Crossing on the strip's border with Egypt. Since then, several convoys have entered, but the United Nations and international aid groups say the aid provided is nowhere near the scale needed to mitigate a humanitarian catastrophe.
Zaqout added that while the shortage of anesthesia had been eased at his own hospital thanks to aid deliveries, there were still severe shortages at Al-Shifa and at the Indonesian Hospital, both of which are in the heavily bombarded north of the Strip.
https://www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/screams-prayers-gaza-victims-endure-medical-procedures-without-anesthetic
Common Dreams – November 7, 2023
The US and Israel Agree: It's OK to Kill Thousands of Children
The horrific atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 have opened the door to protracted horrific atrocities by Israel with key assistance from the United States.
By Norman Solomon
The governments of Israel and the United States are now in disagreement over how many Palestinian civilians it’s okay to kill. Last week—as the death toll from massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza neared 10,000 people, including several thousand children—top U.S. officials began to worry about the rising horrified outcry at home and abroad. So, they went public with muted misgivings and calls for a “humanitarian pause.” But Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that he would have none of it.
Such minor tactical discord does little to chip away at the solid bedrock alliance between the two countries, which are most of the way through a 10-year deal that guarantees $38 billion in U.S. military aid to Israel. And now, as the carnage in Gaza continues, Washington is rushing to provide extra military assistance worth $14 billion.
Days ago, In These Timesreported that the Biden administration is seeking congressional permission “to unilaterally blanket-approve the future sale of military equipment and weapons—like ballistic missiles and artillery ammunition—to Israel without notifying Congress.” And so, “the Israeli government would be able to purchase up to $3.5 billion in military articles and services in complete secrecy.”
Dressed up in an inexhaustible supply of euphemistic rhetoric and double-talk, such immoral policies are stunning to see in real time. And, for many people in Gaza, literally breathtaking.
While Israeli forces were using weapons provided by the United States to slaughter Palestinian civilians, resupply flights were landing in Israel courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. Air & Space Forces Magazinepublished a photo showing “U.S. Air Force Airmen and Israeli military members unload cargo from a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III on a ramp at Nevatim Base, Israel.”
Pictures taken on Oct. 24 show that the military cargo went from Travis Air Force Base in California to Ramstein Air Base in Germany to Israel. Overall, the magazine reported, “the Air Force’s airlift fleet has been steadily working to deliver essential munitions, armored vehicles, and aid to Israel.” And so, the apartheid country is receiving a huge boost to assist with the killing.
The horrific atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 have opened the door to protracted horrific atrocities by Israel with key assistance from the United States.
Oxfam America has issued a briefing paper decrying the Pentagon’s plans to ship tens of thousands of 155mm artillery shells to the Israeli military. The organization noted that “Israel’s use of this munition in past conflicts demonstrates that its use would be virtually assured to be indiscriminate, unlawful, and devastating to civilians in Gaza.” Oxfam added: “There are no known scenarios in which 155mm artillery shells could be used in Israel’s ground operation in Gaza in compliance with international humanitarian law.”
During the last several weeks, “international humanitarian law” has been a common phrase coming from President Biden while expressing support for Israel’s military actions. It’s an Orwellian absurdity, as if saying the words is sufficient while constantly helping Israel to violate international humanitarian law in numerous ways.
“Israeli forces have used white phosphorus, a chemical that ignites when in contact with oxygen, causing horrific and severe burns, on densely populated neighborhoods,” Human Rights Watch senior legal adviser Clive Baldwin wrote in late October. “White phosphorus can burn down to the bone, and burns to 10 percent of the human body are often fatal.”
Baldwin added: “Israel has also engaged in the collective punishment of Gaza’s population through cutting off food, water, electricity, and fuel. This is a war crime, as is willfully blocking humanitarian relief from reaching civilians in need.”
At the end of last week, the Win Without War organization noted that “senior administration officials are increasingly alarmed by how the Israeli government is conducting its military operations in Gaza, as well as the reputational repercussions of the Biden administration’s support for a collective punishment strategy that clearly violates international law. Many worry that the U.S. will be blamed for the Israeli military’s indiscriminate attacks on civilians, particularly women and children.”
News reporting now tells us that Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken want a bit of a course correction. For them, the steady large-scale killing of Palestinian civilians became concerning when it became a PR problem.
Dressed up in an inexhaustible supply of euphemistic rhetoric and double-talk, such immoral policies are stunning to see in real time. And, for many people in Gaza, literally breathtaking.
Now, guided by political calculus, the White House is trying to persuade Israel’s prime minister to titrate the lethal doses of bombing Gaza. But as Netanyahu has made clear in recent days, Israel is going to do whatever it wants, despite pleas from its patron.
While, in effect, it largely functions in the Middle East as part of the U.S. war machine, Israel has its own agenda. Yet the two governments are locked into shared, long-term, overarching strategic interests in the Middle East that have absolutely no use for human rights except as rhetorical window-dressing. Biden made that clear last year when he fist-bumped the de facto ruler of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, a dictatorship that—with major U.S. assistance—has led an eight-year war on Yemen costing nearly 400,000 lives.
The war machine needs constant oiling from news media. That requires ongoing maintenance of the doublethink assumption that when Israel terrorizes and kills people from the air, the Israeli Defense Force is fighting “terrorism” without engaging in it.
Another helpful notion in recent weeks has been the presumption that—while Hamas puts out “propaganda”—Israel does not. And so, on Nov. 2, the PBS NewsHour’s foreign affairs correspondent Nick Schifrin reported on what he called “Hamas propaganda videos.” Fair enough. Except that it would be virtually impossible for mainstream U.S. news media to also matter-of-factly refer to public output from the Israeli government as “propaganda.” (I asked Schifrin for comment, but my several emails and texts went unanswered.)
Whatever differences might surface from time to time, the United States and Israel remain enmeshed. To the power elite in Washington, the bilateral alliance is vastly more important than the lives of Palestinian people. And it’s unlikely that the U.S. government will really confront Israel over its open-ended killing spree in Gaza.
Consider this: Just weeks before beginning her second stint as House speaker in January 2019, Rep. Nancy Pelosi was recorded on video at a forum sponsored by the Israeli American Council as she declared: “I have said to people when they ask me—if this Capitol crumbled to the ground, the one thing that would remain is our commitment to our aid, I don’t even call it aid—our cooperation—with Israel. That’s fundamental to who we are.”
Even making allowances for bizarre hyperbole, Pelosi’s statement is revealing of the kind of mentality that continues to hold sway in official Washington. It won’t change without a huge grassroots movement that refuses to go away.
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His new book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, was published in June 2023 by The New Press.
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/palestinian-children-killed-gaza
Information Clearing House – November 10, 2023
Letter to the Children of Gaza
Chris Hedges, travels to the border of Gaza, detailing the fear and suffering experienced by the children living there due to constant bombing and deprivation. Despite explaining their plight for years, the reporter feels his efforts have been largely ignored, but continues to share their stories in an attempt to stop the violence.
By Chris Hedges
Dear child. It is past midnight. I am flying at hundreds of miles an hour in the darkness, thousands of feet over the Atlantic Ocean. I am traveling to Egypt. I will go to the border of Gaza at Rafah. I go because of you.
You have never been in a plane. You have never left Gaza. You know only the densely packed streets and alleys. The concrete hovels. You know only the security barriers and fences patrolled by soldiers that surround Gaza. Planes, for you, are terrifying. Fighter jets. Attack helicopters. Drones. They circle above you. They drop missiles and bombs. Deafening explosions. The ground shakes. Buildings fall. The dead. The screams. The muffled calls for help from beneath the rubble. It does not stop. Night and day. Trapped under the piles of smashed concrete. Your playmates. Your schoolmates. Your neighbors. Gone in seconds. You see the chalky faces and limp bodies when they are dug out. I am a reporter. It is my job to see this. You are a child. You should never see this.
The stench of death. Rotting corpses under broken concrete. You hold your breath. You cover your mouth with cloth. You walk faster. Your neighborhood has become a graveyard. All that was familiar is gone. You stare in amazement. You wonder where you are.
You are afraid. Explosion after explosion. You cry. You cling to your mother or father. You cover your ears. You see the white light of the missile and wait for the blast. Why do they kill children? What did you do? Why can’t anyone protect you? Will you be wounded? Will you lose a leg or an arm? Will you go blind or be in a wheelchair? Why were you born? Was it for something good? Or was it for this? Will you grow up? Will you be happy? What will it be like without your friends? Who will die next? Your mother? Your father? Your brothers and sisters? Someone you know will be injured. Soon. Someone you know will die. Soon.
At night you lie in the dark on the cold cement floor. The phones are cut. The internet is off. You do not know what is happening. There are flashes of light. There are waves of blast concussions. There are screams. It does not stop.
When your father or mother hunts for food or water you wait. That terrible feeling in your stomach. Will they come back? Will you see them again? Will your tiny home be next? Will the bombs find you? Are these your last moments on earth?
You drink salty, dirty water. It makes you very sick. Your stomach hurts. You are hungry. The bakeries are destroyed. There is no bread. You eat one meal a day. Pasta. A cucumber. Soon this will seem like a feast.
You do not play with your soccer ball made of rags. You do not fly your kite made from old newspapers.
You have seen foreign reporters. We wear flak jackets with the word PRESS written on it. We have helmets. We have cameras. We drive jeeps. We appear after a bombing or a shooting. We sit over coffee for a long time and talk to the adults. Then we disappear. We do not usually interview children. But I have done interviews when groups of you crowded around us. Laughing. Pointing. Asking us to take your picture.
I have been bombed by jets in Gaza. I have been bombed in other wars, wars that happened before you were born. I too was very, very scared. I still have dreams about it. When I see the pictures of Gaza these wars return to me with the force of thunder and lightning. I think of you.
All of us who have been to war hate war most of all because of what it does to children.
I tried to tell your story. I tried to tell the world that when you are cruel to people, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, when you deny people freedom and dignity, when you humiliate and trap them in an open-air prison, when you kill them as if they were beasts, they become very angry. They do to others what was done to them. I told it over and over. I told it for seven years. Few listened. And now this.
There are very brave Palestinian journalists. Thirty-nine of them have been killed since this bombing began. They are heroes. So are the doctors and nurses in your hospitals. So are the U.N. workers. Eighty-nine of whom have died. So are the ambulance drivers and the medics. So are the rescue parties that lift up the slabs of concrete with their hands. So are the mothers and fathers who shield you from the bombs.
But we are not there. Not this time. We cannot get in. We are locked out.
Reporters from all over the world are going to the border crossing at Rafah. We are going because we cannot watch this slaughter and do nothing. We are going because hundreds of people are dying a day, including 160 children. We are going because this genocide must stop. We are going because we have children. Like you. Precious. Innocent. Loved. We are going because we want you to live.
I hope one day we will meet. You will be an adult. I will be an old man, although to you I am already very old. In my dream for you I will find you free and safe and happy. No one will be trying to kill you. You will fly in airplanes filled with people, not bombs. You will not be trapped in a concentration camp. You will see the world. You will grow up and have children. You will become old. You will remember this suffering, but you will know it means you must help others who suffer. This is my hope. My prayer.
We have failed you. This is the awful guilt we carry. We tried. But we did not try hard enough. We will go to Rafah. Many of us. Reporters. We will stand outside the border with Gaza in protest. We will write and film. This is what we do. It is not much. But it is something. We will tell your story again.
Maybe it will be enough to earn the right to ask for your forgiveness
https://informationclearinghouse.blog/2023/11/09/letter-to-the-children-of-gaza/
The Cradle – November 08, 2023
Normalization with Israel 'still on the table': Saudi minister
The Saudi minister rejected the possibility of using oil as leverage to force a ceasefire in Gaza
The Saudi Minister of Investment, Khalid bin Abdulaziz al-Falih, confirmed that the issue of normalizing relations between the kingdom and Israel is still on the table, but it is conditional on a peaceful solution to the Palestinian issue.
Falih responded to a question about normalization in a discussion session at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum held in Singapore: “This matter was on the table, and it is still on the table, and it is clear that the recent withdrawal (from the talks) explains why Saudi Arabia is so determined to make a solution to the Palestinian conflict part of broader normalization in [West Asia].”
When Falih was asked whether Saudi Arabia would use economic tools, such as the price of oil, to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, he laughed and replied: “This is not on the table today. Saudi Arabia is trying to achieve peace through talks that seek peace.”
In 1973, Saudi Arabia imposed an oil embargo on the United States and other countries for their support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War against Egypt and Syria.
According to Falih, in the coming days Saudi Arabia is expected to host three separate summits with the participation of Arab, African and Islamic countries, aimed at promoting a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Before the war between Hamas and Israel erupted on 7 October, Tel Aviv and Riyadh were in advanced talks to normalize relations.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) was reportedly asking the US for security guarantees and access to civilian nuclear technology and advanced weapons in exchange for a deal.
Saudi diplomats also stated Israel must agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state as detailed by the 2002 Saudi Peace Initiative.
Though allowing a Palestinian state was rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several Jewish supremacist ministers in his government, reports continued to emerge that a deal was close.
However, following Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on 7 October and Israel’s brutal bombing campaign in Gaza, which many describe as genocide, it was widely assumed that a normalization deal between Tel Aviv and Riyadh was now not possible, as public anger in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries regarding Israel’s killing of Palestinians has skyrocketed.
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/normalization-with-israel-still-on-the-table-saudi-minister
Information Clearing House – November 10, 2023
Dismantle Israel And The Entire US Empire
It’s not just the Israeli state that has proven it needs to be dismantled, it’s the entire US-centralized western empire. The whole giant power structure has got to go.
By Caitlin Johnstone
More than 20 House Democrats joined Republicans in voting to censure Palestinian-American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Tuesday for her comments supporting Palestinians against Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza.
Democrats were happy to have a Palestinian woman in congress until they found out she was the “Palestinians are human beings” kind of Palestinian and not the “Look how diverse and inclusive Democrats are” kind.
They’re like, “I was fine with the Palestinian woman until she started supporting the Palestinians. Did nobody tell her that her only job is to quietly pose for Instagram selfies with Nancy Pelosi?”
White House spokesman John Kirby has confirmed that the Biden administration is still drawing zero red lines with how Israel is permitted to use US-supplied weapons in Gaza. Asked by the press on Tuesday if it is still the case that “the administration is not drawing any red lines for Israel” despite the soaring death toll in Gaza, Kirby replied, “That is still the case.”
This is the same Biden administration who just days ago was telling the press that it is powerless to stop Israel from massacring civilians in Gaza, now telling us that they’ve made literally no effort to stop Israel from massacring civilians. It’s a blatant case of “We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.”
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Israel has once again released an audio clip of what it claims is an intercepted Hamas phone call in order to rebuff accusations of war crimes, this time allegedly featuring a Hamas fighter boasting about how many ambulances he’s able to use for transportation in response to criticisms of a deadly Israeli airstrike on an ambulance convoy.
The last time Israel released such an audio file in an attempt to exonerate itself, language experts cited by the UK’s Channel 4 News said the clip was not credible due to the “ language, accent, dialect, syntax and tone” in the clip, and audio analysts with an organization called Earshot “found that this recording was manipulated and cannot be used as a credible source of evidence.”
This is also the very same government which claims its intelligence agencies had no idea what Hamas was up to in the lead-up to the October 7 attacks, now claiming it is constantly intercepting Hamas communications and has a whole archive of them it can access whenever it needs to exonerate itself from accusations of war crimes. Bit odd, that.
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It’s not just the Israeli state that has proven it needs to be dismantled, it’s the entire US-centralized western empire. The whole giant power structure has got to go.
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Top reasons Americans are supporting the Gaza massacre right now:
1. Their favorite right wing pundits told them to.
2. They hate Muslims.
3. They want a biblical prophecy to be fulfilled in which Jesus comes back and casts non-Christians into eternal hellfire.
4. Dopey partisan culture war bullshit.
5. The news media lied to them.
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“Israel has a right to defend itself” means “Genocide all non-Zionists.” If pro-Israel people get to decide that “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a call to genocide Jews, then it’s only fair that pro-Palestine people get to decide what pro-Israel people’s slogans mean as well.
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Person in 1940: Nazi Germany must end.
Other person in 1940: SO YOU’RE SAYING YOU WANT TO GENOCIDE THE GERMANS??
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Schrödinger’s ethnostate: simultaneously (A) the only place in the world where Jews can exist safely and (B) a poor little victim whose inhabitants are under constant threat from violent militants and hostile neighboring nations.
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The question “How can Israel destroy Hamas if there’s a ceasefire?” is infinitely less relevant and interesting than the question “How can Israel continue to exist as a Zionist ethnostate without apartheid and abuse and nonstop murder and endless warfare?”
https://informationclearinghouse.blog/2023/11/09/dismantle-israel-and-the-entire-us-empire/
Yeni Safak – November 09, 2023
Americans are trying to make Arabs do their dirty work...
By Yahya Bostan
Last week's article, which I wrote, was highly regarded. I can tell this from the incoming calls. The subject of the article was Türkiye's guarantee offer and counter scenarios.
A Gaza plan without Hamas, the placement of international forces in the region, and similar scenarios aimed not at solving the problem but at the security of Israel. Therefore, it contradicted Türkiye's vision of peace. We stopped here. Let's continue. There are important developments on the subject.
One. Israel continues its massacres. Gaza is divided into east-west. Ground attacks are concentrated in the northern part. Gazans are forced to go south.
Two. Hezbollah leader Nasrallah said that the attack was planned by Hamas, that is, they were "not involved." Thus, it became clear that the conflicts would not spread. (It seems that Iran has reached an agreement with the U.S. on this.)
Three. U.S. Secretary of State Blinken held a roundtable meeting with the foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. Blinken's agenda was the future of Gaza. "The U.S. and Arab countries believe that Hamas cannot continue to control Gaza," he said. A Hamas official also accused the U.S. of trying to form an Arab coalition against the Palestinians.
Four. Netanyahu said, "We will stay in Gaza until security is ensured."
Five. A statement came from the U.S.: "We do not support the permanent occupation in Gaza." Blinken announced that they support Gaza's unification with the West Bank under the Palestinian administration.
Six. In Blinken's meeting with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, humanitarian aid and ceasefire were discussed. Ankara clearly stated to its counterparts that it would not accept any scenario that did not prioritize the 1967 borders and a two-state solution.
WHAT DO ALL THIS MEAN?
Israel has not given up its "occupation and annexation plan" for Gaza. The issue of the transfer of Gazans to Egypt has been put on hold for now. Israel's current goal is to eliminate Hamas and create a buffer zone by dividing Gaza in the north. (Netanyahu will keep his soldiers in Gaza until the U.S. elections for his more advanced demands. If Trump is elected, many issues, including the exile of Gazans to Egypt, will be brought up again.) The U.S. supports the elimination of Hamas. It seems to have convinced Arab countries on this issue.
One of Washington's priorities is to keep Türkiye out of the process. For two reasons. One. It does not want Türkiye to increase its influence. Two. It knows that it cannot control Türkiye, and Ankara will exert pressure for a final solution. It thinks it can more easily control the process through Arab countries.
According to the U.S. plan, Gaza will be connected to the Palestinian administration in the West Bank. An international force will be stationed in Gaza. The south of Gaza will turn into a large refugee camp. Funding, political, and military support for the construction of Gaza and making it "harmless" for Israel will be provided by Arab countries in the region.
I think the focus of the U.S.-Israel partnership after Gaza will be Hezbollah in Lebanon and the south of Syria.
"EUROPE IS MORE ZIONIST THAN ISRAEL"
You know, a terrific McCarthyism has been launched against those who criticize Israel in the U.S. European counterparts want to be one step ahead of whatever the U.S. is doing. A bill submitted to the French Parliament demanded imprisonment for those who insult Israel. Germany has criminalized burning the Israeli flag. This strict attitude of Europe is also reflected in diplomatic meetings. Meetings with European counterparts are causing Turkish officials distress. Apparently, they never criticize Israel. They don't care about killing civilians, and children. Especially the Germans are paying off their debt to Israel by supporting the massacre. A friend familiar with closed-door meetings said, "They are more Zionist than Israel." He's not entirely wrong.
IS THE UK CARRYING ARMS TO THE MASSACRE?
There is intense air traffic in the Mediterranean regarding the massacre in Gaza. Large military cargo planes shuttle between Brize Norton, the largest military base in the UK, and the British base Ağrotur in Cyprus - almost every day. With a small internet search, you can see how many A400M cargo planes have landed in Cyprus. Although the British say, "These planes carry people, not weapons," it is not convincing. A significant part of Israel's weapons supply comes through Cyprus.
AN IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT FROM THE TURKIC WORLD
An important development in the Turkish world occurred a few days ago in the summit of the Turkic States Organization in Astana. President Erdoğan emphasized the 'Single Alphabet' to increase communication in the Turkic world during this summit. Following this summit, a second summit was held in Istanbul under the auspices of the Anadolu Agency, where the Turkish News Agencies Union (ATNA) was established. Leading news agencies in the Turkic world made collaboration decisions on various topics such as combating disinformation, education, and sharing experiences. ATNA is expected to play a significant role in realizing the slogan of the Turkic States Organization summit, which was 'Turkic Era.
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/columns/yahya-bostan/americans-are-trying-to-make-arabs-do-their-dirty-work-3673235
Anadolu Agency – November 11, 2023
Arab-Islamic summit urges ICC prosecutor to ‘complete
investigation into war crimes’ against Palestinians
Summit also mandates foreign ministers of countries, including Türkiye, to start ‘immediate’ international action to ‘stop war on Gaza,’ communique says
Necva Tastan
The joint Arab-Islamic summit on Saturday urged the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to "complete investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel against Palestinians."
In a communique copy of which was received by Anadolu, the summit mandates foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye, Indonesia, and Nigeria to “start immediate international action” on behalf of the Arab-Islamic summit countries to “stop the war on Gaza and press for the launch of a serious and real political process to achieve lasting and comprehensive peace in accordance with the adopted international terms of reference.”
Earlier, leaders and representatives of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation participated in an emergency joint Arab-Islamic summit held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital. The summit coincides with the ongoing Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip for the 36th day.
The summit "strongly" condemned “the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and the war crimes and barbaric, brutal, and inhuman massacres committed by the colonial occupation government during this aggression, and against the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem,” according to the communique.
It said that the leaders affirmed that Israel and other countries in the region “will not enjoy security, peace unless Palestinians enjoy security, peace, regain all their usurped rights.”
They rejected “describing this retaliatory war as self-defense or justifying it under any pretext and demand to stop immediately.”
The summit called on all countries to “stop exporting weapons and ammunitions to the occupation authorities that are used by their army and terrorist settlers to kill the Palestinian people and destroy their homes, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and all their properties,” the communique said.
It also called for an end to Israeli settlement expansion, emphasized the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative, and denounced "double standards" in applying international law.
The leaders concluded by calling for “convening international peace conference, as soon as possible through which credible peace process will be launched" under international law and for activating the Islamic Financial Safety Net to “provide financial contributions and financial, economic and humanitarian support to the Government of the State of Palestine and to UNRWA.”
Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip – including hospitals, residences, and houses of worship – since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7.
At least 11,078 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,506 children and 3,027 women. The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is around 1,200, according to official figures.
The Moral Bankruptcy of the ‘Amen Corner’
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
The third Republican presidential debate once again showed the ugly side of the Republican candidates. When the rest of the world, including millions of Americans here in the US, are appalled by the brutality of the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza and condemning the apartheid state, these individuals were in a competition to score and prove their naked support for its ongoing genocidal crimes.
“I’d be telling Bibi: Finish the job once and for all with these butchers,” Florida Governor DeSantis said, referring to the Israeli prime minister by his nickname.
“The first thing I said to him when it happened was, I said, ‘Finish them (the Palestinians),’” former US Ambassador Haley said moments later.
On Israel, Ramaswamy said he would encourage Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “smoke those terrorists on his southern border” while the presidential candidate would be “smoking the terrorists on our southern border.”
Not a single word of concern, let alone condemnationcould be heard from any of those debaters about gruesome Israeli barbarism that has already resulted in the deaths of more than 11,000unarmed civilians, including nearly 4,500 children (i.e., a child killed every ten minutes),plus another 1,500 missing children, let alone the targeted killings since October 7 of scores of journalists, aid workers, medicsand those working for the UN.To them, apparently, the history of the region started only on October 7, 2023.
Are those candidates going to be any better than their predecessors once voted to power when we are reminded by genocide watchers that all the US presidents, with rare exceptions, since the days of Harry Truman,have been mass-murderers?
Thanks to the veto-wielding powers like the USA, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has done more to provide cover for mass murderers than to stop mass murderers like Netanyahu who have been given a sense of impunity from international intervention, let alone punishment. What an abuse of the highest world body by its Brahmins!
The leaders of the US and the EU have the audacity to preach to the rest of the world about democracy, freedom, and free speech. And yet, they have no qualms about denying the right of the Palestinian people to choose their own reps, let alone having an independent state of their own. They allow the burning of the Qur’an but ban pro-Palestine rallies and won’t tolerate any free speech thatcriticizes the apartheid Israel.
The US House of Representatives voted 234-188 on November 7 to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., over her remarks "from the river to the sea" is a plea for peace — not violence. Tlaib herself said the phrase is “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate. My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity.”
The measure, sponsored by Georgia Republican Rich McCormick, accused Tlaib of "promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel."
Such McCarthyite actions by the House to silence a bold and courageous voice should not surprise anyone who is familiar with the long history of bipartisan Congressional support for Israel. It led former Secretary of State James Baker to call the Congress “The Little Knesset” after Israel’s Knesset (parliament).
The U.S. Capitol Hill has long been known to be mortgaged to the apartheid state. On October 3, 2001, I.A.P. News reported that according to Israel Radio (in Hebrew) Kol Yisrael an acrimonious argument erupted during the Israeli cabinet weekly session between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Peres warned Sharon that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and “turn the US against us.” Sharon reportedly yelled at Peres, saying, “Every time we do something, you (Peres) tell me Americans will do this and do that. I want to tell you something very clear; don't worry about American pressure on Israel; we, the Jewish people, control America…”
As a matter of fact, the influence of Israel in the Congress is much older. Late Senator Fullbright, Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on 10/07/1973 on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program, “The Israelis control the policy in the congress and the senate.”
Similar was the view of John Foster Dulles who served as the U.S. Secretary of State between 1953 and 1959. He was quoted on p.99 of “Fallen Pillarsﾔ by Donald Neff as saying, “I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy [in the Middle East] not approved by the Jews... I am very much concerned over the fact that the Jewish influence here is completely dominating the scene and making it almost impossible to Congress to do anything they don’t approve of. The Israeli embassy is practically dictating to the congress through influential Jewish people in the country.”
The situation has become far worse. These days, the apartheid Israel has more staunchsupporters and sponsors outside its own community – amongst the Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Baha’is, and Zoroastrians who identify themselves as Zionists. The Indian government of Narendra Modi has joined the ‘Amen Club’ ensuring that anyone waving a Palestinian flag is detained.
Within the Christian evangelicals, the support for Israel’s ever expansionist and apartheid policyis seen as a religious duty, despite the fact that such support results in death, destruction and dispossession of many Palestinians, including the Christians who are seen as collateral casualties. Settler-colonization is seen by them as a fulfillment of God’s plan for a Jewish return to Israel — one of a sequence of biblical prophecies that culminates in the Second Coming of Jesus.
All these Zionists – Jewish and non-Jewish alike – do notlike to see a Palestinian state existing side by side the Jewish state. Thus, the psychopathic mass murderers like Netanyahu and the Likudnik extremists are their desirableleaders and partners-in-crime to ensure that the robbed Palestinians are further marginalized and do not get to live in an independent Palestine. After all, it was the Likud Party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that said in its original party platform in 1977 that "between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty."
Let us not forget that such exclusive views of Netanyahu and his patrons and supporters are against the very spirit of the international law and many UN resolutions. Let us also not ignorewhat that blood-sucking and land-grabbing ‘Israeli sovereignty’ had meant for everynative Palestinian since the unholy birth of the Zionist state in 1948.
So, when Rep. Rashida Tlaib is censured for using the same phrase with an inclusive andnoble aspiration of seeing Palestine free of an evil and unjust apartheid system, one is only reminded of the utter moral bankruptcy of the ‘Amen Corner’ and the US government. Simply shameful!
Through their censure, these lawmakers have unveiled their hideous selves. Their voting history also suggests that eliminationism of Palestinian people has actually become integral to their brand of politics. They cannot escape from being accused of approving and promoting mass murder, child-killing, and of being opposed to true freedom, peace, and justice for all. Their unwavering support for the apartheid state of Israel, sadly, has only emboldened its leaders to commit genocidal crimes against the native Palestinian people with impunity.
Scholars of genocide studies tell us that genocide and mass elimination are always preventable and always result from conscious political choice of a handful of powerful people. These leaders (often politicians)mobilize others into killing by tapping into latent prejudices and simmering hatreds (often resorting to dehumanizing and demonizingcaricatures) to create supportive eliminationist milieus.
What is happening in Gaza since October 7 is a textbook case of genocide of the Palestinian people. It is not self-defense. Period.(Just read or listen to the dehumanizing and demonizing remarks of the members of Netanyahu government to see the relevance here.)
The powerful world leaders could have prevented this genocide, or at minimum, chose to remain on the sideline. Instead, what the leaders like Biden and Sunak have done are ignoble and criminal. They bolstered the apartheid state with arms and ammunitions. Theysent naval ships and nuclear submarines to the region to deter others from coming to the aid of the victims of mass murder. They provided the protection at the UNSC to let the Israeli genocidal campaign proceed unhindered. They opposed the repeated calls of ceasefire at the UN. They visited Israel personally and sent their high ranking emissaries to warn its neighbors of any interference while empowering and reassuring a government that comprises psychopathic mass murderers.
With such overt gestures, they cannot expect the civilized world to condemn the Hamas’ attacks on October 7 when war criminals like Netanyahu are treated as heroes while Tlaib is censured.
Dr. Habib Siddiqui has authored 11 books, five of which are now available through Amazon.com. His latest book - Devotional Stories is published by A.S. Noordeen, Malaysia. Dr. Siddiqui is an alumnus of the prestigious University of Southern California, Los Angeles, where he earned his Ph.D.
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
