Iranian engineer quits Google over tech giant’s collaboration with Israel amid Gaza genocide

Iranian software engineer Alireza Zakeri
Press TV – November 18, 2024
Iranian software engineer Alireza Zakeri has announced his resignation from Google over the American tech giant’s collaboration with Israel amid the regime’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed over 43,000 people in the territory since early October last year.
“I’m happy to announce that I have left Google!” he wrote in a post published on his Linkedin account on Monday, adding that “this decision reflects my values.”
“After learning about Google’s involvement in Project Nimbus, I voiced my concerns for several months. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of many employees, leadership chose to maintain its stance and dismiss our collective concerns,” he added.
Project Nimbus is reportedly a $1.2 billion deal between the Tel Aviv regime and Amazon and Google to provide artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud services that are also used by the Israeli military.
“Living in a way that conflicts with your core values is incredibly challenging. Choosing to step away was not easy, but it was necessary. For anyone facing similar situations, I hope you find the courage to prioritize your principles. What good is it for man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” Zakeri pointed out.
Back on May 14, hundreds of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protesters demonstrated against Google’s relationship with Israel and the regime’s army at the tech company’s annual developer conference in Mountain View.
The protesters chained themselves together near the entrance to the conference, and carried a large banner reading “Google stop fueling genocide.”
A particular point of contention for the demonstrators was Project Nimbus. The project enables Israeli cabinet ministries and other entities to transfer servers and services into cloud data centers provided within the occupied territories.
The protesters, among whom were former and current Google employees, argued that the system is being lethally deployed in the Gaza war.
“We are here to say that we cannot stand by while this company fuels this genocide and profits off of it,” former Google employee Ariel Koren told The Guardian at the protest.
“[Google] not only creates the infrastructure for the Israeli military to scale out their crimes against humanity, but these tools are being tested and trained in Palestine to be exported out to militaries around the world, who can then commit the same types of violence,” she said.
Koren added she was fired from Google for opposing Project Nimbus.
Against Rubio
By Connor Freeman | The Libertarian Institute | November 17, 2024
Marco Rubio’s foreign policy vision is the antithesis of America First as he advocates for wars and increased military spending in Ukraine, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific. During the 2015/2016 GOP presidential primaries, Rubio was a fervent supporter along with Hillary Clinton, of a no-fly-zone in Syria which could have sparked World War III. “The United States should work with our allies, both Arab and European, to impose a no-fly zone over parts of Syria,” Rubio said.
Rubio has been on the America Last side of every foreign policy issue since he took office, he was a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton’s disastrous regime change war in Libya and he opposed Barack Obama’s modest troop withdrawal in Afghanistan after his surge accomplished nothing besides making the Taliban stronger and getting more American soldiers killed.
More recently, Rubio has insisted that Israel should attack Iran “disproportionately” which is a direct call for an all out war with Iran and risks the safety of US troops in the region.
Rubio co-authored an amendment to the 2024 NDAA with Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s former running mate, that would prevent Donald Trump or any future president from exiting the free-riding, war-seeking NATO alliance without Senate approval or an Act of Congress.
Regarding Beijing, he has boasted, “We need a military focused on blowing up Chinese aircraft carriers.”
Moreover, Rubio supports keeping American troops in harm’s way in Iraq indefinitely and even opposed repealing the outdated 2002 AUMF which unconstitutionally authorized the catastrophic Iraq War. Likewise, he backs the open-ended illegal US occupation of roughly a third of Syria, launched by Obama, which Trump attempted to end and finally bring our troops home.
‘Tortured and left to die’: New details emerge about Israel’s murder of prominent Gaza surgeon

The Cradle | November 16, 2024
A Sky News investigation published on 16 November has revealed new details surrounding Israel’s torture and murder of the famous Palestinian surgeon from Gaza, Adnan al-Bursh, in the Ofer Prison in the occupied Palestinian West Bank last May.
A fellow Palestinian prisoner at Ofer told the British news channel that Israeli guards severely tortured Dr Bursh and then left him to die alone, naked from the waist down, in the prison yard.
The prisoner, who previously knew the doctor in Gaza, provided the new details in a deposition to lawyers from HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization.
“In mid-April 2024, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh arrived at Section 23 in Ofer Prison. The prison guards brought Dr Adnan Al-Bursh into the section in a deplorable state. He had clearly been assaulted with injuries around his body. He was naked in the lower part of his body,” the prisoner’s deposition states.
“The prison guards threw him in the middle of the yard and left him there. Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was unable to stand up. One of the prisoners helped him and accompanied him to one of the rooms. A few minutes later, prisoners were heard screaming from the room they went into, declaring Dr Adnan Al-Bursh (was dead).”
Dr Bursh was widely regarded as one of the best-qualified and well-known surgeons in Gaza.
When Israel’s war on Gaza began in October of last year, Dr Bursh worked at Al-Shifa Hospital as the head of orthopedic surgery. He worked around the clock, performing surgeries on Palestinians injured by Israel’s horrific bombing campaign.
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1856940110308143197
When Israeli troops laid siege to Al-Shifa in November, the staff was forced to flee.
Bursh fled by foot to the Indonesian Hospital in Bait Lahia to continue serving wounded patients.
He documented his experiences on video, including when Israel shelled the hospital, killing 12 people.
He was then forced to leave the Indonesia Hospital as well and moved to the Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza’s north, where he was abducted by Israeli forces.
After the soldiers surrounded the hospital, “They told [Dr Bursh] that if all men do not come down… they will destroy the Awda Hospital with all the women and children in it,” a fellow doctor at Al-Awda, Mohammad Obeid, told Sky News.
After Dr Bursh left the hospital, Israeli soldiers “called his name out” and then “roughly” took him away, Obeid stated.
Dr Bursh was then taken to the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp in the Negev Desert.
The facility became notorious this summer after prison guards, doctors, and former inmates gave testimony of prisoners being tortured and raped there.
Dr Khalid Hamouda, a former inmate at Sde Teiman, told Sky News that of the 100 prisoners in the section of the camp where he was held, at least a quarter were healthcare workers.
Dr Bursh was beaten severely at Sde Teiman.
“He thought he may have broken ribs,” Dr Hamouda said. “He was unable to even go to the toilet alone.”
The doctor was then transferred to Ofer Prison in the Israeli prison system but was never charged with any crime or terrorism.
Since 7 October 2023, at least 43 prisoners have died in Israeli jails, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
Pro-Palestine organization enraged by Canadian police raid against activist
Al Mayadeen | November 16, 2024
The Canada Palestine Association strongly condemned the excessive police brutality the Vancouver police exhibited against local pro-Palestine activist Charlotte Kates, a director of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
The Samidoun network was recently blacklisted as a terrorist organization in Canada and the United States. Kates was also previously detained and charged with “hate speech” offenses in May.
The condition for her release was for her not to take part in any “protests, rallies or assemblies” until her court date of October 8, which was triggered by her stance of supporting the right of Palestinians to resist “Israel” and for saying “Long Live October 7” during a rally speech on April 26, the statement wrote.
However, Kates was arrested again on November 14 under claims of a “hate crime investigation” launched by the Vancouver police force, after a search warrant was issued for her home in Victoria Drive.
Kates’ neighbor expressed the neighborhood’s fear as police officers, who arrived at the location in an armored vehicle and full tactical gear, raided her home and broke a window at 9 am on Thursday.
“I’ve lived next to them for three years, and they’re absolutely lovely people. They’re just fighting for rights for people… I don’t think they’re dangerous or terrorists by any means,” another neighbor said.
Is Israel Using Soccer to Export Its Racist Political Model to Europe?

By Mike Whitney • Unz Review • November 15, 2024
For the second time in 8 days, hundreds of Israeli soccer hooligans attacked unidentified fans at a football match in Paris, France. A number of videos circulating on social media show swarms of young men—mostly dressed in black with masks and stocking caps or draped in Israeli flags—pummeling an unknown Frenchman who was beaten to the ground. The extent of his injuries remains unknown.
The skirmishes took place at Thursday’s UEFA Nations League soccer game between France and Israel at the Stade de France which drew the smallest crowd in history due to the threat of hooligan violence. But although the streets of Paris were heavily patrolled by thousands of police and security guards to protect the visiting Israelis, fans of the home team received no such security. When the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans began raining-down blows on their unnamed victims, the police were nowhere to be found.
Some of the videos show terrified fans fleeing an area in the stands that was overrun by a hostile Maccabi mob sprinting across the upper deck while thousands of fans “Booed” loudly from below. The scene seemed more reminiscent of the political street fights that took place in Weimar Germany in the early 1930s than a football match in 2024. The ensuing mayhem was described by analyst Arnaud Bertrand on his Twitter site:
… There was a football match between Israel and France yesterday and this happened at the beginning of the match: a horde of Israeli supporters openly lynched some French supporters in the stands. Macron himself was in attendance at the match to show his commitment to “fighting antisemitism” after Amsterdam…
He made no public comment that I know of on these French supporters getting lynched in front of his eyes. And the police made no reported arrests. Had the reverse been the case, had this been some Israeli supporters getting lynched by a horde of French supporters, you can absolutely bet 100% that he (and all the French media) would have made a huge deal out of it. You cannot overstate the absurdism of it: because we’ve so gaslighted ourselves around “antisemitism” and so distorted the meaning of it, Western countries would literally rather let our their own citizens get lynched on their own soil – in front of the president’s eyes (!) – than face accusations being “antisemitic” in their own definition of the term. @RnaudBertrand (video)
Bertrand is using the term “lynching” in the legal sense as it relates to the “Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act” in 2022… meaning “that the actions of the Israeli supporters would most certainly be considered lynching under US law because they conspired as a mob to cause serious bodily harm based on bias regarding “the actual or perceived religion or national origin” of the person(s) – matching exactly 18 USC §249(a)(5)’s definition requiring conspiracy & serious injury in hate-motivated attacks. @RnaudBertrand
Arnaud is correct in pointing out that President Macron attended the match. Not surprisingly, Macron was joined in his luxury box by two former presidents, the current prime minister and a large portion of France’s political establishment, all of whom stand foursquare behind the violent Zionist thuggery they witnessed in the stands. (Note—Joshua Zarka, Israeli ambassador to Paris, was also at the game, while Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, was in France to supervise the security of Israeli players and fans.)

This is from an article at inews.uk:
Fights broke out at a sparsely attended France–Israel match at the Stade de France in Paris on Thursday night, despite a heavy security presence inside and outside the stadium. Footage on social media showed clashes between home and away fans in the stands, with one clip appearing to show men wearing Israel flags punching and kicking a man on the ground before stewards intervened.
Tensions ran high even before the match with a heavy security operation around the stadium, with 4,000 police and 1,600 civilian security personnel deployed as French authorities sought to avoid a repeat of the violent scenes around a Maccabi Tel Aviv match in Amsterdam last week. Police lines extended more than a kilometer from the stadium with barricades along the streets and helicopters buzzing overhead… Just 13,000 tickets had been sold the day before the game – reportedly the lowest attendance for any home fixture in the history of the French national team…
Israel fans sang songs in support of the Israel Defence Force (IDF) and “free the hostages,” in references to captives held by Hamas in Gaza. Some wore masks and IDF shirts.
Despite Israeli government advice, some Israeli dual nationals were in Paris with Betar, an international right-wing Zionist group. Betar’s social media channels posted an image of members in the French capital holding baseball bats before the game. Fights break out at France-Israel match in Paris despite heavy security, inews.co.uk

Let’s recap:
- No expense was spared to provide security for the Maccabi hooligans, but French fans were beaten in the stands without anyone lifting a finger.
- A mere 13,000 people attended a stadium that holds 80,000, but the match was given the go-ahead regardless.
- The Maccabi mob sang military songs and bellowed racist slogans, but no government official has had the courage to order an inquiry. Note: According to the Middle East Eye, Israeli fans chanted “Free the hostages” and “Hamas, Hamas, we’re fucking you”.)
Readers should take a minute and carefully examine the photo at the top of this article. What do you see?
Do you see a gathering of typical soccer fans dressed in team colors and jerseys waving banners and singing team songs, or do you see a uniformly dressed and deeply threatening throng of black-clad troopers with stocking caps and masks who could—just as easily be conducting a military operation as attending a match of their favorite football team?
Who wears a black mask and a stocking cap to a soccer match? Who chants “Hamas, Hamas, we’re fucking you” at a soccer match?
Was this really a spontaneous get together of pumped-up Maccabi fans expressing their support for their team or a clandestine infiltration of the EU overseen by Israeli intelligence agents on secret assignment?
And be sure to take special note of the author’s last observation:
Despite Israeli government advice, some Israeli dual nationals were in Paris with Betar, an international right-wing Zionist group. Betar’s social media channels posted an image of members in the French capital holding baseball bats before the game.
Betar? The far-right youth movement founded by Vladimir Jabotinsky that fought against the British in Mandatory Palestine and was closely affiliated with the Zionist terrorist organization, the Irgun?

Here’s more from an article at the Middle East Eye:
At the demonstration in Paris, Salah Hamouri, a French-Palestinian lawyer who was deported from Jerusalem by Israel in 2022 after spending many years in prison and is now a member of Urgence Palestine, also accused the French president of sending a political message of support for Israel by attending the match.
“This match and the participation of Macron, Hollande and Sarkozy is part of France’s complicity in the ongoing genocide. It is a diplomatic green light given to the Israeli occupier for all its actions in Palestine and Lebanon and for it to continue its massacres in Palestine and in Lebanon,” he told MEE.
“Today, the low turn-out at the stadium shows that the public opinion in France is in favour of the Palestinian cause, and that the people support the people. It shows that the voice of the Palestinian people has been heard, and that a boycott needs to be implemented.” France-Israel match marked by scuffles, booing and a record-low attendance, Middle East Eye
Summary and Analysis
So, now we’ve seen two significant and politically destabilizing events in less than 10 days both of which took place in European capitals. And in both cases, the violence and racist chants were initiated by Israeli hooligans engaged in actions aimed at intimidating the public. Is there a rational explanation for this sudden uptick in social unrest attributable to Maccabi sports fans?
Of course, it could be just a coincidence linked to the behavior of overzealous sports fans who need to practice more self-restraint. That is one possibility. We cannot exclude another possibility, however, that the violence we have seen in Paris and Amsterdam is not a one-off or merely a case of exuberant young men “letting off a little steam.” We must at least consider the possibility that Israeli powerbrokers have launched this operation—using their assets in the IDF and Mossad—to advance their own strategic agenda consistent with their expansionist Zionist plan.
What we’ve seen is that the incitements on the ground have been coordinated with journalists in the legacy media and with political leaders across the West who have fabricated a narrative of growing antisemitism when, in fact, that storyline is easily debunked by the hundreds of first-person eyewitness accounts and the numerous videos on social media that prove that the sole responsibility for the violence in both cities lies entirely with the Israeli soccer thugs.
But why would political leaders and the media want to create the impression that antisemitism is on the rise? That is the question we must ask ourselves, because that is the narrative we are expected to believe.
IMHO, Israeli leaders understand that the claim of antisemitism is a powerful coercive tool that can be used to pressure parliamentarians to modify the law in ways that benefit one group over the others. Thus, as fears of a new wave of antisemitism intensify, the demand for changes to the law increase. Eventually—as in the case of Israel—equal protection is no longer equal protection. One category of people is placed above the law, while the others are crushed beneath the wheel of “second class citizenship.” This erosion of equal protection—that is attributable to the creation of “special” laws for special people—is the fast-track to apartheid, which is the end of a justice system that treats all people equally and with dignity.
Israel is frequently called an apartheid state because one group of people is treated differently (under the law) than the other. If my theory is correct, then Israeli policymakers are trying to affect those same changes in Europe, which means, they are exporting their racist political model to the continent.
Readers may want to skim the article below and decide for themselves whether this theory has any merit:
Calling for a boycott against Israel is forbidden now – and other measures against anti-Semitism, CNE
The German Bundestag took the clearest decision. Last week, the parliament accepted a resolution from both the government and the Christian Democratic opposition to protect Jewish life in the country. The title of the resolution was “Never again is now”, according to reports from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
According to the text, hatred against Jews and Israel is higher than “decades” since the terror attacks on October 7th 2023. The resolution also explicitly mentions that migrants especially add to this problem…. Concrete measures of the resolution are that no state money can go to organizations that… call for a boycott against Israel. Also, schools will be supported in educating about the Holocaust….
Norway
This Monday, the Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre presented an action plan with 22 measures against hatred against Jews. He invited representatives of the Jewish community to a meeting to discuss the matter. “We would love we did not need an action plan”, the Prime Minister said. “But we know that it is necessary.”
The Holocaust Centre in Norway has reported that anti-Semitism is growing after many years of decrease. “It is not just one budget post that resolves this”, Støre said. “This is about something difficult as attitudes.”…
Netherlands
Also , the Dutch government has been invited to take action against anti-Semitism. On Wednesday, there was a lengthy urgency debate in the Lower House about the incidents in Amsterdam last Friday.
The debate was dominated by Geert Wilders –who is leading the largest party– who presented immigration by Muslims as the basic problem of anti-Semitism.
The Dutch society was shocked by the pogrom-style hunt of Israeli football supporters. Hundreds of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were asked for their passports, beaten and chased. Opposition leader Frans Timmermans expected concrete measures from the government. He advocated for appointing more detectives to track down anti-Semitic offenders and then imposing harsher penalties….
European Parliament
Also, in the European Parliament in Brussels, parties held an urgency debate about anti-Semitism later on Wednesday. The debate was requested by the Dutch MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen from the Reformed SGP party after the shocking events in Amsterdam. The title of the debate is the “deplorable escalation of violence around the football match in the Netherlands and unacceptable attacks on Israeli football fans.”
“Europe is increasingly in the grip of extremist violence and Jew-hatred”, Ruissen said in a written statement. “This must stop as soon as possible.”
Already in October, the EU ministers of Foreign Affairs adopted a declaration that condemned “all forms of anti-Semitism, racism, hatred and discrimination.” Also, in this statement, action in schools was asked to keep the Holocaust in the “collective memory”. Calling for a boycott against Israel is now forbidden, CNE
Everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. There should be no legal carveouts for special people.
The Islamic world reorganizes the strategy in Riyadh
By Lorenzo Maria Pacini | Strategic Culture Foundation | November 15, 2024
On 11 November, an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on the question of Palestine was held in Riyadh. It was an extremely important event, from which the directives of the coming months for the Middle Eastern Islamic world and beyond will take their course. A shared international strategy emerged, even if contradictions and risks are not entirely absent.
A necessary window for dialogue
On Monday, 11 November, Riyadh invited the 22 countries of the Arab League and the 50 or so states that make up the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to take part in a summit dedicated to the ongoing conflicts in the region. The meeting focused on ongoing conflicts in the region, with a particular focus on Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office.
At the opening of the summit dedicated to Israel’s wars in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman used the term ‘genocide ’ to describe Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip: ‘We call on the international community to assume its responsibility […] by immediately ending Israeli attacks against our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon’.
The assembled Arab and Muslim leaders took the same stance towards Israel, condemning the horrific and shocking crimes committed by the Israeli army in Gaza, denouncing torture, executions, disappearances and outright ethnic cleansing, as stated in the final communiqué of the meeting.
Mohammed bin Salman also called on Israel to ‘respect the territorial sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran” and to ”refrain from attacking its territory’. Most members of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation will support these very firm statements. Although there are big differences between the countries that have normalised relations with Israel and those that oppose it, starting with the Islamic Republic of Iran. MBS explicitly said that not only the very existence of Palestine is now in question, but also the fate of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the second holiest shrine in Islam after Mecca, a statement reminiscent of the name of the Hamas operation entitled ‘Storm Al-Aqsa’. Evidently, Hamas leaders expected that such an emergency Arab-Islamic summit would convene much earlier, for instance soon after the start of Israel’s ground operation in Gaza.
In this regard, the Crown Prince referred to Iran as a ‘sister republic’, which made the press throughout the Islamic world rejoice, signalling a detente in relations between the two countries. Diplomatic relations were officially reopened in March 2023, after a seven-year blockade, thanks to an agreement brokered by China, and after the infamous 7 October 2023, dialogue resumed and intensified. Iran supports the Palestinian Islamist movement, while Saudi Arabia tries to contain the spread of the conflict.
At the summit, Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref called Israel’s assassination of the leaders of Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah ‘organised terrorism’, adding that ‘Operations misleadingly described as “targeted killings”, in which Palestinian elites and leaders of other countries in the region are killed one by one or en masse, are nothing but organised terrorism’. Similarly expressed by Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who called on the international community to continue sending aid to Lebanon. It should be noted that Mikati spoke a few days ago of ‘interference by Iran’ in Lebanon, an accusation rejected by Tehran.
It is worth noting the simultaneous involvement of Assad and Erdogan. Only recently, such crossovers were impossible. The government in Ankara has spoken increasingly strong and clear words against the extermination that Israel is perpetrating, certainly favouring a round table with the neighbouring Islamic countries, at least from the point of view of positive intentions.
Why only now?
There is almost nothing left of the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah. This is a fact to be confronted with. Such a summit would have been very different if the leaders of the Resistance were still alive.
The reason for this delay is perhaps the American elections. While the BRICS+ summit in Kazan had paved the way and pointed in a direction of international cohesion in condemning Israel’s actions and the need to restore Palestinian autonomy, it is true that the final placet was missing to move from theory to action.
Donald Trump’s victory must be framed from an Arab-Islamic perspective. Trump is a supporter of right-wing Zionism, that of Netanyahu and certain radicals such as Smotrich, Ben Gvir and Rabbi Dov Lior, who have never shied away from proclamations of massacres, sacrifices and religious destruction. For Zionists, Jerusalem is as important as Al Quds for Islamists (Al Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem). In the election campaign, Trump never gave an inch about his pro-Zionist position and support for the government in Tel Aviv. It was he who proposed moving the capital of the Zionist entity to Jerusalem and it was he who ordered the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani. Trump’s election strengthened the prospects for US-Israeli collaboration, so much so that Smotrich immediately declared his intention to attack the Palestinians in the West Bank and blow up the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Trump has accelerated these processes. The next goal, which he personally supported and financed, is the construction of the Third Temple, an eschatological keystone for the entire American neocon world. The physical destruction of all of Israel’s enemies is not a side effect or minor harm, but a duty inherent in Jewish messianism.
The emergence of the Islamic pole in the multipolar world is acquiring an increasingly recognisable and identifiable form. Of course, there are still many problems to be solved: Saudi Arabia and Turkey do business with the US and Israel, continue to play on opposing sides, and are historically unreliable. The countries of South East Asia still have to define their position with regard to international relations with the West, in order to definitively emancipate themselves and make themselves safe from blackmail and retaliation.
The questions many are asking themselves are various: will the next American president commit himself to ending the ongoing conflicts as he has promised? Or will he be an unconditional supporter of Israel, both in the war and in his plans to torpedo any prospect of establishing a Palestinian state? Saudi Arabia makes any normalization with Israel conditional on the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The two-state solution is supported by much of the international community as a means to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Arab and Muslim leaders hold firm to the position, in accordance with UN resolutions and the 2002 Arab peace plan, that Israel must return all territories occupied since 1967.
The Abrahamic agreements are no longer enough. This time, however, the US can no longer decide the entire future of the Middle East on its own, because the chessboard has changed and the new positions taken by the Islamic countries will force Washington to weigh up more elements. Russia and China will not let the multipolar project be compromised. Not even the African countries, where the Palestinian cause is a deeply felt and shared issue of freedom, identity and anti-colonialism, are going to give way in the fight against this historic injustice.
The Muslim population of Islamic countries, seeing the passivity of the rulers, will not tolerate the ongoing extermination and attack on the holy places of their religion much longer.
Probably, only a common war against a common enemy can unite Muslims. And that could happen very soon.
Israel Wins the US Election
The new cabinet might be worse than the old one
By Philip Giraldi • Unz Review • November 15, 2024
There are inevitably several jokes going around in the circles that I frequent that “MAGA” should instead be “MIGA” as the recent US national election only allowed one to choose between two parties that tried to excel in expressing their love for the Jewish state, with the winner Donald Trump’s Republicans ending up on top to “Make Israel Great[er] Again.” Another joke, more in line with dark humor, is the growing belief that Kamala Harris might have lost the election with the margin of difference being the perception that the Israeli genocide in Gaza, enabled by her party and President Joe Biden, turned many voters against her. Ironically, Donald Trump was more ambiguous and may well turn out to be even worse when it comes to developments in the Middle East.
Joe Biden’s cabinet and senior appointments were overloaded with Jews and while Trump’s choices are ethnically more mixed they all are truly dedicated to letting Israel have its way with its neighbors. Several high officials might well be considered demented when it comes to the arguments they make to protect the Jewish state, up to and including urging preemptive strikes carried out by the US against Iran, Syria and Lebanon. An Israeli newspaper has revealed that the Israeli government and Trump’s team are already in discussions regarding how to remove Iran’s government. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his part has claimed that he has already spoken with Trump several times since the election and that the two leaders see “eye-to-eye” on Iran. Netanyahu is convinced that a direct strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities is feasible as long as the United States fully supports Israel if a war breaks out.
The new Trump cabinet lineup includes Congressman Marco Rubio of Florida as Secretary of State, FOX news journalist Pete Hegspeth as Secretary of Defense, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York as Ambassador to the United Nations, former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas as Ambassador to Israel, Congressman Mike Waltz as National Security Adviser, Governor Kristi Noem as head of Homeland Security, and Steven C. Witkoff as special envoy to the Middle East. Together they constitute a cohesive group that has delighted the president-elect Trump’s most hawkishly pro-Israel backers. All of those nominated share a passion for promoting Israeli interests as well as bemoaning Jewish concerns over issues like the constantly claimed “problem” of surging antisemitism. Matt Brooks, the longtime chief executive of the Republican Jewish Coalition, called the nominees “a true dream team for those who care about a strong, vibrant, unshakable US-Israel relationship.”
For those of us who had hoped for something more like peace on earth it looks, however, quite a bit different. Paul Craig Roberts even jests that the lineup appears to have been appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Perhaps the most demented of the lot is also the individual in the most potentially threatening position, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Hegseth is a journalist with FOX news with one observer noting that he has never managed any organization larger than his three wives and five children prior to his upgrade to the $1 trillion budgeted 2.9 million Pentagon employees. Even by Christian Zionist standards, he might well be considered to be an extremist. An excerpt from Hegseth’s book, American Crusade, Our Fight to Stay Free (2020) includes “Simply put: if you don’t understand why Israel matters and why it is so central to the story of Western civilization—with America being its greatest manifestation—then you don’t live in history. America’s story is inextricably linked to Judeo-Christian history and the modern state of Israel. You can love America without loving Israel but that tells me your knowledge of the Bible and Western civilization is woefully incomplete… If you love America, you should love Israel. We share history, we share faith, and we share freedom. We love free people, free expression, and free markets.”
Of course, Hegseth is not plausible as neither the US nor Israel appear any longer to love either free people or speech. An over-the-top Christian Zionist, Hegseth, whose body is covered with Christian crosses tattoos, denies that Palestine or even the Palestinians actually exist. He calls the West Bank Samaria and Judea. He is also a so-called Third Temple activist who believes that the al-Aqsa mosque and other Muslim holy sites on the Temple mount in Jerusalem should be torn down to rebuild the Judaean Temple allegedly destroyed by the Romans in the Second Century. As al-Aqsa is a major Islamic religious site, such a move would automatically trigger a massive sectarian war in the Middle East, but it is also seen by Christian Zionists like Hegseth as a precursor step in the development of the Armageddon conflict that will lead to the rapturing of all true believers (Christians only!) into heaven and the Second Coming of Christ. Basically, we are looking at a Secretary of Defense who heads the largest military organization in the world wanting there to be a war which would destroy the world as we know it.
Evangelical Christian Zionist Huckabee and Congresswoman Stefanik are in some ways just as scary. Trump, clearly unconcerned about appointing senior officials possessing dual loyalty, said in a statement regarding Huckabee that “Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!” Huckabee believes God gave historic Palestine to the modern state of Israel, and is an outspoken advocate of Israel’s planned expansion in the occupied West Bank, which he calls Judea and Samaria. While visiting an Israeli West Bank settlement in in 2017, Huckabee claimed the land was not Israeli occupied. “I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria. There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.” In 2008, during his own presidential campaign, Huckabee said there was “really no such thing as a Palestinian.”
Another leading Israel Firster is Elise Stefanik, Congresswoman from New York, who will be United States Ambassador to the United Nations, where she will no doubt follow in the glorious footsteps of Nikki Haley, Trump’s totally Zionist first appointee to that organization back in 2016. Stefanik has been stridently using her bully pulpit on the House Education and Workforce Committee to destroy free speech on America’s college campuses, particularly when that freedom is used to criticize Israel and its behavior, which she liberally describes as antisemitism even when the protests are triggered by Israeli atrocities directed against Palestinians and Lebanese. Her witch hunt has led to several top resignations of college presidents and universities across the country have clamped down on pro-Palestinian protesters, who, for the record, Trump has pledged to deport together with all “Jew haters.” Per Australian Journalist Caitlin Johnstone “She’s a hawkish swamp monster whose political career was primed in some of the most odious neoconservative think tanks in Washington, and opposes placing any limits on US military support for Israel. Earlier this year Stefanik actually flew to Israel to give a speech before the Israeli Knesset vowing to help stop the ‘antisemitism’ of protesters against Israel’s genocidal atrocities at American universities.” Stefanik will undoubtedly be relied upon to represent Israeli interests at the UN and State Department rather than those of the United States or of American citizens. The same goes for the new president’s Middle East envoy, Jewish real estate mogul Steve Witkoff, who is a golfing partner of Trump but reportedly has no diplomatic or political experience. A Times of Israel profile describes Witkoff as a “conduit to the Jewish business community.” That is great news as in Washington those who have the most money are always able to speak loudest.
And so it goes. Turn a page in Washington and you find out that someone else has bought up all the remaining pages so all you can do is keep re-reading the same thing. Gosh, Presidents Biden and Trump, doesn’t it bother you to know, as you surely do, that another country owns us and that it carries out near continuous war crimes against an occupied people that are enabled through the use of our arms and money? Do you have no sense of shame? Where is the proud and honorable America that was once a beacon of liberty among all nations? Gone and forgotten, apparently.
Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.
ADL attacks Trump’s attorney general pick
RT | November 15, 2024
The Anti-Defamation League has accused US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, of “trafficking in anti-Semitism” and called for him to be barred from office.
Trump announced Gaetz’s nomination on Wednesday, declaring that the Florida Republican would end the “partisan weaponization of our justice system.” Gaetz is a hardline conservative and staunch ally of Trump, but his nomination rankled some establishment Republicans and angered the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish advocacy group that typically supports the Democratic Party.
”Rep. Matt Gaetz has a long history of trafficking in anti-Semitism – from explaining his vote against the bipartisan Anti-Semitism Awareness Act by invoking the centuries-old trope that Jews killed Jesus to defending the Great Replacement Theory and inviting a Holocaust denier as his 2018 State of the Union guest,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on X on Wednesday.
”He should not be appointed to any high office, much less one overseeing the impartial execution of our nation’s laws.”
Greenblatt did not fully explain the examples of Gaetz’s conduct that he cited. The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which passed the House of Representatives earlier this year but never became law, would have criminalized “contemporary examples of anti-Semitism,” including “claims of Jews killing Jesus.” As these claims are repeatedly made in the New Testament of the Bible, Gaetz argued that the bill would have essentially outlawed much of Christianity’s core text.
The so-called ‘Great Replacement Theory’ refers to the idea that white people are slowly being replaced in their own lands by non-white immigrants. While this is often written off by liberals as a racist conspiracy theory, the ratio of whites to other races in the US has steadily been shrinking since the mid-20th century.
In 2021, the ADL condemned former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for claiming that Democrats plan to replace America’s Republican-voting whites with Democrat-voting immigrants. Greenblatt called Carlson’s claims “toxic, anti-Semitic and xenophobic.”
Gaetz weighed in on the controversy, calling the ADL a “racist organization.”
In 2018, Gaetz invited right-wing pundit Charles Johnson to then-President Trump’s State of the Union address on Capitol Hill, prompting another showdown with the ADL. Johnson had previously claimed that 250,000, and not six million, Jews were killed by Nazi Germany during World War II. Gaetz refused to call Johnson a “Holocaust denier,” but said afterwards that he “should’ve vetted him better before inviting him.”
It is unclear how Greenblatt’s complaint will affect Gaetz’s chances of being confirmed by the Senate. While the GOP holds a majority in the upper chamber, four ‘no’ votes from Republicans plus unified opposition from Democrats would sink the Florida lawmaker’s chances of leading the Department of Justice.
There are no “Easy Wars” left to fight, but do not mistake the longing for one
By Alastair Crooke | Strategic Culture Foundation | November 15, 2024
Israelis, as a whole, are exhibiting a rosy assurance that they can harness Trump, if not to the full annexation of the Occupied Territories (Trump in his first term did not support such annexation), but rather, to ensnare him into a war on Iran. Many (even most) Israelis are raring for war on Iran and an aggrandisement of their territory (devoid of Arabs). They are believing the puffery that Iran ‘lies naked’, staggeringly vulnerable, before a U.S. and Israeli military strike.
Trump’s Team nominations, so far, reveal a foreign policy squad of fierce supporters of Israel and of passionate hostility to Iran. The Israeli media term it a ‘dream team’ for Netanyahu. It certainly looks that way.
The Israel Lobby could not have asked for more. They have got it. And with the new CIA chief, they get a known ultra China hawk as a bonus.
But in the domestic sphere the tone is precisely the converse: The key nomination for ‘cleaning the stables’ is Matt Gaetz as Attorney General; he is a real “bomb thrower”. And for the Intelligence clean-up, Tulsi Gabbard is appointed as Director of National Intelligence. All intelligence agencies will report to her, and she will be responsible for the President’s Daily briefing. The intel assessments may thus begin to reflect something closer to reality.
The deep Inter-Agency structure has reason to be very afraid; they are panicking – especially over Gaetz.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have the near impossible task of cutting out-of-control federal spending and currency printing. The System is deeply dependent on the bloat of government spending to keep the cogs and levers of the mammoth ‘security’ boondoggle whirring. It is not going to be yielded up without a bitter fight.
So, on the one hand, the Lobby gets a dream team (Israel), but on the other side (the domestic sphere), it gets a renegade team.
This must be deliberate. Trump knows that Biden’s legacy of bloating GDP with government jobs and excessive public spending is the real ‘time bomb’ awaiting him. Again the withdrawal symptoms, as the drug of easy money is withdrawn, may prove incendiary. Moving to a structure of tariffs and low taxes will be disruptive.
Whether deliberate or not, Trump is keeping his cards close to his chest. We have only glimpses of intent – and the water is being seriously muddied by the infamous ‘Inter-Agency’ grandees. For example, in respect to the Pentagon sanctioning private-sector contractors to work in Ukraine, this was done in coordination with “inter-agency stakeholders”.
The old nemesis that paralysed his first term again faces Trump. Then, during the Ukraine impeachment process, one witness (Vindman), when asked why he would not defer to the President’s explicit instructions, replied that whilst Trump has his view on Ukraine policy, that stance did NOT align with that of the ‘Inter-Agency’ agreed position. In plain language, Vindman denied that a U.S. president has agency in foreign policy formulation.
In short, the ‘Inter-Agency structure’ was signalling to Trump that military support for Ukraine must continue.
When the Washington Post published their detailed story of a Trump-Putin phone call – that the Kremlin emphatically states never happened – the deep structures of policy were simply telling Trump that it would be they who determine what the shape of the U.S. ‘solution’ for Ukraine would be.
Similarly, when Netanyahu boasts to have spoken to Trump and that Trump “shares” his views regarding Iran, Trump was being indirectly instructed what his policy towards Iran needs to be. All the (false) rumours about appointments to his Team too, were but the interagency signalling their choices for his key posts. No wonder confusion reigns.
So, what can be deduced at this early stage? If there is a common thread, it has been a constant refrain that Trump is against war. And that he demands from his picks personal loyalty and no ties of obligation to the Lobby or the Swamp.
So, is the packing of his Administration with ‘Israel Firsters’ an indication that Trump is edging toward a ‘Realist’s Faustian pact’ to destroy Iran in order to cripple China’s energy supply source (90% from Iran), and thus weaken China? – Two birds with one stone, so to speak?
The collapse of Iran would also weaken Russia and hobble the BRICS’ transport-corridor projects. Central Asia needs both Iranian energy and its key transport corridors linking China, Iran, and Russia as primary nodes of Eurasian commerce.
When the RAND Organisation, the Pentagon think-tank, recently published a landmark appraisal of the 2022 National Defence Strategy (NDS), its findings were stark: An unrelentingly bleak analysis of every aspect of the U.S. war machine. In brief, the U.S. is “not prepared”, the appraisal argued, in any meaningful way for serious ‘competition’ with its major adversaries – and is vulnerable or even significantly outmatched in every sphere of warfare.
The U.S., the RAND appraisal continues, could in short order be drawn into a war across multiple theatres with peer and near-peer adversaries – and it could lose. It warns that the U.S. public has not internalized the costs of the U.S. losing its position as the world superpower. The U.S. must therefore engage globally with a presence—military, diplomatic, and economic—to preserve influence worldwide.
Indeed, as one respected commentator has noted, the ‘Empire at all Costs’ cult (i.e. the RAND Organisation zeitgeist) is now “more desperate than ever to find a war it can fight to restore its fortunes and prestige”.
And China would be altogether a different proposition for a demonstrative act of destruction in order “to preserve U.S. influence worldwide” – for the U.S. is “not prepared” for serious conflict with its peer adversaries: Russia or China, RAND says.
The straitened situation of the U.S. after decades of fiscal excess and offshoring (the backdrop to its current weakened military industrial base) now makes kinetic war with China or Russia or “across multiple theatres” a prospect to be shunned.
The point that the commentator above makes is that there are no ‘easy wars’ left to fight. And that the reality (brutally outlined by RAND) is that the U.S. can choose one – and only one war to fight. Trump may not want any war, but the Lobby grandees – all supporters of Israel, if not active Zionists supporting the displacement of Palestinians – want war. And they believe they can get one.
Put starkly and plainly: Has Trump thought this through? Have the others in the Trump Team reminded him that in today’s world, with U.S. military strength slipping away, there no longer are any ‘easy wars’ to fight, although Zionists believe that with a decapitation strike on Iran’s religious and IRGC leadership (on the lines of the Israel’s strikes on Hizbullah leaders in Beirut), the Iranian people would rise up against their leaders, and side with Israel for a ‘New Middle East’.
Netanyahu has just made his second broadcast to the Iranian people promising them early salvation. He and his government are not waiting to ask Trump to nod his consent to the annexation of all Occupied Palestinian Territories. That project is being implemented on the ground. It is unfolding now. Netanyahu and his cabinet have the ethnic cleansing ‘bit between their teeth’. Will Trump be able to roll it back? How so? Or will he succumb to becoming ‘genocide Don’?
This putative ‘Iran War’ is following the same narrative cycle as with Russia: ‘Russia is weak; its military is poorly trained; its equipment mostly recycled from the Soviet era; its missiles and artillery in short supply’. Zbig Brzezinski earlier had taken the logic to its conclusion in The Grand Chessboard (1997): Russia would have no choice but to submit to the expansion of NATO and to the geopolitical dictates of the U.S.. That was ‘then’ (a little more than a year ago). Russia took the western challenge – and today is in the driving seat in Ukraine, whilst the West looks on helplessly.
This last month, it was U.S. retired General Jack Keane, the strategic analyst for Fox News, who argued that Israel’s air strike on Iran had left it “essentially naked”, with most air defences “taken down” and its missile production factories destroyed by Israel’s 26 October strikes. Iran’s vulnerability, Keane said, is “simply staggering”.
Kean channels the early Brzezinski: His message is clear – Iran will be an ‘easy war’. That forecast however, is likely to be revealed as dead wrong. And, if pursued, will lead to a complete military and economic disaster for Israel. But do not rule out the distinct possibility that Netanyahu – besieged on all fronts and teetering on the brink of internal crisis and even jail – is desperate enough to do it. His is, after all, a Biblical mandate that he pursues for Israel!
Iran likely will launch a painful response to Israel before the 20 January Presidential Inauguration. Its riposte will demonstrate Iran’s unexpected and unforeseen military innovation. What the U.S. and Israel will then do may well open the door to wider regional war. Sentiment across the region seethes at the slaughter in the Occupied Territories and in Lebanon.
Trump may not appreciate just how isolated the U.S. and Israel are among Israel’s Arab and Sunni neighbours. The U.S. is stretched so thin, and its forces across the region are so vulnerable to the hostility that the daily slaughter incubates, that a regional war might be enough to bring the entire house of cards tumbling down. The crisis would pitch Trump into a financial crisis that could sink his domestic economic aspirations too.
Gaza Municipality: 70% of wells and 105,000 water lines destroyed
Palestinian Information Center – November 14, 2024
GAZA – The Gaza Municipality revealed on Thursday that the Israeli occupation destroyed more than 105,000 water lines and more than 70% of water wells in the Gaza Strip.
The limited capabilities of the municipality hinder its ability to solve this severe crisis, which forces citizens to transport water manually to their homes, said the municipality’s spokesman, Asem Al-Nabih.
He pointed out that the prices of desalinated water witnessed a significant increase due to the sharp increase in fuel prices, which further exacerbates the suffering of local citizens in obtaining potable water.
On October 23, two employees of the Gaza Municipality were killed, and two others were injured while repairing water wells at the Bir Al-Safa station in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza.
Since the start of the ongoing Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, the Israeli occupation has been working to destroy all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip.
West Asia reacts to Trump’s dalliance with Zionism
By M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | Indian Punchline | November 14, 2024
The election victory of Donald Trump in the November 5 election is being perceived in the West Asian region with growing anxiety as presaging the US aligning one hundred percent with the Zionist project for Greater Israel.
Although Trump has kept out vociferous neocons from his government positions, the same cannot be said for pro-Zionist figures. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims he has spoken three times with Trump already since the election and they “see eye-to-eye regarding the Iranian threat and all of its components.”
The “components” implies that Netanyahu hopes to get a blank cheque from Trump to accelerate the ethnic cleansing in Gaza, for annexation of West Bank, violent reprisals against Palestinians and, most important, to carry the war right into Iranian territory.
Three events in as many days this week show the first signs of a backlash building up. On Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei gave Tehran’s first official reaction to Trump’s election victory. Baqaei took a nuanced line saying, “What matters to us in this region is the United States’ actual behaviour and policies regarding Iran and the broader West Asia.”
Notably, Baqaei expressed “cautious optimism that the new [Trump] administration might adopt a more peace-oriented approach, reduce regional hostilities, and uphold its commitments.” (Tehran Times) Baqaei also refuted the recent allegation by Washington that Iran was involved in plots to assassinate Trump. He called the Biden Administration’s allegation as “nothing more than an attempt to sabotage relations” between Tehran and Washington by “laying traps to complicate the path for the next administration.”
Baqaei also held out an assurance to the incoming US administration that Tehran firmly adheres to a nuclear programme for peaceful purposes. He announced that Rafael Grossi, head of International Atomic Energy (IAEA) was due to arrive in Tehran on Wednesday night.
Taken together, Baqaei’s remarks suggest that Iran hopes there’s still daylight possible between Trump and Netanyahu. The clincher here would have been the remark that Trump slipped into his victory speech with great deliberation on November 6 that “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.”
Trump was on record during his election campaign that “I don’t want to do damage to Iran but they cannot have nuclear weapons.” Tehran’s consultations with Grossi responds to Trump’s concern. This is smart thinking. Iran’s non-provocative stance would mean there is no alibi for attacking Iran.
That said, however, the “known unknown” still remains — namely, Iran’s retaliation to the Israeli attack on October 26. On November 2, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a video released by Iranian state media, promised “a crushing response” to Israeli attack. Conceivably, the period till January 20 when Trump is sworn in, is going to be critical.
Meanwhile, this week witnessed that Iran and Saudi Arabia have given verve to their detente, which is now manifesting as Riyadh’s solidarity and open support for Iran in its growing confrontation with Israel.
Amidst the growing tensions in the region, the chief of staff of Saudi Arabia’s armed forces, Fayyad al-Ruwaili, visited Tehran on November 10 and met with his Iranian counterpart General Mohammad Bagheri. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke on the phone with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the phone in the context of a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) – Arab League in Riyadh on November 11-12. Iran has extended an invitation to MbS to visit Tehran!
Two hugely significant highlights of the Riyadh summit have been, first, the Saudi prince’s inaugural address where he warned Israel against hitting Iran. This marked a historic turn by Riyadh toward Tehran-Israeli conflict, and away from US-supported normalisation with Jerusalem.
MbS told the summit that the international community should oblige Israel “to respect the sovereignty of the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran and not to violate its lands.”
Again, Saudi Arabia accused Israel for the first time of committing “genocide” in Gaza. MbS told the leaders who gathered in Riyadh, that the kingdom renewed “its condemnation and categorical rejection of the genocide committed by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people…”
Trump has been put on notice that he’s meeting a radically different geopolitical landscape in West Asia compared to his first term as president. The Trump transition team is keeping its cards close, offering NatSec Daily a boilerplate statement that Trump will take “necessary action” to “lead our country” and “restore peace through strength.” But warning bells are ringing.
The key pillars of Trump’s “maximum pressure” strategy against Tehran — isolating Iran and ramping up economic pressure while maintaining a credible threat of military force as deterrent — have become wobbly.
On the other hand, the massive Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel on October 1 and the colossal failure of the Israeli air strike on Iran twenty-six days later convey a loud message all across West Asia that Israel is no longer the dominant military power it used to be — and there is a new sheriff in town. Trump will have to navigate the fallout of both sides of this issue with diminished US diplomatic and geopolitical capital at his disposal.
Meanwhile, Tehran is also deepening its cooperation with Russia, which adds a giant new Ukraine-sized complexity to Trump’s Iran policy. While in Eurasia, the US has allies, Trump is navigating in West Asia pretty much alone.
The US’ stark isolation comes home dramatically by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement on Wednesday that Turkey, a NATO member country, has severed all ties with Israel. Erdogan disclosed this to journalists aboard his plane after visiting Saudi Arabia. A regional trend to ostracise Israel is visible now and it is destined to expand and deepen.
The summit in Riyadh witnessed the African Union joining hands with the Arab League and OIC to sign a tripartite agreement on Tuesday to establish a mechanism to support the Palestinian cause, which will be coordinated through the three organisations’ secretariats as a game changer to strengthen their influence in international forums. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan noted that the three organisations will now onward speak with one voice internationally.
Even as the summit concluded in Riyadh, Crown Prince Salman had a call on Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin readout stated that the two leaders “reaffirmed their commitment to continue the consistent expansion” of Russian-Saudi ties and specifically “stressed the importance of continuing close coordination within OPEC Plus and stated the effectiveness and timeliness of the steps being taken in this format to ensure balance on the global energy market.”
On the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Kremlin readout noted with satisfaction that “the principled approaches of Russia and Saudi Arabia with regard to the Middle East settlement are essentially identical.”
MbS’ initiative to re-invigorate his conversation with Putin can only be seen against the backdrop of the profound misgivings in Riyadh regarding the Trump-Netanyahu bromance and the spectre of a possible regional war haunting the region stemming out of Israel drawing encouragement from the seamless US support expected through the coming 4-year period for the Zionist cause.

