Netanyahu ‘rejected’ proposals to resume prisoner swap talks
MEMO | May 20, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected proposals by Israeli negotiators on Saturday for the renewal of indirect talks with Hamas for a hostage release deal, the Times of Israel has reported, citing multiple reports by major Israeli networks yesterday. The proposals were apparently presented to Netanyahu by Mossad spy chief David Barnea, Shin Bet security chief Ronen Bar and General Nitzan Alon, who is in charge of the “hostages file” for the army.
According to the report, the proposals included an “Israeli concession,” and were presented during the war cabinet meeting on Saturday evening. However, said Kan, Netanyahu responded by saying: “All these proposals will lead to an end to the war. We tried and made significant overtures. Hamas rejected everything.”
Channel 12 quoted war cabinet minister Benny Gantz as retorting: “It is apparent you are unhappy with [the negotiators’] work. If that is so, replace them and bring someone you trust and believe in.” To this Netanyahu responded that he “will not agree to any proposal that ends the war.”
During the same meeting, minister Gadi Eisenkot was quoted as saying: “No one here wants to stop the war, but your position does not allow us to bring back the hostages. You’re not leaving the team with any possible path toward reaching a deal.”
A minister in the war cabinet told Kan, “After yesterday’s meeting it has become clearer that Netanyahu doesn’t want a deal” while others present said, “We saw the despair in the eyes of Nitzan Alon and his senior aide after the meeting. They seem to have come to a final realisation that there will be no deal.”
ICC applies for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Sinwar
The Cradle | May 20, 2024
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, the movement’s military wing chief, Mohammad Deif, and Political Bureau head, Ismail Haniyeh, for war crimes.
Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that all bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from at least 7 October 2023.
The ICC, based in The Hague, opened an investigation into Israel’s actions in the occupied territories in 2021. The investigation has been expanded to cover both Israeli and Hamas actions since the start of the Gaza war on 7 October.
The ICC accused Hamas of killing several hundred Israelis and of committing various war crimes during its assault on Israeli military bases and settlements during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. The ICC accusations include extermination, murder, taking hostages, rape and other sexual crimes, and torture.
The ICC statement also does not mention that during the 7 October Hamas attack, Israeli forces killed many of their own civilians by responding with heavy weapons. Israeli media has reported that the army used helicopters, drones, and tanks to open fire on Hamas fighters and their Israeli captives in settlements (kibbutzim), military bases, and the Nova music festival site.
These heavy weapons burned many Israelis alive or buried them under the rubble of the houses they destroyed. The killings and resulting mutilation of the bodies were then blamed on Hamas by Israeli authorities, who suggested fighters from Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, had tortured them.
UN investigators have sought evidence that Hamas has committed mass rapes on 7 October in response to Israeli claims, but Israel has failed to provide it. Many reports of Hamas committing mass rape, including in a widely publicized article in the New York Times in December, have been shown to be false.
The ICC also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes, including extermination, murder, directing attacks at civilians, and using starvation as a weapon of war.
The ICC statement focused on Israel’s efforts to starve Palestinians in Gaza, citing its efforts to cut off food, water, medicine, and electricity to the enclave starting on 9 October. The ICC statement mentions Israeli attacks on civilians, including those queuing for food.
The statement claims that Israel carried out these war crimes as part of a right to self-defense and to defeat Hamas, win the release of Israeli captives held by the group, and punish civilians it viewed as a “threat.”
At the same time, the ICC statement did not mention the reason for the Hamas attack, namely to break the 17-year siege on Gaza, end decades of illegal occupation and settlement in the West Bank, and free thousands of Palestinians held hostage in Israeli prisons.
The ICC statement makes no mention of Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza, of Israeli sniper drones killing civilians, and of the torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees swept up in Gaza and taken to detention facilities in Israel. The ICC statement also makes no mention of Israeli efforts to ethnically cleanse Gaza nor of the estimated number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombings and other actions, which now exceeds 34,000, including some 8,000 children, according to conservative UN estimates.
In response, an Israeli official told the Times of Israel that Karim Khan’s “baseless blood libel against Israel has crossed a red line in his lawfare efforts against the lone Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East.”
“The blood libel will not deter Israel from defending itself and accomplishing all its just war objectives,” says the official. Netanyahu will issue a video statement later in the day.
What do pro-Palestine student protesters at Brazilian universities want?
By Eman Abusidu | MEMO |May 20, 2024
As pro-Palestine protests continue at US and European universities, thousands of students at Latin America’s most prestigious university, the University of São Paulo (USP), have joined the movement against Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip. The Brazilian students from various faculties have set up tents in the History and Geography Building of the Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences, flying a giant Palestinian flag and chanting “Free Palestine” as they call for an “immediate ceasefire”.
The protests by USP students are being organised by the Student Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian People of USP (ESPP-USP), as well as Brazilian student union and other popular organisations which express their support within and beyond the university campus.
The students are demanding that the university should divest from Israeli companies and those which benefit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
They also want an academic boycott of Israeli institutions with the renunciation of current academic agreements or any other ties and an end all academic relationships with Israeli institutions.
In particular, they are putting pressure on the USP’s Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences to suspend agreements with the University of Haifa in occupied Palestine. A petition has also been drafted demanding that Brazilian institutions, universities and the government should sever relations with Israel. As far as the students taking part in the protests are concerned, the university’s agreements with Israeli universities and organisations, such as “Israel Corner”, help to develop the technology used in the Israeli offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza.
The Israeli Federation of São Paulo has expressed its dissatisfaction with these demonstrations and sees them as hate speech against Jews. Such allegations by Israel and its supporters are entirely predictable.
One of those taking part in the protest, João Conceição, explained the students’ demands to MEMO :
“We demand the immediate cancellation of the seven academic agreements that USP has signed with Israeli universities and the Israeli Consulate in São Paulo,” said Conceição. “President Lula and the Brazilian government need to break all relations with Israel, whether diplomatic, military or commercial. The solidarity with the Palestinian people must be within and beyond the university walls, in light of the ongoing genocide.”
He pointed out that the demonstrations at USP draw attention to the fact that the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza is the result of the ongoing genocide and massacre of the Nakba for over 76 years. “We believe that breaking relations with Israel is the practical answer that can leave Israel in international isolation as a global outcast.”
According to Conceição, the governments of Latin America have done very little in real terms, because, “The majority of them have direct or indirect associations with Zionist entities, and they are committed to the Israeli and international bourgeoisie to defend what is happening today in Gaza.” He was critical of Lula’s stance. “He speaks harshly and compares what happens in Palestine to the Holocaust, but the actions on the ground are different.”
Brazilian activist and member of the country’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Fabio Bosco, said that the student demonstrations are very important to gain public support for Palestine and send a message to the Palestinian people that they are not alone in their struggle for liberation.
“The protests at American universities, for example, are very positive and are cornering the US President, Zionist Joe Biden. Furthermore, they serve as a symbol of solidarity and humanity for the entire world,” noted Bosco. “Lula da Silva acknowledged that there is an ongoing genocide in Gaza and supported South Africa’s action against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and yet he maintained diplomatic relations with the occupation state and has bought Israeli military goods.”
He suggested that the main thing that the Latin American countries can offer to Gaza is to break economic and diplomatic relations and thus isolate the “criminal” Zionist entity. “We hope that the example set by the students in São Paulo inspires students across the country and expands solidarity activities with the Palestinian people within trade unions and social movements.”
The protests at the University of São Paulo are expected to be the first of many on the USP campus and other Brazilian universities to challenge any promotion related to the Israeli apartheid regime. Palestine solidarity movements are growing in strength within Brazilian universities despite the Zionist presence in Brazil. Palestinian and Brazilian activists have in the past succeeded in forcing the cancellation of the Israeli Universities Festival. It is hoped by activists that other successes will follow.
Another Palestinian journalist killed in Gaza, death toll climbs to 145 since Oct. 7
Press TV – May 19, 2024
The government media office in the Gaza Strip says one more Palestinian journalist has been killed in an Israeli airstrike on the blockaded coastal territory, taking the death toll to 145 since last October when resistance fighters launched a large-scale operation against the occupying regime.
Journalist Abdullah al-Najjar lost his life on Saturday when Israeli fighter jets carried out an airstrike against a neighborhood in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
Earlier in the day, Palestinian medical sources said at least 28 people, including women and children, were killed in Israeli continuous raids on the camp.
Palestinian security sources added that Israeli warplanes targeted several residential houses and a shelter center for displaced people in the area with missiles.
The raids caused large explosions in the Jabalia refugee camp, which had been witnessing a ground invasion for several days.
Israeli forces in Gaza killed Palestinian journalist Mahmoud Juhjouh along with his wife and children on Thursday.
Local Palestinian media reported that Juhjouh was killed in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, when a bomb struck his family home.
The journalist worked for the Palestine Post Network.
According to reports, Jahjouh had been forcibly displaced several times due to Israeli bombardment, and had finally returned to his home after Israeli forces withdrew from areas in northern Gaza.
The United Nations has raised concern over the “extraordinarily high numbers of journalists and media workers who have been killed, attacked, injured and detained” in recent months.
“We pay special tribute to the courage and resilience of journalists and media workers in Gaza who continue to put their own lives on the line every day in the course of duty, while also enduring enormous hardship and tragic loss of colleagues, friends and families in one of the bloodiest, most ruthless conflicts of our time,” UN experts said in a statement.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory operation into the occupied territories.
Concomitantly with the war, the regime has been enforcing a near-total siege on the coastal territory, which has reduced the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory into a trickle.
So far during the military onslaught, the regime has killed at least 35,386 Gazans, most of them women, children, and adolescents. Another 79,366 Palestinians have sustained injuries as well.
Labor strike in 10 California universities demands the right to protest for Palestine
Palestinian Information Center – May 18, 2024
Around 48,000 workers at 10 universities affiliated with the University of California system and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the state of California, USA, voted to begin a strike in defense of the right to protest for Palestine.
This follows campaigns of arrests and attacks on students in tents, who are demanding an end to the Israeli aggression on Gaza, following the university administration’s failure to address complaints regarding the handling of pro-Palestinian protests.
Activists promised that the union vote on starting the strike next Monday represents a historic decision that may push unions in other universities and labor unions to strike in defense of students’ right to protest for the Palestinian cause.
The announcement of the strike comes two days after the vote of the academic workers at the University of California, where the union considered it a result of changes to the university system’s policies regarding freedom of expression and discrimination in pro-Palestinian speeches, and allowing attacks on protesters during their sit-ins.
In this context, high schools in the state of Wisconsin joined schools in the state of Illinois in student protests at American universities, by walking out of classrooms after the second or third period, and organizing marches inside schools to demand an end to the aggression on Gaza.
Over 600 mosques destroyed in Israeli onslaught on Gaza since Oct. 7
Press TV – May 18, 2024
The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in the Gaza Strip says Israeli military forces have fully destroyed or damaged hundreds of mosques in the besieged coastal territory ever since the Tel Aviv regime started its bloody onslaught in early October last year.
The ministry announced in a statement that the total number of mosques completely destroyed in the current conflict stands at 604, while another 200 have been partially destroyed.
The statement said Israeli troops have also desecrated at least 60 cemeteries during their ground invasion of Gaza, and used bulldozers to dig up graves and steal the bodies of more than 1,000 people.
It said 15 buildings belonging to the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs were destroyed during the Israeli aggression, among them the headquarters of the ministry, the main office of the Holy Quran Radio in Gaza City, the Endowment Management office in Khan Younis, and a repository for documents and manuscripts.
The statement said that 91 employees of the ministry have been killed in the Israeli attacks.
Israel launched its onslaught against the Gaza Strip, targeting hospitals, residences, and houses of worship, after Palestinian resistance movements launched a surprise attack, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm, against the usurping entity on October 7 last year.
At least 35,386 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, according to the latest health ministry update in Gaza on Saturday. More than 1.7 million people have been internally displaced during the war as well.
US university president placed on leave for accepting demands of Palestine supporters
MEMO | May 17, 2024
Sonoma State University’s President, Mike Lee, has been placed on administrative leave for announcing an agreement with pro-Palestinian activists to pursue an academic boycott of Israeli institutions and divestment strategies.
California State University Chancellor Mildred Garcia said yesterday that Mike Lee was put on leave for accepting the demands of protesting students without obtaining “proper approvals.”
She added in a statement published on the website of the University of California, to which Sonoma University is affiliated: “For now, because of this insubordination and consequences it has brought upon the system, President Lee has been placed on administrative leave.”
This decision is considered the harshest disciplinary action imposed on the president of any of the US universities that have witnessed anti-war protests.
Since April, US, Canadian, British, French and Indian universities have witnessed protests rejecting the Israeli war on Gaza and demanding university administrations stop their academic cooperation with Israeli academic institutions.
Protesters also demand that their universities withdraw their investments from companies that support the occupation of Palestinian territories and arm the Israeli army.
In New York riot police were sent into campuses to disperse protesters and remove encampments set up in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Belgium’s Ghent university severs ties with 3 Israel institutions
MEMO | May 17, 2024
Belgium’s University of Ghent (UGent) is severing ties with three Israeli educational or research institutions which it says no longer align with UGent’s human rights policy, Reuters reports its rector saying.
Pro-Palestinian protesters in Ghent have been demonstrating against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and have been occupying parts of the university since early this month.
The university’s rector, Rik Van de Walle, said in a statement that ties were being cut with Holon Institute of Technology, MIGAL Galilee Research Institute and the Volcani Centre, which carries out agricultural research.
“We currently assess these three partners as (very) problematic according to the Ghent University human rights test, in contrast to the positive evaluation we gave these partners at the start of our collaboration,” Van de Walle said.
Partnerships with MIGAL Galilee Research Institute and the Volcani Centre “were no longer desirable” due to their affiliation with Israeli ministries, an investigation by the University of Ghent found, and collaboration with the Holon Institute “was problematic” because it provided material support to the army for actions in Gaza.
A spokesperson for the university said the move would affect four projects.
The three Israeli institutions did not immediately comment.
The protesters told Belgian broadcaster VRT they welcomed the decision but regarded it as only a first step. They said they would continue their occupation of parts of the university “until UGent breaks its ties with all Israeli institutions”.
The actions mirror those of students in the United States and elsewhere in Europe, calling for an immediate permanent ceasefire and for schools to cut financial ties with companies they say are profiting from what they regard as the oppression of Palestinians.
Houthis Take Down Another US Reaper Drone, Reiterate Threat to Target Ships in Mediterranean
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 17.05.2024
The Yemeni militia has turned the destruction of General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drones into an art form, using homegrown variants of the Soviet Kub surface-to-air missile system to shoot the $32 million apiece attack UAVs out of the skies. The Pentagon has used Reapers extensively over Yemen amid the Houthi’ partial blockade of the Red Sea.
Yemen’s Houthi militia have reported the destruction of another MQ-9 Reaper using a “a locally-made” SAM.
In a statement published Friday and reported by Yemen’s SABA News Agency, the militia said their air defense forces took down the American drone over Marib, western Yemen, where it “was carrying out hostile acts,” on Thursday night.
The US military has yet to acknowledge the loss of the advanced drone. However, footage circulating online showed wreckage of a drone matching the Reaper’s dimensions and appearance, lying seemingly almost completely intact in a desert area at night. The Houthis don’t have a reputation for reporting on the destruction of enemy equipment unless they’ve actually done so, and previous attacks targeting Reapers have subsequently been begrudgingly confirmed by the Pentagon.
The downed drone is at least the fifth destroyed over Yemen since October 2023.
American forces have deployed Reapers en masse in the region to assist in their campaign of strikes on Yemen aimed at weakening the missile and drone capabilities the Houthis have deployed to try to enforce a partial blockade of the Red Sea targeting Israeli, US and UK-linked commercial vessels and warships.
Introduced into service with the US Air Force in 2008, Reapers have a 27-hour endurance time and a 50,000-foot flight ceiling, and have been heavily used in US operations over Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria for over 15 years, with over 300 built. The 11-meter long armed UAVs have a 20-meter wingspan, can carry up to 1,700 kg of ordinance on seven external hardpoints, and can travel at speeds of nearly 500 km per hour, with a cruising speed of over 300 km per hour.
The Houthis have vowed to continue their partial blockade until Israel stops its assault on Gaza, and have rejected all attempts to date by the US and its allies to get them to halt their missile and drone attacks – either by force or through quiet attempts to bribe them.
The Reaper shootdown came hours after the militia reiterated its threats to target Israeli-bound ships in the Mediterranean.
“We will target any ship heading to Israel that comes within range of our weapons,” Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a speech Thursday. “There is no red line for us. We are gradually hitting sensitive strategic targets that affect the enemy and we will reach them by God’s grace,” he said.
Al-Houthi reiterated that the militia sees the US as “complicit with the Zionist regime in the genocide against the Palestinian people,” and accused Washington of tacitly approving Tel Aviv’s attack on Rafah.
“We will strive to strengthen the fourth phase of escalation in terms of momentum and the power of strikes,” al-Houthi said, referencing the militia’s waves of escalatory actions, including attempts to strike Israel directly, and expanding the scope of operations from the Red and Arabian Seas to the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Al-Houthi said Houthi missiles and drones have targeted US ships operating the region more than a hundred times since the start of the year, and that Israeli ships and port infrastructure had been targeted 40 times using 211 missiles.
The “fourth phase” of the campaign promises to target “all ships that breach the Israeli navigation ban and head to the ports of occupied Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea in any area within the reach of Houthi forces,” al-Houthi said.
The Houthi campaign has shed far less blood than the crisis in Gaza which sparked it, where nearly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, and over 79,000 wounded, in Israeli attacks, the majority of them civilians. Houthi missile and drone strikes have killed three merchant ship sailors and injured five others, damaging at least 20 commercial vessels and sinking one. American and British strikes on Yemen have killed at least 50 Yemenis and injured 35 others to date.
What the campaign ‘lacks’ in carnage it makes up for in economic and psychological impact, with the Houthis humbling the US military – which has proven unable to stop the militia – hailing from one of the poorest, and most conflict-torn countries in the world. The campaign has also caused tens of billions of dollars in losses to economies around the world, including Israel, with major merchant fleets forced to avoid the Red Sea region to escape being targeted.
Pro-Israeli billionaires fuel NYC Mayor crackdown on Columbia students
Al Mayadeen | May 17, 2024
A coalition of billionaires and influential business figures, aiming to influence American public opinion regarding the Israeli war on Gaza, urged New York City’s Mayor in private last month to deploy police to quell pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University, The Washington Post reported, citing communications obtained and individuals familiar with the group.
Business leaders, including Daniel Lubetzky, founder of Kind Snack company, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, billionaire Len Blavatnik, and real estate investor Joseph Sitt, convened for a Zoom video conference with Mayor Eric Adams on April 26. This meeting took place about a week following the Mayor’s initial dispatch of New York police to Columbia’s campus, as indicated in a log of chat messages.
During the call, some participants discussed the possibility of making political contributions to Adams, as well as strategies for exerting pressure on Columbia’s President and trustees to authorize the Mayor’s deployment of police to address protesters on campus, according to summaries of the chat messages as reported by The Post.
A member of the WhatsApp chat group said, as quoted by The Post, that he “contributed” $2,100, the maximum allowable amount, to Adams during that month.
Additionally, some members expressed willingness to fund private investigators to aid the New York police in managing the protests, as indicated in the chat log. A member reported in the chat that Adams accepted this offer. However, a spokesperson for City Hall claimed that the New York Police Department has not utilized private investigators for managing protests.
Business leaders, Mayor Adams navigate crackdown on US students
The messages detailing the conversation with Adams were part of a vast collection of WhatsApp exchanges involving several prominent business leaders and financiers across the US. This group includes individuals such as former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, and Joshua Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital and brother of Jared Kushner, who is the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump.
Individuals with direct access to the chat log provided its contents to The Post under the condition of anonymity, as the chat was intended to remain private. Members of the group confirmed the existence of the chat and their contributions.
The chat was initiated by an associate of billionaire and real estate magnate Barry Sternlicht, who opted not to directly participate but communicated through the associate, as indicated in the chat messages and confirmed by a person familiar with Sternlicht, as per the report.
In an October 12 message, one of the initial messages in the group, the associate, posting on behalf of Sternlicht, informed others that the group’s objective was to “change the narrative” in support of “Israel”.
Stretching beyond New York
Formed shortly after October 7, the chat group’s influence has extended far beyond New York, reaching the highest echelons of the Israeli government, the American business sphere, and prestigious universities, The Washington Post reported.
Washington is essentially defying the majority of humanity as it persists in arming Israel
By Vladimir Mashin – New Eastern Outlook – 17.05.2024
For seven months, Israel has continued its targeted slaughter of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – the total number of dead and wounded, including those still under the rubble of homes, is approaching 130,000. Prime Minister Netanyahu continues this slaughter with Washington’s blessing, although outwardly the Americans say that they are trying to put pressure on the Israeli authorities to somehow help the Palestinian civilians.
In fact, the Americans have effectively blocked the work of the Security Council by using their veto power to reject all resolutions for an immediate ceasefire, thereby giving Israel a “free hand” in continuing to massacre the Palestinians.
No matter what US officials say about the many attempts to persuade Israel to limit military action, in fact Washington has continued to provide the Netanyahu government with new arms shipments without any delays, and has pushed through Congress legislation to provide Tel Aviv with an additional $26 billion in aid.
All this went on to the accompaniment of talk of Washington’s desire to create a new military pact in the Middle East as a long-term solution to the problems there.
According to the American press, talks have recently accelerated between Washington and Riyadh on a pact that would provide the kingdom with security guarantees and pave the way for possible diplomatic relations with Israel if its government ends the war in Gaza. The US press says the agreement could be finalized within weeks.
In doing so, the US promises to give the world’s largest oil exporter access to advanced US weapons that were previously banned. In return, the Saudi authorities must agree to limit the use of Chinese technology in their country’s most sensitive networks in exchange for major American investments in artificial intelligence and quantum computing, as well as receive American aid to develop its civilian nuclear program. It is indicated that the US and Saudi Arabia will offer Israel a series of economic and diplomatic incentives if it scraps plans to invade Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where more than 1 million Palestinians have taken refuge, and quickly ends the war with Hamas. Israel is expected to pledge support for a two-state solution.
While at first the plan was to reach a three-way US-Israeli-Saudi agreement, Washington now says that the US and the Saudi Kingdom should first agree and then invite Israel to join them: if they agree, Netanyahu would have to end the war in the Gaza Strip and decide on the creation of a Palestinian state, which his cabinet opposes.
All these arguments are more like wishful thinking, especially since Netanyahu has warned that he is ordering the invasion of Rafah no matter what. And one of his government’s extreme right-wing ministers, B. Smotrich, even called for “the total destruction of Rafah and other cities.”
According to the Turkish press, this scenario is unlikely, although the Americans are exerting unprecedented pressure on Arab capitals to support the project they are promoting. In fact, Western states are directly threatening Arab governments: because of this dependence, no Arab government is daring to raise its voice in favor of sanctions against Israel.
Colombia (population 50 million), the second largest Latin American state, just announced that it is breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel and stopping the purchase of military equipment from that state. This decision was a silent rebuke to those Arab states that, under the strongest pressure from the United States, not only did not break relations with Israel, but did not even ask for the departure of Israeli ambassadors.
Washington is essentially defying the majority of humanity, which rightly believes that Israel is responsible for the war in the Middle East. However, the US maneuvers to defy public opinion by trying to blame the Arabs. Secretary of State Blinken went to the extreme level of cynicism when he said that Hamas “is the only obstacle to a cease-fire in Gaza”.
Moreover, according to the Washington Post, the Americans have demanded that the state of Qatar expel Hamas leaders from its territory unless they accept Israeli conditions.
Meanwhile, the Arab public is reacting violently and harshly – McDonald’s and other American establishments are being boycotted in many countries; demonstrations against Israeli aggressive actions continue. In some ways, they echo the actions of students at major American universities, who have been holding demonstrations in support of Palestine for several days in a row (by the way, the number of arrested students in various American states is approaching 2,000, and their movement is gaining momentum).
Each new day brings reports of dead and wounded Palestinians, and world public opinion is increasingly sensitive to this tragedy. It is for these reasons that many Arab newspapers believe that the US plans in the Middle East are not destined to come to fruition.
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From the Archives
Alarmist climate science as a textbook example of groupthink
By Paul MacRae | May 1, 2012
A while ago, I received an email from a friend who asked:
How can many, many respected, competitive, independent science folks be so wrong about [global warming] (if your [skeptical] premise is correct). I don’t think it could be a conspiracy, or incompetence. … Has there ever been another case when so many ‘leading’ scientific minds got it so wrong?
The answer to the second part of my friend’s question—“Has there ever been another case where so many ‘leading’ scientific minds got it so wrong?”—is easy. Yes, there are many such cases, both within and outside climate science. In fact, the graveyard of science is littered with the bones of theories that were once thought “certain” (e.g., that the continents can’t “drift,” that Newton’s laws were immutable, and hundreds if not thousands of others).
Science progresses by the overturning of theories once thought “certain.” … continue
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