[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

With the UNSC ceasefire, Israel is exposed and isolated

However, US did make it clear why Washington did not vote in favour of the affirmative resolution—because it does not provide for “condemnation of Hamas.”

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With the UNSC ceasefire, Israel is exposed and isolated

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield raises her hand to abstain during a Security Council vote, paving the path for the first successful resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, at the UN Headquarters in New York on March 25, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS

After months of relentless slaughter of Palestinians—in the worst genocide we have seen in recent history—the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution was issued demanding an immediate ceasefire without linking this to any other matter, such as the release of Israeli detainees. This resolution, which bears the number 2728, is a positive development on the US position in particular, as they prevented the issuance of a ceasefire resolution from the UNSC since the beginning of the war in Gaza using the veto. Today, the US position has changed, as it abstained from voting and spoke openly about the resolution being consistent with that of the Biden administration. They did make it clear why Washington did not vote in favour of the affirmative resolution—because it does not provide for "condemnation of Hamas." Despite some gaps in the resolution, such as providing for a ceasefire in Ramadan, it marks the beginning of a serious shift in the international position.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was angered by Washington's abstention, which shows that he is aware of the dimensions of this international shift against him. He described the US decision to abstain as "a retreat in the position of the United States," affecting military operations and influencing efforts to release the detainees, according to Netanyahu's office, which led to the decision not to send senior Israeli delegation to Washington, DC to discuss the subject of ground operation in Rafah, which would have been at the request of President Biden.

Netanyahu's stance and reaction to the US administration surprised many and was met with a lot of criticism in both Israel and the US. Some Israeli opposition leaders have accused Netanyahu of damaging the strategic relationship for personal reasons. Senior figures in the US also spoke with the Hebrew website Walla News that Netanyahu chose to create a crisis with the US for domestic political reasons. His reactions are indeed strange, especially with an ally that has provided voluminous support. Even after the resolution, the Biden administration is reportedly set to greenlight an $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel.
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With each day that this war drags on, Israel also loses its own international status and increasingly becomes isolated. There will come a time when Netanyahu's intelligence may betray him and he will find himself to be the biggest loser on a personal level—and that will be irreversible, causing a major defeat for Israel on the international stage.
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But if we return to the decision, what angers Netanyahu and many Israelis is not that this resolution will be applied immediately; the US said itself that the resolution is not binding—unlike the majority of countries that consider Security Council resolutions binding and enforceable. Regardless, the resolution has opened the door to very negative changes in Israel's position in the international scene. If Israel ignores the resolution, the UNSC will return to meeting again and adopt more burdensome and more severe resolutions that may turn into a snowball. The resolution underpins Israel's international isolation and encourages many countries to take sanctions against Israel by stopping the supply of weapons and ammunition and reviewing forms of cooperation. This will undoubtedly create great international pressure on Israel, which has come on the opposite side of the international community and is now being seen as a rogue state.

The Israeli government also believes that the resolution will encourage Hamas to harden its positions and not make concessions in the negotiations. If it will receive a ceasefire free of charge, this means increasing the terms of negotiation or insisting on the demands it makes, especially ending the war, withdrawal of the Israeli military, and also facilitating the return of the displaced to their homes, and specifically, the release of thousands of prisoners and detainees. Netanyahu's position to not send the head of the National Security Council and the minister of strategic affairs to Washington, DC to discuss completion of the war means that Netanyahu does not want to coordinate with the US on the issue of Rafah and the stalled negotiations on the exchange of hostages and prisoners. This should be alarming for the Biden administration. Netanyahu's undiplomatic stance should have consequences and possibly US sanctions.

But on the other side of possibilities, Netanyahu may benefit from the escalation of the crisis with Washington and even from international pressure by marketing himself as the custodian of Israel's interests, the only one who is able to withstand international pressure, including those coming from allies and friends. However, the clash with the US administration will create a rift in the ruling coalition, where Benny Gantz, a member of the War Council and the head of the "official camp," rejects this policy. The cracks within the Israeli society will intensify the opposition and demands to overthrow his government and go to new elections urgently.

Another problem with the geo-strategic dimensions is the deepening of the rift and disagreement between the Israeli government and Jews in the US, who see Netanyahu as a threat to the idea of the "Jewish-Democratic" state, and view the alliance with the US as one of the pillars of Israel's survival, resilience, strength, and military and economic superiority.

Netanyahu can manoeuvre as an expert in crisis management, but what Israel is going through carries existential risks as it loses its war in Gaza: this large volume of killing innocents, extermination and destruction, raising the ceiling of its cruel goals, and the sheer inability to achieve them by means of war. They say Hamas is destroyed in northern Gaza, but won't let food enter the area. Israel's talking points are talking points to justify a genocide. With each day that this war drags on, Israel also loses its own international status and increasingly becomes isolated. There will come a time when Netanyahu's intelligence may betray him and he will find himself to be the biggest loser on a personal level—and that will be irreversible, causing a major defeat for Israel on the international stage. The state will lose that false aura woven by the Zionist and Western propaganda that portrays Israel as an oasis of democracy, Western norms and values. This process has already begun among international public opinion. The genocidal war in Gaza has exposed, irrevocably, Israel and its falsity.
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[HR=3][/HR]

His Excellency Youssef SY Ramadan is the ambassador of Palestine to Bangladesh.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli offensive caused damage of $18.5bn: WB

The World Bank says the Israel-Hamas war has caused damage of around $18.5 billion to Gaza’s critical infrastructure, according to a new report published Tuesday.

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GAZA'S CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Israeli offensive caused damage of $18.5bn: WB

Ambulances carrying the bodies of staff members of the US-based aid group World Central Kitchen, arrive at the Rafah crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, two days after a convoy of the NGO was hit in an Israeli strike. Israel's armed forces chief Herzi Halevi called the attack a "grave mistake", which he blamed on night-time "misidentification". Photo: AFP

The World Bank says the Israel-Hamas war has caused damage of around $18.5 billion to Gaza's critical infrastructure, according to a new report published Tuesday.

This is equivalent to 97 percent of the combined economic output of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022, the World Bank said in its interim damage assessment, which covers the period between the onset of the conflict on October 7 and the end of January.

The report, produced with the United Nations and the European Union, found structural damage affected "every sector of the economy," with more than 70 percent of the estimated costs due to the destruction of housing.

Israel's military has killed at least 32,975 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

The Israeli military's heavy aerial bombardment in the aftermath of the attack, and its ongoing ground operations inside Gaza, have reduced many areas of the territory to rubble, creating an estimated 26 million tons of debris.
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An estimated 84pc of Gaza's health facilities have been damaged or destroyed: report​

"For several sectors, the rate of damage appears to be leveling off as few assets remain intact," the Bank said.

Beyond the structural damage, the report also found that more than half of Gaza's population were on the brink of famine, with the whole population "experiencing acute food insecurity and malnutrition."

An estimated 84 percent of Gaza's health facilities have been damaged or destroyed, while three quarters of the population have been displaced by the fighting, leaving more than a million people without homes.

The report, created using remote data collection sources, found that Gaza's water and sanitation system had "nearly collapsed," and was delivering less than 5 percent of its pre-war output.

100 percent of Gaza's children were out of school due to the collapse of the education system, while 92 percent of its primary roads were either destroyed or damaged, according to the World Bank.

The report called for "an increase in humanitarian assistance, food aid and food production; the provision of shelter and rapid, cost-effective, and scalable housing solutions for displaced people; and the resumption of essential services."​

 

[Saif]

Israel announces opening of aid routes into Gaza

The move comes hours after the United States warned of a sharp shift in its policy over the Gaza war

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Israel announces opening of aid routes into Gaza

The move comes hours after the United States warned of a sharp shift in its policy over the Gaza war

Photo: AFP People wave Palestinian flags as they protest in support of Palestinians amid the ongoing war between Israel and the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip, outside an event attended by the US vice president on April 4, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Israel announced on Friday that it would allow "temporary" aid deliveries into famine-threatened northern Gaza, hours after the United States warned of a sharp shift in its policy over the Gaza war.

In a tense, 30-minute phone call on Thursday, US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that US policy on Israel was dependent on the protection of civilians and aid workers in Gaza, the first hint of possible conditions to Washington's military support.

Just hours later, in the middle of the night in Jerusalem, Israel announced it would open more aid routes into blockaded Gaza.

Israel's war cabinet authorised "temporary" aid deliveries via the Ashdod Port and the Erez land crossing, as well as increased deliveries from neighbouring Jordan at the Kerem Shalom crossing, Netanyahu's office said.

The White House quickly welcomed the moves -- calling them "at the president's request" -- and saying they "must now be fully and rapidly implemented".

Israel has come under mounting international pressure over the toll inflicted by its six-month war on Hamas, and drawn increasingly tough rebuke from main backer Washington.

Since the October 7 attacks that launched the war, Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,037 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, and sparked warnings about catastrophic hunger.

Palestinians in northern Gaza have had to survive on an average of just 245 calories per day -- less than a can of beans -- since January, according to Oxfam.

Charities have repeatedly accused Israel of throttling aid and targeting convoys, with the dangerous work of trying to stem a famine underscored this week by an Israeli strike that killed seven humanitarian workers distributing food in Gaza.

"The strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable," Biden told Netanyahu, according to a White House readout of their call.

Biden also "made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel's immediate action" to improve the humanitarian situation.

Longtime Israel supporter Biden is facing growing pressure in an election year over his response to the Gaza war -- with allies pressing him to make the billions of dollars in military aid Washington sends dependent on Netanyahu listening to calls for restraint.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby acknowledged Biden's "growing frustration" with Netanyahu, but reiterated that US support for Israel's security was "ironclad".

'Concern' over Rafah plan

Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas, including in Gaza's southern city of Rafah, while pledging to move more than one million civilians in the city out of harm's way first.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said the deadly strike on the World Central Kitchen staff had "reinforced the expressed concern over a potential Israeli military operation in Rafah, specifically focusing on the need to ensure the evacuation of Palestinian civilians and the flow of humanitarian aid".

In a call to his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, Austin also "discussed the threat posed by Iran and its proxy activities", according to the Israeli army.

Israel was blamed for an air strike on Monday on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed in a social media message posted in Hebrew that "with God's help we will make the Zionists repent of their crime of aggression against the Iranian consulate in Damascus".

The Israeli military said that after a "situational assessment, it was decided to increase manpower and draft reserve soldiers".
It also said "leave will be temporarily paused for all combat units".

Netanyahu faces intense domestic pressure from the families of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.

War cabinet member Benny Gantz, a centrist political rival of Netanyahu, has demanded that a snap election be held in September, a call rejected by the premier's right-wing Likud party.

The bloodiest ever Gaza war began with Hamas's Hamas attack on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 Israelis and foreigners, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Palestinian militants also took more than 250 hostages on October 7, and 130 remain in Gaza, including 34 who the army says are dead.

Amid the heightened tensions, Israeli security services said they had foiled a plot to kill the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who heads the Jewish Power party, and to strike other targets.

'Food for our families'

In Gaza, relentless Israeli bombardment has reduced much of the territory to rubble, collapsed the hospital system and forced 2.4 million Palestinians to endure dire shortages of food, water, fuel and other basic supplies.

In Gaza City, Palestinians slept overnight near an aid delivery spot, hoping to receive a bag of flour.

"We sleep on the streets, in the cold, on the sand, enduring hardship to secure food for our families, especially our young children," one man told AFP. "I don't know what else to do or how our lives have come to this."

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused Israel of systematically destroying Gaza's healthcare system, describing scenes of carnage beyond the abilities of any hospital.

The medical charity said children were turning up at hospitals with gunshot wounds from drones, while many patients were crushed under rubble then suffering severe burns.

"No healthcare system in the world can cope with the volume and type of injuries, and the medical conditions, that we're seeing on a daily basis," said Amber Alayyan, MSF deputy programme manager for the Middle East.​

 

[Lulldapull]

Gents, the IDF is using AI to kill Palestinians on an industrial scale. I wonder how this ‘Lavender’ functions? Is it using facial recognition? Is it using behavioral data? How is AI determining who to kill?

 

[Saif]

Gaza ceasefire talks make 'significant progress': Egyptian media

Talks in Cairo aimed at brokering a truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip have made "significant progress", Egyptian outlet Al-Qahera reported Monday

www.thedailystar.net

Gaza ceasefire talks make 'significant progress': Egyptian media

A person holds a handful of spent bullet casings above a bigger pile in Khan Yunis on April 7, 2024 after Israel pulled its ground forces out of the southern Gaza Strip, six months into the devastating war sparked by the October 7 attacks. Israel pulled all its troops out of southern Gaza on April 7, including from the city of Khan Yunis, the military and Israeli media said, after months of fierce fighting with Hamas militants left the area devastated. Photo: AFP

Talks in Cairo aimed at brokering a truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip have made "significant progress", Egyptian outlet Al-Qahera reported Monday.

The state-linked outlet reported "significant progress being made on several contentious points of agreement", citing a high-ranking Egyptian source.

Egypt, Qatar and key Israeli ally the United States have mediated previous rounds of negotiations, but a workable agreement to end the six-month war has remained elusive.

Al-Qahera reported that Qatari and Hamas delegations had left Cairo and were expected to return "within two days to finalise the terms of the agreement".

US and Israeli delegations were due to leave the Egyptian capital "in the next few hours" and consultations were expected to continue over the next 48 hours, the outlet added.
Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants also took more than 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, 129 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,175 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Israel has faced growing global opposition to the war, with the outcry intensifying following an Israeli drone strike that killed seven aid workers -- most of them Westerners -- for the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen on April 1.​

 

[Saif]

How the unjustifiable war in Gaza is justified

Propaganda in the media is a prevalent practice during war.

www.thedailystar.net

How the unjustifiable war in Gaza is justified
Debunking propaganda in the Western media

People outside The New York Times building, New York, protesting against the newspaper's coverage of Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, on December 11, 2023. FILE PHOTO: AFP

"Ramadan is the best time to kill them. They're weak and tired," said Almog Cohen, a member of the Israeli Knesset, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Rafah and massacre the Palestinian people. This critical statement, which shows the extent of dehumanisation, has been conspicuously absent from Western media coverage. Due to the extensive control exerted by the Zionist lobbies within the Western media, they lean towards omitting information regarding the Israelis' inhumane school of thought, and engage in corroding the image of Palestinians. This critical statement is among the numerous pieces of information withheld by Western media outlets from their wider audience. Yet, it is essential to recognise that the concealment of such news contributes to the propagation of propaganda, influencing public opinion in a misleading manner.

Disinformation, dehumanisation of victims, and protecting the perpetrators are all important processes that are used in the construction of narratives in mainstream media publications. Especially during times of war, propaganda in the media is a prevalent practice. By using the Western media as their megaphone and pawn to repeat their words, carry out their directions, and most importantly, engage in defamation, intimidation, and the embellishment of falsehoods, Western politicians have legitimised bias, as the truth.
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The persistent association of Hamas with ISIS is a part of a deliberate attempt by the Western media to depict all Palestinians as "terrorists." This narrative makes it easier for people to sympathise with Israel, and desensitises them towards Palestinians.
— Nada Yousef Ramadan​

The first type of propaganda in the genocide in Palestine is disinformation. Images of affected newborns in Gaza were released by The Times of London with the title, "Israel releases pictures of mutilated babies," to allege proof of the October 7, Hamas attacks. The Western media, far from fact-checking, parroted the Israeli propaganda, claiming the possession and verification of harrowing images of "babies" murdered by Hamas. The Times mentioned in their article, that they refuse to publish images of Israeli infants with mutilations because they were "too graphic." Later on, an investigation by Haaretz, found that no babies were beheaded during the October 7, Hamas attacks.

The media engaged in "pre-attack legitimacy," purposely broadcasting content with the intention of either convincing their audience that a certain act of assault ought to take place or assisting viewers in comprehending that an attack is on the horizon. Everything started as soon as the events of October 7th occurred, when an official US statement quickly described the Hamas attacks as an "unprovoked terrorist attack." The "unprovoked" component reverberated through the media, and was repeatedly used by politicians. Both of these combined serve to convince the audience that Hamas carried out a heinous terrorist attack, with no underlying reason other than sheer ruthlessness and inhumanity.

This "pre-attack" rhetoric prepares the audience to view the Israeli attacks in response as acts of "self-defense." In reality, the international community has been ignoring the citizens of Gaza for many years—the fact that they live in an open-air prison—and the decades-long misery that the Palestinians have been living through. Establishing pre-attack legitimacy, the second component of propaganda is essentially the process of justifying the overt and unjustifiable Israeli aggression, in a twisted way of making the attacks "acceptable" to the general public. Take for example, BBC which released information alleging that hospitals were being utilised as Hamas tunnels, the day before a hospital in Gaza was bombed.

The third phase of propaganda served to dehumanise the victims. The Western media has, for the most part, focused on the victimhood of Israelis, while entirely ignoring the Palestinian side. The bias was crystal clear, as commonly liberal magazines pursued large-scale reporting of the victims of the October 7 attacks, in abundance, while ignoring the Palestinians, who were also being killed in a genocidal campaign. Stories spotlighting the families of October 7 hostages by Hamas received unilateral attention compared to all the families whose lives were also shattered by Israel's grueling response.

In the first few months of war, it was evidently clear that this was going to be disastrous for the civilian population in Gaza; the Israeli government had cut off the Gaza Strip, which prevented the delivery of fuel, food, and water as well as the supply of electrical power. Israeli fighter jets began their bombardment of the besieged region; whole neighborhoods were soon reduced to rubble. For months, none of these received the attention of Western media outlets. On the other hand, false information—including accounts of Israeli civilians being burned and decapitated, women being raped—were spread by top politicians in the West, including the president of the US.

It would not be too far-fetched to question whether the objective of the Western media has been to liken Hamas to well-known terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The persistent association of Hamas with ISIS is a part of a deliberate attempt to depict all Palestinians as "terrorists." This narrative makes it easier for people to sympathise with Israel, and desensitises them towards Palestinians. As a result, the global society as a whole has been more bent to assume that Israel is the victim, which in return normalises the mass murder of Palestinians. Despite the historic pace with which Palestinians have been murdered, the conflict of Israel-Palestine is somehow still up for debate, due to the normalisation of genocide itself.

Protecting the perpetrators, the fourth stage of the propaganda can be witnessed in the Western media's coverage of Israeli and Palestinian lives lost in the conflict. Israelis are described as "killed," while Palestinians are said to have "died." Take for example, a headline in The New York Times: "How Gaza Civilians Have Fared After Israel Has Asked Them to Flee." The article itself, published on March 19, 2024, delved into how nearly 2 million Palestinians are facing "forced starvation" as a direct consequence of the Israeli government's actions. It is, therefore, diluted at best and dishonest at worst, to suggest that people in Gaza are "faring." The phrase, Israel "asked" them to "flee," almost criminally underplays the ground reality. It seems as though the Israeli Army are nicely asking Palestinians to evacuate, when the reality is that they are killing them wherever they themselves are telling them to go. The language itself reeks of preconceived bias and reveals the hidden propaganda that is ensconced in the Western media's coverage of the genocide.

On the other hand, due to the proliferation of social media, many users in Gaza have become "self-proclaimed journalists." In an effort to counter the false narratives and demonstrate the real horrors, Gazans have made this effort by utilising their social media accounts to broadcast real-time images, videos, first-hand accounts of those who have been injured, and stories of families who are dealing with terrible losses. Motaz Azaiza, Plestia Alaqad, Bisan Owda, and Saleh Al Jafarawi are just a few of the names that will live on in this historic moment for public service journalism.

At the end of the day, the Western media will never properly refer to what's happening as a genocide; rather, they still believe it all started on October 7, 2023. But in fact, there have been massacres in Gaza in 2021, 2018-2019, 2014, 2012, 2008-2009, the battle of the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, the massacre at the Ibrahimi mosque in 1994, the slaughter at the Al-Aqsa mosque in 1992, the massacre at Sabra and Shatila in 1982, and a lengthy list of previous assaults going back to 1948.

Despite the Western media's inclination towards aligning with Israel, countries such as Bangladesh who have shown their constant support for Palestine serve as a source of inspiration for Palestinians, bolstering their resilience and fostering optimism over the eventual liberation of Palestine. The Palestinians will forever be commemorated as the individuals who have consistently reminded the global community of their presence and unwavering determination to oppose oppression by colonialism. Palestinians will be remembered as individuals who were previously prohibited from flying their flags, which caused them to substitute watermelons instead, partly due to their remarkable resemblance to the flag. Palestinians will continue to be symbolised as the "Al-Badawi" olive tree—which is situated in Bethlehem, Palestine—which means "The Great One," and is believed to be 5,000 years old. No matter what happens, Palestinians will resist; they will remain in Gaza because Israelis are aiming to wipe out a people whose strength against oppression is as deeply ingrained as the roots of the Al-Badawi olive tree.​

[HR=3][/HR]

Nada Yousef Ramadan is pursuing International Relations at the American University in the Emirates, UAE.​

 

[Saif]

From victimhood to apartheid statehood

THE tapestry of Jewish myths and history spans over two millennia. The Jewish saga of ‘diaspora’ to ‘aliyah’, of migrations and...

www.newagebd.net

From victimhood to apartheid statehood
Aminul Sarwar | Published: 00:00, Apr 08,2024

— Euronews

THE tapestry of Jewish myths and history spans over two millennia. The Jewish saga of 'diaspora' to 'aliyah', of migrations and pogroms, of persecution and the Holocaust is woven with elements of both myths and history. The tale is intertwined with the humanitarian cries of millions of Jews in the past, but the present is rather marred by an ironic role reversal of the same people through their own doings against the Arabs of Palestine. The story always begins with the myths of the 'chosen ones' — an utterly regressive and supremacist conjecture in the purview of the modern value system — finding the promised land, an enduring diaspora, and sufferings that embody a textbook case of resilience. Yet, the end to date horrifically looks to have gone wrong as we contemplate the modern history of Israel and Palestine. From the Babylonian exile to the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish people endured displacement and persecution and forged a collective identity rooted in survival. On one hand, we have the biblical accounts, from Abraham's journey to Moses leading the Israelites, setting a spiritual backdrop to a historical drama of triumphs and tribulations; on the other hand, we see a repressive statehood with brutal military power, persecution, and a genocidal regime hell-bent on uprooting and annihilating the legitimate resistance of the people whose homes were taken away.

Centuries of diaspora tested Jewish adaptability, leading to intellectual and cultural contributions during the Islamic Golden Age and challenges in mediaeval Europe's ghettos. The 19th-century rise of Zionism, seeking a Jewish homeland, embodied the longing for a promised land rooted in religious conviction and historical yearning. Facing perpetual prejudice due to socio-cultural and economic practices like usury or the flawed onus of blood libel, along with cultural mistrust in the general population because of their closely bonded, introverted community lifestyle, Jewish people sought political agency. This culminated in the vision of a Jewish state during the nationalistic waves of late 19th-century Europe.

The Dreyfus Affair in late 19th-century France marked the immediate nucleus of Zionism, as Theodor Herzl's vision for a national homeland emerged in response to anti-Semitism. The establishment of Israel in 1948 was a transformative moment, shifting from victimhood to statehood. However, this journey unveiled a paradox: the persecuted becoming powerful. Herzl's vision responded to centuries of anti-Semitism, but the implementation of Zionism faced challenges reconciling diverse cultural backgrounds. The historical rise of Zionism underpinned a supremacist ideology, resonating in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Holocaust cast a dark shadow, leading to global acknowledgment of the need for a Jewish homeland. The State of Israel's establishment in 1948 reflected the transition from victims of genocide to architects of statehood. As the Jewish people shifted from victims to state builders, the complexity of historical circumstances shaped the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Post-World War II dynamics witnessed Western support for Zionism, contributing to the displacement of Palestinian communities. The power dynamics tilted towards Israel, challenging a just and lasting resolution.

The historical narrative unravels a crisis where the persecuted became state architects, facing the dilemma between managing power and security. The call for coexistence becomes intricate as power dynamics shift. While the well-equipped Jewish population with Western education and knowledge enjoyed Western sympathy due to their racial and cultural affinity with Western people, contemporary Arabs in Palestine lacked political agency within the existing state system, facing a shortage of knowledge and representation during the interbellum years. As a result, a Western-dominated world order, burdened by the collective guilt of the Holocaust, made decisions that shamefully disregarded the political, social rights, and dignity of Palestinian Arabs. Since the inception of the conflict during the mass immigration of Jewish people to Palestine, communal riots, tensions, the Naqba, and subsequent Arab-Israel wars, it has consistently manifested as a one-sided struggle between Palestinian Arabs and the Jewish State of Israel.

Jewish people formulated the basis of Zionism on the premise that they are a community that has been persecuted throughout history because of their identity and minority status. There is no denying the fact that Jewish people had been living in ghettos across many European kingdoms and were often subjected to harassment, antipathy, and social and economic boycotts by the mainstream population due to anti-Semitic outlooks. But, as we have seen, if not premeditated, Zionism's legacy has ultimately bred a supremacist ideology, transforming statehood pursuit into an apartheid regime. It needs no elaboration, as a look into the history of modern Israel makes it pretty evident. The once-persecuted Jewish community held political power, resulting in unforeseen role reversals with far-reaching consequences. The paradox of Jewish statehood calls for reckoning with the unintended consequences of Zionism. It urges us to navigate the complexities of identity, power, and historical burdens with nuance and understanding. The pursuit of justice and humanism must prevail over entrenched prejudices, fostering a world where the rights of all are recognized and respected.

In tracing the Jewish Israeli journey from victimhood to apartheid statehood, a fabric woven with historical resilience, political aspirations, and obvious consequences unfolds. The Jewish people's narrative, etched with tales of survival, diaspora, and the establishment of the State of Israel, reflects a transformative evolution. From the challenges of historical persecution to the complexities of managing power and security, the journey has been paradoxical.

Zionism, born out of the need for a Jewish homeland in response to anti-Semitism, apparently inadvertently sowed the seeds of ethno-religious supremacy, leading to the unintended legacy of an apartheid regime. The role reversals, where the once-persecuted gained political power, have profound consequences, shaping the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

History calls for a reckoning with the unintended consequences of Zionism, urging bold reflections on identity, power, and historical burdens. The pursuit of justice and humanism must prevail over entrenched prejudices, fostering a world where the rights of all are recognised.

Moving forward, the world must ensure the engagement of the belligerent parties in open dialogue, acknowledging the multifaceted layers and dimensions of the conflict. A commitment to understanding historical transitions and fostering empathy is crucial. Collective efforts to bridge divides and dispel prejudices can pave the way for a just and lasting resolution. The only solution on the horizon is the 'two-state solution,' recognising the existence, security, and respect for the lives and dignity of the Palestinian Arabs and the Israeli Jews.

Aminul Sarwar, a retired army official, is a banker.​

 

[Saif]

West’s hypocrisy in international politics, laws

IN NOVEMBER 2023, a month into the Gaza genocide, columnist Nesrin Malik remarked in her article in the Guardian, ‘The war in Gaza has been...

www.newagebd.net

West's hypocrisy in international politics, laws
by Humayun Kabir | Published: 00:00, Apr 07,2024

— Web

IN NOVEMBER 2023, a month into the Gaza genocide, columnist Nesrin Malik remarked in her article in the Guardian, 'The war in Gaza has been an intense lesson in western hypocrisy. It won't be forgotten.' She thought, people have seen too much that will stay with them too long. Trust in the international community will never be the same. Well, she made the point all right, but history tells us differently. The hypocrisy she has alluded to has been there all these decades of conflicts, enabling the crisis to prolong until the occupiers' intent on annihilating the Arab population from Palestine has been achieved. Gaza is a burning proof that human rights are not universal and international law is arbitrarily applied.

In the past six months of massacre (we refrain from calling it a war as it never was one) of the Palestinian population meted out by the killing machines of Israel's extreme right government, personally led by Netanyahu, one thing that has become exposed is the hypocrisy being displayed by the western powers, led by the USA, as well as that by the Arab Muslim countries in the region. To be clear, for many years, Arab governments have been accustomed to the western model of rhetoric on human rights while looking to the other way for economic gain while the regional crisis intensifies. These Arab authoritarian rulers have a single mission: to remain in power endlessly. And for western politicians, maintaining certain domestic economic outcomes has proven to be more important than making sound foreign policy decisions based on values and the common human good across boundaries. What the world conscience fails to understand is the fact that the western power, mainly led by the US, continuously adopts a policy of 'strategic ambiguity.' For example, this policy is best exemplified by its China-Taiwan policy, which offers two equally opposite messages. This approach means that the US could either stand with Taiwan if it engaged in a war with mainland China or apply realpolitik and let Taiwan confront China on its own. Such ambiguity and double standards have resulted in growing distrust in the rest of the world towards the United States.

Today, the most striking misperception about western political imperatives is believing that Arab rulers, such as General Sissi of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan, are aligned with their policies. With such duplicity and ambiguity of policies, the US and western nations have been heavily engaged in virtually every single political dialogue in the region, beginning with the long-standing Arab-Israeli conflict and ending with all the military engagements in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. To be on record, they have no significant achievements to show except for the Egypt-Israel Camp David Accord, which is now half a century old. In the current Biden administration, the twice-held international dialogue on democracy is an example of US duplicity and hypocrisy in international politics. They cannot explain their policy for the transition to democracy when it comes to sanctions against Iran. Sanctioning Iran will never transform it into a democracy; on the contrary, it will expand support for extremism and increase the economic burden on its citizens, who are likely to naturally escalate their dislike for western hypocrisy.

Accusations of western hypocrisy in its foreign policy have sounded more convincing in recent years. The same leaders who bang on about Russin's war crimes in Ukraine have been more circumspect about Israel's massacre and destruction of Gaza. So, the question today is: how concerned should policymakers in Washington, London, Brussels, Tokyo, and elsewhere be about the geo-political hedging of the global south?

As for the hypocrisy charge, let us be honest, it sticks for a reason. One can rationally excuse the Global South for being cynical when statesmen who reportedly cite the 'rules-based order' suddenly go quiet if Israeli actions become a topic of debate and concern. In the six-month-long massacre and genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza and now extended to the West Bank, supported with ammunition generously supplied by the USA, UK, Canada, France, and Italy in Gaza, any conscientious person cannot help but be curious about trying to dissect the hypocritical role being played by the Western nations and the Arab neighbours of Palestine, notably Egypt and Jordan. Saudi Arabia, Syria, and other Muslim nations around.

Let us examine the use of the word 'international law', the supposed foundation of the current global order. Well, it is finally off, as can be seen in the Gaza Strip. A recent observation by Wesam Ahmad, a human rights advocate in Ramallah, says: 'As Palestinian cries for help from Gaza remain unanswered, the sinister truth is now undeniably out in the open; international justice, more often than not, is used as a tool to advance imperial interests and not justice.' This was well known a long time ago with the history of imperialism, from the European scramble for Africa to more recent US interventions in Latin America, and traced how that dark past has helped shape the way the world functions in this century. In our straightforward thinking, international law is the desirable mechanism that only reflects a noble concept, as it promotes peace and applies universal human rights, cooperation, and justice among nations. But when one 'scratches beneath the surface, a different narrative emerges, shaped by the ghosts of imperialism in the past.'

Last year, at the United Nations, world leaders took to the platform to highlight several issues and prompt collective action to address them. The key issue, once again, was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Not only were the Western states, especially NATO members, giving humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine, but they have also been taking the opportunity to build a stronger narrative against Russia. Now, may we ask, what are these same NATO groups doing when it comes to protecting Palestine from the Israeli killings of civilians, women, and children? Any better example to cite of western hypocrisy? There are many such examples of communities that stand testimony to this hypocrisy. Take Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, or Kashmir, for example, whose citizens never know if they will live another day.

The reality is that the promoters of 'peace' are, all too often, the protectors of the warmongers, or are the warmongers themselves. Talking about hypocrisy, we have been witnessing that while Palestinians are being killed in thousands every day, including children, by the Israeli forces and illegal settlers, the US and Europe have no time to apply concepts of human rights and international law to Israeli authority and are allowed to act with impunity.

Even in the Arab media, western hypocrisy is well exposed. In an opinion piece in the Jordan Times, one columnist wrote that the Ukrainian crisis conveniently captures contemporary attention, creating a narrative of valiant struggle against external aggression. And the Palestinian narrative languishes in historical complexities, seemingly overlooked by a world that selectively chooses which historical injustices to champion. The global response to Ukrainian and Palestinian movements reveals a disturbing hypocrisy woven into the fabric of international relations. 'Historical dynamics, geopolitical alignments, and media narratives collectively expose a double standard that challenges the very essence of justice and self-determination' wrote columnist Al Shriedeh of The Jordan Times.

Let us examine the role of the Arab neighbours of Israel in addressing the crisis in Gaza. All 57 Arab and Muslim countries in the world, representing nearly 3 billion people of the faith, met in Riyadh in November 2023 under the umbrella of a joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit. While they warned the Israeli government and its backers, namely the US, 'of the real danger of the expansion of the war as a result of Israel's refusal to stop its aggression and of the inability of the Security Council to enforce international law to end this aggression', they avoided any decision on any concrete action against Israel as a collective force, despite Iran's pleading. Their only intent was to put pressure on the Biden administration to exert sufficient pressure on Israel to stop the war. The Saudis, together with their conservative allies like Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and Bahrain, see an action-oriented position as a dangerous destabilisers for their own power base. As a result, the Islamic summit ended up being a talk show instead of a meaningful plan of action.

The United States has been engaging in this war by grossly violating its own laws that govern and regulate its policy to provide aid, including military aid, to foreign countries under certain well-defined conditions. I will now cite five major US laws that it violates in letter and spirit and, as transparently as can be conceived, as it applies to the current situation in Israeli aggression and violence, thus revealing the highest form of hypocrisy ever displayed in modern history of the century:

I. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961: The Act provides that no assistance is to be provided to a government that 'engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognised human rights, including torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges…or other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, and the security of the person…' Each word of this act has a direct bearing on the current massacre in Gaza and the West Bank.

II. Arms Export Control Act of 1976: The Act requires international governments receiving weapons from the US to use the armaments only for 'legitimate self-defence.' This act considers prohibiting the development of weapons of mass destruction or increasing the possibility of an outbreak or escalation of conflict. This is precisely what has resulted from the US's complicity in the war imposed by Israel, in the form of an escalation of conflict in Palestine.

III. The War Crimes Act of 1996. This act defines a war crime to include a 'grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, to which the US is a party. The law specifically refers to the text that highlights principles of the Convention as…' committed against persons or property protected by the Convention, such as willful killing, torture, or inhuman treatment, thus causing 'great suffering or serious injury to body or health.' As a complicit in Israel's mass killings, this Act has been grossly violated by the US government itself.

IV. The Leahy Law: This law prohibits most types of US foreign aid and Defence Department training programmes from going to foreign security, military, and police units credibly alleged to have committed human rights violations. As revealed in the case before the International Court of Justice, Israel is accused of the highest form of human rights violation. The UN Special Rapporteur has recently reported human rights violations by Israeli forces in no uncertain terms. US duplicity is beyond question.

V. Genocide Convention Implementation Act: This Act, passed in 1987, amends the US Federal Criminal Code to establish the criminal offence of genocide, namely, specified acts committed with specific intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Here, again, the US administration has shown a total disregard for its own policy involving measures against genocide.

I should bring to light the strong statements made at several media events in Germany by Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim over the current Gaza tragedy. He boldly asked that the world wake up and see the stark hypocrisy the western governments and the press have been practicing incessantly over the Palestinian crisis. He asked that this contradiction and hypocrisy in international politics be stopped.

Israel has deliberately chosen to weaponise the Holocaust issue in perpetuating its ethnic cleansing genocide in Gaza. And while the entire West slams Russia for killing civilians in Ukraine, it 'gives green light to Israel to do the same in Gaza.' As for the Arab neighbours, suffice it to say that in the past six months of the incessant killings by Israel, none of the neighbours — Egypt, Jordan, and even Bahrain or UAE — have suspended the trade and commerce relationship, and the direct transmission of power and gas by Egypt, which has enabled Israeli armament factories to remain alive, has not been suspended. This is the utmost form of hypocrisy by the so-called Muslim Ummah.

The mask is off. The Gaza crisis has exposed the hypocrisy of international law and politics to the world at large.

Humayun Kabir was a senior official of the United Nations.​

 

[Bilal9]

I don't believe driving away Jews entirely from the Middle East is a sane idea - nor is it achievable. There are liberal educated Jews too - the extremists are a loud minority. Will comment more after Iftar.

 

[Saif]

No barbarism without poetry

If our world is becoming full of poets and executioners, we need more judges and thinkers to counter the new tendency.

www.thedailystar.net

No barbarism without poetry

In an October 13, 2023 announcement soliciting submissions, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) invited potential contributors 'to embark on a poetic journey and reignite the great Israeli spirit' in response to the Hamas attack a week before, leading to a sadistic campaign of death and destruction in the occupied Palestinian territorries. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

When the basic pact that holds society together is crumbling—which appears to be happening worldwide—wild rumours and conspiracy theories proliferate. Even, or especially, when the message is obviously nonsensical, it can evoke deep-seated fears and prejudices.

A perfect example of this, which I have noted previously, occurred in late August 2023, when a priest known as "Father Anthony" ceremoniously doused holy water on a 26-foot-tall statue of Stalin in Russia's Pskov region. Though the church had suffered during the Stalin era, he explained, "Thanks to this we have lots of new Russian martyrs and confessors to whom we now pray and are helping us in our motherland's resurgence." This logic is just a step away from claiming that Jews should thank Hitler for creating the conditions that allowed for the state of Israel. If that sounds hyperbolic, or like a bad joke, consider that some Zionist extremists close to the Israeli government openly advocate exactly this position.

To understand the success of such perverted argumentation, we should first note that, in developed countries, unrest and revolts tend to explode when poverty has ebbed. The protests of the 1960s—from the soixante-huitards in France to the hippies and Yippies in the United States—unfolded during the golden age of the welfare state. When people are living well, they come to desire even more.

One must also account for the surplus enjoyment that social and moral perversion can bring. Consider the Islamic State's recent attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow, in which 144 people were killed. What some call a terrorist attack, others call an act of armed resistance in response to the massive destruction wrought by the Russian military in Syria. But whatever the case, something notable happened after the attack: Russian security forces not only admitted to torturing the suspects whom they had arrested; they publicly displayed it.

"In a graphic video posted on Telegram," writes Julia Davis of the Center for European Policy Analysis, "one of the detained had his ear cut off and was then forced to eat it by one of his interrogators." No wonder some Israeli hardliners look to Russia as a model for dealing with arrested Hamas members.

Russian officials did it not just to deter potential future attackers, but also to give pleasure to fellow members of the tribe. "I never expected this from myself," writes Margarita Simonyan, a Russian propagandist who heads the state-owned media outlet RT, "but when I see how they are brought into the court crooked, and even this ear, I feel extremely satisfied." Nor is this phenomenon confined to Russia. In Tennessee, some lawmakers want to restore public hangings (from trees, no less) for those who receive the death penalty.

Where do such acts end? Why not just bring back the premodern practice of publicly torturing alleged criminals to death? More to the point, how can "normal" people be brought to the point where they would enjoy such sadistic spectacles?

The short answer is that it requires the unique power of some kind of mythic discourse, religion, or poetry. As the reluctant Nazi fellow-traveller Ernst Jünger explained, "Any power struggle is preceded by a verification of images and iconoclasm. This is why we need poets—they initiate the overthrow, even that of titans."

One finds poetry playing an important role in Israel. On March 26, Haaretz ran a story explaining "how Israel's army uses revenge poetry to boost morale." An anthology published by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) includes poems that "express a desire for vengeance and paint the combat in Gaza as a religious war." In an October 13 announcement soliciting submissions, the IDF invited potential contributors "to embark on a poetic journey and reignite the great Israeli spirit," so as to "raise the spirit in wartime."

Apparently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's references to Amalek (the Jews' biblical enemy in the Torah) after October 7 were not enough. They needed to be supplemented by modern verse. Or perhaps Netanyahu's biblical reference conveyed more than he wanted to say. After all, according to the Old Testament, when the wandering Jews reached the hills above the valley in Judea where the Amalekites lived, Jehovah appeared and ordered Joshua to kill them all, including their children and animals. If that is not "ethnic cleansing," the term has no meaning at all.

It is worth remembering that Germany was known as the land of Dichter und Denker (poets and thinkers), before its turn towards Richter und Henker (judges and executioners). But what if the two versions are more similar than they appear? If our world is gradually becoming a world of poets and executioners, we will need more judges and thinkers to counter the new tendency and regain our moral footing.
​

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Slavoj Žižek, professor of philosophy at the European Graduate School, is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, and the author, most recently, of Christian Atheism: How to Be a Real Materialist.​

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Views expressed in this article are the author's own.​

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Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2024
www.project-syndicate.org​

 

[Saif]

Israel would let 150,000 Gazans return north in potential truce, officials say

Israel has agreed in Gaza war ceasefire talks in Egypt to concessions about the return of Palestinians to the north of the enclave, but believes Islamist group Hamas does not want to strike a deal, Israeli officials said on Wednesday. Two officials with knowledge of the talks said that under a US

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israel would let 150,000 Gazans return north in potential truce, officials say
Published :
Apr 10, 2024 22:28
Updated :
Apr 10, 2024 22:28

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike as Palestinians fleeing north Gaza due to Israel's military offensive move southward, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at the central Gaza Strip on March 15, 2024 — Reuters/File

Israel has agreed in Gaza war ceasefire talks in Egypt to concessions about the return of Palestinians to the north of the enclave, but believes Islamist group Hamas does not want to strike a deal, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.

Two officials with knowledge of the talks said that under a US proposal for a truce, Israel would allow the return of 150,000 Palestinians to north Gaza with no security checks.

In return, they said, Hamas would be required to give a list of female, elderly and sick hostages it still holds alive.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office declined to comment. Hamas said on Tuesday that the latest proposal passed on by Eqyptian and Qatari mediators did not meet demands, but that it would study it further before responding.

Israel's assessment is that Hamas does not want to strike a deal yet, the two Israeli officials said.

In the seventh month of the war, Hamas wants an end to the Israeli military offensive, a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and permission for displaced Palestinians to return home.

Israel's immediate aim is to secure the release of hostages seized by Hamas in its Oct. 7 cross-border rampage.

It says it will not end the war until Hamas no longer controls Gaza or threatens Israel militarily.

More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli offensive began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, with most of the 2.3 million population displaced and much of the enclave laid to waste.

Israel pulled back most ground forces from southern Gaza this week after months of fighting, but still says it plans to launch an assault on Rafah, on Gaza's southern border with Egypt, where more than half of Gazans are now sheltering.

Netanyahu has said civilians will be evacuated from Rafah before Israeli forces pursue Hamas' remaining battalions there, but that pledge has done little to calm international alarm.

The war began when Hamas led an attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage. Around 130 are still being held incommunicado in Gaza, Israel says.​

 

[Saif]

No liberal Jews live in Israel. Jews living in Israel are all extremists. I want Israel to be eradicated from Middle East because if Israel exists then they would gobble up the entire Middle East (including Mecca and Medina) with the help of the West. Israel is expansionist so needs to be eradicated from Middle East.

 

[Saif]

Bangladesh protesters want steps against Israel, justice for Palestine

Leaders of Palestine Solidarity Committee Bangladesh on Thursday urged the world community to be vocal and take steps against Israel to stop aggressions in Palestine and mass killings there....

www.newagebd.net

Bangladesh protesters want steps against Israel, justice for Palestine
Staff Correspondent | Published: 00:24, Apr 12,2024

This photo taken on April 11, 2024 shows that the Palestine Solidarity Committee Bangladesh forms a human chain in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka. The protesters urge the world community to be vocal and take steps against Israel to stop aggressions in Palestine and mass killings there. – Md Saurav.

Leaders of Palestine Solidarity Committee Bangladesh on Thursday urged the world community to be vocal and take steps against Israel to stop aggressions in Palestine and mass killings there.

Addressing a human chain in Dhaka, the Palestine Solidarity Committee Bangladesh, a combine of some left leaning political parties, urged the world community to expel Israel from the United Nations and ensure justice for Palestinians.

The organization formed the human chain in front of the National Press Club, where a member of the committee and central leader of Revolutionary Communist League, Harun Or Rashid, chaired.

Harun Or Rashid called on the world community to be vocal to stop Israeli aggression in Palestine and said that formation of a free state could be solution of the conflict.

Democratic Revolutionary Party general secretary Mushrefa Mishu said that Israeli army had killed several hundred unarmed Palestinians in recent conflict.

Coordinator of Socialist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist), Masud Rana, said that Israel was getting patronization from imperialist American government.

Communist Party of Bangladesh central leader Abdullah Kafee Ratan, SPB central leader Khalequzzaman Lipon spoke at the human chain.​

 

[Saif]

Duplicitous US Policy on the Gaza massacre

THE incessant waves of the brutal and ruthless Israeli war, or rather the Palestinian massacre in the Gaza Strip, now in its sixth month, have finally reached Washington...

www.newagebd.net

Duplicitous US Policy on the Gaza massacre
Published: 00:00, Apr 09,2024

— New Eastern Outlook

Prominent Jewish American senator Chuck Schumer broke with long-standing tradition and delivered sharp criticism from the Senate floor against the Israeli government, taking Israel, as well as the political establishment in the US, by surprise when he called Netanyahu an 'obstacle to peace' in the Middle East, writes Viktor Mikhin

THE incessant waves of the brutal and ruthless Israeli war, or rather the Palestinian massacre in the Gaza Strip, now in its sixth month, have finally reached Washington. It happened in Congress in an event that took many by surprise and deepened the rift between the two major political parties. It is well known that the Congress has been one of Israel's main bulwarks for decades, providing political support for Israeli policy on many fronts. This includes the Arab-Israeli conflict, the creeping annexation of the occupied West Bank, and the illegal siege that successive Israeli governments have imposed on Gaza since 2007.

Chuck Schumer's speech on Netanyahu's policy

HOWEVER, on March 14, prominent Jewish American Senator Chuck Schumer (Democrat, New York), the Senate majority leader, broke with long-standing tradition and delivered a sharp criticism from the Senate floor against the Israeli government led by the country's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He apparently took Israel, as well as the political establishment in Washington and the US media, by surprise when he called Netanyahu an 'obstacle to peace' in the region, commenting on how Israel is conducting military operations in Gaza and blocking humanitarian aid to starving Palestinian civilians.

Schumer said Netanyahu 'has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel,' causing support for Israel around the world to plummet to historic lows. He also criticised Israel's ruling coalition government for the same reasons. 'The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7. The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past,' he said, adding that after five months of war, 'it is clear that Israelis need to take stock of the situation and ask: Must we change course?' According to the US Senator, at this critical juncture, new elections are the only way to ensure a healthy and open decision-making process about Israel's future, while so many Israelis have lost confidence in the vision for the direction of their government.

It is rare that a US Senator, especially a Democrat from New York, has spoken so boldly and sharply about the Israeli government. And of course, the speech provoked a storm of indignation. Senator Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky), the Senate minority leader, went on the offensive, attacking Schumer and expressing extreme prejudice and unfettered support for Israel. In his view, the main obstacles to peace are 'genocidal terrorists such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,' as well as corrupt PA leaders who have repeatedly rejected the peace agreements of several Israeli governments.

It is interesting that according to the New York Times, Schumer called US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan the day before his speech to ask if achieving a temporary pause in military operations in Gaza, releasing hostages and allowing more humanitarian aid into Gaza would jeopardise ongoing negotiations. J. Sullivan, in his characteristic cowboy manner, replied that 'there would be no problem.' What is really going on in Gaza, the National Security Advisor can best learn from the world's media, which daily print heartbreaking reports of Palestinian old men, women and children dying of starvation.

No fundamental disagreement between Biden and Netanyahu

IN THE context of the palpable differences between US president Joe Biden and Netanyahu that have been building up over the past month, the position taken by the Senator from New York is not much different from that of the White House and Biden on how Israel is handling the war in Gaza and what will happen after the war comes to an end. This reflects some of the frustration the administration has had with Netanyahu's verbal rejection of the two-state solution. In fact, Biden and his administration are committed to preventing the creation of an independent Palestinian state, and therein they stand in solidarity with Israel's leadership.

Another fact confirming this position, i.e. the unconditional US support for Israel, is the statement of White House spokesman John Kirby on March 15. In particular, he indirectly conveyed an encouraging message to Israel, as well as to its supporters in Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, that the Biden administration is 'going to keep supporting Israel.' He said, 'We're going to keep urging them to reduce civilian casualties, and we're going to keep working to get a temporary ceasefire in place.'

However, no one has yet seen an American plan for a ceasefire in Gaza. Moreover, on the same day, news from Israel indicated that Netanyahu had approved plans to attack Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The US administration said it could not support such an attack in the absence of a 'credible and implementable' plan to save hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Rafah from danger. Although the Israelis said they had such a plan, on March 15 the same White House announced that it had not seen it. It is interesting to wonder what the US position will be when the Israeli army launches its offensive in Rafah and thousands of innocent civilians are killed as a result, in addition to the 31,000 Palestinians in Gaza who have already been killed and the more than 71,000 who have been wounded since last October. One should not expect much from the Biden administration. Perhaps there will be minor restrictions on arms exports to Israel, and perhaps the US will, as usual, abstain from voting on the draft resolution to be introduced in the UN Security Council calling for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza.

In his speech, Schumer said, and many Americans fully agree with him, that the world has changed 'radically' since last October. However, unwavering US support for Israel did not affect this change. The relationship between the US and Israel, on the one hand, and Arab countries, on the other, also does not reflect the changing world and the transformed regional scene in light of Israel's barbaric assault on the Palestinian people in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

While hosting Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at the White House on March 15, Biden agreed with his Irish guest in Washington to celebrate St Patrick's Day on March 17. At the same time, the US president pompously declared that he wanted a quick ceasefire in Gaza to deliver food and medicine to the Strip and to free Israeli hostages. As the saying goes, it is hard to credit now, though fresh is its renown. The facts and life itself will show how sincere the administration and Biden himself are in wanting to achieve such a result in the coming months in a very difficult election cycle in the United States.

New Eastern Outlook, April 8. Viktor Mikhin, corresponding member of RANS and writes for the online magazine 'New Eastern Outlook'​

 

[Saif]

Norway ready to recognise Palestinian state

Norway is ready to recognise a Palestinian state together with other countries, its prime minister said on Friday. In November, Norway’s parliament adopted a proposal for the country to be prepared to recognise an independent Palestinian state...

www.newagebd.net

Norway ready to recognise Palestinian state
Agence France-Presse . Oslo, Norway | Published: 20:46, Apr 12,2024 | Updated: 21:01, Apr 12,2024

Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere (R) and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez address a press conference during a bilateral meeting in Oslo on Friday. —AFP photo

Norway is ready to recognise a Palestinian state together with other countries, its prime minister said on Friday while hosting Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez, who is seeking support for the cause.

Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Store told reporters that such a decision would need to be taken in close coordination with 'like-minded countries'.

'Norway stands ready to recognise the state of Palestine,' Store told a joint press conference with Sanchez.

'We have not set a firm timetable,' Store added.

In November, Norway's parliament adopted a government proposal for the country to be prepared to recognise an independent Palestinian state.

Norway also hosted Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at the beginning of the 1990s, which led to the Oslo Accords.

Sanchez is currently on a tour of Poland, Norway and Ireland this week to drum up support for the recognition of a Palestinian state, according to a Spanish government spokesperson.

On March 22, Spain issued a statement with Ireland, Malta and Slovenia on the sidelines of an EU leaders summit, saying they were 'ready to recognise Palestine' in a move that would happen when 'the circumstances are right'.

In the past week, Sanchez told reporters travelling with him on his Middle East tour that he hoped it would happen by the end of June.

Store on Friday said that he welcomed Sanchez's initiative to consult among countries to 'strengthen coordination'.

'We will intensify that coordination in the weeks to come,' Store said.

The Spanish leader has repeatedly angered Israel with his outspoken comments since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

The war in the Gaza Strip erupted after Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's offensive has killed at least 33,634 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.​

 

[Saif]

Israel’s ‘human shields’ lie

ONE aspect of the recent revelations about the IDF’s Lavender AI system that’s not getting enough consideration is the fact that it is completely devastating to the narrative that Israel has been...

www.newagebd.net

Israel's 'human shields' lie
Published: 00:00, Apr 08,2024

March on Washington for Gaza on Jan 13. — Consortium News/Diane Krauthamer

Israel is not being 'forced' to kill Palestinian children, it is knowingly doing so, writes Caitlin Johnstone

ONE aspect of the recent revelations about the IDF's Lavender AI system that's not getting enough consideration is the fact that it is completely devastating to the narrative that Israel has been killing so many civilians in Gaza because Hamas uses 'human shields.'

If you missed this story, a major report from +972 revealed that Israel has been using an AI system called Lavender to compile kill lists of suspected members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad which have been carried out with hardly any human verification.

One automated system, psychopathically named 'Where's Daddy?' tracks suspects to their homes so that they can be killed along with their entire families. The IDF has been knowingly killing 15 to 20 civilians at a time to kill one junior Hamas operative, and up to 100 civilians at a time to take out a senior official.

+972's Yuval Abraham writes the following:

'Moreover, the Israeli army systematically attacked the targeted individuals while they were in their homes — usually at night while their whole families were present — rather than during the course of military activity. According to the sources, this was because, from what they regarded as an intelligence standpoint, it was easier to locate the individuals in their private houses. Additional automated systems, including one called "Where's Daddy?" also revealed here for the first time, were used specifically to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their family's residences.'

(Another +972 report by Abraham back in November revealed that IDF AI systems ensure that the Israeli military is fully aware of every child it's going to be killing in each airstrike, and that it deliberately targets civilian infrastructure as a matter of policy.)

When questioned about these systems by +972, the IDF spokesperson responded that:

'Hamas places its operatives and military assets in the heart of the civilian population, systematically uses the civilian population as human shields, and conducts fighting from within civilian structures, including sensitive sites such as hospitals, mosques, schools and UN facilities. The IDF is bound by and acts according to international law, directing its attacks only at military targets and military operatives.'

The 'human shields' narrative that's become so popular in Israel apologia insists that the reason the IDF kills so many civilians in its attacks on Gaza is because Hamas intentionally surrounds itself with non-combatants as a strategy to make the innocent Israelis reluctant to drop bombs on them.

But as the Intercept's Ryan Grim recently observed on Twitter, this is soundly refuted by the revelation that Israel has been intentionally waiting to target suspected Hamas members when it knows they'll be surrounded by civilians.

'Israel's argument that they kill so many civilians because Hamas uses "human shields" is torn apart by the revelation that the IDF prefers to attack its 'targets' when they are at home with their families,' tweeted Grim. 'It is not Hamas using human shields, it is Israel deliberately hunting families.'

'A human shield is only a shield if your enemy values human life and seeks to minimise civilian deaths', Grim adds. 'Israel deliberately maximizes the number of civilians it can kill by waiting until a target is with his entire family. Palestinians are not shields to Israel, they are all targets.'

This is such an important point. Advocates for Palestine like Abby Martin have for years been presenting compelling arguments against Israel's 'human shields' claims, and common sense shows that the presence of civilians is clearly not a deterrent to Israeli airstrikes, but because of these +972 revelations the lie has now been thoroughly, irrefutably debunked.

Civilians aren't getting killed because Hamas hides behind them, civilians are getting killed because the IDF waits until suspected Hamas members are around civilians to target them with high-powered military explosives.

A popular quote attributed to former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir says, 'Someday we may be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our children, but we will never forgive them for making us kill their children.'

You see this quote pop up all the time in varying iterations, shared approvingly by Israel apologists around the world as though it's something wise and brilliant instead of a horrific defence of murdering children. But it turns out this morally depraved quote isn't even true by the most generous of interpretations: Israel isn't being 'forced' to kill Palestinian children, it is knowingly choosing to.

The 'human shields' narrative is just one more instance in which Israel pretends to be the victim while actually being the victimizer.

They lied about beheaded babies so that they could get away with murdering babies. They lied about mass rapes so that they could get away with committing rape. They lied about Hamas using civilians as human shields so that they could kill civilians.

They lie about being victims so that they can victimise.

Consortiumnews.com, April 6. Caitlin Johnstone is a journalist, poet, and utopia prepper.​

 

[Saif]

Iran seizes huge cargo ship after threats to close Strait of Hormuz

Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, days after Tehran said it could close the crucial shipping route and warned it would retaliate for an Israeli strike on its Syria consulate

www.thedailystar.net

Iran seizes huge cargo ship after threats to close Strait of Hormuz
Iran must release ship 'immediately': US

An official slides down a rope during a helicopter raid on MSC Aries ship at sea in this screen grab obtained from a social media video released on April 13, 2024. Video obtained by Reuters/via REUTERS
Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, days after Tehran said it could close the crucial shipping route and warned it would retaliate for an Israeli strike on its Syria consulate.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that a Guards helicopter had boarded and taken into Iranian waters the Portuguese flagged MSC Aries, saying it was linked to Israel.

MSC, which operates the Aries, confirmed Iran had seized the ship and said it was working "with the relevant authorities" for its safe return and the wellbeing of its 25 crew.

MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac said in a statement, adding that MSC is responsible for all the vessel's activities. Zodiac is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.

Video on Iranian news channels purporting to show the seizure included a figure abseiling from a helicopter on to a ship. Reuters was able to verify that the ship in the video was the MSC Aries but not the date it was recorded.

The incident comes amid rising regional tensions since the start of Israel's campaign in Gaza in October, with Israel or its ally the United States clashing repeatedly with Iranian-aligned groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Iran has threatened to retaliate for suspected Israeli airstrikes on its consulate in Syria's capital Damascus on April 1 that killed seven Revolutionary Guards officers including two senior commanders.

The White House on Saturday called on Iran to immediately release a British-owned ship it seized near the Strait of Hormuz, as Middle East tensions soar and fears mount over a retaliatory attack on Israel.

"We call on Iran to release the vessel and its international crew immediately," said National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson. "Seizing a civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law, and an act of piracy by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps."

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he expected Iran to attack Israel "sooner, rather than later" and warned Tehran not to do so.

Israel's military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said "Iran will bear consequences for choosing to escalate this situation any further", in response to reports of the seizure of MSC Aries.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Tehran of piracy.

ESCALATION

On Tuesday the naval head of the Revolutionary Guards, Alireza Tangsiri, said it could close the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, if deemed necessary.

He said Iran viewed as a threat Israel's presence in the UAE, with which Israel established diplomatic relations in 2020 as part of the "Abraham Accords" mediated by the United States.Analyst Hasan Alhasan of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said if the seizure of the MSC Aries was in retaliation for Israel's strike on Iran's Damascus consulate, it showed a desire to save face without a wider escalation.

"Iran may be trying to play on fears that it could obstruct shipping through the strait, a passageway of greater significance to global oil and gas supplies than the Red Sea," he said.

"If Iran were to limit itself to seizing commercial vessels linked to Israel then it would minimise the risk of an all-out conflict but damage its own credibility," he added.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group has disrupted global trade with attacks on shipping in the Red Sea for months, saying it is aiming at vessels linked to Israel in retaliation for Israel's campaign in Gaza.

The United States and Britain have carried out strikes against Houthi targets in response to the attacks on shipping.

The Joint Maritime Information Center, run by a Western-led naval coalition, said vessels intending to navigate the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important energy routes, should exercise caution and not loiter.​

 

[Saif]

Not one has lived without water

BY NOVEMBER 2023, it was already clear that the Israeli government had begun to deny Palestinians in Gaza access to water...

www.newagebd.net

Not one has lived without water
Vijay Prashad | Published: 00:00, Apr 06,2024

— Dissident Voice

BY NOVEMBER 2023, it was already clear that the Israeli government had begun to deny Palestinians in Gaza access to water. 'Every hour that passes with Israel preventing the provision of safe drinking water in the Gaza strip, in brazen breach of international law, puts Gazans at risk of dying of thirst and diseases related to the lack of safe drinking water', said Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, UN special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. 'Israel', he noted, 'must stop using water as a weapon of war'. Before Israel's most recent attack on Gaza, 97 percent of the water in Gaza's only coastal aquifer was already unsafe for human consumption based on World Health Organisation standards. Over the course of its many attacks, Israel has all but destroyed Gaza's water purification system and prevented the entry of materials and chemicals needed for repair.

In early October 2023, Israeli officials indicated that they would use their control over Gaza's water systems as a means to perpetrate a genocide. As Israeli Major General Ghassan Alian, the head of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, said on 10 October, 'Human beasts are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza. No electricity, no water, just damage. You wanted hell, you will get hell'. On March 19, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Palestine Jamie McGoldrick noted that Gaza needed 'spare parts for water and sanitation systems' as well as 'chemicals to treat water', since the 'lack of these critical items is one of the key drivers of the malnutrition crisis'. 'Malnutrition crisis' is one way to talk about a famine.

The assault on Gaza — whose entire population is 'currently facing high levels of acute food insecurity', according to Oxfam and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — has sharpened the contradictions that strike the world's people with force. A UN report released on World Water Day (March 22) shows that, as of 2022, 2.2 billion people have no access to safely managed drinking water, that four out of five people in rural areas lack basic drinking water, and that 3.5 billion people do not have sanitation systems. As a consequence, every day, over a thousand children under the age of five die from diseases linked to inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene. These children are among the 1.4 million people who die every year due to these deficiencies. The UN report notes that, since women and girls are the primary collectors of water, they spend more of their time finding water when water systems deteriorate due to inadequate or non-existent infrastructure or droughts exacerbated by climate change. This has resulted in higher dropout rates for girls in school.

A 2023 study by UN Women describes the perils of the water crisis for women and girls:

'Inequalities in access to safe drinking water and sanitation do not affect everyone equally. The greater need for privacy during menstruation, for example, means women and girls and other people who menstruate may access shared sanitation facilities less frequently than people who do not, which increases the likelihood of urinary and reproductive tract infections. Where safe and secure facilities are not available, choices to use facilities are often limited to dawn and dusk, which exposes at-risk groups to violence.'

The lack of access to public toilets is by itself a serious danger to women in cities across the world, such as Dhaka, Bangladesh, where there is one public toilet for every 200,000 people.

Access to drinking water is being further constricted by the climate catastrophe. For instance, a warming ocean means glacier melt, which lifts the sea levels and allows salt water to contaminate underground aquifers more easily. Meanwhile, with less snowfall, there is less water in reservoirs, which means less water to drink and use for agriculture. Already, as the UN Water report shows, we are seeing increased droughts that now impact at least 1.4 billion people directly.

According to the United Nations, half of the world's population experiences severe water scarcity for at least part of the year, while one quarter faces 'extremely high' levels of water stress. 'Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and severity of these phenomena, with acute risks for social stability', the UN notes. The issue of social stability is key, since droughts have been forcing tens of millions of people into flight and starvation.

Climate change is certainly a major driver of the water crisis, but so is the rules-based international order. Capitalist governments must not be allowed to point to an ahistorical notion of climate change as an excuse to shirk their responsibility in creating the water crisis. For instance, over the past several decades, governments across the world have neglected to upgrade wastewater treatment facilities. Consequently, 42% of household wastewater is not treated properly, which damages ecosystems and aquifers. Even more damning is the fact that only 11 per cent of domestic and industrial wastewater is being reused.

Increased investment in wastewater treatment would reduce the amount of pollution that enters water sources and allow for better harnessing of the freshwater available to us on the planet. There are several sensible policies that could be adopted to immediately address the water crisis, such as those proposed by UN Water to protect coastal mangroves and wetlands; harvest rainwater; reuse wastewater; and protect groundwater. But these are precisely the kinds of policies that are opposed by capitalist firms, whose profit line is improved by the destruction of nature.

In March 2018, we launched our second dossier, Cities Without Water. It is worthwhile to reflect on what we showed then, six years ago:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Technical Paper VI (IPCC, June 2008) is on climate change and water. The scientific consensus in this document is that the changes in weather patterns — induced by carbon-intensive capitalism — have a negative effect on the water cycle. Areas where there will be higher rainfall might not see more groundwater due to the velocity of the rain, which will create a rapid movement of water to the oceans. Such high velocity rainfall neither refills aquifers (natural water sources), nor does it allow water to be stored by humans. The scientists also predict higher rates of drought in regions such as the Mediterranean and Southern Africa. It is this technical report that put forward the number that over a billion people will suffer from water scarcity.

For the past decade, the United Nations Environmental Programme has warned about the growth of water-intensive lifestyles and of water pollution. Both of these — lifestyles and pollution — are consequences of the spread of capitalist social relations and capitalist productive mechanisms across the planet. In terms of lifestyle use, the average resident in the United States consumes between 300 and 600 litres of water per day. This is a misleading figure. It does not mean that individuals consume such high amounts of water. Much of this water is used by water-intensive agriculture and by water-intensive industrial production, including energy production. The World Health Organisation recommends per person usage of 20 litres of water per day for basic hygiene and food preparation. The gap between the two is not accidental. It is about a water-intensive lifestyle — use of washing machines and dishwashers, washing of cars and watering of gardens, as well as the use of water by factories and factory farms.

Water pollution is a serious problem. In Esquel, Argentina, the people saw that the contaminants from corporate gold mining were ruining their drinking water. 'Water is worth more than gold' (El agua vale más que el oro), they said. Ruthless techniques of extraction by mining corporations (by use of cyanide) and of cultivation by agribusiness (by use of fertilisers and pesticides) have ruined reservoirs of clean water. Their blue gold, say the people of Esquel, is more important than real gold. They held a public assembly in 2003 that asserted their right to their water against the interests of the private corporations.

It is worth pointing out that the amount of water it would take to support 4.7 billion people at the WHO daily minimum would be 9.5 billion litres — the exact amount used every day to water the world's golf courses. The water used by 60,000 villages in Thailand, for instance, is used to water one golf course in Thailand. These are the priorities of our current system.

In other words, watering golf courses is more important than providing piped water to the thousand children under the age of five who die every day due to water deprivation. Those are the values of the capitalist system.

DissidentVoice.org, April 4. Vijay Prashad, an Indian historian and journalist, is author of 25 books, including The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World and The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South.​

 

[Saif]

Israel presses on in Gaza as world awaits response to Iran attack

Israel struck war-battered Gaza overnight, Hamas and witnesses said on Monday, as world leaders urged de-escalation awaiting Israel’s reaction to Iran’s unprecedented attack that heightened...

www.newagebd.net

Israel presses on in Gaza as world awaits response to Iran attack
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 16 April, 2024, 00:19

People search through the rubble of a collapsed building in the eastern side of the Maghazi camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on Monday amid the on-going conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas group. | AFP photo

Israel struck war-battered Gaza overnight, Hamas and witnesses said on Monday, as world leaders urged de-escalation awaiting Israel's reaction to Iran's unprecedented attack that heightened fears of wider conflict.

World powers have urged restraint after Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel late Saturday, though the Israeli military has said nearly all were intercepted.

Tehran's first direct assault on Israel, in retaliation for a deadly April 1 strike on its Damascus consulate, followed months of violence across the region involving Iranian proxies and allies who say they act in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with his war cabinet on Sunday, but no decision has been made on how or when Israel could respond to the Iran attack, local media said, reporting another meeting planned later on Monday.

Tensions in Iran 'weaken the regime and rather serve Israel', the newspaper Israel Hayom said, adding that this suggested Israeli leaders would not rush to retaliate.

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi has warned that a 'reckless' Israeli move would spark a 'much stronger response', while foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Monday that Western nations should 'appreciate Iran's restraint' in recent months.

Tehran has insisted the attack on Israel was an act of 'self-defence' after the Damascus strike that killed seven Revolutionary Guards including two generals.

The Israeli military said it would not be distracted from its war against Tehran-backed Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the Palestinian armed group's October 7 attack.

'Even while under attack from Iran, we have not lost sight of our critical mission in Gaza to rescue our hostages from the hands of Iran's proxy Hamas,' military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said late Sunday.

As mediators eye a deal to halt the fighting, fears persisted over Israeli plans to send ground troops into Rafah, a far-southern city where the majority of Gaza's 2.4 million people have taken refuge.

'Hamas is still holding our hostages in Gaza,' Hagari said of the roughly 130 people, including 34 presumed dead, who Israel says remain in the hands of Palestinian militants since the Hamas attack.

'We also have hostages in Rafah, and we will do everything we can to bring them back home,' the military spokesman told a briefing.

The army said it was calling up 'two reserve brigades for operational activities', about a week after withdrawing most ground troops from Gaza.

The Hamas government media office said Israeli aircraft and tanks launched 'dozens' of strikes overnight on central Gaza, reporting several casualties.

Witnesses said that strikes hit the Nuseirat refugee camp, with clashes also reported in other areas of central and northern Gaza.

Hamas's attack that sparked the fighting resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,729 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting Sunday following the Iranian attack, where secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned the region was 'on the brink' of war.

'Neither the region nor the world can afford more war,' the UN chief said.

'Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.'

G7 leaders also condemned Iran's attack and called for 'restraint' on all sides, European Council president Charles Michel wrote on X after a video conference on Sunday.

French president Emmanuel Macron said Monday his government would help do everything to avoid a 'conflagration' in the Middle East.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said that after Israel's 'success' in intercepting the Iranian launches, 'our advice is to contribute to de-escalation'.

Israel's top ally the United States has also urged caution and calm.

'We don't want to see this escalate,' White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told NBC.

After the attack, US president Joe Biden reaffirmed the Washington's 'ironclad' support for Israel.

However a senior US official said Biden had also told Netanyahu that his administration would not offer military support for any retaliation on Iran.

Word of the impending attack prompted Israel to close schools and announce restrictions on public gatherings, with the army saying early Monday that those measures were being lifted for most of the country.

In Iran, airports in the capital and elsewhere reopened on Monday, state media said.

Fears of a wider regional conflict propelled stock markets lower on Monday.

More than six months of war have led to dire humanitarian conditions in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Rumours of a reopened Israeli checkpoint on the coastal road from the territory's south to Gaza City sent thousands of Palestinians heading north on Sunday, despite Israel denying it was open.

Attempting the journey back to northern Gaza, displaced resident Basma Salman said, 'even if it my house was destroyed, I want to go there. I couldn't stay in the south.'

'It's overcrowded. We couldn't even take a fresh breath of air there. It was completely terrible.'

In Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's main city, civil defence teams said they had retrieved at least 18 bodies from under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

Responding late Saturday to the latest truce plan presented by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, Hamas said it insists on 'a permanent ceasefire' and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Israel's Mossad spy agency called this a 'rejection' of the proposal, accusing Hamas of 'continuing to exploit the tension with Iran'.

But the United States said mediation efforts continue.

'We're not considering diplomacy dead there,' said the National Security Council's Kirby.

'There's a new deal on the table It is a good deal' that would see some hostages released, fighting halted and more humanitarian relief into Gaza, he said.​

 

[Saif]

UN to launch $2.8b global appeal for Gaza, West Bank

The United Nations on Wednesday will launch a $2.8 billion appeal for donations this year to help the war-ravaged population of the Gaza Strip as well as West Bank Palestinians

www.thedailystar.net

UN to launch $2.8b global appeal for Gaza, West Bank

Photo: AFP People walk amid the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis, on the southern Gaza Strip on April 16, 2024.

The United Nations on Wednesday will launch a $2.8 billion appeal for donations this year to help the war-ravaged population of the Gaza Strip as well as West Bank Palestinians, a senior agency official said.

The "flash appeal" addresses humanitarian funding needs through the end of 2024, according to Andrea De Domenico, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian territories.

"With the entire humanitarian community we will appeal for $2.8 billion to support the three million people identified across the West Bank and Gaza," he said Tuesday in a video press conference.

"Of course 90 percent of it is for Gaza," De Domenico added.

He noted that "the original request was for $4 billion but considering the limited ability to deliver (aid) and the space that we have to do so we have really focused on the highest priority."

Days after the unprecedented Israeli offensive in Gaza on October 7, the United Nations launched an initial emergency appeal for $294 million.

That appeal was modified in early November and raised to $1.2 billion to meet the most urgent needs of 2.2 million people in Gaza and another 500,000 in the West Bank in 2023.

The United Nations has warned that thousands of Gazans face famine, particularly in the north of the territory where distribution of food and aid has been limited.​

 

[Saif]

Erdogan urges Palestinian unity after meeting Hamas chief

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Palestinians to unite amid Israel’s war in Gaza following hours-long talks with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in...

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Erdogan urges Palestinian unity after meeting Hamas chief
Agence France-Presse . Istanbul 21 April, 2024, 01:08

Relatives mourn during a funeral ceremony for Damian Sobol, a member of the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen, killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, at the cemetery in his home town of Przemysl, Poland, on Saturday. | AFP photo

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Palestinians to unite amid Israel's war in Gaza following hours-long talks with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul on Saturday, his office said.

Erdogan has sought but failed to establish a foothold as a mediator in the Gaza conflict that has roiled the Middle East since October 7.

Tensions in the region are running high as the Hamas-run Palestinian territory braces for a new Israeli offensive and a reported Israeli attack on Iran.

Erdogan called on Palestinians to unite following the talks at the Dolmabahce palace, on the banks of the Bosphorus strait, that Turkish media reports said lasted more than two and a half hours.

'It is vital that Palestinians act with unity in this process. The strongest response to Israel and the path to victory lie in unity and integrity,' Erdogan said according to a Turkish presidency statement.

Hamas, designated a terrorist organisation by the United States, the European Union and Israel, is a rival of the Fatah faction that rules the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.

As soaring tensions between Iran and Israel stoke fears of a wider regional war, Erdogan said recent events should not allow Israel to 'gain ground and that it is important to act in a way that keeps attention on Gaza'.

With Qatar saying it will reassess its role as a mediator between Hamas and Israel, Erdogan sent Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to Doha on Wednesday in a new sign that he wants a role.

'Even if only I, Tayyip Erdogan, remain, I will continue as long as God gives me my life, to defend the Palestinian struggle and to be the voice of the oppressed Palestinian people,' the president said Wednesday when he announced Haniyeh's visit.

Hamas has had an office in Turkey since 2011 when Turkey helped secure the agreement for the group to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Erdogan has maintained links with Haniyeh, who has been a frequent visitor.

Fidan was a past head of Turkish intelligence and the country provided information and passports to Hamas officials, including Haniyeh, according to Sinan Ciddi, a Turkey specialist at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. This has never been confirmed by Turkish authorities, however.

If Qatar withdraws from mediation efforts, Turkey could seek to increase its mediation profile based on its Hamas links.

Fidan on Saturday held talks with visiting Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, with both men emphasising the need to deliver more humanitarian aid to devastated Gaza where the threat of famine looms.

Turkey is one of Gaza's main humanitarian aid partners, sending 45,000 tonnes of supplies and medicine in the region.

Israel has said it is preparing an offensive against the Gazan city of Rafah and the reported Israeli attack on the Iranian province of Isfahan, following Iran's direct attack on Israel, has only clouded hopes of a peace breakthrough.

But Erdogan can only expect a 'very limited' role because of his outspoken condemnation of Israel and its actions in Gaza, according to Ciddi.

Last year, the Turkish leader likened the tactics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to those of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and called Israel a 'terrorist state' because of its offensive against Hamas after the militant group's October 7 attacks on Israel.

Ciddi said Erdogan would not be welcome in Israel and at most might be able to pass messages between Palestinian and Israel negotiators.

The unprecedented Hamas attacks that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also took about 250 hostages. Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.​

 

[Saif]

Israel holds Palestinian economy captive: analysts

The Gaza offensive is speeding up Israel’s “annexation” of the Palestinian economy, say analysts, who argue it has been hobbled for decades by agreements that followed the Oslo peace accords.

www.thedailystar.net

Israel holds Palestinian economy captive: analysts

A Palestinian man waits for news of his daughter as rescue workers search for survivors under the rubble of a building hit in an overnight Israeli bombing in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: AFP

The Gaza offensive is speeding up Israel's "annexation" of the Palestinian economy, say analysts, who argue it has been hobbled for decades by agreements that followed the Oslo peace accords.

While the Israel's offensive raging since October 7 has devastated swathes of Gaza, it has also hit the public finances and wider economy of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel is tightening the noose on the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the West Bank, by withholding tax revenues it collects on its behalf, economist Adel Samara told AFP.

Palestinian livelihoods have also been hurt by bans on labourers crossing into Israel, and by a sharp downturn in tourism in the violence-plagued territory, including a quiet Christmas season in Bethlehem.

Samara said that "technically speaking, there is no Palestinian economy under Israeli occupation -- our economy has been effectively annexed by Israel's".

The Palestinian economy is largely governed by the 1994 Paris Protocol, which granted sole control over the territories' borders to Israel, and with it the right to collect import duties and value-added tax for the Palestinian Authority.

Israel has repeatedly leveraged this power to deprive the authority of much-needed revenues.

But the Gaza offensive has further tightened Israel's grip, Samara said, with the bulk of customs duties withheld.

"Without these funds, the Palestinian Authority struggles to pay the salaries of its civil servants and its running costs," said Taher al-Labadi, a researcher at the French Institute for the Near East.

In February, Norway reportedly transferred to the Palestinian Authority about $115 million from Israel following a deal to release some of the frozen taxes.

Almost all Palestinian workers have also been forbidden from entering Israel for work, driving up unemployment across the territories.

The Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa bemoaned an "unprecedented financial crisis" during which his government's deficit had soared to $7 billion, more than a third of the territories' GDP according to the latest budgetary figures.​

 

[Saif]

https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/world/israeli-strikes-on-southern-gaza-city-of-rafah-kill-22-mostly-children

Israeli strikes on southern Gaza city of Rafah kill 22, mostly children
AP
Published :
Apr 21, 2024 20:07
Updated :
Apr 21, 2024 20:07

Palestinians look at damages following an Israeli raid at Nur Shams camp, in Tulkarm, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on April 21, 2024 — Reuters photo

Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 22 people, including 18 children, health officials said Sunday, as the United States was on track to approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to its close ally.

Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from the US.

The House of Representatives approved a $26 billion aid package on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.

The first strike killed a man, his wife and their 3-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital, which received the bodies. The woman was pregnant and the doctors managed to save the baby, the hospital said.

The second strike killed 17 children and two women, all from the same extended family, according to hospital records. First responders were still searching the rubble. An airstrike in Rafah the night before killed nine people, including six children.

Mohammed al-Beheiri said his daughter, Rasha, and her six children, ranging in age from 18 months to 16 years, were among those killed overnight and into Sunday. Her husband's second wife and their three children were still under the rubble, al-Beheiri said.

The Israel-Hamas war has killed over 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, devastated Gaza's two largest cities and left a swath of destruction across the territory. Around 80% of the population have fled their homes to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave, which experts say is on the brink of famine.

The conflict, now in its seventh month, has sparked regional unrest pitting Israel and the U.S. against Iran and allied militant groups across the Middle East. Israel and Iran traded fire directly earlier this month, raising fears of all-out war between the longtime foes.

Tensions have also spiked in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli troops killed two Palestinians who the military says attacked a checkpoint with a knife and a gun near the southern West Bank town of Hebron early Sunday. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the two killed were 18 and 19 years old, from the same family. No Israeli forces were wounded, the army said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service meanwhile said it has recovered a total of 14 bodies from an Israeli raid in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp in the West Bank that began late Thursday. Those killed include three militants from the Islamic Jihad group and a 15-year-old boy. The military says it killed 10 militants in the camp and arrested eight suspects. Nine Israeli soldiers and officers were wounded.

In a separate incident in the West Bank, an Israeli man was wounded in an explosion Sunday, the Magen David Adom rescue service said. A video circulating online shows a man approaching a Palestinian flag that had been planted in a field. When he kicks it, it appears to trigger an explosive device.

At least 469 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most have been killed during Israeli military arrest raids, which often trigger gunbattles, or in violent protests.

The war in Gaza was sparked by an unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which Hamas and other militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to call for new elections to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a deal with Hamas to release the hostages. Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned.

The war has killed at least 34,097 Palestinians and wounded another 76,980, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count but says at least two-thirds have been children and women. It also says the real toll is likely higher as many bodies are stuck beneath the rubble left by airstrikes or are in areas that are unreachable for medics.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants fight in dense, residential neighborhoods, but the military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children. The military says it has killed over 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.​

 

[Saif]

Hezbollah downs Israeli drone

Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Sunday it downed an Israeli drone that was on a combat mission in southern Lebanon.

www.thedailystar.net

Hezbollah downs Israeli drone

A wounded Palestinian woman is escorted to an ambulance before she is transported to hospital after an Israeli strike on al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: AFP

Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Sunday it downed an Israeli drone that was on a combat mission in southern Lebanon.

The drone that was brought down above the Al Aishiyeh area in southern Lebanon was "waging its attacks on our steadfast people," a statement said by the group said.

Israeli forces and Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah have been exchanging fire for over six months in parallel to the Gaza war, in the most serious hostilities since they fought a major war in 2006.

Hezbollah said the drone was an Israeli Hermes 450, a multi-payload drone made by Elbit Systems, an Israel-based weapons manufacturer. The fighting has fuelled concern about risk of further escalation.

At least 370 Lebanese, including more than 240 Hezbollah fighters and 68 civilians, have been killed in the fighting according to a Reuters tally. Eighteen Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed on the Israeli side of the border, according to Israeli tallies.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli military intelligence chief resigns as Gaza pounded

Israel’s military intelligence chief has resigned after taking responsibility for failures leading to the Hamas attack on October 7, the military said on Monday, as Israel carried out more shelling in war-battered Gaza overnight...

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Israeli military intelligence chief resigns as Gaza pounded
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 23 April, 2024, 00:26

Israel's military intelligence chief has resigned after taking responsibility for failures leading to the Hamas attack on October 7, the military said on Monday, as Israel carried out more shelling in war-battered Gaza overnight.

General Aharon Haliva is the first top Israeli official to step down for failing to prevent the Hamas attack, which triggered the war in Gaza and brought the government and military under intense scrutiny in Israel.

'The intelligence division under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with,' Haliva said in his resignation letter. 'I carry that black day with me ever since.'

Israel has meanwhile lashed out at reports that its top ally the United States was considering sanctioning the military's ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion over alleged human rights abuses in the West Bank from before the war.

'At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF (army) is the height of absurdity and a moral low,' prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X.

Netanyahu said late Sunday that the Israeli military would increase military pressure to 'deliver additional and painful blows' to Hamas in the coming days, without elaborating further.

The prime minister has repeatedly said Israel will launch a ground assault on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, despite international concern about the majority of the territory's population who have taken refuge there.

The promise of more military pressure came amid growing global opposition to Israel's offensive in Gaza, which has turned vasts areas of the territory into rubble and sparked a dire humanitarian crisis including fears of famine.

Gaza was hit by heavy shelling overnight, with strikes reported in several areas in the centre and south of the besieged territory, an AFP correspondent said on Monday.

Doctors at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Gaza city of Deir El Balah said that six people were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza, while three more were injured by a separate strike on the Al-Bureij refugee camp.

Israel's allies including Washington have warned against sending troops into Rafah, fearing huge civilian casualties in the only major Gaza city yet to be invaded during the offensive.

More than 1.5 million of the 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza are estimated to have taken refuge in Rafah. However thousands are believed to have headed north since Israel withdrew most of its troops from Gaza earlier this month.

The Israeli army has said the city is Hamas's last major stronghold and that some of the hostages taken on October 7 were being held there.

This week, during the Jewish holiday of Passover which begins on Monday night, 'it will be 200 days of captivity for the hostages,' Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

'The chief of staff has approved the next steps for the war,' he added, without offering details.

At least 16 people, mostly children, were killed in Israeli strikes on two Rafah homes over the weekend, according to Gaza's civil defence agency.

Gaza's crossings and borders authority meanwhile said that 34 Palestinian detainees had been released from Israeli prison since Monday morning. Authority spokesman Hisham Adwan said some of the prisoners showed 'signs of torture'.

In the main southern city of Khan Yunis, Gaza's civil defence agency said on Sunday that its teams had discovered at least 50 bodies buried in the courtyard of a hospital previously raided by Israel.

Spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that the agency was 'waiting for all graves to be exhumed in order to give a final number' of bodies unearthed from the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex.

Israel's military said it was checking the reports.

In the occupied West Bank, where violence has surged since the Gaza war began, a funeral procession was held on Sunday for 13 Palestinians killed during an Israeli raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp.

The Israeli army said it had killed 10 militants in a three-day 'counterterrorism' raid on Nur Shams, but residents in the camp gave a different account.

Niaz Zandeq, 40, said his son Jehad was shot dead by an Israeli soldier on his 15th birthday.

Neighbours said troops told Jehad to leave his uncle's house.

'The minute he came out, they opened fire, hitting him directly in the head,' Zandeq said through tears. 'He was unarmed.'

The Israeli army has not responded to residents' allegations.

The army also said a suspect has been arrested over the death of Israeli teenager Benjamin Achimeir, whose disappearance sparked violent raids in the West Bank earlier this month.

In Jerusalem, two civilians received minor injuries in a car-ramming attack on Monday. Israeli police said they had arrested two suspects who fled the scene on foot.

Hamas's October 7 attack that triggered the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,151 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Israel estimates that 129 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead.

Some relatives of the hostages have urged families celebrating Passover to leave an empty chair at their seder table with a picture of a hostage.

'How can we celebrate such a holiday while people are still without their freedom, still waiting to be liberated?' asked Mai Albini, whose grandfather Chaim Peri was taken hostage on October 7.​