ARAB AND WORLD

Sun 31 Dec 2023 5:48 pm - Jerusalem Time

Pro-Palestine activists call for a ceasefire in Gaza around the New Year

Activists launched a global campaign calling on people to turn the countdown to the New Year in their countries into a countdown to a ceasefire in Gaza, which has been subjected to devastating Israeli bombing since October 7.


“New Year’s Eve is a moment of celebration around the world, and an opportunity to make resolutions for a brighter future,” said Countdown2ceasefire, a global grassroots campaign based in London.


It added in her statement, "With nearly 30,000 civilians killed, including more than 10,000 children, our only resolution for the New Year is to call for a permanent ceasefire, and our goal is to transform the traditional countdown to the New Year into an impactful and resounding countdown to a ceasefire." Perpetual fire in Gaza.


The campaign has so far been successfully adopted by activists in more than 30 countries, including Switzerland, Turkey, Malaysia, Australia, Tanzania, Mexico and Germany, according to organizers.


With the advent of the new year, these local events calling for a ceasefire will be broadcast live on Countdown2ceasefire’s social media platforms, according to the “Al Jazeera International” website, which attributed Bushra Mohammed, the campaign’s spokeswoman, as saying in a statement: “The ceasefire "Permanent action is the first step to ending the current deplorable situation and making tangible movement toward a future in which affected communities can rebuild and recover."


Israel's brutal bombing of the blockaded Gaza Strip has killed more than 21,500 people, most of them women and children, and injured more than 55,000 others, sparking global outrage, with demonstrators marching around the world to demand a ceasefire. Many also expressed their disappointment towards politicians and countries, especially the United States of America, which used its veto power, or abstained from voting on the ceasefire at the United Nations.


Human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Doctors Without Borders, have condemned the countries that are using their veto power against the ceasefire, warning that what we are seeing in Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe that is worsening every moment. Additional consequences of continued Israeli bombing.


The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned on Saturday that it is in a race against time to avoid starvation for millions in Gaza.


“Only a long-term ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access can end this,” the UN agency posted on X.


With the full support of the administration of US President Joe Biden, Israel refuses to stop the bombing that destroyed more than 70% of Gaza’s homes and caused the displacement of more than 90% of the Strip’s 2.3 million residents.


Countdown2Ceasefire pointed out how people power can make a difference.


The statement added: “As we enter 2024, we look forward to it being the year in which our New Year’s resolution for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza is implemented.”


The countdown is a global tradition in the West that begins in the last seconds of each year from one to one, and ends at midnight announcing the world's transition from the current year to the new year.

PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 3:58 pm - Jerusalem Time

War on Gaza: 68 killed in Israeli bombing on the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood and the vicinity of Al-Aqsa University


At least 68 citizens were killed today, Sunday, in the bombing of Gaza City by occupation warplanes.


Local sources reported that the occupation warplanes launched a bombardment with several missiles on the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in central Gaza City, which led to the death of 48 citizens and the injury of dozens.


It added that the occupation aircraft bombed the vicinity of Al-Aqsa University in Gaza City, killing 20 citizens and wounding dozens.


PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 3:55 pm - Jerusalem Time

Palestinian President: We will not accept displacement from our land, whatever the cost

The West Bank, including Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, is one geographical unit

- We will not accept displacement from our land, whatever the cost

- Jerusalem and its sanctities are a red danger

- The Palestinian revolution transformed the issue of the Palestinian refugee into an issue of liberation and independence

- The Palestine Liberation Organization is the protector of the national project, and we will never accept harming it


President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinian people will remain steadfast and adhere to their legitimate rights, and we will not accept displacement from our land, whatever the cost, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of our Palestinian people.


The President added, on the 59th anniversary of the launch of the Palestinian revolution led by the Fatah movement, the protector of the national project and the leader of our people’s revolution, “Today our steadfast Palestinian people are subjected to a comprehensive war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem, with the aim of liquidating our national cause and turning it into a humanitarian cause, in a repetition of the 1948 Nakba.” But we say to them, the more your aggression and terrorism increase, the stronger, more determined, and more determined our people will become in adhering to their land and their legitimate national rights.”


The President stressed that the Israeli war of annihilation will not break our will, and we will remain steadfast on our land and continue the struggle until we achieve victory and independence, stressing that the West Bank, including Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, is one geographical unit that is indivisible.


The President continued, “Today we commemorate the launch of our glorious revolution that transformed the Palestinian refugee issue into an issue of national liberation and independence, stressing the need to immediately stop the Israeli aggression, which aims to annihilate the Palestinian people through massacres against defenseless civilians, which led to the martyrdom of more than 21,000, most of them Palestinians.” Children, women, and the elderly, tens of thousands of wounded, and hundreds of thousands of displaced people, and the necessity of accelerating the entry of humanitarian aid to our people into the Gaza Strip. We will not allow displacement, whether from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, which is witnessing a frenzied war by the occupation army and terrorist settlers.


The President said that the plan of the Israeli occupation authorities to eliminate the Palestinian national project, Jerusalem and its sanctities, and divide and steal the land will not pass. The Gaza Strip is part of the occupied Palestinian territory, of which we will not give up a single inch, and we will not abandon our responsibilities towards our beloved Gaza and our people who have not We leave them one day, from the coup to the present day.


The president added, “We told the whole world that military and security solutions will not bring security and peace to anyone, but rather will push the region and the world to the brink of explosion, and the only solution is to recognize the rights of the Palestinian people to freedom and independence, and move toward a political solution based on international legitimacy resolutions, by holding an international peace conference.” Ending the Israeli occupation of all lands of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the return of refugees in accordance with Resolution 194.


The President pointed out that despite all the difficult circumstances we are going through, freedom and independence will inevitably come. Our steadfastness and adherence to our national constants under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which we will never accept to be infringed upon as it is the protector of the Palestinian national project and the Palestinian right, has made the whole world realize that the establishment of the state The Palestinian Authority has become a necessary requirement to achieve security and peace in the world, stressing that the State of Palestine’s acquisition of full membership in the United Nations and recognition of the State of Palestine are the basis for the international community to begin a real political process that achieves justice and peace in our region and the world.


The President said, “We salute the steadfastness of our heroes held captive in the occupation prisons who face the tyranny and aggression of the jailer, and we remember the blood of our martyrs who rose on the path of struggle towards freedom and emancipation from the most horrific occupation, and we say to the free people of the world, we value your positions in support of the Palestinian right, and today the issue of Palestine, which represents truth, justice, and freedom is an issue.” Every free and honorable person in this world that witnesses unacceptable double standards.


The President renewed his pledge to the dead of the Palestinian revolution, the dead of all our people, and their national movement, specifically the founding martyrs of the Fatah movement, that we will remain loyal to their sacrifices, and that we will continue the struggle with unwavering determination and move forward on their path, and the path of the prisoners, the wounded, and the fighters.


PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 3:46 pm - Jerusalem Time

Palestinian Statistics: The number of killed this year is the largest that Palestine has witnessed since the Nakba of 1948

- 65% of individuals in the State of Palestine are under 30 years of age


- About 14.63 million Palestinians in the world by the end of 2023


The Central Bureau of Statistics said that the toll of dead this year is the largest toll that Palestine has witnessed since the Nakba of 1948.


The census added in a statement today, Sunday, at the end of the year 2023, that the number of killed in Palestine since the beginning of the year 2023 is (22,404) person, including (22,141) killed since the seventh of October, 98% of whom are in the Gaza Strip, including about 9,000 children and 6,450 women, while the number of killed in the West Bank since October 7 reached 319 person, including 111 children and 4 women. More than 100 journalists were also killed according to the records of the Ministry of Health, while the number of missing persons who were reported in In the Gaza Strip, more than 7,000 people are missing, including 67% of children and women. Nearly 1,900,000 citizens have been displaced inside the Strip, far from their places of residence.


By the end of 2023, the population in the Gaza Strip reached 2.3 million individuals, including 1.06 million children under the age of eighteen, constituting 47% of the Strip’s population. More than two months after the aggression on Gaza, 40% of the martyrs were children and about 30% were women.


According to the data of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority until the end of the year 2023, the number of prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons reached about 7,800 prisoners by the end of November 2023, including 76 female prisoners and 260 children, and the number of administrative detainees (detainees without charge) reached (2870). Detained.


The agency stated that more than 745 thousand settlers in 151 colonies were established on Palestinian lands in the West Bank at the end of 2022, and the Israeli occupation demolished and destroyed more than 1,200 buildings and facilities, completely or partially, in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), according to data. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Since the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation has completely destroyed at least 65,000 housing units, in addition to partially destroying more than 290,000 housing units.


A severe water crisis and limited access to water threaten the lives of residents in the Gaza Strip


The Gaza Strip suffers from a severe crisis in access to water, as, under normal conditions in the period before October 7, the average per capita consumption of water in the Strip was estimated at approximately 82.7 liters/person/day. With the outbreak of the aggression, estimates indicated that The residents of the Gaza Strip can barely reach between 1-3 liters/person/day only.


The percentage of supplies from water sources decreased by 90%, and thus the percentage of water consumption was lower by 92% than it was before the aggression, and there is one pipeline that supplies the southern regions only with about 1,100 cubic meters per hour, while the northern governorates of the Strip suffer from a lack of Complete access to safe water.


The residents of the Gaza Strip lack the basics of life, including housing, food and water. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) indicated that at least 40% of the population of the Gaza Strip are at risk of famine, which means that the population of the Gaza Strip is suffering from catastrophic hunger, and this indicates that the Gaza Strip is now considered one of the most famished regions in the world. .


39% of the affected agricultural lands in North Gaza Governorate


The data indicated that 18% of the agricultural areas in the Gaza Strip were damaged, and the direct and greatest damage was in the northern Gaza governorates, as the damage affected 39% of the agricultural areas in the North Gaza Governorate and 27% in the Gaza Governorate.


Agricultural census data also indicated that 32% of the cultivated area in the Gaza Strip is in Khan Yunis Governorate, and 29% in North Gaza Governorate.


About 14.63 million Palestinians in the world by the end of 2023


The estimated number of Palestinians at the end of 2023 was approximately 14.63 million; 5.55 million in the State of Palestine, more than a third of whom reside in the Gaza Strip, about 1.75 million Palestinians in the 1948 territories, approximately 6.56 million in Arab countries, and about 772 thousand in foreign countries.


It is expected that the number of Palestinians will reach about 7.3 million in historic Palestine, while the number of Israelis will reach 7.2 million by the end of 2023.


65% of individuals in the State of Palestine are under 30 years old


The percentage of individuals (0-5) was 16% of the total population in Palestine, 15% in the West Bank and 18% in the Gaza Strip, while the percentage of individuals under 18 years old was 44%, 41% in the West Bank and 47% in the Gaza Strip. Gaza, and the percentage of individuals under 30 years of age in Palestine reached 65% of the total population in Palestine. 63% in the West Bank and 68% in the Gaza Strip. The percentage of individuals aged (65 years and over) was 4%.


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ARAB AND WORLD

Sun 31 Dec 2023 3:13 pm - Jerusalem Time

Irish MP: The peoples of Europe support Palestine, unlike their governments

Irish Member of the European Parliament Mick Wallace said that the peoples of Europe stand with the Palestinian people, “unlike their governments that support Israel.”


He pointed out in a post on the “X” platform, on Sunday, that the General Assembly of the European Parliament had been held 4 times in Strasbourg, France, “since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza,” but no decision was taken regarding Gaza in those meetings.


Wallace noted that there had not been an "sufficient resolution" from the European Parliament on the "US-NATO proxy war in Ukraine."


He criticized the European Parliament's position, saying: "We did not want a ceasefire in Ukraine or Gaza because the American empire does not want that."


Irish Representative Wallace also shared in his post a clip of a speech he gave at a demonstration in support of Palestine.


In his speech, Wallace criticized the visit of European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Tel Aviv after October 7.


Von der Leyen was accused of "giving the green light to the genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people."


Wallace pointed out the hanging of Israeli flags on official buildings in Europe as evidence of support for Israel, and added: "But the same does not happen for Palestine."


“In some countries in Europe, you are not even allowed to carry Palestinian flags,” Wallace said.


He considered that "the so-called values of the European Union are nothing but the interests that coincide with the Zionist plan of the occupying and settlement state Israel," adding that European governments "have not changed their approach and are still on the side of the colonizers."


On the other hand, Wallace pointed out that people in Europe support Palestine in the Gaza issue, “unlike governments.”


Wallace added: "The people of Europe are in a different place (from politicians). More than 80 percent of politicians support the apartheid state of Israel, but more than 90 percent of European people stand with the oppressed Palestinians."


Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which has left tens of thousands dead and wounded, massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Strip authorities and the United Nations.

PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 3:08 pm - Jerusalem Time

War on Gaza: Obliterating the cultural and heritage presence.. Israel destroys 200 archaeological sites in Gaza

The Israeli army targeted and destroyed more than 200 archaeological and heritage sites, out of 325 sites in Gaza, as part of its ongoing aggression since last October 7, according to the government media office in the Strip.


The "government journalist" added that he documented among those targeted sites "archaeological mosques, churches, schools, museums, ancient archaeological houses, and various heritage sites."


He considered targeting these sites “a failed attempt to erase the Palestinian cultural and heritage presence, and to erase historical evidence and the depth of Palestinian history in Gaza.”


Israel destroyed 200 archaeological sites in Gaza

He explained that "the heritage and archaeological sites destroyed by the army, some of which date back to the Phoenician and Roman eras, while some of them date back to 800 BC and 1,400 years ago, and others date back to 400 years ago."


Gaza is one of the ancient cities of the world, as it was subject to the rule of the Pharaohs, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and then the Islamic era.


The office condemned the targeting and destruction of these sites, considering it “a clear international crime in accordance with international laws, especially international humanitarian law, and conventions that prohibit the deliberate targeting of cultural and religious sites in all circumstances.”


He called on "international and international organizations related to the cultural and heritage dimension to condemn this organized crime committed by the occupation in Gaza," calling on them to "urgently intervene in order to stop this crime and work to rehabilitate and restore these sites."


The most prominent targeted sites

Among the most prominent sites destroyed by the army, according to the “government journalist,” were “the Byzantine Church of Jabalia, the Al-Omari Mosque in Jabalia (north), the Sheikh Shaaban Mosque, the Al-Dhafar Damri Mosque in Al-Shuja’iya (east of Gaza City), and the Al-Khader Shrine in Deir Al-Balah (central).” .


In addition to "the Balakhiya site (Anthedon Port) northwest of the old city of Gaza, the Khalil al-Rahman Mosque in the Abasan area in Khan Yunis (south), and the Center for Ancient Manuscripts and Documents in Gaza City."


In addition, the army targeted "the Church of Saint Porphyrius in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, the ancient Saqqa House in Al-Shuja'iyya, Tel Al-Mantar, east of Gaza City, Tel Al-Sakan, south of Gaza City, Hill 86 in Al-Qarara, south of the Strip, and Al-Sayyid Hashem Mosque in Gaza City."


Last November 21, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said that Israel “deliberately” destroys Palestinian archaeological monuments in Gaza, in “an explicit targeting of the human cultural heritage.”

OPINIONS

Sun 31 Dec 2023 1:22 pm - Jerusalem Time

For Israel, Gaza is a preventative war

Politico

Politico

Opinion Writer


BY JAMIE DETTMER

The country’s leaders can’t see a future for a Jewish homeland with a Palestinian state sitting alongside it — not until Palestinians have changed.


Israel’s top politicians sense a possible near-term election. And in their preparation, they have started complicating Israel’s war on Hamas, making relations with the country’s key Western ally, the United States, more difficult.

In fact, currently, none of the key contenders in this race are talking of a short war — nor are they embracing calls from the U.S. and Europe for a serious effort to revive long-moribund talks on a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

They wouldn’t dare even if they wanted to. There’s no appetite in Israel for a revival of two-state talks, as no one can envision how it would bring peace in the wake of the brutal Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7, which left 1,200 dead in a terrifying spree of violence.



And it is this collective stance — not just Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — that is increasingly at odds with the U.S. administration, which has publicly called for a shift from high intensity warfare in Gaza to a more surgical war to reduce civilian casualties.

In fact, despite growing international pressure to wind down Israeli military operations amid a mounting civilian death toll, as well as clamor from the relatives of the Israelis still held hostage by Hamas for a deal to free captives, Netanyahu and other top leaders are vowing to continue the fight. And they are offering no letup until the job is done and Hamas is crushed enough to never again — at least for years to come — deliver a blow like it did.Speaking at the Knesset on Monday, Netanyahu was uncompromising, telling lawmakers, “We need to keep going until the end.” Explaining how he’d come to the session directly from Gaza, he cited battalion commanders who told him, “Time, we need time.”In an op-ed published the same day, the prime minister wrote that for Hamas to be demolished, “its military capabilities must be dismantled and its political rule over Gaza must end. Hamas’ leaders have vowed to repeat the Oct. 7 massacre ‘again and again.’ That is why their destruction is the only proportional response to prevent the repeat of such horrific atrocities. Anything less guarantees more war and more bloodshed.”Some American and European officials who POLITICO spoke with suggested this is, as one of them put it, simply “Bibi being Bibi,” and that Netanyahu has a vested interest in pursuing a long war, hoping to help erase the missteps that failed to prevent the attacks. In short, he needs time to restore his public image as Mr. Security. They also noted that he has restricted room for maneuver thanks to the religious and hard-right parties in his coalition. But while that may be so, to view the military campaign as primarily motivated by Netanyahu’s political needs is to mistake the Israeli psyche in the wake of October 7.


The perspectives of Israel and Washington are in stark contrast to one another — the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is focused on a political strategy, while Israeli eyes are firmly set on a war strategy to the exclusion of all else. And no active party leader is outlining a serious plan for the postwar governance of Gaza. They don’t see how the Palestinian Authority can be sufficiently revitalized enough to be given the responsibility of running Gaza.


Just listen to active politicians who aren’t Netanyahu’s friends. Take, for example, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, one of the likely contenders to replace Netanyahu. Gallant told Knesset lawmakers, “This is a long, tough war. It has costs, heavy costs, but its justification is the highest that can be.” And he vowed Israel would punish Hamas over its brutal attacks “whether it takes months or years.”Citizens queue for food that is cooked in large pots and distributed for free during war-time on December 28, 2023 in Rafah, Gaza


Gallant — whom Netanyahu tried to fire last March for opposing his controversial bid to weaken judicial independence — is also at the forefront of war Cabinet members and Israeli Defense Forces commanders pushing for a reckoning with the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Talking to the Knesset’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, Gallant emphasized that Israel can’t afford to allow threats to fester along its borders, north or south. “Without meeting the goals of the war, we will find ourselves in a situation where the problem will not be those who live near Gaza or live in the north; the problem will be that people will not want to live in a place where we do not know how to protect them.”According to Gallant, Israel is “in a multi-front war. We are being attacked from seven fronts — Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), Iraq, Yemen and Iran. We have already responded and acted on six of those fronts.” And in a clear threat to Iran, he added: “Everyone who acts against us is a potential target. Nobody has immunity.”Then there’s Benny Gantz — the former defense minister who’s widely seen as the man most likely to call time on Netanyahu’s long, turbulent career. Before the Hamas attacks, Gantz had expressed concern over the dangerously “extremist” direction Netanyahu and his right-wing political allies were taking the country. But after October 7, he has largely echoed Netanyahu when it comes to the war.For the sake of national unity, Gantz joined Bibi’s war Cabinet and in a speech earlier this month, the former minister indicated he and Netanyahu are of like-minded skepticism when it comes to a two-state solution. “It is clear to both us and our partners that the old concepts and the reality of the past decades, need to change and be forward-facing.”At this stage, Gantz can at best envision a Palestinian “entity.” Exactly what that might be, he has not detailed — but it clearly isn’t a full-fledged state.In fact, across the political spectrum — outside a left wing that’s in utter disarray — there appears to be little stomach for a two-state solution. (Although most mainstream Israeli politicians aren’t as damning as Netanyahu of the Oslo Accords.) And privately, they have been urging the Biden administration to row back on its two-state talk — which is only adding to America’s frustrations with its difficult ally. 

From Washington’s point of view, without the prospect of serious discussions about a two-state solution, the Palestinian Authority will never be persuaded to take on the governance of Gaza, and Gulf Arab countries won’t cough up the billions needed to rebuild the Palestinian coastal enclave. 


The war will only radicalize Palestinians more.

Netanyahu is “a good friend, but I think he has to change,” Biden said at a campaign fundraiser this month. “You cannot say there’s no Palestinian state at all in the future.”However, Israel’s leaders can’t see a future for a Jewish homeland with a Palestinian state sitting alongside it — not until Palestinians have changed and “deradicalized.” For them, this is a prophylactic war — one that will secure Israel from repeated pogroms but offer no cure.


PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 12:26 pm - Jerusalem Time

Palestinian Prisoners' Authority: Cases of poisoning among prisoners of Ofer Prison

The Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority said on Sunday that a large number of prisoners from Ofer Prison were poisoned because spoiled meals were served to them.


The Commission’s lawyer confirmed that the prisoners were poisoned, after difficult attempts to visit the prison on 12/28/2023, when the prisoners felt severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting, immediately after eating food.


It is noteworthy that the prison administration, since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip, has deliberately practiced the most horrific punishments against our prisoners, including keeping them hungry for long periods, and only providing them with poor quality and quantity of meals, and meets anyone who objects to this with severe beatings and isolation.

PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 11:50 am - Jerusalem Time

West Bank: Israeli forces arrest 16 Palestinians

The Prisoners' Club and the Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Authority reported that the Israeli occupation forces arrested at least 16 citizens from the West Bank, from yesterday evening until Sunday morning, including a number of family members of the martyr Muhammad Masalmeh, who died as a martyr yesterday.


The statement added that the arrest operations were concentrated in the Nour Shams camp, and affected 10 citizens after a massive raid and field investigation with dozens of citizens, in addition to widespread sabotage and destruction operations in citizens’ homes, and the destruction of infrastructure, while the rest of the arrests were distributed in the governorates of: Hebron and Nablus. .


He pointed out that the total number of arrests rose after the seventh of last October to about (4,876), and this total includes those who were arrested from homes, through military checkpoints, those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure, and those who were held hostage.


The occupation forces continue to implement systematic arrest campaigns, as one of the most prominent established policies, which escalated in an unprecedented manner after the seventh of October, not only in terms of the level of the number of detainees, but also in terms of the level of crimes they committed, in addition to the raids into the homes of the detainees’ families, which Accompanied by widespread sabotage and destruction.

PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 11:12 am - Jerusalem Time

War on Gaza: Former Minister of Endowments was killed in Israeli bombing in Al-Maghazi camp

The former Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs, the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Yousef Salama, was killed today, Sunday, in an Israeli raid on his home in Al-Maghazi refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.


According to local sources, the occupation warplanes bombed Sheikh Salama’s house, leading to his death and wounding a number of his family members.

OPINIONS

Sun 31 Dec 2023 10:59 am - Jerusalem Time

New York Times: Biden Administration Again Bypasses Congress for Weapons Sale to Israel

New York Times

New York Times

Opinion Writer

By Matt Surman and Edward Wong

The move comes as Israel presses on with its offensive in Gaza despite increasing pressure from the United States to lower the conflict’s intensity.


The Biden administration is bypassing Congress for the second time since the start of the war in Gaza for a weapons sale to Israel, a move that comes amid growing anger at the United States over its backing of Israel as the Gaza death toll rises and misery spreads.

The State Department said Friday that it had approved a proposed $147.5 million sale of artillery munitions and related equipment to Israel, invoking an emergency provision that avoids a congressional review process generally required for arms sales to other nations. The department used the same provision this month to facilitate a government sale of about 13,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel.

That earlier instance was the first time the State Department had invoked the emergency provision for an arms shipment to the Middle East since May 2019, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo approved weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a move that lawmakers and some career officials inside the State Department criticized.


The State Department has also used the emergency provision at least two times since 2022 to rush arms to Ukraine for its defense against Russia’s invasion.


As casualties in the war against Hamas mount, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has faced increasing pressure from the United States to lower the conflict’s intensity in Gaza, but he said last week that Israel would “deepen” the fighting in coming days.

Criticism of the United States has been building as international calls for a cease-fire grow. The United Nations Security Council this month adopted a resolution that called for more aid to reach civilians in Gaza but, to gain support from Washington, stopped short of imposing a cease-fire.The State Department’s move is certain to anger some Democratic lawmakers, who have criticized the Biden administration for unconditionally supporting a war in which Israel has killed a large number of Palestinian civilians, following terrorist attacks by Hamas.Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, asked on social media early Saturday why the administration would bypass congressional authority on weapons sales to any nation.


The Department of Defense said in a statement on Friday that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken had “provided detailed justification to Congress that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale” to Israel.“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” it said. “This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives.”“It is incumbent on all countries to employ munitions consistent with international humanitarian law,” it added.


Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have killed more than 20,000 people in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health ministry. The war started on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched cross-border attacks in Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, according to the Israeli authorities.

OPINIONS

Sun 31 Dec 2023 10:59 am - Jerusalem Time

The bloodiest end of the year

op-ed "AlQuds" dot com

op-ed "AlQuds" dot com

Opinion Writer

At midnight tonight, the world bids farewell to the year 2023 and welcomes the new year 2024, hoping that it will bring with it good events and memories after unprecedented suffering in a difficult year that can be said to be one of the bloodiest and most tragic years in the world.


The world bid farewell to the year 2022, leaving behind the tragedies and pain of the Corona pandemic, which has killed millions with its deaths, vaccines, and health crises that have harmed the world and its economy. 


As is the custom of humans in every new year, they lay out a pile of wishes that may bring goodness and happiness, but the year 2023 insisted on a sad appearance full of tragic events, starting with an earthquake. Turkey and Syria in February, where they caused the death of about 50,000 people and injured 24,000 others, through the violent clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, which left more than 12,000 dead in April, and the earthquake in the Al Haouz province in Morocco during the month of September, leaving behind more than three thousand dead and thousands more. 

The displaced people and the world did not catch its breath until Storm Daniel struck Libya, destroying the city of Derna and drowning it, causing the death of hundreds and the loss of thousands. The year concluded with the most difficult incidents and tragedies affecting the Palestinian people through Israeli aggression and a war of genocide that continues until this moment, claiming the lives of about 22 thousand citizens of the Gaza Strip and wounding about 56. One thousand and seven thousand missing, still under the rubble, in conjunction with a systematic aggression against the West Bank, its cities, camps, and Jerusalem, which has claimed more than four hundred martyrs, thousands of wounded, and nearly five thousand detainees since the seventh of October.


In light of the toll of the war on the Palestinian people, which destroyed their homes, lives, and assets in the Gaza Strip, other events dwarf other events, and the war on Gaza takes the lead in the scene of the year 2023, from door to door, and with it, it can be said that the year that is gathering its papers in preparation for farewell tonight has par excellence won the title of the (bloodiest) year. .


We hope that the new year will come bringing with it happy news. We call on all the inhabitants of the world to celebrate tonight by bidding farewell to a past year and welcoming a new year under the slogan of calling for peace, security, reassurance and freedom for our people, who remain the only people in the world who have not achieved their freedom and whose joy remains limited because the people of Palestine is an icon of patience and challenge. 


There is no home or family without a martyr who rose to sacrifice for his homeland, so that our people throughout the ages may learn to love the homeland and defend it through families that instilled in their children belonging to Palestinian customs and traditions, respecting them, and readiness to sacrifice what is dear and valuable at any time.


A people who enjoy peace of conscience and are armed with pride, despite the harsh years and the bitterness of the past, deserve a state in which they can build their dreams and aspirations, like all the peoples of the world, an independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital, Zahrat al-Mada’in, and to get rid of the yoke of the most dangerous and longest occupation in the world.


Tomorrow comes the year 2024, and all Palestinian issues are hot, inflamed, and flammable, from prisoners to settlements to attacks on Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, incursions and assassinations in the West Bank, and the aggression against the Gaza Strip. Therefore, the fate of the new year will not differ from last year and all previous years in which a usurping occupation crouched a defenseless people prevented from achieving their wishes.


The years in the history of Palestine remain rolling numbers and change, but the constant element remains our national cause, which cannot change and is considered the essence and core of the conflict in our contemporary history.

OPINIONS

Sun 31 Dec 2023 10:58 am - Jerusalem Time

Military and political objectives of West Bank invasions

Nihad Abu Ghosh

Nihad Abu Ghosh

Opinion Writer

Various cities in the occupied West Bank are witnessing continuous incursions and invasions by the occupation forces, the reasons for which and their pretexts are multiple, but they are united in their goals and objectives, especially since they coincide with the brutal war that Israel is waging against the Gaza Strip. Therefore, it integrates with them in political goals, confirming that the Palestinian people, with all their groups, sectors, and political and social forces, are the target of these operations, and not a specific faction. The claims of the Israeli government and its army regarding the declared goals of the war on Gaza are misleading. Indeed, the real goals of these waves of oppression and brutality are the same ones that existed before the war, and their essence is to subjugate the Palestinian people and resolve the conflict with them on the basis of liquidating their national rights.

The occupation government has abandoned its hands for many years, specifically since the Al-Aqsa Intifada in the year 2000, from the divisions of the occupied Palestinian territories provided for in the Oslo Accords, which classified the main cities as Category A, so that administrative and security responsibilities fall within the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. Although the aforementioned agreement contained provisions allowing the occupation forces to invade Area A under the pretext of “hot pursuit,” that is, intervening in the event of information that a person is on his way to carry out a military operation against the occupation, this pretext has turned over time into a fixed approach that allows for the appropriation of lands. Palestinian territories, regardless of their classification, at any time and for any reason the army deems appropriate, such as arresting wanted persons, demolishing homes, carrying out assassinations of resistance members, or closing press offices, television stations, and civil society organizations, all the way to the attack on exchange companies last week, which included pirating the sector’s funds. Private, in addition to the periodic theft of public sector funds through the detention and confiscation of Palestinian funds known as clearing.

Israeli military operations in the West Bank include carrying out assassinations of activists or wanted persons using warplanes, helicopters, or drones, all of which are deaf tools that do not distinguish between wanted persons and those who happen to be near them. Moreover, these executions take place in areas that are completely under Israeli control. Therefore, an occupation army force can arrest wanted persons who are only a few minutes' walk from the nearest occupation army camp. But the feeling of overconfidence that Israel will escape punishment and accountability no matter what it does is what pushes the occupation army and its political leadership to continue these criminal policies without distinction between fighters and civilians, or between adults and children, as Palestinian statistics indicate that among the martyrs there are more than 520. More than 90 children were martyred during the year 2023.

These invasions are closely linked to the war on Gaza, considering that any Palestinian is a legitimate target for operations of revenge and torture in response to what happened on October 7, and to prevent the rise of a mass movement in the West Bank in support of our people who are being slaughtered in Gaza in public and amid the silence of the world, and thus prevent the West Bank from turning into a third front. It is burning alongside the Gaza and northern fronts, and in this context, the arrest of about five thousand Palestinian activists from all areas of the West Bank and from various political orientations came as a kind of waving a big stick against any activity opposing the occupation in the West Bank, even if it was just a passing comment on social media.

The open campaigns of repression are linked to the political plan adopted by the ruling far-right coalition, the summary of which is that force alone, and not negotiations or agreements, is capable of resolving the conflict with the Palestinians. In this context, there are partial and special agendas carried by extremist settler groups, and others carried by the army and security services, and they all intersect and meet. In a unified format to control Palestinian lands, displace some population centers, and settle scores with a number of sites that represented advanced models of resistance in its renewed forms, especially the camps in the north: Jenin, Nour Shams, Tulkarm, and Balata, which were the scene of widespread torture and displacement operations that the occupation seeks to change. The terrain of these camps and erasing them from the map if necessary.

In addition to all of the above, there are political calculations that are strongly present with all Palestinians, especially with the Authority and its leadership. These invasions, in addition to the theft of clearance funds, contribute to weakening and embarrassing the Authority and making it appear incapable of protecting its people. It is no secret that the Israeli extreme right does not care about the collapse of power. Rather, it is working towards this goal, claiming that it has ready-made alternatives for elected local leaders.

The continued invasion policies and settler violence have raised public observations and reservations by the US administration and the West in general, warning against these policies that may lead to a state of chaos not only in the West Bank but in the region in general. However, the Netanyahu government has some margin of disagreement with the US administration, and is using it as an excuse. At the time when some demands are made of it, Netanyahu and the central movement in Israel may not have reached a final conviction regarding the collapse of authority, but he is always working to weaken it, reduce its role and blackmail it to force it to accept that its fate depends on Israel’s satisfaction and therefore it must abandon its national aspirations. Here, it must be pointed out that whatever the Authority does or whatever concessions it makes, it will not gain the satisfaction of Israel, which rejects “Hamastan” with the same force it rejects “Fathestan,” not out of love for this or hate for that, but rather in support of the permanent Palestinian division and rejection of the unified Palestinian entity. With the national rights it symbolizes.

OPINIONS

Sun 31 Dec 2023 10:45 am - Jerusalem Time

Interview with historian Yezid Sayigh "We find a symmetry of radical discourse in Hamas and certain Israeli ultra -nationalists"

Alternatives Economique

Alternatives Economique

Opinion Writer

By launching an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory, commit killings against civilians and taking hostages, what objectives was aimed at Hamas? The Islamist movement could not ignore that it would trigger a massive Israeli military reaction against the Gaza Strip whose Palestinian population would be the main victim, says historian Yezid Sayigh, researcher at the Malcolm H. Kerr center for the Middle East of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.


This new phase of clashes in the Middle East replaced the Palestinian issue at the center of the diplomatic scene when it had been relegated to the background for two decades. And in particular by the Western countries which have ignored the work of the undermining carried out by Israel to hinder a solution to two states.


What objectives did Hamas pursue when he decided to commit the attack and killings of October 7?


Given the magnitude of the attack on the military level, my reaction in the very first hours of October 7 was to think that the objectives of Hamas were to be very ambitious. Even if one of his goals was to obtain the release of the 5,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, a subject which has a deep emotional resonance in Palestinian society, it could not be the only one. Because even supposing that Hamas ends up obtaining such a massive release, it would always be in charge of the Gaza Strip and the 2.3 million people who live there, still besieged.


As we have gone when we learned the reality of the killings of Israeli civilians committed by Hamas and others, I understood that, whatever the goals pursued by the movement, they would be impossible to reach, And that the consequences would inevitably be terrible for the Israelis and for the Palestinians. For me who has been for many years a negotiator of the peace process, which was also involved in the Israeli-Palestinian and Judeo-Palestinian dialogues, I had the feeling that all for which I worked came from be destroyed.


Subsequently, the morally repugnant rhetoric of some Hamas officials who tried to hide, put into perspective or justify the death of Israeli civilians led me to ask me if Hamas had really developed long -term goals.


How could a movement that pretend to be the Palestinian national leadership missing at this point of capacity for political analysis on the situation in Israel, on the balance of power in the world, on the reaction of public opinion, especially in Western countries, Faced with such killings? The effects of the October 7 attack are dramatically clear: the Israelis opposed to the peace process have been reinforced in their conviction that there is no partner for Palestinian side negotiations. And some have even withdrawn from it a suspicious satisfaction in the register "We told you well".


In the past, the violence committed by Palestinian armed groups against Israeli civilians already pushed Israel to negotiate?


Such acts have never favored the peace process, on the contrary. Whether it was rocket fire from Jordan or Lebanon in the late 1960s against Israeli localities in the Jourdain valley or in Galileo. Or bomb attacks against buses, hostage -taking in line planes in the 1970s. Or, of course, later since the 2000s, suicide attacks and other types of bloody attacks.

Is Hamas really convinced that he can get the disappearance of Israel?


Hamas is not a homogeneous or static movement. It has a pragmatic wing, if not moderate, which today lives in exile, especially in Qatar, and a radical wing, embodied in particular by the military leaders who are in Gaza. The pragmatic branch, embodied by Ismaïl Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the movement, has long proposed a compromise which would consist that Hamas did not recognize the jure Israel, nor its right to exist, but de facto established a truce of very long, ten or fifteen years.


However, the incessant blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip by the government of Benyamin Netanyahu ended up making this compromise proposal for the management of Hamas. And yet until October 7, Benyamin Netanyahu's policy explicitly aimed to maintain the Islamist movement in power in Gaza to divide the Palestinian national leadership, as many Israeli media have confirmed it. But after the 2021 war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the military branch took the ascendant within the movement, as the attack on October 7 proves.


I add that beyond the division between pragmatics and radicals, there are millennarist currents within Hamas who think that the end of the world is approaching. Some of their representatives said after the attack on October 7, that they described as "victory", that Hamas was going to beat Israel in Gaza and then release the whole Palestine.


This form of thought, totally detached from reality, is not very far from that of certain Israeli Israeli Jews from the far right who refuse the Oslo agreements because they want to carry out the mission that, according to them, God has Entrusted to the Jewish people to control all of Judea and Samaria, that is to say the West Bank and Jerusalem. These extremists, who include an important ultra -nationalist current represented in the current Israeli government, are convinced that the attacks of October 7 offer the opportunity to expel millions of Palestinians from West Bank and Gaza to the rest of the world.


The symmetry of certain radical speeches in both camps is found on another register. In an interview with a Lebanese media on October 24, Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said that the Palestinians have been victims for so long that all the acts that the Islamist movement is justified. Some Israelis are expressed in identical terms, believing that given the magnitude and nature of the killings of October 7, all the military actions of Israel in Gaza and in the West Bank are now justified.


The attacks committed by Hamas on October 7, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the center of the diplomatic agenda replaced. Why had he almost disappeared before?


The Israeli-Palestinian peace process started in 1993 with the Oslo agreements signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (OLP). This process provided for the establishment of an interim administration in part of the occupied territories, then the holding of negotiations on the so -called "final" status of the territories, which were to start at the latest in 1999.


But this process collapsed in July 2000 in Camp David, in the United States, with the failure of negotiations between Yasser Arafat, president of the PLO, and Ehud Barak, Israeli Prime Minister, at the invitation of Bill Clinton , President of the United States. A failure in which Israeli and Palestinian leaders have their respective share of responsibility.


Since then, despite attempts to relaunch it, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has gradually disappeared from the diplomatic agenda, despite the commitments made by Western countries. In Berlin in March 1999, for example, the European Council made an unconditional support declaration to the right of Palestinians to have a state. She specified that if the Council hoped that such a State was due to the day via good faith negotiations, the right of the Palestinians "to self -determination, including the right to create a State" was neither conditioned to negotiations nor negotiations or negotiations or negotiations at the approval of Israel.


However, almost twenty-five years later, it is clear that no European state has placed this requirement at the heart of its policy in the Middle East. Similarly, in 2002, the United States, under the chairmanship of George W. Bush, voted for resolution 1397 of the United Nations Security Council which supports the solution to two states. However, at the end of the attacks of October 7, it took two weeks for Joe Biden, followed by other US officials, simply begins to mention the need to relaunch a negotiated process around this solution.


In reality, since the mid-2000s, Western governments have chosen to ignore what Israel has done on the ground, in particular the expansion of colonization in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as the endless seat of Gaza . It is a moral and political failure of which we see the tragic consequences.


Hamas is obviously responsible for the atrocities he committed on October 7 against Israelis, but this moment in history does not come from nowhere. It has been sixty years since the problem of Palestinian refugees existed because of the creation of the State of Israel and that any form of recognition, compensation and obviously return has been refused. It has been their-six years since Israel has occupied the West Bank, Jerusalem East and Gaza. And if, in 1993, the Israeli government undertook to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians by the peaceful route, it continued to create the facts accomplished on the ground which hindered the solution to two states.


Western governments have failed to create incitement mechanisms that would have forced successive Israeli governments, right or left, to be honest with their public opinion: it is impossible for Israel to have everything at the same time, on the one hand , peace and security, and on the other hand, the incessant expansion of the colonies.


However, incentives of this type worked in the past: in 1991, American president George H. W. Bush had threatened to retain $ 10 billion in real estate loans, guaranteed by Israel to the United States, in order to force the Prime Minister of right lasts at the time, Yitzhak Shamir, to agree to attend the Madrid peace conference.


What are the respective responsibilities of Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the failure of the OSLO process in the early 2000s?


Between the start of the process in 1993 and the negotiations qualified as "finals" in 2000, Israeli governments, whether they were supporters of the Oslo agreements, like the cabinets led by the Labor Party, or that they Or oppose, like the firms led by Likoud, did not interrupt a single day colonization in the West Bank, whether by creating new colonies or by extending existing colonies.


Such a policy has of course been perceived by the Palestinian population as a desire to create facts accomplished on the ground, to change the terms of the final negotiation on the status of the territories even before it begins.


Consequently, the deliberately provocative visit of Ariel Sharon, then head of the Israeli opposition, on the esplanade of the mosques on September 28, 2000 spontaneous demonstrations of Palestinians, without instruction of the OLP, while the services of Israeli security had strongly warned Ariel Sharon against his visit. The Israeli authorities reacted very violently, opening fire on demonstrators and killing several of them, but also by closing the West Bank, cutting the cities of each other. What was felt very hard by the inhabitants of these regions who needed to go from one area to another or to Israel to work, to earn a living.

When this violence exploded, Yasser Arafat, who was not the promoter, decided to use it opportunistic by giving the green light to his party activists, the Fatah, to take part. He hoped to tear additional concessions from the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, in future negotiations. This was a major strategic error, a completely counterproductive decision that I criticized during the time1, because it fueled the rhetoric of the Israeli right and settlements of settlers who were hostile to the Oslo process.


And, on the Palestinian side, it made the game of Hamas, also hostile to the Oslo process. After the election of Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister of Israel in February 2001, the Islamist movement launched a series of suicide attacks in major Israeli cities in order to demonstrate to the Palestinian population that it was more patriotic than the Palestinian authority.


It was soon imitated by Islamic jihad and even by Fatah, which did not want to be overwhelmed by Hamas. All this has obviously made the game of opponents of the Oslo agreements within Israeli society and has explained largely the longevity in power of Benyamin Netanyahu since 2009.


ARAB AND WORLD

Sun 31 Dec 2023 10:16 am - Jerusalem Time

A community with a shared future for humanity takes hold in the Middle East in 2023

The Central Foreign Affairs Conference was held in Beijing between December 27 and 28, which pointed out that building a community with a shared future for mankind is the core concept of Xi Jinping's diplomatic thought, and the solution that China offers to the world on "what world we will build and how to build it" after deepening our understanding of the law of development. Human society, reflects the views of members of the Communist Party of China on the world, system and values, keeps pace with the prevailing aspirations of the people of countries around the world, determines the direction of progress of world civilization, and represents the noble goal of big-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

Since its introduction ten years ago, the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity has received wide acclaim and a positive response from countries in the Middle East and other countries of the world. During the year 2023, in the face of turbulent international and regional situations, China cooperated with the countries of the Middle East to move forward with courage, and advance the consolidation of the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity in the Middle East with concrete steps.


The efforts made in building the Chinese-Arab community for a shared future towards the new era contribute positively to building a community with a shared future for humanity. At the first China-Arab Summit held at the end of last year, the Chinese and Arab sides agreed to make every effort to build the Chinese-Arab community for a common future towards the new era, and to enhance solidarity and cooperation between the two sides, in a way that supports the national renaissance of both sides, promotes peace and regional development, and maintains justice. and international equity, and contributes to building a community with a shared future for humanity. In 2023, President Xi Jinping received in China the leaders of Palestine, Algeria, Mauritania, Syria, Kuwait, Egypt and other Arab countries respectively, exchanged views with them in-depth, and reached broad consensuses with them on ways to develop China-Arab relations and build a community with a shared future for mankind. The past year also witnessed many regular events within the framework of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum, such as the 18th session of the Senior Officials Meeting, the 7th session of the High-Level Strategic Political Dialogue, the 10th session of the Chinese-Arab Businessmen Conference, the 7th session of the China-Arab Energy Cooperation Conference, and the first session of the China Youth Development Forum. Arab, which injects new dynamism into building the Chinese-Arab community for a shared future towards the new era, and mobilizes positive energy to build a community with a shared future for humanity.



Promoting reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran and mediating the Palestinian-Israeli conflict created a successful model for building a community with a shared future for humanity. Last March, thanks to Chinese mediation, Saudi Arabia and Iran achieved reconciliation in a historic way, followed by the “wave of reconciliation” in the Middle East region that prompted Syria’s official return to the League of Arab States, which set a model for settling disputes and differences and achieving good neighborliness between the countries of the region through dialogue and consultation. . Since the outbreak of the new round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict last October, China has been working to bring peace and save lives, as it cooperated with Arab countries several times in submitting draft resolutions, and issued the first resolution by the UN Security Council since the outbreak of the conflict in its capacity as the rotating president of the Council in month. November, which took the first step towards a ceasefire. The concept of a community with a shared future for humanity calls for the creation of an equation of joint and cooperative security. This reflects the desire of the peoples of the region to establish peace and realize rights. It goes beyond the mentality of a zero-sum game and the mentality of the victor and the vanquished. It refutes the mentality of hegemony and decision-making alone in some countries, and provides Chinese solutions and Chinese wisdom to resolve hot-button issues. In the Middle East region.


High-quality Belt and Road cooperation is a living practice for building a community with a shared future for mankind. Last October, Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Palestine, Algeria, Tunisia and other 20 Middle Eastern countries participated in the third session of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation with high-level attendance, which reflects the great enthusiasm of the Middle Eastern countries to participate in building the Belt and Road. Last November, China signed a memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road with Jordan, which means China has signed cooperation documents on the Belt and Road with all 22 Arab countries and the Arab League. In 2023, Chinese companies built the main structure of the first ultra-tall tower in the New Alamein City project in Egypt, completed the mechanical work of the Halfaya natural gas processing plant project in Iraq, delivered the Seventh Ring Road project in Kuwait, and completed the East-West motorway in Algeria. All of this is the impressive results of cooperation between China and Middle Eastern countries in building the Belt and Road, and the living embodiment of building a community with a shared future for humanity.


High-quality Belt and Road cooperation is a living practice for building a community with a shared future for mankind. Last October, Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Palestine, Algeria, Tunisia and other 20 Middle Eastern countries participated in the third session of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation with high-level attendance, which reflects the great enthusiasm of the Middle Eastern countries to participate in building the Belt and Road. Last November, China signed a memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road with Jordan, which means China has signed cooperation documents on the Belt and Road with all 22 Arab countries and the Arab League. In 2023, Chinese companies built the main structure of the first ultra-tall tower in the New Alamein City project in Egypt, completed the mechanical work of the Halfaya natural gas processing plant project in Iraq, delivered the Seventh Ring Road project in Kuwait, and completed the East-West motorway in Algeria. All of this is the impressive results of cooperation between China and Middle Eastern countries in building the Belt and Road, and the living embodiment of building a community with a shared future for humanity.


Advancing the implementation of the “Three Global Initiatives” constitutes an important pillar for building a community with a shared future for humanity. Middle Eastern countries have been actively responding and participating in President Xi Jinping's Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, and Global Civilization Initiative. To date, 17 Arab countries have announced their support for the Global Development Initiative, and 12 Arab countries have joined the “Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative,” and leaders of Middle Eastern countries, including Iran and Syria, have expressed their supportive position for the Global Security Initiative, looking forward to cooperation with China. In maintaining peace and security in the region. Last December, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism signed with the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States the “Joint Statement on the Implementation of the Global Civilization Initiative,” making the Arab countries the first region in the world to issue such a joint statement with China. An increasing number of people in the Middle East realize that the “Three Global Initiatives” embody China’s desire as a major country to achieve interest for itself and others at the same time, are consistent with the common interest of all humanity, and constitute an effective path to building a community with a shared future for humanity and building a better world.



ARAB AND WORLD

Sun 31 Dec 2023 10:15 am - Jerusalem Time

Israeli channel: In the new year, a new decision for Putin confirms "Quarrel" with Netanyahu

Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to exclude Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, from the list of leaders who received his congratulations on the occasion of the new year, according to the Israeli "12" channel.


Putin's decision comes in light of the escalation of tensions between the two leaders, especially after the Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip, and Moscow hosts a delegation from the Hamas movement that Israel is seeking to eliminate.


The Russian president sent congratulations to more than 30 leader and political figures around the world, but for the first time in his states, he decided to exclude Netanyahu from this regulation.


This procedure comes after a 50 -minute "sharp" phone call between the two leaders 3 weeks ago, in which Putin described the Israeli army attacks on Gaza as a "massacre."

ARAB AND WORLD

Sun 31 Dec 2023 10:13 am - Jerusalem Time

Israel is looking to return residents of the northern Gaza Strip to their areas

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) revealed, on Sunday, that the Israeli army began discussing whether residents of the northern Gaza Strip would be to return to their areas.


The source said that officials of the Israeli army and the public security apparatus (Shin Bet) are discussing the possibility of allowing the residents to return from the south of the Strip to the north, after the end of the violent fighting phase in the north.


The proposal includes the return of the residents to the north to stay in a shelter tent, after their homes were almost completely destroyed.


"Many international officials demanded, in recent days, to return hundreds of thousands of Gaza population to the north."


At the beginning of the war, Israel demanded that the inhabitants of the north of Gaza be evacuated and went to the south, and recently demanded that the residents of the south were also displaced, with the aim of expanding its ground operations.

PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 9:57 am - Jerusalem Time

Jerusalem: Dozens of Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque protected by Israeli army

Today, Sunday, dozens of settlers stormed the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, amid heavy protection from the occupation police.


The settlers made provocative tours inside the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and performed Talmudic rituals.


Groups of settlers storm Al-Aqsa on a daily basis except Friday and Saturday.

OPINIONS

Sun 31 Dec 2023 9:46 am - Jerusalem Time

Palestine 2024: Correcting history or returning to prehistoric!

Assas Media- "Alquds" dot com

Assas Media- "Alquds" dot com

Opinion Writer

By Jean Aziz


"Well, we have dropped the Soviet Union with a double blockade, between Christian democracies in the west, and the Islamic awakening in the east. Now how do we drop political Islam?"


A question that became the subject of the first research in Washington between the late eighties and the early nineties. Until they found the solution - the disaster. Which still interacts crises and wars, even Gaza.


Washington conducted a quick study, as all its studies, to compare the Soviet pole and the Islamic Planet. So I concluded simply, it is a fixed approach in all its extracts, until the following: The first was placed in geography. This facilitated the siege. The second is widespread until the outbreak. Thus, the solution is not here by the siege. But by bombing from the inside until fragmentation and collapse.

While American thinking councils are on the search for the point - the killing of this required bombing, according to the scenario of the Hollywood Film Film "Harmagedon", Saddam Hussein and presented to them, on the morning of August 2, 1990, the answer, the solution and the required location. The man invaded Kuwait, in the day he folded his war with the Khomeini regime. So I loved the idea in Washington: We found it. Let us make Iraq a permanent war. It is the ideal reservoir of bombing the whole world of political Islam. In it all the intersections - the necessary and necessary contradictions to make any bullet, interact and explode according to the endless reactions chains:


After the occupation of Iraq, we became a radical new Middle East. Where the Shiite political Islam represented by the Mullahs of Tehran, it progresses in natural geography, political and economic, under the auspices of American directly


In Iraq, four intersections - contradictions, ideal for achieving the required goal:

First: the Shiite Sunni intersection, one of the most important bombing.

Second: The Iranian Arab intersection. With all its historical and betting stores.

Third: The intersection of political geography, between Mesopotamia, which is rooted in the land of the Arabian Peninsula from one of the two parties to the conflict, and between the only open geographical window of Faris, which was imprisoned by nature between the two mountain chain, and left it only towards the Shatt al -Arab. This exacerbates the required conflict.

Fourth, the intersection of oil and wealth that must lure the entire region to that raging Aoun ...

And so it became. It was even said that a clash was not a patent. Rather, he was satisfied with the innocence of Tikriti in violence and invasion. While April Glasby lured him to the endless maze.

In the first part of the helling scenario, Bush stopped at the Kuwaiti border. And soon the results of the explosion are waiting. But the matter remained limited. Then bin Laden came and volunteered for the same job on September 11. The day when the White House was a man who is professionally good at the game, his name is Dick Cheney. He holds the full decision, in light of a digestive image of the head of a doll, the son of the first round. Cheney immediately issued the matter: the attack on Iraq. He had to wait two years, while Mullah Omar's file is closed in Kabul. Then he went to Baghdad, an occupied, victorious, explosive to a country, a region, and a world.


New Middle East

After the occupation of Iraq, we became a radical new Middle East. Where the Shiite political Islam represented by the Mullahs of Tehran, it progresses in natural, political and economic geography, under direct American sponsorship. While Sunni political Islam is also targeted from Washington. On the background of being responsible for September 11, the desired and the new pretext of the new cosmic war.


Iran was more comfortable. Her crescent extended from the Gulf to the medium

Until the White House rest to its strategy for a future century. And he began to look at the doctrine of displacement in the east towards Asia. There is no problem after today in the Middle East. There are no central or fateful issues. Rather, it is just ancient tribes fighting and controlling the empire. While the new world now starts from the Pacific Ocean and its surroundings.

In one extraordinary moment for this trend, a dreamer from another world was completely strange to Washington. Barak, Ibn Hussein Obama, a student of Harvard, Al -Kab Al -Kelein for his rejection or even hatred of his roots and history.

Think for a while to change the plan. Or perhaps accelerate it. He said: Let us try the Turkish -Erdogan Muslim Brotherhood model, in its attractive duo, between a special Islamic democracy, and liberal economic on our way. If you succeed, we summarize the time and price. And if it fails, the Islamists only pay the prices and the loss of times. He released what was the "Arab Spring". He was said to have signed an executive order for his launch in August 2010. After months, Bouazizi's body was burned in Tunisia. Before a full generation is burned with freedom and modernity, and a chance is burned.

Even Obama was not satisfied with the establishment. Rather, helped prepare for implementation. So he was able to liquidate bin Laden in the first of May 2011, while the Brotherhood spring harvested the capitals from Tunisia to Cairo, the West.

However, Obama opened the crescents, and they soon closed in Damascus. In the capital of the Umayyads, the Brotherhood spring turns an endless massacre. Israel was mobilized and its existential warning bell was stolen in the scheduled Washington triangle, between the White and Foreign Affairs and Congress. He conveyed a clear message: Let Obama go and try his inventions on the "Islamic DNA" away from our borders. Here the chaos is forbidden. Be creative or destructive. Leave a ruler and arrange your world with other approaches.

Obama immediately adhere. He felt his chemical warning. His Russian and Iranian friend called for the protection of the northern borders of Israel, from the chaos of his spring, blood storms.

Iran was more comfortable. Her crescent extended from the Gulf to the medium.

While Washington, emotional, empty, underestimating until contempt.


Western misunderstanding

Originally, and between two halists, who were interrupted here, the West did not understand once the truth of political Islam and its structural depth. He did not fundamentally realize his founding violence. He continued to deal with it as if it was just a sociological phenomenon, one of the many phenomena of human social pluralism around the world. Like the Irish, Catalan, or Basque issue, or other ethnic conflicts, it can be managed indefinitely, with techniques "give them what they fear later lost", and the theories of Liv Koching.

He did not understand the West once, but rather refuses to understand, what does it mean that the mother of the followers of Khomeini political Islam wished for the death of all of her children in the battle. Contrary to a fixed Islamic rule that the boys are the adornment of this worldly life, not the afterlife.

The West did not hear, but rather refuses to hear, the vocabulary of a division that the shameful people repeat to those who fall into the battle of Khomeini political Islam:

"Section is a section, we will cover the face of the earth, until Islam triumphs."

He did not say: We will cover the earth with knowledge, good, love, growth, or prosperity, for example. Rather, only blood.

This is what the West did not understand in general and Washington in particular, and it will not be done. They will continue to try with the famous rule: experience and error!

Let us close the Hilalin here, and let us go back to where Obama left: the man came out of the presidency with an internal American boiling and bombs in the region.

As it is supposed to happen by the nature and reverse of the action, the internal American reaction came to the arrival of the first brown president, the election of an original original cobby, from Bani Trump. He took over the bombing of all the packages left by Obamic experiences.

He moved his country's embassy to Jerusalem. Qasim Soleimani and his Iraqi "engineer" were killed. He left Aramco bombing Iranian fire without response. He provoked a complete east and a western ally, which is steeped between a former exhibiting wife, and a permanent numbness ...

Until the world became similar to what he committed around Congress the moment he lost the elections.

Amid this madness, Saudi Arabia seemed to be looking for a different vision. Between the open Yemeni wound, and accumulated challenges at home, the neighborhood, the region and the world, Muhammad bin Salman went to try to draw a completely different path, for the history of the region at least 45 years ago.

He began to move the conflict with the Khomeini heirs regime, from the race on extremism, to a race towards modernity.

It was the first deep inconvenience to Tehran's mullahs. Then he went to agree with them. And by the patronage of? Beijing, that is, the largest importer of Iran's oil exports. Consequently, the first controller of its imports of very rare currency amid semi -famine.

Until the third step from Bin Salman, towards Palestine in particular. The focus of the conflict and its right address, and its permanent excuse for many. The negotiation began calmly and depth, about a major settlement: normalization with Israel, in exchange for a two -state solution. Any updated application of the Arab Peace Initiative announced from Beirut in 2002.

The step seemed to have serious chances of progress and explore the possibilities of success.

Tehran understood that it was the knockout of its influence project in the region, and the legitimacy of its eternal revolution in it. The planning for the October 7.

With one blow, it restores the conflict to its religious, where there is no solution or settlement. The banner of Palestine is kidnapped again, not the moment the Arabs abandoned it, but rather before they were able to achieve a fair solution to its cause. Iran's sensors in the entire region give new legitimacy to the struggle, after in recent years the authoritarian burdens on its societies, countries and peoples ...


Where from here on the eve of the beginning of the year 2024?

Either to endless wars, by mediation, tools and alternatives, and always with Palestinian and Arab blood. Netanyahu's logic triumphs in the entity, and Tehran's influence in the region. Either to the fall of Netanyahu and the victory of Palestine. But the Palestinian Arab and humanitarian Palestinian Palestine.

What determines the decisiveness between the two possibilities?

Gaza's steadfastness first. And the rationalization of Hamas second. And the recognition of Ramallah's authority of the necessity of change and switching third. The handing over of the two, power and movement together, that Palestine is the goal and the issue. Neither power nor the lines of its people. International public opinion pressed everyone fourth. Washington and Tel Aviv finally, the fact that Palestine is an issue that does not die.

In a return to the beginning of the research from the article of the first part yesterday, after the events of September 11, Anoun, Farid Zakaria, the famous Amouda: "The End of the History". In response to Fukuyama's saying. In a predestination that the fall of Manhattan Towers will lead to the fall of the polar monounsaturation of America.

After the October 7 attack, he will be written, either about the beginning of the right date, with the victory of Palestine.

Either about a return to prehistoric, with the victory of the dug of violence, brutality and killing, against Palestine, or its pretext!


ARAB AND WORLD

Sun 31 Dec 2023 9:42 am - Jerusalem Time

American Senator criticizes US sale of weapons to Israel .. He accused the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of "defrauding" to pass the deal

The American Senator, Tim Kane, criticized what he described as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs's circumstance of Congress in its approval to sell weapons worth 147.5 million dollars to Israel, and demanded a public interpretation of this decision, which is the second decision of its kind this month, according to the American newspaper "Washington Post", Saturday December 30, 2023.


This comes after the US State Department announced, on Friday, December 29, that the proposed sale of 155 mm artillery and relevant equipment is compatible with the United States' commitment to Israel's security, and the efforts made to help it "develop and maintain a strong and ready -to -defense capacity" .


While Kane, a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, and other Democrats in the Council, opposed the arms sales conducted by the Biden administration, which avoids reviewing Congress.


In a press release on Saturday, Kane said: "Congress must have a full vision of the weapons that we transfer to any other country," adding that the fast time frame for reviewing Congress "undermines transparency and weakens accountability."


While the Pentagon (the Pentagon) said on Friday that Foreign Minister Anthony Blinkkin approved the sale of artillery shells for 155 millimeters and the equipment associated with it, without reviewing Congress.


The Pentagon added that Plankin has determined that there is an emergency that requires the sale of this ammunition immediately to Israel, which suspends the condition of the Congress review of the deal, according to Reuters.


The sale comes at a time when Israel is intensifying its attack on the Gaza Strip. The United States is pressing Israel to reduce the losses of civilians in Gaza to the minimum possible, and called on it to reduce the frequency of the war in the coming weeks.


Where the Pentagon said that Israel requested the addition of valves and bombing capsules to a previous request to obtain 155mm shells, bringing the total value of the deal to 147.5 million dollars.


This is the second time this month that the Biden administration has exceeded a review of Congress to sell weapons to Israel. On December 9, the administration used the emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel.

Source: Arabic Post

ARAB AND WORLD

Sun 31 Dec 2023 9:39 am - Jerusalem Time

Israeli right-wing minister calls for encouraging "voluntary migration" of Gaza residents

The Minister of Finance in the Israeli government, Bezalel Smotrich, called on Saturday to encourage “voluntary immigration” for residents of the Gaza Strip, and to find countries willing to receive them.


Smotrich said, in an interview with the private Hebrew Channel 12: “Gaza will not be a breeding ground for two million people who want to destroy the State of Israel. We want to encourage voluntary immigration.”


The right-wing minister, who leads the extremist "Jewish Home" party, continued: "We must find countries that are willing to receive the residents of Gaza, and this must be through the State of Israel."


Smotrich expressed his refusal for the Palestinian Authority to take control of the Gaza Strip, saying: “They will rule there just as Hamas rules.”


He added: "I support a complete change in the reality in Gaza, by holding a discussion about the settlements there."


He added: "We will have to rule there for a long time. We have to return to Gaza," referring to his support for re-settlement in the Strip.


Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, evacuating 21 settlements as part of a plan called the “Unilateral Disengagement Plan,” implemented by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.



PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 9:33 am - Jerusalem Time

West Bank: Israeli forces storm Jericho and Aqabat Jabr camp

At dawn on Sunday, Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Jericho and the Aqabat Jabr camp.


According to local sources, the occupation forces stormed the city and the Aqabat Jabr camp, raided several neighborhoods, and removed Palestinian flags at the Martyrs’ Roundabout in the center of the camp.

PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 9:25 am - Jerusalem Time

West Bank: Israeli forces storming Nablus and Tulkarm

A citizen was injured by shrapnel from live bullets, Sunday morning, during confrontations with Israeli occupation forces in the old Askar camp, east of Nablus.


According to local sources, a special force stormed the old Askar camp this morning, followed by the storming of a number of military vehicles.


It added that the occupation deployed its snipers on the rooftops of houses in the camp, where confrontations broke out in the place, which led to a citizen being injured by shrapnel from live bullets in the thigh, according to what the Red Crescent Society reported.


Tulkarm


Clashes broke out between Palestinian resistance fighters and occupation forces in Nour Shams camp, east of Tulkarm in the West Bank, since yesterday evening, Saturday.


Three citizens were injured in a bombing by an Israeli drone on the camp, and a second drone bombed a site in the vicinity of the school district inside the camp, resulting in injuries.


The Palestinian Red Crescent said that two young men were injured by shrapnel from the shelling of an Israeli march inside the camp, one of them seriously injured.

PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 9:25 am - Jerusalem Time

Wall Street Journal: Its reconstruction needs decades .. The destruction in Gaza is similar to what happened in Germany in World War II

The American Wall Street Journal likened the devastation caused by the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip to what happened in Germany during World War II (1939-1945).


The newspaper noted, in a report, that most of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are out of service, “and only 8 health centers remain providing their services to the population.”


It explained that "Byzantine-era churches, historic mosques, factories, buildings, schools, hotels, shopping centers, and electricity and water sources were subjected to irreparable damage in Gaza."


The newspaper stressed that "nearly 85 percent of Gaza's population (2.3 million) were forced to leave their homes, and that more than 21,000 people in the Strip were killed in the Israeli aggression."


It said, "The Gaza Strip is exposed to a situation similar to the devastation that Germany witnessed during World War II."


The Wall Street Journal quoted Robert Pabb, professor of political science at the University of Chicago and author of a book on the history of aerial bombing, as saying, “Gaza will go down in history along with the (German) city of Dresden and other famous cities that were bombed during World War II.” .


The newspaper quoted a World Bank report, published on December 12, in which it stated that “77 percent of health facilities, 72 percent of public buildings and areas such as parks, courts, and libraries, 68 percent of communications infrastructure, and almost the entire industrial area were also destroyed as a result of Israeli aggression.


The Wall Street Journal noted, “The United States dropped 3,678 bombs on Iraq between 2004 and 2010, while Israel dropped nearly 29,000 bombs on Gaza since October 7.”


While conflict expert Carolyn Sands, from Kingston University in London, stated that “the reconstruction of Gaza may take decades in the best scenarios,” according to the American newspaper.


In an infinite toll, the toll of the ongoing Israeli aggression against Gaza by land, sea and air since the seventh of last October has risen to more than 21,650 dead and about 56,000 injured, in addition to thousands of missing persons, 70% of whom are children and women.


PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 9:21 am - Jerusalem Time

War on Gaza: Israeli air and artillery bombardment on Gaza Strip leaves dozens of dead and injured

Dozens of citizens, most of them children and women, were killed and wounded, at dawn and early Sunday morning, in air and artillery bombardment by Israeli occupation, which continues its aggression against the Gaza Strip for the 86th day in a row.


The Israeli bombing operations targeted three mosques: Al-Muhajireen Mosque, Al-Sahaba Mosque in Al-Maghazi camp, and Al-Furqan Mosque in Al-Hakar area in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.


A number of citizens were killed and injured in a bombing that targeted two homes for the Qandil family and the Abu Shehada family in the Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip.


The bombing operations by occupation aircraft also targeted the Al-Salah Association in the camp.


An Israeli helicopter fired machine guns east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, while artillery shelling renewed east of Al-Bureij and Al-Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip.


In Nuseirat camp, a number of martyrs and wounded arrived at Al Awda Hospital as a result of the Israeli occupation bombing of the camp.


A drone targeted a house for the Al-Tahrawi family, west of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, while an Israeli raid targeted the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the death and injury of a number of citizens.


The occupation artillery also fired shells towards the Bureij, Nuseirat and Al-Maghazi camps in the central Gaza Strip.


More than 25 citizens were killed and dozens were injured, yesterday evening, Saturday, as a result of the occupation aircraft and artillery bombing citizens’ homes in the Nuseirat and Al-Maghazi camps, the Zawaida area in the central Gaza Strip, and Rafah in the south.


In an infinite toll, the toll of the ongoing Israeli aggression against Gaza by land, sea and air since the seventh of last October has risen to more than 21,650 dead and about 56,000 injured, in addition to thousands of missing persons, 70% of whom are children and women.


ARAB AND WORLD

Sun 31 Dec 2023 9:15 am - Jerusalem Time

French deputy invites his country to punish Israel because of its war on Gaza

French Deputy Thomas Ports of the "France" party said yesterday, Saturday, that Israeli officials commit "genocide" in the Gaza Strip, and called on his country's government to impose sanctions on Israel.


Ports posted this statement through his account on the X platform, where he participated in the statements of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who refused to retreat under the pressure of the international community demanding to stop the war until "achieving the required goals."


French MP described Netanyahu as "an extremist right fanatic and addicted to the hatred of Palestine, and he must be unable to harm others." He stressed the importance of France immediately to start taking measures to impose sanctions on Israel.


He also criticized the presence of the Israeli ambassador in France, noting that these Israeli officials commit a crime of genocide, and it cannot be tolerated.


On December 18, a number of left -wing deputies in the French capital Paris Israel criticized the killing of an employee of the French Foreign Ministry during the aggression on the Strip, and demanded that sanctions be imposed on Israel.


Permanent members of the French Parliament accused the government of failing to take the necessary measures to protect its employee and family.


Since the seventh of last October, Israel has launched a devastating war on Gaza, which resulted in the death of more than 21,600, in addition to the injury of about 56,000 others, most of them children and women. This war also caused massive destruction of infrastructure, and created a "unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe", according to Palestinian and international reports.


Source: Anatolia Agency + Aljazeera

ARAB AND WORLD

Sun 31 Dec 2023 9:08 am - Jerusalem Time

Washington Post: The Arabs started wondering about their position in the world

The writer Abdul Rahman Al -Jundi, in a report for the American newspaper "Washington Post", said that the recent events in Gaza made the Arabs talk that "this world has never been built to accommodate them."


Al -Jundi added that even in the most progressive circles, the Arabs represent a turbulent condition that cannot be tolerated.


He continued that the situation of the Arabs between the homelands that crushed them and the countries of exile seems to be that there will be no life before death, and if this is what the ordinary person feels, then how is the ordeal of the Palestinians in Gaza?!


Al -Jundi said that he knows that the front of the Western moral superiority has collapsed, and called on the Arabs to get rid of the feeling of "internal inferiority", and to work to "make our way to return to language and history: our language and history, and we meet about our collective sadness and our engender."


Essential questions

The writer reported that the Arabs are raising fundamental questions about their position in the world, as they started realizing that their "control of control" does not represent a failure of the global order, but rather one of its basic functions.


The writer considered that when he left Egypt in 2020 after his release from prison, he sought a new birth, and to admit it as a body suffering, highlighting that he had no romantic ideas about the American dream.


He continued that he often faced a transcendent idea of its content that his migration represented a pursuit of supreme values, not an escape from the chaos caused by the wars imposed by the United States, or the kings and military dictatorships that Washington installed and still supported, or the environmental destruction caused by Washington.


Concerns of Arabs

Al -Jundi spoke about his presence in a supportive gathering of the Palestinians in the American Pittsburgh recently, where the demonstrators carried their banners in solidarity chanting "ending the occupation", "stop shooting now."


Then the demonstrators quickly chanted, saying, "We Arabs are respectful, civilized, peaceful, we are not anti -Semitic and we are not wild as they claim."


Suddenly, the writer heard the screaming of his wife, as it was put up by a huge white American man, and she and many other demonstrators, and began insulting the protesters and calling them hateful descriptions, before a group of demonstrators surrounded him, and pushed him towards the police at the site.


He continued, "The view in his eyes was unforgettable, a look that is not full of hatred, nor violence, but with confidence that it will never be described as terrorist or barbaric," because it is descriptions that seem to be special for Arabs only.


Source: Washington Post

OPINIONS

Sun 31 Dec 2023 9:00 am - Jerusalem Time

The free fall of the world of Western ideals

Mina Al -Oraibi

Mina Al -Oraibi

Opinion Writer

A year ago, and at the end of 2022, I wrote an article published on these pages entitled "The Year of the Fall of Western Blinds" after that year witnessed what we envisioned as the summit of Western duplication in dealing with the Ukraine war and considering Western officials that a war in Europe is a disaster for the whole world. We heard a speech after another that demands the governments of the peoples of the world to line up with the West to protect a "global system" that allowed wars such as wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Palestine ... and a global system that considered wars in Asia and Africa crises that must be prevented from spreading their consequences instead of striving to stop them. European welcome to Ukrainian refugees, compared to dealing with Afghan, Somali, Iraqis and Syrians, also raised many questions about Western humanitarian standards.


But these questions diminish and appear faded after the events of 2023. This year came to appear on the verge of the bottom with regard to Western values. Rather, we saw this year, which means any American attempt to pretend to be committed to these ideals on the ground. The war on Gaza, which claimed the lives of 21,500 Palestinians, at least, and children and women represent about 65 percent of them, so far, and made 90 percent of the people of Gaza displaced, and led to a total collapse of the health and food regimes of the sector, is a tragedy in the full sense of the word. This tragedy is implemented by Israel without deterrent because of the absolute American support. Yes, there are important details such as Hamas's responsibility for the October 7 attack and complications for the regional scene and the role of armed groups, but at the heart of this disaster, the absolute American cover of Israel and the continued Israeli occupation of Palestine. When the US National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, says, repeatedly, that the administration of the US President refuses to put any "red lines" for Israel in Palestine, and that the killing of thousands of Palestinian children is "the reality of any war", we remember how I was crying during a press interview at Talking about Ukrainian children. Of course, Ukraine faces a harsh war, and the Russian role in Ukraine and Syria is devastating, but Ukraine, or any other country, has not witnessed destruction and the total indifference to the most basic rights of civilians.


American support for Israel is not new or surprising, but the extent of the Israeli perseverance with a total American support. The term "ceasefire" has become a "provocative" expression with the eyes of Washington, which is doing everything in its power to prevent the official claim of it, while the Western position in all previous wars was "the necessity of self -control" and work towards a "ceasefire", which is the weakest faith. Washington's use of the veto again after the United Nations Security Council, and its insistence on changing a draft resolution of humanitarian aid, in order not to fail, is two other models of American support for Israel, in addition to the absolute material and military support.


This war is the war of President Joe Biden, the "Zionist", according to his statements over the past decades, and US officials assert that he personally supervises his country's position on Israel. Thus, there is a new reality, the Arab world must deal with, especially with the approaching US elections in November.


In an article released on October 4 in the magazine "Foreign Affairs", that is, 3 days before the "Hamas" attack, National Security Adviser Jake Salivan claimed that the Biden administration followed a strategy "reduces the risks of new Middle Eastern disputes", and made it able to devote himself to other areas of the world. He added, "We will work with any country ready to defend the principles of the United Nations Charter, while we support the transparent governance that complies with its people, and we also support the reformists and human rights defenders." But we saw a few days after publishing the article that this pledge was not serious. In an article, which was 7,000 words, Salivan wrote: "We have reduced the severity of crises in Gaza." 3 days after the Gaza war erupted, the article was modified electronically, while the paper version remains for history. There are facts that cannot be erased electronically, whatever the powerful want.


The Gaza war introduced the region and the world a new stage, its features have not been determined yet, but it certainly showed the failure of the policy of "containing" the crisis of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and the United States failed to adhere to the United Nations Charter.


It was not yet called the name of the era we are living. After the Second World War, there was a "Cold War", followed by the "post -Cold War" stage of the United States' control over the international scene and the end of the Soviet Union. Then the stage of "war on terror", which was the last chapter, was the signing of Washington on an agreement that brought Afghanistan to the rule of the "Taliban" movement.


Of course, there are continuous pillars, such as the American -Chinese competition, the repercussions of the rise of India, the economic decline in economic, and international issues such as climate change and energy sources. It is also not possible to ignore the fact that Western cities have witnessed the largest pro -Palestine demonstrations, which still enjoy relatively freedom of expression and unique political movement. Demographic and political diversity in those countries must be calculated in the next stage.


If the year 2022 was the fall of Western ideas, then the year 2023 years is the full rift between humanitarian ideals, and the global governance systems, which were dominated by the West after the end of World War II. What comes after this rift will determine the course of the whole world and for a period of non -perspective.

Source: Alsharq Al Awsat

ARAB AND WORLD

Sun 31 Dec 2023 8:55 am - Jerusalem Time

Tel Aviv's conflict and Lebanese Hezbollah penetrate into cities

The Israeli army threatened to change the position of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and its air strikes in the Lebanese depth with warplanes, using a huge fire force in the border area, were intensified.


Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said "(Hezbollah) violates the international resolution 1701 and continues to use the Lebanese hostages in its solidarity decisions and support (ISIS Hamas) children's killers and the rapists of women." He said: "In response to its attacks, we continue to hit the sites of (Hezbollah)," adding that the spread of the party in southern Lebanon "will not be as it was before the seventh of October," referring to the "Hamas" attack on Israel. At the same time, he indicated that 80 percent of the "Hezbollah" missile shells, which were launched on Friday, "fell inside Lebanese territory."


The Israeli raids gradually expand to the inhabited areas in the Lebanese depth, where yesterday (Saturday) targeted the city of Bint Jbeil, which is the largest city in the south, for the second time during this week. Lebanese media also reported three Israeli raids distributed between the town of Kafr Kala and Tal Nahhas in the eastern sector, a region facing my settlement and a public silence.


On the other hand, the shooting did not stop from inside Lebanese territory against Israeli targets. Hezbollah announced the implementation of several military operations against gatherings of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Ramim barracks with appropriate weapons, and another gathering in the critical of the Adhar, while carrying out an air attack with a brothel on the Ramtha site and his protector on the Lebanese Shebaa farms.



PALESTINE

Sun 31 Dec 2023 8:46 am - Jerusalem Time

War on Gaza: More than 25 killed in the bombing of the homes in the south and central Gaza Strip

More than 25 citizens were killed and dozens were wounded today, Saturday evening, after the shelling of the occupation planes and artillery of the homes of citizens in the Nusseirat, Al -Maghazi and Al -Zawaida area in the central Gaza Strip, and Rafah south.


Medical sources reported that at least 3 citizens were killed and the injury of others, most of them women and children, after the military forces targeted a house belonging to the Salem family in the Al -Surahah area in Nusseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, and a number of citizens from the Hamada family were injured after targeting their house from the occupation aircraft west of Nusseirat camp.


5 citizens were killed and a number of others were injured after the warplanes targeted a house for the Shehadeh family in Al -Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, and at least a citizen was martyred and others who were transferred to the Al -Aqsa Martyrs Hospital were martyred as a result of Israeli bombing targeting a house in the camp.


At least 12 citizens were martyred, and a number of others, most of them children, were injured, after the occupation aircraft bombed a house belonging to the Abu Juma family in the Zawaida area in the central Gaza Strip.


In Rafah, in the south of the Strip, the citizen, Eid Salman Abu Rashid, was martyred in an Israeli bombing in the Al -Salam neighborhood, east of Rafah, and a number of martyrs and wounded fell after an Israeli artillery shelling east of Rafah.


An Israeli march plane also targeted the roof of a house in exchange for the government industry in the Tal Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, and the occupation aircraft bombed a house belonging to the Abu Jamous family, west of the city.


The occupation aircraft also targeted the southern areas of Khan Yunis.


In an indisputable toll, the outcome of the continuous Israeli aggression on Gaza by land, sea and air since the seventh of last October, increased to more than 21650 thousand dead, and about 56 thousand injured, in addition to thousands of missing persons, 70% of them children and women.