Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was born April 28, 1937 and died December 30, 2006. He was the fifth President of Iraq, holding that position from July 16, 1979 until 9 April 2003. He was one of the leading members of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, and afterward, the Baghdad-based Ba’ath Party and its regional organization Ba’ath Party, Iraq Region, which advocated ba’athism, an ideological marriage of Arab nationalism with Arab socialism. (Patricia Ramos, july 2013)
An especially dangerous threat to liberty occurs when members of the press collude with government agencies instead of monitoring and exposing the abuses of those agencies. Unfortunately, collusion is an all-too-common pattern in press coverage of the national security state’s activities. The American people then receive official propaganda disguised as honest reporting and analysis.
"The national security of America and the security of the world could be attained if the American leaders [..] become rational, if America disengages itself from its evil alliance with Zionism, which has been scheming to exploit the world and plunge it in blood and darkness, by using America and some Western countries. What the American peoples need mostly is someone who tells them the truth, courageously and honestly as it is.
They don’t need fanfares and cheerleaders, if they want to take a lesson from the (sept. 11) event so as to reach a real awakening, in spite of the enormity of the event that hit America.
But the world, including the rulers of America, should say all this to the American peoples, so as to have the courage to tell the truth and act according to what is right and not what to is wrong and unjust, to undertake their responsibilities in fairness and justice, and by recourse to reason..."
Saddam Hussein, INA 15-9-2002
Joe Biden & Truth - 2009
US Vice President Joe Biden said that the new administration would seek the
unvarnished truth from its spies, whether or not their information supported
the goals of the government.
The Vice President's address was greeted with loud cheers by the several hundred CIA employees who gathered for the swearing in ceremony in the foyer of the Agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
Standing before the wall of 89 stars representing the CIA staff who have died in the line of duty, Mr Biden said:
"We expect you to provide independent analysis, not to engage in group think. We
expect you to tell us the facts as you know them wherever they may lead, not
what you think we want to hear." (Tim Shipman. 20-2-2009)
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign
ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid
to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation
that is afraid of its people …
The wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. …
Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." John F.Kennedy
“Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you can not retain.”
Saadi Shirazi
(Persian poet & humanist, born in Shiraz, Iran, c. 1210)
"The post-September 11 era in the US has heralded in a new age of ideology whose discourse and world views have served not only to accommodate such extremist views as those held by Sharon, but also to provide him with a platform and an influence that were unthinkable only a year ago.
Thus while the American President is busy devising a new Manichean universe of absolute good and absolute evil, pronouncing policy on the basis of a simplistic polarization of the world, and unilaterally defining the terms while categorizing state and non-state actors accordingly, Sharon’s Israel has maneuvered itself into a position of even greater power on the world stage provided explicitly by the US."
"The globalists wants to make the world unipolar in order to move towards a globalist non-polarity, where the elites will become fully international and their residence will be dispersed throughout the entire space of the planet.
Accordingly, for the salvation of people, peoples, and societies, the Great Awakening must begin with multipolarity.
This is not just the salvation of the West itself, and not even the salvation of everyone else from the West, but the salvation of humanity, both Western and non-Western, from the totalitarian dictatorship of the liberal capitalist elites.
And this cannot be done by the people of the West or the people of the East alone. Here it is necessary to act together. The Great Awakening necessitates an internationalization of the peoples’ struggle against the internationalization of the elites. Multipolarity becomes the most important reference point and the key to the strategy of the Great Awakening.
"Holism is the most fundamental discovery of 20th century science. It is a discovery of every science from astrophysics to quantum physics to environmental science to psychology to anthropology.
It is the discovery that the entire universe is an integral whole, and that the basic organizational principle of the universe is the field principle: the universe consists of fields within fields, levels of wholeness and integration that mirror in fundamental ways, and integrate with, the ultimate, cosmic whole...." "For many thinkers and religious teachers throughout this history, holism was the dominant thought, and the harmony that it implies has most often been understood to encompass cosmic, civilizational, and personal dimensions. Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Lord Krishna, Lao Tzu, and Confucius all give us visions of transformative harmony, a transformative harmony that derives from a deep relation to the holism of the cosmos."
About political holism
Political holism is based on the recognition that "we" are all members of a single whole. There's no "they," even though "we" are not all alike. Because "we" are all part of the whole, and therefore interdependent, we benefit from cooperating with each other. Political holism is a way of thinking about human cultures and nations as interdependent. Political holists search for solutions other than war to settle international disagreements. Their model of the world is one in which cooperation and negotiation, even with the enemy, even with the weak, promotes political stability more than warfare.
In an overpopulated world with planet-wide environmental problems, the development of weapons of mass destruction has rendered war obsolete as an effective means to resolve disputes.
Political dualists consider political holists unpatriotic for questioning the necessity to defeat "them." In times of impending war, political dualists tend to measure patriotism by the intensity of one's hostility to the country's immediate enemy. Naturally, they would view as disloyalty any suggestion that the enemy is not evil, any call for cooperation with the enemy, any criticism of one's own country.
To political dualists, cooperation with the enemy means capitulation, relinquishment of the nation's position of dominance. At its extreme, political dualism is essentially tribalism. (Betty Craige, 16-8-1997)
Desmond Tutu & Ubuntu
"A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
"We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World.
When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity." (Ubuntu info)
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the enemies are seeking to pit the Iranian people against their government and the Islamic establishment but all to no avail.
Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks on Saturday at a ceremony marking the 33rd anniversary of the passing of ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini the founder of the Islamic Revolution.
Khomeini: Bright Rays of the Sun
The meadow lark sings a glad tiding:
the season of Spring has returned.
The season for wine drinking
and for kisses has returned.
At last the time of withering
and melancholy has gone.
The days for a caress
of your sweetheart's waist have returned....
...If you pass the gate of the seminary
tell the shaykh
If he would be taught
the rosy cheeked girl has returned.
Close the shop of asceticism
during this season of joy,
For the strain that the tar plays
has again to our ears returned.
[March-April 1987]
He said Western countries mainly pin their hopes on the popular protests in order to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
“By launching psychological warfare, recruiting mercenaries, and staging media campaigns against Iran, they attempt to set people against the Islamic establishment,” he said.
However, the Leader noted the enemies are making miscalculations as they did before by erroneously believing that they can cause public dissent in the country.
He said they make such mistakes as they get "wrong advice" from “Iranian traitors” who say: "Count on the Iranian people to rise up against the Islamic establishment."
Ayatollah Khamenei said the Iranians’ interest in the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic establishment is growing day by day, citing the funeral procession held for Iran’s top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.
He also underlined that the West has plundered nations all the way from Asia to Africa and South America for the last three centuries.
“While the West has been ravaging the world… murdering, torturing and establishing slavery, their thinkers adopted human rights laws,” he said. "This paradox in speech and actions is a masterpiece of the West civilization.” Expose enemies’ lies, deceptions, and psychological warfare’...
Ayatollah Khamenei also said “Iran will not reach an impasse” despite some who claim otherwise on social media.,,
Elsewhere in his remarks he said that ayatollah Khomeini helped align dualities which had been meant to contradict one another. “He put religious spirituality and people’s vote together” and accordingly, “put economic justice and wealth creation together,” Ayatollah Khamenei added, stressing that “we neither oppress anyone nor do we accept being oppressed.”
Saadi Shīrāzī (born 1210; died 1291 or 1292), was a major Persian poet and prose writer of the medieval period. Saadi is widely recognized as one of the greatest poets of the classical literary tradition, earning him the nickname "The Master of Speech" or "The Wordsmith" or simply "Master" among Persian scholars.
IAEA's 35-Nation Board Passes Resolution
Chiding Iran on Uranium Traces
By Reuters, June 8, 2022
The U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors overwhelmingly passed a resolution criticising Iran for failing to explain uranium traces found at three undeclared sites, diplomats at a closed-door meeting said on Wednesday.
Only two countries, Russia and China, opposed the text while 30 voted in favour and three abstained, the diplomats said.
The text says the board "expresses profound concern" the traces remain unexplained due to insufficient cooperation by Iran and calls on Iran to engage with the watchdog "without delay".
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami,
trongly criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over its politically biased report.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines cabinet meeting, Mohammad Eslami said the recent action of three European countries (France, UK, and Germany) and the United States, which drafted a resolution to be submitted in the Board of Governors, is a “political move” and is in line with the policy of “maximum pressure”, which is supported and led by the Israeli regime.
He added, “The accusations and allegations that have been made now have been attributed to us for 20 years, and the basis of the JCPOA is to eliminate these accusations..."
Eslami reiterated that Iran and the IAEA have now returned to the starting point, as the same claims have been raised again.
“The Islamic Republic has been negotiating for months and the text of the agreement is technically finished and the issues related to sanctions are being discussed. Again, the Zionist regime is threatening the country with terrorist operations, destructive operations, psychological war, and exaggerating in the form of repetitive threats that if diplomacy does not stop Iran's nuclear program, we will stop it ourselves. Is it the law of jungle?”
Emphasizing that Iran has no hidden and unwritten nuclear activities, he stated that the Iranian people should know that these are inductions that the IAEA repeatedly makes in the media under the influence of the Israelis and the Westerners.
“There is no unannounced site or no unannounced activities. No. It simply does not exist..."
He stressed that Iran works “exactly” according to the rules and regulations of the IAEA.
On Thursday, the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres listed Libya among conflict-affected countries where terrorist groups have undermined efforts to resolve the crises.
Addressing the Eighth Meeting of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact, Guterres said that in conflict-affected countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, and Somalia, “terrorism has intensified cycles of violence, fuelling further instability, undermining peace efforts, and setting back development goals.” Guterres expressed deep concern at the ongoing political polarization in Libya, which carries significant risks for the hard-won stability.
He added that this forum is “designed to better coordinate responses and approaches while sharing experiences and best practices.”
The UN chief stressed that “while the overall number of deaths from terrorism has declined, the threat remains,” noting that Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 48% of deaths attributed to terrorist groups globally last year.
He emphasised that terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, IS, and their affiliates are “continuing to grow in the Sahel and make inroads into Central and Southern Africa. They are exploiting power vacuums, longstanding inter-ethnic strife, internal weaknesses, and state fragilities.”
“In light of the political and military division in southern Libya, terrorist groups found fertile ground to move across the borders with Chad and Niger, and wage terror attacks against security forces,” he added.
Notably, Chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki said terrorism had increased across the continent with the start of the Libyan crisis in 2011.
Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iran's foreign minister, has stated that Western countries engaging in negotiations with Iranian officials had urged Tehran to recognize Israel's Zionist regime in order to end their opposition to Tehran’s nuclear program.
Speaking to prominent Indian Muslim officials in India on Wednesday, Amir Abdollahian said Western states, including the United States, are aware that nuclear weapons have no place in Iran's religious beliefs, and that the country is not seeking such weapons, adding that they attempted to pressure Tehran into recognizing the Zionist regime in order to achieve their objectives, but failed. According to the senior Iranian diplomat, it is his country's responsibility to work for the liberation of the Holy Quds [Jerusalem] from the Israeli occupation.
Amir Abdollahian also emphasized the need to identify schemes against Islamic beliefs.
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has stated numerous times that the Islamic Republic considers the pursuit and possession of nuclear weapons to be "a grave sin" from every logical, religious, and theoretical standpoint.
Ayatollah Khamenei issued a fatwa on April 17, 2010, declaring nuclear weapons production, stockpiling, and use as haram (religiously banned):
"Iran is not after a nuclear bomb. Why would Iran want a nuclear bomb? Moreover, when an atomic bomb is detonated, it does not just kill enemies. Rather, it kills innocent people as well, and this goes against Islamic beliefs and the principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran. An atomic bomb does not discriminate between good and bad people, and it is not something that the Islamic Republic would use.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi and his visiting Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro have signed a 20-year partnership agreement aimed at bolstering cooperation in various fields between Tehran and Caracas.
The signing ceremony was officially held in the presence of the two countries’ high-ranking officials in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Saturday. The partnership agreement includes cooperation in the fields of science, technology, agriculture, oil and gas, petrochemicals, tourism as well as culture.
Raeisi hailed the accord as an indication of Iran-Venezuela’s determination to expand bilateral ties despite US and western pressure.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always sought relations with independent countries in the field of foreign policy, and Venezuela has resisted the sanctions of the enemies and imperialism and has shown exemplary resistance,” Raeisi told a presser after the ceremony.
He went on to say “there have been numerous sanctions and threats against our country over past 24 years and the Iranian nation decided to turn the sanctions into an opportunity for the sake of the country's progress.”
Praising the Venezuelan nation’s resistance against the US pressure, the Iranian president said, “Venezuela went through difficult years, but the will of the people and the government of this country was that it must stand up to the enemies, and it has moved in that direction.”
In an exclusive interview Wednesday, Venezuelan President Maduro said "it is very difficult" when he was asked about the possibility of the lifting of US sanctions against Venezuela.
"Because the US empire has always been caught up in its own aggression. Look at what is happening right now with Russia. All the sanctions imposed – more than a thousand economic sanctions against the Russian economy, agriculture, oil and gas – have returned like a boomerang, and today they have returned against the European and American economies, which are creaking with galloping inflation, and they also affected the economies and economic rights of all the countries of the world."
Caracas made an "important contact" on March 5 with a delegation from the US government, and they maintained a fluid, permanent communication, Maduro said, adding Washington authorized American oil company Chevron, Italian energy company Eni and Spanish energy and petrochemical company Repsol to move their investments in Venezuela to produce oil and gas for its natural market.
"They are small steps in the right direction. Let's have patience, patience, patience and keep working to get ahead with our own effort," he said.
"And hopefully one day, the United States abandons its policy of aggression, of coercion, of sanctions."
As the NATO powers escalate their proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Ankara, Turkey’s capital, on Wednesday for talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
Both Lavrov and Çavuşoğlu supported calls to create a “safe grain corridor” from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea through the Turkish straits. However, the NATO-backed Ukrainian government rejected the proposal, declaring it not credible, according to AP reports.
The Turkish and Russian foreign ministers also discussed resuming peace negotiations between Kiev and Moscow, which were interrupted under pressure from the major NATO powers.
Both plans are incompatible with the plan of the US-led NATO powers to inflame the war in order to bring about regime change in Russia and ultimately realize the imperialist division and plunder of this vast country’s resources.
For this, NATO has opened a Northern front in war against Russia. Since Sweden and Finland announced their intention to join NATO in mid-May, with the support of the US and European imperialist powers, Sweden has been turned into a naval garrison against Russia. Meanwhile, Moscow’s reactionary invasion of Ukraine, which plays into the hands of Washington, is reportedly making military advances in the east of Ukraine.
Before visiting Turkey, Lavrov toured Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
According to the Arab News, “Lavrov clarified that the members of the GCC will not participate in sanctions against Russia.
Moreover, prior to the meeting, Lavrov spoke with Prince Faisal, when the Russian diplomat praised the level of cooperation in OPEC+, as it is known that Saudi Arabia and other member states rejected American pressure to increase crude output after the start of the Russian operation in Ukraine.”
After the Çavuşoğlu-Lavrov meeting the two held a joint press conference.
“We see a [common] will between Russia and Ukraine to return to negotiations,” said Çavuşoğlu, adding that his government sees UN plans to establish a food corridor out of Ukraine under Turkish naval forces watch as “reasonable and feasible.” He proposed to host a meeting with the UN and Ukraine in Istanbul.
During the press conference, Lavrov denied that a global food crisis was caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war. He claimed that the share of Ukrainian grain exports in the global market made up about 1 percent of the total and therefore is too small an amount to be significant, before adding: “Nevertheless, Russia values Turkey’s efforts to unblock the situation on grain exports from Ukrainian seaports.”
NATO claims that Russia is responsible for rising food prices and shortages are political lies.
Food prices were rising even before the war, as central banks in the centers of world finance debased major currencies with massive printing of money to be handed over to the financial aristocracy. The current cut-off of grain supplies is largely due to US-led sanctions as NATO and Washington call for a “long and painful war” against Russia...
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh says the Israeli regime has dismally failed to prove it is steeped in the history of al-Quds [Jerusalem] despite the regime’s extensive excavations of sacred sites of the occupied holy city for decades.
“Fifty-five years of excavations and tunnel digging did not prove that there is a temple in the city,” Shtayyeh said as he addressed a conference dubbed “Property Documentation and the Historical Status of the al-Aqsa Mosque” in the central West Bank city of al-Bireh on Wednesday.
He added that events like such a conference will reinforce the Palestinian narrative of Jerusalem's history, and will thwart the Tel Aviv regime’s systematic distortion of facts and its attempts to disguise the Arab, Muslim and Christian identities of the city.
Shtayyeh called on Arab rulers not to contribute to Israel’s Judaization plans in Jerusalem, stressing that helping Palestinian residents of the city does not go hand in hand with implementing joint projects with the occupying regime.
He demanded that Arab statesmen prop up the Palestinian resistance front in any possible way...
Hardline Israeli legislators and extremist settlers regularly storm the al-Aqsa Mosque compound – a provocative move that infuriates Palestinians.
The al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sits just above the Western Wall plaza, houses both the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Jewish visitation of al-Aqsa is permitted, but according to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited.
the Antonia-citadel, a Roman armycamp
declared as Israel's most holy place...
Fort Antonia was described by Josephus as being like a city with large areas for troop parades etc. A legion of troops (5000 fighting and 5000 support) was housed there. Only the Haram fits the description and the small area now designated the site of the Fort would have been impossibly small.
Starting on May 31, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov embarked on a tour to Gulf Cooperation Council countries, where he visited Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, among others. Lavrov’s main objective of these visits is to strengthen ties between Russia and GCC nations amid a global race for geopolitical dominance.
The Middle East, especially the Gulf region, is vital for the current global economic order and is equally critical for any future reshaping of that order. If Moscow is to succeed in redefining the role of Arab economies vis-à-vis the global economy, it would most likely succeed in ensuring that a multipolar economic world takes form.
The geopolitical reordering of the world cannot simply be achieved through war or challenging the West’s political influence in its various global domains. The economic component is possibly the most significant of the ongoing tug of war between Russia and its western detractors.
Prior to the Russia-Ukraine war, any conversation on the need to challenge or redefine globalization was confined largely to academic circles. The war made that theoretical conversation a tangible, urgent one. The US, European, western support for Kyiv has little to do with Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence and everything to do with the real anxiety that a Russian success will demolish or, at least, seriously damage, the current version of economic globalization as envisaged by the US and its allies.
Russia is clearly invested in a new global economic system, but without isolating itself in the process. On the other hand, the West is torn. It wants to drop on Russia the Iron Curtain of the past.
In a speech at the Eurasian Economic Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that trying to isolate Russia is “impossible, utterly unrealistic in the modern world”.
His words accentuate Russia’s full awareness of the West’s objectives, and Lavrov’s busy itinerary, especially in the Global South, is Moscow’s own way of animating an alternative global economic system in which Russia is not isolated.
The export of so-called ‘democratic’ revolutions has continued, but has unleashed poverty and violence instead of the triumph of democracy, Russian President Vladimir Putin said addressing the UN General Assembly.
Attempts to push for changes in other countries based on ideological preferences have led to “tragic consequences and degradation rather than progress.”
“We should all remember what our past has taught us,” Putin said. “We, for instance, remember examples from the history of the Soviet Union.”
It seems however that some are not learning from others’ mistakes, but keep repeating them, he said, adding that “the export of so-called ‘democratic’ revolutions continues.”
“I cannot help asking those who have caused this situation: Do you realize now what you have done?” “But I am afraid the question will hang in the air, because policies based on self-confidence and belief in one’s exceptionality and impunity have never been abandoned.”
A single center of domination emerged in the world after the Cold War era ended, Putin stated. Those who were at the “top of this pyramid” were tempted to think that “if they were so strong and exceptional, they knew what to do better than others."
“Therefore they do not have to reckon with the UN, which instead of automatically authorizing, legitimizing the necessary decisions often creates obstacles or in other words ‘stands in the way’.” Russia believes that attempts to undermine the authority and legitimacy of the United Nations are “extremely dangerous” and could lead to the collapse of the entire system of international relations, the Russian President said.
Over 10 years of Civil War have seen many developments topped by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition launching a military campaign in 2015 to end the Iran-backed Houthi militias’ control of northern Yemen. Now, for the first time in many years, Yemenis feel that perhaps there is a chance for a lasting peace.
On 7 April, Yemen’s former interim president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi transferred his powers to an eight-member Presidential Leadership Council, which was sworn in on 17 April in Aden.
According to experts on Yemen, the new council led by Al-Alimi is more representative of the people than several previous institutions created since the ouster of former Yemeni president and long-time leader Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011.
Receiving Rashad Al-Alim and six out of the eight members of the newly-created presidential council at the presidential palace, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi expressed Cairo’s strong support for the formula that gathered key Yemeni players into a cohesive national entity.
Maintaining unity and consensus among the council members will certainly place Al-Alimi in a better situation in any future negotiations with Houthis aimed at reaching a permanent ceasefire that will hopefully pave the way for an end to the war.
Unfortunately, after over 10 years of war, Yemen has turned into a number of mini-states taking up portions of Yemeni territory. The formation of the new council gives a glimmer of hope that the key players in Yemen are ready to work together in a serious manner, in hope of bringing to an end the long-lasting suffering of the Yemeni people.
According to the latest UN figures, more than 23.4 million people – almost three-quarters of the population – need humanitarian assistance, an increase of 13 per cent from what was already a frightening figure in 2021.
Children continue to stand front and centre in this conflict as some 2.2 million are acutely malnourished. Since 2017, fighting has left 14,000 civilians dead or injured. More than 4.3 million civilians have fled their homes since the Saudi-led Arab Coalition launched the war in 2015, making this the fourth largest internal displacement crisis on the planet.
Nothing should better qualify me to write about world affairs at the moment – and Western meddling in Ukraine – than the fact that I have intimately followed the twists and turns of Israeli politics for two decades...
Most Westerners understand Zionism to be split into two broad camps: the right, including the far-right, and the liberal-left camp.
Today this so-called liberal-left camp is tiny and represented by the Israeli Labour and Meretz parties.
But note this. Not only have the Labour and Meretz parties been sitting for a year in a government led by Naftali Bennett, whose party represents the illegal settlements, they have just voted for the very apartheid law that ensures the settlers get superior rights over Palestinians, including the right to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their land.
So, what makes Meretz and Labour legislators capable of not just utter hypocrisy but such flagrant racism? The answer is Zionism.
Raanan Gissin, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s top adviser and spokesman, says that Sharon — a secular Jew — has long been calling for more Jewish text study in the secular schools.
Without this foundation, Gissin says, young Israelis “don’t grasp that the Jewish people have lived here continuously for 4,000 years, that we have a right to be here, and therefore are more likely to feel disconnected to the land. What they don’t understand is that even when we make compromises in our ancestral homeland for peace, there are places Israel can never give up because they are part and parcel of who we are..." "Teaching Jewish heritage isn’t only about building identity; at the risk of sounding racist, its about ensuring the survival of the tribe.”
Zionism is a form of ideological tribalism that prioritizes Jewish privilege in the legal, military and political realms. However leftwing you consider yourself, if you subscribe to Zionism you regard your ethnic tribalism as supremely important — and for that reason alone, you are racist.
You may not be conscious of your racism, you may not wish to be racist, but by default you are.
But of course, there is nothing exceptional about most Israeli Jews or Israel’s Zionist supporters abroad, whether Jewish or not. Tribalism is endemic to the way most of us view the world, and rapidly comes to the surface whenever we perceive our tribe to be in danger.
Most of us can quickly become extreme tribalists. When tribalism relates to more trivial matters, such as supporting a sports team, it mostly manifests in less dangerous forms, such as boorish or aggressive behavior. But if it relates to an ethnic or national group, it encourages a host of more dangerous behaviors: jingoism, racism, discrimination, segregation and warmongering.
Palestinians are quite capable of being tribal too. Just look at the self-righteous posturing of some Hamas leaders, for example.
But whatever delusions Zionists subscribe to, Palestinian tribalism is clearly far less dangerous to Israel than Jewish tribalism is to Palestinians.
Israel, the state representing Jewish tribalists, has the support of all Western governments and major media outlets, as well as most Arab governments, and at the very least the complicity of global institutions.
Israel has an army, navy and air force, all of which can rely on the latest, most powerful weaponry, itself heavily subsidized by the U.S. Israel also enjoys special trading status with the West, which has made its economy one of the strongest on the planet.
The idea that Israeli Jews have a greater reason to fear the Palestinians (or in a further delusion, the Arab world) than Palestinians have to fear Israel is easily refuted. Simply consider how many Israeli Jews would wish to exchange places with a Palestinian — whether in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem or from the minority living inside Israel.
The lesson is that there is a hierarchy of tribalisms, and that a tribalism is more dangerous if it enjoys more power.
Empowered tribalisms have the ability to cause much greater harm than disempowered tribalisms. Not all tribalisms are equally destructive.
Our blindness to our own super-empowered Western tribalism makes us oblivious too to the effect our tribalism has on less empowered tribalisms.
We imagine ourselves under constant threat from any other group that asserts its own tribalism in the face of our more empowered one.
Some of those threats can be more ideological and amorphous, particularly in recent years: like the supposed “clash of civilizations” against the Islamist extremism of Al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
But our preferred enemies have a face, and all too readily can be presented as an improbable stand-in for our template of the bogeyman: Adolf Hitler.
Those new Hitlers pop up one after another, like a whack-a-mole game we can never quite win.
Because we are as blind to our own tribalism as Meretz is to its racism towards Palestinians, we cannot understand why anyone else might fear us more than we fear them.
Our “superior” civilization has cultivated in us a solipsism, a narcissism, that refuses to acknowledge our threatening presence in the world....
In our view, when Putin spoke of the need to de-Nazify Ukraine, he was not amplifying Russians’ justifiable fears of Nazism on their doorstep, given their history, or the threat those groups genuinely pose to ethnic Russian communities nearby. No, he was simply proving that he and the likely majority of Russians who think as he does are insane.
More than that, his hyperbole gave us permission to bring our covert arming of these neo-Nazis groups out into the light. Now we embrace these neo-Nazis, as we do the rest of Ukraine, and send them advanced weaponry — many billions of dollars worth of advanced weaponry.
And while we do this, we self-righteously berate Putin for being a madman and for his disinformation. He is demented or a liar for viewing us as an existential threat to Russia, while we are entirely justified in viewing him as an existential threat to Western civilization.
And so, we keep feeding the chimerical devil we fear. And however often our fears are exposed as self-rationalizing, we never learn.
We are being constantly manipulated, duped, propagandized to advance “values” that are not inherent in our “superior” culture but manufactured for us by the elites’ public-relations arm, the corporate media. We are made into willing co-conspirators in behavior that actually harms us, others, and the planet.
In Ukraine, our very compassion to help is being weaponized in ways that will kill Ukrainians and destroy their communities, just as Meretz’s caring liberalism has spent decades rationalizing the oppression of Palestinians in the name of ending it.
We cannot liberate Ukraine or Russia. But what we can do may, in the long term, prove far more significant: We can start liberating our minds.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem...
They held a private meeting followed by an expanded meeting between the sides and discussed strengthening bilateral relations between Israel and Europe. Prime Minister Bennett acceded to EU Commission President von der Leyen's request for cooperation in exporting natural gas to Europe via Egypt.
Prime Minister Bennett also presented Iran's actions in the region and emphasized his call for the international community to take a hard line against the regime and its accelerated progress toward developing nuclear weapons.
Following are Prime Minister Bennett's remarks at the statements:
"I'd like to welcome you here to Jerusalem. We know that you're a great friend of the Jewish people and a great friend of Israel....
Yesterday my government celebrated a year in office and what a year it's been. Over the last year, we rejuvenated Israel's ties with our neighbors in the region. We want to build bridges to peace...
I'm happy to say that today Israel and Europe are on a very strong and positive trajectory. Trade, innovation and economic cooperation are soaring. We're witnessing our partnership reach new heights....
Your words today at the Ben-Gurion University were powerful. You said Israel and Europe are bound to be friends and allies because the history of Europe is the history of the Jewish people. I could not agree more.
I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate you Madam President on your honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion University in the Negev. It's a good university, Madam Doctor.
With the ongoing and devastating war in Ukraine come vast global implications. It's time for the international community to work together.... Today both of us will be discussing ways where the EU and Israel can cooperate on food security, energy and more.
In recent years, Israel went from being a gas importer to becoming a gas exporter. And we're currently working to produce natural gas from – more natural gas from – Israel's economic waters. Israel and the EU are natural partners and we've got a lot to talk about at dinner today. But before we roll up our sleeves and get to work, I really again want to thank you for your deep friendship to the Jewish people and the State of Israel. We know that it's from your heart. And thank you for being a partner in this new chapter of relations between Israel and Europe....
EU looking to Israel
to help it reduce energy reliance on Russia
JERUSALEM, 2022, June 14 (Reuters)
The European Union is looking to Israel to help reduce its energy dependence on Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
"We want to boost our energy cooperation with Israel," the head of the EU executive said in a joint press briefing with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
The EU was Russia's "biggest, most important client" in energy supplies, she said, but the invasion had spurred the bloc to pivot away from Russian fossil fuels, including by boosting natural gas imports from the eastern Mediterranean. The 27-nation EU, Israel and Egypt are set to sign a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday, von der Leyen added, according to which Israel will export natural gas in a pipeline to Egypt, where it will be turned into liquefied natural gas (LNG) then delivered to EU member states.
Israeli Energy Minister Karin Elharrar said in a statement that she was heading to Cairo in preparation for the signing of the Israeli-EU-Egyptian agreement.
Iran and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding today concerning the establishment of mutual trade centers. One center will be located in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and the other in Russia’s Baltic port city St. Petersburg.
They will facilitate trade between the two countries in the energy, transportation, electronics, agriculture, food, pharmaceuticals and construction sectors. The goals of the memorandum are to help Iranian and Russian businesspeople establish contact and conduct financial transactions. The project will also work toward “accelerating the north-south corridor project,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Russia is facing international outrage over its invasion of Ukraine, but relations between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic remain strong. Most recently, Russia has demanded that negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal cover the protection of Russian trade interests with Iran. A viable north-south corridor trade route is a major goal of both Iran and Russia. Both countries participate in the International North-South Transport Corridor, which is a trade route with India that involves a system of roads, shipping lines and railways. Russia and Iran promoted the corridor last year as an alternative to the Suez Canal after a ship got stuck in the strategic Egyptian waterway.
Trade between Russia and Iran steadily rises year by year. In 2019, Russia exported more than $1.5 billion to Iran, while Iran exported more than $500 million to Russia, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
Iran Promoting Idea Of Joining
Russia, Venezuela As Energy Block
Mardo Soghom, Iran International News, 15-6-2022
Iran, Russia and Venezuela have a large potential to thwart sanctions on their energy sectors if they cooperate, Iran’s government news agency said Wednesday.
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) in an unsigned article highlighted United States sanctions against the energy industries of the three countries, although each is a different case.
In Iran’s case, sanctions were imposed for its nuclear program after former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the JCPOA.
In Venezuela’s case the Obama Administration and many Western countries imposed targeted sanctions against individuals for human rights abuses, corruption, and antidemocratic actions. The Trump Administration expanded economic sanctions, including on the oil industry, in response to the increasing authoritarianism of President Nicolás Maduro.
Russian oil imports have been banned by many countries after its February 24 invasion of Ukraine and many European countries are ending their natural gas imports from Russia for the same reason. However, there are no third-party sanctions on Russian energy exports, which might be the next phase of sanctions.
IRNA argued that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, mentioning 303 billion barrels, with Iran having 157 billion and Russia with 89 billion barrels of crude, totaling 45 percent of world reserves.
This represents a huge potential for influencing the world market, IRNA said, calling for cooperation between the three countries.
Joe Biden's upcoming trip to Palestine in July will serve as yet another message to the Palestinian people that Israel is working hand in hand with the U.S. [...]
In trying to repair the relationship between Washington and Ramallah, Biden initially promised three measures. One was the restoration of funds to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which had been halted by the Donald Trump administration. This was the one thing Biden accomplished as Israel did not oppose it and he didn’t need congressional cooperation to do it.
Biden’s other two commitments—reopening the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem and allowing the PLO to reopen their Washington office—have not been fulfilled, and there is no reason to believe they ever will be.
Both of those commitments require significant cooperation from Israel or Congress, and that, as expected, has not been forthcoming. The fact that the Biden administration has made no serious effort to persuade either of those entities to change their stance is what is most notable.
The rhetoric coming out of the Biden administration has been as consistent as it has been empty.
They have consistently stated that they support a two-state solution and they want to take steps to “ensure equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and dignity to Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
But the administration’s actions directly belie that statement. The absence of any attempt even to seriously discuss Palestinian rights with Israel demonstrates that clearly, and the specific examples are too numerous to list. Biden has made it clear that he will not take steps to undo the damage Trump did by moving the embassy to Jerusalem, nor will he revoke the United States’ illegal recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The administration is, on the other hand, laser-focused on expanding the Abraham Accords, and plans to use this trip to move Saudi-Israeli relations forward toward normalization.
Biden insisted that the planned meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who Biden once called a “pariah,” was not about energy prices, but this is an obvious lie. Biden will go to MBS, hat in hand, and plead for lower energy prices and cooperation with Israel.
But the Saudi King Salman remains opposed to normalization with Israel outside the framework of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative and the Saudis are already coordinating with Israel on security matters.
Biden-Abbas-2016
Meanwhile, the Palestinian people face an ever-tightening occupation, yet one would see no indication of this in Washington...
DAMASCUS, Syria - A new ambassador from Bahrain formally took up his post in Syria on Sunday, the country’s first full diplomatic mission there in more than a decade as Damascus continues to improve its relations with Gulf Arab states.
President Bashar Assad received the credentials of Ambassador Waheed Mubarak Sayyar in an official ceremony also attended by Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. Sayyar was appointed in December and recently moved to Damascus. Assad has been gradually reintegrating into mainstream regional acceptance. His visit to the United Arab Emirates in March was the first such trip to an Arab country since Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011. Syria was expelled from the 22-member Arab League and boycotted by its neighbors after the conflict broke out.
Early in the conflict, Arab states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar rushed to back Sunni fighters battling Assad’s forces. Arab countries sanctioned Damascus and condemned its use of military force against civilians.
In recent years, however, the Syrian army has won a series of key military victories with the help of Russia and Iran....
Most Gulf countries, at odds with regional rival and Shiite powerhouse Iran, seek warmer ties with Damascus, hoping to peel it away from Tehran’s influence. Iran is a traditional ally of Syria and has sent advisers and resources to back Assad during the conflict that broke out in March 2011.
In a farewell speech, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett handed over the caretaker premiership to his partner Yair Lapid on Monday, June 20, after they called a new national election for Oct. 25.
The surprise decision cut short a crisis of defections that had mortally plagued the coalition alliance of eight parties just one year and a week after it was sworn in as “the government of change.”
Opposition leader, Likud’s Binyamin Netanyahu, who was unseated by that government, hailed this as “a great day for the country” and vowed to establish a broad national government to bring taxation and the spiraling cost of living down. Likud is due to hold a leadership primary in the coming weeks.
Bennett said in his speech that he and Lapid had “turned every stone” to save the government coalition. But after losing its majority, it was unable to enact essential legislation. Bennett has stepped aside to act as alternate prime minister with responsibility for the Iran file.
Bennett offered Lapid, who takes over as caretaker premier, every assistance to ensure him of success in his mission. Political sources expect him to take time out from politics rather than running for re-election at the head of his midget right-wing Yamina party, after three out of eight MKs defected.
bennett-lapid-gantz-netanyahu
Israel’s Apartheid Law Causes Bennett Government
to Fall, on Eve of Biden’s Visit
Juan Cole, 06/21/2022
The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will dissolve parliament and go to new elections.
His government has lacked a majority in parliament for some time and recently lost an embarrassing vote on applying Israeli law to squatter-settlers in the Palestinian West Bank. Theirs will be the shortest-lived government in Israel’s history....
This will be the fifth election in 3.5 years, as the Israeli government continues to face instability because of the opposition of most party heads to a leadership role for Binyamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister who is being tried for corruption and because of difficulties in accepting or preserving Palestinian-Israeli MKs in a government coalition. Arab 48 says that the failure of the government to renew the The “Judea and Samaria Emergency Regulations, Governance and Legal Aid Act,” which the newspaper called the “Apartheid law,” was a major motive for the decision.
This impasse points to the continued contradictions in Israeli policy. The political elite wanted to lock Netanyahu out of the prime ministership, but there were not enough Jewish members of parliament to accomplish this goal on their own. Bennett and Lapid therefore for the first time brought “Israeli Arab,” what I term Palestinian-Israelis on the model of “Italian-Americans,” into the Israeli government.
The United Arab List, Muslim fundamentalists akin to the Muslim Brotherhood, is religiously oriented rather than Palestinian nationalists, and were willing to serve in an Israeli government if they could better the lives of their villager constituents.
Yet, when it came to the Israeli Apartheid system in the West Bank, where Israeli squatters are under Israeli law and Palestinian natives are under military rule, one member of the United Arab List just couldn’t hold his nose and vote for Apartheid for his fellow Muslims....
Ordinarily the bill ('Apartheid law') would have passed easily with votes from the fundamentalist right wing religious parties and the secular far right party, Likud, led by Netanyahu. But the latter convinced his party and its allies to boycott the vote, knowing that it would cause the Bennett government to fall and present Netanyahu with the opportunity possibly to come back to power and find a way to use the prerogatives of office to get the corruption charges against him dismissed.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders and newspapers rejoiced at the impending dissolution of the Knesset and government — the latter being one of the few in recent memory that didn’t include Haredi parties — and many attributed its downfall to divine intervention.
“His name is praised in the world!” said Rabbi Shalom Cohen, the spiritual leader of the Shas party, which represents Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews. “A government that harmed and tried to destroy Judaism and the sanctity of Israel and harmed the weak has been driven from the world. The holy one, blessed be he, has had mercy on the people of Israel.”
Cohen, 91, made his pronouncement from his hospital room on Monday night shortly after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced his plans to call for the dissolution of the Knesset, which will send the country back to elections for the fifth time in less than four years. Cohen was not alone in his elation. Similar sentiments were expressed by other top Haredi rabbis and in ultra-Orthodox newspapers.
Haredi politicians and rabbis have furiously denounced the current government over the past year, mainly due to the actions of three of its members: Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, Deputy Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana, and Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel. They’ve also had nothing but disdain for Labor Knesset member Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi.
The first liberal rabbi in Israel’s parliament, Gilad Kariv, has his sights set on ending the monopoly of the ultra-Orthodox on many aspects of everyday life in the Jewish state. The conservative line of the Jewish religion has in effect laid down the law ever since an accord that ultra-Orthodox rabbis struck with David Ben Gurion when he founded the state of Israel in 1948.
“The only subject on which people of the right and the left agree by a great majority is the relationship between religion and the state,” Kariv told AFP in an interview in his parliamentary office in Jerusalem.
“Most Israelis are in favor of civil marriage, public transport on the Sabbath (the Jewish day of rest and prayer), and on a mixed space” for prayers at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, he said.
Israeli Jews need the services of Orthodox rabbis to marry or divorce, public transport grinds to a halt on the Sabbath, and religious dietary laws apply in all public institutions, including the army and schools. But 48-year-old Kariv, who was elected in Israel’s last polls in March as a member of the Labor party, has a liberal agenda...
For Kariv, a trained lawyer and leading light in Israel’s religious liberal camp for more than a decade before running for parliament, the country is “Jewish and democratic, which is not the same thing as Orthodox and democratic.”
At first, Orthodox colleagues in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, refused to acknowledge him, and some still boycott any debate if the “Satanic” deputy takes part....
Tunisian President Kais Saied confirmed Tuesday that a draft constitution to be put to a referendum on July 25 will not enshrine Islam as the "religion of the state".
"The next constitution of Tunisia won't mention a state with Islam as its religion, but of belonging to an umma (community) which has Islam as its religion," he told journalists at Tunis airport. "The umma and the state are two different things."
Saied took delivery of the draft text on Monday, a key step in his drive to overhaul the Tunisian state after he sacked the government and seized far-reaching powers last July in moves opponents called a coup.
Sadeq Belaid, the legal expert who headed the drafting committee, had told AFP in an interview earlier this month that he would remove all reference to Islam from the new document in a challenge to Islamist parties.
His comments, partly referring to Saied's nemesis Ennahdha, an Islamist-inspired party which has dominated Tunisian politics since 2011, sparked a heated national debate.
The first article of Tunisia's 2014 constitution -- and its 1959 predecessor -- defined the North African country as "a free, independent and sovereign state. Islam is its religion and Arabic is its language".
The 2014 document was the product of a hard-won compromise between Ennahdha and its secular rivals...
The new text is meant to be approved by Saied by the end of June before being put to voters next month.
Qatar's emir arrives in Egypt sealing end to Saudi-led rift
By MEE and agencies, 25 June 2022
The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, arrived in Egypt on Friday, 18 months after the two countries restored relations to end a Saudi-led rift of more than three years.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi welcomed the emir at Cairo airport on his first visit in seven years, Sisi's office said.
Egypt had joined Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies in breaking off relations with Qatar in June 2017, citing its alleged support for the Muslim Brotherhood and soft line on Iran.
The rift finally ended in 2021, when Qatar signed a declaration with the four to normalise relations. Since then, ties have improved, and top officials have exchanged visits.
The emir, who met Sisi for the first time since the dispute at a summit in Iraq last year, will hold a formal meeting with the Egyptian president on Saturday, sources told Reuters.
Cairo announced in March that Egypt and Qatar had agreed to sign investment deals worth $5bn, as the North African country battles an economic crisis that has been further deepened by the war in Ukraine.
Qatar FM: "The world is not governed by ultimatums" (2-7-2017)
Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Al Thani, has said Doha will not meet any of the 13 demands made by Saudi Arabia and its allies, offering instead "a proper condition for a dialogue" to resolve the Gulf crisis.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, speaking at the news conference in the Italian capital Rome on Saturday, said the list "was meant to be rejected", pointing to the fact that it arrived with a 10-day expiration date.
"We believe that the world is not governed by ultimatums, we believe that the world is governed by the international law, it is governed by an order that does not allow large countries to bully small countries." The list of demands include downgrading ties with Iran, shutting down Al Jazeera media network and Turkish military base in Doha
anti-qatar-cartoon 2011 | terrorist list 2017
Ghariani, Belhaj, Sallabi and BDB on Saudi terror list
Libya Herald, Tunis, 9 June 2017
Sadek Al Ghariani, the Tripoli-based grand mufti, together with Abdulhakim Belhadj, Ali Salabi, his brother Ismail, Mahdi Al-Harati and the entire Bengahzi Defence Brigades have been named as terrorists by the Saudis, the Emiratis, Egyptians and Bahrainis.
Their names have appears on a list of supposed terrorists linked to Qatar which has been published by the Saudi Press Agency. (Page 94)
[Israeli] Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) has sharply attacked his fellow party member MK Dudi Amsalem, for suggesting that the United Arab List (Ra'am), headed by MK Mansour Abbas, might be a future coalition partner, once a "Zionist" majority of 61 MKs has been assured.
"I was astounded to hear the words spoken by Dudi Amsalem," said Netanyahu. "His words reflect his personal opinion alone, and this is not the first time something like this has happened [with him]."
Netanyahu added that, "Ra'am is an anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist party which supports terrorism and represents the Muslim Brotherhood whose aspiration is to destroy Israel. The Likud party under my leadership will never agree to admit Ra'am into any form of coalition with us.
"In 2019," Netanyahu added, "when right-wing parties had 60 seats between them, after Liberman deserted to the Left, I declined the proposals put forward by Mansour Abbas, who was offering to support a government headed by myself, which is why we headed to elections. Unlike Lapid, Bennett, Sa'ar, Gantz, and Liberman - who are right now sitting in a government with supporters of terrorism and have sold out the country to them in return for their support - the Likud under my leadership has never done and will never do such a thing."
Netanyahu then defined the choice facing voters in the upcoming elections: "Either a strong national government under my leadership, or an anti-Zionist government that includes Mansour Abbas and Ra'am, Ahmad Tibi and the Joint List - a government that is totally dependent on them."
Amsalem's comments were made on Keshet 12, when he said, "An anti-Zionist party cannot be part of the coalition, as long as that coalition does not have 61 MKs [without the anti-Zionists]. If Mansour Abbas wants to join after we already have 61 seats, he's welcome...."
Amsalem added, "We've been saying this the whole time. An Israeli government must have a Zionist majority, but once we get that, I don't have any problem [with allowing others in].
Flashback 2011 - Netanyahu, Bernard-Henry Levy
and the Muslim Brotherhood's mission in the Middle East Daily Sabah [Turkey], 21-1-202
In March of 2011, a controversial figure of the French intelligentsia, a philosopher and writer who has quite interesting political contacts around the world considering the fact that he is an intellectual, Bernard-Henri Lévy, went to Benghazi and met with Gaddafi opponents.
When he was asked why he had done that, he said: "It was human rights, for a massacre to be prevented, and blah blah blah – but I also wanted them to see a Jew defending the liberators against a dictatorship, to show fraternity. I wanted the Muslims to see that a Frenchman, a Westerner and a Jew, could be on their side."
When Bernard-Henri Lévy returned from Benghazi to Paris, he met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy immediately and said that the overthrow of Gaddafi was the only solution in Libya. Lévy brought the Libyan opposition together with then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Obama was still hesitant, but Clinton quickly understood the situation.
When Gaddafi sent a big convoy over the opposition in Benghazi, French planes began their bombardment, with Britain and the U.S. following suit soon after. Some 112 Tomahawks were launched from the Mediterranean, and the coalition's campaign continued for seven months. Lévy was quite happy with the intervention, saying that "the NATO mission, as far as I am concerned, was as it had to be."
Libya 2011
Until then, Lévy had played the role of human rights defender very well. However, in June 2011, when he went to Israel and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his intention behind the scenes was revealed. He made a promise to Netanyahu and announced it. The philosopher told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that, in a 90-minute meeting with Netanyahu, the new government of Libya would have a good relationship with Israel when Gaddafi was overthrown.
Although those words made Israel very happy, it caused great anger in Arab streets. Although the NTC denied it, Gaddafi used this claim until the end.
This was also a unique opportunity for the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries to reverse the direction of the Arab Spring. Both started to work on Libya and Egypt by accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of cooperating with Israel...
In the 55 years Israel has been occupying Palestinian lands, there have been two intifadas, four wars in Gaza and a long series of failed efforts to negotiate a two-state solution roughly adhering to Israel’s pre-1967 borders. The situation may truly be as hopeless as it seems.
Intransigence on both sides – which no U.S. president has managed to overcome, though virtually every single one since the Six-Day War has tried – has got us to this point.
While the Palestinians have sometimes embraced international diplomacy, they have also engaged in periods of obdurate resistance. It was the Palestinians who thwarted two promising peace initiatives, led by the forward-looking Israeli governments of Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert. Given the sentiment in Israel today, they might not get another chance.
With each failed peace process, the promise of peace has lost its potency as a mobilising cause in Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel has gradually tightened its control over the Occupied Territories, with virtually no international pushback. Even the Arab states – six of which have normalised ties with Israel – seem to have grown indifferent to the agony of the Palestinians.
All of this has driven Israeli voters radically to the right, leaving Israel’s peace camp demoralised and weak. The religious-nationalist bloc that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads now represents the majority of Israelis. And as far right as Netanyahu may be, he is practically a leftist compared to the tens of thousands of radical Jewish nationalists who marched through Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter on Jerusalem Day in May this year waving Israeli flags, repeating violent and Islamophobic chants like "death to Arabs" and attacking Palestinians.
Genesis 17:7: I'm establishing my covenant between me and you, and with your descendants who come after you, generation after generation, as an eternal covenant, to be your God and your descendants' God after you. (Danny Danon's Bible speech: Page 141)
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is existential. The question of where to draw borders is not merely practical; it has deep religious and cultural significance. For the Palestinians, Israel is the occupying power, impinging on their right to self-determination; but it is also their homeland. And for the now-dominant Israeli right, the Occupied Territories are the cradle of Jewish Biblical civilisation.
By fighting for the same lands, the two sides are effectively calling for the unconditional exclusion, even destruction, of the other.
That goes a long way toward explaining their eagerness to alter the demographic balance – Israel through Jewish immigration and the expansion of settlements, and the Palestinians by demanding the "right of return" for all refugees. Yasser Arafat, the late founder of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, once called the womb of the Palestinian woman his "strongest weapon" against Israel, as it would give the Palestinians a demographic advantage in the Occupied Territories.
Fifty-five years after Israel began occupying Palestinian lands, it is more difficult than ever to imagine a way out....
A poll released by Gallup on Tuesday found the world “sadder, more worried, and more stressed-out” in 2021 than the year before, pushing its “negative experience index” to a record high of 33 points in the first year of U.S. President Joe Biden’s term.
Gallup’s annual global bummer survey includes adult respondents from 122 countries. In 2021, 42 percent described themselves as “worried,” 41 percent as “stressed,” 28 percent as “sad,” and 23 percent as “angry.” 31 percent said they were in considerable physical pain.
Gallup also asks about positive experiences and found them slipping downward for the first time since 2017. Positive experiences include laughter, enjoyment, learning, respect, and feeling well-rested. Laugher increased two points and learning increased by one, but the others all slipped.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the abandoned people of Afghanistan felt especially miserable under their new masters, the brutal extremists of the Taliban. Not only are they sick, starving, and fearful for their lives, but Afghans are “losing the remaining joy they had,” and they were already the “least-positive country in the world,” although the Central African Republic posted the all-time lowest happiness score in 2017.
“The percentage of Afghans who said they felt enjoyment, smiled or laughed, learned something interesting, or felt well-rested the previous day all dropped to new record lows,” the survey found.
“Worry, stress and sadness soared to record levels in Afghanistan in 2021: 80% of Afghans were worried, 74% were stressed, and 61% felt sadness much of the previous day. Notably, no other population in Gallup’s 16‑year trend has ever reported feeling this much worry,” the pollsters reported.
Gallup suggested it is “even more imperative for policymakers to understand why the world is on this course and to look for ways they can change the path it is headed down”.
Some of the individual national results were easy to understand. For example, Lebanon topped the charts as the angriest country in the world, which is unsurprising given its comprehensively dysfunctional government, the bitter factional disputes that made it that way, and the miserable corruption and incompetence that blew half of Beirut to smithereens in 2020...
Diplomatic ties between Ukraine and Syria were cut off.
Albawaba News, 30-6-2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Wednesday his decision to cut off all diplomatic ties with Russia's main ally Syria.
The Ukrainian President's decision to cut all diplomatic ties with the Middle Eastern country has come following Syria's decision to recognize the "independence" of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Syria recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as independent regions as a way of backing the Russian president Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine.
Russia's President announced last February 24th a 'special military operation' in Ukraine..
Lugansk, SANA - President of the Lugansk People’s Republic Leonid Pasechnik has thanked Syria for its decision to recognize the republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, indicating that this step would contribute to the mutual development of markets and accelerate building relations in many fields.
“The intention of the Syrian Arab Republic to recognize the sovereignty and independence of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics was received by the residents of the Lugansk region with special joy… The recognition of our independence by another country would open new horizons for cooperation on a new world level and would accelerate building relations in many walks of life, in addition to contributing to the mutual development of new markets,” Pasechnik wrote on his Telegram channel.
Pasechnik added that the Syrian people know more than any other people the meaning of living near militants and extremists...
Earlier on Wednesday, an official source at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said in a statement to SANA that in an embodiment of the common will and the desire to establish relations in all fields, the Syrian Arab Republic decided to recognize the independence and sovereignty of both the Lugansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic.
After exactly one year and 17 days as prime minister, Naftali Bennett on Wednesday, June 29, announced he was retiring from political life at this time while leaving the door open for the post-election future. Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid moves in to take his place – albeit at the head of a caretaker government until after the next general election, which is due to take place before the end of the year.
Bennett met twice on Wednesday with his fellow right-wing Yamina party member, Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked, and asked her to take over the party leadership. She faces a dilemma. Four members of the tiny Knesset faction of seven had rebelled against the prime minister. She takes over a party pretty much in a shambles.
The rebels are plunged in talks with rival parties, The most prominent, Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahane, is discussing his future role in Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue White party.
The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, is itself in a state of flux; the government coalition and opposition parties, led by Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud, continued to haggle through Wednesday over the election date – Oct. 25 or Nov. 1, and the fate of critical legislation left up in the air by a parliament on the point of dissolving itself.
During the day, a hurried opinion poll to forecast the election’s outcome following the latest turn in the political wheel, found that the change in Yamina’s leadership could net the Likud-led opposition a narrow, hitherto elusive, majority of 63 (out of 120 seats). The new leader Shaked is forecast to gain five Yamina seats. In contrast to the departing prime minister, Shaked has said she does not mind seeing the long-serving former prime minister Netanyahu returning to office to head yet another government coalition.
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"The national security of America and the security of the world could be attained if the American leaders [..] become rational, if America disengages itself from its evil alliance with Zionism, which has been scheming to exploit the world and plunge it in blood and darkness, by using America and some Western countries.
US Vice President Joe Biden said that the new administration would seek the
unvarnished truth from its spies, whether or not their information supported
the goals of the government. 
"The post-September 11 era in the US has heralded in a new age of ideology whose discourse and world views have served not only to accommodate such extremist views as those held by Sharon, but also to provide him with a platform and an influence that were unthinkable only a year ago. 
"The globalists wants to make the world unipolar in order to move towards a globalist non-polarity, where the elites will become fully international and their residence will be dispersed throughout the entire space of the planet. 
Political holism is based on the recognition that "we" are all members of a single whole. There's no "they," even though "we" are not all alike. Because "we" are all part of the whole, and therefore interdependent, we benefit from cooperating with each other. Political holism is a way of thinking about human cultures and nations as interdependent. 
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami,
trongly criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over its politically biased report.
Addressing the Eighth Meeting of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact, Guterres said that in conflict-affected countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, and Somalia, “terrorism has intensified cycles of violence, fuelling further instability, undermining peace efforts, and setting back development goals.”
Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iran's foreign minister, has stated that Western countries engaging in negotiations with Iranian officials had urged Tehran to recognize Israel's Zionist regime in order to end their opposition to Tehran’s nuclear program.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi and his visiting Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro have signed a 20-year partnership agreement aimed at bolstering cooperation in various fields between Tehran and Caracas.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh says the Israeli regime has dismally failed to prove it is steeped in the history of al-Quds [Jerusalem] despite the regime’s extensive excavations of sacred sites of the occupied holy city for decades.
The export of so-called ‘democratic’ revolutions has continued, but has unleashed poverty and violence instead of the triumph of democracy, Russian President Vladimir Putin said addressing the UN General Assembly. 
On 7 April, Yemen’s former interim president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi transferred his powers to an eight-member Presidential Leadership Council, which was sworn in on 17 April in Aden. 
Raanan Gissin, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s top adviser and spokesman, says that Sharon — a secular Jew — has long been calling for more Jewish text study in the secular schools.
Without this foundation, Gissin says, young Israelis “don’t grasp that the Jewish people have lived here continuously for 4,000 years, that we have a right to be here, and therefore are more likely to feel disconnected to the land. What they don’t understand is that even when we make compromises in our ancestral homeland for peace, there are places Israel can never give up because they are part and parcel of who we are..."
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem...
The European Union is looking to Israel to help reduce its energy dependence on Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Joe Biden's upcoming trip to Palestine in July will serve as yet another message to the Palestinian people that Israel is working hand in hand with the U.S. [...]
DAMASCUS, Syria - A new ambassador from Bahrain formally took up his post in Syria on Sunday, the country’s first full diplomatic mission there in more than a decade as Damascus continues to improve its relations with Gulf Arab states.
Tunisian President Kais Saied confirmed Tuesday that a draft constitution to be put to a referendum on July 25 will not enshrine Islam as the "religion of the state".
While the Palestinians have sometimes embraced international diplomacy, they have also engaged in periods of obdurate resistance. It was the Palestinians who thwarted two promising peace initiatives, led by the forward-looking Israeli governments of Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert. Given the sentiment in Israel today, they might not get another chance. 
Lugansk, SANA - President of the 
Bennett met twice on Wednesday with his fellow right-wing Yamina party member, Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked, and asked her to take over the party leadership. She faces a dilemma. Four members of the tiny Knesset faction of seven had rebelled against the prime minister. She takes over a party pretty much in a shambles.