25 nov 2018
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced that half of its employees in the West Bank and Gaza will be laid off in the coming weeks, and by early 2019, the operations will be completely shut down.
Israeli officials reportedly voiced fears that such US decision would aggravate the humanitarian and security situation in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, according to Haaretz newspaper.
The US department of state informed USAID last week that by next month the agency would have to present a list of 60 percent of its employees to be dismissed as the first step in the shutdown that will be finalized by 2019.
This US federal government agency handles civilian assistance to various countries around the world. It started operating in the West Bank and Gaza in 1994, focusing mainly on economic issues, including water, infrastructure, education and health.
USAID also buys medical equipment, provides humanitarian assistance to those in need of medical care and teaches lifesaving techniques to doctors from Gaza and the West Bank. In recent years USAID has conducted in-service education for teachers, built schools and worked on projects to keep young Palestinians in the education system.
After US president Donald Trump’s decided to freeze funding to various Palestinian relief organizations, dozens of USAID projects in the West Bank and Gaza were suspended, including those that had been partially completed.
Israeli security and military officials are reportedly concerned about the consequences of the suspension of USAID’s work.
Senior army officials already warned that the US suspension of financial assistance to UNRWA would worsen the situation in Gaza. UNRWA provides basic food to 1.3 million people in the Gaza Strip, 4 million doctor visits annually to Gaza residents and employs 12,000 teachers who teach about 300,000 children.
While aid to UNRWA is more significant than the USAID, the cessation of the activities of both agencies will lead to a decline in the humanitarian situation in the Strip and even to its collapse.
Such developments have prompted Israeli officials to warn that Israel would pay the price in terms of sanitation, security and economy.
Israeli officials reportedly voiced fears that such US decision would aggravate the humanitarian and security situation in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, according to Haaretz newspaper.
The US department of state informed USAID last week that by next month the agency would have to present a list of 60 percent of its employees to be dismissed as the first step in the shutdown that will be finalized by 2019.
This US federal government agency handles civilian assistance to various countries around the world. It started operating in the West Bank and Gaza in 1994, focusing mainly on economic issues, including water, infrastructure, education and health.
USAID also buys medical equipment, provides humanitarian assistance to those in need of medical care and teaches lifesaving techniques to doctors from Gaza and the West Bank. In recent years USAID has conducted in-service education for teachers, built schools and worked on projects to keep young Palestinians in the education system.
After US president Donald Trump’s decided to freeze funding to various Palestinian relief organizations, dozens of USAID projects in the West Bank and Gaza were suspended, including those that had been partially completed.
Israeli security and military officials are reportedly concerned about the consequences of the suspension of USAID’s work.
Senior army officials already warned that the US suspension of financial assistance to UNRWA would worsen the situation in Gaza. UNRWA provides basic food to 1.3 million people in the Gaza Strip, 4 million doctor visits annually to Gaza residents and employs 12,000 teachers who teach about 300,000 children.
While aid to UNRWA is more significant than the USAID, the cessation of the activities of both agencies will lead to a decline in the humanitarian situation in the Strip and even to its collapse.
Such developments have prompted Israeli officials to warn that Israel would pay the price in terms of sanitation, security and economy.
22 nov 2018
Israel’s Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat approved a construction permit to expand the U.S. embassy in occupied Jerusalem, according to the municipal spokesperson's office.
"I am happy and proud to approve the expansion of the United States' Embassy," Barkat claimed. "The move of the embassy to Jerusalem was a historic step by President Trump that made clear to the entire world that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the State of Israel."
The permit allows the embassy to add 700 square meters to its complex, of which 350 square meters will be below ground. The addition will serve as office space for the embassy's planned expanded workforce.
"I am happy and proud to approve the expansion of the United States' Embassy," Barkat claimed. "The move of the embassy to Jerusalem was a historic step by President Trump that made clear to the entire world that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the State of Israel."
The permit allows the embassy to add 700 square meters to its complex, of which 350 square meters will be below ground. The addition will serve as office space for the embassy's planned expanded workforce.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace plan being prepared by US President Donald Trump is “a waste of time,” extremist Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said, on Wednesday.
Speaking before hundreds of ambassadors and attachés, at the Jerusalem Post Diplomats’ Conference, in Jerusalem, Shaked added that the differences between Israelis and Palestinians are too great.
“I want peace like everyone else,” she said, “but, I do not believe an agreement can be reached. I would tell Trump: ‘Do not waste your time.'”
Days of Palestine further reports that Shaked also spoke about the demand made by her party, the Jewish Home, to appoint party leader Naftali Bennett as defence minister – an ultimatum that threatens the stability of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
“The prime minister needs a strong defense minister at his side,” she said. “Unfortunately, he thought otherwise. We are a strong country, and Hamas is just a terror organization. But, in recent years, we’ve lost our deterrence.”
On Gaza, Shaked predicted the cease-fire will only last a few months, and then, “there will be no choice but to fight Hamas with all means.”
Earlier at the conference, Strategic Affair minister Gilad Erdan said that Israel is “closer than ever” to controlling parts, or all, of Gaza.
Erdan said that “moving from defense to offense against Hamas means targeted assassinations of leaders of Hamas’ military wing.”
This, Erdan said, “means being ready to take control of the Gaza Strip and hold it until we dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, Today we are closer than ever – since the devastating disengagement plan – to having to control parts of the Strip, or all of it.”
Speaking before hundreds of ambassadors and attachés, at the Jerusalem Post Diplomats’ Conference, in Jerusalem, Shaked added that the differences between Israelis and Palestinians are too great.
“I want peace like everyone else,” she said, “but, I do not believe an agreement can be reached. I would tell Trump: ‘Do not waste your time.'”
Days of Palestine further reports that Shaked also spoke about the demand made by her party, the Jewish Home, to appoint party leader Naftali Bennett as defence minister – an ultimatum that threatens the stability of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
“The prime minister needs a strong defense minister at his side,” she said. “Unfortunately, he thought otherwise. We are a strong country, and Hamas is just a terror organization. But, in recent years, we’ve lost our deterrence.”
On Gaza, Shaked predicted the cease-fire will only last a few months, and then, “there will be no choice but to fight Hamas with all means.”
Earlier at the conference, Strategic Affair minister Gilad Erdan said that Israel is “closer than ever” to controlling parts, or all, of Gaza.
Erdan said that “moving from defense to offense against Hamas means targeted assassinations of leaders of Hamas’ military wing.”
This, Erdan said, “means being ready to take control of the Gaza Strip and hold it until we dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, Today we are closer than ever – since the devastating disengagement plan – to having to control parts of the Strip, or all of it.”
14 nov 2018
The U.S. Department of State announced on Tuesday rewards of up to $5 million each for information or identification leading to the capture of the following figures: Hamas leader Saleh al-Aruri, and Hezbollah leaders Khalil Yusif Mahmoud Harb and Haytham ‘Ali Tabataba’i.
Aruri is a prominent Hamas leader and an outspoken anti-occupation figure. He is currently living in Lebanon.
“Our country is not immune. In 2011, the Qods Force allegedly was involved in a plan to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States at a restaurant in Georgetown,” Nathan Sales, ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Tuesday.
Sales said serious measures have been taken to chase down Hamas leaders, among them the group’s chief Ismail Haneyya over “terror charges”, in reference to their anti-occupation activism.
Seven other Palestinian leaders figure on the US terror blacklist: Mohamed al-Dheif (the commander of the Qassam resistance brigades); Ziad al-Nakhala (Secretary of the Islamic Jihad); Yehya al-Sinwar (Hamas chief in Gaza); Fathi Hamad (senior Hamas leader); Ahmad al-Ghandour (a leader at the Qassam Brigades); Ramadan Shallah (former Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad); and Rawhi Mushtaha (political bureau member of Hamas).
The State Department on Tuesday also officially designated Nasrallah’s son, Jawad, along with the al-Mujahidin Brigades, as terrorists, subjecting them to the toughest sanctions.
As of 1997, both Hamas and Hezbollah are U.S.-designated terrorist entities.
Aruri is a prominent Hamas leader and an outspoken anti-occupation figure. He is currently living in Lebanon.
“Our country is not immune. In 2011, the Qods Force allegedly was involved in a plan to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States at a restaurant in Georgetown,” Nathan Sales, ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Tuesday.
Sales said serious measures have been taken to chase down Hamas leaders, among them the group’s chief Ismail Haneyya over “terror charges”, in reference to their anti-occupation activism.
Seven other Palestinian leaders figure on the US terror blacklist: Mohamed al-Dheif (the commander of the Qassam resistance brigades); Ziad al-Nakhala (Secretary of the Islamic Jihad); Yehya al-Sinwar (Hamas chief in Gaza); Fathi Hamad (senior Hamas leader); Ahmad al-Ghandour (a leader at the Qassam Brigades); Ramadan Shallah (former Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad); and Rawhi Mushtaha (political bureau member of Hamas).
The State Department on Tuesday also officially designated Nasrallah’s son, Jawad, along with the al-Mujahidin Brigades, as terrorists, subjecting them to the toughest sanctions.
As of 1997, both Hamas and Hezbollah are U.S.-designated terrorist entities.
12 nov 2018
Donald Trump has been criticized by military analysts for advocating that US troops open fire on immigrants who throw stones.
The military analyst industrial complex – not known for reining in the military ambitions of US presidents – has struck back at Donald Trump’s call to shoot immigrants at the US border if they throw rocks.
“They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back,” the first-term president has declared. “I told them to consider it a rifle. When they throw rocks like what they did to the Mexican military and police I say consider it a rifle.”
Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel responded on CNN: “My reaction in listening to that, coming from the commander in chief of our forces, president of the United States, is one of disgust. That’s a wanton incitement of unnecessary violence. It’s a distraction. It’s a distortion.”
Retired US General Mark Hertling insisted to CNN’s Don Lemon that the threat against Trump’s imagined rock throwers at the US-Mexico border “goes against the uniform code of military justice.” He added, “It goes against the law of land warfare and it goes against the Geneva Convention.”
Hertling cited the principle of “proportionality,” saying, “You don’t strike with a rifle or you don’t shoot at someone who has thrown a rock.”
The words are striking as I do not recall a retired US military leader speaking so forcefully on cable news against Israel’s use of firearms against Palestinian children throwing stones.
The citation of international law should be routine in their analysis of Israel’s military actions against an occupied people. Yet it is anything but routine.
A personal note to Lemon asking him to remind his colleagues of Hertling’s remarks when Israeli military forces shoot Palestinian children throwing stones went unanswered.
Spin
CNN has gained a reputation lately for trying to hold Trump accountable. Yet the channel’s record on exposing state violence leaves much to be desired.
Military analysts employed by the cable news networks generally do not note, as Amnesty International did [pdf] in 2014, that “often, the force used by Israeli forces against protesters seems to be unnecessary, arbitrary and abusive.”
Imagine how different CNN’s coverage of Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza and the West Bank could be if a military analyst invoked international law in discussing deadly Israeli gunfire – using US-made weapons – against Palestinian children.
Instead, viewers frequently face spin.
In 2014, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewed Michael Oren, previously Israeli ambassador to the US and a spokesperson for the Israeli military, about the death of the Palestinian child Nadim Nuwara. Oren, then employed as a “CNN Mideast analyst,” questioned whether Nuwara and Muhammad Abu al-Thahir, another child slain the same day by Israeli occupation forces, were even dead.
Oren said nothing about international law and the egregious abuse of the principle of proportionality, not to mention that neither child was actually a threat when shot dead.
“Who is Amnesty International?”
The Nigerian military has already used Trump’s words in an attempt to exonerate itself for killing, according to Amnesty International, more than 40 protesters, some of whom were throwing rocks.
John Agim, a Nigerian military spokesperson, stated, “We released that video to say if President Trump can say that rocks are as good as a rifle, who is Amnesty International?” He added, “What are they then saying? What did David use to kill Goliath? So a stone is a weapon.”
Trump has subsequently tried to backtrack. “They won’t have to fire. What I don’t want is I don’t want these people throwing rocks,” Trump has declared. “If they do that with us, they’re going to be arrested for a long time.”
Yet the damage is done. Impressionable young troops may now believe their president has given them license to shoot to kill at the border against what Trump has described as an “invasion” by immigrants that he asserts – without evidence – includes “unknown Middle Easterners.” Trump appears to want his supporters to think of terrorism and violence when they hear him claim that “Middle Easterners” and “very bad thugs and gang members” comprise the caravan hundreds of miles from the US border.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057614564639019009
How quickly would Trump leap to defend any such soldier who fires on civilians at the border?
He’s already on record offering to pay possible legal bills of supporters at his rallies who attack protesters. And he can certainly look for an example to political friends and allies in Israel who jumped to defend Israeli army medic Elor Azarya who executed the severely injured and, at the time, unarmed Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif in occupied Hebron.
Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser to the president, remains the driving force behind Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. Miller has documented connections to the white supremacist Richard Spencer – with whom he has previously worked on immigration issues – and to Ben Packer, an extremist rabbi actively involved in expelling Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem.
Despite the tense relationship between Trump’s entourage and journalists, the mainstream media have failed to probe the full extent of such connections. Israel’s crimes – and how the US enables them – remain something that cable military analysts fail to address with the same vigor they have recently shown regarding Trump’s abuses.
The military analyst industrial complex – not known for reining in the military ambitions of US presidents – has struck back at Donald Trump’s call to shoot immigrants at the US border if they throw rocks.
“They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back,” the first-term president has declared. “I told them to consider it a rifle. When they throw rocks like what they did to the Mexican military and police I say consider it a rifle.”
Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel responded on CNN: “My reaction in listening to that, coming from the commander in chief of our forces, president of the United States, is one of disgust. That’s a wanton incitement of unnecessary violence. It’s a distraction. It’s a distortion.”
Retired US General Mark Hertling insisted to CNN’s Don Lemon that the threat against Trump’s imagined rock throwers at the US-Mexico border “goes against the uniform code of military justice.” He added, “It goes against the law of land warfare and it goes against the Geneva Convention.”
Hertling cited the principle of “proportionality,” saying, “You don’t strike with a rifle or you don’t shoot at someone who has thrown a rock.”
The words are striking as I do not recall a retired US military leader speaking so forcefully on cable news against Israel’s use of firearms against Palestinian children throwing stones.
The citation of international law should be routine in their analysis of Israel’s military actions against an occupied people. Yet it is anything but routine.
A personal note to Lemon asking him to remind his colleagues of Hertling’s remarks when Israeli military forces shoot Palestinian children throwing stones went unanswered.
Spin
CNN has gained a reputation lately for trying to hold Trump accountable. Yet the channel’s record on exposing state violence leaves much to be desired.
Military analysts employed by the cable news networks generally do not note, as Amnesty International did [pdf] in 2014, that “often, the force used by Israeli forces against protesters seems to be unnecessary, arbitrary and abusive.”
Imagine how different CNN’s coverage of Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza and the West Bank could be if a military analyst invoked international law in discussing deadly Israeli gunfire – using US-made weapons – against Palestinian children.
Instead, viewers frequently face spin.
In 2014, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewed Michael Oren, previously Israeli ambassador to the US and a spokesperson for the Israeli military, about the death of the Palestinian child Nadim Nuwara. Oren, then employed as a “CNN Mideast analyst,” questioned whether Nuwara and Muhammad Abu al-Thahir, another child slain the same day by Israeli occupation forces, were even dead.
Oren said nothing about international law and the egregious abuse of the principle of proportionality, not to mention that neither child was actually a threat when shot dead.
“Who is Amnesty International?”
The Nigerian military has already used Trump’s words in an attempt to exonerate itself for killing, according to Amnesty International, more than 40 protesters, some of whom were throwing rocks.
John Agim, a Nigerian military spokesperson, stated, “We released that video to say if President Trump can say that rocks are as good as a rifle, who is Amnesty International?” He added, “What are they then saying? What did David use to kill Goliath? So a stone is a weapon.”
Trump has subsequently tried to backtrack. “They won’t have to fire. What I don’t want is I don’t want these people throwing rocks,” Trump has declared. “If they do that with us, they’re going to be arrested for a long time.”
Yet the damage is done. Impressionable young troops may now believe their president has given them license to shoot to kill at the border against what Trump has described as an “invasion” by immigrants that he asserts – without evidence – includes “unknown Middle Easterners.” Trump appears to want his supporters to think of terrorism and violence when they hear him claim that “Middle Easterners” and “very bad thugs and gang members” comprise the caravan hundreds of miles from the US border.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057614564639019009
How quickly would Trump leap to defend any such soldier who fires on civilians at the border?
He’s already on record offering to pay possible legal bills of supporters at his rallies who attack protesters. And he can certainly look for an example to political friends and allies in Israel who jumped to defend Israeli army medic Elor Azarya who executed the severely injured and, at the time, unarmed Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif in occupied Hebron.
Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser to the president, remains the driving force behind Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. Miller has documented connections to the white supremacist Richard Spencer – with whom he has previously worked on immigration issues – and to Ben Packer, an extremist rabbi actively involved in expelling Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem.
Despite the tense relationship between Trump’s entourage and journalists, the mainstream media have failed to probe the full extent of such connections. Israel’s crimes – and how the US enables them – remain something that cable military analysts fail to address with the same vigor they have recently shown regarding Trump’s abuses.
11 nov 2018
US White House Envoy Jason Greenblatt said, in a closed meeting, that the US administration will soon be presenting President Trump’s peace plan in the Middle East that “neither side will like.”
According to Israel’s Channel 10, the meeting was held in London, and organized by the UK Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers, in which Greenblatt said that the plan would be a permanent deal instead of temporary agreements, adding that “there will be a need to compromise.”
The US envoy stressed that the goal of the American peace plan, or “deal of the century”, is to reach a permanent agreement between Israel and Palestine, instead of temporary agreements.
PNN further reports that, two weeks ago, an official from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that France will submit a peace plan if the US doesn’t submit its own, after midterm elections.
According to Israel’s Channel 10, the meeting was held in London, and organized by the UK Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers, in which Greenblatt said that the plan would be a permanent deal instead of temporary agreements, adding that “there will be a need to compromise.”
The US envoy stressed that the goal of the American peace plan, or “deal of the century”, is to reach a permanent agreement between Israel and Palestine, instead of temporary agreements.
PNN further reports that, two weeks ago, an official from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that France will submit a peace plan if the US doesn’t submit its own, after midterm elections.
6 nov 2018
Speaking in a Likud faction meeting, PM Netanyahu says only technological strength can lead to agreements with the Arab world, since 'concessions are perceived as weakness'; hails US President Trump's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran.
Speaking at a Likud party meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the demonstration of strength is the most important thing in Israel's foreign policy.
"'Occupation' is bull. There are countries that have conquered and replaced entire populations and the world keeps silent. Strength is the key, it makes all the difference in our policy towards the Arab world."
Netanyahu stressed that concessions are perceived as weakness in the Middle East . "As opposed to the perception that concessions promote agreements with the Arabs, they would only bring minor and short-term changes—nothing more.
"The right thing to do is to make progress through common interests, which are based on technological strength," the premier explained.
In addition, Netanyahu addressed the resumption of US sanctions against Iran that came into effect on Monday.
"This day is an historic day. Today is the day Washington imposed the toughest sanctions Iran has ever known, in an attempt to halt its aggression," Netanyahu stressed.
"I would like to again thank US President Donald Trump for the courageous, determined and important decision. I think it contributes to stability, security and peace in the region.
"We can already witness the influence of these sanctions—Iran is already reducing its budgets, funding aggression elements in and outside its territory," he concluded.
Speaking at a Likud party meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the demonstration of strength is the most important thing in Israel's foreign policy.
"'Occupation' is bull. There are countries that have conquered and replaced entire populations and the world keeps silent. Strength is the key, it makes all the difference in our policy towards the Arab world."
Netanyahu stressed that concessions are perceived as weakness in the Middle East . "As opposed to the perception that concessions promote agreements with the Arabs, they would only bring minor and short-term changes—nothing more.
"The right thing to do is to make progress through common interests, which are based on technological strength," the premier explained.
In addition, Netanyahu addressed the resumption of US sanctions against Iran that came into effect on Monday.
"This day is an historic day. Today is the day Washington imposed the toughest sanctions Iran has ever known, in an attempt to halt its aggression," Netanyahu stressed.
"I would like to again thank US President Donald Trump for the courageous, determined and important decision. I think it contributes to stability, security and peace in the region.
"We can already witness the influence of these sanctions—Iran is already reducing its budgets, funding aggression elements in and outside its territory," he concluded.
Jason Greenblatt, the US Special Representative for International Negotiations, met on Sunday evening with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Honored to meet with prime minister Netanyahu this evening. Discussed important topics including the situation in Gaza and regional developments,” tweeted Greenblatt after the meeting.
Greenblatt also prayed at the Western Wall in occupied Jerusalem with US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
Last week it was announced that Greenblatt would travel to Israel this week to meet with senior Israeli officials and lay the groundwork for the Trump administration’s rollout of the framework for a Middle East final status agreement, dubbed the “Deal of the Century”.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has rejected US attempts to restart peace talks with Israel and has been boycotting the US ever since Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last December.
“Honored to meet with prime minister Netanyahu this evening. Discussed important topics including the situation in Gaza and regional developments,” tweeted Greenblatt after the meeting.
Greenblatt also prayed at the Western Wall in occupied Jerusalem with US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
Last week it was announced that Greenblatt would travel to Israel this week to meet with senior Israeli officials and lay the groundwork for the Trump administration’s rollout of the framework for a Middle East final status agreement, dubbed the “Deal of the Century”.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has rejected US attempts to restart peace talks with Israel and has been boycotting the US ever since Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last December.
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