31 oct 2018
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visit a memorial outside Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 30, 2018
It is in the interest of Israel for Jewish Americans and Jewish Europeans to feel unsafe.
The massacre of Jewish worshippers on Saturday by an avowed anti-Semite in Pittsburgh reveals a clear, straight line between Trump's sustained dog-whistles - against Jews, black people, Muslims, immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community - to the violence carried out by right-wing white nationalists.
Robert Bowers, apprehended after a shooting spree that killed 11 people, explained he wanted "all Jews to die" and described immigrants and asylum-seekers as "invaders" of the United States. Instead of condemning far-right nationalism, Trump reinforced this hysteria, tweeting on Monday that a caravan of asylum-seekers coming from Honduras should be considered as an "invasion" and that the US military "would be waiting" for them. Last week, Trump proudly embraced the "nationalist" term.
Bowers had consumed and regurgitated the lethal rhetoric of far-right extremists who want to rid the US of non-white, non-Christian people, and of a government which constantly incites hatred and vilification of all marginalized groups.
Three days earlier, a white supremacist in Kentucky set out to kill black people. He eventually murdered Maurice Stallard, 69, and Vickie Lee Jones, 67, in a grocery store.
There is no question that these killers were motivated by the white nationalist extremism the Trump administrations has adopted and encouraged.
After Saturday's synagogue massacre, curiously, Israeli leaders offered their condolences but refused to address Trump's responsibility for fuelling such anti-Semitic violence.
Instead, they scrambled to provide cover for the US president while Israel advocates attempted to blame the rise in anti-Semitism on left-wing, anti-racist and anti-fascist activists who campaign for Palestinian rights.
Why would they do this, especially when American Jewish support for Trump is overwhelmingly low, and while Israel claims to be the protector of all Jewish people? To whom - or to what - were they speaking?
The unwillingness by Israeli leaders to confront such modern-day Nazism and the political forces pushing state-sponsored bigotry and hatred exposes that state's unsettling alliance with Trump and his agenda.
For Israel, Trump has been the ideal partner in its efforts to crush Palestinian resistance and deny rights to African asylum-seekers while entrenching apartheid and systematic, unchecked violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Trump has, in turn, looked to Israel to model his policies of intensified militarisation of the US-Mexico border, his authoritarian threats against asylum-seekers and immigrants, and his open embrace of nationalist figures and right-wing legislators.
Notorious white supremacist Richard Spencer, speaking about his dream to make the US a European ethno-nationalist state, for example, has said he sees Israel as the ideal model.
Spencer has even dubbed his project for an Aryan state "white Zionism."
Brazil's president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right extremist who has promised to treat social movements as terrorist organisations and wage a war on poor and indigenous communities, has also embraced Israel and says he will - like Trump - move his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Israeli flags were prominently waved during rallies celebrating Bolsonaro's win on Sunday, a chilling symbol of Israel's popularity in fascist political movements.
But there is another reason Israel is embracing today's white nationalists.
Right-wing extremists openly yearn to push Jewish people out of the US and Europe - a fantasy shared by Israel's top leadership. The appeal to Jews to leave their homes and settle in Israel - on Palestinian land - is a main tenet of Zionism, Israel's state ideology.
But only a tiny number of ideologically motivated Jews are prepared to leave the safety, prosperity and comfort they enjoy in their home countries in North America and Europe for a hard life in Israel. Meanwhile, many Israeli Jews, especially the young and most educated, are leaving - a drain Israel is hard pressed to stop.
So unable to attract Jews from abroad, Israeli leaders must convince Jewish people that they are unsafe and unwanted everywhere - everywhere except for Israel. Just like Trump, Israel's main weapon is fear.
Israeli politicians like opposition leader Avy Gabbay - who on Sunday urged American Jews, in grief and traumatised by the Pittsburgh massacre, to emigrate to Israel - seek to deliberately weaken the safety and diversity of communities in which Jewish people around the world are rooted.
Israel's education minister Naftali Bennett, an extreme right-wing supporter of Israel's settler population who has bragged about killing Arabs, used the massacre of Jewish worshippers to dehumanise Palestinians.
The efforts of Bennett and Gabbay did nothing to assuage the Jewish community's fears, but they did exploit anti-Semitism for Israel's gain - and they gave Trump yet another tacit endorsement of his policies.
Instead of fighting to make the world a safer place for Jews - for everyone - wherever they live, wherever they make their home, Israel's leaders and their supporters align openly with Trump's agenda even when it means siding with white nationalist movements who espouse deep anti-Semitism.
It's a horrifying and stark reality and one that Israeli leaders can only try to cover up by falsely deflecting the blame for the lethal anti-Semitism that visited the Tree of Life synagogue onto anti-racist activists and even left-wing Jewish groups.
Israel and its lobby have spent millions of dollars in recent years on campaigns to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, especially on US college campuses. They are trying to suppress the nonviolent, anti-racist boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights by smearing it as anti-Semitic, while giving actual cover to anti-Semitism across the US.
Israel's hardline advocates show deep contempt for American Jews who stand with the marginalised and oppressed, who reject Israel's unmitigated violence against Palestinians, who remain grounded in our communities fighting against systemic racism and injustice propagated by Trump and his authoritarian allies in Israel.
When Trump announced he would be visiting Pittsburgh, members of the progressive Jewish community there immediately stated that he was not welcome until he denounces white nationalism that targets Jews, migrant families, people of colour, Muslims, people with disabilities and LGBTQ people. He went anyway.
Jewish communities in the US are drawing a line: as we refuse to accept Trump's right-wing nationalism that fomented the massacre in Pittsburgh, we also refuse to advocate for Israel as it embodies and sharpens that nationalist fantasy.
Instead, we fight for a broad-based, inclusive and just future for us all.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
It is in the interest of Israel for Jewish Americans and Jewish Europeans to feel unsafe.
The massacre of Jewish worshippers on Saturday by an avowed anti-Semite in Pittsburgh reveals a clear, straight line between Trump's sustained dog-whistles - against Jews, black people, Muslims, immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community - to the violence carried out by right-wing white nationalists.
Robert Bowers, apprehended after a shooting spree that killed 11 people, explained he wanted "all Jews to die" and described immigrants and asylum-seekers as "invaders" of the United States. Instead of condemning far-right nationalism, Trump reinforced this hysteria, tweeting on Monday that a caravan of asylum-seekers coming from Honduras should be considered as an "invasion" and that the US military "would be waiting" for them. Last week, Trump proudly embraced the "nationalist" term.
Bowers had consumed and regurgitated the lethal rhetoric of far-right extremists who want to rid the US of non-white, non-Christian people, and of a government which constantly incites hatred and vilification of all marginalized groups.
Three days earlier, a white supremacist in Kentucky set out to kill black people. He eventually murdered Maurice Stallard, 69, and Vickie Lee Jones, 67, in a grocery store.
There is no question that these killers were motivated by the white nationalist extremism the Trump administrations has adopted and encouraged.
After Saturday's synagogue massacre, curiously, Israeli leaders offered their condolences but refused to address Trump's responsibility for fuelling such anti-Semitic violence.
Instead, they scrambled to provide cover for the US president while Israel advocates attempted to blame the rise in anti-Semitism on left-wing, anti-racist and anti-fascist activists who campaign for Palestinian rights.
Why would they do this, especially when American Jewish support for Trump is overwhelmingly low, and while Israel claims to be the protector of all Jewish people? To whom - or to what - were they speaking?
The unwillingness by Israeli leaders to confront such modern-day Nazism and the political forces pushing state-sponsored bigotry and hatred exposes that state's unsettling alliance with Trump and his agenda.
For Israel, Trump has been the ideal partner in its efforts to crush Palestinian resistance and deny rights to African asylum-seekers while entrenching apartheid and systematic, unchecked violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Trump has, in turn, looked to Israel to model his policies of intensified militarisation of the US-Mexico border, his authoritarian threats against asylum-seekers and immigrants, and his open embrace of nationalist figures and right-wing legislators.
Notorious white supremacist Richard Spencer, speaking about his dream to make the US a European ethno-nationalist state, for example, has said he sees Israel as the ideal model.
Spencer has even dubbed his project for an Aryan state "white Zionism."
Brazil's president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right extremist who has promised to treat social movements as terrorist organisations and wage a war on poor and indigenous communities, has also embraced Israel and says he will - like Trump - move his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Israeli flags were prominently waved during rallies celebrating Bolsonaro's win on Sunday, a chilling symbol of Israel's popularity in fascist political movements.
But there is another reason Israel is embracing today's white nationalists.
Right-wing extremists openly yearn to push Jewish people out of the US and Europe - a fantasy shared by Israel's top leadership. The appeal to Jews to leave their homes and settle in Israel - on Palestinian land - is a main tenet of Zionism, Israel's state ideology.
But only a tiny number of ideologically motivated Jews are prepared to leave the safety, prosperity and comfort they enjoy in their home countries in North America and Europe for a hard life in Israel. Meanwhile, many Israeli Jews, especially the young and most educated, are leaving - a drain Israel is hard pressed to stop.
So unable to attract Jews from abroad, Israeli leaders must convince Jewish people that they are unsafe and unwanted everywhere - everywhere except for Israel. Just like Trump, Israel's main weapon is fear.
Israeli politicians like opposition leader Avy Gabbay - who on Sunday urged American Jews, in grief and traumatised by the Pittsburgh massacre, to emigrate to Israel - seek to deliberately weaken the safety and diversity of communities in which Jewish people around the world are rooted.
Israel's education minister Naftali Bennett, an extreme right-wing supporter of Israel's settler population who has bragged about killing Arabs, used the massacre of Jewish worshippers to dehumanise Palestinians.
The efforts of Bennett and Gabbay did nothing to assuage the Jewish community's fears, but they did exploit anti-Semitism for Israel's gain - and they gave Trump yet another tacit endorsement of his policies.
Instead of fighting to make the world a safer place for Jews - for everyone - wherever they live, wherever they make their home, Israel's leaders and their supporters align openly with Trump's agenda even when it means siding with white nationalist movements who espouse deep anti-Semitism.
It's a horrifying and stark reality and one that Israeli leaders can only try to cover up by falsely deflecting the blame for the lethal anti-Semitism that visited the Tree of Life synagogue onto anti-racist activists and even left-wing Jewish groups.
Israel and its lobby have spent millions of dollars in recent years on campaigns to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, especially on US college campuses. They are trying to suppress the nonviolent, anti-racist boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights by smearing it as anti-Semitic, while giving actual cover to anti-Semitism across the US.
Israel's hardline advocates show deep contempt for American Jews who stand with the marginalised and oppressed, who reject Israel's unmitigated violence against Palestinians, who remain grounded in our communities fighting against systemic racism and injustice propagated by Trump and his authoritarian allies in Israel.
When Trump announced he would be visiting Pittsburgh, members of the progressive Jewish community there immediately stated that he was not welcome until he denounces white nationalism that targets Jews, migrant families, people of colour, Muslims, people with disabilities and LGBTQ people. He went anyway.
Jewish communities in the US are drawing a line: as we refuse to accept Trump's right-wing nationalism that fomented the massacre in Pittsburgh, we also refuse to advocate for Israel as it embodies and sharpens that nationalist fantasy.
Instead, we fight for a broad-based, inclusive and just future for us all.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
The Secretary of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Dr. Saeb Erekat, stated that U.S. President Donald Trump, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are ongoing with their politics to destroy the two-state solution, and replace it with their own facts on the ground, in violation of International Law.
His statement came during meetings with Deputy Diplomatic Counselor at the French Presidency Aurélien Lechevallier, in addition to the French Consul-General in Jerusalem Pierre Cochard, and the Swiss Representative in Palestine.
Erekat stated that all the international efforts to achieve peace, and get the political process started, will not be effective in resolving the situation, and added that peace cannot be achieved by the ongoing theft of Palestinian lands, and denying basic rights of the Palestinian people.
He thanked France and Switzerland for their positions, rejecting Trump’s hostile stances and policies against the Palestinian refugees and the UNRWA, and the closure of the Palestinian Representative office in DC.
Erekat also thanked them for their countries’ positions in support of the two-state solution.
The official also called on Switzerland, as the country that hosted the Geneva Accords of 1948, to save the Fourth Geneva convention of 1949, especially the call for protecting the civilians in time of war.
As for the internal Palestinian issues, especially reconciliation talks, Erekat said that all parties must fully implement the Cairo Agreement of October 2, 2017, which was sponsored by Egypt.
Commenting on Netanyahu’s statements regarding full normalization with the Arab countries before reaching a comprehensive peace agreement with the Palestinians, and the withdrawal from the occupied territory, including Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, Erekat said that “Netanyahu is just hallucinating.”
His statement came during meetings with Deputy Diplomatic Counselor at the French Presidency Aurélien Lechevallier, in addition to the French Consul-General in Jerusalem Pierre Cochard, and the Swiss Representative in Palestine.
Erekat stated that all the international efforts to achieve peace, and get the political process started, will not be effective in resolving the situation, and added that peace cannot be achieved by the ongoing theft of Palestinian lands, and denying basic rights of the Palestinian people.
He thanked France and Switzerland for their positions, rejecting Trump’s hostile stances and policies against the Palestinian refugees and the UNRWA, and the closure of the Palestinian Representative office in DC.
Erekat also thanked them for their countries’ positions in support of the two-state solution.
The official also called on Switzerland, as the country that hosted the Geneva Accords of 1948, to save the Fourth Geneva convention of 1949, especially the call for protecting the civilians in time of war.
As for the internal Palestinian issues, especially reconciliation talks, Erekat said that all parties must fully implement the Cairo Agreement of October 2, 2017, which was sponsored by Egypt.
Commenting on Netanyahu’s statements regarding full normalization with the Arab countries before reaching a comprehensive peace agreement with the Palestinians, and the withdrawal from the occupied territory, including Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, Erekat said that “Netanyahu is just hallucinating.”
30 oct 2018
The Palestinian Central Council (PCC), which met in Ramallah over two days, decided on Monday to end all commitments in the agreements the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has signed with Israel, suspend recognition of Israel until it recognizes the State of Palestine, end security coordination and end the Paris Economic Protocols.
“In view of Israel’s continued denial of the signed agreements, the PCC, in confirmation of its previous decision and considering that the transitional phase no longer exists, decides to end the commitments of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority towards its agreements with the occupying Power, suspend recognition of the State of Israel until its recognition of the State of Palestine on the June 4, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, end security coordination in all its forms, and disengage economically from Israel on the grounds that the transitional phase, including the Paris Economic Protocols no longer exist,” it said in its final communiqué.
The PCC also gave the power to President Mahmoud Abbas, who chaired the PCC meetings, and the PLO’s executive committee to implement these decisions.
The PCC also expressed support for President Abbas’ opposition to the US administration’s so-called deal of the Century, accusing the US of siding with the Israeli occupation and of being “part of the problem and not part of the solution.”
It also held Hamas responsible for failing to implement the agreements it had signed with Fateh over the years.
It said calm with Israel is the responsibility of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and not the duty of the factions.
It also stressed, according to WAFA, “our right to resistance by all means as per international law.”
“In view of Israel’s continued denial of the signed agreements, the PCC, in confirmation of its previous decision and considering that the transitional phase no longer exists, decides to end the commitments of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority towards its agreements with the occupying Power, suspend recognition of the State of Israel until its recognition of the State of Palestine on the June 4, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, end security coordination in all its forms, and disengage economically from Israel on the grounds that the transitional phase, including the Paris Economic Protocols no longer exist,” it said in its final communiqué.
The PCC also gave the power to President Mahmoud Abbas, who chaired the PCC meetings, and the PLO’s executive committee to implement these decisions.
The PCC also expressed support for President Abbas’ opposition to the US administration’s so-called deal of the Century, accusing the US of siding with the Israeli occupation and of being “part of the problem and not part of the solution.”
It also held Hamas responsible for failing to implement the agreements it had signed with Fateh over the years.
It said calm with Israel is the responsibility of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and not the duty of the factions.
It also stressed, according to WAFA, “our right to resistance by all means as per international law.”
19 oct 2018
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Just days before she resigned as UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley delivered a private speech to the Council for National Policy, a secretive group of influential right-wing figures.
Journalist Max Blumenthal obtained exclusive access and reveals shocking details -- including Haley's admission that she threatened the Chinese ambassador with a US invasion of North Korea. |
The United States announced, on Thursday, that it will merge the US Consulate General, which serves Palestinians, with its new embassy into a single diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, to solely “improve the efficiency and effectiveness.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, in a statement, “This decision is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations.
“It does not signal a change of US policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.”
Pompeo said, according to Ma’an News Agency: “We will continue to conduct a full range of reporting, outreach, and programming in the West Bank and Gaza as well as with Palestinians in Jerusalem through a new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the US Embassy Jerusalem.”
He reiterated that the US Trump administration was committed to peace efforts between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The announcement followed several controversial and highly criticized steps taken by the US Trump administration which include the closure of the PLO office in Washington, the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, ending all funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and most recently cancelling $20 million in aid to Palestinian hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem.
The fate of Jerusalem has been a focal point of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades, with numerous tensions arising over Israeli threats regarding the status of non-Jewish religious sites in the city, and the “Judaization” of East Jerusalem through settlement construction and mass demolitions of Palestinian homes.
International consensus has been that Jerusalem’s status should be settled in a peace deal and recognizing it as a capital for either side would prejudice one party over the other. So far, the US and Guatemala have moved their embassies to Jerusalem, in addition to Australia, whose prime minister recently announced that it is considering recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
In August, Trump spoke at a campaign rally, during which he explained the reason to why he had recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, “Every time there were peace talks, they never got past Jerusalem becoming their capital, so I said let’s take it off the table.”
Trump also emphasized that Israel would be expected to pay a higher price and make heavy compromises in future negotiations with Palestine, in order to solve the Palestinian issue. “In the negotiation, Israel will have to pay a higher price because they won a very big thing, but I took it off the table,” he added.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, in a statement, “This decision is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations.
“It does not signal a change of US policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.”
Pompeo said, according to Ma’an News Agency: “We will continue to conduct a full range of reporting, outreach, and programming in the West Bank and Gaza as well as with Palestinians in Jerusalem through a new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the US Embassy Jerusalem.”
He reiterated that the US Trump administration was committed to peace efforts between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The announcement followed several controversial and highly criticized steps taken by the US Trump administration which include the closure of the PLO office in Washington, the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, ending all funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and most recently cancelling $20 million in aid to Palestinian hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem.
The fate of Jerusalem has been a focal point of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades, with numerous tensions arising over Israeli threats regarding the status of non-Jewish religious sites in the city, and the “Judaization” of East Jerusalem through settlement construction and mass demolitions of Palestinian homes.
International consensus has been that Jerusalem’s status should be settled in a peace deal and recognizing it as a capital for either side would prejudice one party over the other. So far, the US and Guatemala have moved their embassies to Jerusalem, in addition to Australia, whose prime minister recently announced that it is considering recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
In August, Trump spoke at a campaign rally, during which he explained the reason to why he had recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, “Every time there were peace talks, they never got past Jerusalem becoming their capital, so I said let’s take it off the table.”
Trump also emphasized that Israel would be expected to pay a higher price and make heavy compromises in future negotiations with Palestine, in order to solve the Palestinian issue. “In the negotiation, Israel will have to pay a higher price because they won a very big thing, but I took it off the table,” he added.
17 oct 2018
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The United States (US) has expressed its strong disagreement with the United Nations General Assembly vote in favor of a resolution granting the State of Palestine additional powers to be able to assume the chairmanship of the Group of 77 developing countries.
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Tuesday in favor of appointing Palestine as head of the group of 77, a coalition of developing nations at the UN, in a move that allows it to act more like a full U.N. member state during meetings in 2019. While 146 counties voted in favor, only three - Israel, the U.S. and Australia - voted against. 15 countries abstained. "Palestinians are not a member state of the UN, not a state at all," the US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley reacted dryly in a statement. "The mistake of the UN today undermines the hopes of a peace by fueling the illusion maintained by some Palestinian leaders that they can advance towards their goals without direct peace negotiations" with the Israelis, she added, saying that "the vote did not help the Palestinian people." Palestine’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, Wednesday hailed the resolution as “a new political victory.” "This vote shows multilateralism in its best light," he told the General Assembly. "This vote is an expression of respect for the G77 decision" to entrust its presidency to the Palestinians, he said. |
12 oct 2018
The secretary general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement says US President Donald Trump knows no limits in his efforts to blackmail Arab states of the Middle East region through the Iranophobic language.
Addressing his supporters via a televised speech broadcast live from the Lebanese capital city of Beirut on Friday evening, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Trump’s latest remarks that Iran planned to take control of the Middle East in just “12 minutes” were meant to lure regional rulers into paying him exorbitant sums of money in return for preserving their regimes.
“As (the late founder of Iran's Islamic Revolution) Imam Khomeini said the US government is an administration of thieves. It is a regime of theft. Former US presidents were also thieves but did not perpetrate their misdeeds blatantly. The incumbent one, however, robs Arab leaders and humiliates them at the same time,” Nasrallah pointed out.
“Trump shows no respect for ethics, human rights and justice in his remarks. We are witness to a US regime, which does not shy away from using the language of contempt and humiliating anyone, albeit it might be their friend and ally,” he said.
The Hezbollah chief further noted that Trump views the Islamic Republic of Iran as a great and strong establishment, while considers all Arab states buying billions of dollars worth of weapons from him as fairly feeble that cannot last on their legs for more than 12 minutes without his support.
“Trump is making use of the anti-Iran rhetoric in a bid to sell billions of dollars worth of American munitions and military hardware to Arab rulers,” he said.
Nasrallah then advised Arab leaders to reconsider their reliance on American statesmen, saying, “The United States is the same country, which denied the deposed Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a visa for cancer treatment. This came despite the fact that he used to be a long-time US ally in the region.”
“Arab leaders would better allocate the billions of dollars that they are paying Trump to solving their own nations’ problems,” the Hezbollah secretary general commented.
He also scoffed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allegations about Hezbollah’s secret weapons sites, stressing that his movement’s policy is to maintain vigilance and not to respond to such trumped-up charges.
“Denial of Israeli allegations would be a free favor to the Tel Aviv regime,” Nasrallah said.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Hezbollah chief stated that he has on occasions demanded the quick formation of a new unity government in Lebanon.
“I assure you all that neither Iran nor Syria does interfere in the formation of the future Lebanese government,” Nasrallah concluded.
Addressing his supporters via a televised speech broadcast live from the Lebanese capital city of Beirut on Friday evening, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Trump’s latest remarks that Iran planned to take control of the Middle East in just “12 minutes” were meant to lure regional rulers into paying him exorbitant sums of money in return for preserving their regimes.
“As (the late founder of Iran's Islamic Revolution) Imam Khomeini said the US government is an administration of thieves. It is a regime of theft. Former US presidents were also thieves but did not perpetrate their misdeeds blatantly. The incumbent one, however, robs Arab leaders and humiliates them at the same time,” Nasrallah pointed out.
“Trump shows no respect for ethics, human rights and justice in his remarks. We are witness to a US regime, which does not shy away from using the language of contempt and humiliating anyone, albeit it might be their friend and ally,” he said.
The Hezbollah chief further noted that Trump views the Islamic Republic of Iran as a great and strong establishment, while considers all Arab states buying billions of dollars worth of weapons from him as fairly feeble that cannot last on their legs for more than 12 minutes without his support.
“Trump is making use of the anti-Iran rhetoric in a bid to sell billions of dollars worth of American munitions and military hardware to Arab rulers,” he said.
Nasrallah then advised Arab leaders to reconsider their reliance on American statesmen, saying, “The United States is the same country, which denied the deposed Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a visa for cancer treatment. This came despite the fact that he used to be a long-time US ally in the region.”
“Arab leaders would better allocate the billions of dollars that they are paying Trump to solving their own nations’ problems,” the Hezbollah secretary general commented.
He also scoffed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allegations about Hezbollah’s secret weapons sites, stressing that his movement’s policy is to maintain vigilance and not to respond to such trumped-up charges.
“Denial of Israeli allegations would be a free favor to the Tel Aviv regime,” Nasrallah said.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Hezbollah chief stated that he has on occasions demanded the quick formation of a new unity government in Lebanon.
“I assure you all that neither Iran nor Syria does interfere in the formation of the future Lebanese government,” Nasrallah concluded.
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