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Category: Politics

Poland rolls out plans for fortifications along its border with Russia and Belarus

Poland rolls out plans for fortifications along its border with Russia and Belarus

The Associated Press reports: Defense officials in NATO member Poland on Monday presented a plan to strengthen anti-drone surveillance and on-ground military defense through a system of fortifications and barriers along about 700 kilometers (430 miles) of its eastern border with Russia and Russian ally Belarus. The government says Poland, which supports neighboring Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s aggression, is being targeted by hostile actions from Russia and Belarus. They include cyberattacks, attempted arson and migrants being pushed illegally…

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Israel is committing genocide, says Human Rights Watch founder and Holocaust survivor, Aryeh Neier

Israel is committing genocide, says Human Rights Watch founder and Holocaust survivor, Aryeh Neier

Read Aryeh Neier’s article on Israel and the question of genocide here: https://t.co/nX1cUoauuC https://t.co/zQomIrXw16 — The New York Review of Books (@nybooks) May 27, 2024 Columbia University World Leaders Forum: Before joining the Open Society Institute and the Soros Foundations as President in September 1993, Aryeh Neier spent twelve years as Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, of which he was a founder in 1978. Prior to that position, he worked for the American Civil Liberties Union for fifteen years,…

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Israelis celebrate Rafah massacre as attack prompts international outcry

Israelis celebrate Rafah massacre as attack prompts international outcry

VOA reports: The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees described the situation in Gaza as “hell on earth” Monday, following an Israeli attack in the southern city of Rafah that Gaza’s health ministry said killed at least 45 people. “Information coming out of Rafah about further attacks on families seeking shelter is horrifying,” UNRWA said. “There are reports of mass casualties including children and women among those killed.” Israel’s military said it was reviewing an incident in Rafah following reports that…

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Access to aid in Gaza was dire. Now, it’s worse

Access to aid in Gaza was dire. Now, it’s worse

The New York Times reports: The flow of aid into Gaza has shrunk so much in May that humanitarian officials say their operations are at risk of shutting down, and that the threat of widespread starvation is more acute than ever. The entry of aid trucks through Gaza’s southern crossings, where most aid has arrived since the war began, has nearly ground to a halt since Israel expanded its fighting in the southern city of Rafah. In northern Gaza, new…

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Trump tells donors he will crush pro-Palestinian protests if re-elected

Trump tells donors he will crush pro-Palestinian protests if re-elected

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump has told a group of wealthy donors that he will crush pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses if he is returned to the White House. The former president and presumptive Republican nominee called the demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza part of a “radical revolution” and promised the predominantly Jewish donors that he would set the movement back 25 or 30 years if they helped him beat Joe Biden in November’s presidential election. “If you get…

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Biden’s bogus ‘red line’ on Rafah operation

Biden’s bogus ‘red line’ on Rafah operation

These public comments from Satterfield confirm what I’ve already heard privately: the impact on civilians of the Rafah operation is as bad as the administration feared, Biden has simply chosen not to enforce his red line. https://t.co/30PDE7Cxnc pic.twitter.com/YuofGtThoH — Matt Duss (@mattduss) May 26, 2024 Jacobin reports: A little more than a month ago, President Joe Biden very publicly and explicitly identified the point that he would not allow Israel’s war on Gaza to reach: an offensive on the city…

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EU foreign chief says Israel must respect UN court, control settler violence in the West Bank

EU foreign chief says Israel must respect UN court, control settler violence in the West Bank

The Associated Press reports: The European Union’s foreign policy chief insisted Sunday that Israel must abide by the U.N. top court’s rulings and end its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and, at the same time, questioned the possible involvement of authorities in the settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. On a day that visiting Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa basked in the attention after two EU nations and Norway pledged to recognize a Palestinian…

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Violent crackdown on pro-Palestine march raises doubts about policing reform in NYPD

Violent crackdown on pro-Palestine march raises doubts about policing reform in NYPD

The Associated Press reports: When New York City resolved a lawsuit brought by Black Lives Matter demonstrators last year by agreeing to overhaul how police respond to protests, Mayor Eric Adams praised the suite of reforms as sensible steps to “move our city forward.” But some civil rights lawyers are now questioning the mayor’s commitment to the deal in the wake of the New York Police Department’s aggressive response to a pro-Palestinian demonstration Saturday. Police arrested more than 40 people…

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Biden is stupid if he thinks young voters are suckers

Biden is stupid if he thinks young voters are suckers

Chris Lehmann writes: President Joe Biden has stepped up efforts to reverse his disastrous loss of support among young voters, announcing a new round of cancellations for federal student loans. The initiative, covering $77 billion in debts, will forgive loans for some 160,000 borrowers via existing programs—a total that brings the overall ratio of canceled loans to one in 10, or 5 million borrowers, according to administration officials. The new program comes on the heels of the White House’s decision…

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The Left is not Joe Biden’s problem. Joe Biden is

The Left is not Joe Biden’s problem. Joe Biden is

Hamilton Nolan writes: Imagining that you are capable of seeing twenty steps ahead on the chaotic chessboard of political life is almost always wrong. Selling out now in order to reap some supposed benefits that you believe you will accrue after a tortured chain of events often results in you selling out for nothing, when those events go in a different direction than you thought they would. This is the great flaw in the thinking of the “accelerationists,” who reckon…

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Russia steps up a covert sabotage campaign aimed at Europe

Russia steps up a covert sabotage campaign aimed at Europe

The New York Times reports: U.S. and allied intelligence officials are tracking an increase in low-level sabotage operations in Europe that they say are part of a Russian campaign to undermine support for Ukraine’s war effort. The covert operations have mostly been arsons or attempted arsons targeting a wide range of sites, including a warehouse in England, a paint factory in Poland, homes in Latvia and, most oddly, an Ikea store in Lithuania. But people accused of being Russian operatives…

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What really happened at Columbia? Bruce Robbins, a Jewish humanities professor, speaks out

What really happened at Columbia? Bruce Robbins, a Jewish humanities professor, speaks out

  “[Columbia] deserves a better administration than they’ve got right now” This week on Real Talk, we speak to Bruce Robbins, a Jewish professor at Columbia University, about what really happened during the recent student protests on campus, their demands for divestment from Israel, and the media coverage of it all. Filmed: 14 May 2024 Real Talk is a Middle East Eye interview show hosted by Mohamed Hashem that delves into the stories and experiences of a diverse range of…

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Suspected Israeli reservist in Gaza threatens mutiny

Suspected Israeli reservist in Gaza threatens mutiny

Middle East Eye reports: A suspected Israeli reservist has threatened mutiny if the war on Gaza ends before “complete victory”, saying he wants to annihilate Palestinians in the besieged enclave. The masked soldier, who has not been identified, said in a video posted on Friday he will not obey orders by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. He said he and “100,000 reservists” reject plans to hand Gaza back to Palestinians, including the Palestinian Authority, Hamas or another “Arab entity”. “Yoav Gallant,…

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Inside India’s secret war on its American critics

Inside India’s secret war on its American critics

Zack Beauchamp writes: I met Raqib Naik, a journalist who had fled his native India, at a coffee shop in suburban Maryland. We sat at the same metal table where he once discussed the prospect of his assassination with FBI agents. Naik is a Muslim from Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state. In August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the state’s longstanding self-determination rights and temporarily imposed martial law. Indian officials arbitrarily detained thousands of Kashmiris, including many…

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Biden’s vanishing red line: White House silent as top UN court orders Israel to halt Rafah attack

Biden’s vanishing red line: White House silent as top UN court orders Israel to halt Rafah attack

The Independent reports: Joe Biden said months ago that a major Israeli offensive in the city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians have been sheltering from the war, would be a “red line” that would force him to reconsider US support for the longtime ally. Since then, more than 800,000 have fled Israeli bombardment in the southern Gaza city and aid agencies have compared the situation there to “hell on earth”. And yet, the president has shown…

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This Holocaust survivor (an American-Israeli lawyer and judge) recommended arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders

This Holocaust survivor (an American-Israeli lawyer and judge) recommended arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders

The Forward reports: By the age of 14, he had survived the Holocaust; by 44, he was an Israeli diplomat; now, at the age of 94, Theodor Meron recommended the International Criminal Court seek arrest warrants of Israeli and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Meron, a New York University professor emeritus who has served as legal counsel for both the U.S. and Israeli governments, was one of eight legal and academic experts who were convened in…

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