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Category: War

U.S. to keep sending arms to Israel despite dire conditions in Gaza

U.S. to keep sending arms to Israel despite dire conditions in Gaza

The New York Times reports: The State Department said on Tuesday that it did not plan to decrease weapons aid to Israel, as a 30-day deadline set by the Biden administration passed without the country substantially improving the humanitarian situation in war-devastated Gaza. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III had warned in a letter dated Oct. 13 that the United States would reassess its military aid to Israel if it failed to increase…

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Netanyahu might be disappointed in a Trump White House, says former Israeli official

Netanyahu might be disappointed in a Trump White House, says former Israeli official

  As Donald Trump’s administration picks are revealed, the Middle East watches closely for the implications of the new White House in the region. This comes at a time when Israel’s Foreign Minister has rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state, while the Saudi Crown Prince has harshly criticized Netanyahu, accusing Israel of ‘genocide’ against Palestinians in Gaza. Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President at The Quincy Institute, and Alon Pinkas, former Israel Consul General in New York, join CNN’s Becky…

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The not-so-secret history of Netanyahu’s support for Hamas

The not-so-secret history of Netanyahu’s support for Hamas

Ghousoon Bisharat writes: When Israeli historian and human rights activist Adam Raz set out to write “The Road to October 7: Benjamin Netanyahu, the Production of the Endless Conflict and Israel’s Moral Degradation,” he knew he was tackling a blind spot in Israeli public discourse. The vast majority of Israelis, Raz believes, fail to grasp the full extent of Netanyahu’s involvement in bolstering Hamas before the current war, and in perpetuating an unending state of conflict. Raz’s book, released in…

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Helping Ukraine is Europe’s job now

Helping Ukraine is Europe’s job now

Phillips Payson O’Brien writes: Europeans should pay Donald Trump the compliment of believing what he does and says, not what they desperately want to hear. He has clearly indicated that he wants the United States out of the Ukraine war as soon as possible. Both the president-elect and his most important supporter, Elon Musk, have reportedly been in frequent contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Vice President–elect J. D. Vance has outlined a “peace” deal with Ukraine that would serve…

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The U.S. could soon face a threat ‘more powerful’ than nuclear weapons

The U.S. could soon face a threat ‘more powerful’ than nuclear weapons

Ashish K. Jha, Matt Pottinger and Matthew McKnight write: President Richard M. Nixon’s bold 1969 decision to renounce biological weapons and spearhead a treaty to ban them helped contain the threat of a man-made pandemic for half a century. But our inheritance from Nixon is now fading. And in this age of synthetic biology, unless we act quickly to deter our adversaries from making and using bioweapons, we could face disaster in the near future. The nightmare of a biological…

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Gaza doesn’t care about Trump or Harris — only survival matters

Gaza doesn’t care about Trump or Harris — only survival matters

Ahmed Najar writes: I spoke to my family in Gaza a day before the US election. Our conversation followed days of silence, of unbearable waiting, with every hour deepening my dread. When I finally heard my nephew’s voice, I felt relief, but it quickly gave way to heartbreak. At just 21, his voice now carries a sadness and exhaustion far beyond his years. “Does it even matter who wins?” he asked me, his tone hollow and resigned. “[Donald] Trump or…

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Harris paid the price for ignoring the pleas of Arab Americans

Harris paid the price for ignoring the pleas of Arab Americans

Politico reports: Arab American leaders for months warned Vice President Kamala Harris that she needed to separate herself from President Joe Biden’s support of Israel in the war in Gaza — or face an electoral backlash from this influential community in a key battleground. But those pleas went largely ignored. Instead, Harris made strategic errors that deeply insulted Arab American voters reeling from intense grief as the death toll in the Middle East climbed. She refused to host a Palestinian…

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Trump talked to Putin, told Russian leader not to escalate in Ukraine

Trump talked to Putin, told Russian leader not to escalate in Ukraine

The Washington Post reports: President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, the first phone conversation between the two men since Trump won the election, said several people familiar with the matter. During the call, which Trump took from his resort in Florida, he advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington’s sizable military presence in Europe, said a person familiar with the call, who, like others interviewed for…

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Netanyahu appoints hardline backer of settlements as Israeli envoy to U.S.

Netanyahu appoints hardline backer of settlements as Israeli envoy to U.S.

The Guardian reports: Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a hardline supporter of the war in Gaza and longtime backer of settlements in the West Bank as his ambassador to the US as Israel prepares for the incoming administration of Donald Trump. Yechiel Leiter, an American-born rightwing publicist and former government aide who immigrated to Israel four decades ago, was announced as Israel’s next ambassador to Washington on Friday. His son, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, was killed in fighting…

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Qatar to pause Gaza ceasefire mediation, source says

Qatar to pause Gaza ceasefire mediation, source says

Reuters reports: Qatar will stop trying to mediate a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal until Hamas and Israel are willing to resume talks, an official briefed on the matter said, while also casting doubt on the continued presence of Hamas’ political office in Doha. The Gulf country has been working alongside the United States and Egypt on months of so-far fruitless talks between the warring sides in Gaza and its withdrawal from that process would further complicate efforts to…

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Jordan’s former foreign minister says two-state solution is over

Jordan’s former foreign minister says two-state solution is over

  Middle East Eye reports: Jordan’s former foreign minister has told Middle East Eye that Arab countries need to abandon the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. “Practically, that is not going to take place,” Marwan Muasher, who also served as Jordan’s deputy prime minister and opened the kingdom’s first embassy in Israel in 1995, said of the two-state solution in a video interview with Middle East Eye. The ex-diplomat, who is now vice president for studies at the Carnegie…

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North Korean troops heading to Ukraine are inexperienced, poorly trained and underfed

North Korean troops heading to Ukraine are inexperienced, poorly trained and underfed

Justin McCurry writes: Depending on whom you ask, they are the boost that Russian forces need to make a significant breakthrough in Ukraine, or they are simple cannon fodder, destined for repatriation in body bags. After weeks of speculation, Nato and the Pentagon have confirmed that around 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia, with most massing near Ukraine’s border in Kursk, where the Kremlin’s forces have struggled to repel a Ukrainian incursion. US officials believe the North Koreans could…

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Russia suspected of plotting to send incendiary devices on U.S.-bound planes

Russia suspected of plotting to send incendiary devices on U.S.-bound planes

The Guardian reports: An incendiary device hidden in a DHL package that caught fire in Germany in July was due to be sent by air to the UK as part of a suspected Russian sabotage plot that may also have been a dry run for a similar attack on the US and Canada. The device, reported to have been secreted in shipments of massage pillows and erotic gadgets, started a fire on the ground in Leipzig that was feared to…

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Ilan Pappé: The birth of Israel and the death of Zionism

Ilan Pappé: The birth of Israel and the death of Zionism

  Can Zionism survive the current war in Gaza? Israeli historian Ilan Pappé believes it can’t. In fact, he argues that the liberation of Palestine is an inevitability. Pappé is the author of 24 books on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and most recently published two books: ‘Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic’ and ‘A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict’. This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we sit down with Ilan Pappé to talk about where…

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Kamala Harris is not our savior. But a Donald Trump win would be catastrophic

Kamala Harris is not our savior. But a Donald Trump win would be catastrophic

Teen Vogue‘s editor in chief, Versha Sharma, writes: Donald Trump cannot win this election. Full stop. Right now, we have the power to make sure that doesn’t happen. Not exercising that power only gives him more. And it will result in the loss of power for many of our communities. As the head of this publication, dedicated to young readers, I have been closely following younger generations’ collective disbelief at the Biden administration’s support of the Israeli government during its…

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‘Our job is to flatten Gaza. No one will stop us’

‘Our job is to flatten Gaza. No one will stop us’

Ryan Grim writes: Journalists Younis Tirawi and Sami Vanderlip have managed to find and archive all the Instagram stories and daily posts shared by the soldiers of one key unit, Israel’s 749 Combat Engineering Battalion. They’ve mapped out the structure of the unit and identified the individual soldiers and officers involved, along with their various roles in operations. They have tracked the activities of each company in the battalion, including what they were doing, when, and where, as the force…

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