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Category: War

Life on Ukraine’s front line: ‘Worse than hell’ as Russia advances

Life on Ukraine’s front line: ‘Worse than hell’ as Russia advances

Reuters reports: The artillery fire begins just before dawn. A soldier steps into a darkened trench and lights a cigarette, carefully cupping the flame with his free hand. A boom and crackle of outgoing fire sound in the distance. Viktor, the infantryman, ducks his head under a canopy of camouflage netting and looks up at the brightening sky. The incessant buzz of a drone sounds overhead, moving a dozen meters from one end of the trench to linger just above…

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Why the summer could be disastrous for Ukraine

Why the summer could be disastrous for Ukraine

Isaac Chotiner interviewed Dara Massicot: This month, the Russian Army has been advancing toward Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, a move that highlights the degree to which the two-year conflict has turned in Vladimir Putin’s favor. At the very least, the push toward Kharkiv may force Ukraine to redirect its thinly stretched forces from the Donbas region, where Russia has been waging a prolonged offensive. The U.S. Congress recently passed an aid bill—blocked since last year by hard-right Republicans in the…

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Spying, hacking and intimidation: Israel’s nine-year ‘war’ on the International Criminal Court exposed

Spying, hacking and intimidation: Israel’s nine-year ‘war’ on the International Criminal Court exposed

The Guardian reports: When the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) announced he was seeking arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders, he issued a cryptic warning: “I insist that all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence the officials of this court must cease immediately.” Karim Khan did not provide specific details of attempts to interfere in the ICC’s work, but he noted a clause in the court’s foundational treaty that made any such interference a criminal…

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EU foreign ministers discuss sanctions against Israel

EU foreign ministers discuss sanctions against Israel

Politico reports: EU foreign ministers have for the first time engaged in a “significant” discussion on sanctioning Israel if it doesn’t comply with international humanitarian law, Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin said Monday. “There was a very clear consensus about the need to uphold the international humanitarian legal institutions,” Martin told reporters following the Foreign Affairs Council. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled Friday that Israel must immediately halt its offensive in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, and…

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Biden was my boss. I resigned because as a Jew I cannot endorse the Gaza genocide

Biden was my boss. I resigned because as a Jew I cannot endorse the Gaza genocide

Lily Greenberg Call writes: Until last week, President Biden was my boss. Last week, I resigned from my post at the United States Department of the Interior, becoming the first Jewish politically appointed administration official to publicly resign in protest – and in mourning – of President Biden’s endorsement of genocide in Gaza, where more than 35,000 Palestinians have been murdered. This was an incredibly difficult decision, but one that was necessary – and one that felt even more urgent,…

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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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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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