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Category: War

A top Biden official is pushing an urgent post-Gaza plan that’s alarming some insiders

A top Biden official is pushing an urgent post-Gaza plan that’s alarming some insiders

HuffPost reports: Top White House official Brett McGurk is quietly floating a controversial plan to reconstruct Gaza after Israel’s assault concludes, HuffPost has learned, despite serious concerns from some officials inside the administration that it would sow the seeds for future instability in the region. In recent weeks, McGurk has been pitching national security officials on a plan suggesting an approximately 90-day timeline for what should happen once active fighting in Gaza ends, three U.S. officials said. It argues that…

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Red Sea crisis could shatter hopes of global economic recovery

Red Sea crisis could shatter hopes of global economic recovery

The Observer reports: A prolonged conflict in the Red Sea and escalating tensions across the Middle East risk having devastating effects on the global economy, reigniting inflation and disrupting energy supplies, some of the world’s leading economists warn this weekend. Before a statement expected on Monday by Rishi Sunak in the House of Commons about UK and US airstrikes on Houthi sites in Yemen, economists at the World Bank say the crisis now threatens to feed through into higher interest…

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The Houthis’ forgotten war goes global

The Houthis’ forgotten war goes global

Elisabeth Kendall writes: On 14 November 2023, the military spokesman of Yemen’s Houthis, General Yahya Sarea, released a statement with an image of an Israeli ship on fire with a vow to ‘sink your ships’. Five days later, dramatic footage captured on the bodycams of Houthi hijackers and beamed around the world showed heavily armed insurgents clad in black balaclavas jumping out of a helicopter onto the deck of the Galaxy Leader, a cargo ship affiliated with an Israeli businessman,…

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How airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels could backfire for the Western alliance

How airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels could backfire for the Western alliance

  Elisabeth Kendall, Yemen and Middle East expert, Girton College, University of Cambridge, says: “Of course the reason behind the strikes by the United States and the UK is to try to disengage the Houthis from wreaking havoc in the Red Sea. So the whole point is to try to tamp down the conflict there, and to ease the burden of fear on the shipping industry and therefore the knock-on effects that that has on our economies. The problem now…

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Germany and Israel’s genocidal partnership draws strong rebuke from Namibia

Germany and Israel’s genocidal partnership draws strong rebuke from Namibia

The Times of Israel reports: The German government sharply rejects allegations before the UN’s top court that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza and warned against “political instrumentalization” of the charge. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit says in a statement that Israel was “defending itself” after the “inhuman” attacks by Hamas on October 7. He says Germany would intervene as a third party before the ICJ under an article allowing states to seek clarification on the use of a multilateral convention….

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For many Palestinians in Gaza, the fear of Israeli airstrikes has become secondary to the slow, agonizing threat of starvation

For many Palestinians in Gaza, the fear of Israeli airstrikes has become secondary to the slow, agonizing threat of starvation

Mahmoud Mushtaha reports: The struggle for survival has morphed into a haunting and totalizing reality for Palestinian residents here in Gaza City, as it has for Palestinians across the entire Strip. Against the backdrop of intensified Israeli military attacks, the deprivation of food and water under a tightened siege, and the pervasive threat of epidemics with no medical aid, the city’s remaining inhabitants — even as they fight to stay alive — feel as if they have been left with…

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Israeli teacher held in solitary confinement for posting concern about Gaza deaths

Israeli teacher held in solitary confinement for posting concern about Gaza deaths

The Observer reports: An unlikely charge of intent to commit treason landed Meir Baruchin, a grey-haired, softly spoken history and civics teacher, in the solitary confinement wing of Jerusalem’s notorious “Russian Compound” prison in early November. The evidence compiled by police who handcuffed him, then drove to his apartment and ransacked it as he watched, was a series of Facebook posts he’d made, mourning the civilians killed in Gaza, criticising the Israeli military, and warning against wars of revenge. “Horrific…

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US-UK airstrikes risk strengthening Houthi rebels’ position in Yemen and the region

US-UK airstrikes risk strengthening Houthi rebels’ position in Yemen and the region

Houthi supporters rally in Yemen following U.S.-U.K. airstrikes. Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images By Mahad Darar, Colorado State University The U.S.- and U.K.-led strikes on the rebel Houthi group in Yemen represent a dramatic new turn in the Middle East conflict – one that could have implications throughout the region. The attacks of Jan. 11, 2024, hit around 60 targets at 16 sites, according to the U.S. Air Force’s Mideast command, including in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, the main port of Hodeida and…

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Houthis show resolve that Western air strikes will be hard pressed to shake

Houthis show resolve that Western air strikes will be hard pressed to shake

Patrick Wintour writes: The near-official slogan of the Houthi movement is: “God is the Greatest / Death to America / Death to Israel / A curse upon the Jews.” Crowds of supporters in the group’s northern Yemen strongholds have been chanting it for more than 20 years, ever since the phrase was brought back from Tehran at the turn of the century, when it was first directed at the then Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. So those who claim the…

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Don’t turn away from the charges of genocide against Israel

Don’t turn away from the charges of genocide against Israel

Megan K. Stack writes: The word genocide rings loudly in our imagination. We think of Rwanda, Bosnia, the Armenians, the Trail of Tears and, of course, the Holocaust. I have heard many people balk at the suggestion that Gaza could be experiencing genocide. The Holocaust, after all, wiped out over 60 percent of European Jews. Israel’s war — instigated, no less, by the murder of Jews — has killed about 1 percent of the Palestinians in Gaza. One percent is…

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World Food Programme: Gaza is on the brink of famine

World Food Programme: Gaza is on the brink of famine

  Gazans are facing a desperate humanitarian crisis, with food shelves empty, and around 85% of the enclave’s population displaced since October 7 according to the U.N. The World Food Programme’s executive Cindy McCain says we’re at a tipping point. She speaks to Walter Isaacson about the dire situation and why food insecurity is a global concern.

Israel will lose genocide case at The Hague, human rights lawyer predicts

Israel will lose genocide case at The Hague, human rights lawyer predicts

  Professor Francis A. Boyle, Human Rights Professor and Lawyer who was the first to win a genocide case at the International Court of Justice spoke to Andrew Marr on Thursday, praising South African lawyers performance in rebutting Israeli defences. South Africa has formally accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians and pleaded with the United Nations’ top court to order an immediate halt to Israeli military operations in Gaza. Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust,…

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Can South Africa’s court case against Israel end war in Gaza?

Can South Africa’s court case against Israel end war in Gaza?

  The eyes of the world are on Israel as it stands accused of genocide in the International Court of Justice. It’s being forced to answer for its actions in Gaza. Israeli forces have killed more than 23-thousand Palestinians. Most of the population has been forced from their homes, and a blockade is depriving them of basic necessities. The case was launched by South Africa – and it’s calling on the court to issue a provisional order for Israel to…

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Will the ICJ find Israel guilty of genocide?

Will the ICJ find Israel guilty of genocide?

The Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, says: Contrary to what many people think, the Nazis were not tried for genocide. The crime of genocide did not exist in the “London Agreement,” which is the charter of the Nuremberg Military Tribunal. They were tried instead for the crime of extermination. But after Nuremberg, the argument arose that the crime of extermination was not enough, and that it did not grasp the peculiarity of mass extermination designed to wipe out a…

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Russia finds way around sanctions on battlefield tech, report finds

Russia finds way around sanctions on battlefield tech, report finds

Politico reports: Russia has largely succeeded in finding ways to get around sanctions on the technology it needs to fight its war against Ukraine, and that means the West needs to make the trade curbs more effective if it is to restrict Vladimir Putin’s aggression. That’s the main takeaway of an in-depth report by a U.S.-Ukrainian research team, which found that Russian imports of “battlefield goods” sanctioned by Washington and its allies totaled nearly $9 billion from January to October…

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Why South Africa has asked the ICJ to order an immediate suspension of Israel’s military operations in and against Gaza

Why South Africa has asked the ICJ to order an immediate suspension of Israel’s military operations in and against Gaza

  Addressing the International Court of Justice, Professor Vaughan Lowe KC said: First, some will ask why South Africa does not seek any court order against Hamas. This case concerns Israel’s action in Gaza, which is territory that, three weeks ago in Resolution 2720, the Security Council stressed is “an integral part of the territory occupied in 1967” by Israel. As the court will understand, Hamas is not a State and cannot be party to the Genocide Convention; and it…

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