Donald Trump is President of the United States again. Republicans also won the Senate. However, the story of America is still being written, and many of us will do whatever we can to never go back.
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Wednesday, November 6, 2024
This is America
Sunday, November 3, 2024
France upset by faltering efforts in Lebanon: Netanyahu linked war cessation to normalization agreement with Lebanese state....
For the first time, France has expressed pessimism that stopping the Israeli aggression on Lebanon might be a complicated and difficult matter, as French diplomatic circles revealed that Netanyahu linked stopping the war on the Lebanese front to one condition, which is the conclusion of a normalization agreement with the Lebanese state. Netanyahu himself said this to the French, and he reiterated that Israel's security comes first, followed by the implementation of Resolution 1701, According to Al Diar, a Lebanese paper.
Hezbollah to accept a humiliating ceasefire agreement through violent shelling and targeted strikes, but the facts on the ground have dashed its “hopes” and revealed Hezbollah’s strength on the ground. The party has demonstrated a great ability to maneuver and then strike the “Israeli” forces without the latter being able to reach its points of presence. Moreover, through unconventional combat tactics, the resistance fighters were able to ambush the Israeli forces and kill 95 Israeli soldiers, in addition to launching rockets from secret locations that inflicted huge losses on the occupation army, which created a state of frustration among the enemy’s general staff. Thus, the magic has backfired on the magician. The reality is that today the Israeli army is experiencing a state of humiliation and confusion regarding its targets, while Hezbollah has achieved military accomplishments, which will push the Zionist entity to review its calculations regarding the ground operation in the south.
Arab military sources revealed to Ad-Diyar that “Israel” is seeking to push Hezbollah to accept a humiliating ceasefire agreement through violent shelling and targeted strikes, but the facts on the ground have dashed its “hopes” and revealed Hezbollah’s strength on the ground. The party has demonstrated a great ability to maneuver and then strike the “Israeli” forces without the latter being able to reach its points of presence. Moreover, through unconventional combat tactics, the resistance fighters were able to ambush the Israeli forces and kill 95 Israeli soldiers, in addition to launching rockets from secret locations that inflicted huge losses on the occupation army, which created a state of frustration among the enemy’s general staff. Thus, the magic has backfired on the magician. The reality is that today the Israeli army is experiencing a state of humiliation and confusion regarding its targets, while Hezbollah has achieved military accomplishments, which will push the Zionist entity to review its calculations regarding the ground operation in the south.
Informed sources told Ad-Diyar that despite the intensive airstrikes and continuous shelling, Hezbollah maintains strong points of control in the south, relying on its military experience and equipment in that region, which includes a network of tunnels and advanced weapons stores.
Regarding the failure of the American initiative for a ceasefire between Lebanon and the Zionist entity, prominent political circles told Ad-Diyar that the visit of American envoy Amos Hochstein to Israel came at a lost time, noting that it was expected that Netanyahu would not make any decision at the present time because he is awaiting the results of the American presidential elections. A
senior military expert pointed out that the brutal bombing carried out by enemy aircraft on the south, the Bekaa and the suburbs has become clear that it is not engaged in military objectives, but rather social and sectarian goals to ignite strife within the unified Lebanese society. The raids on Baalbek, Tyre and Nabatieh aim to destroy the foundations of life in these cities and others and make it difficult for the residents of these villages to return after their homes were completely destroyed. Moreover, Israeli officials are trying to push the Lebanese people to revolt against Hezbollah, while these attempts have proven their failure time and time again.
Informed sources told Ad-Diyar that despite the intensive airstrikes and continuous shelling, Hezbollah maintains strong points of control in the south, relying on its military experience and equipment in that region, which includes a network of tunnels and advanced weapons stores.
Regarding the failure of the American initiative for a ceasefire between Lebanon and the Zionist entity, prominent political circles told Ad-Diyar that the visit of American envoy Amos Hochstein to Israel came at a lost time, noting that it was expected that Netanyahu would not make any decision at the present time because he is awaiting the results of the American presidential elections.
A senior military expert pointed out that the brutal bombing carried out by enemy aircraft on the south, the Bekaa and the suburbs has become clear that it is not engaged in military objectives, but rather social and sectarian goals to ignite strife within the unified Lebanese society. The raids on Baalbek, Tyre and Nabatieh aim to destroy the foundations of life in these cities and others and make it difficult for the residents of these villages to return after their homes were completely destroyed. Moreover, Israeli officials are trying to push the Lebanese people to revolt against Hezbollah, while these attempts have proven their failure time and
According to Al-Binaa sources, “Lebanon, the government and the resistance, won the first round of negotiations by aborting the Israeli conditions, through integration between the field and the negotiations, where the official Lebanese position represented by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is negotiating to the rhythm of the field achievements of the resistance, which accelerated the pace of its operations to provide the political negotiator with strong cards to invest in and to strengthen Lebanon’s position to block international pressures to pass dictates and gains to the enemy that it could not achieve on the field.”
The sources stressed that Lebanon will stand firm no matter how great the sacrifices are to prevent the enemy from imposing new rules of engagement on the resistance and breaking the military and political equation with Lebanon.
According to those familiar with the negotiations’ course for Al-Binaa, “the enemy’s prime minister is the one who rigged the negotiations, stuck to his conditions and foiled the last chances for a ceasefire agreement based on Resolution "1701".
A good Lebanese report, depicting the real situation on the ground, at least according to some Lebanese well informed analysts, The war is still raging, and it indicates the world's and America's failure to come up with a fair solution, The existing Israeli régime, drunk by its destructive powers is resolute now to fully subdue all its neighbors, and they are coming to them one by one with hatred and vengeance and a full sense of superiority, unless it develops into a total regional war, that will drag the world with it.
And as our actual administration continues their unconditional and seemingly boundless support for Israel's military actions that has spread beyond Palestine into Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Syria and Iraq. Despite the administration's stated goals of avoiding a regional war, increasingly dangerous escalations and barbaric interventions have been made possible by unlimited and unchecked transfers to the Israeli government of billions of Dollars worth of weapons and military aid, comprehensive intelligence sharing and operational coordination, plus an unconditional diplomatic cover from the U.S. in the face of widespread condemnation from the international community.
Every day that passes without a ceasefire produces more catastrophic loss of life and livelihood, and threaten further death and destruction, we have an obligation to both the living and the dead from all sides, to put an immediate end to this horrific devastation. Finally, no one in his right mind can accept a one side to destroy and annihilate the other then ask for normalization and mutual respect, it just doesn't work like this in life.
My usual many thanks to all.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
The Year of Elections Has Been Good for Democracy.....
Liberals have engaged in a lot of catastrophic thinking during this “year of elections.” Many feared that authoritarian and populist politicians, from Hungary’s Viktor Orban to India’s Narendra Modi, would consolidate their gains by increasing their shares of the vote. According to Freedom House’s February 2024 Freedom in the World analysis, the world has been in a phase of democratic backsliding for nearly two decades, exacerbated by the rise of authoritarian great powers such as China and Russia, hot wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the ascendance or advancement of populist nationalists in countries that seemed to be securely democratic—Germany, Hungary, India, and Italy.
For liberals who want to preserve a world safe for democracies, perhaps the most alarming point came in mid-July, when Republicans confirmed former President Donald Trump as their party’s presidential nominee and ultra-MAGA JD Vance as his running mate. Although Trump tried to overturn the 2020 U.S. election, he was nonetheless the enthusiastic choice of his party. He had just survived an assassination attempt; his raised fists and call to “fight, fight, fight” drew a sharp contrast with the elderly sitting president, Joe Biden, whose debate performance the previous month made him a clear underdog.
But liberals’ fears that this year would reflect the global triumph of illiberal populism have so far been proved wrong. Although authoritarian ideologies have made clear gains in several countries, democracy in many parts of the world has shown surprising resilience and may yet prevail in the United States. Their belief in the trend of democratic decline has led many liberals to wring their hands and ask despairingly whether they can do anything to reverse it. The answers to this question are simple and boring: go out with your fellow citizens and vote or, if you are more actively inclined, work hard to mobilize like-minded people to help democratic politicians win elections. Liberal democracy is all about personal agency, and there is little evidence that traditional political engagement no longer works.
THE YEAR OF ELECTIONS
The year of elections is so named because an all-time-high number of citizens worldwide went to the polls; nearly 30 countries are holding elections that are both defining and competitive. This pivotal year really began in late 2023, most critically with the Polish election on October 15 that dethroned the populist Law and Justice party (PiS) and replaced it with a coalition of liberal parties. Law and Justice had been following a path blazed by Hungary’s right-wing Fidesz party, but the strong cooperation between Poland’s Civic Platform and other left-of-center parties—whose members worked hard to overcome their past differences and held massive rallies to get out the vote—drove a 41-seat loss for PiS, which also lost its majority in Poland’s lower house of parliament, the Sejm. This represented a major setback for populism in Europe, depriving Hungary of a major ally within the EU. The only other country in eastern Europe to move in a populist direction was Slovakia, as Robert Fico returned as prime minister in October and vowed to end his country’s strong support for Ukraine. Slovakia’s pro-Western president, Zuzana Caputova, declined to run for a second term and was succeeded this June by Fico’s ally Peter Pellegrini, who, like Fico, is more sympathetic to Russia. Although populists made gains, Slovakia remains a deeply polarized nation; in May, a would-be assassin shot Fico because of the prime minister’s opposition to military aid for Ukraine.
In November 2023, Javier Milei defeated Sergio Massa in the second-round presidential vote in Argentina. Many in the United States understood Milei to be an Argentine Trump, given his antiestablishment personal style and embrace of the former U.S. president. But Milei was riding a wave of popular disgust with the ruling Peronists, who had led the country into deep economic stagnation. Although many populists embrace a strong state bent on enforcing conservative cultural values, Milei is a genuine libertarian. The early success of his economic stabilization program allowed him to retain his popularity despite having a weak base in the Argentine National Congress. The chief danger Milei poses is not that he will move in an authoritarian direction but that he will go too far in weakening the Argentine state.
Liberals’ fears that this year would reflect the global triumph of illiberal populism have so far been proved wrong.
Early 2024 saw mixed results for democracy. In January, Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party defeated the pro-Chinese Kuomintang, and Finland remained in a solidly democratic camp. In both cases, the winning parties had worked quietly but vigorously to build their legislative majorities. On the other hand, the following month, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele was reelected president with a remarkable 85 percent of the vote—a reward for having dramatically decreased crime by using extrajudicial means to incarcerate a large part of the country’s gang leadership. In running for a second term, Bukele flouted the Salvadoran constitutional prohibition against consecutive reelection; he may well remain in power for years to come. The trend toward rewarding strongmen continued with the election of Prabowo Subianto to the Indonesian presidency. Human rights groups have accused Prabowo, a former special forces commander, of committing war crimes during Indonesia’s occupation of Timor-Leste in the 1980s and 1990s; he had been banned from traveling to the United States from 2000 until 2020, when Trump’s State Department granted him a visa. But his victory may not have reflected anything more than the enormous popularity of his predecessor, Joko Widodo, whose legacy Prabowo has claimed he will perpetuate.
In Bangladesh, the corrupt Awami League party led by Sheikh Hasina held on to power in January amid countrywide protests against her rule. Her success, however, would prove to be transitory, as renewed protests after the election led Hasina to flee the country in early August. Whether Bangladesh can reclaim a democratic mantle is not certain, but it is clear that a huge number of citizens were fed up with a ruler who had been in power for 20 of the last 28 years.
POPULIST REMEDIES REJECTED
The middle of the year brought two important elections, in South Africa and Mexico, that did not fit easily into the populist-versus-liberal framework. In South Africa, the African National Congress, which had dominated the country’s politics since it transitioned to democracy in 1994, lost 71 seats and its majority in the National Assembly. The rise of a new party, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), associated with the country’s corrupt former president Jacob Zuma, was troubling, but in the aftermath of the election, the ANC went into a coalition not with MK but with the Democratic Alliance, a party that tends to represent white and so-called colored, or mixed race, voters. The DA gained three parliamentary seats, and the radical left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters party lost five. For all the corruption scandals and economic decline that South Africa has experienced in the past decade, the 2024 election was in some ways reassuring. Voters held the ANC accountable for its corrupt stewardship of the country and did not turn wholeheartedly to populist remedies.
Mexico similarly demonstrated the strength of its democratic culture. Liberal analysts have characterized the country’s sitting president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as a Latin American populist, but he was popular against the backdrop of a corrupt and ineffective establishment. In daily speeches, he railed against the corrupt oligarchy that had ruled Mexico for decades. He dialed back the war against narcotraffickers, which brought a momentary reduction of violence while failing to solve an underlying problem that will plague Mexico for years to come. And he initiated a number of pro-poor policies while largely maintaining fiscal discipline. As the country’s first decidedly left-wing president since the 1920 Mexican Revolution, he became extremely popular, and his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, won the presidency in June by more than 30 points over her conservative rival. Sheinbaum’s party, Morena, also won a supermajority in the Mexican Congress, giving it the option of changing the constitution after she takes office. López Obrador displayed many illiberal tendencies during his presidency, and his parting gift to the country will be a so-called reform of Mexico’s judiciary that, in fact, will severely weaken the institution’s independence. But it is not clear how Sheinbaum will use her substantial power once she comes into office. She does not seem to have inherited any of López Obrador’s zealotry. Barring any surprises, she is better thought of as a left-of-center Latin American politician than a left-wing populist.
Another pivotal election was in India, where the vote occurred in stages between mid-April and early June. Prime Minister Modi—a charter member of the populist-nationalist club who had weakened his country’s media, courts, and civil liberties—was expected to increase the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s majority in India’s lower house, the Lok Sabha. Instead, the BJP lost its majority and was forced to enter into a coalition with other parties. Its losses were particularly great in its former northern Indian heartland, where it shed 49 seats, including 29 in the poor state of Uttar Pradesh.
Less globally influential but still significant was the election in Mongolia at the end of June. Wedged between Russia and China, the country has been the only state in central Eurasia to realize and maintain a democracy after exiting Moscow’s orbit following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But the ruling Mongolian People’s Party, the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party, turned in an increasingly authoritarian and pro-Russian direction between 2022 and 2024. The election, however, saw the opposition Democratic Party more than double its seat count as voters rejected a system pervaded by corruption. This outcome did not make headlines in the West, but it demonstrated the power ordinary voters can wield to defend democracy.
UNSETTLING SHIFTS
Elections to the European Parliament took place in early June. Populist parties such as the Freedom Party in Austria, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) in France, the Alternative for Germany, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, and Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy all made gains. Across the 27-member bloc, the biggest losers were the Socialists and the Greens. This shift was unsettling but did not amount to the earthquake that some had predicted. Center and center-right parties such as Germany’s Christian Democratic Union and Poland’s Civic Platform hung onto or even increased their vote shares. Poland’s Law and Justice party lost seats, as did Fidesz in Hungary, where a dissident party member, Peter Magyar, split the vote by forming his own party following a corruption scandal in Fidesz.
The European Parliament election’s two most disturbing results came in France and Italy. Le Pen’s RN party swamped French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition, winning more than twice the vote share. This caused Macron to declare a snap national election at the end of June. The RN gained 37 seats, and the leftist alliance, the New Popular Front, added 32; for a moment, it looked as if the RN’s young standard-bearer, Jordan Bardella, was headed toward the prime minister’s office. But in the second round of voting in early July, the center and left parties withdrew their weaker candidates, and the RN was once again locked out of power. This happened only because the left-wing parties’ cooperated to streamline their candidates—the boring but necessary work of politics that previous coalitions had failed to do.
In Italy, the situation is less promising. In the European Parliament elections, Meloni’s populist Brothers of Italy increased its vote share substantially, and her right-wing coalition holds a comfortable majority in the Italian parliament. Meloni, who became prime minister in late 2022, initially portrayed herself as a centrist. Early in her tenure, she broke with pro-Russian populists such as Orban and Fico by expressing strong support for Ukraine, and many commentators speculated that she would back European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s bid for a second term. But after the EU parliament vote, she shifted to the right, and her party voted for only conditional support for Ukraine and opposed von der Leyen’s reelection.
The one large European country to hold an election without the threat that a rising populist party would gain power was the United Kingdom, where in early July, the Labour Party achieved a decisive victory over the Conservatives. The Tories had been in power for 14 years under five prime ministers and had led the country into prolonged economic stagnation by, among other things, supporting Brexit. When the Labour Party replaced its far-left leader, Jeremy Corbyn, with the more moderate Keir Starmer, voters responded favorably. Populist firebrands such as Nigel Farage were still around; his right-wing Reform UK party won 14 percent of the vote, more than the Liberal Democrats, who secured 12 percent. But Britain’s first-past-the-post electoral system kept him far from power.
DEMOCRATIC RESISTANCE
There are still a number of important elections to come: in Moldova, where the liberal President Maia Sandu is likely to win reelection, and in Georgia, where the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party has a good chance of retaining power. But the most important election by far is the one occurring on November 5 in the United States between Trump and the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris. At the time of the Republican National Convention in mid-July, a Trump victory against an aging Biden looked likely, but with Biden’s decision to step aside, the Democrats have been suddenly energized. Numerous polls, both nationally and in many of the critical swing states, now show Harris ahead of her opponent.
The outcome of the American election will have huge implications both for American institutions and for the world. Trump has expressed strong admiration for authoritarian leaders such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, and at home, he has promised to weaken checks on executive power. He will almost certainly end U.S. support for Ukraine and has expressed great skepticism about the value of alliances such as NATO. He has vowed to end trade relations with China and to impose a ten percent across-the-board tariff on all foreign-produced goods. The Republican Party has decidedly abandoned the libertarian policies of the Ronald Reagan years and pledges to wield state power in the service of conservative ends.
But thus far, the year of elections has not been a terrible one for democracy worldwide. Populist and authoritarian parties and leaders have made gains in some countries, but they have lost in others. Citizens have expressed their opposition to authoritarian governance in other ways, as well. In July, Venezuelans voted overwhelmingly in favor of the opposition candidate Edmundo González, leading the regime of Nicolás Maduro to commit massive fraud in declaring him the winner. Maduro’s regime can survive only by turning openly authoritarian and abandoning any shred of democratic legitimacy. And in Myanmar, where a military junta abolished elections following a coup in 2021, an armed insurgency that allies the junta’s democratic opposition to a number of ethnic militias is making substantial territorial gains.
The outcome of the American election will have huge implications both for American institutions and for the world.
Elections by themselves do not guarantee good policies or outcomes. What they provide is the opportunity to hold leaders accountable for policy failures and to reward them for perceived successes. Elections become dangerous when they elevate leaders who do not just seek to impose questionable policies but also hope to weaken or undermine basic liberal and democratic institutions. In this respect, the United States has become something of an outlier. In no European or Asian democracy has a leader recently arisen who has blatantly refused to accept the outcome of an election or provoked popular violence to avoid stepping down from power. The willingness of many Republican voters to normalize the events of January 6, 2021, is a symptom of weakening democratic norms in the world’s leading democracy—a signal that will be picked up by like-minded populists (such as the supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who imitated the January 6 rioters when they stormed their Congress in 2023) if Trump returns to the White House in November.
The lesson to be drawn from the year of elections so far is that the rise of populist and authoritarian politicians is not inevitable. Democratic backsliding can and has been resisted in many countries that hold elections. But democratic norms cannot be secured with violence, judicial remedies (for example, the use of the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump), the rise of a new charismatic leader, or any other quick fix. What remains effective is the steady, often boring work of democratic politics: making arguments, convincing and mobilizing voters, adjusting policies, building coalitions, and, if necessary, making compromises where the best gives way to the possible. Even in a dispiriting time for global democracy, citizens still have agency to move toward better futures.
WOW !!! An impressive compilation and deep analysis of the world's state of democracy and regime change. Thank you Mr. Fukuyama, for this well done study.
As always my profound thanks to my readers, I felt this article could help us all better understand our actual world.
Friday, October 25, 2024
Help Lebanon.....
The summit, initiated by Emmanuel Macron, opened on Thursday with France announcing a 100 million aid package for the country. Seventy countries and 15 international organizations are participating in the event.
Article written by franceinfo with AFP
France Televisions
A crucial summit to help Lebanon. An international conference for the country opened on Thursday, October 24 in Paris. This French initiative should help advance several burning issues, such as aid for displaced people and negotiations for a ceasefire. The needs have been colossal since Israel launched a ground offensive in the south of the country at the end of September, which has already left at least 1,552 dead and more than 800,000 displaced. "Lebanon is in danger of death and dislocation," Jean-Yves Le Drian, Emmanuel Macron's personal envoy to Beirut, told AFP. Franceinfo answers four questions about this conference.
What is the aim of this conference?
The international conference on Lebanon should mark a step forward on the diplomatic front. "The objective is first to reaffirm the need for a ceasefire, a diplomatic resolution and an end to hostilities, to mobilize humanitarian aid from as many countries as possible and to support Lebanese institutions, first and foremost the Lebanese armed forces," explained French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on RTL on Wednesday.
Concretely, the priority will already be to respond to the UN appeal for funds, launched on October 1, for aid of more than 400 million dollars (370 million euros) for displaced persons. The objective of the conference is even to raise some 500 million euros. French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday morning that France would release 100 million euros for Lebanon.
The meeting should also help advance negotiations to end the war. "The war must end as soon as possible," Emmanuel Macron added on Thursday, specifying that the objective is to "affirm Lebanon's sovereignty" and "demonstrate that the worst is not written and allow the Lebanese to regain control of their destiny."
Paris and Washington have already initiated last month, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, a proposal for a temporary ceasefire for Lebanon. France wants to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which had ended the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. It establishes that only the Blue Helmets and the Lebanese army should be deployed in the south of Lebanon bordering Israel.
This resolution "enables us to guarantee, on the one hand, the sovereignty and unity of Lebanon and, on the other, to give security guarantees to Israel so that the 60,000 people who had to leave their homes after October 7 in northern Israel can return there," assured Jean-Noël Barrot on RTL. "Today, it is the diplomatic solution that must prevail," insisted the minister.
Who should participate?
The conference "will see the participation of 70 countries and 15 international organizations," recalled Jean-Noël Barrot. "All those we invited have responded," he said. However, the minister did not specify the level of representation of these countries. Will they be heads of state, ministers, or diplomats? On the United States side, neither President Joe Biden nor Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is traveling to the Middle East, will be in Paris.
The Prime Minister is present at the conference. He was received on Wednesday at the Elysée. Najib Mikati also thanked Emmanuel Macron, in a statement, "for his constant support for Lebanon" and for the "efforts" made by France towards a ceasefire. He is accompanied by the head of Lebanese diplomacy, Abdallah Bou Habib.
Why is it organized in Paris?
The organization of this conference is an initiative of Emmanuel Macron. The relationship between Paris and Beirut is special. Formerly a mandatory power, France has some 23,000 nationals in Lebanon, several thousand of whom have recently fled the country because of the war. The Lebanese diaspora is also strongly established in France.
Since the end of President Michel Aoun's term in office at the end of October 2022, the French president has been trying to play a facilitating role in Lebanon in order to find a successor, while the country is also facing an unprecedented economic crisis. Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly called on "Lebanese officials to take responsibility" so that they can resolve "the presidential equation, the governmental equation", the Elysée Palace stressed on Wednesday. In less than a year and a half, his personal envoy to Lebanon, former Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, has visited Beirut six times to try to convince the various influential parties. Without success.
What is the situation in Lebanon?
Heavy bombardments continue to hit Lebanon. The southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, were targeted Wednesday evening by 17 Israeli strikes that destroyed several buildings and caused a huge explosion. According to the Lebanese news agency Ani, these are the most significant bombardments in this area since the start of the war between Israel and the pro-Iranian Islamist movement a month ago.
For its part, Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had fired rockets at a military base and a military industrial site near Tel Aviv, the major city in the center of the country, and targeted two other military bases near Haifa, in the north. At least 1,552 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the Israeli airstrike campaign on September 23, according to an AFP count based on official data. The UN has also counted some 800,000 displaced.
France and its President called for a conference to help and save Lebanon from an expanding war waged by Israel, not against Hizballah as they claim, but against Lebanon as a country, more so against its southern parts, population and wealth. It clearly wants its lands its waters and eventually aggrandize Israel with more settlers in its conquered new territories. Lebanon always represented by definition; the anti model to the Israeli model of existence, with its multi ethnic amalgam and cohesion, its peace and its prosperity, for many decades now Israel tried to destroy this model of integration and equality that they couldn't achieve themselves, they are still trying.
All my thanks to all.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
SAD REALITIES......
THE CROSS
Gaza: In the North, Civilians Under a Deluge of Fire from the Israeli Army
Narrative
Under fire from a third Israeli army operation, residents of northern Gaza are cut off from the rest of the enclave. While no food or medical aid is reaching them, NGOs are warning of the ongoing "erasure of the Palestinian presence."
• Cécile Lemoine, correspondent in Jerusalem, LA CROIX
• 10/16/2024 at 6:08 p.m.
• It was the head that was hit. A precise shot. The frail bodies of three children lie in a pool of blood on the asphalt of the Al-Fallujah neighborhood in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip. The video, published on October 15, lingers a little further on, on the body of a man, his flesh torn to pieces.
• “There are no words to describe the horror of what we see in Jabaliya,” says Mohammed Abu Loay, a young recruit in the Gaza Civil Defense Forces who documents his work as a rescuer on social media. “The reality on the ground is much worse than what I am posting. There are dead bodies everywhere in the streets. People are trapped, no one knows where to go.”
For nearly ten days, the northern Gaza Strip has been under fire from an operation of unprecedented intensity by the Israeli army. After claiming that "Hamas was rebuilding its operational capabilities in the Jabaliya camp," the army ordered the 60,000 residents of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya to evacuate to the already overcrowded humanitarian zone of Al-Mawasi, before surrounding the north.
"No one dares to leave their homes anymore"
Ismail, a resident of Jabaliya who was displaced to Beit Lahiya, has decided to stay, like many others. “We have experienced all the horror of the war and now we would let them win by forcing us to leave? Of course not! We will never allow them to steal the North!” protests the 33-year-old former teacher.
Trapped, he describes a daily life of explosions, gunfire and incessant shelling: "People are being killed while they are in their homes. At the slightest movement, quadcopters spot you and shoot you down. The army also uses suicide tank robots that explode in the middle of neighborhoods, causing buildings to collapse. Evacuation routes are being bombed... No one dares to leave their homes anymore."
Due to the lack of journalists, both Gazan and international, images from northern Gaza are rare. Some residents share their daily lives on social media, to warn of the “genocide” they say they are experiencing: “No vegetables, no meat, no fruit, and even some legumes are exhausted,” Ezzideen Shehab, a doctor in Jabaliya, reports on X. “The internet is cut off in most areas, the telecommunications network is extremely poor, the only bakery that supplied the camp has been set on fire, and water wells are systematically targeted.”
"More than 300 critically ill patients trapped"
The besieged northern Gaza Strip has not received any food or medical aid since the beginning of the month. The three hospitals in the area have been ordered to evacuate critically ill patients and medical staff, but the lack of safe evacuation routes has made the process impossible.
“More than 300 critically ill patients are trapped in hospitals, which are running out of fuel and medical supplies, while the number of wounded is rising,” warns Fikr Shalltoot, director of Medical Aid for Palestinians in Gaza. The NGO wants to warn against the “erasure of the Palestinian presence” underway in the north of the enclave: “The world must act before Gaza is completely razed.”
In the same movement, Israeli human rights NGOs have denounced "alarming signals" indicating "the discreet implementation of the 'generals' plan'". This military project, defended before the war cabinet by retired generals, aims to eradicate Hamas, pushed to "surrender or die of hunger", with disregard for the lives of civilians who would have remained in the North: "The entire territory of the northern Gaza Strip will become a military territory, and this military territory, as far as we are concerned, will receive no aid", explains Giora Eiland, retired major general of the Israeli army, in a video.
"If the continued wait-and-see attitude of states allows Israel to liquidate northern Gaza, they will be complicit," protested Israeli NGOs in a statement. Threatening to limit their arms supply, the United States gave Israel 30 days to resolve the humanitarian crisis.
An article from the French publication La Croix, describing the Gaza situation, most details are rarely or never mentioned in most Western media, especially American major media, it's worth talking about it sometimes....
On the contrary, with the situation in Lebanon escalating barbarically every day, and totally out of control, more so as the American side refuses to demand/order Israel to stop its second genocide and crazy blind bombardments of civilian buildings in densely populated areas of Beirut and the entire country.
The same exact tactics, excuses and brutality against a dislodged civilian population is taking place in Lebanon as described above for Gaza. While the entire world sits by silent and helpless.
My profound thanks to all my good readers.
Saturday, October 19, 2024
Sinwar’s Death Is A Disaster For Bibi
It wasn’t ‘coincidental;’ it was accidental. Israel just killed its favorite bête noire
Thomas Greene
The clearly unintentional martyrdom of Yahya Sinwar is a major headache for Bibi Netanyahu, who has accused the late Hamas leader of undermining peace negotiations and obstructing a hostage deal. It is of course Nethanyahu who has been scuppering progress on these fronts, as I discussed in a previous article. Sinwar has been providing handy cover for Israeli intransigence by being stubborn and hardcore himself, and therefore easy to blame.
It’s beyond doubt that Bibi is very much inconvenienced by Sinwar’s death, as he has just lost an important excuse for his own refusal to secure a ceasefire or a hostage deal, neither of which he wants, but both of which he is obliged to pretend to want.
The Israelis murdered Ismail Haniyeh because he was a politician, and flexible, and because he kept saying “Yes” to American proposals for a ceasefire and hostage exchange which Netanyahu would have to sabotage at the last minute — behavior that repeatedly exposed him as the bloodthirsty bad guy. Yahya Sinwar was preferred, even protected, because Bibi thought he could make Sinwar look like the worse of two bad guys. So Israel took out a relatively reasonable Hamas leader and installed the man who planned the 7 October 2023 ghetto uprising in his place — so that they could hate him, and Hamas, and the rest of Gaza that much more.
The IDF would no doubt have been under standing orders to avoid attacking any place where Sinwar was likely to be found. To cover the embarrassing fact of actually protecting someone they’re supposed to hate, the government had to explain why Sinwar hadn’t been killed or caught, so they put it about that he would be hiding deep in the tunnel network, keeping safe. The circumstances of his death reveal that he was, in fact, going about fairly openly, and probably could have been taken quite some time ago if anyone had actually wanted him.
A couple of 19 year old IDF sergeants no doubt got a little trigger happy, only to discover minutes later, and much to their dismay, that they’d unknowingly killed the only Palestinian whose violent death was not authorized.
US President Joe Biden crystallized Netanyahu’s predicament, calling Sinwar a significant obstacle to peace which has now been removed. Kamala Harris made similar remarks. And an editorial in Haaretz by Amos Harel clearly expressed the demand that Bibi has been dreading: “After Sinwar’s death, Israel must press ahead with a hostage deal,” he wrote. A hostage deal would necessarily mean a ceasefire and the end to his excuse for exterminating the Palestinians, so it’s the absolute last thing Netanyahu wants. [1]
No wonder the Israelis have been protecting Sinwar. He was the ideal bête noire; but now he’s been martyred accidentally and they’re fresh out of excuses. The pressure to pursue a ceasefire and hostage deal will be mounting relentlessly from all quarters — while at least one hapless IDF stooge is headed for a very swift and certain demotion. If not a fatal accident.
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[1] Update 18 October: It’s been less than 24 hours and the American pressure chorus has begun to sing, for all the good it’s likely to do.
US President Joe Biden: “Now is the time to move on — move towards a ceasefire in Gaza […] It’s time for this war to end and bring these hostages home.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris: Sinwar’s death “offers an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin: Sinwar’s death “provides an extraordinary opportunity to achieve a lasting ceasefire, to end this awful war, and to rush humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Today, evil suffered a heavy blow, but our mission is not yet completed […] the war, the war, my dear ones, is not yet finished. It is harsh and it takes a heavy price from us.”
So that would be another “Fuck you, Joe” to add to the pile.
A very good article by prof. Thomas Greene, depicting and illustrating many people's views, again I got it through the Medium daily digest, and I help in not sending these articles into oblivion, so I copy, print and publish them under my blog, Thanks to all my good readers for continuous following up.