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Saturday, June 22, 2024
The next Zeitenwende - GERMAN-FOREIGN-POLICY.com
The next Zeitenwende - GERMAN-FOREIGN-POLICY.com
Berlin think-tank calls for the Bundeswehr to switch from small-scale military operations around the world to a total focus – military and societal – on war with Russia. This aligns with US strategists’ ideas on fighting three parallel wars.
Friday, June 21, 2024
Megatron on X: "BREAKING: 🇱🇧 Hezbollah completely breached Israel's air shield and now freely flies its drones around Israel, revealing some extremely sensitive Israeli targets: – 🇮🇱 Locations of the Iron Dome batteries in Haifa – 🇮🇱 Locations of the David Sling batteries in Haifa – 🇮🇱 https://t.co/szJnXkwSNC" / X
Thursday, June 20, 2024
[Salon] This Is Not The Republican Party I Remember - Guest Post by Allan Brownfeld
This Is Not The Republican Party I Remember
BY
Allan C.Brownfeld
————————————————————————————————-
For many years, I was active in the Republican Party. When I was in college,many years ago, I served as College Secretary of the Young Republican Federation of Virginia. Those were the years of segregation. The Democratic Party of Virginia, led by Sen.Harry F.Byrd, embraced segregation. After the Brown decision in 1954 when the Supreme Court declared segregation unconstitutional, Virginia Democrats closed the public schools rather than integrate them. Virginia Republicans vocally opposed this continuing embrace of segregation.
Later, after I graduated from law school, I worked for a number of years in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. In one position, I worked as assistant to the Research Director of the House Republican Conference. Our office was in the U.S. Capitol. Among the members of our steering committee were two future presidents of the United States, Reps. George H. W. Bush of Texas and Gerald Ford of Michigan. I never heard them speak Ill of the Democrats. Their goal was to form coalitions and convince the Democrats that the legislation we were putting together was best for the country.
In those years, Republicans and Democrats did not view one another as “enemies,” as many do today. In those days,working together, members of both parties advanced civil rights and won the Cold War. Ronald Reagan, the Republican President, and Tip 0’Neill, the Democratic Speaker of the House, worked closely together—-and became friends. That kind of relationship would be unthinkable in today’s ultra-partisan Washington.
When the U.S.Capitol was assaulted on Jan. 6, 2021, I took it personally, having had an office in that very building. It is hard to believe that in June, 2024, two former law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol from rioters were jeered by Republican lawmakers as they visited the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and former sergeant Aquillino Gonell were introduced on the floor as “heroes” by Speaker Joanna McClinton for having “bravely defended democracy in the United States Capitol against rioters and insurrection on January 6.”
As the men, both of whom were injured by rioters, were introduced, the Pennsylvania House floor descended into chaos. Several Republican lawmakers hissed and booed and a number of Republicans walked out of the chamber. “I heard some hissing and I saw some of my Republican colleagues walking out angrily as they were announced as police officers from the U.S.Capitol on Jan. 6,” said state Rep.Arvind Venkat (D). “I was shocked and appalled.”
Officer Dunn issued a statement declaring, “it was sad though unsurprising that Donald Trump’s allies in the Pennsylvania state House followed his lead in mocking the January 6 attack. The fact they’re scared to listen to those of us who were there and witnessed the political violence of January 6 first hand speaks volumes.”
Officer Gonnell was battered in the Capitol riot , and both of his hands were injured as he blocked an attacker from swinging a PVC pipe at an officer who wasn’t wearing a helmet. After the walkout, the Iraq War veteran accused Pennsylvania House Republicans of having “abandoned the truth” and “sided with those who attacked us.”
Many traditional Republicans are concerned with the direction in which today’s Republican Party is moving. In an important article in the Washington Post, three former Republican Senators,John Danforth of Missouri, Alan Simpson of Wyoming, and William Cohen of Maine, write: “We believe our nation’s well-being depends on having the positive, stabilizing influence of a healthy two-party system, which we currently do not have; and that one of those parties must reflect the traditional Republicanism that we embraced in our decades of public service. Recently it has become popular to assert that this traditional brand of Republicanism is dead, replaced by a new populist version. We disagree. In our view, traditional Republicanism, though currently in eclipse, is no more extinct than the sun was over portions of the country on April 8. And all of us who believe in it must do what we can to ensure it’s expeditious return.”
The former senators announced the creation of a new organization,”Our Republican Legacy.” Among its principles, they declare is to support and defend the Constitution, including “acceptance of the vote of the people, obedience to the decisions of our courts and support for the peaceful transfer of power…we think Jan. 6, 2021 …was one of the darkest days in U.S. history, and the events leading to that assault were direct attacks on our constitutional order.”
Beyond this, the former senators declare that, in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, Republicans must stand “against the divisive tactics of both right and left that divide ‘us against them’ by exploiting emotions of grievance and rage…In recent years,Republicans have joined Democrats in abandoning fiscal responsibility. The profligate explosion of our national debt is a legacy of weakness the future Americans must inherit. We support the private sector as the source of prosperity against big government interventions such as high protective tariffs and price controls.”
When it comes to America’s role in the world, they call for “a strong United States that is steadfast in opposing the aggression of Russia and other hostile regimes and is unwavering in support of our allies.”
These three former senators have issued a challenge to those who believe that the traditional Republicanism they represent is dead. Sadly, the Republican Party I and many others fondly remember seems to have been replaced by something quite different. Let us hope it can be restored. The nation desperately needs it.
System Update on X: "Does China want to go to war with Taiwan? Western media wants to convince Americans that China is eager to invade Taiwan. But @RnaudBertrand says the main aggressor in the region is the United States. He explains how the U.S. is disrupting the status quo and provoking https://t.co/kwVG2s1Ufb" / X
Διάγγελμα Χ.Νασράλα: “Προειδοποιώ την Κύπρο - Θα σας κτυπήσουμε αν εμπλακείτε στην επίθεση του Ισραήλ” - Βίντεο σοκ με στοχοποίηση της Χάιφα! - War News 24/7
Διάγγελμα Χ.Νασράλα: “Προειδοποιώ την Κύπρο - Θα σας κτυπήσουμε αν εμπλακείτε στην επίθεση του Ισραήλ” - Βίντεο σοκ με στοχοποίηση της Χάιφα! - War News 24/7
Diangelma H. Nasrallah: "I warn Cyprus - We will beat you if you get involved in Israel's attack" - Shock video targeting Haifa!
"We have over 100,000 soldiers and all kinds of missiles"
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
[Salon] Two stories one border - ArabDigest.org.
Two stories one border
Summary: with Hezbollah and Israel duelling along the border civilians on both sides, having already fled their communities, fear the worst is yet to come.
As the IDF continues its Rafah offensive and Benjamin Netanyahu his dance (see our 14 June newsletter) by sacking the War Cabinet, tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israelis on either side of the shared border who were forced to abandon their homes see little hope that they will return any time soon.
Since the start of the war Hezbollah has played a cautious hand not wanting the full weight of the Israeli military unleashed on their brigades and their stockpile of warheads, mortar shells and drones. For their part the Israelis, increasingly trapped in a war in Gaza they cannot win, are sensing that a major offensive into Lebanon is a bridge too far. At least for now.
But that uncomfortable and unacknowledged understanding has been sorely tested in the past week. The Israelis upped the ante with a missile strike on 11 June that killed Tajj Abu Taleb a senior Hezbollah military commander.
Hezbollah retaliated the following day targeting six IDF sites with a barrage of more than 200 rockets. Over the weekend the UN special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and the head of the UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon Aroldo Lázaro issued a joint statement that said in part:
We are deeply concerned about the escalation we have seen recently. The danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflict is very real and we continue to engage with the parties and urge all actors to cease their fire and commit to working toward a political and diplomatic solution.
It doesn’t appear that Israel was listening as on Monday it was reported that another Hezbollah senior field commander was killed in a targeted attack near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.
That was after the IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari had warned that “Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation, one that would have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region.”
Hezbollah published drone video footage of sensitive Israeli positions including chemical and oil storage facilities around the port of Haifa, June 18, 2024 [photo credit: Al Manar]
In a bid to halt what seems a spiral into all out war along the Lebanese border the senior US envoy Amos Hochstein met with Benjamin Netanyahu and his estranged defence minister Yoav Gallant on Monday before heading to Beirut to meet with Nabih Berri, the speaker of Lebanon’s dysfunctional parliament and a close ally of Hezbollah.
As the military skirmishes and the diplomatic shuffles continue the more than 170,000 Lebanese and Israelis who have been displaced on either side of the border wait and wonder when or if they will ever get back to their homes.
After undertaking a road trip to the Israeli north Haaretz’s Yaniv Kubovich was prompted to write:
Road 899, commonly known as the northern road, is silent, and one can drive a while on it without seeing a single vehicle. The country seems to have abandoned the region itself, and not just the residents who left immediately after October 7 in fear of their lives.
A journey by another journalist Agnes Helou writing for Breaking Defense presented a similar picture this time from Lebanon. Helou described a landscape of “villages …ground to almost nothing, only debris and ruins left,” and added:
Lebanon now feels as if the 4,000 square mile-sized country is shattered into two realities: one north of the Nabatieh district, more or less carrying on as normal, and the rest as another country in the grips of war.
A trip from Beirut to towns in Marjeyoun on a Sunday, which used to be the highest traffic day of the week, took only an hour and fifteen minutes, almost half the time it normally would.
Of course the thing about normal in Lebanon is that with a paralysed parliament and a wrecked economy normal always gets worse. And should the Israelis carry out their threat of “devastating consequences” the worst is easily imaginable and terrible to comprehend.
What happens next in Gaza and on the border as ever comes back to Benjamin Netanyahu. Haaretz’s Amos Harel puts it well:
One reason the goals of the fighting in the north haven't changed is that Netanyahu doesn't want to set forth ambitious, clear targets, which will make it possible to examine his performance in accordance with their attainment. The heart of the matter – and this is true of both arenas – lies in the prime minister's difficulty in making decisions whose political ramifications will be able to influence his surviving in power. In practice, there is no real Israeli policy; It's more a rolling campaign, on both fronts.
A rolling campaign with no end in sight orchestrated by a man who wants to stay out of jail. No wonder the anxiety meter is heading to ten.
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
[Salon] The Student Spring: from Columbia to KCL -
The Student Spring: from Columbia to KCL
Summary: a student at King’s College London reflects on the global student protest movement and how university administrations are suppressing pro-Palestine protests by invoking ‘safety concerns’.
We thank Asmaa Abo Baker El-Fiky for today’s newsletter. Asmaa is an undergraduate in the Department of History, King’s College London with an interest in Middle East politics.
With Israel now ithe eighth month of their offensive the genocide of Gaza unfolds more ruthlessly with each passing day. And as the war intensifies, with it so too the suppression of student activism in support of Palestine.
Beginning with Columbia University, students have responded to what is now being called ‘The Student Spring’, spreading their encampments from America, to Australia, to Canada, to France and to Britain. These students have all encamped for the same reasons: ethical investment policies, increased transparency, academic freedom and support for Palestinian rights and education.
A growing similarity can easily be recognised in the response from university administrations to the student encampments. It is a silence about the atrocities of the IDF in Gaza and a superficial effort to appear committed to free speech whilst in effect suppressing students under the guise of ‘safety’ measures.
Universities have repeatedly cited safety as a reason to end the encampments, framing the protests as a risk. LSE’s recent legal battle regarded the students’ tents as an “intolerable fire risk”. This rhetoric only masks ongoing efforts to stifle the movement.
The arrest of 16 students during a sit-in at the University of Oxford on 23 May exemplifies the tensions and activism of university campuses regarding the student encampment movement. Despite the administration's claims of ‘safety’ concerns, the protesters have emphasised their peaceful intentions and the urgency of their cause. The administration’s use of the term ‘safety’ to justify decisions is a piece of hypocrisy that makes me think of the IDF and its claim that it takes “precautionary measures” to lessen civilian casualties.
It appears that most, if not all, universities here in the UK have ethical investment policies – over 70% of these universities have worked to implement such policies. However, their ethical efforts mainly apply to fossil fuels and tobacco while issues such as investments into arms manufacturers are swept under the rug. King’s College London’s (KCL) ethical investment policy reveals glaring inconsistencies. In March 2021, KCL divested from fossil fuels, citing a mission to serve society and ensure a positive future. However, this commitment does not extend anywhere close to the ongoing humanitarian disaster and destruction of Gaza.
Speakers such as Dr. Azzam Tamimi are actively denied access to campuses according to "security concerns," whilst Islamophobic speakers and former IDF soldiers are allowed free rein to offer events for the student cohort. It is a double standard which has only revealed selective approaches to free speech and safety, a bias which extends beyond university boundaries.
Independent candidate for Islington North Jeremy Corbyn joins LSE students in support of their encampment for the people of Gaza, June 17, 2024 [@jeremycorbyn]
On the 11th of June 2024 at 7:20 pm, a disturbing incident unfolded at King's College where five students attempted to enter The Great Hall to exercise their legal right to protest on university grounds. The encampment has since revealed that KCL’s security personnel responded with immediate and excessive physical force, including shoving, elbowing and forcibly closing doors on the students, resulting in several injuries. Victims of the tactics have said that the Head of Security issued direct threats of violence, a hostility that starkly contrasts with the ongoing negotiations to ‘safeguard’ student protesters. KCL’s commitment to peaceful and ethical standards appear to be amiss when it comes to their own students.
Following the UK’s call for a general election, Rishi Sunak’s campaign expectedly enough omitted almost any mention of Palestine. During a televised debate with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, on June 4, 2024, Sunak’s response of committing to “getting more aid into Gaza and building towards a lasting settlement with a two-state solution” and supporting “Israel’s right to defend itself” rings hollow.
Francesca Albanese’s statement on the international community's failure to hold Israel accountable thus perpetuating the suffering and injustice faced by Palestinians is both accurate and strikes a chord with many. There is a critical need for immediate intervention to prevent further atrocities and for leaders of the Global North to stop repeating what is considered safe to say and speak out against the genocide.
The student-led encampments in support of Palestine at universities today draw significant parallels to the anti-apartheid protests at the University of Michigan and Columbia from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s. These historical protests were part of a nationwide movement demanding university divestment from corporations with ties to apartheid South Africa. The legacies of these movements continue to inspire contemporary activism and eerily show how easily past concerns become relevant to the present.
The impact of student activism extends beyond university policies, influencing the global movement for justice. The resilience and determination of the UK students and their peers worldwide are a testament to the strength of collective action. This movement, peaceful yet powerful, demonstrates the capacity of young people to effect significant change.
As the Israeli offensive and the killing of civilians continues cultural erasure in Gaza persists. The student encampments worldwide serve as a vital part of a larger, interconnected movement advocating for Palestinian justice. Will universities heed the call for ethical consistency and human rights or continue to hide behind the veneer of impartiality while concealing their true intentions behind claims of safety?
Monday, June 17, 2024
Arnaud Bertrand on X: "Useful reminder to those complaining about refugees in Europe: if you want less refugees, your primary focus should be to prevent wars by the US or, in the instance of this coming war with Lebanon, Israel & the US... Another reason why the ideological alignment between Le Pen's… https://t.co/Hf4GFIzNpj" / X
Sunday, June 16, 2024
Belgium UN New York on X: "93 States Parties have joined the following statement in support of the International Criminal Court, initiated by a cross-regional core group of 5 countries (🇧🇪🇨🇱🇯🇴🇸🇳🇸🇮) ⬇️ https://t.co/Z9O1TMXVnF" / X
Belgium UN New York on X: "93 States Parties have joined the following statement in support of the International Criminal Court, initiated by a cross-regional core group of 5 countries (🇧🇪🇨🇱🇯🇴🇸🇳🇸🇮) ⬇️ https://t.co/Z9O1TMXVnF" / X
93 States Parties have joined the following statement in support of the International Criminal Court, initiated by a cross-regional core group of 5 countries
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