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Tuesday, September 3, 2024
[Salon] Fwd: If Hamas Did Not Exist (2008) - Courtesy of Tanya guest post
Courtesy of Tanya
20 years ago Ariel Sharon's senior adviser, Dov Weisglass, said (cited at the UN here): "The disengagement [from Gaza] is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians... this whole package that is called the Palestinian state has been removed from our agenda indefinitely."
16 years ago, the below was posited
Tanya
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14575
12/31/2008
If Hamas Did Not Exist
'This crisis has nothing to do with freedom, democracy, justice or peace.'
By Jennifer Loewenstein
Let us get one thing perfectly straight. If the wholesale mutilation and degradation of the Gaza Strip is going to continue; if Israel’s will is at one with that of the United States; if the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and all the international legal agencies and organizations spread across the globe are going to continue to sit by like hollow mannequins doing nothing but making repeated “calls” for a “ceasefire” on “both sides”; if the cowardly, obsequious and supine Arab States are going to stand by watching their brethren get slaughtered by the hour while the world’s bullying Superpower eyes them threateningly from Washington lest they say something a little to their disliking; then let us at least tell the truth why this hell on earth is taking place.
The state terror unleashed from the skies and on the ground against the Gaza Strip as we speak has nothing to do with Hamas. It has nothing to do with “Terror”. It has nothing to do with the long-term “security” of the Jewish State or with Hizbullah or Syria or Iran except insofar as it is aggravating the conditions that have led up to this crisis today. It has nothing to do with some conjured up “war” – a cynical and overused euphemism that amounts to little more the wholesale enslavement of any nation that dares claim its sovereign rights; that dares assert that its resources are its own; that doesn’t want one of the Empire’s obscene military bases sitting on its cherished land.
This crisis has nothing to do with freedom, democracy, justice or peace. It is not about Mahmoud Zahhar or Khalid Mash’al or Ismail Haniyeh. It is not about Hassan Nasrallah or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These are all circumstantial players who have gained a role in the current tempest only now that the situation has been allowed for 61 years to develop into the catastrophe that it is today. The Islamist factor has colored and will continue to color the atmosphere of the crisis; it has enlisted the current leaders and mobilized wide sectors of the world’s population. The primary symbols today are Islamic – the mosques, the Qur’an, the references to the Prophet Muhammad and to Jihad. But these symbols could disappear and the impasse would continue.
There was a time when Fatah and the PFLP held the day; when few Palestinians wanted anything to do with Islamist policies and politics. Such politics have nothing to do with primitive rockets being fired over the border, or smuggling tunnels and black-market weapons; just as Arafat’s Fatah had little to do with stones and suicide bombings. The associations are coincidental; the creations of a given political environment. They are the result of something entirely different than what the lying politicians and their analysts are telling you. They have become part of the landscape of human events in the modern Middle East today; but incidentals wholly as lethal, or as recalcitrant, deadly, angry or incorrigible could just as soon have been in their places.
Strip away the clichés and the vacuous newspeak blaring out across the servile media and its pathetic corps of voluntary state servants in the Western world and what you will find is the naked desire for hegemony; for power over the weak and dominion over the world’s wealth. Worse yet you will find that the selfishness, the hatred and indifference, the racism and bigotry, the egotism and hedonism that we try so hard to cover up with our sophisticated jargon, our refined academic theories and models actually help to guide our basest and ugliest desires. The callousness with which we in indulge in them all are endemic to our very culture; thriving here like flies on a corpse.
Strip away the current symbols and language of the victims of our selfish and devastating whims and you will find the simple, impassioned and unaffected cries of the downtrodden; of the ‘wretched of the earth’ begging you to cease your cold aggression against their children and their homes; their families and their villages; begging you to leave them alone to have their fish and their bread, their oranges, their olives and their thyme; asking you first politely and then with increasing disbelief why you cannot let them live undisturbed on the land of their ancestors; unexploited, free of the fear of expulsion; of ravishment and devastation; free of permits and roadblocks and checkpoints and crossings; of monstrous concrete walls, guard towers, concrete bunkers, and barbed wire; of tanks and prisons and torture and death. Why is life without these policies and instruments of hell impossible?
The answer is because Israel has no intention of allowing a viable, sovereign Palestinian state on its borders. It had no intention of allowing it in 1948 when it grabbed 24% more land than what it was allotted legally, if unfairly, by UN Resolution 181. It had no intention of allowing it throughout the massacres and ploys of the 1950s. It had no intention of allowing two states when it conquered the remaining 22% of historic Palestine in 1967 and reinterpreted UN Security Council Resolution 248 to its own liking despite the overwhelming international consensus stating that Israel would receive full international recognition within secure and recognized borders if it withdrew from the lands it had only recently occupied.
It had no intention of acknowledging Palestinian national rights at the United Nations in 1974, when –alone with the United States—it voted against a two-state solution. It had no intention of allowing a comprehensive peace settlement when Egypt stood ready to deliver but received, and obediently accepted, a separate peace exclusive of the rights of Palestinians and the remaining peoples of the region. It had no intention of working toward a just two state solution in 1978 or 1982 when it invaded, fire-bombed, blasted and bulldozed Beirut so that it might annex the West Bank without hassle. It had no intention of granting a Palestinian state in 1987 when the first Intifada spread across occupied Palestine, into the Diaspora and the into the spirits of the global dispossessed, or when Israel deliberately aided the newly formed Hamas movement so that it might undermine the strength of the more secular-nationalist factions.
Israel had no intention of granting a Palestinian state at Madrid or at Oslo where the PLO was superseded by the quivering, quisling Palestinian Authority too many of whose cronies grasped at the wealth and prestige it gave them at the expense of their own kin. As Israel beamed into the world’s satellites and microphones its desire for peace and a two-state solution, it more than doubled the number of illegal Jewish settlements on the ground in the West Bank and around East Jerusalem, annexing them as it built and continues to build a superstructure of bypass roads and highways over the remaining, severed cities and villages of earthly Palestine. It has annexed the Jordan valley, the international border of Jordan, expelling any ‘locals’ inhabiting that land. It speaks with a viper’s tongue over the multiple amputee of Palestine whose head shall soon be severed from its body in the name of justice, peace and security.
Through the home demolitions, the assaults on civil society that attempted to cast Palestinian history and culture into a chasm of oblivion; through the unspeakable destruction of the refugee camp sieges and infrastructure bombardments of the second Intifada, through assassinations and summary executions, past the grandiose farce of disengagement and up to the nullification of free, fair and democratic Palestinian elections Israel has made its view known again and again in the strongest possible language, the language of military might, of threats, intimidation, harassment, defamation & degradation.
Israel, with the unconditional and approving support of the United States, has made it dramatically clear to the entire world over and over and over again, repeating in action after action that it will accept no viable Palestinian state next to its borders. What will it take for the rest of us to hear? What will it take to end the criminal silence of the ‘international community’? What will it take to see past the lies and indoctrination to what is taking place before us day after day in full view of the eyes of the world? The more horrific the actions on the ground, the more obscenely insistent are the words of peace. To listen and watch without hearing or seeing allows the indifference, the ignorance and complicity to continue and deepens with each grave our collective shame.
The destruction of Gaza has nothing to do with Hamas. Israel will accept no authority in the Palestinian territories that it does not ultimately control. Any individual, leader, faction or movement that fails to accede to Israel’s demands or that seeks genuine sovereignty and the equality of all nations in the region; any government or popular movement that demands the applicability of international humanitarian law and of the universal declaration of human rights for its own people will be unacceptable for the Jewish State. Those dreaming of one state must be forced to ask themselves what Israel would do to a population of 4 million Palestinians within its borders when it commits on a daily, if not hourly basis, crimes against their collective humanity while they live alongside its borders? What will suddenly make the raison d’etre, the self-proclaimed purpose of Israel’s reason for being change if the Palestinian territories are annexed to it outright?
The lifeblood of the Palestinian National Movement flows through the streets of Gaza today. Every drop that falls waters the soil of vengeance, bitterness and hatred not only in Palestine but across the Middle East and much of the world. We do have a choice over whether or not this should continue. Now is the time to make it.
-Jennifer Loewenstein is the Associate Director of the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact her at: amadea311@earthlink.net.
© Copyright 1999-2009 PalestineChronicle.com. All rights reserved
[Salon] The Sick Man of the Middle East - Arab Digest.org guest post
The Sick Man of the Middle East
Summary: a summer energy crisis with rolling power cuts, the continuing Gaza war and an ever-deepening reliance on costly foreign borrowing further underline the multiple vulnerabilities of the Egyptian economy.
We thank our regular contributor Maged Mandour for today’s newsletter. Maged is a political analyst who also contributes to Middle East Eye and Open Democracy. He is a writer for Sada, the Carnegie Endowment online journal. Maged is the author of the recently published Egypt under El-Sisi (I.B.Tauris) which examines social and political developments since the coup of 2013. You can find Maged’s most recent AD podcast here.
More than a decade after the coup that ended Egypt's democratic experiment, the Sisi regime that emerged from it is facing an unprecedented reckoning. Plagued by a series of interconnected challenges and self-inflicted wounds, a government whose ideological legitimacy is anchored in chauvinistic nationalism is steadily losing the ability to formulate its own policies. Arguably, Egypt has now become the “sick man of the Middle East,” a parasitic burden to its allies and an ineffective regional player, unable to influence developments in neighbouring Gaza or across the Red Sea in Yemen. Nor is it able to avert the risk of a wide regional war that, should it come about, will have devastating impacts on the Egyptian economy. On top of this, the economy is so fragile that it now heavily relies on regional backers, and more worryingly, international capital flows to stave off a complete financial collapse while steadily losing the ability to formulate its own monetary policy, a sure sign of the peripheralisation of the Egyptian economy and the concomitant loss of sovereignty.
The vulnerability of the economy to the whims of international investors became apparent in August with a sudden drop in the value of the pound to reach 49.5 EGP to the dollar, a historic low. The rapid drop was caused by the departure of what Prime Minister Madbouly said was “7-8%” of the total value of international capital invested in short-term Egyptian debt instruments, so-called “hot money”, as foreign investors sought safer assets. Hot money had rushed into the country after news of the mammoth Ras El Hekma deal, valued at US$ 35 billion of Emirati investments and the increase in the value of the IMF loan from US$3 to 8 billion. The total stock of hot money reached US$ 32.7 billion by the end of March, a historic high and an increase of 180% from the beginning of the year. Such a heavy dependence places the regime at the mercy of international investors who can heavily influence a key aspect of monetary policy, namely interest rates. This was reflected in the 19 August increase in interest rates offered on 3 month debt instruments, which exceeded 29%, jumping from 28.3% the week earlier and an average of between 26.75% and 27% over the past several months. This simply means that international investors can apply enormous pressure on government finances by demanding higher interest rates with the regime having limited bargaining power thus adding further pressure to an already bleak financial picture, with debt servicing consuming 91% of the tax revenues for the new fiscal year. A further rise in rates has the potential to create a truly catastrophic collapse of the economy.
The regime increasingly finds itself hostage to international developments, regional tensions and the decisions of the Fed and the ECB, in effect steadily losing its ability to control monetary policy and transforming the Central Bank of Egypt into an appendage to Western central banks. One only needs to keep in mind that the debt crisis was triggered in 2022 by the exodus of US$ 20 billion of hot money because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A lesson that remains unheeded.
Egypt has experiencced a summer energy crisis with rolling power cuts [photo credit: @FastNews77]
Deeply connected to the fragility of the Egyptian economy is the rise in regional tensions, the genocidal war on Gaza and the Huthi attacks in the Red Sea, all working to apply pressure on the regime, which it seems unable to stop. The most notable example are the Huthi attacks which caused a drop in the revenue of the Suez Canal from US$ 9.4 billion in 2022/23 to US$ 7.2 billion in 2023/24. Egyptian vulnerabilities were also exposed in June when nationwide power cuts were imposed by the government due to a shortage of natural gas supplies, worsened by a dip in the supply of Israeli gas, which in 2023 had reached 8.6 billion cubic meters. The dip was caused by routine maintenance of the Tamar oil field, shutting production for 10 days. This extreme energy dependence raises questions of a possible energy crisis that might erupt in the case of a wider regional war and possible attacks on Israeli natural gas production facilities. It is worth noting that in order to end the power cuts for the summer months, Egypt had to import US$ 1.8 billion of natural gas and mazut fuel oil. The regime was seeking a deal with a deferred payment for 6 months, a policy that only served to narrow the list of bidders and increase the prices it had to pay. Hence, on top of the economic losses it will incur from another energy crisis, securing additional sources of natural gas will prove costly for a government that is already in dire financial straits. Adding to the plethora of threats that the regime is facing is the possibility that a wider regional war could spook investors, causing another exodus of hot money and triggering another major crisis or alternatively adding pressure to hike up interest rates due to the additional perceived risks of a broader war. In essence, the continuation of the war in Gaza does not only pose the threat of a mass exodus of Palestinians out of the Strip into Egyptian territory but it is also a serious economic threat that could prove deeply destabilising for the regime.
In the face of this tidal wave, the Sisi regime has almost no cards to play, outside of soliciting support from its regional and international backers. At the time of writing Egypt is still unable to exert any meaningful pressure on Israel nor is it able to lobby the United States to take a stronger stance against Israeli atrocities. This is a direct result of a long-held policy of a very close alliance with Israel at the expense of following a more balanced and independent approach which could have increased Sisi's room for manoeuvre at a time of crisis. On the economic front, the regime is now labouring under the weight of a decade of a deeply flawed economic policy with no sign of structural reform forthcoming. The latest manifestation of the crisis is the resignation of the CEO of the Egyptian Wealth Fund, Ayman Soliman, due to the deliberate obstruction of efforts to list military owned companies. Indeed, the regime is stuck in a swamp of its own follies with no real answers to regional challenges or the debt crisis outside of deepening austerity. A steady process of accelerated decline is well under way, destabilising for Egypt and for the region as a whole.
Blame Trump for October 7, by Mike Whitney - The Unz Review - Guest Post by Mike Whitney
Blame Trump for October 7, by Mike Whitney - The Unz Review
Blame Trump for October 7
Mike Whitney • September 2, 2024 • 1,700 Words • 63 Comments • ReplyQ&A
The person who is most responsible for the attacks on October 7 is Donald Trump. It was Trump who launched the so-called Middle East Peace Plan that allowed for the “unilateral annexation of the Jordan River valley and existing settlements” in the West Bank. Just as it was Trump who decided to move the US embassy to Jerusalem which effectively recognized the city as Israel’s capital. “Then on March 25, 2019”—according to veteran journalist Joe Lauria—“Trump recognized Israel’s illegal 1981 annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights” in violation of UN Resolution 242. Even Israel’s most ardent supporters, like the New York Times, were aghast at the sheer magnitude of Trump’s giveaway. Here’s what they said in an article in February, 2020:
President Trump on Tuesday unveiled his long-awaited Middle East peace plan with a flourish, releasing a proposal that would give Israel most of what it has sought over decades of conflict while offering the Palestinians the possibility of a state with limited sovereignty. Mr. Trump’s plan would guarantee that Israel would control a unified Jerusalem as its capital and not require it to uproot any of the settlements in the West Bank that have provoked Palestinian outrage and alienated much of the world.…
under the plan, those Palestinians would find themselves virtually encircled by an expanded Israel and living within convoluted borders reminiscent of a gerrymandered congressional district….
the Palestinians…. would not have a standing military and would be required to meet other benchmarks overseen by the Israelis, including a renunciation of violence and the disbandment of militant groups like Hamas…
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority immediately denounced the plan as a “conspiracy deal” unworthy of serious consideration, making the decades-long pursuit of a so-called two-state solution appear more distant than ever. “We say a thousand times over: no, no, no,” Mr. Abbas said on Tuesday in Ramallah, in the West Bank.. Trump Releases Mideast Peace Plan That Strongly Favors Israel, New York Times
Keep in mind, Palestinian leaders were never consulted on the plan that was largely crafted by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his fanatical colleagues. As a result, the final copy is little more than an Israeli wish-list that garners the Trump administration’s blessing while sabotaging any prospect of a two-state solution. As one critic from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said, “Front-loading the annexation (of land in the West Bank) reaffirms the worst fears that this is more an annexation plan than a peace plan.”
Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian Authority spokeswoman, tweeted: “Netanyahu is clear: Trump is the first world leader to say it is alright for Israel to steal land.” NYTimes
But the Peace Plan was just the first of Trump’s attempts to torpedo Palestinian aspirations. The second, was Trump’s Abraham Accords that were designed to normalize relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors while marginalizing the Palestinian cause. Prior to the Abraham Accords, (which were the handiwork of Jared Kushner) Arab countries were expected to eschew diplomatic normalization with Israel until Israel had taken steps to comply with the central tenets of the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 which required the following:
1– Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.
2– Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.
3– The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
(After which, the Arab countries would) Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace…. enabling the Arab countries and Israel to live in peace and good neighbourliness and provide future generations with security, stability and prosperity. Arab Peace Initiative 2002
Trump’s Abraham Accords were a way of sidestepping the requirements of the Arab Peace Initiative by consummating bilateral agreements that made no such demands. And the scheme worked, too. From 2000-on, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan all signed the Accords strengthening their economic and diplomatic ties with Israel while gradually integrating Israel into the broader Middle East region. At the same time, Israel continued to settle more Palestinian land on the West Bank while tightening its blockade of Gaza. Bottom line: The Abraham Accords were an effective way to “disappear” the Palestinian issue altogether while exempting Israel of any duty to implement UN resolutions or loosen the grip of its long-term military occupation. Naturally, the Palestinians saw this as an existential threat to their future as a people, a culture and a civilization. This is from an article at Aljazeera:
(The signing of the Abraham Accords) was “a stab in the back of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people”, Ahmad Majdalani, social affairs minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA), told AFP news agency.
In the besieged Gaza Strip, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said Bahrain’s decision to normalise relations with Israel “represents a grave harm to the Palestinian cause, and it supports the occupation”.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), based in Ramallah, occupied West Bank, called the normalisation “another treacherous stab to the Palestinian cause”.
Palestinians fear the moves by the UAE and Bahrain will weaken a long-standing pan-Arab position that calls for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory and acceptance of Palestinian statehood in return for normal relations with Arab countries. ‘Stab in the back’: Palestinians condemn Israel-Bahrain deal, Aljazeera
So—as far back as 2020—we can see that Hamas understood they faced a serious threat to their collective survival that had to be countered. That initial reaction evolved into the expansive military operation that was launched on October 7. Here’s how Hamas reacted at the time (2021). This is from News i24:
Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh says ‘We must have an integrated plan to bring down normalization’…. A senior leader in Hamas’ political wing urged on Thursday that the group must fight against the normalization agreements which neighboring states established with Israel.
Last year’s Abraham Accords brought a series of agreements between Israel and other nations in the region, where states agreed to establish full diplomatic relations with the country.
Hamas Political Bureau Charmain Ismail Haniyeh spoke out against the deals during a conference in Istanbul, Turkey, and called to take action to undermine them….“We must have an integrated plan to bring down normalization, which, unfortunately, has taken the character of military and security alliances with some countries,” he announced, according to a press release on Hamas’ website. Hamas calls for ‘plan’ to undermine Israel’s Abraham Accords, i24 News
Not surprisingly, President Joe Biden blabbed the truth about October 7 in a press conference just days after the attacks. His comments have been largely scrubbed by the media, but they can still be found in an article by Politico posted on October 21, 2023. Here’s what he said:
President Joe Biden said that Hamas’ attacks on Israel were intended in part to scuttle the potential normalization of the U.S. ally’s relations with Saudi Arabia.
“One of the reasons Hamas moved on Israel … they knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” Biden said at a campaign event Friday night, according to pool reports. “Guess what? The Saudis wanted to recognize Israel,” the president added…. The normalization push began under former President Donald Trump’s administration and was branded as the Abraham Accords. Biden says Hamas attacks aimed to halt Israel-Saudi Arabia agreement, Politico
Is that an admission that Trump’s normalization policy provoked October 7?
It is.
Hamas saw the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia as the final nail in the coffin of a two-state solution. They understood that once the Saudis normalized relations with Israel—due to security and economic inducements provided by the US—Israel would be free to expand the settlements, strengthen the occupation or even expel the Palestinians from the country altogether. There would be nothing to stop them from asserting control over all the territory from the river to the sea. In short, Trump’s Abraham Accords forced Hamas to concoct a strategy that would be explosive enough to derail Washington’s normalization project. The plan they settled on was October 7. The rest is history. Here’s a brief recap from an article at The Intercept:
The de facto premise behind the accords, initiated under former President Donald Trump and led by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, was to “solve” the Israel–Palestine conflict by simply ignoring the Palestinians and treating their conditions as irrelevant. This weekend’s events show that this approach, premised on Palestinian invisibility, has now collapsed. Indeed, t he expectation that Palestinians would simply resign themselves to a slow death, an assumption evidently carried forth by Biden, was never realistic….
Under Biden, the U.S. has devoted little effort to seeking even tactical détente, let alone peace, between Israel and the Palestinians, preferring instead to continue the Trump administration’s approach of ignoring the Palestinians to seek quid pro quo diplomatic deals between Israel and foreign Arab and Muslim countries with whom Israel has no direct conflict.
Even as the massive bloodshed began around Gaza this week, with Hamas militants massacring Israeli civilians and Israel apparently indiscriminately bombing the Gaza Strip, the administration has rushed to try and salvage its approach to the region. The New York Times reported on Sunday that top Biden aides were scrambling to “reaffirm their commitment to the idea of potential normalization of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.” This shoddy simulacrum of real diplomacy — which inevitably requires resolving tough differences between enemies — has now collided with horrifying reality in Gaza and southern Israel. Biden Doubled Down on the Abraham Accords — to “Devastating Consequences”, Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept
It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots linking the Trump Peace Plan, the Abraham Accords and the October 7 attacks. The three are inseparable. Trump’s Zionist-friendly policies have backfired catastrophically triggering a genocide in Gaza and likely plunging the entire Middle East into a regional war.
Trump is every bit as responsible for the ongoing bloodbath as his accomplice, Benjamin Netanyahu.
[Salon] Palestine today Don’t say you didn't know - Guest Post News Summary
Palestine today
Don’t say you didn't know
An Israeli soldier was caught on camera stealing a carpet from a shop in the city of Jenin, in the West Bank, on Sunday, 01/09/2024. Soldiers have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, jewellery and valuable items from shops, homes and banks in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel arrested a Palestinian. Two hours later soldiers returned with his body
Ayman Abed's family and medics say there are clear signs he had been tortured and badly beaten in Israeli custody. Israeli forces detained a 58-year-old Palestinian man on Monday morning, returning him to his family two hours later dead and covered in marks that indicated he had been tortured and badly beaten in custody. Soldiers raided the house of Ayman Abed in the northern occupied West Bank village of Kafr Dan at around 3.30am, his family told Middle East Eye. According to Isra Abed, Abed’s daughter, Israeli soldiers took him into custody at 6am, returning shortly after with his dead body.
“We believe they tortured him in a military jeep because it didn’t take a lot of time until they sent him back as a body,” Isra told MEE. “I saw his body and he had signs of torture on him on his nose, hair, hands and other areas. It’s obvious he went through severe torture, and it’s also clear that he was beaten.” The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also said Abed’s body displayed signs of torture, and that he had been transferred to a hospital in Jenin, 8km from Kafr Dan. “My father didn’t suffer from any health issues. He never complained about any health problems,” Isra said. “He has never been detained before or been summoned for interrogation.”
Biden accuses Netanyahu of not doing enough to secure ceasefire deal
US President Joe Biden on Monday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to secure a deal with Hamas that would see the release of hostages held in Gaza.
Biden was commenting in response to a question posed by a reporter at the White House. When asked whether he thought Netanyahu was doing enough to reach a hostage deal, the president said "no" without elaborating. Biden spoke prior to a decisive meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and the White House's national security team to determine the strategy to push for a final ceasefire deal.
The Israeli army continues to escalate its attacks on the Gaza Strip during the polio vaccination campaign
Israel has continued its military attacks on the Gaza Strip during its polio vaccination campaign, ignoring all calls to implement a humanitarian truce or a temporary halt to attacks during the vaccination hours. Israeli aircraft and tanks continue to bomb the central Gaza Strip, the area where the polio vaccination campaign has begun. The campaign is a joint effort between the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the United Nations, including UNICEF, and non-governmental organisations, aiming to vaccinate about 640,000 Palestinian children under the age of 10. The campaign was launched in response to the confirmation of the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years, contracted by a 10-month-old infant in Deir al-Balah, in the central part of the Strip. The virus was found in water samples taken in Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah in late June.
Despite the World Health Organisation’s announcement last Thursday that Israel had consented to a series of “humanitarian truces” lasting three days each in the central, southern, and northern sections of the Strip in order to carry out a polio vaccination campaign that would benefit 640,000 children, Israel has continued its attacks. Palestinian Rami Rashad Nofal has been killed, and several other Palestinians injured, during an Israeli air strike on Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, which was also the target of artillery shelling and at least three raids. The injured survivors were transferred to the Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
About 4 percent of victims of Israel’s genocide are elderly; numerous cases of execution are well-documented
The Israeli occupation army’s recent killing of an elderly couple in the Gaza Strip and an elderly man in the West Bank constitute grave crimes against elderly Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that require international investigation. During the 330-day Israeli genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 2,122 elderly men and women have been killed. This represents roughly 2% of the 107,000 elderly people who live in the Strip and roughly 4% of all Palestinian deaths there since 7 October 2023. These crimes, which have been committed hundreds of times, are unjustified and particularly cruel to this defenseless civilian group, which Israel has been targeting ever since it launched its large-scale attack on the Gaza Strip.
Most of these elderly victims were crushed to death under the debris of their homes or shelter centres after Israeli aircraft bombed them on their heads, or during their forced evacuations in the streets or visits to markets to meet their basic needs. Shockingly, however, dozens of them were killed directly through field executions and liquidation operations. Following the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Khan Yunis on Friday 30 August, the discovery of the bodies of the elderly man Wajih Misbah Shaath (71 years old) and his wife Sabah Shaath (65 years old) was documented by the Euro-Med Monitor field team. The Israeli army shot the couple in their Khan Yunis home, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
China calls for ‘fully’ implementing UN resolutions on Gaza ceasefire
China, on Monday, called for “fully” implementing UN resolutions on the Gaza ceasefire that would create conditions for the early release of hostages, Anadolu Agency reports. “The pressing imperative is to fully implement relevant UN Security Council resolutions, bring about an immediate ceasefire, and create conditions for the early release of those held captive,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, at a regular news conference. She said China will continue to collaborate with the international community “to play a constructive role” in efforts to de-escalate tensions. Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since a 7 October, 2023 attack by Hamas. The Israeli onslaught has resulted in nearly 40,300 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and more than 93,100 injuries, according to local health authorities.
An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law
Halting military aid to Israel is the bare minimum the U.S. can do to stop the Gaza genocide. An arms embargo is not only supported by 80% of Democratic Party voters, it is demanded by international and U.S. law. As Israel launches its largest military assault in the West Bank in twenty years, I cannot stop thinking about the people I met in the occupied territory. I think of the mother in Jenin who was on the phone with her two sons seconds before their house was burned in an Israeli raid. I think of the wife of a man who was being held in an Israeli prison without charge or trial asking me, “Is there anything you can do? My husband is dying.” I think of the farmer who gifted me a melon even though he could barely put food on his own table and I was there only for a short period of time, traveling and volunteering with Faz3a, an international protective presence organization.
While all eyes have been on Gaza, Palestinians in the West Bank are undergoing what many call a “slow genocide”. Every day, Israeli settlers attack Palestinian families to push them off their private land. They destroy water wells, burn houses, and assault families. Palestinians who remain on their land risk arrest. In the last 10 months, 9,000 Palestinians from the West Bank have been arrested and detained without charge or trial, many experiencing torture.
UK suspends 30 arms exports to Israel over Gaza war crimes concerns
Arms campaigners and human rights groups welcome ban, but say move does not go far enough. The UK has suspended 30 arms export licences to Israel following a review under the new Labour government which found that British-made weapons may have been used in the violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza. Arms campaigners and rights advocates who have pressed for a full suspension of arms sales to Israel for months welcomed the decision, but criticised the continued export of F-35 fighter jet components which one called "a workhorse of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign". The suspension, announced by Foreign Secretary David Lammy in parliament on Monday, covers components for other types of military aircraft, including fighter planes, helicopters and drones. Under its arms exporting criteria, the government is obligated to suspend licences for arms exports if it determines that there is a clear risk that British weapons might be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.
“Facing a conflict such as this, it is this government’s legal duty to review export licences," Lammy told MPs. Lammy also said the government was "deeply concerned" about reports of mistreatment of Palestinian detainees, which the International Committee of the Red Cross has not been able to investigate after being denied access. "My predecessor and major allies have raised these concerns," he said of the detainees. "Regrettably, these have not been addressed satisfactorily." Chris Doyle, director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, told MEE it was extraodinary that it had taken "11 months of carnage and atrocities" for the government to come to its conclusions, something he said was "unforgivable". But he also said the move was a welcome step to build on. "The most crucial element is that for the first time a British government has accepted that Israel was likely to have violated international law in Gaza," he sai
The six British prime ministers who have restricted arms sales to Israel
The UK’s Labour government has announced that it will suspend 30 arms exports to Israel over concerns they could be used by the Israeli military to violate international humanitarian law in Gaza. More than 100 UK export licences for the sale of weapons, military equipment and other controlled items to Israel have been approved since October 2023. The decision, announced by Foreign Secretary David Lammy in parliament on Monday, marks a major change to British foreign policy. But it is far from unprecedented. In fact, Keir Starmer has now become the sixth British prime minister to have restricted arms sales to Israel. The new policy, rather than taking the country into uncharted territory, brings the UK closer to its historical stance towards Israel. Three previous Conservative prime ministers have restricted arms exports to Israel. Now Keir Starmer is the third Labour prime minister to have done so.
Contract workers with Anera are latest victims of Israel’s systematic targeting of relief workers, undermining of aid distribution in Gaza
Euro-Med Monitor expresses deep concern over Israel’s systematic and persistent targeting of humanitarian aid workers, relief organisations, and humanitarian missions in the Gaza Strip. This targeting jeopardises efforts to provide life-saving aid and tightens restrictions on efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the Strip, which may constitute war crimes. Israel has been methodically and continuously targeting humanitarian workers, including Palestinians and foreign citizens. Over 300 relief workers, most of whom are employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, have been killed by Israel during its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, ongoing since 7 October 2023.
The Israeli army’s targeting of humanitarian aid workers and those ensuring the distribution of food and medical supplies in the Gaza Strip—individuals with no affiliation to any governmental or security structures—constitutes a compound crime. This may be related to the Israeli intentional use of starvation as a weapon against Palestinian civilians and its plans to destabilize the region and undermine security. Four members of a local protection team in the Gaza Strip have been killed as a result of an Israeli attack on an Anera (formerly American Near East Refugee Aid) organisation convoy. The international community must take strong positions and demand an investigation and accountability for this crime,
Under cover of Gaza war, Israel is seizing Palestinian land in the West Bank
In-depth: The Gaza war is serving as a cover for Israel to accelerate expansionist policies in the West Bank, with the ultimate aim of annexing the territory. While global attention remains fixed on the nearly 11-month-long conflict in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 Palestinians, Israel continues to consolidate its political and territorial gains in the occupied West Bank.
In the wake of the 7 October Hamas-led attack, Israeli politicians have leveraged the situation to greenlight the largest land grab in the occupied West Bank in three decades, spanning almost 1,270 hectares in the Jordan Valley. Settlement monitors have reported that the land grab links Israeli settlements along a crucial corridor bordering Jordan, a move they warn jeopardises the viability of a future Palestinian state.
As a Gaza genocide survivor, I fear another Nakba in West Bank
For the last seven days, the occupied West Bank has been a living nightmare. From Jenin to Tulkarem and Tubas, Israeli soldiers, tanks and military vehicles have tramped over Palestinian life, killing at least 22 Palestinians and leaving scores more injured. Life itself has been slammed shut. Roads have been destroyed and entry routes into refugee camps have been blockaded, restricting the movement of rescue and defence crews — the injured must now fend for themselves. Just like us in Gaza, the people of the West Bank have been terrorised: essential living supplies such as food and medicine have been rationed and water, internet, electricity and telephone networks have been cut off. Israel claims a “counterterrorism” operation against Hamas; Palestinians have seen and heard it all before — this is the spiteful reflex of an occupier losing its grip.
Israel’s concurrent assault on Gaza and offensive in the West Bank are nonetheless revealing. They underscore a pattern of land confiscation and unrestrained violence against Palestinians, aimed at solidifying control over illegally occupied territories. When Israel is threatened it lashes out. Like many of its precedents, it appears to lack any justification beyond a broader agenda to displace Palestinians and accelerate its expansionary settler-colonial project — emboldened by fascistic habits —integral to the Zionist project since 1948.
Israel is committing genocide and Western media is helping hide the bodies
For over the last nearly 11 months, mainstream Western media has framed the ongoing onslaught in Gaza as a ‘classic’ conflict between two parties. The Gaza mass killing, is largely bloodless on televised screens. On social media platforms, another story is unfolding; a torrent of horrific accounts of Israel’s war crimes inflicted on civilians surpassing any surreal imaginary of violence, captured by the victims themselves as well as their perpetrators, the latter proudly celebrating their impunity. Navigating between my social media feeds and my TV screen, it is hard to believe I am following the same story. Gazans’ encounters with their “bare life” are beyond any hallucinations that our imagination can create, including our own living experiences of trauma.
Passive voices and soft wording that steers clear of terms like “massacre”, “crimes” or “killing”, are just a some of the countless examples of erasure used in mainstream Western reporting. For instance, a recent report by the BBC mentioned that the number of victims in Gaza surpassed 40,000, while adding, with much emphasis, that the figures don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. This not only implies that some of the killings are justified as Israel peruses those it deems a “security threat”, but the lack of clarity on how many sit in this category could serve to justify such a high death toll and limit empathy amongst readers.
Monday, September 2, 2024
Tucker Carlson on X: "We’re clearly heading toward war with Iran. Is there any scenario where that’s a good thing for the United States? A definitive answer from Jeffrey Sachs. (1:21) Ukraine Is Losing Their War (10:14) The Potential for Nuclear War (25:07) Will We Go To War With Iran? (47:06) Who’s https://t.co/MxtbanaQOF" / X
Israeli football fans attack Palestinian fans with sticks – Middle East Monitor
Israeli football fans attack Palestinian fans with sticks – Middle East Monitor
sraeli football fans attack Palestinian fans with sticks An Israeli Premier League match between Israeli team Hapoel Be'er Sheva and Palestinian team Bnei Sakhnin was abandoned after the Israeli fans attacked the Palestinian fans with sticks. The Israeli fans were incensed that the Palestinian supporters turned their back on the Israeli national anthem, so they ran the length of the pitch to attack them while shouting racist abuse.
Republic of Korea, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to Conduct Exercise Ssang Yong 2024 > U.S. Indo-Pacific Command > News Article View
Republic of Korea, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to Conduct Exercise Ssang Yong 2024 > U.S. Indo-Pacific Command > News Article View
https://www.pacom.mil/Media/News/News-Article-View/Article/3885531/republic-of-korea-us-navy-and-marine-corps-to-conduct-exercise-ssang-yong-2024/
Republic of Korea, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to Conduct Exercise Ssang Yong 2024
By Maj. George McArthur, 3d Marine Expeditionary Brigade
POHANG, South Korea –
The Republic of Korea and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps will conduct Exercise Ssang Yong 24 from August 26 to September 7 along the east coast and around the Pohang area, to strengthen the ROK-U.S. Alliance’s combat readiness and improve interoperability.
Since 2012, the ROK and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have regularly conducted Ssang Yong to enhance defensive posture on the Korean Peninsula while improving naval and amphibious capabilities. This year’s exercise will involve division-level Marine Corps landing forces, the ROK Navy large transport ships Dokdo (LPH-6111) and Marado (LPH-6112), the U.S. amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 5), and more than 40 ships including the ROK landing ships Ilchulbong, Cheonjaebong, and Cheonwangbong (LST-II), frigates, and minehunters. Additionally participating in Ssang Yong 24 will be more than 40 ROK-U.S. aircraft including U.S. F-35B Lightning II fighter jets, ROK amphibious mobile helicopters (MUH-1), and Air Force C-130 transport aircraft, as well as over 40 Korean Amphibious Assault Vehicles.
Furthermore, the United Kingdom Commando Force will participate in Ssang Yong for the second consecutive year.
This year’s exercise will feature the prototype formation of a combined ROK-U.S. Marine Corps staff group afloat. The combined staff group will board the ROKS Marado to command amphibious operations and test the integration of command and control capabilities.
Ssang Yong 24 will proceed through a series of phases: pre-departure coordination, loading troops and equipment according to stages of landing operations, landing forces approaching the target area under escort operations, rehearsal, and decisive action including amphibious and air assaults to secure objectives for follow-on operations.
During the decisive action phase in early September, ROK-U.S. combined and joint forces will conduct large-scale maneuvers from sea and air to showcase the overwhelming power of the alliance and its capability to carry out combined amphibious operations.
Official visual-imagery coverage including pictures, videos, and stories, will be published on the website page https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/ssangyong.
Saudi Crown Prince Calls For Joint Arab-Islamic Efforts To Halt Israeli 'Aggression' Against Palestinians | Watch
Saudi Crown Prince Calls For Joint Arab-Islamic Efforts To Halt Israeli 'Aggression' Against Palestinians | Watch
Saudi Foreign Minister calls for intensifying Arab-Islamic efforts to stop Israeli violations
Prince Faisal discusses latest developments on Palestine in calls with counterparts
September 01, 2024
Saudi Gazette report
RIYADH — Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan discussed the latest developments on the Palestinian issue and efforts to enhance joint Arab and Islamic actions aimed at restoring the legitimate rights of Palestine and its people, stopping Israeli violations, and supporting the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
The discussions took place through a series of phone calls with his counterparts from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Gambia.
During his call with Egyptian Foreign Minister Dr. Badr Abdel Aty, Prince Faisal discussed the situation in Palestinian territories and the need for immediate action to halt severe Israeli violations and support the establishment of a secure and stable Palestinian state.
In his conversation with Dr. Ayman Safadi, Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Saudi minister emphasized the urgent need for a ceasefire and the importance of Arab and Islamic efforts to achieve a fair and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian people, including the establishment of an independent state in accordance with international resolutions.
Prince Faisal also spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss the Palestinian issue within the context of Islamic efforts to restore the legitimate rights of Palestine and its people. They stressed the need for intensified coordination to halt the Israeli violations of international laws and humanitarian principles.
Earlier, Prince Faisal held separate calls with Bahraini Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullatif Al Zayani and Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara, where they reviewed the latest developments in Palestine. The ministers discussed ways to strengthen Arab-Islamic cooperation to support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, ensure the restoration of Palestinian rights, and stop all Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law.
The Gospel of Work - The Catholic Thing
The Gospel of Work - The Catholic Thing
The Gospel of Work
St. Pope John Paul II: The Church finds in the very first pages of the Book of Genesis the source of her conviction that work is a fundamental dimension of human existence on earth.
Through work man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to elevating unceasingly the cultural and moral level of the society within which he lives in community with those who belong to the same family. And work means any activity by man, whether manual or intellectual, whatever its nature or circumstances; it means any human activity that can and must be recognized as work, in the midst of all the many activities of which man is capable and to which he is predisposed by his very nature, by virtue of humanity itself.
Man is made to be in the visible universe an image and likeness of God himself, and he is placed in it in order to subdue the earth. From the beginning therefore he is called to work. Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work. Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth. Thus work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons. And this mark decides its interior characteristics; in a sense it constitutes its very nature. . . .
The Church is convinced that work is a fundamental dimension of man's existence on earth. She is confirmed in this conviction by considering the whole heritage of the many sciences devoted to man: anthropology, paleontology, history, sociology, psychology and so on; they all seem to bear witness to this reality in an irrefutable way.
But the source of the Church's conviction is above all the revealed word of God, and therefore what is a conviction of the intellect is also a conviction of faith. The reason is that the Church – and it is worthwhile stating it at this point – believes in man: she thinks of man and addresses herself to him not only in the light of historical experience, not only with the aid of the many methods of scientific knowledge, but in the first place in the light of the revealed word of the living God. Relating herself to man, she seeks to express the eternal designs and transcendent destiny which the living God, the Creator and Redeemer, has linked with him.
St. Pope John Paul II
Monday, September 2, 2024
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8 min
Through work man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to elevating unceasingly the cultural and moral level of the society within which he lives in community with those who belong to the same family. And work means any activity by man, whether manual or intellectual, whatever its nature or circumstances; it means any human activity that can and must be recognized as work, in the midst of all the many activities of which man is capable and to which he is predisposed by his very nature, by virtue of humanity itself.
Man is made to be in the visible universe an image and likeness of God himself, and he is placed in it in order to subdue the earth. From the beginning therefore he is called to work. Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work. Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth. Thus work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons. And this mark decides its interior characteristics; in a sense it constitutes its very nature. . . .
The Church is convinced that work is a fundamental dimension of man’s existence on earth. She is confirmed in this conviction by considering the whole heritage of the many sciences devoted to man: anthropology, paleontology, history, sociology, psychology and so on; they all seem to bear witness to this reality in an irrefutable way.
But the source of the Church’s conviction is above all the revealed word of God, and therefore what is a conviction of the intellect is also a conviction of faith. The reason is that the Church – and it is worthwhile stating it at this point – believes in man: she thinks of man and addresses herself to him not only in the light of historical experience, not only with the aid of the many methods of scientific knowledge, but in the first place in the light of the revealed word of the living God. Relating herself to man, she seeks to express the eternal designs and transcendent destiny which the living God, the Creator and Redeemer, has linked with him.
The Church finds in the very first pages of the Book of Genesis the source of her conviction that work is a fundamental dimension of human existence on earth. An analysis of these texts makes us aware that they express – sometimes in an archaic way of manifesting thought – the fundamental truths about man, in the context of the mystery of creation itself. These truths are decisive for man from the very beginning, and at the same time they trace out the main lines of his earthly existence, both in the state of original justice and also after the breaking, caused by sin, of the Creator’s original covenant with creation in man.
When man, who had been created “in the image of God. . . .male and female” hears the words: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it,” even though these words do not refer directly and explicitly to work, beyond any doubt they indirectly indicate it as an activity for man to carry out in the world. Indeed, they show its very deepest essence. Man is the image of God partly through the mandate received from his Creator to subdue, to dominate, the earth. In carrying out this mandate, man, every human being, reflects the very action of the Creator of the universe.
Construction by Thomas Hart Benton, 1923 [Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri]
Work understood as a “transitive” activity, that is to say an activity beginning in the human subject and directed towards an external object, presupposes a specific dominion by man over “the earth,” and in its turn it confirms and develops this dominion. It is clear that the term “the earth” of which the Biblical text speaks is to be understood in the first place as that fragment of the visible universe that man inhabits.
By extension, however, it can be understood as the whole of the visible world insofar as it comes within the range of man’s influence and of his striving to satisfy his needs. The expression “subdue the earth” has an immense range. It means all the resources that the earth (and indirectly the visible world) contains and which, through the conscious activity of man, can be discovered and used for his ends.
And so these words, placed at the beginning of the Bible, never cease to be relevant. They embrace equally the past ages of civilization and economy, as also the whole of modern reality and future phases of development, which are perhaps already to some extent beginning to take shape, though for the most part they are still almost unknown to man and hidden from him.
While people sometimes speak of periods of “acceleration” in the economic life and civilization of humanity or of individual nations, linking these periods to the progress of science and technology and especially to discoveries which are decisive for social and economic life, at the same time it can be said that none of these phenomena of “acceleration” exceeds the essential content of what was said in that most ancient of Biblical texts.
As man, through his work, becomes more and more the master of the earth, and as he confirms his dominion over the visible world, again through his work, he nevertheless remains in every case and at every phase of this process within the Creator’s original ordering. And this ordering remains necessarily and indissolubly linked with the fact that man was created, as male and female, “in the image of God.”
This process is, at the same time, universal: it embraces all human beings, every generation, every phase of economic and cultural development, and at the same time it is a process that takes place within each human being, in each conscious human subject. Each and every individual is at the same time embraced by it. Each and every individual, to the proper extent and in an incalculable number of ways, takes part in the giant process whereby man “subdues the earth” through his work. . . .
Man has to subdue the earth and dominate it, because as the “image of God” he is a person, that is to say, a subjective being capable of acting in a planned and rational way, capable of deciding about himself, and with a tendency to self-realization. As a person, man is therefore the subject of work. As a person he works, he performs various actions belonging to the work process; independently of their objective content, these actions must all serve to realize his humanity, to fulfil the calling to be a person that is his by reason of his very humanity. . . .
And so this “dominion” spoken of in the Biblical text being meditated upon here refers not only to the objective dimension of work but at the same time introduces us to an understanding of its subjective dimension. . . .This dominion, in a certain sense, refers to the subjective dimension even more than to the objective one: this dimension conditions the very ethical nature of work. In fact there is no doubt that human work has an ethical value of its own, which clearly and directly remain linked to the fact that the one who carries it out is a person, a conscious and free subject, that is to say a subject that decides about himself.
This truth, which in a sense constitutes the fundamental and perennial heart of Christian teaching on human work, has had and continues to have primary significance for the formulation of the important social problems characterizing whole ages.
The ancient world introduced its own typical differentiation of people into classes according to the type of work done. Work which demanded from the worker the exercise of physical strength, the work of muscles and hands, was considered unworthy of free men, and was therefore given to slaves. By broadening certain aspects that already belonged to the Old Testament, Christianity brought about a fundamental change of ideas in this field, taking the whole content of the Gospel message as its point of departure, especially the fact that the one who, while being God, became like us in all things devoted most of the years of His life on earth to manual work at the carpenter’s bench.
This circumstance constitutes in itself the most eloquent “Gospel of work,” showing that the basis for determining the value of human work is not primarily the kind of work being done but the fact that the one who is doing it is a person.
From Laborem Exercens (1981)
Airlines take delivery of China-made planes - Travel - Chinadaily.com.cn
Airlines take delivery of China-made planes - Travel - Chinadaily.com.cn
Airlines take delivery of China-made planes
By HAO NAN | China Daily | Updated: 2024-08-31 13:35
A C919 aircraft operated by Air China takes off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport. TAO RAN/FOR CHINA DAILY
Air China, the country's flag carrier, and China Southern Airlines received their first C919 aircraft on Wednesday. A joint delivery ceremony was held in Shanghai, where the Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, or COMAC, the manufacturer of the C919, is headquartered.
The deliveries mark a significant step for the two State-owned carriers in supporting China's aviation manufacturing industry and promoting mutual growth with the country's self-developed large passenger aircraft manufacturing sector, industry insiders said.
Air China, for example, boasts the longest history of development and operation in China's civil aviation sector. It ranks at the forefront of the international aviation market in terms of fleet size, global routes and annual passenger transport volume.
The company maintains one of the most outstanding safety operation records and has the most internationally influential brand in the Chinese civil aviation industry.
Every decision it makes regarding aircraft selection attracts attention and bears significance, experts said.
During the ceremony, COMAC presented Air China and China Southern Airlines with the aircraft sales certificates and commemorative delivery keys. Also, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued nationality registration certificates, standard airworthiness certificates and radio station licenses to both carriers.
Air China's first C919 aircraft, which is painted with China's national flag, features eight seats in business class and 150 seats in economy. This is currently the most spacious cabin layout known for the C919.
China Southern Airlines selected the standard-range C919. Painted with red kapok, it has a 164-seat three-class layout, including eight seats in business and 18 seats in premium economy.
Both aircraft are equipped with customized cabin seats and facilities, reflecting a focus on passenger comfort and operational flexibility.
To ensure the smooth introduction and subsequent operation of the C919, Air China and China Southern Airlines will collaborate with COMAC on various tasks such as model selection, production supervision, personnel training and operational preparation.
Additionally, the European airworthiness certification process for the C919 is progressing. In July, a delegation from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency conducted an on-site inspection of the aircraft. They performed simulated tests on the C919's flight instruments, boarded it for close observation and discussed specific details with CAAC representatives.
Up to now, a total of nine C919 aircraft have been delivered to customers. Among them, the C919 aircraft of China Eastern Airlines, the first user, has been operating smoothly for 15 consecutive months, flying five scheduled routes and completing more than 3,600 commercial flights.
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