Middle East

Arab And Muslim States Prepare For Trump 2.0

November 17, 2024 Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss. Educate! Donald Trump, Middle East, Wars and Militarism, West Asia

Donald Trump’s electoral victory means that other states, particularly in the Middle East, have to prepare for a range of possibilities. At a summit in Riyadh earlier this week, the League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) came together to discuss Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its violent incursion into Lebanon, and the threat of regional war in preparation for dealing with the incoming American administration. The meeting and recent events have showed the Saudis, Qataris, and the rest of the Arab and Muslim world are trying to consolidate their positions, to maximize their options and flexibility, as they prepare to try to stave off a regional war under conditions that are wholly unpredictable and unstable with Donald Trump.

Meet The US Soldiers And Bureaucrats Defecting Over Gaza

November 12, 2024 Chris Lombardi, Waging Nonviolence. Resist! Gaza, GI Resistance, Israel, Middle East, Palestine, Resignations, US military

As the crisis in the Middle East rages on, a growing movement is confronting U.S. funding of Israel’s wars — including a perhaps-surprising number of those once charged with enforcing U.S. policies. Some are military veterans, while others worked for the State Department and other federal agencies. Such resistance is critical to any nonviolent revolution, says Erica Chenoweth, co-author of “Why Civil Resistance Works.” Chenoweth describes such “defections” as foundational to any hope of real change; dissent by the government’s enforcers — security forces, civilian bureaucrats — show cracks in a regime’s powers.

The Palestinian Struggle’s Necessary Realignment

November 8, 2024 Yara Hawari, Consortium News. Strategize! Genocide, Israel, Middle East, Palestine

Over the last year, Palestine has been irrevocably changed in ways that, for many of us, were once inconceivable. Since the beginning of the genocide, the Israeli regime has killed over 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza — an estimate provided by the Palestinian Ministry of Health that includes over 6,000 unidentified bodies in the ministry’s possession and an additional 10,000 assumed to be still buried under the rubble. Devastatingly, some will never be retrieved. Meanwhile, a July article in The Lancet medical journal on the importance of accounting for Gaza’s fatalities argued that a conservative estimate of total deaths in conflict scenarios equated to “four indirect deaths per one direct death.”

US Tries To Entice Israel Into Minimizing Its Attack On Iran

October 26, 2024 Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss. Educate! Biden administration, Gaza, Iran, Israel, Joe Biden, Lebanon, Middle East, US Aid To Israel, Wars and Militarism

On October 15, two American officials told the Associated Press that they “believed” the White House had gotten assurances from Israel that it would not strike Iran’s oil or nuclear facilities when it launched its eventual retaliation for the October 1 missile barrage that Iran had fired at Israel. The officials’ cautious tone reflected their lack of confidence in Israel’s verbal agreements. Nothing was in writing, and Israel had made no public declaration about limiting its options regarding Iranian targets. Given Israel’s long history of defying and deceiving its credulous benefactor, it’s remarkable that it’s taken this long for Washington to display this kind of caution with Israel’s promises.

Chris Hedges Report: The Escalating Crisis In The Middle East

October 25, 2024 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Resistance Report Gaza, Genocide, Islamophobia, Israel, Middle East, Propaganda

Decades of Islamophobia, relentless propaganda campaigns and heavily financed lobbying efforts have made it difficult to understand the political realities of the Middle East. John Mearsheimer, prominent political scientist, University of Chicago professor and self-proclaimed realist, has consistently demonstrated the courage and ability to bypass the noise, delivering honest and well-informed analysis on global affairs. He joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to lay out what’s happening in the Middle East, from Israel’s genocide in Gaza to its escalating attacks on Lebanon and Iran.

Extermination Works – At First

October 15, 2024 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Educate! Genocide, History, Israel, Middle East, Palestine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Extermination works. At first. This is the terrible lesson of history. If Israel is not stopped — and no outside power appears willing to halt the genocide in Gaza or the destruction of Lebanon — it will achieve its goals of depopulating and annexing northern Gaza and turning southern Gaza into a charnel house where Palestinians are burned alive, decimated by bombs and die from starvation and infectious diseases, until they are driven out. It will achieve its goal of destroying Lebanon — 2,255 people have been killed and over one million Lebanese have been displaced — in an attempt to turn it into a failed state.

Could Palestine Be The Catalyst For An Islamic Renaissance?

October 14, 2024 Pepe Escobar, Strategic Culture Foundation. Strategize! Gaza, Iran, Islam, Israel, Malaysia, Middle East, Palestine, Resistance, Türkiye

Of all the countless analyses across the lands of Islam about the profound significance of fateful Al-Toofan (Al-Aqsa Flood) on October 7, 2023, this one stands out: a cycle of conferences in Istanbul earlier this week, including October 7, titled Palestine: the Lynchpin of Civilizational Renaissance, linked to the Kuala Lumpur Forum for Thought and Civilization. Call it a Malaysia-Turkiye partnership: Southeast Asia meets West Asia, a graphic illustration of the multi-nodal world that will be congregating in less than two weeks in Kazan, capital of Muslim Russia, for the long -awaited BRICS summit under the Russian presidency.

Arab States Are Coming Together To Prevent A Regional War

October 12, 2024 Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss. Resist! Axis of Resistance, Biden administration, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestine, Wars and Militarism

In a welcome, but under-reported, development last week, Arab states from the Gulf Cooperation Council reportedly “sought to reassure Iran of their neutrality” in the brewing conflict between Iran and Israel. The stance was expressed by Arab ministers to their Iranian counterparts at a meeting last week in Doha. It was not a formal, public declaration, but rather a commitment expressed in the meetings directly. Initially, reports—particularly the main one from Reuters on which much of the other reporting was based—also said that the Gulf states had explicitly stated that they would forbid the United States from using their airbases to attack Iran, although more recent and updated reports have mysteriously omitted this point.

The Fall Of Israel

October 9, 2024 Scott Ritter, Consortium News. Educate! Hamas, Israel, Middle East, Palestine, Wars and Militarism, Zionism

I have previously written about Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, calling it “the most successful military raid of this century.” I have described the Hamas action as a military operation, while Israel and its allies have called it a terrorist action on the scale of what transpired against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. “The difference between the two terms,” I noted, “is night and day — by labeling the events of October 7 as acts of terrorism, Israel transfers blame for the huge losses away from its military, security, and intelligence services, and onto Hamas. If Israel were, however, to acknowledge that what Hamas did was in fact a raid — a military operation — then the competency of the Israeli military, security, and intelligence services would be called into question, as would the political leadership responsible for overseeing and directing their operations.”

The United States And Israel Set Out To Remake The Middle East, Again

October 6, 2024 Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss. Educate! Gaza, Genocide, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Middle East, Neocolonialism, Palestine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Twenty-two years ago, as the winds of war were gathering in Washington, there was a strong sense of not just rage but of over-confidence in the United States. The neoconservative movement was at the height of its influence, both in and outside of government. The world had rallied around the United States and its invasion of Afghanistan, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, and they had not yet realized that the invasion force was already sinking into what would become a twenty-year quagmire. The neocons argued that it was time to remake the Middle East according to the West’s vision. Ignoring the fact that the region’s problems stemmed in large measure from post-colonial conditions that traced their roots back to the Allied Powers’ decision to draw the region’s borders according to their colonial ambitions in the aftermath of World War I, they seized the opportunity to put their theories to the test.

What Are The Biden Administration’s Motivations In The Middle East?

October 5, 2024 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. Educate! Biden administration, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Middle East, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Days after Israel began its attacks on Lebanon, Politico reported that White House officials had privately told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that it would support his military push against Hezbollah. That push led to an Iranian missile attack on Israel, which Netanyahu has vowed to avenge. Once again, the region seems to be teetering on the verge of a large-scale war. Why is Biden administration supporting such actions and what does the U.S. hope to gain? Mondoweiss U.S. correspondent Michael Arria spoke with Mouin Rabbani, co-editor of Jadaliyya, and a non-resident fellow with the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, about U.S. motivations in the region, Biden’s consistent support for Israel, and how the administration’s Iran policy has made things worse.

Israel’s Genocide Day 363: Israel Admits To Military Losses

October 4, 2024 Qassam Muaddi, Mondoweiss. Educate! Gaza, Genocide, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestine, Wars and Militarism

The U.S. is discussing the nature of Israel’s response to Iran’s missile strikes last Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday, adding that he does not support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Biden’s remarks came a day after Iran launched a large missile attack against Israeli targets on Tuesday in response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July, as well as the assassination of Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Hasan Nasrallah, and the Deputy Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Abbas Nilforushan, according to the IRGC.

Khamenei To United States And Europe: ‘Get Lost’

October 4, 2024 Brett Wilkins, Consortium News. Educate! Europe, History, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Media, Middle East, Palestine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism, Western imperialism

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that the United States and some European nations are responsible for the turmoil in the Middle East, and that the people of the region will enjoy peaceful coexistence only after the interlopers leave. Khamenei — who has led the Islamist theocracy since 1989 — spoke to a group of scientists and scholars in Tehran on Wednesday, one day after Iran retaliated for recent Israeli assassinations of Iranian, Hezbollah, and Hamas leaders by firing around 200 missiles into Israel. “In our region, the root cause of problems, which leads to conflicts, wars, concerns and hostilities and such like, results from the presence of the same people who claim to advocate peace and tranquility in the region; that is America and some European countries,” the 85-year-old Shia cleric said, according to Iranian state broadcaster Press TV.

Who Do You Want To Win?

October 4, 2024 Patrick Lawrence, Scheer Post. Educate! Gaza, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestine, Wars and Militarism

A friend in England, a dweller in bucolic Somerset along with the Black Angus herds and the sheep, forwards a piece by a Times of London columnist that merits careful consideration. Matthew Syed, who has distinguished himself as a ping–pong champion, titles his commentary, “Israel–Hezbollah conflict hinges on a crude question: Who do you want to win?” Syed, who has also done well writing high-end self-help books (You Are Awesome, 2018; Dare to Be You, 2020) has posed a crude question. He is right about this, if little else. And because it is crude, an essentially unserious question, we must take it seriously.

US-Israeli Rampage in the Middle East: Barreling Towards WWIII

October 3, 2024 AbMartin and Séamus Malekafzali, The Empire Files. Resistance Report Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Middle East, Palestine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism, WWIII, Yemen

Israel has started a ground invasion into Lebanon with the approval of the Biden/Harris administration. This is following an intense bombing campaign by Israeli authorities against Lebanon killing hundreds of civilians and leaving thousands injured. Hezbollah, the militant group Israel claims it's targeting, has been engaged in cross border exchange with the Israeli military over the last year, primarily hitting military targets. This is a defensible military action considering they are trying to prevent a full-scale genocide in Gaza. Joining Abby Martin is Séamus Malekafzali to talk about Israel's invasion of Lebanon, the assassination of Nasrallah, and the potential for war with Iran. They are also joined by Empire Files producer Mike Prysner.

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