GCC Summit in Doha

Yet another meeting of Arab countries is being held today. These countries have failed miserably in stopping Israeli genocide. There are talks and talks but no action. Over 15,000 people, mostly women and children have been killed and killing is going unabated.  

The Gaza conflict and other major developments in the region will figure high at the 44th summit session of the Supreme Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, which will be held in the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday.

Leaders from the six member states of GCC will attend the summit, set to be held at a time when the region is witnessing Israel’s military aggression on the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip. The leaders will also discuss major international developments.

The 158th preparatory meeting of the GCC foreign ministers held on Sunday finalized the agenda of the summit. Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan led the Saudi delegation that attended the ministerial meeting.

The ministerial meeting was chaired by Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also chairman of the current session of the Ministerial Council.

Foreign ministers of the GCC states and GCC Secretary General Jasem Albudaiwi attended the meeting.

The ministers discussed a number of reports regarding the follow-up to the implementation of the decisions of the 43rd summit of the GCC Supreme Council held in Riyadh, as well as memorandums and reports submitted by the ministerial and technical committees and the General Secretariat. The meeting also discussed topics related to dialogues and strategic relations between the GCC countries, as well as with other countries and global blocs, in addition to the regional and international developments taking place in the region.

From the Saudi side, the meeting was attended by Ambassador to Qatar Prince Mansour bin Khalid bin Farhan, Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Rasi, deputy minister of foreign affairs for multilateral international affairs, and Abdul Rahman Al-Daoud, director general of the Office of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Also, on Sunday, Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, co-chaired the first meeting of the Executive Committee of the Saudi-Qatari Coordination Council.

Ruthless Israeli killings in Gaza

Backed by the United States, the indiscriminate Israeli attacks against the civilian population across the entire Gaza Strip continue unabated. But the level of anxiety among the Israeli soldiers, especially in the northern part of the enclave is growing and they are shooting at anything that moves. 

The US administration claims it has pressured Israel to limit the number of civilian casualties in the next phase of the war on Gaza. 

The Israeli military, as instructed by the Israeli cabinet, has brushed the wider concerns of the international community on the rising civilian death toll. 

The regime is not taking into account any caution against the loss of civilian life amid Israeli military is attacking the densely populated southern Gaza Strip and in particular Khan Younis area where Palestinians had been forcefully displaced by the Israeli army. 

In a sign of the anxiety among Israeli ground forces operating in Gaza, they are shooting with lethal force at anything that moves, including the vehicles belonging to Doctors without Borders. 

In a post on social media, one of the passengers who survived the attack

"When we arrived at al-Wahida Street, which is close to our office and guesthouse and Gaza clinic, I saw tanks on the street and snipers on top of the buildings. I was terrified when I saw that the snipers and tanks are pointing at us.” 

The chances of committing massacres have increased as seen in the current war on Gaza, which has entered its 58th day with a civilian death toll surpassing 15,200, 70% being women and children. 

It allows airstrikes on non-military targets and the use of an AI system, which has enabled the Israeli army to carry out its deadliest war on Gaza.

"In one case discussed by the sources, the Israeli military command knowingly approved the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in an attempt to assassinate a single top Hamas military commander," the probe revealed. 

As for the northern Gaza Strip, there was never any regard for civilian life in the first place.

The Palestinian higher education ministry has announced that an Israeli airstrike on Gaza has killed the prominent Palestinian scholar Sufyan Tayeh along with his entire family. 

Tayeh was president of the Islamic University of Gaza and was a leading researcher in physics and applied mathematics. 

In northern Gaza, an airstrike flattened a residential building hosting displaced families in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya on the outskirts of Gaza City.

Also, in the north, the Palestinian health ministry said, "A violent Zionist bombing on Beit Lahia left dozens of martyrs and injured civilians."

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, many people have been injured in another indiscriminate Israeli missile attack that targeted the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of Gaza.

Numerous residential homes have been hit across Gaza, with multiple casualties reported in a strike that flattened a multi-story building near Gaza City.

Israel violated a seven-day truce on Friday morning by resuming its merciless attacks against Palestinian civilians. Hamas said there will be no further exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinians. 

Saleh al Arouri, the deputy Hamas chief, has said there will be no further exchanges until "the war on Gaza is over". 

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Arouri said the remaining hostages are Israeli soldiers and civilian men who served in the Israeli army.

He added that Israeli hostages will not be freed unless there is a ceasefire and all Palestinian prisoners are released.

 

Iran demands trial of Israelis for war crimes

More than a thousand members of the Iranian legal community have signed a petition calling for an immediate arrest and trial of the Zionist regime’s criminals in the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

The petition was signed on the sidelines of a conference on the Islamic Republic’s Constitution on Sunday. The members of the legal community lambasted the crimes of the Israeli regime in Gaza.

The edited text of the petition reads as follows: 

In the Gaza war, the international community has witnessed living documentation of countless international crimes committed by Israel's apartheid and child-killing regime against the defenseless people of Gaza. As a result of this war, more than 16,000 people have been killed, more than 36,000 people have been injured, and 7,000 people are missing. So far, 1.5 million people have been displaced, and 205 members of the medical staff, 25 members of the relief forces, and 64 journalists have been martyred. The barbaric attacks of the Zionist army on Gaza have caused 26 hospitals and 55 medical centers to go out of service. 

The Israeli defense minister, who has violated all human rights rules, has issued a complete blockade of Gaza, and subsequently, the access of the people of Gaza to electricity, food, water, gas, a safe environment for accommodation, treatment, and even the Internet has been cut off. Unfortunately, world leaders are only witnessing the cruel and collective punishment of the Palestinian nation by the occupying regime. Even after the temporary ceasefire, the Gazan people have had no shelter to return to because 43,000 of their residential units have been leveled down. Despite the recommendations of the United Nations and human rights organizations, the Zionist army disagreed with the extension of the ceasefire and resumed its war crimes.

We, the signatories of this petition, while expressing our sympathy with the survivors of the Palestinian martyrs, express our disgust for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the widespread aggression and genocide of Palestinians by Israel and their European and American supporters. We request urgent action by the international community to expel the criminal Zionist regime from the occupied territories and immediately prosecute the Israeli criminals. 

 

United States is run by Israeli proxies

We are obliged to share with our readers, particularly from the United States an article by Philip Giraldi. His long write up could be summed up in one sentence, “The US citizens are largely ignorant about the extent to which Israel influences the US administration”.

Few outside the government are likely to be aware of the extent to which the state of Israel and its domestic affiliate-lobby have corrupted the United States political system, to the point where nurturing and enabling the Jewish state in its ambitions to dominate much of the Middle East has become effectively US policy.

The recent fighting in Gaza, rightly referred to as a war crime and ethnic cleansing, perhaps even the first steps in a planned genocide, demonstrate that even when the US has genuine interests at stake Israel believes itself empowered to say “no” to the president of the United States.

The assault on Gaza and the ongoing killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians started again on Friday after a week long pause for hostage/ prisoner exchanges. It will continue and Washington is complicit in the deaths as it has politically shielded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government no matter what it does while also arming and funding the Israeli actions.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon once said that “We the Jewish people control America.” Indeed, the Israeli dominance has been carefully contrived, cultivated and sustained.

One prime example is the regular rush to the Israeli door whenever Congress is in recess. It is not widely reported how large gaggles of congressmen usually drawn in separate groups from each major party travel to Israel on all expenses paid trips where they are wined and dined and subjected to round after round of presentations that drill into their heads all the virtues of Israel and what it represents.

This propaganda combined with indoctrination at its finest with many facts presented by the speakers conveniently fabricated to support Israel’s perpetual victimhood and to hide the fact that Israel is a strategic liability for the US rather than an actual ally or asset.

It is a formula for dissimulation and lying that worked with the Jewish officials in the Pentagon under George W. Bush to provoke a war against Saddam Hussein that killed one million Iraqis and cost the US taxpayer nearly US$2 trillion.

The trips to Israel are funded by the educational affiliate of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) called the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF). One might reasonably ask why an organization connected to AIPAC, which describes itself on its website as having the mission to strengthen, protect and promote the US-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel,” should be able to fund the annual mass migration of congress-critters to promote Israeli interests without having to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as an agent of the Jewish state’s government?

The answer is actually quite simple. Congress and the Justice Department have been so corrupted by pro-Israel money and other manifestations of Jewish power that they do not enforce the law when it comes to Israel.

These trips are structured in a way that discourages any actual discussions of real issues affecting the two countries. The payoff is exceptional from Israel’s point of view, with the United States serving as, in Netanyahu’s own words, a near unlimited source of money and weapons from a country in thrall, an “America [that] is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction possessing an inherently dupable people.

One particularly tone-deaf recent trip to Israel occurred in 2019. In the wake of two heavily reported mass killings in Dayton and El Paso that were attributed both by the media and the Democrats to racism a senior US Congressman led a delegation of 41 of his Democratic Party colleagues plus spouses on a week-long luxury all-expenses-paid trip to Israel, which is one of the few countries in the world that defines its full citizenship as a matter of race and religion and which was at that time as now widely criticized for its human rights record.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland led the annual excursion, having made the pilgrimage to Israel more than fifteen times. “I am pleased to join so many House Democrats in traveling to Israel to reaffirm our support for a critical US ally and to continue learning about the opportunities and the challenges facing Israel and the Middle East,” he said shortly before departing for Tel Aviv.

Other politicians at state levels have followed the federal government lead by making their way to Israel to kiss Benjamin Netanyahu’s ring. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is a presidential aspirant, has gone way overboard in expressing his love for the Jewish state. He transported his whole cabinet to Jerusalem to publicize his legislation to combat what he views as antisemitism and has followed through on that by banning Palestinian student groups at the state universities. He also opposes allowing Palestinian immigrants into the US because they are antisemites.

More recently, California governor Gavin Newsom has made the pilgrimage trip and his office has released his comments on just how wonderful Israel is.

He wrote his heart out, meaning that the memo is totally phony and contrived bullshit which demonstrates no sympathy at all for the tens of thousands of Palestinian victims, “As I reflect back on the extraordinary people I just met today in Israel, I am reminded of the deep connections between my home state and this country. A country that has faced many dark times before, and certainly is in one now. But amid this present struggle against terrorists are stories of unimaginable heroism — and unspeakable tragedy. I grieved with families in mourning, I met with young soldiers fresh from bomb shelters and battlefields, and I sat with leaders who bear the responsibility of response to it all. Despite the horror, what I saw and heard from the people of Israel was a profound sense of resilience. A commitment to community and common purpose, especially in these most difficult of times. That’s the Israeli spirit. And it’s also the California spirit…”

Republican presidential wannabe Chris Christie has also recently shown up in the Jewish state to kiss the ring and we expect that Nikki Haley will soon arrive bowing and scraping, particularly as it is Jewish money honoring her passion for Israel that is floating her campaign.

Bangladesh Elections: Battle of Begums

For the last three decades, the politics of Bangladesh have been the story of the two biggest political parties – Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party – both headed by begums.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina leads the Awami League, a party founded by her father and Bangladesh’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is headed by Khaleda Zia, the country’s first woman prime minister.

The electoral politics in Bangladesh since 1991 has mostly been a Hasina versus Zia story. The two have served as the prime minister, in phases, since the last two decades.

Just ahead of the 2018 polls, Khaleda Zia was convicted in corruption cases and barred from contesting elections. The BNP, which contested the election after forming an alliance, won just seven seats, while the Awami League won 302 of the 350 seats.

Khaleda Zia, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2018, was released from jail in 2020 and is under house arrest. The Bangladesh government hasn’t allowed her to fly out for medical treatment despite claims that she was at high risk of death.

The elections of 2014 and 2018 have been called out by opposition parties and the western media for not being free and fair. The same aspersions are being cast this time too.

“The January 2024 election in Bangladesh is going to take place without any credible opposition and with the predictable outcome that Sheikh Hasina will win for the fourth consecutive term and the Awami League will form the government. Top leaders of the major opposition BNP are in jail and hundreds and thousands of their activists are in prison,” Mubashar Hasan, an author and expert on Bangladesh politics, tells IndiaToday.In.

“The BNP is set to boycott the election as it is demanding an election under a neutral caretaker government. However, Hasina dismissed that demand, and she is going to organize an election under her administration. Against this backdrop, the next election will push Bangladesh firmly into an authoritarian trajectory,” says Hasan, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo, Norway.

The BNP is demanding that Sheikh Hasina step down and a caretaker government be installed for the general election to be a free and fair exercise. It has taken to the streets and Bangladesh has seen large-scale violent protests in recent weeks.

Some 10,000 people, mostly opposition activists, have been arrested since October 28. Thousands of grassroots leaders have fled to remote corners of the country to avoid arrest.

Mubashar Hasan says millions of people who support the BNP are feeling disenchanted and deprived of their political rights. “There is a real worry that radical Islamist and militant Islamist outfits could manipulate such mindsets to recruit would-be jihadists,” says the Bangladesh expert.

Dilemma of Muslim Americans: Biden or Trump

Muslim American leaders from six states on Saturday vowed to mobilize their communities against President Joe Biden's reelection over his support of Israel's war in Gaza, but they have yet to settle on an alternative 2024 candidate.

The states are among a handful that allowed Biden to win the 2020 election. Opposition from their sizeable Muslim and Arab American communities could complicate the president's path to Electoral College victory next year.

"We don't have two options. We have many options," Jaylani Hussein, director of Minnesota's Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter, said at a press conference in Dearborn, Michigan, when asked about Biden alternatives.

"We're not supporting (former President Donald) Trump," he said, adding that the Muslim community would decide how to interview other candidates.

Hussein has said he was expressing his personal views, not those of CAIR.

Abandon Biden campaign began when Minnesota Muslim Americans demanded Biden call for a ceasefire by October 31, and has spread to Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida.

The US and Israeli officials have rebuffed pressure for a permanent halt in fighting, with US Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday echoing Biden saying Israel has a right to defend itself.

Muslim Americans said they did not expect Trump to treat their community any better if reelected but saw denying Biden votes their only means to shape US policy.

It remains to be seen whether Muslim voters would turn against Biden en masse, but small shifts in support could make a difference in states Biden won by narrow margins in 2020.

A recent poll showed Biden's support among Arab Americans has plunged from a comfortable majority in 2020 to 17%.

That could be decisive in a state like Michigan where Biden won by 2.8 percentage points and Arab Americans account for 5 percent of the vote, according to the Arab American Institute.

There are around 25,000 Muslim voters in Wisconsin, a state where Biden won by about 20,000 votes, said Tarek Amin, a doctor representing the state's Muslim community.

"We will change the vote, we will swing it," said Amin.

In Arizona, where Biden won by around 10,500 votes, there are over 25,000 Muslim voters according to the US Immigration Policy Center at the University of California San Diego, said Phoenix pharmacist Hazim Nasaredden.

"We will not stand with a man who has tainted a blue wave with red drops of blood," said Nasaredden.

 

Palestinian Red Crescent thanks Saudi Arabia

The Executive Director of Palestinian Red Crescent Dr. Bashar Murad thanked Saudi Arabia, represented by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief), for its humanitarian role in providing relief to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Murad explained that there were many violations against hospitals and health centers carried out during the current crisis that the Gaza Strip is going through, in addition to the direct targeting of ambulances.

As a result of these attacks, more than 30 ambulances have been out of service so far, in addition to facing difficulty in transporting casualties, he said.

The executive director indicated that they had received a group of ambulances provided by Saudi Arabia, represented by KSrelief, to support the ambulance fleet in Gaza.

As for the Saudi aid that was sent to the Gaza Strip, which included various food, medical, and shelter materials, Dr. Murad confirmed that they sent it quickly to the neediest areas in the Strip.

He also added that they sent medical materials and supplies provided by the Kingdom to the Ministry of Health and hospitals working in the field to strengthen the health system in the southern regions of the Gaza Strip.

The executive director drew attention to the meetings held in Riyadh between representatives of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and officials of the KSrelief to discuss the urgent needs for relief for the people of the Strip, especially the southern regions, noting that the number of displaced people there exceeded 1 million.

Dr. Murad praised the support provided via land and sea bridges by Saudi Arabia, which was offered through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.