Jewish peace activists across the US call for immediate ceasefire and justice for Palestinians

As Rabbi Alissa Wise scrolls through social media, her feed is littered with videos of dead Palestinian children, parents holding their lifeless bodies with screams caught in their throats and eyes sunken with grief.

Like millions around the world, she has been haunted by the gruesome scenes flooding out of Gaza, where civilians have endured more than two weeks of an Israeli siege and bombing campaign that has collapsed homes, destroyed vital infrastructure and sparked a humanitarian crisis.

The airstrikes have killed more than 4,600 Palestinians so far, including an estimated 1,900 children, and wounded at least 14,000 others, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. Another 1.4 million people have been internally displaced, the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

“It’s wretched. I wake up every single morning with tears in my eyes, rage in my heart and I channel it into action,” Wise, a rabbinical council member with Jewish Voice for Peace, told CNN. “My coping mechanism is to yell into the void, yell into the halls of Congress.”

She feels the same grief and horror over Hamas’ surprise attack in Israel on October 07, when the militant group brutally killed more than 1,400 people, including civilians and military personnel, and abducted over 200 others, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Israel says its mission in Gaza is to root out and destroy Hamas, which governs the small territory. But it is the 2.2 million Palestinians living there, unable to escape, who are bearing the brunt of the attacks.

It is these lives that Wise and other Jewish American peace activists are mobilizing to save with their calls for an urgent ceasefire.

Lately, thousands of Jews and allies marched on Capitol Hill, where they carried Palestinian flags and rallied in support of Palestinian rights, while Wise led a smaller sit-in with hundreds of activists inside one of the Capitol buildings.

The action was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, two of the largest US Jewish groups calling for a just and peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

At the sit-in, led by two dozen rabbis, they blew shofars, a traditional horn made from ram’s horn and used in Jewish rituals, and shared testimonials from Palestinians suffering in Gaza. They wore shirts that read, “Not in our name,” and unfurled banners demanding a ceasefire.

The activists also called on the US government to stop providing aid to Israel, which Wise says “encourages and funds the mass murder of Palestinians.”

Wise was one of more than 355 activists, mostly Jewish, arrested during the event, according to Jewish Voice for Peace spokesperson Sonya Meyerson-Knox.

Thousands more Jewish Americans continue to gather in protests across the United States, calling on President Joe Biden and other elected officials to rein in Israel – arguing more civilian deaths is not the answer to Hamas’ deadly attack.

“As Jewish people whose ancestors went through the Holocaust, when we hear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant use words like ‘the children of darkness’ and ‘human animals’ to describe Palestinians, we feel the resonances of that in our bones,” said IfNotNow political director Eva Borgwardt, referring to recent comments made by the Israeli officials.

“We know exactly where that language leads, and we are here to stop what they clearly intend to be a genocide. We will come to the doors of our lawmakers; we will be at the doors of our lawmakers for as long as it takes.”

Moments after Rabbi Wise was released by authorities, she learned one of her closest Palestinian friends lost his entire family in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

“I fell in a puddle on the floor. It was a very sobering reminder of exactly what we’re trying to prevent,” Wise said. “It’s critical for American Jews to stand up and say, ‘never again’ is never again for anyone.” The slogan has been a rallying cry of the Jewish community since World War II.

“If we’re going to learn anything from history, it’s that the things that we stand for are for everybody, no exception, and that includes Palestinians,” she added. “We’re pulling back on organizations that suggest Jewish safety must come at the expense of Palestinian life. We say, it’s not either-or, it’s all of us or none of us.”

In addition to organizing civil actions, Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow are also educating communities through digital media, engaging with journalists, organizing petition drives and coordinating telephone and email campaigns aimed at elected officials and news organizations. Much of their work is done in partnership with smaller Jewish groups, as well as Arab, Muslim and Palestine solidarity activists.

Jewish Voice for Peace, founded in 1996, describes itself as the largest Jewish pro-Palestinian organization in the world, with over 440,000 members and supporters across 30 states. IfNotNow also has a large US network, with tens of thousands of Jewish members who have taken direct actions to protest the Israeli occupation since 2014.

“The work of our movements over the past nine years and decades of work by our predecessors has been preparing all of us to meet this horrific, genocidal moment,” Borgwardt said.

“Stopping this war feels like the biggest test of our lifetimes. We understand how we got here and that to end this nightmare and achieve true safety for Palestinians, Israelis and Jews, we need to end decades of occupation and apartheid and fight for equality, justice and a thriving future for all.”

State of Pakistan Economy

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has released its Annual Report on the State of Pakistan’s Economy for the fiscal year 2022-23. According to the report, Pakistan’s economy faced multiple challenges during the year under review, as longstanding structural weaknesses exacerbated the impact of successive domestic and global supply shocks of unprecedented nature.

The country’s macroeconomic situation had begun to deteriorate since the second half of FY22 in the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, elevated global commodity prices and an unplanned fiscal expansion. The situation worsened during FY23 owing to floods, delay in the completion of the 9th review of the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program, continuing domestic uncertainty, and tightening global financial conditions.

Particularly, the devastating monsoon floods significantly dented economic activity, fueled inflationary pressures, increased stress on external account and widened fiscal imbalance because of spending on relief efforts. Similarly, the uncertain global economic and financial conditions, softening – but still elevated – global commodity prices, higher debt servicing and reduced external inflows had implications for various sectors of the economy.

The confluence of these developments substantially weakened Pakistan’s macroeconomic performance during FY23. The real GDP growth fell to the third-lowest level since FY52, whereas average National CPI inflation spiked to a multi-decade high. While the current account deficit narrowed considerably, limited foreign inflows kept pressures on the external account leading to a decline foreign exchange reserves. Meanwhile, reflecting the unsustainable fiscal policy stance of the past many years, a sharp increase in interest payments, persistently large energy subsidies and lower-than-targeted tax collection contributed to less than envisaged fiscal consolidation during FY23.

The report notes that Pakistan’s economic performance in FY23 highlights the importance of addressing perennial structural impediments that pose serious risks to country’s macroeconomic stability. Foremost among these are inadequate and slow tax policy reforms that have constricted the resource envelope, even for meeting current expenditures. On the other hand, inefficiencies in public sector enterprises (PSEs) led to a permanent drain on fiscal resources. These have squeezed

space for development spending required to enhance the economy’s productive capacity. The anemic investment in physical and human capital as well as R&D has impeded development of a technology-intensive manufacturing base and the next level value-added exports. Moreover, stagnant crop yields and lack of attention to development of food supply chain and to address food market imperfections have led to sustained reliance on imported food commodities. These trends underpin the unsustainable current account balance, which has increased the country’s vulnerability to global supply shocks.

The report indicates that this situation requires initiation of broad ranging reforms to address various sectoral imbalances to ensure availability of resources for economic growth and development.

Specifically, expediting tax policy reforms and speedy implementation of governance reforms in PSEs is instrumental to create fiscal space for public investment in human and physical capital.

Furthermore, there is also a need to create a conducive environment to support foreign direct investment in exportable sectors, and to encourage technology transfers. Similarly, agriculture sector reforms are required to alleviate import reliance and for achieving price stability. There is a need to expedite these reforms to achieve a high and sustainable economic growth required to absorb the new entrants in labor market, improve social welfare and raise the general standard of living in the country.

In this context, the availability of factual information on key macroeconomic variables, markets, businesses, and individual welfare are important ingredients for evidence-based policy making. This report includes a special chapter on the need to streamline the state of Pakistan’s National Statistical System (NSS) and identifies some suggestions for NSS reforms.

The report highlights that Pakistan’s economic situation has started to show some early signs of improvement. The country was able to secure a US$3.0 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) from IMF, towards the end of FY23, which helped in alleviating near-term risks to external sector. The high

frequency indicators are suggesting bottoming out of economic activity from July 2023. The withdrawal of guidance on import prioritization, alongside gradual ease in foreign exchange position, is expected to somewhat ameliorate supply chain situation and lift growth in LSM as well as exports. Moreover, an expected rebound in cotton and rice production will support agriculture growth in FY24. Reflecting these considerations, the SBP expects real GDP growth in the range of 2–3 percent in FY24.

The lagged impact of monetary tightening, and other contractionary measures, is expected to keep domestic demand in check. Furthermore, the prospects of improvement in supply situation on account of likely increase in production of important crops and imports is expected to bring down inflation in the range of 20–22.0 percent in FY24. Slightly improved global and domestic growth prospects are expected to bolster foreign exchange earnings from exports of goods and services.

Although import volumes are likely to increase, lower commodity prices may prevent a significant expansion in imports bill during FY24. Accounting for these factors, SBP projects the current account deficit to fall in the range of 0.5–1.5 percent of GDP in FY24.

What if Iran closes Strait of Hormuz?

The Israel-Hamas war has raised the concerns of a wider regional conflict which could embroil Iran and other regional factions. Analysts and market observers say the conflict could prompt the United States to tighten sanctions on Iran, which may spur Tehran to take retaliatory action against ships in the Strait in Hormuz.

The Marshall Islands registry, one of the world's top shipping flags, last week flagged that vessels with links to Israel or the United States may face a heightened threat of attack within Israeli territorial waters, the Mideast Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman and Red Sea areas.

The strait lies between Oman and Iran. It links the Gulf north of it with the Gulf of Oman to the south and the Arabian Sea beyond. It is 21 miles (33 km) wide at its narrowest point, with the shipping lane just two miles (three km) wide in either direction.

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have sought to find other routes to bypass the Strait, including building more oil pipelines.

About a fifth of the volume of the world's total oil consumption passes through the Strait on a daily basis. An average of 20.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, condensate and oil products passed through Hormuz in January-September 2023, data from analytics firm Vortexa showed.

OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE, Kuwait and Iraq export most of their crude via the Strait.

Qatar, the world's biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, sends almost all of its LNG through the Strait.

 

 

 

Threat of second Nakba looms larger

The past two weeks show how easily the western world turns its back on Palestinians in times of crisis. While the West has shown solidarity with the Israeli victims, it has remained appallingly silent over – and even encouraged – the crimes being committed against Palestinians in Gaza.

The world is seeing western racism in all its cruelty, as Palestinian lives are deemed inherently less valuable. The worst horror is the silence and complicity of the West in Israel’s unspeakable massacres.

All Palestinians feel they are being held responsible and paying the price for Israel’s failure to maintain security along the Gaza fence. From 1948 communities to Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank are being targeted on the basis of their identity.

All they hear are western countries giving their full support to Israel, which is using this cover to commit crimes, arrest people and violate the human rights of Palestinians anywhere in the country.

Palestinians do not feel they are safe. Tensions hang heavy, even just in the way people look at each other.

When one walks the streets of Jerusalem streets are empty, but police and private security forces are there. 

Increasing numbers of civilians have been carrying guns in the streets, and even in shopping malls, where some Israelis were armed with M16s. This comes after National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir decided to hand out thousands of guns and to ease the conditions for purchasing weapons.

Many from occupied East Jerusalem no longer go to work. Some have been beaten. The army can stop anyone and check mobile phone; if they find a song about Palestine or a post about Gaza, they can confiscate the device, beat and arrest the person.

It feels as though people are living in a military base. In several locations, cement blocks have been placed at the exits of Palestinian neighbourhoods. 

Armed groups of settlers and private militia forces can stop anyone on the streets if the person looks Palestinian.

People don’t feel safe speaking their own language anymore. Palestinian friends in the streets will speak Hebrew or English; they don’t dare to speak Arabic in public. Many people have been fired or suspended from their jobs just for showing solidarity with Gaza.

There are two million Palestinian citizens of Israel. On Tuesday, Israel’s police chief, Kobi Shabtai said, “Anyone who wants to identify with Gaza is welcome – I’ll put them on buses that will send them there.”

People are terrified they could be physically attacked at any time. Extremist Israelis are urging others to kill their Arab neighbours, including women, children and babies. People have found their photos and other details posted on social media groups that have been established to target Palestinians. It is a collective call for revenge.

The speed at which this fascism has spread through the country is stunning. People have always believed there is a common space where Israelis and Palestinians can come together and work towards peace. But the transformation in recent days has been overwhelming. People who once described themselves as Israeli leftists are now calling to wipe out Gaza.

It feels as though the whole state is now baying for genocide. This is the type of language one hear from politicians, celebrities, academics and ordinary people.

Many feel that Israel is working towards a second Nakba – and the world is doing nothing to stop it. Israelis are crossing red lines and using the current situation to promote apartheid, ethnic cleansing and a second Nakba.

Across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, at least 69 Palestinians have been killed in the past 13 days. Palestinians are being attacked by settlers; the police and army do nothing to protect them. Instead, Palestinians face mass arrests if they dare to show support for Gaza.

In Gaza, more than 4,000 people have been killed in Israel’s bombardment – including more than 1,500 children – while thousands more have been injured. Gaza City has been destroyed. People are struggling to meet their basic needs: water, electricity and medical care. Pregnant mothers are in crisis. Children are being left in hospitals with no one to pick them up, because their parents have been killed.

 

Israel allows 20 aid trucks, drops 12,000 bombs

After two weeks of relentless bombing, Israel temporarily opened the Rafah border crossing, the only port connecting Gaza to Egypt which is coordinating international life-saving humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. 

Israel had bombarded the crossing in the early hours of its shelling campaign against the Gaza Strip, shutting down operations at the egress for travel and trade.

Since October 07, Israel stubbornly rejected all calls for reopening the Rafah crossing, while deliberately creating a humanitarian crisis by cutting off the flow of water, fuel, food, and electricity into the besieged enclave. 

To make things even worse, Israel began intently bombing hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, and other civilian properties which served as a shelter for civilians fleeing heavy bombardment.

On October 17, Israel committed a heinous crime that shocked the world by bombing a Christian hospital – Al Ahli- which resulted in the killing of hundreds of civilians, mostly injured and patients.

The magnitude of the crime was so abhorrent that the Israeli authorities quickly walked back their statements confirming their bombardment of the hospital and ultimately blamed the targeting of the hospital on a Palestinian resistance group misfired rocket. 

Even worse, the Biden administration appeared to be rubber stamping the Israeli narrative, saying that the war crime was committed by the other team.

President Biden had visited Israel in a bid to show solidarity with the Israeli leadership, which is suffering from a historic lack of self-confidence as a result of the October 07 attack by the Palestinian resistance groups on Israeli targets. 

In order to vent their anger, the Israeli authorities intensified their brutal campaign against the civilians in Gaza, producing damning evidence of committing war crimes against the Palestinian people, according to Amnesty International. 

“As Israeli forces continue to intensify their cataclysmic assault on the occupied Gaza Strip, Amnesty International has documented unlawful Israeli attacks, including indiscriminate attacks, which caused mass civilian casualties and must be investigated as war crimes,” the human rights organization said in a statement on Friday. 

“In their stated intent to use all means to destroy Hamas, Israeli forces have shown a shocking disregard for civilian lives. They have pulverized street after street of residential buildings killing civilians on a mass scale and destroying essential infrastructure, while new restrictions mean Gaza is fast running out of water, medicine, fuel and electricity. Testimonies from eyewitness and survivors highlighted, again and again, how Israeli attacks decimated Palestinian families, causing such destruction that surviving relatives have little but rubble to remember their loved ones by,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

 Callamard said, “Our research points to damning evidence of war crimes in Israel’s bombing campaign that must be urgently investigated. Decades of impunity and injustice and the unprecedented level of death and destruction of the current offensive will only result in further violence and instability in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” 

These crimes were the result of Israel dropping thousands of bombs on the Gaza Strip in a matter of two weeks. The Israeli military has said just in the first six days of their aggression, Israel dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza. Estimates put that number at more than 8,000 now, which is more than the bombs the US dropped on Afghanistan in a year, according to US Congresswomen Ilhan Omar. 

The Washington Post, citing Marc Garlasco, a military adviser at the Dutch organization PAX for Peace, reported that Israel is dropping in less than a week what the US was dropping in Afghanistan in a year, in a much smaller, much more densely populated area, where mistakes are going to be magnified.”

Garlasco, who is also a former UN war crimes investigator in Libya, told the daily, citing records from the US Air Force Central Command, that the highest number of bombs dropped in a year for the war in Afghanistan was just over 7,423.

According to the UN, during the entire war in Libya, NATO reported dropping more than 7,600 bombs and missiles from aircraft, the daily reported, according to Anadolu Agency. 

Despite Israeli continued atrocities, humanitarian aid started flowing into Gaza Saturday in very small quantities, with some describing it as a drop in an ocean of human suffering. 

 

Afghans need immediate help

Families in western Afghanistan, who have lost everything to a series of devastating earthquakes, need urgent assistance to withstand the harsh winter. Temperature has already dropped into single digit.

With about two-thirds of the affected areas assessed, more than 21,500 homes are confirmed destroyed and a further 17,000 severely damaged, according to the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA). Over 154,000 people have been impacted.

The number includes about 7,500 pregnant women, many of whom lost family members. The death of their loved ones has taken a devastating toll, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said.

The agency has deployed psychosocial counselors to help them cope with overwhelming loss.

“They need someone to listen to them and help them cope with their trauma,” said counselor Faiza Zarie, adding that the availability of psychosocial support is critical.

Women also face other challenges — heightened risks of preventable maternal death, gender-based violence and hunger.

UNFPA is working to address reproductive health needs. It issued a funding appeal for US$11.6 million to continue delivering life-saving sexual and reproductive health supplies and services.

Access to medical care has also been severely affected, with at least 40 facilities reported damaged, a region that was already largely deprived of essential health services before the disaster.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that services for about 580,000 people have been severely disrupted.

“Health workers are also affected by the disaster — either from loss of family members or from fear of collapsing health facilities, which makes it even harder for them to provide the health care their communities need,” Alaa AbouZeid, WHO team leader emergencies in Afghanistan, told reporters in Geneva, from Kabul.

“The health consequences are staggering,” she added

The UN agency has been one of the first responders on the ground, supporting hospitals with medicines and supplies and organizing mobile health and nutrition teams.

Sustaining health services will require extra resources, and WHO and partners have launched an appeal for US$7.9 million to provide support for the next six months.

Iranian navy to permanently deploy forces to oceans

Iran's Navy Chief Rear Admiral Shahram Irani has rolled out Tehran’s ambitious plans for the future, saying the West Asian country is planning to maintain presence in oceans across the world. 

“Coordination is underway and equipment is being prepared so that we can simultaneously be present in all oceans; because there are economic interests of the people there,” Irani said during a military ceremony in the coastal province of Mazandaran on Friday.

“If any mischief occurs, the Islamic Republic of Iran has enough capability to defend itself. Also, regional countries and people do not allow foreigners and non-regional actors to interfere and engage in mischief,” the commander said, adding that the Caspian Sea will remain a sea of peace and friendship. 

“All countries and people in the region will join hands to witness economic growth in the region,” the admiral pointed out.

Last month, the commander announced that Iran will be setting up a permanent military base in Antarctica. “We have ownership in Antarctica and the plan is to hoist the Iranian flag there and establish a permanent base,” he declared during an interview.

Iran’s naval forces have been able to make headways and achieve several unprecedented accomplishments in recent years. 

In May of this year, the Iranian Navy’s 86th flotilla managed to complete an eight-month mission that involved sailing around the world. The flotilla, which consisted of the Dena destroyer and Makran forward base ship, sailed across the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans without needing assistance from land. It traveled 63,000 kilometers and crossed the Equator four times. The mission was part of Iran's efforts to expand its naval presence in the high seas, showcasing its capability and commitment to defending its economic interests. It also happened despite years of debilitating sanctions by the West.