Rohingya ‘genocide intensifying’ as war rages in Myanmar’s Rakhine: BROUK
A United Kingdom-based rights group has called for global action over what it called an “intensifying genocide” against Myanmar’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority as fighting between the Southeast Asian country’s military and a powerful ethnic armed group escalated in the western Rakhine State. The warning from the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) on Tuesday came as the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) condemned the looting and burning of its food stores and warehouse in Maungdaw, a coastal town on Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh that is mainly home to the Rohingya and is the focus of the current hostilities between the military and the Arakan Army (AA). The AA represents Rakhine’s Buddhist majority and is fighting for autonomy for the region. It issued evacuation orders for Maungdaw late on June 17 ahead of a planned offensive, leaving tens of thousands of Rohingya residents of the town with “nowhere to flee”, according to the UN’s human rights chief. The Rohingya, considered outsiders by the military as well as many of Rakhine’s Buddhist residents, have long suffered persecution in Myanmar, including a brutal military offensive that drove some 750,000 members of the community into Bangladesh in 2017. The crackdown is now the subject of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). BROUK, in its new report, said the 600,000 Rohingya who remain in Rakhine are facing increased persecution after fighting between the military and the AA resumed last October. The military, which seized power in a February 2021 coup, is subjecting Rohingya in areas under their control to a “slow death” by depriving them of resources indispensable for survival – including food, water, shelter, sanitation and medical care – and also forcibly recruiting members of the community, including children, and sending them to the front lines to fight against the AA, it said. Both the military and the AA have committed war crimes against the Rohingya, BROUK said, including “murder, torture, cruel treatment, extrajudicial executions, sexual violence, rape, taking hostages, conscripting and using children, pillaging, and deliberately attacking civilians”. “Rohingya remaining in Rakhine State face either a fast death being killed by the Myanmar military or Arakan Army, or a slow death as a result of being systematically deprived of the basic necessities of life,” said Tun Khin, president of BROUK. “We are witnessing another significant increase in violence against the Rohingya and once again the UN Security Council looks on and does nothing.” The international community’s failure to protect the Rohingya has resulted in “hundreds, if not several thousands” of deaths in the past six months alone, BROUK said. Global inaction Additionally, some 200,000 Rohingya who are internally displaced are now in dire need of humanitarian aid to prevent further loss of life, the rights group said, while an additional 11,000 members of the community – about half of them children – are trapped near Rakhine’s capital, Sittwe, surrounded by landmines and unable to flee as the fighting edges closer to the city. BROUK warned that the international community could not afford to fail the Rohingya again, saying that authorities in Myanmar had failed to act on the ICJ’s order in 2020 to avoid acts against the minority population that could constitute genocide. The group called for an open meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the military’s “repeated breaches” of the ICJ’s orders as well as action to end what it called a “cycle of impunity” in the country, including by a referral to the International Criminal Court or the creation of an ad hoc international tribunal. “For the past 12 years, by repeatedly failing to take action to prevent violations of international law against the Rohingya, the UN Security Council has been sending a message to authoritarian regimes worldwide that they can get away with attempting to wipe out minorities they don’t like,” Tun Khin said. “The Rohingya genocide was not inevitable, it was allowed to happen and is still being allowed to happen,” he added. The renewed fighting between the military and the AA has forced some 45,000 Rohingya in Maungdaw and neighbouring Buthidaung township to flee to the Bangladesh border, the UN rights office said in May. The displacement came amid reports of widespread arson of Rohingya villages in Buthidaung, with survivors accusing the AA of carrying out the attacks in retaliation for alleged Rohingya support for the military. The UN rights office said it had also documented at least four cases of beheadings by the AA. The WFP on Tuesday said the fighting had cut off its access to its warehouse in Maungdaw since late May. And on Saturday, the food supplies there were looted and the building burned down, it said. The warehouse was holding 1,175 tonnes of food and supplies – enough emergency food to sustain 64,000 people for one month. The UN food agency did not name the perpetrators but said it was continuing to gather details of the circumstances surrounding the incident. It added, “The WFP calls on all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligations under International Humanitarian Law to ensure that humanitarian facilities and assets are respected and protected, and safe and secure access is provided for the delivery of vital assistance to those in urgent need.” Adblock test (Why?)
North Korea failed launch was possible hypersonic weapon: Seoul
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced plans in 2021 to develop technologically-advanced weapons, including hypersonic missiles. North Korea might have launched a hypersonic missile, South Korea has said, as intelligence agencies investigated a ballistic missile test that failed early on Wednesday. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the test took place at about 5.30am (20:30 GMT on Tuesday) and originated from the area around Pyongyang. Japan also detected the launch with the Ministry of Defence saying the weapon reached an altitude of about 100km (62 miles) and flew east for more than 200km (124 miles). A JCS official later told reporters on condition of anonymity that the military was considering the possibility that the weapon was a hypersonic missile, noting that it exploded in midair over waters off North Korea’s east coast. The official told the Yonhap news agency that there appeared to be more smoke than during previous launches, raising the possibility of combustion issues. It also appeared to be a solid-fuelled missile, the official added. The latest missile test came days after North Korea signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation treaty with Russia and as the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Busan to take part in joint military drills with South Korea and Japan. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced in 2021 that he wanted to modernise his country’s military and unveiled plans to develop a series of technologically-advanced weapons systems, including a hypersonic missile. Such missiles are seen as harder to detect because they can travel at speeds in excess of five times the speed of sound and are designed to be manoeuvrable, posing a challenge to regional missile defence systems. Pyongyang said in March that it had successfully tested a solid-fuel engine for a new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile (IRBM), and the following month reported that Kim had overseen the test of that IRBM, which it named the Hwasong-16B. Tensions in the region have risen as Kim has accelerated North Korean testing of missiles and other weapons. The United States and South Korea have responded by expanding their combined training and trilateral drills involving Japan, and sharpening their deterrence strategies. North Korea, earlier this week, criticised the deployment of the Theodore Roosevelt and warned of an “overwhelming, new demonstration of deterrence”. It has also been reinforcing its defences along the border with South Korea after suspending a 2018 military agreement with South Korea which was supposed to reduce tension. It has also sent more than 1,000 rubbish-filled balloons south in retaliation for balloons carrying leaflets criticising Kim’s rule that were floated to North Korea by activists. For its part, Seoul has also suspended the military deal and resumed some propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers along the border. Adblock test (Why?)
As Biden and Trump prep for the 2024 presidential debate, what’s at stake?
Washington, DC – It began with a quote made famous by actor Clint Eastwood. “Make my day,” United States President Joe Biden said in a video challenging his Republican adversary, former President Donald Trump, to two debates in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. The first airs this Thursday. In throwing down the gauntlet, Biden gave Trump, who has long boasted of his prowess on the debate stage, an offer he could hardly refuse. Trump soon responded with his own bravado: “I’m ready to go anywhere that you are.” The back-and-forth ended speculation that the octogenarian Biden and septuagenarian Trump may forgo the nationally broadcast debates, in favour of more controlled, less combative settings for spreading their campaign messages — like rallies, for instance. Going head to head is a political calculation that carries high risks, according to Aaron Kall, the director of the debate programme at the University of Michigan. But it could also be the key to pulling ahead in a stagnant race, one where polls show Trump and Biden closely matched. Even Trump’s historic criminal conviction has done little to tip the scales. “Both of the candidates think that it will be advantageous having their opponent be seen by the public for an extended period of time, especially for voters that may not normally tune in,” Kall told Al Jazeera. “But really, only one of them can be right.” A history of face-offs The debate may be the first of the 2024 presidential race, but it will be the third time Trump and Biden have gone head to head as presidential hopefuls: They faced each other previously in the 2020 elections. “Neither have debated [since their last face-off], which is kind of unique,” Kall said, noting that Trump skipped the Republican Party debates in the lead-up to the primaries this year. “So both of them will kind of be out of practice, not having debated since the fall of 2020, and it may take a little time to kind of get back into their regular debating styles,” he said. For both men, the forum has offered a mixed bag. In 2016, when Trump made his first successful bid for public office, his raucous, combative and off-the-cuff debating style helped him gain notoriety in a crowded field of Republican presidential candidates. His subsequent throwdown with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton gained higher ratings than any other debate before or since. It drew an estimated 84 million viewers. Trump looms over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 debate [Rick T Wilking/AP Photo] Camera-ready from his days as a reality star, Trump gave insult-laden, physically foreboding showings that cemented his public persona and helped to build his electoral base, Kall explained. At one point during his face-off with Clinton, Trump even appeared to loom over her as she spoke. For his part, Biden often failed to rise above the fray in crowded Democratic primary debates during his earlier runs for president. Still, experts say he has proved a worthy opponent in one-on-one vice presidential debates against Sarah Palin in 2008 and Paul Ryan in 2012. Leaning into his everyman appeal, Biden served as a plain-spoken and pugilistic attack dog on the debate stage, offering a counterpoint to the more refined Barack Obama, for whom he would serve as vice president. Fast forward to September 2020, when then-incumbent Trump finally faced off against Biden. The event quickly went off the rails, with Trump repeatedly shouting over both Biden and Fox News moderator Chris Wallace. As the evening devolved, Wallace assumed the role of exasperated babysitter. Trump came across as belligerent, Biden befuddled. “Will you shut up, man?” Biden appealed to Trump in one of the most memorable quotes from the event. National Public Radio political correspondent Domenico Montanaro would later describe the evening as chaos, writing it may have been the “worst” presidential debate in history. “If this was supposed to be a boxing match, it instead turned into President Trump jumping on the ropes, refusing to come down, the referee trying to coax him off, and Joe Biden standing in the middle of the ring with his gloves on and a confused look on his face,” Montanaro wrote. What is the motivation to participate? But that first debate likely planted the seeds for Trump and Biden to spar again. Kall said Biden likely hopes that the debate will showcase the increasingly radical rhetoric that is all too common at Trump’s rallies – but may not be as visible to “moderates, independents, and soft supporters”. After all, Trump infamously refused to condemn white supremacy during the first 2020 debate, instead telling the Proud Boys, a far-right group, to “stand back and stand by”. For his part, Trump may hope that the length of the live proceedings will tax Biden’s advanced age, Kall explained. The ratings are expected to be high, despite the debate’s unorthodox late-June scheduling. When Trump and Biden first debated in 2020, for instance, they brought in 73 million viewers, the third highest in history. “For the average, low-information voter, they don’t tune in until closer to the election, but they may catch a debate,” Kall said. “So these debates are one of the rare opportunities for more of the kind of casual person — that may vote but may not really be following the daily updates — to see these candidates for the first time in a long time.” Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump are seen during their second presidential debate in October 2020 [Morry Gash/AP Photo] The first 2020 debate between Biden and Trump has also cast a long shadow over the format of Thursday’s debate, which will be hosted by CNN in Atlanta, Georgia. The candidates’ microphones will be muted when they are not speaking. There will be no studio audience. Both those factors are widely seen to be in Biden’s favour. The event will also not be overseen by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, in a
In Kenya, tomorrow is here
OPINIONOPINION, We are witnessing the latest, and most glorious, stage of a revolution 40 years in the making. Protests have returned to the streets of Kenya’s towns and cities, as the country gets to the latest stage of the slow-motion revolution it has been undergoing for over 40 years. Animated by anger over the state’s arrogance, corruption and long-running neglect of their needs as currently manifested in its tax proposals, a new generation has taken up the fight, and it is glorious to behold. Two years ago, the same Kenyan youths were derided as “disengaged” for failing to register as voters and to turn up for the general election. “It’s a huge dent in democracy,” wailed one analyst. Yet far from being disengaged, the young are demonstrating that what they reject are what I described at the time as “the political rituals of their parents” – the formalised ways of democratic participation that their elders valorise but that have consistently failed to deliver on their promise. They are “opting for other, more effective modes of engagement with governance in the years in between elections”. This is not new. Coming of age in the 80s and 90s, their parents too had rejected the rules of participation set for them by the independence generation, which privileged ideas like development, unity and peace – many times at the expense of democratic freedom and individual rights. They developed new ways to engage with an oppressive regime and overbearing state. As they rallied to “mass action” to demand reform of the political system, they adapted to and took advantage of global changes such as the end of the Cold War to create powerful coalitions and institutions outside of the state which channeled popular discontent into meaningful action. By the early 2000s, their movement had transformed the country’s politics, opened up space for competition for power, expanded the range of freedoms enjoyed by Kenyans, and rebooted the economy. However, following the demise of the 24-year dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi, and with it, the end of the KANU party’s four-decade rule, many of them went to bed with the state, either as elected politicians or appointed into government. Civil society organisations, which had been a bedrock of the anti-Moi agitation, were effectively decapitated. Other important pillars of the movement, such as the independent media and religious institutions, ceased aggressively challenging the state and largely chose to cash in on their relationships with the new actors running it. Like the independence generation before, which had largely reproduced the predatory colonial state they had fought, they too re-established the old corrupt networks that adulterated competitive politics, undermined accountability, and in some ways attempted to roll back the freedoms Kenyans had won. In the aftermath of the violence that followed the disputed 2007 election, the reform movement briefly regrouped and pushed through their generation’s pinnacle achievement – the adoption of a new constitution, the first to be negotiated in Kenya with involvement of the people. The current youngsters have grown up in the world their parents built and have taken for granted many of the things their elders saw as achievements. Their eyes are firmly fixed on the future, not the past, and their horizons are necessarily much wider. They are also utilising the tools of the moment – the internet, digital technologies, social media – in ways that confound and subvert the existing order to organise and give effect to their political action. In its baffled response, the duplicitous regime of President William Ruto, who learned his trade at the feet of Moi, is speaking from both sides of its mouth. On the one hand, Ruto himself has spoken in praise of the protesters and suggested he is ready to talk to them. Meanwhile, the police force has attacked, killed and injured them, and resorted to kidnapping and disappearing those it imagines are their leaders. However, this movement is much less hierarchical and much more egalitarian than any Ruto has so far encountered, and is thus less vulnerable to the tactics Moi taught him. The youth have resisted politicians’ attempts to take it over. They are propagating their messages using social media rather than the mainstream press. On Sunday, they hosted a marathon seven-hour discussion on Twitter Spaces that had 60,000 participants. They use online platforms to plan, fundraise, and organise medical teams and blood donation drives for injured comrades. The old fogies who had dismissed them as irrelevant “armchair activists” just two years ago are struggling to catch up, but the train has left the station. The young are not interested in the frameworks that have been used by journalists and politicians in the past to manipulate their parents, manage expectations and subvert outcomes. Doubtless they will make mistakes and may even, in some aspects, regress into the ways of their elders. Regardless, we are all living in their world now. They were once called the leaders of tomorrow. Tomorrow is here. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)
Pentagon chief calls for urgent diplomacy to avoid Israel-Hezbollah war
In meeting with Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, US Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin warns against ‘catastrophe’ of wider war. United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said that a diplomatic solution is needed to avoid a costly war between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. During a meeting with Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, Austin blamed soaring tensions on “provocations” by Hezbollah but noted that a full-blown war would be destructive for all involved and could spark a regional conflagration. “Diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation. So we’re urgently seeking a diplomatic agreement that restores lasting calm to Israel’s northern border and enables civilians to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border,” Austin told reporters. Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged fire on a near-daily basis since the beginning of the war in Gaza, but escalating attacks over the last several weeks have caused growing unease. Gallant has often suggested that Israel could pursue a large-scale war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. On Tuesday, Gallant said that he was “working closely” with Austin to find a diplomatic resolution, but that they also discussed military “readiness on every possible scenario”. While Israel has blamed Hezbollah for the displacement of thousands of Israelis from their homes near the Lebanese border, the Iran-linked group has signalled throughout the conflict that it is not interested in a wider war. Thousands of Lebanese civilians have been displaced from the areas near the border with Israel, and more than 80 civilians and noncombatants have been killed. In Israel, 11 civilians have been killed since October. Hezbollah is considered one of the most sophisticated and well-armed paramilitary groups in the world, and a larger conflict between the group and Israel could have devastating impacts on each side. While the administration of US President Joe Biden has repeatedly urged Israel to avoid a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, it has recently stated that, in the event of such a move, Israel would receive full US support. “Such a war would be a catastrophe for Lebanon and it would be devastating for innocent Israeli and Lebanese civilians,” said Austin. Adblock test (Why?)
Five killed, dozens injured in Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Pokrovsk
Officials say the town near the eastern front line was hit by two Iskander-M missiles fired 30 minutes apart. At least five people were killed and 41 injured, including four children, after Russia launched two missiles on the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk. “This is one of the largest enemy attacks on civilians recently,” regional Governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram. Three girls – aged 9, 11 and 13 – and a 12-year-old boy were injured, he added. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in his nightly video address, said that Ukraine would respond to the attack “in an absolutely fair manner”. Petro, a local, was circling a badly damaged blue car, the driver’s seat soaked with blood. His son had been killed at the wheel and his grandson was taken to hospital. “My son, he is dead already, it’s done,” he said, weeping. Six cars and 16 houses were damaged, and one house was destroyed, Filashkin said. Petro was grief-stricken after his son was killed and his grandson injured in the attack [Alina Smutko/Reuters] Russian troops had launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles at the town, which is about 24km (15 miles) from the front line, he added. The strikes were half an hour apart, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office said. ‘Boom’ The attack left a huge crater, with nearby houses in ruins; their windows blown out and roofs ripped away. The town had a population of about 61,000 before Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Nikolay Kurilov said he was watering flowers in his garden when the first missile landed fewer than 500 metres (about a third of a mile) away. “And boom. I almost fell over,” the 70-year-old told the AFP news agency. “And about 15 minutes later, there was another boom. We started calling relatives.” Over recent weeks, Moscow has concentrated its firepower on Ukraine’s eastern industrial region of Donetsk, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia. The area around Pokrovsk has seen some of the heaviest fighting along the 1,000km (600-mile) front line in recent months, with the Russians advancing towards the town after capturing Avdiivka in February. “Today, the hottest area is the Pokrovsk direction, where the aggressor continues attempts to break through our defence,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Monday, citing 45 enemy attacks in the vicinity. “The defence forces are taking measures to exhaust the Russian occupation troops and prevent their advance deep into Ukrainian territory.” People injured in the Russian attack receive treatment in hospital [Alina Smutko/Reuters] Separately, Filashkin said a 62-year-old man had been killed in a Russian bomb attack on the town of Kurakhove, south of Pokrovsk. He said Russian forces had also killed a 63-year-old civilian in the town of Toretsk, where Moscow’s troops have stepped up attacks following a protracted lull. Russia claimed to have annexed Donetsk in late 2022, along with three other regions of Ukraine it had partially occupied. Parts of Donetsk have been controlled by Kremlin-backed armed groups since 2014. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 851
As the war enters its 851st day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Fighting At least five people were killed and 41 injured, including four children, after a Russian missile attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, according to Donetsk regional Governor Vadym Filashkin. About 61,000 people lived in Pokrovsk, which is about 24km (15 miles) from the front line, before Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Two people were killed in the northeastern region of Kharkiv when their car hit a Russian antitank mine near the border village of Lyptsi. One man was killed in the southern Kherson region, which is partially occupied by Russian forces, after a Russian-guided aerial bomb attack. Four people were injured after a Russian cruise missile hit a warehouse in the southern port city of Odesa, sparking a fire that spread across 3,000 square metres (3,590 square yards), Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired Lieutenant General Yuriy Sodol as the commander of the Joint Forces of Ukraine’s Armed Forces after he was accused of incompetence and abuse of power, replacing him with Brigadier General Andriy Hnatov. The Ukrainian military said it registered 715 cases of the use of ammunitions containing “hazardous chemical compounds” by Russian forces in May. Some of the people injured in the Russian attack on Pokrovsk receive hospital treatment [Alina Smutko/Reuters] Politics and diplomacy The Kremlin warned the United States of “consequences” and summoned its ambassador after a Ukrainian attack on Moscow-annexed Crimea killed four people. Russia said the attack was carried out with US-supplied ATACMS long-range missiles and claimed Washington bore responsibility. In response to the Russian claims, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States regretted any civilian loss of life and that Russia was to blame for the war. “We provide weapons to Ukraine so it can defend its sovereign territory against armed aggression — that includes in Crimea which, of course, is part of Ukraine,” Miller told reporters. Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said that Ukrainians “make their own decisions”. Zelenskyy told Colonel Oleksii Morozov, the new chief of Ukraine’s state guard, to clear its ranks of people discrediting the service after two of its officers were accused of plotting with Russia to assassinate senior officials. The guard provides security for various government officials. Polish President Andrzej Duda said during a visit to Beijing that he hoped China would “support efforts to strive for a peaceful end to the war waged by Russia in Ukraine,” that respects international law and Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The US said it would help print 3 million new textbooks for Ukrainian primary schools, after a Russian strike destroyed the Faktur-Druk printing house in Kharkiv in May. The European Union imposed sanctions on 61 more companies, including 19 in China, for allegedly providing “dual-use goods and technology”, which could be used by Russia’s defence and security firms to advance its invasion of Ukraine. Others targeted included companies from Russia, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, India, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates. The EU was due to open membership talks with Ukraine on Tuesday at a ceremony in Luxembourg. Weapons The US is expected to announce on Tuesday that it will send an additional $150m in critically-needed munitions to Ukraine. The shipment is expected to include munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), anti-armour weapons, small arms and grenades and 155 mm and 105 mm artillery rounds, two US officials told the Associated Press news agency. Adblock test (Why?)
US screens record 2.99 million air travellers in a single day
US Transportation Security Administration says it expects to screen 32 million people over July 4 holiday period. The United States has set a new record for the number of air travellers screened at airports in a single day. The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened 2.99 million airline passengers on Sunday, breaking the previous record set in May, the agency said on Monday. The TSA said it expects traffic to surpass the 3 million mark on Friday, when many Americans start travelling in advance of Independence Day on July 4. The TSA said it expects to screen more than 32 million people from Thursday through Monday, an increase of more than 5 percent compared with the same period last year. “We expect this summer to be our busiest ever and summer travel usually peaks over the Independence Day holiday,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement. “Compared to last year, we have cut our attrition rates by almost half and increased our recruiting as a result of the TSA Compensation Plan that was funded in the budget passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden. “The traveling public is on the move, which is a sign of a healthy economy. We are ready, along with our airline and airport partners, to handle this boost in passenger volumes.” This year has seen the TSA record seven of the 10 busiest days in its history, as travel continues to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic. Adblock test (Why?)
The US and Israel missed many opportunities for peace with Hamas
The continued failure of the Biden administration to secure a full and lasting ceasefire in Gaza may go down as the most terrible and deadly diplomatic catastrophe of our time. The principles have been in place for weeks; Hamas has agreed to the general terms, and endorsed the June 10 ceasefire resolution by the UN Security Council. Yet US deference to Israeli intransigence – no matter that it stubbornly blames Hamas – is costing thousands of Palestinian lives. Any close follower of US-Israeli relations might have predicted this. US acquiescence to Israel’s unprecedented onslaught in Gaza has powerful roots in the last 30 years – ironically, since the beginning of the Oslo “peace process” in 1993. US reluctance to confront its ally, save it from itself, and insist on a visionary path of reconciliation, has brought us to this latest precipice. Let us travel, for example, to June 2006, when a private US citizen named Jerome Segal left the Gaza Strip carrying a letter for Washington. The letter was from Ismail Haniyeh, then and now the Hamas leader. Segal, founder of the Jewish Peace Lobby at the University of Maryland, was bound for the State Department, where he would deliver a surprising offer. Hamas had just been elected by the Palestinian people, who had grown exhausted and angry with the corruption of the ruling, Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, and voted for change. Haniyeh, long the leader of the Islamist opposition in Palestine, was suddenly confronted with the real prospect of navigating through humanitarian and economic crises, not to mention ongoing military pressure from Israel and a looming economic siege on Gaza. In the back-channel letter, Haniyeh sought compromise. Despite Hamas’s charter calling for the elimination of Israel, Haniyeh’s note to President George W Bush was conciliatory. “We are so concerned about stability and security in the area,” Haniyeh wrote, “that we don’t mind having a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders and offering a truce for many years”. This was essentially de facto recognition of Israel, with a cessation of hostilities – two of the key US and Israeli demands of Hamas. “The continuation of this situation,” Haniyeh added prophetically, “will encourage violence and chaos in the whole region”. Was Hamas serious? It was at the time in negotiations with the PA to form a unity government – suggesting the letter wasn’t just a ruse. Haniyeh now appeared to accept the concept of a two-state solution. If true, it was a stunning concession. It would hardly be unprecedented for a militant revolutionary group, considered terrorist by the US, to come to the negotiating table. After all, the PA’s predecessor, the PLO, long carried the terrorist label, as did Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. For that matter, Jewish militias fighting for Israel’s independence before 1948 were also labelled terrorist by the British authorities – two of them, Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin, became prime ministers of Israel. Yet they all navigated a way to a reconciliation, albeit with sharply divergent goals and degrees of success. A few voices in Israel’s security establishment endorsed engagement with Hamas. Shmuel Zakai, former brigadier general and commander of the Israeli military’s Gaza division, pressed Israel “to take advantage of the calm to improve, rather than markedly worsen, the economic plight of the Palestinians in the [Gaza] Strip… You cannot just land blows, leave the Palestinians in Gaza in the economic distress they are in, and expect Hamas just to sit around and do nothing”. Another advocate for dialogue was a former director of the Mossad. “I believe there is a chance that Hamas, the devils of yesterday, could be reasonable people today,” said Efraim Halevy. “Rather than being a problem, we should strive to make them part of the solution.” But we’ll never know if Hamas really wanted to help forge a solution. The US did not respond to Haniyeh’s letter. Instead, in 2007, it launched a covert effort to foment a Palestinian civil war, trying and failing to oust Hamas. In hand-to-hand street combat, Hamas battled the US-backed PA fighters. Hamas prevailed in the Battle of Gaza, and has ruled ever since. True to Haniyeh’s prediction, violence and chaos has followed, almost without pause. In war after war, Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas, and failed. In 2014, the Obama administration would follow the same path as Bush’s when it rejected another deal with Hamas, which was in new unity negotiations with the PA, and had again agreed to a deal with Israel and the West – this one even more accommodating than Haniyeh’s appeal eight years earlier. The new effort at reconciliation “could have served Israel’s interests,” wrote Jerusalem-based author and analyst Nathan Thrall: “It offered Hamas’s political adversaries a foothold in Gaza; it was formed without a single Hamas member; it retained the same Ramallah-based prime minister, deputy prime ministers, finance minister and foreign minister; and, most important, it pledged to comply with the three conditions for Western aid long demanded by America and its European allies: nonviolence, adherence to past agreements and recognition of Israel.” Instead, the US tacitly backed Israel’s “splintering strategy” to divide the Palestinian factions, and, with it, the land itself. In a State Department cable, published by WikiLeaks, the director of Israel’s military intelligence told the American ambassador in Tel Aviv that a Hamas victory would allow Israel “to treat Gaza” as a separate “hostile country”, and that he would be “pleased” if PA leader Mahmoud Abbas “set up a separate regime in the West Bank”. Thus the West Bank became essentially sealed off from Gaza, and the dream of a corridor between the two territories in a sovereign Palestine effectively died. The US also has abetted Israel’s policy of splintering Palestine from itself, weakening the dream of self-determination and making a two-state solution all but impossible. In the last 30 years, since the Oslo deal was signed, the settler population in the West Bank has quadrupled, hundreds of military checkpoints remain in place, and over a dozen
Philippine court clears Duterte critic Leila de Lima of drugs charges
De Lima was jailed during the Rodrigo Duterte presidency after years of investigating drug-related killings. A Philippine court has dropped the last of three cases against former Senator Leila de Lima, a longtime critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte and his “war on drugs”. De Lima faced various charges in 2017 within months of launching a senate inquiry into Duterte’s bloody anti-drugs campaign, in which thousands of users and dealers were killed by police or in mysterious circumstances. Critics and rights groups said the police summarily executed drug suspects, which the police deny, saying they acted in self-defence. Duterte, whose term ended in 2022, accused de Lima of colluding with drug gangs while she was justice minister. “I am now completely free and vindicated. It’s very liberating,” an emotional de Lima told reporters as she emerged from the southern Manila courtroom on Monday, where the case against her was dismissed due to insufficient evidence. “My heart is full with all the love pouring in today after the dismissal of all my cases,” she wrote in a post on X. De Lima was arrested in 2017 while a sitting senator, and spent more than six years in jail while on trial for three drug-trafficking charges. She was freed on bail in November last year, having earlier been cleared of the two other drug charges. The final drug case that was overturned on Monday concerned the 2010-2015 period when she was justice minister, with allegations that she took money from inmates inside the country’s largest prison to allow them to sell drugs. De Lima maintained that the charges, which carried a maximum penalty of life in prison, were fabricated in an effort to support the narcotics crackdown. Multiple witnesses, including prison gang bosses, died or recanted their testimonies during the lengthy trials. The court on Monday also dismissed another charge alleging de Lima pressured a former employee to ignore a 2016 summons issued by the House of Representatives for a hearing in relation to the trade of illegal drugs in Philippine prisons. That case, the only other criminal proceeding against her, had carried a penalty of anywhere between a fine and six months in prison. Amnesty International welcomed the dismissal of the “bogus charges” against de Lima in a statement, saying it was overdue after “nearly seven years of arbitrary detention, as well as relentless political persecution”. Duterte is facing a probe by the International Criminal Court over the anti-drugs campaign. De Lima said on Monday that she will continue to help the court with its probe. Adblock test (Why?)