Shameful silence by Kamala Harris when 45th president of America becomes also 47th president

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Shameful silence

Undeniably, it became clear rather quickly who would win this year’s presidential election.

Donald Trump staged one of the most remarkable political comebacks in American history.

With a sweeping set of victories across the battleground states Donald Trump this time did not say “they stole the votes”, but claimed already before it was clear he was going to win, that he was the 45th and 47th president of the United States, going to make sure that America was entering its golden years.

Donald Trump won the presidential election as Kamala Harris was branded “classless” for failing to concede more than nine hours after his success was declared.

The president-elect is on course to become the first Republican to win the popular vote since George W Bush in 2004 in a remarkable comeback after losing in 2020 and facing trial for attempting to overturn the result.

Ms Harris left her election party on Tuesday night without addressing the crowd but is expected to concede defeat publicly this afternoon in a speech to the nation.

Many democrats had turned up to greet Kamela Harris as president, but soon into the night it became clear that she would not make it. That made her or her advisers to send the crowd home. And that is a regrettable damper on the expectations of all those who voted for her.

Barbara Heineback, a former Democratic White House staffer said:

“She didn’t have the decency to walk out and say something… make a comment to the United States.”

Both she and some other Democrats gave that stance a sour belch.

  “It shows us how classless she actually is…a sore loser.”

Kamala Harris has been radio silent this morning following her stunning election defeat, rand has has not been seen publicly since departing her campaign watch party last night.

After she was swept away in the key swing states, campaign insiders told Fox News Ms Harris is uncontactable this morning and has not provided talking points to surrogates donors or influencers.

One source told the outlet they received no response even after reaching out.

Brian Mast, a Florida congressman, also urged Ms Harris to press ahead with her concession speech.

“It’s time for Kamala Harris to concede,”

he wrote on X.

“The people have spoken and President Donald Trump has won.”

Trump’s victory leaves the Democrats in tatters and Ms Harris humiliated after one of the shortest presidential campaigns in history ended in a heavy defeat.

Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who has positioned himself as Trump’s man in Europe and has a power of veto in NATO, is gloating.
Countries that do not put 2% of their bruto national product into Nato will now have to watch out, as Trump intends not to come to their aid if they are attacked.

Trump has claimed he would end the war in Ukraine in three days. The fear that Trump will force Volodymyr Zelensky to capitulate to Vladimir Putin is real.
Months after urging Trump to come clean about his plans to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, Zelensky on Wednesday hailed the Republican’s “peace through strength approach” as the formula that could deliver a settlement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Donald Trump should come forward with his plan to quickly end the war with Russia, warning that any proposal must avoid violating the nation’s sovereignty.

“If Trump knows how to finish this war, he should tell us today,”

Zelensky said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Kyiv on Wednesday.

“If there are risks to Ukrainian independence, if we lose statehood – we want to be ready for this, we want to know.”

To what extent Trump is going to tax Chinese imports, and in doing so may or may not value Tesla as well, will soon provide evidence of how Trump may or may not be pure to the point and treat everyone equally.
A burning question is just what kind of role Elon Musk will play in the new administration and what kind of unfettered access the world’s richest man will have to the levers of power. What will be certain is that for his financial support to Trump he will want something else in return.

We should not have high expectations in terms of climate. On the contrary. Already in his previous term, he proved to be a total climate denier who is all for supporting industry, regardless of their pollution and damage to nature. He shall continue to reorient the federal government toward pumping more crude oil and building more power plants. The oil executives who had emerged as a main source of funding for Donald Trump, shall now knock at his door to receive something in return for opening their wallets to bolster the Republican nominee’s campaign for a second term in the White House.[The billionaires backing Trump include Kelcy Warren, chief executive officer of pipeline operator Energy Transfer LP; Harold Hamm, the founder of Continental Resources Inc.; and Jeff Hildebrand, CEO of Hilcorp Energy Co.]
We may expect more offshore lease sales, more pipelines all over the wild country, fracking on federal lands and a mindset that is focused on lowering energy costs for consumers, so that they shall not have to drive less and not have to go for electric cars, or have to spend money to isolate their house.

Trump promised to “unleash American energy” and said he has plans to

“free up the vast stores of liquid gold on America’s public land for energy development.”

That signals a sharp pivot from President Joe Biden’s policies curtailing fossil-fuel extraction on public lands and waters.

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Some climate negotiators even conducted simulations to prepare for a possible Trump return and to game out strategies for how that would affect talks at the COP29 conference. Weeks ago activists ran through a crisis communications simulation to ensure they were prepared for what an online notice called “the possible looming reality of a Trump election win and its impact on the COP29 climate talks.” Read the full story here

A delegate cleans an illuminated globe hanging in the US pavilion at the COP21 summit in Paris in 2015. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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Two weeks separated from the organ point for the US

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This year we were once again allowed to see a acrimonious battle play out in the so-called land of honey and milk, which beholds itself to be the biggest safest country in the world where it is best to live.

With two weeks to go before Election Day, Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump are essentially tied. They are diligently doing all they can to win over the audience in this neck-and-neck race.

Both Harris and Trump have states they can probably count on to get at least 200 electoral votes, but they need to get to 270 to win. If Harris won every state where she currently leads in the New York Times polling averages, she would reach the necessary 270 electoral votes.

Trump keeps telling lies and also very dangerous plans, like imprisoning certain people because they would be “left” wing people. This reminds me of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare years when during the 1950s many Americans were even more afraid than now for supposed communist infiltration of various areas of the U.S. government.Lots of American artists were banned from the possibility of working in the entertainment sector, even if they previously had worked with someone named on the blacklist.

https://cdn.britannica.com/07/133507-050-CB0FF9C5/Joseph-McCarthy-William-Benton-elections-rules-subcomittee.jpgMcCarthy, who was elected to the Senate in 1946, as a junior Republican senator from Wisconsin, rose to prominence in 1950 when he claimed in an incendiary speech, before the Republican Women’s Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, that 57 communists had infiltrated the State Department. Today Mr. Trump also insinuates such things, and said therefore that people like Nancy Pelosi he would let the army detain and with her all left-wing persons in prison.

McCarthy’s search for communists in the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department, and elsewhere made him an incredibly polarising figure. He was constantly in the spotlight, investigating various government departments and questioning innumerable witnesses about their suspected communist affiliations. Although he failed to make a plausible case against anyone, his colourful and cleverly presented accusations drove some persons out of their jobs and brought popular condemnation to others.

Oddly enough, many Americans have a holy terror of anything that looks social and are very quick to label anything of any scent of social as communist.

Tump may gain ground in key states, and there may be a shift or polling miss in his favour which would not be uncommon. The election is not decided by the polls; it’s decided by the voters. As a consequence, a fractional lead or deficit in a polling average is not the difference between whether a candidate is winning or losing, even though it may feel like it.

Barack Obama: inauguration

Barack Obama: inaugurationBarack Obama—with his wife, Michelle—being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, January 20, 2009

We cannot forget how many of us, me included, gave Donald Trump no chance. In 2016 and 2020, the polls also underestimated Trump. But in 2012 they also had underestimated the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, who became the 44th president of the United States, and in 2022 Democrats outperformed polling averages in several key midterm races.

In the past, we could also see that certain figures in American politics, such as George W. Bush, could mislead the American people through their lies and get them to rally behind their warmongering planners.

The current presidential candidate (Trump) may claim that he will stop the war in Ukraine and Israel in ‘one-two-three’, but is seeing to it that the arms industry may have a blessed life under his rule. It seems that a vast majority do not see how this deceitful man is a general danger to their own nation but, worse yet, to the whole world. Even very religious Christians are misled by his ‘play’ and doing as if he is on their hands. We in Europe do not understand how it is possible that he continuously can emit dangerous lies like most people breathe. He has demeaned and degraded the American system of self-government, attempted a coup against the United States of America, divided Americans with venomous bigotry, and rewarded his rich backers with tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks.

Many right-wing Christians are happy that he took away many rights of women and finds that they should stay at home, taking care of the family.

Trump also warned his opponents this time. For him, it will be clear, that when he gets again in office, he will wreak vengeance on his political opponents — including many loyal Americans who have stood up to him — calling them the “enemy within” and openly threatening to use the U.S. military against them.

In recent weeks, Trump has sent a lot of threats to those who have opposed him. He also made it clear that he will target those newspapers and television stations if he comes to power. Americans should realise what a danger such a move could pose to freedom of speech. Stripping television networks of their ability to broadcast news because of coverage he doesn’t like, shall bring the country into a state where nobody shall be free to say what they think.

A great danger could emerge for the entire state if Trump does not win, as he will then go on to contest it. Again, he will come out and say, as he is still doing now, that the votes will have been stolen.
He refuses to be bound by the results of the upcoming election. This means that America will likely suffer weeks or months of litigation following Election Day, perhaps even accompanied by violence. Like the storming of the Capitol, he could call back a lot of people to fend for themselves and cry out a general protest against all the state bodies who do not want to accept him as the rightful president.

On my lips is the question if several Americans would not like blowing up the system as a whole — destroying democracy and their institutions of self-government — because they feel the system is rigged against them?

Trump-loving newspapers like Fox News, New York Post, and editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal have amplified Trump’s lies and repeatedly spread them to tens of millions of Americans. Overwhelmed daily with a string of lies, many Americans have come to see them as truth. All the rubbish that has subsequently appeared on social media has been able to further convince them of Trump’s truth. No wonder then that those who do want to bring out the truth are totally pushed into the corner or even labelled as liars.

In our regions, we see a lot of Teslas driving around. But with that, I wonder if those purchasers of those electric cars are aware that they have paid way too much for that car and even worse, how they are supporting the vehement Trump supporter and fascist with their purchase?
Elon Musk keeps spreading hateful lies about Harris and other Democratic politicians. He also spreads the news Democrats are flying huge numbers of undocumented immigrants into swing states to vote illegally. One such post got even 34 million views. Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC now has an estimated 400 staff on the ground in the seven key battleground states. He’s hired a small army of top Republican Party operatives and is personally overseeing operations from a home base in Pittsburgh. He went so far as offering a million-dollar payouts every day to a “randomly” selected signers of a petition that his America super PAC put together. Even though buying off votes or giving money to vote for someone is also illegal in the US, no one is stopping the billionaire Musk from continuing to do so. Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that Trump and Musk are speaking directly multiple times a week in clear violation of campaign finance laws barring coordination between candidates and super PACs.

Trump, as a man of plenty of money, has found plenty of darlings among the club of billionaires. We may find the Israeli-American physician, businesswoman, and political donor Miriam Adelson née Farbstein (wife of deceased casino magnate Sheldon Adelson), the American billionaire founders of packaging-materials company Uline and conservative donors Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein), and major donor to the Republican Party and right-wing causes, heir to the Mellon banking fortune Timothy Mellon.

Strangely, there are certain rich of the earth, that otherwise speak out so harshly about injustice and things going wrong in America, such as Jamie Dimon, CEO and chair of JP Morgan Chase, who are now silent in all languages, as if to secure their future should Trump be allowed to win.

The very worst in this fight are so-called Christians and evangelicals who warn people not to vote for Democrats or they will end up in hell because they will be voting for things God hates.

Believers in Jesus Christ and his God will best open their eyes and see how this lordship who wants to be president for a second time does or does not fit into the work of God!

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Preceding

  1. Donald Trump his America
  2. American social perception, classes and fear mongering
  3. The man outranking the others having the trump card
  4. Trump’s main effort to crack down on “illegal immigration”
  5. 2019 was #2 a Year of much deceit in the U.S.A.
  6. United States of America once more showing how it wants to Distort Historical Facts and Truth
  7. Manipulated content on social media
  8. Who can tackle Donald Trump
  9. In denial, Donald Trump continues to insist that nothing serious is at hand and everything is in control
  10. A president daring to use the Bible for underlining his hate speech
  11. The Hero of the greatest …. failures
  12. Hollowness of democracy
  13. 2020 in view #1 The 45th president of the U.S.A.
  14. 2020 in view #2 The 45th president of the U.S.A. not willing to go
  15. Stress-test for democracy #1 Storming of the Capitol in Washington
  16. Stress-test for democracy #2 A coup d’etat with bloodshed
  17. The death knell of an Empire
  18. Donald Trump requesting to block investigations about the insurrection
  19. 2021 in review #1 the most startling point
  20. One year ago a sacred place was attacked
  21. A useless but very dangerous challenge game
  22. The Truth Social update
  23. Social media for Trumpists and changing nature of warfare
  24. From Flanders battlegrounds to American prairies & the Demise of democracy
  25. Republican Party tinkering on fascism
  26. 2022 the year of fearing some wars
  27. Going to the end of 2022 having to see an ongoing invasion
  28. Is the situation within the United States really as bad as Donald Trump makes it seem?
  29. What a 21st century civil war would look like
  30. The greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history according to Donald Trump
  31. A look at the terrible American bluff
  32. Donald J. Trump found guilty
  33. Is he doing it again
  34. As expected: Donald Trump insisted he is “a very innocent man”
  35. Two clowns in the running

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Find also to read

  1. Blinded crying blue murder having being made afraid by a bugaboo
  2. The clean sweeper of the whole caboodle
  3. A new decade, To open the eyes to get a right view
  4. Trump is proven wrong by the judge
  5. An other trait for faith in Jesus and his God
  6. Right-wing fundamentalist Christians to dictate the U.S.A.
  7. January 6: A Failed Apocalypse
  8. Looking at 2021 in a nutshell
  9. 2022 October 14: In the News
  10. One year ago people who said they love America stormed the Capitol
  11. The Moral Character of Public Officials: Remembering January 6
  12. Hope For, But Not In, Evangelicalism
  13. Greg Evans from the Independent presenting the 2022 June 15 Indy100 newsletter.
  14. Stories the Week brought to you from 2022 June 09 – June 15
  15. Does one have to be afraid of Christian nationalism
  16. How willing are people to stand up for their values and beliefs
  17. Pence says ‘history will hold Donald Trump accountable’ for Jan. 6 in strong rebuke
  18. Denier of any wrongdoing danger for democracy
  19. Behaviour of American Christians
  20. The single greatest witch hunt of all time
  21. Political reporting has become quite dangerous

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Further related

  1. Suzanne Moore | If you back Trump your moral compass is broken
  2. Election 2024 is rowdy and out of hand
  3. Is Elon Musk’s $1-Million US Election Giveaway Legal?
  4. Signs of Trump
  5. The 2024 U.S. Election: A Battle of Consciousness, Not Just Politics
  6. Ernie Tedeschi: The cost of Trump’s tariff scheme
  7. What Happens If Trump Returns to Power
  8. Who’s the icon and who’s the lightweight?
  9. Bad and Badder, Dumb and Dumber
  10. Elon Musk Announces Million-Dollar US Voter Lottery, But Is It Legal?
  11. Trump’s VP Pick Labeled ‘Particular Danger to the Republic’
  12. American media accused of ‘sane-washing’ Donald Trump
  13. Battenfeld: Democrats strategizing to block Trump
  14. Trump has made more than 100 threats to prosecute or punish perceived enemies
  15. Trump’s closing message: From cows to genitalia
  16. Who does China’s president want to win the US election?
  17. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for Elon Musk 
  18. Is Trump About to Kill the Sixth Party System?
  19. Stop Calling Trump an ‘Isolationist’
  20. Barabak: Donald Trump vows vengeance on California
  21. America Deserves A Break From Donald Trump Today
  22. The Apprentice Effect: How Reality TV Crafted the Trump Myth
  23. Trump’s lies about FEMA and natural disasters
  24. US Elections: How Hispanic and African-American voters align
  25. Trump’s Comeback? Analyzing the Path to Victory in 2024
  26. How Swing States Will Decide the 2024 US Election
  27. The Facts of the Issues: Assisting Undecided Voters in the 2024 Election
  28. Remember When: Trump Promised a Border Wall, Diverted Billions, and His Allies Conned Donors
  29. You Aren’t Undecided
  30. The Undertaker Says Donald Trump Has Made Politics Fun Again
  31. Elon Musk says he’ll fix the government under Trump. His track record paints a different picture
  32. Donald Trump Turned The Undertaker Interview on Its Head
  33. Electoral College Polls the Closest They Have Been in History
  34. What We Already Know About the Results of This Election
  35. Global Interest in Trump Biopics: Why Americans Prefer to Skip the Show
  36. Sometimes, It Takes a Historian
  37. Breezes, Hurricanes, Twisters
  38. Election 2024: CCC students discuss concerns about education
  39. Unofficial Poll
  40. Trump selling ‘MAGADonald’s’ shirts after drive-thru appearance
  41. Francis Fukuyama on Global Chaos (and Why You Don’t Need to Despair About It)
  42. Trump holds edge in key poll
  43. ‘Love affair’: Donald Trump makes play for Latinos in Doral
  44. Elon Musk Is Offering Payouts to Registered Voters. Is it Legal?
  45. Where Harris and Trump each stand on key issues
  46. Voting in 2024
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Not wanting a regional conflict or a war in the Midle-East

A lot of citizens in Lebanon could be heard complaining over the past few days both about Hezbollah and the Lebanese government, but also about Israel which is bent on waging a war that the Lebanese people do not want at all.

So far, many countries in the region have kept quiet, but by attacking Lebanon, Iran and Yemen, Israel has gone a bridge too far.

Iran first had made it clear that it does not want a regional conflict, but it looks like Israel is forcing it into a reaction. Tehran doesn’t seem to believe it can afford such a war. But Benjamin Netanyahu clearly thinks it’s in his interest to ramp up conflict right now, as Washington stands frozen, a month out from an election. It seems that the current president does not want to speak out fully or completely against Israel’s actions so as not to turn American Jews against him or damage relations with Israel.

For months now, neither the United States of America nor its NATO allies have dared to speak out clearly against the many war crimes committed by Israel.
Because of this silence from other countries, Israel thinks it can safely continue as it has been doing for more than a year in its fight against Hamas and Hezbollah. Emboldened by this silence, Israel has now dared to attack several countries at once, hoping to silence Hezbollah fighters once and for all.

The Biden administration has helped bring about this extraordinarily dangerous moment by providing Israel with the weapons, political protection, diplomatic support, and money it requires to pursue the exact escalation that the Biden administration professes it does not want. The US government had no objections at all to continue to supply Israel with needed weapons. Of course, that could benefit their economy, just as arms supplies to Ukraine continue to be a boon to their economy.

Biden’s strategy has been to put enormous effort into deterring Iran and its partners from retaliating against Israel while doing virtually nothing to discourage Israel from escalating in the first place. This lopsided approach has in fact been a recipe for escalation, repeatedly proving to Netanyahu that Washington has no intention of bringing pressure to bear on Israel, no matter its actions.

In the whole course of Israel’s endeavour to be master of the Middle East, America forgot how if the ongoing violence escalates, it will also become involved in a new Middle East war. It’s easy to imagine consequences on par with the disastrous military adventurism that George W. Bush’s administration pursued in the Middle East decades ago.

It has become very clear that even though the Americans thought they could handle it, the United States failed to avoid the development of new wars in the Middle East.

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Preceding

Israel continued fighting against Hamas and Hezbollah

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Additional reading

  1. Starvation to Subdue the Palestinians
  2. Israel fighting a just war?
  3. Who Will Write the Ending of the War in Gaza?
  4. Hezbollah warns of all-out war if Israel escalates in Lebanon
  5. UN top court says Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal
  6. What the intensifying US-Iran proxy war means for crisis-wracked Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen
  7. Israel rejects Palestinian state in blow to Biden
  8. Events that will lead ultimately to the initial inner ring war around Israel
  9. New Iranian and Hizballah bases south of Damascus
  10. Bloody Eschatology: Israel and the next Big War
  11. Beneath the sonic booms of Israeli jets
  12. Joe Biden wants a ceasefire deal more than anything
  13. Netanyahu faces Israeli calls for broader strikes against Hezbollah
  14. The day Lebanese citizens had been dreading
  15. Lebanon Knows It Is on the Edge of the Abyss
  16. Israel on the frontpage in September 2024
  17. World War 3 has already started
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Israel continued fighting against Hamas and Hezbollah

The Israeli government feels it is urgent to further expand its fight against Hamas and Hezbollah.

https://cdn.britannica.com/75/2075-050-479BB903/Lebanon-map-features-locator.jpgOn Monday, Israel engaged in its most deadly attacks in Lebanon since its 2006 invasion of the country, striking heavily populated areas throughout southern Lebanon — including hitting medical centres and ambulances, according to the Lebanese health minister — and expanding its attacks to Beirut and the Bekaa Valley in the east.

As if civilians could be expected to know where weapons stores might be, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Israel warned people to go away from places where Hezballah could have hidden weapons. The message on X sounded as:

“If you are inside or near a house containing Hezbollah weapons- you must leave it and move away from it within two hours to a distance of no less than 1,000 meters outside the village, or go to the central school near you and do not return until further notice.
Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements, facilities, and weapons is putting his life and the lives of his family members at risk.”

Israeli forces subsequently bombed the area.

While the IDF has portrayed these orders as humanitarian-motivated evacuation warnings, it has issued identical communications throughout its 11-month war against the Palestinians of Gaza only to later bomb areas to which it told residents to flee. Also, this time schools and ordinary homes were bombed.

Israel has launched numerous brutal military campaigns in Lebanon in prior decades. Its claim today that it is aiming to protect civilian life with evacuation messages was widely rejected by Lebanese and other observers — and fed suspicion that Israel is attempting to ethnically cleanse southern Lebanon of its residents to establish a military buffer zone inside Lebanese territory.

For many it is clear that the Israelis would not have launched such large scale attacks without a “green light” from the U.S.. Karim Makdisi, a professor of international politics at the American University in Beirut, told Drop Site News:

“I think they’ve been given a kind of clear understanding that they have until the elections to do what they want.”

The Lebanese understand that basically, the West has given up even pretending to do anything about it. The Lebanese people have expressed several times in interviews with the foreign press that they are fed up with this war that their country appears to be stuck with.

In the previous months, Israel managed to bring the Gaza Strip to almost total destruction and kill a lot of Palestinians, while the Western World largely let it happen. Emboldened by this, it now sees its chances of further targeting Hezbollah. As long as Israel enjoys unconditional American support, it knows it can violate international norms and laws of war, and perhaps even resort to the deployment of nuclear weapons — with U.S. backing.

Over the past several weeks, U.S. officials have made public statements claiming that they would like to see a “diplomatic resolution” to the stand-off between Israel and Hezbollah that began after October 7 of last year. Some officials have also claimed that the U.S. has been working to prevent an escalation, with U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby telling ABC News on Sunday that the U.S. was trying to prevent “all-out war” between the two sides and that the Biden administration disagreed with Israel’s policy of expanding the conflict into Lebanon.

Iran does not wish to confront Israel directly while the U.S. is prepared to deploy warships across the region in Israel’s defence. Israel’s need for direct U.S., European, and even Arab military intervention to defend itself against non-state actors in Palestine and Lebanon exposes its own strategic vulnerabilities.

Although it’s possible that a second Trump administration, or the present one, might support Israel in an attack on Iran, it is highly unlikely that the U.S. would participate in a full-scale war against Iran, especially after the failures of recent U.S. military interventions in the Middle East.

While Iran remains the only country willing to risk its own stability and economic well-being to provide military and financial support to Arab resistance groups, there is growing pressure from Arab public opinion for Iran to take more direct action against Israel if it is to benefit from its continued support for the Palestinian cause.
Iran is not so crazy as to go all-out against Israel. After all, they do not want another war situation that would put them in penury for years to come.

Gulf media outlets have already accused Iran of avoiding direct confrontation with Israel, but this war which is unfolding, involving key Iranian allies Hamas and Hezbollah, is one of the longest in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict (perhaps with the possible exception of the war of attrition between Egypt and Israel, 1968 and 1970).

Makdisi assesses that the U.S. wants to separate the Gaza and Lebanese fronts in an effort to force Hezbollah to end its attacks against northern Israel. Hezbollah has maintained that it will not do so until a ceasefire is reached in Gaza — a point which Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general, emphasised in a speech last Friday.

“Whatever the sacrifices, whatever the consequences, whatever may happen, we will not cease our support for Gaza, and Lebanon’s front with Israel will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops,”

Nasrallah said in his first speech following Israel’s surprise attacks last week, when thousands of pagers exploded simultaneously, killing more than a dozen people and wounding hundreds more. Later in that week walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah forces detonated in similar fashion killing more people.

Makdisi said that since its 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Israel has aimed to demilitarise the south of that country, including through its 2006 ground war. Hezbollah is widely seen as having defeated Israel in the 2006 conflict by forcing it into a ceasefire. Makdisi assesses that Israel – with U.S. backing – believes that it can achieve its goal this time by smashing Hezbollah’s military capabilities in the south and imposing its will on the region.

“They can’t coexist with any country around them or any people around them without them accepting defeat. That just is a prerequisite. So this just has to be contextualised not just in the history of Lebanon, but Zionism itself,”

Makdisi said.

Israel

“needs the Palestinians to give up, needed the Egyptians to give up. It needed the Jordanians to give up and it needs the Lebanese to give up. That is the context.”

 

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Endangered humanitarian aid in Gaza

Of the 378 aid workers killed worldwide since October 7, more than 75 percent have been killed in Gaza or the West Bank, according to the Aid Worker Security Database, the agency that records major incidents of violence against aid workers.

In Gaza, Sudan, and other conflicts, concerted humanitarian advocacy efforts with governments – both public and behind the scenes – have resulted in little change in policy and tactics. Far from protecting and facilitating humanitarian aid, militaries have repeatedly obstructed and endangered it. Global efforts to address the problem of violence against aid workers through UN resolutions and international media campaigns like , have also not managed to slow the continued upward trend of global casualty numbers.

The number of humanitarians killed in Palestinian territory in the last three months of 2023 was more than the deadliest full year ever recorded for aid workers.

Without any shame, the Israeli government manages to apologise for the civilian casualties each time, reporting that alleged Hamas terrorists were hiding in the bombed sites.

Israeli attacks on aid organisations have become routine, despite systems in place to avoid humanitarian deaths. Through a process called deconfliction, aid groups coordinate with warring parties to avoid being attacked. Popular deconfliction mechanisms used by aid groups in Gaza include clearly marking their assets, arranging their movements with Israeli authorities, and sharing their location with the Israeli military.

Even though the aid organisations pass on their positions very well, they are still attacked by the Israeli army at those declared positions. One can ask questions, even if the government first lets the Palestinians flee to those places to supposedly stay in a safe zone.

Christopher Lockyear, Secretary General of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told the United Nations Security Council in February that

“this pattern of attacks is either intentional or indicative of reckless incompetence.”

Forty-eight hours earlier, a 120mm Israeli tank shell exploded in a MSF facility in Khan Younis, killing two people and severely injuring six others. It was the second time a MSF facility had been attacked by Israeli forces.

The White House is aware of this trend. In May, a Biden administration report to Congress noted the following:

“One specific area of concern is the impact of Israel’s military operations on humanitarian actors. Despite regular engagement from humanitarian actors and repeated USG interventions with Israeli officials on deconfliction/coordination procedures, the IDF has struck humanitarian workers and facilities. While Israel repeatedly committed to improve deconfliction and implemented some additional measures, those changes did not fully prevent subsequent strikes involving humanitarian workers and facilities.”

“Concern” might be too strong a word to express the White House’s interest in preventing humanitarian deaths. The same day successive Israeli precision drone strikes killed seven aid workers, including one American citizen, from World Central Kitchen — a humanitarian group founded by Chef José Andrés — Biden approved the transfer of over 2,000 bombs to Israel.

It seems that the US government is making no effort at all to force Israel to abide by the laws of war and not to shoot hospitals and relief camps. The Biden administration has done nothing but issue words of concern from the briefing podium.

Aid groups in Gaza, had notified Israeli authorities of their location and movements, their vehicles or facilities were clearly marked as humanitarians, and were often operating in Israeli-designated “safe zones,” but they were attacked anyway by Israeli forces.

Aid groups are regularly assured that there were no Hamas fighters around, while the Israeli government claimed otherwise, and managed to make so many innocent victims again.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Rafahalso has given the Israeli government her positions, more than once. Repeatedly they shared the coordinates of the buildings with Israeli officials, including on the 8th of December attack in Rafah. Agency staff told Human Rights Watch that they were unaware of any military targets in the area. Afterwards, the Israeli military said the attack was carried out by mistake.

In the meantime, many mistakes have happened, killing several innocent Palestinians. Thus, the Israeli government succeeds in carrying out a true genocide, while the rest of the world watches carelessly and does not do much about it.

Citizens who walk to a church are also not safe. Two ladies were attacked by snipers. When others in the church ran toward the women, Israeli snipers shot them too, wounding several, including two children. Pope Francis condemned the attack, calling it “terrorism.”

Emails between Catholic Relief Services and U.S. Senate staff obtained by Politico show that Catholic Relief Services (one the largest Christian aid organisations operating in Gaza) had provided the coordinates of the two buildings to Senate staffers, who then relayed that information to the IDF. The IDF confirmed the location of the buildings that Catholic Relief Services requested for protection. The aid group also provided aerial photos of the facilities directly to Israeli authorities. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem Church said they shared their GPS coordinates with the IDF several times before the attack.

Several times vehicles clearly-marked with U.N. insignia, traveling along a route designated by the Israeli military were shot at. Also several emergency medical workers had to leave in a hurry their posts, even when the Israeli military explicitly reassured aid staff through text messages that they were safe.

Also the offices of the Belgian development agency, Enabel, were completely destroyed on January 31, 2024. Handicap International, an NGO, had offices in the same structure. Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said that Israeli authorities

“knew very well that Enabel’s offices were located in this building.”

Earlier that day, the Belgian government announced it would not suspend funding for UNRWA, after the Israeli government claimed without evidence that UNRWA staff had participated in the October 7 massacre. In the meantime, it has already become clear that UNRWA was not involved at all in the October attack.
In mid-February, Israeli forces claimed it had not bombed the Enabel building, but that it was destroyed when they blew up the building next door for an unspecified military reason. In this way, the Israeli government knows how to come up with some excuse to prevent what they have done.

February 5, 2024: Israeli ships shelled a clearly-marked UNRWA convoy, damaging one of the aid trucks. The convoy was stopped at an Israeli-designated holding point when it was shelled. UNRWA had coordinated the convoy’s movement with Israeli authorities. As a result of the attack, UNRWA had to pause its operations in northern Gaza for nearly three weeks, affecting 200,000 people. Israeli authorities later acknowledged the attack and said it had put in place “prevention measures” to prevent another incident. The next month, the Israeli government blocked UNRWA from providing any food assistance to northern Gaza.

In this way we can continue with monthly attacks against the care providers and protection of completely innocent civilians, where the young children certainly have nothing to do with Hamas or Hezbollah.

In any case, it is high time that the public and external governments put more pressure to put an end to this long-lasting “slaughter”.

++

Find also to read:

  1. Al Shifa Medical Complex and other hospitals in Gaza under Israeli fire
  2. In the news February 12-18, 2024
  3. In the news February 12-18, 2024
  4. Weekly World Watch for the first part of February 2024
  5. The first part of March 2024 in the spotlight
  6. We won’t stop Rafah offensive, vows Netanyahu
  7. What attracted attention in the second half of April 2024
  8. IDF orders evacuation of central Rafah as it prepares to expand its offensive
  9. Democrats and Republicans: US enablers of Israeli onslaught on Rafah
  10. The War that will continue
  11. Blatant attacks in Gaza
  12. Don’t Normalize the Political Violence in Gaza
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The new school and academic year

1 September and 1 October are for many a new start after the summer holiday.

Many encounter then a time where they can calibrate what actions they have taken and thinking of a plan for those they have yet to instigate…

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Girls as young as 9 years old to be married is a fundamental violation of their human rights

Across Iraq, there has come fierce debate since The Coordination Framework, a bloc of Shiite parties, is leveraging its parliamentary majority to push a proposed amendment to the country’s Personal Status Law through, that represents a profound decline in both civilisational and human progress in the nation, with the backing of religious authorities in Najaf.

This legislation, should it pass, would allow girls as young as 9 years old to get married. It is nothing short of a license to rape children, under the guise of religious and cultural practices. Young girls should be able to be a child and to be educated. They belong in school, pursuing their education and building their futures, not in marital beds, stripped of their childhoods and forced into a life they are much too young to understand.

Neither in the Old or New Testament books or the Quran does it indicate that young girls should be at the mercy of men’s sexual urges.

As it currently stands, the 1959 Personal Status Law prohibits marriage before the age of 18. But the reality is that child marriage is already a significant problem in Iraq. Yet in Iraq, as in many other Muslim countries, we can see that young women have little say in marriage and that in those countries, but also here among Muslims, one can still see younger girls being married off.
According to the UN, 28 percent of Iraqi girls are married before their 18th birthday, often in informal ceremonies conducted by clerics without any official registration.

The new amendment will only exacerbate the situation by formally lowering the legal marriage age to as young as 9 years. This is a horrifying prospect that would effectively endorse and legalise the exploitation of children under the guise of tradition and religious law.

Until now, it was already a very big problem to have control or opportunities to prevent child marriage.

With the proposal on the table, children will have even less say in what happens to them and even more girls will be forced into unhappy marriages where, after a few years, they will also face other girls taking over the role of housewife and sex partner.

The backlash against the proposed amendment has been fierce, particularly from women’s rights activists, who have protested in the streets. In Najaf, a demonstration by female activists was met with hostility from clerics and tribal figures, who demanded the protesters disperse. The confrontation was so intense that the police had to intervene to prevent it from escalating into violence.

Such tensions highlight the deep divisions in attitudes about the role of religion and tradition in shaping the legal framework of Iraq, particularly when it comes to the rights of women and children.

Civilised countries should insist that the government of Iraq take measures to protect the children. A decision by authorities that allows girls as young as 9 years old to be married is a fundamental violation of their human rights. Those children who need to be protected by their parents and the state should still be able to play to the full and go through life carefree. They should also still be given ample opportunities to develop spiritually and freely complete studies that will allow them to do a job. It is a direct assault on their right to education, their right to childhood and their right to bodily autonomy.

The international community cannot stand idly by while Baghdad contemplates the legalisation of what is, in essence, the unpunishable rape of children. It has a moral obligation to intervene and put pressure on the Iraqi government to abandon this harmful and regressive legislation.

International organisations, human rights groups and foreign governments must speak out against this proposed law, and make it clear that such a violation of human rights will not be tolerated. Diplomatic channels, sanctions and public condemnation must all be considered as part of the global response to this egregious assault on the rights of children.

The proposed amendment to the Personal Status Law is not only a domestic issue for Iraq to address, it is also a test of the world’s commitment to the protection of the most vulnerable among us. The fight to defeat this legislation is a fight for the very future of Iraq’s children and for the principles of human dignity and equality that should guide every society.

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Enjoying mountain walks

Describe one habit that brings you joy.

I loved climbing’ but I have come to realise my wife an I have come at an age we are to much aware of certain dangers. Going up steep rocks or crossing glaciers is not any more in our diary.

We must be happy now with doing a maximum of the blue or red tracks. The black once we leave to the younger ones.

After my 4th heart attack, it can well be we even have to drop the red tracks of our list from now onwards. But for sure I shall not let it come to my heart and I shall enjoy it very much to go high up in the mountains again this Summer.

In the second half of August we shall enjoy the French Alps around Lake Annecy. Afterwards to go back to the region of Nice, staying in Vence. Our stay over there, a little bit more tranquil than previous years.

This year our eyes are directed to art and musea viewing.

A view of Vence with the Mediterranean Sea in the background
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Good morning 🌞🌄 . . . You know that glorious, happy feeling…

Image source: A Friend

* You know that glorious, happy feeling when you realize the true luxuries in life include … “slow mornings, being with people you love and enjoying home made food … quiet moments, uninterrupted quality time and nature … learning, growth and deep sleep … a good book, the freedom to travel, watching the sunset … […]

Good morning 🌞🌄 . . . You know that glorious, happy feeling…
Posted in Dagboek = Diary, Reflection - Consideration or Contemplation, Thoughts of others, Welfare and Health | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Night’s darkness, a bag bursting with the gold of the dawn

Image source: Jana Eid

We all know some good and bad moments in our lives. We may not forget that there is the light of better times after the darkness or bad events in our lives.

One of my favourite writers, the Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter, Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, wrote about it more than once, examining “humble lives and their small miseries.” This often gave me some spirit to continue in what I was doing or going for.

He a.o. said.:

Night’s darkness is a bag that bursts with the gold of the dawn.

Photo Credit|Pinterest Upload by Heather
Source: Contemplative Monk
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