Middle East Update: 13 Feb 2024

Killing Hind Rajab, CIA meets Mossad, Egypt deploys tanks to Gaza border, West Bank settler violence, a poem for Palestine, and much more...

Several people have contacted me but my replies bounce because they haven’t “authenticated” their Gmail accounts. Keep in mind that “authenticate” means you have to give up more of yourself as data.

POLL

Think personally and geopolitically before answering.

As follow-on, read this article by Responsible Statecraft. And please watch the video with the American pediatrician in the Interview section herein!

HATE

"I'm so scared, please come, come take me. You will come and take me?" - Hind Rajab

You heard the call from the car where Layan Hamadeh (15) and Hind Rajab (6) lay trapped with the 4 dead bodies of their family. You heard Layan scream as she was killed. Hind stayed on the line, injured, and now with 5 corpses for company. Permission was granted by the Israeli military for the Palestine Red Crescent Society to rescue her. Paramedics Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun reported being targeted with lasers before contact was lost. They and their ambulance were found nearby - shot and bombed. “You will come and take me?" asked the frightened child, but Israel deliberately left her to die.

Their deaths will add meaning to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (World Court).

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“When death is your constant companion,
you learn to look fear in the eyes, and
know that destiny cannot be controlled
In Palestine, only imagined, only coddled
Gently in dreams, stirred in deep whispers
and rocked in the tired arms of grief, as
something precious and possible, even if
you do not live to see it. This is the hope
which enables the persecuted and abused
to survive anything; which croons in deep
tones, through days of blood and terror, and
through nights of dark, unforgiving horrors,
across generations, in those lands beyond
the known world, where anything is possible
and sanctuary beckons because evil cannot
win always and because the dried throat of
justice remains open, ready to speak, when
there are enough of those who can hear. And
you have learned enough to know that death
is the least of your worries, for life brings far
greater suffering and pain, making death a
welcome friend, should it tell you it is time
to go home; to be free in a way long denied
to the children of ancient, bleeding Palestine.”

- Give poet Rosalyn some love back on her substack

WORST QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Yet, even as Biden has escalated his rhetoric, he is not yet prepared to make significant policy changes, officials said. He and his aides continue to believe his approach of unequivocally supporting Israel is the right one.” - NBC

KILLING NONSENSE KILLING PEOPLE

The USA and its allies have ratcheted up the rhetoric regarding them being the moral force objecting to Israel’s attack on Rafah, the southernmost city where half of the Gaza population is shivering from cold, fear, and diarrhea in tents.

That’s propaganda, and a tactical argument for when they eventually appear in court as Israel’s accomplice.

Anyone could say “I love you” whilst they stabbed you dead, and the only thing in that equation that wouldn’t matter is “I love you.”

“Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed,” Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

Even if the West stopped supplying guns and financial aid to Israel’s racist government, it wouldn’t change the fact that they allowed most of Gaza to be destroyed, and the people of the West Bank to be repeatedly attacked and arrested.

Words are not going to bring back stillborn babies, amputated children, and the disease that is going to kill as good or better than any bullet. And that’s before we get to long-term problems such as stunted growth and lack of education.

SPOTLIGHT

The End of Zionism

PODCAST

• Deconstructed: No University Left Standing in Gaza and much more !

• Chris Hedges: Let Them Eat Dirt

• Scott Horton: Nasser Arrabyee on how US Airstrikes are affecting his country of Yemen

Substacker Eric Brooks posted a recommendation he titled ‘Freeing the Minds of Israelis from Psychosis to End their Occupation and War on Palestine Here’. He described a podcast episode with two Israeli activists (from Arab Jew Hadar Cohen, and former IDF soldier Meital Yaniv) as:

“The best unpacking I’ve ever heard of the deeply dysfunctional inherited and toxically accumulated internal mentality of the people of Israel (which evolved from the Nazi holocaust to today’s Israeli colonizer madness) and what needs to be done to end its perpetuation.”

You can listen to it here (note that it is in English after the 30second intro).

SHORT MOVIE f. RIZ AHMED

NEWS LINKS

Palestine/Israel:

• British court verdict confirms that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism

• Bill allowing far-right Gov’t to deport relatives of ‘terrorists’ passes preliminary reading

• CIA to meet Mossad in Cairo amid Rafah fears

• Israel’s dangerous escalation in Rafah, explained

• ICC prosecutor threatens Israel with potential action over military activity in Rafah

• UAE, Jordan join Egypt, Saudi Arabia in warning Israel against Rafah offensive

• Families of detained Palestinian Americans decry US government’s silence

• Argentina Arsehole Javier Milei reveals plans to move embassy to Jerusalem

• Countries froze UNRWA funds without seeing evidence of Israeli claims

• Biden admin admits to ‘Missteps’ in handling Gaza Genocide but will not alter policy

Egypt:

• Egypt deploys 40 tanks to beef up border with Gaza as Rafah offensive looms

• Egypt would not object to Israel's assault on Gaza's Rafah

Iran:

• Meta removes Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei's Instagram accounts

• Iran is the world’s 19th largest economy

Iraq:

• Iraq repeats call for US forces to withdraw after Baghdad drone strike

• Why warnings from Iraq's powerful armed groups bode badly for the Middle East's stability

Yemen:

• How Yemen’s 'asabiyya' is reshaping geopolitics

• Yemen's Houthis strike cargo ship bound for Iran, causing minor damage

• German military frigate heads toward the Red Sea for a planned EU mission to protect ships

VIDEO NEWS

INTERVIEWS

SHORT DOCCIES

THANKS