Tag Archives: terrorism

Israel Agrees to Cease-Fire With Lebanon’s Hezbollah—But What About Gaza?

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“It has long been clear that a cease-fire in Gaza is crucial to sustain any lasting cessation of hostilities across the region,” said one group.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-26-2024 by Common Dreams

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Photo: Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages/Wikimedia Commons/CC

Peace advocates on Tuesday cautiously celebrated Israel agreeing to a cease-fire with the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah while also stressing the need for an immediate end to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.

Despite concerns about whether the truce will actually happen, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a U.S.-based Quaker group, welcomed the plans for it and called on “all parties to ensure this agreement is swiftly enacted.”

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US House Urged to Stop Bill Enabling Trump to Attack Nonprofits

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“The bill could usher in repression on a massive scale,” one critic warned.

By Jessica Corbett Published 11-11-2024 by Common Dreams

Donald Trump speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr/CC

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote soon on legislation that would further empower President-elect Donald Trump, who won a new term last week after fear-mongering about the so-called “enemy from within” and vowing to “root out” people he described as “radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”

Nonprofits and rights advocates are sounding the alarm about H.R. 9495, or the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. The bill would provide tax relief for U.S. nationals and their spouses who are unlawfully or wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad but also includes legislation to terminate the tax-exempt status of “terrorist-supporting” groups.

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Netanyahu Replaces Fired Israeli Defense Minister With ‘Another Genocidal Lunatic’

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“Israel just doubled down on prolonging its genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza,” said one observer.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 11-5-2024 by Common Dreams

Then-Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz signs a document on August 23, 2023. (Photo: Israel Katz/Facebook)

Palestine defenders on Tuesday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of swapping one “genocidal lunatic” for another after the right-wing leader fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and replaced him with Israel Katz, who was serving as foreign minister.

“Israel just doubled down on prolonging its genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza,” journalist and genocide scholar Samira Mohyeddin said on social media following Netanyahu’s moves.

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‘Grotesque’: Israeli Knesset Bans UN Agency in Charge of Humanitarian Aid in Gaza

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“This legislation not only contravenes the basic principles of human rights that led to the U.N. General Assembly’s founding of UNRWA, but also violates a range of Israel’s international legal obligations.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 10-28-2024 by Common Dreams

The polio vaccination campaign reached over 145,000 children in Khan Younis and Rafah, southern #Gaza, with the vaccine and 119,000 aged 2-10 with supplementary vitamin A to increase their resistance to disease.. Photo: UNRWA/Facebook

Over a year into Israel’s obliteration of the Gaza Strip, Israeli lawmakers faced sharp criticism on Monday after voting for a pair of bills targeting the United Nations agency responsible for humanitarian aid in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.

The first bill, which says that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) “will not operate any missions, won’t provide any service, and won’t hold any activity—directly or indirectly—in the sovereign territory of the state of Israel,” passed the Israeli parliament 92-10.

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Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s death is a defining moment, but it will not end the war

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By Ian Parmeter, Australian National University. Published 10-17-2024 by The Conversation

Yahya Sinwar, the former Palestinian leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Screenshot: Al Jazeera

The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds behind the group’s horrific October 7 2023 attack on southern Israel, is no doubt a consequential moment in Israel’s year-long war against Hamas.

But is it a turning point?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar’s killing – long a major objective of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – would signal the “beginning of the end” of the war. But he made clear the war is not over.

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Leaked US Intel on Iran Attack Plans Also Confirms Israeli Nuclear Weapons

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Another of the alleged documents, which multiple outlets have been told appear authentic, confirm U.S. spying on Israeli military forces and shows “a strike on Iran” is “almost certainly” coming.

By Jon Queally. Published 10-20-2024 by Common Dreams

A detail portion of one alleged U.S. intelligent document made available on the internet this week which U.S. agencies are said to be investigating.
 (Photo: Screengrab)

“We have not observed indications that Israel intends to use a nuclear weapon.”

That sentence is the concluding line from an allegedly leaked (or hacked) U.S. intelligence document posted online this week and later reported on by Axios, CNN, and other outlets.

As Axios reported on Saturday, “U.S. officials are extremely concerned about a potentially major security breach after two alleged U.S. intelligence documents about Israel’s preparations for an attack on Iran were published by a Telegram account affiliated with Iran.”

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US Deploys B-2 Stealth Bombers to Attack Yemen Without Congressional Approval

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“Why is the U.S. bombing Yemen—with a B-2 bomber no less—with zero congressional authorization?”

By Jake Johnson. Published 10-18-2024 by Common Dreams

Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit – Stealth Bomber. Photo: Jonathan Cutrer/flickr/CC

The Biden administration on Wednesday deployed B-2 stealth bombers to launch multiple airstrikes on Yemen, attacks that underscored the United States’ deep involvement in a deadly regional war that is threatening to engulf the entire Middle East.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement that the strikes targeted “numerous Iran-backed Houthi weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that contained various advanced conventional weapons used to target U.S. and international military and civilian vessels navigating international waters throughout the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.”

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Alarm as Pentagon Confirms Deployment of US Troops to Israel

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“Netanyahu is as close as he has ever been to his ultimate wish: making the U.S. fight Iran on Israel’s behalf,” wrote one journalist.

By Jake Johnson. Published 10-13-2024 by Common Dreams.

Pentagon Press Secretary U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder conducts a press briefing at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., March 8, 2024. Photo: U.S. Secretary of Defense/flickr/CC

The Pentagon confirmed Sunday that it has authorized the deployment of an advanced antimissile system and around 100 U.S. troops to Israel as the Netanyahu government prepares to attack Iran—a move that’s expected to provoke an Iranian response.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, press secretary for the U.S. Defense Department, said in a statement that at President Joe Biden’s direction, the Pentagon approved the “deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of U.S. military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel’s air defenses” in the wake of Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

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Does the US actually want to de-escalate the Middle East war?

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Unwavering military and political support for Israel means US is embroiled in war – even if it doesn’t want to be

By Paul Rogers. Published 10-11-2024 by openDemocracy

Screenshot: CNN

One year into the devastating war in Gaza, and the conflict has spread far beyond Gaza itself, including not only Iran, Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East region – but also, arguably the US, given its unwavering support – both verbally and materially – for Israel and its actions.

While much of Gaza lies in ruins with most houses, universities and hospitals destroyed, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced multiple times and an official death toll of 42,000 – there is now scarcely a whisper about even a pause in the fighting, yet alone a ceasefire.

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80+ Groups Have Message for Biden: ‘No War With Iran!’

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“It is not in the national interest for the U.S. to be led into a war with Iran,” the groups stressed.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 10-3-2024 by Common Dreams

Anti-war demonstrators gathered at The White House in a National Day of Action on January 4, 2020. Photo: Susan Melkisethian/flickr/CC

On the same day that President Joe Biden said his administration and Israeli leaders are “discussing” an attack on Iranian oil infrastructure, a coalition of over 80 advocacy groups on Thursday implored the U.S. leader to “halt Israel’s march toward regional war.”

The National Iranian-American Council (NIAC) led the groups in a letter to Biden asserting that “it is not in the national interest for the U.S. to be led into a war with Iran” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu’s far-right government.

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