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themainspoon · 10 months

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I’ve seen a lot of support for Palestine on this site, and that’s great, but much of it has been targeted towards Americans and what people in the US can do to help. I believe we need to also be sharing what people in other countries can be doing to help, and so I have compiled a small list of links relevant to those in Australia. If you aren’t Australian I would still ask that you reblog not only this post (in order to ensure that more Australians see it), but I also ask that you consider making posts like this for people in your own nations, and also share other posts like this one targeting a wide range of international audiences.

If you are an Australian Citizen, and you want to do something to help support Palestine, here are a few links to orgs and petitions:

Firstly, APAN, The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network:

https://apan.org.au/

Text from site:

“APAN is a national coalition harnessing the passion of Australians for Palestinian human rights, justice, and equality”

This site contains many important things, such as:

An events portal that lists planned protests and other solidarity events being held soon:

https://apan.org.au/events/

A page that you can use to not only donate to them, but also to find a list of other trusted charities you can donate too:

https://apan.org.au/civicrm/mailing/view/?id=2375&reset=1

ActionAid Australia, a charity focused on Women’s Rights, is also currently running an appeal to provide aid to citizens in Gaza that you can donate to:

Their approach “will prioritise the leadership and needs of women and girls”[direct quote], this is an approach not many other charities are taking, and you can read more about it on their website.

There are also several currently open petitions you can sign, this is not an exhaustive list:

A petition being run by ActionAID, a charity group partnered with APAN:

From their website:

“Join the call to Foreign Minister Penny Wong, for an immediate ceasefire and increase in humanitarian assistance to Gaza. It is time to speak out and say that every life – Palestinian and Israeli – should be valued and treated with humanity. We refuse to be divided in our call for lasting peace and justice. We are calling on our government to hear us and act:

1. We will not be bystanders. Immediate ceasefire now.

2. Nothing can justify violence towards any civilians. Anyone held captive must be released.

3. End the siege that is preventing civilians in Gaza from accessing food, fuel and water and increase our humanitarian assistance. The collective punishment of civilians in Gaza must end.

4. Call for a path to real and lasting peace for Palestinian and Israeli people. “

Petition EN5622 - Call for a Ceasefire and an End to Israeli Occupation:

Text from the e-petition site:

“Petition Reason

The Palestinian people have suffered occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid for over 7 decades, and the state of Israel has consistently disregarded international law according to the UN - most evident recently in their indiscriminate carpet bombing of the Gaza Strip and use of the illegal white phosphorus powder. Yet, the US, UK and Australia (among others) have aided Israel through funding and defense packages, and have never publicly denounced their many transgressions. There must be an end to the atrocities against innocent civilians and a move towards a peaceful resolution.

Petition Request

We therefore ask the House to call for a ceasefire, and promote a constructive discourse into addressing the root cause of this conflict, and move towards a peaceful resolution. We urge the House to publicly condemn any actions that do not align with international law, and call for a solution that will minimise civilian casualties. We ask for an end to the occupation of the Palestinian’s land that was stolen from them over 70 years ago.”

Petition EN5639 - Expulsion of Israeli Ambassador, call for urgent ceasefire in Palestine.

Text from the e-petition site:

“Petition Reason

The current conflict in Palestine has degenerated into a situation tantamount to an ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. As Australians we must condemn Israels actions, which are in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. Since October 7, Over 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and Gaza, they have been denied access to water, electricity and fuel and have been prevented access to humanitarian aid. Hospitals and refugee camps have been deliberately targeted and white phosphorous has been used against civilian populations. Each of these things constitute a breach of international law, and yet our government has not upheld the values of the Australian people by condemning this. Now is the moment in history to do the right thing, it is not too late to save lives in Palestine. For this reason, we the undersigned call on the Australian government to condemn in the sternest terms Israels actions in Palestine and call for an immediate ceasefire as well as the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to Australia.

Petition Request

We therefore ask the House to move a motion to condemn in the sternest terms Israels actions in Palestine and call for an immediate ceasefire, along with the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to Australia.”

Petition EN5628 - Retract Governmental Support To Israel, and Demand Ceasefire In Palestine

Text from the e-petition site:

“Petition Reason

In 1948, Palestinians were violently uprooted from their homes, initiating decades of conflict with the Israeli government. Recent escalations in violence have reached a critical point, particularly in Gaza, where Israeli leaders have broken international law. This is evident by the denial of vital resources like water, food, electricity, and fuel, jeopardizing the lives of millions of Palestinians, including a significant portion of children in Gaza. Despite extensive evidence of Israeli war crimes, the Australian government has consistently supported Israel. These crimes encompass the use of White Phosphorus (classified as illegal by the UN) in civilian areas, direct attacks on non-military targets, forced population transfers, ethnic cleansing, and the deliberate starvation of civilians, as reported by Human Rights Watch and the UN. Australia's unwavering support, even after the UN labelled Israeli military actions as "ethnic cleansing" and "egregious violations of international law," is not supported by the Australian public.

Petition Request

We therefore ask the House to reject the notion that colonization should be supported, especially through a genocide. This petition calls for Australia to withdraw its support for the Israeli government, condemn its actions, impose sanctions, and work within the UN to secure a ceasefire and allow delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. It is irrational for the Australian government to preach its values of 'freedom, respect, fairness, and equality of opportunity' with its hypocritical treatment of Palestinians. Providing military aid to the state of Israel contradicts these values. Let’s stop Australia in it’s tracks of repeating the history of Indigenous colonisation.”

Petition EN5603 - Condemnation of Israeli aggression in occupied Palestine

Text from the e-petition site:

“Petition Reason

Palestinian civilians, many of whom are young children, have been subject to cruel and vicious collective punishment at the hands of Israel in Gaza. Israel has escalated the blockade by cutting off supply of water, power, fuel and international aid all while indiscriminately bombing civilians. The actions of Israel are considered war crimes under the Geneva Conventions and must be condemned by the House of Representatives.

Petition Request

We therefore ask the House to condemn Israeli aggression in occupied Palestine”

#auspol #free palestine #a certified themainspoon classic

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gduncan969 · 4 years

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Running and Resting

Hebrews 4:11 “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” (KJV)

It’s getting really hard to sort out fact from fiction these days. Every time we get some major new announcement from the government about progress over the COVID pandemic we immediately get hundreds of opposing statements telling us not to believe it. It used to be easier to dismiss the nay-sayers as a “flakey-fringe” group stubbornly refusing to accept any scientific evidence supporting the announcement, but now every such announcement is immediately followed by very un-flakey hordes of scientists, all with a long list of degrees and titles after their names and some with stellar reputations in their field, warning us not to believe the authorities and even accusing them of pushing a hidden agenda to take control of our lives. Where lies the truth? Who are we going to believe? Certainly not our politicians fixated on their own secret agendas and self-interests as the recent election in the US clearly shows! We used to feel safe because we could trust the science but that’s no longer the case when so many scientists hold diametrically opposite views and “truth” is now defined in purely subjective terms. On one hand we might rejoice that there are now several COVID vaccines being made available but on the other, we have a former vice-president of Pfizer Inc., and a host of other medical professionals warning us to stay away from them because they are downright dangerous and may be part of a global reset designed to control us under a world government dominated by zillionaires. Real warnings of forced vaccinations abound and believe it or not, some scientists are claiming the vaccine will contain---wait for it---“nanobots” (minuscule robotic implants) meant to control how we think! Surely, this is all nonsense, fear-based science fiction from the flakey-fringe groups but wasn’t it just this week that the news media announced China is researching how to “bio-engineer” better soldiers for its army and wasn’t it just the other day they announced the birth of a healthy baby girl from a human embryo conceived twenty seven years ago! Yesterday, I read on page one of a national newspaper that our prime-minister’s half-brother, Kyle Kemper, considers “the real battle is not between left and right, it is between authoritarianism versus libertarianism” and he is urging people to sign the petition by conservative MP Derek Sloan against the new vaccines which he describes as human experimentation with serious risks to those who take it and designed to prevent a disease from which 99% of the people who catch it survive. As I turned to page two, I found an article about a retired Israeli general, the former head of Israel’s space security program and a university professor telling us that aliens exist and they are part of a “Galactic Federation” with “underground bunkers on Mars”. Really!, a galactic federation? underground bunkers on Mars? No wonder people today don’t know what to believe. Is it really possible that a cabal of globalists has managed to pull off the greatest swindle in history—stealing the US election? Is it really possible that China has infiltrated the corridors of power and media in the US and beyond right down to the municipal level? Five years ago, such questions would have guaranteed you a visit to a psychiatrist. Today, they are becoming mainstream and being asked by some very highly qualified people..

What is the Christian to make of all of this?

Many believers are bewildered by all of this and their anxiety levels are soaring as they search for clarity in the chaos. “What will happen to me if this is all true? What can I do about it? Will I be able to buy food if I refuse the vaccine? Will I be able to keep my job, travel, visit friends or hug my grandchildren? What kind of future will I have? Will I be able to marry, raise a family, pursue my dreams without having to submit my independence to some internationally ordained collective “good”? The short answer to all of these questions is the same as it has always been: TRUST IN GOD. Us older folks have asked all these questions before and seen them answered. In the years following WWII, nuclear annihilation was a very real threat. The cold war was in full swing and my police-officer father-in-law was responsible for overseeing the civil-defense operations for an entire county in Scotland. He trained his daughter, Eleanor, as a civil-defense warden in the event of a nuclear attack which many thought was only a matter of time. Casualty estimates were in the hundreds of thousands and that was just for one bomb in one city. Eleanor well remembers the struggle she had overcoming the thought that she would never marry and never have children, a thought shared by many young Christians today. But God is faithful! She did marry and had three children and now six wonderful grandchildren plus fifty five years of marriage to me! In that light, the COVID “crisis” with its 99% survival rate is hardly worth the worry and even if the aliens are living on Mars and working with earthlings to control us, our God is bigger than them all and has “given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).

Entering your rest

God has made provision for us by inviting us into His rest which is a place where we cease from all our striving and self-effort and simply rest in His accomplished work. That’s hard to do in the midst of a pandemic but it’s where He Himself dwells. In that place we have nothing to worry about and nothing to achieve through self effort because He has done it all, so the antidote to all of this fear and worry is to climb back up into our place of rest. Hebrews 4: 9 - 13 says:

“There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

The King James Version puts it this way: “Let us labour therefore to enter that rest” which tells us it will require some considerable work on out part to get in there. In other words, God has called us to work hard at only one thing: TO QUIT WORKING AND ENTER OUR REST. Our rest is a place where we recognize that He has already done it all and there’s nothing left for us to do except love Him, trust Him, follow Him and rest in Him. He has it all under control and “will not allow you to be tempted—with worries and fears— beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). The “way of escape” is the means by which we escape the temptation to become fearful of all that is swirling around us in this crazy world and it refers to a “landing place” where a bird buffeted by a storm can take refuge while the storm rages on—a place of rest in the midst of the storm, a place where we remind ourselves of the pastor who said, “I have read the back of the Book and we win!” As the world continues to lose sight of what is true, having swallowed the lie that all truth is subjective (your truth is not my truth), we can remind ourselves that we serve the One who is the Truth and He can be trusted to reveal Himself to us and lead us through these troubling times. Life may get more difficult in the months ahead but Hebrews 12:1 encourages us to “run with patient endurance the race that is set before us”. The race we are in is not a 100-metre dash but a lifelong marathon full of ups and downs that will both thrill us and challenge us and like any experienced marathon runner, we must reach that place in the race where we break through the fear and exhaustion and know that we are able to rest in the knowledge that we will cross the finishing line successfully as we continue to run on. That place is His rest and may we all find it.

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freelanews-blog · 5 years

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Fearing for the Super Eagles, thanking Ben Ayade

Tunji Ajibade; [email protected]; 08036683657 The African Nations’ Cup starts in Egypt this month and Nigeria’s Super Eagles will participate. I’m worried about the safety of our boys. Over the years, one had had to worry each time they travelled together; what with those flight-related issues linked to the football teams of some other nations. So, each time the Super Eagles travelled, I quietly said a few words, wishing them a safe journey. Of course, whoever pays attention to how government officials in this country handle issues concerning sportsmen would be equally concerned. Did anyone forget how Nigeria was almost disqualified by FIFA for the 2018 World Cup after we had qualified? Some football official messed up issues relating to the eligibility of Shehu Abdullahi playing in the last qualification match. Three points were deducted. For this and many more issues about football administration here, anyone should worry when the Super Eagles are in focus. Egypt itself at this time gives one cause to be concerned. Cairo, the capital, was hit by terrorists of late. Everyone has been giving the matter a polish though. They say Egypt is fine. Whoever doesn’t want a failed event would say that regarding the host country. But smart nations take extra precautions regarding their own. The US did the other day when President Donald Trump was in London. It’s interesting to know that wherever the US leader goes, not less than 800 people –warriors and intelligence officers – follow him, mostly to support what the host does in the area of security. They were in London too where eight million pounds was expended in hosting the US leader. Also, the other day, the new Israeli ambassador to Nigeria presented his Letter of Credence to President Muhammadu Buhari. Where the President held a meeting with this ambassador, where the ambassador sat and signed a register, the unmistakable Mossad man (that is the Israeli intelligence service) stood like a cheetah, prepared to pounce if anyone made a wrong move. Now, that the Super Eagles are in Egypt, our football administrators should ensure they are provided with adequate protection. I urge the National Security Adviser to ensure that plain-clothed armed men from Nigeria accompany our boys. I want Mr President to take interest in this matter. Football administrators too shouldn’t expect some of us to keep mute if any excuse is given later regarding the safety of our boys. For no official should think administering football is all about travelling around the world and earning dollars. It’s hard work, a thankless service to the nation. Whoever thinks he’s into football administration to collect salary only and mess up simple administrative matters such as we witnessed in Abdullahi’s case must realise now that he’s in the wrong place. Meanwhile, Nigerian boys are in almost every football league across the world. I was impressed by those that I saw in the European leagues as well as the US Major League Soccer in this last football season. They are even more noticeable in the latter; many in the former are good yet they don’t catch the attention of the Super Eagles’ technical bench. Two of them are part of the current team in Egypt though – Henry Onyekuru in Turkey and Victor Osimhen in Belgium. Both were among the highest goal scorers in the countries where they played. Osimhen lately scored the fastest goal in the Belgian football league history, and some of his goals made me conclude he was a lethal striker. That impression didn’t start today. Osimhen was part of the Under-17 set that won the 2015 World Cup. He’s kept up the impression I had of him during the 2015 World Cup. His moves that time reminded me of the link between Sunday Oliseh and Rashidi Yekini during the 1994 Nations Cup in Tunisia. In that tournament, Oliseh in the midfield often played the role of the tall wiry Sergio Busquets of Barcelona FC who sent long accurate passes to Lionel Messi. Of course, the consequence is devastating. There was a particular move made by the 2015 Under-17 set which remained etched in my mind, the team’s signature move, and Osimhen was at the end of it. Someone sent him a pass from the midfield. He collected it on the right flank, a few feet away from the 18-yard box, and after a few dribbles, the ball ended in the net. I recall, as it was happening, taking note of the quality of the pass from the midfield, how Osimhen received the ball, the quality of the run that followed, the ensuing goal, and how I had spontaneously said in my mind, “This team is dangerous.” It was the only Nigerian team regarding which I ever entertained such a thought. The other set of Nigerian players that left a lasting impression on me was the 1994 class of Super Eagles in Tunisia. They were strong, solid and so dependable that in the final match of the 1994 Nations Cup, and after Zambia scored the first goal, I settled down more comfortably believing the game had just begun. We scored two goals and won the tournament. With all due respect to the Zambians who were worthy opponents, when the match ended and their boys were weeping, I was genuinely surprised and had said, “Did they think they could beat us?” That was a measure of my confidence in the 1994 set. The 1996 group that won the Olympic gold medal also inspired confidence. That was an assembly of talented players, the more experienced mixed with younger players. When Brazil was three goals up in the Semi-Final match, I had said in my mind, “If this team could not beat Brazil, which Nigerian team could?” In the end, we beat the Brazilians and proceeded to the final match against Argentina. After I saw a few of the goals Osimhen scored during the 2018-2019 league season in Belgium, I concluded the young lad had remained as dangerous as ever. Now, only Osimhen can stop Osimhen. I mean the sky cannot be his limit if he maintains focus and abstains from vices that ruin careers. He will go up, no doubt, but he must manage success well by remaining his normal self, improve his game, and just focus on the next game, and the next game. Most Nigerian sportsmen don’t manage success well, little accolades get to them and before one knows it they are down. They fail to cultivate the habits of professionals. True professionals stay normal, remain calm, they don’t drift along with life and its vanity, rather they are fully in charge of their affairs and their senses. It’s the only way to get to the top and remain there. There may be a motley crowd that expects successful sportspersons to start raising their shoulders, paying more attention to what doesn’t make them better players. But there are also people who nod with respect and admiration for sportsmen who remain calm-headed no matter what they have achieved. I wish Osimhen well. I shall be on the lookout for him in the years to come. I’m not expecting him to disappoint. Now, few days ago Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State held a meeting with leaders of a visiting religious body. He said any member of the religious organisation who was interested in investing in agriculture in his state was welcome. That’s more like it. We’re used to religious bodies who visit state governors and all they want is release of public funds for some of them tour the Holy Lands. This time, Ayade asked whoever had among his visitors to bring for the state to benefit. Sometimes, I wonder if state governors ascertain if those who pressure them to release public funds to tour the Holy Lands exert any positive impact on their elections. For me, if state governors have funds to dish out, they should select unemployed youth in houses of worship and train them in Nigeria to either be employable or self-employed. Such youth reward politicians better during elections because they are more, more of them vote, and they influence their peers to vote. State governors ought to know this if they let relevant data or demography determine where they deploy public funds, rather than lamely bowing to the blackmail of religious bodies. Read the full article

#BenAyade #ShehuAbdullahi #supereagles

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nataliesnews · 3 years

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Thank you facebook, threats against those who would normally be Netanyahu's cohorts, the hypocrisy of the filth from the Balfour house, a marathon by Palestinians 6.6.2021

I started writing this letter a few days ago. But today before I send it there are two things I want to write about and the one is the threats that are not being made not even to those on the left…..but now also to Bennett, etc. who are pretty much on the same political line as Netanyahu but are trying to form an alternative government. As for the allegations by the right that the threats being made now are the same as those we at Balfour made against the criminal they support never called to kill or harm him or any of his Mafia brood but just to get rid of him legitimately. All this proves that what I said about the attacks against Palestinians and Arabs …..that it would eventually turn back on their own kind was true. Was there not an animal which ate its own tail. During protests outside the homes of Yamina members over the past week, some characterized Bennett’s move to sit in a coalition with centrist Yesh Atid and the Islamist Ra’am party as “treason,” and carried placards proclaiming “Leftists. Traitors.” In other words anyone against the criminal is a traitor. One of the members of the new hopefully government has also been harassed and a member of Meretz has left her home with her children

The piece of filth from the Balfour house which will have to be decontaminated when they leave now made a statement to the effect that all the statements and demonstrations of the right against candidates of the parties hoping to replace him are completely democratic and again saying that the “threats” made against him and his family were much worse. He forgets when he stood on the balcony before the assassination of Rabin where his supporters were showing Rabin with a Kafia, portraying him as a Nazi, an enemy of the Jewish people and calling for his assassination and one of the speakers at this rally was the filth from Balfour.

Shin Bet head in rare warning: Stop violent discourse now, someone will get hurt

Citing spike in online incitement, Argaman urges leaders to speak out; statement comes as 'change government' set to oust Netanyahu, who posted Friday about the Biblical spies

https://www.timesofisrael.com/shin-bet-head-in-rare-warning-stop-violent-discourse-now-someone-will-get-hurt/

And another very worrying thing

This was written much before all the above.

I had just got into bed when my phone peeped. I was taken back to my first years in Jerusalem. My friend, Tamar, had made friends with a teenager, Nachum, from Jerusalem, who was with a youth group on the kibbutz. When we came to Jerusalem, we visited the family, Carmela and Shmuel Dunkelman. They made me a “daughter of the house”. Having no family here, it was a warm place for me. When my mother died and I went looking for a flat it was Shmuel who went with me each time. We found a wonderful flat but I was a trifle short of the price and there was nowhere I could borrow it…or even take on myself extra debts. The following week I saw the same sort of flat advertised in the next block. I said to them what is the use. I cannot afford it and Shmuel said go and see and I did. It had fewer accessories than the previous flat including no cupboards but I could afford it and lived happily in it for nearly 45 years with wonderful neighbours. And suddenly here living in Nofim, there is a message from the youngest daughter, Zippie, whom I never thought would remember me, that she had seen me on facebook at a demonstration. I was thrilled. I had moved into the flat with a rackety bed, an even more rackety small cupboard, a carpet bought in the old city and the wooden carrier for my goods from SA when I had come to Israel. A friend from SA who had brought her mother to see the flat said that when they walked out her mother burst into tears and said, “Such poverty” and she said,” Now she has a roof over her head which is her own and she will slowly buy what she needs.” I never forgot my friends, Shmuel and Carmela who had encouraged to take this big step. I fell asleep feeling the warmth of those in the past who had helped me.

I again say that it is not that I am indifferent in any way to attacks on Jews by Arabs but because the other side of the picture is often not published. I just know that things here are getting more and more violent. As you can see from these reports below. Also the pdf which I have just attached is the story of a grandfather who wanted to return his granddaughter

to her mother in one of the streets in Sheikh which has been turned into a ghetto. Only the residents are allowed in and out and the religious who have “bought” houses in the area. I guess we learned from other countries where they pushed us into ghettos.

Yesterday we went as on every Friday to Sheikh Jarrah. When we arrived shirts were being distributed to many young people who were to run a marathon which they did from Sheikh Jarrah to Silvan. Here they are warming up dafke with a young Palestinian woman leading them.

I had a bad feeling about it and was sure that the soldiers would not allow it to pass without at least stun grenades. Nothing of course was published on the Israeli media but on El Jazeera I saw that stun grenades had been thrown and also rubber bullets but I am not sure about the latter. Nothing on facebook either but when we marched and stopped outside one of the houses which has been taken over by the religious, the commander of the soldiers was just looking for a chance to arrest someone and did. A woman who should have minded her tongue and called on of the soldiers a Nazi. The commander told her he would arrest her for standing in the street (just so) and then afterwards when we went back they rushed into the crowd and pulled her out and arrested her. He also tried to arrest this woman who was standing outside on of the houses but the crowd seemed to be able to stop that. Notice the young woman who is standing with arms crossed and a tough guy stance. She stood there with such a smirk on her face that I would have loved to slap her. But I just went up and told her that in some time in the future she would look at the picture and be ashamed.

For a full report on the marathon you can read this

https://megafon-news.co.il/asys/archives/335002

And as a titbit:

Jewish extremists reportedly attempted major firebomb attack on Palestinians

Group gathered Molotov cocktails and arranged to target bus stop used by West Bank workers near Afula this month; attack didn't happen since they failed to find the hidden weapons

https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-extremists-reportedly-attempted-major-firebomb-attack-on-palestinians/

Meretz MK flees her home after right-wing threats to her baby, protests outside

Prospective gov't minister Tamar Zandberg comes under attack after article on right-wing site falsely claims she wants to imprison Chabad members who offer phylacteries to minors

https://www.timesofisrael.com/meretz-mk-leaves-home-after-right-wing-threats-to-her-baby/

And at least one light in the darkness

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/arab-student-awarded-medal-from-college-for-saving-jewish-man-from-lynch-669841

Thank you facebook, threats against those who would normally be Netanyahu's cohorts, the hypocrisy of the filth from the Balfour house, a marathon by Palestinians 6.6.202

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thisdaynews · 5 years

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Bernie splits from Warren with embrace of far-left foreign leaders

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/bernie-splits-from-warren-with-embrace-of-far-left-foreign-leaders/

Bernie splits from Warren with embrace of far-left foreign leaders

“Bernie is the only candidate who has a comprehensive foreign policy vision to stand up to the growing movement of anti-democratic authoritarianism worldwide and find solidarity with working people around the world who, in many cases, share common needs,” said Josh Orton, Sanders’ national policy director. Another Sanders aide referred to his approach to international affairs as a “global struggle.”

Sanders has made clear during his campaign that he shares many of the left wing’s long-held critiques of American imperialism — from opposition to clandestine interference across the world, but particularly in Latin America and the Middle East, to disapproval of the American military’s global footprint. It’s safe to say that a Sanders presidency would mark a dramatic departure from the last several decades of American foreign policy.

In recent weeks, he has been alone among Democratic presidential contenders in speaking positively about far-left leaders abroad. He said Bolivia’s former president Morales “did a very good job in alleviating poverty and giving the indigenous people … a voice.” Sanders argued that Brazil’s Lula “has done more than anyone to lower poverty in [the country] and to stand up for workers.” And the senator has drawn lofty parallels between his own campaign and recent mass protests in Chile, Lebanon and Iraq. In a high-profile speech in 2017, he criticized America’s past actions in Iran, Chile, Vietnam, Latin America and Iraq as “just a few examples of American foreign policy and interventionism which proved to be counterproductive.”

Warren, by contrast, has been more cautious on foreign affairs, straddling the line between the left and the Democratic foreign policy establishment. She has not been as definitive about the situation in Bolivia, where Morales was forced to resign under pressure by the military after allegations of election fraud in what Sanders deemed a “coup.” Nor has she gone out of her way to praise and cultivate relationships withleftist figures around the world.

And while Warren has also cast her campaign as a movement, she has not drawn international parallels. She acknowledges mistakes of U.S. foreign policy but is less critical of American global leadership.

“There’s a story we tell as Americans, about how we built an international order — one based on democracy, human rights, and improving economic standards of living for everyone,” Warren said in a highly billed speech last year ahead of her presidential run. “It wasn’t perfect — we weren’t perfect — but our foreign policy benefited a lot of people around the world.”

Warren has been more hawkish than Sanders on China and more resistantto having talks withan Assad-led Syria and North Korea,positions that are more in the foreign policy mainstream. While Sanders considers Israel’s Netanyahu government part of a growing “authoritarian axis,” Warren will preface criticism of Israel by noting that it is a “strong and important ally.”

Warren joined much of the Western world in expressing support for more aggressive action against Nicolás Maduro’s government in Venezuela and recognizing Juan Guaidó as an interim president in 2019. Sanders declined to recognize Guaidó and urged the U.S. to “learn the lessons of the past and not be in the business of regime change or supporting coups.”

People in Sanders’ orbit attribute the shift in focus from 2016, when he didn’t talk as often about foreign policy, to the presence of his top foreign policy adviser, Matt Duss, a fierce progressive critic of Washington’s foreign policy establishment. Duss was previously president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and has not worked in a presidential administration.

Warren’s top foreign policy aide Sasha Baker, Sanders allies point out, is a more traditional choice, having served as deputy chief of staff to Barack Obama’s Defense secretary Ash Carter.

Warren’s worldview is most distinct when she ties it back to her message of the political and economic system being rigged. “Washington’s focus shifted from policies that benefit everyone to policies that benefit a handful of elites, both here at home and around the world,” she said in her speech last year.

Warren spokesperson Alexis Krieg told POLITICO that “Elizabeth believes that by pursuing international economic policies that benefit American workers instead of an elite few, and using diplomacy to amplify strong yet pragmatic security policies, we can achieve a foreign policy for all.”

Sanders’ top aides and surrogates argue that his international, worker-focused vision makes him best equipped to take on the so-called “Blob,” a term of derision for what is seen as bipartisan Washington group-think on foreign policy. Sanders has railed against establishment U.S. foreign policy since his time as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in the 1980s — cultivating relationships with Nicaragua, Cuba and the Soviet Union — and his team believes only radical new leadership will avoid repeating past mistakes.

Critics say that despite Sanders’ talk about worker-led democracy and ending wars, many of the leftist leaders he has praised — such as Morales and, in the 1980s, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua — are essentially authoritarians. (He has since criticized Ortega’s government as “anti-democratic.”)

“What we have in Latin America is not democratic socialism at all,” said Eduardo Gamarra, a professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University. “Sanders’ notion of democratic socialism which he says is that of Northern Europe is very different than that of the leaders he embraces.”

But such criticism has not fazed the Sanders team or his allies. “This isn’t about Bernie endorsing one particular leader’s ideology or political program, though some would like to present it that way,” said a Sanders aide.

In a video released by his campaign, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), one of his most well-known endorsers, said Sanders is “the only candidate that wants to make sure that we end our endless wars.” Sanders himself has touted on the debate stage that he hasn’t voted to authorize any of President Donald Trump’s defense budgets, a subtle jab at Warren, who did authorize one.

Sanders campaign co-chair Nina Turner pushed the contrast further last month, saying on Twitter that Sanders “is the only candidate who … spoke truth on what’s happening on Bolivia.”

The rhetoric appeared to be an attempt to differentiate from Warren. She has been more equivocal on Bolivia in recent weeks after Morales’ ouster. Warren initially drew scorn from some on the left with a safe statement calling for new elections. Pressed a few days later by The Intercept for a “Young Turks” video on whether it was a “coup,” she said it “sure looks like that.”

Their differences over foreign policy have also surfaced in the Senate.

In 2013, Sanders was one of the few liberal senators to vote against John Brennan to head the CIA — citing his concerns about drone warfare and civil liberties — while Warren voted for him. Sanders was also one of only two “no” votes, along with Republican Rand Paul, on a 2017 sanctions bill aimed at Iran, Russia and North Korea. Sanders said he was worried about endangering the Iran nuclear agreement.

Some progressives argue thatSanders’ efforts have pushed Warren and other candidates leftward on foreign policy — and they hope he continues to do so. Warren has pledged on the trail to make a peace process with Palestinians a condition for continuing to provide aid to Israel.

“If Israel’s government continues with steps to formally annex the West Bank, the U.S. should make clear that none of our aid should be used to support annexation,” she said in October. Pete Buttigieg also said that month that the “aid needs to be compatible with U.S. objectives.”

“Just look at how Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg and other candidates have changed their tune on this issue,” said Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of the left-wing group IfNotNow. “Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who has said that he will have the Israeli government face consequences for the ongoing human rights violations of the occupation. I would like to see more candidates support that position because it’s the only morally sound position.”

#Foreign #Leaders #Politics

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coin-river-blog · 5 years

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Facebook’s popular messaging app with 1.5 billion users in over 180 countries has another major vulnerability. Hackers were able to covertly install spyware on iOS and Android smartphones using Whatsapp with just a phone call. “All of their security issues are conveniently suitable for surveillance, and look and work a lot like backdoors,” said Telegram’s founder, who doubts Whatsapp will ever be secure.

Also read: Indian Supreme Court Postpones Crypto Case at Government’s Request

A Phone Call Is All It Takes

Whatsapp and its parent company, Facebook, revealed last week that a major vulnerability had been discovered in the popular messaging service and urged users to update the app. The Financial Times reported that this latest vulnerability in Whatsapp had been open for weeks, allowing hackers to inject Israeli spyware onto mobile phones simply by calling targets, noting:

The malicious code, developed by the secretive Israeli company NSO Group, could be transmitted even if users did not answer their phones, and the calls often disappeared from call logs.

The publication further detailed, “Within minutes of the missed call, the phone starts revealing its encrypted content, mirrored on a computer screen halfway across the world. It then transmits back the most intimate details such as private messages and location, and even turns on the camera and microphone to live-stream meetings.” The news outlet added that “The software itself is not new — it was the latest upgrade to a decade-old technology so powerful that the Israeli defence ministry regulates its sale. But the Whatsapp hack was an enticing new ‘attack vector.'”

While the hackers who gained access by exploiting the vulnerability in Whatsapp’s call functionality have not been identified at press time, the company clarified in a statement:

The attack has all the hallmarks of a private company reportedly that works with governments to deliver spyware that takes over the functions of mobile phone operating systems.

Whatsapp is a free messaging and voice over IP service which allows users to send text messages, images, documents, and other media, as well as place voice and video calls. It was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for $19 billion. In July last year, Whatsapp said it had more than 1.5 billion users in over 180 countries, making it the most popular messaging app worldwide.

Alarming Number of Users Are Unaware

Both Facebook and Whatsapp have not said much about this latest hack. Moreover, instead of notifying users directly about the problem, Whatsapp issued a statement through the press urging people to update the software. This has led to an alarming number of users failing to update the app, according to smartphone security company Wandera which helps clients secure their employees’ smartphones. Its clients include Rolex, Deloitte, General Electric, and Bloomberg. The company manages over 1 million devices, 30% of which have Whatsapp installed.

As of Thursday, Wandera found that a whopping 80.2% of iOS and 55.4% of Android devices out of its managed devices had not been updated. Whatsapp is investigating the vulnerability but said that it is too early to estimate how many phones were targeted using this method, a person familiar with the issue told the Financial Times.

The NSO Group

The Israeli company that developed the software which allegedly exploits Whatsapp’s vulnerability said it was investigating the allegations but “Under no circumstances would NSO be involved in the operating or identifying of targets of its technology, which is solely operated by intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.

The group makes hacking tools primarily for intelligence agencies in the west and the middle east. Its flagship product, Pegasus, is designed to enable a phone’s microphone and camera, sift through emails and messages and also access location data.

“NSO’s technology is licensed to authorized government agencies for the sole purpose of fighting crime and terror. The company does not operate the system, and after a rigorous licensing and vetting process, intelligence and law enforcement determine how to use the technology to support their public safety missions,” the group explained. CNBC reported the group claiming that it does not use the hacking tools itself, and that the tools are “solely operated by intelligence and law enforcement agencies.”

Nonetheless, The Guardian wrote Saturday that the firm is facing a lawsuit backed by Amnesty International, as the organization says it fears its staff may be under surveillance from spyware installed via the Whatsapp messaging service. The paper described:

It has called on the country’s ministry of defence to ban the export of NSO’s Pegasus software, which can covertly take control of a mobile phone, copy its data and turn on the microphone for surveillance.

Sending Cryptocurrencies Through Whatsapp

This vulnerability was revealed at a time when Whatsapp has gained attention from the crypto community as a platform to develop services on. Cryptocurrency startup Wuabit is a chatbot assistant and cryptocurrency wallet accessible via the chat interface of Whatsapp. On March 26, Wuabit tweeted confirming “its business API integration” with the popular chat platform after a report by The Express the day before that the app’s public beta was due to start in April. “We are near completing the wallet core service starting with BTC,” a spokesman for the company told the news outlet.

Using the app, users can simply type in commands such as “send 0.05 BTC to Vera” and the cryptocurrency will be automatically sent from the user’s Wuabit wallet after a quick confirmation. In addition to Whatsapp, “more chat platforms will be added such as Telegram, FB Messenger, [and] Viber,” the service’s website proclaims.

Why Whatsapp May Never Be Secure

Following the news of Whatsapp’s latest vulnerability, Telegram founder Pavel Durov shared his thoughts on the subject. “Everything on your phone, including photos, emails and texts was accessible by attackers just because you had Whatsapp installed,” he began.

The entrepreneur founded Russia’s largest social network, VK, in 2006. After leaving the company as the CEO in 2014, he left Russia and concentrated on Telegram Messenger as a direct response to personal pressure from the Russian government to put a back door in his earlier project. Telegram is an open source, strongly-encrypted competitor to Whatsapp.

Pavel Durov

Durov was not surprised to hear of the latest vulnerability as he recalled Whatsapp admitting to having a similar issue last year. “Whatsapp’s closed-source code will perpetually keep it a target for hackers,” he asserted. “They do the exact opposite: Whatsapp deliberately obfuscates their apps’ binaries to make sure no one is able to study them thoroughly.” The Telegram founder said:

Every time Whatsapp has to fix a critical vulnerability in their app, a new one seems to appear in its place. All of their security issues are conveniently suitable for surveillance, and look and work a lot like backdoors.

According to Whatsapp, end-to-end encryption was implemented in 2016 “for all messaging and calling on Whatsapp so that no one, not even us, has access to the content of your conversations,” its website states. However, Durov calls this a marketing ploy, alleging that “at least several governments, including the Russians,” have the keys needed to decrypt all Whatsapp content.

Mike Campin, VP of Engineering at Wandera, believes that “Whatsapp’s ‘end-to-end-encryption’ badge certainly shouldn’t be mistaken as a guarantee that communications are secure.”

Durov continued by describing how Whatsapp started with no encryption at all and then suffered a “succession of security issues strangely suitable for surveillance purposes,” elaborating:

There hasn’t been a single day in Whatsapp’s 10 year journey when this service was secure … That’s why I don’t think that just updating Whatsapp’s mobile app will make it secure for anyone.

“For Whatsapp to become a privacy-oriented service, it has to risk losing entire markets and clashing with authorities in their home country. They don’t seem to be ready for that,” the entrepreneur concluded.

Do you use Whatsapp? What do you think of this vulnerability? Do you agree with Durov’s assessment? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the Moscow Times.

Are you feeling lucky? Visit our official Bitcoin casino where you can play BCH slots, BCH poker, and many more BCH games. Every game has a progressive Bitcoin Cash jackpot to be won!

Tags in this story

App, Backdoor, Bitcoin, BTC, crypto, Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency, Digital Currency, Facebook, Hack, Pavel Durov, Privacy, Software, spyware, Telegram, Virtual Currency, Vulnerability, WhatsApp

Kevin Helms

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.

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blogwonderwebsites · 6 years

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Nature U.S. Working on the Jamal Khashoggi Case With Turkish and Saudi Officials, Trump Says

Nature U.S. Working on the Jamal Khashoggi Case With Turkish and Saudi Officials, Trump Says Nature U.S. Working on the Jamal Khashoggi Case With Turkish and Saudi Officials, Trump Says http://www.nature-business.com/nature-u-s-working-on-the-jamal-khashoggi-case-with-turkish-and-saudi-officials-trump-says/

Nature

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Demonstrators on Monday held pictures of Jamal Khashoggi in front of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.CreditCreditOzan Kose/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The suspected murder of a prominent Saudi journalist exposed a growing rift on Thursday between the White House and Congress over American policy on Saudi Arabia, as Republican lawmakers demanded an investigation of Jamal Khashoggi’s whereabouts even as President Trump declared his relations with Riyadh “excellent.”

The Saudi-led, United States-backed bombing campaign of Houthi rebels in Yemen — which has killed thousands of civilians — was already a source of tension between Congress and the Trump administration.

But last week’s disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi, a well-connected Saudi columnist for The Washington Post living in Virginia, have incensed Republicans and Democrats in Congress, who accused the White House of moving too slowly in pressing the kingdom for answers.

“The Saudis will keep killing civilians and journalists as long as we keep arming and assisting them,” Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, said on Twitter on Thursday. “The President should immediately halt arms sales and military support to Saudi Arabia.”

But Mr. Trump quickly made clear he would not.

“What good does that do us?” Mr. Trump asked, speaking to reporters midday in the Oval Office.

“I would not be in favor of stopping a country from spending $110 billion — which is an all-time record — and letting Russia have that money and letting China have that money,” Mr. Trump said, referring to an arms deal with the Saudis, brokered last year, that the president has said will lead to new American jobs.

Earlier on Thursday, in an interview with Fox & Friends, Mr. Trump said American investigators were working with Turkish and Saudi officials to determine what happened to Mr. Khashoggi, who has not been seen since Oct. 2 after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials suspect a Saudi hit squad killed and dismembered Mr. Khashoggi inside the consulate.

The president said he and his administration are “looking at it very, very seriously” and soon expected to have more information.

“We want to find out what happened,” Mr. Trump said. “He went in and it doesn’t look like he came out.”

“We don’t like it,” Mr. Trump said. “I don’t like it. No good.” But he added that relations with the kingdom were “excellent.”

The pressure from Congress could force the White House and State Department to change important aspects of foreign policy — including, possibly, withdrawing support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen’s civil war. In June, a key vote on arms sales to the Saudis was narrowly approved, and future munitions sales have been held up.

On Wednesday, the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent a bipartisan letter to Mr. Trump demanding an investigation of whether “the highest ranking officials in the Government of Saudi Arabia” were responsible for human rights abuses in Mr. Khashoggi’s case.

The letter invoked a statute that Congress enacted in December 2016 which says the executive branch, upon receipt of such a letter, has 120 days to decide whether to sanction foreign officials.

It is not clear, however, whether the Trump administration will consider itself bound to comply if the president does not want to tangle with the Saudis. When former President Barack Obama signed the legislation creating that law, he issued a signing statement challenging it as an unconstitutional intrusion on executive power, and saying presidents would maintain “discretion to decline to act on such requests when appropriate.”

The Trump administration was widely criticized for its relative silence on Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance until Monday, six days after he entered the Saudi consulate. Critics said the slow reaction could embolden leaders of Saudi Arabia and other authoritarian nations to carry out human rights abuses.

The intense scrutiny of Saudi Arabia and its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, may strain his close relationship with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and top Middle East adviser. Mr. Kushner had been cultivating the prince’s support for an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, but King Salman of Saudi Arabia has rejected it.

Some analysts have also questioned whether financial ties between Mr. Trump and Saudi businessmen compromise his policies.

“The unanswered questions about the extent to which Trump’s personal interests — as well as those of his family and associates, including Jared Kushner — have had an effect on the U.S. approach to Saudi Arabia makes the close Saudi ties all the more troubling,” said Jeffrey Prescott, a senior White House director on the Middle East during Obama administration.

There are indications that the operation targeting Mr. Khashoggi was at least approved by Prince Mohammed.

American intelligence agencies have collected communications intercepts of Saudi officials discussing a plan to lure Mr. Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia and then detain him, said a former senior American official. The official added it was inconceivable that such a plan could be carried out without the approval of the crown prince.

Turkish security officials suspect Mr. Khashoggi was killed by a Saudi murder squad sent by the kingdom’s leadership, and that his body was dismembered with a bone saw and taken out of the building. A Turkish newspaper close to the government published names of 15 suspects who are believed to have left Turkey to return to Saudi Arabia the same day on two private planes; one is a top Saudi autopsy expert and another a lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force.

Saudi leaders maintain Mr. Khashoggi left the consulate on his own.

Mr. Trump notably made Saudi Arabia a destination for his first trip abroad as president, in May 2017, during which he announced a $110 billion weapons deal with the kingdom. Not only is Mr. Trump relying on Saudi Arabia to persuade Palestinians to support a peace plan, he is also dependent on the kingdom to help contain Iranian influence in the region.

Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, said rising tensions in the United States over Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance and other issues are “going to be significant.”

“It’s no doubt that Saudi Arabia has become one of the foreign policy issues that has resonated in the domestic political context,” Mr. Ibish said.

Still, he said the United States had no option but to rely on Saudi Arabia as an ally if seeks influence in the Middle East. “It can’t really project influence and force in the region without the cooperation of a major regional power,” Mr. Ibish said. “There are no good options to Saudi Arabia.”

Congress has have grown increasingly angry over the conduct of the bombing campaign, which is part of a proxy war in Yemen between Saudi Arabia and Iran. An Aug. 9 airstrike that hit a school bus, killing more than 40 school children, was particularly shocking — even for a war in which children have been the primary victims, suffering through one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with rampant malnutrition and outbreaks of cholera.

The war in Yemen had killed more than 10,000 people before the United Nations stopped updating the death toll two years ago.

In response to reports of civilian casualties, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, has held up a proposed sale by Raytheon of 60,000 laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, a deal worth about $1 billion. (Mr. Menendez is also holding up a similar deal to sell the same weapons to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi’s main partner in the air war in Yemen.)

The case of Mr. Khashoggi “only strengthens the need for the administration to answer his questions on the need to approve the proposed sales,” said Juan Pachon, a spokesman for Mr. Menendez. The senator met Mr. Khashoggi on a congressional delegation trip to Saudi Arabia in 2014.

The Trump administration last month certified that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were doing enough to minimize the deadly consequences of their aerial campaign in Yemen.

Ahead of the certification, however, international aid groups in Yemen compiled a list of 37 incidents between June and September involving civilians killed or injured in coalition strikes, and provided them to American officials, according to two officials briefed on the casualty figures.

Frustration over the Yemen war extends to Pentagon officials and American commanders. In late August, the top American air commander in the Middle East urged the Saudi-led coalition of Arab nations to be more forthcoming about an investigation into the airstrike on the school bus.

“They need to come out and say what occurred there,” the officer, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, said in an interview with The New York Times.

A week after General Harrigian’s comments were made public, the Saudi-led coalition acknowledged that the air attack was unjustified, and it pledged to hold accountable anyone who contributed to the error. But human rights groups said the Saudis have made promises before on similar errant strikes with scant results.

“If there’s no follow-up, clear benchmarks set, we’re unlikely to see the promises made by the coalition actualized,” said Kristine Beckerle, a Yemen researcher with Human Rights Watch.

Charlie Savage and Noah Weiland contributed reporting.

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/us/politics/trump-jamal-khashoggi-turkey-saudi.html |

Nature U.S. Working on the Jamal Khashoggi Case With Turkish and Saudi Officials, Trump Says, in 2018-10-11 17:41:06

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blogcompetnetall · 6 years