#Qatar State Mosque
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emaadsidiki · 2 years ago
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The Grand Mosque, Doha, Qatar.
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the-garbanzo-annex-jr · 2 years ago
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by Douglas Murray
All of this money was used by Hamas leaders to buy themselves luxury condos in Qatar and other foreign climes. Inside Gaza, almost none of this money went to help Palestinians in Gaza. Rather Hamas used the funds they didn’t pilfer to build this underground terror network which comes out in hospitals, mosques, and other places that the international community regards as sacred, but which Hamas does not.
And why do I say “we”? Because American taxpayers are among the people who were fooled into sending money to these terrorists.
Since 2007, the US has sent over $400 million in taxpayers’ money to Gaza. That is all after the coup where Hamas seized power. These are the official figures released by USAID (United States Agency for International Development. USAID also says that it has paid more than $500 million between 2021 and the end of this year.
That money may also have gone to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. And I can tell you from traveling there many times that I know where our taxpayer dollars went too. They went to the equally corrupt officials of Fatah who built themselves mansions that would cause envy to many homeowners in the Hamptons.
And even that isn’t the end of it. Because the US is also foolish enough to continue to fund the UN agency UNRWA. This is one of the most corrupt entities even at the UN. Which is saying something. And in 2021 alone the US was UNRWA’s largest single donor, shoveling an astonishing $338 million.
Other countries have also been taken for mugs.
The EU is spending more than $100 million in Gaza this year. But even the EU countries don’t give as much money to UNRWA as America does. The US is far and away the biggest donor. The next biggest is Germany with a mere $176 million going annually to the organization. In total, US agencies have funneled billions of dollars to Gaza in recent years. And all of this money has gone not to improving the lives of Palestinians, but to building palaces for Hamas and tunnels for their weaponry and terrorists.
Hamas officials have even said that they regard the tunnels as being for their terrorists. The rest of the world is meant to look after the actual civilians themselves.
I beg to differ. And I also beg American officials to wise up. Our taxpayer dollars have gone to a terrorist group every year since 2007. And now we know what we have got for it. An attack on our allies in Israel.
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eretzyisrael · 6 months ago
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On the backdrop of a deal between Israel and Hamas that will include a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of Israeli hostages captured and taken to Gaza during the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led invasion and massacres in southern Israel, Hamas Political Bureau member Khalil Al-Hayya said in a January 15, 2025 statement aired on Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar): "We salute our martyred leaders, whose body parts were scattered all over in this war." He said that Hamas will continue in their footsteps until victory or martyrdom are achieved, and he described October 7 as a "miracle and accomplishment" that will remain a "source of pride" for the Palestinian people and their "resistance" for generations to come.
He said that the attacks had dealt a "deadly blow" to Israel, that the Palestinian people will regain all their rights, that the Israeli occupation will be expelled from Palestine and Jerusalem, that this will happen soon, and that Israel's "barbaric genocide" in Gaza will forever be ingrained in the memory of the world as the "worst genocide in the modern age," declaring: "We will never forget and never forgive!" He added that the criminals involved in Israel's crimes will be punished "even if it takes time," that Israel has failed to achieve any of its goals in the war, and that Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque will remain the goal of the Jihad and the resistance until their liberation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Khalil Al-Hayya: "We salute our martyred leaders, whose body parts were scattered all over in this war.
[...]
On the backdrop of a deal between Israel and Hamas that will include a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of Israeli hostages captured and taken to Gaza during the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led invasion and massacres in southern Israel, Hamas Political Bureau member Khalil Al-Hayya said in a January 15, 2025 statement aired on Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar): "We salute our martyred leaders, whose body parts were scattered all over in this war." He said that Hamas will continue in their footsteps until victory or martyrdom are achieved, and he described October 7 as a "miracle and accomplishment" that will remain a "source of pride" for the Palestinian people and their "resistance" for generations to come.
He said that the attacks had dealt a "deadly blow" to Israel, that the Palestinian people will regain all their rights, that the Israeli occupation will be expelled from Palestine and Jerusalem, that this will happen soon, and that Israel's "barbaric genocide" in Gaza will forever be ingrained in the memory of the world as the "worst genocide in the modern age," declaring: "We will never forget and never forgive!" He added that the criminals involved in Israel's crimes will be punished "even if it takes time," that Israel has failed to achieve any of its goals in the war, and that Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque will remain the goal of the Jihad and the resistance until their liberation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Khalil Al-Hayya: "We salute our martyred leaders, whose body parts were scattered all over in this war.
[...]
On the backdrop of a deal between Israel and Hamas that will include a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of Israeli hostages captured and taken to Gaza during the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led invasion and massacres in southern Israel, Hamas Political Bureau member Khalil Al-Hayya said in a January 15, 2025 statement aired on Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar): "We salute our martyred leaders, whose body parts were scattered all over in this war." He said that Hamas will continue in their footsteps until victory or martyrdom are achieved, and he described October 7 as a "miracle and accomplishment" that will remain a "source of pride" for the Palestinian people and their "resistance" for generations to come.
He said that the attacks had dealt a "deadly blow" to Israel, that the Palestinian people will regain all their rights, that the Israeli occupation will be expelled from Palestine and Jerusalem, that this will happen soon, and that Israel's "barbaric genocide" in Gaza will forever be ingrained in the memory of the world as the "worst genocide in the modern age," declaring: "We will never forget and never forgive!" He added that the criminals involved in Israel's crimes will be punished "even if it takes time," that Israel has failed to achieve any of its goals in the war, and that Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque will remain the goal of the Jihad and the resistance until their liberation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Khalil Al-Hayya: "We salute our martyred leaders, whose body parts were scattered all over in this war.
[...]
"We will proceed on the path of the martyred leaders until we achieve victory or martyrdom, Allah willing.
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"The security and military miracle and accomplishment of October 7, carried out by the elite forces of the Al-Qassam [Brigades], will remain a source of pride for our people and our resistance, and it will be passed down from generation to generation. The enemy entity was dealt a deadly blow. Our people will regain all their rights, Allah willing, and this occupation will be expelled from our land, our Jerusalem, and our holy places, and it will happen soon, Allah willing. The barbaric genocidal war, perpetrated by the occupation and its supporters, their Nazi crimes and their enmity to humanity, over a period of 467 days, will remain engraved in the memory of our people and the world for all eternity as the worst genocide in modern age.
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mariacallous · 7 months ago
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On Dec. 8, President Bashar al-Assad fled Syria, bringing an end to nearly 54 years of his family’s rule and sending millions of Syrians at home and abroad into a state of euphoria and relief. Over a dramatic 12 days, an armed opposition offensive that had begun west of Aleppo on Nov. 27 triggered the precipitous crumbling of regime front lines, one after the other. As rebels began to advance south, Syrians across the country began to rise up. By the night of Dec. 7, Assad’s defeat had been sealed.
The rapid disintegration of Assad’s regime came as a surprise to everyone. For years, the international community had written off any chance that Syrians’ demand for change would ever be realized, embracing instead the concept of a “frozen conflict” and gradually withdrawing attention and resources away from Syria policy. In 2023, most of the Arab world reembraced Assad, rewarding him with his seat back in the Arab League and granting him and his regime with high-profile public visits across the region.
In truth, the international community has misjudged the situation in Syria in recent years. While lines drawn on maps and the stagnation of diplomacy led to assumptions that Assad was here to stay and was consolidating his rule, the regime had, in fact, been decaying and fragmenting from within. In many ways, the fact that Assad’s regime had not faced a serious military challenge since early 2020 was what created the conditions that allowed the decay to take root.
Events over the past two weeks have turned the entire international approach to Syria on its head. A rapid process of adaptation and reassessment is now underway. In a series of hurriedly organized high-level meetings in Doha, Qatar, this weekend, Arab governments have struggled to adjust to the new reality.
As Syrians were seizing control of Damascus suburbs late on Dec. 7 and Assad was preparing to flee, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Qatar called for a cease-fire and political negotiations—a statement that might have made sense a week earlier but seemed irrelevant within hours. In subsequent side meetings, it was clear that regional states were simply perplexed and outpaced by events on the ground.
Meanwhile, the United Nations and its special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, have surged into action, engaging intensively with the so-called Astana group (Russia, Iran, and Turkey), the Arab states, the United States, and Europe to chart a path forward oriented around U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254.
That mandate, set forth in December 2015, calls for a transitional period, leading eventually to free and fair elections. Plans are already afoot for a return of Syria peace talks in Geneva—but without the Assad regime’s representatives, who had attended only to block any meaningful progress. Nevertheless, despite the rapid call to action, it remains unclear exactly what format the U.N. intends to bring to Geneva, nor who or how many Syrians would be involved.
While deliberations around a political process continue, events are developing fast on the ground. Early on Dec. 8, armed fighters from southern Syria escorted the country’s Prime Minister, Mohammed Ghazi al-Jalali, to the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus amid a purported plan to conduct a swift but nonviolent transition.
Later that day, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—the most powerful armed group that launched the initial offensive—arrived in Damascus and went to Syria’s famed Umayyad Mosque to proclaim victory. In the Assad regime’s coastal heartlands of Tartus and Latakia, locals took to the streets to topple Assad family statues and opposition fighters took over military bases.
According to four sources associated with HTS and its broader military operations coalition, Syria’s political transition is already underway and is being managed internally. Their view is that a U.N.-led process designed and determined abroad is unnecessary, and they reject it. “We welcome the international community’s support, but we do not need them to manufacture a process that we are already implementing,” one of them told me as they arrived in Damascus. “We refuse to step into the traps of the past,” said another.
The divergent visions of internal and external actors represent a significant problem but also a simple reflection of how astonishingly fast developments have occurred.
For now, the priority for the international community needs to be on communication—with as many of the actors on the ground as possible, armed and civilian alike. Many towns and cities across Syria are now being run by long-standing local councils, religious bodies, and state institutions.
How they fit within the transition that is seemingly underway in Damascus or in the U.N.’s plans for talks in Geneva is anyone’s guess. Before devising another internationally-led process to determine Syria’s future, regional and U.N. officials would be wise to listen to and communicate with the forces on the ground that are already shaping it.
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girlactionfigure · 1 year ago
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🔅After Shabbat Report - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connect to Israel in Real Time
🔻Peace rockets of death over Shabbat…
Hezbollah - Even Menachem, Zarit, Shomera, Shtula 
Hezbollah - Shlomi
Hamas - Sderot, Ibim, Nir Am — launch site subsequently destroyed.
Hamas - Nachal Oz 
Hezbollah - Kiryat Shmona
▪️US SAYS ISRAEL NOT ALLOWED TO FIGHT UNLESS THEY SAY SO.. US Sec State Blinken: “The US needs to see a clear and implementable plan for action in Rafah. The US has not yet seen such a plan. We cannot support an operation that does not include a civilian protection and evacuation plan.”
▪️US SAYS CEASEFIRE CLOSER.. US Sec State Blinken: “The US government is working extensively with Egypt, Qatar and Israel to bridge the remaining gaps for the deal, discussions are ongoing as we speak. Israel has brought back a team to the negotiations and this underscores the urgency.”
A diplomat familiar with the discussions on the cease-fire agreement told CNN that "it will not be easy to convince the Israelis to agree to the latest terms of Hamas", adding that he is waiting for the Israeli answer and "is not celebrating yet”.
(( Hmm, can the U.S. force Israel to accept suicide terms?  They’re trying. ))
▪️TERROR - HEBRON SHOOTING.. An armed terrorist was identified shooting towards the Jewish section of  Hebron from the cemetery area. The terrorist was neutralized, IDF forces are searching for additional terrorists.  The terrorist was an imam of one of the Arab Hebron city mosques and a Hamas member.
▪️PROTESTS.. small groups of protestors causing major disruption: around a hundreds protesters blocking the Karkur intersection demanding that the government agree to the deal now and demanding that the government be replaced. Around 40 at nightly Ayalon south blocked to traffic by protesters demanding to reach a deal. 
They get a lot of media coverage giving the impression of major activity, and are given some extra leeway because distraught hostage families are sometimes involved - but are consistently small in number (hundreds).
▪️DOWNED SUICIDE DRONE FOUND.. in the north with warhead intact.  Police sappers blew it up.  If you encounter rocket or drone parts, contact police, dial 100.
▪️AID DROP.. now with pink parachutes so the civilians can try to avoid getting crushed.  UNSUCCESSFUL: Al Jazeera: One dead and several injured as a result of aid that was dropped today in Beit Lahia in the north of Gaza.
▪️AID HANDLING.. NBC report: Israel is considering hiring the services of American defense companies and contractors (meaning mercenaries) to secure humanitarian aid shipments inside Gaza.
▪️AIR TRAVEL.. Brussels Airlines will restart flights next week. EU airline Eurowings started flying to Israel this week.
🔸LET MY BABIES & WOMEN GO! -> https://www.israelhayom.com/2023/10/31/these-are-the-captives-held-by-hamas/
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A Morrocan ex-Muslim take on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
This is again taken from reddit, text was posted by user named u/Benjazzi. I found it a very insightful read and I hope you will too:
I'm from Morocco. I'm atheist but my entire family is muslim. When it comes to the Israel-Palestine conflict, some muslims, sadly, can really go insane. For them, it's our tribe (Palestine moslems) against the enemy tribe.
Israel bombed South Lebanon after Lebanon bombed them ? "It never happened"
Israel stormed the holy Al Aqsa mosque because people throwing rocks took refuge inside of it ? "I don't believe it"
Mass Rapes ? "Fake news. It never happened"
"Our tribe can do no wrong" is literally how many people think.
To be fair, Jews can be tribal. But it's frankly nowhere to the same extent. The Jewish press is full of critics of the Israeli government and debates. Honestly, I have found that as long as you don't sing "Death to Israel" and are respectful, you can have very constructive conversation with most Jews and Israelis, even if you are critical. That's because they have a tradition of debate. Sadly, the muslim world lacks this.
Saudi Arabia just bought Cristiano Ronaldo for $1 billion. I have seen people on arab social media argue that Saudi Arabia doesn't help Palestinians because... the Saudi Prince is a puppet on a jewish-american string. It's totally stupid. He has publically humiliated the President of the United States.
Why he doesn't help ? Well. The explanation is simple. He doesn't give a fuck. But the idea that a sovereign arab leader might not care about "our tribe" is so shocking and so disturbing that some people need to find sinister foreign hands to explain it.
Egypt is right now shooting people who try to leave Gaza. I have seen Egyptians argue that the Egyptian President is....secretly jewish. "Sisi is a jewish dog, his mom is jewish". I mean... really 🤔 ?
The idea that a sovereign arab leader might not care about "our tribe" is so shocking and so disturbing to them that many Egyptians have to find some insane conspiracy to explain it.
This is the kind of cognitive dissonance that I sadly see all around me.
NYT publishes an investigation critical of Israeli behavior? I post it online. Reactions on social media ? "Great job ! Fucking zionist pigs. The New York Times just exposed them"
NYT publishes an investigation critical of Palestinian behavior ? I post it online. Reactions on social media ? "Fuck your propaganda. New York Times is pure zionist filth"
"Our tribe can do no wrong".
A newspaper is reliable or fake... simply depending on how it portrays the tribe !!
Then you have Islamism on top of that. The cherry on the chocolate cake.
Read the comment I posted here :
The real problem today in our world is a guy called Sayed El Qutb.
He was an egyptian intellectual who is considered the father of ALL Islamists.
In his books, he argues that the best period for muslims was under the Islamic Caliphates, when the entire world respected and feared muslims. He believes the Islamic World went through cultural, political and economic decline due to not enough Islam. According to him, only a return to PURE Islam™ can make muslims great again. Sayed El Qutb endorsed creating an Islamic State based exclusively on Sharia Law. He praised violent jihad against the non-muslims (kouffars). He opposed secularism, gender mixing, and hated jews ("filthy pigs") and atheists.
He was hanged in 1964 for attempting to murder President Nasser. But his books have spread very successfully. Sayd Qutb is to islamists what Karl Marx was to communists. Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Nosra front. All of their creators read his books and deeply admired him.
3 countries are particularly behind Islamism : Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar.
The first one is Saudi Arabia. In the 70s, using their oil money, they opened a special university called the University of Madinah. Anyone can go study there for free to become an Imam. Saudis will pay your tuition and boarding school. Your food ? They will pay for it. These imams all learned the ideas of Sayed Al Qutb. Westerners are filth, jews are vile pigs, women must obey men, women must be veiled, secularism is a form of mental disease.
After graduating , these Saudi-trained Imams were sent back to their country in Africa, Europe, or Malaysia, to spread Saudi soft power. And this happened for decades and decades. They were the most successful in 2 countries in particular : Pakistan and Egypt. In these countries, a generation of public school teachers received Saudi textbooks. Imagine the result on the general population.
The second country to blame for Islamism is Iran.
In 1979, a secular dictatorwas overthrowed and replaced by a religious dictator. Ayatollah Khomenei became Supreme Guide of the Revolution. He always wears a black turban on his head. That black turban means he is "sayyed", a direct descendent of Muhammed. Ayatollah Khomenei was a deep admirer of Sayed Qutb. He translated all Sayed El Qutb's work into Farsi to "educate iranian people".
His new Islamic regime started using their oil money to fund $$$ radical islamic groups all around the Middle East. In Irak, in Pakistan, Lebanon, in Syria. His successor, "Ayatollah Khamanei" has pursed his heritage. Iran published a Fatwa calling for any muslim who can to murder the UK poet Salman Rushdie for his books. Salman Rushdie has been forced to live in hiding for 20 years. He was recently stabbed during a literary festival in America.
In 1984, Iran published an official postal stamp paying tribune to Sayed El Qutb, calling him a true martyr of Islam. Also, several streets and avenues in Iran were named "Qutb" as a tribute.
The third country to blame is Qatar. They are the favorite headquarter of all islamists in the world today. Al Nosra Front, Al Qaeda, Hamas, The Afghan Talibans. You always find Qatar.
In Morocco, Qataris are big supporters of the local Islamists (حركة التوحيد والإصلاح)
I can testify that what Al Jazeera spreads in arabic is far far worse than what they actually say in english. They had a TV show with a guy called Youssef Al Qaradawi. This guy is a disciple of Sayed El Qutb. He tells people it's okay to beat up your wife, that jews are disgusting pigs, that Islam will take over Europe. His TV show was watched by 60 million people every week on Al Jazeera Arabic. 60 million people. Every week. In 1998, they published a documentary called "Ben Laden : One man standing against an empire"
Here is another thing you won't see in Al Jazeera English. Basically, the rape, slaughter and torture of Israeli civilians is just presented as "a wonderful victory" on Al Jazeera Arabic. That's it. They won't give any more detail. No pictures. Anyone who seriously studies the military tactics of Hamas, reading academic papers, comes to the conclusion that the Israelis - whatever you think about them - aren't actually lying. Hamas really does use Palestinians as Human Shields. It's never mentioned on Al Jazeera. Never. In fact, their "journalists" told a palestinian shouting this to shut his damn mouth.
Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar. These 3 countries have become the cancer of Islam.
And they have used their money to spread their influence, including in Morocco. Now the cancer has spread.
The question is how do we cure it? I don't know. I have small hopes for Saudi Arabia because even if their Prince is a dictator, he genuinely wants to improve his country. He is reforming textbooks to remove antisemitism, allowing women to drive, allowing music, ending forced gender segregation, etc... But the other two countries remain a major problem.
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silicacid · 2 years ago
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Qatar slams Israeli plan to confiscate Palestinian land in occupied East Jerusalem
The Qatari Foreign Ministry has denounced Israel’s decision to expropriate Palestinian-owned land in and around Silwan to erect a cable car from the area to Abu Tor in West Jerusalem, going through the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem.
Qatar “considers this decision a flagrant violation of the principles and provisions of international law and the relevant UNESCO resolutions”, it said in a statement posted on X.
The ministry also called on the UN Security Council to take action to stop Israel from “changing the historical and legal status of Jerusalem”, adding that this step hinders the achievement of a two-state solution.
Daniel Seidemann, an expert on settlements in Jerusalem, said on X earlier: “The cable car is 1.4 kilometres [0.87 miles] in length and will whir above Palestinian homes in Silwan, adjacent to the Church of St. Peter Gallicantu on Mount Zion. Its terminal is located at settler headquarters near the Old City’s Dung Gate, less than 170 metres [185 yards] away from the Al Aqsa Mosque.”
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upismediacenter · 2 years ago
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OPINION: Taking Israel’s GenoSide: The Media’s Uneven Coverage on Israel-Palestine
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Photo credits: Anna Dalet
In the midst of a genocide, is staying silent and neutral a viable option? On October 7, war ignited again between Israel and Palestine, after an attack by Hamas, an Islamist militant movement and one of the two major Palestinian political parties. Israel retaliated by bombing schools, hospitals, refugee camps, and mosques, resulting in the death of thousands of civilians. To this day, Israel’s genocide is in full swing and they seem to have no intention in agreeing to a ceasefire. With this news, it is very alarming to see an uneven coverage of media being put out, especially since they are supposed to provide the public with complete and objective information. If the media only portrays a certain narrative—feeding us with biased information and the incomplete truth, how will we be able to form our opinions, take a stand and fight for the lives at stake?
We must call the Israel-Palestine “issue” for what it is. As defined by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, a genocide is “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.” It is a "textbook case of genocide," Stockton University's Raz Segal, program director for genocide studies, concretely says. Segal believes that Israeli forces are completing three genocidal acts, including “killing, causing serious bodily harm, and measures calculated to bring about the destruction of the group.”
Looking back on Israel and Palestine’s deep and complicated history, it is clear that this war did not just start out of nowhere. For the past 75 years, Palestine has faced colonization, dispossession, and relentless oppression with the rise of Israel as a Zionist state. The long and violent conflict is rooted on issues over territory where both Palestinians, an Arab population, and Israel, a Jewish state, claim rights to the land. In 1947, the United Nations sought to divide the then British-ruled Palestine, giving each group a part of the land. However, the Arab countries objected. As Israel declared its independence in 1948, tensions rose over the territory, leading to several wars between Israel and Palestine, as well as surrounding Arab countries.
This provides context for the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, quoted as the “deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.” According to Israeli officials, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on military outposts and communities in southern Israel, killing more than 1,400 Israelis and taking more than 200 hostages back to Gaza on October 7. But on the same day, Israel launched a relentless bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 8,000 people, about 40% of whom are children. The onslaught greatly devastated Gaza’s health sector with most of its infrastructure being destroyed.
Since then, the Palestinian death toll has risen to over 18,000 with a staggering 70% of it being women and children. Living conditions in Gaza have been difficult with supply to food, water, medicine, electricity, and fuel, basic essentials for survival, being cut off by Israel's military forces. They even blocked humanitarian aid from reaching the civilians. The continuous bombing has caused over 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to be displaced—their homes reduced to rubble and their families torn apart.
The Israeli government and Hamas agreed on a 4-day ceasefire, eventually extended to 6 days, in order to release prisoners and hostages. As the ceasefire ended last November 30, Israel continued to mercilessly bomb Palestine, targeting areas that have been previously described as safe, such as Southern Gaza. How the truce ended is unclear with both countries blaming each other. In a report by Reuters, “Qatar, which has played a central role in mediation efforts, said negotiations were still going on with Israelis and Palestinians to restore the truce, but that Israel's renewed bombardment of Gaza had complicated its efforts.” However, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Hamas reneged on the commitments they have made causing the truce to end.
This called for an emergency UN General Assembly (UNGA), made up of 193 countries last December 13, wherein they adopted a resolution demanding immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, as well as immediate and unconditional release of all hostages—153 in favor, 10 against, 23 abstain. The UNGA have also previously voted on the proposed humanitarian truce last October where 121 members were in favor, 14 were against, and 44 abstained. Among those that remained against the ceasefire is Israel and its biggest ally, the United States. The members' overwhelming response and shift in votes prove that Israel’s genocide cannot be justified and must be put to an end immediately.
Now that the facts have been laid out, let us look at how mainstream media disseminates this information. Which brings us to the media’s uneven coverage on Israel-Palestine, particularly Western media, with news outlets such as BBC, Fox News, MSNBC, among others showing forms of bias towards Israel.
The historical context of what Palestinians have been going through for the past 75 years is purposely being left out and ignored on Western news outlets; only stating damages inflicted upon Israel, not even acknowledging the casualties that people in Gaza suffer from. Numerous Western correspondents have gone to Israel and written extensively about the suffering of Israeli families; yet, because Israel has prohibited international journalists from entering Gaza, they are missing such vital and crucial aspects of the story. They are highlighting the Israeli narrative and the grief of families in Israel, while Palestinian families can only mourn in silence. “They are not just covering the Israeli narrative, but they are living the Israeli narrative.” Taghreed El-Khodary, an analyst from Gaza, told news network Al Jazeera.
Journalists from BBC, a UK-based broadcasting corporation, have expressed their criticisms on the news channel’s pro-Israel stance and insufficient coverage of Palestinian civilians in the form of an open letter. The 2,300-word statement called out BBC’s “double standard in how civilians are seen”, how the corporation was “investing greater effort in humanizing Israeli victims compared with Palestinians, and omitting key historical context in coverage”, despite being “bold” and “unflinching” in its reporting of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The letter also demanded that the corporation better reflect evidence-based findings from official humanitarian sources and organizations to give equal treatment to all civilians in its news coverage. Another group of journalists from Australian media outlets had written an open letter, calling on Australian newsrooms to undertake eight steps to improve coverage, including “adhering to truth over ‘both-sidesism’” and “applying as much professional skepticism when prioritizing or relying on uncorroborated Israeli government and military sources to shape coverage as is applied to Hamas.”
Social media clamor plays a big role in spreading information about Palestine’s situation, especially to the younger generation. Despite content supporting Palestine being censored, people find a way to push through and still talk about the situation across various platforms such as X, or formerly known as Twitter, educating the audience about the situation of Palestinians that are often being shunned by news corporations. Hashtags such as #FreePalestine and even the watermelon emoji became a way for people to spread awareness about Israel committing genocide in Palestine, which was not at first shown on mainstream media due to numerous administrations’ inaction.
Foregrounding the narrative of Israel has led to the spread of misinformation and disinformation. Fake stories arose, such as claims of seeing babies being beheaded by Hamas, with the information even reaching the White House. The false narrative began when a reporter from i24, a news channel located in Israel, quoted a lone Israeli soldier who claimed that he had seen decapitated babies. The Prime Minister of Israel's Spokesperson, Tal Heinrich, later repeated the soldier's claims. US President Joe Biden, despite not having seen any pictures nor receiving any confirmation, had continued to repeat the false allegations. But the following day, there was zero evidence to be presented, forcing the White House to retract Biden’s remark. Israel also regularly attempts to cast doubt upon the number of Palestinians getting killed in Gaza without providing any concrete proof, but according to the Human Rights Watch, the Gaza Ministry of Health bases its death tolls on the best available data from hospitals and morgues, aiming for transparency by publishing all the names, ages, and other identifying information of Palestinians killed. Getting at the truth is especially complicated by Israel’s refusal to grant international journalists visas to enter Gaza, leaving local Palestinian reporters to cope with the few resources that they have.
There is also an evident difference in labels and terminology used to describe each side that suggests the presence of bias and prejudice. In some media coverage and news articles written, Palestinians “die” while Israelis are “killed”. The term “victim” is often used to describe the Israeli side when being reported, compared to when Palestinians are being referenced. In reports written by BBC, terms like “massacre” and “brutality” are only used for Hamas, painting them as the exclusive provocateurs and perpetrators of such violent acts.
Additionally, the US remains supportive of Israel’s violent advances, justifying them by saying their relentless bombing is an act of self-defense, and the media is evidently taking their cues from this narrative of the US administration, lacking strong points in criticizing Israel or urging a call for ceasefire. There are no explicit rules on how to portray the Israel-Palestine conflict, but there is “a culture of fear in our institutions here about talking honestly and freely about this,” says journalist Abdallah Fayyad. In addition, The Nation's Acting Senior Editor Jack Mirkinson expresses that, to show support for Palestine brings many different risks, such as being ostracized in the broader media world, or being labeled a terrorist sympathizer.
We can see that the mainstream media is doing little to air out the truth and is not pushing American officials to condemn Israel and its military campaign. In fact, these very networks continue to air interviews with American politicians who urge the bombing of Palestine. For example, US Sen. Lindsey Graham, appearing on Fox News said "we are in a religious war here, I am with Israel. Do whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourselves; level the place." While those that speak against Israel are being censored, such as Noura Erakat, a Palestinian-American human rights lawyer, who appeared live on CBS and ABC, only to have the segments pulled from playbacks online.
The unjust media coverage by Western countries can be attributed to the fact that Israel’s genocide is funded by the most powerful imperialist country, the United States. According to Al Jazeera, “the US has given Israel more military assistance than any other country since World War II, providing aid worth more than $124bn.” They have also been giving $3.8bn each year in military assistance under a 10-year plan that began in 2016. Signed by the previous US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the plan, that is still being supported by current US President Joe Biden, makes Israel the largest recipient of American aid. It aims to financially support Israel’s defense systems against rockets fired by groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.
By backing and arming Israel, the US maintains an ally in the Middle East, being deeply rooted from a 75-year partnership that was built on mutual interests and shared democratic values since Israel’s declaration of independence. Maintaining this relationship with Israel holds strategic value for it helps maintain access to the regional oil supply that the US is dependent on. The US also remains to be Israel’s top trading partner with an annual bilateral trade of nearly $50 billion in goods and services. This proves that the US is only interested in conserving power and gaining money, instead of denouncing Israel’s crimes and advocating for the safety of innocent civilians.
With the inconsistent information spread out across various platforms, we must be persistent in seeking out the story from not just a single perspective to unveil the complete truth. With each passing day, the number of lives at stake continues to rise, an increasing number of Palestinians are slaughtered and injured, a great portion of them being innocent civilians. Carrying out a genocide does not effectively resolve any conflict, and only results to destroying and wiping out an existing nation’s population.
As students, we need to realize that we must not belittle our role and what we are able to contribute to this issue. Living in the modern world of technology, things such as social media play a big part in spreading information. A light can be shed upon the struggle for Palestinian Liberation, giving them a voice, so that people from all over the world can know their stories. We must stand with Palestine and fight for their freedom by conducting research, spreading awareness, taking part in mobilizations, and calling for action from our government and international institutions. By arming ourselves with the truth, we can save the lives of those fighting for freedom. // by Daphne De Ramos and Grace Gaerlan
SOURCES:
Al Jazeera. (2023, November 3). US House passes $14.5bn military aid package for Israel. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/3/us-house-passes-14-5bn-military-aid- package-for-israel 
Al Jazeera. (2023, December 12). UN General Assembly votes overwhelmingly in favour of Gaza ceasefire. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/12/un-general-assembly-votes-overwhelmingly-in-favour-of-gaza-ceasefire 
Beauchamp, Z. (2023, November 9). What are Israel and Palestine? Why are they fighting? Vox. https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080002/israel-palestine-conflict-history-overview-map 
Davis, J. H. (2016, September 13). U.S. Finalizes Deal to Give Israel $38 Billion in Military Aid The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/world/middleeast/israel-benjamin- netanyahu-military-aid.html 
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Global Conflict Tracker. (n.d.). Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict 
Media coverage of Israel and Gaza is rife with deadly double standards. (2023, October 23). The New Humanitarian. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/editorial/2023/10/23/ media-coverage-israel-and-gaza-double-standards 
Narea, N. (2023, October 13). US-Israel support: How the US became Israel’s closest ally. Vox. https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23916266/us-israel-support-ally-gaza-war-aid 
Nashed, M. (2023, October 29). Western coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza – bias or unprofessionalism?  Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/29/ western-coverage-of-israels-war-on-gaza-bias-or-unprofessionalism 
United Nations. (2023, December 12). UN General Assembly votes by large majority for immediate humanitarian ceasefire during emergency session. UN News. https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/12/1144717 
U.S. Relations with Israel - United States Department of State. (2023, January 30). State Department. https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-israel-2/ 
Scahill, J. (2023, December 14). Joe Biden Keeps Repeating His False Claim That He Saw Pictures of Beheaded Babies. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2023/12/14/israel-biden-beheaded-babies-false/ 
Burga, S. (2023, November 14). Is What’s Happening in Gaza a Genocide? Experts Weigh In. Time. https://time.com/6334409/is-whats-happening-gaza-genocide-experts/ 
Salem, S. & Al-Mughrabi, N. (2023, December 2). Scores reported killed in Gaza as fighting shatters Israel-Hamas truce. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza- negotiators-try-get-israel-hamas-agree-extend-truce-again-2023-12-01/ 
Safdar, A. (2023, November 23). As Israel pounds Gaza, BBC journalists accuse broadcaster of bias. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/23/as-israel-pounds -gaza-bbc-journalists-accuse-broadcaster-of-bias 
Demirci, Z. (2023, November 24). BBC reporters criticize broadcaster over its pro-Israel bias, coverage of Palestine. Anadolu Agency. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/bbc-reporters-criticize- broadcaster-over-its-pro-israel-bias-coverage-of-palestine/3063212 
Letter from Journalists to Australian Media Outlets [open letter]. (2023, November 24). Tasmanian Times. https://tasmaniantimes.com/2023/11/letter-from-journalists- to-australian-media-outlets/ 
Al Jazeera. (2023, November 11). US media on Israel-Gaza: What’s lacking? [Video]. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-listening-post/2023/11/11/us-media-on-israel-gaza-whats-lacking 
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bllsbailey · 2 months ago
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Trump Downplays Putin Decision to Skip Istanbul Talks With Zelenskyy
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President Donald Trump said Thursday he was not surprised that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be a no-show for anticipated peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey this week.
Trump had pressed for Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet in Istanbul this week. He brushed off Putin's decision to not take part in the expected talks.
"I didn't think it was possible for Putin to go if I'm not there," Trump said in an exchange with reporters as he took part in a business roundtable with executives in Doha on the third day of his visit to the Middle East.
Trump earlier this week floated potentially attending himself. The U.S. president, however, noted on Thursday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was already in the country for meetings with NATO counterparts. Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, also plans to be in Istanbul on Friday for the anticipated Russia-Ukraine talks.
The push for direct talks between Zelenskyy and Putin comes amid a flurry of negotiations aimed at producing a ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
Putin was first to propose restarting direct peace talks Thursday with Ukraine in the Turkish city that straddles Asia and Europe. Zelenskyy challenged the Kremlin leader to meet in Turkey in person.
But the Kremlin has said its delegation at the talks will be led by Putin's aide, Vladimir Medinsky,
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and include three other officials. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Zelenskyy will only sit down with the Russian leader.
Later Thursday, Trump will visit a U.S. installation in Qatar at the center of American involvement in the Middle East. He has used his four-day visit to Gulf states to reject the "interventionism" of America's past in the region.
Trump will address troops at Qatar's al-Udeid Air Base, which was a major staging ground during the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and supported the recent U.S. air campaign against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis.
The president has held up Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar as models for economic development in a region plagued by conflict as he works to entice Iran to come to terms with his administration on a deal to curb its nuclear program.
After his address to U.S. troops, he will travel to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for the final leg of his Mideast tour. He will visit the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the country's largest mosque. The UAE's founder, Sheikh Zayed, is buried in the mosque's main courtyard.
Trump will also be hosted for a state visit in the evening by UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the Qasr Al Watan palace.
Trump earlier this week met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and announced plans to ease sanctions on the war-torn country. The U.S. has deployed more than 1,000 troops in Syria for years to suppress a return of the Islamic State group.
Trump heaped praise on al-Sharaa — who was tied to al-Qaida and joined insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian civil war — after the two met in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. The president called al-Sharaa a "young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter."
It was a stark contrast from earlier years, when Al-Sharaa was imprisoned by U.S. troops in Iraq. Until December, there was a $10 million U.S. bounty for his arrest.
Trump told business executives that the opinions of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were big factors in his decision to lift sanctions on Syria.
"President Erdogan called me and said, "Is there any way you could do that? Because if you don't do that, they don't have a chance,'" Trump said. "So, I did it."
The Qatari base Trump is visiting houses some 8,000 U.S. troops, down from about 10,000 at the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The gas-rich Gulf country has spent some $8 billion over two decades in developing the base, built on a flat stretch of desert about 20 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Qatar's capital, Doha. The base was once considered so sensitive that American military officers would say only that it was somewhere "in southwest Asia."
Trump said he and the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, would also see a demonstration of American air capability, as the U.S. leader looks to boost defense exports to the region.
"You're buying a lot of that equipment actually," Trump said Wednesday when he and Sheikh Tamim signed a series of bilateral and business agreements between the two countries. "And I think we're going to see some of it in action tomorrow at the — we won't call it an air fair, but its going to be sort of an air fair. We're going to be showing a display that's going to be incredible. They have the latest and the greatest of our planes and just about everything else."
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brookstonalmanac · 7 months ago
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Events 11.20 (after 1970)
1974 – The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T Corporation. This suit later leads to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System. 1974 – The first fatal crash of a Boeing 747 occurs when Lufthansa Flight 540 crashes while attempting to takeoff from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 59 out of the 157 people on board. 1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement. 1979 – Grand Mosque seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6,000 hostages. The Saudi government receives help from Pakistani special forces to put down the uprising. 1980 – Lake Peigneur in Louisiana drains into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe had been drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding the edges of the hole. 1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first graphical personal computer operating environment developed by Microsoft, is released. 1989 – Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia, swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million. 1990 – Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, is arrested; he eventually confesses to 56 killings. 1991 – An Azerbaijani MI-8 helicopter carrying 19 peacekeeping mission team with officials and journalists from Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan is shot down by Armenian military forces in Khojavend District of Azerbaijan. 1992 – In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage. 1993 – Savings and loan crisis: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating. 1993 – North Macedonia's deadliest aviation disaster occurs when Avioimpex Flight 110, a Yakovlev Yak-42, crashes near Ohrid, killing all 116 people on board. 1994 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war. (Localized fighting resumes the next year.) 1996 – A fire breaks out in an office building in Hong Kong, killing 41 people and injuring 81. 1998 – A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. 1998 – The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 2003 – After the November 15 bombings, a second day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings occurs in Istanbul, Turkey, destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Bank AS and the British consulate. 2015 – Following a hostage siege, at least 19 people are killed in Bamako, Mali. 2016 – Jimmie Johnson wins his seventh NASCAR Cup Series championship to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time. 2022 – The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar. This is the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East.
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deborahdeshoftim5779 · 1 year ago
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There's a lot that's valid here @xclowniex...
But there's a big problem:
Palestinian society is infected with antisemitism. And the pro-Palestinian disciples in the West either have no idea about this, or they wish to ignore this, explain it away, or simply have no clue about how to fix this problem.
I strongly suspect that numerous pro-Palestinian disciples in the West do not know what the Palestinian leaders, terrorists, and other fanatics say to each other in Arabic when Western journalists aren't around for photo-ops.
I hardly hear it discussed that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas is a Holocaust denier; that Hamas' original 1988 Charter called for the worldwide killing of the Jews; that Palestinian Muslim clerics preached sermons of congratulations to the Hamas terrorists that slaughtered Jews on October 7; that polls consistently find a disproportionately high number of Palestinians are antisemitic; that the Arabs collaborated with Hitler in the former British Mandate of Palestine during World War II (prior to Israel's Declaration of Independence); that the Palestinian cause is not, in fact, based on land conflicts with the Jews, but the Islamic concept of jihad against infidels, of which the Jews are seen as the strongest offenders.
Western disciples of the Palestinian cause will not discuss the centrality of the al-Aqsa mosque as part of this crusade against Jewish existence in the historic land of Israel. The al-Aqsa mosque, of course, was built as a symbol of Islamic domination and therefore Jewish subjugation.
I know that Western disciples of the Palestinian cause, when confronted with these facts, will default to their factory setting excuses: blame it all on Israel. Ascribe no personal responsibility to the Palestinians. This is the only level of reasoning they are capable of.
It's the same mentality that many of these disciples used when confronted with facts about Islamic terrorism and why it is more dangerous than most other forms of terrorism. They blame it (or almost all of it) on the West, rather than addressing inconvenient truths about the Muslim world that caused this problem.
This is not a coincidence. If Western disciples of the Palestinian cause bothered to address the issue of Islamic terrorism seriously, they would find a striking and completely unsurprising similarity between it as a whole and the Palestinian cause. They would discover that the PLO is one of the godfathers of modern Islamic terrorism, that the PLO helped inspire the September 11 attacks, and that the Palestinian cause helped popularise Muslim terrorists committing suicide bombings. They would discover that PLO terror chief Yasser Arafat saved his reputation from long-lasting disgrace with the Arab world by promising to further the cause of Islamic jihad, despite having signed peace accords with Israel just one year beforehand.
If Western disciples of the Palestinian cause put aside their slogans, their received photo-ops, the Qatar-backed university lectures and seminars, and their social media hive minds to address these issues, then some might start to question what and who exactly they are supporting.
After all, if your movement has a consistent habit of stirring up antisemitic hatred worldwide, then it's time to question that movement. Jews have seen a staggering rise in antisemitic abuse worldwide since October 7, so this is far from a few bad apples.
Furthermore, there's a clear consistency when it comes to the perpetrators of such attacks: a significant number of the antisemitic attackers are Muslim and/or Arabic, and in the United States especially, black Americans in cities like New York.
Which means that not only is the pro-Palestinian movement failing to address antisemitism, it's also failing to get its ethnic minority members to respect people of other ethnicities. Pretty ironic, given the grandiose claims of supporting racial justice and equality that this movement makes ad nauseam.
Perhaps this is not surprising, given that the Palestinians, despite accusing Israel of racism and ethnic cleansing, do not want a single Jew living in Israel once they achieve their "cause". Arabs only, Jews forbidden.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
A reason I think why a lot of people are afraid to call out antisemitism in the pro palestine movement is because they view having bad actors in the movement delegitimizes the movement.
And like, no group is a monolith. There are going to be bad actors in every movement. Having bad actors doesn't inherently delegitimize a movement.
What does however, is if the movement as a whole doesn't do anything meaningful to remove said bad actors and make them as unwelcome as possible.
Reblogging a post going "antisemitism is bad" and then reblogging a post by a notorius antisemite doesn't actually do anything to remove antisemites or make them as unwelcome as possible.
Reblogging posts from jews speaking out about antisemitism as well as calling out antisemitism when you see it does make a difference. Even something as simple as not giving positive interations or interactions at all with posts and blogs from antisemites makes a difference. Inviting jews specificaly in pro palestine spaces to talk about antisemitism and what it looks like from bad actors in the pro palestine movement makes a difference.
And that last one is super important as those bad actors often make jews feel unwelcome and unsafe in pro palestine spaces.
If you look in your fridge and see spoiled milk, you don't just throw out everything in the fridge. You throw out the spoiled milk and now have room to get milk which is not spoiled.
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betshy · 10 months ago
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The Qatar Plot Revealed: Addressing the Qatar-Iran Efforts to Islamise Europe
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In recent years, there has been growing concern about the influence of Qatar in Europe and its role in promoting Islamic extremism on the continent. Qatar, a wealthy Gulf state known for its support of Islamist groups, has been accused of funding mosques, schools, and cultural centres that promote a radical interpretation of Islam in Europe. This phenomenon, known as the "Qatar Plot"- a recent online campaign- has raised alarm bells among European policymakers and security officials who fear that Qatar's support for extremist ideologies could lead to the Islamisation of Europe. Qatar's funding of mosques and Islamic centres in Europe has been seen as a way to spread its conservative interpretation of Islam and undermine the secular values that are foundational to European societies. The Islamisation of Europe is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that is influenced by a variety of factors, including immigration, social integration, and political ideology. The Qatari-Iranian plot is a dangerous and concerning development that must be exposed and stopped before it can take root. These two Middle Eastern countries have been allegedly working together to spread their radical Islamist ideologies throughout Europe, using various tactics to infiltrate the continent and impose their beliefs on the unsuspecting population. One of the key ways in which Qatar and Iran have been pushing their agenda in Europe is through funding various Islamic organisations and institutions. These countries have been pouring money into mosques, Islamic schools, and cultural centres, all with the aim of promoting a more extreme version of Islam that is at odds with European values. By bankrolling these institutions, Qatar and Iran are able to exert influence over the teachings and practices of European Muslims, steering them towards a more radical interpretation of the faith. In addition to funding Islamic organisations, Qatar and Iran have also been working to spread their influence through the media. The Al Jazeera network, which is owned by the Qatari government, has been used as a platform to promote Islamist ideologies and sow division within European societies. Meanwhile, Iranian-funded media outlets have been churning out propaganda that glorifies radicalism and incites violence against Western values. Furthermore, Qatar and Iran have been grooming local European politicians and community leaders to advance their agenda from within. By forming relationships with influential figures, these countries are able to subtly push their extremist beliefs into the mainstream and gain a foothold in European politics. In response to these concerns, several European countries have taken measures to counter Qatar's influence and prevent the spread of radical Islam. In Austria, for example, the government has announced plans to ban the foreign funding of mosques and require imams to be fluent in German in order to preach in the country. In France, the government has also cracked down on foreign funding of mosques and launched a campaign to promote a more moderate form of Islam. Despite these efforts, the Qatar Plot continues to pose a significant challenge to European security and social cohesion. The spread of radical ideologies and the increasing influence of foreign actors like Qatar are contributing to the Islamisation of Europe, posing a threat to the values and principles that define European societies. In order to address this growing threat, European countries must work together to counter Qatar's influence and promote a more moderate form of Islam that is compatible with European values. This will require a comprehensive approach that addresses the root causes of radicalisation, promotes social integration, and strengthens cooperation between European countries to prevent the spread of extremist ideologies. On the other hand, some people disagree that such a conspiracy is real. Academic critics of this campaign have emerged, and have written reports such as Owen Jones and Dsouza's (2024) "The Qatar Plot: Unveiling a Covert Multi-Platform Influence Operation Using Anti-Muslim Propaganda to Attack Qatar in the EU, US, and the UK". These individuals believe that the conspiracy theory was disseminated by Islamophobes. Nevertheless, it is crucial that European leaders and citizens remain vigilant and proactive in countering this insidious plot. Measures must be taken to regulate the funding of Islamic institutions and to monitor the activities of Qatari and Iranian-backed organisations. The media must also be held accountable for spreading hate speech and inciting violence. Ultimately, the Islamisation of Europe by Qatar and Iran poses a serious threat to the fabric of European society. It is imperative that we stand united against this dangerous agenda and work together to preserve our values of democracy, tolerance, and freedom. The future of Europe depends on our ability to resist and combat the spread of radical Islamist ideologies. Let us not allow the Qatari-Iranian plot to succeed in its mission to Islamise Europe. The Qatar Plot presents a complex and challenging problem for Europe, but with a coordinated and proactive response, European countries can work together to prevent the Islamisation of the continent and protect the values that define European societies. Read the full article
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tourismguideqatar · 1 year ago
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What to buy in Doha? An Incredible Compilation of best gifts to buy in Qatar
No one can deny that Qatar is a rich Middle East country having specialties that any traveler would like to bring back with them after their stay. Qatar, with its stunning scenery from the sea to the desert, eye-catching skyscrapers, gorgeous mosques, state-of-the-art museum architecture, and delicious food, has exclusive tall shopping malls and Souqs (traditional markets). The famous market in Qatar for shopping is Souq Waqif. This article will be a treat if you to know What are the Best Gifts to Buy in Doha, Qatar for your friends and family. Below is the compilation of the best gifts to take home with you:
What Best Gifts to Buy in Doha
1. Qatari Pearls
Qatar has a long history of being known for its pearling banks, which harbor the growth of the best-known pearls in the world. There are a lot of jewelry shops selling Qatari pearls. Pearls have always been a natural gift of the Middle East. For sophisticated women and ladies, nothing compares to wearing a piece of elegant, designed pearl-embedded jewelry. If you are fond of jewelry, Qatar is the best place to buy it!
2. Sweet Treats
How can someone forget to take sweet treats for your loved one? The cherry on top of the meal is the sweets. Qatari sweets have a unique flavor of their enriched culture in them. Visitors must undoubtedly relish these exquisite desserts essential to Qatari cuisine. Their traditional desserts are Umm ALI, Kunafah, Basbosa, Muhallabia, etc. The famous sweets you can buy in Qatar for your loved ones are Khanfaroosh, Qatayef, and a wide range of Baklava. Also, don’t forget to buy some chocolate, pistachio, and nutty dates from home. Trying their traditional desserts is a must!
3. Fragrance
The national scent of Qatar is oud. You can smell the lovely, smoky aroma everywhere you walk, from homes and cars to souks, hotels, and shopping centers. Oud, also called “Wood of the Gods” is a musical instrument made from the sticky heartwood of the rare agarwood tree. You must buy oud perfumes for your family.
How can one forget Qatar’s famous “Bukhoor”? A fragrant wood called bukhoor is frequently used in Qatar to produce traditional incense. After slicing it into small pieces, a pot filled with hot coals is filled with wood. As soon as the coals are fired, the Bukhoor gives forth a lovely aroma. They are fabulous souvenirs. If you are visiting Qatar, a Bukhoor pot is an ideal gift to buy in Qatar for anyone you know who appreciates Qatar.
4. Decorative Wooden Boxes
Beautifully crafted wooden boxes are among the best traditional Qatari artifacts. The ornamental wooden boxes are stunning and practical for storing more miniature goods like pearls, jewelry, etc. They are also the best decoration pieces. You can customize it by adding some jewelry or chocolates to make it a perfect gift. They are available in many sizes and forms. You can get them at Souq Waqif and various shopping centers in Doha.
5. Scarves and Shawls
The ideal Qatari gifts are scarves and pashminas. Qatari shawls and scarves come in a range and are beautiful, elegant, and diverse. In the winter, pashminas are a fantastic way to stay warm. They are woven from delicate wool known as “fine cashmere wool” and are renowned for their enduring warmth in traditional market.
Also, the variety of scarves is wide. They are smaller and can be used as a wrap, although pashminas are typically larger. Why not get a pashmina or scarf as a memento of your trip to Qatar because the country is known for its delicate fabrics? If you are visiting Qatar, you must buy these.
6. Arabian lamps
Why not light someone’s room with a beautiful and elegant Arabian lamp? Undoubtedly, Arabian lights are lovely and give any personal space a dreamy and enchanted feel. The smaller hanging lights are less expensive and simpler to get home. But you could be tempted to invest in a lovely metal-base swan-neck table lamp. Whichever option you select, be careful when packaging because all the lights are pretty fragile. They should ideally be transported in your hand luggage. You can get your hands on them from Souq waqif in any shopping mall.
7. Dry fruits and nuts
Wait! While taking other gifts, why not give your loved ones a nutritious gift? In Qatar, there are wide different varieties of dry fruits that offer a wide range of nutrients. Some are scrumptious, while others have medicinal qualities. They can be utilized in various ways and are simple to handle because they are dry. The famous dry fruits in Qatar are almonds, pistachio, cashew, apricot, walnuts, dates, prunes, figs, hazelnut, etc. A wide range of dry fruit varieties is available in local markets. Gift your loved one to add macronutrients to their lives.
8. Arabic coffee and traditional arabic coffee pot
If you want to take back the rich culture of the Middle East, how can you miss Arabic coffee? Arabic coffee is a universal welcome expression due to its potent cardamom flavor and yellow, tea-like consistency. It is often served in Qatari Majlis. You can take home an Arabic coffee mix, and whenever you miss Qatar’s rich culture, arrange a similar Majlis in your home and enjoy the aroma of the Middle East. It is the best thing to buy in Qatar. Don’t forget to buy a traditional arabic coffee pot.
9. Al Sadu weavings
The beautiful handwoven fabric called Al Sadu is created from camel and goat hair. Al Sadu fully encapsulates Qatar’s rich history and culture, making it the best souvenirs of Qatar. The Bedouin tribe, nomadic, has been using this weaving technique for thousands of years to make tents, carpets, blankets, and cushions. You can find these traditional handicrafts from the Corniche end of Souq Waqif to find some weavers and a shop selling specific types of Al Sadu Weavings.
10. Qatar’s famous glass art
Qatar has some of the world’s most stunning beaches; it should be no surprise that its sand is as astonishing. The artists from Qatar have converted this sand into beautiful glass art. The elaborate motifs are carved into shards of glass filled with beach sand from Qatar. The result is a magnificent work of art that perfectly depicts Qatar. This is a must thing you should buy in Qatar for your loved ones. These artpieces are available in different shapes.
What to buy at Doha airport?
Doha airport, also known as Al-Hamad International airport, is considered the best-known airport in the world. The lamp bear is the biggest attraction at the airport. The duty-free shops at Doha’s airport are plentiful and will be familiar to any seasoned international visitor. Below are must things you should buy in Hamad International airport in Doha:
· Perfumes
If you want to buy some best fragrances in Qatar, Doha airport is where you can get them. Not only Qatar’s traditional perfumes, but you can also get your hands on international brands. Doha airport has all famous brands such as Gucci, Hugo Boss, Dior, etc. You can get perfumes at the 24-seven convenience stores also.
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mariacallous · 2 years ago
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On Saturday, Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds of people and taking dozens of hostages. It was one of the most significant offensive by Palestinian militants in fifty years. In response, Israel bombed targets in Gaza, killing hundreds more, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the country was at war. President Joe Biden offered full-throated support for Israel; despite its sometimes rocky relationship with Netanyahu, the Biden Administration has recently been working to broker peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
I spoke by phone on Saturday with Nathan Thrall, the author of the book “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama.” Thrall previously worked at the International Crisis Group as the director of its Arab-Israeli project, and currently lives in Jerusalem. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed the calculations behind Hamas’s attack, why the political fallout in Israel is so hard to predict, and how the Israeli response may alter the future of Palestinian politics.
How do you understand the timing of this attack?
In recent weeks, we have seen a resumption of the protests along the border fence with Gaza, a deterioration in conditions in Gaza, and withdrawal of support from Qatar, which works closely with Israel in managing Gaza. And there was the Israeli declaration that it was suspending work permits for Gazans, which the Gaza economy relies on. Those are all proximate causes of the timing.
But of course, it’s hard to imagine that Hamas could have pulled this off and surprised Israel in this way without a lot of planning. And in its messaging, Hamas is not emphasizing the conditions in Gaza. It’s emphasizing the Aqsa Mosque—the increased visitation by the Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and other Israelis to Al Aqsa and the open declarations of intent to build a temple there and so forth—which is self-serving for Hamas because it would rather be perceived as defending the greater Palestinian cause, and defending a Palestinian national symbol and a Muslim symbol, than as acting out of a more narrow interest to end the siege of Gaza.
At least one Hamas spokesman said on Saturday that this attack should be a warning for Arab states not to ally with Israel. We’ve seen increasingly close relations between Arab states and Israel recently, and now discussion about the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, brokered in part by the United States. What do you make of that?
Clearly, this act by Hamas is suicidal. It is an attack of unprecedented scope, and Israel will retaliate to a greater degree than it has before, potentially leading to outcomes we haven’t seen before: not just a simple razing of Gaza by airplanes but also a ground incursion and potential reoccupation of parts of Gaza. So the decision to wittingly, knowingly, undertake this comes from a sense that there are no other options and that there’s nothing left to lose. And part of the reason that Hamas, and Palestinians in general, feel that they’re in such a desperate situation is that they have been entirely abandoned by those who should be their allies: the Arab states. The talks about the steps toward normalization with Saudi Arabia certainly inform the Palestinian sense that they have been abandoned.
When you say that the attack by Hamas was suicidal, do you mean it’s suicidal for Hamas? Do you mean it will cause pain and suffering for the Palestinian people?
All of the above. I think that the attacks are virtually guaranteed to bring civilian deaths on a greater scale than we have seen, and Hamas has put in jeopardy its rule in Gaza and the lives of its leadership to a greater extent than ever before. It’s hard to overstate how shocking these images are to the Israeli public. Gaza is made up of refugees from towns within Israel, and more than seventy per cent of the population of Gaza comprises refugees, so it’s something out of Israeli nightmares that the refugees are going to come storming back and take over their old towns.
That degree of shock and that degree of military failure by Israel—not simply that the attack took place but that you and I are talking now, more than twelve hours after it occurred, and reports are that Hamas fighters have taken over and are still controlling military bases outside Gaza—is incomprehensible to any Israeli. Politically, it is hard to imagine that this government will not feel a need to exact an extraordinary price in order to save face.
But to go back to my question: When you first said that this was suicidal, it was in response to something about Israel making peace with its Arab neighbors. What I thought you were going to say was this is going to invite an overwhelming Israeli response, which in turn is going to put pressure on the Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia, not to make deals with Israel right now because it’s just going to be so gruesome and awful, and therefore Hamas will have achieved something diplomatically even if it faces huge retaliation.
Perhaps Hamas can delay a normalization that’s in the works, but I don’t think that its actions will thwart a normalization that would’ve otherwise happened. Now, there are considerable obstacles to normalization, and there are real difficulties and outstanding issues. The Saudis greatly dislike the Biden Administration. They would rather hand this gift to a Republican Administration. There are many, many reasons to believe that a normalization isn’t as imminent as it’s been reported in the press. But I don’t think Hamas had any reasonable hope that it could make the difference between normalization happening and not happening.
Why do this then? You don’t need to convince me that Palestinians feel completely hopeless about the situation and feel a need to turn to armed resistance. But the people who run Hamas are perhaps less sentimental than you or I, and would worry about doing something that might be suicidal to their movement. That’s why I was somewhat surprised by this.
I have written all about the explicability of everybody’s actions in this conflict through rational self-interest. That was the subject of my first book. And this move by Hamas appears to me to be inexplicable. They have put themselves in greater jeopardy than at any point in their history. Of course, this is going to increase the support for Hamas and make them appear heroic to some people, and there are political gains to be made from this brazen act, but the risks are just too high. This is perceived by Israel as a qualitatively different act.
Hamas can launch a bunch of rockets—and we’ve seen this pattern, and it lasts anywhere from a few days to a few weeks—and they survive because, at the end of the day, Israel doesn’t want to reoccupy Gaza. That is considered from the Israeli perspective to be an extremely undesirable task and a bloody and costly one. However, Hamas understands that this attack would be perceived by the Israeli public and political leadership as being of a totally different order of magnitude. And therefore, Israel would consider acts that it had not in past escalations, including coming in with ground forces and reoccupying Gaza and trying to eliminate its leadership.
Does this make you think differently about Israeli military preparedness and the competence of the current Israeli government?
There has not been a military failure of these proportions since the 1973 war. In 1973, on Yom Kippur, Israel was surprise-attacked by Egypt and Syria, and there was a commission of inquiry into the military failure. It is the trope in Israeli politics of a misguided conception of your enemies and what they intend. And every Israeli military official has in his bones the lesson of 1973: to constantly question your premises and to be prepared for them to be challenged. So, not only does this call into question for Israelis the competence of their Army but also for every outside observer. It’s shocking. This is one of the strongest militaries in the Middle East. And a group of fighters from a besieged ghetto penetrated the fence and took over Israeli military bases.
There has been some criticism of Netanyahu’s government for harming military readiness with its domestic plans. What do you think of that argument?
With the judicial reform, you’ve had all of these reservists, in particular those from the Air Force, who said they’d refuse to serve when called up. So the protesters say that Netanyahu, by doggedly pursuing the judicial reform, is jeopardizing Israel’s security. And that’s the partisan claim that has been made recently.
It’s entirely self-serving. It’s a claim made by the opponents of the judicial reform. I don’t doubt that it has harmed Israel’s capabilities. But there is a rebuttal from Netanyahu and his allies, which is, O.K., let’s not dispute the fact that this reserve protest has harmed Israel’s security and its preparedness. But who’s to blame for that? Is it that we are to blame for it, for doggedly pursuing what we consider to be an entirely legitimate judicial reform? Or is it that these reservists crossed the line?
And I would imagine you find both sides of this debate to be missing the point?
Yes, I very much disagree with the entire premise of the protests over the judicial reform, which are based on the assumption by both sides that Israeli democracy is at stake. I do not see how any definition of democracy can include a situation in which one in ten Israeli Jews lives in the occupied territories and has full rights—voting rights, civil rights—and, when they go to and from their workplaces and their homes, they do not cross an international border. When the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics publishes the number of Jews and Arabs in the country, it lists the Jews living in the settlements. It doesn’t say that they’re living abroad. When the people vote in the settlements, they do not cast absentee ballots; in every sense, these people live inside the state of Israel alongside millions of people of a different ethnic group who are deprived of basic civil rights. That has existed for decades.
The 1973 war is considered as having had very long-term political consequences for Israel, and for the Israeli Labor Party, which was never the same afterward. How do you think this might register politically? For now, it appears that Netanyahu’s opponents are going to join him in a unity government while this war continues.
This is an enormous challenge to Netanyahu and to this government because of the scale of the failure. That said, the opponents of the current coalition are not very impressive politically, and Netanyahu has proved himself to be extremely adept and resilient. Even on the day of a catastrophe of this scale, I am unwilling to predict that that will lead to the demise of Netanyahu’s political career.
There were a number of consequences of 1973. One of them was internal, as you say. It was the beginning of the end for decades of Labor Party dominance. But the most important consequence of the 1973 war was that it pushed Israel to reassess its policy toward Egypt and toward holding on to Sinai. And it started to take steps toward reaching an agreement with Egypt; that happened iteratively at first, and then led eventually to the peace agreements with Egypt and the full withdrawal of the Israeli forces and settlements from Sinai.
As you’ve seen the statements from around the world, Europe and the United States especially, do you think the full-throated support we’ve seen for Israel is a sign that Israel has had some success diplomatically? Or is this event so shocking and horrific that you would expect this kind of reaction regardless? I was not surprised by the condolences sent, but there were not many calls for “an easing of tensions,” etc.
First of all, Western and U.S. support for Israel is unwavering, and that is entirely unsurprising. In terms of the absence of calls for restraint: those are often perceived by Israel as a signal to quickly end some bombing campaign in Gaza. The absence of it here I interpret to be the opposite: it’s a green light for Israel to take the retaliatory steps that we all are sure are coming.
I am not under the impression that Israel is in a difficult place diplomatically. There’s lots of chatter about how much the Biden Administration may not like working with the most right-wing Israeli government in recent memory and open racists in senior ministerial positions and so on. But, at the end of the day, what is the policy of the Biden Administration toward Israel? It just allowed Israel to enter the Visa Waiver Program, which was a coveted diplomatic victory, and it’s doing next to nothing to stop a forced displacement of more than eleven hundred Bedouin in the West Bank.
How might Palestinian politics look different in a few months?
If there’s anyone who’s shaking in his boots right now, it’s Mahmoud Abbas. He is watching as city centers in the West Bank come out in support of Hamas and other groups in Gaza. He and the Palestinian Authority are perceived as working hand in glove with Israel to keep a lid on any kind of resistance to Israeli occupation. So this giant boost for Hamas’s popularity is extremely threatening to him, as is the increased violence that we see in the West Bank, both preceding Saturday’s events and immediately following them.
It suggests that the future is extremely unknown if this is extremely worrisome for both Hamas and Abbas.
A lot of it depends on how high a price Israel is willing to pay to really change the situation from the one that existed on Friday. And that’s what I meant by suicidal. If Hamas understands Israel—and I think that it does—it will have known prior to launching this attack that Israel was going to contemplate options it had never contemplated before.
What else have you been thinking about today?
I’m looking at the media coverage of this event. For a decade I was working at the International Crisis Group, and a lot of my job was to write a reactive report every time there was an escalation in Gaza, because all the world’s attention is on the issue as soon as we have any kind of a surge in violence. But we all turn our eyes away when that doesn’t exist. And the process, for me, of working at the International Crisis Group and writing the same report over and over again about the escalation, convinced me that I should leave the International Crisis Group and this sort of work. And that what I needed to do was to bring more attention to the root causes, which are ignored and we are just guaranteed to see more and more of these sporadic outbursts of violence, with civilians killed on both sides, because we refuse to focus on the actual causes of the violence.
When I was choosing a subject for a book, I wanted to explicitly draw the attention of the world to the structural causes. It was very tempting to choose something that is attention-grabbing, like bombings in Gaza, or attacks by Hamas. Those are the things people care about. But I deliberately chose something ordinary, something that happens all over the world—a car accident, a tragic collision involving a group of kindergartners on their way to a play area. What does it mean for something like this to take place in this specific system where the parents have different ability to visit their children in different hospitals depending on whether they have a green ID or a blue ID? And to explore the daily lives of the people who are trapped in the system that is the real driver of these explosions that grab our attention every few months or years.
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incoherenci-blog · 1 year ago
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Ceasefire talks are about more than a Gaza truce and prisoner exchange.
By James M. Dorsey
The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey depends on the support of its readers. If you believe that the column and podcast add value to your understanding and that of the broader public, please consider becoming a paid subscriber by clicking on the subscription button at http://www.jamesmdorsey.substack.com and choosing one of the subscription options. Thank you.
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A proposed temporary Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange appears designed to buy war-battered Gazans relief while enabling Israel and Hamas to claim a success.
However, whether Israel or Hamas emerges as the ultimate victor will be determined by whether the truce becomes permanent and the war ends.
Negotiated by Qatar, Egypt, the United States, Israel, and Hamas, the deal would be whittled down to the first stage of an earlier three-phase proposal that envisioned three 45-day periods during which a permanent ceasefire would be negotiated.
The whittled-down plan suggests that the parties, except for Israel, who is determined to continue the war, hope the truce will create space for a negotiated permanent ceasefire.
Hamas has yet to formally respond to the latest proposal but a senior official, told Al Jazeera, “The atmosphere of optimism does not reflect reality."
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asserted that “if Hamas goes down from its delusional claims and brings them down to Earth, we’ll have the progress that we all want.”
This weekend, Israel’s war cabinet decided to send a delegation to Qatar for further talks.
In a nod to Hamas demands, Israel would under the plan redeploy but not withdraw its troops from Gaza and allow the return to the northern part of the Strip of internally displaced Palestinian women and children.
Hamas has insisted on a full Israeli withdrawal and the unrestricted return of Palestinians to their often-destroyed homes.
The plan constitutes an attempt to lower the temperature during Ramadan, Islam’s upcoming holy month of fasting that is likely to shine a spotlight on Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque, the faith’s third holiest site, as a renewed flashpoint fuelling emotions across the Muslim world. Ramadan begins on March 10.
Some analysts suggest Hamas’ possible willingness to discuss a temporary rather than a permanent ceasefire constitutes a victory for the group’s Gaza-based leader, Yahya Sinwar.
Mr. Sinwar, who tops Israel’s most wanted list, symbolises Israel’s failure to achieve its goals five months into its devastating military campaign. Israel has yet to capture or kill any of Hamas’ Gaza-based most senior leaders.
Israel’s recent controversial military focus on Rafah, the densely overpopulated most southern part of Gaza, is driven in part by the belief that Mr. Sinwar and other senior figures shelter in underground tunnels in Rafah surrounded by Hamas-held hostages as human shields.
“Once we begin the Rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion. Not months… If we have a (hostage) deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen. It has to be done because total victory is our goal and total victory is within reach,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
Convinced that Israel will not end the war soon on terms that would allow for a credible process to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the creation of an independent Palestinian state, Mr. Sinwar, widely viewed as a hardliner within Hamas, reportedly sees a temporary truce as an opportunity to regroup the organisation’s military wing.
Moreover, the truce would give Mr. Sinwar a tactical success with an exchange of 40 of the 136 Hamas-held hostages and bodies of captives killed during the war for an unspecified number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, particularly if they include inmates sentenced by Israeli courts to life imprisonment for killing Israelis.
Hamas took some 250 people hostage during its October 7 attack on Israel, more than 100 of whom were released for Palestinians incarcerated in Israel during a one-week, Qatar-mediated truce in November.
The exchange ensured that more Israeli hostages have been killed than have so far been freed by Israeli troops.
Mr. Sinwar may also believe that widespread anti-government protests in Israel and demands that the government prioritise the release of the hostages rather than the war strengthen Hamas’ position.
In addition, he may be counting on his demand for the release of Palestinians sentenced to life in prison sparking the fall of Mr. Netanyahu’s government. Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have threatened to leave the government if the prime minister caves into Hamas’ demands.
The far-right initially opposed the November exchange but ultimately acquiesced.
Sharing with Mr. Netanyahu a callous disregard for innocent Palestinian lives, Mr. Sinwar has miscalculated if he expected international pressure to disrupt Israel’s apparent strategy of targeting Palestinian civil society to “create a shock” that would “lead civilians to put pressure on Hamas.”
Israel has ignored widespread international condemnation and mild public US criticism. Gazans, despite signs of opposition, have failed to rise up against Hamas, whose popularity on the West Bank and in the Palestinian Diaspora has risen.
Compounding Israel’s failure to achieve its war goals, the Biden administration has asked Israel to stop targeting Hamas’ police force that provides security for aid trucks entering Gaza and attempts to restore a semblance of law and order.
The administration warned Israel that attacking the police could exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis and warned that it could spark a "total breakdown of law and order."
Shielding the police force is a double-edged sword.
Police have cracked down on merchants hoarding badly needed goods to drive up prices but have also seized items in support of Hamas. Similarly, fuel siphoned off from aid trucks entering Gaza is sold on the black market at exorbitant prices.
It’s a problem that in Gaza’s dire circumstances would be prevalent regardless of who controls the police.
Complicating Mr. Sinwar’s calculations, and those of Mr. Netanyahu, is a Saudi-backed three-pronged US attempt to tie a broader Middle East deal.
The deal would involve the temporary ceasefire becoming permanent and ending the hostilities, the establishment of Saudi-Israeli diplomatic relations, and agreement on a credible pathway towards an independent Palestinian state.
The US and Saudi Arabia hope Mr. Netanyahu, an opportunist who prioritises his personal and political interests, may be sufficiently seduced by the ability to claim credit for formalising relations with the Middle East’s crown jewel Arab state to risk the break-up of his government and reverse his rejection of a Palestinian state.
It remains unclear whether differences between Mr. Sinwar and some of Hamas’ exile leaders involved in the negotiations to achieve a ceasefire are tactical or strategic when it comes to the group’s endgame in the war, its potential willingness to embrace a historic compromise, and its post-war posture.
Hamas negotiators have insisted that the group would only agree to a permanent ceasefire that would end the war. Even so, Mr. Sinwar, based in Gaza rather than cushy Doha, the Qatari capital, is the group’s ultimate decision maker.
The difference in what drives Messrs. Sinwar and Netanyahu and explains their callousness lies in an anecdote recently recalled by Aluf Benn, the editor-in-chief of Israel’s widely respected Haaretz newspaper.
Mr. Benn remembered former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan’s words at the 1956 funeral of an Israeli farmer, brutally murdered by Palestinian militants.
“Let us not cast blame on the murderers. For eight years, they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we have been transforming the lands and the villages where they and their fathers dwelt into our estate,” Mr. Dayan said.
Mr. Dayan did not criticise Israeli policy or propose accommodation of the Palestinians. Instead, he acknowledged reality and expressed a willingness to accept the consequences of the Jewish state’s policy.
“Let us not be deterred from seeing the loathing that is inflaming and filling the lives of hundreds of thousands of Arabs living around us. This is our life’s choice—to be prepared and armed, strong, and determined, lest the sword be stricken from our fist and our lives cut down, Mr. Dayan said.
Mr. Benn concluded from that anecdote that “on October 7, 2023, Dayan’s age-old warning materialised in the bloodiest way possible… Israelis cannot expect stability if they continue to ignore the Palestinians and reject their aspirations, their story, and even their presence. This is the lesson the country should have learned from Dayan’s age-old warning.”
It’s a lesson Mr. Sinwar brutally embraced and Mr. Netanyahu and many Israelis, perhaps even a majority, have yet to grasp.
Optimists will argue that a temporary ceasefire will pause, if not halt the human carnage in Gaza and potentially open the door to an end to the war and a credible peace process.
Mr. Dayan’s cynical realism is probably more realistic. Little suggests that a post-Netanyahu Israel would fundamentally be more willing to accommodate Palestinian aspirations.
Worse still, the much-touted two-state solution may prove to be the best of bad options, particularly in the wake of a war that has traumatised Israelis and Palestinians in unprecedented ways.
Much like the 19th century experience of Russian Jews, the 1923 Turkish Greek ‘population exchange,’ this century’s plight of the Rohingya, and the potential depopulation of Gaza, a two-state solution could produce two hostile states rather than two countries seeking to cooperate.
Referring to the Indian subcontinent’s post- 1947 partition, political scientist Manilo Graziano noted that “for the three-quarters of a century since then, India and Pakistan have cultivated a hostility punctuated by periodic clashes, terror attacks, and at least four official wars, exploited and exacerbated by the great powers for their own games on the international chessboard.”
In the Middle East, Mr. Graziano argued that it “would be naive, to say the least,” to assume that Israeli Palestinians, who account for about 20 percent of the Israeli population, or the 20 percent of Israeli settlers on the West Bank who would fall under Palestinian rule if they chose to stay in a Palestinian state would be allowed to remain in place over time.
“The tragedy in which Israelis and Palestinians are imprisoned today is exacerbated by the fact that the only solution that external actors have proposed would simply make their situation worse, plunging them into what philosopher Thomas Hobbes called the ‘state of nature’—that is, a permanent ‘war of every man against every man,’” Mr. Gaziano said.
The spectre of civil strife raised its head during the 2021 Gaza war with scenes of Israeli Jews and Israeli Palestinians clashing violently and assaulting each other in Israeli cities considered models of coexistence.
Far-right members of Mr. Netanyahu’s cabinet have used the spectre of continued strife to justify their rejection of a Palestinian state.
Ultra-nationalist Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, scion of a prominent Sephardic rabbi family, warned in recent days that such a state would demonstrate “terror pays and will get you what you want.”
Further clouding prospects for genuine Israeli-Palestinian peace is the fact that the risk of post-settlement hostility is pervasive regardless of whether the resolution involves a two-state solution, a confederation, or a one-state solution.
All of which suggests that even a temporary ceasefire that offers Gazans some respite, the warring parties an opportunity to breathe, and potentially enables winds of change to blow is better than the uninterrupted Gaza carnage for which innocent Palestinians pay the price.
Dr. James M. Dorsey is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and the author of the syndicated column and podcast, The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey.
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islamiclgbt · 2 years ago
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Ali bin Ahmed Al-Kuwari betrays the Quran
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The increasing influence of charitable organizations from oil-rich monarchies has found fertile ground in supporting the construction of mosques in certain European countries. Whether they are genuinely charitable or serve as elements of ethical standards control is a matter of debate.
An international organization focused on human rights issues for LGBTQ+ individuals has highlighted in its report that Qatar's judicial system is characterized as dual and introduced by the British. This system is divided into Sharia and civil courts, with civil courts primarily dealing with family law. However, it's important to note that supporting LGBTQ+ communities' charities in other Arab countries is not legally prohibited, thus showcasing the role of personal desire and moral stance.
A compelling illustration of the translated intent is that Qatar funded the construction of a mosque in Copenhagen. Former Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani himself transferred over 20 million euros from his account. This mosque doesn't align with the strict version of Islam but introduces a contemporary form of new relationships. The Danish Islamic Council (Dansk Islamisk Rad) was chosen to advance this concept. The representative from DIR overseeing the mosque's construction was Mohamed Al Maimouni.
It should be noted that he was chosen not by chance, but specifically for his position towards the LGBT community:
‘The Danish Islamic Council was renowned for its ‘moderate understanding of Islam’ and adhered to an ‘Islamic philosophy based on adaptation to the society you are in’.
‘Islam in Qatar is not the same as Islam that will be in Denmark. Of course, there are certain principles that remain unchanged regardless of place or time. However, other aspects can be adapted everywhere, regardless of where you reside’.
‘In Islam, homosexuality is indeed considered improper. However, it is perceived as a condition where someone may be unwell, and they should not necessarily be subject to exile’.
Mohamed Al Maimouni has previously spoken at meetings organized by the Sabaah association (a Danish LGBT organization), where he stated:
‘It's crucial not to exclude homosexual Muslims; in fact, a devout Muslim with homosexual inclinations should receive proper support and therapy.’
‘Homosexuality is considered haram according to the Quran, similar to alcohol and pork. However, individuals who consume alcohol and pork can still be Muslims. In Denmark, religious communities are obliged to accept and support people who are struggling with homosexuality.’
It's possible that these comments didn't create a nurturing environment, but the presence of Arab figures at the mosque opening holds significant importance. Former Emir of the country, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, attended alongside his close partner, Qatar's Minister of Religious Affairs, Gheit bin Mubarak Ali Omran Al-Kuwari, who is related to the family of Ali bin Ahmed Al-Kuwari.
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The publication of the official research on LGBT+ rights and issues in the Middle East has brought attention to quotes attributed to Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, endorsing and promoting LGBT freedoms.
The full version of the document ‘LGBT+ rights and issues in the Middle East’ is available at the link provided.
Qatar's media laws also do not prohibit ensuring transparency regarding trustworthy information. Support for the LGBT community can be observed through recognized symbols.
Consequently, the Western sexual revolution is viewed as justified and undeniable, with a growing and significant audience even among Arab countries.
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