Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly traveled to Saudi Arabia on Sunday night for a secret meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered today to Israel two parting gifts of inestimable value on his farewell tour of the Middle East, the importance of which go well beyond his visit to the illegal Israeli colony of Psagot in the Palestinian West Bank. His last-minute moves to further legitimatize Israeli annexation, and delegitimatize opposition to Israel’s apartheid rule over the Palestinian people, will be difficult for the incoming Biden administration to reverse.
PA officials announced on Tuesday that they received assurances that Israel was “committed” to upholding its end of agreements with the Palestinians, and that the decision to resume coordination was made following “international talks” being conducted by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. There is speculation that the impending change in U.S. administrations, along with the severe financial pressure the Palestinian Authority finds itself under, is what motivated Palestinian leadership to resume relations with Israel.
Many Palestinians living under occupation are outraged by the the recent normalization deals between Israel and Arab nations, but are finding very little direction from their leaders on how to fight this latest affront to their freedom struggle.
As the world was engulfed in the unfolding US elections on November 3rd, Israel quietly demolished an entire Bedouin enclave in the northern Jordan Valley, leaving more than 70 Palestinians homeless just as temperatures started to drop in the occupied West Bank.
Yumna Patel, Michael Arria, and Phil Weiss discuss Palestinian views of the U.S. election from the West Bank, what the Palestine solidarity movement should expect under a second Trump term or a Biden presidency, and what to look for on election night and beyond.
The United States’ war in Afghanistan has lasted so long that some of the troops who first invaded the country are now watching their children deploy to the same war.
Earlier this month, Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) introduced a bill with potentially far-reaching and unprecedented implications for Israel’s ability to nix US weapons sales to the Middle East. H.R.8494, the Guaranteeing Israel’s QME Act of 2020, would mandate the president to consult the Israeli government “for information regarding Israel’s qualitative military edge” before the selling weapons to other Middle Eastern countries.
The United States has the dubious distinction of being the world’s leading arms dealer. It dominates the global trade in a historic fashion and nowhere is that domination more complete than in the Middle East.
Robert Vitalis’s new book, “Oilcraft” argues the US militarization of the Arabian Gulf is based on false ideas about controlling oil. But history shows this control is central to maintaining hegemony, which is the US goal.