CIA chief ‘behind Soleimani’s assassination’ killed in downed plane in Afghanistan

Iran fakes CIA picture

January 28, 2020

Russian intelligence sources have claimed that Michael D’Andrea, head of CIA operations in Iran and who orchestrated the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a US spy plane downed yesterday in Ghazni, Afghanistan.

The plane with US Air Force markings reportedly served as the CIA’s mobile command for D’Andrea, who earnt several nicknames including: Ayatollah Mike, the Dark Prince, and the Undertaker. He is one of the most prominent CIA figures in the region, appointed head of the agency’s Iran Mission Centre in 2017. Under his leadership, the agency was perceived to take a more “aggressive stance toward Iran”.

The Taliban claimed to have shot down the plane but have yet to provide evidence, whilst the US has denied the claim but has acknowledged the loss of a Bombardier E-11A plane in central Afghanistan. Graphic images online have already circulated purportedly showing some of the charred remains of those on board.

#AlFath
Enemy intelligence aircraft crashed in Sado Khelo area of Deh Yak district #Ghazni noon hours today resulting in all crew & high-ranking CIA members killed.
Wreckage & dead bodies laying at crash site. https://t.co/DL7qwHpcRe

— Zabihullah (..ذبـــــیح الله م ) (@Zabehulah_M33) January 27, 2020


Unconfirmed reports that the CIA head of anti-Iran operations, Michael D'Andrea aka Ayatollah Mike, was on board the plane that crashed near Ghazni, Afghanistan this morning.

D'Andrea also masterminded the murder of Imad Mughniyeh, former Hezbollah Chief of Staff, back in 2008.

— Brasco_Aad (@Brasco_Aad) January 27, 2020


Afghan authorities initially claimed the plane was a state-owned airline, but this was denied by the company, Ariana. Helicopters have been brought down before by the Taliban, but they are not believed to have the capabilities required to bring down a high-flying aircraft.

READ: The truth about US casualties in the Iran attack is slowly coming out

It has been speculated that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) may also have a hand in the incident, especially as anti-aircraft support has previously been given to the Taliban. Additionally, the Afghan Shia Fatimyoun Brigades, who are trained by the IRGC, also have a presence in the coutry.

CIA Middle East chief, Soleimani Killer and Bin Laden Hunter, dead on Jet in Afghanistan. Tasnim and Mirror told after VT
by Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio for VT iTaly

VERSIONE ORIGINALE IN ITALIANO
The news is so big that we have to write it running the risk of a denial, … pic.twitter.com/7Da2jmkHug
— VeteransToday (@veteranstoday) January 28, 2020

An exiled Iranian journalist who has written previously for the hard-line Javan daily newspaper suggested the IRGC was involved, tweeting: “The American Gulfstream plane was downed in Afghanistan by the Taliban. They say that intelligence officers were on board. This report has not yet been confirmed, but if it is, it is possible that the issue of Iran will also emerge in this case.”

Another Iranian journalist who writes for Mashregh newspaper, described as having close links to IRGC, tweeted not long after the news broke out: “We will attack them on the same level as they are attacking us.”

Soleimani’s successor as head of the IRGC’s Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, has established ties in Afghanistan going back to the 1980s. Additionally, the chief commander of the IRGC, General Hossein Salami, warned that no American military commanders will be safe if the US administration continues to threaten Iranian commanders.

READ: US: 34 troops suffered brain injuries from Iran strikes

D’Andrea, who is reportedly a convert to Islam, doing so in order to marry his Muslim wife, who is from a wealthy family from the Mauritius of Gujarati origins, having met on his first overseas assignment in East Africa, one of the senior directors of her family’s company Curumjee Group, has been speculated to provide cover for CIA operations.

He also oversaw hundreds of drone strikes, which according to The New York Times “killed thousands of Islamist militants and hundreds of civilians”. D’andrea is credited with being the mastermind behind the CIA’s notorious “signature strike” used to kill people based on their behaviour, not identity, subsequently used to determine someone’s guilt or likelihood of being a terrorist.

He was central to the post-9/11 interrogation programme and ran the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center. Assassinations and torture were central to his approach. He also oversaw the hunt for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and was involved in the assassination of Hezbollah member Imad Mughniyah in Damascus, Syria.


US vs Iran, who’s going to win the war of influence – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

Is Mohammad Bin Salman a Zionist? 

Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman (R) in New Delhi, India on 20 February 2019 [Indian Foreign Ministry/Anadolu Agency]


Motasem A Dalloul @abujomaaGaza
January 27, 2020 at 10:45 am

Last week, a prominent Saudi Sheikh, Mohammed Al-Issa, visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its liberation, which signalled the end of the Nazi Holocaust. Although dozens of Muslim scholars have visited the site, where about one million Jews were killed during World War Two, according to the Auschwitz Memorial Centre’s press office, Al-Issa is the most senior Muslim religious leader to do so.

Visiting Auschwitz is not a problem for a Muslim; Islam orders Muslims to reject unjustified killing of any human being, no matter what their faith is. Al-Issa is a senior ally of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), who apparently cares little for the sanctity of human life, though, and the visit to Auschwitz has very definite political connotations beyond any Islamic context.

By sending Al-Issa to the camp, Bin Salman wanted to show his support for Israel, which exploits the Holocaust for geopolitical colonial purposes. “The Israeli government decided that it alone was permitted to mark the 75th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Auschwitz [in modern day Poland] in 1945,” wrote journalist Richard Silverstein recently when he commented on the gathering of world leaders in Jerusalem for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Holocaust event.

READ: Next up, a Saudi embassy in Jerusalem

Bin Salman uses Al Issa for such purposes, as if to demonstrate his own Zionist credentials. For example, the head of the Makkah-based Muslim World League is leading rapprochement efforts with Evangelical Christians who are, in the US at least, firm Zionists in their backing for the state of Israel. Al-Issa has called for a Muslim-Christian-Jewish interfaith delegation to travel to Jerusalem in what would, in effect, be a Zionist troika.

Zionism is not a religion, and there are many non-Jewish Zionists who desire or support the establishment of a Jewish state in occupied Palestine. The definition of Zionism does not mention the religion of its supporters, and Israeli writer Sheri Oz, is just one author who insists that non-Jews can be Zionists.



Mohammad Bin Salman and Netanyahu – Cartoon [Tasnimnews.com/Wikipedia]

We should not be shocked, therefore, to see a Zionist Muslim leader in these trying times. It is reasonable to say that Bin Salman’s grandfather and father were Zionists, as close friends of Zionist leaders. Logic suggests that Bin Salman comes from a Zionist dynasty.

This has been evident from his close relationship with Zionists and positive approaches to the Israeli occupation and establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, calling it “[the Jews’] ancestral homeland”. This means that he has no issue with the ethnic cleansing of almost 800,000 Palestinians in 1948, during which thousands were killed and their homes demolished in order to establish the Zionist state of Israel.


“The ‘Jewish state’ claim is how Zionism has tried to mask its intrinsic Apartheid, under the veil of a supposed ‘self-determination of the Jewish people’,” wrote Israeli blogger Jonathan Ofir in Mondoweiss in 2018, “and for the Palestinians it has meant their dispossession.”

As the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Bin Salman has imprisoned dozens of Palestinians, including representatives of Hamas. In doing so he is serving Israel’s interests. Moreover, he has blamed the Palestinians for not making peace with the occupation state. Bin Salman “excoriated the Palestinians for missing key opportunities,” wrote Danial Benjamin in Moment magazine. He pointed out that the prince’s father, King Salman, has played the role of counterweight by saying that Saudi Arabia “permanently stands by Palestine and its people’s right to an independent state with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.”

UN expert: Saudi crown prince behind hack on Amazon CEO

Israeli journalist Barak Ravid of Israel’s Channel 13 News reported Bin Salman as saying: “In the last several decades the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all the peace proposals it was given. It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.” This is reminiscent of the words of the late Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, one of the Zionist founders of Israel, that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

Bin Salman’s Zionism is also very clear in his bold support for US President Donald Trump’s deal of the century, which achieves Zionist goals in Palestine at the expense of Palestinian rights. He participated in the Bahrain conference, the forum where the economic side of the US deal was announced, where he gave “cover to several other Arab countries to attend the event and infuriated the Palestinians.”



US President Donald Trump looks over at Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud as they line up for the family photo during the opening day of Argentina G20 Leaders’ Summit 2018 at Costa Salguero on 30 November 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina [Daniel Jayo/Getty Images]

While discussing the issue of the current Saudi support for Israeli policies and practices in Palestine with a credible Palestinian official last week, he told me that the Palestinians had contacted the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to ask him not to relocate his country’s embassy to Jerusalem. “The Saudis have been putting pressure on us in order to relocate our embassy to Jerusalem,” replied the Brazilian leader. What more evidence of Mohammad Bin Salman’s Zionism do we need?

The founder of Friends of Zion Museum is American Evangelical Christian Mike Evans. He said, after visiting a number of the Gulf States, that, “The leaders [there] are more pro-Israel than a lot of Jews.” This was a specific reference to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, and his counterpart in the UAE, Mohammed Bin Zayed.

“All versions of Zionism lead to the same reactionary end of unbridled expansionism and continued settler colonial genocide of [the] Palestinian people,” Israeli-American writer and photographer Yoav Litvin wrote for Al Jazeera. We may well see an Israeli Embassy opened in Riyadh in the near future, and a Saudi Embassy in Tel Aviv or, more likely, Jerusalem. Is Mohammad Bin Salman a Zionist? There’s no doubt about it.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Pakistan declares national emergency over locust swarms

IT WOULD BE CALLED BIBLICAL EXCEPT PAKISTAN IS MUSLIM

Prime Minister Imran Khan declared the emergency to protect crops and help farmers. The Pakistani government said it was worst locust infestation in more than two decades.


Pakistan's government declared a national emergency on Saturday in response to swarms of desert locusts in the eastern part of the country.

Prime Minister Imran Khan made the emergency declaration following a government briefing on the situation on Friday.

"We are facing the worst locust infestation in more than two decades and have decided to declare national emergency to deal with the threat," Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Saturday.

The desert locusts — large herbivores that resemble grasshoppers — arrived in Pakistan from Iran in June and have already ravaged cotton, wheat, maize and other crops.

Read more: East Africa: Why are locusts so destructive?


Favorable weather conditions and a delayed government response have helped the locusts breed and attack crop areas.

Their potential for large-scale destruction is raising fears of food insecurity.

National Food Sec­u­rity Makhdoom Khusro Bak­h­tiar said the locust swarms were currently on the Pakistan-India border along Cholistan and were previously in Sindh and Balochistan, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.

"The locust attack is unprecedented and alarming," Bak­h­tiar told Pakistani lawmakers in a briefing on Friday.

"Action has been taken against the insect over 0.3 million acres (121,400 hectares) and aerial spray was done on 20,000 hectares ,” he was quoted as saying by Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune. "District administrations, voluntary organizations, aviation division and armed forces are put into operation to combat the attack and save the crops,” he added, according to

Prime Minister Imran Khan pledged to tackle the issue, adding that protection of agriculture and farmers was the government's priority.

"The federal government will take all possible steps and provide required facilities to protect crops from any possible danger with special focus on the danger of locust,” Khan said, according to Dawn.

The last time Pakistan saw a serious threat of locusts was in 1993. Currently, locusts swarms are affecting neighboring India and countries in East Africa.

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PAKISTAN


SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=LOCUSTS

GERMANY

Workers' rights in Germany: Not everyone can go on strike

Different bosses, different rights: whether Germans are allowed to strike for better working conditions depends on if they work for a private employer, the church or the state. And that's just one of the rules.

    

Nurses at the local hospital in Ottweiler, a small town in the western German state of Saarland, are on strike. Twenty of them stopped working on Wednesday to draw attention to the fact that they are constantly overworked. They are demanding that more nursing personnel be hired, so they can actually take breaks and not work an inhumane amount of overtime — a demand common to nurses across Germany.

The special thing about this strike: the hospital in Ottweiler is a Catholic institution, and the staff members at the Marienhaus Clinic do not have the same rights to strike as non-Church employees.

The move is a risky endeavor for all involved, but it's necessary, according to union activists.

"If we really want to push through improvements for nursing staff in all hospitals, then we have to go on strike here, too, now," said Michael Quetting, a representative of the regional chapter of German trade union Verdi.

Different employees, different rights

The Ottweiler case draws attention to the issue that in Germany, different kinds of employees enjoy very different workers' rights.

According to article nine of the German constitution, people have the right to form groups with the goal of "upholding or improving working and economical conditions." This is the legal foundation of German trade unions.

Read more: Lufthansa strikes major labor deal with pilots

In 1955, the Federal Labor Court passed down a verdict that declared strikes "undesirable," but not illegal. Employees would no longer have to quit before they could go on strike — a landmark decision.

During a strike, the employment contracts of participants are suspended. That means they aren't guilty of neglecting their work duties, but it also means they don't get paid by their employer for the days they are on strike. Union members receive daily "strike money," the amount of which depends on their monthly membership fees.

Read more: Daycare center staff strike grips Germany 

Church employees

These are the basic rules for regular workers, trainees and interns with employment contracts at private and state institutions like factories, department stores, public transport agencies or hospitals. But for employees of the Catholic or Protestant Church in Germany, there are different rules.

Quiet moments are few and far between for many nurses in Germany

The roughly 1.3 million people in Germany who work for a church-run institution sign special employment contracts. These are often rather strict, especially when they are with the Catholic Church. Many Catholic institutions don't accept employees who aren't baptized Catholics or lead a lifestyle not in line with the church's teachings, like homosexual or divorced people. This practice is not illegal, since churches in Germany have the right to self-determination and can hire whomever and however they want.

Whether church employees are allowed to strike isn't entirely clear. Those who argue against the right to strike say that employers and employees work together to spread charity and grace in the name of faith. That's why employees shouldn't feel the need to fight their employers, as they might in a capitalist context.

Those in favor of strike rights for church employees counter that while churches have the right to self-determination, this does not cancel out the rights of unions to advocate for good working conditions as specified in the constitution. 

Public servants

Another group that does not have the same strike rights as regular employees in Germany are "Beamte," or public servants. They have special rights in their places of employment, like public administrations or schools. Public servants can only be fired in exceptional circumstances, for example, and have extremely good pension plans.

In 2014, the Federal Administrative Court confirmed that no public servants, independent of their occupation, had the right to go on strike. According to the constitution, they fulfill special tasks in the name of the state and are in a "loyal work relationship" with their employer, which is why they cannot protest by walking off the job.

This has lead to some absurd situations, for example in schools, where teachers who are regular employees work side by side with public servants. Teachers with public servant status have to remain at school and teach when their regularly employed colleagues go on strike to protest for better wages.

For students, it can be hard to understand why their first period math teacher is waiting in class, while their second period English teacher is handing out strike pamphlets at a rally in front of city hall. And for the teachers themselves, the two-tier system looks unfair from both sides.

Read more: Teachers strike in several German states

Rules of the strike

Finally, there are very specific strike rules even for regular employees. This is Germany, after all, and you can't just strike when you feel like it. In order to be eligible to push through demands with a strike, an employee has to work under a collective labor agreement that defines wages. A strike has to be called by a union and is only permissible if the employees' work contracts clearly mention the collective labor agreement.

If all those qualifications are fulfilled, and the employees with demands are neither public servants nor work for a church, they are free to go and join the picket line.

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Kenya doctors sign deal to end longest-ever medical strike over pay, working conditions

After a hundred-day strike which crippled public hospitals, Kenyan doctors have signed a deal to end their stoppage. The government had threatened to fire the strikers and hire foreign doctors. (14.03.2017)  

Strikes at French nuclear plants over labor reforms

Nuclear power plant workers have joined rolling energy sector strikes against labor law reforms in France. The country has mobilized strategic oil stocks to counter ongoing fuel supply and transport disruptions. (26.05.2016)  

German metalworkers secure strong wage hike

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Workers' rights and workers' fights

On May 1, 1886, police shot at laborers, merchants and immigrant workers on Haymarket Square in Chicago. They killed four people demanding an eight-hour workday during a three-day general strike. (30.04.2016)  

• Date 11.10.2017
• Author Carla Bleiker

Labour’s fabricated anti-Semitism crisis is being replicated in America

The issue of anti-Semitism became an ongoing narrative that under Corbyn the Labour Party has become a cesspit of anti-Jewish hatred

THIS LIE WAS PEDDLED BY US RIGHT WING ZIONIST MAGAZINE COMMENTARY AND ITS EDITORS ON MSNBC MORNING JOE AS WELL AS BY OTHER MSNBC AND CNN (LET ALONE FOX) MSM COMMENTATORS THAT SPREAD THIS SLANDER THAT "CORBYN WAS AS BAD AS HITLER" SAID JOHN PODHORETZ OF COMMENTARY

Asa Winstanley @AsaWinstanley
February 1, 2020

As far as Zionist lobby groups are concerned, the verdict has finally sunk in: they defeated Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. According to one of them at least; the hard-right, anti-Palestinian group misnamed the “Campaign Against Antisemitism” [sic].

Last month one of the group’s leaders posted an utterly bizarre video online in which he claimed responsibility for the electoral defeat of Corbyn at December’s General Election in Britain. “The beast is slain,” he ranted gleefully. He and his team had “slaughtered” Corbyn. “We defeated him… They tried to kill us [but]… we won.”

More than four years’ worth of smears, lies, sabotage and defamation worked. The “Labour anti-Semitism crisis” finally cut through to mainstream voters in a way that other defamatory media campaigns did not. The fabrication that Labour had “a problem with anti-Semitism” contributed hugely to the perception that Corbyn was an “extremist”. This, in turn, led to the de-legitimisation of the veteran anti-racism campaigner in the eyes of many of older, working-class Labour voters. Second, only to the Brexit issue, this is the reason why so many of them voted Tory in the election or stayed away from the polling booths altogether.

READ: Controversial ‘anti-Semitism code’ being ‘weaponised’ by pro-Israel groups, warns drafter

More importantly, the interminable campaign against Corbyn divided and weakened the grassroots left-wing movement, demoralising some of Corbyn’s biggest supporters. Indeed, many were suspended, expelled or pushed out of the party altogether.

Having successfully sabotaged the largest radical grassroots movement this country has seen within living memory, the pro-Israel lobby groups are on a high. What’s more, they are now in the early stages of a major new offensive linked to the US presidential elections, against Democrat Bernie Sanders, another popular socialist candidate.

We’ve seen this before. Last year Republicans united with the Democratic Party establishment to jointly smear left-wing, pro-Palestinian lawmaker Ilhan Omar. Omar is a Muslim woman, and much of the abuse was openly racist and Islamophobic. The Democrats joined in with the lie that Omar was “anti-Semitic”.


US congresswoman Ilhan Omar in Minnesota, US on 4 October 2016 [Lorie Shaull/Flickr]

So far, Sanders has stood with Omar. It is to be hoped that he stands his ground on this, because it is vital to his own political survival, mainly because of the fact that Bernie Sanders is himself Jewish. There are too many on the American left who are, I believe, complaisant about the potential for such smears to do serious and quite possibly fatal damage to the movement.

The number one reason for the successes of both Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders has been the popular movements behind each one. Corbyn’s best slogan was “For the many, not the few”. Sanders’ current tag line is “Not me. Us”. It is about people power.

Solidarity is the simple secret ingredient that got Corbyn so close to No. 10 in 2017. It is that same principle that means Sanders now leads many polls in the Democratic primary and is way ahead of the pack in polls for the first selection caucus in Iowa on Monday. It is a movement.

If you want to undermine a popular movement, how do you go about it? Divide and rule. Spread false rumours, internal dissent, mutual recriminations and denunciations. Result? Demoralisation.

It is not a strategy that can work overnight, but it can work when sustained over a lengthy period. As Corbyn’s case shows, it does work.

Do not underestimate the dedication and extreme commitment of the Zionist movement, and the pro-Israel lobby in general. They are in it for the long haul and will carry on to the bitter end.

Listen to the words of Alan Dershowitz, “Israel’s lawyer”, torture fan and (latterly) a major fan of Trump’s racism. In a recent interview with Larry King, Dershowitz equivocated about whether or not he would vote for Trump. Who he would definitely not vote for, he said, and would actively campaign against, was one person: Bernie Sanders. His reason? “He tolerates anti-Semitism among the hard left in the Democratic Party,” he claimed falsely. “The man went to England and endorsed Jeremy Corbyn.”

The clever lie that he is not personally anti-Semitic, but “tolerates” anti-Semitism was exactly how the “crisis” against Corbyn began. Over the course of four years, this morphed and evolved into open lies that he is personally anti-Semitic.

Do not imagine for a moment that just because Sanders is Jewish the pro-Israel lobbyists will not try the same lies against him. They will, and they cannot be ignored. They must be fought.

READ: UK’s Lord Polak says new Tory government is opportunity for pro-Israel lobbyists

The real reason for Dershowitz’s opposition, of course, is that Sanders has made some very mild (and in my view overly timid) statements about US military aid to Israel possibly being up for revision in the future. This is why a relatively new pro-Israel lobby astroturfing group called “Democratic Majority for Israel” just spent almost $700,000 on a campaign ad against Sanders in Iowa, ahead of the crucial vote there on Monday. The ad despicably questions his health, and claims falsely that he is not “electable”.



Criticisms of Israel labelled as antisemitism – Cartoon [Carlos Latuff/Twitter]

Thankfully, for now, the Sanders campaign is fighting back. They condemned it, and it even seems to have backfired, resulting in a major boost to donations to him from his supporters.

The ad did not mention “anti-Semitism” or that Sanders supposedly “tolerates” anti-Semitism. But as sure as night follows day, you can be certain that that particular attack line is coming, especially if Sanders secures the Democratic nomination, or it begins to look inevitable, as I expect and hope him to do after Monday. When the attacks do come, it is vital that Sanders and his campaign refuse to make even the slightest concession to any of these false, malicious and disgusting attacks.

The left still does not understand: the pro-Israel lobby will stop at nothing. Do not underestimate the ability of the lobby groups to sustain a long campaign over the next few years. They did it in Britain and they can certainly do it in the US. They can be beaten, but only with the political will to fight back aggressively.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas suspends relations with the US, Israel

ABBAS GETS OFF HIS ASS AT LAST

February 1, 2020 By Agence France-Presse


Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas announced the suspension of relations, including security cooperation, with both Israel and the United States on Saturday, days after the unveiling of a US peace plan that Palestinians say heavily favors Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to cut security ties with both Israel and the U.S. on Saturday, in a lengthy speech delivered at an Arab League meeting in Egypt’s capital that denounced a White House plan for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The U.S. plan would grant the Palestinians limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, while allowing Israel to annex all its settlements there and keep nearly all of east Jerusalem.

The summit of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo was requested by the Palestinians, who responded angrily to the American proposal.

Abbas said that he told Israel and the U.S. that “there will be no relations with them, including the security ties” following the deal that Palestinians say heavily favors Israel.
There was no immediate comment from U.S. or Israeli officials.

The Palestinian leader said that he’d refused to take U.S. President Donald Trump’s phone calls and messages “because I know that he would use that to say he consulted us.”

“I will never accept this solution,” Abbas said. “I will not have it recorded in my history that I have sold Jerusalem.”

He said the Palestinians remain committed to ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a state with its capital in east Jerusalem.

Abbas said that the Palestinians wouldn’t accept the U.S. as a sole mediator in any negotiations with Israel. He said they would go to the United Nations Security Council and other world and regional organizations to “explain our position.”

The Arab League’s head, Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, said the proposal revealed a “sharp turn” in the long-standing U.S. foreign policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“This turn does not help achieve peace and a just solution,” he declared.

Aboul-Gheit said that the Palestinians reject the proposal. He called for the two sides, the Israelis and the Palestinians, to negotiate to reach a “satisfactory solution for both of them.”

President Trump unveiled the long-awaited proposal Tuesday in Washington. It would allow Israel to annex all its West Bank settlements – which the Palestinians and most of the international community view as illegal – as well as the Jordan Valley, which accounts for roughly a fourth of the West Bank.

In return, the Palestinians would be granted statehood in Gaza, scattered chunks of the West Bank and some neighborhoods on the outskirts of Jerusalem, all linked together by a new network of roads, bridges and tunnels. Israel would control the state’s borders and airspace and maintain overall security authority. Critics of the plan say this would rob Palestinian statehood of any meaning.

The plan would abolish the right of return for Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 war and their descendants, a key Palestinian demand. The entire agreement would be contingent on Gaza’s Hamas rulers and other armed groups disarming, something they have always adamantly rejected.

Ambassadors from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman attended the Tuesday unveiling in Washington, in a tacit sign of support for the U.S. initiative.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Arab states that are close U.S. allies, said they appreciated President Trump’s efforts and called for renewed negotiations without commenting on the plan’s content.

Egypt urged in a statement Israelis and Palestinians to “carefully study” the plan. It said it favors a solution that restores all the “legitimate rights” of the Palestinian people through establishing an “independent and sovereign state on the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The Egyptian statement did not mention the long-held Arab demand of east Jerusalem as a capital to the future Palestinian state, as Cairo usually has its statements related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Jordan, meanwhile, warned against any Israeli “annexation of Palestinian lands” and reaffirmed its commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines, which would include all the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries that have peace treaties with Israel.

(AP)



 SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PALESTINE

Just plain wrong’: DNC blistered for letting billionaire Mike Bloomberg onto the debate stage

PROVING THERE ARE TWO DEMOCRATIC PARTIES

A PROGRESSIVE ONE AND A WALL ST. ONE, 

THE LATTER SHOULD JOIN WITH DISAFFECTED REPUBLICANS

TO FORM THEIR OWN PARTY OF THE 1%

Just plain wrong’: DNC blistered for letting billionaire Mike Bloomberg onto the debate stage

January 31, 2020 By Bob Brigham

THIS IS WHAT A LABOR FAKIR LOOKS LIKE

The Democratic National Committee was blasted online on Friday after changing the rules for 2020 debates in a manner that could allow billionaire Michael Bloomberg to essentially buy his way onto the stage.

“The Democratic National Committee is drastically revising its criteria to participate in primary debates after New Hampshire, doubling the polling threshold and eliminating the individual donor requirement, which could pave the way for former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg to make the stage beginning in mid-February,” Politico reported Friday.

“The new criteria eliminate the individual-donor threshold, which was used for the first eight debates, including next week’s debate in New Hampshire. Bloomberg, the self-funding billionaire, has refused to take donations from other individuals, which has thus far precluded his participation in any of the debates since he joined the race late last year,” Politico explained.

The decision was harshly criticized by current and former candidates.

Let’s make one thing clear: @TheDemocrats decision to change the rules now to accommodate Mike Bloomberg and not changing them in the past to ensure a more diverse debate stage is just plain wrong.https://t.co/BoCVpahWpx

— Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) January 31, 2020


Billionaire Bloomberg just bought the @DNC. #PayToPlay #StandWithTulsi

— Tulsi Gabbard  

(@TulsiGabbard) January 31, 2020


Democrats should not be connecting the ability to be heard to money. Period.
DNC did that in setting debate requirements & in removing them. You link money & politics, process gets corrupted. Dems should be rejecting money’s influence, not letting it guide our primary.
— Steve Bullock (@GovernorBullock) January 31, 2020

Here’s what others were saying:

Mike Gravel qualified for the Democratic debate with a grassroots surge that gave him 67,000 donors. The DNC shut him out.

Mike Bloomberg spent $180 million on a massive ad campaign, donated $250,000 to the DNC, and has exactly 1 donor. The DNC let him debate.

Fuck the DNC.
— The Gravel Institute (@GravelInstitute) January 31, 2020

DNC really waited for the Black and Brown candidates to drop out and then changed up the rules so a billionaire could stop and frisk his way to the debate stage.

You expect to see it. https://t.co/82T30qhy8p

— blackness everdeen  

(@traceyecorder) January 31, 2020


Fewer things better encapsulate just how beholden to big money the @DNC is than rewriting the rules to let billionaire Michael Bloomberg buy his way onto the debate stage.
The Democratic establishment does not care about you and will sell you out in a heartbeat.
— jordan (@JordanUhl) January 31, 2020

Fuck Tom Perez and fuck Mike Bloomberg. That's it. That's the tweet.https://t.co/1bBoZlTlQ0
 

Darren Wong (@darrenmwong) January 31, 2020


1. ⁦DNC members didn’t vote on this, or any of the debate rules.
2. Every candidate and every donor who gave to that candidate who played by the rules (to date) should voice outrage at Tom Perez.
3. Perez will never be Governor of MD by doing this https://t.co/p0HEXmoukR
— Nomiki Konst (@NomikiKonst) January 31, 2020

If you look at the new DNC debate thresholds as anything other than "Get Andrew Yang off stage and put Mike Bloomberg on," Then you are high.
— Brad Bauman (@bradbaumn) January 31, 2020

EVEN A JANEY CANUCK CAN SEE THE CRIME THIS IS
DNC changes debate rules so Bloomberg can buy his way in, that's how scared they are of #Bernie2020. Also: Bloomberg's bump has has zero to do with popular support – the same thing would happen to a russet potato with $150-million of TV ads behinds it. https://t.co/9MMHtnFFbf
— Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) January 31, 2020


Make no mistake about it: the @DNC changing its debates rules to open the door for @MikeBloomberg is Dem elite waving white flag on @JoeBiden. They see the writing on the wall and are now moving beyond hedging their bets to propping up Bloomberg https://t.co/OdzXn6KTUj
— Jordan (@JordanChariton) January 31, 2020

Nothing to see here… just Bloomberg buying the DNC… everyone move along.https://t.co/JKRqSE9s4H
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) January 31, 2020

No wonder ⁦@TomPerez⁩ was thinking abt his exit pay package: this is “$ buys access” Nice job—elbow out ppl of color/ppl w ideas but give a certain billionaire a ticket in. #dnc https://t.co/h7URt7U7Nk
— Jonathan Tasini (@jonathantasini) January 31, 2020

I thought the rules were set?!?! That is what they told us when we demanded a climate debate. https://t.co/l5FV6Z60te
— Brianna Westbrook (@BWestbrookAZ8) January 31, 2020

Bloomberg should NOT be on the debate stage. It's the DNC, not the DLC. The debate stage should only feature characters that people actually want. Elections should not be pay to win.
— Ace Watkins (@GamerPres2020) January 31, 2020

So now that Bernie Sanders is the frontrunner, the DNC is changing its debate rules mid-primary, eliminating the small donor threshold to let Bloomberg buy his way onto the stage.

Bloomberg’s surrogates are openly admitting he’s running as a Sanders spoiler.

Here we go again. https://t.co/WqGTuQijKo
— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) January 31, 2020

DNC: climate debate? Nah
Bloomberg debate? Yah https://t.co/R7H7xmSq3t
— Jamal Raad (@jamalraad) January 31, 2020

this is an extremely bad call by the dnc imo, esp when this kind of bar kept cory booker and julian castro out of debates https://t.co/59lB7Kibxc
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) January 31, 2020

Congratulations to the DNC & its chair, Tom Perez, for altering the rules to let the world's 8th-richest person who spent $200 million of his own money on the election in 5 weeks & just happens to be big DNC donor onto the debate stage. https://t.co/7lk6Bk1l5W
— Alex Kotch (@alexkotch) January 31, 2020

‘Definition of a rigged system:’ Sanders campaign rips DNC changing debate rules for Mike Bloomberg

January 31, 2020 By Common Dreams

“DNC changing the rules to benefit a billionaire.”

After debate rules were changed in favor of allowing billionaire Mike Bloomberg to join the candidates onstage vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign hit back, calling the decision emblematic of the corrupt political system the Vermont senator has centered his run for the White House on defeating.

“To now change the rules in the middle of the game to accommodate Mike Bloomberg, who is trying to buy his way into the Democratic nomination, is wrong,” Sanders senior adviser Jeff Weaver told Politico. “That’s the definition of a rigged system.”

New statement from Bernie Sanders senior adviser Jeff Weaver on DNC debate rules: “To now change the rules in the middle of the game to accommodate Mike Bloomberg, who is trying to buy his way into the Democratic nomination, is wrong. That’s the definition of a rigged system.”
— Holly Otterbein (@hollyotterbein) January 31, 2020

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced Friday afternoon that the criteria for making the debate stage will no longer include a requirement about individual donors—allowing Bloomberg, whose campaign is largely self-funded, to join the candidates if his polling numbers reach the new threshold.

“DNC changing the rules to benefit a billionaire,” tweeted Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir. “I much prefer Democrats being a grassroots party. And under Bernie Sanders, that’s the way it will be.”

According to Politico:
Candidates will need to earn at least 10% in four polls released from Jan. 15 to Feb. 18, or 12% in two polls conducted in Nevada or South Carolina, in order to participate in the Feb. 19 debate in Las Vegas. Any candidate who earns at least one delegate to the national convention in either the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primary will also qualify for the Nevada debate.

The rules change caught Democrats by surprise.

Some observers noted the timing of the change and wondered if it was part of a coordinated attack on Sanders from both the DNC and Bloomberg.

The DNC & Bloomberg ready to try & defeat Bernie! 

  pic.twitter.com/aHZ5OgAuVQ

— Anthony Clark for Congress (@anthonyvclark20) January 31, 2020

The Intercept‘s Ryan Grim, citing Federal Elections Commission data, noted Bloomberg donated $325,000 to the DNC in November 2019.

“Totally normal system,” said Grim.

Just before jumping into the race, @MikeBloomberg gave $325,000 to the DNC, on top of the gobs he spent on ads this month. Totally normal system. pic.twitter.com/u4JDelWb7H
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) January 31, 2020

The debate rules have been a source of contention throughout the primary process, with some former hopefuls like Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro questioning the restrictions on polling and donors as prohibitive to their campaigns.

Progressive strategist Tim Tagaris wondered what could have been different if not for the qualifications.

“How much money did candidates like Julián Castro and Cory Booker have to spend chasing donor thresholds that could have been spent building organizations in early states?” said Tagaris.

Comedian and writer Jack Allison took a wry look at the changes and what they mean about the party.

“Remember when they wouldn’t even think of changing them for like Cory Booker,” Allison tweeted. “This is what we mean when we talk about the DNC cheating, obviously and out in the open.”

“Thankfully seeing Bloomberg speak can only hurt his standing,” Allison added, “but still.”

The Christian Right is both anti-Semitic and stridently pro-Israel — here’s why

THEY ARE AMERICAN HOME GROWN PROTESTANTS NOTHING CHRISTIAN ABOUT THEM 
January 31, 2020 Alex Henderson, AlterNet- Commentary


One of the most bizarre characteristics of the Christian Right has been its ability be anti-Semitic and stridently pro-Israel at the same time. On the surface, it seems like a contradiction: how can far-right evangelical groups such as Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition of America and the Family Research Council (FRC) be passionate supporters of Israel and anti-Semites at the same time? But when one delves into the End Times ideology that is so prominent among white evangelicals, it makes perfect sense to them.

Certainly, not all Christians are anti-Semitic; in fact, the vast majority of Catholics and Protestants are not. The Christian Right embraces a severe form of fundamentalist Protestant Christianity that is separate from what non-fundamentalist Christians believe — and in Christian Right ideology, Jews will be condemned to eternal hell unless they convert to fundamentalist Protestant Christianity. In contrast, numerous Catholics and Mainline Protestants (non-fundamentalist Protestants such as Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and the African-Methodist Episcopal Church) are happy to join forces with synagogues for charitable events and agree to disagree about some elements of scripture. Catholics and Mainline Protestants, as a rule, aren’t interested in trying to turn Jews into Christians; their bottom line is that Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe in the Ten Commandments.

But to the Christian Right, Judaism is a one-way ticket to eternal hell — and that includes Jews they claim to consider allies, such as White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Far-right white evangelicals will insist that they aren’t anti-Semitic yet claim that President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump (a convert to Judaism) is going to hell unless she returns to Christianity (the president was raised Presbyterian). So why does the Christian Right consider itself supportive of those it believes deserve eternal punishment? They view it as a marriage of convenience, and this marriage underscores their obsession with Armageddon and the End Times.

On January 23, Mother Jones published an excellent, highly informative article by journalist Stephanie Mencimer that described one of the Christian Right’s most disturbing reasons for being so fond of President Trump: they believe he will escalate a catastrophic war in the Middle East (which Israel will be a key part of), and that war will speed up Jesus Christ’s return to the Earth.

Among End Times evangelicals, one book that is considered essential reading is “Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days,” which was published in 1995 and written by Jerry B. Jenkins and the late Rev. Tim LaHaye (a highly influential Christian Right evangelist). According to Mencimer, that 25-year-old book addresses “the war of Gog and Magog, a biblical conflict prophesied in the Book of Ezekiel. In the Bible, Gog is the leader of Magog, a ‘place in the far north’ that many evangelicals believe is Russia. According to Ezekiel’s prophecy, Gog will join with Persia — now Iran — and other Arab nations to attack a peaceful Israel ‘like a cloud that covers the land.’ LaHaye, like many evangelicals, believed this battle would bring on the Rapture, the End Times event when God spirits away the good Christians to heaven before unleashing plagues, sickness and other horrors on the unbelievers remaining on Earth. Meanwhile, the Antichrist reigns supreme.”

The Christian Right views Netanyahu as a hell-bound sinner who deserves eternal punishment because he has refused to bathe himself in the blood of Jesus Christ, who Jews and Muslims don’t consider the Messiah. But if the Israeli prime minister can play a role in the End Times and the Rapture, they’re happy to ally themselves with him.

It’s important to understand that the anti-Semitism of the Christian Right is quite different from the anti-Semitism of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, who are bitterly anti-Israel. While groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and the Aryan Nations view Israel as an enemy of Aryans, the Christian Right view Israel as an ally that will play a crucial role in the End Times and the Rapture — even though Israeli Jews will go to hell when they are killed in the catastrophic Middle East war that End Times evangelicals long for.

To fully understand just how twisted the Christian Right is, one needs at least a basic understanding of how diverse Christianity is. There are plenty of non-fundamentalist Protestants who flatly reject the Christian Right’s extremist interpretation of Christianity, including the Rev. Al Sharpton (the liberal civil rights activist who hosts “Politics Nation” on MSNBC) and Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg (an openly gay Episcopalian). And the decidedly left-of-center Chris Hedges, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, has spent a lot of time explaining why he considers the Christian Right so dangerous. Hedges’ 2007 book “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America,” pulls no punches and describes far-right white evangelicals as the extremist lunatic fringe of Christianity — a fringe that the Republican Party has been embracing for decades.

The Christian Right is not only anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim —

it is also contemptuous of non-fundamentalist Catholics and Mainline Protestants it considers insufficiently radical. But if a Presbyterian like President Trump can support their theocrat agenda, the Christian Right will embrace him. President Trump is wildly popular among far-right white evangelicals even though his daughter, Ivanka Trump, is a convert to a religion they don’t believe offers salvation.

For neo-Nazis, meanwhile, the Christian Right’s support for Israel is a deal breaker. The Christian Identity movement, which is separate from right-wing white evangelicals, believe that only WASPs — an Aryan Anglo Saxon race — are true Christians. The Christian Right will feature token blacks in its megachurches; neo-Nazis and white supremacists won’t even associate with either Jews or African-Americans

Although End Times evangelicals are likely to hold racist views and applaud President Trump’s white nationalist rhetoric, they won’t be marching with the KKK or the Aryan Nations — as they see it, white supremacists’ contempt for Israel gets in the way of the Rapture. But rejecting the KKK, neo-Nazis and flat-out white supremacists doesn’t make the Christian Right any less anti-Semitic.

HERE ARE THE FRIGHTENING HEADLINES FROM THE FINAL FASCIST TAKEOVER OF THE DIS-UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Trump is on the brink of entering a horrifying new phase of his presidency

Voting to acquit this noxious criminal is the point of no return for the Republican Party

‘Give up the fantasy that the GOP can be rescued’: Conservative lashes party for selling out to Trump

AND IF HE DOES GET VOTED OUT IN 2020 HE WILL NOT LEAVE THE POSITION BUT RATHER CALL FOR A COUP AND CIVIL WAR

BUSTED: President’s campaign reveals ‘steering over $1.8 million’ to his family and Trump Organization businesses

MORE IMPEACHABLE BEHAVIOR 

IT WILL NEVER END TILL THE WHOLE CRIME FAMILY IS LOCKED UP 

AND THE GOP RENAMED THE LOONEY TUNES T-PARTY

BUSTED: President’s campaign reveals ‘steering over $1.8 million’ to his family and Trump Organization businessesJanuary 31, 2020 By Bob Brigham


In a new filing with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign reported spending a staggering amount of money at Trump family businesses.

Anna Massoglia, a researcher at Open Secrets, analyzed Trump’s latest public filings on how he is spending donors’ money.

“New FEC filing: Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign paid $194,247.57 to Trump family members, properties & businesses in the final quarter of last year alone—steering over $1.8 MILLION in donations from presidential campaign donors to Trump’s private interests,” Massoglia reported.

The filings show tens of thousands of dollars going to Trump Tower Commercial LLC and Trump Hotel Collection.

The Trump Corporation, Trump Restaurants, LLC and daughter-in-law Lara Trump also received payments from the campaign.

New @FEC filing: Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign paid $194,247.57 to Trump family members, properties & businesses in the final quarter of last year alone—steering over $1.8 MILLION in donations from presidential campaign donors to @realDonaldTrump's private interests. pic.twitter.com/ell9EtWkDH

— Anna Massoglia (@annalecta) February 1, 2020