Activism, an In-Your-Face Attitude and Uber Driving: The Making of a Gen-Z Politician In Florida

If he wins Rep. Val Demings’s open seat, this blunt-talking activist would be the first Gen Zer and the only Afro-Cuban in Congress.


Maxwell Alejandro Frost sits in his campaign office. | Photos by Gary Bogdon 

By SABRINA RODRIGUEZ
08/23/2022  POLITICO

ORLANDO — Tucked in a small strip of offices downtown, Maxwell Frost’s campaign headquarters shows all the frenzied signs of a primary Election Day rapidly approaching: marathon days with barely enough time to order takeout or run to the bathroom. Campaign flyers scattered on tables and shelves all throughout the office. A non-stop flow of calls to donors. Krispy Kreme donuts in the kitchen and an ironing board set up in the corner of a conference room.

Here, in one room crammed with a couple dozen volunteers and campaign staffers, there’s a sense of both expectation and urgency. Maybe it’s the presence of two House Democrats who’ve flown in to drum up excitement now that early voting has begun. Maybe it’s the $1.5 million in donations Frost has racked up — far outpacing his more seasoned opponents in a race for Rep. Val Demings’s open seat. And maybe it’s Frost himself.

At first glance, Frost looks like any other Gen Zer, zipping around the office, short curly ‘fro, khaki pants, multi-color sneakers and a black quarter-zip sweatshirt, occasionally dropping TikTok references into conversations. Then he slips into a blue plaid suit with tan leather shoes (the better to greet the Washington delegation) and smiles the casual, confident smile of someone who’s both well-versed in energizing a crowd — and unfazed by all the attention.

Maxwell Alejandro Frost (center) doing morning calls to the community at his campaign headquarters in downtown Orlando. “Hey! This is Maxwell Alejandro Frost, Democratic candidate for Congress in Orlando, Florida. How’s everything going?” he says, almost verbatim, on dozens of back-to-back calls.

It’s obvious he doesn’t fit the typical mold for a candidate for Congress — and he’s owning it. For starters, there’s his age, 25, the minimum to serve in the House. He’s Afro-Cuban in a state — and country — where a politician who is both Black and Latino is exceedingly rare. He hasn’t finished college, instead prioritizing his work in community organizing (abortion rights; gun control). He’s never held office. And he doesn’t come from wealth: When he’s not campaigning, he’s behind the wheel of his Kia Soul, clocking in hours for Uber to make ends meet. (His car is currently in the shop, which means he’s got even more time to devote to campaigning for Tuesday’s primary.)

“It’s not just one politician that’s going to save us all. It’s not just one leader,” Frost tells the packed room. “It’s how we’re going to change Florida. And when I say ‘changing Florida,’ it’s not just flipping it red to blue… It’s about creating a society where we say, ‘Your success is my success and my success is your success.’”

“That’s right!” someone shouts as the room erupts with applause.

One of the lawmakers, Democratic Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, stands back, taking it all in. He made the trek from D.C. with Rep. Mark Takano of California to support the young upstart. This is, he says, by far the biggest gathering of folks he’s seen in any campaign headquarters this year.

“That’s a good sign.”

It’s clear the lawmakers, volunteers and staffers gathered here have all bought into Frost’s vision — and they’re committed to ensuring he wins the primary on Tuesday in this deep blue district, which would all but guarantee his path to becoming the first Gen Z and the only Afro-Cuban in Congress.

And polling indicates that a win may be within reach. A new poll by progressive policy and polling group Data for Progress has Frost outperforming his Democratic primary opponents by double-digits, garnering 34 percent of the vote. State Sen. Randolph Bracy and former Rep. Alan Grayson, trail him with 18 percent and 14 percent of the vote, respectively.

Here in this battleground state, where national headlines increasingly focus on two Floridians — former President Donald Trump and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis — Frost wants to chart a path for a new generation of politicians. And he’s convinced this is the place to do it.

Volunteers, campaign staffers, local union members and other Frost supporters say he’s the future of the Democratic Party. They say he’s inspired them to get involved. They say they can’t imagine dedicating so many hours of work for anyone else. They say he’s the one to usher in a new political energy that Florida — and the rest of the country — so desperately needs.



A new poll by progressive policy and polling group Data for Progress has Frost outperforming his Democratic primary opponents by double-digits, garnering 34 percent of the vote. State Sen. Randolph Bracy and former Rep. Alan Grayson, trail him with 18 percent and 14 percent of the vote, respectively. He is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, August 23, 2022.

These days, says Cicilline, an 11-year House veteran, the business of politics “can really be discouraging. You look at what’s happening in Washington with conspiracy theorists and election deniers and you can get down and question, ‘Are we going to get through this?’”

“But then,” he says, “you meet somebody like Maxwell … and it renews your belief in democracy and your hope for the future.”

That’s a lot of hope and change to pin on a 25-year-old’s shoulders. But Cicilline isn’t the only political veteran heaping on the praise. Frost has racked up endorsements from dozens of major groups and leaders at the local, state and national level, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC (“a national leader on gun reform and abortion rights”) and the AFL-CIO. He’s also garnered the support of top Central Florida unions and local representatives as well as an endorsement from the Orlando Sentinel, which declared Frost “has made himself impossible to ignore, for all the right reasons.”

But, in spite of all the money and endorsements, the ultimate question remains: Will the voters of Orlando back a baby-faced first-timer in a crowded race that includes a former member of Congress and long-time state senator?

Frost is betting yes.

“I quit my job to do this. I drive Uber to pay my bills. It’s a sacrifice, to be honest,” Frost says. “But I’m doing it because I can’t imagine myself not doing anything but fixing the problems we have right now.”

He channels that can-do energy as he joins five young staffers at an old wooden dining table with mismatched chairs, making a flurry of thank-you calls to donors on a recent night.

Many don’t answer the call. Some hang up or tell him to get to the point. Others congratulate him for the campaign he’s running. In all, Frost keeps up the same high energy, determined to keep good relationships with donors and raise the money necessary to close out his campaign.

“Hey! This is Maxwell Alejandro Frost, Democratic candidate for Congress in Orlando, Florida. How’s everything going?” he says, almost verbatim, on dozens of back-to-back calls.

At the table, the chaos of the final days of the campaign — and the young team’s ability to multitask — are on display. Two volunteers are making calls simultaneously on their cell phones. The room immediately goes silent when someone asks Frost to jump on a call. They’re surrounded by piles of mail ads — both Frost’s and his opponents’ — laptops and empty water bottles.

One volunteer talks about how he’s just a couple days away from starting his senior year of high school. Another talks about voting earlier in the day. One friend drove three-and-a-half hours from Miami to help out. Another flew in from D.C.

His sister, Maria, shows up, her small dog, Cooper, in tow, sporting a yellow bumble bee harness. As Frost talks to a voter, Cooper’s high-pitched yelps punctuate the room. Everything is put on pause — briefly — to order sushi for dinner. It’s going to be a long night.



Maxwell Frost meets with US Rep. Mark Takano (right) and Rep. David Cicilline (left), who came to show their support. Frost has racked up endorsements from dozens of major groups and leaders at the local, state and national level, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC and the AFL-CIO.

Frost, who was adopted and grew up in a Cuban family, proudly shares his family’s story: His mother came to the U.S. as a child during the Freedom Flights from Cuba in the 1960s. She came with his grandmother Yeya and his aunt, with no money and just one suitcase between them. The family worked hard to make it in their adopted country, but it was rough. Today, his mother is a public school educator who’s taught special education for almost 30 years. (He doesn’t talk much about his father.)

Frost attributes his love of music to growing up in his Cuban family, where he recalls waking up Saturday mornings to the windows flung wide open and Latin music blasting, knowing it was time to clean — a ritual in many Latino homes. That love of music carried into his middle and high school years, when he started a salsa band while attending an arts magnet school. It’s a little-known fact, he says, that his band, Seguro Que Sí, which translates in English to “of course,” played in the parade at then-President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.

But, as he tells it, his decision to run for Congress comes from another part of his identity. Last year, amid news that Demings was running for Senate in an attempt to unseat Republican Marco Rubio, local organizers began courting Frost to run for her open House seat.

Initially, however, he didn’t want to do it. Having worked on campaigns in the past, he knew a lot of the stresses of running for office.

“And I just didn’t think it was my time,” he says.

But that changed last July when he connected with his biological mother. In an emotional call, she told him she gave birth to him at the most vulnerable point in her life. She was battling a host of ills when she put him up for adoption — drugs, crime and poverty — systemic problems in need of real-life solutions, Frost says.

“I hung up the phone and said, ‘I need to run for Congress.’”

That “spitfire” attitude is what attracts his supporters, a CWA union member tells Frost. “That’s what we need! We need young blood.”

His activist impulse started early. At 15, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he started organizing to end gun violence, getting involved in protests and knocking on doors. His resolve and commitment to that cause only amplified in the face of several mass shootings in his state: the 2016 shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, and the one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

“We don’t even have to let him know when we have a protest,” Curtis Hierro, senior legislative and political lead for Communication Workers of America in Florida, says to a group of about a dozen union members at the local union hall readying to go knock on doors in support of Frost. “Maxwell just materializes because you’re part of the movement, you understand movement and it’s what you live and breathe.”

Frost held a host of jobs in field organizing for campaigns and causes before his activism attracted the attention of the ACLU of Florida, where in 2018 he worked on the fight to secure Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to over 1.6 million Floridians with felony convictions. Most recently, he worked as the national organizing director for March for Our Lives, the youth-led movement focused on gun violence prevention.

“Someone the other day made the comment, ‘10 years ago, you were 15,’” Frost says with a hint of annoyance. “Yeah, I was 15 — and how sad is it that we live in a country where at 15 I had to be worrying about being shot at my school so I sprung into action?”

“Hell yeah, I was 15 when I started my advocacy.”

In the lobby of his campaign headquarters, there’s a large painting by Manuel Oliver, father of Joaquin, one of the students killed in the Parkland shooting. Against a bright yellow background are images of Joaquin and Frost along with a pointed message: “Time to save lives! So get on board or get out of our way!”

If he’s elected, Frost says, he’ll be putting up the painting in his office on Capitol Hill.




His activist impulse started early. At 15, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he started organizing to end gun violence, getting involved in protests and knocking on doors. His resolve and commitment to that cause only amplified in the face of several mass shootings in his state: the 2016 shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, and the one at a Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Beyond ending gun violence, Frost’s platform centers on “the future we deserve.” In a mail ad, his campaign breaks down his priorities, priorities in sync with the progressive left: Medicare for All, safe streets and an end to gun violence, affordable housing, a living wage and 100 percent clean energy.

Still, victory in Tuesday’s primary is not a guarantee. His biggest competition in the field of 10 candidates is Bracy and Grayson, who launched a last-minute bid in June after a failed bid for the U.S. Senate.

The race has become increasingly messy, and in the final weeks, Frost has thrown a few punches.

In a recent mail ad, Frost directly attacks them both: Grayson is “corrupt.” Bracy is “compromised.” Both candidates have pushed back; Grayson’s campaign said they sent Frost a cease and desist letter.

“The things that Frost is saying about both Senator Bracy and me are patently false,” Grayson said in a statement to POLITICO. Frost’s ad, he said in the statement, is a “desperate move by a chronic liar.”

And Grayson has a nickname for his young opponent: “Maxwell Fraud.”

Frost, meanwhile, shrugs off the criticism, leaning into his differences.

“I just represent a new type of politics,” he says. “I come from a different place. I’m not a lawyer. I’m not a millionaire. I’m an organizer.”



“We don't even have to let him know when we have a protest,” Curtis Hierro, senior legislative and political lead for Communication Workers of America in Florida, says to a group of about a dozen union members at the local union hall readying to go knock on doors in support of Frost. He has garnered the support of top Central Florida unions and local representatives as well as an endorsement from the Orlando Sentinel.

And he’s tussled with top Republicans as well.

In June, less than two weeks after the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Frost was one of several activists who disrupted an Orlando event that DeSantis attended with conservative political commentator Dave Rubin. In a video widely circulated on social media, Frost approaches the stage, shouting, “Gov. DeSantis, we’re losing 100 people a day due to gun violence. Governor, we need you to take action on gun violence. We need to take action. Floridians are dying.”

“Nobody wants to hear from you,” DeSantis says as the crowd boos and Frost is escorted out.

That “spitfire” attitude is what attracts his supporters, a CWA union member tells Frost. “That’s what we need! We need young blood.”

It’s been a long day and it’s going to be another long night — he’s got a fundraiser sponsored by some of his top local donors in Baldwin Park, one of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods. There, he’ll work the room while attendees listen raptly as they sip wine and munch on mini Cuban sandwiches.

But for now, before he has time to grab some Chipotle for lunch, he heads over to the CWA union hall, where Hierro and members are preparing to go door-knocking to drum up more support for him. Many of them already know Frost, offering up hugs. Some have come from a neighboring county to show their support.

“I wish we had a candidate like you in my district,” one member says.

“It’s about power building together,” Frost tells them. “I’m not the savior.”

Major News Brands Need to Fight Harder for Gen Z

Major news brands are likely not working aggressively enough to align their current distribution strategies with Gen Z’s latest news consumption habits, writes media and entertainment analyst Kevin Tran

Getty Images / Morning Consult artwork by Chloe Phan
By Kevin Tran
August 23, 2022 at 5:00 am ET

Gen Zers are less likely than their older counterparts to be aware of or have favorable views toward major news brands. There’s an opportunity for brands to win over these younger consumers by ramping up content distribution on YouTube and taking a more innovative approach with discovery through Instagram and TikTok.

The biggest news publishers have an evergreen goal to reach more younger consumers. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are working to address their aging bases, while The Washington Post established a task force to bring in a more youthful readership and the massive publisher podcast boom began in part because podcasts represented a relatively untapped channel for reaching younger consumers. Meanwhile, media conglomerates like Comcast and Paramount have long been working to boost news offerings on their video streaming products to soften the blow from the growing number of cord-nevers (primarily Gen Zers and millennials) who can’t access broadcast news networks on traditional TV.

But news brands may not be going far enough: New Morning Consult research shows that Gen Z adults tend to be much less aware of major news brands than the general population.

ARTICLE CONTAINS CHARTS READ ON 

Major News Brands Need to Fight Harder for Gen Z - Morning Consult

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As Corporate Activism Goes International, Morning Consult’s Global Corporate Purpose Tracker Will Help Leaders Chart a Course

Our newest tracker measures consumer demand for corporate activism and trust in business across 17 countries

Getty Images / Morning Consult artwork by Anna Davis

By Sonnet Frisbie
August 23, 2022 

Amid a rising tide of ethical consumerism, geopolitical risk and corporate activism are colliding in ways that leave business leaders with difficult choices about how to respond.

Morning Consult’s newly launched Global Corporate Purpose Tracker is intended to help decision-makers chart a path forward.

The tracker follows trust in business, values-based purchasing intentions and consumer demand for corporate activism in response to geopolitical developments across 17 countries monthly, including a deep dive into U.S. consumer sentiment.

The tracker is an unparalleled resource for business leaders seeking to stay ahead of the rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape and meet global consumers — the majority of whom engage in values-based purchasing — where they stand.

The past few years have seen consumers and employees placing increasing demands on business leaders to react to hot-button domestic issues like diversity and inclusion, COVID-19 vaccination mandates, and the future of work. In parallel, consumers have been calling upon multinationals to take stances on global geopolitical developments, ranging from evidence of forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s exhortation of Western companies still operating in Russia to “stop funding the murder of women and children.”

Global corporate activism is not new. Boycotts of apartheid South Africa and the Free Burma campaign, as well as backlash against Western oil companies doing business in Nigeria, are a few examples that predate the current wave. But navigating the rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape — including war in Europe, tensions over Taiwan and ever-growing concerns about climate change — will test companies’ abilities to balance their business interests with consumers’ demands like never before.

Across 17 markets where Morning Consult tracks public opinion on geopolitics on a monthly basis, majorities of adults say they prefer to buy from brands that reflect their social values, highlighting the magnitude of latent global demand for corporate activism.
Majorities of Consumers Across 17 Markets Prioritize Ethical Consumerism
Share of adults who “strongly” or “somewhat” agree that they prefer to buy goods and services from companies that reflect their social values

Survey conducted monthly among a representative sample of roughly 1,000 adults in each country, with unweighted margins of error of +/-3 percentage points.

Yet global consumers’ enthusiasm varies markedly by country. U.S. adults were the least likely to say they would reward corporate social responsibility (58%), compared with those in the United Kingdom (61%), Germany (66%), China (69%) and Italy (78%).

The values consumers hold — both across and within countries — vary widely, too. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a case in point. Consumers in the United States and much of Western Europe called for companies to withdraw from Russia or risk consumer boycotts in a show of solidarity with Ukraine. Meanwhile, Chinese consumers punished ride-hailing giant Didi for announcing its withdrawal from Russia, reminding business leaders that what people mean by “values” is often shaped by where they live. U.S. consumers’ interest in values-based purchasing in response to global developments such as these is contingent on their political leanings: While 73% of Democrats said they prefer to buy goods reflecting their social values, only 54% of Republicans and 51% of independents said the same, which helps to explain the relatively low levels of overall U.S. support compared with other countries.

As these examples make clear, geopolitical risk, domestic politics and consumers’ preferences vis-à-vis corporate activism can collide in ways that force business leaders to make difficult choices about whose values to prioritize and under what circumstances. Today’s increasingly fraught geopolitical landscape — and, in many countries, heightened political polarization — mean leaders will be forced to contend with such dilemmas more frequently than before.

To that end, Morning Consult’s Geopolitical Risk Analysis team has launched the Global Corporate Purpose Tracker. It will help business leaders proactively gauge global consumers’ expectations in response to major categories of geopolitical developments and chart a path forward by following trust in business, values-based purchasing intentions and consumer demand for corporate activism on a monthly basis across 17 countries, including a deep dive into U.S. consumer sentiment.

The tracker is updated quarterly.

Sonnet Frisbie

Sonnet Frisbie is managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) on Morning Consult's Geopolitical Risk Analysis team. Sonnet leverages the company’s high-frequency survey data to advise clients on how best to integrate geopolitical risk into their decision-making. Interested in connecting with Sonnet for a media request or a speaking opportunity? Email press@morningconsult.com.

Fetterman calls for prosecution of corporate executives 'gouging consumers'

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
August 22, 2022


Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman made the case Sunday for prosecuting corporate executives as part of a broader government crackdown on unlawful price gouging and other business practices that have driven up the costs of medicine, groceries, and gas—padding company bottom lines at the expense of consumers.

"Take the massive oil companies, for example," the Democratic candidate wrote in an op-ed for the Pennsylvania Times Leader. "Chevron, Exxon, and Shell have seen their profits increase 200% since last year, but they're still charging us sky-high prices for gas. Companies like Tyson posted over a billion dollars in profits last quarter, while raising prices on meat products our families depend on."

"Out-of-touch politicians got us into this mess, we can't trust an out-of-touch millionaire TV doctor to get us out of it."

"It's gross, and deeply unpatriotic, for the big corporations to be rolling around in cash while charging us record-high prices for gas and groceries," wrote Fetterman, who is currently Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor. "We'll crack down on this by prosecuting the executives of these huge corporations, including the Big Oil companies and meatpacking companies who are artificially driving up prices, gouging consumers at the pump and at the grocery store."

Fetterman's op-ed comes just over a week after he held his first major public event since suffering a stroke in mid-May, days before the Democratic primary contest that he won handily.

The Democrat's general election campaign in the critical battleground Pennsylvania—a state that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate next year—currently enjoys a double-digit polling lead over his Republican opponent, the former celebrity television personality and ultra-millionaire Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Fetterman is looking to press his advantage by continuing to deploy populist messaging that presents Oz as a carpetbagger whose extreme wealth and ties to corporate interests such as Big Pharma render him unfit to deliver for the working class, whose earnings are being eroded by surging prescription drug prices, housing costs, and other inflationary trends.

According to one recent analysis, pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. have raised drug prices more than 1,100 times so far this year.

"Let's be clear: Dr. Oz just isn't connected to the struggles that Pennsylvanians are facing every day," Fetterman wrote in his new op-ed. "While he's been complaining about rising prices from his New Jersey Mansion, I've been meeting Pennsylvanians on grocery store runs, speaking with them about the challenges they're facing, and finding real policy solutions that get stuff done and make their lives better."

"Working Pennsylvanians are getting screwed," he continued. "While costs are rising and wages are failing to keep up, too many of our leaders in Washington simply aren't doing enough. Out-of-touch politicians got us into this mess, we can't trust an out-of-touch millionaire TV doctor to get us out of it."

In addition to prosecuting corporate executives for price-gouging and other abuses, Fetterman voices support for a range of policy solutions aimed at tackling rising costs and inequality, including:Enacting a financial transaction tax on trades of stocks, bonds, and derivatives;
Ending the stranglehold of healthcare costs on American families by instituting a cap of a thousand dollars per year on out-of-pocket costs;
Passing legislation to allow for the importation of lower-priced prescription drugs from other countries; and
Putting a cap on prescription drug costs.

"If we start getting stuff done, starting with these priorities I've listed," Fetterman wrote, "we can make real change for the towns, cities, and people of Pennsylvania."

Biden Administration Offers 'Concern,' But Refuses to Condemn Israeli Raids

The Biden administration says it "doesn't share Israel's position" on criminalizing 6 Palestinian NGOs, but also won't criticize Israel following a military raid on the organizations.


MICHAEL ARRIA

August 22, 2022 by Mondoweiss

On August 18 Israeli forces carried out an overnight raid on the offices of seven Palestinian civil society organizations in the occupied West Bank. Armed soldiers stole documents, damaged property, and welded the office doors shut.

Six of the seven targeted groups (Al-Haq, Addameer, Defense for Children International – Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, The Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees) had been designated as terrorist organizations by the Israeli government in October 2021. Israel has never provided any public evidence to back up these allegations and classified documents obtained by +972, Local Call, and The Intercept show that the accusations are dubious.

Shortly after Israel designated the groups as terrorists, they presented the Biden administration with what they claimed to be "unequivocal" intelligence against the Palestinian NGOs. "We receive detailed information from the Israeli government," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters at the time. "We appreciated the consultation. We're reviewing the information that they provided us."

That was ten months ago, but the Biden administration has still not made a public conclusion about the evidence. At an April 2022 State Department briefing Price reiterated the same sentiments from October and did not indicate that they were any closer to reaching a verdict. "We have received detailed information on that very question from our Israeli partners, and it's something that we're continuing to review," he said. "We received detailed information from our Israeli partners on the basis for their designation. We're taking a very close look at that ourselves."

At yesterday's briefing Price was hit with a barrage of questions from the AP's Matt Lee and Al Quds' Said Arikat about the raid. Price expressed "concern" about the raids and said the administration was awaiting information about situation from its Israeli partners, the reporters asked why it hadn't released a statement about the evidence from October and why people should expect them to assess any new evidence in a timely manner. Lee told Price that the administration seemed to be in a "perpetual state of limbo."

"We have not seen anything that has caused us to change our position," Price eventually admitted, which marks the first time that the administration has acknowledged that it doesn't share Israel's position on the issue. However, Price refused to disagree with the Israeli government directly, much less accuse them of lying.

"So you don't believe the Israelis' information?," asked Lee at one point.

"Intelligence information is always information that is the subject of analysis and different parties can read information differently," responded Price. "They can perceive of threats differently. Our own analysis heretofore of the information that was provided last year has not caused us to change our approach to these organizations."

When Price was asked why the administration is simply voicing concern, instead of condemning the raids, he curiously referenced October evidence. "I think the fact is that our Israeli partners..took an action..to designate these organizations as so-called 'terrorist organizations', said Price. "What we've seen publicly, what they've conveyed privately in recent hours, is that there's an appropriate basis for the actions that they have taken. It will be a matter of urgency for us to review the basis for that information."
U.S. complicity

On Twitter some pointed out that the Biden administration helped facilitate the raids via their inaction in regards to the original intelligence. "To be clear, while this is the furthest the U.S. government has come, it still falls very short of where it needs to be," wrote the Palestinian-American political analyst Yousef Munayyer. "Their equivocation for months emboldened Israel to raid these offices today. When will the US finally condemn these actions, how much further does Israel have to go?"

"The Biden Admin has had Israel's 'evidence' for almost a year," wrote Foundation for Middle East Peace president Lara Friedman. "It clearly knows this 'evidence' is BS—otherwise there is zero doubt they would have validated Israel's designations/designated the groups themself. But knowing the evidence was BS, they appear to have taken the politically & morally cowardly approach of staying silent—an approach that amounts to foreign policy gross negligence/complicity."

"Make no mistake: This is a Chekov's gun situation," she continued. "Israel put the gun on the table last October. The Biden Admin saw that gun and decided to do nothing to pressure Israel to remove it. Now, the Biden Admin cannot claim surprise when Israel aims/fires that gun at Palestinian human rights defenders."

A few Democratic House members also called Biden to act. "I am upset by the latest attacks by the Israeli army on Palestinian human rights groups," tweeted Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN). "Silencing human rights defenders is an attempt to avoid accountability. I reiterate calls from myself and my colleagues that the Biden administration immediately condemn this repression."

"Once again the IDF has launched a chilling attack on Defense for Children International-Palestine, a human rights organization supporting Palestinian children," wrote Rep. Betty McCollum. "The Biden administration must condemn these efforts to silence groups advocating for Palestinian human rights and civil society."

Last year McCollum introduced a resolution calling on the administration to condemn Israel's "authoritarian and antidemocratic" repression of the human rights groups.

© 2021 Mondoweiss

MICHAEL ARRIA is the US correspondent for Mondoweiss and the author of Medium Blue: The Politics of MSNBC.

Letter to Biden Administration Following Israel's Recent Actions Against Palestinian CSOs

August 22, 2022

President Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Mr. Antony J. Blinken
Secretary of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Mr. Biden and Mr. Blinken,

We write in connection with the Israeli government's actions against seven leading Palestinian civil society organizations, confirming the decision to outlaw the activities of six of them, raiding their offices, and issuing closure orders against them. The Israeli Shin Bet subsequently targeted the leaders of at least two of these organizations in further acts of intimidation and harassment. These actions are an assault on the basic human rights of Palestinians to assemble and organize freely and an example of the Israeli government's weaponization of "counter-terrorism laws" in its relentless attacks against civil society activists. Despite repeated demands from governments and human rights organizations around the world, Israel has offered no credible evidence to support its allegations against these groups, and as a result, nine European Union (EU) states and Norway have rejected Israel's claims and continued to support the organizations.

The U.S. government's failure to censure Israel's human rights violations while continuing to provide it with matchless military and political support is understood as US acquiescence to these actions, and clearly the Israeli government feels empowered to repress Palestinian civil society with impunity. To demonstrate its stated commitment to human rights and the protection of civil society, the U.S. government should take immediate steps to support the Palestinian civil society organizations by meeting with representatives of the groups, openly rejecting the Israeli designations, demanding that Israel reverse its designations, and suspending military assistance to Israel so long as its systematic abuses of Palestinians, including this latest attack, continue.

On August 18, Israeli authorities raided the offices of seven prominent Palestinian civil society organizations, seizing documents, printers and computers, welding the doors shut, and issuing closure orders against the organizations. The organizations that were issued closure orders are: Defense for Children International – Palestine, Al Haq; Addameer; Bisan Center for Research and Development; Union of Agricultural Work Committees; Union of Palestinian Women's Committees; and Health Work Committees. This follows the Israeli government's move last year to outlaw the groups, designating them as "terrorist" organizations under Israeli law, and as "unlawful associations" under military law, which it applies in the occupied West Bank. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz's confirmed many of these designations on August 17, though several groups still have a pending challenge against the 'terrorism' designation. On August 21, the Shin Bet interrogated Khaled Quzmar, General Director of DCI Palestine, for two hours and contacted Shawan Jabarin, General Director of Al-Haq, to threaten him, order Al-Haq to cease its activities and demand he come in for interrogation. 

Following the initial designation on October 22, 2021 of the groups as "terrorist" organizations and in November 2021 as "unlawful associations," Israeli officials engaged in a political campaign to convince European and American officials that they had evidence against the organizations that supported the allegations against them. In November 2021, the Associated Press and +972 Magazine reported that a leaked 74-page document, apparently prepared by Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency, was shared with European governments in May 2021. In July 2022, nine EU states – Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden – said that they received "no substantial information" that justified the Israeli claims and that they would continue their financial support to the organizations. When announcing this decision, the nine countries stated, "No substantial information was received from Israel that would justify reviewing our policy towards the six Palestinian NGOs. In the absence of such evidence, we will continue our cooperation and strong support for the civil society in the OPT."

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price acknowledged on November 4, 2021 that an Israeli delegation had presented information about the designations to U.S. officials and stated that the U.S. authorities would carry out an assessment and make its own determination. Since then, despite some Congressional support to the Palestinian organizations and Congressional rejection of the Israeli claims, as well as a joint statement by UN experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, calling for the resumption of funding to the six organizations, the Biden administration remained silent. On August 18, 2022, Price stated: "We are concerned about the Israeli security forces' closure of the six offices of the Palestinian NGOs in and around Ramallah today. We have reached out to the Israeli government, including at senior levels, including here from Washington as well as our embassy in Jerusalem, for more information regarding the basis for these closures." According to the Guardian, a classified CIA report found that there was no credible evidence against the organizations.

At the same time, the U.S. government has continued to provide the Israeli government with billions in military support. Notwithstanding the overwhelming record of Israeli human rights abuses, President Biden reiterated the United States' "ironclad" support for Israel during his trip to Israel and the West Bank in July 2022, and refused to meet with the Palestinian organizations despite calls from U.S. civil society organizations for him to do so.

Israel's labeling of these Palestinian organizations as "terrorist" and the campaign to use evidence that has been roundly discredited could also undermine legitimate and lawful global efforts to respond to terrorism. In their April 2022 letter, UN Experts explained how Israel's actions abuse such efforts, stating:

The United Nations has been very clear that the drafting and application of anti-terrorism laws have to be rigorously consistent with international law and human rights protections, including the principles of legal certainty, necessity, proportionality, the rule of law and non-discrimination. We are deeply disturbed by Israel's apparent misuse of anti-terrorism legislation to attack some of the leading civil society organisations in Palestine. Such misuse must be rejected and countered.

By its silence and inaction to condemn Israel's actions against the Palestinian organizations while continuing to provide unconditional U.S. military and political support to Israel, the Biden Administration is effectively acquiescing to repressive attacks on Palestinian civil society. In addition to the threat against individual Palestinian human rights defenders, this could have devastating consequences for the marginalized communities these organizations serve, including women, children, farmers, and poor families.

We, the undersigned organizations, urge the Biden Administration to take immediate action and make public its promised but long delayed assessment of the Israeli evidence and to follow the lead of its European counterparts in explicitly rejecting Israel's baseless designation of these groups as "terrorist" and "unlawful associations." The administration should demand that Israel reverse its determinations and cease all punitive actions against them, and President Biden should instruct the U.S. Ambassador in Jerusalem, Tom Nides, to meet publicly with representatives of the targeted organizations. Finally, the Administration should suspend military assistance to Israel so long as its systematic abuses of Palestinians, including this latest attack, continue.

Signed:

• Adalah Justice Project
• AJP Action
• American Friends Service Committee
• American Muslims for Palestine
• Center for Constitutional Rights
• Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
• Human Rights Watch
• Jewish Voice for Peace Action
• MENA Rights Group
• US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
• Virginia Coalition for Human Rights 

‘Not directly a matter for US’: State Dept on terror charges against Imran Khan

This is a matter for the Pakistani legal and judicial system, says Ned Price when asked to comment on cases against PTI chairman

August 23, 2022

United States Department of State spokesman Ned Price.

 Photo: AFP/file

ISLAMABAD: Terming the terrorism case against PTI Chairman Imran Khan a “matter for the Pakistani legal and judicial system", US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price refused to comment on the issue.

During a State Department press briefing, the spokesperson was asked if he had any reaction to the charges that were brought against former prime minister Imran Khan under an anti-terrorism law because of a speech that he made where he spoke about two senior police officials and a female judge, Ned Price replied that they were aware of the reports about the charges.

“This is a matter for the Pakistani legal and judicial system,” he said, adding that it is not directly a matter for the United States, and that’s because they do not have a position on one political candidate or party versus any other political candidate or party.

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The US spokesperson maintained that they support the peaceful upholding of democratic, constitutional, and legal principles in Pakistan and around the world.

The PTI chairman is facing a terrorism case over the controversial remarks he made during a rally in Islamabad staged to show solidarity with Shahbaz Gill who was arrested after a sedition case was filed against him.

The PTI has alleged that Gill was subjected to torture during detention, however, the Islamabad Police have denied such allegations.

The Islamabad High Court has also issued a contempt of court notice to the PTI chairman over his remarks against the judge.

What We Know About Imran Khan, Pakistan’s Former Prime Minister

Mr. Khan’s party has had a comeback since he was ousted this year. He’s now facing charges of violating a terrorism law after he threatened to sue government officials.

Imran Khan at a rally in Lahore, Pakistan, this month.

Credit...Arif Ali/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Vivek Shankar
Aug. 22, 2022

Pakistan faces a political flash point after the police filed terrorism charges this weekend against Imran Khan, the former prime minister who has staged an improbable comeback after his ouster earlier this year.

The conditions that precipitated Mr. Khan’s fall — rising prices of food, the country’s heavy debt and the loss of the military’s support — have only worsened under the current government. In July, residents of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous state, showed their displeasure by handing Mr. Khan’s party, Tehreek-e-Insaf, a sweeping victory in local elections.

Buoyed by that success, Mr. Khan has renewed his call to hold general elections earlier than planned. But the government, Mr. Khan and his allies say, has responded with a crackdown on him and his party in a bid to prevent him from returning to power. Mr. Khan on Sunday blamed Pakistan’s powerful military, which once backed him.

Authorities have yet to arrest Mr. Khan. He was granted a form of bail on Monday, which is allowed in Pakistan before an arrest is made.

Here’s what you need to know about the situation in Pakistan:

Mr. Khan is accused of intimidating government officials.

In a speech on Saturday, the former prime minister threatened to sue police officers and a judge involved in the case of a senior aide, Shahbaz Gill, who Mr. Khan said was tortured while in police custody. Officials have denied those claims.

After Mr. Khan’s speech, a complaint was filed with the police, accusing him of trying to intimidate the country’s judiciary and police force, local news media reported. A case was registered against Mr. Khan under Pakistan’s terrorism law, but it is not clear whether there is an arrest warrant or what the exact charges are.

 

Police officers Monday in Islamabad at a checkpoint on a road leading to Mr. Khan’s home.

Credit...Anjum Naveed/Associated Press

Mr. Khan has not yet responded publicly to the charges.

Leaders of his party have vowed to take to the streets if he is arrested.

Mr. Khan’s aide, Mr. Gill, was detained after he called for military officers to defy orders from the top brass. The popular cable television channel on which Mr. Gill made those comments, ARY News, was forced off the air. Over the weekend, Pakistan’s media regulator ordered television channels to stop carrying Mr. Khan’s speeches live, saying he was “spreading hate speech.”


Mr. Khan had an atypical rise to political leader.

Born to an affluent family in Lahore and educated at Oxford University, Mr. Khan rose to international prominence in the late 1970s on the cricket pitch. By the time he led Pakistan in 1992 to its only World Cup triumph, he had become a regular in London’s fashionable crowd. In 1995, he married a British heiress, Jemima Goldsmith.

A year later, Mr. Khan tried to parlay his cricket popularity into a political career, establishing his own party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or the Movement for Justice. As a politician, he painted a picture of himself as a reformer offering an alternative to the entrenched political dynasties.

In Australia in 1992, Mr. Khan, center, and his cricket team after their World Cup victory.

Credit...Tony Feder/Getty Images

For over a decade, Mr. Khan struggled to make political inroads and was mocked for his political ambitions. But by 2011, he began drawing hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis to his rallies. Many were energized by a populist message against corruption and American influence.

By then, he had embraced a pious form of Islam and sought to transform his personal image.

After winning the backing of military leaders, Mr. Khan was elected Pakistan’s prime minister in 2018. Many of his rivals accused the military of manipulating the election in his favor — an accusation Mr. Khan and the military have denied. He ushered in a new foreign policy, moving away from the United States and closer to Russia and China.
Mr. Khan’s tenure as prime minister had a premature end.

The global wave of inflation that followed the coronavirus pandemic dealt a severe blow to Pakistan, a country of 220 million people that was already struggling with erratic growth and heavy government debt. The rising cost of food and imports like fuel led to dissatisfaction with Mr. Khan’s handling of the economy.

A dispute with military leaders compounded Mr. Khan’s struggles, and by late last year, his tenure began to unwind. He had sought to place a loyal aide and former spy chief in charge of the army over the objections of the military leadership.

Unloading rice at a market in Karachi in January. Rising food costs during the pandemic led to dissatisfaction with how Mr. Khan was handling the economy. His successor, Shehbaz Sharif, faces a similar challenge.

Credit...Rizwan Tabassum/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

With Mr. Khan appearing to lose the military’s backing, his political rivals became emboldened. They pushed for a vote of no confidence to oust him after he rejected calls to resign. Mr. Khan remained defiant and dismissed the plan for the vote as part of an American conspiracy, without providing any evidence. In a bid to sidestep the vote, he dissolved Parliament and called for new elections.

Mr. Khan’s scorched-earth politics had left him with few friends and little negotiating room. Most of the major opposition leaders had been jailed during his tenure.

Mr. Khan’s opponents said his call to dissolve Parliament amounted to a coup and petitioned the Supreme Court, which overturned his move to dissolve Parliament. In April, Mr. Khan became the first prime minister of Pakistan to be removed in a no-confidence vote. His ouster extended a dubious distinction for the country: Not one of its prime ministers has completed a full term in office.
Mr. Khan staged an improbable comeback.

Even though Mr. Khan was removed from office, he continued to have a significant following in Pakistan. He staged political rallies in which he accused the United States, the military and Shehbaz Sharif, the opposition leader who succeeded him as next prime minister, of conspiring to topple his government. American officials, the military and Mr. Sharif have denied those accusations.

This summer, Mr. Khan proved that he remained a powerful force in Pakistani politics. In July, his party won a sweeping victory in elections in Punjab, a bellwether for national politics. The economic issues that helped lead to Mr. Khan’s fall have also become a problem for the new government.

Supporters of Mr. Kahn’s party, Tehreek-e-Insaf, during a protest in Karachi in June.

Credit...Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

Mr. Sharif has raised electricity and fuel prices as he tries to get the economy back on track. He has also ended some government subsidies to revive a $6 billion bailout plan from the International Monetary Fund that was suspended after Mr. Khan’s administration failed to meet some conditions of the loan.

Buoyed by the victory in Punjab, Mr. Khan renewed his call for the government to hold general elections earlier than 2023, the scheduled date.

Mr. Khan added to his momentum this month when his party also fared well in elections in Karachi, Pakistan’s economic hub.

Vivek Shankar is a senior staff editor on the International desk. Previously, he worked for Bloomberg News in San Francisco, Sydney and Washington. @vivshank

A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 23, 2022, Section A, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline: Rise, Fall and a Potential Return. 

Imran Khan

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Charged Under Terrorism Act
Aug. 21, 2022

Imran Khan Dominates Punjab Vote, Deepening Pakistan Turmoil
July 18, 2022

Days After Ouster, Imran Khan Is Back on the Trail in Pakistan
April 15, 2022

Pakistan Parliament Ousts Imran Khan as Prime Minister
April 9, 2022

Afghanistan: How the UAE-Haqqani link trumped Qatar’s Taliban relationship

 
Abu Dhabi emerged as another broker in Afghanistan to rival Qatar’s influence, as part of a grand strategy to become a key player in Central Asia

Andreas Krieg
22 August 2022 

Afghanistan's minister for refugees, Khalil Haqqani, arrives to attend a gathering held to mark the first anniversary of their return to power in Afghanistan in Kabul on 15 August 2022 (AFP)

It has been a year since the Taliban seized Afghanistan's capital Kabul after two decades of insurgency.

When it became clear that the proxy government of then President Ashraf Ghani had cowardly abandoned the country and its people, US forces and their allies were left in limbo having to surrender Afghanistan to the Taliban.

For years the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had framed Qatar’s hosting of the Taliban office as direct support of terrorism

Frantically organised evacuation flights by Nato partners just about managed to extract their uniformed personnel leaving behind tens of thousands of local staff and their families who had shared the burden of the western war effort.

Amid this chaos, Qatar seized the opportunity to make use of the networks it had developed with the Taliban it hosted upon US request since 2010.

Qatar suddenly appeared as the most important broker and facilitator in Afghanistan.

Apart from organising evacuation flights and hosting Afghan refugees, Qatar brokered bilateral deals for its western partners with the insurgents turning governors. It prompted the US and European partners to relocate their Afghan embassies to Doha, making the Qatari capital the new gateway to Afghanistan.

The soft power success for Qatar was all but expected. Its neighbouring rivals - first and foremost the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – for years had framed Qatar’s hosting of the Taliban office as direct support of terrorism.

In 2017 the UAE and Saudi Arabia even went as far as imposing a blockade on Qatar citing among other things, Qatar’s hosting of the Taliban. But when in 2021 Qatar was able to translate its Taliban links into political capital in the West, Abu Dhabi curiously u-turned on its Afghanistan policy and its stance towards the Taliban.
Another broker

A year on from Qatar’s influence coup, Abu Dhabi curiously emerged as another broker in Afghanistan rivalling Qatar’s influence in an increasingly zero-sum manner. Offering refuge to Ghani, the disgraced Afghan president, in the summer of 2021 was just the first move by Abu Dhabi to keep its foot in the Afghan door.

 

Qatar's investment in the Taliban: How much influence does it buy?

Read More »

Since then, Abu Dhabi has re-cultivated personal networks with the Haqqani network – a powerful faction within the Taliban movement that has emerged as the actual kingmaker in Kabul since September 2021.

And unlike Qatar whose leverage over the Taliban is limited to the more pragmatic individuals around the now widely sidelined Mullah Baradar, the UAE have had long-standing ties to the Haqqanis that date back to the 1980s.

The group, founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, had been the most effective fighting force among the many militant factions in the two-decade-long insurgency against the US-led alliance in Afghanistan.

While the more pragmatic members of the Taliban movement forged political plans in the comfort of Qatari exile, the Haqqanis bore the burden of war in a relentless insurgency against the West. Thus, against Qatar’s hope to see the pragmatists seize key positions in the new Taliban government, it was hardly surprising that the most powerful factions of the movement – the Haqqanis – would take over key portfolios in the new Afghan government.
A power shift

Sirajuddin Haqqani, the son of the network’s founder, became the interior minister controlling key portfolios of internal security and intelligence. It shifted power away from those Taliban who had lived in Qatar for many years and who mostly originated from the Kandahar region.

Abu Dhabi has been eager to cultivate their own networks close to the new kingmakers in Kabul

The ascent of Sirajuddin, who is still on the FBI’s most wanted list, coincides with the decline of Qatari influence over Taliban policies. Many of the formerly Qatar-based Taliban were sidelined in favour of actors who are closer to the tribal networks of northeastern and southeastern Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi has been eager to cultivate their own networks close to the new kingmakers in Kabul.

Since the early 1980s all the way through the 2000s, the Haqqani network relied on the UAE as a hub for money laundering and recruitment. Through front companies and a network of trusted Afghan expats, the Haqqanis had built a solid infrastructure in the UAE to finance their operations transforming this Taliban subgroup into the most effective fighting force of the insurgency.

While the Emirates responded to US pressure in 2014 to blacklist the Haqqani network, operations were likely just driven underground with some commentators speculating that the informal money laundering operations of the Haqqanis through the Emirates never stopped.


Personal affection with the UAE was so deep that the network’s founder Jalaluddin took an Arab wife from the Emirates with whom he had at least one son, Sirajuddin, the current Taliban minister of interior. Sirajuddin is believed to have spent extensive periods in the Emirates visiting his mother, learning Arabic and interacting with foreign recruits.

In January 2017 a bomb killed the UAE ambassador and four other Emirati diplomats in Kandahar – an event believed to be executed by Haqqani proxies that put a dent in relations between the UAE and the Haqqanis even if the attack likely did not target the UAE diplomats.
Up for grabs

However, with influence in Afghanistan up for grabs amid great power competition over the central Asian country, the UAE reengaged in Afghanistan in 2021 through humanitarian aid following the takeover of the Taliban.

Afghanistan: Can the Taliban survive the year ahead?

Read More »

According to several sources in Kabul, the UAE embassy systematically engaged key proteges of the Haqqani network in their tribe’s eastern Afghan heartland of Khost and Loya Paktia.

UAE diplomats have allegedly built close relations with Khost’s provincial governor who is also believed to be a personal friend of Sirajuddin Haqqani. Other sources claim that the UAE embassy also bonded with Sirajuddin’s personal assistant over the past year.

As Qatari-Turkish negotiations with the Taliban over managing Kabul airport broke down earlier this year over Qatari and Turkish demands to keep running airport security, the UAE had the networks in place to lobby Sirajuddin’s Ministry of Interior to take over the contract. Unlike its competitors, Abu Dhabi did not put any conditions on the contract, allowing the Haqqani network to run airport security.

In the end, a UAE-based consortium, GAAC, won the bid marking a victory for the UAE in its competition with rival Qatar. More so, as Central Asia has become a key ground for the UAE’s mercantile network-building and Sino-Emirati collaboration, it makes sense for Abu Dhabi’s ambitions to become a key Chinese interlocutor in the region.

After all, unlike Qatar, which acted as a widely impartial mediator in the conflict, for the UAE, Afghanistan is right at the heart of their mercantilist grand strategy of connecting logistical nodes and supply chains in Central Asia – something the Haqqani network now running the Taliban is happy to benefit from.

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

Dr. Andreas Krieg is an assistant professor at the Defence Studies Department of King's College London and a strategic risk consultant working for governmental and commercial clients in the Middle East. He recently published a book called 'Socio-political order and security in the Arab World'.

Iran stresses nuclear disarmament of US, pressure on Israel

TEHRAN, Aug. 23 (MNA) – Iran UN envoy Majid Takht Ravanchi called for a real commitment

 to nuclear disarmament by the United States and a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.

Speaking at the Tenth NPT Review Conference on Tuesday, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi share Iran’s deep concern about the NNWS regarding the lack of progress in the implementation of nuclear disarmament obligations and commitments.

Here is the full statement:

Mr. President, 

I would like to thank you and your team for all your efforts in steering the Conference. My delegation has contributed constructively to the discussions and draft reports. However, regrettably, due to some imbalanced contents of draft reports, none of them garnered consensus. We share the deep concern of the NNWS regarding the lack of progress in the implementation of nuclear disarmament obligations and commitments. Three weeks of intense negotiations reveal that the NWS does not have the determination and political will to accept any concrete commitments or timetables, benchmarks, or targets that are required for making progress in our negotiations on the nuclear disarmament pillar.

My delegation underlines that the positions of the nuclear weapon States echoed and supported by the so-called umbrella states, including their attempt to replace nuclear disarmament with nuclear risk reduction are contrary to their explicit legal obligations concerning nuclear disarmament.

I would like to add that establishing a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction is long overdue after the consensual adoption of the resolution in 1995. To implement this resolution, the 2010 Review Conference adopted by consensus a detailed plan of action and agreed that the Secretary-General and the co-sponsors of the 1995 resolution, in consultation with the States of the region, convene and exert their utmost efforts to ensure the success of a conference in 2012 that was to be attended by all States of the Middle East, on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction. However, after delays in convening the Conference, at the first, second and third sessions of the Preparatory Committee, in 2012, 2013, and 2014, the NAM and regional countries warned that any further delay in convening the 2012 conference would seriously jeopardize the overall implementation of the conclusions and recommendations for follow-on actions and would represent a major setback in that regard.

We are firmly convinced that the Conference was postponed indefinitely because of the US’ opposition and this has been the persistent policy of the US to turn a blind eye to the nuclear arsenals of the Israeli regime while not supporting the convening of the Conference.

Now, we expect the current Conference to reject the impediments to convening the conference. The failure to convene the conference in 2012 contradicts and violates the collective agreement of the States parties contained in the conclusions and recommendations for follow-on actions adopted by the 2010 Review Conference and contravenes the letter and spirit of the 1995 resolution on the Middle East.

Despite the lack of required inclusivity and transparency in developing the SB II draft report, once again we reiterate our main proposals in this regard and would like to emphasize that any document without embracing the ideas contained in our proposals, any glimpse of consensus will be faded away. In accordance with our proposals which are fully consistent with the NAM positions, the Conference, inter alai, Expresses concern about the lack of progress towards the implementation of the 1995 resolution and the 2010 action plan on the Middle East; and Calls upon Israel to renounce possession of nuclear weapons and eliminate its entire stockpile of nuclear weapons;

It Reaffirms that the accession of Israel to the Non-Proliferation Treaty without precondition and further delay and the placement of all of its nuclear activities and facilities under the comprehensive IAEA safeguards is essential in realizing the goal of universal adherence to the Treaty in the Middle East and the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East;

It Expresses its strong support for the other process launched by the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction convened by the Secretary-General, pursuant to General Assembly decision 73/546, to elaborate a legally binding treaty on the establishment of the zone on the basis of consensus;

The full text of our proposals will be submitted to the Secretariat of the Conference.

ZZ/PR

Iran renews call to compel Israel to destroy its nuclear weapons stockpile

23 August، 2022

New York, SANA- The US should adhere to its commitments towards nuclear disarmament and the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East, Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent representative to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi said.

Takht Ravanchi’s remarks came during the Tenth Review Conference for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which is being held in New York.

“The Zionist entity must abandon its nuclear arsenal, completely destroy its stockpile of nuclear weapons, and accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty without further delay or any preconditions,” Takht Ravanchi was quote by Iranian IRNA news agency as saying.

He noted that subjecting all nuclear activities of the Zionist entity under the comprehensive safety measures of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is necessary in order to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone.

Ruaa al-Jazaeri

US Polio Outbreak Linked to The Oral Vaccine, Revealing Its Risks

The risk of a polio outbreak from the oral vaccine has caused countries to start to move away from distributing the oral form of the vaccine, but it remains the cheaper and easier option.

By Maria Cheng • 

AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary
 A health worker gives an oral polio vaccine to a girl on a street in Lahore, Pakistan, June 27, 2022. 

For years, global health officials have used billions of drops of an oral vaccine in a remarkably effective campaign aimed at wiping out polio in its last remaining strongholds — typically, poor, politically unstable corners of the world. Now, in a surprising twist in the decades-long effort to eradicate the virus, authorities in Jerusalem, New York and London have discovered evidence that polio is spreading there. The source of the virus? The oral vaccine itself.

For years, global health officials have used billions of drops of an oral vaccine in a remarkably effective campaign aimed at wiping out polio in its last remaining strongholds — typically, poor, politically unstable corners of the world.

Now, in a surprising twist in the decades-long effort to eradicate the virus, authorities in Jerusalem, New York and London have discovered evidence that polio is spreading there.

The original source of the virus? The oral vaccine itself.

Scientists have long known about this extremely rare phenomenon. That is why some countries have switched to other polio vaccines. But these incidental infections from the oral formula are becoming more glaring as the world inches closer to eradication of the disease and the number of polio cases caused by the wild, or naturally circulating, virus plummets.

Since 2017, there have been 396 cases of polio caused by the wild virus, versus more than 2,600 linked to the oral vaccine, according to figures from the World Health Organization and its partners.

“We are basically replacing the wild virus with the virus in the vaccine, which is now leading to new outbreaks,” said Scott Barrett, a Columbia University professor who has studied polio eradication. “I would assume that countries like the U.K. and the U.S. will be able to stop transmission quite quickly, but we also thought that about monkeypox.”

The latest incidents represent the first time in several years that vaccine-connected polio virus has turned up in rich countries.

Earlier this year, officials in Israel detected polio in an unvaccinated 3-year-old, who suffered paralysis. Several other children, nearly all of them unvaccinated, were found to have the virus but no symptoms.

In June, British authorities reported finding evidence in sewage that the virus was spreading, though no infections in people were identified. Last week, the government said all children in London ages 1 to 9 would be offered a booster shot.

In the U.S., an unvaccinated young adult suffered paralysis in his legs after being infected with polio, New York officials revealed last month. The virus has also shown up in New York sewers, suggesting it is spreading. But officials said they are not planning a booster campaign because they believe the state's high vaccination rate should offer enough protection.

Genetic analyses showed that the viruses in the three countries were all “vaccine-derived,” meaning that they were mutated versions of a virus that originated in the oral vaccine.

The oral vaccine at issue has been used since 1988 because it is cheap, easy to administer — two drops are put directly into children's mouths — and better at protecting entire populations where polio is spreading. It contains a weakened form of the live virus.

But it can also cause polio in about two to four children per 2 million doses. (Four doses are required to be fully immunized.) In extremely rare cases, the weakened virus can also sometimes mutate into a more dangerous form and spark outbreaks, especially in places with poor sanitation and low vaccination levels.

These outbreaks typically begin when people who are vaccinated shed live virus from the vaccine in their feces. From there, the virus can spread within the community and, over time, turn into a form that can paralyze people and start new epidemics.

Many countries that eliminated polio switched to injectable vaccines containing a killed virus decades ago to avoid such risks; the Nordic countries and the Netherlands never used the oral vaccine. The ultimate goal is to move the entire world to the shots once wild polio is eradicated, but some scientists argue that the switch should happen sooner.

“We probably could never have gotten on top of polio in the developing world without the (oral polio vaccine), but this is the price we’re now paying,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “The only way we are going to eliminate polio is to eliminate the use of the oral vaccine."

Aidan O’Leary, director of WHO's polio department, described the discovery of polio spreading in London and New York as “a major surprise,” saying that officials have been focused on eradicating the disease in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where health workers have been killed for immunizing children and where conflict has made access to some areas impossible.

Still, O'Leary said he is confident Israel, Britain and the U.S. will shut down their newly identified outbreaks quickly.

The oral vaccine is credited with dramatically reducing the number of children paralyzed by polio. When the global eradication effort began in 1988, there were about 350,000 cases of wild polio a year. So far this year, there have been 19 cases of wild polio, all in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Mozambique.

In 2020, the number of polio cases linked to the vaccine hit a peak of more than 1,100 spread out across dozens of countries. It has since declined to around 200 this year so far.

Last year, WHO and partners also began using a newer oral polio vaccine, which contains a live but weakened virus that scientists believe is less likely to mutate into a dangerous form. But supplies are limited.

To stop polio in Britain, the U.S. and Israel, what is needed is more vaccination, experts say. That is something Columbia University's Barrett worries could be challenging in the COVID-19 era.

“What’s different now is a reduction in trust of authorities and the political polarization in countries like the U.S. and the U.K.,” Barrett said. “The presumption that we can quickly get vaccination numbers up quickly may be more challenging now.”

Oyewale Tomori, a virologist who helped direct Nigeria’s effort to eliminate polio, said that in the past, he and colleagues balked at describing outbreaks as “vaccine-derived,” wary it would make people fearful of the vaccine.

“All we can do is explain how the vaccine works and hope that people understand that immunization is the best protection, but it’s complicated,” Tomori said. “In hindsight, maybe it would have been better not to use this vaccine, but at that time, nobody knew it would turn out like this.”


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