Global
Even when you begin to think that it can’t get any worse with Donald J. Trump as President of the United States the Orangeman does something that is so stupid and so reflective of a man who thinks only about himself that it makes one’s shudder in disbelief. Last week included some completely bizarre performances that could lead to nuclear war while also falsely promoting that our leader is a “man of peace.” That is in spite of the fact that it has become hard to imagine that Trump can even pronounce the word “peace” without an interpreter or the five letter word flashing up in boldface on his teleprompter screen. Let’s start with several recent developments about which there can be no real debate, though motive and expectations can be reasonably disputed. Consider for a moment the performance of a man who knows little beyond how to curse and harangue those who disagree with him as well as any skill beyond how to scribble a version of his own name in large letters with a marker pen.
According to Amnesty International, USA, 248 brave and courageous journalists have been killed for documenting the atrocities in Gaza. Make no mistake: The deliberate targeting and killing of journalists by the Israeli Death Forces (IDF) constitutes war crimes under international humanitarian law.
No, those journalists are not members of Hamas as Israel frequently claims. That's a malicious lie. Israel's war minister's ban on foreign journalists entering the Gaza Strip remains in place because their entry would endanger Israeli soldiers.
However, two of the world’s leading news networks, CNN and the BBC, have revealed the inner workings of those outlets’ newsrooms from October 7 onward, alleging pro-Israel bias in coverage, systematic double standards, and frequent violations of journalistic principles. In several cases, they accused senior newsroom figures of failing to hold Israeli officials to account and of interfering in reporting to downplay Israeli atrocities. In one instance at CNN, false Israeli propaganda was put on air despite advance warnings from staff members. Source: Al Jazeera, October 5, 2024
When 43 y/o Mohammad Faraj from the pan-Arab media outlet Al Mayadeen made a family trip for the holidays to visit his family on December 12 in Jordan with his Lebanese wife Rania Abi Jema, he was arrested more than a week ago upon arriving at Amman’s airport from Beirut without any publicly stated legal grounds.
His wife is also a journalist employed by Al Mayadeen TV and is being held at the General Intelligence Department without legal representation or to establish the reason for his detention and was unable to see him. Faraj was also denied family visits - without legal representation or to establish the reason for his detention, according to the Committee to Protect Journalist.
The detention of Mohammad Faraj is a serious violation of human rights and a direct attack on freedom of the press, which seeks to silence voices committed to the truth and to the struggles of the peoples. The freedom of Mohammad Faraj is an imperative that cannot wait and for this reason, the Network of Intellectuals, Artists, and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity denounces his disappearance.
In the Donald Trump era — praise be! — so much is possible that previously no one had ever even imagined. For instance, not only has “the late, great Hannibal Lecter” come back to life, he might even join Trump’s cabinet.
Well, that’s just a guess, but why not? I think he’d fit right in. All of which is to say: “There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear . . .” It’s not simply that Trump is unique (i.e., uniquely crazy). He definitely is, but he’s also American to the core. Under his leadership, our political structure is naked and exposed, stripped of its political correctness. The emperor has no clothes! Suddenly we can’t avoid seeing this.
When you imagine being safe, you imagine comfort and predictability. You imagine your bed, your backyard, a warm shower. You do not imagine kidnapping, armed conflict, or countries so unstable that U.S. troops are ordered to stay behind fortified walls.
But this is what the Trump administration has labeled “safe,” a place it can now send not only the 232 South Sudanese people who just lost protected status, but anyone who dares to seek asylum in the United States.
As has been reported, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will yet again be in Washington on Monday December 29th. It is a visit that initial media reports claimed had been requested by Trump, which would underline the value of the relationship to the US president. Nevertheless, there have also been some suggestions that Netanyahu, working through his Embassy in Washington and employing the considerable resources of the domestic US Israel Lobby, might have been the real force behind the fifth such meeting in Washington this year plus an additional meeting on October 13th in Israel to celebrate the non-ceasefire with Gaza which was being promoted as some kind of victory.
The Jewish lobby & the embassy of Israel in Italy are having a total meltdown over artwork by an Italian artist,Constantino Cervo,depicting Anne Frank wearing a keffiyeh and demanding the artwork be removed.
In November 2017, a doctored image of Israeli President Rivlin wearing a keffiyeh was seen in 2017 following the president's refusal to grant the Hebron shooter Elor Azaria a pardon. Azaria is an Israeli Death Forces (IDF) soldier who fatally shot Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, a Palestinian, in the head as the latter lay wounded and immobile on the ground near Hebron.
In November 1995, before PM Rabin was assassinated, Netanyahu attended a right-wing political rally where protesters decried Rabin as a "traitor" and "Nazi" and held signs of him wearing a keffiyeh.
I do not recall that Palestinians took offense or felt insulted by either act. In fact, both Israeli leaders looked more dignified wearing the Palestinian head dress, better known as "keffiyeh" or "victory scarf."