Daily Archives: November 22, 2020

2020-11-22: News Headlines

MEE and agencies (2020-11-22). Israeli jets strike Gaza after rocket fire hits factory. middleeasteye.net Israeli jets strike Gaza after rocket fire hits factory | Israel and Hamas trade blame for fire exchanged over Gaza just a week after similar strikes | Sun, 11/22/2020 – 10: 30 | Smoke rises over Gaza buildings after an Israeli air strike on 22 November 2020 (Reuters) | Israel carried out air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning after rockets from the blockaded territory hit an Isra…

Dr. Binoy Kampmark (2020-11-22). The Yemen "Civil War" Arms Bonanza. Mammoth Weapons Sales to UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel. globalresearch.ca "Making billions from arms exports which fuel the conflict while providing a small fraction of that in aid to Yemen is both immoral and incoherent." So

MEE staff (2020-11-22). Outrage at 'normalisation' photo of Egyptian singer with Israeli celebrities in UAE. middleeasteye.net Outrage at 'normalisation' photo of Egyptian singer with Israeli celebrities in UAE | Egypt's Mohammed Ramadan sparks criticism after attendance at event with Israeli public figures in Dubai | Sun, 11/22/2020 – 16: 04 | (L-R) Omer Adam, Mohamed Ramadan and Hamad al-Mazrouie (Twitter) | Egyptian singer and actor Mohamed Ramadan has sparked a social media backlash after his image with two Israeli celebrities in…

MEE staff (2020-11-22). Imprisoned spy Jonathan Pollard flying to Israel after US parole ends. middleeasteye.net Imprisoned spy Jonathan Pollard flying to Israel after US parole ends | Cold War spy passed on information about American intelligence agencies to Israel | Sun, 11/22/2020 – 09: 30 | Jonathan Pollard spent 30 years in prison for spying for Israel (AFP) | The spy Jonathan Pollard, who was jailed for spying against the United States in the 1980s, has been cleared to fly to Israel, where he will be welcomed by th…

The Canary (2020-11-22). Parties unite to call for Pat Finucane killing public inquiry. thecanary.co Four political parties in the north of Ireland have united to call for a public inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane. | Mr Finucane, 39, was murdered by loyalist terrorists in front of his family in 1989 amid claims of collusion with state security forces. | In February last year, the Supreme Court ruled that investigations into the fatal shooting of the solicitor have not been effective and fell short of international human rights standards. | BREAKING: Letter from the four parties to Brandon Lewis calling on the British Government to hold a public inquiry into the killing of human rights l…

_____ (2020-11-22). When Fascists Roam The Streets, Staying Home Isn't An Option. popularresistance.org The Million MAGA March in Washington, D.C. on November 14th has become a flashpoint about how the Left should respond to the far-Right in a post-2020 election terrain. Footage distorted to fit a narrative of unprovoked violence against conservatives, Proud Boys employing specific fighting tactics to down as many people as possible; police splitting up crowds, standing with riot shields facing only one way, conveniently absent once the Proud Boys found the antifascists. Much of the conversation, however, has centered on the conflict between showing up or staying in.

news.un (2020-11-22). First Person: Four years on, hopes of return still distant for refugee pianist. news.un.org When UN News first interviewed award-winning Palestinian pianist Aeham Ahmad in 2016, he was a recent arrival in Germany, having fled a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. Four years on, he wants to return home, but accepts that his chances are slim.

Never Forgive, Never Forget (2020-11-22). 57 Years Since 11/22/63 Kennedy Assassination. indybay.org We managed to get rid of the worst president in memory, Nazi Trump, in this year's election, but the nuclear holocaust threat remains. Instructive to all in public speaking and war & peace as a basic issue is Pres. John Kennedy's speech on 6/10/63 at American University, now on Youtube, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZsG4qbw_tY&#038…

sputniknews (2020-11-21). Video: Factory Building in Israel's Ashkelon Damaged After Rocket Launch From Gaza. sputniknews.com Rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip are frequently reported in the area, with the latest incident described by the Israeli military on Sunday, 15 November. According to IDF, two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward central and sourthern Israel.

Susan Jaffe (2020-11-21). [World Report] US Supreme Court poised to keep the Affordable Care Act. thelancet.com A lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act may be floundering after Supreme Court justices questioned why the law should be dismantled. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.

Richard Horton (2020-11-21). [Comment] Offline: Holocaust education—a medical imperative. thelancet.com As school students in England in the 1970s, we were taught the bare facts of the Holocaust. And that is where we left it. A fact of history, a fact certainly to be remembered, yet a fact that seemed very distant from contemporary times. But last week, the Ontario Medical Association, together with Doctors Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, held a webinar to discuss the case for teaching the Holocaust in medical schools. The meeting was led by Dr Frank Sommers, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

WSWS (2020-11-21). Fascist Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse released after posting $2 million bail. wsws.org The bail money was raised by defense attorneys and generously supported by Republican party donors.

Jonathan Cook (2020-11-21). Netanyahu Seeks to Smash the Joint List and Cement Permanent Rule by Israel's Far-Right. dissidentvoice.org Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is only weeks away from the scheduled start of his long-awaited corruption trial — the endgame in a series of investigations that have been looming over him for years. As a result, he has been taking extraordinary measures to save his political skin. One of the most surprising is his …

Matthew J.L. Ehret (2020-11-21). John F. Kennedy and America's Lost Patriotic Heritage. dissidentvoice.org Man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe…. — President Kennedy, 1961 Inaugural Address Where China and Russia are currently leading a new paradigm …

Yves Engler (2020-11-21). Double Standard Blatant on Israel and China "Foreign Influence" in Canada. dissidentvoice.org Foreign influence in Canada is bad if it comes from China, but not even worth mentioning if it comes from Israel. That seems to be the position of the Globe and Mail. Canada's 'paper of record' is so gripped with anti-Chinese fervor that it is blind to a blatant double standard. Contrasting the Globe and …

Sophia Purdy-Moore (2020-11-21). Protests erupt in Brazil following the brutal killing of a Black man by white security guards. thecanary.co Anti-racism protests have erupted in Brazil following the brutal killing of a Black man by two white security guards outside a Carrefour supermarket in Porto Alegre on 19 November. The Reminiscent of George Floyd's murder: | The incident was caught on

Seye Abimbola, Madhukar Pai (2020-11-21). [Perspectives] Will global health survive its decolonisation? thelancet.com There are growing calls to decolonise global health. This process is only just beginning. But what would success look like? Will global health survive its decolonisation? This is a question that fills us with imagination. It is a question that makes us reflect on what Martin Luther King Jr saw when he said in 1968, in the last speech he gave before he was killed, that "I've been to the mountaintop…and I've seen the Promised Land." If what he saw was an equal, inclusive, and diverse world without a hint of supremacy, then, that world is still elusive.

Sarah Hawkes (2020-11-21). [Perspectives] The banality of the patriarchy. thelancet.com When German—American philosopher Hannah Arendt covered the 1961 trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann for The New Yorker magazine—her reports led to her book of 1963, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil—she was struck by the concept of banality. Arendt wrote that Eichmann, this bureaucrat who was "medium-sized, slender, middle-aged, with receding hair, ill-fitting teeth, and nearsighted eyes" was responsible for participation in one of the greatest crimes in history. The banality to which Arendt referred, however, was not Eichmann's unexceptional physical appearance, but "an inabi…

Stephen Lendman (2020-11-20). Possible US Strike on Iran? globalresearch.ca Since Iran ended a generation of US/UK-installed fascist tyranny in 1979, both wings of US duopoly rule waged dirty war on the country and its people by other means. | They stopped short of attacking Iranian territory militarily. | Will US hardliners …

_____ (2020-11-20). The AMA Officially Recognized Racism As A Public-Health Threat. popularresistance.org The American Medical Association has officially defined racism as a public health threat that has created substantial health inequality. | Racism, both systemic and structural, has historically perpetuated health inequality and cut short the lives of many Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in the US and around the world. | Over the last year, a number of county and state authorities have also labelled racism a public health threat. | Among them are county councils in San Bernardino, California, and Montgomery, Maryland, as well as authorities in Michigan, Nevada, Cleveland, Denver, and Indianapolis.

Ramzy Baroud (2020-11-20). As Israel Destroys EU Projects in Palestine, European Foreign Policy Remains Impotent. dissidentvoice.org Belgium is furious. On November 6, the Belgian government condemned Israel's destruction of Belgian-funded homes in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank. Understandably, Brussels wants the Israeli government to pay compensation for the unwarranted destruction. The Israeli response was swift: a resounding 'no'. The diplomatic row is likely to fizzle out soon; neither will Israel cease …

Patricia Gorky (2020-11-20). Georgia emerges as central target of far right mobilization. liberationnews.org Tensions in Georgia, a state playing a key role in the outcome of the 2020 election, are rising. Far right groups continue to mobilize around the unfounded claims of widespread election fraud in the state.

Raul Diego (2020-11-20). Predictive Programming? Israeli Publishers Have Been Writing About a COVID-Like Pandemic for Years. mintpressnews.com The general public's willing acceptance of the draconian restrictions placed on mobility and freedom of assembly due to the coronavirus was "predicted" in fictional novels and other artistic creations over the last few decades. Is it a matter of life imitating art or something more sinister?

Vijay Prashad (2020-11-20). It is freedom, only freedom which can quench our thirst. mronline.org In the 1980s, after Mozambique won its independence from Portugal in 1974, the South African apartheid regime and the settler-colonial army of Rhodesia backed an anti-communist faction against the government of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO).

Dennis Broe (2020-11-20). 'Lovecraft Country': Liberating 1950s apartheid America one monster at a time. peoplesworld.org It's now a done deal with the series already out in its entirety, but the best pilot and one of the best shows of the year is HBO's Lovecraft Country. The series is a second stunner by showrunner Misha Green after the too quickly aborted success of Underground, about the underground railroad. Lovecraft Country refashions …

Jonathan Cook (2020-11-20). "I Am Greta" isn't About Climate Change. It's About the Elusiveness of Sanity in an Insane World. counterpunch.org Erich Fromm, the renowned German-Jewish social psychologist who was forced to flee his homeland in the early 1930s as the Nazis came to power, offered a disturbing insight later in life on the relationship between society and the individual. In the mid-1950s, his book The Sane Society suggested that insanity referred not simply to the

Shatha Hammad (2020-11-20). Palestinians with disabilities battling PA for vital healthcare. middleeasteye.net Palestinians with disabilities battling PA for vital healthcare | Covid-19 has exposed a deeply flawed health insurance system that lets disabled Palestinians down badly | Fri, 11/20/2020 – 16: 17 | Disability rights activists including Abdelrahman Awwad (C) and Shatha Abu Srour (R) have staged a sit-in for nearly three weeks in Ramallah. The banner reads: "We die of coronavirus and we die of medic…

Dan Cohen (2020-11-20). How Joe Biden Plans to Make The American Empire Great Again. mintpressnews.com Behind his rhetoric, Joe Biden will seek nothing less than global supremacy, escalating a new and even more dangerous arms race that risks the destruction of humanity, what he calls "decency" and "normalcy."

_____ (2020-11-20). Jewish-Led Groups Condemn Pompeo For Declaring Boycott-Divestment Movement Anti-Semitic. popularresistance.org Jewish peace activists led a wave of stinging rebuke of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Thursday after he declared the peaceful Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian human rights "anti-Semitic" while visiting an illegal Israeli settler colony built on stolen West Bank land. | Pompeo became the first top U.S. diplomat to visit an Israeli settlement in the unlawfully occupied West Bank of Palestine as he lunched at a winery in Psagot, located on a hill formerly known as Jabel Tawil until Israeli forces conquered it in 1967.

WSWS (2020-11-20). Palestinian Authority restores "cooperation" with Israel as Pompeo visits West Bank. wsws.org The US Secretary of State became the first top US official to visit an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, while also touring the occupied Golan Heights.

commondreams (2020-11-20). Black Lives Matter D.C. v. Trump Must Proceed, Defendants Need to Be Held Accountable. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Refuse Fascism Bay Area (2020-11-20). Saturday 11/21: Trump: You're Fired. Now Get the Hell OUT! indybay.org Castro & Market, San Francisco…

WSWS (2020-11-20). The Endless Trench: Hiding for decades from the Spanish fascists. wsws.org The film fictionally treats an actual phenomenon, the dozens or more of left-wing opponents of Franco, known as "moles," who concealed themselves in their own homes for 30 years following the defeat of the Republican forces in 1939.

WSWS (2020-11-20). Pompeo escalates Iran war threats in trip to Israel. wsws.org The US Secretary of State arrived in the wake of Israeli air strikes against Iranian forces in Syria, and announced yet another round of sanctions against Tehran.

Dr. Zuhair Sabbagh (2020-11-19). Forbidden Weapons and Israeli War Crimes. globalresearch.ca In the period 2008-2014, Zionist settler colonialists launched three aggressive wars against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip: (1) Dec 2008-Jan 2009, (2) 14 Nov 2012, and (3) July-August 2014. During these aggressive wars, the Israeli military used a number …

Brett Wilkins, staff writer (2020-11-19). "Proudly Pro-BDS": Jewish-Led Groups Condemn Pompeo for Declaring Boycott-Divestment Movement Anti-Semitic. commondreams.org "Our response to the false designation will be to… challenge Israeli policies of occupation and apartheid and galvanize public opinion for freedom and justice in Palestine," vowed CodePink's Medea Benjamin. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

commondreams (2020-11-19). CODEPINK Appalled at the Trump Administration's Labeling of BDS as Antisemitic. commondreams.org ______________________________…

MEE and agencies (2020-11-19). BDS: US to label Israel boycott movement as 'antisemitic'. middleeasteye.net BDS: US to label Israel boycott movement as 'antisemitic' | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also announces that settlement products will be labelled 'made in Israel' | Thu, 11/19/2020 – 08: 38 | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan are seen past American and Israeli flags as they step off a plane at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv (AFP) | The United States will label the Boycott…

Miko Peled (2020-11-19). The Last Negotiator: The Death of Saeb Erekat Could Mark the End of Palestinian Reconciliation. mintpressnews.com Saeb Erekat was one of the last of a generation of Palestinian negotiators inspired by the conciliatory style of Yasser Arafat. His death may be the end of an era of hope that a peaceful solution with Israel is possible.

Alex MacDonald (2020-11-19). Israel boycott: What is the BDS movement? middleeasteye.net Israel boycott: What is the BDS movement? | As the US prepares to brand the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement 'antisemitic', Middle East Eye takes a look at the campaign | Thu, 11/19/2020 – 11: 20 | People take part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration on 10 October 2015 in Paris calling for a boycott of Israel and for the recognition of the State of Palestine (AFP) | For 15 years, the Bo…

Sheren Khalel (2020-11-19). 'We are not afraid of you, Mike': Activists react to Pompeo's move against pro-BDS groups. middleeasteye.net 'We are not afraid of you, Mike': Activists react to Pompeo's move against pro-BDS groups | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated any group that supports Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as antisemitic | Thu, 11/19/2020 – 19: 35 | Palestinians demonstrate near Israeli settlement of Psagot against visit by Mike Pompeo on 18 November (AFP/File photo) | Pro-Palestine and…

Hajira Asghar (2020-11-19). Palestinians, Iran in the crosshairs as Pompeo makes farewell visit to Israel. liberationnews.org Pompeo used the occasion to deepen two of the most odious features of U.S. foreign policy: support for the colonial occupation of Palestinian land, and warmongering against Iran.

Liz Theoharis (2020-11-19). The New Politics of the Poor in Joe Biden's (and Mitch McConnell's) USA. counterpunch.org In the two weeks since Election 2020, the country has oscillated between joy and anger, hope and dread in an era of polarization sharpened by the forces of racism, nativism, and hate. Still, truth be told, though the divisive tone of this moment may only be sharpening, division in the United States of America is

John P. Geyman (2020-11-19). Beyond COVID-19: the Power Struggle Over Alternatives for Health Care Reform. counterpunch.org Today we face the COVID-19 pandemic, with its resultant economic downturn and systemic racism—the triple crises that have exposed the serious problems of U. S. health care. It is now obvious to most observers that the system is broken, raising the question of how it can be put together through the political process after a hotly contested election season filled with disinformation and confusion about potential reform alternatives.

WSWS (2020-11-19). Saeb Erekat: Palestinian peace negotiator who epitomised the degeneration of the PLO (1955-2020). wsws.org While all obituaries testify to Erekat's tenacity, none could explain why he and the Palestine Liberation Organisation were in the end wholly unsuccessful.

Mehr News Agency (2020-11-19). Iran questions US double standards on nuclear verification. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Nov. 19 (MNA) — Referring to the US behaviour towards KSA, UAE, and Israel regime's nuclear activities, Kazem Gharibabadi questioned the US double standards on nuclear verification.

Fight Back (2020-11-19). Israeli missile attack kills 3 Syrian soldiers. fightbacknews.org The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reports Israel launched an attack on Syria, November 18. Citing a military source, SANA states "at about 03: 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan that targeted the southern region as the Syrian air defenses confronted it and downed a number of rockets." | The SANA report added "three soldiers were martyred in the aggression, and a soldier was injured, in addition to causing material damages." | With U.S. backing, Israel regularly launches air assaults on Syria and is illegally occupying the Golan Hei…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-11-19). Peaceful movement will prevail, says BDS in response to Pompeo calling it anti-Semitic. peoplesdispatch.org In a press conference with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said the government would label the BDS movement as anti-Semitic and withdraw funds to organizations which are part of it…

Soham Bandyopadhyay (2020-11-19). An Institutionally Racist Lockdown Policy. globalresearch.ca For Christians across the world, Christmas is a time for families and friends to come together and revel in their importance to one another. Similarly, for Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and some Buddhists, Diwali represents a celebration of the relationships between …

Glen Ford (2020-11-19). Black "Misleaders" Back Susan Rice as Top Diplomat. Black Democrats See Her a Role Model. globalresearch.ca Genocide in Congo and militarization of the African continent are Susan Rice's specialties, but Black Democrats see her as a "role model." | "Rice cultivated relations with every pro-U.S. warlord in Africa." | No one in high levels of U.S. government …