Legal experts weigh in on Israeli war crimes; US, Israel discuss a fund to finance expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza; 90K attend 1st Friday prayers of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque; Israeli forces wreak havoc in Nablus; Israel is ‘sabotaging’ Trump-Hamas direct talks; Trump cancels $400m in funds to Columbia U; shame on Marco Rubio for Ash Wednesday comments
Hamas issued a 16-page document on Jan. 20, 2024 to ‘clarify the reality of what happened on Oct. 7, the motives behind it, its general context related to the Palestinian cause, as well as a refutation to the Israeli allegations.’ A second item contains reflections by a senior Hamas leader on the attack & its aftermath
Palestinians in Israeli prisons experience systematic torture, atrocities; Israel’s [terrible] new Gaza plan; Israel seeks 6-week extension of ceasefire phase one; Israeli army concludes it was defeated by Hamas on 7 October; Knesset bill to annex West Bank settlements near Jerusalem; Israelis spit on Christian churches; US approves $3 billion military sales to Israel amid ceasefire talks; man convicted by US court of murdering six-year old Palestinian boy in hate crime
Bus explosion in Tel Aviv, no injuries; in Jerusalem, Jewish man attacks Israeli woman with axe, mistaking her for a Christian; Bibas family; 8-year-old Palestinian girl blinded by Israeli bullet; more.
Gazans retrieve bodies with bare hands; in West Bank, Israeli forces continue killing, dispossessing Palestinians; Western leaders use threats in attempt to impose ethnic cleansing plan on Egypt; church leaders in Jerusalem react to Trump’s plan; more.
Giraldi: Netenyahu is the first foreign leader to meet with the new president at the White House… Despite Trump’s numerous pro-Israel actions, might Trump, he of the enormous ego, take the opportunity to make it clear in the face-to-face that he is the one in charge?
In light of the recent incarceration of Ali Abunimah in Zurich, it’s useful to examine the Israel lobby in Switzerland. As former HRW official Sarah Leah Whitson noted: “Switzerland has shamelessly kowtowed to the pro-Israel lobby by deporting an American citizen because he advocates for Palestinian rights.”
The ‘Vandenberg Coalition’ (led by Elliott Abrams, a major neoconservative for most of the last half-century) wants Trump to prioritize Israel and maintain Iran as enemy number one.
A Christian American reports in American Conservative magazine that Netanyahu is testing the 47th president with a fresh round of illegal actions in the West Bank, including vicious assaults on Christians. Many Palestinian Americans voted for Trump as a hoped-for peacemaker…
Israel kills 1 in Gaza with a “warning shot”; 2nd prisoner release is complete; 2 killed in West Bank, including toddler; Ali Abunimah arrested; pro-Israel groups target pro-Palestine int’l students for deportation