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By Jamal Kanj

16 April 2025 – The world is witnessing an unconscionable silence as Israel, an occupying power, imposes a total food blockade on Gaza—an illegal act of collective punishment against a captive civilian population. As famine tightens its grip and American-made bombs rain from the sky, global leaders stand by—paralyzed, indifferent, or willfully complicit—while Israel renders Gaza uninhabitable.

Earlier this week, Israel targeted the only functioning medical facility serving over a million people in northern Gaza. Al Ahli Baptist Hospital was given just 20 minutes—in the dead of night—to evacuate hundreds of patients and wounded civilians. This second attack on the medical facility was enabled by then-U.S. President Joe Biden’s exoneration of Israel for its earlier massacre targeting the same hospital in October 2023—an assault that killed over 500 civilians sheltering outside its grounds.

But this was not an isolated attack. Hospitals, medical facilities, ambulances, and first responders have been systematically and relentlessly targeted in Gaza as in no other war in modern memory. Doctors have been kidnapped or killed while performing surgeries. Ambulances bombed mid-rescue. Entire medical complexes reduced to rubble while filled with patients, newborns, and the wounded. This is not collateral damage—it is a campaign of annihilation against the very institutions meant to save lives. In Gaza, saving lives has become a death sentence.

The United Nations, constrained by the U.S. veto power, has failed to pass a resolution demanding an end to what many increasingly recognize as genocide. Meanwhile, the United States—self-styled as a beacon of human rights—actively abets these atrocities. It supplies Israel with massive bombs, including 2,000-pound munitions, enabling their use in densely populated areas. This is not merely a moral failing; it is a flagrant violation of both U.S. and international laws governing military aid.

Much of this impunity stems from the legacy of Donald Trump emboldened Israel through a series of reckless, one-sided decisions: recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, slashing humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and endorsing illegal Jewish-only colonies on stolen Palestinian land. Trump gave Israel carte blanche to act without fear of accountability. His abject support signaled that no matter how flagrant the violations, there would be no consequences—only more weapons, more diplomatic protection, and deeper impunity.

Today, Israel carries out its campaign of destruction while invoking Trump’s so-called “vision” for Gaza—an evil blueprint of ethnic cleansing. This vision has become a license of an Israeli roadmap for dispossession, displacement, and death.

This has indulged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relentless appetite for Palestinian land—prolong the suffering of Israeli captives, Palestinian prisoners, and the people of Gaza. His refusal to pursue a meaningful ceasefire or prisoner exchange is a calculated political maneuver. The ongoing war serves his far-right racist coalition, distracts from his legal troubles, and consolidates his grip on power while advancing an expansionist agenda. In the process, Gaza has become what can only be described as a starvation death camp—where civilians are punished collectively, denied food, water, medicine, and even hope.

Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli military raids and settler mobs have escalated dramatically. Entire communities are being uprooted and terrorized with impunity. Yet, the Palestinian Authority (PA)—the supposed protector of Palestinians—has shown paralyzing impotence. Rather than confronting Israeli aggression or protecting its people, the PA functions as a subcontractor for the occupation, policing its own population while Israeli forces and armed settlers freely brutalize civilians. Its failure to act has not only eroded its legitimacy but made it complicit in the very oppression it claims to oppose.

And still, the international community looks away.

But perhaps the most disgraceful silence comes not from Washington or Brussels—but from Arab capitals. This is not mere neglect or indifference. It is betrayal—a betrayal rooted in cowardice, authoritarianism, and self-preservation at the expense of justice.

The regimes in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and others have become accessories to genocide and complicit in the siege on Gaza. Their silence, their closed borders, their collaboration and normalization with Israel—all point to a level of complicity that history will neither forget nor forgive. As Gaza’s children starve and entire families are buried beneath rubble, Arab leaders ingurgitate in palaces, and issue timid statements devoid of conviction, or consequence.

It is a painful irony that while protests erupt in cities like London, Paris, and New York, there is near-total silence in Cairo, Riyadh, Amman, and Abu Dhabi. The moral clarity of Western citizens who take to the streets in solidarity with the Palestinians underscores the betrayal of those who claim religious, linguistic, and cultural kinship with them. But the failure is not only at the top. Public apathy, and resignation in many Arab and Muslim societies have enabled this silence—allowing Israel to persist in its crimes. A people conditioned to accept humiliation cannot demand justice.

The evil of occupation and military aggression is sustained not only through bombs and blockades but through the slow erosion of courage and moral standards. Atrocities once shocking now pass as routine. The world becomes numb. The killing of children, the destruction of homes, and the denial of basic necessities no longer elicit outrage. The question becomes not how such acts are tolerated, but when genocide becomes mere statistics—counting whether more or fewer people were killed today compared to yesterday.

This normalization turns ordinary people into complicit actors—bureaucrats who process arms shipments, journalists who frame one-sided narratives, citizens who choose silence over dissent. All become part of a system that sustains injustice.

A genocide is unfolding in real time, and the silence is not just deafening—it is damning. It is time for the people in Arab and Muslim capitals to at least join the protestors in Western cities and break this silence. To speak with moral clarity. To meet the demands of the moment. And to reject the normalization of evil in Gaza.

28 April 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Pavan Kulkarni

15 Apr 2025 – Burning down hundreds makeshift shelters used by the IDPs, Sudan’s paramilitary also torched the famine-struck camp’s central market and its community kitchen, burning the women inside alive, before attacking the last of the camp’s medical posts and killing all its staff.

Attacking the largest camp for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) amid the world’s largest displacement crisis in war-torn Sudan, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed over a hundred people, including over 20 children, on April 11.

That evening, after hours of shelling from multiple directions, the RSF’s troops broke into the Zamzam camp, where an estimated 750,000 displaced people have taken refuge.

Burning down hundreds of their makeshift shelters, they also torched the famine-struck camp’s central market and its community kitchen, burning the women inside alive, before attacking the last of the camp’s medical posts and killing all its staff.

“Nine of our colleagues were mercilessly killed, including doctors, referral drivers, and a team leader. This is a profound tragedy for our organization,” Relief International said in a statement. “This was a targeted attack on all health infrastructure in the region to prevent access to healthcare.”

The attack, which continued the next day, resumed on April 13 at noon, according to Adam Rojal, spokesperson for the General Coordination of Displaced Persons and Refugee Camps.

“The most significant ground-based attack on Sudan’s largest IDP camp”

Analyzing satellite imagery, “significant areas of the camp in the center, south, and southeast portions of the camp” were burnt down by arson attacks, said the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab in a report on April 11. “This attack conservatively represents the most significant ground-based attack on Zamzam IDP camp since” the RSF began mounting its attack on El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, a year ago.

Located on the outskirts of this city, which is the last foothold of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the five states of the Darfur region in Western Sudan, Zamzam camp has been repeatedly attacked.

Claiming to be targeting the armed groups allied with the SAF that have positioned themselves in and around the camp, the RSF has indiscriminately shelled its densely populated areas numerous times. The SAF has also killed many civilians in its airstrikes, claiming to be targeting the RSF troops making inroads into the camp.

Former allies ruling together in a military junta, the SAF and the RSF fell apart as their internal power struggle escalated into fighting, hurling Sudan into a civil war two years ago on April 15, 2023. The war has since killed an estimated 150,000 people and displaced over 12 million.

Even before this war started, the Zamzam camp was already hosting 350,000 IDPs who had fled the atrocities that SAF and the Janjaweed militias which later coalesced into the RSF were committing together during the Darfur civil war in the 2000s.

Famine-stricken

As more and more flocked to this camp amid the world’s worst displacement crisis caused by the now two-year-old war between SAF and RSF, food shortages worsened in the camp that was already dependent on aid.

With the supply routes of food aid cut off after the RSF laid siege on El Fasher mid-last year to complete the route of the SAF from the whole of the Darfur region, a famine was declared in Zamzam last August. By December, famine had spread to other areas including the Abu Shouk camp to the northwest of El Fasher.

This camp, currently hosting an estimated 450,000 IDPs, has also been under attack over the last few days. The RSF killed 35 IDPs, wounded dozens, and destroyed several shelters with heavy artillery fire on the Abu Shouk camp between April 10 and 11, said Rojal. On April 13, the attacks resumed, killing five more and injuring seven before another attack later that day during the Maghrib prayer, killing many elderly.

“The situation in Abu Shouk camp is catastrophic in every sense of the word. The shelling destroyed health facilities. The two main sources were bombed. There is no food, medicine, or water in the camps. The hospitals are destroyed, the markets are empty, and children are dying of hunger, thirst, and disease under the burning sun and the sound of gunfire,” he lamented in a statement.

“The darkest chapters of this conflict have yet to unfold”

“These families – many of whom have already been displaced multiple times – are once again caught in the crossfire, with nowhere safe to go,” said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, UN’s Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan.

“What is happening in ZamZam, Abu Shouk camp, and Al Fasher is not just a tragedy – it is an atrocity. Civilians are being starved, slaughtered, and prevented from fleeing. Aid workers and local volunteer responders are being hunted,” added the Sudan INGO Forum.

Including the 56 residents killed in Um Kadadah, a town around 180 kilometers east of El Fasher recently retaken by the RSF, over 200 people were killed in North Darfur between April 10 and 13 in one of the worst violence since the start of this war.

“The world has witnessed two years of ruthless conflict which has trapped millions of civilians in harrowing situations, subjecting them to violations and suffering with no end in sight,” said Mohamed Chande, member of UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan. He went on to warn, “we fear the darkest chapters of this conflict have yet to unfold.”

28 April 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Sakai Tanaka

20 April 2025 – Israel is indirectly controlling a strip of the land along the Syrian border with Jordan, and is promoting a plan to create a “David Corridor” that connects Israel to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq. This is a plan for Israel to inherit Middle East hegemony from the United States, leverage the Kurds to counter Iran, Iraq (Shiites), and Turkey. （David’s Corridor: Israel’s shadow project to redraw the Levant）

2. In the Old Testament [Genesis 15.18-21], Israel is said to have been given the “area between the two rivers (from the Tigris and Euphrates to the Nile)” by Yahweh God. (Be aware that the light blue bands at the top and bottom of the Israeli flag represent the two rivers.) The Kurdish region is the Tigris and Euphrates basin. Israel has already made Egypt, which is in the Nile basin, a puppet [of Israel], and is also intervening in the civil war in Sudan, which is upstream of the Nile. Israel is taking control of the area between the two rivers. (Israel’s Expansion（Expansion of Israel/イスラエルの拡大）[Promised Land] [Biblical Borders of the Promised Land]   [Egypt’s Delicate Balance: Maintaining US Support While Confronting Gaza Challenges]
3. At the end of 2024, Israel supported and puppetized the Al-Qaeda-affiliated rebel group HTS (i.e. Levant Liberation Organization), which had been in hiding along the Turkish border after losing the Syrian Civil War. Then, in just two weeks, HTS overthrew the Assad regime. At the same time when HTS took control of Syria, the Israeli army invaded southern Syria and has occupied it ever since. Southern Syria is dominated by the people of the Druze, who are friendly to Israel.  （Partition of Syria, the ‘David Corridor’… What’s Really at Stake?）[5 facts about Israeli Druze, a unique religious and ethnic group]
4. It is speculated that the Israeli army plans to train the local Druze militias, and when they are ready, they will march along the Jordanian border to the Kurdish region in northern Syria to build a road and create a corridor. The Druze are a secret, monotheistic esoteric religion derived from Shiite Islam, and are viewed as enemies and heretics by Sunnis (i.e. orthodox Islam). For this reason, they have political affinity with Israel. The Druze’s native language is Arabic, and they are scattered in southern Syria (620,000 people), the mountainous region of Lebanon (250,000 people), and northern Israel (120,000 people). （Druze – Wikipedia）
5. In the middle of the 600-kilometer corridor from southern Syria, where the Druze live, to northern Syria, where the Kurds live, is the US military base at Al-Tanf, a key transportation point on the Jordanian border. The US (and Israel) triggered the Syrian Civil War in 2011, and supplied weapons and other supplies to rebel forces inside Syria (IS, Al-Qaeda, Kurds) via Al-Tanf from Jordan. (Iran and Russia have been supporting Assad’s government forces, and the rebel groups have been defeated and pushed to the Turkish border and the desert near Iraq. Since last fall, Israel has supported HTS, a part of the rebel group, and suddenly overthrew Assad, resulting in a major reversal.) （Rare Firefight Erupts Between Israeli Troops & Jolani Militants In Syria’s South）
6. This time, Trump’s America is moving out of the Middle East, and has halved the number of US troops stationed in Syria from 2,000 to 1,000 (in addition to Al-Tanf, they have also occupied oil fields in eastern Syria). It is speculated (or conjectured) that Israel is currently supporting not only the Druze in southern Syria, but also the Kurds in eastern Syria and the remnants of IS Qaeda who have fled to the desert on the border with Iraq, and that when preparations are complete, they will rise up all at once to create the David Corridor connecting Israel and the Kurds. （US Begins Withdrawing Troops From Key Base Near Syria’s Largest Gas Field）
7. Trump has removed the British, who were the masterminds of the US Intelligence Community, and brought them under his control. After his election last fall, Trump generously provided intelligence to Israel, which cooperated in the fight against the British, and Israel, which had been held back by the British, suddenly became strong and defeated Hezbollah and Assad one after another. And now, as a measure to expand its Middle Eastern hegemony, Israel has created the Corridor of David, which goes through Syria to the Kurdish region of Iraq, strengthening the Kurds and allowing them to keep an eye on Iran, Iraq (Shiites), and Turkey, which are located around them. (The new Syrian government is a puppet of Israel./シリア新政権はイスラエルの傀儡） [UK Intelligence Community: An Overview]
8. Trump will not send troops, but will provide intelligence instead. Israel will not use its own military (perhaps it will not even come out in public and will remain the mastermind), and will instead strengthen and put to work the military power of the Middle Eastern minorities, the Druze and Kurds. Both the Druze and the Kurds will gladly cooperate with Israel because it will help them to repel the pressure they have received from the Sunnis, Shiites, and Turkey. If this plan succeeds, Trump, who is a hegemonist, will transfer Middle East hegemony to Israel as planned, create stability in the Middle East under “Pax Judaica” (i.e. Israeli hegemony), and pull the United States out of the Middle East. It is believed that Israel supported HTS and overthrew Assad for this plan. HTS will tolerate Israel’s construction of the Corridor of David. (Expansion of Israel/イスラエルの拡大） [ISRAELI EMPIRE AND END-TIMES: A STUDY OF “PAX JUDAICA”]
9. Islamists claims,”The rule of Israel, a murderer, cannot be stable,” and liberals/leftists (the two overlap in the United States, Europe, and Japan. In the Middle East issue, however, leftists are not necessarily atheists). However, in reality, many of the powerful people in the relevant countries are tacitly accepting Israel’s expansion of the Middle East dominance. The reason why Israel openly committed a huge crime against humanity in the Gaza War is probably to eliminate the former hegemonic power, the British (i.e. the liberal globalists, DS), when the hegemony of the Middle East is transferred from the United States to Israel. （How Israel hunts and executes Palestinian medics）
10. The British, who are the masterminds of the sole American Hegemony, curry favor with any power that tries to expand hegemony outside their own framework, pretend to cooperate, investigate their internal affairs, and destroy their hegemonic plans. This time, Israel is committing a huge crime against humanity in Gaza, while at the same time destroying Hezbollah and Assad, denting Iran, and getting Trump to advance the Abraham Accords to reconcile with the Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia. (The Abraham Peace Corridor: A strategic path to Middle East stability, cooperation）[British intelligence agencies]   [Shifting Transatlantic Tides: Anglo-American Imperial Role Reversals]    [The US-UK “special relationship” at a critical crossroads]    [Trump: We’re going to expand the Abraham Accords]
11. After having President G.H.Bush wage the Gulf War in 1990 and defeating Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime, Israel encouraged the Kurds in northern Iraq to separate and become independent. The Kurds were originally made to be puppets of the British, and the British supporters in the US Intelligence Community, who did not allow Israel to intrude (to expand its hegemony in the Middle East), leaked information to the Hussein regime, inciting an invasion of the Kurdish autonomous region and causing Israel to retreat significantly. (The Iraqi Kurds, who seem likely to become independent but never do/独立しそうでしないイラクのクルド）
12. The GCC, including Saudi Arabia, will shoulder the debts owed to the World Bank and other institutions that the new Syrian government of HTS, an Israeli puppet, inherited from Assad. Saudi Arabia has also begun providing support, such as funding, to the new Lebanese government, which has stopped being anti-Israel. While Saudi Arabia outwardly says that it will not reconcile with Israel unless a Palestinian state is operational, behind the scenes it is firmly cooperating with Israel’s expansion of its hegemony in the Middle East. What Saudi Arabia earnestly wants is stability in the Middle East. The British have maintained the sole hegemony of the United States by perpetually destabilizing, dividing, and puppeting the Middle East. It is not surprising that MbS thinks that Israel (and Trump) is better than the British (and Obama).（Gulf benefactor may settle some of Syria’s foreign debt）
13. The Palestinian issue is originally a division strategy by the British to prevent Israel, their intelligence rival, from becoming a great power. The forces that are (inadvertently) puppets of the British are (intentionally) unaware of that. Despite the enormous humanitarian crimes committed by Israel during the Gaza War, few countries around the world actually sanction Israel, fearing its intelligence, and only verbally criticize it. Even some right-wing governments such as Hungary, which confront the British, ostentatiously welcome Netanyahu as a state guest. The Gaza War will destroy the British liberal hegemony system, including the ICC (International Criminal Court), while erasing the yoke that the British imposed on Israel, the Palestinian issue. （Orban’s Fiercely Pro-Israeli Policies Put Many Alt-Media Folks In A Dilemma） [Gaza is burning. UK NGOs must abandon failedHoweverdiplomacy and fight back | Israel-Palestine conflict] [Gaza and the decline of US-Western hegemony]   [2nd Place — Trapped Empire: British Strategy At The End Of The Palestine Mandate]
14. President Erdogan’s Turkey is hostile towards the Kurds (PKK), the largest minority in the country. Israel’s creation of the David Corridor to support the Kurds should be a major threat to Turkey. However, Erdogan is tacitly accepting Israel’s expansion of hegemony. Until last fall, the new Syrian government’s HTS was tucked away in Idlib near the Turkish border as a loser in the civil war, and was looked after by the Turkish Intelligence Community. Israel must have spoken to Turkey, which was in charge, before supporting HTS and overthrowing Assad. Turkey tolerated Israel turning Syria into a puppet of Israel and reconnecting with the Kurds without stopping it. Why? (Arabs and Turkey secretly help Israel/こっそりイスラエルを助けるアラブやトルコ）
15. That also becomes clear when one thinks about why Erdogan is hostile to the Kurds in the first place. Erdogan defeated the secular liberals (Kemalists) who had been in power in Turkey until then, and is planning to use Islamism to restore the Ottoman Empire (the-then Middle East hegemony). Turkey was defeated by the British in World War I and divided and ruled the Middle East, and the shrunken Turkey was reborn as a pro-British modern state by the Kemalists who are hostile to Islam and anti-feudal. (That is why Kemalists prefer the Japanese Choshu Meiji government, which overthrew the feudal Edo Shogunate and created a strong pro-British modern state.) (Turkey joins the ranks of China and Russia/中露の仲間入りするトルコ）
16. Erdogan, who overthrew the pro-British Kemalists in 2000 and took power, wanted to make Turkey a hegemonic power in the Middle East. However, in order to obstruct this, the British (i.e. the authoritative American and European media sources) criticized Turkey, raising the issue of “Kurdish human rights.” After World War I, it was the British (or the British supporters) who divided the country into four while inciting the Kurds to create a nation, and then used humanitarianism to undermine the four countries (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria) by claiming that they were oppressing the political activities of the Kurds. Humanitarianism is politics disguised as the question of good and evil. (Unfortunately, the humanitarians in Europe, the United States, and Japan, who are unaware of that and are taken in, are fools.) （Harvard sanctions pro-Palestinian group after anti-Israel protest）
17. For Erdogan and other right-wing Turkish leaders, the Kurdish issue under the British (American) hegemony was a British plot to destroy them. But now that the British hegemony has been destroyed, Israel, which has been handed the Middle Eastern hegemony by Trump, is trying to seize Syria and reconnect with the Kurdish region. Israel, which will destroy the humanitarianism of the British hegemony in the Gaza War, is a realist and will not criticize Turkey’s oppression of the Kurds. However, Israel may support the Kurds and seize the territory from four countries, including Turkey, to establish a state. If that happens, Israel could become a greater threat to Turkey than Britain. （Israel and Turkiye in Syria: No clash, just a division of spoils）
18. Despite all that, however, what could Israel gain from weakening Turkey and allowing the Kurds to establish a state? If Turkey views Israel as its enemy, Turkey will become a threat to Israel that should be weakened. However, if Turkey accepts Israel’s hegemony in the Middle East, Israel will prioritize friendship with Turkey over the establishment of a Kurdish state. It seems inevitable that the United States will transfer hegemony in the Middle East to Israel. In that case, it would be better for Turkey not to view Israel as its enemy, but to only criticize it verbally and secretly maintain friendly relations with Israel and to show its gratitude. In fact, Erdogan thinks as such and continues to trade with Israel even after the Gaza War began.（Will Turkey’s mortal ‘enemy within’ lay down arms after a century of conflict?）
19. Israel and Turkey have recently made moves to adjust their interests in Syria. Turkey will recognize HTS (which is actually an Israeli puppet) control of Syria in exchange for maintaining some military bases in Syria. If Israel and Turkey maintain their relationship, a border will be established between the Kurds under Israel and Turkey, and the conflict between the Kurds and Turkey will decrease and the situation will stabilize. （Turkiye and Israel Clash Over ‘David’s Corridor’ Plan）
20. Not only Turkey, but also Iran and Israel will settle along the similar lines. Trump, Israel’s ally, has recently been trying to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue (allowing low-concentration uranium enrichment) and reconcile. It is being touted that Israel is angry because Trump is soft on Iran. However, this is probably Netanyahu’s acting. Netanyahu himself is leaking the discord between the United States and Israel.（Who leaked Israel’s attack plans against Iran’s nuke program and why?）
21. If Israel reconnects with the Kurdish region of Iraq and Iran tolerates Israel’s sphere of influence adjacent to Iran, Israel will forgive Iran (to maintain a cold peace). The Israeli (and Kurdish) forces that have come to Iraq can attack Iran immediately. Iran’s counterattack power is weak. Israel’s superiority will become permanent. The conflict between the peace faction and the war faction within the Trump camp is also being publicized, but this is also an act to hide Trump’s strength. （JD Vance Vs. The NeoCon Boomer Hawks On Iran Policy）
22. Russia is also cooperating with Trump’s negotiations with Iran as a role to appease Iran. After Trump took office, the United States and Russia pretended to discuss peace in Ukraine, and held endless discussions in Riyadh, with the Saudi royal family in attendance, about the transfer of the Middle East hegemony from the United States to Israel. The deal is already done. Ukraine has not ceased fire as planned. (Trump and Putin will improve the Middle East/トランプとプーチンで中東を良くする）
23. Since the end of WWII, Russia has been viewed as an enemy by the British for a long time. That is why Putin is in favor of Trump destroying the British and transferring the Middle East hegemony to Israel. If the United States continues to hold the Middle East hegemony, the British will eventually return and take over the American hegemony again. Reagan, Clinton, and Obama all failed because of that. Israel will become the regional hegemon in the Middle East, a global hegemon. Israel will be on the equal footing with Russia, China, and the United States. The world will become (and already is) multipolar. This is much better for Russia. (Israel prefers Russia’s Middle East hegemony/ロシアの中東覇権を好むイスラエル）
24. (China has made more profits in its economy from the traditional global market, which is the sole hegemon. It is unclear whether the future multipolar world will truly achieve economic development, and, in fact, there are risks. Therefore, the Chinese Communist Party is reluctant to do so. That is why Trump is destroying the traditional global market with high tariffs, and pushing the Chinese Communist Party to support the multipolarity of the world order.)  (Destroying the US Hegemony with high tariffs/高関税策で米覇権を壊す）
25. When Israel allowed HTS to take over Syria, Putin invited Assad to defect to Moscow, smoothing the transition of power and doing Israel a favor. Putin strengthened the military agreement with Iran, easing Iran’s concerns about Israel’s advance into the Kurdish region of Iraq. These movements of Putin have made Trump and Israel happy. As for Iran, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has also gone to Iran to appease it. No one is opposed to Israel’s expansion of the Middle East hegemony, except for the British and their puppets. (As such, the British and their puppets might shout, “Are you going to forgive crimes against humanity!!?? We won’t forgive you, we won’t forgive you, we won’t forgive you. Chants!!!”) （Gulf-backed genocide: How Arab monarchies fuel Israel’s war machine）
26. The only one in the Middle East, who continues to be militarily anti-Israel is the Houthis in Yemen. However, this too could be overthrown in the future. In Yemen, the pro-Saudi organization (PLC) affiliated with former President Hadi, which had been losing to the Houthis for a long time, has recently been handed over power by Hadi, and with the support of the United States, it has begun to show a renewed attitude of fighting the Houthis. This could possibly be a similar trend to when HTS re-emerged in Syria at the end of last year and overthrew Assad. Israel may be deploying the HTS method in Yemen as a way of giving back to Saudi Arabia. （US Mulls Ground War In Yemen Via Mercenaries, Pro-Saudi Factions）
27. With those understandings and interpretations, as mentioned above, I have come to think that it is necessary to reconsider the history of the world after the Cold War as the dark struggle between the British and Israelis (and the multipolar factions). In that regard, I will consider those issues, including the fraudulence of the Oslo Accords, the mystery of the 9/11 incident, and the meaning of the invasion of Iraq, which was destined to fail. [The mystery of 9/11 first responders and dementia]

__________________

Notes:

1. The hyperlinks with the parentheses ( ) at the end of some paragraphs were added by the original author. Those hyperlinks in the paragraphs and those with brackets [ ], with the italic letters at the end of some paragraphs were added by the translator for the convenience of the reader. In addition, the numbers, such as (1), (2), (3), (i), (ii), (iii) or (a), (b), (c), and bold and/or italic letters were also used in the translation by the translator for the same reason.
2. The paragraph number was added to the head of each paragraph (except to that of the first paragraph) by the translator for the convenience of the reader.
3. The views and/or opinions in those hyperlinks added by the translator do not necessarily reflect those of his. In addition, it is either impossible or unavailable for the translator to verify the genuineness of the information in those links. He does not take any responsibility for the contents in those relevant links at all.
4. The views and/or opinions expressed in the above-mentioned article are those of Sakai Tanaka, who is the original author. His views and/or opinions do not necessarily reflect those of TMS or those of the translator. Therefore, the reader is kindly requested to understand, interpret or judge those views and/or opinions at his or her own responsibility.
5. The original article in Japanese was published more than a few days or a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, the situations and/or conditions mentioned in the article might have been changed. This also means that the author’s argument expressed and/or the information provided in the article might have become inadequate or less or least adequate, obsolete, out of date or no longer valid by the time the TMS reader reads the same article in English. 

Original author: After graduating from university, Sakai Tanaka started working at the Kyodo News  Agency in 1986. From 1997 he joined Microsoft Network (MSN) and in 1999, due to change of policy at Microsoft, he became an independent journalist. Tanaka has published more than twenty books on international affairs, some translated and published in China, South Korea and Taiwan. He studied at Harvard University from 2000 to 2001 and in 2005 was invited to serve as a senior researcher at the Royal Faisal Institute in Saudi Arabia. Website: tanakanews.com

Satoshi Ashikaga is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. Having worked as researcher, development program/project officer, legal protection/humanitarian assistance officer, human rights monitor-negotiator, managing-editor, and more, he prefers a peaceful and prudent life.  His previous work experiences, including those in war zones and war-torn zones, constantly remind him of the invaluableness of peace.

Translation: Satoshi Ashikaga – Google Translate

28 April 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Rick Sterling

23 Apr 2025 – One year ago, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel had fifteen months to prepare their defense (“counter memorial”) against the charges of genocide filed by South Africa. They were told to present their arguments by 28 July 2025.

That seems like a very long time in a case involving the daily killing of many people including children. But it was not enough time for Israel which on 27 March 2025 filed a request to extend the time.

In a very recent decision, the Intenational Court of Justice has obliged and extended the time by six months. Israel can continue killing with impunity and their defense to the International Court of Justice is not required until 28 January 2026.

There has been very little news of this decision.  The ICJ did not issue a press release despite the fact  this is their most sensational case. Accordingly, the decision has not been reported in the NY Times, Washington Post or London Guardian.  Meanwhile Israeli media reported, “EXCLUSIVE: Israel secures six month delay in Hague Court proceedings.”

Another important story that has been largely ignored by western media is regarding the sole Judge who voted in favor of Israel in every single decision so far in this case. That person, Judge Julia Sebutinde, has been revealed to have grossly plagiarized the writings of two ultra-zionists:  Douglas Feith and David Brog. Feith is a co-author of the infamous Netanyahu plan “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm” and part of the Bush/Cheney team that campaigned for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.   Brog is Jewish but helped to found Christians United for Israel. He is current head of Miriam Adelson’s “Maccabee Task Force”.  Anti-zionist scholar Norman Finkelstein has discovered 32% of the ICJ judge’s pro-Israel dissenting opinion was plagiarized from Feith, Brog and others.

As the saying goes, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” And if nobody reports or knows about it, did it really happen?  Along with dead Palestinians in Gaza, Israel is trying and perhaps succeeding in killing  the International Court of Justice.

Rick Sterling is a member of the TRANSCEND Network and an investigative journalist who lives in the SF Bay Area, California.

29 April 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Paul Krugman

The First Thing We Do Is We Kill Intellectual Inquiry

21 Apr 2025 – I’m in Lisbon, speaking at a conference the Banco de Portugal is holding to commemorate the revolution that brought democracy to Portugal 50 years ago. I worked at the Bank in 1976 and have been a friend of Portugal ever since. And while Portugal has faced many challenges since the Carnation Revolution, all in all its democracy has flourished.

Alas, democracy in my own nation is now under dire threat. So I thought I’d write a short post about that today. Probably another brief post tomorrow. Then my wife and I will be on a bike trip, with at most quick notes from the road.

Donald Trump has been treated very, very badly. At least that’s what he says all the time, and there’s no reason to doubt that it’s how he feels. Hardly a day goes by without an outburst like this:

Above all, he clearly feels rage toward people who, he imagines, think they’re smarter or better than him.

And he and the movement he leads, composed of people possessed by similar rage, are seeking retribution. Retribution against whom? Yes, they hate wokeness. But three months in, it’s obvious that the MAGA types want revenge not just on their political opponents but on everyone they consider elites — a group that, as they see it, doesn’t include billionaires, but does include college professors, scientists and experts of any kind.

It took no time at all for the Trumpists to move from trying to purge government agencies of DEI to trying to control the content of medical journals.

Don’t try to sanewash what’s happening. It’s evil, but it isn’t calculated evil. That is, it’s not a considered political strategy, with a clear end goal. It’s a visceral response from people who, as Thomas Edsall puts it, are addicted to revenge.

If you want a model for what’s happening to America, think of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

But wait, wasn’t Mao hard left while America has been taken over by the hard right? Well, why do you think there’s a big difference between the two? I’m a believer in horseshoe theory, which says that the extreme left and the extreme right are more like each other than either is like the political center. For example, among Britain’s unions there is a hard-left faction that has no counterpart in the United States. Some of its positions, notably making apologies for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, look a lot like MAGA.

And in America some leftist commentators have effectively become spokesmen for the tech-bro right.

Once you’ve seen the parallel between what MAGA is trying to do and China’s Cultural Revolution, the similarities are everywhere. Maoists sent schoolteachers to do farm labor; Trumpists are talking about putting civil servants to work in factories.

The Cultural Revolution was, of course, a huge disaster for China. It inflicted vast suffering on its targets and also devastated the economy. But the Maoists didn’t care. Revenge was their priority, never mind the effects on GDP.

The Trumpists are surely the same. Their rampage will, if unchecked, have dire economic consequences. Right now we’re all focused on tariff madness, but undermining higher education and crippling scientific research will eventually have even bigger costs. But don’t expect them to care, or even to acknowledge what’s happening. Trump has already declared that the inflation everyone can see with their own eyes is fake news.

There is, however, one big difference between Chairman Mao in 1966 and President Trump in 2025: Trump probably — probably — doesn’t have the cards.

Until a couple of weeks ago, as one institution after another capitulated to Trump’s demands, it was hard to avoid the sickening feeling that American civil society would fold without a fight. But as I said, Trump and his movement are driven by visceral urges, not strategy. And right now it looks as if they overreached. In different ways, the rendition of innocent people to gulags in El Salvador — don’t call it deportation — and the assault on Harvard seem to have stiffened spines. And the catastrophe of Trump’s economic policy has alienated businesspeople who would otherwise have served as his useful idiots.

America as we know it may yet perish. But at this point we seem to have a chance.

pink floyd – another brick in the wall

Paul Krugman received the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics. He joined The New York Times in 1999 as a columnist on the Op-Ed Page and continues as professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University.

28 April 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Al Jazeera

Johan Galtung, considered the father of peace studies, discusses why he dedicated his life to waging peace in the world.

Recorded on 26 Mar 2010

One on One – John Galtung

Johan Galtung (24 Oct 1930 – 17 Feb 2024), a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, was the founder of TRANSCEND International, TRANSCEND Media Service, and rector of TRANSCEND Peace University.

28 April 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Dr. Ramzy Baroud

To conquer a place is to fundamentally subdue its population. This must be clearly differentiated from ‘occupation’, a specific legal term that governs the relationship between a foreign “occupying power” and the occupied nation under international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention.

When Israeli forces were ultimately compelled to redeploy from the Gaza Strip in 2005, a direct consequence of the persistent resistance of the Palestinian population there, the United Nations resolutely insisted that the Gaza Strip remained an occupied territory under international law.

This position stood in stark contradiction to that of Israel, which conveniently produced its own legal texts that designated Gaza a ‘hostile entity‘ – thus, not an occupied territory.

Let us try to understand what appears to be a confusing logic:

Israel proved incapable of sustaining its military occupation of Gaza, which began in June 1967. The paramount reason for Israel’s eventual redeployment was the enduring Palestinian Resistance, which rendered it impossible for Israel to normalize its military occupation and, crucially, to make it profitable – unlike the illegal settlements of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Between 1967 and the early 1970s, when Israel began investing in building illegal settlement blocks in the Strip, the Israeli military under the command of Ariel Sharon relentlessly strove to suppress Palestinians. He employed extreme violence, mass destruction, and ethnic cleansing tactics to subdue the Strip.

Yet, at no juncture did he achieve his ultimate and comprehensive objectives of complete subjugation.

Subsequently, he invested in his infamous, but failed ‘Five Fingers‘ plan. At the time the head of the Israeli army Southern Command – which included Gaza – Sharon stubbornly believed that the only way to defeat the Gazans was by severing the contiguity of the Strip, thus hindering organized resistance.

In pursuing this aim, he sought to divide Gaza into so-called security zones where the main Israeli Jewish settlements would be built, fortified by massive military build up. This would be joined by Israeli military control of key routes and the blocking of most coastal access.

However, this plan never fully actualized, as creating these ‘fingers’ required that Palestinians on both sides of the ‘security zones’ would have to be pacified to some extent – a condition that reality on the ground never delivered.

What did actualize was the building of isolated settlement blocks: the largest was in the southwest of the Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt, known as the Gush Katif, followed by the northern settlements, and finally the central settlement of Netzarim.

Housing a few thousand settlers, and often requiring the presence of a far greater number of soldiers assigned to protect them, these so-called settlements were essentially fortified military towns. Due to the limited geography of Gaza (181 square miles or 365 square kilometers) and the stiff resistance, the settlements had limited space for expansion, thus remaining a costly colonial endeavor.

When the Israeli army emptied the last illegal settlement in Gaza in 2005, the soldiers snuck out of the Strip in the middle of the night. At their heels were thousands of Gazans who chased the soldiers until the last of them fled the dramatic scene.

That singular and powerful episode alone is more than sufficient to allow one to assert with unwavering certainty that Gaza was at no point truly conquered by Israel.

Though Israel withdrew its permanent military presence from the main population centers of the Strip, it continued to operate within so-called buffer zones, which were often significant incursions into Palestinian territory, far beyond the armistice line. It also imposed a hermetic siege against Gaza, which starkly explains why the majority of Gazans have never stepped a foot outside the Strip.

Israel’s control over airspace, territorial water, natural resources (mostly Mediterranean gas fields), and much more readily led the UN to its immediate conclusion: Gaza remains an occupied territory.

Unsurprisingly, Israel vehemently opposed this reality. Tel Aviv’s true desire is absolute control over Gaza, coupled with the convenient and self-serving designation of the territory as perpetually hostile. This twisted logic would grant the Israeli military an endlessly exploitable pretext to initiate devastating wars against the already besieged and impoverished Strip whenever it deemed convenient.

This brutal and cynical practice is chillingly known within Israel’s military lexicon as ‘mowing the grass‘ – a dehumanizing euphemism for the periodic and deliberate degradation of the military capabilities of the Palestinian Resistance in an attempt to ensure that Gaza can never effectively challenge its Israeli jailors or break free from its open-air prison.

October 7, 2023, ended that myth, where Al-Aqsa Flood Operation challenged Israel’s long-standing military doctrine. The so-called Gaza Envelope region, where the late Sharon’s Southern Command is based, was entirely seized by the youth of Gaza, who organized under the harshest of economic and military circumstances, to, in a shocking turn of events, defeat Israel.

While acknowledging the UN designation of Gaza as occupied territory, Palestinians understandably speak of and commemorate its ‘liberation’ in 2005. Their logic is clear: the Israeli military’s redeployment to the border region was a direct consequence of their resistance.

Israel’s current attempts to defeat the Palestinians in Gaza are failing for a fundamental reason rooted in history. When Israeli forces stealthily withdrew from the Strip two decades ago under the cover of night, Palestinian resistance fighters possessed rudimentary weaponry, closer to fireworks than effective military instruments. The landscape of resistance has fundamentally shifted since then.

This long-standing reality has been upended in recent months. All Israeli estimates suggest that tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed, wounded, or psychologically impaired since the start of the Gaza war. Since Israel failed to subdue the Gazans over the course of two relentless decades, it is not merely improbable, but an outright absurdity to expect that Israel will now succeed in subduing and conquering Gaza.

Israel itself is acutely aware of this inherent paradox, hence its immediate and brutal choice: the perpetration of a genocide, a horrific act intended to pave the way for the ethnic cleansing of the remaining survivors. The former has been executed with devastating efficiency, a stain on the conscience of a world that largely stood by in silence. The latter, however, remains an unachievable fantasy, predicated on the delusional notion that Gazans would willingly choose to abandon their ancestral homeland.

Gaza has never been conquered and never will be. Under the unyielding tenets of international law, it remains an occupied territory, regardless of any eventual withdrawal of Israeli forces to the border – a withdrawal that Netanyahu’s destructive and futile war cannot indefinitely postpone. When this inevitable redeployment occurs, the relationship between Gaza and Israel will be irrevocably transformed, a powerful testament to the enduring resilience and indomitable spirit of the Palestinian people.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.

26 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Ramzy Baroud

“Rights are granted to those who align with power,” Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student, eloquently wrote from his cell. This poignant statement came soon after a judge ruled that the government had met the legal threshold to deport the young activist on the nebulous ground of “foreign policy”.

“For the poor, for people of color, for those who resist injustice, rights are but words written on water,” Khalil further lamented. The plight of this young man, whose sole transgression appears to be his participation in the nationwide mobilization to halt the Israeli genocide in Gaza, should terrify all Americans. This concern should extend even to those who are not inclined to join any political movement and possess no particular sympathy for – or detailed knowledge of – the extent of the Israeli atrocities in Gaza, or the United States’ role in bankrolling this devastating conflict.

The perplexing nature of the case against Khalil, like those against other student activists, including Turkish visa holder Rümeysa Öztürk, starkly indicates that the issue is purely political. Its singular aim appears to be the silencing of dissenting political voices.

Judge Jamee E. Comans, who concurred with the Trump Administration’s decision to deport Khalil, cited “foreign policy” in an uncritical acceptance of the language employed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio had previously written to the court, citing “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” stemming from Khalil’s actions, which he characterized as participation in “disruptive activities” and “anti-Semitic protests”.

The latter accusation has become the reflexive rejoinder to any form of criticism leveled against Israel, a tactic prevalent even long before the current catastrophic genocide in Gaza.

Those who might argue that US citizens remain unaffected by the widespread US government crackdowns on freedom of expression must reconsider. On April 14, the government decided to freeze $2.2 billion in federal funding to the University of Harvard.

Beyond the potential weakening of educational institutions and their impact on numerous Americans, these financial measures also coincide with a rapidly accelerating and alarming trend of targeting dissenting voices within the US, reaching unprecedented extents. On April 14, Massachusetts immigration lawyer Nicole Micheroni, a US citizen, publicly disclosed receiving a message from the Department of Homeland Security requesting her self-deportation.

Furthermore, new oppressive bills are under consideration in Congress, granting the Department of Treasury expansive measures to shut down community organizations, charities, and similar entities under various pretenses and without adhering to standard constitutional legal procedures.

Many readily conclude that these measures reflect Israel’s profound influence on US domestic politics and the significant ability of the Israel lobby in Washington DC to interfere with the very democratic fabric of the US, whose Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and assembly.

While there is much truth in that conclusion, the narrative extends beyond the complexities of the Israel-Palestine issue.

For many years, individuals, predominantly academics, who championed Palestinian rights were subjected to trials or even deported, based on “secret evidence”. This essentially involved a legal practice that amalgamated various acts, such as the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) and the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), among others, to silence those critical of US foreign policy.

Although some civil rights groups in the US challenged the selective application of law to stifle dissent, the matter hardly ignited a nationwide conversation regarding the authorities’ violations of fundamental democratic norms, such as due process (Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments).

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, however, much of that legal apparatus was applied to all Americans in the form of the PATRIOT Act. This legislation broadened the government’s authority to employ surveillance, including electronic communications, and other intrusive measures.

Subsequently, it became widely known that even social media platforms were integrated into government surveillance efforts. Recent reports have even suggested that the government mandated social media screening for all U.S. visa applicants who have traveled to the Gaza Strip since January 1, 2007.

In pursuing these actions, the US government is effectively replicating some of the draconian measures imposed by Israel on the Palestinians. The crucial distinction, based on historical experience, is that these measures tend to undergo continuous evolution, establishing legal precedents that swiftly apply to all Americans and further compromise their already deteriorating democracy.

Americans are already grappling with their perception of their democratic institutions, with a disturbingly high number of 72 percent, according to a Pew Research Center survey in April 2024, believing that US democracy is no longer a good example for other countries to follow.

The situation has only worsened in the past year. While US activists advocating for justice in Palestine deserve unwavering support and defense for their profound courage and humanity, Americans must also recognize that they, and the remnants of their democracy, are equally at risk.

“Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere,” is the timeless quote associated with Abraham Lincoln. Yet, every day that Mahmoud Khalil and others spend in their cells, awaiting deportation, stands as the starkest violation of that very sentiment. Americans must not permit this injustice to persist.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.

26 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Jessica Corbett

As Israel continues to bomb and impose a total blockade on the Gaza Strip, the United Nations World Food Program announced Friday that “WFP delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens” in the Palestinian enclave, which “are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days.”

“For weeks, hot meal kitchens have been the only consistent source of food assistance for people in Gaza. Despite reaching just half the population with only 25% of daily food needs, they have provided a critical lifeline,” the U.N. program said in a statement. “WFP is also deeply concerned about the severe lack of safe water and fuel for cooking—forcing people to scavenge for items to burn to cook a meal.”

This is just the latest troubling update from the group since Israel began its total blockade on March 2—following months of severely restricting aid and commercial goods—and then ditched a fragile cease-fire with Gaza-based Hamas that had been in effect since mid-January. Last month, all 25 WFP-supported bakeries closed due to lack of wheat flour and cooking fuel, and program parcels with two weeks of rations for families were exhausted.

“No humanitarian or commercial supplies have entered Gaza for more than seven weeks as all main border crossing points remain closed,” WFP said Friday. “This is the longest closure the Gaza Strip has ever faced, exacerbating already fragile markets and food systems. Food prices have skyrocketed up to 1,400% compared to during the cease-fire, and essential food commodities are in short supply, raising serious nutrition concerns for vulnerable populations, including children under 5, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the elderly.”

Over 18 months into a U.S.-backed military assault for which Israel faces a genocide case at the Interenational Court of Justice, WFP said that “the situation inside the Gaza Strip has once again reached a breaking point: People are running out of ways to cope, and the fragile gains made during the short ceasefire have unravelled. Without urgent action to open borders for aid and trade to enter, WFP’s critical assistance may be forced to end.”

While conditions are dire, WFP is prepared to keep feeding people, if Israel will allow aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave. The program highlighted that “more than 116,000 metric tons of food assistance—enough to feed 1 million people for up to four months—is positioned at aid corridors and is ready to be brought into Gaza by WFP and food security partners as soon as borders reopen.”

The program called on “all parties to prioritize the needs of civilians and allow aid to enter Gaza immediately and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law.”

[https://twitter.com/WFP/status/1915798126603948459]

The Associated Press reported that “COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of coordinating aid in Gaza, declined to comment on the amount of supplies remaining in the territory. It has previously said Gaza had enough aid after a surge in distribution during the cease-fire.”

The WFP statement came after an Israeli drone strike that hit a food distribution center in central Gaza on Thursday and Israel’s Tuesday airstrikes that destroyed several bulldozers used to clear streets and remove bodies from beneath rubble.

While humanitarian organizations have shared fresh warnings about conditions in the enclave this week—Oxfam’s Clemence Lagouardat said Tuesday that “it’s hard to explain just how terrible things are in Gaza at the moment”—Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, shared violent rhetoric.

Ben-Gvir claimed that “senior Republican Party officials” whom he met at U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence “expressed support for my very clear position” that Gaza “food and aid depots should be bombed in order to create military and political pressure to bring our hostages” taken during the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel.

[https://twitter.com/RepJayapal/status/1915851034158674132]

While Trump—like his Democratic predecessor—has supported Israel’s military assault, he also claimed to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday that during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week, “Gaza came up and I said, ‘We’ve got to be good to Gaza… Those people are suffering.’”

According toReuters.

When asked whether he raised the issue of opening up access points for aid into Gaza, Trump replied, “We are.”

“We’re going to take care of that. There’s a very big need for medicine, food and medicine, and we’re taking care of it,” he said.

Asked how Netanyahu responded, Trump said: “Felt well about it.”

As for cease-fire negotiations, Drop Site News obtained a draft proposal for a 45-day “bridge” deal that is “being pushed by Egyptian and Qatari mediators.” The outlet reported Friday that “while the current proposal largely aligns with the one that Hamas agreed to on March 29 and which Israel rejected, the new terms related to disarmament and no clear path to complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza will likely meet stiff resistance from Hamas’ negotiators.”

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

26 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Aman Namra

The terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed the lives of dozens of innocent people, is not just a regional tragedy but a deep wound to the conscience of the entire nation. This brutal incident not only robbed tourists of their joy but also plunged the entire country into deep mourning. However, alongside the sorrow, another crucial image emerged: one of hope and unity—where the country’s Muslims and Hindus stood together against terrorism.

From Lucknow to Bhopal, from Niwari to Ratlam, and from Delhi to Jaipur, the Muslim community came forward wearing black armbands, chanting slogans against Pakistan and terrorism outside mosques. Leaders like Maulana Kalbe Jawad and Maulana Khalid Rashid were among many religious scholars who not only condemned the violence but also raised their voices in favor of national unity and peace.

Similarly, the closure of shops by traders across the country, or ordinary citizens participating in protests, signifies that this is not just the government’s or the military’s battle—this is the struggle of every citizen who loves the nation.

But the question remains—when the public stands so clearly against terrorism, when Hindus and Muslims raise their voices in unison for the defense and unity of the country, why do certain forces still attempt to break this harmony?

In reality, this is the same politics that requires division to maintain power. This is the politics that sells fear in the name of religion, and collects votes by sowing discord. It finds its problems when slogans like “Hindu-Muslim Bhai-Bhai” are raised from the Tille Wali Masjid in Lucknow, because such unity goes directly against the politics of hatred.

The Pahalgam attack was horrific, but what was even more significant was the collective response from across the nation. This response was not a result of any TV debate, nor was it driven by any party’s appeal. It was the natural human and national sentiment of the people—that terrorism will not be tolerated, regardless of its form or source.

Therefore, it is important that we remember and preserve this unity, repeating it time and again. The role of the media becomes crucial here—will it prioritize this unity or will it again make a headline out of an inconsistent statement, further dividing society?

Because it is clear: when common Hindus and Muslims unite against terrorism, it is not just a single voice, it becomes a force. A moral pressure that holds governments accountable, exposes terrorist organizations, and undermines the politics of hatred.

Now is the time to ask—Who are those who try to divide us again and again in the name of religion? And why do they plot to tear down the walls of trust between us just to stay in power?

Because when the country cries together, gets angry together, and demands justice together—this is not politics; this is a moment of humanity.

Aman Namra is a Development Journalist

25 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org