October 13, 2024
Reflections on Gaza and the 2024 US Elections
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui
I get calls and emails from my old friends and editors of some of the newspaper and internet sites who ask me if I am doing okay. When I tell them I am doing okay, they ask me why I have not been writing anymore. It is hard to explain why someone like me who has hitherto been active since his college days and written on human rights violations almost non-stop every week for more than three decades has chosen to remain silent on the latest crisis in the Middle East.My last essay on the problem with Zionism appeared nearly 10 months ago. That seems too long. Surely, they have genuine reasons to be concerned about my physical and mental health.
I tell them that I am tired and see myself defeated. I have lost the motivation to write.
Let me explain. Like so many other peace and human rights activists, I have enjoyed a life dedicated to peace, education, politics and family. Whenever I could not physically participate in protest ralliesthat are aimed at making a better place for all to share and survive, I have shared my activism through essays and speeches. That life has always been laced with the agony of watching what has happened toall those people with little or no voice of their own. In all such matters of suffering, I have seen the helpless Habils (Abel) of our world brutalized by the savage Kabils (Cain) of our world. Yes, there have been moments of celebration here and there, but they were either short-lived or too few and far between. There are more refugees today than any time before in history of mankind.
But I was not prepared to witness anything like what I have been seeing and reading with the latest Israeli savagery. It is simply the worst that I have ever seen. No human being with a single atom of humanity could do what Bibi Netanyahu and the members of his racist and criminal government and its most unethical military – the IDF and marauding settlers have been doing. It’s pure evil! There is no better way of putting it short and bitter.
Thanks to the mother of all evils, i.e., the USA government providing all-out support in every way imaginable, the brutal Israeli government is not constrained by any international laws and rules. Karim Khan and ICJ can find Bibi guilty of genocide, but he remains untouched and unscathed and will not be put in the animal cage where he truly belongs. Israel is so much like the USA.
The Israel-USA Axis of Evil along with its European Union partners – all with their respective genocide lhistory of colonization and persecutionof the native population – have turned Gaza into rubbles. They are reciprocating the same savagery in Lebanon. Iran and Egypt – if I were to believe what Condoleezza Rice said in the PBS program Firing Lineon 11 October 2024 – may be the next two Muslim countries in the list of Israeli destructive derby. Apparently, the pro-Zionist “Jewish Lobby” and the military industrial complex want to broaden the war beyond the borders of Gaza and Lebanon. And these forces of utter darkness and pure evil are powerful and will remain so whether Kamala or Trump occupies the White House in 2025. They both, let alone the disgraced and the morally bankrupt ‘Amen Corner’, are sold to the Zionist cause of a Greater Israel that sees that the right moment has come under its seasoned Kabilite mass murdererto extend their illegal territories far beyond today’s border. Yes, the eastern part of Egypt (i.e., east of the River Nile) and the southern part of Lebanon, the northern part of Saudi Arabia, and the entire Jordan and parts of Syria and Iraq are all part of that long-cherished Zionist dream and aspiration of Eretz Israel.
To these neo-Kabils of our time, Gaza is only a clinical lab for the US-Israel military-techno complex: surveillance, demolitions of entire infrastructure, indefinite incarcerations, and brutality of the high-tech tools of a settler-colonial enterprise. As Antony Lowenstein, an Australian journalist whose grandparents were liquidated at Auschwitz, has summarized lately, the Occupied Palestine has become a testing ground for the weaponry and surveillance technology. The information is then exported to despots and democracies around the globe from India to the USA on how to control an “enemy” population (as in Kashmir and elsewhere). Israel has become a global tech leader in all such matters relating to destruction, colonization and dehumanization of people, the Habils of our world. These include the Pegasus software, the explosive pagers and smart phones with deadly chips that can be detonated with a code, the drones and weapons that are sold to all those – from the Myanmar junta to Modi’s India to Zelensky’s Ukraine, let alone the despots in the Middle East and other parts of our world.
Thus, to all these evil entities of our time, individuals are nothing more than numbers, especially when it comes to the Habils. The genocide of more than 42,000 innocent Palestinians (by the way, the actual casualty figures are believed to be more than a hundred thousand) and injury of more than 100,000 people there are just numbers. Forgotten there is the fact that each one of those Habils had a family and a story of their own to tell and for us to listen to that is no less worthy than those killed in the Auschwitz,and surely no less important than the Jewish victims on the other side of the barbed wires of Gaza. But the morally bankrupt western media, sold to the evil Jewish Lobby, will only tell the stories of those partygoers in the kibbutz, enjoying music while the stories of the real victims – children and elderly – including the medics and journalists are absent from their biased reporting. They won’t say that the very place where those so-called music-lovers were partying was illegally annexed from those Palestinians living in Gaza and that the state of Israel itself was born in sin.
Obviously, to the Christian Zionists like Genocide Joe (i.e., President Biden), if there were no Israel, this cancer had to be grown in the heart of the Middle East to bring about the second coming of Jesus. Thus, from the very beginning of this crisis, Biden administration has been a party to war crimes. If he were a man of conscience who cares about the future of our world, he could have stopped this genocide anytime. But he refused to do so. He continues to find excuses for the apartheid state and its litany of crimes. His government’s round-the-clock immoral support in the UNSC has simply emboldened Bibi to carry on the devil’s task of redrawing the map of the territory, long dreamt by Zionist colonizers. What Israel is doing is not war. It is massacre. It is genocide. It is unfair and unjust. It is bound to harm the US interest globally.
Is Kamala Harris any different in such a sell out to the Jewish Lobby? No. Like her war criminal boss, she wants to expand the war to not only Lebanon but also to Iran. She will be no better than Genocide Joe, and perhaps worse than Trump. After all, a smiling devil is worse than a grumpy devil.
I don’t know if I would live long enough to see the trial of these Kabils in the Hague for their crimes against humanity, aiding and abetting genocide. They surely deserve it as they arealready condemned in the court of humanity. I also pray that they burn in hell.
American government has no moral compass.In the global arena, it is tolerated but respected by none. And history says, an empire without conscience is a lost empire. It is like a sinking ship.
The young generation of Americans, i.e., the meta-modernists of our time, can surely stop the sinking of this American ship by replacing its drunk and uncaring captain and the crew with capable and caring people. This will require unseating every partner in crimes of the State of Israel from their offices. BDS matters and has proven successful in bringing down the apartheid state of South Africa. The American public must stop funding the apartheid state of Israel and boost the BDS program in every institution and corporation. This would stop a criminal system that has long been diverting fund and resources from where they are dueto highly destructive causes like the perennial wars. America’s security cannot come at the cost of misery of others, and surely not the victims of genocide in Gaza.
Let the American voters send a loud message in 2024 elections by saying no to the coteries of an evil establishment that promotes war and destruction. Let them vote for conscience and not those who sponsor and promote genocide.
On my part, I am not voting for either Kamala or Trump. I shall vote for the Green Party, which genuinely cares about people and our planet. I hope other conscientious Americans join me, too.
Dr. Habib Siddiqui has authored 11 books, five of which are now available through Amazon.com. His latest book - Devotional Stories is published by A.S. Noordeen, Malaysia. Dr. Siddiqui is an alumnus of the prestigious University of Southern California, Los Angeles, where he earned his Ph.D.
Hezbollah launches sweeping attack on Israeli forces in border towns
Hezbollah Resistance fighters continue to defend against an Israeli onslaught on Lebanese border towns, engaging invading troops in close quarter battles.
The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli occupation forces non-stop in the past few days, announcing a collection of military operations throughout Sunday.
In continuation of their defense against the Israeli occupation incursions into the border area of Lebanon, Hezbollah fighters engaged Israeli occupation forces in close-quarters battles, attacked their positions with rockets and artillery weapons, and destroyed several armored vehicles, during a period extending from Sunday morning to Sunday afternoon.
At least 27 Israeli troops were injured in confrontations with Hezbollah Resistance fighters so far on Sunday, Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported. The Israeli military censor has worked on concealing the number of casualties, however, has admitted that the military transferred at least six injured soldiers, via a helicopter, to the Rambam Hospital in occupied Haifa.
According to Al Mayadeen's correspondent in southern Lebanon, at least 30 Israeli military casualties were recorded near the border villages of Aita al-Shaab, Ramyah, and Qaouzah.
Western Axis operations
During an Israeli infantry infiltration attempt into the town of Qaouzah, Hezbollah fighters discovered the force and confronted it with automatic weapons at 1:15 pm (local time). Two hours later, Hezbollah's anti-armor units fired an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) at an Israeli tank. The ATGM directly impacted the tank, putting it up in flames and killing and injuring its crewmembers on the same axis.
In the nearby town of Aita al-Shaab, a Hezbollah infantry unit launched an offensive on Israeli occupation forces that had positioned themselves in the western neighborhood of the town. Fierce clashes occurred in the area, which saw Hezbollah fighters fire automatic weapons, unspecified rocket weapons, and artillery shells at the invading force, since 4:45 pm.
A statement released by the Resistance, at 5:29 pm, explained that confrontations were ongoing.
Hezbollah fighters also fired rocket artillery shells at Israeli occupation forces in the Zar'it barracks, the Shomera barracks, and KhilatWarde, all located in the vicinity of ongoing confrontations on the Western Axis.
Eastern Axis operations
On the Eastern Axis, which extends from Blida to Israeli-occupied Lebanese territories, including the KfarChouba Hills and the Shebaa Farms, Hezbollah fighters also engaged Israeli occupation forces in close-quarters battles.
At 10:00 am, Hezbollah fighters discovered and engaged an Israeli infantry force in the Kanaan Hills, in Blida, killing and injuring multiple Israeli troops, who were shot from point-blank range by Resistance fighters.
Hezbollah fighters also fired artillery shells at Israeli occupation troops in the same area, at 3:20 pm.
On the far end of the Israeli-occupied Lebanese territories, near the Shebaa Farms, Hezbollah fighters fired a salvo of rockets at the Habousheet military site.
The city settlement of KiryatShmona also came under a rocket attack at 1:50 pm.
Long-range rocket attacks
Hezbollah's fighters also added another rocket attack to a series of attacks, dubbed the "Khaibar Operations."
These long-range attacks come in response to Israeli crimes and massacres against civilians in Lebanon, seven of which have been announced since October 1, 2024.
On Sunday, at 9:30 am, Hezbollah fighters launched what it described as a salvo of "top-tier" rockets at the Israeli Teirat al-Karmel military base in southern occupied Haifa.
In response to Israeli strikes on Lebanese towns and residents of the country, Hezbollah also launched a large barrage of rocket artillery shells at the Tzurit military base, located to the east of Karmiel.
3 Israelis killed, 67 injured in Hezbollah’s attack on Binyamina
Hezbollah said Sunday that it launched a “swarm of drones” on a Golani Brigade camp in Binyamina, south of Haifa .
Israeli Army Radio says three people dead after the attack.
Israeli media is reporting that at least 67 people are injured in the drone attack.
Hezbollah said that the attack was carried out “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance, and in defence of Lebanon and its people”.
Binyamina, where Hezbollah carried out the drone attack we’ve been reporting on, is located between Tel Aviv and Haifa and has a population of around 16,000 people. It is approximately 70km south of the border with Lebanon.
Israeli Army Radio, quoting a source, said Hezbollah succeeded in deceiving the air defence system and fired a barrage of missiles to cover the drone.
Al Jazeera said the Israeli air defence system is very sophisticated and multi-layered.
Usually, the sirens go off when something is heading towards a location so civilians and residents of that area are told to seek shelter. That’s why there have been a very small number of injuries throughout the past year from those attacks.
But the drones are harder to detect, and because they fly at lower altitudes, they are much more difficult to intercept. Effectively intercepting them would put a lot of people in danger.
Just two days ago, two drones were spotted in the Tel Aviv area. Only one of them was downed by interception from the Israeli army. The second was not intercepted, and some of the shrapnel caused damage.
A separate report said the Israeli Air Force is investigating why warning sirens were not activated in Binyamina ahead of the attack.
Israeli forces massacre children in Gaza, besiege hospitals
Israeli occupation forces kill five children and injure others playing in a neighborhood in Gaza.
Adding to their list of massacres committed on the 373rd day of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation forces directly attacked a group of children in the al-Shati refugee camp, near the coast of Gaza City.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent said that the massacre claimed the lives of five children and injured several others on Sunday. The children were killed and wounded while playing together in a neighborhood in Gaza.
Additionally, the Israeli occupation is besieging the Jabalia refugee camp, were the bodies of at least three martyrs were recovered by authorities from the Tal al-Zaatar neighborhood.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent also reported that three injured individuals were transported to the al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat after an Israeli airstrike targeted a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.
Israeli siege on hospitals ongoing for 9-days
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in Gaza issued a statement outlining the dire circumstances in the northern Gaza Strip. This region is currently facing the devastating effects of the Israeli regime's third military ground campaign within just one year.
The ministry explained that numerous bodies and wounded civilians are either abandoned in Gaza's streets or stuck underneath the rumble. This is due to the fact that authorities and emergency services are blocked from entering such areas by Israeli occupation forces, or due to the Israeli regime's attacks on emergency services, which have left most of their heavy equipment inoperable.
Moreover, Israeli authorities are blocking the transfer of blood units to hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, as part of their campaign to debilitate the work of medical services in the area.
Specifically, the Israeli regime has focused its pressure campaign on the Kamal Adwan Hospital, threatening its director with a fate similar to what transpired in the al-Shifa Medical Complex, whose staff were abused and facilities destroyed.
The ministry said that only a "small quantity of fuel" was delivered to Kamal Adwan Hospital after several attempts to secure such a delivery.
For nine days, hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip have endured a relentless Israeli siege, the Ministry of Health explained, which has endangered the lives of critically ill patients. The effects of the Israeli siege have also impacted the al-Maamadani Baptist Hospital, which also came under a direct strike in the early stages of the war on Gaza. The hospital issued an urgent call for blood donation to save the lives of wounded Palestinians.
Al-Shifa Hospital receives a group of patients
On a brighter note, months after the horrendous Israeli onslaught on al-Shifa, Gaza's largest medical complex, the Ministry of Health said that the hospital was able to receive a group of wounded Palestinians, who were transferred from Kamal Adwan on Sunday.
This development marks another feat for the besieged territory's medical sector, as well as authorities, who continue to battle the Israeli regime's war against vital services.
The ministry also announced that it would initiate the second phase of the polio vaccination campaign tomorrow.
By day 373 of Israeli genocide in Gaza: 42,227 killed, 98,464 injured
The Gaza Government Media Office says the Israeli occupation has been waging a "clear-cut campaign of extermination" in the framework of the ongoing genocide in northern Gaza.
Israeli occupation forces committed four massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, killing 52 and injuring 128 who arrived at hospitals in 24 hours, confirmed the Gaza Health Ministry on Sunday.
This brings the total number of Palestinians killed since the Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7 to 42,227, in addition to 98,464 injuries, the Ministry announced in its daily report.
Earlier, Israeli occupation forces carried out their largest demolition operation of residential buildings in northern and central Gaza.
The Israeli occupation continues its siege on Jabalia camp in northern Gaza for the ninth consecutive day, demolishing several homes using explosive robots, while fires spread in many areas of the camp following repeated bombardments.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that the occupation military demolished several houses in the al-Falouja area of Jabalia camp. He pointed out that the occupation forces also prevented residents from returning and fired upon anyone moving within the camp.
Meanwhile, Israeli artillery continued to bombard Jabalia town, BeitLahia, and Jabalia camp, coinciding with Israeli aircraft firing at the northeastern areas of the Gaza Strip.
In central Gaza, Israeli warplanes bombed a house in Nuseirat, killing eight Palestinians from one family.
Additionally, the occupation forces stationed along the separation fence, east of Khan Younis, continued to fire at homes and farms in the area.
An Israeli drone also fired heavily, accompanied by artillery shelling, at civilian homes on al-Sikka Street in the eastern al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeastern Gaza City. Simultaneously, Israeli forces demolished residential buildings in the al-Tawam area, northwest of the city.
Our correspondent said that helicopter gunfire targeted the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in southwestern Gaza City, while six people, most of whom are children, were injured in an Israeli strike on a house in the al-Tuffah neighborhood, northeastern Gaza City.
In Rafah, an Israeli airstrike targeted a mosque in the al-Mawasi coastal area, west of the city, in the southern Gaza Strip.
'Clear-cut campaign of extermination'
In a related context, the Gaza Government Media Office pointed out that, for nine consecutive days, the Israeli occupation military has been waging a "clear-cut campaign of extermination" in the framework of an ongoing genocide in northern Gaza.
In a statement, the Media Office said the occupation forces are preventing medical and civil defense teams from recovering the bodies of dozens of martyrs from the streets and roads, while actively working to completely destroy the healthcare system and hospitals in a deliberate, calculated, and systematic manner.
This is being carried out with full support from the US administration, "which endorses and is actively orchestrating this genocide, providing full cover for the occupation's massacres," the statement indicated.
According to the Office, "The Israeli occupation military is committing crimes against humanity, deliberately killing civilians by bombing shelters and displacement centers and committing horrific massacres against civilians by intentionally targeting gatherings of women and children."
Moreover, the occupation military is targeting all vital sectors in northern Gaza, "seeking to turn the region into an area of devastation, killing, and extermination," it added.
To date, the Israeli occupation has killed more than 300 people during nine consecutive days of systematic killings and a total siege, targeting civilians, particularly women and children, and residential neighborhoods, the statement confirmed.
US-Israeli scheme
The Media Office accused "Israel" of aiming to implement a plan of forced displacement, which it described as "one of the largest and most dangerous US-Israeli occupation schemes of the 21st century and modern times."
The statement noted that the "criminal displacement plan" against civilians was explicitly announced by Israeli ministers and has been approved by US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a flagrant violation of international law, international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions, and all international agreements.
Together, "Israel" and the United States are committing 19 types of crimes against humanity in Gaza, the Media Office underlined.
Situation in northern Gaza
Touching on the situation in northern Gaza, especially in Jabalia Town and the camp, the statement said the Israeli occupation is seeking to uproot, burn, and destroy all vital sectors in the area.
While the Israeli occupation forces have shut down all hospitals in northern Gaza, they have, for the seventh time, prevented fuel deliveries to these hospitals, which are filled with dozens of wounded and critically-ill patients in intensive care units, the Office highlighted.
It warned that these patients are on the brink of martyrdom, effectively sentenced to death by the US administration and the Israeli occupation.
The Gaza Government Media Office issued an urgent appeal to the international community, particularly to Russia and China, all free nations, and all international and global organizations, as well as Arab and Islamic countries, to exert all forms of pressure on the Israeli occupation to stop the genocide, the eradication campaign, and the ethnic cleansing war in Gaza, particularly in northern Gaza.
It also underscored that immediate action is needed to deliver food aid to tens of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza, who are being systematically starved by the occupation, which has prevented the delivery of food and baby formula for over 170 consecutive days.
"The occupation has decided to kill tens of thousands of civilians and children either through bombing or starvation by blocking food supplies to the Gaza and northern Gaza provinces," the statement said.
The Media Office also strongly condemned the Israeli occupation military's crimes of killing and starving civilians and displaced persons, as well as its killing of people in the streets of the northern province, especially in the Jabalia town and camp, calling on the international community and all countries worldwide to denounce these ongoing crimes and for the prosecution of Israeli war criminals in international courts for their atrocities.
Elsewhere, the Media Office said it held "the Israeli occupation, the US administration, and all the countries involved in the genocide against our Palestinian people—such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and other criminal states—fully responsible for the continuation of these crimes over the past year."
Daily Dawn Karachi - October 13, 2024
Indian Muslim politician Baba Siddique shot dead in Mumbai
A senior Muslim politician in India’s financial capital Mumbai was shot dead on Saturday, weeks ahead of key state elections, with police probing the role of a notorious crime gang.
Baba Siddique, 66, a local lawmaker and former minister in Maharashtra state, was shot multiple times in the chest outside his son’s office in Mumbai, Indian media reported.
Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, from the same party as Siddique, said he was “shocked” by the “cowardly attack”.
The Hindustan Times newspaper reported that two suspected attackers had been arrested, and police were searching for another.
Broadcaster NDTV said the two suspects claimed they were part of a gang run by Lawrence Bishnoi, who is in jail accused of running a crime gang that has carried out multiple killings.
The shooting comes just weeks after Siddique’s security detail was upgraded after he received death threats, and ahead of elections slated for later this year.
“The incident will be thoroughly investigated and strict action will be taken against the attackers,” Pawar said in a statement. “The mastermind behind the attack will also be traced.”
Siddique was close to several Bollywood stars and was known for throwing grand parties.
In March of this year, Mukhtar Ansari, a jailed Muslim politician, died in prison. Ansari was declared dead on March 28 at a Banda hospital after he suffered a cardiac arrest. However, his family claimed Ansari was being given “slow poison” inside the jail, which led to his demise.
Afzal Ansari, an MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur and brother of Mukhtar, claimed, “Mukhtar said he was given a poisonous substance in food in jail. This happened for the second time. Around 40 days ago also he was given poison. And recently, he was again given this (poison) due to which his condition was bad.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1864998/indian-muslim-politician-baba-siddique-shot-dead-in-mumbai
