The Countercurrent – November 10, 2024
Israel Escalates Assaults on Gaza, Committing Brutal Massacres
as Genocide Reaches Day 401
by Quds News Network
Gaza (Quds News Network)- As the Israeli genocide in Gaza entered its 401st day, Israeli warplanes intensified their bombardment, resulting in the deaths and injuries of dozens, and the destruction of residential buildings in northern Gaza. The relentless airstrikes have sparked fears of an imminent famine as Palestinians face worsening conditions under the Israeli siege.
Overnight, the city of Gaza and its northern regions were hit by a series of air raids. In one of the deadliest attacks, Israeli jets targeted a house in Jabalia, collapsing it on families and displaced children taking refuge inside. The strike killed at least 33 Palestinians, with many still missing beneath the rubble.
Israeli warplanes also encircled Kamal Adwan Hospital with a barrage of airstrikes, raising concerns over the safety of civilians and medical staff. Concurrently, attacks were reported in Al-Alami and Abu Qamar areas within Jabalia, where residential buildings were demolished.
Since early October, Israel has intensified its military operations in northern Gaza, aiming to isolate the region and forcibly displace its residents. The ongoing offensive has resulted in over 1,500 Palestinian deaths, with thousands more forced to flee to central Gaza. Humanitarian aid has been cut off, with international experts warning of a looming famine due to the severe blockade.
In other parts of Gaza, an airstrike on a home in the Sabra neighborhood claimed the lives of five Palestinians, while early morning raids targeted Tal Al-Hawa, causing multiple casualties. Southern areas, such as the outskirts of Al-Zaytoun, were also subjected to artillery fire.
In central Gaza, the Israeli navy shelled the western side of Al-Nusairat refugee camp, adding to the devastation. Medical sources reported that more than 40 Palestinians were killed on Saturday alone, with 24 of the fatalities occurring in the north.
Marking over 400 days of relentless bombardment, the Gaza Government Media Office reported a staggering toll: more than 53,000 Palestinians killed or missing, with women and children accounting for nearly 30,000 of the dead.
Al Mayadeen – November 11, 2024
Yemeni forces strike military base in Tel Aviv with hypersonic ballistic missile
YAF spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree confirms that the strike was precise and resulted in a fire in the vicinity of the targeted site.
The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) carried out a major military operation targeting the Israeli Nahal Sorek military base, located southeast of occupied Yafa [Tel Aviv], as part of their fifth phase of escalation against the Israeli occupation.
YAF spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced Monday that the hypersonic ballistic missile, Palestine 2, was deployed and hit its targets precisely and successfully. As a result, a fire broke out in the vicinity of the target after impact was made.
"Yemen remains committed to supporting the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples by upholding the maritime blockade on the enemy [Israeli occupation] and through supportive military operations," Saree reiterated, emphasizing that the YAF's operations will not cease until the aggression ends, the blockade on Gaza is lifted, and the attacks on Lebanon stop.
The announcement comes a couple of days after Saree said that the YAF targetedﾠthe Nevatim airbase in the al-Naqab region of southern occupied Palestine, confirming a direct hit. Brigadier General Saree then announced that the Yemeni air defenses downed a US MQ-9 drone as it was conducting hostile operations in the Yemeni airspace over the al-Jawf province.
Later, the YAF's Military Media released footage of the operation whereby the hunter-killer UAV was downed via a homegrown surface-to-air missile.
This brought the total number of US MQ-9 drones downed by Yemeni air defenses to 12 as part of the Promised Victory and Holy Jihad battle, according to Brigadier General Saree.
Quds News Network – November 11, 2024
Palestinian Journalist and His Wife Killed in Israeli Attack on Tent in Gaza’s Nuseirat Camp
Gaza (Quds News Network)- A Palestinian journalist and his wife were killed in an overnight Israeli attack that targeted their tent in al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. This brings the total number of journalists killed in Israeli attacks during the Gaza genocide to 189.
Journalist Mohammed Khreis and his wife had set a tent up seeking protection from the Israeli attacks after their home in the Nuseirat camp was destroyed a few months ago.
The northern area of the Nuseirat camp has been under relentless Israeli attacks, and people there are exposed to daily terror, from the heavy machine guns, the quadcopters and the drones that are hovering at a very low level, as local sources reported.
According to the Government Media Office, 189 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the beginning of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.
The Office condemned “the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation,” holding it “fully responsible for committing this heinous crime and calling on the international community and those involved in global journalism to deter the occupation and pursue it in international courts for its ongoing crimes.”
“We urge pressure to be applied to stop the genocide and the killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists.”
Israel’s war on Gaza has been considered the deadliest for journalists and media workers in the world in 30 years.
The International Federation of Journalists said the mortality rate for media workers in Gaza is over 10 percent.
Seventy-five percent of all reporters killed in the world in 2023 were killed between October 7 and the end of last year.
Critics accuse Israel – which banned foreign reporters from entering Gaza – of targeting journalists in the Palestinian territory to obscure the truth about its war crimes there.
“Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime under international law. This attack must be independently investigated and the perpetrators must be held to account,” Programme Director at Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Carlos Martinez de la, said.
Iraqi resistance strikes Israeli targets eight times in 24 hours
The fighters of Iraq’s Islamic Resistance have carried out their eighth consecutive strike against various Israeli targets throughout the past 24 hours.
On Monday, the resistance, which is a coalition of fighters, said it had hit a “vital target” in the northern part of the occupied Palestinian territories with attack drones.
The strike was “the eighth attack [by the fighters] since last night,” it added.
The Islamic resistance said its operations are in support of the Palestinian and Lebanese people.
It stresses that the strikes are also in response to the massacres carried out by the Israeli regime against civilians, including women, children and the elderly across the occupied territories.
“In continuation of our approach to resisting the occupation, and in support of our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and in response to the massacres committed by the usurping entity against civilians, including children, women and the elderly, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq on Monday, 11-11-2024, attacked a vital target in the north of our occupied lands using drones,” the Islamic resistance statement said.
The group’s drones also struck two other Israeli targets in the southern occupied land.
“The fighters of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq on Monday, 11-11-2024, attacked a vital target in the south of our occupied lands, for the second time, using drones,” the statement added.
The Iraqi resistance has vowed to press ahead with its anti-Israel operations with increasing intensity.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has been engaged in such operations since Israel began its military campaign in Gaza in early October 2023. The Iraqi resistance group has also targeted US military bases in Iraq and Syria, condemning Washington's support for Israel during its genocidal war.
Since October last year, Israel has intensified its bombardment of Gaza, targeting civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, residential buildings, and places of worship.
The ongoing Israeli war has resulted in the deaths of at least 43,600 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children, with another 103,000 people injured.
Al Mayadeen – November 11, 2024
Drones are Hezbollah's 'trump card' as operations expand: Research
The Israeli Alma Research Institutes details the rate of Hezbollah's daily, monthly, and yearly operations against "Israel", nudging its immense capabilities.
Hezbollah quadrupled its rocket attacks against occupied territories in October, compared to the months that preceded, the Israeli Alma Research Institute found, anticipating even heavier and more intense operations in the upcoming months. 
The Israeli Walla! news website, citing the institute's report, consequently noted that as the Israeli occupation forces expand their offensive in South Lebanon, Hezbollah launched over 300 rockets against territories the Israeli authorities had not evacuated.
Israel suffers hundreds of monthly attacks
According to the Alma Institute, Hezbollah adopted only half of the operations carried out across the Lebanese-Palestinian border, assuming responsibility for 694 operations out of 1,158.
This raises the total number of operations executed by the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon to 3,235 since October 8, 2023, averaging 270 operations per month.
The report claimed that a total of 54 Israelis were killed on the northern front as a result of Hezbollah's operations, including 40 soldiers and an army officer, as well as 10 settlers [excluding direct confrontations during the ground invasion].
Moreover, 54% of the operations targeted areas near the Lebanese-Palestinian border, at a distance of up to 5 km, 18.6% of which were against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
In addition, Hezbollah expanded the range of its attacks, firing 296 projectiles at distances greater than 5 km from the border, compared to 160 projectiles in September and August 2024.
Details show that most of these operations targeted border settlements, as follows: 81 on Metula, 76 on Misgav Am, 64 on Kiryat Shmona, and 43 on Manara.
At the same time, October saw a remarkable increase in attacks on more distant areas compared to previous months, distributed as follows: 12 on Tel Aviv and the Gush Dan area, 25 on Haifa, 21 on the Krayot area north of Haifa and Akka, 17 on Karmiel, 21 on Nahariya, and 29 on Safad and Ras al-Naqoura.
On Hezbollah's superior drone system
Quoting Tal Barri and Dana Volk, researchers at Alma, Walla! stated that "missiles have become Hezbollah's main weapon" against the Israeli-occupied territories, with at least 2,291 rockets launched across the territories during October 2024.
Additionally, the drone system is "Hezbollah's trump card", according to the Israeli researchers, who explained that these drones "serve Hezbollah's strategy of attrition" as thousands of settlers seek shelter with the flight of just one drone.
In this context, the researchers estimate that Hezbollah "will continue to drain Israel."
Regarding Hezbollah's drones, the Alma report recalled the attack carried out by Hezbollah against the Golani Brigade in Binyamina, which resulted in the killing of four soldiers, as well as an attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Caesarea.
In this context, Netanyahu has moved his daily work to a fortified room in the basement of his office, Israeli media reported.
According to Israeli Channel 12, Netanyahu now spends most of his workday in this secured room, following guidance from security officials. The move reflects heightened security measures, as he avoids his usual office on an upper floor with a glass-walled area known as the "fish tank."
Reports indicate that Netanyahu was directed to use the basement room, offering superior protection, and was advised against staying in well-known, fixed locations.
These precautions were reportedly initiated after a Hezbollah drone exploded in Netanyahu's residence in Caesarea last October, shattering his bedroom window and causing additional damage, though Netanyahu was not home at the time.
Fresh Israeli airstrike targets Syria's Homs countryside, no casualties reported
Israeli warplanes have carried out another act of aggression against Syria, targeting positions in the countryside of the central province of Homs.
Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that Israeli military aircraft launched an assault on the Shinshar area in the southern countryside of the province on Monday afternoon.
The report added that the aerial assault hit an aid-gathering center for displaced Lebanese south of the city of Homs.
The main highway linking the capital Damascus to Homs was temporarily cut off as a result of the Israeli strike.
Details on potential human or material losses have yet to be disclosed.
The Israeli regime continues its airstrikes on the country alongside its bloody onslaughts in Gaza and Lebanon.
Israel launched relentless air and ground attacks on Gaza, including hospitals, residences, and houses of worship, after Palestinian resistance movements launched their surprise attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, against the regime on October 7, 2023.
More than 43,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed while nearly 103,000 individuals have sustained injuries.
According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, at least 3,189 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Arab country since October 2023, including 24 dead and several injured in the past 24 hours.
Israel frequently targets military positions inside Syria, especially those of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah which has played a key role in helping the Syrian army in its fight against foreign-backed terrorists.
The Tel Aviv regime rarely comments on its attacks on Syrian territories, which many see as a knee-jerk reaction to the Syrian government’s phenomenal success in confronting and decimating terrorism.
Israel has been the principal supporter of terrorist groups that oppose the democratically-elected government of President Bashar al-Assad since the foreign-backed militancy erupted in Syria.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/11/11/737047/Fresh-Israeli-airstrike-targets-Syria-s-Homs-countryside,-no-casualties-reported
Islamic leaders demand immediate end to Israel’s aggression in Gaza, Lebanon
Muslim and Arab leaders at an extraordinary summit in Riyadh demanded that Israel immediately stop its deadly hostilities in the besieged Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
In an address to the joint meeting of the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Monday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman condemned the “massacre committed against Palestinian and Lebanese people.”
Bin Salman urged Israel “to refrain from any further act of aggression.”
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the Arab League, also joined the Saudi crown prince in condemning Israel’s campaign of death and destruction in Gaza and Lebanon. “Words cannot express the plight of the Palestinian people.”
“The actions taken by Israel against the Palestinian people are undermining efforts to achieve lasting peace. It is only with justice that we will be able to establish lasting peace.”
Addressing the summit, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the Arab and Islamic countries to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
He also demanded the implementation of a UN resolution to halt Israeli aggression in Gaza and to secure the delivery of humanitarian aid into the territory.
More than 50 leaders of Arab and Islamic countries are in Riyadh to take part in the summit.
Ahead of the meeting, Hamas called for the formation of an alliance of Arab and Islamic nations to pressure Israel and its supporters to end the atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon.
President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran did not attend the meeting due to pressing “executive matters.” But in a phone call with the Saudi crown prince, Pezeshkian said Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref will attend the summit.
The summit comes one year after a similar gathering of the OIC and Arab League, during which leaders condemned Israeli actions in Gaza as “barbaric.”
On Sunday afternoon, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan chaired the preparatory ministerial meeting ahead of Monday’s session.
The Saudi Press Agency said, “The escalating violence in the Palestinian and Lebanese territories, including the brutal Israeli aggression, has compelled Arab and Islamic leaders to take urgent action.”
“Key priorities include halting the aggression, protecting civilians, providing support to the Palestinian and Lebanese people, unifying positions, and exerting pressure on the international community to take decisive steps to end the ongoing attacks and establish lasting peace and stability in the region.”
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/11/11/737052/OIC-Riyadh
Yeni Safak – November 11, 2024
'Western countries have given every support to Israel while inadequate response from Muslim countries has brought situation to this point,' says Recep Tayyip Erdogan
The Turkish president on Monday criticized the lack of response from Muslim countries in addressing the ongoing genocide in Gaza, while accusing the Western nations of providing full support to Israel.
“A handful of Western countries have provided all kinds of support to Israel, while the failure of Muslim countries to respond adequately has led to the situation reaching this point,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the Extraordinary Joint Summit Meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
rdogan said Türkiye has so far sent over 84,000 tons of aid to Gaza, and is ready to send much more when restrictions are lifted.
Israel cannot even tolerate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and has been keeping aid supplies waiting in Egypt for months, Erdogan further said.
"We are ready" to implement all tangible actions that will show the heavy cost of the Netanyahu government's continued occupation of Palestinian territory, the Turkish president said.
“We should encourage as many countries as possible to intervene in the case filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice,” he underlined.
Countercurrents – November 10, 2024
Lessons Learned from an Ongoing Genocide in Gaza
Addressing the UN in September, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held up a map of historic Palestine, in which the West Bank and Gaza Strip were not delineated; the whole territory, from the river to the sea, was labeled Israel. Other maps of Israel are even more ambitious and include parts of Lebanon and Syria as well. Israel sees the war with the Palestinians, and now with Lebanon, as an opportunity to change the map of the Arab world to make it more hospitable to Israeli expansionism and domination. The United States had the same impulse after September 2001, seizing the moment to embark on a global program of regime change, to make the world more amenable to U.S. hegemony.
As the genocidal war against Palestinians enters its second year, some things are very clear.
Israel’s wars in Palestine and now Lebanon are joint U.S.-Israeli wars. The U.S. could stop the carnage if it chose to, but it chooses instead to offer full military, tactical, financial and political support to Israel. European countries with colonial and genocidal histories assist Israel to the extent they can. The result is that the most industrial “advanced” countries in the world are supporting the destruction of the Gaza Strip, besieged for the past 17 years, and Lebanon, a country that has teetered on collapse for the past several years. Their goal is to demonstrate that resistance to U.S.-Israeli hegemony is futile. This single fact transforms the war into one with global implications.
Israelis and Palestinians are engaged in an existential battle throughout historic Palestine. If Palestinians lose, they most likely will be ethnically cleansed from the soil of Palestine in a repeat of the 1948 Nakba. (In fact, that process has already begun in the West Bank and in the northern Gaza Strip.) Israeli leaders have threatened this very explicitly, using the word “Nakba” to leave no doubt about their intentions. They have long lamented that the 1948 Nakba had not been more thorough. After Oct. 7, 2023, they saw an opportunity and seized it.
If Israel loses, its colonial experiment—as a Jewish ethnostate representing Western aims in the region and destabilizing the Arab world—comes to an end. Jews who live in Palestine will have to live like everyone else in a non-Zionist state yet to be created. Already tens of thousands of Israelis have decided that the country has no future, and they’ve used their second passports to emigrate.
Both parties know what is at stake. This understanding fuels the savagery of the Israeli army, fully supported by the Israeli people and the Biden administration, and the tenacious resistance of the Palestinian fighters. One year of carpet bombing and bloodletting, and Israel hasn’t managed to accomplish a single one of its stated military aims in Gaza. In fact, one of those goals—securing the release of the Israelis held in Gaza—no longer seems to factor into military considerations at all. It is waging a war of terror on civilians to prepare them for Israel’s Final Solution.
A high civilian death toll is precisely the point for the colonizer. In Gaza, the figure of 42,000 dead used by the health ministry includes only documented deaths; it is clear to everyone that in the massive mounds of rubble throughout the Gaza Strip, decomposing bodies are buried. Lebanon is getting similar treatment, with bombing of residential areas in which entire families are snuffed out.
The U.S. has denounced calls for a ceasefire as unacceptable. It prefers to give Israel time and space to kill civilians, in the hopes of improving Israel’s negotiating position and enabling it to dictate the terms of an end to hostilities. What Israel, the U.S. and other colonial backers have not yet figured out is that atrocities don’t cow people into accepting subjugation. Burying lots of children shot in the head has the uncanny effect of stiffening the backbone and fueling rage, which in turn produces fighters who understand that they cannot negotiate with a savage enemy bent on their destruction. When you’ve lived through the worst you can imagine—loved ones dismembered, relatives shuttled from place to place like sacks of potatoes and bombed anyway, the dead fed to roaming dogs, starvation—what is left for you to fear?
Israel has no red lines. Since its creation, Israel has been supported, armed and politically protected by Western countries. The result is the creation of a powerful, savage Frankenstein that ends Palestinian bloodlines; shoots children in the head; runs torture centers where Palestinian noncombatants are beaten, electrocuted, starved and gang raped; deliberately destroys hospitals and schools; targets U.N. agencies and personnel and makes geographies uninhabitable. The consequences of Western indulgence of Israel are explored in the recent Al Jazeera investigative study, (see p. x) which assembles social media postings from Israeli soldiers. The seeming unawareness by Israeli soldiers that their trophy moments are evidence of war crimes is deeply disturbing to the viewer. They actually believe that no human law applies to them.
Israel’s sabotaging of pagers and walkie-talkies delivered to Lebanon in September is a clear case of state-sponsored terrorism because the devices were remotely detonated as their users were in public spaces. At least 12 were killed and thousands injured; many were blinded. This is on a par with targeting hospitals and medical staff and turning commandeered hospitals into mass graves.
Israel’s assassination of political leaders demonstrates a need to deliver some red meat to the Israeli public in the absence of securing the release of Israelis from Gaza. Its assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in July in Tehran, followed less than two months later by its assassination of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, were grievous blows to both organizations, but not the knock-out punches that Israel and the U.S. might have hoped. Israel has a long and sordid history of assassinating Palestinian political figures. The Palestinian encyclopedia (<palquest.org>) lists 37 actual and attempted assassinations of Palestinian figures from 1970 to 2019. The resistance movement fighters know that they are marked men, and their organizations have found ways to continue functioning after they are gone. They are honored for their sacrifices.
U.S. officials who support Israel are becoming more freakish and disturbing with each passing month. What can be made of revelations that U.S. Secretary State Antony Blinken signed off on Israeli attacks on humanitarian convoys and buried internal reports concluding that Israel was blocking aid into Gaza. Or plastic-faced State Department spokesman Matthew Miller claiming that Israel is taking steps to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza even as a mountain of evidence shows that famine is widespread, a fact that World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain acknowledged?
Even people who don’t care about foreign policy have to be dismayed by the sight of a charlatan like Netanyahu being invited to address Congress and receiving no fewer than 58 standing ovations as he spewed lie after lie about the Israeli army’s conduct in Gaza. What good can come from legislators with such questionable morals and no self-respect, who see fit to give a gracious audience to a foreign war criminal?
This blind support for Israel even as it commits genocide explains at least some of the unease Americans feel when contemplating Gaza. Palestinians are being killed wholesale, but Americans feel threatened, too. U.S. institutions and state agencies have come down harshly on protesters on university campuses. White nationalists who shoot social justice protesters while the police stand by are not very different from Israeli settlers who shoot Palestinians while the army stands by to offer backup support. Whether in Palestine or the United States, dissent is crushed in ways designed to serve as a deterrence for others. State power is absolute and cannot be questioned. Can we live in such a world?
The Israeli army is an effective demolition battalion and mass killer of noncombatants, but it is psychologically defeated. It has destroyed every university in Gaza and most of the hospitals and killed noncombatants without restraint. But when Israeli soldiers come under fire, Palestinian fighters hear them curse their leaders, the same leaders who show no interest in securing the release of Israelis. When Palestinian fighters prepare for an ambush, they regard it as an honor and pay tribute to other brigades and to their fallen leaders—Haniyeh, Nasrallah and those who died years ago, whose names are given to the guns they use. They have a cause they believe in, and they are part of a history and tradition that they understand and honor and believe can liberate Palestine from the river to the sea. They fight for the future; the Israeli cause, incubated in the 19th century, seems increasingly preposterous, a racist setup long rejected by normal people.
The Palestinian resistance is aided by resistance movements in the Arab world. The current war demonstrates that Palestine is an Arab, not exclusively Palestinian, cause. Hezbollah knows that unless Israel is defanged, it will always pose a threat to Lebanon and to the Lebanese people, who are being wiped out like Gazans, entire families at one go. Groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, countries that have been ravaged by Western colonial actors, are coming to the aid of the Palestinians because they understand the need to end Western domination of the region.
That domination began more than a century ago, with the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916, with which the French and British divided the Levant into states and spheres of influence that suited their wishes, indifferent to the histories and wishes of the people. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 generously promised the support of the British government for the creation of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine. The Bush administration (2001-2009) took upon itself the foolhardy mission of implementing regime change in countries it thought should be more malleable to U.S. (and Israeli) wishes, and its wish list included Iraq, Libya and Syria; these countries are now in shambles. Everywhere the U.S. and Israel impose their will, they leave wastelands behind.
The battle waged for the liberation of Palestine calls to mind the battles waged in the epic trilogy Lord of the Rings, where warriors band together to fight against the seemingly crushing evil forces of Sauron. The odds are against them, and they know they won’t all live to see the scourge expunged from the realm, but they must at least try, because to do less would be ignoble.
Palestinians and their allies too, understand what is at stake. As of this writing, Israel is expelling Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip in the first stages of what it thinks of as a final solution for the matter of the Palestinians. It is laying claim to territories in southern Lebanon to afford itself more living space. The combined Israel-U.S.-Western forces against them are merciless, and they must not be allowed to prevail.
What Israel and the U.S. are doing in Palestine, and now Lebanon, will set precedents for future lawless regimes. Unless the international community sets some red lines and backs them with deterring force, no one will be safe anywhere in the world.
Ida Audeh is senior editor of the Washington Report. This article was first published on the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs website on October 16, 2024
https://countercurrents.org/2024/11/lessons-learned-from-an-ongoing-genocide-in-gaza/
Former NATO commander predicts how Ukraine conflict will end
The Ukraine conflict will end with Russia taking approximately a fifth of the country’s pre-2014 territory, ex-NATO commander James Stavridis has predicted.
Stavridis, a retired admiral who often appears on TV to share his insight on international affairs, told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday that Ukraine might also join the EU.
“Putin will hate that part of it, just like the Ukrainians will hate the part of Putin holding onto 20 percent of their country. But it’s a negotiation,” Stavridis told Smerconish.
Stavridis has also said that if President-elect Donald Trump can end the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours, he will “be the first one voting for his Nobel Peace Prize.”
Trump has previously claimed he could end the conflict in the first 24 hours of his presidency, without elaborating how exactly.
“What I hope he does, and I think he will, is put pressure on both sides to get to the negotiating table,” Stavridis said.
He added that Ukraine will also get a “path to NATO, probably three to five years.”
He also said that the deal would probably include “some kind of demilitarized zone” between the two parties, likely patrolled “with NATO soldiers, for example, not US, Europeans.”
“A negotiated settlement is not something the US can impose, but for the Ukrainians and Russians to agree upon,” Stavridis told Newsweek later on Saturday, adding that eventual settlement of the conflict, which escalated in 2022, will take months.
In October, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky presented his ‘victory plan’, which demanded immediate NATO membership. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Kiev’s desire to join the bloc – which Moscow has described as an existential threat – was one of the key reasons for the current conflict.
Zelensky has also insisted that Ukraine will keep fighting until it restores its 1991 borders, a task that would involve the recapture of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Kherson Region, Zaporozhye Region, and Crimea from Russia.
Russia maintains that it is open to any talks starting with an acknowledgement of “territorial reality” – that the above-mentioned regions will never return to Ukrainian control.
Earlier, US Vice President-elect J.D. Vance suggested that the conflict could be frozen along the current front line, with Kiev forced to abandon its claims to territories held by Russia, as well as its aspiration to join NATO.
https://www.rt.com/news/607427-russia-to-get-fifth-ukraine/
Countercurrent – November 10, 2024
Secularizing the Discourse on AMU’s Minority Status
by Yanis Iqbal
On November 8, 2024, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court overruled the 1967 S. Azeez Basha vs Union of India case, which had held that Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) could not be considered a minority institution. The factual determination of the minority character of AMU has now been left to a smaller bench. The AMU unit of the Fraternity Movement – the students’ wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind’s (JHI) political outfit Welfare Party of India – has released a curious statement entitled “AMU Will Remain a Muslim Institution”. It says:
Aligarh Muslim University was/is a clear manifestation of Muslimness in India. It had an intrinsic history of being the holistic representation of the Muslim Community in the country. The establishment of this Institution was solely focused on enforcing Muslim Subjectivity and widening the scope of the Islamic Knowledge system for the people. Regardless of the colonial project to delimit the political horizons, Aligarh as a movement broke the frames that were instilled by orientalist time sense. The question of Muslimness in this particular juncture plays a very crucial role while the earlier legal challenges were orchestrated to curtail Muslimness in the historical formation of AMU.
What first catches the eye is the remark that “AMU Will Remain a Muslim Institution,” not “minority” institution. The adjective “Muslim” is embedded in a chain of capitalized terms: “Muslimness,” “Muslim Community,” “Muslim Subjectivity,” and “Islamic Knowledge”. The capitalization is meant to convey the resplendent importance that attaches to these words. This importance is characterized in a theological manner: “We believe that the legal reasonings and argumentations on the minority status have a lacuna of articulating theological notions which should be taken forth by the futural fights bounding to this”. In other words, the legal discourse of “minority” should be replaced by the capitalized, theological discourse of “Muslimness”.
The theological outlook of the Fraternity Movement isn’t surprising. Given its linkage with JIH, it is natural that it will borrow the religious vocabulary of the latter. According to JIH: “Reducing religion to just a private matter is unwanted audacity. The position of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is that this concept is not only antithetical to Islam but also would be quite oppressive for people of India, the vast majority of who believe in spiritual and religious values, to prohibit them from following the guidance offered by religion and impose irreligiousness on them instead.” Here, we once again encounter the grandiloquent voice of the religious practitioner, who regards any breach of their theological domain as an exercise of “unwanted audacity”. Religion is naturalized as a desirable good, whose possession has to be maintained at all costs. In fact, when Muslims are in a dominant position, Syed Jalaluddin Umri, former president of JIH, advises them to establish an Islamic state and be governed by the laws of sharia.
But is religion really that desirable? This question is not explored by self-assured theologians. This same sentiment of self-assuredness is to be found in the AMU Fraternity Movement’s declaration that there exists a unified and capitalized “Muslimness” requiring prioritization. Does the issue of minority status really concern the ability of students to protect their “Muslim Subjectivity,” or “Islamic Knowledge”? Put in more mundane terms, this would mean that the entire debate over AMU’s status pertains to the Muslim youth’s right to recite Quranic verses in university premises. This seems more like the theologian’s dream, rather than a socially and economically disadvantaged student’s wish. The Supreme Court’s judgment is correct in noting that what is primary in the determination of the minority character of an institution is not the “existence of a religious place for prayer and worship” or “the existence of religious symbols” but the objective of providing “benefit” to “a religious or linguistic minority community”. This means that “educational institutions could be established for minorities to provide secular education without imparting any lessons on religion”.
What the above demonstrates is that religious instruction or symbolism, which the Fraternity Movement fancily labels as “Muslim Subjectivity,” isn’t the core of a minority institution. AMU can benefit Indian Muslims without teaching theology. It is incumbent upon theologically minded entities to show why religious knowledge is a necessary part of empowerment.
Instead of regarding Indian Muslims as a theological category, one should follow BR Ambedkar in analyzing “religious affiliation” solely in terms of the “intense degree of social separation and discrimination” that it effects upon the minority groups. What matters is not the doctrinal distinction between different religious groups but the actual “social discrimination” that marks their relationships. Insofar as Muslims in India are characterized by “social separation,” they are entitled to demand special measures from the government that can alleviate their oppression.
According to senior advocate Mihir Desai, since the founding of the Indian republic, the Supreme Court has adopted a religion-centric criteria for determining the minority status, or otherwise, of an institution. The determination of the minority status of an institution should be based on whether it is being run for the benefit of the minority, and not whether it is established and administered by a minority. This concern with an institute’s identitarian origins rather than substantive policy dynamics has attached the question of minority status to the political principle of protecting cultural identity, to the exclusion of the social principle of backwardness related to issues of justice and equity.
The obsession with cultural identity leads to a regressive politics. Once an individual has their mind trained on the sanctity of “Muslimness,” it becomes difficult for them to comprehend the social inequalities that accrue due to this fixation. The JIH, for instance, declares: “Homosexuality strikes at the very root of family and society. It is an immoral and unnatural act of perversion, which not only prevents procreation and progress of human race, but also destroys the family system and social relations”. While reading this confident, clear-cut declaration, one can’t help but remember the case of Ramchandra Siras, a poet and Professor of Marathi Literature at AMU, who faced murderous persecution due to his homosexuality. On February 8, 2010, two individuals broke into Siras’ home and filmed him in bed with another man. Following this incident, Siras was suspended from his position for “gross misconduct”. However, the courts ruled against the university. Tragically, on April 8 of the same year, Siras died under mysterious circumstances at his residence, just a day before he received the official letter cancelling his suspension.
When it comes to women, the JIH thinks that “co-education should be abolished and proper education facilities meant for only women only should be available at all level of education.” While they are segregated from men, they should wear clothes that are “sober and dignified”. Faced with reactions that this amounted to moral policing, Umri clarified that the organization merely wanted women to wear dresses that “cover the body”. The inane logic governing this argument isn’t hard to spot: since female flesh incites male lust, women should be caged in segregated spaces where their entire body is draped in the holiness of modesty. Faithfully following the patriarchal script, JIH never questions why men get aroused so easily that they start raping women. All the responsibility is placed on the female victim. Given the hierarchical attitudes that religious consciousness leads to, the AMU Fraternity Movement needs to consider if it really wants to pigeonhole the issue of minority status into the rusty confines of theology.
Yanis Iqbal is an undergraduate student of political science at Aligarh Muslim University, India. He is the author of the book Education in the Age of Neoliberal Dystopia.
https://countercurrents.org/2024/11/secularizing-the-discourse-on-amus-minority-status/
Türkiye’s TAI, Baykar rank in world’s top 50 aviation firms
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) and Baykar have been ranked among the world’s top 50 largest aerospace companies based on 2023 revenue, as reported by Flight Global.
Türkiye's aerospace sector has marked a historic achievement as two of its national companies, Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) and Baykar, have earned spots among the world’s top 50 largest aerospace companies, based on 2023 revenue rankings by Counterpoint Market Intelligence for FlightGlobal.
TAI placed 38th, reporting $2.67 billion in revenue, while Baykar debuted at 49th with $1.8 billion
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TAI’s 38th position reflects steady growth, bolstered by platforms such as ANKA III, the HURJET jet trainer, and the National Combat Aircraft KAAN.
Known for its cutting-edge R&D and commitment to high-tech solutions, TAI has focused on exports and delivering structural products to civil aviation giants.
The company's international collaborations with prominent players in civil and military aviation have strengthened its global reputation, contributing to its competitive edge in both sectors.
In addition to high-profile defence products, TAI's civilian aviation partnerships have solidified its role as a critical supplier and innovator.
Baykar's debut on the list
Baykar, a major player in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market, entered the rankings at 49th place with a significant $1.8 billion in revenue.
Known for its Bayraktar TB2, Baykar has earned a reputation as the world’s leading armed UAV exporter, with its technology in high demand across the globe.
Baykar has signed export agreements with 35 countries for its Bayraktar TB2 and Bayraktar AKINCI UAVs.
With exports accounting for over 90 percent of its income, Baykar has not only redefined Türkiye’s defence sector but also maintained its position as the country’s top defence exporter for three consecutive years.
Both TAI and Baykar are further investing in new technologies.
TAI continues to develop its KAAN fighter aircraft, while Baykar is focusing on pioneering platforms such as the Bayraktar TB3, a shipborne UAV, and the highly anticipated Bayraktar Kizilelma, Türkiye’s first unmanned fighter aircraft.
Baykar's debut on the list
Baykar, a major player in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market, entered the rankings at 49th place with a significant $1.8 billion in revenue.
Known for its Bayraktar TB2, Baykar has earned a reputation as the world’s leading armed UAV exporter, with its technology in high demand across the globe.
Baykar has signed export agreements with 35 countries for its Bayraktar TB2 and Bayraktar AKINCI UAVs.
With exports accounting for over 90 percent of its income, Baykar has not only redefined Türkiye’s defence sector but also maintained its position as the country’s top defence exporter for three consecutive years.
Both TAI and Baykar are further investing in new technologies.
TAI continues to develop its KAAN fighter aircraft, while Baykar is focusing on pioneering platforms such as the Bayraktar TB3, a shipborne UAV, and the highly anticipated Bayraktar Kizilelma, Türkiye’s first unmanned fighter aircraft.
https://www.trtworld.com/turkiye/turkiyes-tai-baykar-rank-in-worlds-top-50-aviation-firms-18230968
