Adonis Diaries

Mind you that the so-called “American Revolution” was a reaction to Britain banning the import of slaves in the colonies. The colonists relied exclusively on the import of slaves to expand their territories, all the way westward, northward and southward.

And this apartheid policy is still alive and going strong by and within the prison system, the practically administrative detention of Black youth and immigrants on minor charges, the implantation of over military bases around the world, and launching pre-emptive wars on any military weak State that refuses to relinquish its gold reserve to the USA, and mass printing of worthless paper money to confront increasing national debt of over $35 trillion.

Mind you that USA printed $ in a single year 2023, 40% as much as they printed since Nixon. And a couple of days ago, printed about $100 billion to be distributed to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan...

After the surrender of the last city of the Islamic Empire in Andalusia (Spain) in 1445 and which lasted over 8 centuries, the extremist, sectarian and racist “Catholic kingdom”, persecuted and chased out of Spain every minority religious sect that did not pay full allegiance to Papal Rome.

This shift in the world culture started a massive colonization in the world, under the pretext of changing the religious belief systems of the indigenous people by brute force.

Papal Rome issued a decree to split South America into two parts: Brazil for the Portuguese kingdom and all the rest to the Spanish kingdom. All settlements that refused to bow down were crushed militarily.

All colonial powers of England, France, Netherland, Germany, Belgium, Japan and USA…practiced the most violent, brutal and undignified policies in the colonies, practices that are currently labelled crimes against humanity.

Millions were displaced, forced to work in unnatural environment, and maimed if Not generating a quota by the colonial commander.

The downtrodden Jews in ghettoes in the western European countries would Not mind emigrating to anywhere with a fertile land.

But No, the western colonial powers wanted them to immigrate to the most strategic Palestine, to cut off daily trade between Egypt and Syria, and divided Syria, the one people, to many pseudo-States like Jordan, Lebanon…, the easy flow of oil from Kuwait and Saudi Kingdom and so that these created States will be at each other throats and saving the future created colonial Israel.

Mind you that British mandated power refused to hold any municipal election in Palestine on the basis that the Jews constituted only 20%, but actually to rob the Palestinian a training period for civil administration of their communities..

Note: The term Zionism currently is used by the coined “Deep society” in colonial former empires, including the arch racist USA. Zionists are No longer referred to Jews, but to all those racist and apartheid communities and politicians everywhere in the world. Zionist is a convenient term to hide behind their shameful tendencies.

The term Anti-Semitic, meaning anti-Zionism, should be considered a badge of honor for those confronting all forms of colonialism and apartheid tendencies, economically, financially and culturally.

Actually, the term Semitic was coined by the colonial powers to differentiate their brutal “civilization” labelled Arian from the Middle-East people. Like how they would label the Asian, African…?

Note: Israel colonial creation has outlived its purpose in all its interest to the colonial western powers. This hysteric support for the “Existence” of Israel hide a real fear for the return of these Israelis with dual citizenship, the first batch, to their “homeland”, though they don’t give a damn about a “Nation“.

Western countries dispatched to Palestine the downtrodden Jews living in ghettos.

They are currently receiving hardened and spoiled criminals, who committed human rights crimes for more than 75 years, with vast world crime mafia networks.

For 75 years, these Israeli criminals were roaming the world and getting a slap on the wrist for their crimes because the western governments feared to be labeled antisemite, a coward and criminal law they instituted on all who are anti-Zionist, regardless of religion or origine.

The latest to be targeted are those who claim to be Jews but anti-Zionist, hopefully meaning anti the State of Israel.

These western colonial powers, obviously including the imperial USA, are ready to send all kinds of funds and weapons to Israel in order for the Israelis to feel temporarily secure to remain in Palestine.

Safia article analyzes the position of many sectarian Lebanese, both Christians and Muslims sects, who prefer that Israel exist in order to “safeguard” their illusions that Israel/USA are their guarantee to remain in this region.

مسيحي – مسلم: استعادة نغمة شاذّة عن الواقع

لا يملّ اللبنانيون، أو بعضهم على الأقل، من تكرار مقولات لم تعد تنطبق على الواقع اللبناني في القرن الواحد والعشرين،

ولم يعد لها من علاقة حول مآلات ومصير لبنان، اللهم إلا تتبّع طريق الخراب والانهيار تبعاً للأزمة «عليّ وعلى أعدائي يا ربّ»، وكأنه لم يكفهم الدمار الذي نتج عن حرب أهلية قاموا بها بأنفسهم خلال 15 سنة لا نزال نعاني من نتائجها حتى اليوم.

طالعتنا مقالة نقولا ناصيف في جريدة «الأخبار» يوم الثلاثاء الماضي (9 نيسان، 2024)، وعنوانها «بري يفك الاشتباك بين الراعي ونصرالله»، وفيها إعادة للمقولات الممجوجة الآنفة الذكر، إذ فوجئت بأنه يوازي بين البطريرك الراعي وسماحة السيد نصرالله ارتكازاً على مفهوم ديني تقسيمي، إسلامي – مسيحي،

وهذا أبعد ما يكون عن الحقيقة.
يؤكد الكاتب أن «المشكلة الجديدة الناشئة تشي بانتقال السجال حول تداعيات حرب غزة – جنوب لبنان، إلى المراجع الدينية. كلاهما، الراعي ونصرالله، مرجعيتان دينيتان وسياسيتان في آن».

لا أدري كيف يستطيع أن يقارن الكاتب بين شخصيتين من غير الممكن مقارنة أحدهما مع الآخر للأسباب الآتية:
لا ينظر العالم العربي، والعالم ككل، إلى نصرالله بصفته رجل دين، بالرغم من عمامته، بل بصفته قائداً لجبهة مقاومة تواجه إسرائيل التي تريد أن تبتلع المشرق العربي بأكمله، وأن تستعمله كأداة طيّعة في يدها،

عدا مطامِعها المعروفة والمعلنة في أراضي ومياه لبنان، وسوريا (الجولان)، والعراق، والأردن (الوطن البديل، كما لبنان وطن بديل أيضاً في روزنامتها).
أمّا على الصعيد اللبناني البحت، فحين يأتي الموفدون الأجانب إلى لبنان لا يقصدون نصرالله على أساس أنه مرجعية دينية، بل لأنه يقود جهاداً وطنياً يصبو إلى تحرير الأرض، بما فيها أراض لبنانية ومياه لبنانية لا تزال إسرائيل تستحوذ عليها، ولا يعمل أي طرف آخر على تحريرها.

وقد دلّ تاريخنا منذ عام 1948، عام إعلان نشوء دولة إسرائيل، على أنه لم يحصل أي تحرير لأراض عربية من سطوة إسرائيل إلا بالقوة، وكل الديباجات السياسية التي خطّها لبنان الرسمي بعد احتلال إسرائيل لجنوب لبنان عام 1982، لم تؤدّ إلى تحريره. فقط فعل المقاومة استطاع ذلك، ونتيجة تضحيات شبان وشابات من كل الطوائف اللبنانية.

نصرالله يمثّل مقاومة تفعل، وتنصرها فئات من كل الطوائف، ولا يمثّل طائفة من الطوائف كما يفعل البطريرك الراعي.

آن الأوان لكتّابنا للانتقال من المقولات القديمة الملّية التي تحدد الهوية على أساس النسب


أمّا المواقف الانقسامية على فالق ديني كما يوردها الكاتب، فمردّها إلى التقسيمات القروسطية التي عفا عليها الزمن، من ملل ومذاهب لا تتطلع إلى شعب وأهدافه الوطنية بمعزل عن دينه، بل تريد إلغاء وجود وطن عبر حروب طائفية ستدفع هي ثمنها كما حصل في الحرب الأهلية الأخيرة.

هذه الحروب يستعملها الغرب الاستعماري لإضعاف المقاومة، لأنه يؤازر إسرائيل، مستعمرته الرابضة كخنجر في المنطقة، والتي طالما هي موجودة لا أمان ولا ازدهار لنا.
لقد آن الأوان لكتّابنا للانتقال من المقولات القديمة الملّية التي تحدد الهوية على أساس النسب (ماروني، أرثوذوكسي، درزي، سني، شيعي)، إلى المقولات المعرفية الحديثة التي بنت الأوطان

عبر إلغاء الهوية على أساس النسب واستبدلتها بالهوية الوطنية الجامعة التي وحدها تستطيع أن تضع المداميك الراسخة، لا المتحركة، لبناء وطن قوي. والمثير للدهشة أن المسيحي الذي يعتز بأنه قريب من الغرب وتقاليده هو في الحقيقة الأبعد عن هذا الغرب الذي بنى هويته على المواطنة لا على الدين!
أخيراً، خروج بعض الأصوات التي تؤكد بأننا نستطيع أن نكون كدول الخليج، وننعم بالهدوء والطمأنينة، فأريد أن أحيلهم إلى الخرائط التي بيّنها رئيس وزراء إسرائيل، بنيامين نتنياهو، أخيراً،

والتي لا تشذ عن تاريخ كل القيادات الصهيونية، وتؤكد أن حدود إسرائيل هي نفس حدود المشرق العربي، ولا تشمل الخليج العربي، أي أن هذه الحرب مفروضة فرضاً علينا، ونحن لم نخترها.
فعل المقاومة، سواء أكنّا مسيحيين أم مسلمين، هو الرد الوحيد الممكن إن شئنا أن نكون أحراراً، وكل مقاومة لدحر عدو هي عمل توافق عليه القوانين الدولية، ومن يريد أن يستسلم لإسرائيل ليس من الضروري أن يستعمل ثوباً طائفياً.

In my nightdream, actually a dream I had during my siesta period, I am cashing in on “money orders”, from one of those money electronic exchange branches (like Western), and the money is 3 folds what I usually receive as a retired person of a Syndicate/Order as a main sum. Unusually, I got several smaller “orders” too.

My first reaction in my dream was that I didn’t receive such an order for 2 months now, and because of the election of a new President to the Order the retirement “check” was increased… (These two statements are actually real: election and delay in disbursement).

What got me confused are the stream of smaller sum orders of $20 and $50.

At first my reaction was normal: getting money is Not a bad event.

Until the names of the senders were unknown to me and I was very baffled. For example, a person asking me to send her back $30 for her $50 order because the magazine cost $20…

How my name was attached to a periodical and why this confusion? Obviously, dreams always manage to script a convincing scenario for an event.

And now, after the initial joy of cashing money I am frustrated by how to handle money transactions.

Mind you that in Lebanon trust in any banking system is no longer a la mode. I have no banking account and no checking book, and I am Not on Bitcoin new money transaction alternative.

And these “realities” are unfolded in the dream, kind of ingrained in the conscious and subconscious and the dream can use these realities in their stories as normal “facts” to run with.

I get so frustrated in my dream on how to handle money transactions and the possibilities that are opened to me that I had to wake up.

Now, I have to resolve a few questions:

First, can anyone send you a money order with your correct mobile phone number with a different name and still be able to cash it? Usually, the teller of the exchange branch asks for both phone number and identification card for matching.

Apparently, this can be done, and it happened to me.

Once, the number was correct, but the name of recipient was wrong. The teller was about to hand me the cash after signing the receipt. I realized that the name is different, and the teller told me: “Sorry, I cannot give you the money because I will be in trouble…”

For an entire week I was angry with myself for being honest and stupid. I decided to check another exchange branch and submit my order as a “normal person”. The teller told Me: “Sorry, someone else cashed the money”. How can he cash it with the wrong mobile phone number? I didn’t receive any answer from the exchange branch or the Order that sent this money order.

The second question is: Does the money order from the source has a code so that you can transfer money accordingly without attaching your phone number?

Ten years ago, I got wind of how bitcoin transactions function. The Cloud and the sophisticated algorithm for crunching a different number for each transaction… operations that consume 2% of the world electrical power.

I am curious by nature and would have opened a bitcoin account but did Not, for a good reason: I was totally financially broke to open an account and much less to trade goods.

Currently, the bitcoin business is so vast, and shares are being split frequently because demand is great for a fixed amount of share (kind in the 80 million shares?) A share cost far more than titanium. lithium, gold and copper…combined to manufacture a “clean battery“.

Note: Funny “advice” from financial “powerhouses”: Diversify your portfolio into gold and rare materials.

Question is: If the “banks” are Not willing to part with worthless printed $… how do you expect them to part with their gold and precious metals?

Central Banks are buying and hoarding Gold because the confidence in the $ is quickly declining and for good reasons:

The USA has been printing $ at a hysteric pace to cope with hallucinating disbursement for hundreds of military bases around the world, the economic competition with mighty China and “preserving” the illusory image of the strategic importance of Israel and Ukraine…

The next step for the USA is pinpointing which are the weak military States to invade and rob their gold reserves, if they do Not submit to USA dictate. as they did in Libya and Iraq...

Note: the rational for the Germans who controlled Turkey in WW1 for this massive genocide was the impression that most of the “Christian sects” leaned toward Imperial Russia in that war. Basically, the German high command figured out that if Russia, France and England started arming “resistance groups”, in this far-flung land, a nasty civil war might be the consequences.

Actually, after the end of the war, the “allies” armed the Greeks who controlled most of the seashore and western part of Turkey to carry out an attack toward Ataturk army centered around Ankara. They were defeated with dire consequences.

Mandated France obliged Ataturk by ceding prized lands in northern Syria like Alexandretta and Antioch governorates. A decade later, France gave away Ataturk more Syrian land, the total is as vast as current Syria State.

By Malkoun Malkoun on the Sarjabeel site.

The decision to execute a genocide during WW1 by Germany/Turkish nationalist organization was effectively carried out by additional “minority Muslim” ethnic groups such as Kurds, Azeri, Cherkess, Chechens, Georgian… and even Iran in Selmas and Oromia.

The silent majority encouraged the progress of this genocide, but many officers, administrators and individuals paid with their lives and comfortable position to save thousands from “prosecution” and persecution.

Among those individuals, politicians, administrators and groups are:

Haji Khalil, the Mawlawi sect in Konia and Deir Seem, the “Arabic” tribe of Jabbour, Jalala Beik, Hassan Mezher Beik, Faek Ali Beik, Mustafa Aziz Uglow, Kamal Beik, Tahseen Beik, the poet Suleiman Beik, Muhamad Jalal Beik, Rasheed Shahenjyari, Wehbi Afandi, Nouri Beik

مما لا شك فيه أنه كانت هناك مشاركة جماعية في الإبادة الجماعية التي ارتكبت خلال الحرب العالمية الأولى من قبل الحكومة العثمانية، بقيادة جمعية الاتحاد والترقي،

يجب أن نتذكر أن العديد من المسلمين العاديين ساعدوا المسيحيين والعديد من الإداريين رفضوا إتباع الأوامر، والمشاركة الجماهيرية لا تعني بالضرورة المشاركة العامة.

رفض العديد من الجماعات والأفراد المسلمين بما في ذلك ضباط الجيش وكبار المسؤولين الحكوميين المشاركة، ورفضوا تنفيذ الأوامر وساعدوا أي مسيحي على الهروب من موت محقق.

معظم المصادر حول الإبادة الجماعية تحدد بسهولة الأتراك والآذريين والشركس كمشاركين في المذابح.  لهذا يجب إضافة الفُرس الذين هاجموا الأرمن والآشوريين في سلماس وأورمية.

لكن حتى هذه القائمة ليست نهائية، يقول أحد الناجين الأرمن “مانويل كريكيشريان”، أن قافلته تعرضت للهجوم من قبل الشيشان في طريقها إلى حلب، وفي الواقع كان أكثر غضباً من الشيشان منه من الأتراك.

 وفي إفادة لأحد السريان يؤكد ذلك بقوله: ” هاجم بعض الشيشان قرب رأس العين قوافل الملاجئ الأرمنية”.  ويمكن أيضاً إضافة مسلمي جورجيا.

في عام 2008، قال الباحث التركي “أوكتاي أوزيل” في مؤتمر في تبليسي إن زعيم المسلمين الجورجيين “علي باشا تافغريزاد” كان متورطاً في تشكيل تجمعات مسلحة وأن المسلمين الجورجيين كانوا أيضاً مُطَلعين على القتل الجماعي للأرمن واليونانيين في الإمبراطورية العثمانية. لكن من الصعب القول متى كان الجورجيون ينفذون أوامر الحكومة العثمانية بالقتل.  على الأرجح، أرادوا إظهار ولاءهم للسلطان.

حاجي خليل

 البروفيسور والمفكر التركي “تنار آكجام”يروي بخصوص “حاجي خليل” من أورفا الذي كان يؤوي سبعة أشخاص من نفس العائلة في عليّة لإنقاذهم من المذابح، وقد نقلت الشهادة إلى “آكجام” من قبل “سركيسيان” في 1995 في يريفان، خلال إحياء الذكرى الــــــ 80 للإبادة الجماعية للأرمن.

كان “حاجي خليل” صديق جد سركيس لأمه، وقد وعد صديقه بأنه سيحمي عائلة صديقه في حال وقوع مصيبة. وبالفعل أوفى بوعده وأقامت العائلة لديه لشهور.كان “حاجي خليل” قد تغلب على مشاكل لوجستية بما في ذلك كيفية شراء الطعام لسبعة أشخاص إضافيين دون إثارة الشكوك، وأكد “آكجام” أن هناك مئات القصص المماثلة.

ساعد العديد من الأفراد الذين لم يتم الكشف عن أسمائهم جيرانهم على الهروب، على سبيل المثال، ” هاكوب آرسينيان” يحمل على ذراعه ندبة تشكلت من رسم الوشم على ذراعه اليمنى بخنجر ويمثل الهلال والنجمة، حيث يؤكد أن هذه الوشوم كانت لإخفاء الأرمن كمسلمين وتم صنعها من قبل مسلمين محليين / معظمهم من العرب / لإنقاذهم.

كانت هناك أيضاً مجموعات مثل الطريقة المولوية في قونية وأهل ديرسيم، الذين ساعدوا المسيحيين، كما يشير “ريمون كيفوركيان”. كما أفاد “غارو صاصوني” أن الأكراد في الجنوب شاركوا في المذابح بدرجة أقل من إخوانهم في الشمال وأن العديد من القبائل الكردية ساعدت الأرمن بإخفائهم.

على سبيل المثال، في ديرسيم تم إنقاذ 20,000 أرمني بسبب الجهود الكردية. وفي رأس العين بينما هاجم بعض الشيشان الأرمن أنقذ الشيشان الآخرون حوالي 400 إلى 500 من المُرحّلين وقام عرب “الجبور” بإيواء العديد من الأرمن.

 قادة رفضوا الأوامر

  كان هناك العديد من هؤلاء الموظفين الذين لم يطيعوا الأوامر ولأسباب واضحة تم تجاهلها في الرواية الرسمية في تركيا. حدد “ريمون كيفوركيان” الذي أجرى بحثاً حول هذا الموضوع عدداً من الموظفين الحكوميين الذين رفضوا تنفيذ أوامر الحكومة.

على سبيل المثال، حاكم ولاية قونية “جلال بك”. لم يسمح بترحيل أرمن قونية لأنه كان يعلم ما كان سيحدث لهم إذا تم إرسالهم إلى صحراء دير الزور. وحاول أيضاً منع إرسال الأرمن من أماكن أخرى إلى الصحارى. تمت إقالته من منصبه في أكتوبر 1915 لكنه أنقذ بالفعل العديد من الأرواح.  وظل عاطلاً عن العمل حتى عام 1919.

ومن الأمثلة الأخرى، والي أنقرة “حسن مظهر بك”، الذي أُقيل من منصبه لرفضه ترحيل الأرمن في أغسطس من عام 1915، ومتصرف كوتاهيا “فائق علي بك” الذي رفض ترحيل 2,000 أرمني، ورئيس بلدية ملاطية “مصطفى آغا عزيز أوغلو”.

كانت ملاطية مكاناً للعبور لأولئك الذين تم ترحيلهم من المقاطعات الشرقية. لم يكن لرئيس البلدية سلطة منع الترحيل، ولكنه أنقذ الناس في منزله من خلال توفير الملجأ. لكن قتله ابنه عضو الاتحاد والترقي لرعايته “الكفّار”. إلى هذه القائمة،

يجب إضافة “رشيد” والي كاستامونو، الذي تم فصله أيضاً لعدم امتثاله لحملة الإبادة، وينبغي إضافة متصرف يوزغوت “كمال بيك” و”تحسين بك” والي آرزروم كأحد الأبطال الذين تحدوا الأوامر.

 والي أنقرة “حسن مظهر بك” رفض إتباع الأوامر  قائلاً : “أنا والي ولستُ قاطع طريق، لا أستطيع القيام بذلك، قد يأتي شخص آخر ويجلس على كرسيي ويقوم بذلك”، وعلى إثرها تمت إقالته من منصبه في أغسطس  1915

عندما صدرت أوامر الترحيل، رفض “فائق علي بك” تنفيذها، بل على العكس من ذلك، أصدر أوامره بمعاملة أي أرمني قادم إلى كوتاهيا معاملة جيدة. بسبب عصيانه الأوامر تم استدعاء “فائق علي بك” إلى اسطنبول. وترك مكانه لرئيس شرطة كوتاهيا ” كمال بيك” الذي استغل غياب “فائق علي بك”، فاستدعى وجهاء المدينة الأرمن لحضور اجتماع طلب منهم فيه اعتناق الإسلام وإلا واجهوا الترحيل.

قرر أرمن كوتاهيا التقدم بطلب لاعتناق الإسلام بشكل جماعي. لكن عندما عاد “فائق علي بك” من اسطنبول غضب من تصرف قائد الشرطة وأقاله من منصبه، وطلب من الأرمن تمزيق الطلب الجماعي للتحول إلى الإسلام وقال: “حتى اليوم لم يشارك أتراك كوتاهيا أبداً في أي فظائع ضد الأرمن، ولن يشاركوا غداً أيضاً”، فأنقذ حياة الآلاف وفتح لهم المعامل والمدارس والقلوب.

متصرف كوتاهية فائق علي بك

وبحسب “كمال بك” الأمين العام، فإن شقيق “فائق علي بك” الذي كان شاعراً وكاتباً اسمه “سليمان بك” هو الذي أثّر على أخيه في اتخاذ هذا الموقف. فعندما كان التهجير لايزال مجرد مشروع قيد التنفيذ. كتب “سليمان بك” إلى شقيقه يحثه على عدم المشاركة في هذه الهمجية وبالتالي تلطيخ اسم العائلة.

أما “حسين نظمي بك” والي مدينة ليسا، فقد دفع حياته ثمناً لموقفه الإنساني برفض الأوامر، فاغتيل بأمر من مسؤول جمعية الاتحاد والترقي في المنطقة.

قطاع الطرق

كتب “علي فؤاد إندر” رئيس أركان “جمال باشا” خلال الفترة التي كان فيها قائد الجيش الرابع، أنه وصلت برقية من إدارة محافظة حلب: (اليوم زارني قطاع الطرق “خليل وكركيز أحمد بك”، وأخبراني بأن أعمال القتل اكتملت في ديار بكر والآن يأتون للقيام بالمثل في سوريا. اعتقلتهم. لكن أمر “جمال باشا” والي حلب بإطلاق سراحهما).

كان “خليل وكيركيز أحمد” قد قتلا بوحشية النائبين الأرمينيين “زهراب وفارتكيس”. لكن ألقى عليهما القبض فيما بعد والي حلب “جلال بك” الذي    دّونّ ذلك في ذكرياته في عام 1919. حيث عثر “روبرت كوبتا” مؤخراً على هذه المقالات الثلاثة في مكتبة بلدية في اسطنبول وقام بترجمتها “آرا إكيريان” ونشرها في الجريدة الأرمنية في تركيا ” أغوس”.

 محمد جلال بك

محمد جلال بك كان والي حلب ثم والي قونية وقف بحزم بوجه هذا الفعل المشين قولاً وفعلاً، وأنقذ حياة الآلاف من الموت المحقق، معرضاً نفسه للخطر المادي والمعنوي.

ويعتقد محمد جلال بك أنه لا يوجد صراع بين الأكراد والأتراك والأرمن وأنهم يعيشون معاً في وئام. عندما كان والي حلب،

لم يكن يعتقد أن الأرمن قاموا بأي نشاط يتعارض مع المصالح العثمانية. ملقياً اللوم على المتصرفين الهائجين في مرعش الذين فجروا الوضع واعتقلوا العديد من الأرمن، فجاء “محمد جلال بك” وحررهم، لكن الإدارة العثمانية أنشأت سنجق في مرعش مستقل عن محافظة حلب، بعيداً عن سلطة “محمد جلال بك” الذي اعترف بأنه كان يعتقد في الأصل أن عمليات الترحيل كانت تدبيراً داخلياً مؤقتاً استلزمته الحرب.

ولم يستطع تصديق أن الحكومة ستتخذ مثل هذه الإجراءات لتدمير مواطنيها بالفعل. على أية حال، ولأنه لا يعتقد أن أي أرمني في حلب ارتكب عملاً يستحق عليه النفي، فقد رفض تنفيذ أوامر الترحيل. ونتيجة لذلك، أُقيل من منصبه ونُقل إلى منصب والي في قونية.

متصرف كوتاهية فائق علي بك

تسبب البؤس الذي شهده في قونية إلى قوله :”كنتُ أشبه شخصاً جالساً بجانبِ نهر،  مع عدم وجود وسيلة مطلقة لإنقاذ أي شخص . كانت الدماء تتدفق في النهر وآلاف الأطفال الأبرياء وكبار السن والنساء العاجزات، والشباب الأقوياء، كانوا يتدفقون على هذا النهر نحو النسيان. أي شخص يمكن أن أنقذه بيدي العاريتين أنقذته، والآخرون، أعتقد أنهم تدفقوا عبر النهر ولن يعودوا أبداً”.

وفي ذكرياته، أدلى “محمد جلال بك” أيضاً بالملاحظات التالية ليشير إلى أن الأتراك والمسلمين قد تم استخدامهم فقط كأدوات / من قبل الحكومة /

1- عندما كنت في حلب رأيت بأم عيني مسلماً يساعد الأرمن الذين تم ترحيلهم إلى هناك.

2- جاءني بعض أصحاب المزارع وقالوا لي إنهم يريدون إسكان الأرمن في ممتلكاتهم.

3- في كل من حلب وقونية، شكرني العديد من العلماء والأعيان مرات عديدة على معاملتي للأرمن وأن الشريعة تقتضي حمايتهم.

4- في كل من قونية وحلب، لم أر أو أسمع عن أي تركي يغتصب ممتلكات الأرمن.

5- لم أقابل بين الأتراك والمسلمين أحداً يؤيد هذه الجرائم ولا يجده مخزياً.

6- بعد عودتي من قونية هنأني العديد من معارفي وقالوا لي إنه كان من الأفضل ترك وظيفتي.

الثمن

دفع العديد من كبار المسؤولين الآخرين أرواحهم لعصيان الأوامر. فقد قتل محافظ ديار بكر “الدكتور رشيد شاهينجياري” عدداً من المسؤولين الأتراك الذين رفضوا تنفيذ أوامره وهم: والي البصرة فريد، متصرف من منتفيك وهي منطقة تابعة للبصرة بيدي نوري، نائب قائمقام بشيري في باطمان ثابت، الصحفي إسماعيل مستان.

كما حاول الدكتور رشيد اغتيال متصرف ماردين حلمي بك الذي تمت إقالته من منصبه. كما تم عزل المتصرف الذي حل محله شفيق بك لعدم اتباع الأوامر. أخيراً، تم تعيين بدري بك الذي كان على استعداد لتنفيذ أوامر الدكتور رشيد كمتصرف لماردين.

ويشير القس الدومينيكاني “ماري دومينيك بيري” في تقريره الشامل عن المذابح في ماردين إلى أن: ” في منتصف شهر مايو من عام 1915، أرسل الدكتور رشيد بك والي ديار بكر، إلى متصرف ماردين، حلمي بك، أمراً بسجن جميع وجهاء المدينة المسيحيين،

رد حلمي بك بهذه البرقية: “أنا لست رجلاً بلا ضمير، ليس لدي أي شيء ضد مسيحيي ماردين، لن أنفذ هذه الأوامر”

 وهبي أفندي

وهبي أفندي

وتكتب الأخت ايسا فارينا من الأخوة الدومينيكان، أن قائمقام سافوور “وهبي أفندي” ، وهو من مواليد ماردين ، قام بحمايتها هي وابنة أختها و 200 مسيحي آخر من خلال منحهم الملاذ في ممتلكاته .

مصدر دومينيكاني آخر يحدد ضابط الجيش “صدقي بك” الذي ساعد المسيحيين على الهروب من موت محقق في أورفا، ولم يفلت الزعيم السرياني دون جان من الموت إلا بتدخل الرائد “صدقي بك” الذي حذف اسمه من قائمة المسيحيين الذين كان من المقرر اعتقالهم وإعدامهم.

يذكر أن “صدقي بك” كان متعاطفاً جداً مع السريان الكاثوليك واللاتين، كما أبلغ “ديير فارطان” زعيم طائفة الأرمن الكاثوليك بالفرار الى حلب قبل قتله.

 نوري بك

قائمقام مديات “نوري بك” رفض تنفيذ أوامر القتل لكنه اختفى بعد ذلك بشكل غامض، كذلك تم نقل عدة مسؤولين من مواقع عملهم لنفس السبب أمثال ” محمد حمدي بك، ومحمد علي بك، وابراهيم حقي بك”.

Claiming to be Anti-Zionist is a good start, but surely Not close enough to explain what that means.

It is important to analyze the usefulness of the “Existence” of this colonial created State.

Operational steps to eradicate the laws that establish an apartheid system, discrimination and a religious based foundation. Especially this Administrative Detention law of Palestinians inherited from the colonial British mandated power.

What of the Right to Return for the forceful displacement, the reparation for looted properties and lands, the settlements and daily attack and burning of the settlers…?

Note: Israel colonial creation has outlived its purpose in all its interest to the colonial western powers. This hysteric support for the “Existence” of Israel hide a real fear for the return of these Israelis with dual citizenship, as first shipment, to their “homeland”, though they don’t give a damn about a “Nation“.

Western countries dispatched to Palestine the downtrodden Jews living in ghettos.

They are currently receiving hardened and spoiled criminals, who committed human rights crimes for more than 75 years, with vast world crime mafia networks.

For 75 years, these Israeli criminals were roaming the world and getting a slap on the wrist for their crimes because the western governments feared to be labeled antisemite, a coward and criminal law they instituted on all who are anti-Zionist, regardless of religion or origine.

The latest to be targeted are those who claim to be Jews but anti-Zionist, hopefully meaning anti the State of Israel.

These western colonial powers, obviously including the imperial USA, are ready to send all kinds of funds and weapons to Israel in order for the Israelis to feel temporarily secure to remain in Palestine.

Timo Al-Farooq 09 Apr. 2024

Six months into Israel’s genocidal slaughter in Gaza, this Zionist State apartheid regime has ruthlessly killed over 35,000 Palestinians, injured more than 77,000 others, (and increasing by 100 everyday), and displaced and starved millions.

(UN voting for a ceasefire has no consequences on Israel killing Palestinians every day and by the dozens: the colonial powers have no restrictions for the killing of Palestinians)

Meanwhile, the repression of pro-Palestine solidarity in Germany, one of Israel’s most zealous backers, is increasingly focusing on anti-Zionist Jews.

On 27 March, the Berlin-based organization Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East, better known by its German shorthand Jüdische Stimmeannounced that its bank account with the Berliner Sparkasse, the leading bank in the German capital, had been “frozen with immediate effect.”

“In 2024, Jewish money is once again being confiscated by a German bank,” the group posted on Instagram, alluding to the involvement of financial institutions in Nazi Germany’s policy of Aryanisation, which saw the systematic expulsion of Jews from economic life.

“[The German establishment] is resorting to increasingly ill-conceived and illegal containment strategies in its desperate attempts to halt the growing momentum of the Palestine solidarity movement in the country since October 7”

Unlike then, in today’s Germany there is no legal basis for freezing Jüdische Stimme’s account: “As a public corporation, the bank is bound by public law and may therefore not arbitrarily freeze accounts without providing an explanation, which it did not,” the anti-Zionist group went on to say in its statement.

Berliner Sparkasse’s rogue move is yet another instance of an established ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ pattern of behaviour by a fanatically pro-Zionist German establishment that is resorting to increasingly ill-conceived and illegal containment strategies in its desperate attempts to halt the growing momentum of the Palestine solidarity movement in the country since October 7.

Far from providing a credible explanation as to why the account was frozen other than that it was a “preventive” measure (prevention against what?), the letter sent to Jüdische Stimme by the bank demands that the organisation submit a list of names and addresses of its members, claiming it is “updating customer data”.

This has prompted concerns that in Germany’s increasingly repressive climate with regards to Palestine solidarity, Berliner Sparkasse’s request is the latest instalment of a state-sanctioned political witch-hunt against those who oppose Israel’s Western-backed genocide in Gaza.

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Jüdische Stimme is taking legal action against the bank, which outed itself as an early cheerleader of Israel’s exterminationist policies in Gaza. 

As the Israeli military began carpet bombing the besieged strip and political commentators were already using the word “genocide” only a week after Hamas’s October 7 attack, Berliner Sparkasse still had its city-wide ATMs display heartfelt pro-Israeli condolence messages.

The timing of this latest act of German-made anti-Palestinian repression, which pro-Palestinian Jews are increasingly finding themselves at the receiving end of, supports this suspicion.

It came three weeks before Berlin is set to host a highly anticipated Palestine Congress from April 12-14, one of the first of its kind in Germany and co-organised by Jüdische Stimme.

Planned speakers and panellists include Greece’s former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, German-Palestinian human rights lawyer Nadija Samour and Gaza war surgeon Ghassan Abu- Sittah, among other names in national and international Palestine solidarity.

According to Jüdische Stimme’s statement, the freezing of its bank account which has been used to receive donations and ticket sales is an intimidatory attempt to cancel the Palestine solidarity event, one that is being ferociously maligned in the German press as a “hate- summit” that calls for “the destruction of the Jewish State.”

The group’s suspicion was confirmed by the last-minute cancellation of a fundraiser for the Palestine Congress due to “pressure” from the city’s authorities who cited “security concerns”. Eventually, an alternative venue was found to host the event.

The McCarthyite climate of anti-Palestinian persecution in the country is best described in a statement made by the Palestine Congress itself: 

“While the German government shamelessly supports genocide before the eyes of the world, democratic rights are undermined here in Germany to silence protests for a ceasefire.

Freedom of assembly, freedom of organisation, freedom of the press, and academic freedom have been massively restricted,” writes the organising team.

“The latest attempt of a German financial institution to de-bank an anti-Zionist group has further lowered the post-October 7 inhibition threshold of anti-Palestinian repression in Germany”

This is not the first time Jüdische Stimme’s funds are being targeted:

in 2019, the same year the German Bundestag passed a non-binding resolution labelling the Palestinian-led global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as anti-Semitic, the Jewish activist group’s then account with the Bank für Sozialwirtschaft was closed due to its support for BDS.

The latest attempt of a German financial institution to de-bank an anti-Zionist group has further lowered the post-October 7 inhibition threshold of anti-Palestinian repression in Germany.

More broadly, it helps push the national conversation on Palestine even further towards the hegemonic Israeli-dictated dual narrative that propagates rigorous genocide denialism and absurdist self-victimisation on the one hand and the illegitimacy of resisting one’s annihilation on the other.

Six months into the world’s first televised and live-streamed genocide, the German capital’s largest consumer bank with its 1.6 million customers would rather spend its time and resources persecuting Jews in Germany’s increasingly anti- Semitic fight against Palestine solidarity.

Adding insult to injury, while Berliner Sparkasse has confiscated Jewish funds in a harrowing reminder to Germany’s Nazi past, the same bank has no qualms in providing banking services to the right-wing extremist political party Die Heimat, better known under its former name NPD.

This is emblematic of the egregious double standards that pervade German anti-racism, which refuses to see Zionism as racist.

Germany’s continued support for Israel’s extermination campaign in Gaza and repression of Palestine solidarity at home is coming increasingly at the cost of not only its holier-than-thou “Never again” Vergangenheitsbewältigung credentials, but also its global reputation as a liberal democracy that adheres to both domestic and international law.

As I write, Germany is facing accusations at the ICJ of aiding in Israel’s genocide, and multiple legal proceedings having been initiated – by nation states and civil society alike – against the German government and members of the media for their complicity.

The sad fact is that antisemitism has become yet another expression of the virulent anti- Palestinian racism prevalent in German society and its incorrigibly colonial discourse on Israel/Palestine.

RELATED

Lessons not learned: The German tradition of genocide. Rachael Shapiro & Rachel Levine

Timo Al-Farooq is a freelance journalist based in Berlin, Germany.

Follow him on Instagram: @talrooq

USA has vast military bases in each State in the Middle-East and control their foreign policies. The western colonial powers have their own military bases and share the USA bases too. They also control the Horn of Africa and have military bases in Central Asia States bordering Iran.

The USA and its western allies have devastated and disintegrated the social fabric even further in the created pseudo-State in the region with direct military occupation, economic and financial sanctions… For example, Syria and Iraq were totally self-sufficient in almost everything and didn’t ask for funds from the IMF and were developing at quick pace.

For example, the created State Jordan is totally controlled by the USA and its “monarch” and governments are “figure stick” and have nothing to do with foreign policies. A civil war in Jordan will have devastating consequences as the genocide in progress in Gaza and West Bank are adding calamities on Palestinians. Mind you that 80% of Jordan population are transferred Palestinians.

After the third Intifada, Israel got a fresh breath when it managed a deal with Arafat of PLO, the Oslo agreement. In the ceremony, Israel PM Rabin said to Arafat: “I feel you are now Jewish“. Stupid Arafat replied: “Abraham is my grandfather“. This scripted scenario set the tone for claiming that Israel is a Jewish Sate and increased settlements in the West bank, the Jordan Valley and around Gaza.

And a decade later for the monarchies in the Arabic world to fall behind this “Abraham Something” crap slogan that Muslims in the Arabic Gulf are descended of Abraham…

Mind you that there were No such thing as Jews before 200 BC. Around that year, “scholars” in Alexandria decided to give a History for the Bedouins living in Part of Sinai and the desert in south Palestine, the Nakab.

The successive “scholars” added the stories of the Land (Iraq and Syria ancient empires) and gave them a twist of Vengeance, hatred, and massive massacres... so the storytellers get a receptive audience.

In the last 2 decades, Israel expanded its settlement creation and needed people to inhabit them. Thousands of French “Jews” or “half Jews” claimed to be persecuted in France in order to “relinquish” their citizenship and move to Israel for cheap properties constructed around Gaza and in the Jordan Valley and West Bank.

Thousands of Russia and Polish Jews also flocked to Israel and took properties in the settlements.

After this “Aqsa tsunami”, half a million of Israelis with dual citizenship vacated Israel within a week. Many settled in Cyprus waiting for their respective “Homelands” to find the necessary funds to relocate them. These Israelis are hardened and spoiled criminals, who committed human rights crimes and with vast world crime mafia networks.

They left in order to cater for their mafia businesses overseas in money laundering, trading body parts extracted from Palestinians, selling weapon sent by the USA, trading girls around the world...

Israel colonial creation has outlived its purpose.

This hysteric support for the “Existence” of Israel and its right to self-defense hide a real fear for the return of these Israelis with dual citizenship, as first shipment, to their “homeland”, though they don’t give a damn about a “Nation” and who committed human rights crimes for more than 75 years.

Western countries dispatched to Palestine the downtrodden Jews living in ghettos.

For 75 years, these Israeli criminals were roaming the world and getting a slap on the wrist for their crimes because the western governments feared to be labeled antisemite, a coward and criminal law they instituted on all who are anti-Zionist, regardless of religion or origine.

The latest to be targeted are those who claim to be Jews but anti-Zionist, hopefully meaning anti the apartheid State of Israel.

These western colonial powers, obviously including the imperial USA, are ready to send all kinds of funds and weapons to Israel in order for the Israelis to feel temporarily secure to remain in Palestine.

For how long?

Novel set in 15th century.

Women were to be allowed to be candidates in any electoral system for the municipality or the chamber of deputy.  The voting right to every citizen who was eighteen years of age regardless of the voter’s marital status such as being single or staying with his parents or not having a steady income was to be the law of the land.

Any religious laws that abridged women rights were discussed and critiqued.

The bottom line was that if God provided men with specific rights like marrying more than one woman in some religions, then women had equal rights to marry more than one man in other religions.  

This concept did not make much logic in our tradition but offered a fertile ground for dialogue that was totally lacking on gender discrimination. 

The concept of taxation without representation was being argued as illegitimate and pressures for political reforms to elect representatives who were cognizant with the laws were making steady inroads in the status quo.  

The First Emir Antoun was secretly behind this wave of demands and encouraged the exchange of ideas by staying above the fray and admonishing the sanctity of freedom of expression as the ultimate weapon for change and development. 

The new political party had to cater to the intellectuals in order to disseminate the new principles and social values.  

The First Emir then promulgated the urgency to build and staff art schools of music, acting, painting and sculpting in every major town.  He also worked on the intellectual vanity by erecting two imposing museums in Byblos and Beirut for artifacts, industrial machineries and achievements in all sectors of artistic endeavors.

This was the most glorious period in the cultural development in the Levant society; freedom of expression was carried far, which almost broke many taboos in topics for discussions; formal cultural circles were spreading among elite families and endeavoring to dissect documents, articles and positional treaties.  

Reason was pinned against religious dogmas and the seed of dissention was taking roots within the polarized extremist positions.

By: Erik Rittenberry

In the early dark before dawn
I awake with a dreary feeling
of death dripping from my eyelids.

I sit up in bed and listen
to the echoes of oblivion
haunt my room.

The emptiness of 4am streetlights stream into
my dreams. The euphoric caress of madness.
A poignant premonition of the inevitable.

All my yesterdays converge into the nothingness
I am at this moment.

You poor sap, where
have the days gone?
What have you done?

Why does it ache so much
to be a finite creature
in an infinite universe?

So much of our passing lives
are spent drifting along on the surface
of our everyday consciousness
hiding behind the social
mask, too frightened
to take the necessary
plunge into the abyss of
ourselves.

The banality of the hours
becomes the banality of life.
I’m neither happy nor sad
because it’s all too
senseless to be either.


Sauntering through this
bureaucratic age of death and sterility
with a marred mind and heedful eyes,
I bleed alone.

With a half-smile on my aging face
wondering how long I can keep
the wolf of insignificance at bay.

Gazing into the bathroom mirror
has become too much to bear.

The fierce thirst
I once had
for the elixir of life
has waned.

I’ve grown weary of the fight against
the ways of the world, the moral demands,
the normalcy of the
façade, the binding ties
of obligations, the tribal feuds,
the pathetic protocols of
the unlived,
the unpoetic masses with their unpleasant
pettiness.

Tired of the endless pursuit
of illusions
in an effort to tongue kiss
the elusive lips of
immortality.

Our pursuits
our actions
our tedious haste
are nothing more than
anxious attempts
to escape the torments of
our finite presence.

An escape
from the awareness of
the brevity of life.

We spend our days trying
to get somewhere
but there’s nowhere to get to.

We dilute the experience
of the moment with a false
sense of hope
and a laborious longing
for a resolution that
never comes.

In spite of all the “truth” and
“reason” in this vulgar world,
we know very little.

Yet, it’s the unknowable that holds
the treasure we seek —
the darkness, the seat
of the soul that we’re too
afraid to explore and coalesce
with the light of our
consciousness.

Perhaps it’s a romantic deception, but
I believe in that unattended darkness
within.

There’s a mysterious current guiding our lives.
I’ve felt its presence all my days —
an ethereal force, an unrest,
a transcendent whisper —
that forbidden fruit
dangling from the primordial tree
of our inner garden.

I don’t know what to make of it.

The Upanishads tell us: The Self,
though hidden in all beings,
does not shine forth but can
be seen by those subtle seers,
through their sharp and
subtle intelligence.

The Greeks called it the daemon,
the genius, the guardian.
We all harbor it in the
obscure regions of
our inner life.

Yet, society and its godlike institutions
try to snuff it out in our youth.

This hidden power within us,
and they never stop.
They try to school it out of us;
they try to preach and pray it out
of us.

They throw the heavy
nets of “social duty” upon us.
They’ll even attempt to subdue
this vital force with
pharmaceuticals and therapy
to help guide you away from
its potent influence.

They need you to become like
the rest; mechanical, obedient,
chained to your social role.

But for some people, this force
is too strong to be tamed
or throttled back.

It wants to be heard and to throw off
the shackles of the life-denying
demands of the status quo.
To flip over the tables of conventionality.
To obey its own laws.

Our bodies are the mere instrument
of this deeper force.

Through it all, I kept that dark
guardian in there,
tucked back in the shadows,
revealing no signs to the
external world
of its eternal influence.

At times, when I’m alone,
it emerges from the immortal sea
of the unconscious and yanks me
from clutches of the profane
and into an erotic aloofness
where the illusions fade
and the boundaries disintegrate
and the desire for mortal gain
dissolves.

Though I do not know how I got here,
or what it all means, I know that the
same hidden force which has
carried me to this moment
will also guide me to that
imperishable hour we
call fate.

And I will doff the gross garments
of a false existence and
ascend that sanctified mountain,
emancipated at last from the
lifeless stone of reality.

Reborn into the eternal realm
of celestial vistas and enchanted
gardens, a place beyond the
illusions of opposites,
where the struggle between life and death,
dark and light, heaven and hell
finally subsides.

And a radical unification
of mind, body, and soul
ensues, and I will dance
that Dionysian dance
on the other side of the veil
where flower-haired nymphs’ bathe
in misty morning ponds,
and the water lilies
are forever in bloom.

And the lush, streamside meadows
rejoice beneath
the infinite blue skies
as the cosmic wind
scatters
what little remains
of my war-torn
flesh.

The ultimate return.

Regional protests recall the 2011 uprisings, as Palestine becomes a rallying cry against Israel’s injustice and Arab leaders’ inaction, writes Sania Mahyou.

Sania Mahyou

10 Apr, 2024

Despite being 4000 kilometres away, the Moroccan city of Tangier on the shores of the Atlantic ocean and Amman, Jordan’s bustling capital, recently shared the spotlight under a single headline in the midst of Israel’s aggression on Gaza.

On the first day of April, a video showing Moroccan protestors expressing solidarity with pro-Palestinian activists in Jordan went viral on social media, after the procession started chanting, “Tangier the brave salutes Jordan the chivalrous” while marching through the streets.

A few days earlier in Cairo, activists had also gathered to show solidarity with their Jordanian neighbours, who had been demonstrating in their masses outside the Israeli embassy every evening since the 23rd of March.

Answering their call to take to the streets, the small gathering echoed the chant, “Tell our comrades in Amman, Egypt is also awake”.

“The Palestinian Spring could emerge from the ashes of the movement of 2011”

The two videos, which may seem innocuous to an uninformed viewer, remind us of the scenes of the uprisings during the Arab Spring, which erupted in Tunisia in late 2010.

As they did over a decade ago, these protests could also serve as a catalyst in the region, as evidenced by the swift filling of the comments sections with messages calling for an ‘Arab Spring 2024’.

Over 13 years after the self-immolation of 26-year-old fish vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, whose death ignited calls for social justice, economic opportunities, and the ousting of authoritarian leaders, the region is once again mobilising to defy oppression around a common cause: Palestine. 

And while many former participants in the revolutions became disillusioned seeing the poor improvements in the economic, political and democratic fields of their country, the Palestinian Spring could emerge from the ashes of the movement of 2011.

Although some scholars argue that the Arab Spring ended in 2014 with the start of the “counter revolutions” that succeeded to effectively crush the protests either by granting small concessions to the participants or by completely annihilating the resistance, others always insisted that the movement had never died and had only been put on hold until it could rise again.

In most of the countries that were touched by the revolutionary contagion back in 2011, the uprisings constituted a pan-Arab turning point.

Even though each mobilization was set in a specific national context, the demands gravitated overall around a common struggle, the one of freedom and dignity, regardless of whether the protesters were in Libya, Bahrain, Tunisia, or Syria.

Similarly, the Palestinian cause has long acted as a strong bond between Arabs, a transnational cause that transcends the divides and differences between cultures, languages, and religions of the people of the region.

Over decades, the injustices inflicted on Palestinians by Israel have turned into what feels like personal injustices for Arabs.

Witnessing the Palestinians endure indiscriminate killings, apartheid, displacements, land dispossessions, and discrimination inflicted by Israel, Arabs have consistently empathised with these profound humiliations, feeling as if they themselves were directly affected.

It is thus no wonder that Israel’s horrendous aggression on Gaza that started on 7th October seventh and has already killed more than 33,000 Palestinians in the Strip, sparked immense anger among Arab populations.

Note: My immediate worry is starting a civil war in this created monarchic Jordan. Where do you think the displaced and refugees would be able to flee to? Saudi Kingdom and Syria will Not welcome the displaced. Will the colonial powers establish more new and vast refugee camps on the borders?

Perspectives 6 min readPlayMute

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Giorgio Cafiero 09 April, 2024

More than half a year into Israel’s annihilatory campaign in Gaza, the besieged enclave’s residents face mass death through famine and disease.

Without a ceasefire, Gaza’s humanitarian disasters can only worsen while Israel’s war machine continues making the Strip even more of an uninhabitable territory.

Throughout much of the past six months, the Biden administration has maintained that the White House can’t do much to change Israeli actions in Gaza.

On 26 March, the US Department of State’s spokesperson Matthew Miller asserted that Washington “can’t dictate” to Israel because it is a “sovereign country, and the United States can’t dictate to any sovereign country”. (pseudo-monarchy of Jordan was also created, but why it is Not considered sovereign?)

But developments which unfolded earlier this month illustrate the extent to which Miller’s claim was dishonest.

The reality is that Washington has been Israel’s enabler during this war and the US has always been able to instantly stop it, but for political purposes has chosen not to do so.

“What happens next is entirely an American decision”

Killing of the World Central Kitchen aid workers

On 1 April, an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza killed six international aid workers on a World Central Kitchen (WCK) team, including Australian, British, and Polish citizens, and a Palestinian driver.

That episode resulted in a phone conversation between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later that week. Biden was reportedly “very angry” at the Israeli leader over the WCK incident.

According to the readout released by the White House, Biden stressed that “strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable” while also emphasising that an “immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilise and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians”.

The White House’s statement also said that Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers”.

WHO officials investigate the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza following Israel’s military operation, which caused widespread destruction and deaths. [Getty]

The US president went as far as telling Netanyahu that Washington’s foreign policy vis-à-vis Gaza “will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps”.

It appears that Biden had to demonstrate that he was doing something to pressure Israel.

The response from many influential US lawmakers such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and outraged citizens across America to the killing of the WCK aid workers on top of the international community’s calls for a ceasefire over the past six months has intensified pressure on Team Biden to finally start using US leverage to rein in Israel’s rogue conduct.

(The suicide burning alive of a USA pilot in front of Israel embassy in Washington DC had no effects whatsoever?)

Following that conversation between Biden and Netanyahu, Israeli officials announced their plan to open the Erez crossing point and increase the entry of aid into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

On 7 April, the Israeli Defence Ministry’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced that 322 aid trucks had entered Gaza that day. Until that point, never had so many aid trucks entered the enclave in a single day since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.

“You can’t distribute aid unless there’s a ceasefire. Biden demanded a ceasefire [on 4 April but …] there’s no report that Israel has stopped firing. I think that’s the real test here”

“This tells us that, despite denials from the US, Israel is in fact blocking aid and that even the slightest pressure from the US can have an impact,” said Dr Assal Rad, a Middle East scholar, in an interview with The New Arab.

Nonetheless, one has to ask, why did that episode, which resulted in the death of some citizens of Western countries, cause a higher level of outrage among elites in Washington than the high-tech slaughter of more than 30,000 Palestinians over the past six months?

Put simply, it all comes down to a total disregard for Palestinian lives on the part of US policymakers.

“The attention on this tragedy [with the WCK aid workers] has distracted from the destruction of al-Shifa and highlighted the dehumanization of Palestinians, whose deaths in the tens of thousands and clear starvation had not prompted even this mild reaction from the Biden administration,” observed Dr Rad.

It is important to avoid overstating the impact of Israel allowing some more aid into Gaza as long as the Israelis continue bombing the enclave.

“You can’t distribute aid unless there’s a ceasefire. Biden demanded a ceasefire [on 4 April but …] there’s no report that Israel has stopped firing. I think that’s the real test here,” Dr Nader Hashemi, director of Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, told TNA.

What will happen next in Gaza is unclear.

However, Dr Hashemi believes the humanitarian crises plaguing the blockaded strip of coastal territory will worsen. He is skeptical about Biden’s recent talk of the need for implementing a ceasefire, protecting international aid workers, and addressing humanitarian disasters in Gaza leading to any alleviation of Palestinian suffering in the enclave.

The reason why is that Biden’s call with Netanyahu was “just a threat to Israel that Israel can still do whatever it wants, [but] if it doesn’t coordinate policy with the United States more closely, then, possibly down the road, the United States might try to use its leverage over Israel to rein Israel in – but that remains to be seen,” explained Dr Hashemi.

Biden has offered Netanyahu "unlimited" support in his war on Gaza [Getty]The Biden administration’s statements reflect a change in tone, but the important questions pertain to the White House’s actions. [Getty]

The ball is in America’s court

Ultimately, while the Biden administration’s statements reflect a change in rhetoric and tone, the important questions pertain to the White House’s actions and not its words. “What happens next is entirely an American decision,” Mouin Rabbani, a political analyst and co-editor of Jadaliyya, told TNA.

In this upcoming period, will the White House enable Israel’s onslaught on Gaza to continue with total impunity with only verbal differences being expressed through statements and political theatre, or will the Biden administration take the necessary steps to de-escalate and bring a ceasefire into place as a result of domestic and international pressure?

When asked this question, Rabbani replied, “Hard to tell, since US conduct…makes it difficult to determine if it genuinely opposes or will ultimately go along with Israel’s initiatives to produce further regional escalation”.

5 min readPlayUnmute

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How Israel’s war is erasing Gaza’s history and culture, Alessandra Bajec

In Gaza, the US is an active partner in Israel’s war, Giorgio Cafiero

Giorgio Cafiero is the CEO of Gulf State Analytics.

Follow him on Twitter: @GiorgioCafiero

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