Day: October 15, 2023

  Egypt Independent

  Colorado Springs Gazette

More aid flights arrive in Egypt’s Sinai, awaiting passage to Gaza  Arab News

At IDF Rabbinate facility in Ramle, volunteers, reservists and experts say it could take months to provide certainty for families of all those killed in Oct. 7 terror onslaught

  Voice of America – VOA News

Some behavior is so predictable that we can confidently say it is the norm and rarely changes. Let’s look at some non-human examples of this. By hook or by crook, it is well known that Rabbits like to forage for food during the morning and the evening, which are their most active times at play.

Then there are sharks, a sea creature that Donald Trump, in particular, seems quite fond of. Sharks have a “sixth sense.” This helps them greatly. Then there is the species of Individual one. This species is always determined to speak about itself.

By hook or by crook, no matter what the subject, this species, which is orange in nature, will ALWAYS and forever, no matter the time of day, weather conditions, or whatever else is going on, happily turn the subject to itself.

This might be why Trump is saying the attack in Israel happened because he isn’t the President, proving that just when one thinks Stupidty has finished Donald Trump, stupidity reappears for a nice big orange bite.

“THE ATTACK ON ISRAEL WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED, ZERO CHANCE, IF THE ELECTION OF 2020 WAS NOT RIGGED AND STOLEN.” This adorable and welcoming message was written on truth social media, early Friday morning, proving that Trump can always go lower than one thinks — by hook or by crook.

Trump, who is facing over ninety charges, decided to label President Biden as “crooked.” Biden is not crooked. And our wonderful President will go to the ends of the earth to help a friend in need — by hook or by crook.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, seems to be into humiliation bigly. Just the other day, he praised Hezbollah as “very smart.” Of course, Trump doesn’t seem to give a damn about all the hostages. As I noted, Trump, by hook or by CROOK, is always determined that the subject matter is about him. I bet he wakes up mumbling his own name.

I bet he goes to sleep whispering his own name in reverence. Who knows what else he does with his own name? That DOES appear to be all he cares about. But there is Lady Justice who has, for Trump, a very busy year of trials coming up. You see, Lady Justice also has certain predictable behavior — and one of them is that she always gets her man — by hook or by crook.

The post So this was predictable appeared first on Palmer Report.

In a sign of possibly deepening its involvement in the ongoing conflict between Israel and militant group Hamas, China’s special envoy for the Middle East, Zhai Jun, will visit “relevant countries in the region” next week to facilitate a cease-fire and potential peace talks, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday. No itinerary was released.

In an interview with CCTV, Zhai said China has reiterated that “force is never the way to solve problems” and responding to violence with violence will only create a vicious cycle of revenge and create more obstacles to a political solution. Zhai didn’t offer further details about his travel plans.

“The only way to create the necessary conditions for a political settlement is to put an end to the violence as soon as possible and to promote a cooling of the situation,” Zhai said, adding that he will focus on coordinating with all parties since the conflict erupted.

Some analysts say the Chinese envoy’s trip to the Middle East shows that Beijing is doing what it thinks international powers should do during major global conflicts. “China is essentially copying what other big powers have done, which is to engage regional countries and travel around the region,” said Raffaello Pantucci, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

But rather than taking concrete steps to facilitate a potential cease-fire, some experts characterize Zhai Jun’s upcoming trip as a “listening tour,” during which Beijing will try to prove that it is participating in efforts to promote a cease-fire but in reality, it has no intention to “add more stakes to the outcome.”

“Beijing will try to project the image of a diplomatically active China without playing a leading role in the peace talks,” Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist at the Australian National University, told VOA by phone.

According to Sung, China has made such intentions “crystal clear” through official statements released over the last few days. During a call with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing is “ready to work with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries to support the just cause of restoring Palestinian national rights.”

And in the CCTV interview, China’s Zhai said the U.N. has “an irreplaceable and important role to play” in the question of the Palestinians, and China will “support the United Nations in taking the lead” in providing humanitarian assistance. “China wouldn’t play a leading role in the peace process but it wants to provide support in a very ambiguous way,” Sung said.

Apart from lacking the willingness to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Pantucci thinks China also doesn’t have the leverage to fulfill the task.

“China is not forcing any country to come to the table for a peace talk because they don’t have the leverage to do that and also because they don’t want to,” he told VOA. “It’s difficult to tell other countries to sit down and make peace. This could create enemies and the Chinese don’t want to do that.”

The Chinese envoy’s trip comes as Israel prepares for a massive ground assault in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where the deadline for more than one million residents in northern Gaza to evacuate to the south has expired.

Israel has vowed to retaliate against the deadly rampage carried out by Hamas fighters on October 7, killing at least 1300 civilians and abducting dozens of Israelis and foreign nationals as hostages. Israel has carried out airstrikes against targets in Gaza, killing around 1,900 people.

China’s sympathy for Palestinians

While China tries to play a more visible role in the Israel-Hamas conflict, some analysts say the Chinese foreign minister’s latest statement reflects Beijing’s sympathy for the Palestinians. “China has become slightly more direct in demonstrating sympathy for the Palestinians,” Sung from ANU told VOA, pointing to the readout of Wang’s call with his Saudi counterpart.

In the official readout, Wang emphasized that “China believes that the historical injustice against Palestine, which has lasted for more than half a century, cannot continue.”

“When China only mentions justice be done to the Palestinians and make no mention of Israel’s sufferings, this is Beijing signaling that their sympathy lies mainly with the Palestinians,” Sung noted.

Some Israeli observers view China’s statements as proof of their biased stance on the conflict. “Beijing is proactively anti-Israel at our darkest hours,” Tuvia Gering, a researcher for the Diane and Guilford Glazer Israel-China Policy Center at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told VOA by phone. “On the bilateral level [with Israel,] they are friendly, but on the international level, China joins the Arab world.”

Sung says he thinks China’s supposed sympathy for Palestinians may damage its relationship with Israel. To Pantucci, it remains unclear how Israel might react to Beijing’s “slight tilt” toward the Palestinians.

“There is the risk of China alienating the Israelis a bit more, but I think the big question is how much the Israelis will want to keep engaging with the Chinese,” he told VOA. “My guess is that they will because Israel is very pragmatic at the end of the day.”

China tries to maintain a balance

Despite Beijing’s repeated emphasis that “injustice to Palestine” needs to be resolved and that implementing the “two-state solution” is crucial to peace in the Middle East, Pantucci says he thinks China is still trying to uphold its non-intervention policy in public.

“The world is currently torn between countries saying Israel is doing terrible things in Gaza and countries saying Hamas is evil,” he told VOA. “The Chinese are trying to tread a line between [ the two sides,] and the approach is probably appreciated by large parts of the world. If Beijing decided to stick their oar in, it doesn’t necessarily help to resolve the conflict.”

While many countries might welcome China’s non-intervention approach toward the Israel-Hamas conflict, Sung says he thinks Middle Eastern states will also observe whether China’s actions match its promises.

“Judging from the repeated statements from China about how the U.N. and the Arab League should be taking the lead, I think it’s not very likely that Arab countries will find Chinese involvement to be significant enough to truly endear them to the Arabs,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to Israel on Monday, according to a U.S. official, following several days of shuttle diplomacy across the Middle East. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the visit to reporters traveling with Blinken.

The visit will come after Blinken’s whirlwind regional tour aimed at stemming Hamas attacks, addressing Gaza’s humanitarian crisis stemming from Israel’s response, leveraging diplomatic support toward releasing hostages and preventing any further regional escalation as Israel’s dramatic military escalation looms.

Blinken will head to Israel from Egypt, with whom the U.S. has been working in hopes of alleviating the worsening Gaza humanitarian crisis, securing a deal on temporarily opening the Rafah crossing and establishing a humanitarian corridor.

Blinken, prior to Egypt, visited Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. He also made two separate trips to Saudi Arabia, which condemned Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza for targeting “defenseless civilians,” where he met with Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman for under an hour.

Blinken’s diplomacy is one element of the unprecedented U.S. support for Israel following the Hamas attacks, responsible for the deaths of 1,300 people (among whom are at least 29 U.S. citizens.) U.S. President Joe Biden, for his part, has spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu five times in the eight days since the attacks.

The U.S. announced Saturday it will deploy a second aircraft carrier strike group near Israel, further bolstering its military presence in the Mediterranean amid concerns of an escalating conflict with Iran and Hezbollah.

The Biden administration has additionally prioritized updating family members of the 15 Americans still unaccounted for, while further monitoring any potential threat stemming from the Hamas attacks both domestically and internationally.

The post Blinken to return to Israel following whirlwind Middle East diplomacy tour over Gaza War appeared first on The Forward.

The relatives released a video message expressing concerns that their loved ones are being sent on offensives against the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Luhansk.

A family of heroes, Dmytro died at the front on Oct. 10, 2022. His uncle, Pavlo, on Oct. 14. Even death could not separate them.