‘As much and as quickly as possible’: Israeli settlers eye land in Syria, Lebanon

December 12, 2024

Illy Pe’ery

Within hours of the fall of the Assad regime, Israeli forces were already pushing into Syrian territory, conquering the Syrian side of Mount Hermon/Jabal A-Shaykh and the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that has been in place for more than half a century. But the army were not the only ones quick to react; so, too, was the Israeli settler movement.

 

Map showing the approximate locations of Israel’s military expansion into Lebanon and Syria, with darker blue indicating the most recent advances, created using data from satellite imagery, geolocation, and Israeli military statements. (Ahmad Baydoun)

Joe Biden: A Resumé of War Crimes

December 12, 2024

Gerald Sussman

A flurry of commentary has followed Joe Biden’s decision to invoke his presidential privilege in issuing a “full and unconditional pardon” to his son, Hunter Biden, who faced prison time for filing false tax statements, tax evasion, and carrying an unregistered gun. 

 

Did the US fund the Syrian rebels that toppled Assad?

December 11, 2024

After Syrian opposition forces led an offensive that rapidly swept through Syria's major cities in a matter of weeks and ultimately led to the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government, US President Joe Biden publicly took credit for the rebel takeover.

Fighters with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces inspect damaged and abandoned military vehicles and equipment at Syria's Qamishli International Airport, on 9 December 2024 (Delil Souleiman/AFP)

Before and After

There are many philosophical questions that have persisted for millennia in human history. Finding answers to these questions has often been difficult, and in some cases, even impossible. However, as human curiosity and the drive for discovery continue to grow, responses to some of these questions are becoming more attainable. For example, a large majority of religions believe in the existence of a world beyond the one we live in. There are over ten thousand different religions around the world, but more than seventy percent of the global population adhere to just five major religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

پیش و پس

پرسش‌های فلسفی بسیاری وجود دارند که در تاریخ بشر به هزاره‌ها باز می‌گردند. یافتن پاسخ برای این سوالات دشوار، و حتی تا حدودی غیرممکن می‌باشد. با این حال، با گسترش کنجکاوی و علاقه انسان به کشف و نوآوری، پاسخ به برخی از این پرسش‌ها دست یافتنی است. به عنوان مثال، اکثریت عظیمی از مذاهب به جهانی خارج از دنیایی که ما در آن زندگی می‌کنیم اعتقاد دارند. بیش از ده‌هزار ادیان مختلف در جهان وجود دارد، در حالی که اکثریت بزرگ یا بیش از هفتاد درصد از جمعیت جهان به پنج دین مسیحیت، یهودیت، اسلام، بودائی و ​​هندو، اعتقاد دارند. عوالم عروج در برخی از این ادیان ماورأالطبیعه، عرفانی، و فریبنده است. اگرچه برخی از آن دنیاهای خارق‌العاده جذاب به نظر می‌رسند، اما اکثریت قریب به اتفاق آنها رونوشتی از یکدیگرند، به خصوص سه دین یهودیت، مسیحیت و اسلام، که به ادیان ابراهیمی شهرت دارند. با بررسی بیشتر، فلسفه اصلی این سرزمین های موعود، ساده انگارانه، تک بعدی، و حتی کودکانه به نظر می‌رسند. البته گروه‌های غیرمذهبی، آگنوستیک‌ها و آتئیست‌ها، نیز به سرعت در حال رشد هستند، که بسیاری از آنها تمایلی به فرض چیزی خارج از دنیای فیزیکی ما ندارند.ا پرسش‌های فلسفی خاصی وجود دارند که در مورد دلیل وجود ما و هدف زندگی در این جهان تحقیق می‌کنند.ا 

LIVE BLOG: Rockets from Gaza | Massacre near Kamal Adwan | Soldiers Injured – Day 432

December 11,2024

Killed	Wounded	Missing
44,805	106,257	11,000

-Two rockets were launched from the central Gaza Strip towards the Gaza envelope and reportedly fell in an open area.

-At least 18 Palestinians were killed and others were missing in an Israeli airstrike on a house near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza.

-The Ziv Hospital in Safad announced it received four Israeli soldiers who had been wounded in south Lebanon, without providing any further details.

-According to the Palestinian Health Ministry (Gaza), 44,805 Palestinians have been killed, and 106,257 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.

 

Syria – Winners and losers or both

December 11, 2024

Syria has fallen.

The world owes Palestine this much – please stop censoring Palestinian Voices

December 10, 2024

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – Social media censorship is a global phenomenon, but the war on pro-Palestinian views on social media represents a different kind of censorship, with consequences that can only be described as dire.

Syria after 13 years of U.S. state terrorism… what do you expect?

December 10, 2024

Finian Cunningham

In less than 13 days, a coalition of U.S.-backed jihadist militant groups took over Syria. The offensive, which began on November 27, culminated in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hastily stepping down and fleeing to Russia. Assad and his wife were confirmed to be in Moscow by December 9.

'Completely Un-American': Progressives Slam Trump Plan to End Birthright Citizenship

December 9, 2024

Jessica Corbett

Progressives in Congress and other migrant rights advocates sharply criticized U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for his comments on immigration during a Sunday interview, including on his hopes to end birthright citizenship.

Gaza Humanitarian Aid Operation “Nearing Collapse,” UN Warns

December 9, 2024

Sharon Zhang

UN groups have warned that food security is “collapsing” across famine-stricken Gaza, with the entire humanitarian aid operation at the brink due to Israel’s severe aid blockade and Israeli-protected gang looting preventing what little aid that enters from reaching starving Palestinians.

  

A wide view captures the destruction of residential buildings in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on December 7, 2024.Saeed Jaras / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

Washington Celebrates Al-Qaeda’s Victory in Syria

December 9, 2024

Kyle Anzalone

Washington finally completed its dirty war in Syria. What started as a CIA covert operation to smuggle weapons and jihadists from Libya to Syria has resulted in Syria leader Bashar al-Assad being deposed and replaced by Abu Mohammad al-Julani.

The Fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad: What it Means

December 9, 2024

Deepak Tripathi

The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, marking the end of more than 50 years of the Assad dynasty (1971 – 2024), is a dramatic event in the Middle East. It is difficult to make definite short- and long-term predictions in the wake of such a momentous event. But it deserves a brief comment about what may lie ahead.

 

Israel expands occupation of Golan Heights as Assad's government falls

December 8, 2024

Israel deployed tanks and troops to occupy the buffer zone in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights on 8 December following the fall of the Syrian government to foreign-backed extremist groups overnight.

 

Israel’s genocide in Gaza is fully intentional, and other takeaways from the Amnesty International report

December 7, 2024

Jonathan Ofir

Wednesday, a landmark report was issued by Amnesty International, titled: ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza.” 

Displaced Palestinians flee past Israeli tanks following military orders to leave Khan Younis and go toward Rafah near the Egyptian border in the southern Gaza Strip, January 26, 2024. (Photo: Haitham Imad/EFE via ZUMA Press APA Images)

How a hostage family leader became one of the loudest anti-war voices in Israel

December 6, 2024

Edo Konrad and Oren Ziv

In partnership with

    When Ayala Metzger walks among the ghosts of Nir Oz, it almost feels like she isn’t quite sure whose story she wants to tell first. For the better part of the last year, she has been regularly leading tours along the dusty paths between the kibbutz’s gutted low-rise homes, located just four kilometers from the Gaza Strip. To anyone who will listen, she recounts what happened here on the morning of October 7 in vivid detail, like a forensic scientist reconstructing a crime scene.

Ayala Metzger sits in a cage to symbolize the Israeli hostages’ captivity in Gaza during a protest in central Tel Aviv, March 27, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

Gaza ceasefire talks resume – Hamas

December 6, 2024

International mediators have renewed negotiations with Hamas and Israel to halt the conflict in Gaza, according to the militant group’s senior official, Bassem Naim, as cited by the Associated Press.

 

Palestinians flee towards Gaza City from Beit Lahia, Gaza, December 04, 2024. © Getty Images / Mahmoud Isleem/Anadolu

Hama city falls to Syrian rebels as advance continues

December 5, 2024

Alex MacDonald and Harun al-Aswad

Syrian rebels have taken control of the central city of Hama as their shock advance across the country continues.

An anti-government fighter covers his ears as a multi-barrel rocket launcher fires against government forces, in the northern outskirts of Syria's west-central city of Hama on 4 December 2024 (Bakr al-Kassem / AFP)

Challenge to California Top-Two Election System in Federal Court filed

December 1, 2024

Two election attorneys challenged the top-two system in Federal Court in Oakland, California on Thursday, November 21, 2024. David L. Shoen of Montgomery, Alabama, and Seyeun D. Choi of Foster City, California filed a complaint asking that California’s “Top-Two” election system be struck down as unconstitutional.

(The 12-page complaint in its entirety may be read here.) 

Gazans face extreme hunger as ‘real famine’ spreads from north to south

December 4, 2024

Ruwaida Kamal Amer

Mustafa Al-Darsh, a 35-year-old father of three from Gaza City, spends hours every day searching for food for his family. Some days, he manages to secure a few canned goods; other days, his family has to settle for plain rice. “In the north, we yearn to eat bread with some thyme,” he told +972. He hasn’t been able to find flour for months.

Displaced Palestinians line up to receive a meal in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)