Gazans stage general strike amid Land Day protests

March 30, 2019

Protesters gather to attend “Great March of Return” and “Palestinian Land Day” demonstrations at Israel-Gaza border located in eastern Khan Yunis, Gaza on March 30, 2019 [Ashraf Amra / Anadolu Agency]

Palestinians staged a general strike in the Gaza Strip on Saturday amid planned mass protests marking the Land Day and the first anniversary of rallies against the decades-long Israeli occupation.

Schools, shops and public institutions closed their doors across the blockaded territory, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent in Gaza.

The general strike comes as thousands of Palestinians began to converge on the Gaza-Israel buffer zone on Saturday to take part in the Land Day rallies, which mark the killing of six people by Israeli forces in 1976 during demonstrations against the seizure of Arab land in Galilee.

 In Pictures: Land Day in Gaza

On Friday, Palestinian resistance groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad warned Israel against attacking protesters during the planned demonstrations.

In the run-up to Saturday’s rallies, the Israeli army has deployed numerous tanks and armored vehicles along the buffer zone with the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly instructed the army to prepare for the possibility of a “broad” campaign in Gaza.

Nearly 270 Palestinian demonstrators have been killed by Israeli army gunfire since Palestinians began holding regular demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone in March of last year.

Read: Remembering the Great March of Return

Demonstrators demand the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.

Read: Palestinian youth killed in Israel Gaza bombing

Related Articles

• Palestinians Will Return… Land Day
• Peace Possible Only Through End of Palestine’s Occupation – Iran
• Gaza: Breaking the Siege
• Palestine’s Land Day: ‘Israel’ Deploys Reinforcements Ahead of ‘Great Return March’ Anniversary

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

The new Grand Strategy of the United States

Source

by Thierry Meyssan

Many people think that the United States is very active, but does not succeed in much. For example, it is said that its wars in the Greater Middle East are a succession of failures. But for Thierry Meyssan, the USA has a coherent military, commercial and diplomatic strategy. According to its own objectives, it advances patiently, and is crowned with success.

The designers of the US Grand Strategy – Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his advisor, Admiral Arthur Cebrowski; President Donald Trump and his commercial advisor Peter Navarro; and finally Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his advisor Francis Fannon.

It is commonly believed in the United States that the country has no Grand Strategy since the end of the Cold War.

A Grand Strategy is a vision of the world that one seeks to impose, and that all administrations must respect. So, even if you lose in one particular theatre of war, the fight continues in others, and finally ends in triumph. At the end of the Second World War, Washington chose to follow the directives set by ambassador George Keenan in his famous diplomatic telegramme. It proposed describing an alleged Soviet expansionism in order to justify containment of the USSR. Indeed, although the USA had lost the wars in Korea and Vietnam, it finished by prevailing.

It is very rare to be able to rethink a Grand Strategy, even if there were others during that period, in particular, with Charles De Gaulle in France.

Over the last eighteen years, Washington has been able to progressively set new objectives and new tactics with which to attain them.

1991-2001: a period of uncertainty

When the Soviet Union collapsed on 25 December 1991, Father Bush’s USA supposed that they no longer had any rivals. The victorious President by default demobilised 1 million soldiers and imagined a world of peace and prosperity. He liberalised the transfer of capitals so that the capitalists would be able to get richer and, he believed, thus enrich their fellow citizens.

However, capitalism is not a political project, but a means of making money. The major US businesses – not the federal state – therefore allied themselves with the Chinese Communist Party (the reason for Deng Xiaoping’s famous « journey to the South »). They delocalised their businesses with very low added value from the West to China, where the workers were uneducated, but their wages were on average 20 times lower. The long process of the de-industrialisation of the West had begun.

In order to manage its transnational affairs, the Grand Capital moved its assets to countries with low taxation rates, where it realised that it could avoid its social responsibilities. These countries, whose fiscal exemption and discretion are indispensable for international commerce, suddenly found themselves swept along on a gigantic wave of fiscal optimisation, even a massive fraud system, from which they benefited in silence. The reign of Finance over the economy was beginning.

Military Strategy

In 2001, Secretary for Defense and permanent member of the « Continuity of Government ») [1] Donald Rumsfeld, created the Office of Force Transformation, which he handed to Admiral Arthur Cebrowski. This man had already computerised the armies, and was now set to modify their mission.

Without the Soviet Union, the world had become unipolar, which is to say no longer governed by the Security Council, but by the United States alone. In order to maintain its dominant position, it was obliged to « lose some to gain more », in other words, to divide Humanity in two. On one side, the stable states, meaning the members of the G8 – Russia included – and their allies), and on the other side, the rest of the world, viewed as a simple reservoir of natural resources. Washington no longer considered access to these resources as vital for itself, but intended for them to become accessible to the stable states only by permission of the USA. From that point on, it would be necessary to destroy – preventively – all the state structures in these reservoirs of resources, so that no-one could either challenge the will of the top world power, or do without it [2].

Since then, this strategy has been implemented ceaselessly. It began in the Greater Middle East (Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Yemen). However, contrary to what had been announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, (Pivot to Asia), it was not continued into the Far East, due to the military development of China, but in the Caribbean Basin (Venezuela, Nicaragua).

Diplomatic Strategy

In 2012, President Barack Obama took up the leitmotiv of the Republican Party and made the exploitation of oil and gas by hydraulic fracturing a national priority. Within a few years, the United States multiplied its investments and became the world’s major producer of hydrocarbons, reversing the paradigms of international relations. In 2018, the ex-director of the oil equipment provider Sentry International, Mike Pompeo, became the director of the CIA , then Secretary of State. He created the Bureau of Energy Resources, which he handed to Francis Fannon. The BER is the equivalent of what the Office of Force Transformation had been for the Pentagon. He set up a policy which was entirely concentrated on taking control of the world market for hydrocarbons [3]. To do so, he imagined a new type of alliance, like those of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific region. It was no longer a case of creating military blocs like the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quads), but organising these alliances around objectives of economic growth, on the basis of guaranteed access to sources of energy.

This concept was integrated into the Rumsfeld/Cebrowski strategy. It was no longer a case of grabbing the hydrocarbons from the rest of the world (Washington has absolutely no need of them), but to determine who may have them to use for their own development, and who will be deprived of them. This is a total reversal of the doctrine of the rarefaction of oil, promoted by the Rockefellers and the Club of Rome since the 1960’s, then by Dick Cheney’s National Energy Policy Development Group. From then on, the United States decided that not only had oil not disappeared, but that despite the drastic increase in demand, Humanity had enough to last at least another century.

Using many different pretexts, Pompeo has blocked Iran’s access to the world market, then that of Venezuela, and finally, has maintained US troops in the East of Syria to prevent anyone from exploiting the oil fields that have been discovered there [4]. Simultaneously, he is increasing pressure on the European Union to give up on the Russian gas pipeline Nord Steam 2 and is also pressuring Turkey to give up Turkish Stream.

Commercial Strategy

In 2017, President Donald Trump attempted to repatriate some of the jobs which had been delocalised from the United States to Asia and the European Union. Basing himself on the advice of left-wing economist Peter Navarro [5], he put an end to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement. At the same time, he set prohibitive Customs taxes on German cars and most Chinese products. He completed these with a fiscal reform which encouraged the repatriation of capital. This policy has already enabled the re-balancing of commerce and the relaunching of the job market.

The military, economic and diplomatic systems are now complete. Each chapter is articulated with the others. Everyone knows what they have to do.

The main force of this new Grand Strategy resides in the fact that it has not been understood by the elites of the rest of the world. Washington therefore retains the effect of surprise, reinforced by the deliberately chaotic communications of Donald Trump. If we look at the facts instead of the Presidential tweets, we note the advance of the United States after the double period of uncertainty under Presidents Clinton and Obama.

Thierry Meyssan

Translation
Pete Kimberley

      

[1] The Continuity of Government is a US instance created by President Eisenhower during the Cold War and is still effective. Its mission is to ensure the continuity of the State in case the Executive is vacated, in other words, in case of the death of the President, the Vice-President and the presidents of the assemblies during a nuclear war. Its precise composition is in principle a secret, although it enjoys extremely important means.

[2] This strategy was popularised by Cebrowski’s assistant, Thomas Barnett. The Pentagon’s New Map, Thomas P. M. Barnett, Putnam Publishing Group, 2004.

[3] “Mike Pompeo Address at CERAWeek”, by Mike Pompeo, Voltaire Network, 12 March 2019.

[4] Yesterday evening, the US Treasury Department published a warning against any form of oil commerce with Iran or Syria – “Sanctions Risks Related to Petroleum Shipments involving Iran and Syria”, Voltaire Network, 25 March 2019..

[5] Death by China, Peter Navarro, Pearson, 2011. Crouching Tiger: What China’s Militarism Means for the World, Prometheus Books, 2015.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

The Icons of Return أيقونات العودة

By Yousef Fares, al-Akhbar Newspaper

“Israel” never gets tired of imposing the same occupation experience. It is stupidity or the nature of tyrants that gave rise – knowingly or unknowingly – to the popular icons that occupy a large portion of the society’s emotional state.

The “Israeli” army’s snipers rewrote the details of the story of the Great March of Return. Its heroes are a group of simple people who took to the streets in their thousands on March 30, 2018 to demand their historic right to return to Palestine. This was before the bullets transformed them into unforgettable icons. Others are still alive – and so is the resistance.

A sniper of a different kind

“Even Yasser himself did not expect the ending to be so quick. He might have expected how it would look, but he still had so much he wanted to do,” said a close friend of martyred journalist Yasser Murtaja. Since the first day of the Great March of Return, Murtaja had not left the field. He shot images of what his camera captured and what the snipers hit. The young man spent his 30 years in Gaza, the only city he knew his entire life as he once said. Since the beginning of his career as a journalist, he was able to capture the most beautiful images that reflected his optimism. “Always smiling,” his fellow journalists said, adding that he was one of the few who only had their pictures taken while they were smiling. He also published materials that made people smile but invoked a sense of bewilderment at the same time.

In the devastated Shejaiya neighborhood following the 2014 war, Murtaja filmed his documentary, “Gaza: Surviving Shejaiya”. The story revolves around a girl, Bisan, who he rescued from the rubble. A close bond formed between Yasser and her, allowing him to be Bisan’s only friend and companion through the mental and physical rehabilitation that she underwent following the martyrdom of her family.

He was an ambitious young man. Murtaja was the founder of Ain Media and one of the first individuals to take a picture of Gaza using a drone camera. The residents of the Strip, who never saw their land from an airplane window or from a skyscraper, saw the picture but without knowing it was him who took it. Murtaja was injured on April 4, 2018. Everyone prayed for him to get better. However, he passed away on the same evening to become the first media person to be killed by the “Israelis” in the Great March of Return. His colleagues carried his body as it was photographed using his drone camera.

A child’s patent

The image of the child, Mohammed Ayyash, aroused the curiosity of various international agencies. Ayash, who is barely nine years old, filed a patent and an idea in an attempt to overcome the tear gas fired by the “Israeli” army on demonstrators. He heard his father, who was wounded in the first Palestinian Intifada [uprising] (1989), say that onions are the best solution to fight the effect of the gas. Although the “onion mask” is only made up of a medical facemask and an onion he picked from one of the agricultural fields, the child became an icon on social media, as well as among the Arab and international press. After his picture was taken by journalist Osama al-Kahlout, he was honored and hosted by various media and national bodies.

“The onion mask” picture was recorded as one of the funniest, most innocent and challenging scenes. It was a piece of equipment the child had prepared in his bag along with pieces of potatoes because he was expecting that he would enter occupied Palestine on that day. Thinking that the stones thrown at the soldiers come only from refugee camps, he decided to stone the soldiers with potatoes! In this innocent manner, Muhammad recounted the events of that day. He became one of those who translated their actions into a simple language, the language spoken by the rightful owners before their occupiers, who are armed with all the instruments of death.

The revolutionaries in wheelchair

What symbol can a picture of a limbless young man leaving his wheelchair and crawling across the eastern border of the Strip present? He chants sometimes, and throws a stone that won’t fall further than a few meters from his body at other times. That is what martyr Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, the first icon of the protests against the American declaration to transfer the US Embassy to occupied Al-Quds, did. His picture and footage of his chants, which spread rapidly, was the beginning of the storm that his death caused on 15/12/2017. Abu Thuraya lost both legs in a bombing that targeted him in 2008. Despite his disability, he was keen to be the first attendee along the border since late 2017. The events of his martyrdom shocked the people in Gaza, as if he was telling them that they had no excuse when the wounded and the disabled head the ranks of the masses.

Fadi Abu Salah was Abu Thuraya’s successor. He was not content with just a symbolic participation in rebellion against his disability. He was an active contributor to throwing stones and mobilizing the masses. As in his life, his martyrdom in 14/5/2018 marked a turning point in the Arab and international media coverage of the Great March of Return. His photos contributed to the continuity of the popular momentum.

The first of the angels

A visitor to the house of martyr Razan al-Najjar in the Khuza’a neighborhood east of Khan Younis (south) can understand that the siege and repeated wars would only push a young woman to believe that the occupation is the cause of her crisis as well as that of her peers. Poverty that gave them simplicity, rebellion and redemption is the common factor that brought together Razan and the thousands who participated in protests along the eastern border of the Strip. The 21-year-old was known for her courage and her energy in providing first aid to the injured on the field. She seemed convinced of what she was doing when she said, “I am here at the line of contact. I form a human shield. I came here with courage and strength to save the lives of our brothers. Despite being injured and have a fractured arm, I refused to put a cast so it would not hinder my movement.”

Courageous Razan’s story came to an end when an “Israeli” sniper decided to kill it with a bullet that penetrated her back. The young woman, who was an active volunteer in the medical relief organization, passed away. With her departure, she shed the light on the cause of targeting medical staff during the marches. On the next Friday after her martyrdom, Razan’s mother wore her daughter’s medical coat and joined the marches with tens of Razan’s colleagues.

أيقونات العودة

فلسطين

 يوسف فارس
السبت 30 آذار 2019

غزة | لا تملّ إسرائيل من ممارسة التجربة الاحتلالية نفسها. إنه الغباء، أو طبائع المستبدين التي تصدّر من حيث تدري أو لا تدري أيقونات شعبية تحتل مساحة كبيرة في الحالة الشعورية للمجتمع. الحكاية أعاد قنّاصة جيش العدو كتابة تفاصيلها في «مسيرات العودة الكبرى»، وأبطالها مجموعة من البسطاء الذين خرجوا كعشرات الآلاف في 30 آذار/ مارس 2018، للمطالبة بحقهم التاريخي في العودة إلى فلسطين، قبل أن يحوّلهم الرصاص إلى رموز لا تنسى، وآخرون لا يزالون على قيد الحياة… والمقاومة

«قنّاص» من نوع آخر

«حتى ياسر نفسه لم يكن يتوقع أن تكون النهاية بهذه السرعة، ربما توقّع شكل الخاتمة، لكن في جعبته الكثير مما كان يريد أن يفعله»، هكذا يعلّق أحد أصدقاء الشهيد المصور ياسر مرتجى، مِمَّن عايشوه عن قرب. فمنذ اليوم الأول لـ«مسيرات العودة» لم يترك مرتجى الميدان: يراقب المساحة بين ما تقتنصه عدسة كاميراته، وما يصطاده قناصة الاحتلال. صاحب الأعوام الثلاثين التي قضاها في غزة، المدينة التي لم يشاهد سواها في حياته كما يقول، أبدع منذ بداية عمله الصحافي في أن يلتقط لها أجمل الصور التي تعكس شخصيته المتفائلة. «مبتسمٌ»، يقول زملاؤه الصحافيين، ويضيفون أنه من القلة الذين لا يلتقطون صورهم إلا وهم مبتسمون، ويعمدون إلى نشر مواد تثير الابتسامة والدهشة في آن واحد.

في الشجاعية المدمرة عقب حرب 2014، سجّل شهادته في فيلم وثائقي سمّاه «الشجاعية الناجية»، الذي تدور قصته حول الطفلة بيسان التي أنقذها من بين الركام، ونشأت بينه وبينها علاقة وثيقة أهّلته لأن يكون صديقها الوحيد الذي رافقها في رحلة علاجها الجسدي والنفسي بعد استشهاد عائلتها.

كان الشاب الطموح، مؤسس شركة «عين ميديا»، أول من التقط صورة لغزة بواسطة كاميرا طائرة، شاهدها سكان القطاع الذين لم يروا أرضهم يوماً من نافذة طائرة أو من ناطحة سحاب ليس لديهم مثلها، لكن من دون أن يعرفوا أنه كان هو من التقط الصورة. أصيب مرتجى ظهر الرابع من نيسان/ أبريل 2018، وجمع الدعاء القلوب في انتظار تحسن حالته، لكنه قضى في مساء اليوم نفسه، تاركاً برحيله أول «توقيع» إسرائيلي على الطواقم الصحافية، جسداً مسجّىً على أكتاف زملائه، صُوّر بواسطة كاميراته الطائرة.

براءة اختراع طفولية

أثارت صورة الطفل، محمد عياش، فضول مختلف الوكالات العالمية. عياش، الذي لم يتجاوز الأعوام التسعة، قدّم براءة اختراع وتفكير في محاولة للتغلب على الغاز المسيل للدموع الذي يطلقه الجيش الإسرائيلي بكثافة على المتظاهرين، بعدما كان قد سمع من والده الذي أصيب في الانتفاضة الفلسطينية الأولى (1989) أن البصل هو الحل الأمثل للتخفيف من تأثير الغاز. ورغم أن «قناع البصلة» ليس سوى نبتة بصل التقطها من أحد الحقول الزراعية، وغطّاها بكمامة طبية، فإن الطفل صار بعد هذا المشهد أيقونة ضجّت بها وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي، فضلاً عن الصحافة العربية والدولية. فصورته، التي التقطها الصحافي أسامة الكحلوت، كانت سفيرة له لتكريمه واستضافته في مختلف الهيئات الإعلامية والوطنية.

«قناع البصل» سُجّل كأحد أكثر المشاهد طرافة وبراءة وتحدياً، وكان واحداً من المعدات التي جهزها الطفل في جعبته، وإلى جانبه كان يضع حبات من البطاطا لأنه كان يتوقع أن يدخل في ذلك اليوم إلى فلسطين المحتلة. ولأنه اعتقد أن الحجارة التي ترمى على الجنود ابنة مخيمات اللجوء فقط، قرّر أن يرجم الجنود بالبطاطا! هكذا قدّم محمد سرديته البريئة عن أحداث ذلك اليوم، وصار من الذين ترجموا فعلهم بلغة البسطاء، لغة أصحاب الحق أمام محتليهم المسلحين بكل أدوات الموت.

ثائرو الكراسي المتحركة 

أي رمزية يمكن أن تقدمها صورة شاب مبتور الأطراف يترك كرسيّه المتحرك ويزحف على الحدود الشرقية للقطاع؟! يهتف تارةً، ويلقي حجراً لن يتجاوز جسده بأمتار في تارة أخرى. ذلك ما فعله الشهيد إبراهيم أبو ثريا، أُولى أيقونات الاحتجاج على الإعلان الأميركي لنقل السفارة إلى القدس المحتلة. صورته والمقاطع المصورة لهتافاته التي انتشرت سريعاً، كانت بداية العاصفة التي أحدثها استشهاده يوم 15/12/2017. أبو ثريا كان قد فقد كلتا قدميه في قصف استهدفه عام 2008، ورغم ذلك حرص على أن يكون أول الحاضرين على الحدود منذ نهاية 2017. أحدث استشهاده صدمة تفاعل معها الشارع في غزة، كأنه قال برحيله للجماهير إنه لا عذر لأحد حينما يتقدم المصابون والمقعدون صفوف الجماهير.

كان فادي أبو صلاح خليفة أبو ثريا الأول، إذ لم يكتفِ بالمشاركة الرمزية للتمرد على العجز، بل كان مساهماً فعالاً في رجم الحجارة وتعبئة الجماهير. وكما في حياته، مثّل استشهاده يوم 14/5/2018 حدثاً فارقاً في التغطية الإعلامية العربية والدولية التي نالتها «مسيرات العودة»، وأسهمت صوره في استمرارية الزخم الشعبي.

أول الملائكة 

يمكن زائرَ منزل الشهيدة رزان النجار، في حيّ خزاعة شرقي مدينة خانيونس (جنوب)، أن يفهم أنه ما كان يمكن الحصارَ والحروب المتكررة إلا أن تدفع شابة في عمرها إلى القناعة بأن وجود الاحتلال هو سبب أزمتها كما كل أبناء جيلها. والفقر الذي أورثهم البساطة والتمرد والفداء هو العامل المشترك الذي جمع بين رزان والآلاف الذين داوموا على الحدود الشرقية للقطاع. ابنة الواحد والعشرين ربيعاً، التي عُرفت بجرأتها ونشاطها في تقديم المساعدة الطبية الأولية إلى المصابين في الميدان، بدت مقتنعة بما تقوم به، حين قالت: «أنا هنا على خطوط التماس، أُشكّل درعاً بشرية… جئت إلى هنا وقد امتلكت الجرأة والقوة لأنقذ أرواح إخواننا، ورغم تعرضي للإصابة والكسر في يدي، رفضتُ أن أضع الجبيرة حتى لا تعوق حركتي».

انتهت حكاية رزان الشجاعة من وجهة نظر القناص الإسرائيلي بطلقة اخترقت ظهرها. قضت الشابة التي نشطت في «منظمة الإغاثة الطبية» تطوعاً، وسلطت برحيلها الضوء على قضية استهداف الطواقم الطبية التي لم تسلم خلال المسيرات. في الجمعة التالية لرحيلها، كانت أم رزان تلبس معطف ابنتها الطبي، وتنضم إلى المسيرات برفقة العشرات من زميلاتها المتطوعات.

من ملف : يوم الأرض: العودة أقرب

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Egypt brokering marathon talks for Hamas, Israel deal

Egypt is trying to secure deal before anniversary of Great March of Return

Egypt brokering deal between Palestinian factions in Gaza and Israel ahead of mass Great March of Return rally (AFP)

By 

MEE correspondent

Published date: 29 March 2019 11:51 UTC | Last update: 15 hours 31 min ago

“Marathon talks” held by Egypt with Palestinian factions in Gaza are set to continue on Friday to broker a deal with Israel that could ease demonstrations on Gaza’s eastern boundary that are about to mark their first anniversary.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh confirmed the talks and some of the group’s demands for an easing of the more than decade-long siege of Gaza in a statement on Friday, saying they have reached a “crossroads”, in a week when his own offices were destroyed by Israel during an escalation in Gaza that was feared could become another war.

The anniversary of the Great March of Return protests is expected to be marked with another mass showing on Saturday, instead of the usual Friday, to coincide with Land Day, which last year saw 19 killed as they launched the protest movement by demanding the right for Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homes.

Gaza’s future hangs in the balance as Egypt looks to broker Hamas-Israel truce

Read More »

Haniyeh said the nature of Saturday’s demonstration would depend on how Israel responds to its demands.

“The Israeli occupation will endure severe consequences in the case that it does not reply positively to the understandings,” Haniyeh’s statement said.

An Egyptian team of intelligence and military officials arrived in Gaza on Wednesday night and immediately started meetings at the office of Yaha Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, which were later joined by leaders of the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) factions and ran until early in the morning.

All sides had been keeping a tight lid on the details of the negotiations but Haniyeh’s office said in a statement on Friday that they wanted to “ensure the end of the suffering of our people” by easing the blockade of Gaza, including by ending an electricity crisis that limits the enclave to only a few hours of power a day and creating fishing and employment projects in Gaza.

The Egyptian delegation consists of the chief of the Palestinian file in the Egyptian Intelligence Agency, Major General Ahmad Abdel-Khaliq, Undersecretary of the Egyptian Intelligence Agency General Ahmad Farouq, and Brigadier General Mohammed Tawsin.

Leaked terms

An informed Hamas source told MEE the organisation does not want to speak about the details of a potential deal, because it is not sure how Israel would respond, but outlined some of the main requests made by Hamas.

He confirmed their main terms were an increase in the number of truckloads carrying commodities to Gaza, allowing medical supplies to hospitals, easing restrictions on imports and exports, the entry of some materials currently banned by Israel on the grounds they could be used for weapon-making, an increased fishing zone and the expansion of a UN job creation programme to cover 40,000 workers.

He also confirmed that the Egyptian mediators have told them that Israel’s demand included ending night demonstrations along the eastern boundary between Gaza and Israel, keeping the Friday protests of the Great March of Return peaceful and stopping weekly sea protests near the Israeli Kibbutz Zikim.

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Hamas had scaled back the protests during earlier talks that eventually broke down because of opposition from the West Bank-based rival Palestinian Authority, but since February “Night Disturbance Units” have resumed protests that have frustrated Israel.

Hamas’s initial demands had included an eventual agreement for a port or airport that would connect blockaded Gaza to the outside world, a step which had been hoped could be implemented in the future.

However, a Hamas source told MEE that, during a recent meeting with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the Egyptian delegation had refused to pass on to the Israelis Palestinian demands regarding a port or airport or a prisoner exchange deal – arguing that the priority was on immediate steps that could ease the siege and avoid an explosion in Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif al-Qanou told MEE there would be “tangible” results from the ongoing Egyptian mediation.

Palestinian pledge

There appears to be some internal Palestinian agreement on the terms ahead of the 52nd week of Great March of Return protests, with organisers mobilising but appealing to participants to show a high degree of restraint.

In a press conference held on Thursday by National Committee member Khalid al-Batch, part of Islamic Jihad’s political wing, he reiterated the importance of participation in the protests but also echoed a call made by Hamas to ensure the protests were peaceful in order to limit casualties but also implying that the nature of the protests could affect the talks with Israel.

The Gaza Ministry of Health has reported that Israeli forces have killed at least 256 Palestinians and wounded more than 29,000 since the beginning of the protests.

“We want to cut short the way ahead of the Israeli occupation, which always blames the Palestinian resistance groups for the failure of reaching a truce and easing the more than decade-old siege imposed on Gaza,” Batch said in the press conference.

A senior source in a political faction participating in the march committee told MEE that protests would be gradually scaled down and eventually ended should a truce agreement be reached to improve the lives of people in Gaza.

A member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) political bureau, Talal Abu Zarifa, told MEE that the active efforts of the Egyptian delegation to obtain a truce come from Cairo’s recognition of the risk that the situation in Gaza could devolve into all-out conflict.

“All options are open for the resistance” should Israel remain uncompromising in Gaza, Abu Zarifa said.

Pointing to the agreement previously brokered by Egypt in November, following an ill-fated Israeli military raid in Gaza that led to a brief but heated escalation of violence, Abu Zarifa blamed Israeli “intransigence and the evasion of obligations” for the breakdown of the tentative truce.

Israeli agreement

Members of the Egyptian intelligence delegation left Gaza early Thursday to meet Israeli officials and discuss the latest updates about their talks with the Palestinian factions. They returned to Gaza in the evening and Haniyeh’s office said on Friday that talks would continue.

“Hamas is ready for all scenarios. The movement will not hesitate to take any action that serves the interests of the Palestinian people and ensures that the Palestinian sacrifices at the Great Return March have not been made in vain,” Haniyeh said.

Israeli news website Ynet News said on Thursday night that “efforts to restore the calm between Israel and Hamas after several days of fighting appeared to be taking effect.”

The news website referred to remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who reportedly said Israel would not opt to carry out a military offensive on Gaza.

Already embroiled in a number of corruption scandals, Netanyahu has been embarrassed by night-time demonstrations in Gaza and protesters’ use of incendiary kites and balloons, which burnt down acres of land in southern Israel last summer.

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Yet despite Netanyahu’s inflammatory rhetoric seeking to highlight his iron-fisted approach against Hamas, Palestinian columnist on Israeli affairs Saleh al-Naami said a military escalation in Gaza would not serve the Israeli leader’s electoral objectives.

Netanyahu, Naami said, has shown extreme caution in Gaza, despite criticism at home for failing to stamp out the Great March of Return.

“Netanyahu understands that Gaza and Hamas have nothing to lose,” Naami said, adding that Hamas and other political and armed factions in Gaza were ready to go all the way in the event of a military escalation, regardless of the Israeli election.

“The resistance in Gaza does not accept to be used as a pawn by candidates in the Israeli elections,” Islamic Jihad spokesman Musab al-Buraim said to MEE. “We will accept no less than easing the siege on the political and humanitarian levels.”

‘Skillful negotiators’

The talks appeared to be in peril earlier this week when a rocket from Gaza hit a home in Tel Aviv. Hamas said the rocket had been fired mistakenly but the result was a series of air strikes by Israel on Gaza as well as a number of rockets being launched by Hamas into neighbouring Israeli areas.

Dr Adnan Abu Amer, professor of political studies at Al-Umma University in Gaza, suggested however that the escalation was part of the negotiations.

“This is one of the tactics used by skilful negotiators,” he told MEE. “Hamas could persuade the Egyptian mediators and Israel that the rockets were launched mistakenly both times but I do not believe so.”

He suggested Hamas had calculated that Israel would try to avoid any escalation in the run-up to parliamentary elections in early April.

“The Palestinian negotiators knew that the Israeli side is approaching two deadlines: Saturday’s one-million-man demonstration and the elections. So they wanted to put heavy pressure on them.”

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لا مكان لليانكي في فنزويلا وحلف المقاومة اللاتيني يتقن فنّ النصر

مارس 29, 2019

محمد صادق الحسيني

حالة من الهستيريا تنتاب الرئيس الأميركي وإدارته ومستشاريه من المحافظين الجدد وعلى رأسهم الصهيوني جون بولتون، في هذه الأيام بسبب تطورات ومفاجآت الصمود الفنزويلي العظيم والذي يعود برأي المراقبين إلى ما يلي :

ـ فشل هذه الإدارة في إسقاط الدولة الوطنية الفنزويلية، عبر تنصيب جاسوس أميركي كرئيس لفنزويلا، بدلاً عن الرئيس مادورو المنتخب من الشعب ديمقراطياً ودستورياً، عبر تلك الحركة البهلوانية، التي تمثلت في قيام هذا الجاسوس غوايدو بتنصيب نفسه رئيسا بدلاً عن الرئيس الشرعي.

ـ فشل الإدارة الأميركية في شق الجيش وخلق حالة فوضى خدمة لهدف تدمير الدوله الفنزويلية الشرعيه وإحلال مجموعة من الجواسيس مكان الحكومة الشرعية خدمة للولايات المتحدة في السيطرة على خيرات البلاد النفطية والمعدنية، خاصة الذهب.

فشل الإدارة الأميركية في الوصول الى هدفها بواسطة حملة «المساعدات الإنسانية» التي حشدت لإدخالها بالقوة عبر الحدود مع كولومبيا، تلك «المساعدات» التي لم تحمل من ذلك إلا الاسم لأنها كانت أسلحة وذخائر ومعدات عسكرية مرسلة لتسليمها لمجموعات من المرتزقة التي كان من المفترض إدخالهم الى فنزويلا عبر الحدود مع كولومبيا شرقاً والبرازيل جنوباً…

أما عملية الكشف عن وصول طائرتين عسكريتين روسيتين الى فنزويلا قبل أيّام، وعلى متنهما ما يقارب المئة مستشار عسكري روسي وبعض التجهيزات العسكرية الخاصة، فكانت بمثابة الضربة القاضية للحملة الأميركية المسعورة ضدّ فنزويلا ورئيسها الشرعي، نيكولاس مادورو، خاصة أنّ الإدارة الأميركية، وبعد تقييم للوضع العسكري الفنزويلي ولأوراق القوة التي يملكها الرئيس مادورو، قد توصّلت الى قناعة راسخة باستحالة القيام بأيّ عمل عسكري، لا مباشر ولا غير مباشر، ضدّ فنزويلا، ويرجع ذلك الى العوامل التالية:

أ امتلاك فنزويلا لجيش قوي عقائدي ومتماسك، كثير الشبه مع الجيش السوري، وهو مستعدّ للتصدي لأيّ عدوان على سيادة بلاده.

ب امتلاك هذا الجيش ما يكفي من الخبرة العسكرية والإمكانات التسليحية، والتي ليس آخرها منظومات الدفاع الجوي الروسية الصنع من طراز «أس 300» و «أس 400» الأكثر تطوّراً والقادرة على رصد أهداف على بعد ستمائة كيلومتر.

ج امتلاك الجيش الفنزويلي أفضل طائرة سيطرة جوية / تفوق جوي / في العالم، ألا وهي طائرة سوخوي ٣٠ أم /ك / ٢ SUCHOI 30 MK 2 والتي تتمتع بقدرات قتالية لا مثيل لها واهمّها صواريخ جو /جو التي تحملها وتستطيع إطلاقها على أهداف جوية طائرات أو صواريخ مجنّحة معادية حتى مسافة مائة وثلاثين كيلو متراً. أي انها قادرة على الدفاع عن المجال الجوي الفنزويلي حتى عن بعد مئات الكيلومترات خارج هذا المجال وقبل ان تصله الطائرات او الصواريخ الأميركية.

د امتلاك دول «حلف المقاومة» في أميركا الجنوبية، فنزويلا وكوبا ونيكاراغوا، الكثير من الأوراق السياسية والعسكرية التي يمكن تحريكها ضدّ الولايات المتحدة وعملائها في تلك القارة. ومن بين هذه الأوراق الهامة، على سبيل المثال لا الحصر، حركة «القوات المسلحة الكولومبية – جيش الشعب، المعروفة باسمها المختصر «فارك وهو الاسم الإسباني لهذه الحركة : Fuerzas Armadas revolutionarias de Columbia / ejercito del Pueblo.

هذه الحركه، الماركسية اللينينية المعادية للولايات المتحدة، التي وقعت اتفاقية سلام بينها وبين الحكومة الكولومبية في شهر حزيران 2017 في هافانا وبرعاية كوبا، قادرة على قلب الطاولة على رأس ترامب والعودة الى العمل المسلح ضدّ حكومة كولومبيا، العميلة للولايات المتحدة وغيرها من دول أميركا الجنوبية، وبالتعاون مع حركات مشابهة في العديد من دول القارة، وخلق فيتنام جديدة للولايات المتحدة ولمدة عقود من الزمن. الأمر الذي يعني، بكلّ بساطة، منع الولايات المتحده من تحقيق أهدافها، في السيطرة على ثروات فنزويلا وغيرها من دول أميركا الجنوبية. وهو ما يشكل نصراً لفنزويلا ولكلّ القوى المعادية للهيمنة الأميركية على ثروات ومقدرات الشعوب في العالم.

في هذه الأثناء فإنّ المطلعين على تاريخ الاستعمار الأميركي الامبريالي يعتقدون بأنّ تحركات الإدارة الأميركية الحالية ضدّ فنزويلا الحالية تعود جذورها الى القديم من صراعات القوى الاستعمارية.

والأزمة التي خلقتها الولايات المتحدة وعملاؤها في فنزويلا حديثاً هي في الواقع جزء من الصراع الدولي، الدائر بين القوى العظمى مثل الصين وروسيا وإيران والهند الى حدّ ما ، مع الولايات المتحدة الأميركية على إعادة تشكيل قيادة العالم، بمعنى إنهاء سيطرة القطب الواحد، أيّ الولايات المتحدة، على العالم وتشكيل خارطة علاقات دولية جديدة، تستند الى القانون الدولي، الذي هو أساس لكلّ تعاون سلمي بين الدول. وهو الأمر الذي ترفضه الولايات المتحدة.

أما جذور الأزمة فتعود الى ما يطلق عليه عقيدة مونرو، التي أعلنها الرئيس الأميركي جيمس مونرو سنة 1923، والتي تنص على انّ النصف الغربي من الكرة الأرضية هو منطقة نفوذ أميركية ويجب منع دول «العالم القديم» في أوروبا من العودة لاستعمار القارة الأميركية الجنوبية بشكل خاص، وذلك لضمان إمكانية ممارسة الولايات المتحدة لسياستها التوسعية في تلك القارة دون منافسة أوروبية، أيّ استبدال الاستعمار الأوروبي بآخر من الولايات المتحدة الأميركية، في واقع الأمر، رغم ادّعاءات الرئيس مونرو آنذاك بأنّ الهدف من هذه السياسة الأميركية الجديدة هو الحفاظ على استقلال دول أميركا اللاتينية التي استقلت عن اسبانيا والبرتغال في ذلك الوقت.

بينما كانت الحقيقة تكمن في مكان آخر تماماً، ألا وهو توجه الولايات المتحدة إلى تعزيز سيطرتها على تلك القارة، خاصة أنها كانت تخشى إعادة فرض السيطرة الأوروبية عليها بعد قيام المانيا مملكة بروسيا والنمسا وروسيا بعقد اتفاقية أطلق عليها اسم: التحالف المقدّس Holly Alliance، ذلك الحلف الذي كان يهدف الى اقتسام النفوذ والسيطرة، على أميركا الجنوبية، بين هذه الدول وكلّ من اسبانيا والبرتغال.

من هنا نلاحظ انّ هناك جذوراً تاريخية لسعي الولايات المتحده الأميركية لفرض سيطرتها ليس على فنزويلا فحسب وإنما على كلّ القارة الأميركية الجنوبية. وما الموقف النزق وغير المألوف في العلاقات الدولية، الذي أعلنت عنه الولايات المتحدة وأرفقته بتهديدات مباشرة لروسيا، على خلفية إرسال الحكومة الروسية لعدد من المستشارين العسكريين الروس الى فنزويلا قبل أيّام، إلا دليل على فشل أحلام الولايات المتحدة في إعادة فرض سيطرتها على فنزويلا، التي تملك أكبر احتياطي نفط في العالم، في الوقت الذي نجحت فيه روسيا والصين بنسج علاقات تعاون متينة ومستندة الى قواعد القانون الدولي، في مجالات السياسة والاقتصاد والتعاون العسكري التقني، مع فنزويلا، وليس على قاعدة استعمار فنزويلا أو غيرها.

تأسيساً على ما تقدّم نستطيع القول: لقد قضي الأمر. وانتصرت إرادة الشعب الفنزويلي، في اتخاذ قرار التصدي للعدوان الأميركي السافر ضدّ بلاده، وهو القرار الذي سيتكلل بالنصر النهائي ودحر قوى العدوان الأميركية وأذنابها المحليين، سواء في فنزويلا او في غيرها من دول أميركا الجنوبية، خاصة أنّ اليانكي الأميركي قد تأكد بالدليل الملموس انّ السيطرة على الأرض، عبر الجيش وقوات الدفاع الشعبية، وفِي الجو عبر طائرات سوخوي 30 للتفوق الجوي وأنظمة الدفاع الجوي «أس 300 و «أس 400» هي فقط في أيدي الرئيس الشرعي والمنتخب من الشعب الفنزويلي، الرئيس نيكولاس مادورو، الذي سيقود البلاد في مواجهة سلاح الحصار والعقوبات ويرفع الظلم عنه بالتعاون مع روسيا والصين وغيرها من الدول الرافضة للهيمنة الأميركية في العالم.

وما النصر إلا موقف وإرادة حازمة وفن الصعود الى القمة بالقدرات الداخلية الوطنية أولاً!

بعدنا طيبين قولوا الله…

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Trump Regime Threatens Russia: Get Out Of Venezuela, Or Else?

RT

FILE PHOTO: An airplane with the Russian flag is seen at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Caracas © Reuters / Carlos Jasso

S President Donald Trump has warned that Russia must get out of Venezuela. Two planeloads of Russian troops are currently in the Latin American country under the terms of a 2001 cooperation treaty.

Speaking at the White House, Trump also warned that “all options are open” when it comes to getting Russia out of Venezuela.

Around 100 Russian troops touched down in Caracas on Saturday, a show of support for President Nicolas Maduro’s government. The move caused consternation in Washington, however, with Vice President Mike Pence calling the deployment an “unnecessary provocation.”

Pence also called on Russia to withdraw its support of Maduro and “stand with Juan Guaido,” the Washington-sponsored opposition leader who declared himself interim president in January.

ALSO ON RT.COMRussia on military planes in Venezuela: Our specialists are there based on cooperation treatyTrump met with Guaido’s wife, Fabiana Rosales, on Wednesday, and pledged his support to her husband. After the momentum behind his play for the presidency fizzled out, Guaido has continued to criticize Maduro’s government, on Tuesday accusing the Venezuelan leader of violating the country’s constitution by welcoming the Russian troops.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, insisted that the deployment was carried out “in strict accordance with the constitution of that country and with full respect for its legal norms.”

US officials have repeatedly warned Russia against intervening in the Guaido/Maduro power struggle. National Security Adviser John Bolton tweeted on Monday that the “United States will not tolerate hostile foreign military powers meddling with the Western Hemisphere’s shared goals of democracy, security, and the rule of law.”

John Bolton

@AmbJohnBolton

The United States will not tolerate hostile foreign military powers meddling with the Western Hemisphere’s shared goals of democracy, security, and the rule of law. The Venezuelan military must stand with the people of Venezuela.

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Bolton’s words echoed those of Senate Armed Services Committee chair Jim Inhofe (R-Iowa), who threatened “whatever action necessary” should Russia encroach on “our hemisphere” last month.

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