Russia: Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are new partners in BRICS

Russia: Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are new partners in BRICS

    Friday, November 15, 2024   No comments

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin revealed that Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have become partners in the BRICS bloc.

Pankin explained during a joint meeting of foreign and trade ministers of APEC member states that the BRICS summit held in Kazan "demonstrated the desire of the global majority to create a fair world order, with a focus on reforming international institutions and strengthening equal economic relations."

He also pointed out that "the summit resulted in a set of important agreements in the fields of trade, investment, artificial intelligence, energy, climate and logistics."

Pankin pointed out that "the share of the economies of the Asia-Pacific region in Russia's foreign trade has reached 70%, while about 90% of payments are made in national currencies."

In a related context, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister confirmed that his country continues to secure stable supplies of energy resources to the APEC countries.

It is noteworthy that the BRICS summit, which was held in Kazan between October 22 and 24, was attended by the heads of state of the group.

Nihon Hidankyo: "In Gaza, bleeding children are like in Japan 80 years ago"

Nihon Hidankyo: "In Gaza, bleeding children are like in Japan 80 years ago"

    Monday, October 14, 2024   No comments

The Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs at the end of World War Two, won the award on Friday in what was seen as a plea to nuclear-armed countries not to use those weapons. Toshiyuki Mimaki co-chairs the organization.

Mimaki said after the prize was announced on Friday that the plight of children in Gaza was similar to what Japan faced at the end of World War II.

"In Gaza, bleeding children are being held (by their parents). It's like in Japan 80 years ago," Mimaki said.

Responding to Mimaki, Israel's ambassador to Japan attacked the comparison as "outrageous and baseless", and said such comparisons "distort history and dishonor the victims".

A representative for the Hiroshima chapter of Nihon Hidankyo could not be reached for comment about Cohen's post.

Around 140,000 people were killed when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and 74,000 more were killed in Nagasaki three days later.

Survivors of the blasts later formed Nihon Hidankyo to tell the stories of those atomic bombings and to press for a world without nuclear weapons.

   

Is this what self-defense looks like?

Is this what self-defense looks like?

    Wednesday, September 25, 2024   No comments

 France's Macron to Israel: stop killing babies

If these are the images and characterization of what Israeli "self-defense" looks like, then what basis is there to condemn other "self-defenses"?

If Israel can kill babies and women, starve two million people, throw injured persons off rooftops, kills medical doctors and aid workers, sexually abuse Palestinian prisoners, and torture detained Palestinians, then what basis is there to condemn others if they do it?

Lily Greenberg Call: Biden corrupted the idea of Jewish safety, weaponizing my community as a shield to dodge accountability

Lily Greenberg Call: Biden corrupted the idea of Jewish safety, weaponizing my community as a shield to dodge accountability

    Tuesday, May 28, 2024   No comments

 Former Biden Political Appointee, Lily Greenberg Call, writiing to the Guardian: 

> I resigned on Wednesday, 15 May – the 76th anniversary of the Nakba – because I could no longer serve at the pleasure of a president who refuses to stop another catastrophe. 

> My former boss is the person who makes me feel most unsafe as an American Jew.

> The president of the United States has persistently corrupted the idea of Jewish safety, weaponizing my community as a shield to dodge accountability for his role in this atrocity.

> I am certain that Jews are not better protected by a war effort, endorsed by the United States and waged in the name of Jewish safety, that furthers a genocide of a whole people collectively framed as “our enemy”.

> Around the world, over Memorial Day weekend here in America, people watched on social media in horror as the IDF dropped 60 2000-pound bombs on a displaced persons camp in Rafah, burning tents and the refugees sheltering inside.

> Making Jews the face of an unrelenting, genocidal campaign only puts us at risk even more.

Greenberg Call comes after the Tents Massacre that burned children alive in Rafah.

Media review: Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: What can we tell the children of Gaza?

Media review: Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: What can we tell the children of Gaza?

    Sunday, February 04, 2024   No comments

Nicholas Kristof, in his column in the New York Times, started by the story of a 10-year-old girl in Gaza. Her father was an X-ray technician. She was smart and spoke English well. She was accepted into an international exchange program, and had to travel to Japan to meet... A bright future awaits her, but now she lies in a hospital bed with a severe wound to her thigh and part of her femur bone missing as a result of a bomb explosion.

Dr. Samer Al-Attar, the orthopedic surgeon who cared for the girl and told me about it, says Nicholas Kristof, says the girl needs to have her hip amputated to save her life, and her father is struggling to come to terms with how his life and the life of his daughter have collapsed.

Nicholas Kristof mentions that he covered many bloody wars, and wrote scathingly about how governments in Russia, Sudan, and Syria recklessly bombed civilians, but this time the matter is different, because “my government stands by what President Joe Biden referred to as indiscriminate bombing, and because I am this... "This time, I'm helping pay for the bombs as a taxpayer."

While the writer understands Israel's reaction, the military response is not just one of two options without a third. Israel chose to respond with bombs weighing about two thousand pounds, destroying entire neighborhoods, and allowing a small amount of aid to enter the region, which is now teetering on the brink of famine. The result is This does not appear to be a war against the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), but rather against the entire population of Gaza.

Nicholas Kristof wondered how Americans, with their conflicting views due to the war, could confront their friends from Gaza, pointing out that they might remain silent, or look away, instead of entering into a bitter and polarizing debate that might cost friendships, but “indifference is the most insidious danger.” Not at all,” says writer Elie Wiesel, who also said that “human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.”

The writer warned that the suffering of children - and half of Gaza's population is children - "should raise our particular concern," noting that estimates by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) indicate that there are at least 17,000 children in Gaza who are unaccompanied or separated from their families. In the midst of the chaos of war and displacement.

Some will blame all of this on Hamas, but - for Nicholas Kristof - this seems to be an evasion of moral responsibility, because Israel and America have the ability to act, and “the atrocities suffered by Israeli civilians” do not justify leveling Palestinian neighborhoods to the ground.

The writer wondered how Biden criticizes Russia for bombing civilians and undermining the rules-based international order, while he himself supplies Israel with bombs that wipe out neighborhoods in Gaza, and how he gives diplomatic cover to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a time when the residents of Gaza are facing famine, especially since he suspended funding for His country to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA), which is responsible for providing assistance to them.

The writer concluded that decisions related to waging war are painful, because innocent civilians always suffer, stressing that a smart 10-year-old girl in Gaza is as valuable as the life of any American or Israeli child, “and therefore we Americans must bear responsibility.” “We are complicit in its tragedy and the tragedy of Gaza as a whole.

To date, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that 27,365 people were killed, more than 70% are children and women; 66,630 Palestinians were injured, since October 7.

The ministry added that the occupation army committed 14 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, claiming 127 deaths and 178 injuries, during the past 24 hours.

A number of victims are still under rubble and on the roads, while the occupation army prevents ambulance and civil defense crews from reaching them..

Media review: New York Times: Gaza is a graveyard for children

Media review: New York Times: Gaza is a graveyard for children

    Saturday, November 18, 2023   No comments

After weeks of Western politicians and media outlets refusing to accept the death figures of civilians in Gaza or casting some doubt about the accuracy of the statistics, some Western media are now providing some coverage of the massacres. Better Late than Never.

The New York Times published an investigation into the tragic situation in the Gaza Strip, highlighting the Israeli aggression targeting civilians, especially children and women.

The American newspaper recalled the stories of children who died under Israeli bombing, and the effects of devastation left by these attacks on the surviving children.

The New York Times reported the story of Khaleda Joudah (9 years old), who ran barefoot, crying, towards dozens of bodies wrapped in white shrouds, blankets and carpets, outside the crowded morgue, shouting, “Where is my mother? I want to see my mother,” before adding, “Where is Khalil?” He is his 12-year-old brother.

A morgue worker opened a white shroud so Khaled could kiss his brother's body for the last time, then said goodbye to his 8-month-old sister. Another shroud was pulled back, revealing the blood-stained face of a child, whose hair was red.

Khaled burst into tears when he recognized her. Her name was Misk. “Mama was very happy when she gave birth to you,” he says, gently touching her forehead, and tears streaming down her face.

His relatives later mentioned that “Misk” was the source of joy for his family, and she was born after 3 boys. Umm Khaled was happy for Misk to wear colorful dresses and fix her small curls with shiny hair clips.

The newspaper says that Khaled bid farewell with tears to his mother, father, older brother and sister, and only he and his younger brother Tamer (7 years old) survived, after an Israeli raid on October 22 last year, which brought down two buildings housing Khaled and Tamer’s large family, where 68 members of the Joudeh family were killed. They are sleeping in their beds in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.

The New York Times points out that determining the exact number of children killed in Gaza - in the midst of a ferocious bombing campaign, the collapse of hospitals, the burial of bodies under rubble and destroyed neighborhoods - is a “futile task.”