The US of A(rms)

The United States dominates the global arms trade in a historic fashion and nowhere is that domination more complete than in the Middle East | WILLIAM D. HARTUNG

Infrastructure of US bases in the Middle East | David Vine

The United States has the dubious distinction of being the world’s leading arms dealer. It dominates the global trade in a historic fashion and nowhere is that domination more complete than in the endlessly war-torn Middle East. There, believe it or not, the U.S. controls nearly half the arms market. From Yemen to Libya to Egypt, sales by this country and its allies are playing a significant role in fuelling some of the world’s most devastating conflicts. But Donald Trump, even before he was felled by Covid-19 and sent to Walter Reed Medical Center, could not have cared less, as long as he thought such trafficking in the tools of death and destruction would help his political prospects.

Sighting. Palestinians converge on Jordan Valley checkpoints to protest Trump plan

Israeli soldiers fire sound grenades at Palestinian protesters by the Tayseer checkpoint, the Jordan Valley, the West Bank, January 30, 2020 | Ahmad Al-Bazz / Activestills

By KEREN MANOR*

The morning after President Donald Trump committed to recognizing Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank during the release of his much-awaited Middle East peace plan, Palestinians protested the deal that would annex the Jordan Valley, the breadbasket of their territory, by motoring trackers through an Israeli checkpoint.

Breaking with Washington: Arabs and Muslims must take a stance for Palestine

By RAMZY BAROUD

(February 12) – A negotiated solution to the ‘Palestinian-Israeli conflict’, at least the way envisaged by successive US administrations, has failed. Now, Palestinians and their allies would have to explore a whole new path of liberation that does not go through Washington.

It is easy to place all the blame on the current US administration, setting apart dodgy characters such as the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as the man who has single-handedly diminished any real chances for a just peace in Palestine and Israel.

No to the imperialist US-Israeli “Deal of the Century!” End Israeli occupation of Palestine!

Defend and support the Palestinian people’s heroic resistance to occupation!

– Statement of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), January 31, 2020 –

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) resolutely condemns “Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People,” put forward by President Donald Trump on January 28 as a provocation and act of violence against the Palestinian people. It is aimed at extinguishing their rights, particularly the right of return, a collective right which has been affirmed year after year by the United Nations General Assembly. By proposing that the more than 7 million Palestinians, including those in Gaza and the West Bank, be settled in what will be a bantustan in Gaza, in the countries where they are now living or in some other state that the U.S. will generously broker, the aim is to extinguish the historical memory of the Palestinian people and their decades-long struggle for their rights so gloriously expressed in the “Great March of Return” in Gaza in 2018 to 2019.

Trump ‘solves’ the Arab-Israeli conflict

President Donald J. Trump listens as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers remarks on Jan. 28, 2020, during the unveiling of the Trump administration’s Middle East Peace Plan | White House, Shealah Craighead

This plan goes beyond all previous U.S. commitments to Israel and of course it too will not work, writes As’ad AbuKhalil in Consortium News

Glory has long motivated U.S. presidents in their approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict. That has been clear since the administration of John F. Kennedy attempted to “solve” the intractable conflict.

They all know that by solving the conflict, once and for all, they would manage a secure place for their names in history. And for many of the biblically-minded presidents there are also religious motivations in associating their names with “peace plans” which aim to reward or elevate the status of biblical Israel. (Jimmy Carter in his book, “The Blood of Abraham,” could not distinguish between the modern occupation state of Israel, and Israel of the Bible.)

Kushner as a colonial administrator: Let’s talk about the “Israeli model”

Endless futile attempts to negate Palestinians’ right to be | RAMZY BAROUD

In a TV interview on June 2, on the news docu-series Axios on the HBO channel, Jared Kushner opened up regarding many issues, in which his “Deal of the Century” was a prime focus.

The major revelation made by Kushner, President Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, was least surprising. Kushner believes that Palestinians are not capable of governing themselves.

The Economic Plan: Try to buy the Palestinian people

Palestine Center Brief No. 329 (June 26, 2019)

By Mohamed Mohamed

On Saturday, June 22, the administration of President Donald Trump disclosed details of a proposed economic plan titled, “Peace to Prosperity – The Economic Plan: A New Vision for the Palestinian People.” This plan is the focus of the Bahrain conference on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Unsurprisingly, this so-called “new vision” did not come from the Palestinian people.

Trump’s Deal of the Century: Resurrecting the PLO Is Palestine’s best response

Protest in Gaza City, March 6, 2019, against Trump’s “Deal of the Century.”

By RAMZY BAROUD

Palestinian groups, Fatah, Hamas and others should not confine themselves to merely rejecting the Trump Administration’s so-called ‘Deal of the Century.’ Instead, they should use their resistance to the new American-Israeli plot as an opportunity to unify their ranks.

The illegitimate State of Israel: Plan Dalet – Master Plan for the Conquest of Palestine

The Road to Nowhere by Ismail Shammout 1930-2006, whose family was expelled from Lydda in 1948. The plight of the refugees is depicted in many of his most famous paintings | Displaced Palestinians

On May 14, 1948, the Zionist state of Israel was established by unilateral declaration in defiance of the United Nations and international law. It was established on the basis of 33 massacres and the dispossession and mass expulsions of the Palestinian people from their land by the foreign-armed Zionist state and its militias. Some 750,000 Palestinians were forced to flee, registered as refugees with the United Nations. Contrary to the disinformation on the issue which insists that the Palestinian exodus was due to orders broadcast to them by their leaders – to deny the people the right of return – these actions were the consequence of a strategic master plan. We are reproducing a seminal work by Prof. WALID KHALIDI originally published in 1961, which exposed for the first time the full extent and criminality of Plan D (for Dalet), as well as a new introduction he wrote in autumn 1988 on the anniversary of the UN Partition resolution.

Warship Watch. NATO fleet and US-Israeli war exercises in the Mediterranean

By MANLIO DINUCCI

ROME (March 13) – In 2006, Israel attacked Lebanon, hoping to crush Hezbollah and provoke a reaction from Syria. It is now preparing a new attack on Lebanon, hoping this time to trigger a riposte from Iran. In both cases, the game is rigged, because Israel depends on the United States. This scenario is the theme of the Juniper Cobra 2018 exercises

During the first half of March, two major war exercises are underway – one in the Mediterranean off the coast of Sicily, the other in Israel – both led and supported by USA/NATO commands and bases in Italy.

For the record regarding Jerusalem (al-Quds)

US president Donald Trump has declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel and even “the eternal capital of the Jewish people.” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu invokes the bible in hailing Trump’s outrageous declaration.

Sighting (photo supplement): Hands off Jerusalem! Affirm the rights of the Palestinian people!

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

The Palestinian people have risen in a mighty storm, supported by the peoples of the world, against the declaration by U.S. President Donald Trump that the U.S. considers Jerusalem (Al Quds) to be the capital of Israel. We stand as one with the heroic Palestinian people and their resistance to the Zionist occupation and U.S. attempts to control the affairs of all peoples or destroy what they cannot control. Strikes and days of rage are underway across Palestine, with courageous men, women and youth confronting the Israeli Occupation forces. Solidarity protests are being held outside U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide. Join In!