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Improve Your Relationship: Can You Really Stay Happily Ever After In a Relationship? Is it possible to live happily ever after? A good marriage is something you have to work at. Both partners have to be willing to work at it. You will need lots of tender loving care to keep your relationship fresh and exciting. When you are both willing to give and receive, the chance for survival of your relationship is increased. Tips for keeping your marriage strong and satisfying: 1. Whether you are just married or have been together for many years, in order to build a strong relationship you must learn how to communicate effectively. Listen to your partner and be sure you understand what they are trying to convey. Give each other your full attention when you are talking. Look at your partner in the eyes when they are speaking to help you really understand them. Don't just hear. Acknowledge that what has been said is clearly understood. 2. 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Arab Regimes and the Betrayal of Palestine (w/ Farah El-Sharif) | The Chris Hedges Report Farah El-Sharif examines the forces that lead Muslim leaders to stand by and witness the slaughter of their own people in exchange for “petty crumbs” from Western powers and the Zionist state. Chris Hedges This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble. Farah El-Sharif, writer, academic and Visiting Scholar at Stanford, is uncompromisingly blunt in her assessment of the Middle East. The decades of repression faced by an entire people have produced a fragmented society—culturally and through colonially imposed borders. To help understand why the Muslim world is so broken, corrupt and full of contradictions, El Sherif joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report. “The systemic repression that Muslim communities worldwide experience is inextricably linked to the interventionist, expansionist, supremacist American-Israeli Western project,” El Sharif says. Though the region has grown to have perceived independence from its former colonial states, El Sharif explains that the imperial agenda and the manufacturing of a Muslim menace continues. The psychological and physical damage runs so deep that many give in to their oppressors in hope of selfish prosperity, while others look at themselves as less than deserving of a dignified existence. The genocide in Gaza proves to be the most crucial litmus test, as the leaders of fellow Muslim countries stand by and witness the slaughter of their own people in exchange for “petty crumbs” from Western powers and the Zionist state. “A lot of Muslims even internalize this war on terror rhetoric and they themselves start being apologetic and say, Islam is peaceful, Islam is this, Islam is compatible with democracy, Islam is compatible with civility,” El Sharif explains. “I see that as a sign of decimated consciousness, not just double consciousness. They don't know their own faith, they don't know their own history, and so they start being apologetic about it, and that is a position of weakness.” Chris Hedges Producer: Max Jones Intro: Diego Ramos Crew: Diego Ramos, Sofia Menemenlis and Thomas Hedges Transcript: Diego Ramos Thanks for reading The Chris Hedges Report! This post is public so feel free to share it. Share Transcript Chris Hedges “The Muslim world has been tested with the weakest, most corrupt, and most hypocritical scholars and rulers because, as a community, our priorities have long been in the wrong place,” writes the Islamic scholar Farah El Sherif. “After being ravaged by colonialism, we no longer rallied behind the core characteristics of true leadership: Prophetic knowledge, principle, and integrity. We no longer valued what is just and true. We chased after the fickle mirages of autocratic power, wealth, charisma, and status. Thus was our downfall. As a result, we today see tightlipped, impotent Muslim rulers idly watch the river of blood as it flows from Gaza. We see compromised scholars betray the Qur’anic command for justice and bend their heads in humiliation and fear of worldly powers. Save for a few, most Muslim rulers and scholarly elites have chosen self-preservation and silence. The river of blood in Gaza is also a river of treachery and collusion. With leaders like these, it is no wonder the Muslim world is in the sorry state that it is in today.” “Palestinians could see from the very beginning that there is nothing ‘post’ about the postcolonial world order,” she continues. “They have ever since got less and less of their rights, lands, and dignity with each passing day. In the same era, the opium of nationalism spread like wildfire as the Muslim world was carved into colonially constructed nation states. The rest of the Muslim world enjoyed its false sense of ‘sovereignty’ and accepted its bridle, divorced from the lonesome plight of the Palestinian people, fooled into believing that the same system that gave birth to their ‘sovereign’ states could guarantee their safety and protection.” “What,” she asks, “is the Muslim body today if not diseased, aching, and wounded?” Joining me to discuss the state of the Muslim world , the connection between repressive Arab regimes and the so-called war on terror, how the genocide in Gaza exposes the moral rot within Arab ruling elites and the efforts by the west to manufacture a complaint form of Islam is Farah El Sherif. Farah received her PhD from Harvard University’s Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations with a research focus on Islam in Africa and the Levant, the modern nation state and Muslim political movements. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at Stanford. You can find her work at sermonsatcourt.substack.com Farah, let's begin with the state of the Muslim world, the Arab world, which from the quotes that I pulled from the introduction, is you call it a diseased body, but it's also a created body by Western powers, propped up by Western powers. You grew up in Jordan. The Hashemite rulers of Jordan were imposed on the Jordanian people. Jordan didn't exist, of course, at the beginning, Transjordan, whatever you want to call it. They are from Saudi Arabia. The oil interests created the rulers of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And this has just been a kind of legacy, whether it's [Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-] Sisi in Egypt or any other kind of pliant ruler. So let's talk about the state of the Arab world and let's talk about—and we were together in Jordan this summer—the failure on the part of Arab rulers to push back in any, with the exception of Yemen of course, push back in any meaningful way against the genocide of the Palestinian people and then in many cases actually collaborate with the Zionists to overcome the maritime blockade imposed by Yemen. Farah El-Sharif Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, Chris, for having me and the generous introduction. Really, if you ask any person in Gaza, they will tell you that the thing that hurt them the most was not the American, German and Israeli bombs. It was the cowardice of kin. It was the collusion. It was the abandonment with this kind of Zionist campaign to exterminate them. That is what is the source of their true emotional and psychological scar. So to say that the Muslim community worldwide is stuck between a rock and a hard place is probably the understatement of the century. So if it isn't these bombs, quadcopters, drones that are shredding our bodies and burning our children alive, it's these colonially installed puppets that look towards this model of empire and salivate over it, competing in who gets to please it the most and who gets to bend over to be compliant towards it. So these security states have our people strangulated, whether it is through surveillance, repression or intimidation. And if it isn't the horrific Sednaya Prison that we've seen footage of and other sadistic torture dungeons under Assadist Syria, it is the hundreds of other unknown torture cells still operating in the West Bank, Egypt, Saudi, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Jordan, East Turkestan, and India, Kashmir, where political prisoners are detained by the hundreds and held under gruesome conditions, often without charge. So if it isn't that, it's the Israeli soldiers that relish in breaking the bones of Palestinian children prisoners. It's the [inaudible] concentration camp where Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya was abducted over a week ago with no word from him and where Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh of Al-Shifa Hospital was brutally raped and killed before him. It is the crude and sadistic Israeli parliamentarian urge to protect the so-called right to rape. If not that, it is the moral stain of Abu Ghraib. It is the Patriot Act that detains people like Dr. Aafia Siddiqui the rest of the Holy Land Five, and men like Abu Zubaydah, Guantanamo's so-called forever prisoner, or America's tortured guinea pig, who still resides in Guantanamo [Bay] since 2002, and who we forget is of Palestinian descent himself. So this, like you rightly pointed out, Chris, the systemic repression that Muslim communities worldwide experience is inextricably linked to the interventionist, expansionist, supremacist American Israeli Western project. In a twisted way, they kind of all work together like this Pharaoh behemoth protected by Orwellian buzzwords like liberal democracy or state sovereignty or the so-called rules-based order, which Gaza has exposed as nothing but a ruse-based order. So it is as if this entire ecosystem of repression feeds on injustice. And we've reached the abyss of the abyss of repression. And this world order is this Frankenstein-like world whose horrors have been unleashed primarily on innocents. So what the great African-American theologian James Cone called structural sin, we've reached an alarming level of that, of desensitization to atrocious mass violence. And what does all of this do? It kills and strangulates all of us, not just Muslims. It produces this endemic spiritual death which affects not only Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians, but humanity as a whole. So this pernicious web of carceral cancer is sustained by the politics of compliance to an empire which sees Muslims like me, Palestinians and Arabs as mere fodder for this monstrous system. Nowhere is this collusion more evident than things like basic human rights and civil liberties being eroded in the West. Look at the state of Muslims in Germany. Just last week, I think a senator from Florida, Randy Fine, tweeted essentially a final solution, a call for a final solution, saying that it's high time we dealt with this fundamentally dangerous culture, i.e. Islam, what I would say to that is what is fundamentally dangerous and broken of a culture is one that has normalized genocide, one that is okay with watching images of people being burned alive and moving on with their day. That is what is fundamentally broken and that is what is dangerous. So this manufacturing, decades of manufacturing the Muslim menace, this idea of the war on terror, or let's change that proposition and call it a war of terror, a war of state terror that has Muslim political prisoners locked up and exterminated. This same campaign also sustains and funds the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the ongoing land grab annexation and colonization of land in Syria and Lebanon. And so all of this is part of a campaign to dominate and redraw the Middle East straight out of a 21st century crusader-cum-Zionist colonial playbook. Except this campaign is more militarized, it's more advanced, it's more funded and supremacist than ever before. So I don't think that this is a controversial point, Chris, but I wrote this in my Substack that we are currently living in an age of Muslim internment, but we don't call it as such. We've reached a point where we have normalized the genocide and extermination of a people deemed to be bad wholesale according to the logic of the Judeo-Western Christian civilization. So, yes? Chris Hedges No, go ahead. Farah El-Sharif I was just gonna say that since World War II, we've primarily normalized seeing images of torture basically on Muslim bodies from Bosnia, Abu Ghraib, the Rab'a massacre at West Bank, and now in Gaza, the Rohingya, the Uighurs. So it's definitely a time where, a time of harrowing, sort of desensitization and dehumanization on a global systemic level. Chris Hedges Well, as you are well aware, the United States acted no differently from Israel, as Israel is, of course, the genocide is more pronounced, but the kinds of the torture, the tactics, the indiscriminate killing, the racist language, this was all part of the project, the imperial project in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Libya, in Syria. We have a kind of historical amnesia here in the United States. But certainly within the Muslim world, especially those people that have borne the brunt, mean, how many, what is it, one million Iraqis were killed because of our occupation of the country? They don't forget. They know. Farah El-Sharif No, absolutely, Chris, you're right. And I think that you talked about, with Dr. Gabor Maté, you talked about fragmented morality, but what we're seeing now in a lot of this knee-jerk geopolitical reactions to what's going on in the region, in the Middle East, is a kind of fragmented vision. And what you were saying about amnesia is absolutely true. So I'm trained as an intellectual historian where my job is to look at the long durée of ideas and look at the kind of the macro arc of where we're going as a human whole. And so I don't say this to be an alarmist. I'm probably the most anti-dogmatic person that you could talk to, but I say this not to kind of play the victim card that, we Muslims, we need help, we're so helpless, and then turn that victimization into furthering another kind of oppression or another kind of injustice. And we've seen that happen to many people who are oppressed or repressed, suddenly they become the tyrant. And I think that for Muslims and Islam, we're at a kind of a turning point, a testing kind of, Gaza has been kind of the litmus test for Western leadership to basically see if there truly are about the highest ideals of Western civilization protecting the right to liberty, the right to life, the right to freedom. And it is clear, it is exceedingly clear that these freedoms only extend to the in-kind group. They're only seen as worthy to Westerners, to white people. Whereas when it comes to these barbarians abroad, let's just decimate them, let's just destroy them. And this arrogant expansionist program is very reminiscent of the 18th and 19th century colonial brutal campaigns that I read about when it comes to the French in West Africa or the Dutch in Indonesia. And it's exactly all from the same colonial playbook, except now it is fattened up with this, like I said, this Orwellian cover of civility and democracy. And we should not forget that this campaign that we are seeing now is exactly out of [Benjamin] Netanyahu's kind of wet dream for the Middle East to take all of it, essentially. And in 1996, you know better than me about the Clean Break Policy that was designed to take out seven countries in five years—Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and then swallow the region whole. And for anybody to look at one regime change and to say that that's not part and parcel of this campaign. Even the War on Terror was cooked up in Tel Aviv in 1982 or even before in 1979 through the Jonathan Institute that Netanyahu himself founded. He said, we're done with the red threat now. Now is the green threat, that of Islamic terror. And so a lot of Muslims even internalize this war on terror rhetoric and they themselves start being apologetic and say, Islam is peaceful, Islam is this, Islam is compatible with democracy, if Islam is compatible with civility. And I see that as a sign of decimated consciousness, not just double consciousness. They don't know their own faith, they don't know their own history, and so they start being apologetic about it, and that is a position of weakness. Chris Hedges Well, that is, and you've written about this, there's a huge push to create this kind of quizzling form of Islam. That's what the Abraham Accords are. So, you know, we divide, and this is classic colonial rule, we divide, let's put it in commas, the natives into the “good natives” and the “bad natives.” Those who are willing to serve in our colonial police force, like the Palestinian Authority, which is currently attacking Jenin and has thrown Al Jazeera out of the West Bank, imagine, following of course Israel's example within Israel proper. Let's talk about that, the attempt to create divisions within the Muslim world and this insidious project—and the Abraham Accords I think epitomize that—to create quote unquote the good Muslim. Farah El-Sharif Yeah, I mean, it's a very archetypal story in a sense that in every struggle for liberation, there will always be the collaborators, the native informants, if you will, who kind of throw their people under the bus and scurry the favor of the powers that be and try to kind of gain favor in exchange for petty crumbs. But ultimately, history, scripture have shown us that it is a Faustian bargain. At the end of the day, these people who think that by cozying up with repressive forces of empire like Israel and the United States at the expense of the actual lives of the people they govern, they do that thinking that they're securing their reign or that they are getting political expediency or perhaps their son might become king next or some kind of delusional worldly fantasy like that. But the funny thing that you mentioned about the Abraham Accords and how they are singularly pernicious, Chris, is that they use this language of a kind of this prophetic authority. They invoke Abraham as the father of all three religions and hence give this kind of treacherous collusion, a kind of a prophetic theological tinge. And this is again, part and parcel of this Orwellian doublespeak where this time they have Muslim scholars, even here in America, Muslim scholars who defend that, who are in cahoots with the UAE and Saudi, who are mum about the genocide in Gaza. And so historically we've had Muslim scholars in the lead of anti-colonial resistance movements, today you see they're fully co-opted or they're in dungeon prisons like in Saudi. Right now, I read yesterday that every 25 hours, one person is executed under MBS in Saudi Arabia. The other day, just somebody I know was detained for around three months, a woman for wearing a kufiya, a Palestinian kufiya in the holy mosque of Mecca. So this is the kind of cancerous kind of relationship that I was referring to earlier. And the funny thing is, Chris, the irony about the Abraham Accords is that in the Islamic intellectual tradition, the Prophet Muhammad was asked about the Prophet Abraham and what he stood for. So one of his companions asked the Prophet, tell us about the Abrahamic scrolls. And you know what the Prophet said about that? He said, the prophet Abraham used to speak like this: “Oh you wretched, insolent, conceited king, I did not send you to this world to collect worldly benefits, rather I sent you to respond to the supplication of the oppressed on my behalf. To respond to the supplication of the oppressed on my behalf.” And this is the exact opposite of what the Abraham Accords, backed by the UAE and Saudi, Bahrain, Morocco, do. They actually strangulate the oppressed. They are actually all the people living under the rubble or starving or dying from the cold in Gaza were only able to get to that point because of the collusion and collaboration of Arab and Muslim normalizers. Chris Hedges Let's, for people who don't know what the Abraham Accords are, this is Jared Kushner's project under the Trump administration, explain what it's—I mean, in its rough description, it essentially normalizes relationships, diplomatic relationships between Israel and Saudi Arabia, at the expense of the Palestinians, of course. But talk about the Abraham Accords and why they are so pernicious. Farah El-Sharif Yeah, it was signed in 2020, like you correctly said, under the Trump administration. It was, you could say, Kushner's kind of vision, alongside Netanyahu, of course. And it was signed between the US, and people don't even realize that Palestine is not even part of this accord. They arrogantly cut out the people whose lives are affected primarily. This is about them, this is about Palestinians, and yet they weren't consulted, they weren't even present. And so this is part of this kind of effort to kind of enact this cultural change, to promote a kind of Islam that is a quietist Islam, that is just cultural, that is just cosmetic. Women in hijabs, great. Men who go to the mosque, great. This rote ritual type of Islam that is devoid of its true spiritual core, its prophetic calling, which is what? To speak a just word in the face of a tyrant. That is the greatest jihad we're taught in our tradition. It's only later, actually Saudi itself never signed this. There's an article, if you look it up, maybe one week before October 7th, MBS said, we're very close to signing peace with Israel. And so even now, after the Gaza genocide, that has not been a disqualifier for any of these Arab regimes to stop or take back those treaties. They still have kept their word on these accords, on these peace treaties, these trade routes. And so when we say that these Arab armies, these militaristic behemoths, they've only been fighting their own people. They haven't been defending the oppressed that need them in places like Gaza. And now because of these Gulf states coming into the picture, we are seeing a more cancerous kind of form of normalization on the state level where you see even ordinary journalists, Muslims going online say, you know, we need to coexist. We need to do that. We need to do this. But then how can you coexist with an entity that is essentially trying to basically decimate your entire religious character, your identity, your beliefs, your core scriptural commitments, let alone, your brethren's bodies and the right to exist. Chris Hedges Before we talk about, I think you would agree, kind of, to me, inexplicable silence on the part of most Muslim, many Muslim leaders over the genocide, let's talk about what these Arab regimes are actually doing in Jordan, in Egypt, in Saudi Arabia, the land bridge that was set up, the fleecing of Palestinians by Hala, the shooting down of the active assistance by the Jordanian, well, they say it was Jordanian, it was probably heavily American. When I was in Jordan, I was a little surprised to see so many American contractors and soldiers, not in uniform of course, in the hotel where I was at. But let's talk about what they're actively doing. They're not just passive, but the active support for the Zionist state in the midst of the genocide. Farah El-Sharif Yes, I mean, again, if we want to move away from having a fragmented vision and looking at specific states and how they approach Palestine, Palestine has been kind of a revealer and it's pointing us to the longer arc of history. I remind your listeners that these nation states were basically concocted out of a colonial kind of divide and conquer classic strategy after World War I, things like the McMahon policy or the Sykes-Picot [Agreement]. And so these states are cut from this kind of smelly leftovers of the French and the British empires. And people think that just when you declare independence or you're now you're sovereign, it doesn't actually mean that we are free or sovereign. On the contrary, it means that the level of control and coercion and repression has gone underground. It's more ambiguous. It's harder to locate. So that is why, for example, if you go to a protest in a place like a Jordanian university and you say something, you could get snatched up. Or in Egypt, you express solidarity with the Palestinians. People are afraid to do that because they think that that could be cause for them to basically disappear and go underground. So again, this ecosystem of fear not only surveils and kind of mutes people who are so-called not in, who are kind of not in the genocidal atmosphere, but I like what, there was an Egyptian taxi driver in the video that went kind of viral, he was, he rode with a gentleman from Gaza and when he found out that he was from Gaza, he started crying and he said, no, no, no, I won't take your money. And this is the least I could do not to take your money. Forgive us, forgive us for we are occupied too, he said. [POTENTIALLY PUT VIDEO HERE] https://www.instagram.com/doamuslims/reel/DCY5x7Uo3lS/ And I think that is the sentiment that all Arabs feel, but that they cannot say that we are also occupied. We are also under this thumb of this brutal repressive system, whereas Palestinians have had the courage to break free from that. So in a sense, Gaza, sometimes the Arabs say that it represents the most free place on earth because it broke out of that prison. And so a lot of these prisons that Arabs, Muslims have in these Muslim majority Arab countries are mental colonization. If you see a policeman on the street, perhaps they shrink and cower more. Even I, I grew up in Jordan, it's a police state. I remember my dad, God rest his soul, he was a veteran journalist like you, Chris, and he was the editor-in-chief of Jordan's oldest daily. I remember it very well that when we started talking about something slightly taboo or slightly dangerous, they would say, the walls can hear everything, or he would crack a joke and he'd say, you're the neighbor's daughter, you're not my daughter just to kind of joke like that. But these were the kinds of jokes that we... Not funny. You know, this is the kind of climate that we grew up in. And now to see it become in this form, where it's a form of insanity, where you have your own people, your next of blood and kin being kind of exterminated right next door. And not only that, you see the trade routes that goes and funds the occupation boxes and boxes of tomatoes and cucumbers and lettuce and produce that go to feed and sustain the settlers and the soldiers while Gaza starves. Chris Hedges Let me just make clear that this comes in this pipeline—UAE, Saudi Arabia through Jordan over the King Hussein Bridge. Farah El-Sharif Correct, correct, Chris. And so we should probably shed light on the plight of3, the journalist who merely conducted an investigative report about this trade route, this land lifeline for the occupation. And she is currently doing five years in jail and is paying very hefty penalties for so-called cybercrime. And it's kind of a warning for others that don't you dare expose complicity or collusion or collaboration because you'll end up in a cell or a ditch like her. So it's just, the nice thing about it, Chris, it's like there's no ambiguity anymore, that people can no longer say that we should give them the benefit of the doubt. They're doing their best. It's a tough neighborhood. I hate this cliche. I hear it all the time. And they're always kind of invoking that, it's a tough neighborhood. Politics are dirty. But it's being blown off with crystal clear clarity that this is one occupation. It's one system. The enemy is one. And so it's up to people and their moral clarity and moral courage to everyday shed a little bit of that fear because once they partake in it and once they accept it, they say, oh, generations of people who live in fear and I accept this. I think my generation and hopefully my children's generation will no longer accept that kind of degradation, denigration and fear-based rule. Chris Hedges Yeah, I'm glad you raised the plight of Hiba, who, as you know, I tried to visit. I filled out all the paperwork and then sat outside the prison, the women's prison in Amman all day and wasn't finally allowed in. How fragile are these regimes? Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, I sense they're very fragile. Farah El-Sharif Yeah, I mean, we forget that this nation state structure that was cooked up in the kitchen of people like [British army officer and archaeologist] T.E. Lawrence and Sykes-Picot, basically are constructs. They're recent constructs. And we think of them as something that is the status quo since time immemorial, but they're really not. They stand on very fickle ground as we saw that things can change overnight. And so it reminds me of the story of Pharaoh who in the Quranic scripture that we share with our Jewish and Christian brethren is that right before, when he got to the zenith of his power, right before he got to Moses, the sea split and swallowed him whole. He became kind of, until this day, a sign and a kind of a lesson and a symbol for what happens to people who think that they are invincible, for people think that they will live forever. And so God knows what the future brings, but this level of foundational rot, I don't think can hold much longer. Chris Hedges Let's talk about, you and I were in an event, it was a year ago in Toronto, we were talking about Palestine. And what struck me after we spoke is the number of young people who came up and asked me and probably you why the Muslim leaders, Muslim leadership didn't say what, what was not unequivocal in the condemnation of the genocide. And unequivocal in the condemnation of the apartheid state of Israel. And I want to ask you that question. How do you characterize the response of the Muslim leadership in the United States? Farah El-Sharif Yeah, I remember that Chris, and it was heartbreaking and it still is. And I thought about this a lot. And I think it's largely due to the fact that this war on terror rhetoric that kind of weeds out the bad from the so-called good Muslims, the good Muslims who are compliant, who don't support so-called radical, brutal acts of terror. So it's almost as if this colonial rhetoric has been internalized in the consciousness of Muslim scholars and leaders. And so that they say that when perhaps that if we stand with the oppressed, if we speak up for Gaza, the powers that be might think that I support Hamas or that I support this and that. So again, it's like this, not just decimated consciousness, like I said, it's more than that. It's kind of capitulating completely because you're saying that the vernacular of justice has to be removed from Islam for me to have a seat at the table, for me to gain proximity to power, maybe get the ear of Biden or get the ear of Trump. And I see this happening a lot that some Muslims are scurrying the favor of the right-wing kind of platform and thinking that, at least we meet on certain points regarding families and family values and whatnot. So to me, this just signals a huge crisis in our priorities. It signals a terrible misunderstanding of the true aim and kind of point of being a Muslim and that is standing firm in your own principles and ethics and higher morality that is tethered to the throne of God, that is tethered to the oneness, the true oneness of God. So other than oneness, what do we have? Multiplicity. And multiplicity signals, I'm afraid, I'm afraid of this commitment. What if I do this? What if I say that? And so that is in a sense, a kind of a hidden polytheism. And so when someone who has a position of authority and scholarship and people look up to them and then they lapse in that responsibility, the whole community is hurt. And the young people are like, where do I locate my Islam? Who am I? What does it mean? And so that is why I think, you know, we are in this place where it's too comfortable with our salaries, upgrading to our SUV and our nice respectable suburban life while our brethren overseas get killed, it's a complete lapse of leadership and collective morality. Chris Hedges Explain to me this conundrum of Muslims for Trump. Farah El-Sharif I think I get it. Chris Hedges It's kind of like it's kind of like Jews for Hitler. I mean, maybe not that extreme, but I mean. Farah El-Sharif Yeah. No, but I mean, that's where, you know, that gives you a window and how this destroyed kind of consciousness, this severe inferiority complex where you are willing to basically, you know, shut up and accept racist rhetoric about you and your people. And it's this amnesiac kind of just, you know, the Muslim ban, it's still ongoing. It's not like it ended under Biden. And so it saddens me that Muslims for Trump is even a thing because what you're buying into, you're buying into the very campaign that's going to probably deal the final blow. And already you can see how very vitriolic and toxic X [formerly known as Twitter] and platforms like that are and full-blown Islamophobia, xenophobia. And there's this like maybe a strong man appeal to people who think that, well, this is a leader and maybe these are remnants from autocratic nostalgia that I see bumper stickers in Amman for Saddam Hussein. I guess this idea that, okay, if this leader is strong and tells it like it is, and he doesn't mince his words, then he must have something charismatic or strong. Chris Hedges Well, but at least Saddam Hussein was an enemy to the Zionist state. I mean, I was in Ramallah this summer with Atef Abu Saif, and he said, if you go in these houses, you won't see a picture of [Former President of the Palestinian National Authority] Yasser Arafat, you'll see a picture of Saddam. But Trump has never done anything positive for Muslims. Farah El-Sharif No, it's baffling and it signals a dangerous level of kind of maybe collective insanity, but there are pockets of hope. I think that, I guess by and large, this election cycle was manic for everybody. And I think we've reached a point where this lesser of two evils conundrum has reached a point where it can no longer be replicated in future election cycles. People are sick of lesser of two evils. They just want no more evil, no more. They just want the good, the true, something other than an orange fascist in charge or a Black woman whose funded genocide. So this conundrum, really this strangulation, this choke hold that we're in, for me is a good thing because it signals that, okay, at least this Leviathan is probably taking its last breaths and that more sane, conscientious people with a moral conscience, with a real pulse, with a real concern for humanity, hopefully, will be the ones to come next and inherit this ailing world. Chris Hedges So where do you see us going in the months and years ahead and then to close, what do you tell young people, in particular young Muslims? I don't, for the foreseeable future, for me, it looks pretty dark. Farah El-Sharif Yeah, it's a hard question, but also it keeps me up at night. I think about this a lot. I've always been this intense girl that my family makes fun of me, that even as a younger kid, I was always brooding and thinking about the Muslim world, our affairs, our conditions. So I'd like to refer to a lecture that I was at when I was a student at Georgetown in 2008, my favorite Catholic theologian, gave the nostra aetate annual lecture at the time. He said something that really blew my mind. He said that in his comparing Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, he said that Judaism rests on kind of tribal, hierarchical commitments. And so its natural culmination, its natural telos is this—the ethno-religious state of Israel. And that is its final conclusion. And then he went on to say that Christianity is beheld by the papacy and the institutionalization of the church. And that's its logical conclusion. When he talked about Islam, he said, Islam is in its essence universalist. And it is, it's tethered by this idea of oneness of man and Muhammad as a mercy to all of humankind, not just Muslims, but their final arc or their final culmination has not been decided yet. So I call on my fellow Muslims to take this opportunity of rampant moral rot, of decay and destruction in the systemic world order that we live in that has exposed itself as hypocritical, essentially anti-Muslim, brutal and completely inhumane to kind of lean in to their agency as Muslims that can perhaps bring about a brighter future, that can perhaps fulfill this untold role, a positive role collectively that Islam can offer the world. Because unless and until we remain shackled in our mental and spiritual colonized mentality, whether it is about how we know ourselves, how we know religion, how we conduct ourselves politically, we will never break free. And so we have the potential to do that. We have the potential to be like Malcolm. For me, he's the greatest American Muslim exemplar and courageous leader. We call him the great American Shaheed, the martyr of America, who he himself visited Gaza in 1964 and he said the spirit of Allah was strong in Gaza. So look to these people instead of trying to wait for your average Imam or your charismatic Sheikh to grow a backbone, you have plenty of exemplars within our tradition living and dead, including the people of Gaza themselves. There is a Quranic kind of pointer there that the oppressed shall become the teachers. They shall become the role models of faith, similarly to how in Christianity the meek shall inherit the earth. So the kind of fortitude that the people of Gaza have, let that not go in vain. The other day I saw a video, Chris, that I can't get out of my mind of a father holding the shroud of his child in the ambulance. And he was speaking so clairvoyantly, so prophetically that it gave me goosebumps all over. He's saying, Ya Netanyahu, Ya Arab, O Netanyahu, O you Arabs, O you colluders, everybody who failed us, Allah is only raising you so that he can tear you down. So don't think that this, what you see, all of this supremacy, this militarization, this ironclad power, this supremacy is going to be the name of the game forever. It's only this shocking in its dehumanization, this shocking in its genocidal bloodlust for it to, hopefully, wither away and usher in a different world, a better world. Chris Hedges Great, thank you Farah. I want to thank Diego [Ramos], Sofia [Menemenlis], Thomas [Hedges], and Max [Jones], who produced the show. You can find me at ChrisHedges.Substack.com. Photos Swarm of Insects in Front of Door (photo in thumbnail) (Original Caption) Locusts cover the doorstep of an Iranian home here, as the worst locust plague in 81 years brings threat of hunger and death to Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. (Photo by © Bettmann/CORBIS/Bettmann Archive) TOPSHOT-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT TOPSHOT - An aerial view shows the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in Wadi Gaza, in the central Gaza Strip, on November 28, 2023, amid a truce in battles between Israel and Hamas. Israel and Hamas embarked on November 28 on a two-day extension to a truce that has allowed Israeli hostages to be freed from Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners. (Photo by Mahmud Hams / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images) King Hussein And Benjamin Netanyahu (L-R) Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Jordan's King Hussein, Pres. Bill Clinton & Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu during Wye peace agreement signing ceremony handshakes at White House (bkgrd. L-R: Sandy Berger & VP Al Gore). (Photo by Dirck Halstead/Getty Images) Egypt's Military Chief Visits Moscow MOSCOW, RUSSIA - FEBRUARY 13: Egypt's Minister of Defense, First Deputy Prime Minister and likely presidential candidate, Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin (not pictured) in Novo-Ogaryovo residence on February 13, 2014 near Moscow, Russia. Egypt's Minister of Defense Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy are on a two-day official visit to meet with their Russian counterparts for bilateral discussions. (Photo by Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images) TOPSHOT-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-GAZA TOPSHOT - A missile explodes in Gaza City during an Israeli air strike on October 8, 2023. srael, reeling from the deadliest attack on its territory in half a century, formally declared war on Hamas Sunday as the conflict's death toll surged close to 1,000 after the Palestinian militant group launched a massive surprise assault from Gaza. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images) ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV or drone) flies over the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on November 3, 2023 amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images) TOPSHOT-SYRIA-CONFLICT TOPSHOT - An aerial photo shows people gathering at the Saydnaya prison in Damascus on December 9, 2024. Syrian rescuers searched the Sednaya jail, synonymous with the worst atrocities of ousted president Bashar al-Assad's rule, as people in the capital on December 9 gathered to celebrate a day after Assad fled while Islamist-led rebels swept into the capital, ending five decades of brutal rule over a country ravaged by one of the deadliest wars of the century. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP) (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images) Pro-Palestinian protestors demonstrate in Toronto to demand release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya TORONTO, CANADA - JANUARY 5 : Pro-Palestinian protestors demanding release of Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, gather to protest against Israeli attacks in Gaza on January 5, 2025 at Queen's Park outside the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images) U.S. Soldiers Continue Work At Notorious Abu Ghraib Prison After Abuse Allegations ABU GHRAIB, IRAQ - MAY 10: U.S. soldiers maintain security at the Abu Ghraib prison May 10, 2004 in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. Allegations of abuse at the prison, notorious under the Saddam Hussein regime as a place of torture, lead to the suspension of the commanding officer Brigadier General Janis Karpinski and some 17 other soldiers. (Photo by Khampha Bouaphanh/Pool/Getty Images) James H. Cone Cone in 2009 | from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Cone Florida Stands with Israel Conference Randy Fine speaking at conference | Wikimedia Commons Oil Fires Burn In Iraq RUMAYLA, IRAQ - MARCH 27: U.S. Army Specialist Chad Morton, of George West, Texa,s stands next to a burning oil well at the Rumayla oil fields March 27, 2003 in Rumayla, Iraq. Several oil wells were set ablaze by retreating Iraqi troops in the Ramayla area, the second largest offshore oilfield in the country, near the Kuwaiti border. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) Gabor Maté By Clare Day | Wikimedia Commons ISRAEL-VOTE-BARAK-NETANYAHU (FILES) Picture dated 02 July 1986 shows Labor party leader Ehud Barak (L) in a Major General uniform and Prime Minister and Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Both men are running for the office of prime minister in 17 May 1999 Israeli general elections. (B & W ONLY) (Photo by GPO / AFP) (Photo by GPO/AFP via Getty Images) TOPSHOT-PALESTINIAN-RELIGION-DEMONSTRATION TOPSHOT - Palestinian policemen stand opposite to demonstrators during a protest against a decision by the Palestinian Authority to grant a public land to the Russian church, in the West Bank city of Hebron, on February 4, 2017. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP) (Photo by HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images) Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishael By Guercino | Wikimedia Commons French President Macron Hosts Working Lunch With MBS, Crown Prince, Prime Minister Of Saudi Arabia PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 16: Emmanuel Macron (L) President of France, receives Mohammed Ben Salmane Bin Abdulaziz AL-SAOUD (R), Prince Hereditary, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the reception in the main courtyard of the Palais de l Elysee before their meeting on June 16, 2023 in Paris, France. Meeting, working dinner, between the President of the French Republic and the Crown Prince, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as part of his official visit to France, at the Elysee Palace. (Photo by Antoine Gyori - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images) US officially moves Israel embassy to Jerusalem JERUSALEM - MAY 14: (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY MANDATORY CREDIT - "ISRAEL PRESS OFFICE / HANDOUT" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) US President's daughter Ivanka Trump (left 3) Israel Prime Minister's wife Sara Netanyahu (left 2), Donald Trump's son-in-law and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner (R) and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) attend the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018. (Photo by Israel Press Office /Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) TOPSHOT-JORDAN-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT TOPSHOT - Jordanian police officers surround protesters during a demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians, in the town of Karameh on the border with Israel, on May 21, 2021. (Photo by Khalil MAZRAAWI / AFP) (Photo by KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP via Getty Images) "Great March of Return" demonstrations in Gaza GAZA CITY, GAZA - JULY 13: A Palestinian uses slingshot during the "Great March of Return" demonstration with ''Fidelity to Khan Al-Ahmar'' near Israel-Gaza border at Al-Bureyc refugee camp in Gaza City, Gaza on July 13, 2018. (Photo by Hassan Jedi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Hiba Abu Taha was arrested May 14 for an article alleging that Jordan allows regional companies to ship goods to Israel. (Screenshot: Al Ordon Al Yoom/YouTube) https://cpj.org/2024/06/palestinian-jordanian-journalist-hiba-abu-taha-sentenced-to-one-year-in-prison/ T. E. Lawrence. British archaeologist, military officer, and diplomat. Wikimeida Commons US-VOTE-POLITICS-TRUMP Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets local leaders of the Muslim community who endorsedd him onstage during a campaign rally at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Michigan, October 26, 2024. (Photo by Drew ANGERER / AFP) (Photo by DREW ANGERER/AFP via Getty Images) Saddam Hussein Iraq leader Saddam Hussein during one-day visit to Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. (Photo by Barry Iverson/Getty Images) Clinton Arafat Barak Peace Talks 373012 03: U.S. President Bill Clinton laughs with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (L) and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (R) July 11, 2000 at Camp David during peace talks. (Photo by Cynthia Johnson/Liaison) Americans Go To The Polls In The 2024 Elections FILE PHOTO (EDITORS NOTE: COMPOSITE OF IMAGES - Image numbers 2182486398, 2168330769) In this composite image, Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump. ***LEFT IMAGE*** CHUTE, WISCONSIN - NOVEMBER 01: Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to supporters during a campaign event at Little Chute High School on November 1, 2024 in Little Chute, Wisconsin. The event is one of three Harris has scheduled today in the swing state where she is in a tight race with her opponent Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images). ***RIGHT IMAGE*** POTTERVILLE, MICHIGAN - AUGUST 29: Former U.S. President and current Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks about the economy, inflation, and manufacturing during a campaign event at Alro Steel on August 29, 2024 in Potterville, Michigan. Michigan is considered a key battleground state in the upcoming November Presidential election. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) Gegenveranstaltung zum Deutschen Katholikentag, Hans Küng (GERMANY OUT) Foto: Professor Hans Küng (52) bei Rede. Berlin (Berlin West), 07. 06. 1980. Der Kirchentag von Unten, die Gegenveranstaltung zum 86. Deutschen Katholikentag, findet in der Freien Universität (FUB) statt. Star der Diskussion im Auditorium Maximum war der Theologe Küng, dem die Bischofskonferenz im Dezember 1979 die kirchliche Lehrerlaubnis (Missio canonica) entzog. (Photo by Mehner/ullstein bild via Getty Images) Malcolm X Speaking at Rally Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X draws various reactions from the audience as he restates his theme of complete separation of whites and African Americans. The rally outdrew a Mississippi-Alabama Southern Relief Committee civil rights event six blocks away 10 to 1. https://youtu.be/Zb4BksXtv1Y

Trump muses on ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Gaza Michael F. Brown Power Suits 30 January 2025 President Donald Trump with hands upraised at podium with man and American flag in background President Donald Trump frequently makes statements without sufficient facts or thinking through the consequences. Bonnie Cash UPI Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been issued with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes, will likely visit President Donald Trump at the White House as soon as next week. Whether Netanyahu will discuss Trump’s recent musings on ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip or focus on Iran and expanding the Abraham Accords remains to be seen. On Saturday on board Air Force One, Trump was asked about a call he had earlier in the day with King Abdullah of Jordan. Trump emphasized that the subject of their discussion was Jordan taking more Palestinian refugees. “He really houses, you know, millions of Palestinians, and he does it in a very humane way. And I compliment him on that. But he really – Jordan has done an amazing job of housing largely Palestinians. And he’s done it in a very successful way.” Trump added, “I said to him, ‘I’d love you to take on more.’ Because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess.” The president also noted he’d like “Egypt to take people” and would talk the following day with Egyptian President Abdulfattah al-Sisi. Egyptian media reported Tuesday there has not been a discussion between the two leaders. Trump then spoke specifics about removing some three quarters of Gaza’s population, though it wasn’t entirely clear if he thought he was talking about the entire population. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.” Winging it, he acknowledged ignorance. “And I don’t know. It’s something [that] has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything is demolished, and people are dying there. So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.” Asked if this would be temporary, Trump responded, “It could be temporarily, could be long term.” Rather than asking the obvious question about ethnic cleansing, the next journalist then pivoted to artificial intelligence. Later, the conversation did return to Trump releasing to Israel 2,000-pound bombs paused by the Biden administration. Asked why, Trump said, “Because they bought them.” There was no discussion about how Israel had previously used those bombs against Palestinian men, women and children in their homes to deadly effect. This is not an adversarial press, but one that too readily concedes ground rather than challenges Trump on ethnic cleansing and American allies using American weaponry to commit serious human rights violations, including genocide. Trump’s casual talk of ethnic cleansing received quick support from former Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who euphemistically refers to it as Palestinians leaving on a “voluntary” basis. Ben-Gvir tweeted: “I commend US President Trump for the initiative to transfer residents from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt. One of our demands from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to promote voluntary emigration. When the president of the world’s greatest superpower, Trump, personally brings up this idea, it is worth the Israeli government implementing it – promote emigration now!” Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich also took up the ethnic cleansing idea, though he did not mention Trump in his tweet. “After 76 years in which most of the population of Gaza was held by force under harsh conditions to maintain the ambition to destroy the state of Israel, the idea of ​​helping them find other places to start a new, good life is a great idea. After years of sanctifying terror, they will be able to establish a new, good life elsewhere.” Smotrich did cite Trump while speaking to journalists about developing an “operational plan” to turn the president’s words into reality. He claimed: “There is nothing to be excited about the weak opposition of Egypt and Jordan to the plan. We saw yesterday how Trump [imposed his will on] Colombia to deport immigrants despite its opposition. When he wants it, it happens.” Unsurprisingly, as Smotrich indicates, both Jordanian and Egyptian officials reject Trump’s rhetorical broadside. Alarmingly, CNN reports that “Amit Segal, an analyst with Israeli network Channel 12 News, cited Israeli officials and reported Trump’s move was ‘not a slip of the tongue but part of a much broader move than it seems, coordinated with Israel.’” If Segal’s claim is true, this is something to watch closely in the weeks ahead and at the Trump-Netanyahu meeting next week. Even before the inauguration, an official in the presidential transition also raised Indonesia as one of the locations to which Palestinians could be moved – meaning ethnically cleansed. In response to a question from The Electronic Intifada asking why Trump wants Palestinians to go to Jordan and Egypt rather than to homes and lands in Israel that they were expelled from in 1948, a State Department spokesperson in bold letters responded: “We aren’t going to comment on the president’s comments. We refer you to the White House.” It’s noteworthy the State Department is already so hollowed out by Trump that it can’t even reject ethnic cleansing. Of course, Biden’s State Department was similarly inept, even cruel, when questioned about its policies toward Israel and Palestinians in Gaza. Al Mezan, a human rights group in Gaza, also raised the right of return rather than ethnic cleansing. “Instead of advancing or supporting actions that blatantly breach international law, the international community must commit to its enforcement by ensuring the realization of the inalienable right of Palestinian refugees – who form over 70 percent of Gaza’s total population – to return to their ancestral homes and lands from which they were forcibly expelled in 1948 by Zionist militias and the Israeli military.” The human rights organization welcomed “the statements made by Jordan, Egypt, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which firmly reject any proposals or calls for the forcible transfer of Palestinians from Gaza.” With Palestinians being denied movement north the day of Trump’s remarks, I harbored profound concerns about the plans of Trump and Netanyahu. But Palestinians moved north on Monday amid remarkable scenes of resilience and celebration, even as many knew they were likely to find ruins – courtesy of Netanyahu and President Joe Biden – where once their houses had stood. Mitchell Plitnick at Mondoweiss points out that Trump may view Gaza as a “massive real estate swindle.” Trump’s ambiguous words earlier in the month – “some beautiful things can be done with [Gaza]” – certainly hint at that possibility and the return of illegal settlements. Admittedly, this is reading the worst fears into his comments based on his settler-colonial inclinations as demonstrated in his first term with his colonizing actions on the Golan Heights and Jerusalem. Palestinians going north would seemingly allay those concerns, but Trump is anything but consistent, veering wildly from idea to idea. Trump, it bears repeating, often voices the views of those he’s most recently heard from on a subject. This raises the concern that Trump is getting wretched advice. For the moment, however, it seems Trump – who is now closely associated with the ceasefire – may make sickening comments, but still want to see at least the first stage of the ceasefire succeed. Indeed, Trump repeated his remarks on Monday, again aboard Air Force One. He maintained that he would “like to get [Palestinians from Gaza] living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.” Trump also noted, “When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years.” Then, weakly attempting to demonstrate his grasp of Gaza’s history though without saying a word about the 1948 Nakba and dispossession of Palestinians to Gaza, he said: “There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.” Repeating standard American government racism about the region, Trump added: “I wish [al-Sisi] would take some. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in … a rough neighbourhood. But I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too.” Even as Palestinians continue to move north, Trump’s willingness to repeat the threat is alarming as other leaders have buckled to the president’s threats previously. Ethnic cleansing, however, is on a whole different scale. Senator Bernie Sanders did take the president to task and name Trump’s words appropriately. “There is a name for this – ethnic cleansing – and it’s a war crime,” Sanders tweeted. Unwinding the ceasefire, as Ben-Gvir and Smotrich want, and forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians south again – and perhaps into Egypt – might surpass the viciousness of the past 15 months. Yet Palestinian determination to remain rooted to the land and return to northern Gaza has, for now, carried the day. Déjà vu There was a lot of rightful teeth-gnashing over the callous way Trump engaged with the idea of ethnic cleansing against a people that already endured the 1948 Nakba, but it certainly has a recent precedent. The Biden administration also entertained the idea, just minus the rough edges of Trump. As Trump has, the Biden administration faced similar regional pushback. Less than a week into the onslaught, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to fly to Israel, a journalist questioned him on the tarmac about “civilian safe passage” to Egypt. That exchange is worth citing in full. Journalist: “Mr Secretary, yesterday, [Biden’s national security adviser] Jake Sullivan said that US officials were talking to the Israelis about getting civilian safe passage through Gaza into Egypt. Today, [White House spokesperson] John Kirby said they’re still talking to officials about this. What is the holdup? What’s the obstacle to getting civilian safe passage out of Gaza?” Blinken: “We are talking about that. We’re talking to Israel about that. We’re talking to Egypt about that. It’s an ongoing conversation. I can’t get into the details. Some of this is needless to say and understandably complicated, but we want to make sure to the best of our ability and I know Israel wants to make sure to the best of its ability that civilians are not harmed. But Israel has to take steps to defend itself. It has to make sure that any ongoing threat is dealt with and I believe it has to make sure that going forward what happened doesn’t happen again.” Journalist: “Is the issue more on the Israeli side?” Blinken: “I’m not going to get into the details, but it’s an ongoing conversation.” Blinken is more refined in his language than the crass Trump, but he’s talking ethnic cleansing – at the very least to Egypt – in his comments. He’s just far too diplomatic to spell it out in all its ugliness. With Blinken working this possibility, it’s clear that Biden was also giving initial support. Yes, the Biden administration did shift away from the idea. And Trump may do the same, effectively moving in that direction with the surge of Palestinian refugees north. Both leaders certainly heard from regional leaders that ethnic cleansing to their countries would be an exceptionally bad and unacceptable idea. What remains different for now is that Biden provided weaponry for a genocide. Trump is providing weapons, but in the midst of a ceasefire. The obvious danger is the 2,000-pound bombs will be employed later. For the moment, however, the president remains invested in a ceasefire that he has bragged about on social media. Trump adhering to the ceasefire remains a positive sign. His promotion of ethnic cleansing, however, even if just rhetoric at the moment, is extremely worrisome for the future, as are the champions of “Judea and Samaria” he is putting forward to represent the US at the United Nations and in Israel. These are warning signals of how quickly Trump could allow the situation in both Gaza and the West Bank to deteriorate. Donald Trump Benjamin Netanyahu International Criminal Court King Abdullah of Jordan ethnic cleansing Gaza genocide Gaza war crimes Abdulfattah al-Sisi Itamar Ben-Gvir Bezalel Smotrich Amit Segal CNN Biden administration Al Mezan Center for Human Rights Arab League Organization of Islamic Cooperation Mitchell Plitnick settler-colonialism Bernie Sanders right of return Antony Blinken Judea and Samaria https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/trump-muses-ethnically-cleansing-palestinians-gaza

The deadly cost of Israel’s restrictions on foreign doctors in Gaza Denied entry or medical supplies after Israel's takeover of Rafah, volunteer physicians describe a policy designed to prevent their live-saving work. By Patricia Martinez Sastre January 30, 2025 A patient at the European Hospital near Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered an evacuation of the facility, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 2, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90) A patient at the European Hospital near Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered an evacuation of the facility, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 2, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90) Dr. Ayaz Pathan did something he never thought he would: in an attempt to save Palestinian children hospitalized in Gaza, allow others — the same age as his three young children, 8 to 14 years old — to die. “We didn’t have an [available] bed for them. They were on the floor, and we pulled them to the side while they were still breathing [and] their heart was still beating, knowing that their injuries were unlikely to be survivable,” he recounted of his time at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the largest in southern Gaza. “Would they have survived in Jerusalem? Absolutely. In the U.S.? Definitely.” Pathan, an emergency room physician from North Carolina, volunteered in Gaza from late July to mid-August 2024 as part of what are known as Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) — groups of foreign medical professionals, including surgeons, emergency physicians, nurses, and anesthetists, that deploy amid humanitarian crises to provide care when the local healthcare system is overwhelmed. In Gaza, where the healthcare system is near collapse after the Israeli military has systematically targeted healthcare facilities and professionals, these foreign medical missions have become particularly vital. Pathan’s experience is far from unique. In testimonies obtained by +972, six specialist doctors who worked in Gaza and eight officials at the United Nations and NGOs that negotiate with COGAT — the Israeli military body that oversees humanitarian aid policies in the occupied Palestinian territories — described an emergency response system wholly unprepared to handle the catastrophic conditions on the ground. For months prior to the ceasefire, Israel imposed severe restrictions on the entry of foreign doctors and humanitarian and commercial cargo into Gaza, while attacking Palestinian police forces guarding aid convoys, which allowed armed groups to loot the supplies. In the four weeks leading up to Jan. 11, fewer than 2,000 trucks entered the enclave, or around 70 daily; an analysis by Oxfam determined that 221 trucks of food alone were needed every day to guarantee the minimum calorie intake for everyone in the Strip. Of those that entered, only 13 carried medical supplies. Since the ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19, the number of aid trucks entering Gaza has increased substantially. However, the limited number of doctors allowed to enter, often with little to no medical supplies, leaves specialized healthcare largely unavailable in the enclave. Meanwhile, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt remains closed, and medical evacuations abroad — critical for over 12,000 according to the World Health Organization — remain extremely rare. ‘They know we’re here to help, so why not let us in?’ All medics who spoke to +972 singled out May 7, 2024 — the day Israel seized full control of the Rafah crossing — as the moment things changed. Before that date, there was virtually no cap on the number of medical professionals entering Gaza through Rafah, nor on what supplies they could carry. Foreign doctors who worked in the Strip said they could bring in “essentials” like baby formula and large quantities of dry foods to distribute, as well as small medical equipment, including butterfly ultrasounds, surgical drapes, gloves, and bandages. Dr. Tammy Abughnaim, an American physician who first entered Gaza in March 2024, recalled how she and seven of her colleagues were able to carry with them a total of 42 bags filled with equipment and supplies. Egyptian authorities inspected their suitcases at the airport and again at the border, and confiscated only a few items, such as strong pain control medications like morphine or ketamine. Palestinians unload medical aid from a truck at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 23, 2023. (Atia Mohammed/Flash90) Palestinians unload medical aid from a truck at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 23, 2023. (Atia Mohammed/Flash90) Since May 7, however, the vast majority of foreign medical missions seeking access to Gaza have been forced to enter through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, where they have been subjected to much more stringent inspections, and prevented from bringing in virtually any medical supplies or tools. “Aid workers from the entire world are trying to come to help. But it’s been restricted to about 20 [individual workers] in armored vehicles entering [weekly] on either a Tuesday or Thursday,” said Dr. Nabeel Rana, an American vascular surgeon who volunteered in Gaza in July and October 2024. “And of those, only about seven or eight are [reserved] for medical personnel,” he added, calling it a “dramatic change” compared to the process before May 7. Doctors who entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom have been advised by the UN, following COGAT’s policy, to only travel with one suitcase and a carry-on, and are prohibited from taking in anything not for their personal use, including medical equipment. Any flagged items — more than the 2,000 dollars in cash allowed, too many soap bars, even duplicate laptops — would be confiscated and directly result in delayed convoys or doctors being denied entry. “They know we’re here to help, so [why not] let us in with supplies?” Pathan told +972. “If I’m bringing in ten ultrasounds, X-ray them five times, make sure they are just ultrasounds. But ultimately, there’s no scientific knowledge to turn an ultrasound into a bomb, is there?” These restrictions, sources said, have reduced medics and doctors to practicing “damage control rather than medicine,” often forcing them to make impossible decisions about which patients to try and save and which to leave to die — most often women and children. Palestinians who were injured in an Israeli airstrike at the Buraij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, on September 7, 2024. (Ali Hassan/Flash90) Palestinians who were injured in an Israeli airstrike at the Buraij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, on September 7, 2024. (Ali Hassan/Flash90) Foreign physicians working in Gaza who spoke to +972 reported having to reuse unsterilized ventilator tubes on patients, tie off limbs with large rubber bands in place of tourniquets, and remove children who were “very much alive” from the few ventilators available to prioritize others with better survival chances. “There’s no soap [inside Gaza]. They’re using iodized salt water to wash their hands and to sterilize equipment,” Abughanim told +972. The second time she entered Gaza, at the end of July, she and her colleagues had to be much more creative. “You can’t really bring in a large quantity of soap without that being suspicious, so I brought little sheets of soluble soap we could make bottles with when I got there.” She also revealed that she hid unpacked medicine in her bag to make it look like hers, making it easier to sneak in innocuous supplies like trauma shears and blood pressure cuffs. In response to +972’s inquiry, a spokesperson for COGAT said that Israel “does not restrict the number of humanitarian teams that can cross into the Gaza Strip on behalf of the international community, subject to technical arrangements required for security reasons,” and that the Kerem Shalom crossing has been specifically designated for this purpose. They also noted that a “formal request must be submitted” for volunteer medical teams to bring equipment into Gaza, a process required because “terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip often exploit civilian equipment and humanitarian infrastructure for terrorist activities.” A game of cat and mouse The limitations imposed on EMTs entering Gaza would be less dangerous if “the other part of the same equation” functioned, two sources told +972, referring to the entry and safe distribution of aid and medical equipment through humanitarian aid convoys. But Israel, the sources said, had repeatedly obstructed that form of aid provision as well, particularly in northern Gaza, where virtually no humanitarian aid had been allowed in over the past four months. “Since May 7, all humanitarian operations in Gaza [rely] on this UN convoy that happens twice a week, carrying a maximum of eight medical personnel each time,” a UN source, speaking on condition of anonymity in fear of losing leverage, told +972. “We also don’t have enough people inside Gaza to be using internationals as drivers [as COGAT demands],” he added, estimating the total number of foreign staff at any given moment to range between 69 to 83. This official, like others +972 interviewed, called the setup as “purposely made to not facilitate humanitarian activities” in Gaza, and “much more bureaucratic than solution-oriented.” They mentioned, as an example, that the UN only got “preliminary” Israeli approval to bring in two new armored vehicles for the distribution of humanitarian aid at the end of December, after they had sat at a border crossing for four months. Trucks loaded with Humanitarian Aid entering Gaza through the Israeli Kerem Shalom Crossing, near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 23, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90) Trucks loaded with Humanitarian Aid entering Gaza through the Israeli Kerem Shalom Crossing, near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 23, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90) “All equipment and supplies are really difficult to bring in,” the UN official noted. “Under the ‘dual-use’ policy [where Israel restricts items based on the claim that they could also be used for terrorist activities] everything can be justified. Ventilators are getting delayed, oxygen concentrators are getting delayed. From a humanitarian medical perspective, it doesn’t make sense. But we’re not the ones holding the guns.” A worker at MedGlobal, a humanitarian nonprofit that provides emergency response and health programs in Gaza, who spoke to +972 anonymously for fear of Israeli retaliation, described the procedure to get even life-saving tools cleared by COGAT as “a cat and mouse game.” He explained how items that are at first rejected could be approved weeks later if UN agencies, or the U.S. government, put pressure on Israel. “This again made us feel like it’s a game of power and influence,” he said. “What are the security concerns if tent poles were banned for the first six months, but then later allowed in? Or just recently, generators were only allowed up to 32 kilowatts and now they’ve increased that up to 40 kilowatts,” he noted. “When there is pressure from above, [for instance] from the U.S., all of a sudden those security concerns seem less real. This gives us the impression that they are just trying to give us the bare minimum as opposed to being an honest broker who wants to facilitate aid in.” But even U.S. pressure can only get so far. On Oct. 13, the U.S. State and Defense Secretaries issued a joint 30-day ultimatum to the Israeli government, demanding it “surge all forms of humanitarian assistance” into the Gaza Strip and “end isolation of northern Gaza,” warning that failure to comply could jeopardize military aid. Exactly one month later, after Israel failed to comply with both demands, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer replied to the U.S. Secretaries, informing them that the number of aid trucks entering Gaza in September and October had, in fact, decreased. They attributed this “largely to operational reasons and specific intelligence warnings of attacks that were being planned at the crossings and using the humanitarian aid delivery system,” without backing those claims with any evidence. Tents housing displaced Palestinians, at Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City, November 24, 2024. (Omar El-Qattaa) Tents housing displaced Palestinians, at Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City, November 24, 2024. (Omar El-Qattaa) In the letter, Israel also noted that 30 items had been removed from the restricted list of “dual-use” items in preparation for winter. These articles — cleared for entry only from November 13 — included essentials such as large tents, tent elevation platforms, portable toilets, sleeping bags, hand warmers, and rainwater storage systems. For the first time, personal protective gear was also allowed, but sources told +972 that aid workers were required to take the equipment with them when they left Gaza. According to the MedGlobal employee, COGAT provides no clear guidelines for its inspection process. Bulk items submitted to pre-clearance can remain pending for weeks or months, if they ever get approved at all, and most life-saving equipment such as ventilators or oxygen concentrators had been outright rejected in the last six months. The most difficult aspect of delivering aid into Gaza, according to multiple sources, is coordinating entry after Israel has granted approval for the bulk of items. Aid organizations are required to provide COGAT with exhaustive details about the cargo, including information about the driver, the vehicle’s license plate, the origin of the items, the source of funding, and the final delivery destination. However, even when all these requirements are meticulously met, Israeli authorities routinely deny shipments without any clear explanation. “COGAT acts like gaslighting aficionados. They will reject the entry of supplies and tell you that it was your fault, that there was an error in the form or that you didn’t coordinate the entry with the World Health Organization. There are a million reasons why a truck doesn’t get in,” the MedGlobal worker explained. In early September, the NGO eventually succeeded, after four to five attempts, in bringing 25 oxygen concentrators into Gaza, but they haven’t managed to replicate that success since then. The COGAT spokesperson told +972 that Israel “maintains ongoing communication with international community representatives and with local authorities who raise medical needs from the field,” and works to address those needs, whether “it involves the entry of equipment or the coordination of humanitarian activities.” They claimed that since the beginning of the war, “tens of thousands of tons of medical supplies have entered, including medications for cancer patients, insulin pens, anesthetic agents, X-ray machines, CT scanners, and oxygen generators for hospitals.” Discrimination against Palestinian Medics All medics who spoke to +972 described an overwhelming sense of uncertainty leading up to their deployments. Permission to enter Gaza — or to leave after completing their missions — was often confirmed just hours before the scheduled departure of their medical convoys. In many cases, COGAT would arbitrarily delay both entry and exit dates for weeks without any explanation, affecting scheduled surgeries back in their home countries. Most medical interviewees also affirmed that Israeli authorities systematically deny entry into Gaza to doctors of Palestinian descent, even if they hold American, Canadian, or British citizenship. Some NGO workers noted that even medics with no direct connection to Palestine but hailing from Muslim-majority countries, such as Egypt or Kuwait, have been barred entry by COGAT without any explanation. Members of the World Health Organization and the Palestinian Red Crescent evacuate Palestinian patients from the European Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 6, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90) Members of the World Health Organization and the Palestinian Red Crescent evacuate Palestinian patients from the European Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 6, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90) “I’m not Palestinian and I have no family there, but I feel like they’re equal to us, so why would I not go if I have the skills to help them?” one source, who wished to remain anonymous, told +972. After attempting to return to Gaza for the third time this January, they were again denied by Israeli authorities with no explanation. Last July, a CNN report revealed that WHO was advising aid groups not to bring in medical professionals with dual citizenship or Palestinian background to Gaza — even if only through a parent or grandparent — as they were having “issues with permits,” which the organization described as Israel’s new policy, according to internal memos. In response to +972’s inquiry about this discriminatory policy, COGAT’s spokesperson declined to comment. This open display of racial discrimination was also reported firsthand by American health care workers and British and Canadian physicians who had all volunteered in Gazan hospitals. “Incredibly, Israel continues to block healthcare workers of Palestinian descent from working in Gaza, even American citizens. This makes a mockery of the American ideal that ‘all men are created equal’ and degrades both our national ideals and our profession,” the American volunteers wrote in October to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. “Our work is lifesaving. Our Palestinian healthcare colleagues in Gaza are desperate for relief and protection, and they deserve both.” Two officials at the Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a UK-based charity that has had several of its volunteers denied entry into Gaza, told +972 that the ban on workers of Palestinian descent is more of an open secret than an explicit prohibition. “The form that we need to send to COGAT asks for the name of the father and grandfather, [and] they specifically ask about any Palestinian background. So it is not said to be prohibited, but I’m not sure that if you [say that you are of Palestinian descent] you can enter Gaza.” Members of the Jordanian field hospital installs prosthetic limbs for Palestinian amputees who were injured during the war, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, September 17, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90) Members of the Jordanian field hospital installs prosthetic limbs for Palestinian amputees who were injured during the war, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, September 17, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90) Dr. Ana Jeelani, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and MAP volunteer from the UK, entered Gaza in March of 2024 with a team of volunteers consisting of a British-Indian anesthesiologist, four Jordanians, and one Kuwaiti. All of them got in without issues, she said, along with 54 suitcases full of medical equipment and food. But last July, when a team of five tried to enter to provide care at Nasser hospital in southern Gaza, Israel rejected two of them. “They got to Jordan and then they didn’t get clearance, even after waiting for two weeks. COGAT gave no reason why they were denied entry, and [they] could only take one suitcase and personal belongings,” she said. “It’s just nefarious. You don’t know until the night before whether you got clearance. COGAT keeps you to the last minute, and they can decline your clearance for whatever reason.” One of the people rejected was Dr. Jeelani’s British-Indian colleague, a Muslim woman, who waited in Amman for two weeks only to find her name persistently listed as “pending” by COGAT. Speaking anonymously, she remarked that the Israeli policy is so unpredictable that even when humanitarian organizations carefully select individuals they believe will be granted entry, “it’s almost a gamble.” Some of the doctors interviewed by +972 suggested that individuals who had previously been allowed into Gaza, but were later left in limbo, may have been targeted in retaliation for speaking out about what they had witnessed. This claim could not be independently verified. The restrictions on foreign doctors, who would otherwise be a glimmer of hope for Gazans, is yet another blow to a healthcare system that has had more than 1,000 of its professionals killed, most of its hospitals destroyed, and many staff arbitrarily arrested. Most read on +972 “Your chances of survival are just so low,” Jeelani said, haunted by the memory of a mass casualty attack in March on Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Among the injured was a young girl who was in her family’s apartment when it was hit by an Israeli airstrike. She arrived at Al Aqsa Hospital with her bowel eviscerated, a devastating head injury, and both legs shattered with severe open wounds. “Despite her critical injuries, doctors tried using whatever resources were available to save her, but they couldn’t,” Jeelani recalled. “If I saw her when I was back in October, she wouldn’t have even made it to an operating theater. Everyone is just waiting for death.” https://www.972mag.com/the-deadly-cost-of-israels-restrictions-on-foreign-doctors-in-gaza/