World Socialist Web Site – January 25, 2024
Khan Younis besieged as Netanyahu calls for the “eradication of the new Nazis”
Thomas Scripps
Israel focused its genocidal assault in Gaza on the southern city of Khan Younis Wednesday, as leading Israeli officials promised no let-up in the slaughter.
The Israel Defense Forces encircled the city on Tuesday and demanded the evacuation of a swathe of its crowded downtown area, including the main Nasser and two smaller hospitals and housing 88,000 residents plus 425,000 already displaced people.
This criminal order, requiring more than half a million people to leave in a matter of hours with nowhere to go, was intended to justify the mass killings of civilians. United Nations (UN) humanitarian relief chief Martin Griffiths commented that the IDF was “Ordering trapped people to evacuate and bombing them before they can even do so”.
Al Jazeera journalist Hani Mahmoud explained the situation on the ground: “No one can get out of that area. Anyone who tries to leave risks losing their life as there is constant shelling and attacks by land and by air.”
Many of those who did try to flee were fired upon by IDF forces, including by tanks and attack drones. Reporting from Rafah and interviewing those who had managed to escape, Tareq Abu Azzoum said they described “Israeli military tanks surrounding them, opening fire against residents.”
Inside Khan Younis, the IDF continued its filthy war crimes. In one incident, Israeli artillery struck a UN training centre sheltering 800 people, causing a large fire, killing at least nine people and injuring at least 75. There was no prior warning of the attack.
A UN official told Al Jazeera, “People are screaming, crying, asking for help.” He explained that he and his team had not been able to reach the compound for two days previously due to the fighting and because a “safe route” agreed with the IDF had been blocked by an earth bank.
Head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini said the death toll was “likely higher” and accused Israel of “a blatant disregard of basic rules of war,” noting that “The compound is a clearly marked UN facility and its coordinates were shared with Israeli Authorities.”
An earlier attack on a school, also serving as a shelter, reportedly killed eight people, with Al Jazeera writing, “The intensity of the bombing prevented the ambulance and paramedics from getting to the school.”
Israeli forces are once again laying siege to hospitals, which are also serving as refugee camps. Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra explained, “The occupation is isolating hospitals in Khan Younis and carrying out massacres in the western area of the city… Hundreds of injuries, patients, and childbirth cases face serious complications due to the lack of access to Nasser medical complex.”
Doctors Without Borders, with staff inside Nasser hospital, said they and 850 patients, plus thousands of displaced people, were trapped by the fighting. Its Twitter/X account posted, “Since yesterday evening, there has been heavy ongoing bombing mainly in the southern and northern parts of Khan Younis. MSF staff in Nasser hospital report they can feel the ground shaking and that there is a sense of panic among staff, patients and people sheltering inside.”
The organisation warned that Nasser “is one of two remaining hospitals in southern Gaza still able to treat critically injured patients.”
At the Amal hospital, run by the Palestinian Red Cross Society, staff described the IDF blockading the building and imposing a curfew on the area, preventing them from responding to emergencies.
Speaking at a press conference on the healthcare system in Gaza, World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for the eastern Mediterranean Ahmed Al-Mandhari described repeated Israeli attacks—660 recorded on healthcare institutions—and the cutting off of medical supplies and food. He added that the number of health workers was now just five percent of the pre-war total.
In the north of the enclave, the Palestinian NGO Network warned that starvation threatens roughly half a million people barely able to eke out an existence in “catastrophic and inhumane conditions,” the result of a “starvation policy against defenceless civilians and an attempt to force citizens to leave their homes.”
The horrifying scale of the destruction throughout Gaza was described in a joint statement released by 16 human rights, aid and refugee organisations, calling on UN member states to “stop fuelling the crisis in Gaza and avert further humanitarian catastrophe and loss of civilian life.”
They explained, “Israel’s bombardment and siege are depriving the civilian population of the basics to survive and rendering Gaza uninhabitable. Today, the civilian population in Gaza faces a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented severity and scale…
“Gaza’s remaining lifeline—an internationally-funded humanitarian aid response—has been paralysed by the intensity of the hostilities, which have included the shooting of aid convoys, recurrent communications blackouts, damaged roads, restrictions on essential supplies, an almost complete ban on commercial supplies, and a bureaucratic process to send aid into Gaza.”
Two-thirds of Gaza’s population, 1.5 million people, have now been corralled, as planned, into a massive tent city centred on Rafah, on the border with Egypt—ready to be pushed into the Sinai desert or ravaged by hunger and disease.
Yousef Hammash of the Norwegian Refugee Council explained, “On a daily basis we have a new wave of displacement. Today, we had it from Khan Younis and before it was from the middle area.” Rafah is now so crowded that “there is not even enough empty space for people to establish their makeshift shelters or tents.”
Speaking to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Israeli parliament, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly stated the genocidal agenda behind the offensive: “The war must end with the eradication of the new Nazis, there will be no compromise”. He posted to social media earlier in the day, “The only option is complete victory.”
His comments were part of a total disavowal by Israeli officials of any pause in the fighting.
Recent days had seen speculation about a two-month ceasefire while hostages held by Hamas were released being in the final stages of negotiation under Qatari mediation. But this proved to be a pantomime played along with by the Israeli war cabinet to assuage the domestic protest movement demanding the return of the hostages and provide the Arab regimes and United States with the fig leaf of “diplomatic progress”.
Government spokesperson Ilana Stein told Reuters, “Israel will not give up on the destruction of Hamas, the return of all the hostages, and there will be no security threat from Gaza towards Israel. There will be no ceasefire. In the past there were pauses for humanitarian purposes. That agreement was breached by Hamas.”
Every Hebrew-language news outlet was delivered the same message by government sources, describing reports of a breakthrough in talks as “fake”.
As far as there is any opposition among Israeli politicians to this policy, it is purely on the basis of advocating a shift in timing, prioritising the release of hostages before continuing with the destruction of Gaza. Leader of the Opposition Yair Lapid, speaking in parliament during the 75th anniversary commemoration, summed up this standpoint as, “In the first stage, we will return the hostages… In the second stage Hamas will be destroyed.”
The same argument is made by many of the leaders of the protests in Israel demanding more be done to recover the hostages. On Wednesday, demonstrators sought to prevent trucks carrying humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, with one declaring it “unacceptable that Israel should continue to provide aid to Hamas, which enables it to survive and thus endanger IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza. All aid to Hamas should be conditional on the return of the abductees and the disarmament of Hamas.”
The fascistic war camp dominating Israeli politics operates with the imperialist powers’ full support, Washington’s above all. Its latest seal of approval was bestowed by national security spokesperson John Kirby, who grotesquely praised the IDF for “pursuing, on the ground, more targeted operations, particularly against the [Hamas] leadership. They are relying less on airstrikes.”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/01/24/qgts-j24.html
Countercurrent – January 24, 2024
Scenes from War: ‘Gaza as we know it no longer exists’
By Dr. Marwan Asmar
Israel continues to destroy neighborhoods in Gaza, whether its in the north of the strip or in the south. Everything, according to the Israeli war machine, is fair game because the people here are not civilians but Hamas fighters even if they are babies and toddlers.
Israel calls it self-defense. The world, excluding the USA and most western governments, call it Genocide but the Israelis are in no mood to listen.
The latest on the agenda is another residential bloc, one of many reduced to rubble in the ungodly, sadistic war on Gaza that will not stop. It’s a shame that humanity and countries have continued to look the other way as people – women, children, men, old, young – have continued to be targeted and killed in scores.
Why is the world looking the other way while the slaughter goes on. What does the Zionists have on world leaders. Perhaps we really do think Israelis are the chosen leaders, that they are allowed to commit murder while everyone of us keeps our lips sealed.
We watch, perhaps cry and look the other way. Over 25,000 thousand have been killed in Gaza and the counter is on full speed. Homes are destroyed, there is no infrastructure, 1.9 million have been displaced and hundreds of thousands are either sleeping in the streets, in bombed out shelters or tents waiting to die from the cold.
In Gaza innocence is lost, only guns, tanks murder remain.
The Palestinians of Gaza are not even allowed to get aid. There are thousands of trucks on the Rafah border unable to move. There is currently a slinging match between Israel and Egypt over who is stopping the aid from coming to Gaza. And when it comes in, it does so at a trickle. If not by bombs, Gazans are dying through starvation and lack of water.
We have been reduced to cowards, afraid to speak up. O sure the people of the world are protesting and making their words heard but the people in power, those whose decisions matter, are spineless, unable to speak the truth.
And there are the mosques that are being destroyed. Between 1000 and 1200 were raised to the ground and/or partially destroyed by Israeli missiles. Why the surprise? Most of these mosques are part of the blocks of houses that have been destroyed in Gaza so its naturally they would be hit. The Gaza Ministry of Religious affairs says more than 100 imams and religious scholars have been killed. Some of these mosques are of historical value and need about $500,000 to be rebuilt and restored.
And then somebody posted a videoclip, sadly saying “Gaza as we know it no longer exists” – its annihilation. Apart from the killings, the 365-kilometer strip has been reduced to rubble and debris. But its resistance continues to have the guts to fight.
https://countercurrents.org/2024/01/scenes-from-war-gaza-as-we-know-it-no-longer-exists/
Countercurrent – January 24, 2024
Genocide in Gaza as an Opportunity: What Ben-Gvir Wants in the West Bank
By Dr. Ramzy Baroud
If what is currently happening in the occupied Palestinian West Bank took place before October 7, our attention would have been completely fixated on that region in Palestine.
The ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, however, has devalued the important, if not earth-shattering events underway in the West Bank, which is now a stage for the most violent Israeli military campaign since the Second Palestinian Uprising (2000-05).
As of the time of writing of this article, since October 7, more than 360 Palestinians have beenﾠkilled in the West Bank, while thousands have been wounded and thousands more arrested.
These numbers exceed, by far, the total number of Palestinians killed in 2022, which was already designated by the United Nations as the most violentﾠyear on record since 2005.
But how are we to understand the logic behind the Israeli violence in the West Bank, considering that it is already under Israeli military occupation and the joint ‘security’ control of the Israeli army and the Palestinian Authority?
Moreover, if the Israelis are honest in their claim that their war in Gaza is not genocide against the Palestinian people but a war on Hamas, why are they attacking the West Bank with such ferocity, killing people from all different political and ideological backgrounds, and many civilians, including children as well?
The answer lies in the growing political power of the Jewish settlers.
Historically, there are two types of Israeli violence meted out routinely against Palestinians: violence carried out by the Israeli army, and another carried out by illegal Jewish settlers.
Palestinians fully understand that both phenomena are intrinsically linked. The settlers often attack Palestinians under the protection of the Israeli army, and the latter often launches violent raids on Palestinians for the sake of the illegal settlers.
In recent years, however, the relationship between these two violent entities began to change, thanks to the rise of the far right in Israel, which is situated mostly within illegal settlements, and their supporters inside Israel.
Therefore, it should not be a surprise that both far-right ministers in the extremist government of Benjamin Netanyahu, ItamarﾠBen-Gvir and BezalelﾠSmotrich, are themselves settlers.
As soon as Ben-Gvir claimed the role of the National Security Minister, he began promoting the idea of establishing a National Guard. After October 7, he managed, with direct support from Netanyahu’s government, to establish so-called civilian security teams.
Even Israeli officials, like Yair Lapid, haveﾠdescribed Ben-Gvir’s new army as a “private militia”. And he is right.
Though Ben-Gvir is insisting that the war on Gaza must continue, his actual aim out of its continuation – aside from the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza population – is to use this rare opportunity to fulfill all the wishes of Israel’s political extremists, all at once.
Let us remember that Ben-Gvir came to power based on the lofty promises of annexing the West Bank, expanding settlements, seizing control of Palestinian holy sites in East Jerusalem, among other extremist ideas.
Al-Aqsa Mosque was a major target for Ben-Gvir and his followers, who believe that only by building a Third Temple on the ruins of Islam’s third holiest shrine would Israel be able to reclaim total control over the Holy Land.
Ben-Gvir’s bizarre political language could have been dismissed as the extremism of a fringe politician. Far from it. Currently, Ben-Gvir is arguably the most powerful politician in Israel, due to his ability, using six seats in the Knesset, to make or break Netanyahu’s coalition.
While Netanyahu is behaving largely out of desperation, his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is fighting to redeem the tattered reputation of his army. Others, like War Council Minister, Benny Gantz, are walking a political fine line so as not to be perceived as the ones who have broken Israel’s fragile political unity during a most decisive war.
None of this applies to Ben-Gvir. The man, who sees himself as the political descendant of the likes of the notorious Meir Kahane, is a ferventﾠadvocate of a religious war.
And since religious wars can only be the outcome of chaotic social and political circumstances, he is keen to instigate these very events that could ultimately lead to this coveted war.
One of the prerequisites is unhinged violence, where people are killed based on the mere suspicion of being ‘terrorists’. For example, on January 18, Ben-Gvir told Israeli border police officers during a visit to a base in the West Bank, “You have complete backing from me”, urging them to shoot at every ‘terrorist’, even if they do not pose a threat.
Of course, Ben-Gvir perceives all Palestinians in the West Bank as potential terrorists, the same way that Israel’s ‘moderate’ President Isaac Herzog perceives all Gazans as “responsible” for Hamas’ actions. This essentially means that the Israeli army in the West Bank is expected to kill Palestinians there with the same impunity as those being killed in Gaza.
Even though security and intelligence officials in Israel have warned Netanyahu against launching another war front in the West Bank, the Israeli army has no other option but to fight that supposed ‘war’ anyway. Why?
The Israeli army is already seen by a large constituency in Israel as a failure for their inability to prevent or to respond successfully to the October 7 attacks, even after over 100 days of war in Gaza. To redeem their tarnished honor, they are happy to fight a less challenging ‘war’ against isolated and under-equipped Palestinian fighters in small parts of the West Bank.
Ben-Gvir is, of course, ready to manipulate all these elements in his favor. And he is getting precisely what he wants, expanding the war to the West Bank, ethnically cleansing Palestinians, torturing prisoners, demolishing homes, torching properties and all the rest.
Perhaps Ben-Gvir’s greatest achievement, so far, is his ability to create a perfect amalgamation between the political interests of the settlers, the government and its security apparatus.
His aim, however, is not merely stealing yet more Palestinian land, or expanding a few settlements. He wants a religious war, one which will ultimately lead to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, not just from Gaza but from the West Bank as well.
The war in Gaza is a perfect opportunity for these sinister goals to be achieved. For now, this genocidal war continues to create opportunities for religious Zionism to acquire new followers, and to lay deeper roots within Israel’s political establishment.
A sudden end to the war, however, could represent the marginalization of religious Zionism for years to come.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is ‘Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out’. His other books include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
Houthis Emerge as Latest Threat to U.S. Control Over Global Shipping
By John P Ruehl
A powerful symbol of the U.S.-led global security order is increasingly under threat by the Yemeni rebel group. The lack of a robust international response has laid bare vulnerabilities as the U.S. attempts to shore up the world’s maritime routes in the aftermath of the COVID-19 disruption to supply chains.
On December 30, 2023, the Singapore-flagged Maersk Hangzhou, owned by Danish company Maersk Line, came under missile and subsequent boat attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. The U.S. Navy responded by using helicopters to destroy three of the four ships used in the assault. Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, immediately announced it was suspending operations in the sea indefinitely, rejoining major Western shipping firms and energy companies in redirecting shipping away from the region.
Houthi attacks have occurred regularly since October 2023 after the group declared it would target ships associated with Israel. In response, Washington announced a task force on December 18—Operation Prosperity Guardian—to combat the attacks, and imposed sanctions on Houthi funding networks, mainly linked to Iran. But the difficulty in securing the Red Sea’s narrow waters and the bottleneck at the Suez Canal have laid bare the fragility of global shipping, with an estimated 20 percent decline in ship traffic through the Red Sea in December 2023. Daily container vessel traffic through the Suez Canal had meanwhile halved by early January 2024, compared to a year before.
The repercussions of redirecting shipping are being felt globally, with ocean cargo rates skyrocketing since the attacks began. By early January, the logistics company Freightos reported that rates for Asia-to-North Europe shipping had more than doubled to above $4,000 per 40-foot container. By mid-January, the cost of sending a 24-foot shipping container from India to Europe and the U.S. East Coast had risen from $600 to $1,500. Adding to the financial burden, surcharges ranging from $500 to $2,700 per container are anticipated, and rates for shipments from Asia to North America have also experienced significant hikes.
For those daring to navigate the Red Sea, insurance premiums have more than tripled from 0.2 percent to 0.7 percent of a vessel’s value per journey. Though consumers haven’t yet felt the brunt of rising prices, the specter of inflation looms in the coming weeks. The anticipated domino effects recall the aftermath of the 2021 Ever Given disaster, when a ship ran aground in the Suez Canal for six days, leaving a lasting impact that reverberated for months.
The imperative for the U.S. in controlling and stabilizing threats to shipping is underscored by its commitment to global economic stability, dollar-dominated international trade, and the leverage it gains over allies and adversaries. Being able to ensure or compromise the safe movement of other countries’ goods and military vessels complements Washington’s ability to enforce blockades and economic sanctions, as well as to respond quickly to global crises and combat terrorism and organized crime.
Despite the challenges in maintaining its influence, the U.S. has successfully dealt with threats to global shipping before. Multilateral safeguards like the Combined Maritime Forces, consisting of dozens of countries under U.S. command, monitor the Middle East, and task forces such as the Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151), created in 2009, have successfully tackled specific threats such as Somali piracy.
Since 2015, the Houthis have intermittently targeted ships in the Red Sea, but their sustained campaign since October 2023 has raised significant doubts about the U.S. military’s capacity to safeguard shipping. Operating out of Yemen, the Houthis employ a mix of missiles, radars, helicopters, small boats, and inexpensive drones, presenting a challenge as they lack substantial infrastructure susceptible to targeting. The use by the U.S. Navy of $2 million missiles to intercept $2,000 drones adds to concerns about the cost-effectiveness of its response.
Benefitting from Iranian logistical aid and driven by their steadfast commitment to the Palestinian cause, the Houthis have encountered minimal resistance from regional countries hesitant to escalate tensions. Following its eight-year campaign in Yemen, neighboring Saudi Arabia withdrew from the country and entered peace talks with the Houthis in 2022. Apart from tiny Bahrain, local partners of the U.S. have refrained from joining Operation Prosperity Guardian out of fear of being accused of supporting Israel. Even Egypt, which is witnessing substantial losses in transit revenue through the Suez Canal, has opted to stay on the sidelines.
The inability of the Saudi military, bolstered by modern Western weapons, to overcome Houthi forces over the last decade by relying on air raids and drone strikes implies that a ground intervention may be necessary to effectively defeat the Houthis. Yet Washington lacks the resolve and influence to undertake such an effort. Notably, NATO allies, including France, Italy, and Spain, withdrew from Operation Prosperity Guardian to avoid being under U.S. command, leaving only a few core allies like the UK and Australia—the latter of which has sent 11 military personnel to the region but no ships.
Meanwhile, other major powers have sought to conduct their own independent operations in the region. After declining Washingtonﾒs invitation to join Operation Prosperity Guardian, the Indian Navy began its own operations in the region. China also declined the opportunity to join the multilateral coalition, and has also distanced itself from U.S. messaging on the crisis as it deploys its own military vessels to the region.
Failing to deter the Houthis will inspire others to test Washington’s willingness to defend open shipping lanes. After declining significantly in recent years, Somali piracy since increased in 2023. Southeast Asia has also seen a steady rise in piracy over the last few years, and there are fears incidents could continue to rise with the U.S. distracted in the Middle East. Additionally, Iran has seized Western ships sailing through the region before and was accused by the Pentagon in December 2023 of using a drone to attack a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean.
The attacks and blowback from the conflict have reverberations beyond regional trade. In December 2023, Malaysia closed its ports to Israeli ships, while Russian actions in the Black Sea have further disrupted international shipping. Moreover, the situation could impact freedom of navigation exercises globally. Heightening tensions and Chinaﾒs escalatory movements in the South China Sea and Taiwan have stirred unease in the U.S., prompting two-day talks between defense officials from Washington and Beijing in early January ahead of Taiwan’s recent election.
Russia, China, and Iran welcome the U.S.’s struggle to maintain control over sea lanes due to the Houthi threat, seeing it as an opportunity to exploit Washington’s global standing. However, particularly in the case of China, they have also benefited from the stability that this system has provided to global trade, and viable alternative routes for overseas trade remain undeveloped and untested.
Amid the chaos, the Panama Canal, another crucial juncture for international shipping, faces disruptions from severe drought lowering water levels. As only a limited number of ships can navigate through, Washington’s oversight in ensuring the uninterrupted flow of global sea lanes appears more precarious than it has been in decades. While options like continued military convoys and the rise of private maritime security companies are on the table, the Suez Canal’s eight-year closure after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War remains an ominous reminder of what is at stake.
As Washington attempts to balance control with the risk of escalation, the Houthis have underscored the resilient influence of non-state actors in 21st-century geopolitics amid the resurgence of great power competition. The situation has become the latest litmus test for Washington’s commitment to preserving access to global sea lanes, even as it pivots toward friendshoring and reshoring economic policies encouraging overland trade and manufacturing in North America.
As the 2024 election season unfolds and the enduring impact of Trump’s “America First” policies persists, safeguarding global sea lanes may emerge as a pivotal topic in the upcoming election. Coupled with the unique challenges posed by the Houthis, mounting an effective and decisive response against the maritime threat has so far proven elusive for the Biden Administration. Ongoing U.S. and UK airstrikes against the Houthis have not prevented further attacks on shipping. The longer it takes to respond effectively, the greater the threat to the future of the current state of global supply chains and U.S. dominance of the world’s waterways.
John P. Ruehl is an Australian-American journalist living in Washington, D.C., and a world affairs correspondent for the Independent Media Institute. He is a contributing editor to Strategic Policy and a contributor to several other foreign affairs publications. His book, Budget Superpower: How Russia Challenges the West With an Economy Smaller Than Texasﾒ, was published in December 2022.
Globetrotter – Retrieved on January 25, 2024
How The War On Gaza Has Stalled The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)
By Vijay Prashad
On September 9, 2023, during the G20 meeting in New Delhi, the governments of seven countries and the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding to create an India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. Only three of the countries (India, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates or the UAE) would be directly part of this corridor, which was to begin in India, go through the Gulf, and terminate in Greece. The European countries (France, Germany, and Italy) as well as the European Union joined this endeavor because they expected the IMEC to be a trade route for their goods to go to India and for them to access Indian goods at, what they hoped would be, a reduced cost.
The United States, which was one of the initiators of the IMEC, pushed it as a means to both isolate China and Iran as well as to hasten the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. It seemed like a perfect instrument for Washington: sequester China and Iran, bring Israel and Saudi Arabia together, and deepen ties with India that seemed to have been weakened by India’s reluctance to join the United States in its policy regarding Russia.
Israel’s war on the Palestinians in Gaza has changed the entire equation and stalled the IMEC. It is now inconceivable for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to enter such a project with the Israelis. Public opinion in the Arab world is red-hot, with inflamed anger at the indiscriminate bombardment by Israel and the catastrophic loss of civilian life. Regional countries with close relations with Israel—such as Jordan and Turkey—have had to harden their rhetoric against Israel. In the short term, at least, it is impossible to imagine the implementation of the IMEC.
Pivot to Asia
Two years before China inaugurated its “One Belt, One Road” or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the United States had already planned a private-sector-funded trade route to link India to Europe and to tighten the links between Washington and New Delhi. In 2011, then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech in Chennai, India, where she spoke of the creation of a New Silk Road that would run from India through Pakistan and into Central Asia. This new “international web and network of economic and transit connections” would be an instrument for the United States to create a new intergovernmental forum and a “free trade zone” in which the United States would be a member (in much the same way as the United States is part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC).
The New Silk Road was part of a wider “pivot to Asia,” as U.S. President Barack Obama put it. This “pivot” was designed to check the rise of China and to prevent its influence in Asia. Clinton’s article in Foreign Policy (“America’s Pacific Century,” October 11, 2011) suggested that this New Silk Road was not antagonistic to China. However, this rhetoric of the “pivot” came alongside the U.S. military’s new AirSea Battle concept that was designed around direct conflict between the United States and China (the concept built on a 1999 Pentagon study called “Asia 2025” which noted that “the threats are in Asia”).
Two years later, the Chinese government said that it would build a massive infrastructure and trade project called “One Belt, One Road,” which would later be called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Over the next ten years, from 2013 to 2023, the BRI investments totaled $1.04 trillion spread out over 148 countries (three-quarters of the countries in the world). In this short period, the BRI project has made a considerable mark on the world, particularly on the poorer nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where the BRI has made investments to build infrastructure and industry.
Chastened by the growth of the BRI, the United States attempted to block it through various instruments: the Am￩rica Crece for Latin America and the Millennium Challenge Corporation for South Asia. The weakness in these attempts was that both relied upon funding from an unenthusiastic private sector.
Complications of the IMEC
Even before the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, IMEC faced several serious challenges.
First, the attempt to isolate China appeared illusory, given that the main Greek port in the corridor—at Piraeus—is managed by the China Ocean Shipping Corporation, and that the Dubai Ports have considerable investment from China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan port and the Zhejiang Seaport. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are now members of the BRICS+, and both countries are participants in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Second, the entire IMEC process is reliant upon private-sector funding. The Adani Group—which has close ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has come under the spotlight for fraudulent practices—already owns the Mundra port (Gujarat, India) and the Haifa port (Israel), and seeks to take a share in the port at Piraeus. In other words, the IMEC corridor is providing geopolitical cover for Adani’s investments from Greece to Gujarat.
Third, the sea lane between Haifa and Piraeus would go through waters contested between Turkey and Greece. This “Aegean Dispute” has provoked the Turkish government to threaten war if Greece goes through with its designs.
Fourth, the entire project relied upon the “normalization” between Saudi Arabia and Israel, an extension of the Abraham Accords that drew Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates to recognize Israel in August 2020. In July 2022, India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States formed the I2U2 Group, with the intention, among other things, to “modernize infrastructure” and to “advance low-carbon development pathways” through “private enterprise partnerships.” This was the precursor of IMEC. Neither “normalization” with Saudi Arabia nor advancement of the I2U2 process between the UAE and Israel seem possible in this climate. Israel’s bombardment of the Palestinians in Gaza has frozen this process.
Previous Indian trade route projects, such as the International North-South Trade Corridor (with India, Iran, and Russia) and the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (led by India and Japan), have not gone from paper to port for a host of reasons. These, at least, had the merit of being viable. IMEC will suffer the same fate as these corridors, to some extent due to Israel’s bombing of Gaza but also due to Washington’s fantasy that it can “defeat” China in an economic war.
Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest books are Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism and (with Noam Chomsky) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power.
[This article was originally published on November 10, 2023[
Celebrating India’s Republic Day in Occupied Kashmir
Washington, DC. January 25, 2024.
Vidhi Kumar Bhirdi , Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Indian occupied Kashmir said on January 24, 2024 that all the security arrangements are in place as the multi-level security grid is on high alert mode to ensure smooth conduct of India’s Republic Day functions across the Valley of Kashmir.
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Chairman, ‘World Forum for Peace Justice’ said that India is of course celebrating its 75th Republic Day to honor its Constitution that became enforceable on January 26 in 1950. India certainly has the right to celebrate this historic day within its legal boundary. But the world’s largest ‘democracy’ has no such democratic and legal right to celebrate it in Kashmir. Reason: It was in 1948, Fai added that the United Nations Security Council resolutions had been adopted in consultation with India and Pakistan, to create conditions for a plebiscite so that the people of Jammu and Kashmir could decide for themselves whether they wished to be an integral part of India, join Pakistan, or be free to chart their own course as an independent state. Fai was not sure whether IGP idolizes Godse or Gandhi. However, he quoted Gandhi for IGP who said, ‘They (Kashmiris) should be left free to decide for themselves.’
“India persists in allying itself with a position that has no legal, moral or constitutional authority to celebrate the Republic Day in Kashmir which is not an integral part of its territory. Its advocacy of this false claim is the prime cause of continued death, destruction, devastation, pain and suffering of the people of Kashmir. There are shocking human rights violations, including more than 100,000 killings in the last three decade alone, torture, rape, mutilations, arson, plunder, abductions, arbitrary detentions, and draconian punishment for the exercise of peaceful political dissent: and contempt for international law and binding self-determination resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.
Fai explained that India's war crimes in Kashmir are notorious. Soldiers kill civilians with impunity. Rape and torture are routinely practiced but never punished. Indeed, Indian law grants virtual legal immunity to any type of war crime or crime against humanity perpetrated in Kashmir. Milosevic and General Mladic were indicted for war crimes and genocide by the Hague Tribunal. Hutu leaders in Rwanda have been indicted and prosecuted for similar transgressions against the Tutsi. But why nothing similar for Kashmir? Indian leaders up to the Prime Minister know the crimes against Kashmiris are occurring. They do nothing to restrain Indian military forces and their collaborators. Rape is a recognized war crime, and countless Kashmiri women have been raped by Indians. Kanun-Pushpa is a prime example. Torture is an international crime, as the Legal proceedings against General Augustino Pinochet in Great Britain proved. Yet Indian leaders who permit torture in Kashmir are not prosecuted for the crime in jurisdictions they may be visiting. They are not placed on a list of villains’ ineligibles for visitor visas to the United States or elsewhere. Their assets abroad are not frozen. Is an international crime less criminal if the victim is a Kashmiri? Compare the unforgiving British reaction to the 1857 Indian mutiny when its citizens were the victims. Hindu and Muslim soldiers were shot out of cannons. No type of death was too grisly for Great Britain's grandees.
The only solution to the problem lies in allowing the people of Kashmir to exercise their unrestricted right to self-determination to decide their destiny – a pledge given to them by the world community some 77 years ago. It is not rocket science. If the Kashmir question were resolved, much of the hostility between India and Pakistan would dissolve. The region would not be living on the edge of a nuclear holocaust. Trade between the two countries would flourish. Jobs and meaningful lives would be created. It would directly help India to extricate itself from the quagmire of international conflicts and accumulation of weaponry, to realize its economic and technological potential and truly rise to the stature of a great power. It would also release Pakistan from a crippling burden. It would thus bring the lasting credit of United Nations policy towards the region of South Asia. Families split apart the ceasefire line by the conflict could join together again. There would be no more shelling at the ceasefire line. Those 900,000 Indian military and paramilitary forces could go home and do something constructive instead of beating up on women and children. What intelligent person could not agree with that? The refusal of omission to take a well-considered initiative neither responds to a long-term peace strategy nor answers the demand of the human conscience.
Dr. Fai is also Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum. He can be reached at: WhatsApp: 1-202-607-6435. Or gnfai2003@yahoo.com www.kashmirawareness.org
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Published since July 2008 |
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
