Chris Hedges's Blog, page 586

Egypt Arrests Critic for Insulting President

CAIRO—Egyptian police detained an activist known for his harsh criticism of the government on charges including insulting President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, a rights lawyer said Tuesday.

Fatima Harb, the wife of Shady el-Ghazaly Harb, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that prosecutors summoned her husband for an investigation into accusations of disseminating false news and insulting the president, among other charges.

The prosecutors, she said, set his bail at 50,000 Egyptian pounds, or about $2,810, late Monday. It has been paid but authorities have refused to let him return home, she said.

Rights lawyer Doaa Moustafa said Harb’s whereabouts are unknown. Shady el-Ghazaly Harb was one of the young leaders behind the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

The arrest is the latest in a heavy crackdown on opposition by el-Sissi who led the military’s 2013 ouster of Egypt’s first freely elected leader, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi, whose one-year in office proved divisive.

El-Sissi took office in June 2014, nearly a year after Morsi’s ouster. He has since overseen the arrest of thousands of Islamists as well as scores of prominent secular activists behind the 2011 uprising. The government has defended the crackdown and erosion of freedoms since then, saying it is trying to restore stability, revive the economy and defeat an increasingly powerful Islamic insurgency based in the Sinai Peninsula.

Also on Tuesday, an Egyptian court handed out sentences — ranging from five to ten years — to five defendants in prison on terror-related charges that include killing a Coptic Christian in 2010. The Cairo Criminal Court said the defendants had set up a militant group that aimed to attack security personnel, tourists and the country’s Christian minority.

Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years, but the insurgency gained strength after Morsi’s overthrow. The militants have focused their attacks on security forces and Egypt’s Christian minority.

In February, Egypt launched a massive security operation against militants in Sinai as well as parts of Egypt’s Nile Delta and the Western Desert, along the porous border with Libya.

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55 Die in Gaza Protests as Israel Fetes U.S. Embassy Move

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip—In a jarring contrast, Israeli forces shot and killed at least 55 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,200 during mass protests Monday along the Gaza border, while just a few miles away Israel and the U.S. held a festive inauguration ceremony for the new American Embassy in contested Jerusalem.

It was by far the deadliest day of cross-border violence since a devastating 2014 war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, and further dimmed the already bleak prospects for President Donald Trump’s hoped-for peace plan.

Throughout the day, Gaza protesters set tires ablaze, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the air, and hurled firebombs and stones toward Israeli troops across the border. The Israeli military, which has come under international criticism for using excessive force against unarmed protesters, said Hamas tried to carry out bombing and shooting attacks under the cover of the protests and released video of protesters ripping away parts of the barbed-wire border fence.

Monday’s protests culminated more than a month of weekly demonstrations aimed at breaking a crippling Israeli-Egyptian border blockade. But the U.S. Embassy move, bitterly opposed by the Palestinians, added further fuel.

There was barely any mention of the Gaza violence at Monday’s lavish inauguration ceremony for the new embassy, an upgraded consular building located just 50 miles (80 kilometers) away. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials joined an American delegation of Trump administration officials and Republican and evangelical Christian supporters.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and chief Mideast adviser, headlined the U.S. delegation with his wife and fellow White House adviser, Ivanka Trump, as well as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and four Republican senators. Republican super-donor Sheldon Adelson was also present, and evangelical pastors Robert Jeffress and John Hagee delivered blessings.

“A great day for Israel!” Trump tweeted earlier Monday.

In a videotaped address, Trump said the embassy move, a key campaign promise, recognizes the “plain reality” that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. Yet he added the United States “remains fully committed to facilitating a lasting peace agreement.”

But Monday’s steadily climbing death toll and wall-to-wall condemnation of the embassy move in the Arab world raised new doubts about Trump’s ambitions to broker what he called the “deal of the century.” More than a year after taking office, Trump’s Mideast team has yet to produce a long-promised peace plan.

Trump says recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital acknowledges the reality that Israel’s government is located there as well as the ancient Jewish connection to the city. He insists the decision has no impact on future negotiations on the city’s final borders.

But to both Israel and the Palestinians, the American gesture is widely seen as siding with Israel on the most sensitive issue in their longstanding conflict.

“What a glorious day. Remember this moment. This is history,” Netanyahu told the inauguration ceremony.

“You can only build peace on truth, and the truth is that Jerusalem has been and will always be the capital of the Jewish people, the capital of the Jewish state,” he added.

The Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as their capital, have cut off ties with the Trump administration and say the U.S. is unfit to serve as a mediator. Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area in a move that is not internationally recognized.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, furious over the embassy ceremony, said he “will not accept” any peace deal proposed by the Trump administration.

The Palestinian president also urged the international community to condemn what he said were “massacres” carried out by Israeli troops in Gaza, and officials said the Palestinians would file a war crimes complaint against Israel in the International Criminal Court over settlement construction.

By nightfall, at least 55 Palestinians, including a young girl and four other minors, were killed, the Gaza Health Ministry said. It said 1,204 Palestinians were wounded by gunfire, including 116 who were in serious or critical condition.

Egypt, an important Israeli ally, condemned the killings of Palestinian protesters, while the U.N. human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, decried the “shocking killing of dozens.”

Turkey said it was recalling its ambassador to the United States over the U.S. Embassy move, saying it “disregarded the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” and would “not serve peace, security and stability in the region.” It also recalled its ambassador to Israel following what it called a “massacre” of Palestinians on the Gaza border.

South Africa, a fervent supporter of the Palestinians, also recalled its ambassador for consultations, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, called on Israel to respect the “principle of proportionality in the use of force” and show restraint, while also urging Hamas to ensure any protests remain peaceful. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a similar appeal.

At the U.S. Embassy ceremony in Jerusalem, Kushner placed the blame on the Gaza protesters.

“As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution,” he said.

Israel says the blockade of Gaza, imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas overran the territory in 2007, is needed to prevent Hamas from building up its military capabilities. But it has decimated Gaza’s economy, sending unemployment skyrocketing to over 40 percent and leaving the territory with just a few hours of electricity a day.

The Israeli military estimated a turnout of about 40,000 at Monday’s protest, saying it fell short of what Hamas had hoped for. But officials described what they called “unprecedented violence” unseen in previous weeks.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said hundreds of protesters carried out “concerted, coordinated” attacks on the border fence.

Although the crowd did not manage to break through, he said they caused “significant damage.” The army released video showing demonstrators setting a cargo crossing on fire and appearing to climb on the fence as they lobbed flaming objects into the Israeli side.

Conricus also said Hamas militants disguised as protesters tried to infiltrate, and there were at least three instances of armed Hamas gunmen trying to carry out attacks. Israeli aircraft and tanks struck seven Hamas positions.

Monday marked the biggest showdown in years between Israel’s military and Gaza’s Hamas rulers along the volatile border. The sides have largely observed a cease-fire since the 2014 war — their third in a decade.

Since the protests began on March 30, 105 Palestinians have been killed, most of them protesters. Israel said it killed three militants trying to plant a bomb along the fence, and Palestinian security officials said several Hamas militants were also killed by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza.

Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas figure, said the mass border protests would continue “until the rights of the Palestinian people are achieved.”

Throughout the day, sirens wailed as the wounded were carried to ambulances. Groups of young activists repeatedly approached the fence, but were quickly scattered by gunfire and tear gas.

The timing of Monday’s events was deeply symbolic to Israel and the Palestinians.

The U.S. said it chose the date to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s establishment.

But Tuesday also marks the anniversary of what Palestinians call their “nakba,” or catastrophe, a reference to the uprooting of hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. A day of mourning and mass funerals was planned Tuesday.

A majority of Gaza’s 2 million people are descendants of refugees, and the protests have been billed as the “Great March of Return” to long-lost homes in what is now Israel.

The new embassy will temporarily operate from an upgraded, existing U.S. consulate building, until a decision is made on a permanent location. Even the current location is sensitive, located partially in an area designated “no-man’s land” in a 1949 armistice agreement. The U.N. considers that land to be occupied territory, though the U.S. says in practice the area has been in continuous Israeli use since 1949.

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Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Ilan Ben Zion in Mefalsim, Israel, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Karin Laub in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

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U.N. Security Council to Meet Tuesday on Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The latest on the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and Palestinian protest (all times local):

1:40 a.m.

The U.N. Security Council is set to meet Tuesday to discuss the deadly violence along the Israel-Gaza border.

Kuwait called for the session after more than 50 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire amid mass protests Monday. It was the deadliest day in Gaza since a 2014 cross-border war.

The Palestinian U.N. envoy wants the Security Council to condemn the killings.

Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador is calling on the council to condemn Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules the coastal Gaza Strip and led the protests.

It’s not immediately clear what will come out of the discussion. At an emergency meeting after similar protests in March, council members urged restraint on both sides but didn’t decide on any action or joint message.

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12:30 a.m.

The Israeli military says it is reopening the Gaza Strip’s main cargo crossing.

The Kerem Shalom crossing was closed over the weekend after Palestinian protesters damaged the facility.

The crossing is used to deliver food, medical supplies, fuel and building materials into the Gaza Strip. The military says it will reopen Tuesday, but it is not expected to operate at full capacity.

Israeli officials say protesters caused millions of dollars of damage to a fuel pipeline and conveyor belt that could take weeks to repair.

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12:15 a.m.

The Turkish Embassy in Washington says the Turkish ambassador to the United States is being called home over the Trump administration moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Turkey is also recalling its ambassador to Israel for consultations. Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Ministry says it strongly condemns the decision to move the embassy and deems the move “legally null and void.”

Turkey says the move “disregards the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” and “will not serve peace, security and stability in the region.”

In a statement, Turkey is also criticizing Israel for the death of Palestinians who were protesting along the Gaza-Israel border. Turkey calls it a “massacre.”

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11 p.m.

A senior official says the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership has decided to file a war crimes complaint against Israel with the International Criminal Court over its settlement construction on occupied lands.

Saeb Erekat says the decision was made late Monday in a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and senior PLO officials. It came after the U.S. moved its embassy in Israel to contested Jerusalem on Monday and Israeli forces killed 55 people in Gaza protests.

Erekat says a decision was made to sign the ICC referral “immediately.” Seeking a war crimes prosecution of Israel would signal a sharp deterioration in increasingly tense relations between the two sides.

The Palestinians have had standing at the court since the U.N. General Assembly recognized a “state of Palestine” as a non-member observer in 2012.

Erekat says that in that capacity, “Palestine” will also join several international organizations. Previous decisions of this nature were sharply opposed by the U.S. and Israel.

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10 p.m.

The White House says responsibility for dozens of deaths in Gaza coinciding with the opening of the new U.S. Embassy in contested Jerusalem “rests squarely with Hamas.”

White House spokesman Raj Shah was responding to reports of Israeli soldiers shooting and killing at dozens of Palestinians during mass protests along the Gaza border on Monday.

It’s been the deadliest day there since a devastating 2014 cross-border war.

Shah says that “Israel has the right to defend itself” and is blaming Hamas for the “dire situation.”

He’s also calling Monday “a great day for Israel and the United States.”

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9:55 p.m.

Israel says South Africa has recalled its ambassador amid violence along the Gaza border.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the ambassador was recalled for consultations. He said that Sisa Ngombane returns home Monday night.

South Africa’s relations with Israel have long been frosty. The South African government is a fervent supporter of the Palestinian cause.

The diplomatic move came after 52 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire along the Gaza border in mass protests led by the Islamic militant group Hamas that rules the territory.

Israel says the level of violence at the border was “unprecedented” and that some Palestinians opened fire at troops and planted explosives.

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9:50 p.m.

Thousands have gathered in Istanbul to condemn the U.S. decision to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, burning American and Israeli flags, and protesting deadly clashes along the Israeli-Palestinian border.

Demonstrators carried banners that read: “Al Quds belongs to the Muslims,” the Arabic name of Jerusalem. They chanted “God is great” and slogans calling for holy war and martyrdom. One speaker called Americans “dogs” as people shouted “Jerusalem is ours, it will be ours.”

The rally was called by pro-Islamic Humanitarian Relief Foundation or IHH. In 2010, Israeli commandos stormed an IHH-organized aid flotilla to Gaza, killing nine Turks.

Turkey has been vehemently critical of the U.S. and Israel for the embassy relocation. Speaking in Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim slammed the two countries for celebrating the move while “innocent and defenseless Palestinians are martyred.”

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9:25 p.m.

Syria’s foreign ministry says it condemns “in the strongest terms” what it called “the brutal massacre” committed Israel against the unarmed Palestinians in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed at least 43 Palestinians during mass protests along the Gaza border on Monday against the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem. It was the deadliest day there since a devastating 2014 cross-border war.

In a statement Monday, the Syrian foreign ministry held the U.S. administration responsible for the bloodshed, calling its decision to move the embassy “criminal and illegitimate.”

The ministry said the battle of the Palestinian people against Israel is “Syria’s battle,” adding that Israel also supports “terrorists” that operate in Syria.

The statement said Syria support the Palestinians struggle to get back their legitimate rights, mainly its right to self-determination, refugees to return and establishing its independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

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8:40 p.m.

Kuwait is seeking an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on the violence along the Gaza border, where Israeli soldiers shot and killed dozens of Palestinians during mass protests Monday.

Kuwait’s U.N. mission is requesting a meeting Tuesday on the developments.

Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour urged the council Monday to condemn the killings. Speaking to reporters, Mansour called the Israel military response a “savage onslaught” and an “atrocity.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 50 Palestinians were killed Monday in the deadliest day in Gaza since a 2014 war with Israel.

Israel says it has the right to defend its border.

The council held an emergency meeting when the protests began in March. Members then urged restraint on both sides but couldn’t agree on any action or joint message.

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8:20 p.m.

Iran’s hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has condemned Israel’s killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

A Guard statement carried by the semi-official Fars news agency said the Guard also strongly condemned the U.S. over moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The Guard said the “harsh and vicious act … could start a new wave of combating America, anger and hatred against the supporters of this vicious move beyond the region.”

Iran is a longtime opponent of Israel. Israel says it targeted Iranian positions in Syria recently.

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8:20 p.m.

Qatar is condemning Israel for opening fire and killing Palestinians protesting in the Gaza Strip today.

A statement Monday night quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Lolwah al-Khater expressing the Gulf Arab nation’s “condemnation and denunciation of the brutal massacre and systematic killing committed by the Israeli occupation forces against unarmed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

She said Qatar “calls on all international and regional powers that have a voice in Israel to act immediately to stop the brutal killing machine.”

Since a 2014 war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, natural gas-rich Qatar has been a leading player in internationally backed reconstruction efforts in Gaza.

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8 p.m.

The Lebanon’s Hezbollah says the creation of Israel, just like the violence against Palestinians protesting in Gaza today, is “a mark of shame” for all humanity.

Hassan Nasrallah was speaking Monday. He said the Palestinians and the region are facing a major challenge, which is that the U.S. plans to propose a new peace plan between Palestinians and Israelis. Nasrallah said the expected plan aims to erode Palestinians rights and urged them not to accept it. He said only the resistance axis, in reference to Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, can change the “equation” and will hold on to the right of Palestinians to statehood and the right of return.

Nasrallah said Israel and the United States are pressuring Iran, with sanctions and withdrawing from the nuclear deal, not only because of its use of nuclear energy but also because of its support for the Palestinians and resistance movements.

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7:40 p.m.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has lashed out after the U.S. moved its embassy to contested Jerusalem, saying he “will not accept” any peace deal proposed by the Trump administration.

Abbas told PLO officials Monday that “this is not an embassy, it’s a U.S. settlement outpost in Jerusalem,” in a reference to Israeli settlements on war-won lands sought for a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian president also urged the international community to condemn what he said were “massacres” carried out by Israeli troops. On Monday, 52 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,200 wounded by Israeli army fire in Gaza border protests.

The high death toll and wall-to-wall Arab condemnation of Monday’s U.S. Embassy move cast new doubt on the Trump administration’s assertions that it can still broker a Mideast peace deal.

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7:35 p.m.

The Israeli military says there were no border breaches during Monday’s Gaza demonstrations, despite an “unprecedented” level of violence.

The army says it used airstrikes and tank fire against Hamas targets in Gaza after squads of gunmen opened fire and tried to plant bombs along the border.

“We saw more than five explosive devices. We saw shooting at forces,” said Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, the chief army spokesman.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, another army spokesman, said hundreds of protesters carried out “concerted, coordinated” attacks on the border fence in an attempt to infiltrate.

Palestinian health officials says 52 people were killed by Israeli fire — the deadliest day of violence since a 2014 war.

The military accuses Hamas of using the protests as cover to carry out attacks.

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7:30 p.m.

The chief Palestinian negotiator is accusing the Trump administration of “burying” Mideast peace hopes by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

Saeb Erekat called the new embassy an illegal “settlement outpost.”

The Palestinians claim Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as their capital and bitterly opposed the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Although President Donald Trump says Monday’s opening of the new embassy does not prejudge the final borders of the city, the move was perceived as taking Israel’s side.

“We also witnessed today a ceremony of the Prime Minister of Israel and the administration of President Trump burying the peace process, burying the two state solution, killing the hope in the minds of the people of the Middle East as a whole with the possibility of peace,” Erekat said.

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7:15 p.m.

The U.N. human rights chief says on Twitter that “Israeli live fire in #Gaza must stop now,” demanding respect for human life.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein decried the “shocking killing of dozens” and the injury of hundreds by Israeli forces in the Palestinian areas amid a crackdown against protests over the inauguration of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on Monday.

Zeid, a Jordanian prince who is leaving his post in August after a single term, said the international community needs to ensure justice for the victims.

He added Monday on the U.N. human rights office’s Twitter feed that perpetrators of “outrageous human rights violations” must be held to account.

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7:10 p.m.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli army fire has risen to 52, making it the deadliest day in Gaza since a 2014 war with Israel.

It says 1,204 Palestinians were shot and wounded Monday in mass protests near the Gaza border fence with Israel. The ministry says this includes 116 who were in serious or critical condition.

The statement says about 1,200 others suffered other types of injuries, including from tear gas.

The steadily climbing death toll was bound to fuel international criticism of the military’s open-fire policies against unarmed protesters. Rights groups have said the rules are unlawful.

Israel says it is defending a sovereign border and accuses Gaza’s Hamas rulers of trying to carry out attacks under the cover of the protests.

 

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Melania Trump Has Medical Procedure for Kidney Ailment

WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump underwent a “successful” procedure Monday to treat a benign kidney condition and was expected to remain hospitalized for the rest of the week, her staff said. President Donald Trump took a helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to visit her and tweeted that his wife was in “good spirits.”

Mrs. Trump, 48, had the embolization procedure Monday morning. The president spoke with Mrs. Trump before the procedure and with her doctor afterward, the first lady’s office said.

The president tweeted shortly before arriving at Walter Reed outside Washington, saying it was a “successful procedure,” describing his wife as being “in good spirits” and offering his thanks “to all of the well-wishers!”

The White House did not offer any additional details on Mrs. Trump’s condition. In opening remarks in the Senate, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sent well wishes for “a speedy recovery to the first lady.”

She was last seen in public on Wednesday at a White House event where she joined the president to honor military mothers and spouses for Mother’s Day.

Two urologists who have no personal knowledge of Mrs. Trump’s condition said the most likely explanation for the procedure is a kind of noncancerous kidney tumor called an angiomyolipoma.

They’re not common but tend to occur in middle-aged women, and if they become large enough, they can cause problematic bleeding, said Dr. Keith Kowalczyk of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.

“The treatment of choice” is to cut off the blood supply so the growth shrinks, added Dr. Lambros Stamatakis of MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Doctors do that with an embolization, meaning a catheter is snaked into the blood vessels of the kidney to find the right one and block it.

Most of the time, these benign tumors are found when people undergo medical scans for another reason, but sometimes people have pain or other symptoms, Kowalczyk said. Many times, embolization patients go home the same day or the next.

The president had no public appearances scheduled for Monday and declined to answer shouted questions from reporters about how his wife was feeling as he departed the White House for Walter Reed.

The former model from Slovenia is Trump’s third wife, and the couple has been married for 13 years. They have a 12-year-old son named Barron.

Mrs. Trump, who has been gradually raising her profile as first lady, recently hosted her first state dinner and launched a public awareness campaign to help children.

With the president watching, Mrs. Trump last week unveiled the “Be Best” campaign, which she said will focus on childhood well-being, social media use and opioid abuse.

Mrs. Trump joined her husband last month to host the prime minister of Japan for a two-day summit at the Trumps’ Florida estate, and the Trumps hosted the president of France at the White House on a three-day state visit, including a lavish state dinner. Mrs. Trump also represented the administration at the April funeral of former first lady Barbara Bush.

The Trumps and their marriage have been under scrutiny in recent months after revelations that a porn actress was paid $130,000 in hush money to keep quiet about claims she had sex with Trump in 2006. Trump has acknowledged reimbursing his lawyer for the payment to porn star Stormy Daniels but denies her allegations. Separately, a former Playboy model has revived her allegations of a 10-month affair with Trump in 2006. Trump also denies the allegations from Karen McDougal.

Mrs. Trump has, at times, has been noticeably absent from her husband’s side. But both made a point of displaying affection during last week’s Rose Garden event where the first lady announced her “Be Best” initiative.

The first lady lived full time in New York during the administration’s opening months so Barron would not have to change schools midyear. She and Barron moved into the White House last June.

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AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report from Washington.

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Sessions Trying to Take Over Immigration Court System

During an NPR interview last Friday, White House chief of staff John Kelly defended the Trump administration practice, enacted by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, of separating immigrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. When reporter John Burnett commented that critics have called the policy “cruel and heartless,” Kelly answered: “I wouldn’t put it quite that way. The children will be taken care of—put into foster care or whatever.”

While Kelly’s comments briefly dominated headlines, they only scratch the surface of Sessions’ increasing involvement in immigration policy. As Vox’s Dara Lind reported Monday:

Sessions has stepped into the immigration system in an unprecedented manner: giving himself and his office the ability to review, and rewrite, cases that could set precedents for a large share of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants with pending immigration court cases, not to mention all those who are arrested and put into the deportation process in future.

He does so by taking cases that are usually decided by the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals and refers them to himself to make the final decision.

Lind notes that it’s not certain exactly how Sessions will use this power (he hasn’t given lawyers much information), but it has the potential to “to make it radically harder for immigration judges to push cases off their docket to be resolved elsewhere or paused indefinitely.” As for immigrants themselves, it could “close the best opportunity that tens of thousands of asylum seekers, including most Central Americans, have to stay in the United States.”

The attorney general has always had the power to self-refer cases, but most attorneys general allow the Board of Immigration Appeals at least some level of independence. Sessions has used self-referral three times in 2018.

Part of the problem for immigrants, their advocates and lawyers is that they may have no way of knowing, at least until the last minute, exactly which cases Sessions is taking over. Sessions’ office is supposed to make decisions based on briefs from all parties, but if lawyers don’t know which cases are involved, they are unable to file the best possible brief.

Asylum seekers at risk of domestic violence are particularly worried. During one of the cases that Sessions self-referred, he asked if judges should be allowed to grant asylum to immigrants who were fleeing intimate partner violence as opposed to state violence. In theory the law applies to state violence, “but some judges have found that women in some countries who experience domestic violence are being persecuted for membership in the ‘social group’ of being women,” Lind writes.

If Sessions is in control, domestic violence and immigration advocates believe, this path will be closed. Immigrants from Central America fleeing gang violence have also received asylum based on the “social group” rule and will be at the mercy of their tormentors.

Sessions, who isn’t talking about his decision much at all, has at least claimed that he’s self-referring cases in the name of efficiency. Unfortunately, as Lind concludes, “Sessions’ meddling might not make courts more efficient, but it will make them more brutal.”

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Reporters Cash In White House Access for Lucrative Cable News Deals

After the 2016 elections, several publications encouraged Americans to pay for their content, framing a newspaper subscription as an act of resistance against a lying, media-bashing president.

It has paid off handsomely for legacy publications. The New York Times surpassed 500,000 new subscribers between November 2016 and April 2017, and The Washington Post told us “Democracy Dies in Darkness” and crossed the 1 million mark for paid digital subscriptions at the end of 2017.

It’s also been a financial windfall for individual White House reporters who can spin their access into lucrative side jobs as cable news analysts and speakers.

BuzzFeed News reported Monday that high-profile White House reporters can earn tens of thousands from television appearances and speaking engagements, doing so even as newspapers and websites are slashing budgets, laying off staff and shrinking the salaries of those who remain.

BuzzFeed’s Stephen Perlberg notes that while rates vary widely, “Starting contributor rates for political reporters fall between about $30,000 and $50,000 a year. Top reporters can earn between $50,000 and $90,000 for their TV side-hustles, and some seasoned pros—boosted by loyalty and multi-year arrangements—make as much as $250,000.”

Reporters who frequently appear on CNN named in the BuzzFeed article include The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Martin and Julie Hirschfeld Davis, The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey and Josh Rogin, Politico’s Rachael Bade, Time’s Molly Ball, Bloomberg’s Margaret Talev and AP’s Julie Pace. Philip Rucker, Robert Costa, David Fahrenthold and Ashley Parker from The Washington Post, The Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff and Gabe Sherman, and Emily Jane Fox from Vanity Fair have all appeared on NBC or MSNBC.

Others, like Axios’ Jonathan Swan, choose speaking appearances, which net  Swan about $25,000 each. That’s more than half the $44,000 the average print reporter earns per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These boons, Perlberg writes, “stemmed, in part, from a shift in strategy by CNN President Jeff Zucker and NBC News chair Andy Lack. They were “Dinged by critics for featuring roundtables of talking heads,” and have responded with “a buying spree to sign reporters who break news to paid contributor contracts. That way, when the Washington Post or New York Times breaks a big Russia–Trump story—and they often do—their network will have exclusive access to the bylined reporter.”

The success of the bigger publications has not trickled down to newer online publications or local newspapers. In fact, the gaps between the journalism haves and have-nots is widening.

Across the country, local newspapers and online media properties alike, often owned by billionaires or hedge funds with limited experience in journalism, are cutting budgets, trimming key sections and laying off staff in an attempt to force quick profitability in an increasingly volatile industry.

Just today [May 14)], The Salt Lake City Tribune cut 34 staff members, which included, as the paper’s own Tony Semarad reported, “many well-known writers read for generations,” along with “key print sections.”

On March 14, the Denver Post’s hedge fund owner, Digital First Media, laid off a third of the paper’s newsroom staff. It made similar cuts, as the Los Angeles Times reported, to its California papers in January and February. The L.A. Times’ own staff was decimated by former owner Tronc. And, as columnist Robin Abcarian put it in an address to the Society of Professional Journalists, it used a “death-by-a-thousand-cuts” strategy “that has taken us from a robust newsroom of 1,200 to somewhere around 400.”

Last week, Gizmodo Media published an expose of its owner, Univision. The company, according to reporters Kate Conger, David Uberti and Laura Wagner, “was a tremendous golden goose laying tremendous golden eggs: It made incredible amounts of money and had to do essentially nothing for it other than run programming produced by Televisa, a Mexican broadcasting operation.”

This fairy tale, the Gizmodo writers explain, “ended long ago. Univision has been in decline for years, thanks to a disastrous private equity buyout finalized in 2007; an aging audience; a burdensome program-licensing deal with Televisa; competition from Telemundo and Netflix; layers of overpaid and useless middle management; and a general failure to position itself for a digital future.”

The Boston Consulting Group, which was retained to fix this self-created mess, reportedly recommended budget cuts of up to 35 percent in some parts of the company, in addition to the 150 people who have already been laid off. That the Gizmodo Media Group is actually profitable won’t prevent rumored cuts of up to a third of its newsroom by the end of June.

Reporters who do not benefit from cable news appearances took to Twitter to express their frustration.

Aleksander Chan of Splinter, part of the Gizmodo Media Group, tweeted: “i love knowing that it costs two (2) jonathan swan speaking engagements to hire one (1) full-time staff reporter at the union minimum salary—good and normal.” He added: “just three (3) jonathan swan speeches would get me a senior editor ABOVE the union minimum :)”

Jeff Stein of The Washington Post echoed this sentiment, tweeting: “The average reporter in the US earns $44K/year. Layoffs have been widespread at local papers. Meanwhile, @perlberg reports White House reporters are earning $50K-$90K/annually — & up to $200K! — for their TV ‘side-hustles,’ in addition to salaries.”

The reporters pocketing six-figure salaries justified their money to BuzzFeed by saying that “they work constantly and live under the threat of a morning-altering Trump tweet or an evening-altering scoop from a competitor, not to mention frequent attacks on their profession from the president and his allies.”

They conveniently ignore the irony that the same president who calls outlets that fact-check his speeches “fake news” and openly muses about taking away press credentials is actually boosting their careers.

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High Court Says States Can OK Sports Betting

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for states coast to coast to legalize betting on sports, breaking a longtime ban and creating a potential financial boon for states and the gambling industry. The first bets could be placed within weeks.

Despite opposition from the major sports leagues and the Trump administration, the high court struck down a federal law that had barred betting on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states. States that want to take advantage of the ruling now will generally have to pass legislation to allow sports books to open. Some, including New Jersey, which brought the case to the Supreme Court, have a head start.

Sports leagues had expressed concerns about any expansion of sports gambling. Their huge businesses could be badly harmed if people thought the outcome of games could be altered by someone who had wagered money on a certain result.

However, the ruling also could be seen as merely bringing an activity out of the shadows that many people already see as a mainstream hobby. Americans wager about $150 billion on sports each year illegally, according to the American Gaming Association. The law the justices struck down forbade state-authorized sports gambling with some exceptions and made Nevada the only state where a person could wager on the results of a single game.

Stock prices for casino operators and equipment makers surged after the ruling was announced.

Gambling on sports could quickly become widely available, with one research firm estimating that 32 states would likely offer sports betting within five years.

The ruling “opens up the floodgates” for sports gambling in any state that wants to have it, said Daniel Wallach, a sports law expert in Florida.

The decision had been eagerly anticipated by gamblers and also states that hope their cut of legalized sports betting can help solve budget problems. States that have already laid the legal groundwork include New Jersey, where one racetrack said it would begin taking bets within two weeks. Mississippi and West Virginia have also been preparing for sports betting, and gamblers there could be placing bets as early as this summer and certainly before the NFL season starts in September.

Delaware, too, could quickly expand beyond certain bets currently offered at its casinos. Pennsylvania and New York have also made moves to begin sports gambling. However, other states that want to allow sports betting could still see several Super Bowls come and go before people there can place a legal bet close to home.

The Trump administration had urged the high court to uphold the law, surprising perhaps because the president is the former owner of a New Jersey casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, now being remade into a Hard Rock casino resort. All four major U.S. professional sports leagues and the NCAA also had urged the court to uphold the federal law, saying a gambling expansion would hurt the integrity of their games. They also said that with legal sports betting in the United States, they’d have to spend a lot more money monitoring betting patterns and investigating suspicious activity.

Sports gambling proponents argued that the leagues already do that work and that legal sports betting will make enforcement easier than it is now, when most bets in the U.S. are made illegally. They say state regulators are capable of monitoring suspicious bets, as is done in Nevada.

On Monday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Major League Baseball issued statements saying the “integrity” of their games would remain a priority. Representatives of the National Hockey League, National Football League and NCAA said they were reviewing the court’s decision.

Some saw other concerns, including for some gamblers. The ruling “will likely increase gambling participation and gambling problems unless steps are taken to minimize harm,” said Marlene Warner, the president of the National Council on Problem Gambling’s board of directors. The council said any government body or sports league that receives a direct percentage or portion of sports betting revenue should dedicate some of it to treat gambling problems.

The law the justices struck down was passed by Congress in 1992 and called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court, “The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make.” The court’s “job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution,” he wrote. “PASPA is not.”

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Ginsburg wrote for the three that when a portion of a law violates the Constitution, the court “ordinarily engages in a salvage rather than a demolition operation,” preserving what it can. She said that instead of using a “scalpel to trim the statute” her colleagues used “an axe.” Breyer agreed with the majority that part of the law must be struck down but said that should not have doomed the rest of the law.

Congress could try to step in again. Sen. Orrin Hatch said he would soon introduce legislation to set national standards for sports betting, but It is unclear whether the rest of Congress will want to join him.

The ruling was a particular victory for New Jersey, which has fought for years to legalize gambling on sports at casinos and racetracks. Former Republican Gov. Chris Christie tweeted that it was a “great day for the rights of states and their people to make their own decisions.” The state’s current governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, said he was “thrilled” to see the high court strike down the “arbitrary ban.” Several hours after the Supreme Court ruled, New Jersey lawmakers introduced new legislation that would regulate and tax sports gambling in the state.

Casinos and racetracks in the state are also moving quickly. Monmouth Park, a racetrack at the Jersey Shore, has already set up a sports book operation and said Monday it plans to start taking bets within two weeks “unless someone stops us.” And Tony Rodio, president of Tropicana Entertainment, said his Atlantic City casino will offer sports betting once it can get it up and running.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he said.

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Parry reported from Atlantic City, New Jersey. Associated Press reporters Michael Catalini in Oceanport, New Jersey; Ben Nuckols in Washington and Steve Megargee in Knoxville, Tennessee, contributed reporting.

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The Pentagon Can’t Account for $21 Trillion (That’s Not a Typo)

Twenty-one trillion dollars.

The Pentagon’s own numbers show that it can’t account for $21 trillion. Yes, I mean trillion with a “T.” And this could change everything.

But I’ll get back to that in a moment.

There are certain things the human mind is not meant to do. Our complex brains cannot view the world in infrared, cannot spell words backward during orgasm and cannot really grasp numbers over a few thousand. A few thousand, we can feel and conceptualize. We’ve all been in stadiums with several thousand people. We have an idea of what that looks like (and how sticky the floor gets).

But when we get into the millions, we lose it. It becomes a fog of nonsense. Visualizing it feels like trying to hug a memory. We may know what $1 million can buy (and we may want that thing), but you probably don’t know how tall a stack of a million $1 bills is. You probably don’t know how long it takes a minimum-wage employee to make $1 million.

That’s why trying to understand—truly understand—that the Pentagon spent 21 trillion unaccounted-for dollars between 1998 and 2015 washes over us like your mother telling you that your third cousin you met twice is getting divorced. It seems vaguely upsetting, but you forget about it 15 seconds later because … what else is there to do?

Twenty-one trillion.

But let’s get back to the beginning. A couple of years ago, Mark Skidmore, an economics professor, heard Catherine Austin Fitts, former assistant secretary in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, say that the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General had found $6.5 trillion worth of unaccounted-for spending in 2015. Skidmore, being an economics professor, thought something like, “She means $6.5 billion. Not trillion. Because trillion would mean the Pentagon couldn’t account for more money than the gross domestic product of the whole United Kingdom. But still, $6.5 billion of unaccounted-for money is a crazy amount.”

So he went and looked at the inspector general’s report, and he found something interesting: It was trillion! It was fucking $6.5 trillion in 2015 of unaccounted-for spending! And I’m sorry for the cursing, but the word “trillion” is legally obligated to be prefaced with “fucking.” It is indeed way more than the U.K.’s GDP.

Skidmore did a little more digging. As Forbes reported in December 2017, “[He] and Catherine Austin Fitts … conducted a search of government websites and found similar reports dating back to 1998. While the documents are incomplete, original government sources indicate $21 trillion in unsupported adjustments have been reported for the Department of Defense and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the years 1998-2015.”

Let’s stop and take a second to conceive how much $21 trillion is (which you can’t because our brains short-circuit, but we’ll try anyway).

1. The amount of money supposedly in the stock market is $30 trillion.

2. The GDP of the United States is $18.6 trillion.

3. Picture a stack of money. Now imagine that that stack of dollars is all $1,000 bills. Each bill says “$1,000” on it. How high do you imagine that stack of dollars would be if it were $1 trillion. It would be 63 miles high.

4. Imagine you make $40,000 a year. How long would it take you to make $1 trillion? Well, don’t sign up for this task, because it would take you 25 million years (which sounds like a long time, but I hear that the last 10 million really fly by because you already know your way around the office, where the coffee machine is, etc.).

The human brain is not meant to think about a trillion dollars.

And it’s definitely not meant to think about the $21 trillion our Department of Defense can’t account for. These numbers sound bananas. They sound like something Alex Jones found tattooed on his backside by extraterrestrials.

But the 21 trillion number comes from the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General—the OIG. Although, as Forbes pointed out, “after Mark Skidmore began inquiring about OIG-reported unsubstantiated adjustments, the OIG’s webpage, which documented, albeit in a highly incomplete manner, these unsupported “accounting adjustments,” was mysteriously taken down.”

Luckily, people had already grabbed copies of the report, which—for now—you can view here.

Here’s something else important from that Forbes article—which is one of the only mainstream media articles you can find on the largest theft in American history:

Given that the entire Army budget in fiscal year 2015 was $120 billion, unsupported adjustments were 54 times the level of spending authorized by Congress.

That’s right. The expenses with no explanation were 54 times the actual budget allotted by Congress. Well, it’s good to see Congress is doing 1/54th of its job of overseeing military spending (that’s actually more than I thought Congress was doing). This would seem to mean that 98 percent of every dollar spent by the Army in 2015 was unconstitutional.

So, pray tell, what did the OIG say caused all this unaccounted-for spending that makes Jeff Bezos’ net worth look like that of a guy jingling a tin can on the street corner?

“[The July 2016 inspector general] report indicates that unsupported adjustments are the result of the Defense Department’s ‘failure to correct system deficiencies.’ ”

They blame trillions of dollars of mysterious spending on a “failure to correct system deficiencies”? That’s like me saying I had sex with 100,000 wild hairless aardvarks because I wasn’t looking where I was walking.

Twenty-one trillion.

Say it slowly to yourself.

At the end of the day, there are no justifiable explanations for this amount of unaccounted-for, unconstitutional spending. Right now, the Pentagon is being audited for the first time ever, and it’s taking 2,400 auditors to do it. I’m not holding my breath that they’ll actually be allowed to get to the bottom of this.

But if the American people truly understood this number, it would change both the country and the world. It means that the dollar is sprinting down a path toward worthless. If the Pentagon is hiding spending that dwarfs the amount of tax dollars coming in to the federal government, then it’s clear the government is printing however much it wants and thinking there are no consequences. Once these trillions are considered, our fiat currency has even less meaning than it already does, and it’s only a matter of time before inflation runs wild.

It also means that any time our government says it “doesn’t have money” for a project, it’s laughable. It can clearly “create” as much as it wants for bombing and death. This would explain how Donald Trump’s military can drop well over 100 bombs a day that cost well north of $1 million each.

So why can’t our government also “create” endless money for health care, education, the homeless, veterans benefits and the elderly, to make all parking free and to pay the Rolling Stones to play stoop-front shows in my neighborhood? (I’m sure the Rolling Stones are expensive, but surely a trillion dollars could cover a couple of songs.)

Obviously, our government could do those things, but it chooses not to. Earlier this month, Louisiana sent eviction notices to 30,000 elderly people on Medicaid to kick them out of their nursing homes. Yes, a country that can vomit trillions of dollars down a black hole marked “Military” can’t find the money to take care of our poor elderly. It’s a repulsive joke.

Twenty-one trillion.

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spoke about how no one knows where the money is flying in the Pentagon. In a barely reported speech in 2011, he said, “My staff and I learned that it was nearly impossible to get accurate information and answers to questions such as, ‘How much money did you spend?’ and ‘How many people do you have?’ ”

They can’t even find out how many people work for a specific department?

Note for anyone looking for a job: Just show up at the Pentagon and tell them you work there. It doesn’t seem like they’d have much luck proving you don’t.

For more on this story, check out David DeGraw’s excellent reporting at ChangeMaker.media, because the mainstream corporate media are mouthpieces for the weapons industry. They are friends with benefits of the military-industrial complex. I have seen basically nothing from the mainstream corporate media concerning this mysterious $21 trillion. I missed the time when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said that the money we dump into war and death—either the accounted-for money or the secretive trillions—could end world hunger and poverty many times over. There’s no reason anybody needs to be starving or hungry or unsheltered on this planet, but our government seems hellbent on proving that it stands for nothing but profiting off death and misery. And our media desperately want to show they stand for nothing but propping up our morally bankrupt empire.

When the media aren’t actively promoting war, they’re filling the airwaves with shit, so the entire country can’t even hear itself think. Our whole mindscape is filled to the brim with nonsense and vacant celebrity idiocy. Then, while no one is looking, the largest theft humankind has ever seen is going on behind our backs—covered up under the guise of “national security.”

Twenty-one trillion.

Don’t forget.

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Poor People’s Campaign Kicks Off in Washington, D.C.

Editor’s note: To document the Poor People’s Campaign, Truthdig has launched its first fully reader-funded project. Please help us provide firsthand accounts of this activism by making a donation.

Thousands of activists and civil rights advocates gathered in Washington, D.C., Monday for the Poor People’s Campaign, an effort to relaunch Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight against poverty, war and income inequality. Monday’s event was the first of 40 days of action planned across the nation. The campaign’s goals include federal and state living-wage laws, an end to anti-union and anti-workers’ rights efforts, welfare programs for the poor, equity in education, Medicaid expansion and accessible housing.

Truthdig correspondents Michael Nigro and Clara Romeo are reporting from Washington, D.C. Scroll down to see Truthdig’s live multimedia updates.

4:50 P.M. EDT: The Poor People’s Campaign Twitter page reports that hundreds of arrests have been made. The campaign has launched a legal defense fund “to ensure the rights of those on the front lines in the fight to reclaim our nation’s soul are protected.”

Hundreds arrested here in #DC on our first Moral Monday of the #PoorPeoplesCampaign. We’ll be here with justice on our minds every week for five more weeks! Donate to the legal defense fund to support our people: https://t.co/OQspWtryat pic.twitter.com/BtPVWO3UYr

— Poor People’s Campaign (@UniteThePoor) May 14, 2018

4:45 P.M. EDT: Arrestees sing, “ONE JAIL IS NOT ENOUGH FOR ALL OF US!”

Photo credit: Clara Romeo

4:40 P.M. EDT: Clara Romeo spoke with a police officer at the scene who said that those arrested would likely have to pay a $50 fine, and that there would probably not be further repercussions.

The Rev. William Barber II is reportedly among those arrested.

#PoorPeoplesCampaign national co-chair @RevDrBarber arrested and being led away from First Street where’s few people are blocking traffic. pic.twitter.com/A5rDwxih8p

— BrakktonBooker (@brakktonbooker) May 14, 2018

4:30 P.M. EDT: Clara Romeo and Michael Nigro report that the crowd is dwindling as civil arrests are made. Some protesters are being escorted away from the street. Those arrested are given wristbands and taken to a different area.

Arrests happening now. #PoorPeoplesCampaign pic.twitter.com/qc3QdBFqiM

— Tiffany (@MsFlowersTweets) May 14, 2018

Photo credit: Clara Romeo

4:20 P.M. EDT: Police remain in a line of confrontation, according to the Poor People’s Campaign’s Twitter page:

A line of police confronting us as we take the street in front of the US Capitol. #PoorPeopleCampaign pic.twitter.com/dl1T4BuSYd

— Poor People’s Campaign (@UniteThePoor) May 14, 2018

4:09 P.M. EDT: Michael Nigro and Clara Romeo are live at the front of the march.

Crowd sings “And before this campaign fails, we’ll all go down to jail! Everybody’s got the right to live!” #PoorPeoplesCampaign pic.twitter.com/tpKgHTwzfO

— Poor People’s Campaign (@UniteThePoor) May 14, 2018

The Rev. William Barber II is at the front of the protest, right at the police line:

Photo credit: Clara Romeo

 

4 P.M. EDT: Clara Romeo reports that police have blocked part of the protest, forming a line outside the Library of Congress:

Photo credit: Clara Romeo

3:45 P.M. EDT: Marchers have taken to the streets.

Photo credit: Clara Romeo

3:20 P.M. EDT: Carmen Perez, one of the organizers for the Women’s March, takes the podium. “It’s not OK for people in our country to die without health care on our watch,” she says. “It’s not OK to separate mothers and their children on the border. It’s not OK, sisters and brothers, that every day a young black man or woman is killed at the hands of law enforcement in these United States of America.”

3 P.M. EDT: The Rev. Liz Theoharis tells the crowd, “When people step forward, other’s listen.”

Photo credit: Clara Romeo

2:30 P.M. EDT: The Rev. William Barber II takes to the podium again. “We are here because when you look at the grand moral declarations of our Constitution, which say that every piece of policy … should assure domestic tranquility, should establish justice, should provide for the common defense, and should promote the general welfare—we know when we look at those principles, something’s wrong in America.”

2:30 P.M. EDT: The Rev. Liz Theoharis has taken the podium. “We are here to make our voices heard,” she says. “To tell this nation that there are 140 million poor people living in it. We, today, in 2018, have fewer voting rights than we did 50 years ago. There are 11 million people living under the threat of detention and deportation. We have deep ecological devastation with 4 million households having poison lead coming out of the water in their pipes. There comes a time when silence is betrayal. There comes a time when we cannot take it anymore. There comes a time when we must march, and we must speak out, and we must protest and organize. … America, you’re headed in the wrong direction!”

2:15 P.M. EDT: A crowd gathers around the Rev. William Barber II as the rally begins.

Photo credit: Clara Romeo

1:55 P.M. EDT: Truthdig correspondent Michael Nigro is streaming live as activists prepare for the 2 p.m. event.

Photo credit: Clara Romeo

1 P.M. EDT: Clara Romeo reports that Poor People’s Campaign delegates have been sent from states across the nation.

Romeo also reports that labor unions have a strong presence at the rally.

Photo credit: Clara Romeo

Sunday evening: The Revs. William Barber II and Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign, kick off six weeks of nonviolent direct action in Washington, D.C.

Photo credit: Michael Nigro

“We know this is not and cannot be the America we settle for,” Barber, a pastor from North Carolina, said Sunday evening at a meeting at the National City Christian Church in downtown Washington, D.C.

Draped around Barber’s neck was a clerical stole that read “Jesus was a poor man.”

The Revs. William Barber II and Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign, kicked off the event Sunday night. (Michael Nigro)

“We have to cry loud,” Barber said. “We can’t shut up. We won’t shut up. We have to build a stage for poor people to demand attention. … We have to put our bodies on the line and put our mouths to work and we have to cry loud until hearts are changed, cry loud until consciences are shifted, cry loud until foundations are shaken, cry loud until love is awakened. We have to cry loud until the poor are lifted.”

The campaign provided a Facebook livestream of Sunday night’s kickoff:

Rising Mideast Tensions Put World on High Alert

There will be a confluence of trigger events this week that could lead to an escalation of conflict. At the same time that the U.S. has reneged on the nuclear agreement and Israeli missiles are attacking Iranians in Syria, the US embassy will be moved to Jerusalem and Palestinians will protest the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, capping six weeks of actions.

United States Moves Embassy to Controversial Site

On Monday, May 14, the United States will move its embassy to Jerusalem, even though the new US embassy is not yet built. Jerusalem is considered by both Israelis and Palestinians as their capital. This action is part of a 100-year history of Zionist colonization of Jerusalem.

When the announcement of the move was made, there was widespread anger. In Gaza, protesters took to the streets bearing Palestinian flags and denouncing the decision. Students held demonstrations in the West Bank. Bernard Smith of Al-Jazeera reported from Gaza, “People here compared the protests to a small ball of fire that would roll and turn into a much larger ball later on.” The decision unified Palestinians, putting aside their divisions to focus on Trump and Israel.

Arab governments issued statements of condemnation and emergency meetings of both the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation were held while the UN voted 128-9 to reject the Trump administration’s decision and approve a resolution urging countries to not move their embassies to Jerusalem.  that Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Imam of Egypt’s al-Azhar mosque, one of Islam’s most important institutions, said the decision incites “anger among all Muslims and threatens world peace.” Sheikh added, “The gates of hell will be opened in the West before the East.” Hamas leader Ismail Haniya described it as a “flagrant aggression…that will know no limit to the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim reaction.”

Thousands of people rallied in Turkey and Jordan on Friday to protest against the decision to move the US embassy. Tens of thousands of Muslims gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia on Friday to protest the United States. Israelis in Jerusalem are also protesting the move.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Palestinians have called for a day of rage and that mass protests are being mobilized for the opening of the US embassy. Choosing to move on the day before the Nakba is a provocation by Israel and the United States.

Israel Is Illegitimate

The Great March of Return held its seventh Friday of protests last week. At least 49 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli snipers since the protest began on March 30, and 8,500 have been wounded (see e.g. 9 killed 780 wounded and violence continues 16 killed 1,500 wounded). The protests will culminate May 15 on the Nakba, or Catastrophe when Palestinians memorialize being forced from their homes, their villages being destroyed, hundreds of thousands becoming refugees and scores being killed during the founding of Israel 70 years ago. Land theft and ethnic cleansing have continued, often legalized by property law. Palestinian protesters are demanding the right to return to their homes and marching after decades of Israeli violence and injustice. They proclaim they will not wait another 70 years.

The reality is clear, as Miko Peled, whose grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence of Israel 70 years ago and whose father was an Israeli general, says — that Israel has no legitimacy. Peled emphasizes that people in the US have a responsibility to take action to end the occupation of Palestine and outlines ways to do so, including an aggressive BDS campaign. Peled says “Israel” is an illegitimate state and “the area should be called Palestine.”

Peled is correct to focus on the responsibility of the people of the United States. No other country has been more supportive of Israel. The US gave “more than 250 billion dollars in direct government aid to Israel, [and] the USA has used its veto more than 70 times in the Security Council to prevent passage of resolutions condemning Israeli policies.” Alexander Haig, the former Secretary of State who served as chief of staff to Presidents Nixon and Ford and was a four-star general who served as the supreme commander of NATO, told the truth, saying, “Israel is the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk, does not carry even one American soldier, and is located in a critical region for American national security.”

Protests against Israel and AIPAC, the DC-based Israeli lobby, consistently occur in the US, even though the media hides the truth about the Israeli lobby. Even YouTube censors information about Israel but people still see the reality of Israeli violence. Israel works to inject pro-Israel propaganda in the media while US universities censor speech about Palestinian justice. The massacre of nonviolent Palestinians is leading to calls for an arms embargo against Israel, a BDS that includes a military embargo.

The combination of current events reveal the true costs of the creation of Israel. Israel is a fortress-like apartheid state that practices ethnic cleansing and whose government applauds snipers using Palestinians as targets. Some of its citizens watch the slaughter and cheer the death of Palestinians. Israel has created a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza with a decade-long embargo with intermittent mass destructive bombings. Even people of Jewish faith who criticize the barbarism of Israel are characterized as traitors and threatened by the government.

Press TV reports the Israeli military will be doubling the number of forces around the Gaza Strip and in occupied West Bank territories ahead of the controversial opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are expected to hold massive protests along the Gaza fence.

Widespread attacks on Palestinians are expected. In preparation for the massacre, people are urged to donate to help the wounded in Palestine.

Israel Is Provoking Iran in Syria

On May 4, military and intelligence analyst, the Saker, described how Israel was attacking Iranian bases in Syria in an attempt to get Iran to respond and pull the United States into a war with Iran.

On May 10, Voice of America reported that Israel launched an assault on more than 50 Iranian targets in Syria. Israel hit weapons depots, logistics sites and intelligence centers used by Iranian forces, many near Damascus.

In between these reports, Israel claimed that Iran fired rockets into the Golan Heights (Israeli occupied territory, part of Syria). Iran described the Israeli claims as “fabricated” and “baseless.” Holly Dagres, an Iran analyst for the Iranist questions why Iran would conduct such an attack “right after Trump’s decision and while Tehran is looking for European support to stay in the [nuclear deal]?” Other analysts also doubt the Israeli claim, and Iran says Syria fired into the Golan Heights, quoting a Syrian official. Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah describes Syria responding to multiple Israeli attacks in Syria to set new rules of engagement and plans to retake the Golan Heights from Israeli occupation.

Dr Roham Alvandi, a professor at the London School of Economics suggests this is the United States and Israel  “working hand in glove to escalate the military confrontation.” He adds, they seek to “provoke the Iranian leadership into taking action that will isolate and ultimately weaken the Islamic Republic.”

Israel is concerned about Iranian soldiers amassing in Syria close to its border. As Peled reports, the Israeli media and political leadership are banging the drums for Israel’s own war with Syria and Iran.

The Independent describes the situation as “bringing two of the region’s major powers closer to the brink of direct confrontation than ever before.” While Russia and European countries urged de-escalation, the United States repeated their refrain, “Israel’s right to act in self-defense.”

US Withdraws Without Cause From the Iran Agreement

All of this comes when Trump has decided to renege on The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear agreement between France, Britain, Germany, Russia, China, the United States and Iran. In a belligerent speech filled with lies, Trump provided no evidence that Iran had violated the agreement and leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Russia, and China tried to convince the US to live up to the agreement.

Israel urged Trump to leave the agreement, presenting an intelligence dossier that claimed Iran had violated it. However, the dossier contained information weapons inspectors had already found to be false. Netanyahu made a big public relations presentation to urge Trump to get out of the agreement. Telesur summarizes the reaction, writing, “After Netanyahu’s speech the International Atomic Energy Agency said it has ‘no credible’ evidence Iran was developing nuclear arms since 2009.”

US activists published an open letter apologizing to Iran. The letter described Trump’s decision as “reckless, baseless, and dangerous” and expressed that we are “ashamed that our government has broken a deal that was working.” The signers promised, “We will do everything in our power to stop Donald Trump from strangling your economy and taking us to war with you.” People in Iran took to the streets to protest the US’ decision.

The decision is part of the long history of the US trying to dominate Iran going back to the 1953 coup, continuing in recent years, during which the US has spent tens of millions of dollars annually to build opposition inside Iran, and to the US’ involvement in recent protests. Activities today are consistent with a 2009 Brookings Institution report, “Which Path To Persia? Options For A New American Strategy For Iran,” which put forward various paths to regime change, including Israel taking the lead and the US and Israel falsely claiming that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

Richard Johnson, a top US nuclear expert, handed in his resignation after Trump’s unilateral withdrawal. And the chief inspector of the UN nuclear agency stepped down unexpectedly, a few days after the US withdrew from the nuclear agreement.

The decision may hurt the United States in many ways. The sanctions Trump will reintroduce do not just limit U.S. dealings with Iran, but will also penalize other countries, causing a riff with US allies. John Bolton threatened to enforce the sanctions against European corporations and countries, while Europe punched back supporting the Iran agreement and planning legislation to protect European companies. Iran is entering agreements with Russia and China, who are its protectors. Iran will seek to build its relationship with European and Latin American countries as well. The US may be left out, its credibility damaged. Given the failure of US military power in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, traditional allies recognize the limitations of the US as a super power.

There are many reasons a war with Iran would be a disaster for the US and Israel. Moon of Alabama describes that the Bush administration considered it but war games ended badly for the US. This remains true. So, if the US is rational, war can be averted.

No War on Iran

While escalation makes no sense, the leaders of Israel and the US may see a political benefit.  Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing charges of corruption. Prosecutors recently questioned him and his wife for five hours at the same time but at different locations, both as suspects. Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, had his home and office searched and documents and tapes were seized by prosecutors. Trump’s legal team is a mess. Rudy Guiliani recently resigned from his law firm after making counterproductive comments in the media. Israeli and US leaders may seek to change the subject and play to their conservative political base; a military conflict could aid both.

The 2018 election, which currently looks like a potential Democratic sweep, is also a factor. Sheldon Adelson, a top donor to Trump and Republicans in 2016 who gave $83 million to the campaigns and $5 million to Trump’s inauguration, pushed for moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, even offering to finance the move, and for quitting the Iran nuclear pact. Adelson also urges a US nuclear attack on Iran.

The day after Trump left the pact, Adelson had lunch with him in the White House. Not long after, Paul Ryan went with former senator, Norm Coleman, who chairs the Republican Jewish Committee, and others from a Republican PAC, to meet Adelson and his wife at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. They urged support for keeping Republican control of the House. Ryan left the room (since he is not legally allowed to ask for seven-figure donations) and Coleman made the ask, with the Adelsons donating $30 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, doubling their cash on hand. Adelson’s company recorded a $670 million income tax windfall from the GOP tax law in the first quarter.

The forces are aligning right now in a disastrous way. We must not allow the administration to lie us into another prolonged and costly war. We must oppose the slaughter of more Palestinians. We must be clear that we do not support war and that we do support the rights of Palestinians. Protests are being planned across the US. Join them or organize your own. And spread the truth to your neighbors and your community. You can also support the 2018 Freedom Flotilla, which has left Norway, to bring supplies to Gaza.