World Condemn Trump’s Plan Over Gaza

US President Donald Trump’s recent proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza and place the territory under long-term US control has sparked widespread international backlash.

Unveiled during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the plan envisions transforming Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” by resettling Palestinians in neighboring countries like Jordan and Egypt.

While the proposal received support from Israel, the global response has been overwhelmingly negative, with strong condemnations from major powers, regional countries, and even US lawmakers.

Global powers reject forced relocation

Both Russia and China criticized the plan, highlighting the violation of international norms.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed Russia’s support for a two-state solution, while the Russian Foreign Ministry said: “Any populist comments are counter-productive and ramp up tensions.”

China condemned the forced displacement, emphasizing that “Palestinians governing Palestine” is fundamental for post-conflict stability.

European countries have also been vocal on the plan, expressing strong opposition.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock labeled the proposal a breach of international law, stressing that Gaza belongs to the Palestinians.

France reiterated its opposition to any forced displacement, calling it a serious violation of international law.

The UK, under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, supported Palestinian rights to return and rebuild, while Denmark said: “It doesn’t seem to be a realistic way forward.”

Reasserting Italy’s support for the two-state solution, the Italian foreign minister said nothing can be achieved without the Palestinians, noting: “It seems to me that it is a bit difficult (to implement the plan).”

Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia, having recognized Palestine in 2024, condemned the plan, calling it ignorant of Palestinian history and contradiction of the UN Security Council resolutions.

Belgium said forced displacement of populations constitutes “a grave breach of international humanitarian law” while Poland expressed support for a two-state solution.

Canada, where Trump put tariffs on hold last week, said its longstanding position on Gaza has not changed and is committed to achieving a two-state solution.

Relocation plan ‘unacceptable’

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan condemned the plan as “unacceptable,” stressing that even considering such a proposal is wrong. The Turkish Defense Ministry declared its complete opposition to the displacement of Palestinians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected the plan outright, stating peace cannot be attained without a Palestinian state.

Hamas group called it “hostile,” while Qatar, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia warned it would destabilize the region.

Iran also voiced firm opposition to the plan, and Iraq condemned the plan to displace Palestinians.

Although Latin American countries were largely silent, Brazil’s President Lula da Silva criticized the proposal as “incomprehensible,” questioning where displaced Palestinians would live.

Dissent within US

Despite originating in Washington, the plan faced criticism even from US lawmakers.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen condemned it as “ethnic cleansing by another name.” Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, declared: “Palestinians aren’t going anywhere.”

Even Republican figures like Senator Lindsey Graham found the proposal “problematic,” while Senator Tim Kaine labeled it “deranged.”

Trump’s Gaza relocation plan has united a broad spectrum of global opposition, transcending geopolitical divides.

While no country has openly expressed support for the plan, many countries have remained silent. Argentina, Japan, and India, the countries that sent representatives to Trump’s inauguration, have not made any statements on the issue.

Countries that want to maintain good relations with the new US administration have also remained silent. Latin American countries, where Trump has cracked down on immigration and drugs after taking the office, have so far kept mum.

Aside from Israel, the international community remains steadfast in rejecting forced displacement, advocating instead for a two-state solution as the only viable path to lasting peace in the region according to Anadolu.

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Russia Rejects Trump Plan For Gaza

Russia on Wednesday slammed US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over the Gaza Strip as a manifestation of the Western “cancel culture.”

Speaking at a roundtable meeting on Ukraine with ambassadors in Moscow, Sergey Lavrov argued that this “culture of cancellation” has now become particularly evident in relation to the situation in the Middle East.

Highlighting the decisions of the UN Security Council, he said that these decisions, “which were recognized by everyone without exception a month and a half ago as a necessary basis for actions to create a Palestinian state, have simply been canceled,” according to Anadolu.

During a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday, Trump said that the US “will take over” Gaza after relocating Palestinians elsewhere under a redevelopment plan that he claimed could turn the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

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A World Without America?

By Dr Khairi Janbek

Away from the condom politics which seems to be just an obsession of a Washington administration suffering from erectile dysfunction, on thought it would be intriguing to imagine a world without America, which means deep cultural, economic as well as political implications. It’s a thought experiment which forces one to imagine how the world would look like without the specific influence, history and power dynamics that the USA has shaped.

On the geopolitical and global power level, other nations would have to step in into the void, vying for influence. Europe, China, Russia and India would probably play a central role on global politics, in addition, the Security Council of the UN will start looking very different, Europe would become the dominant force strengthening its collective military and political capabilities.

In terms of culture and society, American has played a central role in shaping global pop culture, Hollywood, music, fashion and hi-tech, indeed other nations would have come in, in Asia South Korea, Japan and India would take a central role in shaping global culture, with Europe asserting itself in the arts and literature.

In technology and innovation, the US has produced Silicon Valley and leading corporations in software, hardware and AI, however without, China and Europe would fill the hitech leadership role which probably would accelerate their breakthroughs.

As for the economy, without America, the world economy would be real different, the US dollar would not be the world reserve currency, with the Euro and the Yuan, being the global standard. Trade dynamics would be rearranged and institutions like the World Bank and the IMF would have other substitutes.

Regarding military and defense, American power is unmatched , without it global security dynamics would shift drastically, NATO might not exist, while regions powers like Russia, China and India, would become more aggressive in asserting their influence.

In terms of the environment and social movements, the US has been at the forefront of global debates on climate change, social Justice and human rights; taking note of course, with mixed results, but without it, certainly others would take the lead, for a start, Europe has been a leader in pushing for climate action , and in social action, countries like Brazil, South Africa, would fill in the gap with most probably leading to different outcomes. But , the USA has been a major donor for global and humanitarian aid, and their contribution would have to be substituted by other coalitions, which one assumes would be limited only to crisis.

Essentially, a world system without America, the international system would be less centered around one dominant great power, as power would be more diffuse with multiple centers of influence and more regional power struggles, but at the end of the day, the purpose for the use of condoms would be much clearer.

Dr Janbek is an opinion writer based in Paris

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‘Stalingrad of Palestine’ – Jabalia, Steadfast in The Face of Genocide

The recent Palestinian resistance operation in Jabalia, north Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing of 3 Israeli soldiers and the wounding of 18 others, including two seriously, is a message of steadfastness and determination, written by the camp, 431 days after the genocidal war on the Strip.

The Israeli occupation army admitted in a statement that “the incident that occurred in Jabalia resulted from Palestinian gunmen firing an anti-tank missile at the soldiers.”

Israel’s Channel 14 said “10 gunmen attacked an army force using missiles and automatic weapons while it was on leave.”

‘Stalingrad of Palestine

The qualitative operation comes 66 days after the current Israeli occupation army’s attack on the northern Gaza Strip, armed with its military arsenal, amidst bombing, destruction, siege and starvation.

And so Arab activists and bloggers on the social media are now calling the steadfast Jabalia as the “Stalingrad of Palestine”.

“Stalingrad” is one of the major battles in history and a pivotal turning point in World War II, which took place between Germany (and its allies from the Axis powers) and the Soviet Union to control the Soviet city of Stalingrad (today called Volgograd) between the summer of 1942 and February 1943.

The battle ended with the surrender of the German Sixth Army, and marked the beginning of the end of Germany’s advance in this war.

Political researcher Saeed Ziad was an example of those who praised the heroism of the Jabalia Camp and its resistance that came out to break the back of the occupation, and wrote on his page on the X platform “Stalingrad, Jabalia”.

Under the hashtag “Jabalia, the Stalingrad of Palestine”, activist Baraa Rayyan wrote: “The steadfastness of Stalingrad was the beginning of the defeat of the Nazi invasion of Russia, and then the defeat of Nazism. Perhaps Jabalia’s steadfastness and fighting for 15 months, the last 3 of which were under a tight siege, will be the beginning of the defeat of the enemy and the expulsion of the aggression from beloved Gaza.”

Activist Anwar Qassem praised the Palestinian resistance operation in Jabalia, saying that “after 429 days of war and 66 days of a tight siege in the third battle (the occupation army’s attack on the northern Gaza Strip), Jabalia deserves the title of the Stalingrad of Palestine.”

Under the same hashtag, activist Muhammad al-Najjar praised Jabalia camp, “whose youth inherit the banner of fighting generation after generation and do not know the word surrender in their dictionary.”

He added in a tweet on his account: “Jabalia, 37 years after the outbreak of the first intifada from its alleys, and after 429 days with the Battle of the Flood of Al-Aqsa, and after 65 days of its siege in its third battle, a qualitative operation is being carried out.”

Another opinion refused to compare Jabalia to any other spot in the world, and considered that what is happening in the camp and the Gaza Strip is unlike any other spot in the world.

‘Jabalia is Jabalia’

In this regard, activist Ghazi Al-Majdalawi wrote: “I refuse to call Jabalia the Stalingrad of Palestine or any other name, Jabalia is Jabalia. Neither Stalingrad nor any spot in the world has what is happening in Jabalia happened in it, and no one in the world is more heroic than the people of Jabalia for us to emulate them.”

Activists considered that “Jabalia is unlike anyone”, and that “no force on earth, no matter how arrogant and tyrannical, can break the faith, will and belief of the people of the land,” stressing that “Jabalia and Gaza are two unique cases of steadfastness and faith.”

On 6 October, the Israeli occupation army launched a new and third military operation in the northern Gaza Strip under the pretext of “preventing the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas from regaining its strength in the area.”

Late last month, Israeli Channel 13 described the fighting in the Jabalia and Beit Lahia camps, north of the Strip, as “harmful and difficult,” and estimated that there were about 200 Hamas fighters in Jabalia “fighting till death.”

According to Israeli army data, 816 officers and soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the war, including 384 since the large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip on 27 October, 2023, while resistance factions say that the occupation’s losses far exceed that in terms of soldiers and vehicles.

According to the same data, 33 Israeli officers and soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the current military operation in the northern Gaza Strip according to Al Jazeera.

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Syria: 10 Days That Shook The World

Dr Khairi Janbek

Without much ado, the western media is currently preoccupied with this question: Are the Syrian rebels Jihadis? This is while the Arab media appears to be in a state of euphoria about the Syrian rebels seen as liberators. The issue however is about two perspectives, the first being cautious about the next phase for the country, and this is for understandable reasons, while the second reflects optimism for the next stage and also for understandable reasons.

Now, the fear of dividing Syria on ethnic and sectarian grounds has its blueprint in the colonial history of Syria and certainly not a product of today and/or creative chaos utterances.

Looking back

In fact, on 1 July, 1922, the French colonial authorities divided Syria into federal statelets: statelet of Damascus, statelet of Aleppo, statelet of the Alawites, and the statelet of the Druze. Of course, the idea was that the country would be easier to rule and a regional and a sectarian balance would guarantee political stability. Of course, the Kurds were outside this formula as they were struggling to create an independent state of their own.

But what about Syria now, to paraphrase John Reed, after the 10 days that shook the world. Indeed, the two regional police stations in the region, Turkey and Israel seems to be gaining major influence in the current affairs, while the third police station, Iran, has lost out in this formula.

Rivalry

For all intents and purposes, no one is naive enough to think that the march towards Damascus could have occurred without Turkish support, and the Israeli foreign minister has confirmed that talks were held between his government and the Druze as well as the Kurds of Syria, whom he described as having good relations with them.

But what about the Russians? One would venture to say that they are like to stay in Syria as most probably, paying guests of the new Syrian government, renting their military installations from them.

Undoubtedly, no matter how much we can be optimistic about the future of all-inclusive democratic Syria, we will always reluctantly fall back on our cognitive dissonance regarding the case of Iraq, and make the mistake of comparison with the post-Saddam era of terrorism, sectarianism an ethnic strife.

This is simply because, we forget that in Iraq there was superpower which brought down the regime and destroyed all the functioning institutions of the country favoring when religious Islamic sect over another, and supporting one ethnicity against others. While in Syria, its the Syrians themselves brought down the Ba’ath regime.

On the face of it, the rebels don’t seem to want to be the new masters of Syria and they are working very hard to protect and preserve the functioning institutions of the country, and claim their adherence to pluralism and for an all inclusive new regime.

But two important questions remain outstanding, and only time will tell how these will unfold: To what extent will there be Turkish and Israeli influence on the emerging regime, and more importantly, what would be the share of those two police stations of the country?

In other words, how will Turkey perceive the future of the Kurds in Syria, and where does Israel see its border posts with the “new” Syria?

In all likelihood, the rebels will keep their word of wanting a stable pluralist Syria, but let us not forget also, that a future spark of ethnic, regional or sectarian conflict, will very likely turn all into extremists in the country.

Dr Khairi Janbek is Jordanian commentator based in Paris.

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