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US Protestors Slam Trump For Hosting a ‘War Criminal’

CrossFireArabia
February 5, 2025

Pro-Palestinian groups gathered Tuesday outside the White House in Washington, DC to protest Israel’s war crimes in the Gaza Strip and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Donald Trump.

The demonstration came as Trump hosted Netanyahu in the Oval Office for talks.

Netanyahu’s visit to the US capital comes as a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas continues to hold in Gaza, where more than 47,500 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023.

Waving Palestinian flags, the protestors chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “Stop hosting a war criminal.”

They also held signs saying “Prime Minister of Genocide,” “Netanyahu is a War Criminal” and “Israel Kills.

🪧Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Trump protested outside the White House in Washington, DC

🗣️ Among the protesters who spoke to Anadolu were religious Jews who called Netanyahu a war criminal and those who complained that their taxes were funding… pic.twitter.com/RO82RSd8zO
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) February 5, 2025

The protesters also called for the arrest of Netanyahu, who is facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Netanyahu ‘should be at The Hague’

Matthew Watterman, who protested Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump, told Anadolu that the US has backed 15 months of Israeli genocide in Gaza and decades of Israeli occupation and war crimes against the Palestinian people.

“We believe that Netanyahu coming here, to our city to ask for yet more of our tax money to be used to commit atrocities against the Palestinian people is something that has to be protested, has to be resisted,” he said.

Watterman said Americans do not want their tax dollars used to “commit atrocities.”

“We don’t want our taxes used for genocide. We don’t want them used for occupation. We don’t want them used for colonization,” he added.

Another protester, Dolia C., said Netanyahu is a “war criminal.”

“He shouldn’t really be here. He should be at The Hague,” she told Anadolu.

Palestinians deserve their rights, freedom and their land back, she stressed.

Trump should stop ‘this brutal occupation’

Yitzchok Deutsch, a rabbi, said it is “ridiculous” for “a war criminal” to claim that he is representing the Jewish religion.

“This is totally false. We are standing now after 15 months of a terrible genocide, unimaginable genocide, broadcasted live on TV and social media,” Deutsch told Anadolu.

Netanyahu is using religion to justify “all these crimes,” he added.

“We are here with a message to President Trump: If you would like to be the president of peace in the world, you should stop this movement of Zionism, stop this brutal occupation which has been taking place for over 76 years,” Deutsch said.

Trump said Monday that he cannot guarantee that the ceasefire in Gaza will hold and told reporters in the Oval Office that he has “no assurances” that the truce will remain in force.

“I’ve seen people brutalized. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. No, I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold,” he said.

Before meeting with Netanyahu, Trump reiterated his suggestion of moving Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip, saying “I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza.”

Analyses

Amos Harel: Israel Didn’t Defeat Hamas

CrossFireArabia
January 31, 2025

Israeli military analyst Amos Harel has dismissed a “total victory” for Tel Aviv in the Gaza war, arguing that such assertions, promoted by supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are contrary to the ground reality.

Harel, a military affairs analyst for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in his write-up published on Friday, stated, “One has to be a blind follower who has shed all vestiges of doubt and criticism to believe that Israel actually defeated Hamas.”

“The organization sustained a tremendous military blow, but it certainly did not surrender,” he noted, adding that “that’s not consistent with Netanyahu’s declarations about the war’s goals, or with his promises in its course.”

US mediation efforts

Harel also touched on the role of the US in the region, highlighting that the administration of President Donald Trump is pushing for the full implementation of a multi-phase ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas. This contrasts with Netanyahu’s preference to focus solely on the initial phase.

The ceasefire, which began on Jan. 19, is set to last for 42 days in its first stage, with negotiations ongoing for subsequent phases under the mediation of Egypt, Qatar, and the US.

According to Harel, “The visit to the region by Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special Mideast Envoy, attested to the mood of the administration.

“Washington views the first phase of the deal as a necessary point of transition to the second phase, which in itself is preparation for the bigger deal.

“Washington views the first phase of the deal as a necessary point of transition to the second phase, which in itself is preparation for the bigger deal: huge US-Saudi contracts accompanied by normalization between Riyadh and Jerusalem.”

He added that “Witkoff was here to ensure that Israel continues on the track laid out by Trump,” with key details expected to be discussed next week in a meeting between Trump and Netanyahu in Washington. This meeting, Harel suggested, holds significant weight as reported in Anadolu.

Challenges to Gaza deportation plans

Harel also addressed Trump’s controversial suggestion of relocating Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries, highlighting the practical difficulties in implementing such a proposal.

The idea is partly aimed at maintaining Netanyahu’s coalition with the far right. However, he noted that the chances of executing such a plan are slim.

“Washington’s bargaining power in the Middle East on emigration doesn’t resemble what it’s capable of achieving with its neighbors in Latin America,” said the analyst.

“Trump appears to be looking at Gaza like the real estate entrepreneur he used to be. To resettle the destroyed area, an evacuation-construction project is needed,” he explained.

Harel pointed out that while these proposals align with the long-standing aspirations of Israel’s right-wing to remove Palestinians from the equation, they are likely to face strong resistance.

“Such schemes will inevitably encounter Palestinian opposition, backed by Arab states. At this moment, it is difficult to imagine any Arab leader endorsing Trump’s relocation plan for Gaza,” he concluded.

On Jan. 25, Trump publicly proposed relocating Gaza’s Palestinian population to nearby countries like Egypt and Jordan. His suggestion has been widely rejected by several countries, including Jordan, Iraq, France, Germany, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the UN.

News

Why is Netanyahu Invited to The White House?

CrossFireArabia
January 28, 2025

US President Donald Trump invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a meeting in the White House on Feb. 4, the prime minister’s office said on Tuesday.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to be invited to the White House during US President Trump’s second term,” the office added.

On Monday, Trump said that Netanyahu will visit the US “very soon.”

Recently, Trump proposed moving Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and said Jordan and Egypt should take more Palestinians from Gaza, which has drawn sharp criticism.

Both countries reiterated their rejection of the resettlement of Palestinians after Trump’s call to “clean out” the enclave.

Hell…

“When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years…There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable,” Trump told reporters on Monday.

Trump’s proposal came a week after a ceasefire agreement took effect in Gaza on Jan. 19, suspending Israel’s genocidal war that has killed more than 47,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured more than 111,000 since Oct. 7, 2023.

The Israeli onslaught has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November last year for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave according to Anadolu.

Opinion

Syria on Deluge For Arab ‘Regime Change’

CrossFireArabia
December 9, 2024

In less than a week, the Bashar al-Assad regime and that of this family fell, an era that lasted for more than half a century came to an end.

There is no room here to talk about that era, but the end was expected for a long time, as dictatorial regimes or family-based dynasties must end, just as happened to Hosni Mubarak, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Ali Abdullah Saleh and others.

Hours before the fall of Al Assad, I called on Arab rulers to reconcile with their people before the flood comes rushing through. And now the flood has begun to rage from Damascus, and I believe, it will not stop.

It will inevitably sweep away other rulers of this era who accepted humiliation, disgrace, betrayal and throwing themselves into the arms of Tel Aviv, Washington and other capitals of crime.

What happened recently in Syria will be a prelude to the other Arab peoples. I feel very optimistic, and I believe we are facing radical changes that will affect the Arab world, and I do not know who will be the next ruler to be swept away by this deluge?

Thanks to the Al-Aqsa flood that exposed, revealed and disgraced many of the treasonous and collaborating regimes in our Arab world.

This flood will be followed by a flood of another kind, which will sweep away with it every slacker, and everyone who betrayed and conspired against Palestine, its resistance and its people, and threw himself into the arms of the criminal West, and ignored what is happening in Gaza, which will be, God willing, the main reason for uprooting many of the apostate Zionist regimes.

The majority of the Arab peoples are now yearning for change, and even salvation from injustice and oppression, and I do not believe that the Arab situation will continue in this way, and the Syrian situation will constitute an important factor for the peoples to pounce and revolt against rulers who are certainly not of the Arab caliber, and I am certain that this will not last long.

Many of the Arab rulers are feeling their heads today, and perhaps they are working on reconsidering their calculations if they can, and they realize that when the people have their say, the end of the regime will be inevitable.

So will these people learn from what happened recently in Damascus? The wise man is is the one who learns from others. Who will be the next ruler who will follow Mr. Al Assad?

Whoever has the answer, let him tell us, and he will have a great prize presented by the poor servant who wrote this article, which is a kiss on his forehead, and kisses on the foreheads of all the free revolutionaries of the nation, and at the forefront of the heroic revolutionaries of Gaza.

This article was written by Palestinian writer Dr Mohammad Abu Baker for Al Rai Al Youm in Arabic and reprinted in www.crossfirearabia.com

News

Talks Under The Gun

CrossFireArabia
December 9, 2024

Optimistic reports of advancements in negotiations between Israel and Hamas, with Egypt, Qatar, and US mediation, over a ceasefire deal has been reported as Hamas sent Egypt the names of those Israeli prisoners destined to be released during the first phase.

This coincides with intensive Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. In the past 12 hours, Israel killed three people as a result of an airstrike near Halabi Junction in Jabalia Al-Balad, northern Gaza Strip. Israeli quadcopters also fired heavily at citizens attempting to reach their homes in the Safatwi area, west of Jabalia.