‘Gaza is America’s war and we can stop it the blink of an eye,’ US presidential candidate Jill Stein tells Arab News

Fishermen prepare stand next to their boats amid debris, with destroyed buildings seen in the background in Gaza City’s main fishing harbor on September 7, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (AFP)
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Updated 08 September 2024
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‘Gaza is America’s war and we can stop it the blink of an eye,’ US presidential candidate Jill Stein tells Arab News

  • Green Party candidate says the billions of dollars in military aid given to Israel should be used to address American needs
  • Asked whether a third party could undercut the main candidates, Stein says Democrats and Republicans ‘don’t own those votes’

CHICAGO: Dr. Jill Stein, the US Green Party’s candidate for November’s presidential election, says Americans are losing “much needed benefits” due to tax money allegedly being redirected to fund Israel’s war in Gaza.
Speaking to The Ray Hanania Radio Show during an episode broadcast on Thursday, Stein accused the mainstream media and the Democrats of trying to block her candidacy to artificially strengthen the candidacy of Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris.
She also said the US bore responsibility for the violence in Gaza, fueled by the perceived pro-Israel bias in the media and by politicians who received millions in campaign donations from pro-Israel political action committees to support the war.
“In the current case, the US is providing 80 percent of the weapons that are being used to murder women, children, and innocent civilians. We’re also providing money, military support and diplomatic cover and intelligence. So the US has total autonomy here,” she said.
“This is our war. It is really a misnomer in many ways to call this Israel’s war. This is the US’ war. We are in charge of this war and we can stop this war with the blink of an eye,” she added, urging voters not to get talked into “endorsing genocide.”
“There is no more critical of an issue than what’s going on right now in Gaza because this is really normalizing the torture and murder of children on an industrial scale. The destruction of international law and human rights.
“As Gaza goes, eventually we’re all gonna go. If we allow human rights to be systematically torn down and international law, the way it’s being done here, eventually that’s gonna rebound to us because the US has been the dominant power for the last several decades but we are no longer the dominant power economically and militarily.”

Stein said every vote for her candidacy and the Green Party could help bring an end not only to Israel’s war in Gaza but also to other conflicts around the world.
“What’s going on is terrible for the US and it’s terrible for Israel. We are hypocrites. We’re supposedly defending democracy, yet we are throwing candidates off the ballot here in our own country,” she said, referring to recent efforts by the Democratic Party in Montana, Nevada and Wisconsin to remove the Green Party from the ballot over alleged procedural issues.
“We’re also mobilizing Israel’s neighbors against Israel. In the countries that have had peace treaties, some of Israel’s most staunch partners, including Egypt and especially Jordan where there are huge rallies and demonstrations against Israel demanding the end of the peace treaty.”
Stein, who is Jewish American, has openly stated she supported Israel, Palestine, and the two-state solution, but has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, calling it “a fascist government” that was engaged in genocide.
She urged voters not to believe the one-sided picture often presented by politicians and the media, insisting that criticism of Israeli policies was “not antisemitism” but legitimate political discourse that must take place to make the US stronger.
“In the long-term interest of everyone in the region, the US and the Netanyahu government need to come into compliance with international law and specifically the rulings of the International Court of Justice,” she said.
“Which means an end to the genocide immediately and then a withdrawal to 1967 borders, which is what this agreement calls for. Withdrawal, an end to the occupation and an end to the ethnic cleansing, which has been going on for a very long time,” she said, referring to the civilian death toll of more than 40,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
“To criticize Israel should not be conflated with antisemitism. Zionism and Judaism are very different things. Zionism is a political ideology. It is not the Jewish religion. There are many strong proponents of the Jewish religion who are fierce opponents of Zionism.”
Instead of financing Israel’s military campaigns, Stein said the next US president should “fund solutions” to improve the lives of Americans by addressing affordable health care, creating more jobs, improving education for children and strengthening social security for seniors and retirees.
Both the Democrats and Republicans were instead sending US tax money to Israel while depriving public services of the funding they need, she said.

“Half of the Congressional budget is being spent on the endless war machine,” she said, referring to legislation providing $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel, which includes $3.8 billion from a bill in March and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriations act in April.
Although this is in no way half of the Congressional budget, which is worth $6.8 trillion, Stein said the outlay nonetheless meant “we are not meeting the emergencies that we have on health care, housing, education and the environment.”
“So this is a disaster for every American, and it’s really important that we not be talked into drinking the Kool-Aid,” she said, using a term that means having a cult-like faith in a dangerous idea because of wrongly perceived rewards.
Stein, who ran for the presidency in 2012 and 2016, said she was again putting her name on the ballot because she was concerned about the problems that Americans were facing, which she believes neither of the two main parties are addressing.
Americans “need a new political option that is in the public interest,” she said, insisting the Green Party offered a greater focus on American needs than either the Republicans or the Democrats.
On the same episode of The Ray Hanania Radio Show, in an interview recorded a couple of days earlier, former Chicago Congressman Bill Lipinski — who represented one of the largest concentrations of Arab and Muslim voters in the US — said American voters should not take the role of third-party candidates like Stein for granted.
Although it is extremely difficult for a third-party candidate to break the two-party system and win a presidential election, Lipinski said they could have a disproportionate impact on the outcome, particularly in swing states where every vote counted.
Given today’s polarized, emotion-driven politics, Lipinski said the US election system should be changed to better accommodate third-party candidates.
“At times I would like to see a third party. There are other times when I think (it is better having just) two parties. In another time in another place, two parties were sufficient. Today, I don’t believe that’s the case,” he said.
“Today I would really like to see a third party because, unfortunately, the Republicans are controlled to a great extent nowadays by their extreme right wing, the Democrats by their extreme left wing. That’s not good for the parties. Nor is it good for the country.”
The Green Party has run candidates in several presidential elections, often making a significant impact on the final outcome. Ralph Nader, the party’s candidate in the 2000 poll, drew votes away from Democratic Vice President Al Gore, contributing to his loss to Republican George W. Bush.
When Stein ran as the Green Party candidate in 2016, she drew significant support away from Democrat Hillary Clinton, who lost to Republican Donald Trump.
To those who might argue that a vote for the Green Party means splitting the progressive vote, making it easier for the Republicans to succeed, Stein insisted that neither the Democrats or Republicans “own those votes.”
“They don’t belong to parties. They belong to people.”
- You can listen to the full interview with US presidential candidate Jill Stein and former US Congressman Bill Lipinski online at ArabNews.com/RayRadioShow.

 


Major US pro-Palestinian group comes out against Trump

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Major US pro-Palestinian group comes out against Trump

  • Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 41,965 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians

WASHINGTON: Democrat Kamala Harris got a potential boost Tuesday after a pro-Palestinian group threatening to draw votes from her in swing state Michigan came out strongly against her Republican opponent Donald Trump.
The Uncommitted movement stopped short of explicitly endorsing Harris, but warned in a video on social media that “it can get worse” under Trump. One of the group’s co-founders, Lexi Zeidan, said voters should consider “the better antiwar approach” rather than “who is the better candidate.”
The Harris campaign is worried about losing votes in places like Michigan, where anger among the state’s large Arab American community over the White House’s support for Israeli operations in Gaza and Lebanon has threatened to narrow already thin margins for Democrats.
The Uncommitted shift to openly opposing Trump, who is close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will come as some relief to Harris, the vice president.
However, Abandon Harris, another group of anti-war voters, has endorsed fringe Green Party candidate Jill Stein, potentially turning her into a spoiler that would help elect Trump in swing states decided by just a few thousand votes.
Both groups, drawing heavily from Arab, Palestinian and Muslim voters, emerged in protest at President Joe Biden’s backing of Israel despite mounting civilian casualties in Gaza.
Harris has attempted to walk a tightrope on the issue, saying at the Democratic presidential nomination she would get a Gaza ceasefire “done” and ensure Palestinians realize their right to “dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
But Harris has rejected protesters’ demands, such as an arms embargo on Israel — a longtime key US ally.
Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, which include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed 41,965 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations has described as reliable.
 

 


Pro-Palestinian activists target UK offices of Germany’s Allianz

Updated 08 October 2024
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Pro-Palestinian activists target UK offices of Germany’s Allianz

LONDON: Pro-Palestinian activists targeted the British offices of German financial services firm Allianz on Tuesday, daubing the outside with red paint in protest over the company’s links to Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems.

Palestine Action claimed responsibility for the protest on social media platform X, and said demonstrators had attacked 10 Allianz offices in the UK and “occupied” the insurer’s UK headquarters in Guildford, south of London, overnight.

“Without insurance, Elbit couldn’t operate in Britain,” Palestine Action said in its post.

In addition to urging customers to boycott certain financial firms, demonstrators have expanded protests to include defacing buildings using red paint to symbolize the bloodshed in Gaza.

Allianz is the latest global financial company to have suffered such vandalism. British lender Barclays has also been a target for pro-Palestinian protesters.


Bangladesh’s Yunus says no elections before reforms

Updated 08 October 2024
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Bangladesh’s Yunus says no elections before reforms

  • Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was appointed the country’s “chief adviser’ after a student-led uprising toppled ex-PM Hasina
  • The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer is helming a temporary administration, to tackle the challenge of restoring democratic institutions

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim leader has refused to give a timeframe for elections following the ouster of his autocratic predecessor, saying in an interview published Tuesday that reforms are needed before polls.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was appointed the country’s “chief adviser” after the student-led uprising that toppled ex-premier Sheikh Hasina in August.
The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer is helming a temporary administration, to tackle what he has called the “extremely tough” challenge of restoring democratic institutions.
“None of us are aiming at staying for a prolonged time,” Yunus said of his caretaker government, in an interview published by the Prothom Alo newspaper.
“Reforms are pivotal,” he added. “If you say, hold the election, we are ready to hold the election. But it would be wrong to hold the election first.”
Hasina’s 15-year rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.
More than 600 people were killed in the weeks leading up to her ouster, according to a preliminary United Nations report which said the figure was likely an underestimate.
Her government was also accused of politicizing courts and the civil service, as well as staging lopsided elections, to dismantle democratic checks on its power.
Yunus said he had inherited a “completely broken down” system of public administration that needed a comprehensive overhaul to prevent a future return to autocracy.
“Reforms mean we will not allow a repetition of what happened in the past,” he added.
Yunus also batted away criticism at the numerous politicians, senior police officers and other Hasina loyalists arrested on murder charges after her government’s ouster.
The arrests have prompted accusations that Yunus’ caretaker government would hold politicized trials of senior figures from Hasina’s regime.
But Yunus said it was his intention that any criminal trials initiated against those arrested would remain free from government interference.
“Once the judicial system is reformed, then the issues will come forward, about who will be placed on trial, how justice will be carried out,” he said.
At least 25 journalists — considered by Hasina’s opponents to be partisans of her government — have been arrested for alleged violence against protesters since her downfall.
Press watchdog Reporters Without Borders has condemned those arrests as “systematic judicial harassment.”
But Yunus insisted he wanted media freedom.
“Write as you please,” he told the newspaper.
“Criticize. Unless you write, how will we know what is happening or not happening?“


Relations between Jewish and Muslim communities in the UK ‘fragile,’ British imam says

A child carries salvaged items following an Israeli air strike the previous night on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza
Updated 08 October 2024
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Relations between Jewish and Muslim communities in the UK ‘fragile,’ British imam says

  • There has been a “lack of common language to describe the massive onslaught of death and destruction” in Gaza that followed Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, imam said

LONDON: A year after the war in Gaza started, a British imam has described relations between Jewish and Muslim communities in the UK as “fragile and fractured.”

Israel’s military incursion into Gaza and Lebanon is an “apocalypse,” Qari Asim, the chairman of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, told PA Media on Monday.

There has been a “lack of common language to describe the massive onslaught of death and destruction” in Gaza that followed Hamas’ “brutal attack” on Oct. 7 last year, the leading imam said.

He said that although there are “different perspectives” of the conflict, he has had “a number of open and frank conversations” with Jewish faith leaders “about the pain, trauma and heartbreak that British Muslims feel when they hear on their screens the cries of young children.”

Such dialogue has also involved listening to the perspectives of the Jewish community on “the pain and suffering that they’re experiencing because of the horrific attacks on October 7 last year.”

He said: “The relations between Jewish and Muslim communities are currently fragile and fractured.”

However, he also paid tribute to those who have come together to keep communication open between the two communities.

“Despite the extremely aching and traumatic last 12 months, I see that brave members of our respective communities have continued some form of dialogue.

“These encounters and activities show that no matter how fractured interfaith relationships between the two communities may seem in this country, people of all faiths and beliefs stand together when they see a stain on our national moral conscience,” Asim said.

Mourners and leaders around the world on Monday voiced horror and a desire for peace at tearful memorials remembering the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked a year of devastating war in Gaza.

People from Sydney to Rome and Warsaw to Washington grieved for those killed and urged freedom for those taken hostage by Hamas one year ago, while rallies also called for peace in the Palestinian territories.


Kyiv arrests Kremlin ‘ideologue’ extradited from Moldova

Updated 08 October 2024
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Kyiv arrests Kremlin ‘ideologue’ extradited from Moldova

  • The SBU said Dmytro Chystilin — whom it called an “ideologue” of Moscow’s invasion — was charged with “high treason” and “justification” of Russia’s aggression
  • “The SBU detained one of the Kremlin’s ideologues of the ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine“

KYIV: Ukraine has arrested a Russian-Ukrainian dual national extradited from Moldova charged with promoting the Kremlin’s invasion, Kyiv’s security service said Tuesday.
The SBU said Dmytro Chystilin — whom it called an “ideologue” of Moscow’s invasion — was charged with “high treason” and “justification” of Russia’s aggression, facing a possible life sentence.
“The SBU detained one of the Kremlin’s ideologues of the ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine,” the security service said in a statement.
It accused Chystilin of “providing assistance” to Russian special services, organizing pro-Moscow conferences in Europe and “interference in election processes in Eastern and Central Europe in favor of Moscow.”
The security service said he was arrested after an event in Moldova when he tried to return to Moscow.
An SBU spokesman, Artem Dekhtyarenko, told AFP that Moldova then extradited Chystilin to Ukraine “over the weekend.”
Dekhtyarenko said he has both Ukrainian and Russian passports.
Ukrainian prosecutors said Chystilin had acted as a Kremlin “mouthpiece” and was detained for “developing and implementing information warfare strategy against Ukraine.”
“While in Moldova, he strengthened the Kremlin’s information influence on the domestic and foreign policy of a sovereign state,” Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said in a statement.
The SBU said Chystilin had also worked as an assistant to Sergei Glazyev, a former Kremlin adviser known for his hawkish positions.
Russian state media quoted a friend of Chystilin, Igor Kaldare, as saying that the dual national was organizing a “regional security” conference in Bucharest and was arrested by Moldovan security services.