TEHRAN (Iran News) The protest was held on Friday on the occasion of International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Cuba-based Prensa Latina News Agency reported. “Mexicans ”

The Mexican demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and chanted anti-war slogans.

They called on the US to stop supporting the Israeli regime and end its practice of vetoing UN Security Council resolutions on ceasefire in Gaza.

The protesters blocked the street leading to the US embassy, with some of them lying on the ground in a symbolic move to remember the Palestinians who have been killed in the Gaza war.

In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly designated November 29 as International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

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TEHRAN (Iran News)  “The Spanish government maintains the commitment not to sell weapons to the Israeli state since the armed conflict broke out in the territory of Gaza,” Spain’s Interior Ministry announced on Tuesday.

“Although in this case it is an acquisition of ammunition, the Interior Ministry has initiated the administrative procedure to cancel the purchase,” it added.

It also said Israeli firms will be excluded from any outstanding tenders.

Spain’s Civil Guard police force reportedly agreed to purchase over 15 million nine-millimeter rounds for $6.48 million from Guardian LTD Israel.

Last week, the Spanish Defense Ministry announced that it had halted the purchase of weapons from Israel. The European country had said it would stop arms sales to Israel after the start of the war on October 7, 2023.

Hundreds of Spanish intellectuals and artists last week penned a letter to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, calling for an arms embargo on Israel.

Over 300 key figures from the media and entertainment industry, as well as academic circles, expressed deep concern over Spain’s ongoing trade in arms and military equipment with Israel, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported.

They “urged the government to completely suspend all kinds of trade in arms and military equipment with Israel, and “expressed deep concern about Spain’s ongoing military relations with Israel.”

On October 14, Sanchez urged other members of the EU to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel.

“The European Commission must respond once and for all to the formal request made by two [Spain and Ireland] to suspend the association agreement with Israel if it is found, as everything suggests, that human rights are being violated,” Sanchez said.

Spain was among several countries, including Norway, Ireland, and Slovenia, that recognized Palestine as a state in late May.

In September, Madrid hosted a high-level gathering of Muslim and European states aimed at discussing ways to end Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip and formulate a timeline for the implementation of a two-state solution.

Spain was the first European state to back the case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Since October 2023, the US-Israeli genocide across the besieged Gaza Strip has killed over 43,020 Palestinians and injured nearly 101,110 others.

Earlier this year, the United Nations’ top court ordered the Israeli regime to take all measures to prevent genocide in Gaza. Till now, however, all international efforts to stop the US-backed genocidal war on Gaza have been to no avail.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) –Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani has stated that Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip plucked the mask from the face of self-proclaimed champions of human rights. More than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) –Israel’s attacks on Gaza are expected to cost its economy billions of dollars, according to studies on the financial aspect of the conflict.

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Addressing the Tel Aviv regime on Friday, Brigadier General Ismail Qaani said that “you assassinate Martyr Brigadier General Seyyed Razi Mousavi because you could not achieve anything in the Gaza battleground.”

Mousavi, a senior IRGC commander, was martyred in a missile attack by the regime against the Sayyeda Zeinab neighborhood of the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday.

He was martyred while serving as part of Iran’s military advisory mission in the Arab country.

The strike occurred in the midst of the Israeli regime’s battle against Gaza, which began on October 7 in response to an operation known as Operation al-Aqsa Storm that was orchestrated by the resistance movements in the Palestinian territory.

Al-Aqsa Storm, according to Qaani, was a reaction to “the extensive atrocities that the Zionist regime had committed against the Muslim people of Palestine.”

The Israeli military operation across the coastal sliver has resulted in the death of at least 21,320 persons, most of them women and children.

Yet, Tel Aviv has fallen short of any of its stated objectives, including the annihilation of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas, the release of those held captive during al-Aqsa Storm, and the forced displacement of Gaza’s population to neighboring countries.

Furthermore, Qaani pointed out that the Israeli regime and the U.S., which has been Tel Aviv’s most devoted supporter and has placed its whole military and political weight behind the the regime, had accomplished nothing throughout the attack but the demise of innocent women and children.

He also stressed that the U.S. had been helping Zionists with all of its might, but one day Washington would be held accountable for its horrendous crimes.

In contrast to the Zionist regime, which has enjoyed overwhelming Western backing, the people of Gaza have been entirely defended by the regional resistance front, Qaani pointed out.

The top commander averred that the Zionist regime has so far incurred a sizeable number of casualties, including thousands of fatalities and as many as 500 cases of blindness.

“They, however, are not courageous enough to announce the number of their casualties,” Qaani added.

During a funeral procession on Thursday for General Mousavi, Major General Hossein Salami, the chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said that Iran’s response to Israel’s assassination of the top military advisor in Syria will be confined to the complete overthrow of the occupying regime.

“Seyyed Razi’s martyrdom came out of the incapability of the Zionist regime,” he said. “We will never exercise patience in the face of the martyrdom of our people. Seyyed Razi’s revenge will be nothing but the elimination of the Zionist regime.”

Salami said that Mousavi was “one of the most experienced and effective” resistance front commanders for the IRGC.

He stated that Mousavi had never strayed from the field of jihad (endeavor for the sake of God) throughout the last 45 years and that the commander was a close companion of Iran’s renowned anti-terror hero Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

In January 2020, General Soleimani was assassinated in Iraq by the U.S. His pivotal role in combating the terrorist group Daesh Takfiri, which was founded by the U.S. and sponsored by Israel, was the reason for his great reverence across the region, especially in Iraq and Syria.

“He remained steadfast after the assassination of Haj Qassem and accompanied Qaani,” Salami said.

“The enemy knew him better than us because it had received severe blows from him. The enemy knew what role and influence he had on the endless chain of power.”

Salami said that the Palestinians themselves coordinated and carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, which was initiated on October 7 against Israel by Hamas.

He said that the operation was a response to 75 years of Israeli occupation, atrocities against Palestinian youth, the regime’s nightly incursions into the West Bank, and the desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque.

The resistance groups “Hamas and Jihad are capable of producing weapons inside Gaza… The resistance will not end, but what ends is the Zionist regime’s power.”

He went on to add, “Certainly, the Zionist regime is not capable of providing a peaceful life for the world’s Jews. It is not able to continue in the face of the people of Gaza.”

Addressing a conference of clerics and seminary teachers, held in the holy city of Qom on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian declared that more than 80 days had passed since the Gaza war, yet “the Zionist regime has achieved nothing.”

“According to Hamas commanders, only 14% of the resistance capacity has been damaged so far,” the foreign minister said.

According to Amir Abdollahian, the length of Hamas tunnels currently exceeds the region of Gaza, and drone production operations have not been shuttered for even an hour since Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on Oct. 7.

“Hamas captured valuable security and military forces of the Zionist regime on the first day of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm,” he continued.

The minister mentioned the resistance’s growing popularity, stating that Hamas now controls both Gaza and the ongoing war.

“The Zionist regime, meanwhile, has changed its goal in Gaza several times, but has failed,” the minister added.

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Israel’s 80 years of Zionist cruelty began with the confiscation of land and other property and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with no compensation who were also prohibited from ever returning to their homes; a settler rule that is aptly characterized by inhumanity, random incarceration, torture and murder; with Gaza the largest prison in the world, holding 2.3 million Palestinians, isolated from the rest of the world; and administered by Israel, an apartheid state with three sets of laws—one for Israeli Jews, another for Israeli Arabs and yet another for non-Israeli Palestinians. The perfect definition of apartheid and arguably worse than what we witnessed in South Africa as claimed by the late Archbishop Tutu.

Biden is the most Zionist U.S. president everIsrael has been a country that breaks international law on a daily basis, by expanding its unlawful settlements in the West Bank, annexing homes and land, separating Palestinian families and incarcerating and torturing them with no formal charge or trial.

Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu calls Hamas and those in Gaza “animals” and Amihai Eliyahu, one of Israel’s far-right ministers, proposes dropping Israel’s nuclear bombs on the inhabitants of Gaza. Frank N. von Hippel, Emeritus Professor of Public and International Affairs with Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security calls this a “criminal statement” by a “lunatic.” Biden says he supports Israel and a two-state solution at the same time as a minister in Netanyahu’s cabinet promises that there will never be a Palestinian state: “We live here, this is our country. The historical estate of our ancestors. There will be no Palestinian state here. We will never allow another state to be established between the Jordan and the sea.” Who are we to believe Biden, the most Zionist U.S. president ever, or senior Israelis?

Israel can do all that it has and get away with it because of Western colonial support. This support comes primarily from the United States with military, economic, intelligence, media and political backing as exemplified by its dozens of UN Security Council (UNSC) vetoes to protect a rogue state, even going so far as to veto a ceasefire, ruining its own international reputation, perhaps beyond repair for years to come. The U.S. is all in and complicit with Israel, no matter how vehemently it denies this and urges Israel to spare civilians. Sadly some U.S. allies have followed in its footsteps. On November 14, the French National Assembly screened a heart wrenching and bloody 43-minute video of the atrocities of October 7 prepared by the Israeli military (IDF) for French lawmakers. While horrific videos of Hamas’ actions of October 7 are repeatedly shown on TV and on social media, videos of the Israeli atrocities in Gaza are much more sparingly shown and have to be approved by Israeli Defense Forces before they can be shown. This is simply controlled propaganda to support Israel’s ongoing campaign of terror in Gaza and not needed information for lawmakers and concerned citizens around the world.

Is complicity in the killing of about 23,000 innocent Palestinians by December 19, the appropriate answer to the West’s failure to protect Jews during WWII?After October 7, Israel declared that it had the right to defend itself, a right which at that time received the support of people from around the world. The operative word being “DEFEND,” but not to indiscriminately murder innocent civilians, mostly children and women, doctors, nurses, aid workers and reporters in Gaza, using American planes and bombs. Killing with white phosphorus, an outlawed weapon of war. With Israeli settlers (in illegal settlements) on the West Bank ramping up their terror on Palestinian women, children and innocent men—forced entry into homes with arrests, imprisonment, torture and death. All the while, a “law-abiding” United States continues to supply Israel with arms and munitions and in so doing breaks its own laws—supplying weapons to a country that is not a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and without the normal oversight of how and when its weapons are used. And the U.S. will not even agree to making the region a nuclear free zone, something that is supported by Arab countries and Iran.

In pursuit of “defending” itself, Israel has rained down bombs on Gazans with the most intense bombing known to man—more than in WWII, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or in the Bosnian war. As of December 19, Israel’s so-called “defense” has resulted in about 23,000 deaths in Gaza including about 10,000 children. And this ongoing carnage is called defense by a “civilized” and “law-abiding” nation and people! There is forced eviction from North Gaza to its South as Israel bombs fleeing Gazans and then again when they are in the supposed “safety” of the South. Starvation is being used as a weapon of war. Deprivation of needed medicines is not only killing innocent civilians but spreading diseases that could result in many more thousands of casualties. These are war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes that can be classified as ethnic cleansing and even genocide as it continues.

Even this only affords a glimpse of the tragedy as the Western media follows the party line in order to protect Israel and Zionists from growing global outrage, Israel’s arrogance and inhumanity and America’s support of Israel, especially its veto for a ceasefire. Is this what Israel and the U.S. call Israel defending itself? In the aftermath of the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis (civilians and soldiers), Israel has killed 23,000 (with 70 percent women and children) in Gaza and probably almost another 1,000 in the West Bank. Is this in defense of Israel or brutal revenge?

It is all difficult to comprehend why the West, especially the United States, follows Israel so and what is Israel’s thinking as it defies the world? Is this an eye for an eye or 20 eyes for an eye this time around with even more eyes in revenge if one looks back on the history of this conflict?

The U.S. is ruining its reputation, perhaps beyond repair for years to come. It may be that the Western world, the United States, France, Germany and others feel overwhelming guilt for not having done enough to thwart the murder of innocent Jews at the hands of Hitler and his Nazi followers, but here is the question: is complicity in the killing of about 23,000 innocent Palestinians by December 19 and counting, including nearly 10,000 children, and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes, with their homes being utterly destroyed, the appropriate answer to the West’s failure to protect Jews during WWII? How can the U.S. watch all these ongoing deaths and not even support a ceasefire! Does this make the United States, Germany and France feel honorable or are they simply repeating their failures of the past and standing by to witness a similar murderous fate for innocent Palestinians who have suffered so much since 1947?

As for Israel, its actions are clearer by the day. It is hell bent on illegally annexing all of Palestine, trashing all UN Resolutions since 1967, expelling as many Palestinians as possible from their homes and bellowing that Israel is a Jewish state for Jewish people. And it repeats some of the same horrors that Nazis committed on innocent Jews. It is a tragedy for Palestinians as well as for Jews in Israel and around the world. In defense of the atrocities it has committed, Israel has relied on the victim card—recalling the Holocaust and equating any criticism of Zionism and Israel’s policies to anti-Semitism and racism. And in this it has been supported by most U.S. politicians and some well-known universities.

There is precious little ordinary Arabs can do apart from peacefully demonstrating in the United States and in some other Western countries where pro-Palestinian demonstrations are allowed, but there is much more they can do in their own countries to sway the course of events. However, the stance of Arab rulers since October 7 is BEYOND SHAMEFUL. They have been akin to moles hibernating for the winter. They have gone underground and dare not show their heads. They could do much but they are scared of what their colonial masters might do to them! Has anyone seen a single Arab leader take meaningful action to support a single solitary Palestinian? Arab states that have relations with Israel could recall their ambassadors or go further and cut all diplomatic ties with the Zionist state. They could recall their ambassadors to the United States, France and other states complicit in Israeli crimes. They could demand that their rulers embargo their exports of oil and natural gas. If their rulers do not follow their wishes they could peacefully demonstrate and bring their countries to a halt. And yes, they may be arrested and suffer other painful consequences. All I can say is that sometimes when we stand up for a righteous cause we may have to pay a price — lose our jobs and even be imprisoned.

This is what morality requires. To stand up. Will we stand up and be counted in the West and will Arabs have the courage to do the same in their homelands?

What does the future hold in store?

I will be foolish and venture a guess. More carnage. A mushrooming of resistance fighters against Israel and the United States, whom the West will call terrorists as they fight with guns and knives for their illegally annexed land and homes and defend Israel as “righteous soldiers” dropping bombs indiscriminately on civilians in the hope of killing Hamas fighters here and there. There will be uprisings in a few Arab lands, making reconciliation with Israel even more difficult. A turning point will come in the United States as Americans begin to learn more of the facts about Israel’s occupation and annexation of Palestinian land and homes. With a more critical lens in assessing the United States’ blind support for Israel and the Israeli lobby’s cries of anti-Semitism falling increasingly on deaf ears, as Americans become tired of alienating the world, seeing themselves in the mirror as complicit in Israeli crimes. Things will change for the better but only after more conflict and bloodshed.

Yet, there is hope to mitigate further conflict and bloodshed if the United States shows moral courage and does a dramatic pivot in support of humanity, justice and the safety of our fractured world. Telling Israel behind closed doors that enough is enough. America cannot afford assistance to Israel as Americans go without. America cannot risk isolating itself from much of the world as it supports Israel’s intransigence. Israel will face increasing danger if it continues on its path. Israel must immediately agree to a viable two-state solution along the lines of the 1967 borders. And the United States will champion an international commitment to compensate Palestinians for the loss of their land and for the reconstruction of Gaza and the West Bank. Jews would still have acquired much territory that was not legally theirs and could be citizens of a more respected country alongside a Palestinian country.
This prescription may be seen as a naïve pipedream, but if it is not nurtured into reality, there will be more devastating consequences for the region and the world. Just ask yourself a simple question: after what the Palestinians have suffered all these years under the Israeli hammer and now with the carnage of the Gaza war, would you be surprised if hundreds more Palestinians and Arabs seek revenge against Israel and its backers?

Hossein Askari is emeritus professor of business and international affairs, George Washington University

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