RSS
Rashida Tlaib Refuses to Endorse Kamala Harris for President Due to Gaza Policy
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses attendees as she takes part in a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) refused to issue an explicit endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Thursday, instead encouraging voters to throw their support behind candidates who support a ceasefire in Gaza.
While speaking on a panel at the Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC, an event sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Tlaib expressed dismay over Harris’s unwillingness to adopt policies advocated by the pro-Palestinian movement. The Michigan congresswoman suggested that the Harris campaign was taking a “risk” in angering voters by continuing to support Israel’s defensive military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
Tlaib told moderator Mehdi Hasan, a progressive journalist and prominent critic of Israel, that some of her constituents in Michigan did not want to cast a ballot for Harris, the incumbent US vice president, because they “don’t want blood on my hands.”
“I tell them, ‘OK, but there’s other people on this ballot that support a ceasefire. There’s other people on this ballot that can protect our community,’” Tlaib said.
“I always ask, consistently, the Harris campaign and everybody, you hear us loud and clear. Don’t risk it. Don’t risk it. Why are we afraid of [Republican presidential nominee Donald] Trump becoming president more than our own party, when the majority of us are saying, ‘We’ve got your back Harris. We’ve got you?’” Tlaib continued.
Hasan then asked Tlaib if she planned on endorsing Harris’s presidential bid. Tlaib would not confirm whether she supports the Democratic nominee, smirking and turning in her seat away from the moderator.
The entire conference room burst into laughter.
Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American state representative from Georgia, questioned whether the Harris campaign would “want” an endorsement from the Arab American community. The lawmaker stated that she “wanted to give” her endorsement to Harris at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), but was rejected by the party establishment.
Anti-Israel activists mounted a last-minute, high-pressure campaign to secure Romman a spot on the DNC stage. Their efforts ultimately failed, as the DNC refused to platform a Palestinian American during the event. Though the DNC has not issued an official justification for allegedly snubbing Romman, many observers speculated that the party feared she would use her stage time to lob unsubstantiated accusations of “genocide” against the Jewish state.
Tlaib has not publicly endorsed Harris in the 2024 presidential race. The Michigan congresswoman also did not issue an endorsement during US President Joe Biden’s now-shuttered re-election campaign.
Earlier this year, Tlaib helped spearhead the “Uncommitted” movement in Michigan — an initiative which encouraged voters to withhold their support for the Democratic nominee until they adopted anti-Israel policies. Tlaib argued that the initiative was necessary because Arab Americans have supposedly felt “neglected” and “unseen” by the federal government.
The “Uncommitted” movement has urged Harris to throw her support behind a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo against Israel. The Harris campaign has repeatedly stated that she as president would remain committed to Israel’s defense and refused to back an arms embargo.
Tlaib, the only Palestinian American woman in Congress, has often accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and of orchestrating a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” and erecting an “apartheid” regime in the West Bank.
In the months following the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1,200 people throughout southern Israel, Tlaib has grown more vocal in her condemnations of the Jewish state. Tlaib received heavy condemnation after she initially hesitated to condemn the Oct. 7 massacre and voted against legislation which would have banned participants in the terrorist attacks from entering the United States. The House voted to censure Tlaib in November 2023 over her rhetoric on the Israel-Hamas war.
In February, Tlaib was the only voting member of the House to refuse to back a resolution condemning the Oct. 7 mass rapes of Israeli women. In May, she stoked outrage after attending an anti-Israel, terrorist-connected conference in Michigan.
The post Rashida Tlaib Refuses to Endorse Kamala Harris for President Due to Gaza Policy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.