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US Lawmakers Slam ICJ Demand That Israel End Rafah Offensive
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) talks to the media after a meeting with Carlos Alfredo Vecchio (2nd R), charge d’affaires appointed by Venezuela’s opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, Jan. 30, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling on Friday that Israel must stop its military offensive against Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was mostly met with condemnation among US lawmakers.
Key members of Congress argued that Israel needed more time to complete its military goals against Hamas, a Palestinian terror group that launched the war in Gaza on Oct. 7 by slaughtering 1,200 people in southern Israel. The lawmakers also suggested that Israel has an obligation to defend its citizens and that the Jewish state should disregard the ruling by the court.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) lambasted the ICJ and urged Israel to continue its military operations in Rafah.
“As far as I’m concerned, the ICJ can go to hell,” Graham wrote on X/Twitter.
“It is long past time to stand up to these so-called international justice organizations associated with the UN. Their anti-Israel bias is overwhelming,” Graham added.
“The ICJ’s ruling that Israel should stop operations that are necessary to destroy four battalions of Hamas killers and terrorists — who use Palestinians as human shields — is ridiculous. This will and should be ignored by Israel,” Graham continued.
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a member of the House Task Force Combating Antisemitism, also expressed disagreement with the ICJ ruling, asserting that Israel has a “responsibility to defend itself” and “rescue its hostages” kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.
“This war would be over today if Hamas released the hostages and laid down its arms,” Schneider wrote on X/Twitter.
“It takes two to have a ceasefire and the world’s focus should be on pressuring Hamas to surrender and to increase access to humanitarian aid, not to undermine Israel’s legitimate military objectives,” Schneider continued.
The representative cautioned that Israel still maintains the “responsibility to ensure sufficient aid enters [Gaza] and to take appropriate measures to limit and prevent civilian casualties.”
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, rebuked the ICJ and accused the international body of aiding Hamas. He also accused the organization of being antisemitic.
“The UN has chosen to support terrorists who use hostages as weapons rather than support a sovereign nation that seeks to defend its citizens,” Risch wrote.
“Once again, the ICJ at the UN has shown its hate, bias, and its predilection for antisemitism,” he added. “In particular, I am disgusted to learn an American judge voted for this ruling. The ICJ is both morally and structurally bankrupt, and the United States should immediately cut off its funding to this prejudiced organization.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) issued a forceful repudiation of the ICJ’s decision, arguing that the penalties levied against Israel by international organizations “appear coordinated.”
“The essential US-Israel relationship will not be weakened by globalist bureaucrats, and we should strongly oppose this dangerous gambit,” Johnson wrote.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the only Palestinian-American in Congress, expressed agreement with the ICJ’s ruling and accused Israel of perpetrating a genocide against Palestinians.
“The whole world is taking action to stop the genocide of Palestinians, including the International Court of Justice,” Tlaib wrote.
“Where is President Biden’s ‘red line?’” Tlaib added.
South Africa first presented a case at the ICJ accusing Israel of committing genocide against Gazan civilians in January.
The ICJ on Friday ordered that Israel end its military operations in Rafah, which Israeli officials have described as Hamas’ last bastion in Gaza. The order also demanded that Israel allow war crimes investigators to probe its military operations in Gaza and substantially increase the already significant amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
The ICJ has no enforcement powers, and Israeli officials have said they will not comply with the ruling.
The post US Lawmakers Slam ICJ Demand That Israel End Rafah Offensive first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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