November 16th, 2023 • 3h 18m

1608: Woke Up Dead

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Jews vs Muslims

Shapiro and Owens have successfully made this conflict about them

Political abuse of Middle East conflict(s)

How the Media Skews the Narrative: Israelis ‘Died,’ Palestinians ‘Killed’ - Algemeiner.com

Email from Kennedy Grass Roots campaign in SF

I AM NOT ABSURD!!! HE IS CALLING US ABSURD IF WE KNOW THE OTHER STORY

After spending $1000 of my own money and countless hours on this campaign the truth I heard about 6 months ago has come out in an ugly way.

, I HAVE KNOWN FOR 30 YEARS ABOUT THE CONDITIONS OF PALESTINE- IT IS A CREATED "STATE" THAT MADE IT US AND BRITAIN. That forced vaccinated their population for big pharma.

I WILL ACTIVELY WORK AGAINST MR KENNEDY AND NO LONGER SUPPORT HIM. Please read more i dare you..... below

DC Female Rabbi Prtest Jews for CEasefire

Answer Coalition - Who we Are

Founded just three days after the September 11, 2001 attacks, ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) initiated the massive U.S. antiwar movement opposing the U.S.invasion of Iraq in the months prior to March 19, 2003.

The ANSWER Coalition demonstration of 200,000 people on October 26, 2002, in Washington, D.C. ignited a nationwide and global antiwar movement that was nearly unprecedented in history. On January 18, 2003, 500,000 people packed the Mall in Washington, D.C. under the slogan “Stop the War Before It Starts.” The Washington Post described the January 18 demonstration as the largest antiwar protest since the end of the Vietnam War.

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Funded by Progress Unity Fund (From donate page)

It is the goal of the Progress Unity Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization, to promote unity through diversity of peoples; respect for their histories, cultures, and experiences. With this respect, a sense of solidarity and community can be fostered between peoples.

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Run by Susan Muysenberg – AArticles on Liberation News

Susan Muysenberg - Peace and Freedom Party

The Peace and Freedom Party is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism and racial equality. We represent the working class, those without capital in a capitalist society. We organize toward a world where cooperation replaces competition, a world where all people are well fed, clothed and housed; where all women and men have equal status; where all individuals may freely endeavor to fulfill their own talents and desires; a world of freedom and peace where every community retains its cultural integrity and lives with all others in harmony.

Karl Marx on Homepage

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'Hitler and his Muslim ally': PM Netanyahu's history lesson Jimmy Dore Show 8 year old Netanyahu Video

Based on Jimmy Dore show

No, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husayni did not directly tell Adolf Hitler to “just burn” or exterminate all Jews. However, he was an influential leader who met with high ranking Nazis and expressed his support for the Final Solution - the plan to eliminate European Jewry during World War II. He also played a role in recruiting Muslims to fight on the side of Germany against Soviet Union in Eastern Front.

No, Amin al-Husseini did not make a statement about wanting or not wanting Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany to go to Israel. However, his actions and statements during World War II show that he was opposed to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine and supported efforts to prevent Jews from escaping persecution by fleeing to Mandatory Palestine.

The term “Final Solution” refers to Nazi Germany’s plan for the extermination of European Jewry during World War II. It involved transporting Jews from across Europe to concentration camps, where they were systematically murdered in gas chambers or by other means. The “final solution” was a euphemism used by the Nazis to refer to their plan for the complete destruction of the Jewish people.

Amin al-Husseini - Wikipedia

FULL TEXT: Osama bin Laden's Letter To The American People - Breaking911

We are defending our right. Jihad against the aggressors is a form of great worship in our religion, and killing us means a high status with our Lord. Thanks to God, we have been waging jihad for 30 years, against the Russians and then against you. Not a single one of our men has committed suicide, whereas every 30 days 30 of your men commit suicide. Continue the war if you will. Justice is the strongest army, and security is the best way of life, but it slipped out of your grasp the day you made the Jews victorious in occupying our land and killing our brothers in Palestine. The path to security is for you to lift your oppression from us.”

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Israel wants Tony Blair as humanitarian coordinator in Gaza – media — RT World News

Jake Sullivan Rewrite Shows His Foreign Policy Brags Crumble

Climate Change

United States Opens First Facility to Suck CO2 Out of the Air

First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled | Ars Technica

The final straw came on Wednesday, when NuScale and the primary utility partner, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, announced that the Carbon Free Power Project did not have enough utility partners at a planned checkpoint and, given that uncertainty, would be shut down. In a statement, the pair accepted that "it appears unlikely that the project will have enough subscription to continue toward deployment."

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John Kerry Promises The US Will Pay ‘Millions’ In Climate Reparations To Poor Countries | The Daily Caller

Malaysia, U.S. Strengthen Ties at Bersama Warrior Exercise | Article | The United States Army

VAERS

Surge in Vaccine Lawsuits Forces Biden Admin to Hire More Attorneys

Great Reset

Joe Biden's economy is, honestly, pretty amazing: How come he doesn't get credit? | Salon.com

The U.S. before the Great Depression - The Great Depression

America experienced nationwide economic prosperity due to cheap mass production of goods and the new marketing method of advertising. Consumer goods became more popular such as radios and household appliances in contrast to the popularity of capital goods like railroads in the 19th century.

The introduction of the installment plan made affording all of these new goods easier. It helped people to be able to purchase items over an extended amount of time without having to pay too much money at the moment of purchase.

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Met Gala 2023: Celebrities, Red Carpet, Theme & More | Vogue

At 25, Fiona had a good job and a busy social life, yet still she suffered from the crippling loneliness now threatening to wreck the health of millions of Britons | Daily Mail Online

Anti work at home propaganda

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House passes bill to avoid government shutdown, Senate to vote next

Moody’s cuts outlook on U.S. credit rating to negative from stable - MarketWatch

Big Pharma

Food Noise - personal anecdote BOTG

Hi Adam and John,

Big fan, love you guys, thanks so much for the many years of amazing content.

I'm writing in response to your analysis of "food noise" on episode 1606. I have personal experience with this that I wanted to share, that contradicts some of Adam's analysis.

For the last 5 years, I've been taking a psychiatric medication that causes weight gain as a side effect. The main point is - for me, the hunger is NOT related to sugar, as Adam suggested. I don't want a chocolate bar any more than I want a piece of chicken or a bowl of rice.

The best way I can describe the sensation is a sort of anxiety relating to hunger. If I'm even a little hungry, I get very tense and panicky and feel a need to kill that sensation as quickly as possible. In turn, that causes some fear that I don't even want to get to the "a little hungry" stage, so I strongly want to eat even when I'm not hungry, in an effort to avoid getting hungry.

As another consequence, when I do eat, I tend to overeat because of that same fear. I strongly want to kill the hunger sensation, so I'd better eat 2 pieces of toast rather than 1... and maybe a small bowl of cereal as well, just to be safe. And at meal time, that drive to kill the hunger sensation (and avoid having it pop up in the future) causes me to eat larger portions as well.

Again, as I said before - it doesn't need to be anything sugary whatsoever.

The thing is, this particular medication has worked beautifully for my severe depression, and has really changed my life for the better. I don't want to stop taking it. But I also don't want to add another medication to offset the "food noise" - I'd prefer to take as little medicine as possible, if I can help it.

So, I'm stuck with the weight gain. Resisting it takes constant effort and focus, which is possible, but difficult to maintain over the long term. As a result, my weight tends to go up and down. I hate being overweight, but it's the path I've chosen to accept, rather than additional medication, and rather than stopping the initial medication that's working so well for me. It sucks. But you have to pick your battles, and this is what I've picked.

I hope my personal story adds a bit of additional perspective on the "Food noise" issue.

Thanks very much for everything you guys are doing. Please keep it up!

Cheers,

Zepbound and Insurance - it's in the rebates BOTG

Issues from Mounjaro is two fold - Mounjaro isn't approved for weight loss (Zepbound is) and it will give them leverage over pharmacy benefit managers to eventually force coverage by leveraging rebates.

Currently, employers are mostly not covering weight loss GLP-1's drugs like Wegovy, but they are forced for cover the same drug for diabetes (i.e. Ozempic). By creating the separate branding, they will start to leverage rebates to force coverage.

For the diabetes version of the drugs (Ozempic/Mounjaro), they will offer a nominal rebate, say $200, for example. Because insurers are resistant to cover the weight loss version of the drugs (Wegovy/Zepbound) they will start to leverage portfolio requirements to say, if you cover Wegovy/Zepbound in addition to Ozempic/Mounjaro, we will increase your rebate to $400 for both products (diabetes and weight loss versions). Because the drugs are identical, they won't be able to justify not taking the higher rebate be covering both versions of the drug versus only covering the diabetes approved version.

Additionally, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will bargain for exclusivity - only covering Ozempic/Wegovy and excluding Mounjaro/Zepbound altogether for an even higher rebate - say $600.

We probably won't see this totally play out until January 2025 when PBMs typically make the biggest changes to their formularies.

I have a client who spends $20M on drug per year and Mounjaro and Ozempic alon have inflated their costs from $20m to $27M this year - over a 30% increase in all-drug spend.

Sorry for the long email, but hit me up any time you have drug/PBM questions.

Boots on the Ground Fentanyl/Street Dope

Hey Adam,

Just wanted to throw my two cents in as a former oxy user, then switching to heroin because of the relative value - a gram of heroin lasted way longer than a handful of oxy 40s, and once you're hooked and perpetually avoiding getting dope sick, your lens of analysis on what is and isn't acceptable skews reeeeeeal hard towards avoiding pain.

By the time I enrolled in my last methadone clinic program (where they really just try to get lifelong customers hooked on methadone, thankfully I'm back to cannabis being my only daily self administered medication), my initial Urine Analysis came back with no heroin in my system, just fentanyl and benzodiazapines (benzos are even more addictive AND when major distributors mix in their own obscure version of "benzos xyz123", then their users can only get fully relieved from their withdrawals from that specific source's product.)

Heroin had soul. Heroin, while potentially deadly when used recklessly, was still derived from the actual, natural poppy plant, known as the "plant of joy" for the euphoria it provided. Musicians and artists on heroin made beautiful music and art enhanced by the euphoric, serene, blissful experience of the first half of the full circle of the heroin cycle.

Fentanyl has no soul. It numbs without anywhere near the same warming of the spirit, temporary liberation from the constraining pains of the world, or proliferation of beautiful music and art for the world.

Add the benzos to the fentanyl, and now users are stuck in a loop of nodding out and coming out of it and nearly immediately redosing to nod out again.

Add tranq to the mix (thankfully I've avoided doing any tranq), and the experience on the drug cocktail is FAR more isolative, less social and friendly because users are not "high", but tranquilized. And when you're tranquilized, whether "recreationally" or by way of prescriptions like Seroquel, you're rate of thought is decelerated so much you literally can't carry on a conversation in real time, or hold entire sentences of words in your head long enough to get them out.

The entire supply of poppy derived heroin has been baited and switched for a combination that is both far more profitable to produce (needing only precursors China is eager to provide) and far more deadly (used to be able to take any bag of street heroin and do a 10mg tiny line sample the size of a hand sewing needle, and be confident you weren't going to overdose, But with fentanyl being more than 100 times stronger, users are no longer able to safely regulate their dose, and are at the mercy of whoever mixed the pure fentanyl with the cutting agent as to whether their respiratory system will be fatally depressed. Benzos and presumably tranquilizers both slow breathing to dangerous levels, so why not mix all three together, right?)

Far more profitable.

Far more deadly.

Seems like a "two birds" sorta thing for some sociopaths, but what do I know? Junkies and psych ward patients are two of the groups most easily dismissed.

And I've been both. So there's a couple grain of salts. And I can tune back in to y'all's Sunday show again.

Thanks for all you guys do!

Migration Replacement

Chicago is so unpleasant migrants are fleeing BACK to Venezuela after being dumped in shelters and refused jobs, with 20,700 border crossers so-far bused to Dem-run 'sanctuary city' | Daily Mail Online

Ukraine vs Russia

Cyprus Confidential: ICIJ Reveals How 67 Russian Billionaires Used Cyprus Financial Firms To Hide Their Wealth

Cyprus ignores Russian atrocities, Western sanctions to shield vast wealth of Putin allies - ICIJ

German journalist dubbed the ‘Putin connoisseur’ had secret book deal with Russian oligarch - ICIJ

Our Supporters - ICIJ

USD CBDC BTC

FDIC Employees Busted for Wild Parties, Sexual Harassment – RedState

Transmaoism

Inside the Transgender Empire - Imprimis

NASA's Study on children: How Traditional Schooling Reduces Creative Spark

STORIES

Surge in Vaccine Lawsuits Forces Biden Admin to Hire More Attorneys

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Archived Version

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 15:03

The administration of President Joe Biden is hiring additional attorneys to help handle the workload from vaccine lawsuits after seeing a spike in people filing claims.

The COVID-19 pandemic thrust the potential side effects of vaccines into the spotlight, prompting fierce debate about whether the benefits outweigh the potential negative outcomes. While COVID vaccine side effects have been limited, several lawsuits from plaintiffs who have experienced adverse effects have attempted to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable.

A job posting on LinkedIn from the Department of Justice advertised for a trial attorney to specialize in cases related to the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. The legislation provides compensation to those injured by certain vaccines.

It's unclear if the attorneys the Biden administration is hiring will be responsible for COVID-19 vaccine claims. COVID-19 vaccines are covered under the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), not the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), according to the Health Resources and Services Administration. Vaccines covered under the VICP include tetanus, measles, mumps and rubella, and polio.

Newsweek has reached out to the Department of Justice on Monday via media form for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

The position posted online advised applicants that they will have to handle heavy caseloads and work on cases that involve complex scientific issues that require expert witnesses. Since most cases are resolved without a trial, attorneys should be prepared to engage in settlement and damage negotiations, according to the posting.

A man gets a monkeypox vaccine at a clinic in California on August 9, 2022. The Biden administration has seen an increase in vaccine lawsuits and is hiring more attorneys to handle the influx of cases. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty ImagesAdverse side effects to the COVID-19 vaccine are rare, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), although some have died from them. Myocarditis, among the side effects, is most common in young males.

People who were negatively affected by the vaccine have expressed frustration with getting compensation from the U.S. government. In a recent lawsuit in Louisiana, plaintiffs called the process unconstitutional and a "black hole" in the judicial process. The lawsuit argues that the CICP provides "no timeline" for resolving their cases and one plaintiff had their case denied. The plaintiffs allege the COVID-19 vaccine led them to experience Bell's palsy, brain blood clots, vascular inflammation and heart palpitations.

The CICP was created in 2005 and was used to deal with claims resulting from public health emergencies like anthrax exposure and the Ebola virus. It offers limited compensation, according to Reuters, and doesn't have the option to provide compensation for damages or legal fees.

Unaccustomed to handling a large volume of cases, the program was flooded with more than 12,000 COVID-related claims. Only 32 had been deemed eligible for compensation and 1,129 had been denied as of October, according to Reuters.

Petitioners argued they didn't have the opportunity to review evidence used against them or engage in other basic practices that would be afforded them in a trial. There are no hearings in CICP cases, and the decision is made by unidentified officials based on what a claimant submits.

Frustrations with vaccine injury compensation suits isn't something unique to COVID claims. Attorneys and activists for years have been pushing for reform, pressing for the hiring of additional staff to handle the VICP cases. As of October, there was a backlog of nearly 4,000 claims, according to Bloomberg. Lawyers working on the cases hope Congress will pass legislation to reform how vaccine injuries are handled and for people to take action against pharmaceutical companies, not just the government.

"'This is the first domino to fall," David Carney, a Green & Schafle LLC attorney representing people injured by vaccines, told Bloomberg. "We're going to start to see a windfall."

Uncommon KnowledgeNewsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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United States Opens First Facility to Suck CO2 Out of the Air

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Archived Version

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 13:55

"We want to get to millions of tons per year."Self-StorageFor the first time, a commercial facility that can suck carbon out of the air and store it underground has opened in the United States.

In a press release, the team behind Heirloom Carbon Technologies said their newly opened direct air capture (DAC) facility near San Francisco will be able to siphon CO2 out of the atmosphere and store it securely underground in concrete for paying customers.

Though dozens of carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities have been operational around the world for more than a decade, the majority of CCS plants are involved in capturing and storing new emissions made by other pollutive processes like coal mining, leading to the so-called "clean coal" technology that experts and activists argue is anything but.

Direct air capture, meanwhile, sucks out ambient carbon from the air without any other industrial process alongside it. In the case of Heirloom, it's stored in what the company insists are secure concrete repositories underground.

As the New York Times acknowledges in its reporting on the new plant, Heirloom's first facility in Tracy, California is pretty small and only able to capture 1,000 tons of CO2 from the air per year '-- though as CEO and co-founder Shashank Samala points out in the press release, that number "has gone from [one] kilogram of CO2 to up to one million, or 1000 metric tons, in just over two years."

"We want to get to millions of tons per year," Samala told the NYT. "That means copying and pasting this basic design over and over."

Credit is DueCalifornia Governor Gavin Newsom and Jennifer M. Granholm, the head of the Biden Administration's Department of Energy, ventured to the Golden State's Central Valley during the Heirloom plant's unveiling last week to laud it as a "blueprint" for the current White House's plans to reduce American carbon emissions.

Perhaps the biggest value proposition for companies like Heirloom '-- and its well-heeled backers, which includes the likes of Microsoft and Shopify '-- is that it will sell "carbon removal credits" to companies looking to offset their own emissions, a higher-tech iteration of popular reforestation campaigns in which companies vow to plant a bunch of trees as an offset for their pollution without actually reducing it.

While it's definitively good that companies like Heirloom are being built all over the planet in efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, critics argue that those in the business of selling carbon credits are giving businesses a "license to pollute" with a clean conscious because they are, after all, offsetting their emissions by paying someone else to suck it out of the air.

At the end of the day, direct air capture still seems like a step ahead of the now-traditional carbon capture schemes '-- though if companies and governments want to get serious about reducing their emissions, they need to just do it already.

More on CO2: Here's What It Would Look Like if Carbon Emissions Were Visible

Civilian efforts seek to obstruct weapons shipments to Israel - YouTube

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Archived Version

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 13:54

How the Media Skews the Narrative: Israelis 'Died,' Palestinians 'Killed' - Algemeiner.com

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Archived Version

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 13:47

An aerial view shows the bodies of victims of an attack following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip lying on the ground in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, Oct. 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg

According to The Los Angeles Times on November 4, some 1,200 Israelis ''died'' in the Israel-Hamas war while some 9,000 Palestinians were ''killed.''

Just like that, with a few casual clicks of the keyboard, a major US paper whitewashed Hamas' ISIS-like atrocities, including the mass slaughter of primarily civilians and also soldiers, beheadings, rapes, mutilations, torture, parents killed in front of children and vice versa.

What President Joe Biden decried as ''pure, unadulterated evil,'' Los Angeles Times staff writer Ashley Ahn passed off as a ''surprise offensive.''

In her Nov. 4 article, (''Hundreds rally at Israeli consulate in L.A., calling for cease-fire in Gaza,'' page B1 in the Nov. 5 print edition), the Los Angeles Times fellow and former editor of the University of Pennsylvania's campus paper intoned:

The protests come amid an escalating war between Israel and Hamas militants, who launched a surprise offensive from neighboring Gaza on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

Since then, more than 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, with Palestinian militants continuing to hold about 220 people hostage. More than 9,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

New to the LA Times newsroom, the young Ahn might be forgiven for concealing the nature of the gruesome terror attacks murdering hundreds of civilians at a dance party and countless families in their homes, including children slaughtered in their bedrooms or cowering with their parents at safe rooms.

But what about editors who reviewed and approved the story for publishing? What about deputy editor for California, Hector Becerra, who shared Ahn's story on X, formerly Twitter?

According to the paper's website, The Los Angeles Times' fellowship program in which Ahn participates, includes:

'... six weeks of instruction on how to operate, navigate and succeed in a major newsroom, with training geared toward their specific interests. The next stage of their program includes multiweek rotations across the newsroom, where they will write, produce, edit, create visual projects and more, with coaching from seasoned members of The Times' staff.

But what training can we expect from a staff which includes nine journalists who signed an open letter penned by journalists against ethical journalism calling for reporting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the false lens of ''Israel's military occupation and its system of apartheid''?

In a recent Los Angeles Times opinion piece, Jonah Goldberg highlighted the critical role of the editor (''Will the media get coverage of the crisis in Israel and Gaza right? It all depends on the editors''):

What do good editors do? Beyond all of the meat-and-potatoes grammar and style stuff, editors slow the process down as a necessary part of quality control. They tell reporters that an unverified rumor is not printable without adequate verification. They tell opinion columnists that a histrionic argument that ignores contrary evidence needs to be shelved or reworked. They stand against the tide of momentary collective passion or the irrepressible ambition of individual journalists to maintain a higher standard for the institution as a whole.

What if those establishing the higher standard for the institution as a whole include Sara Yasin, the paper's managing editor, who has apparently embraced the Hamas narrative on X, reposting material accusing Israel of ''mass ethnic cleansing'' and a ''genocidal assault''?

Can we count on such an editor to instruct young journalists not to cover up Hamas' horrific barbarity? Will she point out the unacceptable double standard of covering up these innocent civilian victims' horrific murders (they ''died'') even as the report manages clearly to state that the perpetrators of the atrocities were ''killed''?

(Indeed, the casualty totals released by Hamas' ''Health Ministry'' includes the estimated 1,500 Hamas terrorists who were killed as they carried out the massacre within Israeli).

And what if the daughter of the paper's owner takes an active role in the paper, ''advocat[ing]'' for her interests, as Nika Soon-Shiong has acknowledged she does? And what if those interests include her sentiment, shared on X, that ''It's not journalistic malpractice to describe the state of Israel as an Apartheid state. This is well-established in international law''?

If Soon-Shiong's egregiously baseless position represents the ''higher standard for the institution as a whole,'' what hope is there for the paper to get coverage of the crisis in Israel and Gaza right? Ethical journalism dies alongside some 1,200 Israelis.

Tamar Sternthal is the director of CAMERA's Israel Office. A version of this article previously appeared on the CAMERA website.

FULL TEXT: Osama bin Laden's Letter To The American People - Breaking911

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Archived Version

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 04:40

''I speak to you about the subject of the ongoing war between you and us. Even though the consensus of your wise thinkers and others is that your time will come, compassion for the women and children who are being unjustly killed, wounded, and displaced in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan motivates me to speak to you.

First of all, I would like to say that your war with us is the longest war in your history and the most expensive for you financially. As for us, we see it as being only halfway finished. If you were to ask your wise thinkers, they would tell you that there is no way to win it because the indications are against it. How will you win a war whose leaders are pessimistic and whose soldiers are committing suicide? If fear enters the hearts of men, winning the war becomes impossible. How will you win a war whose cost is like a hurricane blowing violently at your economy and weakening your dollar?

The Bush administration got you into these wars on the premise that they were vital to your security. He promised that it would be a quick war, won within six days or six weeks; however, six years have passed, and they are still promising you victory and not achieving it. Then Obama came and delayed the withdrawal that he had promised you by 16 more months. He promised you victory in Afghanistan and set a date for withdrawal from there. Six months later, Petraeus came to you once again with the number six, requesting that the withdrawal be delayed six months beyond the date that had been set. All the while you continue to bleed in Iraq and Afghanistan. You are wading into a war with no end in sight on the horizon and which has no connection to your security, which was confirmed by the operation of 'Umar al-Faruq (Var.: Umar Farouk), which was not launched from the battlefield and could have been launched from any place in the world.

As for us, jihad against the tyrants and the aggressors is a form of great worship in our religion. It is more precious to us than our fathers and sons. Thus, our jihad against you is worship, and your killing us is a testimony. Thanks to God, Almighty, we have been waging jihad for 30 years, against the Russians and then against you. Not a single one of our men has committed suicide, whereas every 30 days 30 of your men commit suicide. Continue the war if you will.

(TN: Two lines of poetry that say the Mujahidin will not stop fighting until the United States leaves their land.)

Peace be upon those who follow right guidance. '

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Braverman: Multiculturalism has 'failed' and threatens security | The Independent

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 20:55

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Suella Braverman has declared that multiculturalism has ''failed'' in Europe and threatens social cohesion in the nation state.

The Home Secretary, giving a speech on migration in the United States, said a ''misguided dogma of multiculturalism'' has allowed people to come to the UK with the aim of ''undermining the stability and threatening the security of society''.

Setting out the ''civic argument'' against illegal migration, Ms Braverman said: ''Uncontrolled immigration, inadequate integration and a misguided dogma of multiculturalism have proven a toxic combination for Europe over the last few decades.

''Multiculturalism makes no demands of the incomer to integrate. It has failed because it allowed people to come to our society and live parallel lives in it. They could be in the society but not of the society.

If cultural change is too rapid and too big, then what was already there is diluted

Suella Braverman

''And, in extreme cases, they could pursue lives aimed at undermining the stability and threatening the security of society.''

She said ''the consequence of that failure'' are evident ''on the streets of cities all over Europe,'' pointing to clashes in Leicester as an example.

Migration to the UK and Europe in the last 25 years ''has been too much, too quick, with too little thought given to integration and the impact on social cohesion'', she said.

''If cultural change is too rapid and too big, then what was already there is diluted. Eventually it will disappear.''

It ''does not make one anti-immigrant'' to say that the nation state must be protected, Ms Braverman added.

The senior Cabinet minister, a child of migrants from Mauritius and Kenya working under a Hindu Prime Minister, said: ''It is no betrayal of my parents' story to say that immigration must be controlled.''

She contrasted her parents migrating to the UK ''lawfully'' with those who ''are coming here gaming the system''.

''They both signed up to British values wholeheartedly,'' she said.

''What, I think, angers many people in Britain, whether they are from the migrant background or not, it's the sense of unfairness that people are jumping the queue, that they are breaking our rules,'' the Conservative MP for Fareham said.

Susan Muysenberg - Peace and Freedom Party

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Archived Version

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 19:17

Hundreds in Sacramento rally supporting Palestine

"Free Palestine!" say nearly 1,000 in Sacramento demonstration

PFP proves popular at Freethought Day event

Fighting the information behemoth: why we need alternative media '' a Suds, Snacks & Socialism forum

PFP Chair: Statement on Palestine and Israel

Labor on the Move: Prospects and Challenges '' a Suds, Snacks & Socialism forum

PFP members remind government lab of nuclear weapons danger

PFP Joins ProRep Coalition to promote Proportional Representation

PFP at Brown Berets National Gathering

Transgender rights vs. the forces of fascism

Flyers and Pamphlets of the PFP

Attack on Trans People: A page from the fascist playbook '' a Suds, Snacks & Socialism forum

Susan Muysenberg '' Liberation News

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 19:17

Susan Muysenberg July 11, 2008 10

Santa Clara Hyatt Regency workers fight to unionize!Among the different chants, one seemed to sum it up: "Stop the threats, stop the lies, it's our right to'...

Read More >> Susan Muysenberg May 29, 2008 10

Janitors take on high-tech firmsAfter a strike of more than 1,000 janitors that impacted Silicon Valley's high-tech giants and spread to other parts of'...

Read More >> Susan Muysenberg June 4, 2007 23

ACLU charges San Jos(C) company with aiding and abetting tortureLocal anti-war activists have campaigned since late last year to expose the complicity of a San Jos(C), Calif., company with'...

Read More >> Susan Muysenberg February 16, 2007 19

Unconvicted Palestinian Prof. Sami Al-Arian held in prison, harassed by governmentBack on Dec. 6, 2005, Palestinian activist and former University of South Florida professor Dr. Sami Al-Arian was acquitted of'...

Read more about CJEGC.

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Cyprus ignores Russian atrocities, Western sanctions to shield vast wealth of Putin allies - ICIJ

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 18:08

T he Mediterranean island of Cyprus has long been a geopolitical crossroads, a prize contested by empires and a meeting point of peoples, religions '-- and money.

An astonishing flood of foreign money, mostly Russian, has poured into the island over decades, bringing wealth to a few but leaving Cyprus with a reputation as a shady financial hub.

Now, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Paper Trail Media and 67 media partners reveals how Cyprus, at the east end of the Mediterranean nearest Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, plays an even bigger role than was commonly known in moving dirty money for Russian President Vladimir Putin's autocratic regime and other brutal dictators and anti-democratic actors.

Among them: Syria's murderous rulers, whose state-owned oil company attempted to evade the United States' ban on doing business with it by using an intermediary on the island to disguise requests for purchases from a Houston oil equipment supplier; and Kremlin associates who channeled payments through Cyprus to a prominent German journalist known for producing fawning coverage of Russia's autocratic leader.

The product of an eight-month investigation, Cyprus Confidential stories explore Russia's long-standing hegemony over Cyprus' deeply intertwined worlds of politics and finance. It explains how the mighty European Union has failed to exert authority over Cyprus, a European Union member state, or to rein in a banking system bloated by illicit money. It illustrates how, as Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Big Four accounting giant PwC's Cypriot unit helped Russian oligarchs shuffle their riches and undermine Western sanctions designed to cut off Putin's war funding. As Western nations have increasingly used financial sanctions to block the flow of money that other governments use for hostile purposes, Cyprus became a cloak-and-dagger financial battleground.

The 3.6 million leaked files at the heart of the Cyprus Confidential investigation come from six financial services providers and a website company.

ICIJ assembled a team of more than 270 journalists from 54 countries and one territory and provided access to the leaked records through its secure document-research platform, Datashare. ICIJ and Paper Trail Media organized and coordinated the project through ICIJ's secure communications platform, I-Hub. As part of the Cyprus Confidential project, ICIJ's data and research team combed the records with partners to find sanctioned Russian oligarchs, billionaires and politically exposed persons (PEPs), and reveal their offshore holdings.

The leaked internal records, dating from the mid-1990s to April 2022, include confidential background checks, organizational charts, financial statements, bank account applications and email messages.

Together, the documents offer a penetrating look inside the rogue financial system that has helped empower some of the West's most determined foes. Critics say the island's dependence on Russian and other foreign money carried consequences only now being realized.

''When the Russians came to Cyprus, they brought not only Russian corruption, they brought Russian organized crime, they brought Russian agents of the Russian intelligence services,'' says Boris Demash, a Russian longtime resident of Cyprus and critic of Kremlin influence.

Meanwhile, says Cyprus-based economic historian Alexander Apostolides, the island's politically wired professional firms seem to find ways to ''do the things that are either illegal or at least unethical.''

When the Russians came to Cyprus, they brought not only Russian corruption, they brought Russian organized crime, they brought Russian agents of the Russian intelligence services '-- Boris Demash, Kremlin critic

In response to questions from ICIJ, a Cyprus government spokesperson said that, ''since 2013, Cyprus has engaged in persistent efforts and has managed to stabilize its banking sector and become a top jurisdiction for both anti-money laundering and sanctions enforcement.'' He said the country today has ''a strong and robust framework in place and our banking sector implements one of the strictest regulatory frameworks internationally,'' a view supported by a 2015 European Commission review of Cyprus' economy and financial sector, a 2022 review by the Council of Europe's main anti-money laundering advisory group, and several U.S. State Department assessments, including one last year that found the country's ''traditional banking sector is significantly less vulnerable to money laundering than it was just a few years ago.''

The spokesperson also said that Cyprus now places in the top 25% of international anti-money laundering enforcement rankings, while the banking system has been ''deleveraging significantly'' by reducing exposure to Russian deposits, which stood at only about 4% of total deposits at the end of 2021.

Under the influenceAs Cyprus Confidential illustrates, shady finance has been the province of the highest levels of Cyprus' government and finance. The island's economic system, known as the Cyprus model, relies on an oversized financial sector with some of the European Union's weakest financial disclosure laws, an indulgent central bank '-- and a tsunami of more than $200 billion in Russian investment that has bought its oligarchs vast influence.

Typifying the clannishness that has made it all possible is Nicos Anastasiades. A lawyer who founded a major offshore services practice that drew Russian clients, Anastasiades served as Cyprus' president from 2013 until early 2023. A 2019 investigation by ICIJ media partner OCCRP found that before Anastasiades took office, partners in his law firm served as officials of shell companies linked to massive suspected money laundering operations, including deals linked to Putin allies.

Upon taking office, Anastasiades left the firm to two daughters and other partners and traveled to Moscow, where he met with Putin and secured agreements promoting closer economic and financial ties.

Nicos Anastasiades and Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in 2015. Image: The Kremlin OCCRP said its documents did not contain any specific evidence that the firm or the firm's employees broke any laws or committed any crimes. In a statement to ICIJ, the firm said: ''We categorically would like to state that none of the members of our law firm have been implicated in any wrongdoing. These allegations are entirely unfounded and lack merit.''

The firm added that in the wake of the OCCRP report, Cyprus' anti-money laundering agency conducted a ''comprehensive investigation, which involved a meticulous examination and analysis of the data presented to them'' and issued a 2019 report ''fully exonerating our firm and confirming that there were no indications of any involvement in illegal or suspicious activities.'' As part of a letter to ICIJ, Anastasiades said he has had no ''absolutely no active involvement'' in the firm since 1997 and transferred all his shares to his two daughters upon taking office in 2013.

Underpinning the project is ICIJ's data analysis, with original findings that illustrate Cyprus' indispensable role in moving oligarch wealth either to be hidden outside Russia as yachts, real estate and financial instruments, reinvested in Russia, or used to undermine democratic institutions in the West.

ICIJ found that the Cyprus professional services firms were working on behalf of 25 Russians who came under Western or Ukrainian sanctions after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and war in Donbas.

ICIJ's data analysis, which matches names found among millions of documents against public records and private databases, found an additional 71 Russian clients who have come under sanctions since February 2022, bringing the total to 96 sanctioned individuals.

Among the sanctioned Russian clients, ICIJ identified 44 PEPs, the public officials, their relatives or others linked to state-owned companies or organizations deemed to merit added scrutiny because of a heightened risk involving corruption or other illicit activity. What's more, among the 104 Russian billionaires Forbes magazine identified in 2023, two-thirds '-- a total of 67 individuals '-- also appear in Cyprus Confidential documents, along with their family members, as clients of the island's professional services providers.

All told, ICIJ found in these leaked documents nearly 800 companies and trusts registered in secrecy jurisdictions that were owned or controlled by Russians who have been sanctioned since 2014. (Secrecy jurisdictions are countries and territories that provide a low-tax regime and corporate ownership anonymity, limit access to company documents and can be more lenient toward financial crime.) The analysis showed the professional firms also worked for Russian-controlled companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, the Channel Island of Jersey, the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, Liechtenstein, Hong Kong and elsewhere. While many of the registered entities are shell companies with no employees or operations, some are subsidiaries of industrial giants '-- such as steelmaker Evraz, which supplies most of the train rails that Russia uses to transport arms and ammunition to its troops in Ukraine.

The most recent Cyprus Confidential leaked records are dated April 2022 (with a few incidental records dated afterwards), so they don't show whether any of the providers continued to work with clients hit with Western sanctions since then.

Taken together, the project's 3.6 million documents '-- despite representing a small fraction of Cyprus' offshore industry records '-- reveal the EU member state to have been a massive financial hub for Putin's Russia. The documents also provide a glimpse into the oligarchs' lavish lifestyles: their superyachts, their priceless art collections of Matisse, Monet and Lucian Freud, and their private concerts featuring Amy Winehouse, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and other rock stars.

Singer Amy Winehouse performs at the opening of the Center for Contemporary Culture in Melnikov Garage in Moscow, Russia, in 2008. Winehouse performed the exclusive show at the gallery, for Roman Abramovich and Daria Zhukova. Image: Epsilon/Getty Images The enablersThe investigation reveals, for instance, how global accounting giant PwC, formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, put its Cyprus office and its 1,100 employees at the service of Putin allies amid Russia's bloody invasion of Ukraine. The project provides an in-depth look at how PwC helped Alexey Mordashov, one of Russia's richest industrialists, transfer a $1.4 billion investment out of his name in a bid to elude EU sanctions.

The Cypriot Ministry of Finance is aware of the share transfers, and a criminal investigation is underway, a ministry official told ICIJ in November.

''All information and regulatory notifications with respect to the share transfer were duly disclosed to the relevant authorities and made public to the extent legally required,'' Mordashov spokesperson Anastasia Mishanina said in a written statement. ''Not once in his long career did Mr. Mordashov, or any of the companies he runs, breach any laws, whether in Europe, Russia, or any other jurisdictions.''

Around the same time, PwC Cyprus helped transfer another $100 million for a pair of Russian oligarchs whom the U.K. would soon declare part of the ''cabal of selected elite'' helping Putin wage his war on Ukraine.

In all, ICIJ found that PwC Cyprus worked with at least 12 of the 25 Russians who were already subject to sanctions by Western governments or Ukraine after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas. But it took PwC until a few months after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine to announce it was leaving Russia and ordering its affiliates to cease working for sanctioned clients. ''Any sanction on specific Russian entities or individuals that is passed anywhere in the world will be applied everywhere in the world,'' the accounting firm stated on its website.

And, the project reveals that PwC Cyprus partners who left the firm to form a new provider also took over the administration of companies controlled by the pair of oligarchs the U.K. listed among Putin's ''cabal.'' The firm, called Kiteserve, had office space in the same building as PwC's offices in Limassol, Cyprus. Kiteserve severed ties only after the U.K. sanctioned the pair last year.

Cyprus Confidential illustrates how PwC and other accounting firms profit from their global reach while distancing themselves, when needed, from their largely autonomous local units or their offshoots.

Citing the need to maintain confidentiality, PwC declined to comment on its business with individual clients. It added that it complied with EU and United Nations sanctions before Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and has since severed ties with 60 clients as a result of the company's new Russia-related sanctions policy. ''PwC's internal standards are reviewed and updated to reflect both lessons learned and changing circumstances,'' Mike Davies, a PwC spokesperson, said in a statement, ''and we do not hesitate to take action when our standards are not met. Any allegation of non compliance with applicable laws and regulations is taken very seriously, investigated and appropriate action is taken if necessary.''

The firm said its Cyprus office had ''pivoted to a new economic model fit for the future, transforming its business'' and pointed to the office's annual report for 2022. PwC Cyprus' fiscal 2023 annual report, released in September, cited a ''significant contraction'' in business related to implementing the global sanctions policy.

Not long after the invasion of Ukraine, PwC joined an exodus of Western companies, declaring that it was separating itself from its Russian affiliate.

London callingThe Cyprus Confidential investigation reveals that another Cyprus firm founded by former PwC partners, Abacus Ltd., is at the center of a legal dispute involving Russian billionaire Petr Aven. Filed by the U.K.'s National Crime Agency, which oversees international financial investigations, the civil case accuses Aven of evading sanctions by using Abacus and European banks to shunt wealth beyond the reach of Western sanctions.

The previously unreported court records were obtained by U.K. nonprofit Spotlight on Corruption through a court petition and shared with ICIJ. The separate, and larger, Cyprus Confidential leak provides a broad view of Aven's wealth and Abacus' central role in managing it.

Aven, who helped build Alfa Group into one of Russia's largest financial conglomerates, was named in the 2019 Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as offering to act as an intermediary between Putin and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential transition team. Aven was among the oligarchs called to a meeting with Putin in the Kremlin on Feb. 24, 2022 '-- the day Russia invaded Ukraine. Alfa Group was later reported to be providing insurance to the Kalashnikov arms-making conglomerate and the Russian armed forces during the war.

In addition, ICIJ found that Abacus provided services to another 60 Cyprus-registered companies owned or controlled by other Russian oligarchs over the years, often in tandem with PwC.

The fixerThe U.K. has accused a prominent Cypriot corporate services provider, Demetris Ioannides, of having ''knowingly assisted sanctioned Russian oligarchs to hide their assets in complex financial networks.''

The ICIJ data analysis shows that Ioannides' firm, MeritServus, handled the day-to-day business of more than 100 Cyprus companies and trusts owned or controlled by Russian oligarchs, including Kremlin propagandist Konstantin Malofeyev, who was already the subject of Western sanctions.

Now, Cyprus Confidential records reveal that MeritServus had an extensive relationship with one of Russia's most prominent oligarchs, Roman Abramovich. A billionaire long based in the U.K., Abramovich in some ways typified Western elites' embrace of Putin's oligarchy. Worth $9 billion, Abramovich has been a member of Putin's inner circle since the late 1990s. He became widely known in the West for his fleet of yachts and as the longtime owner of Chelsea Football Club, the U.K. professional soccer team.

ICIJ's analysis found that MeritServus helped administer no fewer than 14 Cyprus-registered trusts owned or controlled by Abramovich. Sometimes the work was done in tandem with the Cyprus branch of Big Four accounting giant Deloitte, which Ioannides had founded earlier in his career. MeritServus also provided services to Abramovich companies registered in secrecy jurisdictions including the Isle of Man, Jersey and, mostly, the British Virgin Islands, where the bulk of Abramovich-owned companies '-- nearly 100 '-- were registered, ICIJ found.

Cyprus Confidential also shows that an Abramovich-controlled entity sold a highly profitable stake in an advertising company to an entity controlled by Sergey Roldugin. A classical cellist and longtime friend of Putin, Roldugin was exposed in the Panama Papers as a major figure in a network that moved over $2 billion through banks and shell companies. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Roldugin in June 2022, describing him as a ''custodian of President Putin's offshore wealth.''

The project raises questions for the Chelsea Football Club over how Abramovich, its onetime owner, funded the club's success.

The files reveal a decade-long pattern of payments worth tens of millions of British pounds, routed through offshore vehicles belonging to Abramovich and apparently omitted from Chelsea's financial accounts.

Representatives of Abramovich did not return requests for comment.

Dealing with despotsPerhaps most striking, the Cyprus Confidential project shows how the island's economic model has contributed in small but crucial ways to some of the century's great historical harms.

The investigation exposes detailed discussions between Syria's state-owned oil company and a Cyprus-registered intermediary about buying drilling equipment made by the Houston-based manufacturer NOV Inc.

It presents evidence that the Syrian Petroleum Co. and a Cyprus intermediary prepared to conduct at least five transactions between 2014 and 2019 to obtain NOV equipment.

The SPC is owned by Syria and controlled by the government of Bashar Assad. The U.S. has accused his regime of genocide and in 2011 imposed a strict ban on exports to Syria, specifically naming the SPC in the sanctions.

A woman in a besieged rebel controlled area in Syria on December 13, 2014. Image: ABD DOUMANY/AFP via Getty Images New York Stock Exchange-listed NOV stated in a 2017 securities filing that it had exited business with Syria at least three years earlier. Documents show Cyprus-based H.A. Cable Export Co. Ltd. and the SPC continued to discuss purchases of NOV equipment to Syria after that date. The documents were obtained from Demetrios A. Demetriades LLC, a Cypriot law firm appearing in ICIJ's 2021 Pandora Papers project and now revisited as part of the Cyprus Confidential investigation.

In June 2014 correspondence, the SPC wrote H.A. Cable Export that it was getting in touch to buy parts ''of American origin'' at the suggestion of ''National Oilwell Varco,'' as NOV was known at the time. Two years later, the SPC said that it was directing a query about acquiring NOV equipment to H.A. Cable ''due to USA sanction imposed on Syria.'' In 2019, the Syrian company urged H.A. Cable to buy NOV pumps and drawworks ''as soon as possible.''

NOV's chief compliance officer, Brent Benoit, told ICIJ in an email that the company reviewed its transactions and found no evidence that NOV was involved in any sales to H.A. Cable during the period in which the discussions between H.A. Cable and the SPC occurred. He did not address a question about the letter the SPC said it had received from NOV in 2014 referring it to H.A. Cable.

With the help of Russia, Iran and a steady flow of oil revenue, Assad has since turned the tide in Syria's civil war in his favor.

Among other revelations, the Cyprus Confidential documents show how the island has turned itself into a magnet for a motley collection of the rich and powerful seeking an edge in ethical gray areas. Among the clients exposed in Cyprus Confidential are: a lawyer involved in selling spyware to some of the world's most brutal regimes; a former senior European politician who went to work for a now-sanctioned Russian oligarch, the digital magazine Reporter.lu reported; and a sanctioned Russian oligarch who secretly helped finance a Holocaust movie alongside European taxpayers, report news outlets Reporter.lu, Knack, Le Soir and De Tijd.

Putin's authorAmong the many Westerners who have built a career explaining Russia and its autocratic leader is Hubert Seipel, a German journalist, author and television personality. He forged his brand touting his unparalleled access to the Russian president, promoting images of them hunting deer together in Siberia and cruising through Moscow in the back of a limousine. The portrayals that Seipel, who is in his 70s, turned out were decidedly sympathetic but also won him awards and accolades for portraying Russia as something other than a world menace.

Leaked documents that are part of Cyprus Confidential now reveal that, in the past five years, Seipel has agreed to receive about $700,000 as a ''sponsorship'' from a shell company linked to now-sanctioned oligarch Mordashov. Dmitry Fedotov, a lawyer working for Mordashov's steel conglomerate, Severstal, served as a witness to the agreement on behalf of the sponsor, the records show.

Russian President Vladimir Putin with German journalist Hubert Seipel. Image: The Kremlin A handwritten note on a 2018 document says the sponsorship was ''for writing a book on [the] political environment in the Russian Federation.'' Another note on the same record also referred to a 2013 agreement for ''Putin biography.'' Seipel has published two German books about Putin, with titles that translate to ''Putin: Inner Views of Power'' (published in 2015) and ''Putin's Power'' (2021).

The ''sponsorship'' agreement, uncovered in the leaked financial records by German reporters working for Paper Trail Media, Der Spiegel and ZDF, provides a striking example of the breadth and sophistication of Russia's propaganda machine abroad.

Over the years, Germany's media and publishing industries have sung Seipel's praises and anointed him one of the country's leading analysts of Russia.

For his part, Seipel has vehemently denied being on the Kremlin's payroll. When pressed on the matter during a 2021 radio interview, he replied with an emphatic ''No!''

In response to questions from Paper Trail Media, Seipel acknowledged Mordashov's ''support'' for his books but defended his work as unbiased. ''[N]o specific factual errors were found in any of the books,'' he said.

Records show that the paperwork for the transactions involved in the book deal was prepared by Cypcodirect and PwC Cyprus.

Contributors: Spencer Woodman, Matei Rosca, David Kenner, Dean Starkman, Tanya Kozyreva, David Rowell, Whitney Joiner, Fergus Shiel, Delphine Reuter, Karrie Kehoe, Jelena Cosic, Jesºs Escudero, Agustin Armendariz, Miguel Fiandor, Denise Ajiri, Emilia Diaz-Struck, Scilla Alecci, Brenda Medina, Eve Sampson, Richard H.P. Sia, Kathleen Cahill, Angie Wu, Tom Stites, Hamish Boland-Rudder, Joanna Robin, Carmen Molina Acosta, Hans Koberstein (ZDF), Bastian Obermayer, Frederik Obermaier, Sophia Baumann and Timo Schober (Paper Trail Media/Der Spiegel), Kira Zalan (OCCRP), Luc Caregari (Reporter.lu)

John Kerry Promises The US Will Pay 'Millions' In Climate Reparations To Poor Countries | The Daily Caller

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:46

Special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry said the U.S. would offer ''millions'' to a de facto international climate reparations fund, Bloomberg News reported Monday.

Kerry, whose position in the administration did not require Senate confirmation, made the comments on Friday in Singapore at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, signaling that the U.S. does intend to participate to some degree in the so-called climate ''loss and damages fund,'' an international wealth transfer program designed for rich countries to pay developing nations in recognition of disproportionate contributions to climate change and its results, according to Bloomberg News. The program and its structure is set to be a key topic of discussion at the upcoming United Nations' COP28 climate summit later this month, with some activists and officials from developing countries calling for the U.S. to pay up to $100 billion into the fund.

Delegates from around the world, including American representatives, agreed in principle to establishing the fund at last year's United Nations climate conference, but continued to disagree about the specific obligations and institutional structure that the fund would mandate until representatives reached a more specific understanding on Nov. 4 ahead of this year's negotiations. (RELATED: Luxury Concierge Service Offering Private Jet Charters To Next UN Climate Conference)

Sen. Barrasso: At Climate Conference Biden 'Pledged Allegiance To The Flag Of The United Nations' Not The United Stateshttps://t.co/yG5sgC1CYL

'-- Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 7, 2021

''Several million dollars is better than nothing, but it is an order of magnitude short of being truly meaningful, ''Brandon Wu, the policy and campaigns director for ActionAid USA, told Bloomberg. He added that Kerry's suggestion that Washington will be interested in paying ''millions'' is ''almost an insult,'' according to Bloomberg.

The ''loss and damages fund'' amounts to a ''global shakedown'' and a clear example of ''climate reparations,'' Larry Behrens, communications director for Power the Future, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Kerry and the State Department both have rejected any suggestion that the program is akin to an international climate reparations fund.

Behrens and other experts, including Tom Pyle of the American Energy Alliance and Dan Kish of the Institute for Energy Research, previously predicted that the U.S. would endeavor to avoid having to pay too much, or perhaps anything at all, into the fund in interviews with the DCNF, citing the improbability of Americans supporting the spending and Congress easily appropriating funds to such a program.

Notably, China is not expected to have to pay into the fund because of its technical designation as a developing country, despite its current status as the world's most prolific emitter of greenhouse gases and second-largest economy, according to China Dialogue.

In addition to agreeing in principle to establishing the ''loss and damages fund,'' American delegates also committed to accelerating the reduction of methane emissions from the oil and gas industries, pledges to boost existing funding for climate-focused development in poorer countries and to double down on its efforts to involve all of society in its push to counter climate change.

The State Department referred the DCNF to Kerry's communications team, which did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter's byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

House passes bill to avoid government shutdown, Senate to vote next

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:44

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 14, 2023.

Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters

WASHINGTON '-- The House approved a bill Tuesday that would avert a government shutdown, sending the measure next to the Senate, where it is expected to pass.

The "laddered" continuing resolution, or CR, will fund parts of the government until Jan. 19 and others until Feb. 2. Once it is approved by the Senate, the bill goes to President Joe Biden, who has signaled he is open to signing it.

Without a funding bill in place that has been passed by both chambers and signed by the president, the government will shut down at 11:59 p.m. ET Friday.

The CR passed in the House with broad bipartisan support, which it needed, after Republican leaders decided to bring it to the floor under a procedural move that required a two-thirds majority, and not a simple majority, in order to pass.

The final tally was 336 in favor and 95 opposed, with 127 Republicans joining 209 Democrats to pass the bill. But the most surprising figure was how many Republicans broke with party leaders and voted against it: 93, vs. just 2 Democratic "nays."

For newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., the bipartisan vote sends an early signal to the Senate and the White House that he is willing to reach across the aisle to pass pragmatic legislation when it's necessary.

But it could also spell trouble for Johnson within his own caucus. It was just over a month ago that a group of ultra conservatives helped to oust Johnson's predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. One of their chief frustrations with McCarthy, they said, was that he didn't take a harder line on spending bills.

Under Johnson's two stage funding expiration plan, certain federal programs like the Food and Drug Administration, military construction, veterans benefits, transportation, housing, urban development, agriculture, energy and water programs would be funded through Jan. 19. For everything else, Feb. 2 would the cutoff date.

Johnson said his novel plan would give the House the time it needs to move full-year agency funding bills through the regular appropriations process.

Despite initial reservations, Democrats publicly backed the bill on Tuesday in an effort to avert a shutdown.

House Democrats "have repeatedly articulated that any continuing resolution must be set at the fiscal year 2023 spending level, be devoid of harmful cuts and free of extreme right-wing policy riders," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y, said in a statement of support.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus on Tuesday released a statement opposing the resolution "as it contains no spending reductions, no border security, and not a single meaningful win for the American people."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said if the bill passed the House, he and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would move it swiftly through the Senate.

"Senate Leader [Mitch] McConnell and I will figure out the best way to get this done quickly," said Schumer.

Jake Sullivan Rewrite Shows His Foreign Policy Brags Crumble

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 05:02

The Biden administration has a longstanding habit of embarrassing itself on the subject of foreign policy '-- and the latest fumble by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is no different.

On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Magazine published a lengthy piece authored by Sullivan on its website providing an overview of U.S. foreign policy under President Joe Biden. The article '-- which reads like a White House press release '-- touches on different areas of foreign affairs, such as U.S. competition with China and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Of course, the national security adviser couldn't resist taking shots at former President Donald Trump, whom Sullivan claims ''damaged'' U.S. alliances with key allies.

Most notable about Sullivan's diatribe, however, are the significant differences between the online edition published on Tuesday and the print version published earlier this month. Included at the bottom of the online edition of Sullivan's piece is an editor's note revealing that the section of the article discussing Middle Eastern affairs had been ''updated'' from the print version ''to address Hamas's [Oct. 7] attack on Israel.'' A closer look at the lines scrubbed from the original reveals what little understanding Sullivan and the Biden administration have of the geopolitical environment in the region.

1. Biden has the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under control

In his original piece, Sullivan claimed the ''Israeli-Palestinian situation is tense, particularly in the West Bank, but in the face of serious frictions,'' the administration has ''de-escalated crises in Gaza and restored direct diplomacy between the parties after years of its absence.''

Did the Biden administration forget to tell Hamas about this restoration of ''direct diplomacy''? Because five days after Sullivan's article was published, the Iran-backed terror group launched the deadliest attack against Israel in the Jewish state's history. Among the more than 1,300 civilians slaughtered were 30 Americans.

2. No more attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria

Following his assertion that ''U.S. troops were under regular attack in Iraq and Syria'' under the Trump administration, Sullivan claimed ''[s]uch attacks, at least for now, have largely stopped.''

Unfortunately for American forces in the region, Sullivan's analysis turned out to be total bunk. In the weeks following Hamas' attack on Israel, U.S. troops stationed at military bases throughout Iraq and Syria have been under siege by Iran-backed proxies. According to Fox News, U.S. military personnel ''have been attacked 14 times '-- 11 times in Iraq and three times in Syria '-- between Oct. 17-24 '... resulting in 24 people getting injured.''

3. Biden's approach to Middle Eastern affairs leads to peace

Sullivan originally contended that Biden's ''disciplined approach'' to Middle Eastern politics ''frees up resources for other global priorities, reduces the risk of new Middle Eastern conflicts, and ensures that U.S. interests are protected on a far more sustainable basis.''

Do any of these ''other global priorities'' involve giving $100 million in aid to Hamas-controlled Gaza?

4. All quiet on the Middle Eastern front

It's tragically obvious that Sullivan's original claim that the Middle East ''is quieter than it has been for decades'' holds about as much validity as Bruce Jenner's belief that he's a woman '-- Zilch.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

Subscribe to podcasts on the calendar app with PodCal | PodLP Blog

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Tue, 14 Nov 2023 22:28

November 12, 2023PodCal is a free experiment in podcast accessibility, by PodLP. Subscribe in the Calendar app on macOS and iOS, in Google Calendar on Android and Web, or in any calendar app!

Screenshots of PodCal on iOS, Android, macOS, and KaiOSHow it worksPodCal is remarkably simple, simply subscribe to any podcast using the following link: https://id.podcal.app/{itunes_id}.ics and replace {itunes_id} with the iTunes ID for the podcast. For example, the link to subscribe to Planet Money is https://id.podcal.app/290783428.ics. Calendar events are created for each episode, starting on the publish date and time.

InstructionsApple Calendar (iOS): Click ''Calendars'' > ''Add Calendar'' > ''Add Subscription Calendar,'' then provide the URL aboveApple Calendar (macOS): File > ''New Calendar Subscription,'' then provide the URL aboveGoogle Calendar: Go to calendar.google.com > ''Other calendars'' > ''+'' > ''From URL,'' then provide the URL above

Why build PodCal?PodCal is an experiment in podcast accessibility. The iCalendar format has been around for more than two decades. Nearly every device, from Blackberries to modern iPhones, support iCalendar subscriptions. Moreover, a calendar and podcast app are surprisingly similar. Both apps poll for updates periodically from a time-series file format (.ics files for calendar apps, .rss files for podcast apps). Because of its ubiquity, iCalendar has the potential to take podcasts to places never seen before like ultra-budget flip phones and old school PDAs.

Behind the scenesUnder the hood, PodCal reformats RSS feeds on-the-fly and returns a properly formatted iCalendar file. It's smart enough to add or remove proprietary properties based on the requesting device. No feeds are saved to disk. The iTunes ID to RSS feed lookup is done using data provided by the Podcast Index.

FeedbackWe'd love to hear how you're using PodCal! Report bugs or offer suggestion at support@podlp.com.

About PodLPPodLP is the podcast app for the next billion listeners. available on KaiOS smart feature phones on the KaiStore and JioStore. As of November 2023, PodLP has been installed on more than 10 million devices in nearly every countries. Learn more at PodLP.com.

Joe Biden's economy is, honestly, pretty amazing: How come he doesn't get credit? | Salon.com

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Tue, 14 Nov 2023 20:45

COMMENTARY

Many voters claim Biden's economy is bad and Trump's was better. What fantasy version of America do they live in? Published November 13, 2023 6:00AM (EST)

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media as he departs the White House on November 09, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) ");}

If the economy is so bad, why are shops and restaurants so packed?

I understand that anecdotal evidence is hardly worth mentioning, but it does make you wonder if people are as concerned about the prices of goods and services as polling data says they are. As you stand in line at that restaurant or circle the mall parking lot looking for a space, do you wonder about the disparity between what people apparently tell pollsters about the economy and what you can see with your own two eyes?

My wife and I are pretty conservative, at least in terms of economic consumption. When we splurge on a meal out, we tend to share a main dish and a salad. That's both financial and dietary economy; we simply cannot finish the huge portions many restaurants typically serve. Part of that is a consequence of getting older, but it might also be that we can't eat that much because somewhere along the line we made a conscious practice of not eating that much. I suspect that was connected with raising our daughters and paying for college.

But when we eat at restaurants now, we notice what appears to be freewheeling spending all around us '-- trays of upscale cocktails and appetizers, pricey entr(C)es and desserts. When we travel to see our grandchildren, the story is the same: Whether we're in Nashville, Knoxville, Charlotte or Lexington, the restaurants are full. People seem to be spending money like there's no tomorrow (and maybe there's something to that).

It's easy to question the economic woes of someone who drives a $50,000 pickup, or complain about the guy in our town who drives around in an absurdly tricked-out golf cart flying a full-sized American flag. It's entirely possible those individuals are Trump supporters who believe '-- or claim to believe '-- that Joe Biden is doing a terrible job with the economy, in the face of nearly all available evidence. Some of those dressed-down folks packed into the restaurants may feel the same way, despite the splurge-spending.

Biden's bad economy? What does that even mean? Never mind the lowest unemployment numbers in decades and the other telling economic data points: Just look around. Even the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal acknowledges how strong the economy has been under this president:

Not only has economic output made up all the ground lost during the pandemic but it is above where it would have been had the pandemic never happened, judging by what the Congressional Budget Office projected in early 2020.

So what gives? Why do so many people tell pollsters that they think Trump and the Republicans would do a better job with the economy when that has literally never been true in my lifetime? (When Republicans claim they're great with the economy, there must be a ''worthless statement clause'' buried in the fine print.)

Why do so many people tell pollsters that they think Trump and the Republicans would do a better job with the economy when that has literally never been true in my lifetime?

Polling makes clear that Trump's ''working-class'' supporters are not with him primarily over economic concerns. They must secretly suspect by now that he has no clue about managing the economy (and is a terrible businessman). They back Trump for his simplistic and often incoherent answers to complex issues. They love him for the hatred of others he promotes and the ''anti-civic purpose'' he gives them license to feel. Floating nonsensical or self-canceling conspiracy theories and ''owning the libs'' are easier (and a lot more fun) than actually trying to formulate policies to help move us forward as a nation in this fraught world. The old political button that read ''Vote Republican: It's Easier Than Thinking'' isn't even sarcastic in the age of voter suppression, book banning, Christian nationalism, and self-serving fake history.

As New Yorker satirist Andy Borowitz said in a recent Salon interview, that put-down by Democrats has long been embraced as a winning tactic by the GOP:

I'm a little bit hesitant to say that the Democrats are the party of smart people and the Republicans are the party of ignorant people. But I think the Republicans caught on a little bit sooner to the fact that this whole projection of anti-intellectualism was a vote-winner, and they really made it their brand.

Americans like simple. They want a snappy slogan, not a complex and nuanced story without obvious villains. Democrats, for their own reasons, still haven't wrapped their heads around that.

MAGA voters tend to be more well-heeled (and not in the Ron DeSantis sense) than working-class Americans in general. They often pretend to be down-home guys and gals, but consider how many of the Jan. 6 rioters flew into Washington and stayed in nice hotels before they stormed the Capitol. We could assemble a considerable list of supposed good ol' boys in Congress who attended Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford, where they presumably battled the liberal elites.

One inconvenient truth is that the ethos of a consumer society teaches us that enough is never enough. Our especially rapacious form of capitalism tries to fuel and amplify our desires and enable as many thoughtless purchases as possible. My wife and I recently traveled to the city where I grew up, for the funeral of my best childhood friend. I could barely recognize the place, or navigate through the endless rows of restaurants, strip malls and big-box stores sulking shoulder to shoulder along all the main streets. Of course, the city we live in now looks much the same.

In many other affluent democratic countries '-- the ones where happiness is considered to be highest '-- people actively think about what they are consuming and why. But it isn't surprising that citizens of countries with better government services and robust social safety nets have the mental and emotional space to do that.

The Republican economic message to Americans remains steadfast: Every man for himself (It's every woman for herself too, but for much of the GOP, women are still secondary and highly troublesome considerations, mostly meant to be controlled and manipulated). The Ayn Rand winner-take-all ethos and the thoroughly disproved trickle-down theory, which holds that helping those who need no help will somehow lift everyone up, continue to be trotted out in debased, zombified form. It's unclear whether anyone still believes these deeply wrong and simplistic ideas, but plenty of people still embrace the myth that one day they might just get to join the billionaires' club.

It's unclear whether anyone still believes the Republicans' ludicrous economic theories, but plenty of people still embrace the myth that one day they might get to join the billionaires' club.

Republicans tell people what they long to hear, while Democrats are forever hamstrung by trying to tell people what they need to hear in order to function as responsible citizens in a democracy. But busy, overworked, stressed-out people don't want complexity, and most people have no abiding interest in politics. But they do crave neatly packaged explanations that blame their own problems, and the world's, on somebody else.

So while Republican voters keep on complaining about the Biden economy, they also keep on consuming like mad. They don't like the higher prices of the last few years, which is understandable enough, and it doesn't matter to them that all industrialized countries saw similar rates of inflation during the post-pandemic recovery, or that the inflation rate in the U.S has come down faster than in most other countries.

Any economist or political scientist will tell you that presidents don't usually have much effect on the economy, but in fact Biden's policies, especially on infrastructure spending and revitalized manufacturing, are making a difference. ''Build Back Better'' wasn't a big hit as a slogan, but it was a reasonable strategy that has led to better economic times.

Another way to consider the packed shops, planes and restaurants of this moment is to reflect that we were bottled up for too long by the various strains of COVID-19 and that the apocalyptic thinking spread by our former president and his political party has affected too many of us. The worsening crisis of climate change hangs over us all, whether or not we want to think about it. We have one more or less functional political party, while the other one, a bizarre cult led by men super worried about their masculinity, talks endlessly about societal collapse and civil war. As Michael Stipe sang way back when: ''It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine).'' We all want comfort in hard times, and we definitely all want to get out of the house and see our friends, even if we know we are just wishing the pandemic to be over.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Many of the people thronging the bars and restaurants are millennials (and even Gen Z members) who feel trapped by student debt, working jobs that don't pay them enough to let them plan for the future. They may have concluded that absent a big score, they'll never be able to buy their own house or have kids.

Our younger daughter belongs to that generation, and says that's the situation for most of her friends and colleagues. When you feel your personal economic future is bleak, it makes sense to live your life in terms of short-term enjoyment. George Orwell wrote in his memoir ''Down and Out in Paris and London'' that the poor in England would spen money on small luxuries, like a pack of cigarettes or a decent cup of tea, because poverty ''annihilates the future.'' Not too many of the millennials in those restaurants live in actual poverty, but when they look around them, they sure must feel cheated out of the old-school American dream.

Many of the younger people thronging bars and restaurants have probably concluded that absent a big score, they'll never be able to buy a house or have kids.

All that said, the fact is that Joe Biden's economy is historically strong. That doesn't seem to matter. Too many people buy into the shameless rhetoric of MAGA candidates who tell them what they want to hear, and maybe what they're thrilled to hear (especially about their freedom to behave badly against others), rather than mundane or complicated facts about how responsible governments and economies work.

Our problem isn't that democracy is failing us. We need more of it, not less '-- along with a return to the study of civics as part of our education. What's failing us, and failing the world, are the dull-witted politicians we send to Congress and state houses who try to push their religious views on the entire country and embrace a ruthless, predatory, unthinking capitalism, that lowers nearly everyone's standard of living but elevates a tiny minority to incalculable and unhealthy levels of wealth.

Last week's election results in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and elsewhere offered heartening evidence that many voters are resistant to deceptive campaigns, and proved how out of step with public opinion the current Republican Party and its captive Supreme Court really are. But while abortion rights are clearly a potent issue for voters (including a lot of independents and Republicans), Democrats need to make a better case about how much Joe Biden has accomplished for the economy in general and for working-class Americans in particular.

Facing near-total opposition by Republicans in Congress (the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act got exactly zero GOP votes), Biden got the massive bipartisan infrastructure bill passed. His manufacturing plan invests in rural areas and will transform local economies. He's the first president in many decades to stand with organized labor and support its fight for better wages and benefits. He continues to work on alleviating the crushing student debt that limits so many young adults' lives. He has taken on Big Pharma, moving to lower prescription drug prices and health care costs for older Americans. He is working to stop the junk fees hidden in so many transactions. He rejoined the Paris climate accords and has done far more to address that crisis than any previous president.

But what really needs to change is the predatory character of present-tense American capitalism, where profit too often comes from the suffering of others. That would allow our younger generations, and all of us, to lead better and happier lives. Biden has done his part, but he can't fix that on his own. The Republicans don't want to, and won't even try.

Kirk Swearingen is a poet and independent journalist. He is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, and his work has appeared in Delmar, MARGIE, Bloom, the American Journal of Poetry, Riverfront Times, Medium and Salon.

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The U.S. before the Great Depression - The Great Depression

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What was the U.S. like before the Great Depression? Advertisement for a crystal radio (June, 1922 Radio Broadcasting magazine). The time period that preceded the Great Depression was the 1920's, commonly referred to as the Roaring Twenties. It was a time of progress and it greatly changed the average American lifestyle.ECONOMIC The biggest factor in the changes experienced during the 1920's would be the economy. America experienced nationwide economic prosperity due to cheap mass production of goods and the new marketing method of advertising. Consumer goods became more popular such as radios and household appliances in contrast to the popularity of capital goods like railroads in the 19th century.

SOCIALThe economy created a large income gap between the rich and the poor. There were numerous investment opportunities found in the newly formed mass production industries and as a result, the stock market started to become more successful. However only less than one percent of American citizens owned any stock so its financial benefits only went to the rich. This only made the rich become richer and the poor become poorer.Another group that benefited was the middle class. Their lives became much easier due to increase in pay: wages increased approximately 20% during the 1920's. Despite these two groups' positive advancements, the lowest class suffered extremely. Almost half of America's population still lived in rural farmlands because of their dependency on agriculture for income. The end of World War One meant the end of the high demand of farm products, leaving farmers with no market.

"America's present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration." -Warren G. Harding POLITICALRepublican Party candidate Warren G. Harding ran for president in 1920 and coined the term "normalcy" in reference to what he thought the U.S. needed after the chaotic years of World War One. He reduced government spending and reduced taxes on wealthy citizens. He lowered taxes in an attempt to stimulate the economy by making the wealthy spend more and the benefits of it would "trickle down" to the lower class. However, his trickle-down economy only led to the working class becoming poorer.

At 25, Fiona had a good job and a busy social life, yet still she suffered from the crippling loneliness now threatening to wreck the health of millions of Britons | Daily Mail Online

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Fiona, who works as a fashion videographer, had a loving childhood, a strong family network with lots of support, and a good social life.

But the break up of a relationship, coupled with a job crisis last year - as a freelance, her work was erratic, with intense days followed by long periods when she was alone - plunged the 26-year-old into an abyss of loneliness she felt she might never climb out of.

'It was a constant feeling of anxiety, panic and dread, continuously battling against a sea of alone time,' she says. 'This triggered emotions I'd never felt: the only way I can explain it was like nausea - a sudden wave of an overwhelming feeling of not wanting to be here any more,' adds Fiona, who had never experienced mental health issues before.

'Nothing prepares you for the loneliness adult life brings,' she adds. 'It's hard to balance everything, and especially hard when you come home to an empty flat and there's no one asking you how your day was.'

Research suggests that, like mental health, loneliness is partly environmental and partly to do with our genetic disposition.

The break up of a relationship, coupled with a job crisis last year, caused Fiona (pictured) to plunge into an abyss of loneliness she felt she might never climb out of

U.S. psychologists Daniel Perlman and Letitia Peplau described it as 'the unpleasant experience that occurs when a person's network of social relations is deficient in some important way, either in quantity or quality'.

While it is not a mental health condition, research increasingly shows that it can affect both mental and physical wellbeing. Yet if it's becoming less taboo to talk about mental illness, it still isn't easy to talk about being lonely - or to admit to feeling it.

'Living in London, one of the biggest cities in the world, I felt guilty about my loneliness,' says Fiona.

'Outwardly I'm very sociable, but even if I had plans, it was in the gaps in between when I was by myself that I felt especially low. I realised that you don't have to look lonely to be desperately lonely.'

Fiona never imagined she would need to call the charity Samaritans, but she says now that 'without a doubt, I wouldn't be here without it'. She explains: 'It gave me the space to say exactly how I was feeling during those waves of suicidal thoughts. Then, when I felt a bit better, finding people and groups I could relate to - in person and online - was incredibly helpful.'

Fiona joined Facebook groups - London Lonely Girls Club, Bamby Collective and a London Marathon training support group.

'As a non-runner, it was a risky move, but it was the best thing I have ever done,' she says.

'I used to dread Sundays and Bank Holidays in particular, but the running training gave me structure, and a purpose,' she says. 'It also made me feel well physically and mentally.

'Getting back into working in an office has also been important - and being surrounded by people a similar age.

Fiona joined Facebook groups - London Lonely Girls Club, Bamby Collective and a London Marathon training support group

'My mental health is now the best it's been and I'm comfortable in my own company, which is a hard thing to learn.'

Research published last week in the journal BMC Medicine found that loneliness is associated with an increased risk of dying prematurely: people who were never visited by friends or family had a 39 per cent increased risk of death compared with those who were visited daily, according to a Glasgow University study.

In fact, evidence linking loneliness with a raft of physical problems, from stroke and heart disease to dementia, is now so abundant that governments here, and in the U.S. and Japan recognise 'the crisis of loneliness and isolation as one of our generation's greatest challenges of our time', as the U.S. surgeon general, Dr Vivek H. Murthy, put it earlier this year.

Japan, where 40 per cent of the population describes feeling lonely, appointed a loneliness minister in 2021 after a rise in suicides.

While Dr Murthy has pledged 'to make the same investments in addressing social connection that we have made in addressing tobacco use, obesity and the addiction crisis', the UK is leading the way on this issue: five years ago, we became the first nation in the world to appoint a minister for loneliness.

It was one of the recommendations of the Loneliness Commission, which the Labour MP Jo Cox had set up before her murder in 2016.

The commission was a response to Jo's own experience of deep loneliness when she was a student at Cambridge University and later as a new mum.

As an MP canvassing door-to-door in her Yorkshire constituency, she saw first-hand the crushing effect of loneliness.

'Living in London, one of the biggest cities in the world, I felt guilty about my loneliness,' says Fiona

The number of people in the UK who are chronically lonely has now risen to 3.83 million.

A survey by Age UK published in 2020 suggested that more than a million older people in Britain always or often feel lonely - nearly half of over-65s surveyed said that television and their pets were their main form of company.

As Jo Cox notably said: 'Young or old, loneliness does not discriminate.' Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that more than one in ten children aged ten to 15, and almost 10 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds are 'often' lonely.

New analysis of ONS data by the charity Campaign to End Loneliness has found that 16 to 29-year-olds are twice as likely to report feeling lonely often or always, than those aged over 70. The health implications of all this are stark. The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) says many GPs see between one and five lonely people a day - yet only 13 per cent feel equipped to help them, even though loneliness is associated with a raft of serious conditions. This includes a 29 per cent increase in the risk of coronary heart disease, and a 32 per cent increased risk of stroke, reported the BMJ in 2016.

The National Institute on Aging in the U.S., puts it more graphically, comparing the health risks of prolonged isolation with the effect of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

Other research has shown links between loneliness and type 2 diabetes, chronic pain, sleep and eating disorders, alcoholism, anxiety and depression.

In fact, there's plenty of evidence to suggest that what's bad for the heart is bad for the brain.

A study in the journal Geriatric Psychiatry in 2017 found that lonely people decline cognitively 20 per cent faster.

Last week's study by Glasgow University echoes a key study in 2015 by Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University in the U.S. She analysed 70 papers, involving 3.4 million people across seven years, and found that those who lived alone and described themselves as lonely had a staggering 32 per cent increased risk of early death.

The late John Cacioppo, a U.S. neuroscientist who became known as Dr Loneliness for his pioneering work studying the brains of lonely people, saw loneliness as an evolved signal, much like hunger and pain, and which we must respond to by trying to reconnect with others.

His brain imaging studies found that the loneliest brains showed the least empathy and trust.

'It's dangerous as a member of a social species to feel isolated, so the brain snaps into self-preservation mode,' he said.

'Dangerous' because fear also raised the stress hormone cortisol, resulting in fragmented sleep and increased inflammation in the body. He maintained the answer isn't a hectic social life but a few, close relationships.

'Consider volunteering to build empathy and don't wait. The next time you feel isolated, respond as you would to hunger, thirst and pain and get connected.'

The current Minister for Loneliness, Stuart Andrew, the Conservative MP for Pudsey, West Yorkshire, understands only too well the depth of personal misery involved.

'There were two points in my life when I've felt really lonely,' says the 51-year-old.

'The first was when I was a teenager and realised I was gay.

'Growing up in rural Wales in the 1980s, I felt terribly isolated and lonely: I just didn't know where to turn.'

Then, when he was first elected to parliament, he went from his 'tiny constituency town in Yorkshire to London, where I hardly knew anyone'.

He adds: 'But because I'd been through it before, I knew I had to do something.

'I immersed myself in the job and I made sure that I missed no opportunity to speak to other people and join groups whenever and wherever I could - particularly when I least felt like it.' One of the key issues, he says, is reducing stigma around loneliness, one of the reasons he's so open about his own experiences.

'Until we tackle the stigma we will never know the true picture,' he says.

In 2018, the RCGP published an action plan which included 'encouraging everyone to take action to tackle loneliness by checking on their neighbours'.

Ill-health is a known driving factor - 24 per cent of people with disabilities and long-term health conditions reported experiencing loneliness, compared with 9 per cent of those not affected by ill-health - and can make it even harder to make the first move, as Stuart Andrew explains.

'Taking that first step can be very challenging when you've felt isolated for a long time, I call it 'getting through the door syndrome', but there are ways to tackle that. Befriending services are really good.' (See box.)

Could medication be a solution? From 2017 to 2019, Stephanie Cacioppo, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioural neuroscience at the University of Chicago (and wife of John Cacioppo), trialled a drug called pregnenolone, which she hoped could reduce the social fear that makes lonely people withdraw.

But while early results suggested it might help, she ultimately conceded that a drug alone is not the answer.

After her husband died in 2018, she wondered how she would survive - their relationship was so close, they'd been 'like twins', she says. Exercise helped - she ran six miles a day and believes that the endorphins, 'feel-good' chemicals, that produced provided the benefits without the potential side-effects of medication.

Some of the best solutions to loneliness are neither complex nor expensive.

One of the most successful has been social prescribing, where GPs connect people with voluntary organisations and local charities with trained befrienders.

NHS England aims to refer at least 900,000 people for social prescribing by 2024.

'In my own constituency, GPs identified people suffering from chronic joint pain who were unable to get out and socialise,' says Stuart Andrew.

'Patients were invited to take up a free three-month private gym membership. Afterwards, a few had come off NHS waiting lists for surgery because they felt so much better. Most importantly, they'd formed such a bond, they'd got their own WhatsApp group - and some of them were going on holiday together. It made a massive difference to their lives.'

But these programmes tend to address older people, while it's the younger age groups who are more likely to experience loneliness.

In 2018, 55,000 people took part in The Loneliness Experiment, a study led by developmental psychologist Professor Pamela Qualter, from Manchester University: 40 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds who took part said they often or very often felt lonely, compared with 27 per cent of over-75s.

This may be explained by a recent study in January in the journal Health, Psychology and Behavioural Medicine, which found that more time spent on social media was associated with a greater degree of loneliness, as the connections made were not close or meaningful.

'It doesn't surprise me that young people are more likely to report feeling lonely,' says Professor Qualter. 'They're at a point in life where they're trying to work out their place in the world, and that's hard.'

But, she adds: 'Loneliness, for most of us, doesn't last for ever and can be seen as positive because it gets us to re-evaluate our social relationships and work on making changes.

'The problem, of course, is having the opportunities for change - do we have the skills to develop new relationships or the finances and opportunities to do so?'

So while the problem is more common in younger people, it may be more entrenched for older people because, for them, it's less likely to be a passing problem.

In September, the British Red Cross and more than 80 other charities signed up to a call to action to lobby the Government to do more to tackle loneliness.

In a scheme that runs until March 2025, up to £30 million has been allocated through the Government's Know Your Neighbourhood Fund, to support people experiencing chronic loneliness and create opportunities to volunteer in 27 of the country's most deprived areas.

Projects, which are run through local charities, include skills-sharing sessions, arts and crafts groups, befriending services, parent and toddler groups, lunch clubs and gardening activities.

'Working out why you feel lonely is a first step to working out which solution might work for you - and if one solution doesn't work, it's always worth trying another,' advises Professor Qualter.

'Don't worry if your attempts to overcome loneliness don't work initially.

'There is a whole toolkit of potential solutions that we can try to overcome it, so do not get discouraged.'

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or go to samaritans.orgFor advice on help with loneliness go to campaignto endloneliness.org

Amin al-Husseini - Wikipedia

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Palestinian Arab nationalist (1897''1974)

Mohammed Amin al-Husseini (Arabic: ÙØÙØ¯ Ø£ÙÙÙ Ø§ÙØØ"ÙÙÙ ; c. '1897 [a] '' 4 July 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine.

Al-Husseini was the scion of the al-Husayni family of Jerusalemite Arab nobles,[6]who trace their origins to the eponymous grandson of Muhammad. Husseini received education in Islamic, Ottoman, and Catholic schools. In 1912, he went to pursue further studies in Cairo's Dar al-Da'wa wa al-Irshad, an Islamic seminary under the tutelage of Salafist theologian Muhammad Rashid Rida. After studying there for two years, he went on to serve in the Ottoman army in World War I. At war's end he stationed himself in Damascus as a supporter of the Arab Kingdom of Syria. Following the Franco-Syrian War and the collapse of Arab Hashemite rule in Damascus, his early position on pan-Arabism shifted to a form of local nationalism for Palestinian Arabs and he moved back to Jerusalem. From as early as 1920 he actively opposed Zionism, and was implicated as a leader of the 1920 Nebi Musa riots. Al-Husseini was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for incitement but was pardoned by the British. In 1921, Herbert Samuel, the British High Commissioner appointed him Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a position he used to promote Islam while rallying a non-confessional Arab nationalism against Zionism.[11] During the 1921''1936 period, he was considered an important ally by the British authorities.[12]

His opposition to the British peaked during the 1936''1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. In 1937, evading an arrest warrant, he fled Palestine and took refuge successively in the French Mandate of Lebanon and the Kingdom of Iraq, until he established himself in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. During World War II he collaborated with both Italy and Germany by making propagandistic radio broadcasts and by helping the Nazis recruit Bosnian Muslims for the Waffen-SS (on the grounds that they shared four principles: family, order, the leader and faith). On meeting Adolf Hitler, he requested backing for Arab independence and support in opposing the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home. Upon the end of the war, he came under French protection, and then sought refuge in Cairo to avoid prosecution for war crimes.

In the lead-up to the 1948 Palestine war, Husseini opposed both the 1947 UN Partition Plan and King Abdullah's designs to annex the Arab part of British Mandatory Palestine to Jordan, and, failing to gain command of the "Arab rescue army" (jaysh al-inqadh al-'arabi ) formed under the aegis of the Arab League, built his own militia, al-jihad al-muqaddas . In September 1948 he participated in the establishment of an All-Palestine Government. Seated in Egyptian-ruled Gaza, this government won limited recognition by Arab states but was eventually dissolved by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1959. After the war and the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, his claims to leadership were wholly discredited and he was eventually sidelined by the Palestine Liberation Organization (established in 1964), losing most of his residual political influence.[14] He died in Beirut, Lebanon, in July 1974.

Husseini was and remains a highly controversial figure. Historians dispute whether his fierce opposition to Zionism was grounded in nationalism or antisemitism, or a combination of both. Opponents of Palestinian nationalism have pointed to Husseini's wartime residence and propaganda activities in Nazi Germany to associate the Palestinian national movement with antisemitism in Europe.[b]

Early life Al-Husseini's mentor, Muhammad Rashid Rida, a Syrian Sunni cleric noteworthy for his vehement opposition to Zionist movement and Western idealsAmin al-Husseini was born around 1897[a] in Jerusalem, the son of the mufti of that city and prominent early opponent of Zionism, Tahir al-Husayni.[15]The al-Husseini clan consisted of wealthy landowners in southern Palestine, centered around the district of Jerusalem. Thirteen members of the clan had been Mayors of Jerusalem between 1864 and 1920. Another member of the clan and Amin's half-brother, Kamil al-Husayni, also served as Mufti of Jerusalem. In Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini attended a Qur'an school (kuttub ), and Ottoman government secondary school (r¼shidiyye) where he learned Turkish, and a Catholic secondary school run by French missionaries, the Catholic Fr¨res, where he learned French. He also studied at the Alliance Isra(C)lite Universelle with its Jewish director Albert Ant(C)bi. Ant(C)bi considered al-Husseini his pupil, and refers to him in a letter.[c]

In 1912 he studied Islamic law briefly at Al-Azhar University in Cairo and at the Dar al-Da'wa wa-l-Irshad , under Rashid Rida, a salafi scholar, who was to remain Amin's mentor till his death in 1935.[21] Rashid Rida's defense of traditional Islamic values and hostility to Westernization became a major component of Al-Husseini's religious persona. Like Rida, he believed that the West was waging a War against Islam and encouraged Islamic revolutions across the Muslim World to defeat European colonial powers and Zionism. However, Al-Husseini did not adopt his teacher's Islamic fundamentalism.

Though groomed to hold religious office from youth, his education was typical of the Ottoman effendi at the time, and he only donned a religious turban in 1921 after being appointed mufti. In 1913, approximately at the age of 16, al-Husseini accompanied his mother Zainab to Mecca and received the honorary title of Hajji. Prior to World War I, he studied at the School of Administration in Constantinople, the most secular of Ottoman institutions.

World War I With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, al-Husseini received a commission in the Ottoman Army as an artillery officer and was assigned to the Forty-Seventh Brigade stationed in and around the city of Izmir. In November 1916 he obtained a three-month disability leave from the army and returned to Jerusalem. He was recovering from an illness there when the city was captured by the British a year later. The British and Sherifian armies, for which some 500 Palestinian Arabs were estimated to have volunteered, completed their conquest of Ottoman-controlled Palestine and Syria in 1918.[26][27]As a Sherifian officer, al-Husseini recruited men to serve in Faisal bin Al Hussein bin Ali El-Hashemi's army during the Arab Revolt, a task he undertook while employed as a recruiter by the British military administration in Jerusalem and Damascus. The post-war Palin Report noted that the English recruiting officer, Captain C. D. Brunton, found al-Husseini, with whom he cooperated, very pro-British, and that, via the diffusion of War Office pamphlets dropped from the air promising them peace and prosperity under British rule, "the recruits (were) being given to understand that they were fighting in a national cause and to liberate their country from the Turks". Nothing in his early career to this point suggests he had ambitions to serve in a religious office: his interests were those of an Arab nationalist.

Early political activism In 1919, al-Husseini attended the Pan-Syrian Congress held in Damascus where he supported Emir Faisal for King of Syria. That year al-Husseini founded the pro-British Jerusalem branch of the Syrian-based "Arab Club" (Al-Nadi al-arabi ), which then vied with the Nashashibi-sponsored "Literary Club" (al-Muntada al-Adabi ) for influence over public opinion, and he soon became its president. At the same time, he wrote articles for the Suriyya al-Janubiyya (Southern Syria).[citation needed ] The paper was published in Jerusalem beginning in September 1919 by the lawyer Muhammad Hassan al-Budayri, and edited by Aref al-Aref, both prominent members of al-Nadi al-'Arabi.[citation needed ]

Al-Husseini was a strong supporter of the short-living Arab Kingdom of Syria, established in March 1920.[citation needed ] In addition to his support to pan-Arabist policies of King Faisal I, al-Husseini tried to destabilize the British rule in Palestine, which was declared to be part of the Arab Kingdom, even though no authority was exercised in reality.[citation needed ]

During the annual Nabi Musa procession in Jerusalem in April 1920, violent rioting broke out in protest at the implementation of the Balfour Declaration which supported the establishment in Palestine of a homeland for the Jewish people. Much damage to Jewish life and property was caused. The Palin Report laid the blame for the explosion of tensions on both sides.[31]Ze'ev Jabotinsky, organiser of Jewish paramilitary defences, received a 15-year sentence. Al-Husseini, then a teacher at the Rashidiya school, near Herod's Gate in East Jerusalem, was charged with inciting the Arab crowds with an inflammatory speech and sentenced in absentia to 10-years imprisonment by a military court, since by then he had fled to Syria. It was asserted soon after, by Chaim Weizmann and British army Lieutenant Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, who worked in close concert,[d] that al-Husseini had been put up to inciting the riot by British Field-marshal Allenby's Chief of Staff, Colonel Bertie Harry Waters-Taylor, to demonstrate to the world that Arabs would not tolerate a Jewish homeland in Palestine.[36]The assertion was never proven, and Meinertzhagen was dismissed.[37]

After the April riots an event took place that turned the traditional rivalry between the Husseini and Nashashibi clans into a serious rift, with long-term consequences for al-Husseini and Palestinian nationalism. According to Sir Louis Bols, great pressure was brought to bear on the military administration from Zionist leaders and officials such as David Yellin, to have the mayor of Jerusalem, Musa Kazim Pasha al-Husayni, dismissed, given his presence in the demonstration of the previous March. Colonel Storrs, the Military Governor of Jerusalem, removed him without further inquiry, replacing him with Raghib al-Nashashibi of the rival Nashashibi clan. This, according to the Palin report, "had a profound effect on his co-religionists, definitely confirming the conviction they had already formed from other evidence that the Civil Administration was the mere puppet of the Zionist Organization."[39]

Until late 1920, al-Husseini focused his efforts on Pan-Arabism and the ideology of a Greater Syria in particular, with Palestine understood as a southern province of an Arab state, whose capital was to be established in Damascus. Greater Syria was to include territory of the entire Levant, now occupied by Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestinian Authority and Israel. The struggle for Greater Syria collapsed after France defeated the Arab forces in Battle of Maysalun in July 1920. The French army entered Damascus at that time, overthrew King Faisal and put an end to the project of a Greater Syria, put under the French Mandate in accordance with the prior Sykes-Picot Agreement. Palestinian notables responded to the disaster by a series of resolutions at the 1921 Haifa conference, which set down a Palestinian framework and passed over in silence the earlier idea of a south confederated with Syria. This framework set the tone of Palestinian nationalism for the ensuing decades.[40][41]

Al-Husseini, like many of his class and period, then turned from Damascus-oriented Pan-Arabism to a specifically Palestinian ideology, centered on Jerusalem, which sought to block Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine.[42]The frustration of pan-Arab aspirations lent an Islamic colour to the struggle for independence, and increasing resort to the idea of restoring the land to Dar al-Islam. From his election as Mufti until 1923, al-Husseini exercised total control over the secret society, Al-Fida'iyya ("The Self-Sacrificers"), which, together with al-Ikha' wal-'Afaf ("Brotherhood and Purity"), played an important role in clandestine anti-British and anti-Zionist activities, and, via members in the gendarmerie, had engaged in riotous activities as early as April 1920.

Mufti of Jerusalem Sir Herbert Samuel, recently appointed British High Commissioner, declared a general amnesty for those convicted of complicity in the riots of 1920, excluding only Amin al-Husseini and Al Aref. During a visit later that year to the Bedouin tribes of Transjordan who harboured the two political refugees, Samuel offered a pardon to both and Al Aref accepted with alacrity. Husseini initially rebuffed the offer, on the grounds that he was not a criminal. He accepted the pardon only in the wake of the death of his half-brother, the mufti Kamil al-Husayni, in March 1921.[45] Elections were then held, and of the four candidates running for the office of Mufti, al-Husseini received the fewest votes, the first three being Nashashibi candidates. Nevertheless, Samuel was anxious to keep a balance between the al-Husseinis and their rival clan the Nashashibis. A year earlier the British had replaced Musa al-Husayni as Mayor of Jerusalem with Raghib al-Nashashibi. They then moved to secure for the Husseini clan a compensatory function of prestige by appointing one of them to the position of mufti, and, with the support of Raghib al-Nashashibi, prevailing upon the Nashashibi front-runner, Sheikh Hussam ad-Din Jarallah, to withdraw. This automatically promoted Amin al-Husseini to third position, which, under Ottoman law, allowed him to qualify, and Samuel then chose him as Mufti. His initial appointment was as Mufti, but when the Supreme Muslim Council was created in the following year, Husseini demanded and received the title Grand Mufti that had earlier been created, perhaps on the lines of Egyptian usage,[48]by the British for his half-brother Kamil.[49][50] The position came with a life tenure.[52]

In 1922, al-Husseini was elected president of the Supreme Muslim Council which had been created by Samuel in 1921.[53]Matthews argues that the British considered the combinations of his profile as an effective Arab nationalist and a scion of a noble Jerusalem family "made it advantageous to align his interests with those of the British administration and thereby keep him on a short tether.". The Council controlled the Waqf funds, worth annually tens of thousands of pounds[55]and the orphan funds, worth annually about £50,000, as compared to the £600,000 in the Jewish Agency's annual budget.[56]In addition, he controlled the Islamic courts in Palestine. Among other functions, these courts were entrusted with the power to appoint teachers and preachers.

The British initially balanced appointments to the Supreme Muslim Council between the Husseinis and their supporters (known as the majlisiya , or council supporters) and the Nashashibis and their allied clans (known as the mu'aridun , the opposition). The mu'aridun , were more disposed to a compromise with the Jews, and indeed had for some years received annual subventions from the Jewish Agency. During most of the period of the British mandate, bickering between these two families seriously undermined any Palestinian Arab unity. In 1936, however, they achieved a measure of concerted policy when all the Palestinian Arab groups joined to create a permanent executive organ known as the Arab Higher Committee under al-Husseini's chairmanship.

Haram ash-Sharif and the Western Wall The Supreme Muslim Council and its head al-Husseini, who regarded himself as guardian of one of the three holy sites of Islam, launched an international campaign in Muslim countries to gather funds to restore and improve the Haram ash-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) or Temple Mount, and particularly the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine (which houses also the holiest site in Judaism).[61]The whole area required extensive restoration, given the disrepair into which it had fallen from neglect in Ottoman times. Jerusalem was the original direction towards which Muslims prayed, until the Qibla was reorientated towards Mecca by Mohammed in the year 624. Al-Husseini commissioned the Turkish architect Mimar Kemalettin.[62]In restoring the site, al-Husseini was also assisted by the Mandatory power's Catholic Director of Antiquities, Ernest Richmond.[63]Under Richmond's supervision, the Turkish architect drew up a plan, and the execution of the works gave a notable stimulus to the revival of traditional artisan arts like mosaic tessellation, glassware production, woodcraft, wicker work and iron-mongering.[64][65]

Al-Husseini's vigorous efforts to transform the Haram into a symbol of pan-Arabic and Palestinian nationalism were intended to rally Arab support against the postwar influx of Jewish immigrants. In his campaigning, al-Husseini often accused Jews of planning to take possession of the Western Wall of Jerusalem, which belonged to the waqf of Abu Madyan as an inalienable property, and rebuild the Temple over the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He took certain statements, for example, by the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine, Abraham Isaac Kook regarding the eventual return in time of the Temple Mount back to Jewish hands, and turned them to a concrete political plot to seize control of the area.[67]Al-Husseini's intensive work to refurbish the shrine as a cynosure for the Muslim world, and Jewish endeavours to improve their access to, and establish a ritually appropriate ambiance on the plaza by the Western Wall, led to increased conflict between the two communities, each seeing the site only from their own traditional perspective and interests. Zionist narratives pinpointed al-Husseini's works on, and publicity about, the site and threats to it, as attempts to restore his own family's waning prestige. Arab narratives read the heightened agitation of certain Jewish groups over the Wall as an attempt to revive diaspora's interest in Zionism after some years of relative decline, depression and emigration.[69]Each attempt to make minor alterations to the status quo, still governed by Ottoman law, was bitterly protested before the British authorities by the Muslim authorities. If Muslims could cite an Ottoman regulation of 1912 specifically forbidding objects like seating to be introduced, the Jews could cite testimonies to the fact that before 1914 certain exceptions had been made to improve their access and use of the Wall.[70]The decade witnessed several such episodes of strong friction, and the simmering tensions came to a head in late 1928, only to erupt, after a brief respite, into an explosion of violence a year later.

1929 Palestine riots Prelude Arab protest delegations against British policy in Palestine during 1929On 10 August 1928, a constituent assembly convened by the French in Syria was rapidly adjourned when calls were made for a reunification with Palestine.[71]Al-Husseini and Awni Abd al-Hadi met with the Syrian nationalists[72]and they made a joint proclamation for a unified monarchical state under a son of Ibn Sa'ud. On the 26th,[73]the completion of the first stage of restoration work on the Haram's mosques was celebrated with great pomp, in the presence of representatives from the Muslim countries which had financed the project, the Mandatory authorities, and Abdullah, Emir of Transjordan. A month later, an article appeared in the Jewish press proposing the purchase and destruction of houses in the Moroccan quarter bordering on the wall to improve pilgrim access and thereby further the "Redemption of Israel."[74]Soon after, on 23 September,[75]Yom Kippur, a Jewish beadle introduced a screen to separate male and female worshippers at the Wall. Informed by residents in the neighbouring Mughrabi quarter, the waqf authority complained to Harry Luke, acting Chief Secretary to the Government of Palestine, that this virtually changed the lane into a synagogue, and violated the status quo, as had the collapsible seats in 1926. British constables, encountering a refusal, used force to remove the screen, and a jostling clash ensued between worshippers and police.[74][e]

Zionist allegations that disproportionate force had been employed during what was a solemn occasion of prayer created an outcry throughout the diaspora. Worldwide Jewish protests remonstrated with Britain for the violence exercised at the Wall. The Jewish National Council Vaad Leumi "demanded that British administration expropriate the wall for the Jews". In reply, the Muslims organized a Defence Committee for the Protection of the Noble Buraq,[77]and huge crowd rallies took place on the Al-Aqsa plaza in protest. Work, often noisy, was immediately undertaken on a mosque above the Jewish prayer site. Disturbances such as opening a passage for donkeys to pass through the area, angered worshippers. After intense negotiations, the Zionist organisation denied any intent to take over the whole Haram Ash-Sharif, but demanded the government expropriate and raze the Moroccan quarter. A law of 1924 allowed the British authorities to expropriate property, and fear of this in turn greatly agitated the Muslim community, though the laws of donation of the waqf explicitly disallowed any such alienation. After lengthy deliberation, a White Paper was made public on 11 December 1928 in favour of the status quo.[79]

After the nomination of the new High Commissioner Sir John Chancellor to succeed Lord Plumer in December 1928, the question was re-examined, and in February 1929 legal opinion established that the mandatory authority was within its powers to intervene to ensure Jewish rights of access and prayer. Al-Husseini pressed him for a specific clarification of the legal status quo regarding the Wall. Chancellor mulled weakening the SMC and undermining al-Husseini's authority by making the office of mufti elective. The Nabi Musa festival of April that year passed without incident, despite al-Husseini's warnings of possible incidents. Chancellor thought his power was waning, and after conferring with London, admitted to al-Husseini on 6 May that he was impotent to act decisively in the matter. Al-Husseini replied that, unless the Mandatory authorities acted, then, very much like Christian monks protecting their sacred sites in Jerusalem, the sheikhs would have to take infringements of the status quo into their own hands, and personally remove any objects introduced by Jews to the area. Chancellor asked him to be patient, and al-Husseini offered to stop works on the Mount on condition that this gesture not be taken as a recognition of Jewish rights. A change of government in Britain in June led to a new proposal: only Muslim works in the sector near where Jews prayed should be subject to mandatory authorisation: Jews could employ ritual objects, but the introduction of seats and screens would be subject to Muslim authorisation. Chancellor authorised the Muslims to recommence their reconstructive work, while, responding to further Zionist complaints, prevailed on the SMC to stop the raucous Zikr ceremonies in the vicinity of the wall.[80]He also asked the Zionist representatives to refrain from filling their newspapers with attacks on the government and Muslim authorities. Chancellor then departed for Europe where the Mandatory Commission was deliberating.[81]

Riots With Chancellor abroad, and the Zionist Commission itself, with its leader Colonel Frederick Kisch, in Z¼rich for the 16th Zionist Congress (attended also by Ze'ev Jabotinsky), the SMC resumed works, confidentially authorised, on the Haram only to be met with outcries from the Jewish press. The administration rapidly published the new rules on 22 July, with a serious error in translation that fueled Zionist reports of a plot against Jewish rights.[82]A protest in London led to a public declaration by a member of the Zionist Commission that Jewish rights were bigger than the status quo, a statement which encouraged in turn Arab suspicions that local agreements were again being overthrown by Jewish intrigues abroad. News that the Zurich Congress, in creating the Jewish Agency on 11 August, had brought unity among Zionists and the world Jewish community, a measure that would greatly increase Jewish investment in British Palestine,[83]set off alarm bells. On 15 August, Tisha B'Av, a day memorializing the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, the revisionist Betar movement, despite Pinhas Rutenberg's plea on 8 August to the acting High Commissioner Harry Luke to stop such groups from participating, rallied members from Tel Aviv to join them in the religious commemoration. Kisch, before leaving, had banned Jewish demonstrations in Jerusalem's Arab quarters. The Betar youth gave the ceremony a strong nationalist tinge by singing the Hatikvah, waving the flag of Israel, and chanting the slogan "The Wall is Ours".[86]The following day coincided with mawlid (or mawsin al-nabi ), the anniversary of the birth of Islam's prophet, Muhammad. Muslim worshippers, after prayers on the esplanade of the Haram, passed through the narrow lane by the Wailing Wall and ripped up prayer books, and kotel notes (wall petitions), without harming however three Jews present. Contacted by Luke, al-Husseini undertook to do his best to maintain calm on the Haram, but could not stop demonstrators from gathering at the Wall.

On 17 August a young Jewish boy was stabbed to death by Arabs while retrieving a football, while an Arab was badly wounded in a brawl with Palestinian Jews.[88]Strongly tied to the anti-Hashemite party,[89]and attacked by supporters of Abdullah in Transjordan for misusing funds marked out for campaigning against France, al-Husseini asked for a visa for himself and Awni Abd al-Hadi to travel to Syria, where the leadership of the Syrian anti-French cause was being contested.[90]Averse to his presence in Syria, the French asked him to put off the journey. Meanwhile, despite Harry Luke's lecturing journalists to avoid reporting such material, rumors circulated in both communities, of an imminent massacre of Jews by Muslims, and of an assault on the Haram ash-Sharif by Jews. On 21 August a funeral cort¨ge, taking the form of a public demonstration for the dead Jewish boy, wound its way through the old city, with the police blocking attempts to break into the Arab quarters. On the 22nd, Luke convoked representatives of both parties to calm things down, and undersign a joint declaration. Awni Abd al-Hadi and Jamal al-Husayni were ready to recognize Jewish visiting rights at the Wall in exchange for Jewish recognition of Islamic prerogatives at the Buraq. The Jewish representative, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, considered this beyond his brief'--which was limited to an appeal for calm'--and the Arabs in turn refused. They agreed to pursue their dialogue the following week.

On 23 August, a Friday, two or three Arabs were murdered in the Jewish quarter of Mea Shearim.[91]It was also a day of Muslim prayer. A large crowd, composed of many people from outlying villages, thronged into Jerusalem, many armed with sticks and knives. It is not known whether this was organized by al-Husseini or the result of spontaneous mobilisation. The sermon at Al-Aqsa was to be delivered by another preacher, but Luke prevailed on al-Husseini to leave his home and go to the mosque, where he was greeted as "the sword of the faith" and where he instructed the preacher to deliver a pacific sermon, while sending an urgent message for police reinforcements around the Haram. In response to the peaceful address, extremists harangued the crowd, accusing al-Husseini of being an infidel to the Muslim cause. The same violent accusation was launched in Jaffa against sheikh Muzaffir, an otherwise radical Islamic preacher, who gave a sermon calling for calm on the same day.[92]An assault was launched on the Jewish quarter. Violent mob attacks on Jewish communities, fueled by wildfire hearsay about ostensible massacres of Arabs and attempts to seize the Wall, took place over the following days in Hebron, Safed and Haifa. In all, in the killings and subsequent revenge attacks, 136 Arabs and 135 Jews died, while 340 of the latter were wounded, as well as an estimated 240 Arabs.[93]

Aftermath Two official investigations were subsequently conducted by the British and the League of Nations's Mandatory Commission. The former, The Shaw Report, concluded that the incident on 23 August consisted of an attack by Arabs on Jews, but rejected the view that the riots had been premeditated. Al-Husseini certainly played an energetic role in Muslim demonstrations from 1928 onwards, but could not be held responsible for the August riots, even if he had "a share in the responsibility for the disturbances". He had nonetheless collaborated from the 23rd of that month in pacifying rioters and reestablishing order. The worst outbreaks occurred in areas, Hebron, Safed, Jaffa, and Haifa where his Arab political adversaries were dominant. The root cause of the violent outbreaks lay in the fear of territorial dispossession.[95]In a Note of Reservation, Mr. Harry Snell, who had apparently been swayed by Sir Herbert Samuel's son, Edwin Samuel[96]states that, although he was satisfied that al-Husseini was not directly responsible for the violence or had connived at it, he believed al-Husseini was aware of the nature of the anti-Zionist campaign and the danger of disturbances. He therefore attributed to the Mufti a greater share of the blame than the official report had. The Dutch Vice-Chairman of the Permanent Mandates Commission, M. Van Rees, argued that "the disturbances of August 1929, as well as the previous disturbances of a similar character, were, in brief, only a special aspect of the resistance offered everywhere in the East, with its traditional and feudal civilisation, to the invasion of a European civilisation introduced by a Western administration" but concluded that in his view "the responsibility for what had happened must lie with the religious and political leaders of the Arabs".[98]

In London, Lord Melchett demanded his arrest for orchestrating all anti-British unrest throughout the Middle East. Consular documentation discarded the plot thesis rapidly, and identified the deeper cause as political, not religious, namely in what the Palin report had earlier identified[99]as profound Arab discontent over Zionism. Arab memoirs on the fitna (troubles) follow a contemporary proclamation for the Defence of the Wall on 31 August, which justified the riots as legitimate, but nowhere mention a coordinated plan. Izzat Darwaza, an Arab nationalist rival of al-Husseini, alone asserts, without details, that al-Husseini was responsible. Al-Husseini in his Judeophobic memoirs never claimed to have played such a role.

The High Commissioner received al-Husseini twice officially on 1 October 1929 and a week later, and the latter complained of pro-Zionist bias in an area where the Arab population still viewed Great Britain favorably. Al-Husseini argued that the weakness of the Arab position was that they lacked political representation in Europe, whereas for millennia, in his view, the Jews dominated with their genius for intrigue. He assured Chancellor of his cooperation in maintaining public order.[101]

Political activities, 1930''1935 Al-Husseini (center) in a visit to Saudi Arabia in the early 1930s. To his left is Hashim al-Atassi, who later became president of Syria and to al-Husseini's right is Shakib Arslan, an Arab nationalist philosopher from Lebanon.By 1928''1929 a coalition of a new Palestinian nationalist group began to challenge the hegemony so far exercised by al-Husseini. The group, more pragmatic, hailed from the landed gentry and from business circles, and was intent on what they considered a policy of more realistic accommodation to the Mandatory government. From this period on, a rift emerged, that was to develop into a feud between the directive elite of Palestinian Arabs.

In 1931, al-Husseini founded the World Islamic Congress, on which he was to serve as president. Versions differ as to whether or not al-Husseini supported Izz ad-Din al-Qassam when he undertook clandestine activities against the British Mandate authorities. His appointment as imam of the al-Istiqlal mosque in Haifa had been approved by al-Husseini. Lachman argues that he secretly encouraged, and perhaps financed al-Qassam at this period. Whatever their relations, the latter's independent activism, and open challenge to the British authorities appears to have led to a rupture between the two. He vigorously opposed the Qassamites' exactions against the Christian and Druze communities.

In 1933, according to Alami, al-Husseini expressed interest in Ben Gurion's proposal of a Jewish-Palestine as part of a larger Arab federation.[f]

By 1935 al-Husseini did take control of one clandestine organization, of whose nature he had not been informed until the preceding year,[105]which had been set up in 1931 by Musa Kazim al-Husayni's son, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and recruited from the Palestinian Arab Boy Scout movement, called the "Holy Struggle" (al-jihad al-muqaddas ).[106]This and another paramilitary youth organization, al-Futuwwah , paralleled the clandestine Jewish Haganah. Rumours, and occasional discovery of caches and shipments of arms, strengthened military preparations on both sides.[107]

1936''1939 Arab revolt in Palestine On 19 April 1936, a wave of protest strikes and attacks against both the British authorities and Jews was unleashed in Palestine. Initially, the riots were led by Farhan al-Sa'di, a militant sheik of the northern al-Qassam group, with links to the Nashashibis. After the arrest and execution of Farhan, al-Husseini seized the initiative by negotiating an alliance with the al-Qassam faction. Apart from some foreign subsidies, including a substantial amount from Fascist Italy,[109]he controlled waqf and orphan funds that generated annual income of about 115,000 Palestine pounds. After the start of the revolt, most of that money was used to finance the activities of his representatives throughout the country. To Italy's Consul-General in Jerusalem, Mariano de Angelis, he explained in July that his decision to get directly involved in the conflict arose from the trust he reposed in Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's backing and promises. Upon al-Husseini's initiative, the leaders of Palestinian Arab clans formed the Arab Higher Committee under his chairmanship. The Committee called for nonpayment of taxes after 15 May and for a general strike of Arab workers and businesses, demanding an end to the Jewish immigration. The British High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Arthur Wauchope, responded by engaging in negotiations with al-Husseini and the Committee. The talks, however, soon proved fruitless. Al-Husseini issued a series of warnings, threatening the "revenge of God Almighty" unless the Jewish immigration were to stop, and the general strike began, paralyzing the government, public transportation, Arab businesses and agriculture.

As the time passed, by autumn the Arab middle class had exhausted its resources. Under these circumstances, the Mandatory government was looking for an intermediary who might help persuade the Arab Higher Committee to end the rebellion. Al-Husseini and the Committee rejected King Abdullah of Transjordan as mediator because of his dependence on the British and friendship with the Zionists, but accepted the Iraqi Foreign Minister Nuri as-Said. As Wauchope warned of an impending military campaign and simultaneously offered to dispatch a Royal Commission of Inquiry to hear the Arab complaints, the Arab Higher Committee called off the strike on 11 October. When the promised Royal Commission of Inquiry arrived in Palestine in November, al-Husseini testified before it as chief witness for the Arabs.

Deposition of Amin el Husseini from the Supreme Muslim Sharia Council and declaration of the Arab Higher Committee as illegalIn July 1937, British police were sent to arrest al-Husseini for his part in the Arab rebellion, but, tipped off, he managed to escape to the sanctuary of asylum in the Haram. He stayed there for three months, directing the revolt from within. Four days after the assassination of the Acting District Commissioner for that area Lewis Yelland Andrews by Galilean members of the al-Qassam group on 26 September, al-Husseini was deposed from the presidency of the Muslim Supreme Council, the Arab Higher Committee was declared illegal, and warrants for the arrest of its leaders were issued, as being at least "morally responsible", though no proofs existed for their complicity.[114]Of them only Jamal al-Husayni managed to escape to Syria: the remaining five were exiled to the Seychelles. Al-Husseini was not among the indicted but, fearing imprisonment, on 13''14 October, after sliding under cover of darkness down a rope from the Haram's wall, he himself fled, in a Palestine Police Force car to Jaffa where he boarded a tramp steamer that conveyed him to Lebanon, disguised as a Bedouin, where he reconstituted the committee under his leadership. Though terrorism was used by both sides,[119] Al-Husseini's tactics, his abuse of power to punish other clans, and the killing of political adversaries he considered "traitors",[120]alienated many Palestinian Arabs. One local leader, Abu Shair, told Da'ud al-Husayni, an emissary from Damascus who bore a list of people to be assassinated during the uprising "I don't work for Husayniya ('Husayni-ism') but for wataniya (nationalism)." He remained in Lebanon for two years, under French surveillance in the Christian village of Zouk, but, in October 1939, his deteriorating relationship with the French and Syrian authorities '' they had asked him to make a public declaration of support for Great Britain and France, '' led him to withdraw to the Kingdom of Iraq. By June 1939, after the disintegration of the revolt, Husseini's policy of killing only proven turncoats changed to one of liquidating all suspects, even members of his own family, according to one intelligence report.

The rebellion itself had lasted until March 1939, when it was finally quelled by British troops, assisted by Zionist forces, with a 10/1 advantage over Palestinians. Al-Husseini was sufficiently depressed by the outcome, and the personal loss of many friends and relatives,[126] that he contemplated suicide, according to the French High Commissioner in Lebanon. The Revolt nonetheless forced Britain to make substantial concessions to Arab demands. Jewish immigration was to continue but under restrictions, with a quota of 75,000 places spread out over the following five years. On the expiry of this period further Jewish immigration would depend on Arab consent. Besides local unrest, another key factor in bringing about a decisive change in British policy was Nazi Germany's preparations for a European war, which would develop into a worldwide conflict. In British strategic thinking, securing the loyalty and support of the Arab world assumed an importance of some urgency.[128]While Jewish support was unquestioned, Arab backing in a new global conflict was by no means assured. By promising to phase out Jewish immigration into Palestine, Britain hoped to win back support from wavering Arabs. Husseini, allied to radical elements in exile, hailing from provincial Palestinian families, convinced the AHC, against moderate Palestinian families who were minded to accept it, to reject the White Paper of 1939, which had recommended an Arab-majority state and an end to building a Jewish national home. The rejection was based on its perceived failure to promise an end to immigration; the land policy it advocated was thought to provide imperfect remedies: and the promised independence appeared to depend on Jewish assent and cooperation. Husseini, who also had personal interests threatened by these arrangements, also feared that acceptance would strengthen the hand of his political opponents in the Palestine national movement, such as the Nashashibis. Schwanitz and Rubin argued that Husseini was a great influence on Hitler and that his rejectionism was, ironically, the real causal factor for the establishment of the state of Israel, a thesis Mikics, who regards Husseini as a "radical anti-semite", finds both "astonishing" and "silly", since it would logically entail the collateral thesis that the Zionist movement triggered the Holocaust.

Neve Gordon writes that al-Husseini regarded all alternative nationalist views as treasonous, opponents became traitors and collaborators, and patronizing or employing Jews of any description illegitimate. From Beirut he continued to issue directives. The price for murdering opposition leaders and peace leaders rose by July to 100 Palestine pounds: a suspected traitor 25 pounds, and a Jew 10. Notwithstanding this, ties with the Jews were reestablished by leading families such as the Nashashibis, and by the Fahoum of Nazareth.

Ties with the Axis Powers during World War II Since 1918, Arab nationalist movements lay under the constraints imposed by the French-English imperial duopoly in the Middle East, which in turn extended to the sphere of international politics. The Arabs perceived their interests as tied up with an eventual weakening of these two powers as a precondition for establishing their national independence. For this reason, as early as June 1933, even the most Europeanized of Palestinian notables were known to look forward to a renewed outbreak of war in Europe, something that would enable them to overthrow the colonial grip on their countries and expel ("throw into the sea") the Jews in Palestine, the French in Syria, and the English throughout the Arab world. al-Husayni was only one of many such notables who greeted with optimism the emergence of a new regime in Germany in that year.

The Nazis generally regarded Arabs with contempt.[137] Hitler himself had in 1937 spoken of them as "half-apes". However, throughout the interwar period, Arab nationalists bore Germany no ill-will (despite its earlier support for the Ottoman Empire). Like many Arab countries, Germany was perceived as a victim of the post-World War I settlement. Hitler himself often spoke of the "infamy of Versailles". Unlike France and Great Britain it had not exercised imperial designs on the Middle East, and its past policy of non-intervention was interpreted as a token of good will. While the scholarly consensus is that Husseini's motives for supporting the Axis powers and his alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were deeply inflected by anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist ideology from the outset, some scholars, notably Renzo De Felice, deny that the relationship can be taken to reflect a putative affinity of Arab nationalism with Nazi/Fascist ideology, and that men like Husseini chose them as allies for purely strategic reasons,[141]on the grounds that, as Husseini later wrote in his memoirs, "the enemy of your enemy is your friend".[142] British policy was to ease Husseini "into oblivion" by ignoring him, Nuri al-Said, mediating, endeavoured to get him to side with the Allies against the Germans. The overture was considered then rebuffed: according to Philip Mattar, Husseini was reluctant to lend his voice in support of Britain "because it had destroyed Palestinian villages, executed and imprisoned Palestinian fighters, and exiled their leaders".

When Husseini eventually met with Hitler and Ribbentrop in 1941, he assured Hitler that "The Arabs were Germany's natural friends because they had the same enemies... namely the English, the Jews, and the Communists". Hitler was pleased with him, considering him "the principal actor in the Middle East" and an Aryan because of al-Hussaini's fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes.[145]

Pre-war It has often been stated that the Nazis inspired and financed the Arab Revolt. According to Philip Mattar, there is no reliable evidence to support such a claim. In 1933, within weeks of Hitler's rise to power in Germany, the German Consul-General in Jerusalem for Palestine, Heinrich Wolff,[148] an open supporter of Zionism, sent a telegram to Berlin reporting al-Husseini's belief that Palestinian Muslims were enthusiastic about the new regime and looked forward to the spread of fascism throughout the region. Wolff met al-Husseini and many sheikhs again, a month later, at Nabi Musa. They expressed their approval of the anti-Jewish boycott in Germany and asked Wolff not to send any Jews to Palestine. Wolff subsequently wrote in his annual report for that year that the Arabs' political na¯vety led them to fail to recognize the link between German Jewish policy and their problems in Palestine, and that their enthusiasm for Nazi Germany was devoid of any real understanding of the phenomenon. The various proposals by Palestinian Arab notables like al-Husseini were rejected consistently over the years out of concern to avoid disrupting Anglo-German relations, in line with Germany's policy of not imperiling their economic and cultural interests in the region by a change in their policy of neutrality, and respect for British interests. Hitler's Englandpolitik essentially precluded significant assistance to Arab leaders. This care for treating with respect English colonial initiatives (like the promotion of Zionist immigration) was also linked to Nazi ambitions to drive Jews out of Europe.

Italy also made the nature of its assistance to the Palestinian contingent on the outcome of its own negotiations with Britain, and cut off aid when it appeared that the British were ready to admit the failure of their pro-Zionist policy in Palestine. Al-Husseini's adversary, Ze'ev Jabotinsky had at the same time cut off Irgun ties with Italy after the passage of antisemitic racial legislation.

Though Italy did offer substantial aid, some German assistance also trickled through. After asking the new German Consul-General, Hans D¶hle on 21 July 1937 for support, the Abwehr briefly made an exception to its policy and gave some limited aid. But this was aimed to exert pressure on Britain over Czechoslovakia. Promised arms shipments never eventuated. This was not the only diplomatic front on which al-Husseini was active. A month after his visit to D¶hle, he wrote to the American Consul George Wadsworth (August 1937), to whom he professed his belief that America was remote from imperialist ambitions and therefore able to understand that Zionism "represented a hostile and imperialist aggression directed against an inhabited country". In a meeting with Wadsworth on 31 August, he expressed his fears that Jewish influence in the United States might persuade the country to side with Zionists. In the same period he courted the French government by expressing a willingness to assist them in the region.

Al-Husseini in Iraq With the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 the Iraqi Government complied with a British request to break off diplomatic relations with Germany, interned all German nationals, and introduced emergency measures putting Iraq on a virtual war-footing. Al-Husseini in the meantime had quietly slipped out of Beirut with his family on 14 October 1939, reaching Baghdad two days later. There he was welcomed as the leading Arab nationalist of his day, and heir to King Faisal, modern Iraq's founder.

A circle of 7 officers who had opposed this government decision and the measures taken had invited him, with Nuri as-Said's agreement, to Iraq, and he was to play an influential role there in the following two years.[158]Nuri as-Said hoped to negotiate concessions on Palestine with the British in exchange for a declaration of support for Great Britain. A quadrumvirate of four younger generals among the seven, three of whom had served with al-Husseini in World War I, were hostile to the idea of subordinating Iraqi national interests to Britain's war strategy and requirements. They responded to high public expectations for achieving independence from Britain, and deep frustration at the treatment of Palestinians by the latter.[161]In March 1940, the nationalist Rashid Ali replaced Nuri as-Said. Ali made covert contacts with German representatives in the Middle East, though he was not yet an openly pro-Axis supporter, and al-Husseini's personal secretary Kemal Hadad acted as a liaison between the Axis powers and these officers.

As the European situation for the Allies deteriorated, Husseini advised Iraq to adhere to the letter to their treaty with Great Britain, and avoid being drawn into the war in order to conserve her energies for the liberation of Arab countries. Were Russia, Japan and Italy to side with Germany however, Iraqis should proclaim a revolt in Palestine. In July 1940 Colonel S. F. Newcombe managed to work out an agreement with Nuri al-Sa'id, who was then Foreign Minister, and the Palestinians Jamal al-Husayni and Musa al-'Alami to the effect that Palestinian Arabs would back Britain and assent to the White Paper of 1939 in exchange for an immediate implementation of the clause regarding the country's independence. Iraq undertook to place half of its army under Allied command outside the country's borders.[165] On 29 August, the British however reneged on the agreement, which even Husseini had initially opposed vehemently until the Iraqi government brought pressure to bear on him. The British backtracked out of fear over the hostile reaction the accord might stir up among the Jews of Palestine, and among American Jews, whose opinion was important were Britain to gain American support in the war. That summer, Britain dropped all attempts to deal with al-Husseini, and he threw in his lot with Germany. al-Husseini's dissatisfaction with Nuri's pro-British politics, in the meantime, was exacerbated by the latter's refusal to intervene with the British on behalf of the families, all of whom he knew, of 39 Palestinians who had been sentenced to death in secret trials for, in Husseini's view, the crime of defending their country.

On 23 May 1940, Pinhas Rutenberg had suggested to a British official, Bruce Lockhart, that al-Husseini be assassinated. The idea was broadly discussed only months later. The War Office and Winston Churchill formally approved his assassination in November of that year, but the proposal was shelved after objections arose from the Foreign Office, concerned at the impact an attempt on his life might have in Iraq where his resistance to the British was widely admired. After the coup of April 1941, British called on assistance from the Irgun, after General Percival Wavell had one of their commanders, David Raziel, released from his imprisonment in Palestine. They asked him if he would undertake to kill or kidnap al-Husseini and destroy Iraq's oil refineries. Raziel agreed on condition he be allowed to kidnap al-Husseini. Raziel and other Irgun militants were flown to the RAF base at Habbaniyya where he died two days later, on 20 May 1941, when the car he was travelling in was strafed by a German plane.[172]

Al-Husseini used his influence and ties with the Germans to promote Arab nationalism in Iraq. He was among the key promoters of the pan-Arab Al-Muthanna Club, and supported the coup d'(C)tat by Rashid Ali in April 1941. When the Anglo-Iraqi War broke out, during which Britain used a mobile Palestinian force of British and Jewish troops, and units from the Arab Legion al-Husseini used his influence to issue a fatwa for a holy war against Britain. The situation of Iraq's Jews rapidly deteriorated, with extortions and sometimes murders taking place. Following the Iraqi defeat and the collapse of Rashid Ali's government, the Farhud pogrom in Baghdad, led by members of the Al-Muthanna Club, which had served as a conduit for German propaganda funding, erupted in June 1941. It was the first Iraqi pogrom in a century, one fueled by violent anti-Jewish feelings stirred over the preceding decade by the ongoing conflict between Arabs and Jews in Palestine.

When the Iraqi resistance collapsed '' given its paucity, German and Italian assistance played a negligible role in the war '' al-Husseini escaped from Baghdad on 30 May 1941 to Persia (together with Rashid Ali), where he was granted legation asylum first by Japan, and then by Italy. On 8 October, after the occupation of Persia by the Allies and after the new Persian government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi severed diplomatic relations with the Axis powers, al-Husseini was taken under Italian protection. In an operation organized by Italian Military Intelligence (Servizio Informazioni Militari , or SIM). Al-Husseini was not welcome in Turkey, nor given permission nor visa to enter; however, he traveled through Turkey with the help of Italian and Japanese diplomats to get to Bulgaria and eventually Italy.

In Nazi-occupied Europe Al-Husseini arrived in Rome on 10 October 1941. He outlined his proposals before Ubaldo Alberto Mellini Ponce de Le"n. On condition that the Axis powers "recognize in principle the unity, independence, and sovereignty, of an Arab state, including Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Transjordan", he offered support in the war against Britain and stated his willingness to discuss the issues of "the Holy Places, Lebanon, the Suez Canal, and Aqaba". The Italian foreign ministry approved al-Husseini's proposal, recommended giving him a grant of one million lire, and referred him to Benito Mussolini, who met al-Husseini on 27 October. According to al-Husseini's account, it was an amicable meeting in which Mussolini expressed his hostility to the Jews and Zionism.

Back in the summer of 1940 and again in February 1941, al-Husseini submitted to the Nazi German Government a draft declaration of German-Arab cooperation, containing a clause

Germany and Italy recognize the right of the Arab countries to solve the question of the Jewish elements, which exist in Palestine and in the other Arab countries, as required by the national and ethnic (v¶lkisch ) interests of the Arabs, and as the Jewish question was solved in Germany and Italy.

Encouraged by his meeting with the Italian leader, al-Husseini prepared a draft declaration, affirming the Axis support for the Arabs on 3 November. In three days, the declaration, slightly amended by the Italian foreign ministry, received the formal approval of Mussolini and was forwarded to the German embassy in Rome. On 6 November, al-Husseini arrived in Berlin, where he discussed the text of his declaration with Ernst von Weizs¤cker and other German officials. In the final draft, which differed only marginally from al-Husseini's original proposal, the Axis powers declared their readiness to approve the elimination (Beseitigung ) of the Jewish National Home in Palestine.

Haj Amin al-Husseini meeting with Adolf Hitler (28 November 1941).On 20 November, al-Husseini met the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and was officially received by Adolf Hitler on 28 November. Hitler, recalling Husseini, remarked that he "has more than one Aryan among his ancestors and one who may be descended from the best Roman stock." He asked Adolf Hitler for a public declaration that "recognized and sympathized with the Arab struggles for independence and liberation, and that would support the elimination of a national Jewish homeland". Hitler refused to make such a public announcement, saying that it would strengthen the Gaullists against the Vichy France,[187]but asked al-Husseini "to lock ...deep in his heart" the following points, which Christopher Browning summarizes as follows, that

Germany has resolved, step by step, to ask one European nation after the other to solve its Jewish problem, and at the proper time, direct a similar appeal to non-European nations as well. When Germany had defeated Russia and broken through the Caucasus into the Middle East, it would have no further imperial goals of its own and would support Arab liberation... But Hitler did have one goal. "Germany's objective would then be solely the destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere under the protection of British power". (Das deutsche Ziel w¼rde dann lediglich die Vernichtung des im arabischen Raum unter der Protektion der britischen Macht lebenden Judentums sein ). In short, Jews were not simply to be driven out of the German sphere but would be hunted down and destroyed even beyond it.[188]

Al-Husseini meeting with Muslim volunteers, including the Azerbaijani Legion, at the opening of the Islamic Central Institute in Berlin on 18 December 1942, during the Muslim festival Eid al-Adha.A separate record of the meeting was made by Fritz Grobba, who until recently had been the German ambassador to Iraq. His version of the crucial words reads "when the hour of Arab liberation comes, Germany has no interest there other than the destruction of the power protecting the Jews".[189]

Al-Husseini's own account of this point, as recorded in his diary, is very similar to Grobba's.[190] According to Amin's account, however, when Hitler expounded his view that the Jews were responsible for World War I, Marxism and its revolutions, and this was why the task of Germans was to persevere in a battle without mercy against the Jews, he replied: "We Arabs think that Zionism, not the Jews, is the cause of all of these acts of sabotage."

In December 1942, al-Husseini held a speech at the celebration of the opening of the Islamic Central Institute (Islamisches Zentralinstitut ) in Berlin, of which he served as honorary chair. In the speech, he harshly criticised those he considered as aggressors against Muslims, namely "Jews, Bolsheviks and Anglo-Saxons." At the time of the opening of the Islamic Central Institute, there were an estimated 3,000 Muslims in Germany, including 400 German converts. The Islamic Central Institute gave the Muslims in Germany institutional ties to the "Third Reich".

Fritz Grobba wrote on 17 July 1942 that al-Husseini himself had visited Oranienburg concentration camp and that "the Jews aroused particular interest among the Arabs. ... It all made a very favorable impression on the Arabs." This is cited in confirmation of the view that an associate of al-Husseini's together with three associates of the former Iraqi Prime Minister certainly must have visited the Sachsenhausen concentration camp as part of a German secret police "training course" in July 1942. At the time, the Sachsenhausen camp, set up by the Nazi authorities as a "model camp" to be shown off to both domestic and foreign visitors, housed large numbers of Jews, but was only transformed into a death camp in the following year. The camp was presented during their tour as a re-educational institution, and they were shown the high quality of objects made by inmates, and happy Russian prisoners who, reformed to fight Bolshevism, were paraded, singing, in sprightly new uniforms. They left the camp very favourably impressed by its programme of educational indoctrination. In his memoirs, he recalls Himmler telling him how shocked he was to observe Jewish kapos abusing fellow Jews and that Himmler claimed he had the culprits punished.

Generally, having provided much funding for al-Huysayni and his retinue, the Germans were unsatisfied with the return from their investment. He was highly secretive about his networks of contacts in the Middle East and the Abwehr complained he had given them "practically no military information of any worth." As the Abwehr grew disenchanted with him, al-Husayni gravitated by 1943 towards the SS.

The Holocaust Al-Husseini and the Holocaust Al-Husseini has been described by the American Jewish Congress as "Hitler's henchman"[g]and some scholars, such as Schwanitz and Rubin, have argued that Husseini made the Final Solution inevitable by shutting out the possibility of Jews escaping to Palestine.

In his memoirs al-Husseini recalled that Heinrich Himmler, in the summer of 1943, while confiding some German war secrets, inveighed against Jewish "war guilt", and revealed the ongoing extermination (in Arabic, abadna ) of the Jews.[200]

Gilbert Achcar, referring to this meeting with Himmler, observes:

The Mufti was well aware that the European Jews were being wiped out; he never claimed the contrary. Nor, unlike some of his present-day admirers, did he play the ignoble, perverse, and stupid game of Holocaust denial... . His amour-propre would not allow him to justify himself to the Jews... .gloating that the Jews had paid a much higher price than the Germans... he cites... : "Their losses in the Second World War represent more than thirty percent of the total number of their people ...". Statements like this, from a man who was well placed to know what the Nazis had done ... constitute a powerful argument against Holocaust deniers. Husseini reports that Reichsf¼hrer-SS Heinrich Himmler ... told him in summer 1943 that the Germans had "already exterminated more than three million" Jews: "I was astonished by this figure, as I had known nothing about the matter until then." ... Thus. in 1943, Husseini knew about the genocide... .

Al-Husseini's memoir then continues:-

Himmler asked me on the occasion: "How do you propose to settle the Jewish question in your country?" I replied: "All we want from them is that they return to their countries of origin." He (Himmler) replied: "We shall never authorize their return to Germany."

Wolfgang G. Schwanitz doubts the sincerity of his surprise since, he argues, Husseini had publicly declared that Muslims should follow the example Germans set for a "definitive solution to the Jewish problem".[h]

Subsequently, al-Husseini declared in November 1943

It is the duty of Muhammadans [Muslims] in general and Arabs in particular to ... drive all Jews from Arab and Muhammadan countries... . Germany is also struggling against the common foe who oppressed Arabs and Muhammadans in their different countries. It has very clearly recognized the Jews for what they are and resolved to find a definitive solution [endg¼ltige L¶sung ] for the Jewish danger that will eliminate the scourge that Jews represent in the world.

At the Nuremberg trials, one of Adolf Eichmann's deputies, Dieter Wisliceny, stated that al-Husseini had actively encouraged the extermination of European Jews, and that al-Husseini had a meeting with Eichmann at his office, during which Eichmann gave him a view of the current state of the "Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe" by the Third Reich. The allegation is dismissed by most serious historians.[204]A single affidavit by Rudolf Kastner reported that Wisliceny told him that he had overheard Husseini say he had visited Auschwitz incognito in Eichmann's company.[205]Eichmann denied this at his trial in Jerusalem in 1961. He had been invited to Palestine in 1937 with his superior Hagen by a representative of the Haganah, Feival Polkes, Polkes supported German foreign policy in the Near East and offered to work for them in intelligence. Eichmann and Hagen spent one night in Haifa but were refused a visa to stay any longer. They met Polkes in Cairo instead.[208]Eichmann stated that he had only been introduced to al-Husseini during an official reception, along with all other department heads, and there is no evidence, despite intensive investigations, that shows al-Husseini to have been a close collaborator of Eichmann, exercising influence over him or accompanying on visits to death camps. The Jerusalem court accepted Wisliceny's testimony about a key conversation between Eichmann and the mufti, and found as proven that al-Husseini had aimed to implement the Final Solution.[211] Hannah Arendt, who was present at the trial, concluded in her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, that the evidence for an Eichmann- al-Husseini connection was based on rumour and unfounded.[213]

Rafael Medoff concludes that "actually there is no evidence that the Mufti's presence was a factor at all; the Wisliceny hearsay is not merely uncorroborated, but conflicts with everything else that is known about the origins of the Final Solution." Bernard Lewis also called Wisliceny's testimony into doubt: "There is no independent documentary confirmation of Wisliceny's statements, and it seems unlikely that the Nazis needed any such additional encouragement from the outside." Bettina Stangneth called Wisliceny's claims "colourful stories" that "carry little weight".

Al-Husseini's attempts to block Jewish refugees Al-Husseini opposed all immigration of Jews into Palestine, and during the war he campaigned against the transfer of Jewish refugees to Palestine. No evidence has been forthcoming to show he was opposed to transferring Jews to countries outside the Middle East. Al-Husseini's numerous letters appealing to various governmental authorities to prevent Jewish refugees from emigrating to Palestine have been republished and widely cited as documentary evidence of his participative support for the Nazi genocide. For instance, Husseini intervened on 13 May 1943, before the meeting with Himmler when he was informed of the Holocaust, with the German Foreign Office to block possible transfers of Jews from Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania to Palestine, after reports reached him that 4,000 Jewish children accompanied by 500 adults had managed to reach Palestine. He asked the Foreign Minister "to do his utmost" to block all such proposals, and this request was complied with. According to Idith Zertal, none of the documents presented at Eichmann's trial prove that it was al-Husseini's interference, in these "acts of total evil," that prevented the children's rescue. In June 1943 al-Husseini recommended to the Hungarian minister that it would be better to send Jews in Hungary to concentration camps in Poland rather than let them find asylum in Palestine. A year later, on 25 July 1944 he wrote to the Hungarian foreign minister to register his objection to the release of certificates for 900 Jewish children and 100 adults for transfer from Hungary, fearing they might end up in Palestine. He suggested that if such transfers of population were deemed necessary, then

I ask your Excellency to permit me to draw your attention to the necessity of preventing the Jews from leaving your country for Palestine, and if there are reasons which make their removal necessary, it would be indispensable and infinitely preferable to send them to other countries where they would find themselves under active control, for example, in Poland, thus avoiding danger and preventing damage.

Haj Amin al-Husseini meeting with Heinrich Himmler (1943).Achcar quotes al-Husseini's memoirs about these efforts to influence the Axis powers to prevent emigration of Eastern European Jews to Palestine:

We combatted this enterprise by writing to Ribbentrop, Himmler, and Hitler, and, thereafter, the governments of Italy, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and other countries. We succeeded in foiling this initiative, a circumstance that led the Jews to make terrible accusations against me, in which they held me accountable for the liquidation of four hundred thousand Jews who were unable to emigrate to Palestine in this period. They added that I should be tried as a war criminal in Nuremberg.

In September 1943, intense negotiations to rescue 500 Jewish children from the Arbe concentration camp collapsed due to the objection of al-Husseini who blocked the children's departure to Turkey because they would end up in Palestine.

Intervention in Palestine and Operation Atlas Al-Husseini collaborated with the Germans in numerous sabotage and commando operations in Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine, and repeatedly urged the Germans to bomb Tel Aviv and Jerusalem "in order to injure Palestinian Jewry and for propaganda purposes in the Arab world", as his Nazi interlocutors put it. The proposals were rejected as unfeasible. The Italian Fascists envisaged a project to establish him as head of an intelligence centre in North Africa, and he agreed to act as commander of both regular and irregular forces in a future unit flanking Axis troops to carry out sabotage operations behind enemy lines.

Operation ATLAS was one such joint operation. A special commando unit of the Waffen SS was created, composed of three members of the Templer religious sect in Palestine, and two Palestinian Arabs recruited from al-Husseini's associates, Hasan Salama and Abdul Latif (who had edited the al-Husseini's Berlin radio addresses). It has been established that the mission, briefed by al-Husseini before departure, aimed at establishing an intelligence-gathering base in Palestine, radioing information back to Germany, and buying support among Arabs in Palestine, recruiting and arming them to foment tensions between Jews and Arabs, disrupting the Mandatory authorities and striking Jewish targets.The plan ended in fiasco: they received a cold reception in Palestine, three of the five infiltrators were quickly rounded up, and the mat(C)riel seized. Their air-dropped cargo was found by the British, and consisted of submachine guns, dynamite, radio equipment, 5,000 Pound sterling, a duplicating machine, a German-Arabic dictionary, and a quantity of poison. Michael Bar-Zohar and Eitan Haber, have claimed that the mission included a plan to poison the Tel Aviv water supply, There is no trace of this poison plot in the standard biographies, Palestinian and Israeli, of Husseini.

Propaganda Bosniak soldiers of the SS 13 Division, reading Husseini's pamphlet Islam and JudaismThroughout World War II, al-Husseini worked for the Axis Powers as a broadcaster in propaganda targeting Arab public opinion. He was thereby joined by other Arabs such as Fawzi al-Qawuqji and Hasan Salama. The Mufti was paid "an absolute fortune" of 50,000 marks a month (when a German field marshal was making 25,000 marks a year), the equivalent today of $12,000,000 a year. Walter Winchell called him "the Arabian Lord Haw-Haw". Only about 6,300 Arab soldiers ended up being trained by German military organisations, no more than 1,300 from Palestine, Syria and Iraq combined. In contrast, Britain managed to recruit 9,000 from Palestine alone and a quarter of a million North African troops served in the French Army of Liberation where they made up the majority of its dead and wounded.

The Mufti also wrote a pamphlet for the 13th SS Handschar division, translated as Islam i Å½idovstvo (Islam and Judaism) which closed with a quotation from Bukhari-Muslim by Abu Khurreira that states: "The Day of Judgement will come, when the Muslims will crush the Jews completely: And when every tree behind which a Jew hides will say: 'There is a Jew behind me, Kill him!". Some accounts have alleged that the Handschar was responsible for killing 90% of Bosnian Jews. However, Handschar units were deployed only after most of the Jews in Croatia had been deported or exterminated by the UstaÅe regime. One report, however, of a Handschar patrol murdering some Jewish civilians in Zvornik in April 1944 after their real identity was revealed, is plausible.

On 1 March 1944, while speaking on Radio Berlin, al-Husseini said: "Arabs, rise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you." This statement has been described as incitement to genocide.

Recruitment November 1943 al-Husseini greeting Bosnian Waffen-SS volunteers with a Nazi salute. At right is SS General Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig.Among the Nazi leadership, the greatest interest in the idea of creating Muslim units under German command was shown by Heinrich Himmler, who viewed the Islamic world as a potential ally against the British Empire and regarded the Nazi-puppet Independent State of Croatia as a "ridiculous state". Himmler had a romantic vision of Islam as a faith "fostering fearless soldiers", and this probably played a significant role in his decision to raise three Muslim divisions under German leadership in the Balkans from Bosnian Muslims and Albanians: the 13th Handschar,[249]the 21st Skanderbeg, and the 23rd Kama (Shepherd's dagger). Riven by interethnic conflict, the region's Jewish, Croat, Roma, Serb and Muslim communities suffered huge losses of life,[251]Bosnian Muslims losing around 85,000 from a genocidal Chetnik ethnic cleansing operations alone.[252]The Muslims had three options: to join the Croatian UstaÅe, or the Yugoslav partisans, or to create local defense units. Following a tradition of service in the old Bosnian regiments of the former Austro-Hungarian army, they chose an alliance with Germany, which promised them autonomy. Husseini, having been petitioned by the Bosnian Muslim leaders, was well informed of their plight.[253]Dissatisfied with low enlistment, Himmler asked the mufti to intervene. Husseini negotiated, made several requests, mostly ignored by the SS, and conducted several visits to the area. His speeches and charismatic authority proved instrumental in improving enlistment notably. In one speech he declared that

Those lands suffering under the British and Bolshevist yoke impatiently await the moment when the Axis (powers) will emerge victorious. We must dedicate ourselves to unceasing struggle against Britain '' that dungeon of peoples '' and to the complete destruction of the British Empire. We must dedicate ourselves to unceasing struggle against Bolshevist Russia because communism is incompatible with Islam.

One SS officer reporting on impressions from the mufti's Sarajevo speech said Husseini was reserved about fighting Bolshevism, his main enemies being Jewish settlers in Palestine and the English. During a visit in July 1943 the Mufti said: "The active cooperation of the world's 400 million Muslims with their loyal friends, the German, can be of decisive influence upon the outcome of the war. You, my Bosnian Muslims, are the first Islamic division [and] serve as an example of the active collaboration....My enemy's enemy is my friend." Himmler in addressing the unit on another occasion declared "Germany [and] the Reich have been friends of Islam for the past two centuries, owing not to expediency but to friendly conviction. We have the same goals."

In an agreement signed by Husseini and Himmler on 19 May 1943, it was specified that no synthesis of Islam and Nationalism was to take place.[260][261]Husseini asked that Muslim divisional operations to be restricted to the defense of the Moslem heartland of Bosnia and Herzegovina; that partisans be amnestied if they laid down their arms; that the civilian population not be subject to vexations by troops; that assistance be offered to innocents injured by operations; and that harsh measures like deportations, confiscations of goods, or executions be governed in accordance with the rule of law. The Handschar earned a repute for brutality in ridding north-eastern Bosnia of Serbs and partisans: many local Muslims, observing the violence, were driven to go over to the communist partisans. Once redeployed outside Bosnia, and as the fortunes of war turned, mass defections and desertions took place, and Volksdeutsche were drafted to replace the losses. The mufti blamed the mass desertions on German support for the Äetniks. Many Bosnians in these divisions who survived the war sought asylum in Western and Arab countries, and of those settling in the Middle East, many fought in Palestine against the new state of Israel.Reacting to the formation by Great Britain of a special Jewish legion in the Allied cause, Husseini urged Germany to raise a similar Arab legion. Husseini helped organize Arab students, POWs and North African emigres in Germany into the "Arabisches Freiheitkorps", an Arab Legion in the German Army that hunted down Allied parachutists in the Balkans and fought on the Russian front.

Activities after World War II Arrest and flight After the end of the Second World War, al-Husseini attempted to obtain asylum in Switzerland but his request was refused. He was taken into custody at Konstanz by the French occupying troops on 5 May 1945, and on 19 May, he was transferred to the Paris region and put under house arrest.

At around this time, the British head of Palestine's Criminal Investigation Division told an American military attach(C) that the Mufti might be the only person who could unite the Palestinian Arabs and "cool off the Zionists".

Henri Ponsot, a former ambassador of France in Syria, led the discussions with him and had a decisive influence on the events. The French authorities expected an improvement in France's status in the Arab world through his intermediaries and accorded him "special detention conditions, benefits and ever more important privileges and constantly worried about his well-being and that of his entourage". In October, he was even given permission to buy a car in the name of one of his secretaries and enjoyed some freedom of movement and could also meet whoever he wanted. Al-Husseini proposed to the French two possibilities of cooperation: "either an action in Egypt, Iraq and even Transjordan to calm the anti-French excitement after the events in Syria and because of its domination in North Africa; or that he would take the initiative of provocations in [Palestine], in Egypt and in Iraq against Great Britain", so that the Arabs countries will pay more attention to British policy than to that of France. Al-Husseini was very satisfied with his situation in France and stayed there for a full year.

As early as 24 May, Great Britain requested al-Husseini's extradition, arguing that he was a British citizen who had collaborated with the Nazis. Despite the fact that he was on the list of war criminals, France decided to consider him as a political prisoner and refused to comply with the British request. France refused to extradite him to Yugoslavia where the government wanted to prosecute him for the massacres of Serbs. Poussot believed al-Husseini's claims that the massacre of Serbs had been performed by General Mihailovic and not by him. Al-Husseini also explained that 200,000 Muslims and 40,000 Christians had been assassinated by the Serbs and that he had established a division of soldiers only after Bosnian Muslims had asked for his help, and that Germans and Italians had refused to provide any support to them. In the meantime, Zionist representatives'--fearing that al-Husseini would escape'--backed Yugoslavia's request for extradition. They claimed that al-Husseini was also responsible for massacres in Greece and pointed out his action against the Allies in Iraq in 1941; additionally they requested the support of the United States in the matter.

Members of the Jewish Agency, who loathed Husseini as a Nazi collaborator, and who were aware that states were competing to employ Nazis and Nazi collaborators, gathered war-crimes documentation on al-Husseini's role in the Holocaust. This was done in order to prevent his reinstatement to a leadership position in Palestine, in an attempt to have him arrested and prosecuted, and in the context of an intensive public relations exercise to establish a Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine.[i] The reputation of Haj Amin al-Husseini among Jews in the immediate postwar period is indicated by the observation by Raul Hilberg that when culpability for The Destruction of the European Jews was debated in 1945, al-Husseini was the only specific individual singled out to be put on trial.[273]In June 1945, Yishuv leaders decided to eliminate al-Husseini. Although al-Husseini was located by Jewish Army members who began to plan an assassination, the mission was canceled in December by Moshe Sharett or by David Ben-Gurion, probably because they feared turning the Grand Mufti into a martyr.[274]

A campaign of intimidation was launched to convince the mufti that at L(C)on Blum's request he would be handed over to the British. In September, the French decided to organize his transfer to an Arab country. Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Yemen were considered and diplomatic contacts were made with their authorities and with the Arab League.

On 29 May, after an influential Moroccan had organized his escape, and the French police had suspended their surveillance, al-Husseini left France on a TWA flight for Cairo using travel papers supplied by a Syrian politician who was close to the Muslim Brotherhood. It took more than 12 days for the French foreign minister to realize he had fled, and the British were not able to arrest him in Egypt, after that country granted him political asylum.

On 12 August 1947, al-Husseini wrote to French foreign minister Georges Bidault, thanking France for its hospitality and suggesting that France continue this policy to increase its prestige in the eyes of all Muslims. In September, a delegation of the Arab Higher Committee went to Paris and proposed that Arabs would adopt a neutral position on the North African question in exchange of France's support in the Palestinian question.

Post-war Palestinian political leadership In November 1945, at the initiative of the Arab League, the "Arab Higher Committee" (AHC) was reestablished as the supreme executive body that represented the Arabs in Mandatory Palestine. This 12-member AHC included Husseini supporters and some members of political parties that opposed the Grand Mufti and his allies. The dispute between Husseini supporters and their opposition was inflamed by the return of Jamal al Husseini to the Middle East and his resumption of political activity. In March 1946 the AHC was disbanded, and then Jamal reconstituted it as an organization exclusively staffed by Husseini political allies and family members. The Arab League foreign ministers intervened in May 1946 by replacing both the AHC and the opposing "Arab Higher Front" with the "Arab Higher Executive" (AHE) to represent Palestinian Arabs. Haj Amin al Husseini was the chairman of the AHE, even though he was absent, and Jamal acted as Vice-Chairman. The Husseini faction dominated the nine-member AHE. Subsequently, al-Husseini returned to Egypt and began his practical leadership of the Palestinian Arabs while residing in Cairo. The name of the AHE was changed back to AHC in January 1947.

1948 Palestine war A leaflet, distributed after the U.N partition resolution, by the Mufti High Command, which calls the Arabs to attack and conquer all of Palestine, to ignite all of the Middle East and to curtail the U.N. partition resolutionHaj Amin al-Husseini meeting with Gamal Abdel Nasser, the future Egyptian president in 1948The U.N. Partition Resolution When the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine delivered its recommendations for the partition of Palestine, the High Commissioner of Palestine, Alan Cunningham sent emissaries to Cairo to sound out al-Husseini, though transferring any power of state to him was unthinkable.Musa Alami surmised that the Mufti would agree to partition if he were promised that he would rule the future Arab state.[278]According to Issa Khalaf there are no indications to substantiate this claim.

The wartime reputation of al-Husseini was employed as an argument for the establishment of a Jewish State during the deliberations at UN in 1947. The Nation Associates under Freda Kirchwey prepared a nine-page pamphlet with annexes for the United Nations entitled The Arab Higher Committee, Its Origins, Personnel and Purposes. This booklet included copies of communications between Haj Amin al-Husseini and high ranking Nazis (e.g. Heinrich Himmler, Franz von Papen, Joseph Goebbels), al-Husseini's diary account of meeting Hitler, several letters to German officials in several countries where he requested that Jews never be permitted to emigrate from Europe to a Jewish Home in Palestine, and many photographs of al-Husseini, Rashid Ali, and other Arab politicians in the company of Nazis and their Italian and Japanese allies. It claimed to demonstrate that German Nazis and Palestinian politicians (some of whom were requesting recognition at the UN in 1947 as representatives of the Palestinian Arab population) had made common cause during World War II in their opposition to the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine. In May 1948, the Israeli government thanked Kirchwey for "having a good and honorable share of our success", at least partly as a consequence of distributing information on al-Husseini to the UN representatives.

On the eve of the United Nations' partition of Mandatory Palestine, King Abdullah, who shared with Zionists a hostility to Palestinian nationalism, reached a secret entente with Golda Meir to thwart al-Husseini and annex the part of Palestine in exchange for Jordan's dropping its opposition to the establishment of a Jewish state. The meeting, in Shlaim's words, "laid the foundations for a partition of Palestine along lines radically different from the ones eventually envisaged by the United Nations". Husseini's popularity in the Arab world had risen during his time with the Nazis, and Arab leaders rushed to greet him on his return, and the masses accorded him an enthusiastic reception, an attitude which was to change rapidly after the defeat of 1948. Elpeleg writes that "to a certain extent" Husseini was chosen as the "scapegoat" for this defeat.

The war On 31 December 1947, Macatee, the American consul general in Jerusalem, reported that terror ruled Palestine, and that partition was the cause of this terror. According to Macatee, the Palestinian Arabs did not dare to oppose Haj Amin, but they did not rally en masse around his flag in the war against the Zionists.[j]

From his Egyptian exile, al-Husseini used what influence he had to encourage the participation of the Egyptian military in the 1948 Arab''Israeli War. He was involved in some high level negotiations between Arab leaders'--before and during the War'--at a meeting held in Damascus in February 1948, to organize Palestinian Field Commands and the commanders of the Holy War Army. Hasan Salama and Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni (Amin al-Husseini's nephew), were allocated the Lydda district and Jerusalem respectively. This decision paved the way for undermining the Mufti's position among the Arab States. On 9 February 1948, four days after the Damascus meeting, he suffered a severe setback at the Arab League's Cairo session, when his demands for more Palestinian self-determination in areas evacuated by the British, and for financial loans were rejected. His demands included the appointment of a Palestinian Arab representative to the League's General Staff, the formation of a Palestinian Provisional Government, the transfer of authority to local National Committees in areas evacuated by the British, and both a loan for Palestinian administration and an appropriation of large sums to the Arab Higher Executive for Palestinian Arabs entitled to war damages.

The Arab League blocked recruitment to al-Husseini's forces,[citation needed ] and they collapsed following the death of one of his most charismatic commanders, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, on 8 April 1948.

Anwar Nusseibeh, a supporter of al-Husseini, said he refused to issue arms to anyone except his loyal supporters, and only recruited loyal supporters for the forces of the Holy War Army. This partially accounts for the absence of an organized Arab force and for the insufficient amount of arms, which plagued the Arab defenders of Jerusalem.

Establishment of All-Palestine Government Following rumors that King Abdullah I of Transjordan was reopening the bilateral negotiations with Israel that he had previously conducted clandestinely with the Jewish Agency, the Arab League'--led by Egypt'--decided to set up the All-Palestine Government in Gaza on 8 September 1948, under the nominal leadership of al-Husseini. Avi Shlaim writes:

The decision to form the Government of All-Palestine in Gaza, and the feeble attempt to create armed forces under its control, furnished the members of the Arab League with the means of divesting themselves of direct responsibility for the prosecution of the war and of withdrawing their armies from Palestine with some protection against popular outcry. Whatever the long-term future of the Arab government of Palestine, its immediate purpose, as conceived by its Egyptian sponsors, was to provide a focal point of opposition to Abdullah and serve as an instrument for frustrating his ambition to federate the Arab regions with Transjordan.

The All-Palestine Government was declared in Gaza on 22 September, in a way as a countermeasure against Jordan. According to Moshe Ma'oz this was "a mere tool to justify Cairo's occupation of the Gaza Strip". Pre-conference by the Arab League obtained an agreement to have Ahmad Hilmi Pasha preside over the government, while giving al-Husseini a nominal role, devoid of responsibilities. A Palestinian National Council was convened in Gaza on 30 September 1948, under the chairmanship of Amin al-Husseini. On 30 September, al-Husseini was elected unanimously as president, but had no authority outside the areas controlled by Egypt. The council passed a series of resolutions culminating on 1 October 1948 with a declaration of independence over the whole of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital.

The All-Palestine Government was hence born under the nominal leadership of Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, named as its president. Ahmed Hilmi Abd al-Baqi was named Prime Minister. Hilmi's cabinet consisted largely of relatives and followers of Amin al-Husseini, but also included representatives of other factions of the Palestinian ruling class. Jamal al-Husayni became foreign minister, Raja al-Husayni became defense minister, Michael Abcarius was finance minister, and Anwar Nusseibeh was secretary of the cabinet. Twelve ministers in all, living in different Arab countries, headed for Gaza to take up their new positions. The decision to set up the All-Palestine Government made the Arab Higher Committee irrelevant.

Jordan's Abdullah retaliated on 2 October by organizing a Palestinian congress, which countermanded the decision taken in Gaza. Abdullah regarded the attempt to revive al-Husseini's Holy War Army as a challenge to his authority and on 3 October, his minister of defense ordered all armed bodies operating in the areas controlled by the Arab Legion to be disbanded. Glubb Pasha carried out the order ruthlessly and efficiently. Nonetheless, Egypt, which manipulated its formation, recognized the All-Palestine Government on 12 October, followed by Syria and Lebanon on 13 October, Saudi Arabia the 14th and Yemen on the 16th. Iraq's decision to the same was made formally on the 12th, but was not made public. Both Great Britain and the US backed Jordan, the US saying that al-Husseini's role in World War II could be neither forgotten nor pardoned. The sum effect was that:

The leadership of al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Arab Higher Committee, which had dominated the Palestinian political scene since the 1920s, was devastated by the disaster of 1948 and discredited by its failure to prevent it.

The nakba narratives, according to Hillel Cohen, tend to ignore the open resistance to al-Husseini by many influential Palestinians. A member of the Darwish family'--on expressing dissent with Husseini's war objective in favour of negotiation'--was told by al-Husseini: idha takalam al-seif, uskut ya kalam '' "when the sword talks, there is no place for talking". Many recalled his policy of assassinating mukhtars in the Revolt of 1936''39 and viewed al-Husseini and his kind as "an assembly of traitors". The opposition of a relevant percentage of the Palestinian society to al-Husseini goes back to an earlier period and was also connected to the British way of dealing with the local majority: "The present administration of Palestine", lamented for example the representatives of the Palestine Arab Delegation in a letter to British public opinion in 1930, "is appointed by His Majesty's Government and governs the country through an autocratic system in which the population has no say".

Exile from Palestine Syrian and Palestinian leaders meeting Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli at the presidential palace, 1955. From right to left: Sabri al-Asali, Fares al-Khoury, Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, Quwatli, Mohamed Ali Eltaher, Nazim al-Qudsi, Amin al-Husayni and Muin al-Madi.Although al-Husseini had been removed from the Supreme Muslim Council and other administrative roles by the British government in 1937, they did not remove him from the post of mufti of Jerusalem. They later explained this as due to the lack of legal procedure or precedent.[296]However, on 20 December 1948, King Abdullah announced his replacement as mufti by his long-term rival Husam Al-din Jarallah.

The king was assassinated on 20 July 1951, on the eve of projected secret talks with Israel, by a militant, Mustafa Ashu, of the jihad al-muqaddas , while entering the Haram ash-Sharif to pray. There is no evidence al-Husseini was involved, though Musa al-Husayni was among the six indicted and executed after a disputed verdict. Abdullah was succeeded by King Talal'--who refused to allow al-Husseini entry into Jerusalem. Abdullah's grandson, Hussein, who had been present at the murder, eventually lifted the ban in 1967, receiving al-Husseini as an honoured guest in his Jerusalem royal residence after uprooting the PLO from Jordan.

The Palestinian Government was entirely relocated to Cairo in late October 1948 and became a government-in-exile, gradually losing any importance. Having a part in the All-Palestine Government, al-Husseini also remained in exile at Heliopolis in Egypt throughout much of the 1950s. As before 1948, when the Yishuv believed the ex-Mufti's hand could be detected "behind every anti-Jewish pogrom, murder, and act of sabotage", Israel persisted in asserting that al-Husseini was behind many border raids from Jordanian and Egyptian-held territory, and Egypt expressed a readiness to deport him if evidence were forthcoming to substantiate the charges.[301]The All-Palestine Government was eventually dissolved in 1959 by Nasser himself, who envisaged a United Arab Republic embracing Syria, Egypt and Palestine. That year he moved to Lebanon. He refused requests to lend his support to the emergent PLO after the Six-Day War of 1967, was opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank after 1967, and his closest collaborator, Emil Ghuri, continued to work for the Jordanian monarchy even after the Jordanian Civil War there in 1970.

Al-Husseini died in Beirut, on 4 July 1974. He had wished to be buried on the Haram ash-Sharif in Jerusalem. However, Israel had captured East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War. The Supreme Muslim Council asked the Israeli government permission to bury him there but permission was refused. Three days later, al-Husseini was buried in Beirut. Within two years, the Christian Lebanese Phalange sacked his villa, and stole his files and archives. His granddaughter married Ali Hassan Salameh, the founder of PLO's Black September, who was later killed by Mossad for his involvement in the Munich massacre. According to Zvi Elpeleg, almost all trace of his memory thereafter vanished from Palestinian awareness, and Palestinians have raised no monument to his memory, or written books commemorating his deeds.

Amin al-Husseini and antisemitism The earlier biographical works on Husseini were characterized by extreme partisanship, with supporters among his Arab contemporaries showcasing his role as the central figure in an Arab revolt that was thwarted by British and Zionist conspiracies, and Zionist histories vilified him as a Muslim fanatic chiefly responsible for the disasters that befell Palestinians in 1948. Al-Husseini's first biographer, Moshe Pearlman, described him as virulently antisemitic, as did, a decade and a half later, Joseph Schechtman. Both have been accused by Philip Mattar of relying on press reports and lacking sufficient background understanding.[308]

There is no doubt Husseini became robustly anti-Semitic and convinced himself, using arguments based on Biblical, Talmudic, and Quranic passages, that Jews were enemies of God, engaged in a global conspiracy, and practicing the ritual use of Christian blood. More recent biographers like Philip Mattar and Elpeleg, writing in the late 1980s and early 1990s, began to emphasize his nationalism. Peter Wien judges that his behaviour in World War II deserved the image among Zionists of him as an "arch villain", but adds that Israeli and Zionist leaders have long since used this to denigrate the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation as inspired by Nazism from the beginning and thus fundamentally anti-semitic.[311]

Scholarly opinion is divided on the issue, with many scholars viewing him as a staunch antisemite while some deny the appropriateness of the term, or argue that he became antisemitic.[312]Robert Kiely sees Husseini as moving "incrementally toward anti-Semitism as he opposed Jewish ambitions in the region." Historian Zvi Elpeleg, who formerly governed both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, while rehabilitating him from other charges, concludes his chapter concerning al-Husseini's involvement in the extermination of the Jews as follows

[i]n any case, there is no doubt that Haj Amin's hatred was not limited to Zionism, but extended to Jews as such. His frequent, close contacts with leaders of the Nazi regime cannot have left Haj Amin any doubt as to the fate which awaited Jews whose emigration was prevented by his efforts. His many comments show that he was not only delighted that Jews were prevented from emigrating to Palestine, but was very pleased by the Nazis' Final Solution.

Walter Laqueur, Benny Morris, Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Martin C¼ppers, the evidential basis for whose claims in their book, translated as "Nazi Palestine" were questioned by Michael Sells as based on selective statements by a few writers taken at face value, share the view that al-Husseini was biased against Jews, not just against Zionists. Morris, for instance, notes that al-Husseini saw the Holocaust as German revenge for a putative Jewish sabotaging of their war effort in World War I,[317]and has said, "Haj Amin al-Husseini was an antisemite. This is clear from his writings. I am not saying he was just an anti-Zionist, he hated the Jews, 'Jews were evil'".In a study dedicated to the role and use of the Holocaust in Israeli nationalist discourse, Zertal, reexamining al-Husseini's antisemitism, states that "in more correct proportions, [he should be pictured] as a fanatic nationalist-religious Palestinian leader".[319]

There is no consensual verdict among historians concerning the degree to which Husseini might have been involved in or exposed to knowledge of the Holocaust. Wolfgang G. Schwanitz does remark that in his memoirs, Husseini recalled Himmler telling him how during the deportation of Dutch Jews, only Jews accepted the offer of payment in lieu of information on those trying to escape being caught by the Nazis. He also recorded that Himmler told him how shocked he was to observe Jewish kapos abusing fellow Jews and that Himmler claimed he had the culprits punished. In this way, it has been argued, he imitated the Nazis who were destroying them, by implicitly portraying the Jews as morally inferior. Husseini also states in his memoirs, that he had visited Alfred Rosenberg's Institute for Study of Judaism which had failed to find any way to civilise the Jewish people.

Evaluations of Husseini's historical significance Philip Mattar states the overriding cause behind the dispossession of Palestinians lay in the Balfour Declaration, British policies and the combined military superiority of Yishuv forces and the Mandatory army. Husseini's initial moderation and then failure to compromise was a contributory factor, but not decisive. Zvi Elpeleg on the other hand compares him to Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, and even to Theodor Herzl.[321]

Robert Fisk, discussing the difficulties of describing al-Husseini's life and its motivations, summarized the problem in the following way:

(M)erely to discuss his life is to be caught up in the Arab''Israeli propaganda war. To make an impartial assessment of the man's career'--or, for that matter, an unbiased history of the Arab''Israeli dispute'--is like trying to ride two bicycles at the same time.

Peter Novick has argued that the post-war historiographical depiction of al-Husseini reflected complex geopolitical interests that distorted the record.

The claims of Palestinian complicity in the murder of the European Jews were to some extent a defensive strategy, a preemptive response to the Palestinian complaint that if Israel was recompensed for the Holocaust, it was unjust that Palestinian Muslims should pick up the bill for the crimes of European Christians. The assertion that Palestinians were complicit in the Holocaust was mostly based on the case of the Mufti of Jerusalem, a pre-World War II Palestinian nationalist leader who, to escape imprisonment by the British, sought refuge during the war in Germany. The Mufti was in many ways a disreputable character, but post-war claims that he played any significant part in the Holocaust have never been sustained. This did not prevent the editors of the four-volume Encyclopedia of the Holocaust from giving him a starring role. The article on the Mufti is more than twice as long as the articles on Goebbels and G¶ring, longer than the articles on Himmler and Heydrich combined, longer than the article on Eichmann'--of all the biographical articles, it is exceeded in length, but only slightly, by the entry for Hitler.

In October 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Hitler at the time was not thinking of exterminating the Jews, but only of expelling them, and that it was al-Husseini who inspired Hitler to embark on a programme of genocide to prevent them from coming to Palestine. Netanyahu's remarks were broadly criticized, and dismissed by Holocaust scholars from Israel and Germany. Christopher Browning called the claim a "blatantly mendacious attempt to exploit the Holocaust politically", "shameful and indecent" as well as fraudulent, aimed at stigmatizing and delegitimizing "any sympathy or concern for Palestinian rights and statehood".[330]The official German transcript of the meeting with Hitler contains no support for Netanyahu's assertion.

In 1947 Simon Wiesenthal alleged that Eichmann had accompanied Husseini on an inspection tour of both Auschwitz and Majdanek, and that al-Husseini had praised the hardest workers at the crematoria. His claim was unsourced. The charge was recycled with added colour by Quentin Reynolds, unfounded on any evidence, at the time of the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Various sources have repeatedly alleged that he visited other concentration camps, and also the death camps of Auschwitz, Majdanek, Treblinka and Mauthausen, but according to H¶pp there is little conclusive documentary evidence to substantiate these other visits.

Gilbert Achcar sums up al-Husseini's significance:

One must note in passing that Amin al-Husseini's memoirs are an antidote against Holocaust denial: He knew that the genocide took place and boasted of having been perfectly aware of it from 1943 on. I believe he is an architect of the Nakba (the defeat of 1948 and the departure of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had been driven out of their lands) in the sense that he bears a share of responsibility for what has happened to the Palestinian people.

Dani Dayan, who became chairman of Yad Vashem in 2021, told Haaretz that he resisted "wild attacks" in refusing to display the photograph of al-Husseini meeting Hitler. He said "Those who want me to put it up aren't really interested in the Mufti's part in the Holocaust, which was limited anyway, but seek to harm the image of the Palestinians today. The Mufti was an antisemite. But even if I abhor him, I won't turn Yad Vashem into a tool serving ends not directly related to the study and memorialization of the Holocaust. Hasbara, to use a term, is an utterly irrelevant consideration that shall not enter our gates."

Works The Causes of the Palestine Catastrophe (1948 in Arabic). Asbab Karithat Filastin Ø£Ø"Ø¨Ø§Ø¨ ÙØ§Ø±ØØ(C) ÙÙØ"Ø·ÙÙ The Lie of the Palestinians Sold their Land (1954 in Arabic, a letter of response published from Egypt). Kithbat Bay' al-Filastiniyin li Ardihim (ÙØ°Ø¨Ø(C) Ø¨ÙØ¹ Ø§ÙÙÙØ"Ø·ÙÙÙÙÙ ÙØ£Ø±Ø¶ÙÙ )Facts about the Palestinian Matter (1954 in Arabic, Cairo). Haqaiq 'an Qadiyat Filastin (ØÙØ§Ø...Ù Ø¹Ù ÙØ¶ÙØ(C) ÙÙØ"Ø·ÙÙ )The Memoirs of Amin al-Husseini, covering the period 1937 to 1948. (First published in 1975 in Arabic, republished in Syria as a whole book in 1999. Originally Published progressively as monthly articles in the Palestine Magazine between 1967 and 1975 over 75 episodes)See also Palestinian nationalismPalestinian political violenceArmy of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917''1948Relations between Nazi Germany and the Arab worldCollaboration with the Axis Powers during World War IINotes ^ a b c Mattar, writing on the uncertainty of al-Husseini's birthdate, notes that he wrote both 1895 and 1896 on official documents between 1921 and 1934, which Mattar suggests was due to both years corresponding to 1313 A.H. in the Islamic calendar. Mattar found no documentary evidence for Husseini's claim, written later in life, that he was born in 1897. (See Mattar 1992, p. 156.) Laurens argues that 1897 was his likely date of birth, suggesting he was induced by circumstances to assert that he was older when giving various dates for his birth, ranging from 1893 to 1897. (See Laurens 2002, p. 624, n.5.) Laurens, in the first volume of his trilogy (Laurens 1999, p. 425), had used Mattar's dating of 1895, but revised this to 1897 as more probable in his second volume. ^ "The Hajj Amin's opportunistic wartime residence and propaganda activities in Nazi Germany certainly was not the proudest moment in the history of Palestinian nationalism. And, certainly, opponents of Palestinian nationalism have made good use of those activities to associate the Palestinian national movement with European-style anti-Semitism and the genocidal program of the Nazis. But it should be remembered that the Hajj Amin was not the only non-European nationalist leader to find refuge and succor in Berlin at this time. While in Berlin, the Hajj might have rubbed shoulders with Subhas Chandra Bose, a leader of the nationalist Congress Party of India, who believed that Germany might prove to be an effective ally in the struggle against British imperialism'... Or the Hajj Amin might have bumped into Pierre Gemayel, the leader of a Lebanese Christian group called the Phalange, who believed that Nazi Germany represented the wave of the future'... Members of the Stern Gang also sought a tactical partnership with Nazi Germany and even opened negotiations with Hitler's government." (Gelvin 2014, pp. 119''120) ^ See Elizabeth Ant(C)bi, L'homme du S(C)rail , NiL, Paris, 1996, p. 563. ^ "Meinertzhagen et Weizmann sont en contacts permanents et coordonnent leur action " (Laurens 1999, p. 495) ^ See also the British account of this incident in: A Survey of Palestine (Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry), vol. 1, chapter 2, British Mandate Government of Palestine: Jerusalem 1946, p. 23 ^ "The grand mufti, Alami has claimed, expressed interest in the Idea of Jewish Palestine as part of a larger Arab federation." (Kotzin 2010, pp. 251'') ^ Kaufman, Ambiguous Partnership, 287, 306''7. Steven L Spiegel, The Other Arab''Israeli Conflict (Chicago: 1985), 17, 32, quoted in (Finkelstein 2003, p. 25) ^ Schwanitz 2008, p. ? citing Abd al-Karim al-Umar (ed.), Memoirs of the Grand Mufti, Damascus, 1999, p. 126. ^ "It would be anachronistic to hold the Jewish Agency activists led by Ruffer or the former Zionist rescue workers of Budapest and Bratislava to the standards of historiographical representation that should apply to later versions of the Newman story. These men were not acting as historians but as activists working in a war-torn Europe and in the wake of a catastrophe that had not yet been conceptualized as the Holocaust. Ruffer and Pier teamed with other Jewish Agency operatives who had been dispatched to postwar Europe to coordinate illegal immigration (referred to on the European end as Briha and on the Palestinian end as Aliyah Bet), war-crimes documentation, and in some cases arms smuggling. They loathed Husayni as a Nazi collaborator and viewed his possible return to leadership in Palestine as a threat. They lamented the allied preoccupation with the emerging Cold War that was eclipsing interest in pursuing Nazi criminals. As experienced covert operatives with strong connections to American and European intelligence agencies, they were no doubt aware that Western and Soviet bloc governments as well as governments in the Middle East and Latin America were competing with one another to find and employ former Nazis and Nazi collaborators who could be useful in intelligence gathering, propaganda efforts, and chemical, biological, nuclear, and missile technology; however, they would not likely have known or imagined the full extent of the various programs to recruit war criminals, cleanse their records, and put them to work for their new sponsors. They saw that their only chance of having Husayni arrested and prosecuted lay in making a case that he had played a critical role in the conception, planning, organization, and execution of the extermination policy. They lacked a nation-state to give them a voice in the investigation and prosecution of war criminals and had been frustrated in their attempt to convince war-crimes courts to appoint a Jewish adviser to bring more legal and prosecutorial attention to the Nazi judeocide. Finally, they were also in the midst of an intensive PR effort on behalf of the establishment of a Jewish state in British Mandate Palestine and in opposition to Arab lobbyists like Samir Shammai, who argued that the destruction of European Jewry was committed by European powers and that it was Europe that should make a place for the survivors or grant them a state on its territory, not the Palestinians. For all of these reasons, they prioritized their war-crimes documentation efforts on the hunt for Eichmann, the manager of the extermination policy, and on the case against Husayni."Sells 2015, pp. 734''735 ^ Milstein & Sacks 1997, p. 190: "On December 31 (1947), Macatee, the American consul general in Jerusalem, filed a report summing up the events of the month following the UN decision to partition Palestine. ... Terror ruled Palestine, Macatee wrote. That situation certainly would continue until Britain withdrew. The direct cause of terror was partition; other causes were the Arabs patriotic feelings and their hatred of Jews. As an example, Macatee described who the Arabs were shooting at: a Jewish woman, the mother of five children, hanging her laundry on the line; the ambulance that took her to the hospital; and mourners attending her funeral. The roads between the Jewish settlements were blocked, supplies of food were spotty and the Arabs even attacked police vehicles. The Jews were quieter: the Stern Gang (LEHI) struck only at the British and the Hagana at Arabs only in retaliation. ETZEL, which had started such actions, apparently had the Hagana in tow, and if attacks on Jews continued, the Hagana might switch from a policy of protecting lives to aggressive defense. The Jewish Agency, wrote Macatee, was correct to a certain extent in its claim that the British were supporting the Arabs...The Arab's leader, al-Husseini, enjoyed popular support in the Arab states'....The arabs of Eretz Israel did not dare to oppose Haj Amin, yet neither did they rally en masse around his flag in the war against the Zionists." Citations ^ Ghandour 2009, p. 140. ^ Gelvin 2007, p. 109: "the scion of one [of] the most influential notable families of Jerusalem." ^ Tschirgi 2004, p. 192:"the leading Palestinian political group that developed during the mandate was very largely dominated by Islamic discourse and led by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. However, it long found its basic support in Muslim-Christian Associations." ^ Khalidi 2001, p. 23: "There is an element of amnesiac historiography in the vilification of the mufti, influenced by his subsequent career after 1936. In fact, Husayni served the British exceedingly well for the decade and a half after his appointment, at least until 1936 when he felt obliged to align himself with a growing popular rebellion against his former British masters. One indication of how valuable the British perceived the mufti to be is the willingness of the notoriously tight-fisted Mandatory administration to subsidize him. When the revenues of the public awqaf properties declined after the Great Depression of 1929, and with it the revenues of the Supreme Muslim Council, the latter were supplemented by British subventions starting in 1931, which were naturally kept secret.". ^ Brynen 1990, p. 20: "The leadership of al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Arab Higher Committee, which had dominated Palestinian Arab political scene since the 1920s, was devastated by the disaster of 1948 and discredited by its failure to prevent it. The socio-economic base underlying the political power of traditional Palestinian Arab notables was severely disrupted." ^ Mattar 1992, p. 6; Papp(C) 1994, p. 2. ^ Sicker 2000, p. 33 Kr¤mer 2008, p. 219; ^ Laurens 1999, p. 409: "Selon Jaussen (Antonin Jaussen?), le nombre d'Arabes palestiniens reclut(C)s d(C)passe les 500. " ^ Kr¤mer 2008, pp. 152''153:Both local Palestinian Arabs and Jews played almost no role in the conquest of Palestine: the former enlisted after the Arab revolt and were active east of the Jordan, the latter were recruited after the conquest of Jerusalem and saw little military action. ^ Huneidi 2001, p. 40. The report was never published, the newly appointed High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel informing the War Office that it was best forgotten. ^ Sicker 2000, pp. 23ff. for a reading which follows closely Meinertzhagen's reading of the events as a British army plot. ^ Regarding the whole period preceding the riot, marked by conflicting rumours, Laurens writes:"For several months, the intelligence service Zionists organised in 1918 multiplied warnings about plots by Arab activists. These pieces of information never received any confirmation from the British (or French) intelligence service. Later Arab sources show this quite clearly: no one claimed responsibility for any planning (pr(C)meditation ) for the events, even several decades afterwards". Laurens 1999, p. 506. ^ Huneidi 2001, p. 37 citing the Palin Report, pp. 29''33. ^ Laurens 1999, p. 545. 1920 was considered the "year of disaster" (am al-nakba ) after the failure, with the French overthrow of Faisal, of the pan-Arab project for a Greater Syria, embracing also Lebanon and Palestine. The Haifa conference, 13''20 December 1920, "marks the basic date in the history of the Palestinian question: it is the historical moment where the Palestinian version of nationalism prevails over the pan-Arab version." ^ Kimmerling & Migdal 2003, pp. 81''86."Faysal's fall marked an important turning point. From then until 1948, Palestinian politics and loyalties were determined by the idea of an independent Palestine." (p.86) "The platform drawn up in Haifa would change little over the next few decades. It contained the following six elements: the first public recognition of Palestine, as it would be constituted by the mandate, as a distinct political entity for the people living there.. a total rejection of any political or moral right of the Jews over Palestine; a declaration of unity among the Palestinian Arabs to supersede any other loyalties, such as those to religion, region, and clan; a call to the new administration to halt any transfers of Arab or state lands to Jewish control; the demand to close Palestine to further immigration; a call to recognize the Arab executive Committee.. as a legitimate representative of the population before the British authorities (with a status similar to that defined for the Jewish Agency).." (p.86) ^ Milton-Edwards 1999, p. 25:"Through his position Haj Amin, with the blessing of the British, was able to play a pivotal role in the course of Palestinian nationalist politics. He sought eventually to combine his religious role with his political position in the burgeoning area of Palestinian nationalist agitation." ^ Ghandour 2009, p. 142. ^ Kupferschmidt 1987, pp. 19, 78:"Soon after the British began to style KÄmil al-HusaynÄ as the Grand MuftÄ (al-muftÄ al-akbar ), a title which had hitherto been unknown in Palestine but which was probably copied from Egypt. This gesture was, in part, meant as a reward for KÄmil's cooperation with the British, but it may have been intended to substitute some kind of a new hierarchy for the former Ottoman one". ^ Elpeleg 2007, p. 11:"He demanded that the title Grand Mufti, which had been granted to his brother by the British for cooperating with them, also be given to him, and that his salary be higher than that of the other muftis. Richmond and Storrs supported this claim, arguing that since, from the spiritual and religious points of view, the status of Jerusalem was superior to that of other regions in Palestine, the Mufti of Jerusalem should be considered head of the country's Muslim community. ". ^ Khalidi 2001, p. 22: "After their occupation of the country, the British created the entirely new post of 'grand mufti of Palestine' (al-mufti al-akbar ), who was also designated the 'mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestine region' (mufti al-Quds wal-diyar al-filistiniyya )." ^ Sicker 2000, pp. 32f.:Elpeleg 2007, p. 48. ^ Matthews 2006, pp. 31''32:"It was not scholarly religious credentials that made Hajj Amin an attractive candidate for president of the SMC in the eyes of colonial officials. Rather, it was the combination of his being an effective nationalist activist and a member of one of Jerusalem's most respected notable families that made it advantageous to align his interests with those of the British administration and thereby keep him on a short tether." ^ Reiter 1996, pp. 22''24 for details. ^ Huneidi 2001, p. 38 This excludes funds for land purchases. The "Jewish Agency", mentioned in article 4 of the Mandate only became the official term in 1928. At the time the organisation was called the Palestine Zionist Executive. ^ Kupferschmidt 1987, pp. 131''132 for a detailed list of the several sites on the Haram that underwent extensive renovation. ^ Monk 2002, p. 61 The name is occasionally given as Kamal Bey, or Kamal al-Din in primary and secondary sources. ^ Monk 2002, pp. 42''72 for a detailed account of Richmond's role. Richmond authored an important volume on the Haram (Ernest Tatham Richmond, The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem: A description of its structure and decoration, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1924). ^ Laurens 2002, p. 156.translation needed ^ Kupferschmidt 1987, pp. 127ff., 130. The mosaic tesserae, however, were manufactured in, and imported from, Turkey. ^ Benvenisti 1996, pp. 77f. writes that Rabbi Kook had preached as early as 1920: "The Temple Mount is Israel's holy place, and even should it be under the hand of others for long days and periods of time, it will finally come into our hands..., which could merely mean however that, in rabbinical thought, with the coming of the Messiah, the Temple would automatically revert to the Jews." ^ Laurens 2002, p. 154.translation needed ^ Laurens 2002, p. 163. translation needed ^ The longest accounts for the riots are in Kolinsky 1993, pp. 42''70 and Segev 2001, pp. 309''327. ^ Among them Shukri al-Quwatli, Ihsan al-Jabiri and Adil Arslan ^ Kupferschmidt 1987, p. 131 gives the 26th: Laurens 2002, p. 155 (translation needed) gives the 17th. ^ a b Laurens 2002, p. 158. translation needed ^ Laurens 2002, p. 157: Kupferschmidt 1987, p. 131 gives 24 September. ^ Lajnat al-Difa and al-Buraq al-Sharif . See Monk 2002, p. 70. The Muslim name for the contested section of the wall, where Mohammed was said to have tethered his steed Buraq while on his famous visionary flight to heaven. See Kr¤mer 2008, p. 225. ^ Laurens 2002, pp. 153, 158''161, 162 translation needed ^ Muslims in the Mughrabi Quarter were to make similar complaints against the racket of Hasidic ritual dancing in the area on the night of the anniversary of Muhammad's birth, 16 August 1929.Laurens 2002, p. 170. translation needed ^ Laurens 2002, pp. 163''165. translation needed ^ Laurens 2002, p. 632. n.3: "Fixed hours of Jewish worship" was given, instead of "customary hours of Jewish worship". ^ Sicker 2000, p. 79:"This was done to ensure a new major influx of non-Zionist American wealth into the country to support the development of a Jewish national home". ^ Laurens 2002, pp. 168''169. translation needed ^ Kr¤mer 2008, p. 230 writes that it was in revenge for the former incident. ^ Particularly with Riad al-Suhl ^ Laurens 2002, p. 171 asserts that "The matter was sufficiently important.. for this not to be (read as) an attempt to secure an alibi for subsequent events". ^ Laurens 2002, pp. 168''172. translation needed ^ Laurens 2002, p. 173. translation needed ^ Laurens 2002, p. 179 translation needed Sicker 2000, p. 46; gives 133 Jewish killed, and 339 wounded, 116 Arabs known to be killed, and 232 known to be wounded, the latter almost entirely due to police actions. The Arab wounded are those registered by the Mandatory authorities. Many preferred to hide their injuries. ^ Laurens 2002, p. 199. translation needed ^ Laurens 2002, p. 200 citing Samuel 1970, p. 96, which records several long talks of members of Brit Shalom with Snell. translation needed ^ Permanent Mandates Commission 1930. ^ Huneidi 2001, p. 36 citing Palin Report p. 184. ^ Laurens 2002, pp. 180''181. translation needed ^ Laurens 2002, p. 297. translation needed ^ Rosen 2005, p. 104. Rosen notes that, by 1934, it had 63 cells (400 youths). ^ Laurens 2002, pp. 292, 297f. One such discovery, in the port of Haifa, in October 1935, of a shipment of arms from Germany, with the apparent authorization of the Nazi Ministry for Internal Affairs, and destined for the Haganah, led to great agitation and played into the hands of those Arabs who pressed for more radical activities. translation needed. ^ De Felice 1990, pp. 210''211 mentions £138,000 from 10 September 1936 to 15 June 1938. Earlier, in January 1936 Italy had given al-Husseini £12,000 of a promised £25,000. ^ Laurens 2002, p. 373:Levenberg 1993, p. 8. ^ Mattar 1984, p. 272: "terrorism was employed by both sides during the Arab Revolt. Palestinian guerrilla warfare included violence against British officials, Jewish civilians, and members of the Opposition, some of whom were collaborators. The British and Zionist forces, in an attempt to suppress the rebellion, indiscriminately shot and bombed civilians, used suspects as human minesweepers, executed Palestinians for minor offenses, and operated with the Opposition to assassinate rebels. Political assassination, however, was used far more frequently by the supporters of the Mufti against pro-British and Opposition members." ^ Karmi 2004, p. 9 Ghada Karmi recalls that her oldest uncle, who refused to join Husseini's camp, suffered two attempts on his life by an assassin sent by al-Husseini, in Nablus and Beirut. The second attempt succeeded. ^ Mattar 1984, p. 274: "Between November 1939 and June 1940 thirty-nine Palestinians were condemned to death in secret British trials. The Mufti knew most of the condemned rebels or their families personally. Their families desperately appealed to him to intervene, but all he could do was turn to fellow Muslims and Arabs to intercede with the British. In one such appeal, he wrote an Indian friend that the British were annihilating the 'best element,' whose only crime was 'to defend their country'." ^ Aboul-Enein & Aboul-Enein 2013, p. 15:"Both Italy and Britain came to the realization in the late 1930s as the clouds of war began to descend on Europe that support for the Arabs would prove fruitful." ^ Copeland, Miles. The Game Player: Confessions of the CIA's original operative. 1989. Page 181. "Most of them (the Nazis) were anti-Arab, although they had the wit to conceal that fact." ^ De Felice 1990, pp. 212''213:"It should be quite clear that this relation (arose) not, as a number of authors have nonetheless argued, because of a presumed affinity of their ideology with that of the Nazis or Fascists, no such thing existed, but by virtue of the wholly political logic (of events) that saw in the enemies (in deed or potentially) of their own enemies their own friends, particularly if the latter have already provided evidence '' and this was, precisely, the case with Germany, and all the more so, with Italy '' of being interested, in terms of the same political logic, in giving support to their cause".("E questo, sia ben chiaro, non -come pure ¨ stato sostenuto da vari autori '' per una presunta affinit della loro ideologia con quelle nazista e fascista, che non-esisteva, ma in forza della logica tutta politica che vede nei nemici (in atto o potenziali) dei propri nemici i propri amici, specie se essi hanno gi dato prova '' e questo era appunto il caso della Germania ed ancor pi¹ dell'Italia '' di essere interessati, nella stessa logica politica, a sostenere la loro causa "). ^ ÙØ§Ø¹ØªØ¨Ø±Øª Ø§ÙÙØ§ÙÙØ§ Ø¨ÙØ¯Ø ØµØ¯ÙÙØ ÙØ£ÙÙØ§ ÙÙ ØªÙÙ Ø¯ÙÙØ(C) ÙØ"ØªØ¹ÙØ±Ø(C) ÙÙÙ ÙØ"Ø¨Ù ÙÙØ§ Ø£Ù ØªØ¹Ø±Ø¶Øª Ø¨Ø"ÙØ ÙØ£ÙØ(C) Ø¯ÙÙØ(C) Ø¹Ø±Ø¨ÙØ(C) Ø£Ù Ø§Ø"ÙØ§ÙÙØ(C), ÙÙØ£ÙÙØ§ ÙØ§ÙØª ØªÙØ§ØªÙ Ø£Ø¹Ø¯Ø§ØÙØ§ ÙÙ ÙØ"ØªØ¹ÙØ±ÙÙ Ù ØµÙÙÙÙÙÙÙ, ÙÙØ§Ù Ø¹Ø¯Ù Ø¹Ø¯ÙÙ ØµØ¯ÙÙÙ, Ù ÙÙØª ÙÙÙÙØ, Ø£Ù Ø§ÙØªØµØ§Ø± Ø§ÙÙØ§ÙÙØ§ Ø"ÙÙÙØ° Ø¨ÙØ§Ø¯ÙØ§ ØØªÙØ ÙÙ Ø®Ø·Ø± Ø§ÙØµÙÙÙÙÙØ(C) Ù Ø§ÙØ§Ø"ØªØ¹ÙØ§Ø±

Translation: "I have considered Germany to be a friendly country, because it was not a colonizing country, and it never harmed any Arab or Islamic country, and because it was fighting our colonialist and Zionist enemies, and because the enemy of your enemy is your friend. And I was certain that Germany's victory would definitely save our countries from the danger of Zionism and colonization". Mudhakkirat al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni, Damascus 1999 p.96.

^ Rubin, Barry; Schwanit, Wolfgang G. (25 February 2014). Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 7. ISBN 9780300140903 . Retrieved 24 September 2023 . ^ Nicosia 2000, p. 87 Wolff's wife was Jewish, and he was forced to resign in 1936. Hans D¶hle replaced him. ^ Simon 2004, p. 130: "Soon after his arrival al-Husseini was received in state by the Iraqi politicians who welcomed and feted him and voted him an immediate subvention of ID 18,000 to be folloed by other grants throughout his stay in Iraq: ID 1,000 monthly from hidden funds of the Iraqi secret service, 2 percent of the salary of every Iraqi government official including the military and the police, grants of ID 12,000 between 1939 and mid-1940 for the relief of distress in Palestine, and special sums donated by the Palestine Defense Society, the Red Crescent, and other public donations. He received gifts from Egypt, from King 'Abd al-'Azis Al Sa'ud, payments of some ID 60,000 from the Germans and some ID 40,000 from the Italians, who also promised £20,000 in gold monthly if al-Husseini initiated another Palestine revolt. He was the guest of honor at state functions and, with his 5,000 to 6,000 followers, al-Husseini installed a mini-government in Baghdad where he settled and began to renew contact with old friends and make new ones in the Iraqi army and police force, with lawyers, doctors and teachers. By 1941 his influence was such that he could place Palestinians in the Iraqi bureaucracy, adding more teachers and other professionals to those Palestinians already working in Iraq. It was said that he controlled hirings, firings, and promotions in Iraqi government departments, that he could have passports issued on demand to his followers, and that he could authorize the importation of personal effects into Iraq duty-free. He controlled newspapers and propaganda mechanisms, some mutually with German influence and money, which were not interfered with." ^ Mattar 1984, pp. 273''274: "pointed out: 'No element in all Iraqi-British relations 1941 was more powerful in poisoning them than Palestine Question', citing Stephen Longrigg." ^ Nevo 1984, p. 9 "As a result of these meetings an agreement was initialled whereby the Arabs of Palestine (through their representatives, the members of the AHC), undertook to support Britain and agree to the White Paper on condition that the clause pertaining to the country's independence be put into application forthwith and not after a ten-year period of transition as provided in the original document. Nuri al-Sa'id, with the consent of his government, undertook to place two divisions (about half of the Iraqi army) at the disposal of the Allies outside Iraq (in other words, to take an active part in the fighting against the Axis), if the agreement were implemented." ^ Mattar 1984, pp. 280''281; Simon 2004, p. 207, n.16. ^ Lewis 1999, p. 151.check ^ Browning 2007, p. 406 drawing on Yisraeli 1974, p. 310. ^ Yisraeli 1974, p. 310denn die Stunde der Befreieung der Araber habe dann geschlagen, Deutschland habe dort keine anderen Interessen als die Vernichtung der das Judentum protegierenden Macht.

^ Schechtman 1965, pp. 307''308"Germany has no ambitions in this area but cares only to annihilate the power which produces the Jews". And earlier: "It is clear that the Jews have accomplished nothing in Palestine and their claims are lies. Everything that has been achieved in Palestine is due to the Arabs and not the Jews. I (Hitler) have decided to find a solution to the Jewish problem, approaching it step by step without holding back. In this regard, I am about to make a just and indispensable appeal, firstly to all the European countries and, later, to countries outside of Europe". Also in Laurens 2002, pp. 664''666 n.47 ^ Schwanitz 2008 citing Abd al-Karim al-Umar (ed.), Memoirs of the Grand Mufti, Damascus, 1999, p. 126. ^ Ahren 2015: "Yehuda Bauer, Israel's preeminent Holocaust scholar, is a prominent case in point. 'After the war, they caught him (Wisliceny) and tried him at Nuremberg, where he tried to eschew all responsibility, saying: 'It wasn't Hitler, it wasn't me, it was the mufti', ... It's clear that his account is untrue: the Germans had started annihilating the Jews half a year before Hitler and the mufti met'." ^ Hopwood 1980, p. 69: "During his trial in Jerusalem in 1961, Eichmann denied having known the Mufti well, affirming he had met him only once during an official reception. The evidence for the friendship came from Dieter Wisliceny, one of Eichmann's aides, who months before the Nuremberg trials had begun to prepare an alibi for himself at the expense of Eichmann. Wisliceny went much further and accused the Mufti of being an 'initiator' of the extermination policy. Other evidence of the Mufti's alleged role came from Rudolf Kastner (a Jewish leader in Hungary), who reported that Wisliceny had told him that 'According to my opinion, the Grand Mufti ... played a role in the decision ... to exterminate the European Jews ... I heard say that, accompanied by Eichmann, he has visited incognito the gas chamber at Auschwitz'. These reports coming only from Wisliceny must be questioned until substantiated from other sources." ^ "It is doubtful whether Eichmann made contact with al-Husseini even in 1942, when the latter resided in Berlin. If this fallen idol makes an occasional appearance in Eichmann's office correspondence it is because Eichmann's superiors at the Foreign Office found the Mufti a very useful sacred cow, always to be invoked when the reception of Jewish refugees in Palestine was under discussion. Dieter Wisliceny even believed that Eichmann regarded al-Husseini as a colleague in a much expanded post-war Final Solution."Reitlinger 1971, pp. 27''28. ^ Landsman 2005, pp. 95''96. ^ Landsman 2005, p. 96 writes: "The Mufti materials were highly prejudicial, and the argument constructed from them was deeply troubling. ... Eichmann's and the Mufti's crimes had nothing to do with each other. The prosecution's attempt to link Eichmann symbolically with the Arabs, Israel's bitterest enemy, showed its preoccupation with the contemporary situation of the Jewish state. The success of this effort to prejudice the court is clear in the judges' willingness to entertain the Mufti evidence and to incorporate it into their judgment in a coy passage that identifies shared goals but not a shred of actual joint criminal activity." ^ Lepre 1997, p. 47 named from the word for a Turkish policeman's sword (or fighting knife, handÅ¾ar, from Turkish hancerTomasevich 2001, p. 497), which had figured as an emblem on the Bosnian coat-of-arms. ^ Lepre 1997, p. 313:"Overall, it is fairest to say that the Yugoslavian insurgency was a racial '' national '' ideological '' religious struggle that was unique in its barbarity and excesses were perpetrated by all of the warring sides against both combatants and the civilian population." ^ Mojzes 2011, pp. 97''98: "a scorched-earth practice commenced ... During the operation, we carried out the complete annihilation of the Moslem inhabitants, without regard to their sex and age ... The whole population has been annihilated." ^ Lepre 1997, p. 31:"The hearts of all Muslims must today go out to our Islamic brothers in Bosnia, who are forced to endure a tragic fate. They are being persecuted by the Serbian and communist bandits, who receive support from England and the Soviet Union.... They are being murdered, their possessions are robbed, and their villages are burned. England and its allies bear a great accountability before history for mishandling and murdering Europe's Muslims, just as they have done in the Arabic lands and in India." ^ Tomasevich 2001, p. 497:"the objective was not to synthesize National Socialism and Islam, nor to convert the Bosnian Muslims (who, it said, though racially Germanic, were ideologically part of the Arab world) to National Socialism ... though distinct the two ideologies would act together against their common enemies'--Jews, Anglo-Americans, Communists, Freemasons, and the Catholic Church." ^ Lepre 1997, p. 67:"Husseini and the Germans opted against forming any synopsis between Islam and national socialism. ... The Idea of Family (Familiengedanke ) '' the strong family sense possessed by the German and Muslim peoples. The Idea of Order (Ordnungsgedanke ) '' the idea of the New Order in Europe. The Idea of the FÅ(C)hrer (FÅ(C)hrergedanke ) '' The idea that a people should be led by one leader. The Idea of Faith (Glaubensgedanke ) '' That Islam (for Muslims) and national socialism (for Germans) would serve as educational tools to create order, discipline, and loyalty." ^ Hilberg 1973, p. 691:"In all the sessions of the American Jewish Conference and its interim committees, no proposal was put forward for the trial of any specific individual or category of individuals, save one: the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem." ^ Shlaim 2000, pp. 156''157 regarding Ben-Gurion's relationship with al-Husseini writes of "(his) old tactic of projecting an image of reasonableness and placing the onus for the deadlock on the shoulders of his Arab opponents. This was the tactic that had served him so well in relation to the grand Mufti, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, and other Arab leaders in the pre-Independence period". ^ Cohen 2008, p. 236"...Musa al-Alami surmised that the Mufti would agree to partition if he were promised that he would rule the Arab state". ^ Oliver Stanley (Secretary of State for the Colonies), answer to a question on notice, House of Commons debates, 1 December 1943; Hansard, vol 395 paragraphs 347''8 [1] ^ Morris 1997, pp. 57ff., 232: "Both before and after 1948, the Yishuv was convinced that the ex-Mufti's hand was behind every anti-Jewish pogrom, murder, and act of sabotage. The Jordanian authorities, always apprehensive of the Palestinians, suspected that the ex-Mufti '' and various Arab regimes '' were sponsoring terrorism from Jordan against Israel in order to foment trouble between the two and to destabilize the Hashemite rule. ... There were persistent suspicions in Amman and Jerusalem that the Mufti and AHC had organized and were running a permanent anti-Israel, anti-Hashemite underground in the West Bank. But no such organization was discovered between 1949 and 1956. The truth was somewhat more prosaic. The ex-Mufti had managed, through contact-men and supporters in Jordan, to 'subcontract' occasional raids against Israel." ^ Mattar 1988, p. 228:"the Zionist biographers, especially Maurice Pearlman and Joseph B. Schechtman, rely on the Western press; they lack even an elementary familiarity with al-Husayni, Islam, the Arabic language, or Palestinian society and its politics." ^ H¶pp & Wien 2010, pp. 214''215:"Zionist and Israeli leaders, however, have exploited the Mufti's activities to denigrate the Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation as in fact Nazi inspired from the beginning and thus as fundamentally anti-Semitic. The latest example for these efforts is Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's circulating a photograph of a meeting between the Mufti and Adolf Hitler in Berlin in 1941 in order to provide a convincing argument why Israel had the right to expand building activities in East Jerusalem." ^ Laurens 2002, pp. 467, 469''470; "In terms of his initial formation, Haj Amin was far from being an antisemite. He had learned French at the Alliance Isra(C)lite Universelle institute in Jerusalem and Albert Ant(C)bi had been one of his mentors. In the interwar period, he had fought Zionism as a political and religious leader. He was then of the opinion that the aim of Zionism was to expel the Arabs of Palestine and take over the Haram al-Sharif in order to build the Third Temple. Gradually (progressivement ) he was persuaded that world Judaism supported Zionists in a secretive manner and exercised a major influence over decision-making in Great Britain and the United States. For some time (during WW2) he was certain (based on real facts) that the Zionists were seeking to assassinate him. '... It is evident that he gradually came to identify his battle in Palestine with that of Germany against world Judaism. The reading of all those passages in his memoirs devoted to his European sojourn reveal an assimilation of the content of european antisemitism, with their two great themes of the identification of Judaism with financial capitalism (Anglo-Saxons), and of the legend of the stab in the back (the Jews as responsible for the two world wars). On the other hand, a racist vision of world history is totally absent from his general worldview. '... Taken together, his writings after 1945 do not show him as having an attitude of holocaust denial, whilst Arab politicians of the first rank, in the period of Eichmann's trial, had begun to adopt (precisely) this kind of discourse." ^ Morris 2008, pp. 21''22, "He was deeply anti-Semitic. He later explained the Holocaust as owing to the Jew's sabotage of the German war effort in World War I and the millennia of Gentile anti-Semitism as due to the Jews' 'chararacter': (quoting al-Husseini) 'One of the most prominent facets of the Jewish character is their exaggerated conceit and selfishness, rooted in their belief that they are the chosen people of God. There is no limit to their covetousness and they prevent others from enjoying the Good. '... They have no pity and are known for their hatred, rivalry and hardness, as Allah described them in the Qur'an.' " ^ Zertal 2005, pp. 102, 175:"the demonization of the Mufti serves to magnify the Arafatian threat", '... the "[portrayal of the Mufti as] one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry ('...) has no ('...) historical substantiation". (p.175). ^ Rouleau 1994: "C'est surtout dans l'appr(C)ciation globale de l'ancien mufti de J(C)rusalem et de son action que nos deux historiens s'opposent. M(C)diocre et vell(C)itaire pour le Palestinien, Haj Amin est, pour l'Isra(C)lien, un homme 'hors du commun', 'comparable Ha¯m Weizmann, David Ben Gourion, ou mªme Theodor Herzl'. Ancien gouverneur militaire Gaza et en Cisjordanie, qui passait autrefois pour un 'faucon', Zvi Elpeleg t(C)moigne de l'(C)volution des esprits en Isral, o¹ son livre a re§u le meilleur des accueils dans les m(C)dias. " ^ Browning 2015: "His extraordinary exaggeration of Husseini's complicity, and by implication that of the entire Palestinian people, is a blatant attempt to stigmatize and delegitimize any sympathy or concern for Palestinian rights and statehood. Netanyahu's shameful and indecent speech is a disservice to anyone '' Jew and non-Jew '' for whom research, teaching, and preservation of the historical truth of the Holocaust has value, meaning, and purpose." Sources Aboul-Enein, Youssef H.; Aboul-Enein, Basil H. (2013). The Secret War for the Middle East: The Influence of Axis and Allied Intelligence Operations During World War II. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-612-51309-6. Achcar, Gilbert (2010b). The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives. Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-1-429-93820-4. Achcar, Gilbert (2010c). The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives. London: Actes Sud. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-86356-835-0. he never became a doctrinaire adherent of his teacher Rashid Rida's fundamentalist Pan-Islamism, even if he was later elevated to the rank of a religious dignitary. Until Rida's death, Husseini accepted his counsel on doctrinal questions...When political interests required that he violate Hanbali-like orthodoxy, at the risk of offending the Wahhabis, Husseini did not hesitate. Achcar, Gilbert (14 May 2010a). "Blame the Grand Mufti". Le Monde diplomatique. Achcar, Gilbert; Ayad, Christophe (27 March 2010). 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In Hary, Benjamin H.; Hayeseds, John Lewis; Astren, Fred (eds.). Judaism and Islam: Boundaries, Communications, and Interaction: Essays in Honor of William M. Brinner. Brill. pp. 123''138. ISBN 978-90-04-11914-7 '' via Internet Archive. Storrs, Sir Ronald (1972). The memoirs of Sir Ronald Storrs. Ayer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-405-04593-6. Strangneth, Bettina (2004). Eichmann before Jerusalem. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 978-1-84792-323-3. Swedenburg, Ted (2003). Memories of revolt: the 1936-1939 rebellion and the Palestinian national past. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 978-1-55728-763-2. Taggar, Yehuda (1994). "The Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Arab Politics, 1930-1937". The Formation of Modern Iraq and Syria. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-4557-5. Tauber, Eliezer (1994). The Formation of Modern Iraq and Syria. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-4557-5. Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: occupation and collaboration. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2. Tripp, Charles (2002). A history of Iraq (2nd.(rev.) ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52900-6. Tschirgi, Dan (2004). "Palestine 2003: the perils of de facto statehood". In Bahcheli, Tozun; Bartmann, Barry; Srebnik, Henry (eds.). The Quest for Sovereignty. Routledge. pp. 123''138. ISBN 978-1-135-77121-8. Wien, Peter (2016). "The Holocaust5: Narratives of Complicity and Victimhood". In Meri, Josef (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations. Routledge. pp. 373''386. ISBN 978-1-317-38321-5. Yaeger, Patricia (1996). Geography of Identity. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-10672-1. Yahil, Leni; Friedman, Ina; Galai, Haya (1991). The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932''1945. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504523-9. Yisraeli, David (1974). The Palestine Problem in German Politics 1889-1945. Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University. Zankel, S¶nke (2006). "Der Jude als Anti-Muslim: Amin al-Husseini und die "Judenfrage" ". In G¼nther, Niklas; Zankel, S¶nke (eds.). Abrahams Enkel Juden, Christen, Muslime und die Schoa (in German). Franz Steiner Verlag. pp. 41''51. ISBN 978-3-515-08979-1. Zertal, Idith (2005). Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85096-4. Further reading Biographies of Amin al-Husseini 1988, Ibrahim Abu Shaqra, Al-Hajj Amin al-Husseini: From his Birth until the 1936 Revolt. Ø§ÙØØ§Ø¬ Ø£ÙÙÙ Ø§ÙØØ"ÙÙÙ ÙÙØ° ÙÙØ§Ø¯ØªÙ ØØªÙ ØÙØ±Ø(C) 1936 . (Lattakia: Dar al-Manara). Abu Shaqra also published a second edition in 1989 in Damscus with further details covering events post-1936.1998, Philip Mattar, The Mufti of Jerusalem, Al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Palestinian National Movement, Columbia University Press1993, Zvi Elpeleg, The Grand Mufti: Haj Amin Al-Hussaini, Founder of the Palestinian National Movement, RoutledgeExternal links

Israel wants Tony Blair as humanitarian coordinator in Gaza '' media '-- RT World News

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Tue, 14 Nov 2023 15:42

The former UK prime minister, who avoided prosecution over the Iraq invasion, would oversee medical treatment and evacuations

Israel is considering hiring former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair as humanitarian coordinator for Gaza in an attempt to alleviate international concern over excessive civilian casualties in the enclave, Israeli outlet Ynet reported on Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly hopes Blair's diplomatic experience in the region will lend legitimacy to Israel's military campaign and quell international demands for a ceasefire amid a massive humanitarian crisis and thousands of civilian deaths. Blair served as envoy to Israel and Palestine for the Middle East Quartet, made up of the US, EU, UN and Russia, after stepping down as leader of the UK.

The exact definition, authority, and scope of Blair's proposed role have yet to be determined, but it would focus on ''providing medical treatment and medicines, and on the possibility of evacuating the wounded and sick from the [Gaza] Strip,'' according to Ynet.

Blair's office told the outlet that while he maintains an office in Israel and has had ''conversations with people in the region and other places in order to see what can be done'' regarding the conflict, ''he has not been given or offered a position'' by Netanyahu's office.

However, a spokesperson confirmed on Monday that he is ''discussing the situation'' and is open to the possibility.

Blair released a statement on X (formerly Twitter) in the days after Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel declaring that ''decades of conventional Western diplomacy around the Israeli/Palestinian issue will need to be fundamentally re-thought'' as the status quo had only led to ''grief and tragedy'' for both Israel and Gaza.

While he supported the blockade of Gaza following Hamas' election victory in 2006, Blair acknowledged in 2017 that Israel and its western allies had made a mistake by cutting the militant group off, arguing in retrospect that they should have tried to open a dialogue instead.

The former prime minister's appointment as peace envoy for the Quartet in 2007 was highly controversial due to his having led the UK into a disastrous war with Iraq in 2003. The New Labour standard-bearer avoided prosecution for war crimes after an official inquiry led by Sir John Chilcot found he disregarded warnings about the risks of military action. It also found he deliberately exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and his alleged weapons of mass destruction in order to join the American invasion.

Many in the UK '' a third of those polled in 2017 '' still believe Blair should be tried as a war criminal, a sentiment shared by Hans Blix, the UN weapons inspector whose findings that Hussein did not have WMD were ignored in favor of going to war.

FDIC Employees Busted for Wild Parties, Sexual Harassment '' RedState

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Tue, 14 Nov 2023 15:24

I suppose there's a case to be made for "If you're going to waste time and money, you may as well have fun doing it," but that won't carry much water with the people of the nation who have money in any of the country's banks (so, almost everyone) '-- and it shouldn't. This is a lesson that should be laid right on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as we see now how many of them have been engaged in booze-fueled peccadilloes in the workplace.

Employees and supervisors at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are at the center of a brewing media firestorm after The Wall Street Journal released an in-depth report on the agency's "party culture."

"A male Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. supervisor in San Francisco invited employees to a strip club," The Wall Street Journal revealed in a recent story headlined, "Strip Clubs, Lewd Photos and a Boozy Hotel: The Toxic Atmosphere at Bank Regulator FDIC."

"A supervisor in Denver had sex with his employee, told other employees about it and pressed her to drink whiskey during work," the report continued. "Senior bank examiners texted female employees photos of their penises. The agency tolerated a heavy drinking culture."

Ever been involved in a party like that? A real humdinger, which usually results in a raid by the cops and, the next day, a few divorce lawyers being called? Well, seems like at the FDIC, they are an "...accepted part of the culture."

"It was just an accepted part of the culture," Lauren Lemmer, a former examiner-in-training, told The Journal.

Lemmer "quit her job in 2013 after three years in which she said she was denied opportunities to advance, followed back to her Dallas hotel room by a male colleague during training, invited to a strip club in Seattle by other bank examiners, and sent an unsolicited naked photo by a colleague."

Supposedly these people are in positions of considerable responsibility, which makes their behaving like a bunch of frat boys during a particularly drunken and reckless spring break on South Padre Island all the more unacceptable. And what kind of jerk sends a woman an unsolicited photo of their male appendage? Much less "senior bank examiners?" In what universe has that ever resulted in the woman in question texting back "Hey, looks great, what are you doing Friday night?"

Now the FDIC, of course, is a "United States government corporation" and not a direct branch of government. Its operations are funded not directly by taxpayer dollars, but by dues paid by member banks, who then (of course) pass the expense in one form or another back to the taxpayers. Their purpose? In a nutshell, to protect the U.S. citizenry from losing everything in the event of a bank collapse, which at the time of the FDIC's Great Depression-era founding, was an issue that was on a lot of people's minds.

Of course, these kinds of misbehavior aren't limited to "United States government corporations." Even presidents have been implicated, with speculations as to what certain former chief executives may have been doing on certain private islands, just to name an example. It seems odd that this is still going on, though, in an era where people are so hypersensitive that a misstep in language can result in a sentence to a re-education course.

Be it elected officials, bureaucrats, hired staffers, government corporations, or whatever, these are supposed to be people that the country should be able to rely on to take the right action in the event of a crisis. Clearly, these FDIC staffers aren't taking their responsibility seriously, and there's just plain no excuse for it. Heads should be rolling at the FDIC.

Possible hidden fortune in $2 bill has people searching in forgotten places | WPDE

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Mon, 13 Nov 2023 16:22

by ALEXX ALTMAN-DEVILBISS | The National Desk

Fri, November 10th 2023, 5:36 PM UTCFILE- The U.S. Treasury Department building is shown at dusk in Washington on June 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

WASHINGTON (TND) '-- Now is a good time to check that $2 bill stuffed away in a drawer or old wallet.

The unique currency has been in circulation since the 1860s but some people are finding them to be upwards of $4,500, according to U.S. Currency Auctions.

Several editions of the bill have been in circulation with the most recent being designed in 1963, the U.S. Treasury Department notes. Some feature Thomas Jefferson's face, Alexander Hamilton or America's first secretary of the treasury.

A bill's worth depends on several factors including if it was in circulation.

Uncirculated bills with red or brown seals can be worth thousands, according to U.S. Currency Auctions. Serial numbers and the condition of the bill are also important to consider.

According to MarketWatch, if a serial number is printed on the left and ride sight side of the bill starts with the number one and was printed in 1976, the bill would be worth more than $20,000.

Collectors are also interested in serial numbers that are "solid," all of the same digits, or "ladder," digits in ascending order.

As of 2022, there were 108.3 million $2 notes in circulation, the U.S. Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing reported.

However, the notes are still being printed and circulated which means most $2 bills are worth exactly that.

Inside the Transgender Empire - Imprimis

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Mon, 13 Nov 2023 16:18

The following is adapted from a talk delivered on September 12, 2023, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale's Washington, D.C., campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series.

The transgender movement is pressing its agenda everywhere. Most publicly, activist teachers are using classrooms to propagandize on its behalf and activist health professionals are promoting the mutilation of children under the euphemistic banner of ''gender-affirming care.'' The sudden and pervasive rise of this movement provokes two questions: where did it come from, and how has it proved so successful? The story goes deeper than most Americans know.

In the late 1980s, a group of academics, including Judith Butler, Gayle Rubin, Sandy Stone, and Susan Stryker, established the disciplines of ''queer theory'' and ''transgender studies.'' These academics believed gender to be a ''social construct'' used to oppress racial and sexual minorities, and they denounced the traditional categories of man and woman as a false binary that was conceived to support the system of ''heteronormativity'''--i.e., the white, male, heterosexual power structure. This system, they argued, had to be ruthlessly deconstructed. And the best way to achieve this, they argued further, was to promote transgenderism. If men can become women, and women men, they believed, the natural structure of Creation could be toppled.

Susan Stryker, a male-to-female transgender professor currently at the University of Arizona, revealed the general thrust and tone of transgender ideology in his Kessler Award Lecture at the City University of New York in 2008, describing his work as ''a secular sermon that unabashedly advocates embracing a disruptive and refigurative genderqueer or transgender power as a spiritual resource for social and environmental transformation.'' In Stryker's best-known essay, ''My Words to Victor Frankenstein above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage,'' he contends that the ''transsexual body'' is a ''technological construction'' that represents a war against Western society. ''I am a transsexual, and therefore I am a monster,'' Stryker writes. And this monster, he continues, is destined to channel its ''rage and revenge'' against the ''naturalized heterosexual order''; against '''traditional family values'''; and against the ''hegemonic oppression'' of nature itself.

It is clear from this and from other transgender scholarship that the transgender movement is inherently political. Its reconstruction of personal identity is meant to advance a collective political reconstruction or transformation. Some trans activists even view their movement as the future of Marxism. In a collection of essays titled Transgender Marxism, activist writer Rosa Lee argues that trans people can serve as the new vanguard of the proletariat, promising to abolish heteronormativity in the same way that orthodox Marxism promised to abolish capitalism.

''In a different era,'' Lee writes,

Marxists spoke of the construction of a ''new socialist man'' as a crucial task in the broader process of socialist construction. Today, in a time of both rising fascism and an emergent socialist movement, our challenge is transsexualising our Marxism. We should think [of] the project of transition to communism in our time'--communisation'--as including the transition to new communist selves, new ways of being and relating to one another.

This is the great project of the transgender movement: to abolish the distinctions of man and woman, to transcend the limitations established by God and nature, and to connect the personal struggle of trans individuals to the political struggle to transform society in a radical way.

From the Fringes to the CenterThe trans movement was hatched, then, on the fringes of American academia. But how did it move so quickly to the center of American public life? Like many other things, it began with a flood of cash, as some of the wealthiest people in the country began devoting enormous sums of money to promote transgenderism.

One of these people is Jennifer Pritzker, who was born James Pritzker in 1950. After serving several years in the U.S. Army, Pritzker went into business, having inherited a sizable part of the Hyatt hotel fortune. In 2013, he announced a male-to-female gender transition and was celebrated in the press as the ''first trans billionaire.'' Almost immediately, he began donating untold millions to universities, schools, hospitals, and activist organizations to promote queer theory and trans medical experiments.

This money was allied with political power, as Pritzker's cousin, Illinois Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker, signed legislation in 2019, his first year in office, to inject gender theory into the state education curriculum and to direct state Medicaid funds toward transgender surgeries. Speaking before an audience of trans activists, he proclaimed:

[O]ur state government is firmly on your side, on the side of every gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer person in the state of Illinois. . . . Those of you in this room know better than anyone that marriage equality was never the endgame. . . . We're gonna make sure that all transgender Illinoisans are ensured their basic human rights and that healthcare services are provided to them so that they can thrive.

Here's an example of how this combination of well-funded activism and political influence works in practice: Pritzker-funded activists at Lurie Children's Hospital (the largest children's hospital in Chicago) provide local schools with training, materials, and personnel who promote gender transitions for children, using the hospital's reputation to give their ideology a scientific veneer. And the more one investigates, the worse it gets. Children are exposed, for instance, not only to trans ideology, but to concepts such as ''kink'' (unusual tastes in sexual behavior), ''BDSM'' (bondage, domination, submission, and masochism), binders to flatten breasts, and prosthetic penises.

Lurie Children's Hospital, through its outreach presentations in Chicago public schools, encourages teachers and school administrators to support ''gender diversity'' in their districts, automatically ''affirm'' students who announce sexual transitions, and ''communicate a non-binary understanding of gender'' to children in the classroom. The objective, as one version of the presentation suggests, is to disrupt the ''entrenched [gender] norms in western society'' and facilitate the transition to a more ''gender creative'' world. School districts are encouraged to designate ''Gender Support Coordinators'' to help facilitate children's sexual and gender transitions, which, under the recommended ''confidentiality'' policy, can be kept secret from parents and families.

In effect, this results in a sophisticated school-to-gender-clinic pipeline. Teachers, counselors, doctors, and activists on social media and elsewhere'--many of whom are employed or subsidized by members of the Pritzker family'--push children in the direction of what Chicago-area ''detransitioner'' Helena Kerschner, recalling her own experience, calls ''the trans identity rabbit hole.'' And despite frequent claims to the contrary, this is not a temporary or reversible process. Of the children who begin puberty blockers, the medical literature suggests that approximately 95 percent move on to cross-sex hormones, and that 50 percent of the females who begin cross-sex hormone treatments move on to ''trans-affirming'' surgeries.

The Synthesis of All OppressionsAnother place my investigation of the trans movement has taken me is Highland Park, Michigan, a city of roughly 9,000 residents located about six miles north of downtown Detroit. Highland Park has been plagued by poverty, violence, and crime for decades. Many of its homes and businesses have been abandoned or demolished. It is teetering on the edge of insolvency, yet it is home to one institution that is overflowing with funds: the Ruth Ellis Center, metro Detroit's central laboratory for the synthesis of transgender science and politics.

The Ruth Ellis Center's marketing pitch is an amalgam of all the usual euphemisms: ''trauma-informed care,'' ''restorative justice,'' ''harm reduction,'' ''racial equity,'' and ''gender-affirming care.'' In the name of these things, the Ellis Center and its partners conduct large-scale medical experiments on a population of predominantly poor black youths.

Dr. Maureen Connolly, a pediatrician at Henry Ford Health, leads the Ellis Center's medical partnership, providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical referrals to scores of Detroit kids. Here's how she describes the child sex-change process:

Transitioning is an umbrella term to describe the process that someone goes through to bring their external self more closely into alignment with their gender identity. For some people that might mean changing their gender expression and the clothes that they wear or how they wear their hair. It might mean using a new name and different pronouns. And that's wonderful. For others, it can involve taking medication to make their body more closely aligned with how they identify in terms of gender'--typically, that's masculinizing or feminizing medications or hormone therapy. People can also choose to pursue gender-affirming surgeries, which are surgical interventions to bring their body more closely in alignment with their gender identity.

Keep in mind, again, that in the context of her role at the Ellis Center, Connolly is not talking here about the affluent, educated, male-to-female trans individuals who serve as the public face of the trans movement. She is mostly talking about kids from the Detroit ghetto who suffer from high rates of family breakdown, substance abuse, mental illness, and self-destructive behavior. As such, one might suppose that they are especially vulnerable to the claim that gender transition will solve all their problems.

''My name is Righteous, first and foremost,'' says an Ellis Center patient who now identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns:

I think I might have been about eight years old when I remembered or that I recall having any thought of being transgender or gender non-conforming. . . . It felt like I was an outsider to this whole world of America. On top of not being, you know, a European-American, I was black. . . . Most of my dysphoria comes from people misgendering me. With gender-affirming care, I could get the hormones I needed for free.

Righteous is thus a perfect example of the new synthesis of transgender science and politics. She works as an activist not only for the trans movement, but also for a broader intersectional coalition (i.e., a coalition of oppressed and marginalized groups), including, for instance, the movement to abolish the police. She represents the identity of the oppressed by both nature and nurture and marshals this unique ''positionality'' to advance the full suite of left-wing social policies.

Frankenstein ReduxIn 1818, Mary Shelley wrote the famous novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The premise of the book is that modern science, stripped from the constraints of ethics and nature, will end up creating monsters. ''Trans-affirming'' doctors are the post-modern version of the book's protagonist, Doctor Frankenstein.

According to survey data, up to 80 percent of trans individuals suffer from serious psychopathologies and one-quarter of black trans youth attempt suicide each year. ''Gender-affirming care'' largely fails to solve these problems, yet the doctors use these failures to justify even more extreme interventions up to the final one: genital reconstruction.

Dr. Blair Peters is a plastic surgeon (he uses he/they pronouns) who performs trans genital surgeries at the publicly-funded Oregon Health & Science University and whose specialty is creating artificial sex organs. ''I think what we're becoming very known for at OHSU is genital surgery,'' he says. ''A prime example of that is a procedure called phalloplasty, which is the creation of a penis. And we now have a robotic vaginoplasty program [that] has been a kind of game changer for patient care.''

As I have previously detailed in City Journal, the process for robot-assisted vaginoplasty is gruesome:

According to a handbook published by OHSU, surgeons first cut off the head of the penis and remove the testicles. Then they turn the penile-scrotal skin inside out and, together with abdomen cavity tissue, fashion it into a crude, artificial vagina. ''The robotic arms are put through small incisions around your belly button and the side of your belly,'' the handbook reads. ''They are used to create the space for your vaginal canal between your bladder and your rectum.''

This procedure is plagued with complications. OHSU warns of wound separation, tissue necrosis, graft failure, urine spraying, hematoma, blood clots, vaginal stenosis, rectal injury, fistula, and fecal accidents. Patients must stay in the hospital for a minimum of five days following the procedure, receiving treatment for surgical wounds and having fluid drained through plastic tubes. Once they are home, patients must continue transgender hormone treatments and manually dilate their surgically created ''neo-vagina'' in perpetuity; otherwise, the tissue will heal, and the cavity will close.

The castration business is booming. According to Peters, the gender clinic at OHSU has ''the highest volume on the West Coast'''--and with the help of the robot, his team can perform multiple vaginoplasties per day. The phalloplasty program has a 12-to-18-month waiting list for consultations and an additional three-to-six-month waiting list for surgical appointments.

A less common but more symbolically apt surgery performed by Peters and his colleagues is known as ''nullification,'' in which a smooth, continuous skin covering from the abdomen to the groin is created following a castration or vaginectomy. In other words, the genitalia are replaced by nothing. Nullification surgery is the perfect symbol for the ideology behind the trans movement: the pursuit of the Latin nullum, meaning ''nothing''; or the related nihil, the root of the English word ''nihilism.'' Trans ideology is animated by a profound nihilism that denies human nature and enables barbarism in the name of progress.

***

The future of transgender medicine is in flux. Major American institutions have rallied to its support, with the major medical associations going so far as to call on the federal government to investigate and prosecute its critics. At the same time, some cracks are showing. Detransitioners, a group comprised of mostly young women who have accepted their biological sex after transitioning to various degrees, are going public about the dangers of gender medicine in deeply affecting personal terms. Organizations such as Do No Harm have filed lawsuits and launched advocacy campaigns to curb transgender procedures on minors. And increasing numbers of doctors, who had previously been cowed into silence, are beginning to speak out. State legislators have also taken notice. Earlier this year, I worked with whistleblowers at Texas Children's Hospital to expose child sex-change procedures that were being conducted in secret. The expos(C) attracted the attention of Texas lawmakers, who immediately passed the final version of a bill to ban such procedures.

Jennifer Pritzker, Maureen Connolly, Blair Peters, and their ilk occupy the heights of power and prestige, but like Doctor Frankenstein they will not be able to escape the consequences of what they have created. They are condemning legions of children to a lifetime of sorrows and medical necessities, all based on dubious postmodern theories that do not meet the standard of Hippocrates' injunction in his work Of the Epidemics: ''First, do no harm.'' Although individuals can be nullified, nature cannot. No matter how advanced trans pharmaceuticals and surgeries become, the biological reality of man and woman cannot be abolished; the natural limitations of God's Creation cannot be transcended. The attempt to do so will elicit the same heartbreak and alienation captured in the final scene of Mary Shelley's novel: the hulking monster, shunned by society and betrayed by his father, filled with despair and drifting off into the ice floes'--a symbol of the consequence of Promethean hubris.

A doctor at a major children's hospital had this to say about what puberty blockers do to a child's mind, body, and soul:

This medication is called a ''gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist'' and it comes in the form of monthly injections or an implant. And because it simulates the activity of this hormone, it shuts down the activity of the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is this almond-sized structure in your brain, it's one of the most primal structures we have, and it controls all the other hormonal structures in your body'--your sexual development, your emotions, your fight-or-flight response, everything. . . . And I always think that if someone were to ask me, Where is it that you would look for the divine spark in each individual? I would say that it would be somewhere ''beneath the inner chamber,'' which is the Greek derivation of the term hypothalamus. To shut down that system is to shut down what makes us human.

This is why we must fight to put the transgender empire out of business forever.

Moody's cuts outlook on U.S. credit rating to negative from stable - MarketWatch

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Mon, 13 Nov 2023 15:55

Moody's Investors Service late Friday cut its outlook on the U.S. sovereign credit rating to negative from stable, citing higher interest rates and doubts about the government's ability implement effective fiscal policies.

A negative outlook means that a rating may be cut in the future, but doesn't mean that it will be. Moody's continues to rate U.S. sovereign debt Aaa '-- the only one of the three major credit-rating companies to maintain a triple-A rating on the world's largest economy.

''The sharp rise in U.S. Treasury bond yields this year has increased pre-existing pressure on U.S. debt affordability. In the absence of policy action, Moody's expects the U.S.'s debt affordability to decline further, steadily and significantly, to very weak levels compared to other highly-rated sovereigns, which may offset the sovereign's credit strengths explained below,'' the company said, in a statement.

In response to the announcement, a Treasury Department official said the agency disagrees with the warning sounded by Moody's.

''While the statement by Moody's maintains the United States' Aaa rating, we disagree with the shift to a negative outlook. The American economy remains strong, and Treasury securities are the world's preeminent safe and liquid asset,'' said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo, in a statement.

He went on to say that the Biden administration's more than $1 trillion in deficit reduction included in the June debt limit deal and budget proposals that would reduce the deficit by nearly $2.5 trillion over the next decade put the country on sounder footing than the Moody's outlook would suggest.

Moody's said the rating could be cut if the company concludes that policy makers were unlikely to respond to the country's growing fiscal challenges over the medium term, through measures to increase government revenue or structurally reduce spending to slow the deterioration in debt affordability.

Fitch Ratings cut its top U.S. credit rating to AA+ from AAA in August. S&P cut its AAA rating in 2011 after an earlier budget showdown.

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Mon, 13 Nov 2023 15:54

Chicago has become so unpleasant that migrants are fleeing back to Venezuela after being dumped in shelters and refused better paying jobs.

Since August last year, 20,700 migrants have arrived in Chicago from Texas. The Lone Star State's Governor Greg Abbott sent migrants to Chicago and other Democrat-run cities because of their proud status as 'sanctuary cities.' They offer enhanced protection against detention or deportation for undocumented migrants.

Now, Illinois' harsh winters, lack of migrant infrastructure, and ambivalent support from locals has made many people, who undertook the harsh US-Mexico border journey, actually turn around and go back home.

Venezuela-born Michael Castejon, 39, and his family have been sleeping on the floors of police stations and shelters after he could not afford to pay rent in Chicago - because his work permit was taking so long to arrive.

The family was renting an apartment through a city voucher program, that gives up to $15,000 for up to six months of rental assistance - but once it ran out, they had to give up their living space.

The dad found a job in construction, and he was getting paid in cash, but it wasn't enough to sustain his family since they arrived in June.

Venezuela-born Michael Castejon, 39, (pictured in red jacket) and his family have been sleeping on the floors of police stations and shelters after he could not afford to pay rent - because his work permit was taking so long to come in

Since August last year, 20,700 migrants have arrived in Chicago from Texas . The Lone Star State's Governor Greg Abbott sent migrants to Chicago and other Democrat-run cities because of their proud status as 'sanctuary cities'

After five months of rough living with no end in sight, the family decided to pack up their belongings and return to South America, realizing that 'there's nothing here for us.'

Castejon said the failed journey to settle in the US had not been worth it, despite the extreme poverty and an authoritarian regime they were living under in Venezuela.

After months of begging for money and crossing borders, the dreams that he had heard of from other migrants had failed to materialize for him, he revealed.

Michael Castejon, 39, told the Chicago Tribune: 'The American Dream doesn't exist anymore. There's nothing here for us.

'We didn't know things would be this hard. I thought the process was faster,' he said about the job permit situation in Chicago.

'How many more months of living in the streets will it take? No, no more. It's better that I leave. At least I have my mother back home.

'We just want to be home. If we're going to be sleeping in the streets here, we'd rather be sleeping in the streets over there.'

Castejon's stepdaughter Andrea Carolina Sevilla could not find a school to be enrolled in when they arrived in the US, despite one of the reasons they left their native home was to give her a better education.

As winter approaches, the mayor has opened camps for migrants, some of which are being placed in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods

Tens of thousands of migrants were sent to the sanctuary city by Texas Governor Abbott and non-government organizations in states like Colorado and New York

He is not the only migrant in Chicago who is realizing that the reality of asylum seeking is not what they had imagined. Chicago's cold weather is creeping up - and many migrants still sleeping on the streets are forced to lay on wet, cold mattresses.

The city is also notorious for violent crime, with migrants forced to sleep in public more vulnerable to attack than most.

At least 40 people in the last month have left Chicago's 1st District station to either move back home or elsewhere in the States, with the help of Catholic Charities of Chicago.

According to the Tribune, migrants eat standing up and have to rub their hands together to keep warm because of the lack of facilities.

Brayan Lozano, head of the volunteer group of the Police Station Response Team, said: 'The word of the situation in Chicago is beginning to spread.'

Lozano said the city's resources have been exhausted, and the resettlement program now cannot take the strain of the number of migrants flooding in.

Another migrant, Jose Nauh, 22, was forced to sleep in a police station in Chicago for two weeks before deciding to travel back to Texas. He'd moved to the windy city to see the hype for himself - but soon realized life was not better.

Diana Vera, who moved to Chicago with her three children and daughter-in law, have also decided to quit the city for better opportunities elsewhere. They had been living on the floor in the police station for a month.

Michael Castejon, 39, and his family from years ago, before coming to America

Castejon, along with many others, have decided to ditch Chicago after realizing it's not all it's cracked up to be

Last month, Johnson quietly signed a $29million contract with a security firm to build migrant base camps

Most of the migrants who have arrived in Chicago during the last year have come from Texas, largely under the direction of Republican Governor Greg Abbott

The Windy City is struggling with over 11,000 migrants in shelters and 4,000 staying in police stations and the O'Hare International Airport (pictured)

Boarding a bus to Detroit, Vera said: 'We heard that there are a lot of jobs over there even if you don't have a permit.'

This comes at a fraught time for Chicago and its residents.

Furious protesters stormed a Chicago City Council meeting last week during a debate about whether the city should remain a sanctuary for migrants.

The meeting was called after 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale - who oversees a district in the predominantly-black South Side - proposed an advisory referendum that would ask voters during the March primary if Chicago should keep its sanctuary city status.

Progressives in Chicago are outraged that a move to end Chicago's status as a sanctuary city is even being considered for a ballot. But many of the city's residents - including a large number of those who are themselves ethnic minorities - are keen to end the Windy City's sanctuary city status.

Many residents expressed frustration about the millions of dollars the city was spending on migrant shelters instead of Chicago's most impoverished communities.

As of September, there were about 20 active migrant shelters in the city. Seven were located on the historically underserved South and West sides.

More than 20,000 migrants have touched down in Chicago since last year.

While most hail from Venezuela, they come from all over the world, including Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

The city has allocated $4 million to help migrants find temporary housing, and the state has contributed another $38 million.

Since August 2022, Chicago has opened its doors to tens of thousands of migrants sent by Abbott and non-government organizations in states such as Colorado and New York.

The majority are seeking asylum 'due to US foreign policy that has created unstable economic and political conditions compromising their safety and forcing them to travel thousands of miles to safety,' the City of Chicago website reads.

It adds: 'U.S. cities have not traditionally had the infrastructure to resettle high numbers of immigrants and refugees. This is federal responsibility.'

San Francisco Clears Homeless Camps Ahead Of International Summit | The Daily Wire

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Mon, 13 Nov 2023 15:52

San Francisco officials reportedly cleared out areas of the city occupied by homeless camps and public drug markets before top world leaders and CEOS, and tens of thousands of other attendees, arrived in the Bay Area for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC).

APEC, known as the ''Super Bowl of World Economies,'' is holding its 2023 leaders meeting in San Francisco this year between November 11 to 17. The summit includes leaders of 21 countries and regions, including President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

''I know folks are saying, 'Oh, they're just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming to town,''' California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday, as reported by Fox News. ''That's true because it's true '-- but it's also true for months and months and months before APEC, we've been having conversations.''

As homeless encampments, open-air drug markets, and crime continue to sweep some areas of the city, internal emails obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle showed city officials were ''concerned about historical encampments that are close to priority areas'' and needed to format a plan to ''stay on top of the growing encampments.''

Several videos circulating on social media appear to show various sidewalks cleared of homeless encampments and individuals, with some portions blocked off with barricades or covered with brand-new planters where tents had once stood.

San Francisco's homeless population was entirely cleared out for Xi Jinping.

The government can easily fix our cities overnight. It just doesn't want to.pic.twitter.com/tBGmWCbwtX

'-- End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 12, 2023

For Xi visit San Francisco cleared our homeless and put about 100 new planters.

It's amazing what can happen if government wants to actually fix things. pic.twitter.com/Ea47CJtI8g

'-- I Meme Therefore I Am ðºð¸ (@ImMeme0) November 12, 2023

A local Fox affiliate said areas of the city look noticeably cleaner, with far fewer homeless encampments.

City employee Marc Savino told the outlet, ''You just naturally start to wonder about houseless folks being displaced.''

According to local media, a federal injunction requires the city to provide adequate shelter for homeless individuals after removing their tents from public areas. Although the city did not set up new shelters specifically for individuals impacted by the international summit, it opened a 30-spot overnight winter shelter and has been working on adding 300 beds to some of the existing shelters

''The daily allotment will vary throughout the conference,'' Cohen told the Chronicle in an email. ''But we are making every effort to maximize shelter capacity across our portfolio for the community to access during APEC and ongoing.''

The Chronicle reported that the city's effort to clear the encampments is an attempt to avoid a repeat of 2016, when it hosted Superbowl 50 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Aside from airing the game, the outlet noted that TV broadcasts had focused on the city's homeless crisis along Division Street, which presented ''a major civic black eye'' for the Bay Area.

San Francisco community activist Ricci Lee Wynne told The New York Post that city officials cleared out encampments near the Moscone Center on Howard Street, which she said signaled ''the city had the capability to do this all along '-- instead, they just do the bare minimum.''

''Once APEC is gone, police presence will start to simmer down again, the tents will return, and it will slowly flare up again,'' Lee said. ''What we need is a permanent solution.''

A significant event during this year's summit is a sideline meeting between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which marks the first time the two have met since November 2022.

''Chinese officials will want to project to their domestic audience that Xi is received by Biden with dignity and respect,'' director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institute Ryan Hass told the AP.

CBS News reported in late October that potential topics of discussion between Biden and Xi Jinping include increased Chinese aggression toward Taiwan and Xi Jinping's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, all topics that U.S. officials have expressed concern about in recent weeks.

San Francisco becomes the latest U.S. city to clean up its appearance before a scheduled visit from President Biden.

Earlier this year, illegal immigrants in El Paso, Texas, were arrested, their camps taken down, and some even sent back to Mexico in the week leading up to Biden's first visit to the border during his term.

Ben Whitehead contributed to this report.

ALL VIDEOS

VIDEO - RFK Jr. tells young voters: 'Absurd' to call Israel apartheid state | Cuomo - YouTube

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Thu, 16 Nov 2023 16:31

VIDEO - German MP tells Bundestag that the only ones who need the digital euro are those who want total surveillance of citizens '' The Expose

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Thu, 16 Nov 2023 15:58

Breaking News Last week, German Member of Parliament Joana Cotar gave a speech in the Bundestag. Nobody needs the digital euro except for the European Central Bank (''ECB'') and politicians who have something else in mind, she said. And that something else is the total surveillance of citizens.

Let's not lose touch'...Your Government and Big Tech are actively trying to censor the information reported by The Expos(C) to serve their own needs. Subscribe now to make sure you receive the latest uncensored news in your inbox'...

Much is promised with the digital Euro, Ms Cotar said in the Bundestag, ''data protection, everything's secure, no one intends to spy on anyone. This is as credible as the promises made during the euro introduction.''

Promises that were made at the introduction of the euro included no bailout, the 3% rule and prohibition of monetary state financing. ''Now the ECB does nothing else and the Maastricht Treaty is waste paper,'' she said.

''Today the ECB promises top data protection for the digital euro and tomorrow every transaction will be monitored,'' Ms. Cotar said. It will be used to control citizens' behaviour, just as it is being used in China.

Note: Beginning in the 1970s, European leaders had discussed creating a single currency. The plan became official with the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, which formed the European Union and paved the way for the creation of a single European currency. To participate in the currency, member states are meant to meet strict criteria, such as a budget deficit of less than 3% of their GDP and a debt ratio of less than 60% of GDP '' both of which were ultimately widely flouted after introduction.

The new currency's name was unveiled in 1995. On 31 December 1998, 11 countries ''locked in'' their exchange rates relative to each other and to the euro. At midnight, their currencies officially ceased to exist. Today, the euro is the official currency of 20 of the 27 member states of the European Union.

The eurozone's greatest test came during the European sovereign debt crisis, which began in 2009, as many central banks dealing in euros were unable to pay their debts and were bailed out by other eurozone nations or EU institutions.

Ms. Cotar's original speech is in German which you can view on YouTube HERE. In the video below, the English audio has been generated by artificial intelligence translation.

German Member of Parliament Joana Cotar bashes CBCDs in the Bundestag while wearing a Bitcoin T-shirt,9 November 2023 (1 min). Source: Swan.com on Twitter

VIDEO - Capitol Police and protesters calling for ceasefire clash outside of DNC Headquarters - YouTube

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VIDEO - Candace Owens Responds To Ben Shapiro In Tucker Carlson Interview - YouTube

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VIDEO - The majority of UK MPs vote against Gaza ceasefire - YouTube

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VIDEO - Taylor Swift fans mobilise against Argentina's Milei ahead of second-round vote ' FRANCE 24 - YouTube

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VIDEO - On Female Directors, Joe Biden, and Trump - Barbra Streisand Talks to Stephen Colbert (Part 3) - YouTube

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VIDEO - We held a Press Conference giving Voice to some #Palestinians who have lost loved ones. We need to hold to account the perpetrators of War'... | Instagram

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Mick Wallace on Instagram: "We held a Press Conference giving Voice to some #Palestinians who have lost loved ones. We need to hold to account the perpetrators of War Crimes, including all those Political Forces who are giving their support to the lawless Far Right #Israeli Regime..."

VIDEO - Heat-related deaths 'could more than quadruple by mid-century' ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube

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VIDEO - Biden, Xi agree to restore military ties despite 'dictator' comment ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube

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VIDEO - EU Commission to renew glyphosate authorisation for 10 years ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube

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VIDEO - Joe Biden's Utterly Disgraceful and Confusing Xi Jinping Press Conference Screws Over Israel '' RedState

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Thu, 16 Nov 2023 13:45

There have been a lot of embarrassing moments over the last few years of the Biden administration's tenure. What happened in San Francisco on Wednesday may be the worst, though.

For some reason, China's dictator, Xi Jinping, who is actively trying to destroy the United States in a variety of ways, was invited to San Franciso. Not only did California Gov. Gavin Newsom clean up the streets for him so a group of sycophants could cheer for the genocidal maniac like he was back in Beijing, but President Joe Biden showed up to bend the knee as well.

After the two world leaders met, Biden held a brief press conference. It was both utterly confusing and disgraceful. I'll start with the confusing parts, including the fact that the president still can't manage to call on reporters without a pre-made list, and even then, he managed to completely faceplant.

Biden pulls out his list of pre-selected reporters he was "told" to call on at his "press conference" pic.twitter.com/8tcwj0eFS5

'-- RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 16, 2023BIDEN: "I'm embarrassed. I think it's CBS, but I can't remember who at CBS. Uhh..." pic.twitter.com/DFknUcQimS

'-- RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 16, 2023Do you want to know why this is important? Because China isn't playing around. We are talking about a nation that is trying to take down the United States economically and culturally. Right now, Osama Bin Laden's "Letter to America" is trending. Guess what site it's trending on? That would be TikTok, the Chicom-owned social media site that is the top source of "news" for younger Americans. Instead of banning what is obviously a nefarious foreign information operation, Biden treats Xi Jinping like an old friend.

The United States looks incredibly weak and vulnerable right now because it is incredibly weak and vulnerable right now. That is the cost of having a president who is utterly impotent and senile. Biden should be in a nursing home, not leading the world's foremost nation.

As another example of that, the president blabbed about a "pause" between Israel and Hamas again. The problem? There has been no publicly announced "pause," which means either Biden just purposely or accidentally screwed Israel over.

BIDEN: "I think the pause that the Israelis have agreed to is down to'-- I'm getting too much detail. I know, Mr. Secretary, I'm gonna stop." pic.twitter.com/jXw2CkeWMs

'-- RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 16, 2023Half an hour before this writing, Israel rejected UN calls for a "humanitarian pause" so what is Biden even talking about? Recall that less than a week ago, the president announced a "pause" that didn't actually exist, leaving Israel to rush out and clean up his mess. Did that just happen again or did Biden accidentally, due to his senility, share sensitive information publicly?

I'm not sure the explanation matters at this point because the outcome is the same. Biden is completely unqualified for the job he holds and is actively harming America and its allies.

I mean, come on. Does this look like a man who should be making major decisions?

Biden abruptly ends his "press conference," shouts at the press, mumbles a few things, and shuffles away pic.twitter.com/jpWIZj51JH

'-- RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 16, 2023If you can't figure out what he's trying to say as he stands there with a blank look on his face, welcome to the club. That is essentially every word that comes out of Biden's mouth at this point. This isn't fine. It's dangerous, and Xi Jinping is laughing in the face of his good fortune.

VIDEO - Cameron: State multiculturalism has failed - YouTube

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VIDEO - The TV Show that Brainwashed Children - YouTube

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 20:46

VIDEO - GOP Sen Mullin, union boss almost come to blows in Senate hearing: 'Stand your butt up' | Fox News

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 20:21

A Senate committee hearing appeared to be on the brink of a physical altercation on Tuesday as a Republican senator stood up and threatened to fight a labor leader as the committee's chairman, Sen. Bernie Sanders, tried to play peacemaker.

"Sir, this is a time, this is a place. You want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults and we can finish it here," GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told Teamsters President Sean O'Brien during a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing after reading a tweet in which O'Brien said he could take the senator "any time" or "any place."

"OK, that's fine, perfect," O'Brien responded.

"You want to do it now?" Mullin asked.

BERNIE SANDERS REFUSES TO CONDEMN TLAIB COMMENTS DEEMED 'ANTISEMITIC'

Teamsters President Sean O'Brien, left, and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (Fox News)

"I would love to do it right now," O'Brien said, prompting Mullin to say, "Well, stand your butt up then."

"You stand your butt up, big guy," O'Brien said.

Mullin, a former MMA fighter, stood up from his chair and seemed set on making his way over to where the Teamsters president was sitting.

UPS, TEAMSTERS UNION REACH AGREEMENT ON NEW CONTRACT TO AVOID POTENTIAL STRIKE

Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin rises from his seat during Tuesday's Senate Health Committee hearing with the president of the Teamsters.

"Stop it, hold it, no, no, sit down," said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the chairman of the committee, in an attempt to calm the pair down. "You're a United States senator. Sit down."

Both Mullin and O'Brien asked permission from Sanders to respond to each other after Mullin sat down, but Sanders denied their requests.

The two continued to go back and forth for several minutes.

"You challenged me to a cage match, acting like a 12-year-old," O'Brien said after Mullin accused him of being "quiet" in the face of a challenge.

"Excuse me, hold it," Sanders said, shouting over the Oklahoma senator. "Sen. Mullin, I have the mic."

"We're not here to talk about physical abuse," Sanders said.

Mullin then pointed a finger at O'Brien and called him a "thug," which caused O'Brien to call Mullin "disrespectful."

The two then told each other that they both don't respect one another, causing Sanders to interject again.

"Hold it," Sanders said while banging his gavel. "This is a hearing to discuss economic issues '... we're not here to talk about fights or anything else."

The two continued to bicker, despite the pleas from Sanders, until the hearing eventually moved on to the next line of questioning from other members of the panel.

O'Brien and Mullin have a contentious history dating back to March when the two sparred in a heated Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing over O'Brien's salary compared to that of his union members.

Sanders was forced to intervene in that argument as well.

The two ignored Sanders and continued talking over each other, appearing to grow increasingly frustrated, before Mullin said, "Sir, you need to shut your mouth because you don't know what you're talking about."

"You're going to tell me to shut my mouth?" O'Brien responded before mocking Mullin's opening statement in which he said he wasn't "afraid" of a physical altercation.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / File)

Sanders eventually quieted the two and made Mullin provide O'Brien time to speak.

Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Mullin and Sanders as well as the Teamsters but did not immediately receive a response.

Fox News Digital's Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.

VIDEO - Israel Hamas War Day 38 - What we know so far - YouTube

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 20:14

VIDEO - House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Two-Step Continuing Resolution - YouTube

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VIDEO - Divided Gaza: A new phase of occupation? - YouTube

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VIDEO - American rabbis call for immediate ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza - YouTube

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VIDEO - Pro- and anti-Zionist Jews trade barbs and insults in Washington protest - YouTube

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 19:11

VIDEO - French MPs 'in tears' after screening of October 7 Hamas attack ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 19:09

VIDEO - Zelensky appeals for more weapons amid increasing Russian attacks ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube

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VIDEO - Can the EU secure vital minerals? | DW News - YouTube

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VIDEO - Cyprus Confidential: A global investigation by ICIJ - YouTube

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VIDEO - Why a leading German journalist is accused of receiving Kremlin pay | DW News - YouTube

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 18:06

VIDEO - And With That Remark, Nikki Haley Just Went Full Totalitarian

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Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:46

The explosion of antisemitism has been something of a shock. Not that it never went away or didn't exist, but the viciousness of it all has been jarring. It's one thing to peddle the age-old stereotypes about Jewish control of the media and finance. It's another thing to outright call for all Jews to die. The Left used to hide their true intent regarding Israel with political-based language. The 'we're not antisemitic; we're anti-Zionist' was a big talking point from this group.

It's a nasty pot of brew brewing for quite some time, and it's not just an American thing. The British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn was rife with antisemites; Corbyn couldn't denounce Hamas as a terror group recently. Yet, if there's one thing we know that won't work in snuffing out vicious antisemitism and calls for Jewish genocide on social media, it's to censor it like Oceania's Thought Police.

NEW: Nikki Haley asserts that allowing people to post on social media anonymously is a "national security threat". She promises that as president, she will force "every person on social media" to be "verified by their name."I am no lawyer but isn't this blatantly'... pic.twitter.com/MD7CcBZL5r

'-- Christina Pushaw ð ðºð¸ (@ChristinaPushaw) November 14, 2023Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a hopeless 2024 candidate, suggested a new protocol that is downright Orwellian. It also might not be legal. For starters, she wants everyone on social media to be verified; no anonymous accounts can be permitted to use these platforms. She bypasses the legal debate by saying this is a national security issue.

Look, I can't stand these pro-Hamas clowns either. But this would be a massive propaganda win for the terrorists. It's what they want us to do, Nikki. We also don't need to drive these people underground, some of whom will be top recruits in carrying out terrorist attacks.

Using social media has been essential in exposing antisemites recently, so I say fight fire with fire. They're the ones losing their jobs right now.

We should, uhh, not do this. https://t.co/XRdcBlW1SA

'-- Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) November 14, 2023

VIDEO - A Final Warning from George Orwell - YouTube

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Tue, 14 Nov 2023 21:32

VIDEO - Foreign TV crew robbed while covering APEC summit in San Francisco

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Tue, 14 Nov 2023 16:40

By Aja Seldon

Published November 13, 2023 3:08PM

Foreign TV crew robbed while covering APEC summit in San FranciscoA foreign news crew covering the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco was allegedly robbed while working.

SAN FRANCISCO - A foreign news crew covering the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco was allegedly robbed while working.

Journalists from a Czech Republic public television, who were in the Bay Area on assignment, were robbed of some of their equipment on Sunday evening while recording near the famed City Lights bookstore, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The San Francisco Police Department confirmed it is investigating an armed robbery of a production team at 4:56 p.m. in the area of Broadway and Columbus Avenue.

According to officers, a vehicle stopped on the street, and three armed men with firearms exited the car and approached the group. The suspects demanded their production equipment, and the victims complied.

The suspects returned to their vehicle and fled, police said.

While the police department did not confirm that the victims were journalists, reporter Bohumil Vostal of Czech television station ÄT24 said he was among those robbed.

SEE ALSO: APEC summit to impact transit, commute into SF on Bay Bridge

"Thank you very much for the support we received in ÄT news. We'll keep shooting. We are here for the US President's summit with the Chinese leader. And we'll be there (as always) for CT," Vostal wrote in Crech on the social media platform X.

Bay Area television stations often send armed guards with reporters and photographers as a security measure while covering local news.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco has drawn world leaders, CEOs, and journalists from around the globe, with an estimated 20,000 attendees.

President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet during the summit, marking their first engagement in nearly a year.

VIDEO - Thousands march in San Francisco protesting APEC Summit - YouTube

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VIDEO -1min-30 sec starts Chicago Holds Secret Job Fairs For Migrants While Residents Are Unemployed - YouTube

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VIDEO - Max Blumenthal confronts State Dept on Gaza double standards - YouTube

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VIDEO - Thousands evacuated as Iceland braces for imminent volcanic eruption ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube

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VIDEO - Refugees are forced to sleep on the street in Belgium | Focus on Europe - YouTube

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VIDEO - Al-Shifa hospital: Doctors race to save newborns as Israel says it's battling Hamas around Gaza's largest hospital | CNN

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Tue, 14 Nov 2023 15:50

CNN '--

Premature babies at Gaza's largest hospital are being wrapped in foil and placed next to hot water in a desperate bid to keep them alive in ''catastrophic'' conditions, the hospital director has warned, as Israeli firepower pounds surrounding streets and remaining fuel reserves dry up, leaving the facility unable to function.

Staff at the Al-Shifa hospital were fighting to keep the newborns alive and warm after oxygen supplies ran out and they had to move the babies by hand from the neonatal unit's incubators to a different part of the hospital. Meanwhile, a reporter for the Al Arabiya network who was inside the hospital told CNN that people were trapped there, too scared to flee due to the heavy fighting.

''There is no more water, food, milk for children and babies'... the situation in the hospital is catastrophic,'' the director of the medical center, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, told CNN on Monday.

Images show several newborn babies who were taken from incubators at the hospital placed together in one bed.

In recent days, 15 patients have died at Al-Shifa, among them six newborns, due to power outages and a shortage of medical supplies, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, which draws its figures from the Hamas-controlled territory.

It comes amid Israel's unrelenting bombardment and blockade of Gaza, an already impoverished and densely packed territory, following the deadly October 7 attack on its territory by Hamas militants.

Dr. Medhat Abbas, the director general of Gaza's health ministry, told CNN that medical staff at Al-Shifa kept four infants alive after their mothers died by performing C-sections. ''Now they have to make it without their mothers and without electricity'... Can you imagine that?'' he said in a voice note.

''When these babies are born prematurely, to sustain their lives they need to have the same temperature of the>>ir mother. This temperature can only be offered in the incubators, which are heated properly,'' Abbas said.

He warned that the situation would only worsen as winter draws in.

An Israeli military spokesperson told CNN on Saturday its forces were engaged in ''ongoing intense fighting'' against Hamas in the vicinity of the hospital complex, but denied firing at the northern Gaza medical center and rejected suggestions the hospital is under siege.

Asked about the hospitals in Gaza at an unrelated Oval Office event Monday, President Joe Biden told reporters, ''hospitals must be protected.''

Israel has repeatedly claimed there is a Hamas command center underneath Al-Shifa hospital, which Hamas and hospital officials have denied. The Israeli military has also previously accused Hamas of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure. CNN cannot independently verify the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) claims.

A US official with knowledge of American intelligence told CNN Monday that Hamas has a command node under the Al-Shifa hospital, uses fuel intended for it, and its fighters regularly cluster in and around the hospital.

Working by candlelight A freelance journalist inside Al-Shifa described dozens of bodies yet to be buried, ambulances that were unable to collect the wounded, and life-support systems with no electricity to function. Medics were working by candlelight, food was being rationed and people inside were starting to drink pipe water, the journalist said late Saturday.

CNN also spoke to a reporter for the Al Arabiya network, Khader al Zaanoun, who is inside the hospital.

''Communication is very bad and almost impossible for us to report what is happening in the hospital and its yards, we barely have cell lines but no internet,'' he said.

''No-one can move or dare to go out of the hospital, the staff here are aware of many strikes that are happening around the hospital, we see smoke coming up from those strikes and we know that there are people in some of those buildings but ambulances do not make their way out of the hospital because'... during the last days an ambulance was hit on its way out of the hospital.''

Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa, told CNN that 7,000 displaced people were desperately trying to shelter in Al-Shifa hospital with about 1,500 patients and medical staff.

Inside the hospital, none of the operating rooms are functioning due to a lack of electricity, Abu Salmiya told Al Araby TV, adding that ''whoever needs surgery dies, and we cannot do anything for him.''

''Now the wounded come to us and we cannot give them anything other than first aid,'' he said.

The World Health Organization says Al-Shifa has been without power for three days. ''Regrettably, the hospital is not functioning as a hospital anymore,'' it said.

The spokesman for the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza, Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra, said over the weekend that the intensive care unit, pediatric department and oxygen devices were out of service.

Al-Shifa is far from alone. On Sunday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society announced that Al-Quds Hospital, another major facility in Gaza City, was out of service. The PRCS said the hospital '' the second largest in Gaza '' was ''no longer operational. This cessation of services is due to the depletion of available fuel and power outage.''

Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 11,180 people, including 4,609 children and 3,100 women, according to the health ministry. At least 28,200 people have been injured.

Israel's blockade on essential supplies including fuel entering Gaza has deepened a humanitarian crisis as hospitals, water systems, bakeries and other services reliant on electricity shut down.

Volker T¼rk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Wednesday that both Hamas and Israel had committed war crimes in the past month.

Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, the director-general of the Hamas-controlled health ministry, said Monday that medical staff at Al-Shifa had refused an IDF evacuation order because they fear approximately 700 patients will die if they are left behind.

''The problem is not the doctors, it's the patients. And if they are left behind, they will die, and if they are transferred they will die on the way, this is the problem, we are talking about 700 patients,'' Al-Bursh told CNN on Monday.

''There has been no response until now by the doctors, but some of the displaced people and families have already been leaving.''

The evacuation order, according to Al-Bursh, is not coordinated with any international humanitarian agencies, such as the International Red Cross. The lack of coordination raises concerns about the safety and feasibility of transferring such a large number of patients, many of whom are in critical condition and will die in transport, he said.

CNN has requested comment from the IDF regarding Al-Bursh's allegation that it has ordered the hospital's evacuation.

Earlier on Monday, the IDF announced that an evacuation corridor for residents of northern Gaza had been reopened. IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said Sunday that the majority of people in Al-Nasr hospital and Al Rantisi Pediatric hospital, both in northern Gaza, had been evacuated.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that there's ''no reason'' patients can't be evacuated from Al-Shifa. Netanyahu told CNN that Israel is helping patients by establishing corridors on the ground and said that ''100 or so'' have already been evacuated from the hospital.

CNN cannot independently verify whether any people have been able to evacuate.

CNN has previously documented Palestinian civilians being killed by Israeli strikes around evacuation zones, underscoring the reality that evacuation zones and warning alerts from the IDF haven't guaranteed safety for civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip.

International calls for a ceasefire continue to mount as global leaders pile pressure on Israel over the spiralling civilian death toll, and huge crowds gather in cities around the world for pro-Palestinian protests. But Netanyahu reiterated to CNN on Sunday that the only halt in fighting he would accept is ''one in which we have our hostages released.''

The Israeli military estimates 240 hostages are being held by Hamas in Gaza, including civilian men, women and children. The militant group has released just four hostages '' two elderly Israeli women and an American mother and daughter '' while the Israeli forces said they had rescued an Israeli soldier.

Israeli troops on Sunday continued their ground operation in Gaza by going deeper into Gaza City, army spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press briefing. Infantry and combat engineering forces reached the outskirts of al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza, Hagari said, which is near Al-Shifa hospital. Meanwhile, army forces in coordination with the Navy raided the Gaza marina area and are currently in the areas to its east.

On Sunday, the Israeli military said it had put 300 liters of fuel at the entrance to the Shifa hospital complex, but that Hamas had blocked the hospital from receiving it. Abu Salmiya told Al Araby TV that staff had been too scared to go out to get it.

''We told the Israeli army that the 300 liters of fuel they offered is not enough to operate the hospital for 30 minutes,'' Abu Salmiya told CNN. He said Monday that the hospital had asked the IDF for 600 liters of fuel for every hour to power its generators, but that the IDF had yet to respond.

The IDF released a video it said showed soldiers delivering the jerry cans to a curbside location near the hospital entrance. It also released an audio recording, purportedly of a hospital official accusing a Hamas leader at the health ministry of refusing to allow it to be collected.

Abu Salmiya said it was the presence of Israeli tanks that had prevented collection.

''Of course, my paramedic team was completely afraid to go out,'' he said, adding: ''We want every drop of fuel, but I told (the IDF) that it should be sent through the International Red Cross or through any international institution.''

Hamas dismissed the allegations and said the Israeli fuel delivery was a propaganda stunt.

This story is being updated with additional developments.

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VIDEO - 'A Climate Demonstration, Not A Political View': Man Interrupts Greta Thunberg At Pro-Palestinian Climate Rally | The Daily Caller

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A man momentarily interrupted Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg at a climate rally in Amsterdam, video posted Sunday shows.

''We have not been listening; the people in power have not been listening '... '' Thunberg said, just as a man in a green jacket walked towards her and seized the microphone, the video clip, shared by Nexta, showed.

''I've come here for a climate demonstration, not a political view,'' the man said, eliciting groans from the audience and remonstrations from the demonstrators standing behind Thunberg.

Thunberg eventually wrested the microphone from the man in a brief struggle as other attendees '-- two of whom sported keffiyehs '-- escorted the man off the stage, per the video. Thunberg was heard repeatedly saying, ''Calm down,'' while following the man as he was being escorted.

Thunberg, also wearing a keffiyeh, then retook the stage and joined the chant, ''No climate justice on occupied land,'' as some demonstrators behind her raised their fists.

NEW '' Greta Thunberg: ''No climate justice on occupied land.''pic.twitter.com/SjXTt1lgBP

'-- Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 12, 2023

Sunday's incident occurred in the Netherlands, to which the rally had drawn tens of thousands of attendees, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Two women, a Palestinian and an Afghan, had just finished speaking at Thunberg's invitation when the man appeared, stepping onto the stage. (RELATED: Greta Thunberg Weighs In On The Israel-Hamas War)

Thunberg and other demonstrators, claimed to number 70,000, later marched through the streets of the Dutch capital city, the AP noted. The protest comes ten days before the general election in the Netherlands, with tackling climate change being a key policy issue for the political parties.

Greta Thunberg in Amsterdam: ''A-Anti-Anticapitalista!'' So not about climate? pic.twitter.com/eGVdRce3RT

'-- RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) November 12, 2023

Thunberg could be seen in one of the video clips of the march through Amsterdam's streets chanting alongside the crowd, ''A-Anti-Anticapitalista!''

Some political leaders, including former European Union climate chief Frans Timmermans, later addressed the crowd in a square behind the landmark Rijksmuseum, AP noted.

Timmermans reportedly leads the two-party Labour and Green Left alliance going into the Nov. 22 polls, per Politico.

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Kimberly Guilfoyle3 days ago

America's path to success: A trip down Donald J Trump Avenue, inside Florida rally, plus shocking report on New York Judge, live with Doug Burns, Joe Kent, and Lee Greenwood245K

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