International
Biden ridiculed after saying he’s been supportive of Palestinians
Biden ridiculed after saying he’s been supportive of Palestinians
Washington, DC – After the Israeli military bombed a school housing displaced people in central Gaza on Tuesday, a young man stood at the chaotic scene with a rocket fragment in his hand. “This is an Israeli American missile,” he said.
“We were stepping on corpses. I cannot describe the cruelty of what is happening,” the man said in a video verified by Al Jazeera after the attack in the Nuseirat area, which killed 17 civilians and injured dozens.
Such mass-casualty attacks have been a near-daily reality for Palestinians in Gaza for the past nine months. Officials and everyday people in the besieged territory have expressed outrage that the bombs decimating their lives are, in many cases, supplied by the United States as part of its alliance with Israel.
After air raids in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis killed at least 90 Palestinians last week, the Gaza Government Media Office blamed the US directly for the attack.
But US President Joe Biden has a different view of Washington’s role in the war.
“I’m the guy that did more for the Palestinian community than anybody,” he said in an interview that aired online on Monday.
“I’m the guy that opened up all the assets. I’m the guy that made sure that I got the Egyptians to open the border… I’m the guy that’s been able to pull together the Arab states to agree to help the Palestinians with food and shelter.”
He added, “I mean, I’ve been very supportive of the Palestinians.”
The US president’s assertion was met with ridicule by Palestinian rights advocates, who stressed that Biden’s unconditional support for Israel is fuelling a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“It’s hard to decide whether these comments by Biden were arrogant, blind or deceitful. It seems that he wants to take credit both for enabling the genocide and for letting Palestinians have a little bit of medicine and water and food,” said Amer Zahr, a Palestinian American comedian and activist.
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Lexis Zeidan, a Detroit-based Palestinian American organiser, echoed that criticism.
“The only thing Biden did more for when it comes to Palestinians is increase their death toll with US-funded Israeli bombs,” she told Al Jazeera.
Armed by the US, the Israeli military has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians in Gaza and levelled large parts of the territory.
A self-proclaimed Zionist
In the same interview with journalist Speedy Morman, Biden re-asserted that he identifies as a Zionist.
“A Zionist is about whether or not Israel is a safe haven for Jews because of their history of how they’ve been persecuted,” he said.
The president then went on to ask the interviewer whether he knows what it means to be a Zionist.
Zionism is a Jewish nationalist ideology that emerged in Europe in the late 1800s, calling for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, where only a small minority of the population was Jewish at that time.
While the ideology’s supporters present it as a form of self-determination, many Palestinian rights advocates argue that Zionism has led to the dispossession and ongoing subjugation and oppression of Palestinians.
During the interview, Biden reiterated a position he often repeats while explaining his affinity for Israel: He claimed that Jews across the world would not be safe without the country.
“If there weren’t an Israel, every Jew in the world would be at risk,” he said.
Some activists say such remarks could be seen to perpetuate the anti-Semitic trope of “dual loyalty”: the idea that Jewish people must be loyal to Israel, whatever their background.
Eva Borgwardt, national spokesperson at IfNotNow, a youth-led Jewish-American progressive group, slammed the president’s comment.
“Many of us hear this repeated statement as a threat to our safety in this country. As president of the United States, it’s Biden’s job to make the US safe for everyone, including Jewish Americans,” Borgwardt told Al Jazeera in a statement.
“If he wants to keep Jews safe, he should focus on combating the real and present danger of white nationalism, instead of sending more bombs for Israel to prolong its assault on Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and left hostages to languish in captivity.”
US support for Israel
Zahr, the Palestinian American comedian, also slammed Biden for insisting that he is a Zionist.
“After nine months, he is still defiantly and proudly calling himself a Zionist. Well, in November, he’s going to see how that word makes us vote,” Zahr told Al Jazeera.
Due to his unwavering support for Israel, Biden has struggled with key constituencies in the Democratic Party, including young people, progressives, and Arab and Muslim Americans.
His electoral woes were exasperated after a disastrous debate performance in June, where he appeared exhausted and confused at times.
While Biden and top officials in his administration often underscore their backing of Israel, the president played down that support during the interview with Morman.
Ahmad Abuznaid, the executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USPCR), said Biden is claiming that he supports Palestinians because he understands that he has alienated voters in communities that support Palestinian rights.
“And so he attempted to make himself an ally of the movement when, in fact, what he’s doing is supporting the genocide of our people,” Abuznaid told Al Jazeera. “At this moment, he’s arming it. He’s defending it. He’s supporting it. And that’s how Palestinian Americans perceive President Biden and these comments. The comments are offensive. They’re disrespectful.”
Biden had boasted earlier this month that he is more popular in Israel than he is in the US. But when addressing the Arab vote with Morman, the US president falsely claimed that the US is only sending defensive weapons to Israel.
“I denied them offensive weapons that they were using, 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs and the rest,” he said.
While the US did stop a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel this year, Biden administration officials have stressed that the transfer of other weapons has continued steadily on a regular basis.
In April, Biden signed off on $14bn in additional US military aid to Israel. And the Pentagon confirmed this week that 500-pound (226kg) bombs that were part of the suspended shipment have been separated and released to the US ally.
“Biden could stop this genocide today by turning off the tap of unlimited funds and weapons to Israel. But instead, he allows Netanyahu to do as he pleases, repeatedly calls himself a Zionist, and does what the emperor does — supports Israel unequivocally because Israel secures US interests in the Arab world,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, chair of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN).
“If Biden is our saviour, then who out there is our enemy?”
Biden ridiculed after saying he’s been supportive of Palestinians
International
Canada, Mexico, China respond to Trump tariff threats
Canada, Mexico, China respond to Trump tariff threats
Officials from Canada, Mexico and China have warned US President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to impose sweeping tariffs on America’s three largest trading partners could upend the economies of all four countries.
“To one tariff will follow another in response and so on, until we put our common businesses at risk,” Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said.
Trump vowed on Monday night to introduce 25% tariffs on goods coming from Mexico and Canada and an additional 10% on goods coming from China. He said the duties were a bid to clamp down on drugs and illegal immigration.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke to Trump in the hours after the announcement and planned to hold a meeting with Canada’s provincial leaders on Wednesday to discuss a response.
A spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington DC told the BBC: “No-one will win a trade war or a tariff war.”
The international pushback came a day after Trump announced his plans for his first day in office, on 20 January, in a post on his social media website, Truth Social.
Trudeau said his country was prepared to work with the US in “constructive ways”.
“This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on, and that’s what we’ll do,” Trudeau told reporters.
In a phone call with Trump, Trudeau said the pair discussed trade and border security, with the prime minister pointing out that the number of migrants crossing the Canadian border was much smaller compared with the US-Mexico border.
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Trump’s team declined to confirm the phone call.
But Trump spokesman Steven Cheung added that world leaders had sought to “develop stronger relationships” with Trump “because he represents global peace and stability”.
Mexico’s President Sheinbaum told reporters on Tuesday that neither threats nor tariffs would solve the “migration phenomenon” or drug consumption in the US.
Reading from a letter that she said she would send to Trump, Sheinbaum also warned that Mexico would retaliate by imposing its own taxes on US imports, which would “put common enterprises at risk”.
She said Mexico had taken steps to tackle illegal migration into the US and that “caravans of migrants no longer reach the border”.
The issue of drugs, she added, “is a problem of public health and consumption in your country’s society”.
Sheinbaum, who took office last month, noted that US car manufacturers produce some of their parts in Mexico and Canada.
“If tariffs go up, who will it hurt? General Motors,” she said.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, told the BBC that “China-US economic and trade co-operation is mutually beneficial in nature”.
He denied that China allows chemicals used in the manufacture of illegal drugs – including fentanyl – to be smuggled to the US.
“China has responded to US request for verifying clues on certain cases and taken action,” Liu said.
“All these prove that the idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality.”
President Joe Biden has left in place the tariffs on China that Trump introduced in his first term, and added a few more of his own.
Currently, a majority of what the two countries sell to each other is subject to tariffs – 66.4% of US imports from China and 58.3% of Chinese imports from the US.
Speaking in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Trudeau told lawmakers that “the idea of going to war with the United States isn’t what anyone wants”.
He called on them to not “panic”, and to work together.
“That is the work we will do seriously, methodically. But without freaking out,” he said.
The leaders of Canadian provinces suggested that they would impose their own tariffs on the US.
“The things we sell to the United States are the things they really need,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday. “We sell them oil, we sell them electricity, we sell them critical minerals and metals.”
America’s northern neighbour accounted for some $437bn (£347bn) of US imports in 2022, and was the largest market for US exports in the same year, according to US data.
Canada sends about 75% of its total exports to the US.
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said on Monday the proposed tariff would be “devastating to workers and jobs in both Canada and the US”.
“To compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard,” said Ford.
Ford was echoed by the premiers of Quebec, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, while a post on the X account of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith acknowledged that Trump had “valid concerns related to illegal activities at our shared border”.
The Canadian dollar, the Loonie, has plunged in value since Trump vowed to impose tariffs on Canadian imports come January.
The Canadian dollar dipped below 71 US cents, the lowest level the Loonie has fallen to since May 2020, when Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian goods during his first stint as US president. The Mexican peso fell to its lowest value this year, around 4.8 cents.
Canada, Mexico, China respond to Trump tariff threats
BBC
International
Relief as Israel agrees to ceasefire with Lebanon
Relief as Israel agrees to ceasefire with Lebanon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will bring a US-brokered proposal for a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon to his government for approval as soon as Tuesday evening.
He said in a televised address that he would put “a ceasefire outline” to ministers “this evening”.
He however did not say how long the truce would last, noting “the length of the ceasefire depends on what happens in Lebanon”.
But it later learnt that the ceasefire would is for 60 days.
During the period, Hezbollah fighters are expected to retreat 40 kilometres from Israel’s border, with Israeli ground forces withdrawing from Lebanese territory.
“If Hezbollah violates the agreement and attempts to rearm, we will strike,” Netanyahu warned.
Key Israel backer the United States has led ceasefire efforts for Lebanon alongside France.
US President Joe Biden is optimistic the deal will lead to a “permanent cessation of hostilities”.
Biden added that the US would lead another push for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“In full coordination with the United States, we are maintaining full military freedom of action,” Netanyahu said, outlining the seven-front war Israel says it faces in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Iran.
Even as Netanyahu spoke about the ceasefire, the Israeli military carried out multiple strikes on heart of Beirut while the army said some 15 projectiles had entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon.
Demonstrators raise placards and Israeli flags during a protest in front of the Israeli Defence Ministry in the coastal city Tel Aviv on November 26, 2024, against a possible ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon. – Israel’s security cabinet has started discussing a proposed ceasefire deal in its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, an Israeli official confirmed to AFP on November 26. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
The war in Lebanon escalated after nearly a year of limited cross-border exchanges of fire begun by Hezbollah, which said it was acting in support of Hamas after its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.
The war has killed at least 3,823 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September.
On the Israeli side, the hostilities have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities say.
Netanyahu said the ceasefire would allow Israel to focus on “the Iranian threat” and ramp up its fight against Hamas in Gaza.
“With Hezbollah out of the picture, Hamas is left on its own,” he said.
“We will increase our pressure on Hamas and that will help us in our sacred mission of releasing our hostages.”
During last year’s Hamas attack, militants took 251 hostages, of whom 97 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the army has declared dead.
International
Israeli strikes pound central Beirut, suburbs
Israeli strikes pound central Beirut, suburbs
BEIRUT: Israeli strikes pounded a densely-populated part of the Lebanese capital and its southern suburbs on Tuesday, hours ahead of an anticipated announcement of a ceasefire ending hostilities between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
A strike on Beirut hit the Noueiri district with no evacuation warning and killed at least one person, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a preliminary toll.
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Minutes later, at least 10 Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs. They began approximately 30 minutes after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for 20 locations in the area, the largest such warning yet.
As the strikes were under way, Israel’s military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the air force was conducting a “widespread attack” on Hezbollah targets across the city.
Israeli strikes pound central Beirut, suburbs
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