Tag: Israel-Palestine

BEIJING — Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Wednesday that Beijing will send an envoy to Ukraine to discuss a possible “political settlement” to Russia’s war with the country.

Beijing has previously avoided involvement in conflicts between other countries but appears to be trying to assert itself as a global diplomatic force after arranging talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran in March that led them to restore diplomatic relations after a seven-year break.

Xi told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call that a Chinese envoy, a former Chinese ambassador to Russia, would visit Ukraine and “other countries” to discuss a possible political settlement, according to a government statement.

It made no mention of Russia or last year’s invasion of Ukraine and didn’t indicate whether the Chinese envoy might visit Moscow.

The Xi-Zelenskyy phone call was long anticipated after Beijing said it wanted to serve as a mediator in the war.

Thousands of Israelis, including ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, marched to an evacuated Jewish outpost in the West Bank on Monday in support of settlements viewed as illegal under international law. As tensions mounted between Israelis and Palestinians, Israelis from across the country travelled to the outpost of Evyatar while waving Israeli flags and chanting religious songs…

Israel launch a new spy satellite on Wednesday, the first the country has sent to space in nearly three years as it seeks to enhance its defense capabilities and prepare for a possible escalation with Iran.

An Israeli Shavit rocket delivered the Ofek-13 satellite to space, blasting off from the Palmachim Airbase on the Mediterranean coast at 7:10 p.m. ET, according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The ministry confirmed that the satellite entered its designated orbit and began transmitting data after completing an initial series of inspections. Ofek-13 still has to undergo a few more inspections before beginning its full operations “in the near future,” the defense ministry wrote.

Israel’s Ofek-13 satellite is the latest to join a series of reconnaissance satellites, the first of which launched in 1988. Its latest predecessor was the Ofek-16, which launched in July 2020. Israel’s defense ministry is claiming that Ofek-13 has the most advanced capabilities of the entire series with “unique radar observation capabilities, and will enable intelligence collection in any weather and conditions of visibility thus enhancing strategic intelligence,” Boaz Levy, CEO of state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, said in the ministry statement.

For President Xi Jinping, the Iran-Saudi deal is part of a grander political vision, and a nuts-and-bolts example of how he hopes to achieve it.

The vision is that China will ultimately displace the United States as the world’s leading power. The means to achieve it? Leveraging China’s economic clout to expand its financial, diplomatic, and military footprints worldwide.

The Mideast deal also underscores a key pillar of that approach. In explicit contrast to the United States, China is assuring its partners that “internal” issues – such as human rights – are irrelevant to its outreach and alliances.

As they work to unleash greater violence on the Palestinians, its rulers are turning Israel into a fascist garrison. Israeli headlines read like guidelines for future autocracy, with the justice minister working to strip power away from the judiciary, the communications minister threatening to defund Israel’s public broadcaster to funnel money to a channel favourable to the government, and the minister of heritage accusing organisations representing Reform Jews of endangering Jewish identity.

Fearing a tailspin into turmoil, President Isaac Herzog stepped in, with tacit support from President Joe Biden, to facilitate a compromise between the government and the protesters. But what seems like a well-intentioned effort to build consensus, is, in fact, an ill-advised attempt at appeasing fascists and pandering to evil.

Any compromise offered by Herzog would be skewed towards the ruling majority, which holds the power to interpret its articles at will. A compromise will also whitewash and empower the ruling fascists, presenting them as responsible and pragmatic actors, as they pursue their extremist agenda, and as the street opposition loses momentum and disintegrates, slowly but surely.