- Nations Bracing for Palestinian Stateship => => => Included Further Down !
According to the Times of Israel on May 2, local time, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu once again stated in a speech at a public event that the Israeli army would launch military operations in Rafah, southern Gaza. Israeli officials said Hamas was expected to formally reject the latest hostage exchange deal.
Separately, a security source said Israeli aircraft struck a site on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus late Thursday.
Pictures widely circulated on social media showed thick smoke billowing over the struck building. Syrian state media later stated that eight soldiers were injured in the attack.
The Syrian military issued a statement in the early morning of May 3, saying that a location near the Syrian capital Damascus was hit by an Israeli air strike on the evening of the 2nd, injuring eight soldiers. The statement said that at around 22:05 local time on the 2nd, Israel launched an air strike on a location around Damascus from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, injuring eight soldiers and damaging some facilities.
The well-known financial blog Zerohedge pointed out that Israel’s new attack may be another targeted assassination operation targeting Iranian generals or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers. Of course, it is also intended to show that Israel is still not frightened by Iran’s April 13 attack. live. It is worth noting that Iran's attack was in retaliation for a previous Israeli attack on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus.
According to unconfirmed social media reports: Israeli strikes in Syria targeted the Syrian national security building in the "Najha" area of rural Damascus.
There was speculation that this was Israel's response to Syria's rocket launch into the Golan Heights earlier this week.
Zerohedge said the new attack also showed that Iran-Israel tensions that nearly led to a major regional war last month were not over.
Both sides made concessions after tit-for-tat "limited" strikes on each other's territory. Israel had reportedly planned a larger attack, but Washington reportedly pressured Netanyahu's government to back down amid concerns that the entire area would be set ablaze.
After the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, the Israeli military repeatedly carried out air strikes on targets in Syria on the pretext of attacking Iranian military facilities. Both the Syrian and Iranian governments deny that Iran has troops stationed in Syria.
Although the geopolitical situation still provides support to gold prices, investors on this trading day also need to pay attention to the U.S. non-farm payrolls report to be released at 20:30.
Economists agree that the U.S. non-farm payrolls report for April, released on Friday, is expected to add more than 200,000 jobs for the fourth consecutive month, indicating that the U.S. labor market remains tight.
The market generally expects 243,000 new jobs to be created in April, a slowdown from 303,000 new jobs in March, and the unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 3.8%.
[Chinese financial network FX678 on May 3, 2024]
BEIRUT (Tribune News Service) — People across Gaza on Wednesday sent messages of appreciation to demonstrators on U.S. campuses, thanking them for their protests against the Gaza war.
Children, parents and medical staff assembled in the courtyard before Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in central Gaza, with many of them unfurling banners carrying university insignias with “Thank you for supporting our cause.” Others brandished signs with the words “Your voices pierce the wall of silence and reach the victims in Gaza!,” “The killing of children in Gaza must stop” and “Palestine is everywhere.”
In recent days, as protests and encampments have bloomed in dozens of campuses across the U.S., people in Gaza have taken note of the outpouring of solidarity, both in America and abroad. They in turn have responded — on social media, in rallies, in videos, by words scribbled on tents — with messages of support of their own.
Many view the protests as a positive omen in a time of unrelenting bleakness in Gaza. At another event also in Deir al Balah, others hoped for similar protests to spread in European and Arab countries.
[US Military Newspaper Stars and Stripes quoting a Los Angeles Times article on May 2]
Israel is pushing back as the United Nations as well as several countries in Europe and beyond are expected to recognize a Palestinian state in the coming weeks.
After months of debate among U.N. member states, individual countries and parliaments over whether to recognize an independent Palestinian state, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said this week that five European states could do so by the end of May. In addition, the U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote on Palestinian membership on May 10, following a U.S. veto in the Security Council last month.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan told the General Assembly on Wednesday that “by advancing a Palestinian state, you are telling the Hamas murderers and rapists that terror pays off. It makes me want to vomit.”
“You know the Palestinian Authority doesn’t meet the criteria for statehood,” Erdan added. “You prefer a rogue state and to hell with the Jewish state. This is a clear message to the Palestinians that they never, ever, ever have to sit at the negotiating table, let alone make any compromises.”
The majority of U.N. states already recognize a Palestinian state. When the question of promoting “Palestine” from observer status to full U.N. membership was brought to the Security Council in April, 12 members voted in favor, with Britain and Switzerland abstaining, while the U.S. vetoed the resolution. The resolution, which is nonbinding, is set to go to a General Assembly vote next week; only the Security Council can admit new member states to the U.N.
[Jewish Insider on May 3]
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How did the Jews come to America ? There is a fictive answer to this question given by Paul Auster, America's famous contemporary author. It is based on the family legend of Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the boy whose life takes four simultaneous and independent fictional paths in Paul Auster's outstanding novel '4321': According to family legend, Ferguson's grandfather departed on foot from his native city of Minsk with one hundred rubles sewn into the lining of his jacket, traveled west to Hamburg through Warsaw and Berlin, and then booked passage on a ship called the 'Empress of China', which crossed the Atlantic in rough winter storms and sailed into New York harbor on the first day of the twentieth century. While waiting to be interviewed by an immigration official at Ellis Island, he struck up a conversation with a fellow Russian Jew. The man said to him: Forget the name Reznikoff. It won't do you any good here. You need an American name for your new life in America, something with a good American ring to it. Since English was still an alien tongue to Isaac Reznikoff in 1900, he asked his older, more experienced compatriot for a suggestion. Tell them you are Rockefeller, the man said. You can't go wrong with that. An hour passed, then another hour, and by the time the 19-year-old Reznikoff sat down to be questioned by the immigration official, he had forgotten the name the man had told him to give. Your name ? the official asked. Slapping his head in frustration, the weary immigrant blurted out in Yiddish, Ikh hob fargessen (I have forgotten) ! And so it was that Isaac Reznikoff began his new life in America as Ichabod Ferguson. Editor's note: Ichabod (Hebrew: אִיכָבוֹד ʾĪḵāḇōḏ) is a biblical name meaning "without glory", or "where is the glory?". That name makes part of Paul Auster's preferred joke in '4321'. And it should be known that Auster has a Jewish background himself. |
