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Antony Blinken ends Middle East tour with no breakthrough

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Antony Blinken ends Middle East tour with no breakthrough

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Owned by Scott Trust Limited which is chaired by  Alex Graham. Any profits are reinvested into the paper rather than into shareholders. Article provides interesting perspective of the conflict through other Middle Eastern states.

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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has finished his Middle East tour with no breakthrough in reducing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, saying that it was "fundamentally up to them" to end the violence after days of bloodshed.

Blinken said he had heard "deep concern about the current trajectory" during meetings in Israel and the occupied West Bank but, beyond calling for a "de-escalation", he offered no new US initiative.

Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem, Blinken said he had heard "some concrete ideas" from Israelis and Palestinians but added: "It is fundamentally up to them. They have to work together to find a path forward that both defuses the current cycle of violence and, I hope, also leads to positive steps to build back some confidence."

The visit, which included a stop in Egypt, had been long planned but arrived at a critical time, with Israel and Palestine reeling from a round of devastating attacks that threaten an explosion of violence.

An Israeli operation in the Jenin refugee camp last week, one of its deadliest raids in the West Bank for decades, killed 10 Palestinians, mostly gunmen but also two civilians, including a 61-year-old woman. The next day, a Palestinian gunman killed seven Israelis outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem in the worst such attack in recent memory.

Almost two dozen people have been killed over the past week, as heightened tensions have led to retaliatory attacks, including shootings, targeting Israelis and Palestinians.

After meeting the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem on Monday, Blinken travelled to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday for discussions with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and his prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh.

After those meetings, Blinken expressed his "sorrow for the innocent Palestinian civilians who have lost their lives in escalating violence over the last year" - the deadliest in the West Bank for more than a decade.

Expectations that Washington's top envoy could take the region off the path to more bloodshed were close to zero, with Blinken repeating the US government's longstanding aspirations for a "two-state solution" in which Palestinians get their own country - an idea that is openly rejected by far-right figures in Israel's newly installed government.

During the visit, the secretary of state announced an additional $50m (£40.6m) in funding for the UN agency for refugees, and said he had asked state department colleagues from Washington to stay behind to do more work. But no major initiative was announced.

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Blinken's visit is instead seen as an attempt to contain the issue, as part of Joe Biden's efforts to ensure the Israel-Palestinian crisis does not overshadow the US's broader goals, particularly defeating Russia in Ukraine.

In Ramallah, Blinken had urged Abbas to continue working with Israel on security issues, which were cut as a show of anger after the Jenin raid.

Abbas, however, has limited power and remains deeply unpopular among Palestinians, who accuse him of acting as a subcontractor for Israel to carry out its occupation. A new generation of frustrated and armed Palestinian militias unconnected to their increasingly isolated leaders is growing in power.

In Israel, the Netanyahu government's response to the killings has been to propose new measures that further punish Palestinians, including making it easier to demolish the family homes of people who carry out attacks - a practice that has been widely condemned as collective punishment. The government also wants to make it easier for Israeli citizens to carry weapons.

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Antony Blinken ends Middle East tour with no breakthrough

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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has finished his Middle East tour with no breakthrough in reducing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, saying that it was "fundamentally up to them" to end the violence after days of bloodshed.

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Three seperate authors. One based in the Gaza Strip, one in Jerusalem, and one in New London. All of them had a decent digital footprint and weren't too hard to find.

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More than a week of fighting between Israel and Hamas showed few signs of abating on Tuesday despite intense U.S. and global diplomacy to stop the region's fiercest hostilities in years.

The Israeli military said late on Monday that Hamas and other Palestinian groups had fired about 3,350 rockets from Gaza - 200 of them on Monday alone - and that Israeli air and artillery strikes had killed at least 130 militants.

Gaza health officials put the Palestinian death toll at 212, including 61 children and 36 women, since hostilities began last week. Ten people have been killed in Israel, including two children.

Amid seemingly fruitless diplomatic efforts to stop the violence, the top U.S. military officer, Army General Mark Milley, warned that the violence could spread.

"My assessment is that you risk broader destabilization and you risk a whole series of negative consequences if the fighting continues," Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters before landing in Brussels on Monday for talks with NATO allies. "It's in no one's interest to continue fighting."

Around midnight, six shells were fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel, but fell short of crossing the border, the Israeli military said, adding that it fired artillery at "the sources of the launches" in Lebanon.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that it was intensifying patrols after it detected the firing of rockets from the area of Rashaya Al Foukhar, north of Kfar Choub in southern Lebanon.

UNIFIL added on Twitter that the situation in the area was now calm and that its head of mission remained in contact with all parties to ensure stability.

Israel fought a 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas, trading rockets and air strikes, but the border has since been mostly quiet.

DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS

U.S. President Joe Biden expressed his support for a ceasefire during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, the White House said in a statement.

But Netanyahu told Israelis earlier that strikes against militant sites and leaders in Gaza would carry on.

"The directive is to continue to strike at terror targets," he said in a televised speech, after meeting with military and intelligence chiefs. "We will continue to act as necessary to restore peace and security to all residents of Israel."

The armed wing of Hamas promised more rockets in return: "The criminal Zionist enemy intensified its bombing of homes and residential apartments in the recent hours, and therefore, we warn the enemy that if it did not stop that immediately, we would resume rocketing Tel Aviv," said spokesman Abu Ubaida.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged all sides to protect civilians.

Although stressing that Israel had the right to defend itself, Blinken said he had not seen any evidence from Israel about its suggestion that Hamas was operating out of a building housing media outlets - including the U.S.-based Associated Press - which was destroyed in an Israeli missile strike at the weekend.

Hamas denied having offices in the building. "These are false allegations and an attempt to justify the crime of targeting a civilian tower," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.

Egypt and U.N. mediators also stepped up diplomatic efforts, while the U.N. General Assembly will meet to discuss the violence on Thursday.

The Biden administration approved the potential sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israel, and congressional sources said on Monday that U.S. lawmakers were not expected to object to the deal.

COMMUNAL VIOLENCE

Hamas began its rocket assault last Monday after weeks of tensions over a court case to evict several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, and in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near the city's al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The hostilities between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gaza have been accompanied by an uptick of violence in the West Bank, where the Palestinians have limited self-rule.

There have also been clashes between Israel's Jewish and Arab communities in mixed areas.

Israel's president has warned that tension between Jewish and Arab Israelis could devolve into "civil war".

General strikes are planned for Tuesday in Arab towns within Israel and Palestinian towns in the West Bank, with posts on social media urging solidarity "from the sea to the river."

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Israel-Gaza violence shows few signs of slowing as global diplomacy ramps up

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More than a week of fighting between Israel and Hamas showed few signs of abating on Tuesday despite intense U.S. and global diplomacy to stop the region's fiercest hostilities in years.

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No specific authors for this article which is unusual for AP.

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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government to overhaul the judicial system, measures that opponents say imperil the country's democratic foundation.

Israeli media, citing police, said some 100,000 people were out protesting.

The protest followed another demonstration last week that also drew tens of thousands in an early challenge to Netanyahu and his ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox government - the most right-wing in Israeli history.

The government says a power imbalance has given judges and government legal advisers too much sway over lawmaking and governance. Netanyahu has pledged to press on with the changes despite the opposition.

Protesters filled central streets in the seaside metropolis, raising Israeli flags and banners that read "Our Children will not Live in a Dictatorship" and "Israel, We Have A Problem."

"This is a protest to defend the country," said opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who joined the protest. "People came here today to protect their democracy."

"All generations are concerned. This is not a joke," said Lior Student, a protester. "This is a complete redefinition of democracy."

Other protests took place in the cities of Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheba.

In addition to the protests, pressure has built up on Netanyahu's government after the country's attorney general asked Netanyahu to fire a key Cabinet ally following a Supreme Court ruling that disqualified him from holding a government post because of a conviction of tax offenses.

While Netanyahu was expected to heed the court ruling, it only deepened the rift in the country over the judicial system and the power of the courts.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, vowed to continue with the judicial overhaul plans despite the protests. Opponents say the changes could help Netanyahu evade conviction in his corruption trial, or make the court case disappear altogether.

On Friday, Netanyahu's coalition was put for a new test after a disagreement between Cabinet members over the dismantling of an unauthorized settlement outpost in the West Bank.

Defense Minister Yoav Galant, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, ordered the removal of the outpost, upsetting a pro-settlement Cabinet member who had issued a directive to postpone the eviction pending further discussions.

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Israelis press on with protests against new government

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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government to overhaul the judicial system, measures that opponents say imperil the country's democratic foundation.

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Blinken Urges Calm as Israel-Palestine Violence Escalates

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Blinken Urges Calm as Israel-Palestine Violence Escalates

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Taiwanese news source. Gives interesting background information of other countries', such as Egypt, role in the Israel/Palestine conflict. Owned by the Liberty Times group. The Liberty Times group also owns another Taiwanese newspaper. It is hard to find more information on the group since most information is in Mandarin.

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Blinken urges calm as Israel-Palestine violence escalates - Taipei Times

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Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan

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Palestine sent aid to help earthquake victims. Tweeted by the official account of Palestinian International Cooperation Agency and retweeted by the State of Palestine twitter.

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#Palestinian Rapid Response and Rescue team just arrived to Jableh city in #Syria to start providing assistance to the victims of the devastating #earthquake 🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸

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#Palestinian Rapid Response and Rescue team just arrived to Jableh city in #Syria to start providing assistance to the victims of the devastating #earthquake 🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸 https://t.co/UPmrbrtfU6

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#Palestinian Rapid Response and Rescue team just arrived to Jableh city in #Syria to start providing assistance to the victims of the devastating #earthquake 🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/UPmrbrtfU6
— PICA (@pica_mofa) February 10, 2023

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#Palestinian Rapid Response and Rescue team just arrived to Jableh city in #Syria to start providing assistance to the victims of the devastating #earthquake 🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸 https://t.co/UPmrbrtfU6

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#Palestinian Rapid Response and Rescue team just arrived to Jableh city in #Syria to start providing assistance to the victims of the devastating #earthquake 🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸 https://t.co/UPmrbrtfU6

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#Palestinian Rapid Response and Rescue team just arrived to Jableh city in #Syria to start providing assistance to the victims of the devastating #earthquake 🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸🇸🇾🇵🇸

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Left-leaning source: Washington Post: Palestinian Teenager Shot

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Left-leaning source: Washington Post: Palestinian Teenager Shot

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Very factual article and also provides a lot of context for the larger Israel/Palestine conflict. I found an article about this teen being shot in both the Washington Post and Fox News to directly compare them.

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Right-leaning source: Fox News: Palestinian Teenager Shot

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Right-leaning source: Fox News: Palestinian Teenager Shot

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Very similar to the Washington post article. The main difference is that this article provides a little more details about the incident surrounding the teen who got shot.

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A Palestinian teen was killed Tuesday during an Israeli army raid in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Palestinian officials said.

The death was the latest in an almost year-long surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence that shows no signs of abating.

The Israeli military said it carried out raids across the occupied West Bank overnight, and that during an operation in the Faraa refugee camp, a person approached troops with an explosive device. The army said that soldiers shot the person.

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that local residents clashed with Israeli soldiers, who shot at them.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that Mahmoud Al-Aydi, 17, died from a bullet wound to the head.
EGYPTIAN APARTMENT BUILDING COLLAPSE KILLS 2, INJURES 20 OTHERS

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Tensions have mounted for months as Israel has conducted nightly arrest raids in the West Bank, which were prompted by a spate of Palestinian attacks on Israelis last spring. Some 30 people were killed in Israel by Palestinians in 2022, and at least 12 others died in attacks so far in 2023.

On Monday, an Israeli Border Police officer died after he was stabbed by a Palestinian teen in east Jerusalem. Police said a security guard opened fire, apparently shooting 1st Sgt. Asil Su'ad.

Su'ad, a Bedouin Arab serving in Israel's paramilitary police force, was to be laid to rest in northern Israel on Tuesday.

Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed last year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B'Tselem. At least 48 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops since the start of this year.

Israel says that most of those killed have been militants but others - including youths protesting the incursions and other people not involved in confrontations - have also been killed.

Israel says the military raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks while the Palestinians view them as further entrenchment of Israel's open-ended, 55-year occupation.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for independent state.

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Palestinian teenager fatally shot during Israeli army raid in West Bank

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A Palestinian teen was killed Tuesday during an Israeli army raid in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Palestinian officials said. The death was the latest in an almost year-long surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence that shows no signs of abating.

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Unpopular Public Opinion on Judicial Reforms

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Unpopular Public Opinion on Judicial Reforms

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Israeli citizens are upset that soon the Israeli high court will rule that judicial reforms are illegal. They are mass protesting this and organizing groups to fight this. Interestingly, many articles from this outlet write about this potential judicial reform, but do not mention the Israel/Palestine conflict.

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Even though the article title is about Israel striking back at Hamas, they provide relatively few details. The article mostly speaks about Hamas's rocket attack a few days before.

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Iron Dome intercepts 5 of the 6 rockets fired at southern Israel; military says it struck Hamas weapons depot situated near school and clinic proving Hamas places assets among civilian population

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Israel strikes Hamas targets in Gaza after rocket fire

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Iron Dome intercepts 5 of the 6 rockets fired at southern Israel; military says it struck Hamas weapons depot situated near school and clinic proving Hamas places assets among civilian population

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Palestinians Killed in Israeli Raid in West Bank

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Palestinians Killed in Israeli Raid in West Bank

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Tweeted from Palestine's state official twitter. Their tweets are mostly in English and are about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The account seems to do more outreach to western countries than trying to inform their own citizens. Their twitter is certainly more inflammatory than Israel's twitter account.

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🚨Breaking: At Least 10 #Palestinians Killed During Israeli Raid in West Bank https://t.co/lNvzf47Ox4 @UNISPAL @UN #Nablus @nytimesworld @nytimes

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At Least 10 Palestinians Killed During Israeli Raid in West Bank

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A gunfight broke out between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen during an Israeli operation to arrest Palestinian fighters. Ten Palestinians were killed and more than 100 others wounded.

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🚨Breaking: At Least 10 #Palestinians Killed During Israeli Raid in West Bank https://t.co/lNvzf47Ox4 @UNISPAL @UN #Nablus @nytimesworld @nytimes

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🚨Breaking: At Least 10 #Palestinians Killed During Israeli Raid in West Bank https://t.co/lNvzf47Ox4 @UNISPAL @UN #Nablus @nytimesworld @nytimes
— State of Palestine (@Palestine_UN) February 22, 2023

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At Least 10 Palestinians Killed During Israeli Raid in West Bank

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A gunfight broke out between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen during an Israeli operation to arrest Palestinian fighters. Ten Palestinians were killed and more than 100 others wounded.

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🚨Breaking: At Least 10 #Palestinians Killed During Israeli Raid in West Bank https://t.co/lNvzf47Ox4 @UNISPAL @UN #Nablus @nytimesworld @nytimes

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🚨Breaking: At Least 10 #Palestinians Killed During Israeli Raid in West Bank https://t.co/lNvzf47Ox4 @UNISPAL @UN #Nablus @nytimesworld @nytimes

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🚨Breaking: At Least 10 #Palestinians Killed During Israeli Raid in West Bank https://t.co/lNvzf47Ox4 @UNISPAL @UN #Nablus @nytimesworld @nytimes

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At Least 10 Palestinians Killed During Israeli Raid in West Bank

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A gunfight broke out between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen during an Israeli operation to arrest Palestinian fighters. Ten Palestinians were killed and more than 100 others wounded.

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Very interesting contrast between Israel and Palestine's twitter. While Palestine only tweets about serious topics or events, the Israel twitter is much more lighthearted, mostly showcasing Israeli culture.

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Tweets by Israel

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This article has a lot more analysis than most articles I have read so far. The author is providing more beliefs than facts.

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It's been a violent two days in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. On Friday evening in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian gunman killed at least seven Israelis in the most lethal attack in the city since 2008. Israeli officials described the shooting outside a synagogue as an act of terrorism. Earlier Friday, three rockets were shot from Gaza and Israeli jets attacked an underground Hamas bomb-making facility, according to the Israeli military.

A day prior, in the refugee camp of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Israeli commandos raided an apartment building and the surrounding area, and killed nine Palestinians and wounded 20, in what a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority called "a massacre." Israel said the site of the raid housed a terrorist cell of the Islamic Jihad group.

More than one Palestinian has been killed a day on average in the first month of 2023, on track to double the tragic rate of lethal violence in the occupied West Bank last year - which was already the highest on record since the United Nations began collecting this data, and double that of 2021.

Little is known about the Friday shooter or his motives; he was killed by police after attacking the synagogue.

The escalating cycle of violence comes as CIA director Bill Burns visits Israel and Palestine; Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives there on Monday. "We underscore the urgent need for all parties to de-escalate, prevent further loss of civilian life, and work together to improve the security situation in the West Bank," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement Thursday.

But analysts described the increasingly deadly and volatile situation as a product of foreclosed hope and other structural factors, exacerbated by an extreme-right Israeli government taking power earlier this month. At the very least, things are unlikely to calm.

The situation for Palestinians was already bad and continues to get worse, says Mairav Zonszein, an International Crisis Group analyst. "With a new far right government committed to continued dispossession of Palestinians and expansion of settlements, with the Palestinian body politic in shambles and no international stakeholder taking proactive steps, the crisis is likely to continue escalating," she wrote in a message.

What we know about the attacks

It's unusual, if not unprecedented, for a Palestinian attacker to respond so quickly to an Israeli raid like the one on Thursday in Jenin, an Israeli analyst speaking on condition of anonymity told me. Though it's too soon to draw big conclusions about the particulars of each developing story, it is clear that the already dire situation could get very ugly.

On Friday evening outside a synagogue in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian militant shot at least 10 people and then was killed by police. The situation is still unfolding, and no militant Palestinian groups immediately claimed credit, but police have identified the shooter as a 21-year-old resident of East Jerusalem. The attack occurred on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. No information about the victims was immediately shared.

The Jerusalem police head pledged an " aggressive and significant" pursuit of anyone who abetted the attacker. "Israel will continue to act forcefully against the threat of terrorism. We will pursue and reach every terrorist who harms Israeli citizens," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

A day earlier, a deadly Israeli raid on a Palestinian home in the Jenin refugee camp killed nine, among them an elderly woman named Majida Obaid. "Most injuries that arrived at the hospital today were in the head and chest area," read a Palestinian Ministry of Health statement Thursday on the raid, cited by the news site Mondoweiss. "This means that the shooting of live ammunition towards residents was with the intent to kill." Israeli forces also obstructed the movement of ambulances with gunfire, the hospital's head, Wissam Baker, told Al Jazeera.

Armed Palestinian resistance groups have been expanding in the occupied territories, including in Jenin, partially in response to the fractured nature of Palestinian leadership, the lack of opportunities for Palestinians, and the long-stalled negotiations that could lead to an sovereign state of Palestine. Over the past year, Israeli forces have responded to these new groups, notably Lion's Den, with intensive raids with high numbers of civilian deaths.

The State Department's top Middle East official, Barbara Leaf, told reporters Thursday that the lethal strike in Jenin had dismantled "a ticking time bomb of a threat - of a terrorist threat," apparently amplifying comments from a senior Israeli military official.

In response to the Israeli operation, Palestine Liberation Organization chair Mahmoud Abbas said he would cut off security coordination with the Israeli government. Some experts noted that's often been a talking point for Abbas, but one he has not always followed through on.

UN special rapporteur for human rights Francesca Albanese noted Israel's obligation as an occupying power to safeguard Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and emphasized the "deeply alarming high rate of apparent extrajudicial killings of Palestinians of 2022 continues in this new year."

Should we expect more violence under Israel's new government?

In November, Israelis elected the most extreme government in the country's history. More than 80,000 protesters demonstrated against the government's new members and their judicial moves that would weaken the authority of the country's supreme court. Even Moshe Ya'alon, a former defense minister who had served as a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's center-right Likud party, has called the new Israeli government "a dictatorship of criminals." But less attention inside Israel has been paid to the radical new governing coalition's drastic implications for Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians living under occupation.

"The death toll over both in the West Bank and now in Jerusalem is in fact the entirely predictable result of an extremist Israeli government that is propagating violence," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the advocacy and research organization Democracy for the Arab World Now.

The Biden administration, for its part, has restrained its criticism of the government so far. Though the Biden administration still holds out the prospect of a two-state solution and an independent Palestinian state, those talks have been frozen since 2014, and more recently Israel has forged diplomatic relations with Arab states like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco, giving the government of Israel little incentive to advance any two-state outcome.

It's not entirely clear how Secretary of State Blinken will manage to deescalate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians during his upcoming trip. The priorities for the visit include "preserving the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the protection of human rights and democratic values," all which appear at risk of devolving further.

Tom Pickering, a career ambassador who previously served in Israel, is concerned that the rising violence could lead to a third Intifadah, or uprising, among Palestinians. "At the moment, the two-state outcome, as most people are fond of saying, is dead," he told me. "But there is a no-state outcome that's in the making" - that is, a status quo sought by the current Israeli government, in which a Palestinian state is no longer a viable possibility.

But the tragic violence of the past two days shows that's not much of a solution at all.

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Why violence in Israel and Palestine has spiked in the last 48 hours

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It's been a violent two days in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. On Friday evening in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian gunman killed at least seven Israelis in the most lethal attack in the city since 2008. Israeli officials described the shooting outside a synagogue as an act of terrorism.