Leading War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu Will Visit Donald Trump

First foreign leader to meet with the new president at the White House

Philip Giraldi • January 30, 2025

https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/leading-war-criminal-benjamin-netanyahu-will-visit-donald-trump/

President Donald Trump has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with him at the White House on Tuesday February 4^th. Netanyahu will be the first foreign head of state to visit America’s new president at the White House and the message being sent by virtue of that fact would seem inescapable, i.e. that Israel is in the minds of the country’s powerbrokers and media indeed America’s “best friend” and “closest ally.” Or is it. It is possible, though admittedly less likely, that Trump, he of the enormous ego, might well take the opportunity to suppress any thoughts that the Israeli leader is basically dictating the course of US foreign policy in the Middle East. Trump just might want to make it clear in the face-to-face that he is the one who is in charge.

I must admit that when the story broke, my first thought was that Netanyahu might discover that he was lured to Washington. When his plane lands at Dulles International or Andrews AFB, I even hoped there would be an international police contingent waiting for him to show him the warrant for his arrest, read him his rights, shackle him, and send him off to The Hague to be tried for his numerous war crimes and his involvement in genocide. Hopefully, Joe Biden and Tony Blinken would be treated similarly and sent off on the same plane. But my dream outcome for the visit faded as reality set in and I came to accept that Bibi will be more likely feted as royalty by the neocons and other not-quite-human trash that now infests the US government.

There is however admittedly a distinct possibility that Trump will assert himself as he apparently did recently when a video was posted by him on the Trump social media site Truth Social. The video featured Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs bad mouthing Bibi, saying “Netanyahu had from 1995 onward the theory that the only way we’re gonna get rid of Hamas and Hezbollah is by toppling the governments that support them. That’s Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Iran. And the guy’s nothing if not obsessive. And he’s still trying to get us to fight Iran this day, this week. He’s a deep dark sonofabitch, sorry to tell you. ’Cause he’s gotten us into endless wars, and because of the power of all of this in the US politics, he’s gotten his way.”

Or, alternatively, Trump could easily continue the Middle East policy that prevailed in his first term as president, which was, like Genocide Joe Biden, to defer to Israel on nearly everything. Trump moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem and violated international law by declaring the city to be the true legal Israeli capital; he endorsed the annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights by Israel; he chose to ignore atrocities committed by Israeli settlers and soldiers directed against the Palestinians living on the West Bank; and he withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement to monitor and limit a possible Iranian nuclear program. Also regarding Iran, he ordered that country’s Quds Force commander Qassim Soleimani assassinated in January 2020 while Soleimani was on a peace mission to Baghdad.

Iran continues to be the target of both the US and Israel. Lest anyone should think that the JCPOA move was motivated to encourage Iran to develop a weapon, Trump’s argument was that the program was flawed because it did not go far enough in penetrating and investigating Iranian military sites and labs. It also created a national security pretext permitting Israel to insist that Iran was hiding a secret nuke program, an excuse for a preemptive attack on it jointly launched by Israel and the United States. Interestingly, outgoing CIA Director William Burns now claims that the Iranians have no nukes and have no capability to quickly produce one. He also maintains that there is no evidence that they even have any desire to acquire a nuclear weapon, a reality that clearly contradicts the Israeli propaganda regarding an “Iranian nuclear threat.”

Nevertheless, it is regularly reported by Israel and the neocon dominated media in the US that Team Trump and the Israeli security council have been discussing a preemptive strike on the Iranians. But perhaps contrary to that assessment Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy and the man who pressured Netanyahu into agreeing to a ceasefire with Hamas, has since the inauguration been given the portfolio for dealing with the Middle East including responsibility for Iran negotiations. The previous Trump appointee who had that responsibility was Brian Hook, who was a hardliner who believed in applying “maximum pressure” on the Iranians and has now been replaced.

Witkoff is also reported to be continuing to meet with and pressure Netanyahu to complete all three phases of the Gaza agreement, something which is contradicted by Israeli media reporting which suggests that Netanyahu believes that he can resume his military offensive with US support after the six weeks of phase one. In addition to Witkoff, another more recent appointment might give one hope for a gradual reversal of policy in line with Trump’s apparent belief that American involvement in the Middle East has been expensive, destructive, and contrary to the American national interest. Michael DiMino, a former CIA analyst and Department of Defense veteran, is the Trump pick to be deputy assistant secretary of defense with responsibility for the Middle East operations. DiMino is facing fierce Israel Lobby opposition to his appointment, but he continues to maintain very clearly that, in his opinion, Iranian conventional forces do not pose a threat to the US, meaning that war with Tehran should not be viewed as an option.

Some observers think that Trump’s intentions might be most clearly reflected in his choices as US Ambassadors to Israel. His first term produced David Friedman, Trump’s personal lawyer and a passionate Zionist. Friedman functioned more as a cheerleader for Israel and all its works than a promoter or defender of any actual US interest. The new ambassador Evangelical Christian Zionist Mike Huckabee might prove to be even worse than Friedman, which is saying a lot. When making the appointment, Trump said in a statement regarding Huckabee that “Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”

Huckabee’s vision of “peace” will likely be based on a mountain of dead and dispossessed Palestinians. He believes God gave historic Palestine to the modern state of Israel, and is an outspoken advocate of Israel’s planned expansion in the occupied West Bank. While visiting an Israeli West Bank settlement in in 2017, Huckabee claimed the land was not Israeli occupied. “I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria. There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement… There’s no such thing as an occupation.” In 2008, during his own presidential campaign, Huckabee said there was “really no such thing as a Palestinian.”

Those concerned that Trump might be moving to favor Israel above all nations note that the administration’s directive to halt all spending on foreign assistance programs, which included Ukraine, exempted Israel and also Egypt, where Trump is hoping to dump upwards of a million Palestinians in the Sinai Desert to “clean up” the mess in Gaza. Trump has also approved the sale to Israel of 1800 M-84 2000 pound bombs which are used primarily to destroy large buildings and kill large numbers of people. The transfer of the weapons to Israel had been suspended by the Biden Administration but Trump announced that “A lot of things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but have not been sent by Biden, are now on their way!” He did not mention that US weapons “sold” to Israel are often paid for by the US taxpayer as part of military aid. The sale of a large number of dual-use armored Caterpillar bulldozers to Israel, useful for knocking down whatever habitable spaces remain in Gaza, has also received the green light from the administration. Trump has also blocked the Biden-imposed sanctions on extremist settler groups that have been harassing, beating, and killing the Palestinians who are trying to survive on the West Bank. Finally, Trump has issued an executive order that will require American universities to monitor the political activities of foreign students in a bid to reduce antisemitism. Those who have gotten involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus could have their visas canceled and they will be subject to deportation.

That is quite a bit of pro-Israel movement for Donald Trump’s first week in office, don’t you think? Those who believe that Trump might be preparing to lay down the law with Netanyahu must understand that he will also have to contend with the hopelessly Zionist Congress, which gave the monstrous Netanyahu 56 standing ovations when last he appeared in Washington. We will know soon enough what the meeting between Netanyahu and Trump in the White House was all about and we shall also find out whether the bilateral relationship will continue to consist of Israel cracking the whip and the United States government performing. If Trump dares to challenge the status quo it could set the stage for a major conflict between the new president and the immensely powerful Israel Lobby. As Trump is a very stubborn man with a huge ego, that interplay could be very interesting to watch, particularly as it could lead to the United States finally freeing itself from the country that has been pulling its foreign and national security policy strings for so many years.

Ukrainian Media Outlet Leaks Alleged Trump Plan to End Ukraine War

The plan includes reaching a ceasefire before Easter and a deal to end the war by May 9

by Dave DeCamp January 29, 2025

https://news.antiwar.com/2025/01/29/ukrainian-media-outlet-leaks-alleged-trump-plan-to-end-ukraine-war/

The Ukrainian news outlet Strana has published leaked details of President Trump’s alleged plan to end the war in Ukraine in 100 days.

According to Newsweek, which said it couldn’t verify if the details were accurate, the plan starts with holding a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in late January or early February, followed by meetings with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February or March.

The leaked plan calls for a ceasefire to be declared by Easter, which falls on April 20. The truce would involve Ukraine withdrawing troops from Russia’s Kursk Oblast.

Once the ceasefire comes into effect, a peace conference will begin hammering out the details of a lasting agreement. The plan calls for a deal to be reached by May 9.

Once the details of the agreement are released, Ukraine will be instructed to end martial law and mobilization. That would mean Zelensky could lose power since his presidential term expired in May 2024, and he used martial law as the justification for not holding new elections. The plan would require allowing parties who oppose continuing the war with Russia to run for office.

Some of the proposed ideas under the plan for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal include barring Ukraine from joining NATO, an agreement for Ukraine to join the EU by 2030, and the EU facilitating Ukraine’s construction. Ukraine would also be able to keep its military and continue receiving military aid from the US, which could be a non-starter for Moscow.

The proposal would also require Ukraine to cede the territory Russia has captured. Ukraine would have to “refuse military and diplomatic attempts to return the occupied territories” and “officially recognize the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over them.”

Zelensky’s office has denied that the peace plan is authentic, although other media reports have said that Trump tasked his envoy to the conflict, Keith Kellog, with ending the war within the first 100 days of the Trump administration. If the plan is legitimate, leaking it could have been an attempt to sabotage it from moving forward.

Trump has said he wants to speak with Putin, but the Kremlin said on Monday that it hasn’t heard anything from the US about setting up a potential call.

Senate Democrats Block Bill to Sanction the ICC for Targeting Israeli Officials

The bill needed 60 votes to pass and failed in a vote of 54-45

by Dave DeCamp January 28, 2025

https://news.antiwar.com/2025/01/28/senate-democrats-block-bill-to-sanction-the-icc-for-targeting-israeli-officials/

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for their role in the genocidal war in Gaza.

The bill, which had already passed through the House, needed 60 votes to advance through the Republican-controlled Senate, but it failed in a vote of 54-45. Every Republican voted in favor, but the bill only received support from one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (PA), who has been extremely supportive of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

“Deeply disappointed by the outcome of the ICC sanctions bill,” Fetterman wrote on X after the vote. “My vote follows Israel—not the ICC that equivocated the democratically elected leader of our special ally to the terrorists and rapists of Hamas.”

The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing. The court sought warrants for two other Hamas leaders — Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh — but they were both killed by Israel before the warrants were issued.

Congress is still expected to pass some sort of legislation to sanction the ICC since Democratic leadership wants to punish the court for investigating Israeli war crimes but thought the bill brought to the floor on Tuesday was too broad and could lead to sanctions against US allies that are ICC member states.

“The ICC bill is one I largely support and would like to see become law,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the vote. “However, as much as I oppose the ICC bias against Israel, as much as I want to see that institution drastically reformed and reshaped, the bill before us is poorly drafted and deeply problematic.

What Comes Next on the Greater Israel Agenda?

The “ceasefire” will be violated and war with Iran promoted

Philip Giraldi • January 26, 2025

https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/what-comes-next-on-the-greater-israel-agenda/

The eminent Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus in a biography of his illustrious father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agrippa famously wrote “Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium, atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.” Which translates in the Loeb Classical Library edition as “To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace.” Lord Byron, in his poem the Bride of Abydos, rendered the Tacitus Latin as “Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace.” Per Tacitus’ no doubt second hand account , the words were originally spoken by the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus who was addressing his assembled warriors concerning Rome’s insatiable appetite for conquest and plunder. The chieftain’s sentiment can be contrasted to pax in terra “peace on earth” which was sometimes inscribed on Roman medals (phalera) awarded to soldiers returning from the imperial wars.

Tacitus’ description of the First Century Roman Empire using a metaphor should strike a chord for modern American observers of the carnage taking place in the Middle East. The only question would be whether the description better fits Israel or the United States. Or, perhaps, does it apply to both since the two nations have lately in practice been governed out of Tel Aviv? Israel is an ethno-religious state that aspires to regional dominance to create what is referred to as Eretz Israel, Greater Israel, a nation state based on the apartheid view that only Jews, as being chosen by God, can rule and have full rights in the area that they control. The modern vision of what that would include as imagined by extremist advocates of the Jewish state’s expansion would stretch from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq, together with South Lebanon to the Litani River. Nations like Jordan and Syria would be absorbed in the process an there would be no Palestinians.

Some observers are supporting the theory that Donald Trump, who subordinated actual US interests to those of Israel during his first term in office, will now play hard ball with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if only to maintain his self-proclaimed reputation as a champion of world peace, solving international conflicts through making “deals” rather than by fighting. Brokering a deal on Israel-Palestine would be an achievement that has proven to be beyond the reach of every previous administration and it would surely earn him the Nobel Peace Prize. His initial position in 2016 was precisely that, to make a deal that would be acceptable to both sides, until the Israel Lobby punished him for it and forced him to back down.

Indeed, Trump is now pulling one of his characteristic one step forward two steps back with his proposal that Gaza should be made free of Gazans who should be conveniently moved to Jordan and Egypt “to clean out the whole thing.” That would be something like a perfect solution for Benjamin Netanyahu but the proposal has not been well received in either Amman or Cairo. Nevertheless, Trump certainly deserves a great deal of credit for what he has achieved. His supporters point to the recently initiated ceasefire with Gaza which came about due to Trump’s pressure on Netanyahu delivered in an impromptu visit by special emissary Steve Witkoff, succeeding in a objective that the clueless and genocide enabling Biden administration failed at for 15 months. While it is true that Witkoff induced a reluctant Netanyahu to accept a temporary ceasefire, possible off the table concessions to Israel that made the deal work have not been revealed. Israel’s special seat at the American Foreign Policy table remains in place evidently, with a recent Trump initiative to suspend all foreign aid for ninety days included Ukraine but exempted Israel. Indeed, the working level of Trump’s administration is measurably more rabidly pro-Zionist than were their counterparts under Joe Biden. The new Ambassador to Israel Ziocon Mike Huckabee denies that Palestinians even exist and sounds a lot like a settler leader which makes one wonder whether he will defend American interests at all. If push comes to shove the new men and women who have taken over will not only support the annexation of some or all of West Bank but also do nothing to stop or mitigate the restarting of the Gaza genocide.

At the same time, there are several incentives for Trump to want to avoid returning to the Biden-era genocide. Surrounding himself with pro-Israel fanatics won’t help, but two other factors may still play into the decision making, most notably US public opinion, which continues to shift toward Palestine and away from Israel and the possibility that Trump will get into a direct personal conflict with Netanyahu, who has been able to publicly ignore and even humiliate the White House for the last four years without any consequences. Given the respective egos, any disagreement between the two could easily escalate into a real rupture. Trump is not a career politician with decades of subservience to powerful lobbies and he also can’t run again for office. Global and national opinion is rapidly shifting against Israel, including among his MAGA base, with figures like Tucker Carlson and Candice Owens calling out Israel firsters as promoting policies that are antithetical to their values. If Israel continues its assault on all Palestine and the whole region with massive US financial and military support, it could hurt Trump’s popularity and legacy. Of course, Mossad provided videos or photos of him with a minor on Epstein Island or similar, if they exist, might be enough to keep him in line but that could well be the only thing that would constitute an off switch.

Against all of that, Netanyahu has told his supporters and political allies that the United States will support Israel if it opts to suspend the unpopular ceasefire and resume the onslaught due to “Hamas violations,” which will almost certainly be contrived or even cunningly false flagged. In fact, Netanyahu is already doing just that to inhibit the return of the north Gazans to their ruined homes. Hamas will be careful to avoid falling further into Bibi’s trap, but Israel’s propaganda mill is far more effective at reaching a global audience than is that of the Palestinians and the narrative will surely be muddied. Israel is also covering all based by maintaining its occupation of southern Lebanon, which was supposed to end on Sunday January 26^th, in a ceasefire and truce that was set up and guaranteed by Washington, without a peep coming out of the Trump administration even though the Israeli Army has been shooting and killing Lebanese trying to return to their homes. Israel has also expanded its occupation of the Golan and Mount Hermon areas in neighboring Syria. However most significantly, Netanyahu has stepped-up pressure on Palestinian areas in the West Bank as a preparation for full annexation within the next year. Israeli snipers and army units have been killing Palestinians in Jenin and surrounding districts and have also stormed the center of the town using tanks and airstrikes, essentially shifting the slaughter in Gaza to a massacre on the West Bank while the ceasefire holds.

Again, there has not been one harsh word out of Washington over the Jenin killings and the White House has even lifted the sanctions on extremist settler groups on the West Bank that have made Palestinian lives so miserable as to encourage them to emigrate. Jews-only Israeli roads cris-cross the West Bank with armed soldiers and police manning check points and I have recently learned that Palestinians are not even allowed to collect rainwater to water their crops! The water belongs to Israel! And beyond that, the new administration has apparently rewarded Netanyahu by lifting a ban on the supplying of certain categories of weapons that the Biden administration had blocked, including 1800 of the devastating MK-84 2,000 pound bombs that have so effectively destroyed Gaza.

Iran, which is the ultimate target of Israel and possibly of the United States as well judging from “discussions” that have apparently taken place, is very much aware of what is going on and is making preparations for war by concealing and going deep underground with its vital military and energy related sites. Interestingly, however, the principal claim being made by both Israel and US government hawks like Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina that Tehran might develop a nuclear weapon within a week if it chooses to do so has been denied by the outgoing CIA Director William Burns, who claims that the Iranians have no nukes and have no capability to quickly produce them, nor do they have any desire to acquire a nuclear weapon.

The upside to the ceasefire in Gaza is that some Palestinians apart from those who are being blocked have been able to return to their homes, 92% of which have been destroyed or badly damaged, to dig up the bodies of the families and neighbors. Food trucks, under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, are indeed beginning to arrive in much larger numbers for the starving Gazan population that remains. But if Israel renews its assault on Gaza it would be able to stop the humanitarian aid literally overnight, as it has done in the past.

So what could happen? If Israel continues to go carry out its plans of ethnic cleansing, genocide, territorial expansion and foreign aggression with unconditional US support, this may motivate other countries and some international institutions to continue turning against Israel, particularly as US power and influence are in rapid decline due to the rise of China and BRICS. All these trends are already underway: the questions is how fast they will develop into policies. But a renewed Israeli attack on an already devastated Gaza fueled by billions of US dollars could result in more and wider popular protest in the US in spite of government efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian protesters. It will also mean that the new phase of conflict will become Trump’s war, not Biden’s or Harris’ meaning that Democrats who stayed silent so as not to hurt the new administration will suddenly have a powerful incentive to criticize it. Alternatively, Trump is in a unique position to have “Nixon-goes-to-China moment,” which would have tremendous upsides for him politically and personally. Of course, Israel and its supporters would rise up in anger (they’ve killed people for less), but changing US and global public opinion could make the difference this time around if there is anyone in the White House who is listening.

 

Israel Against the World – With US Aid

by Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr.

 Posted on January 27, 2025

https://original.antiwar.com/rep-john-j-duncan-jr./2025/01/26/israel-against-the-world-with-us-aid/

I once represented a man charged with first-degree murder.  At the preliminary hearing, the courtroom was filled with the family and friends of the victim.

When my client was led out of the holding cell, the officer who brought him out leaned over and whispered to me: “Boy, it’s you against the world – you against the world.”

Today it’s Israel against the world, aided and abetted by the US due to mega millions in campaign contributions.

On Nov. 20, the US cast the only “No” vote in the U.N. Security Council against a call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The rest of the world has never been so united as it is now against what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people.

Some American Christians are afraid to criticize Israel because it says in the Bible that those who bless Israel will be blessed.

But it also says in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that God wants us to “seek peace and pursue it.” And one of the strongest of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not kill.”

My own Christian beliefs lead me to believe that God will punish those who have killed – and are still killing – thousands of little children in Gaza.

Matthew 18 says Jesus called a little child to him and said, “ … whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me.”

Israel killed another 28 people in Gaza on New Year’s Day, and Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Jan. 2 that he was going to increase the number of bombing raids. Then 65 more were killed on Jan. 4.

It really saddens me, and at times angers me, to know that all this killing is being done with American-supplied bombs

Longtime University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer has been one of the most respected foreign policy experts in this country.

He has also been one of the leading critics of the horribly cruel way that Israel has bombed, killed and starved to death many thousands of women and children in Gaza over the last 15 months.

On December 31, Mearsheimer wrote on Substack about the 179-page report Human Rights Watch issued a few days earlier detailing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Also in December, Amnesty International published a 296-page report about Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

A few days before the Amnesty report, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his defense minister for what the court, after a lengthy investigation, said were “crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

These very recent actions followed a finding early last year by the International Court of Justice that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

Mearsheimer wrote that he wonders what people “who have supported Israel’s genocide or remained silent tell themselves to justify their behavior and sleep at night. History will not treat them kindly.”

Genocide is defined as “violence that targets individuals because of their membership in a group and aims at the destruction of a people.”

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948, established genocide as an international crime. The US was one of the signers to this agreement.

This was done primarily in response to what had happened to the Jews in Europe during World War II. In fact, because of what happened then, you would think that the Jewish people would be the strongest opponents to genocide anyplace.

I think everyone realizes that the United States would be the first to act and would lead the campaign against this genocide if it was being done by any other country than Israel.

Another world-renowned foreign policy expert, Jeffrey Sachs, has also been one of Israel’s strongest critics during this war. (Actually, it is more of a slaughter than a war since it is so one-sided.)

Sachs, a longtime professor at Columbia and a Jew himself, said Netanyahu is “one of the most violent and dangerous people in the world.” He also said, “Netanyahu is leading Israel into the greatest insecurity of its modern history – complete diplomatic isolation.”

Reprinted with author’s permission from the Knoxville Focus.

John James Duncan Jr. is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Tennessee’s 2nd congressional district from 1988 to 2019. A lawyer, former judge, and former long serving member of the Army National Guard, he is a member of the Republican Party.

State Department issues immediate, widespread pause on foreign aid

The “stop-work orders” appear to apply to US aid for all countries except Israel and Egypt.

By Robbie Gramer, Nahal Toosi and Eric Bazail-Eimil

01/24/2025

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/24/state-department-foreign-aid-pause-00200510

Secretary of State Marco Rubio halted spending Friday on most existing foreign aid grants for 90 days. The order, which shocked State Department officials, appears to apply to funding for military assistance to Ukraine.

Rubio’s guidance, issued to all diplomatic and consular posts, requires department staffers to issue “stop-work orders” on nearly all “existing foreign assistance awards,” according to the document, which was obtained by POLITICO. It is effective immediately.

It appears to go further than President Donald Trump’s recent executive order, which instructed the department to pause foreign aid grants for 90 days pending review by the secretary. It had not been clear from the president’s order if it would affect already appropriated funds or Ukraine aid.

The new guidance means no further actions will be taken to disperse aid funding to programs already approved by the U.S. government, according to three current and two former officials familiar with the new guidance.

The order shocked some department officials for its sweeping mandate. “State just totally went nuclear on foreign assistance,” said another State Department official.

Still, the document leaves room for interpretation and does provide some exceptions. It specifies that foreign military financing for Egypt and Israel will continue and allows emergency food assistance and “legitimate expenses incurred prior to the date of this” guidance “under existing awards.” At points, it also says the decisions need to be “consistent with the terms of the relevant award.”

One current State Department official, plus two former Biden administration officials, said the pause appears to stop aid to key allies such as Ukraine, Jordan and Taiwan. They, and others, were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal government documents.

The guidance could open the U.S. government up to civil liability as lawsuits could be filed over unfulfilled contracts if the terms are deemed to have been violated, the current and former officials said, although at points it says the decisions need to be “consistent with the terms of the relevant award.”

The guidance states that “decisions whether to continue, modify or terminate programs will be made following the review” from the secretary.

A State Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Devex earlier reported on the directive.

The omission of Ukraine is particularly troubling to American officials who want to help it defeat Russia.

Trump and Republicans have for years homed in on what they described as wasteful foreign aid spending under the Obama and Biden administrations. But in recent days, Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric toward Russia, threatening Moscow with sanctions if it does not end its nearly three-year invasion of Ukraine and declaring that Putin bears responsibility for ending the war.

Ukraine’s government has yet to respond to the move. But boosters of Kyiv are voicing hope the pause won’t set back Ukraine’s war effort.

“We’re working to understand what this means for Ukraine. We’re confident that the administration isn’t going to let America fall for Putin’s scare tactics,” said Mykola Murskyj of Razom, a U.S.-based group that advocates for Ukraine.

People working in global health are alarmed about the impact of the order on programs such as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which funds testing and treatment for people living with HIV, mostly in Africa. The program has received about $5 billion in funding annually, in recent years.

“This stop-work order is cruel and deadly,” said Asia Russell, the executive director of Health GAP, a nonprofit which advocates for access to treatment in people with HIV.

The guidance was cleared by a litany of top State Department staffers, including State Department counselor Michael Needham and policy planning director Michael Anton.

The State Department is expected to prepare a report within 85 days of the guidance being issued, which will then accompany a recommendation from Rubio to Trump about which foreign assistance programs to continue and which to discontinue.

Carmen Paun contributed to this report.

Trump Halts Sanctions on Israeli Settlers, Threatens to Seize Assets of War Crimes Investigators

Trump lifted sanctions against Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Within hours, Netanyahu launched a new invasion.

Jonah Valdez

January 22, 2025

https://theintercept.com/2025/01/22/trump-israel-settlers-west-bank-sanctions/

In his inauguration speech on Monday, President Donald Trump said he wanted to be known as “a peacemaker and a unifier” in his second term, before applauding his own efforts of securing a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, as well as the return of three Israeli hostages from Gaza. 

But later that day, amid a rush of executive orders, Trump seemed to betray his own vision of peace. He lifted Biden-era sanctions aimed at curbing Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. He also rescinded a policy that had blocked sanctions against the International Criminal Court, putting those who try to hold the U.S. and its allies accountable for war crimes at risk of a new round of financial penalties. 

Within hours of lifting the sanctions, Israeli settlers attacked Jinasfut, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, injuring at least 21 Palestinians and setting fire to homes, cars, a nursery, and workshop, according to village officials. Despite the ceasefire, the Israeli military had been raiding homes and mosques, detaining dozens of Palestinians across the occupied territory, including children and journalists.

And on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a new military operation into the northern West Bank city of Jenin and an adjoined refugee camp where several Palestinian militant groups are based. The Israeli offensive, backed by drones and helicopters, killed at least 10 Palestinians — including a 16-year-old boy — and wounded 35 others, health officials said. The campaign is known as “Operation Iron Wall,” an apparent reference to the Zionist writings of Ze’ev Jabotinsky that argued for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to secure an Israeli state.

Experts were quick to note that the rise in Israeli military attacks in the West Bank shouldn’t be viewed in isolation from the ceasefire in Gaza. It’s a continuation, they say, of a broader campaign; some view it as Netanyahu’s attempt to appease extremists in his Cabinet and in Israel who were upset over the cessation of fighting in Gaza, which failed to eradicate Hamas.

“It was all political theater,” said Muhannad Ayyash, a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka and professor in Palestine studies at Mount Royal University, referring to the ceasefire, which went into effect days before Trump re-entered the White House. 

“It was never that Trump wanted to actually put pressure on Israel to stop its settler colonization of Palestine — whether that be decreasing settlement activity in the West Bank, or realizing the two-state solution on 1967 borders, or ending the military onslaught against the Gaza Strip,” Ayyash said. “What he wanted was just the appearance of peace and order to boost his political capital and then allow the Israelis to continue with their project of annexing large swaths of the West Bank and in their project of basically eliminating the Palestinians’ ability to live in Gaza and to resist Israeli settler colonialism.”

The sanctions that Trump erased, which were issued by former President Joe Biden last February, had done little to prevent settler violence in the West Bank. From 2023 to 2024, the area recorded a record-high of more than 1,400 settler attacks on Palestinians. Aided by Netanyahu’s far-right Cabinet and in the cover of Israel’s war on Gaza, settlers annexed large swaths of Palestinian land in the West Bank, including a July land grab that was the largest since the Oslo peace agreement in 1993. 

Though the sanctions had no effect on the ground, the policy of freezing U.S.-held assets of individual Israeli settlers and settler groups had a strong symbolic impact in the region, said Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. “That was an important precedent to have that could be built upon,” Elgindy said. He had advocated for the State Department to add these settler groups to the U.S. Foreign Terror Organization list, which could have further hampered annexation efforts. 

But the latitude Biden gave to Israel will likely even be looser under Trump, Elgindy added. 

Even compared to Biden’s constant support for Israel, Trump’s far-right Cabinet — which includes evangelical Christians — appears to be even more ideologically aligned with Netanyahu’s pro-settler contingent. Trump’s incoming ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, famously said, “There is no such thing as a West Bank,” and disputed the very existence of “a settlement” or “an occupation.” Instead, he referred to the region by Israel’s preferred name of “Judea and Samaria.” During her confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick for United Nations ambassador, agreed with Israeli far-right ministers that Israel has a “biblical right to the entire West Bank.” She also refused to answer a question on whether Palestinians have the right to establish their own state. 

“It’s alarming that they would invoke religious scripture as a basis for formulating U.S. foreign policy,” Elgindy said. “But it’s also alarming what that statement means: total erasure of Palestinians. The term ‘Judea and Samaria’ is based on erasing the existence of Palestinians, it’s what it was designed to do.”

With his executive order reopening the possibility of sanctions against the ICC, Trump appears poised to continue U.S. defense of Israel. Officials at the ICC, which has criminal arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes, are already bracing for what a new round of sanctions would look like. Even if Trump doesn’t issue penalties against investigators, lawmakers in the House of Representatives, including 45 Democrats, passed a bill that would deliver such sanctions on ICC leadership. Experts at the U.N. have opposed the bill, calling it “a blatant violation of human rights.” Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said he is preparing to bring the legislation, which was introduced in direct response to the arrest warrants on Israel’s leaders, to a Senate vote this week or next.   

Trump himself has seemed to signal interest in settlement expansion in Israel. When asked whether the U.S. intended to help rebuild Gaza, he seemingly drew on his real-estate background. “Gaza is interesting,” he said to reporters on Monday while signing executive orders. “It’s a phenomenal location on the sea. Best weather, everything is good. Some beautiful things can be done with it.” Just before last week’s ceasefire announcement, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner doubled his investments in an Israeli firm that funds settlement expansion. 

For both Elgindy and Ayyash, Trump’s day-one policies come with little surprise considering his first term, in which he sought to allow Israel to expand settlements, weaken Iran’s power, and normalize relationships between Israel and Arab nations. 

Now, Trump has said he plans to use the momentum from the ceasefire agreement to help normalize ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Such a move would further boost U.S. economic and security interests in the region and would improve Israel’s standing in the international community, which has been shattered by its genocidal war in Gaza. 

Among the largest political obstacles for such a deal is Saudi Arabia’s pledge to resist ties with Israel until it recognizes a Palestinian state within the borders drawn after the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. But Saudi Arabia has much to gain with a partnership with Israel — potentially new security deals from the U.S. that would allow the nation to boost its standing in the region as it faces off with other countries such as Iran, said Ayyash.

A deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel could set in motion a chain of other nations that had opposed Israel also normalizing relations, such as Indonesia or countries in the African Union. It could also weaken the standing of international human rights bodies, such as the International Court of Justice, which has an ongoing genocide case against Israel.

“It would signal the end of the Palestinian cause in the diplomatic international arena,” Ayyash said. “It would signal that states around the world have accepted that it’s OK for Israel to destroy the prospects of a two-state solution, that there will never be a Palestinian state, and that’s just the new reality we are living with.”

Iran and Russia’s Friendship Just Got a Lot Deeper

by Ted Snider

 Posted on January 23, 2025

https://original.antiwar.com/Ted_Snider/2025/01/22/iran-and-russias-friendship-just-got-a-lot-deeper/

By abstaining from diplomacy and relying so heavily on isolating countries and the broad stroke of sanctions, the U.S. runs the risk of creating a community of isolated and sanctioned countries. A community of sanctioned countries negates the effect of sanctions. And a community of isolated countries creates the very multipolar world the U.S. is trying to push back.

In the past couple of years, Iran has fought back against isolation and sanctions by joining the Russian and Chinese led Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, two significant international organizations intended to balance American hegemony in a multipolar world.

On January 17, though, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between their two countries, bringing Iran and Russia into a closer partnership than ever before.

Article 2 of the treaty commits the two countries to rejecting unipolarity and pursuing multilateralism, while Article 14 specifically commits them to “deepen[ing] cooperation within the framework of regional organizations,” including the promise to “interact and coordinate positions in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.” In a press conference following the talks, Pezeshkian said that BRICS and the SCO are transforming the region and “represent new opportunities and potential for both countries to collaborate in the future.”

But the new strategic partnership is much more than a vague public announcement of Iran and Russia’s friendship. The detailed forty-seven article document is the product of months of intense diplomacy. The document brings the comprehensive partnership a historic new intensity. In his opening remarks at the press conference, Putin called the document “truly ground-breaking.” Dmitri Trenin, research professor at the Higher School of Economics, told me that Putin’s use of words like “breakthrough,” refer, above all, “to the very fact that the Moscow-Tehran relationship now has a treaty as a base.”

The treaty, which has caused consternation in the West, addresses U.S. and Western attempts to isolate and sanction Iran and Russia and to maintain U.S. hegemony in a unipolar world.

The document does not even wait until the first article to mention multipolarity. The preamble expresses the wish “to promote an objective process of forming a new just and sustainable multipolar world.” The pursuit of multipolarity is then the topic of Article 2 of the treaty.

Iran and Russia have both been the target of U.S. military threat and of historically unprecedented sanctions. The American imposition of “sanctions from hell” resulted in over 28,000 sanctions on Russia, perhaps the largest and most comprehensive sanctions regime in history. Article 19 of the treaty opposes “the application of unilateral coercive measures,” like sanctions. Pezeshkian said that the new cooperation “can nullify sanctions and excessive demands by the United States and Western countries.”

Putin remarked that “[n]otably, our countries have almost completely transitioned to using national currencies in mutual settlements” and that “In 2024, transactions conducted in Russian rubles and Iranian rials accounted for over 95 percent of bilateral trade.” Several articles in the treaty are devoted to developing closer economic ties and bypassing SWIFT, including Article 20, which calls for “cooperation with the aim of creating a modern payment infrastructure independent of third countries.”

Trenin said that one of the key practical Russian goals is that “economic relations with Iran will expand through the coming online of the North-South corridor and other projects.” The North-South Transport Corridor is a massive ship, rail and road network for facilitating trade between Russia, Iran, India and Azerbaijan. The “development of international transport corridors passing through the territory of the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran” and “in particular, the international transport corridor ‘North-South’,” is the topic of Article 21.

The turn toward each other highlights Iran’s foreign policy orientation and, as Richard Sakwa, Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent, told me, “Russia’s epochal pivot to the South.”

But the agreements in the Treaty that must be the cause of the greatest concern for the West are the articles dealing with defense and nuclear energy.

The very first article of the Treaty calls on Iran and Russia to “strengthen cooperation in the field of security and defense.”

The Treaty is not a military alliance: there is no mutual defense clause. But Article 3 commits each country to “not provid[ing] any military or other assistance to the aggressor” in the event that the other is attacked. Article 12 says the two countries “shall cooperate with the aim of preventing interference in the said regions and the destabilizing presence there of third states.” And Article 5 promises “military cooperation,” including “training of military personnel” and “conducting joint military exercises.” Article 4 adds enhanced intelligence cooperation.

There is a connection between military cooperation, stopping third countries from destabilizing the region and a safe space for multipolarity. Sakwa says that just as the “Soviet-Indian Treaty of 1971 provided the security for India to develop its independent and non-aligned strategy, so, too, now Moscow’s support for Iran warned the US… that any attack on Iran risked embroiling them in a conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.” The comprehensive partnership grants Iran the safe space that India used to establish its nonalignment in a multipolar world.

The other aspect of the comprehensive partnership that must be sending shudders through the West is the Article 23 agreement to “promote the development of long-term and mutually beneficial relations for the purpose of implementing joint projects in the field of peaceful use of atomic energy, including the construction of nuclear power facilities.”

The comprehensive strategic partnership is an important treaty that builds on the last few years’ growing relationship between Russian and Iran and intensifies their cooperation to a historic new level. There is, though, one seed of doubt that has been sewn by the election of President Donald Trump. Russia’s priority right now is Ukraine. Trump has promised a diplomatic settlement to the war in Ukraine, but, Anatol Lieven, Director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, reminds, Trump “detests Iran.” Lieven told me that the Iranians worry that Russia could “use relations with Iran as a way of influencing Trump over Ukraine,” that Russia may “be willing to abandon Iran if Russia gets what it wants over Ukraine.”

Like recent diplomatic progress between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Iran and China, and China and India, the “breakthrough” comprehensive strategic partnership between Iran and Russia represents the growing revolt against the old U.S. led unipolar world and its ability to use sanctions and isolation as coercive weapons.