UAE’s sub-imperial project: Erecting a covert empire across the Red Sea

From Sudan to Socotra, the UAE fuses soft power with militarized control to dominate trade routes, fuel proxy wars, and entrench Israeli–Emirati security interests across the Horn of Africa and Yemen.

Mawadda Iskandar

MAY 27, 2025

https://thecradle.co/articles/uaes-sub-imperial-project-erecting-a-covert-empire-across-the-red-sea

Since 2015, the UAE has abandoned its historical posture of neutrality in favor of assertive regional entanglements. This transition coincided with the rise of Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MbZ) to the position of commander of the armed forces and, eventually, the presidency. 

Under his leadership, the UAE accelerated a strategy that fuses militarization with aggressive branding of soft power. This transformation builds upon military capability developments initiated in the 1990s and expanded rapidly post-2011, intensifying even further after 2015. 

Abu Dhabi established military bases, armed and financed allied factions, raised mercenary armies, and intervened directly in conflicts – most notably in Yemen and across the Horn of Africa – while simultaneously promoting a national image of modernity and openness.

Ports, profit, and proxy militias

To entrench its influence, the UAE has adopted a dual strategy of economic penetration and military entrenchment. Through investment vehicles such as DP World, Abu Dhabi has taken control of vital maritime routes, setting up logistical hubs, training camps, and bases in fragile and fragmented states. 

These initiatives target strategic chokepoints along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, notably Bab al-Mandab and the coasts of Yemen and the Horn of Africa, under the guise of ensuring maritime security.

Sudanese journalist Kamal Sir al-Khatem tells The Cradle that this expansion is not merely commercial but represents a broader “sub-imperial” project: 

"The UAE represents a model of a peripheral state that practices imperialism within its own region, while at the same time remaining dependent on the United States as the main imperialist power."

He highlights the UAE's $60 billion investment footprint in Africa, placing it just behind China, the EU, and the US in foreign investment rankings. Beyond port development, these investments include logistics, supply chains, energy, agriculture, and mineral extraction, particularly in countries with weak governance and oversight.

Abu Dhabi's approach weaves together economic ventures and militarized interventions in a coordinated manner that allows it to neutralize rival ports and assert control over pivotal hubs like Djibouti, Aden, and Port Sudan. These efforts reflect strategic ambitions to monopolize regional trade arteries and reinforce its leverage in global shipping.

Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in a recent interview with Radio France Internationale (RFI), accused the Persian Gulf emirate of leveraging its multibillion-dollar investments in Africa as a veil for military expansion. He called Abu Dhabi's $110 billion investment campaign in Africa a “strategic ploy” and “a threat to Africa’s sovereignty,” adding:

“There is no such thing as neutral investment. Every port or infrastructure deal is tied to a broader geopolitical goal …The Emiratis are deeply destabilizing for the region.”

The Israeli occupation state's normalization with the UAE has further deepened military-strategic cooperation, particularly after 2023's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood reshaped West Asian alignments. This cooperation is rooted in shared security doctrines and manifests in joint projects and intelligence collaboration across contested zones.

The Horn of Africa: Abu Dhabi's militarized corridor

The Horn of Africa has become a crucial arena for UAE projection. In Eritrea, Abu Dhabi established its first overseas military base by leasing the port and airport of Assab for 30 years. DP World upgraded the site, which became a hub for launching drones and deploying ground forces during the Yemen war. 

This positioning formed part of a strategy to close the western gate of the Red Sea while securing the eastern gate through the Yemeni port of Mokha.

In Somalia, the UAE capitalized on tensions between the federal government in Mogadishu and the breakaway region of Somaliland. It leased Berbera's port and airport despite Mogadishu's opposition, transforming them into integrated military and intelligence facilities. 

In Puntland, it took over the Bosaso port and backed factions hostile to the central government. These interventions turned the region into a base for Emirati power projection, reportedly including UAE–Israeli coordination to recognize Somaliland in exchange for a military foothold.

The UAE's involvement in Djibouti began in 2006 with the management of the Doraleh container terminal. However, disputes over the contract escalated, especially after Djibouti resisted efforts to establish a permanent UAE base. 

The fallout led to legal battles, with arbitration courts ruling in favor of the UAE. Djibouti refused to implement the rulings, leading to the cancellation of the DP World contract and a sharp diplomatic rift.

Sudan: A battleground of plunder and control

Sudan, with its 700-kilometer Red Sea coastline, is critical to UAE ambitions in the region. The strategic location makes it a prime candidate for Emirati port control. Yet, efforts to hand over Port Sudan to DP World were fiercely resisted by the Sudanese Ports Authority and trade unions, which rejected privatization efforts as neocolonial encroachment.

The UAE's involvement in Sudan goes deeper. It has been accused of supporting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group implicated in war crimes and human rights violations. The RSF's military campaigns in Darfur and beyond, marked by killings and displacement, have prompted Sudan to file an unsuccessful case against the UAE at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in March 2025.

Gold smuggling forms another layer of this conflict economy. As one regional analyst, who requested anonymity, explains to The Cradle:

“About 80 percent of Sudan's smuggled gold is destined for the UAE, where it is re-exported to international markets, making it the biggest beneficiary of this trade. This trade is used to finance the war, especially by the Rapid Support Forces, which manage their financial operations from Dubai, in the absence of effective Sudanese supervision"

Yemen: Abu Dhabi's imperial springboard

But, by far, the UAE's most entrenched expansion has been in Yemen. Under the initial cover of fighting alongside the Saudi-led coalition, Abu Dhabi has since branched off, methodically building its influence across the country's coasts and islands. 

After securing control over Aden, it expanded eastward to Mukalla, Shihr, and the ports of Hadhramaut, asserting authority over the Arabian Sea. On the Red Sea side, it took over Mokha port after failing to penetrate Hodeidah, which remained under Sanaa's control.

The UAE's ambitions extend to Yemeni islands. Socotra, with its strategic location, was turned into a military and intelligence base following Emirati–Israeli coordination. Since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in October 2023, efforts to consolidate this presence have intensified. In February 2024, an Emirati company controversially acquired Socotra's airport, prompting popular outrage.

Ahmed al-Hasani, spokesperson for the South Yemeni National Salvation Council, tells The Cradle that the UAE entered southern Yemen through a 2008 deal with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh to manage Aden port, only to paralyze it in favor of Dubai's Jebel Ali. Post-2015, it expanded its reach to include Shabwa, Mokha, and the islands of Socotra and Mayun.

Despite its expansive reach, the UAE has failed to counter the Sanaa-aligned Yemeni Armed Forces' (YAF) threats to Israeli shipping in the Red Sea. Hasani notes that Abu Dhabi has opened discreet communication channels with Sanaa to safeguard its interests, effectively asking for the neutralization of its own proxies:

"The UAE's control over Yemeni ports does not only carry an economic dimension, but is linked to a strategic security project in which it cooperates with Israel and the United States, including the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and even the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean" 

Across Sudan, the Horn of Africa, and Yemen, the UAE's foreign policy reflects a pursuit of maritime dominance, regional leverage, and economic hegemony. 

It is a model of sub-imperialism nested within US power projection – a system reliant on instability, elite bargains, and the strategic use of soft power cloaked in modernity. The backlash from local populations, resistance movements, and regional states may ultimately unravel this ambitious blueprint. 

Netanyahu: Gaza Aid Scheme Offers Israel Symbolic Cover to Finish the Genocide

In order to conquer and seize Gaza, “We need to do it in a way” where the world “won’t stop us," Netanyahu says.

Jeremy Scahill

May 19, 2025

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/netanyahu-trump-gaza-aid-genocide-smotrich-ceasefire-hamas

Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear: His decision to allow a minuscule amount of aid to enter Gaza is a tactical one aimed at quieting international condemnation of Israel’s forced starvation of Gaza and to clear the path of a final solution imposed on the Palestinians of Gaza.

"We're going to take control of all the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu vowed Monday in a video released by his office announcing that Israel would begin delivering “minimal humanitarian aid: food and medicine only.” Netanyahu claimed that international pressure, including from pro-Israel Republican senators and the White House, required the appearance of humanitarian intervention. "Our best friends in the world—senators I know as strong supporters of Israel—have warned that they cannot support us if images of mass starvation emerge," he said. “They come to me and say, ‘We’ll give you all the help you need to win the war… but we can’t be receiving pictures of famine,’” Netanyahu added. To continue the war of annihilation, he asserted, “We need to do it in a way that they won't stop us.”

Netanyahu’s coalitional ally Bezalel Smotrich—an extreme right-wing government minister and longtime advocate of starving, mass killing, and depopulating Gaza—endorsed Netanyahu’s move. Smotrich said the aid scheme would allow “our friends in the world to continue to provide us with an international umbrella of protection against the Security Council and the Hague Tribunal, and for us to continue to fight, God willing, until victory.”

In what he described as an emergency press conference to address criticism from his own base, Smotrich laid out the Netanyahu government’s genocidal agenda and explained why the appearance of allowing aid is necessary on a strategic level. “The [aid] that will enter Gaza in the coming days is the tiniest amount. A handful of bakeries that will hand out pita bread to people in public kitchens. People in Gaza will get a pita and a food plate, and that's it. Exactly what we are seeing in the videos: people standing in line and waiting to have someone serve them, with some soup plate,” Smotrich said.

“Truth be told, until the last of the hostages returns, we should also not let water into the Gaza Strip. But the reality is that if we do that, the world will force us to halt the war immediately, and to lose. It would be winning the battle, and losing the war. I'm committed to winning the war,” Smotrich declared. “We are disassembling Gaza, and leaving it as piles of rubble, with total destruction [which has] no precedent globally. And the world isn't stopping us. There are pressures. There are those who attack [us]; they are trying to [make us] stop; they are not succeeding. You know why they aren't succeeding? Because we are navigating [the campaign] responsibly and wisely, and that's how we'll continue to do [it]."

Smotrich said that the Israeli forces are initiating a campaign to force Palestinians into the south of Gaza “and from there, God willing, to third countries, as part of President Trump's plan. This is a change of the course of history—nothing less.”

In recent days, Trump has resumed promoting the threat he first floated on February 4 when Netanyahu visited him at the White House: that the U.S. would seize Gaza and create a Middle East Riviera. “I think I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone,” Trump said Thursday, an assertion he repeated over the weekend in an interview with FOX News. “Gaza is a nasty place. It's been that way for years. I think it should become a free zone, you know, freedom, I call it a freedom zone,” Trump told host Bret Baier.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said that allowing “a basic amount of food” to enter Gaza was pursued out of “the operational need to enable the expansion of the intense fighting to defeat Hamas.” He said that Israel would resume limited aid deliveries on an interim basis starting approximately a week ahead of a longer term aid plan that would circumvent the UN and other international agencies. The emerging Israeli policy offers enough food to Palestinians in Gaza to ward off international condemnation that could impact its war, while preparing to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza.

Netanyahu’s announcement comes amid renewed talks over a possible Gaza ceasefire and exchange of captives deal. Netanyahu has insisted he will not make any agreement that ends the war without the total elimination of Hamas and the demilitarization of the entire Gaza Strip. Hamas has said it will not release any more Israeli captives held in Gaza unless an internationally certified deal is reached that includes the total withdrawal of Israeli forces and a long-term truce.

“We are ready to release the prisoners in one batch, provided the occupation commits to an internationally guaranteed ceasefire,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, head of Hamas’s Political Bureau Abroad, on Sunday. He told Al Jazeera Mubashar, “We will not hand over our prisoners to the occupation as long as it continues to insist on continuing its aggression against Gaza indefinitely.”

Strategies of Conquest

The Trump administration has publicly continued to fully back Netanyahu as the Israeli army intensifies its campaign of terror bombings and forced displacement across Gaza. The White House has offered no public criticism of Netanyahu’s operation, called “Gideon’s Chariot,” aimed at seizing control of all of Gaza in what officials have described as a “conquest.”

Before Trump set off on his Middle East tour, during which he notably did not stop in Israel, Netanyahu announced this new phase to his war of annihilation in Gaza. If Hamas did not surrender and agree to release all Israeli captives by the time Trump returned to Washington, D.C., Israel would initiate a large-scale ground invasion and occupation of the entire Gaza Strip.

Over the weekend, Israeli forces began intensifying ground operations and expanded its relentless campaign of bombings and air strikes. Israeli forces attacked several hospitals and camps for displaced people in operations that killed more than 500 Palestinians in just a few days. Missile strikes rained down on the southern city of Khan Younis accompanied by helicopter gunship attacks and artillery shelling. On Monday, Israel issued sweeping forced evacuation orders in the south, including the entire governorate of Khan Younis, that forced panicked residents to grab what they could and flee to sites Israel has previously designated as safe zones, including Al-Mawasi, which the Israeli military then later attacked.

Trump has pursued an increasingly close alliance with Arab Gulf leaders, who represent massive business opportunities for both his political and personal agenda. Trump’s deal-making has created some technical hurdles for Netanyahu’s murderous agenda. While the rulers of these states did not publicly demand that Trump impose a ceasefire or intervene to halt Netanyahu’s genocidal march, reports indicate that they did privately urge him to act swiftly to resume aid shipments to Gaza and to utilize U.S. influence to compel Netanyahu to halt the genocide.

During his recent tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, Trump said little about Gaza, but he did pledge to confront the humanitarian crisis and said that aid delivery would resume. “Look, people are starving,” Trump said Saturday in an interview on FOX News. “I’ve already started working on that.” Israeli officials have said that the White House had begun pressuring Netanyahu to allow a partial lifting of the blockade.

“I don’t think there’s any daylight between President Trump’s position and Prime Minister Netanyahu's position,” said Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, on Sunday in an interview with ABC News. “Everyone is concerned about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza,” he added. “We do not want to see a humanitarian crisis, and we will not allow it to occur on President Trump’s watch.”

As Drop Site reported on Friday, Hamas said its decision to release U.S. citizen and Israeli soldier Edan Alexander last Monday was the result of a direct commitment from Witkoff. According to Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, Witkoff made a direct commitment that, two days after Alexander’s release, the Trump administration would compel Israel to lift the Gaza blockade and allow humanitarian aid to immediately enter the territory. Witkoff, Naim said, also promised that Trump would make a public call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for negotiations aimed at achieving a “permanent ceasefire.” Naim said the U.S. “threw [the deal] in the trash.”

Both Israel and the U.S. have been promoting plans to deliver aid to Gaza that would circumvent a ceasefire deal, which the United Nations and all aid groups operating in Gaza have said would be necessary in order to address the acute humanitarian crisis. Instead, the U.S. and Israel have concocted a scheme involving a newly established “non-governmental” foundation run by a former U.S. marine to take official charge of establishing zones, mostly in southern Gaza, to distribute a limited number of rations.

Palestinians wishing to receive aid would have to go through an Israeli security vetting process and subject themselves to checkpoints and facial recognition technology as a condition for receiving food. On Monday, Netanyahu said the sites would be located in “a sterile area controlled entirely by the IDF.”

The UN and over 200 non-governmental aid organizations have denounced the plan, saying it is unworkable and weaponizes aid as a tool of war. The main UN humanitarian organization operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories said the plan was aimed at dismantling the international infrastructure built over several decades and further enforcing Israeli dominance over access to basic life sustaining food and supplies for Palestinians in Gaza.

“It contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy,” asserted the country team of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory on May 5. “It is dangerous, driving civilians into militarized zones to collect rations, threatening lives, including those of humanitarian workers, while further entrenching forced displacement.”

UNICEF: Over 50,000 Children Killed or Injured in Gaza since October 2023

May 28, 2025

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/unicef-over-50000-children-killed-or-injured-in-gaza-since-october-2023/

UNICEF warns of a staggering child death toll in Gaza, urging immediate action to end the ongoing assault.

More than 50,000 children have been killed or injured in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023, the UN children’s fund said on Wednesday. 

“The children of Gaza need protection. They need food, water, and medicine. They need a ceasefire. But more than anything, they need immediate, collective action to stop this once and for all,” UNICEF’s Middle East Director Edouard Beigbeder said in a statement.

He said at least 1,309 children have been killed and 3,738 others injured since Israel resumed its air assaults on Gaza on March 18.

“How many more dead girls and boys will it take? What level of horror must be livestreamed before the international community fully steps up, uses its influence, and takes bold, decisive action to force the end of this ruthless killing of children?”

On Friday, Palestinian doctor Alaa al-Najjar, a physician at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, lost nine of her 10 children, and her husband, also a doctor, is in critical condition as a result of an Israeli airstrike on their home.

And on Monday, at least 31 people, including 18 children, were burned to death in an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City.

“These children – lives that should never be reduced to numbers – are now part of a long, harrowing list of unimaginable horrors: the grave violations against children, the blockade of aid, the starvation, the constant forced displacement, and the destruction of hospitals, water systems, schools, and homes. In essence, the destruction of life itself in the Gaza Strip,” Beigbeder said.

Ongoing Genocide

Since Israel’s reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, it has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip through a bloody and ongoing aerial bombardment.

On October 7, 2023, following a Palestinian Resistance operation in southern Israel, the Israeli military launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians, killing over 53,000, wounding more than 122,000, with over 14,000 still missing.

Despite habitual condemnation by many countries around the world of the Israeli genocide, little has been done to hold Israel accountable.

Israel is currently under investigation for the crime of genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are now officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.

The Israeli genocide has been largely defended, supported, and financed by Washington and a few other Western powers.

 

US Has Delivered 90,000 Tons of Weapons to Israel in Nearly 600 Days

Israel's Defense Ministry said the 800th plane arrived on Tuesday

by Dave DeCamp May 27, 2025

https://news.antiwar.com/2025/05/27/us-has-delivered-90000-tons-of-weapons-to-israel-in-nearly-600-days/

The US has delivered 90,000 tons of bombs, guns, and other military equipment to Israel since October 7, 2023, to support the genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to numbers from the Israeli Defense Ministry.

The Defense Ministry said Tuesday that the 800th plane carrying US weapons arrived in Israel in the morning, and 140 ships have also delivered US equipment in the nearly 600 days since October 7.

The ministry stated that the military equipment has included “armored vehicles, munitions, ammunition, personal protection gear, and medical supplies” and that the US support is “a significant component” in ensuring the Israeli military can continue the slaughter in Gaza.

Israeli military officials have previously said that without US military support, Israel wouldn’t be able to sustain operations in Gaza for more than a few months. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that without US backing, Israel wouldn’t be able to achieve its goals in Gaza, which include the complete destruction of the territory and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population.

US deliveries to Israel continue despite reports of friction between President Trump and Netanyahu. While Trump has claimed he wants to see a ceasefire in Gaza, there’s no indication that he is willing to force Israel to agree to a deal with Hamas by leveraging military aid.

Meanwhile, daily Israeli atrocities in Gaza continue, which have taken a huge toll on women and children. Gaza’s Health Ministry recently published a list of the names of 16,506 children that the US has helped Israel kill in Gaza, a number that’s likely a significant undercount.

Netanyahu Shows Off Europe

Israel's experience in conflict zones has made it a world leader in security technologies, with products then exported to Europe under the banner of "battle tested."

May 27, 2025

PABLO HIRIART

https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/opinion/pablo-hiriart/2025/05/27/netanyahu-exhibe-a-europa/

Madrid – “It is difficult to raise good children in a country that normalizes the murder of children,” wrote Galia Oz, daughter of the great Israeli writer Amos Oz.

This is happening today in Israel, where the majority of the population opposes the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip (53%, and only 34% in favor, according to a survey cited by El Mundo).

Some leaders tend to bring out the worst in many of their constituents. This is the case with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Hamas terrorist attack in Israel gave Netanyahu the pretext he needed to avoid the corruption trial against him in his country.

As long as the war lasts, he won't leave.

Netanyahu orders the murder of children, women, and the elderly in Gaza to save himself.

The moral authority of the only democratic nation in the Middle East is shattered.

A wave of anti-Semitism is emerging as a reaction in much of the West.

It's impossible to avoid repudiation at the impunity of a criminal who is not the leader of a terrorist group hiding in caves in the desert, but who holds the position of prime minister of a country.

 In addition to debasing a large segment of his country's population, Netanyahu has exposed the fragility of Europe's emblematic nations, incapable of going beyond condemnatory tweets and reviewing agreements that don't entail any sanctions.

If Europeans complain that the United States (Trump) has abandoned them in the "defense of liberal principles" for its short-term mercantilist policy, they are doing the same.

Or worse. Trump (like Xi Jinping) at least doesn't have the nerve to talk about democracy or human rights, while European leaders do. They lecture. They lecture in cafes and at conferences. And they sit back and do nothing.

"Dogs bark, but the caravan moves on," says an Arab proverb.

Let's take it one step at a time.

In retaliation for the Hamas terrorist attack, which killed 1,139 people and kidnapped 251 in October 2023, the Israeli army has murdered 53,000 Palestinians, including 17,400 children.

It has left 121,000 people injured, 94% of homes in Gaza are destroyed, 90% of the population is displaced, 94% (especially children and the elderly) suffer from hunger, and 80% of the water infrastructure has been destroyed.

No European country has severed its military or technological relationship with Israel. These days, Europe is losing credibility.

How can they demand that Russia or China respect human rights if they minimize them depending on who massacres civilians and children?

Business overrides principles.

Over the last decade, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands have established bilateral technological cooperation programs with Israel, many of which are funded under the European Horizon Europe program, which supports research in key sectors.

Germany's Fraunhofer Institute collaborates on projects with Israeli companies such as Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

In 2022, France signed agreements with Israeli cyber defense startups to integrate them into its national technology ecosystem.

Spain has channeled European resources into joint consortiums with Israeli firms in border control, drone surveillance, and agricultural technologies, especially in Andalusia.

It has 46 contracts with the Israeli military industry, and canceled a small one, for the purchase and sale of bullets.

The appeal is obvious: Israel is agile, innovative, and efficient. Its experience in conflict zones has made it a world leader in security technologies, with products then exported to Europe under the slogan "battle tested."

Germany sells submarines and naval weapons to Israel, such as the Dolphin models manufactured by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.

Italy imports aviation components and radars used by the Israeli Army, including in operations over Gaza.

Elbit Systems, one of the largest Israeli defense companies, operates development centers in the United Kingdom and participates in European border defense projects.

In 2020, Spain authorized the export of electronic components for Israeli missiles.

At the same time, Israel exports armed and surveillance drones to Europe, many of which were developed during operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

It also sells spyware and population monitoring software, such as the widely known NSO Group Pegasus, which European governments have used to monitor dissidents or prevent terrorist threats.

This relationship, in times of peace, may seem pragmatic. Useful, too. But given the current circumstances, it is a scandal.

It is not feasible to sever technological and military relations with Israel overnight, but it is feasible to establish clear limits: partial embargoes, conditions for human rights violations, and review of surveillance contracts and offensive weapons.

European leaders are also within their power to ban imports of products developed in illegal settlements or occupied areas, such as the West Bank. Some Nordic countries already do so partially.

Netanyahu laughs at the rhetoric of European governments and shoots their diplomatic observers in the West Bank (a Palestinian territory, geographically and ideologically distant from Gaza).

What a way to expose Europe's weakness.

He tweets his indignation and loses his place in the world.

120 days of Israeli West Bank assaults kill over 91 Palestinians, including 13 children

The al-Haq rights group said the death toll includes 13 children and three women, raising concerns over increased attacks and arrest campaigns.

The New Arab Staff

23 May, 2025

https://www.newarab.com/news/120-days-israeli-west-bank-assaults-kill-over-91-palestinians

Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank over the past 120 days have killed at least 91 Palestinians, including 13 children, a rights group has said.

The Ramallah-based Al-Haq rights organisation said the military raids and operations have included the use of snipers, airstrikes, reconnaissance drones, and Apache helicopters.

The group added that armed military vehicles and bulldozers have also been used to block off refugee camps in the West Bank.

The death toll includes at least 13 children and three women, Al-Haq reported, adding that there has been significant destruction to infrastructure in Jenin, Tulkarem, Nablus, and Tubas.

Since the start of Israeli assaults on Jenin, at least 16,600 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in Jenin.

Arrests, destruction of infrastructure

This comes as the Israeli army carried out dozens of arrests across the West Bank, patrolling streets and conducting extensive search operations.

Local media reported that Israeli forces severely damaged a road linking key villages, Issa and Qaffin, north of Tulkarem.

In Nablus, Israeli army forces stormed the villages of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya and positioned vehicles near a mosque, with locals reporting that sound grenades were used against vehicles and residents.

Israeli settlers also escalated their attacks in recent days, demolishing huts and tents south of Hebron, while hundreds more raided the town of Bruqin, west of Salfit.

Meanwhile, two extremist Israeli settlers who are under sanctions from the UK government following an announcement this week, have joined in a campaign to push out Palestinians from their homes in the village of Mughayyir al-Deir.

Ben Pazi, who was also put on the UK sanctions list last year due to links to settlements and forcibly expelling native Palestinian Bedouins from their homes, has again made repeated visits to an illegal outpost this week.

The outpost is less than 100 metres away from a Palestinian home, garnering criticism from rights groups. Another settler, identified as Zohar Sabah, joined in the unlawful visits to outposts despite being added to a UK sanctions list for "threatening, perpetrating, promoting" acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians.

The latest developments come as Finland summoned the Israeli ambassador after Israeli forces opened fire on 35 international diplomats in Jenin on Wednesday.

Finland’s foreign minister, Elina Valtonen, denounced the shooting in a press statement, decrying it as a "serious incident that must be condemned".

She added that Finland has requested a formal explanation over what happened, highlighting concerns with the Israeli ambassador to Helsinki. The Finnish foreign ministry also noted that there was a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, urging international intervention in the crisis.

The UK too has called for Israel to launch an investigation into the incident, where diplomats from Ireland, France, Germany and Turkey were forced to escape Israeli fire.

Hamish Falconer, a UK Foreign Office minister, described the attacks as "unacceptable".

"Civilians must always be protected, and diplomats allowed to do their jobs. There must be a full investigation, and those responsible should be held accountable," he wrote on X.

In Trump’s second term, the MAGA vs neocons battle heats up

The nationalist MAGA wave is rewriting US foreign policy, but Washington's neocons and neoliberals will do whatever it takes to protect their US global dominance project. Who will win this epic battle fought inside the heart of empire?

Mohamad Hasan Sweidan

MAY 23, 2025

https://thecradle.co/articles/trumps-second-term-becomes-a-warzone-between-maga-and-the-deep-state

On 13 May, US President Donald Trump took the stage in Riyadh and launched a direct attack on his opponents in Washington. Speaking to Persian Gulf leaders, he denounced the meddling “nation-builders" of the neoconservative order who “wrecked far more nations than they built," and declared that these “interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”

On a furious roll, Trump also condemned the ruinous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and shook hands with Syria’s new self-declared, Al Qaeda-linked president as he lifted all US sanctions on Damascus. MAGA, he declared, would rewrite the rules of global power and bury the era of foreign entanglements.

Days later, Washington answered back. Former FBI Director James Comey posted a photo of the numbers “86 47” carved into the sand. For Trump supporters, it was a death threat: “86” meant elimination, “47” marked Trump as the 47th president. Comey deleted the image and denied any ill intent, but the signal was clear. The Secret Service launched an investigation, and MAGA loyalists accused the deep state of inciting assassination against the US president.

From a gold-trimmed platform in the Persian Gulf to a cryptic beach message in America, the dividing lines inside Trump’s own White House snapped into focus: a bitter fight between an insular nationalist movement and the old imperial establishment. This internal war is already reshaping US power at home and abroad.

MAGA vs the imperial machine

Trump’s 2024 re-election has brought the clash into the open. On one side is the America-First MAGA camp, where the president placed loyalists in every node of power. Vice President J.D. Vance leads the charge for economic retreat. 

Elon Musk runs the new Ministry of Government Efficiency, ostensibly slashing billions in federal spending. Stephen Miller floods the White House with executive orders to consolidate presidential control. Former National Guard officer and Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth, now secretary of defense, pushes a military doctrine of withdrawal. Kash Patel heads the FBI, purging what he calls anti-Trump factions.

Their worldview is clear: NATO, foreign aid, and democracy projects are costly illusions. As White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt put it: “America does not need other countries as much as other countries need us.” 

But opposing them in every quiet corner of the US capital is a bloc of neoconservatives and neoliberals – the globalists of Washington’s security class. Secretary of State Marco Rubio leads the charge, assuring Congress that his intent is “not to dismantle American foreign policy, and it is not to withdraw us from the world.” His deputy, Christopher Landau, stays close.

In Brussels, Matthew Whitaker promises NATO allies full support. At Langley, John Ratcliffe speaks of China and Russia as existential threats. Former national security advisor Mike Waltz, although now marginalized, still lobbies Congress to arm Ukraine “until victory.”

From the sidelines, war hawk John Bolton warned against “appeasing the Kremlin,” while Liz Cheney led a centrist Republican push to challenge the MAGA bloc’s isolationism. Neoconservative stalwarts Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan revived Cold War talking points.

For them, the US must remain the enforcer of global order. To retreat is to fall. The battlefield is set: a populist uprising inside the halls of empire.

Two foreign policies, one empire

Every domain of foreign policy now reflects this ideological rift. Trump’s bloc sees alliances and institutions as chains. He re-exited the Paris Agreement, quit the World Health Organization (WHO), questioned the rationale behind NATO and the UN, and in February, cut ties with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and froze UNRWA funding.

Imperial traditionalists argue that these structures are critical to upholding Washington’s global dominance.

On military power, MAGA wants to end what it calls “stupid wars” as those waged before in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet Trump, branding himself the “peace president,” announced an unprecedented $1 trillion defense budget in April – a record-breaking increase – launched an albeit short war against Yemen, threatened to attack Iran, and armed Israel's genocide in Gaza.

It signals his preferred model: dominance without responsibility. Neoliberals argue for limited humanitarian missions; neocons want overt force against enemies like Iran. However, both orbit Trump's erratic mix of threats and diplomatic overtures.

Trump has flipped friend and foe: punishing allies with tariffs and defense cost demands, while courting leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Critics say this saps trust and dismantles Pax Americana.

Foreign aid became ground zero. Trump froze development programs for 90 days, then axed billions in humanitarian funding. On 10 March, Rubio announced the termination of 80 percent of USAID contracts – 5,000 in six weeks. MAGA hardliners celebrated. Globalists warned it would kill people and shatter US soft power.

It is a rupture between those defending the 1945 imperial consensus and those dismantling it for raw sovereignty and dealmaking.

West Asia: where the split gets real

Though waged in Washington, this civil war finds its most dangerous expression in West Asia. Trump's second term is torn between isolationist pragmatism and imperial assertiveness. Capitals from Tehran to Tel Aviv are watching.

The MAGA agenda is transactional. End wars. Cut aid. Sign deals. Make money. Washington agreed to a ceasefire in Yemen and pivoted in Syria: lifting sanctions after Assad's fall and embracing “reformed” terrorist Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former US-wanted Al-Qaeda affiliated militant, who is now the de facto president of Syria. Trump framed it as interests over ideology.

After the initial verbal threats, talks with Iran resumed via Oman. April’s round in Muscat was the most serious in years. 

Trump's recent visit to the Persian Gulf exposed further frictions, this time over US defense guarantees. Former US president Joe Biden had promoted a grand bargain: a defense treaty with Saudi Arabia and assistance in the field of civilian nuclear technology in exchange for the kingdom's normalization of relations with Israel. 

This deal is now frozen. Indeed, leaks have revealed that Washington has dropped the requirement to recognize Israel from civil nuclear cooperation negotiations with Saudi Arabia, preferring unilateral deals to open defense agreements. The neoconservatives considered that Trump's approach squanders the opportunity to form a solid front against Iran. 

In contrast, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) is exploiting Trump's dealings: massive investments, advanced weapons, and progress on a nuclear project that is not matched by major political concessions. 

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have arguably managed to align themselves with the administration's bargaining mood: significant investments, a luxurious reception, and deep defense cooperation. Israel responds by unilaterally accelerating its military operations and intensifying its lobbying in Congress to ensure continued military superiority and defuse any bargain for its security.

In the end,  Trump got what he came for, signing $142 billion in arms deals with Saudi Arabia, and securing pledges for staggering investments in the US economy: Riyadh committed $600 billion, Doha $243.5 billion, and Abu Dhabi $1.4 trillion over the next decade – promising that the wealthy Gulf kingdoms would now pay for partnerships. In return, he catered to his hosts by downplaying the war option with Iran and embracing the new government in Syria.

The globalists saw betrayal. Their mission remains power change in Iran. Netanyahu flew to Washington seeking a green light for war, but Trump insisted on diplomacy. National security hawks want “zero enrichment, total dismantlement,” and accuse negotiators of backdoor concessions.

Israel's war on Gaza continues. Trump promised a ceasefire during the campaign, but the death toll has surpassed 53,000 Palestinians. His pragmatists call it a strategic burden; the neocons want the occupation state to finish the job. Despite ongoing arms flows, Trump skipped Tel Aviv during his Gulf tour, and mild US complaints about Netanyahu's defiance have leaked.

Even the special relationship looks fractured.

Trump's second term is no longer a presidency – it is a full-scale fight between the MAGA insurgency and the national security state. At stake is whether the US doubles down on its postwar empire or retreats into an isolationist shell.

But whichever side wins, the world should remember one truth: both camps view West Asia through the same lens of American interests. Neither cares about the region’s people. Had the Resistance Axis not raised the cost of US intervention, this split would never have surfaced. 

The American elite’s fracture is the result of two decades of blowback. And so long as Washington treats the region as a testing ground for internal power struggles, its people will continue to pay the price.