Blinken meets with Arab leaders; reaffirms Israel’s right to protect itself, discusses humanitarian crisis in Gaza

Haaretz

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, meets with members of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation at the State Departmenton Friday.Credit: Mark Schiefelbein /AP

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on Friday with the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye, as well as a Palestinian Authority senior official, as part of a delegation representing the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

According to spokesperson Matthew Miller, Blinken reaffirmed the United States’ support for Israel’s right to ensure Hamas can never repeat the October 7 attacks. He then discussed the urgency of addressing humanitarian needs and protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza, preventing displacement, and discussed the U.S. commitment to achieving lasting peace and security in the region, including through the establishment of a future Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.

With Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Blinken discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict, focusing on efforts to ensure the conflict does not spread elsewhere in the region, the necessity of freeing remaining hostages, and the provision of humanitarian aid. Blinken emphasized the importance of ratifying Sweden’s NATO accession without delay.

With Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Blinken affirmed the urgency of addressing humanitarian needs in Gaza, preventing further spread of the conflict, and reinforcing regional stability and security.

The Secretary also condemned recent attacks by the Houthis on commercial vessels operating in international waters in the southern Red Sea and emphasized that all partners should cooperate to uphold maritime security.Ben Samuels

Blinken in call with Red Cross Committee president discusses civilian protection in Gaza, calls for immediate release of Israeli hostages

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger on Friday.

According to Spokesperson Mathew Miller, Blinken emphasized the importance of ICRC’s humanitarian response to the conflict in Gaza.
Miller stated that Blinken and Spoljaric Egger also discussed efforts to strengthen civilian protections and expand the flow of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza.
Blinken reiterated the call for the immediate release of all hostages and highlighted the need for the ICRC to be granted access to the remaining hostages, according to Miller.
December 9, 2023 | 1 Comment »

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  1. People get their opinions from the media.
    Now if the media informed the people that:

    850,000 Jews fled Arab countries
    500,000 Arabs fled Israel.

    Jews were absorbed and there is no Arab Jewish refugee problem.
    Arab countries did not absorb the Arab refugees and deliberately created the “Palestinians Problem”.

    Escaping Jews and Arabs lost private property.
    The value of the lost Jewish property was at least an order of magnitude larger than the value of lost Arab property.

    The Palestinian Arabs never identified themselves as “Palestinians”. Their war was against the Jews. They did not want to live in a Jewish state. They wanted to live in an Arab Muslims state. Palestinian Arab are indistinguishable from neighboring Arabs.
    Their national identity is culturally as superficial as belonging to the Creeps or Bloods.

    Jews have identified themselves as a nation for the last 3000+ years. Israelis are unique culture language, history, religion.

    With this much fact based information, the whole world opinion would have been differed.

    We, the Jewish people are a big part of the problem.
    We keep bragging about how we are more moral, more enlightened, more successful (start-up nation, Nobel prizes etc. etc.) than other people. We keep referring to our “divine mandate” given to us by the holy Bible and our own Jehovah.
    By all this we reinforce the natural hatred of anyone claiming to be “chosen”.

    If we want to win the war for public opinion, we need the opposite.
    We need to claim that we are like other nations and demand the same rights as other nations, and to be judged by the same standards as the other nations.

    For example we should ask other nations about how they made protection of enemy civilians more important than winning the war.
    Did Russians, Brits, Americans care about protecting German civilians more then winning the war?
    Did America protect civilians when nuking Japan?
    Did Russia protect civilians when fighting war against Chechnya?
    Did the Arabs protect civilians in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Algeria, etc. etc.

    No they did not. They killed 100 times more civilians. So who are they to lecture us?

    So if we ever wake up and stop telling the world that we are the “Chosen People”. And additionally if we stop calling ourselves “Jews” (a dirty 4 letter word), and instead proudly call ourselves “Israelites”, then everyone would understand that we are the indigenous people fighting against unjust, immoral and illegal Arab occupation of our land.