U.S. State Department Diplomat and Arabic Language spokesperson Hala Rharrit On Resigning in Protest of Israel's War On Gaza and the American Government's Support of and Complicity in the Genocide Taking Place There

 “I voiced concern repeatedly, I was silenced”: ex US diplomat on Gaza | UpFront

Al Jazeera English

 

May 10, 2024

 

Can dissent within the US government have an impact? UpFront talks to a recent State Department resignee, Hala Rharrit. This week, Israel took hold of the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza, a move that has stoked fears of further death and devastation in the territory. US President Joe Biden had previously warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that an invasion of Rafah was a “red line”. The Israeli move has come as the death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza continues to mount in a war that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians. Meanwhile, the Biden administration faces growing internal dissent against its policies in the Middle East, most recently marked by the resignation of US Department of State Arabic language spokesperson, Hala Rharrit. Rharrit is the first career diplomat to resign publicly, protesting the government’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza. So what effect is dissent having on US foreign policy? And is the Biden administration at a tipping point in its support of Israel’s war on Gaza? 

 

This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks to Hala Rharrit about dissent within the Biden administration and the government’s foreign policy.

 

VIDEO:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-lzgse32Ug

 

 

Palestinians Seek United Nations Vote On National Statehood As U.S. Government Tries To Stop Them

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/world/middleeast/04mideast.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2

All,

The sheer boneheaded ineptitude, brazen cluelessness, and rank STUPIDITY of the Obama administration's dismal attempts to control, manipulate, and hamper the present struggle for Palestinian self determination and full national sovereignty is only equal to its embarassingly inept and obviously wrongheaded attempts to slavishly cater to the endless bullying demands and apartheid-like actions and policies of the openly reactionary Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. But this is what the White House gets--and deserves!-- for absurdly pretending that they were simultaneously both FOR AND AGAINST BOTH SIDES OF THIS CONFLICT in order to avoid the moral and political responsiblity of defending and protecting the overriding and eminently just demands of the Palestinian people for national independence and a complete end to all remaining forms of colonial and neocolonial oppression and exploitation in the West Bank, Gaza. and Israel itself. These crucial concerns and issues of the Palestinians are now properly being pursued in the United Nations and are NOT under the opportunist control of the U.S. government or subject to the tyranny and cruel capriciousness of the Likkud dominated Israeli government...This is what real Justice and self determination is all about...Let's all fervently hope that Mr. Abbas and the rest of the Palestinian semi-governmental authority and political leadership can withstand the massive political pressures of both the Obama administration and the rightwing forces of the Israeli government, and fight for independent recognition of national statehood in the global context of the UN and not the U.S. State Department...

Kofi


U.S. Appeals to Palestinians to Stall U.N. Vote on Statehood
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and MARK LANDLER
September 3, 2011
New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation this month over a plan by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations, but it may already be too late, according to senior American officials and foreign diplomats.

The administration has circulated a proposal for renewed peace talks with the Israelis in the hopes of persuading the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to abandon the bid for recognition at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly beginning Sept. 20.

The administration has made it clear to Mr. Abbas that it will veto any request presented to the United Nations Security Council to make a Palestinian state a new member outright.

But the United States does not have enough support to block a vote by the General Assembly to elevate the status of the Palestinians’ nonvoting observer “entity” to that of a nonvoting observer state. The change would pave the way for the Palestinians to join dozens of United Nations bodies and conventions, and it could strengthen their ability to pursue cases against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Senior officials said the administration wanted to avoid not only a veto but also the more symbolic and potent General Assembly vote that would leave the United States and only a handful of other nations in the opposition. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic maneuverings, said they feared that in either case a wave of anger could sweep the Palestinian territories and the wider Arab world at a time when the region is already in tumult. President Obama would be put in the position of threatening to veto recognition of the aspirations of most Palestinians or risk alienating Israel and its political supporters in the United States.

“If you put the alternative out there, then you’ve suddenly just changed the circumstances and changed the dynamic,” a senior administration official involved in the flurry of diplomacy said Thursday. “And that’s what we’re trying very much to do.”

Efforts to head off the Palestinian diplomatic drive have percolated all summer but have taken on urgency as the vote looms in the coming weeks. “It’s not clear to me how it can be avoided at the moment,” said Ghaith al-Omari, a former Palestinian negotiator who is now executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine in Washington. “An American veto could inflame emotions and bring anti-American sentiment to the forefront across the region.”

While some officials remain optimistic that a compromise can be found, the administration has simultaneously begun planning to limit the fallout of a statehood vote. A primary focus is to ensure the Israelis and Palestinians continue to cooperate on security matters in the West Bank and along Israel’s borders, administration officials said.

“We’re still focused on Plan A,” another senior administration official said, referring to the diplomatic efforts by the administration’s new special envoy, David M. Hale, and the president’s Middle East adviser on the National Security Council, Dennis B. Ross. Mr. Hale replaced the more prominent George J. Mitchell Jr., who resigned in May after two years of frustrated efforts to make progress on a peace deal.

The State Department late last month issued a formal diplomatic message to more than 70 countries urging them to oppose any unilateral moves by the Palestinians at the United Nations. The message, delivered by American ambassadors to their diplomatic counterparts in those countries, argued that a vote would destabilize the region and undermine peace efforts, though those are, at least for now, moribund.

Two administration officials said that the intent of the message was to narrow the majority the Palestinians are expected to have in the General Assembly. They said that and the new peace proposal — to be issued in a statement by the Quartet, the diplomatic group focused on the Middle East comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — could persuade potential supporters to step back from a vote on recognition, and thus force Mr. Abbas to have second thoughts.

“The fact is there are countries who would choose not to do that vote if there was an alternative,” the first senior administration official said.

In essence, the administration is trying to translate the broad principles Mr. Obama outlined in May into a concrete road map for talks that would succeed where past efforts have failed: satisfy Israel, give the Palestinians an alternative to going to the United Nations and win the endorsement of the Europeans.

Diplomats are laboring to formulate language that would bridge stubborn differences over how to treat Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and over Israel’s demand for recognition of its status as a Jewish state. A statement by the Quartet would be more than a symbolic gesture. It would outline a series of meetings and actions to resume talks to create a Palestinian state.

The Quartet’s members are divided over the proposal’s terms and continue to negotiate them among themselves, and with the Palestinians and Israelis.

Among the issues still on the table are how explicitly to account for the growing settlements in the West Bank. The question of Israel’s status is also opposed by Russia and viewed warily by some European countries. The Palestinians have never acceded to a formal recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, in deference at least in part to the Palestinians who live in Israel.

The Quartet’s envoy, Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, visited Jerusalem on Tuesday to negotiate the terms of the proposal with the Israelis. He is expected to discuss it with the Palestinians soon.

The Israelis have so far responded positively to the draft, but the Palestinian position remains unclear.

Two administration officials said that Mr. Abbas had recently indicated that he would forgo a United Nations vote in favor of real talks. But a senior Palestinian official, Nabil Shaath, angrily dismissed the American proposal as inadequate and said a vote would go ahead regardless.

“Whoever wrote this thought we are so weak that we cannot even wiggle or that we are stupid,” he said in a telephone interview from Ramallah in the West Bank. He added, “Whatever is to be offered, it is too late.”

Within the administration, there are different views of the situation’s urgency. Some officials believe that the United States can weather a veto diplomatically, as it has before, and politically at home because of the strong support for Israel in Congress. But others view the Palestinian push for recognition as deeply alarming, raising the specter of new instability and violence in the West Bank and Gaza.

“The most powerful argument is that this will provoke a Palestinian awakening, that there will be a new violence and that we’ll be blamed,” said Martin S. Indyk, a former American ambassador to Israel.


Ethan Bronner and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations.

The Egyptian People Must Always Remember That The Enemies of Their Revolution Are Both the Egyptian And The United States Government

Scott Nelson for The New York Times
Soldiers tried to persuade antigovernment protesters to allow them to dismantle barricades in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Saturday

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/world/middleeast/06egypt.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2

All,

Let's be crystal clear here. This is NOT rocket science. It doesn't require a middle school diploma to figure out just what the CIA's man in Egypt (i.e. current Egyptian vice president and former official government renditions torturer Omar Sulieman), the U.S. government "led" (yeah...right!) by a cowardly and clearly empire friendly President Obama, and the monstrous Egyptian president and dictator-for-life Hosni Mubarak who magically slithered straight out of a Gabriel Garcia-Marquez novel (and who in real life owns 6 different mansions in Cairo, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, New York, and London, and at last count has personally stolen over 70 billion dollars from his own country's treasury over the past 30 years) collectively have in store for the ravished and oppressed Egyptian people (whose average annual income for WORKING families is a mere $2000 a year and 40% of the population live on less than 2 dollars a day!)...

There is NO SUCH THING as a "gradual transition to power" in this situation and the Egyptian people thankfully aren't THAT stupid--not by a long shot. "The West" (much better known and far more accurately identified as Europe and the United States) ain't remotely interested in people's democracy in Egypt or anywhere else on this planet unless they essentially OWN AND CONTROL what it does, says, thinks, and produces via its limitless number of vile gangster conmen/women client state surrogates who criminally rule their various destitute nation-states and neocolonial fiefdoms via such time honored "developing state tactics and techniques" as mass murder, colossal thief, and pathological hubris and deceit. That's who Sulieman and Mubarak really are, have always been, and will always be no matter what Barack, Hillary, the State Department, the CIA, the U.S. Congress, or the cowed/cynical/braindead/indifferent American media "thinks" or "says." The very good news is that the truly heroic masses and leadership of the Egyptian Revolution KNOWS that and will no doubt in the short run ACT ON THAT KNOWLEDGE. The very bad and poisonous news of course is that the current Egyptian government, the United States, and the rest of "the West" are going to do everything in their massive collective power to completely DESTROY AND DISMEMBER this revolution both now and into the long range "future". This and ONLY THIS is what the Egyptian People's huge present struggle is really all about and as I said before--they know it. Needless to say this movement cannot afford to make any major concessions to Sulieman, Obama, or Mubarak in the coming days or weeks or they will surely pay the ultimate lethal price for "trusting" that which simply CAN'T BE TRUSTED (no,no,nono! as Public Enemy used to put it)

As Frantz Fanon (1925-1981) the revolutionary activist, political theorist, and psychiatrist from the Algerian Revolution so presciently said over five decades ago: "Real political education occurs when the masses understand that everything depends on them"...

Stay tuned...

Kofi

West Backs Gradual Egyptian Transition
by Kareem Fahim, Mark Landler and Anthony Shadid
February 5, 2011
New York Times

Photographs

Protests in Egypt

CAIRO — The United States and leading European nations on Saturday threw their weight behind Egypt’s vice president, Omar Suleiman, backing his attempt to defuse a popular uprising without immediately removing President Hosni Mubarak from power.

American officials said Mr. Suleiman had promised them an “orderly transition” that would include constitutional reform and outreach to opposition groups.

“That takes some time,” Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton said, speaking at a Munich security conference. “There are certain things that have to be done in order to prepare.”

But the formal endorsement came as Mr. Suleiman appeared to reject the protesters’ main demands, including the immediate resignation of Mr. Mubarak and the dismantling of a political system built around one-party rule, according to leaders of a small, officially authorized opposition party who spoke with Mr. Suleiman on Saturday.

Nor has Mr. Suleiman, a former general, former intelligence chief and Mr. Mubarak’s longtime confidant, yet reached out to the leaders designated by the protesters to negotiate with the government, opposition groups said.

Instead of loosening its grip, the existing government appeared to be consolidating its power: The prime minister said police forces were returning to the streets, and an army general urged protesters to scale back their occupation of Tahrir Square.

Protesters interpreted the simultaneous moves by the Western leaders and Mr. Suleiman as a rebuff to their demands for an end to the dictatorship led for almost three decades by Mr. Mubarak, a pivotal American ally and pillar of the existing order in the Middle East.

Just days after President Obama demanded publicly that change in Egypt must begin right away, many in the streets accused the Obama administration of sacrificing concrete steps toward genuine change in favor of a familiar stability.

“America doesn’t understand,” said Ibrahim Mustafa, 42, who was waiting to enter Tahrir Square. “The people know it is supporting an illegitimate regime.”

Leaders of the Egyptian opposition and rank-and-file protesters have steadfastly rejected any negotiations with Mr. Suleiman until after the ouster of Mr. Mubarak, arguing that moving toward democracy will require ridding the country of not only its dictator but also his rubber-stamp Parliament and a Constitution designed for one-party rule.

On Saturday, Mr. Mubarak’s party announced a shake-up that removed its old guard, including his son Gamal, from the party’s leadership while installing younger, more reform-minded figures. But such gestures were quickly dismissed as cosmetic by analysts and opposition figures.

Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Suleiman “are trying to kill what has happened and to contain and abort the revolution,” said Hassan Nafaa, a political science professor at Cairo University. “They want to continue to manage the country like they did while making some concessions.”

Mrs. Clinton’s message, echoed by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, and reinforced in a flurry of calls by President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to Egyptian and regional leaders, appears to reflect an attempt at balancing calls for systemic change with some semblance of legal order and stability.

Mrs. Clinton said Mr. Mubarak, having taken himself and Gamal out of the September elections, was already effectively sidelined. She emphasized the need for Egypt to reform its Constitution to make a vote credible. “That is what the government has said it is trying to do,” she said.

She also stressed the dangers of holding elections without adequate preparation. “Revolutions have overthrown dictators in the name of democracy, only to see the process hijacked by new autocrats who use violence, deception and rigged elections to stay in power,” she said.

Her emphasis on a deliberate process was repeated by Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Cameron. Mrs. Merkel mentioned her past as a democracy activist in East Germany, recalling the impatience of protesters after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, to immediately join democratic West Germany. But the process took a year, and it was time well spent, she said.

“There will be a change in Egypt,” Mrs. Merkel said, “but clearly, the change has to be shaped in a way that it is a peaceful, a sensible way forward.”

Mrs. Clinton highlighted fears about deteriorating security inside Egypt, noting the explosion at a gas pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula, and uncorroborated news reports of an earlier assassination attempt on Mr. Suleiman.

American officials did not confirm that an assassination attempt had taken place. But Mrs. Clinton referred to reports of the attempt and said it “certainly brings into sharp relief the challenges we are facing as we navigate through this period.”

In a statement, the Egyptian government said there had been no assassination attempt, but added that on Jan. 28 a car in Mr. Suleiman’s motorcade was struck by a bullet fired by “criminal elements.”

At the same Munich meeting on Saturday, Frank G. Wisner, the former ambassador President Obama sent to Cairo to negotiate with Mr. Mubarak, appeared to take an even softer line on the existing government, saying that the United States should not rush to push Mr. Mubarak out the door. He said Mr. Mubarak had a critical role to play through the end of his presidential term in September.

“You need to get a national consensus around the preconditions of the next step forward, and the president must stay in office in order to steer those changes through,” Mr. Wisner said.

The administration later said Mr. Wisner’s comments did not reflect official policy. “The views he expressed today are his own. He did not coordinate his comments with the U.S. government,” said Philip J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman.

White House officials said Friday that they were privately pushing Mr. Suleiman to sideline Mr. Mubarak and eliminate his executive role well before the September elections.

But the mixed signals fueled concerns in Egypt that the administration, which has tried to juggle endorsement of change and continued order, had effectively turned its back on the core demands of those involved in the protest movement.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate who has been chosen to negotiate on behalf of the protesters and other opposition groups, said the American-backed plan for a gradual transition with Mr. Mubarak remaining in power was a nonstarter. “I do not think it’s adequate,” he said in an interview. “I’m not talking about myself. It’s not adequate for the people.

“Mubarak needs to go,” he said. “It has become an emotional issue. They need to see his back, there’s no question about it.”

Protesters also said that Western worries about security and orderly transitions sounded remarkably like Mr. Mubarak’s age-old excuses for postponing change. And they said they had waited long enough.

“We don’t want Omar Suleiman to take Mubarak’s place. We are not O.K. with this regime at all,” said Omar el-Shawy, a young online activist. “We want a president who is a civilian.”

There were few indications that Mr. Suleiman and other officials were making much progress in addressing concerns of opposition groups.

Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour, the secretary general of the opposition Wafd Party, said that in a meeting with Mr. Suleiman on Saturday, the vice president told him that Mr. Mubarak’s leaving early “was out of the question.” He also ruled out any transfer of Mr. Mubarak’s responsibilities.

Mr. Abdel-Nour said that he brought up the possibility of repealing Egypt’s emergency law, which allows the authorities to arrest people without charges. According to Mr. Abdel-Nour, Mr. Suleiman responded: “At a time like this?”

Negotiations between Mr. Suleiman and a group of self-appointed “wise men” who are acting as intermediaries between the vice president and the protesters, and trying to find a way around limits on succession in the Constitution, did not advance significantly.

Amr Hamzawy, one of the intermediaries, said the negotiations were “gaining traction,” but added that his group did not meet with Mr. Suleiman on Saturday. The intermediaries, whose efforts have received the tacit encouragement of Western governments, have forwarded a plan that would see Mr. Mubarak transfer his powers to Mr. Suleiman and perhaps move to his home in Sharm el-Sheik or embark on one of his annual medical leaves to Germany.

In Tahrir Square, meanwhile, the military tightened its cordon around the protesters by reinforcing security checks at all the entrances. An army officer, Brig. Gen. Hassan al-Rawaini, negotiated with protesters outside a barricade near the Egyptian Museum, urging them to bring down the fortifications, allow traffic to return and move their protest to the heart of Tahrir Square.

In contrast to the pitched clashes of just days ago, General Rawaini offered a microphone to protesters so that they could air their complaints. He tried to reason, kissing some on the head and pinching others’ cheeks. Occasionally, he winked.

Eventually, he and his soldiers moved past the makeshift barricade, knocking part of it down, though protesters quickly put back up the sheets of corrugated tin, barrels, metal rebar and parts of fences. He then toured an area strewn with rocks from the clashes and incinerated vehicles that served as barricades. Some protesters thought he was preparing for the army to enter and began forming human chains across the streets. Others chanted “Peaceful!” and formed a bodyguard around the general.

“He wants to tear down these barricades, so that the tanks can come through!” shouted Sayyid Eid, a 20-year-old protester, as he tried to block his way.

“We’re going to die here!” yelled Magdi Abdel-Rahman, another protester.

“Listen to him! Listen to him!” others shouted back.

Tempers cooled and General Rawaini made a leisurely stroll to a makeshift health clinic, then visited knots of protesters across the square with a retinue of soldiers.

“We’re trying to remove the barricades and return the streets to normal,” General Rawaini said. “If you want to protest, you can go back to the square.”

A protester shouted back, “General, we’re not going to walk away from here until Hosni Mubarak leaves!”





Kareem Fahim and Anthony Shadid reported from Cairo, and Mark Landler from Munich. Reporting was contributed by Steven Erlanger from Munich, and David D. Kirkpatrick, Mona El-Naggar and Robert F. Worth from Cairo.