Emmanuel Macron

‘One in, one out’ Channel deal is just another cruel gimmick

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Original article by Vicky Taylor republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

Starmer and Macron agree on ‘one in, one out’ deal during the first French state visit to the UK since Brexit
 | Ludovic Marin/POOL/AFP/Getty Images. All rights reserved

Don’t be fooled by Labour’s show of providing safe migration routes. It’s justifying a cruel trade in people

Yesterday afternoon, British Prime Minister Kier Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron announced a new migration deal to respond to Channel crossings.

After three days of discussions between the two leaders, Starmer promised “hard-headed, aggressive action on all fronts” to “smash the gangs” who he says are responsible for people crossing the Channel on dinghies.

The deal? A “one in, one out” system, which will return to France some of the people who cross the Channel irregularly. In exchange, France will send people to the UK who, for example, are seeking to reunite with family members here.

Shortly after he was elected last year, Starmer promised “no more gimmicks or empty promises” regarding Labour’s response to people arriving on ‘small boats’. Then, in a welcomed move, he scrapped the previous government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Since then, however, Labour has done what they said they wouldn’t – introduce performative gimmicks to convince voters they’re in ‘control’ of migration. They announced plans to invest £75m in a new ‘Border Security Command’, which was quickly criticised as a simple rebranding of what came before. And in a move straight out of Trump’s playbook, they also began televising deportation flights.

This “one in, one out” deal is no different. The plan proposes a cruel trade in people for nothing more than short-term political point scoring, as the government worries about losing votes to Reform.

Starmer and Macron say the scheme will help deter people from making the crossing by reducing their chances of settling in the UK. But there is no evidence to support this. Time and time again, successive British governments have increased their cruelty towards people arriving on ‘small boats’. Yet people have continued to make the journey.

“New deterrents” are not the solution. This new deal will cause considerable further harm, resulting in the forcible transfer of people back to France. Labour are falling into the same trap that contributed to the Conservatives’ last general election defeat.

‘Safe routes’ used to justify hostility

While details are not yet available, the new deal proposes a ‘safe route’ for some people trying to reach the UK from France. It’s been reported that the ‘one in’ element would target those with family in the UK, enabling them to reach the country without having to risk their lives.

If implemented well, this scheme may provide some people with a safer route to reach the UK. As the visa schemes offered to Ukrainians fleeing conflict has shown, where safer routes exist, people will take them.

The problem is, for nearly everybody else waiting to cross the Channel, no other route exists for them to seek safety in the UK. This agreement will not, in any meaningful way, solve this issue. People will continue to cross in dinghies in the absence of other, safer routes. If anything, it may fuel demand for crossing the Channel, as those forcibly returned by the ‘one out’ element could try again to reach the UK.

Piecemeal ‘safe and legal routes’ like this should not replace people’s ability to claim asylum if they arrive on UK soil. Yet this is exactly what is happening. The UK is replacing its legal and moral obligations to people seeking asylum with a discretionary ‘pick-your-own’ approach based on national self-interest. Then, they use these ‘safe routes’ to justify hostility towards asylum seekers who do arrive irregularly.

This agreement will result in the punitive trade in human beings across Europe

We don’t yet know what will happen to people after they’ve been returned to France. It’s possible that those returned would then be transferred onwards across Europe. An EU law called the Dublin Regulation means that France could return them back to the first country in Europe they entered. Five of those states – Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain – have written to the European Commission warning that the deal could increase pressure on them. They argue it sets a dangerous precedent for migration governance across the bloc.

Above all else, this agreement will result in the punitive trade in human beings across Europe.

The deterrence delusion

The proposed ‘one-for-one’ pilot scheme continues a 30-year pattern of UK-France agreements to ‘deter’ irregular crossings by increasingly hostility. Deterrence is the convenient, common-sense logic used to justify increasingly cruel policies. It possesses a dangerous self-reinforcing quality: when harsh policies fail to reduce arrivals, this is always attributed to the insufficient severity of the deterrent. Rather than questioning the logic itself, the much easier conclusion to reach is that even more severe measures are necessary.

Yet, even according to the Home Office’s own analysts, there is no evidence that harsh measures deter people from trying to reach the UK to seek asylum. And while some don’t know about the UK’s ever-changing policies, many are aware and still judge the journey to be worth the risk, because there is no other option available.

The government refuses to acknowledge this, so we find ourselves caught in a cycle with no end in sight.

‘Deterrence’ has been used to justify a series of rights-eroding legislation in recent years. The Nationality and Borders Act changed the meaning of ‘refugee’ in British law, making it a harder definition to qualify for. It also introduced powers which enabled the home secretary to deem the asylum claims of irregular arrivals to the UK inadmissible.

The 2022 law also introduced the new crime of ‘illegal arrival’, which criminalised seeking asylum for the first time in the UK. The move was criticised by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), who said it breached the UK’s obligations under the Refugee Convention: refugees should not be penalised for the way they arrive in a country to seek asylum. In spite of this, at least 500 people have been convicted for ‘illegal arrival’ since June 2022, including refugees, victims of trafficking and torture, and children wrongly assessed to be adults.

‘Deterrence’ does not work. This is not because the policies are not ‘tough enough’, but because people will continue to move when it is not safe for them to stay still

Then in 2023, the Illegal Migration Act rolled back refugee rights even further. It legislated that people whose asylum claims are rejected could never have a future claim assessed in the UK and could not be granted any form of leave. It also created a mandatory duty for the home secretary to remove people deemed inadmissible for asylum – either to their own country, or to a ‘safe third country’. However, post-Brexit, the UK had very few agreements regarding removals. In desperation, the previous government hatched its ill-fated Rwanda plan – which ultimately proved to be a costly, unlawful disaster.

Despite these punitive efforts, people have continued to make the difficult journey across the Channel. Almost 20,000 people crossed in the first half of 2025, a significant increase from the same period in both 2024 and 2023. It’s clear that ‘deterrence’ does not work. This is not because the policies are not tough enough, but because people will continue to move when it is not safe for them to stay still.

Following the money: what happens in France?

While often justified as necessary to prevent the loss of life at sea, evidence strongly suggests that British spending in northern France has in fact increased the risks for people crossing.

Restrictions to the supply of dinghies has forced more people onto fewer crafts, resulting in deadly overcrowding. Footage released by the Guardian and the BBC has shown French police using violent tactics both on land and in the water, including creating waves to flood dinghies, threatening people with pepper spray, and using knives to slash boats in the water. Men, women and children have died in northern France, on land and in the shallows, as a direct result of these tactics.

Alongside the “one in, one out” deal, Macron argued that new tactics were needed on French beaches to respond to people smugglers. It has been rumoured that new powers are being considered which would enable French officers to intervene with dinghies up to 300m from the coastline. However, police unions are resisting, with concerns that this might breach laws regulating the treatment of boats in distress at sea. These are the same concerns which ultimately ended the previous UK government’s plans to ‘push-back’ dinghies at sea.

If passed, this measure will clearly endanger people further. British-funded policing efforts have resulted in record numbers of people drowning in the French shallows – 82 people died last year, including at least 14 children. While the government scapegoats young asylum seekers for these deaths, we must continue to call the UK and France to account for how money is being spent on the beaches.

No more gimmicks?

Starmer’s promise to end the “gimmicks and gestures” has proven hollow. Despite the promise of something new, his plans represent a direct continuation of the Conservative’s cruel approach.

In a dangerous escalation in rhetoric, Labour have argued that Channel crossings must be treated using “counter-terror style powers”. Its new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill – currently in the parliamentary committee stage – proposes several new immigration offences, modelled on terrorism offences. These include the possession of information or objects that could be used for “immigration crime”.

While purported as necessary to “smash the gangs”, in reality, these offences are likely to be used against asylum seekers themselves, as the government has included no safeguards or protections for refugees.

Performative measures will not bring an end to death and despair in the Channel. These are policies not based on evidence or concerns for human life, but rather on a desire to appear “tough” on migration.

As people have continued to cross the Channel, both Labour and Conservative governments have resorted to increasingly cruel, often violent policies in their attempts to “stop the boats”. As continued cycles of policies have shown, they will not work. Instead, they will bring further harm to people seeking a better life in the UK. We must resist the state-supported trade in human beings and break the cruel cycle of deterrence.

Original article by Vicky Taylor republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

Keir Starmer chases Nigel Farage's racist bigot vote.
Keir Starmer chases Nigel Farage’s racist bigot vote.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him. He says that Reform UK has received millions and millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him. He says that Reform UK has received millions and millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Continue Reading‘One in, one out’ Channel deal is just another cruel gimmick

Shameful U-turn as UK and France abandon plans to recognise Palestinian state at peace conference

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of humanitarian aid destined to Gaza, at the Egyptian Red Crescent warehouse in Egypt’s northeastern city of Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula, about 55 kilometres west of the border with the Gaza Strip, on 8 April 2025. [LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images]

Plans by the UK and France to recognise a Palestinian state at an upcoming international peace conference in New York this month have been shelved, marking yet another U-turn just weeks after both governments signalled support for Palestinian self-determination in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and ongoing ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank.

The three-day conference, scheduled between 17-20 June and co-sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia, was initially framed as a diplomatic breakthrough that could see major Western powers recognise Palestinian statehood as a matter of principle. However, diplomats have now confirmed to the Guardian that the event will instead focus on vague “steps towards recognition.”

The reversal comes despite recent pledges by both London and Paris to re-evaluate their approach in light of Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza, which has killed over 55,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and the aggressive settlement expansion in the illegally occupied West Bank. Israeli officials have recently approved 22 new settlements, in what Defence Minister Yoav Gallant described as “a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

Read: US warns UK, France against recognising Palestinian State

French President Emmanuel Macron had previously declared Palestinian statehood a “moral duty and political requirement,” but according to officials who briefed Israeli counterparts this week, recognition will no longer be announced at the conference. Instead, it is being repositioned as a distant outcome contingent on a series of conditions, including a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli captives, and the restructuring of the Palestinian Authority to exclude Hamas.

The UK government, which has faced increasing pressure from MPs to take stronger measures against Israel, has taken a similar position.

According to the Guardian, British and French officials now view recognition not as a moral position or legal obligation, but as a reward contingent on the compliance of Palestinians with a framework shaped largely by Israel’s priorities. The Israeli public, however, has largely abandoned the idea of a two-state solution. According to figures cited by the Guardian, just 20 per cent of Israelis support the creation of a Palestinian state, while a staggering 56 per cent of Jewish Israelis back the “transfer” of Palestinian citizens of Israel to other countries, an explicit endorsement of ethnic cleansing.

Meanwhile, public support for Palestinian statehood continues to grow across Europe. Ireland, Spain and Norway formally recognised Palestine last year, and several Conservative MPs in Britain, including former Attorney General Sir Jeremy Wright, have broken ranks to endorse recognition.

Read: Labour MPs push Foreign Office to back Palestinian statehood at French-Saudi UN summit

Saudi Arabia, the conference’s co-host, has repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, and there appears little prospect of Riyadh normalising relations with Tel Aviv. Analysts note that France’s vision of mutual recognition, Western states recognising Palestine in exchange for Arab normalisation with Israel, is rapidly collapsing in the face of Israeli escalation and public outrage across the Arab world.

Palestinians and their supporters are likely to view this latest shift as yet another instance of Western duplicity, offering rhetorical support while continuing to shield Israel from accountability. The Elders, a group of former global statesmen, urged Macron in an open letter to treat recognition as a “transformative step toward peace,” and not to view the self-determination of Palestinians as a chip to be negotiated with Israel.

Read: 80% of Israeli Jews support US President Trump’s proposal to ethnically cleanse Gaza, survey finds

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Continue ReadingShameful U-turn as UK and France abandon plans to recognise Palestinian state at peace conference

Wiz Acquisition Puts Israeli Intelligence In Charge of Your Google Data

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Original article by Alan Macleod republished from MPN under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

Google recently announced it would acquire Israeli-American cloud security firm Wiz for $32 billion. The price tag — 65 times Wiz’s annual revenue — has raised eyebrows and further solidified the close relationship between Google and the Israeli military.

In its press release, the Silicon Valley giant claimed that the purchase will “vastly improve how security is designed, operated and automated—providing an end-to-end security platform for customers, of all types and sizes, in the AI era.”

Yet it has also raised fears about the security of user data, particularly of those who oppose Israeli actions against its neighbors, given Unit 8200’s long history of using tech to spy on opponents, gather intelligence, and use that knowledge for extortion and blackmail.

Israel’s Global Spy Network

Wiz was established only five years ago, and all four co-founders — Yinon Costica, Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik — were leaders in Israel’s elite military intelligence unit, Unit 8200. Like many Israeli tech companies, Wiz is a direct outgrowth of the military intelligence outfit. A recent study found that almost fifty of its current employees are Unit 8200 veterans.

“That experience showed me the impact you can make when you combine great talent with amazing technology,” Rappaport said of his time in the military.

Former Unit 8200 agents, working hand-in-glove with the Israeli national security state, have gone on to produce many of the world’s most infamous malware and hacking tools.

Perhaps the most well-known of these is Pegasus, spyware used by governments around the world to surveil and harass political opponents. These include India, Kazakhstan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, the latter of which used the tool to spy on Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi before he was assassinated by Saudi agents in Türkiye.

In total, more than 50,000 journalists, human rights defenders, diplomats, business leaders and politicians are known to have been secretly surveilled. That includes heads of state such as French President Emmanuel Macron, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Iraqi President Barham Salih. All Pegasus sales had to be approved by the Israeli government, which reportedly had access to the data Pegasus’ foreign customers were accruing.

Unit 8200 also spies on Americans. Whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency regularly shared the data and communications of U.S. citizens with the Israeli intelligence group. “I think that’s amazing…It’s one of the biggest abuses we’ve seen,” he said.

For the Israeli government, the utility of these private spying firms filled with former IDF intelligence figures is that it allows it some measure of plausible deniability when confronted with spying attacks. As Haaretz explained: “Who owns [these spying companies] isn’t clear, but their employees aren’t soldiers. Consequently, they may solve the army’s problem, even if the solution they provide is imperfect.”

Today, former Unit 8200 agents not only create much of the world’s spyware, but also the security features that claim to protect against unwanted surveillance. A MintPress investigation found that three of the six largest VPN companies in the world are owned and controlled by an Israeli company co-founded by a Unit 8200 veteran.

Exposed: How Israeli Spies Control Your VPN

How Unit 8200 Controls Palestinians

It is in Palestine, however, that Unit 8200 has been most active. The unit serves as the centerpiece of Israel’s hi-tech repressive state apparatus. Using gigantic amounts of data compiled on Palestinians by tracking their every move through facial recognition cameras, monitoring their calls, messages, emails and personal data, Unit 8200 has created a digital dragnet that it uses to snoop on, harass, and suppress Palestinians.

It compiles dossiers on virtually every Gaza resident, including their medical history, sex lives, and search histories, so that this information can be used for extortion or blackmail later. If, for example, an individual is cheating on their spouse, desperately needs a medical operation, or is secretly homosexual, this can be used as leverage to turn civilians into informants and spies for Israel.

One former Unit 8200 operative said that as part of his training, he was assigned to memorize different Arabic words for “gay” so that he could listen for them in phone conversations he was eavesdropping on.

Unit 8200 is also reportedly behind the even more controversial Project Lavender, a giant, AI-generated kill list of tens of thousands of Gazans that the IDF uses to target the densely populated strip’s civilian population.

Palestanian workers cross the Eyal checkpoint into Israel under the watchful eye of IDF cameras, January 10, 2021. Keren Manor | Activestills

Every Gazan (including children) is assigned a score of 1-100, based on their perceived proximity to Hamas. A wide range of characteristics will increase an individual’s score, including living or working in the same building or being in a WhatsApp group with a known or suspected Hamas member.

If a person’s number reaches a certain threshold, they are automatically added to a Unit 8200 kill list. This, one IDF commander explained, solved Israel’s perennial targeting “human bottleneck,” allowing them to carry out tens of thousands of strikes into Gaza during the first few weeks of the post-October 7 attack alone.

Unit 8200 is also widely reported to have carried out the Lebanon Pager Attack, exploding thousands of electronic devices at the same time, killing dozens and injuring thousands more. The operation was widely described, even by former CIA director Leon Panetta, as an act of terrorism.

This long history of violence, skulduggery, and spying raises troubling questions about whether a corporation founded and staffed by dozens of individuals from such an organization can be trusted with billions of users’ private and personal data.

Google’s Ties to Israeli Intelligence

Google’s purchase of Wiz deepens its already close ties to Unit 8200. In 2013, the tech giant acquired Waze, an online maps service founded by three Unit 8200 veterans, for $1.3 billion. It has also directly hired dozens of former spooks and spies to fill its ranks; a 2022 MintPress News investigation found at least 99 former Unit 8200 agents working at the Silicon Valley behemoth.

Among these figures is Gavriel Goidel, Head of Strategy and Operations for Google Research. Goidel joined Google in 2022 after a six-year career in military intelligence, during which he rose to become Head of Learning at Unit 8200. There, he led a large team of operatives who sifted through intelligence data to “understand patterns of hostile activists,” according to his own account.

Google is far from an outlier when it comes to hiring former Israeli spies to carry out its operations. Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon have all hired a significant number of ex-Unit 8200 agents. Even TikTok, supposedly a hotbed of anti-Semitism, employs a considerable number of ex-spooks. Perhaps most surprisingly, a number of top U.S. media outlets, including CNN and Axios, have recruited former Unit 8200 spies and analysts to write and produce America’s news about the Middle East.

Revealed: The Israeli Spies Writing America’s News

Google has invested heavily in Israel, first opening offices there in 2006. Longtime CEO Eric Schmidt is known to be a vocal supporter of the controversial state. In a 2012 meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he declared that “the decision to invest in Israel was one of the best that Google has ever made.”

But the Wiz deal is undoubtedly the company’s biggest Israeli investment yet. The all-cash acquisition represents a massive injection of money into Israel’s flailing and war-weary economy, equivalent to 0.6% of the country’s GDP. The money, the Israeli press excitedly reports, will allow the government to continue without enacting major austerity measures, reduce the nation’s deficit, and enable Israel to continue on a wartime footing for longer. As such, it represents a move critics say amounts to a financial intervention on behalf of Israel. Moreover, it also sends a message to the rest of the business world to invest in the country, boosting investor sentiment at a time when it is most needed.

The size of the deal also surprised many. The price is similar to that of the sale of JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo in 2008, Visa Europe in 2017, and Twitter in 2022. Yet Wiz is a new and relatively unknown company, raising questions about its valuation.

Ultimately, though, these considerations are secondary to the main issue that such a group will now be charged with providing security for the data of billions of users worldwide. Given Unit 8200’s role in monitoring and targeting the Palestinian population, many will be wondering if, going forward, Google products are at all safe to use.

Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News

Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.

Original article by Alan Macleod republished from MPN under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

Continue ReadingWiz Acquisition Puts Israeli Intelligence In Charge of Your Google Data

Israel Agrees to Cease-Fire With Lebanon’s Hezbollah—But What About Gaza?

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Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon on November 25, 2024. (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)

“It has long been clear that a cease-fire in Gaza is crucial to sustain any lasting cessation of hostilities across the region,” said one group.

Peace advocates on Tuesday cautiously celebrated Israel agreeing to a cease-fire with the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah while also stressing the need for an immediate end to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.

Despite concerns about whether the truce will actually happen, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a U.S.-based Quaker group, welcomed the plans for it and called on “all parties to ensure this agreement is swiftly enacted.”

“The time for peace is now—not just in Lebanon, but in Gaza and across the region,” FCNL declared on social media. “We urge U.S. officials to ensure this agreement brings an immediate end to the Israeli government’s devastating and indiscriminate bombing and attacks against Lebanese civilians, which have been fueled by U.S. weapons.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the National Security Cabinet approved the cease-fire in Lebanon with a 10-1 vote—only far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir voted no. The office added that “Israel appreciates the U.S. contribution to the process, and reserves the right to act against any threat to its security.”

Netanyahu said in a speech to Israelis that “the length of the cease-fire depends on what happens in Lebanon. With the United States’ full understanding, we maintain full freedom of military action. If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack.”

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden said that he worked with French President Emmanuel Macron to negotiate the cease-fire, which is set to begin at 4:00 am local time on Wednesday. The United States has spent at least tens of billions on Israeli military operations and related U.S. operations in the region since the Gaza-based Palestinian group Hamas led the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.

“As Biden spoke tonight, Israel was raining U.S. bombs down on Lebanon and Gaza,” notedDrop Site journalist Jeremy Scahill.

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Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday thanked France and the United States for negotiating the truce, which he said is “a fundamental step towards establishing calm and stability in Lebanon” and “helps to establish regional stability.” He also reiterated his government’s intention to “strengthen the army’s presence in the south.”

Cross-border battles between Israeli forces and Hezbollah over the past nearly 14 months have displaced tens of thousands of people in Israel and over 1 million in Lebanon. The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Tuesday that Israel’s assault—which has intensified since September—has killed at least 3,823 people and injured another 15,859.

In Gaza, the death toll is at least 44,249, with 104,746 wounded, according to local officials. Israeli forces have also decimated civilian infrastructure and displaced most of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents, who are struggling to access necessities, due to limits on aid. Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court last week issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas leader.

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“It has long been clear that a cease-fire in Gaza is crucial to sustain any lasting cessation of hostilities across the region,” said FCNL. “More violence and suffering in Gaza will not make Israel, the U.S., or anyone safer or more secure. It must end now. We reiterate our calls for our government to use all U.S. leverage to bring about a full regional cease-fire to end the horrific suffering of Palestinians, protect all civilians, return all hostages home, de-escalate regional tensions, and begin the long road toward healing.”

“That must include prohibiting more offensive weapons shipments and U.S. military involvement, which would send a message of impunity to the Israeli [government] in the face of repeated and grave violations of U.S. and international law in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, and beyond,” the group added—just days after a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate rejected a trio of resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have halted some arms sales to Israel.

Nancy Okail, president and CEO of the U.S.-based Center for International Policy, responded similarly to the Tuesday development, saying in a statement that “we welcome news of a cease-fire agreement in Lebanon and hope that it can be implemented and sustained to prevent further harm to civilians who have been under threat of attack or suffered other great loss during the fighting.”

“This agreement nonetheless comes too late. While Israel has the right to legitimate self-defense against Hezbollah, the Netanyahu government’s deliberate escalation of the conflict in September resulted in disproportionate harm to civilians, hundreds of whom have been wounded or killed, with hundreds of thousands more displaced,” Okail said. “Mixed messages and prevaricating by the Biden administration on its position on Israel’s escalation and the need for a cease-fire [have] further prolonged the fighting and exacerbated the death and destruction it has brought.”

“The U.S. and its partners must ensure that the terms of this agreement are fully honored so that civilians on both sides of the border can safely return to and rebuild their communities,” she added. “What remains of the utmost urgency, however, is also ending the war in Gaza, where the U.S. arming of the Netanyahu government’s campaign of displacement, starvation, slaughter and—per the repeated vows of senior Israeli officials—settlement continues in violation of American and international law.”

Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingIsrael Agrees to Cease-Fire With Lebanon’s Hezbollah—But What About Gaza?

100,000+ People Across France March to Decry Macron’s ‘Denial of Democracy’

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Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

A protester carries a sign called on Michel Barnier, who was selected by French President Emmanuel Macron as the prime minister, to resign at a protest on September 7, 2024 in Nantes, France. (Photo: Maylis Rolland/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)

“Expressing one’s vote will be useless as long as Macron is in power,” said one demonstrator.

In cities and towns across France on Saturday, more than 100,000 people answered the call from the left-wing political party La France Insoumise for mass protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s selection of a right-wing prime minister.

The demonstrations came two months after the left coalition won more seats than Macron’s centrist coalition or the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in the National Assembly and two days after the president announced that Michel Barnier, the right-wing former Brexit negotiator for the European Union, would lead the government.

The selection was made after negotiations between Macron and RN leader Marine Le Pen, leading protesters on Saturday to accuse the president of a “denial of democracy.”

“Expressing one’s vote will be useless as long as Macron is in power,” a protester named Manon Bonijol told Al Jazeera.

A poll released on Friday by Elabe showed that 74% of French people believed Macron had disregarded the results of July’s snap parliamentary elections, and 55% said the election had been “stolen.”

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France Insoumise (LFI), or France Unbowed, also accused Macron of “stealing the election” in a speech at the demonstration in Paris on Saturday.

“Democracy is not just the art of accepting you have won but the humility to accept you have lost,” Mélenchon told protesters. “I call you for what will be a long battle.”

He added that “the French people are in rebellion. They have entered into revolution.”

Macron’s centrist coalition won about 160 assembly seats out of 577 in July, compared to the left coalition’s 180. The RN won about 140.

Barnier’s Les Républicains (LR) party won fewer than 50 parliamentary seats. French presidents have generally named prime ministers, who oversee domestic policy, from the party with the most seats in the National Assembly.

Barnier signaled on Friday that he would largely defend Macron’s pro-business policies and could unveil stricter anti-immigration reforms. Macron has enraged French workers and the left with policies including a retirement age hike last year.

Protests also took place in cities including Nantes, Nice, Montpellier, Marseilles, and Strasbourg.

All four left-wing parties within the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) coalition have announced plans to vote for a motion of no confidence against Barnier.

The RN has not committed to backing Barnier’s government yet and leaders have said they are waiting to see what policies he presents to the National Assembly before deciding how to proceed in a no confidence vote.

Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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