Israeli soldiers sit on top of a tank along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights from Syria, in the town of Majdal Shams
ISRAEL was condemned today for its invasion of Syria in the wake of the fall of its president, Bashar al-Assad, as the United States joined Tel Aviv in widespread bombing of targets within the country.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Israeli forces have seized a buffer zone in the Golan Heights, established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria.
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Stop the War vice-chairman Chris Nineham told the Morning Star: “We condemn the bombing of various sites in Syria.
“Not content with conducting genocide in Gaza, Israel, the US’s main ally in the Middle East, is contributing to the growing chaos and instability in the region.”
Israel carried out multiple airstrikes against the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday, December 8, after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. Photo: Screenshot
The resignation and fleeing of Bashar al-Assad inaugurates a new chapter in the region that has been facing constant US and Israeli aggression for decades.
As Israeli forces advanced into the Golan buffer zone and initiated airstrikes on targets in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a video published on X that the collapse of Assad’s government on Sunday, December 8, “is a direct result of our forceful action against Hezbollah and Iran, Assad’s main supporters.” Meanwhile, images circulated across social media of members of the armed opposition groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) taking control over Damascus, invading the Iranian embassy in the capital and tearing down posters of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
The dramatic events took place after groups led by HTS launched a surprise offensive on November 27, against Syrian government forces in the Aleppo governorate. HTS is led by Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the former leader of Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch Al-Nusra front which rebranded as HTS. In the following 12 days, the groups, some of which are backed by the United States, Turkey, and covertly Israel, quickly advanced and gained control of key Syrian cities with little resistance until reaching the capital Damascus on December 8.
The fall of Assad’s government has sent a shock wave across the region and the world. The Syrian government had been engaged in a protracted civil war since 2011, which eventually saw armed opposition groups, including ISIS and Al-Qaeda affiliates, take control over large swathes of territory. The United States officially intervened in the conflict in 2014, carrying out extensive airstrikes as well as territorial deployment alongside Kurdish forces in the north, which continues to this day. Syria’s allies including Russia, Iran, and Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, played a central role in the military campaign to regain control over the majority of Syrian territory and defeat the Islamic State and other terrorist groups. Importantly, the coalition of armed opposition groups retained control over the Idlib governorate, from where they evidently regrouped to launch their latest offensive.
Analysts, and even Netanyahu himself, have pointed out that the timing of this offensive was no coincidence. The HTS-led offensive began on the same day that a ceasefire deal was reached between a significantly-weakened Hezbollah and Israel. The critical support Syria received in its fight against opposition groups in the last decade, was significantly reduced as its partners and allies have been engaged in their own arduous wars and conflicts.
Lebanese American journalist Rania Khalek wrote on December 5, “There is a feeling that all the forces against Syria – Turkey, the US, Israel, etc – have joined forces to attack the resistance axis at one of its weakest moments, taking advantage of the last year plus of genocide in Gaza, destruction in Lebanon and Russia being bogged down in Ukraine. All this while US sanctions and bad governance hollowed out what was left of the Syrian state and its remaining institutions. Everyone fears even darker days ahead.”
Additionally, with Israel’s advance on the Golan buffer zone, many now fear that it will seek to advance its annexation goals for the Golan Heights.
In a 2018 article written by Nour Samaha for The Intercept, she warned that, taking advantage of the war, Israel at the time was “expanding its influence and control deeper into opposition-held southern Syria.” Samaha argued that this advance through NGOs and backing opposition groups was partially in response to Israel’s anxiety about “increasing Iranian influence in Syria and Hezbollah’s presence close to its northern border”, but also ultimately part of its “aim of cementing Israel’s hold on the Golan Heights.” She reported at the time that there was an increase in Israeli settlement activity within the Occupied Golan Heights.
Israeli forces stated the deployment to the buffer zone was “to ensure the safety of the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel. We emphasize that the IDF is not interfering with the internal events in Syria.”
Meanwhile, Israel continues to carry out airstrikes on Syria’s capital targeting strategic sites such as ammunition and weapons depots and the Mezzeh airbase, reportedly to prevent the sites from falling into the hands of the new government.
Iran, the foremost ally of the Assad government, responded to the developments in Syria during a cabinet session on Sunday, December 8. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated, “We stress the importance of preserving Syria’s unity and sovereignty, with its people deciding the country’s future and political system. We emphasize the importance of dialogue among all segments of Syrian society to reach an understanding, and we hope for an end to military confrontations.” The head of state added that Iran condemns Israel’s “violation of Syrian territory and calls on all parties and countries in the region to be vigilant against its aims.”
The country also condemned the incursion into its embassy in Damascus.
US President Joe Biden speaking in a press conference held at the White House, praised the government takeover by HTS as a “fundamental act of justice” but also that “the fall of the Assad regime in Syria is also a moment of risk and uncertainty.”
In 2017, the US had declared that it considers HTS a “designated terrorist org”. The US Embassy in Syria posted an image of HTS leader al-Julani, who himself had been declared a global terrorist as early as 2013, and stated “we remain committed to bringing leading AQS figures in HTS to justice”, offering a USD 10 million reward for his capture.
Jensen Huang of Nvidia speaks about the future of artificial intelligence and its effect on energy consumption and production at the Bipartisan Policy Center on September 27, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“The oligarchic dozen is richer than ever, and they are endowed with extreme material power that can be used to pursue narrow political interests at the expense of democratic majorities,” according to the author of a new analysis.
Just 12 U.S. billionaires now have a collective net worth of over $2 trillion—a figure that amounts to a little less than a third of total federal spending in 2023—according to an analysis out Tuesday from Inequality.org, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
The $2 trillion number is also twice the amount of wealth that the top 12 US billionaires held in 2020, according to researchers at IPS, a progressive organization.
The full list of 12 billionaires includes Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, Steve Ballmer, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jim Walton, Rob Walton, and Jensen Huang.
“This is an unsettling new milestone for wealth concentration in the United States. The oligarchic dozen is richer than ever, and they are endowed with extreme material power that can be used to pursue narrow political interests at the expense of democratic majorities,” wrote the author of the analysis, Omar Ocampo, a researcher at IPS.
New to the “oligarchic dozen” is Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO of the tech company Nvidia. Nvidia, which became the most valuable publicly traded company this year, has seen its profits jump thanks to the world’s ravenous appetite for the artificial intelligence chips that the firm produces. According to the analysis, Huang’s personal wealth “has skyrocketed from $4.7 billion in 2020 to $122.4 billion—a mind-boggling 2,504 percent increase—over the last four years.”
Each of the billionaires on the list “owns or is a controlling shareholder of a business that is investing billions of dollars in artificial intelligence,” according to Ocampo, which raises concerns about their respective carbon footprints.
Fueling AI is energy intensive, and AI data centers in the U.S. are largely powered by fossil fuels, meaning their proliferation poses a threat to the environment and a transition to a green economy.
Ocampo also discusses the political reach of the billionaires on the list. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who respectively own X and The Washington Post, “have both purchased large media platforms, which has granted them the ability to set the terms of public debate with the hopes of influencing public opinion in their favor.”
Musk specifically has established himself as a major power broker within the GOP. The billionaire spent hundreds of millions helping to re-elect Donald Trump and is now poised to play a major role in the president-elect’s administration, helping oversee a new advisory committee tasked with slashing government spending.
As of early December, Trump had tapped an “unprecedented” total of seven reported billionaires for key positions in his administration, according to a separate piece of analysis by Inequality.org.
“We see the effects of this growing concentration of wealth and economic inequality everywhere—plutocratic influence on our politics, wealth transfers from the bottom to the top, and the acceleration of climate breakdown,” Ocampo wrote on Tuesday.
The Israeli military launched an airstrike on the al-Qassam Mosque and its surroundings in Gaza City’s Nuseirat refugee camp on November 27, 2024. (Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The Biden administration seems to be ready and willing to keep piling more and more, despite Gaza descending into what President Biden just yesterday described as ‘hell,'” said Amnesty International USA.
Just hours after a cease-fire between the Israeli government and Lebanese group Hezbollah took effect, the Financial Times revealed that “U.S. President Joe Biden has provisionally approved a $680 million weapons sale to Israel,” which has also spent the past nearly 14 months decimating the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the British newspaper reported that “U.S. officials recently briefed Congress on the plan to provide thousands of additional joint direct attack munition kits to Israel, known as JDAMS, as well as hundreds of small-diameter bombs.”
The Biden administration’s decision to advance the sale was subsequently confirmed by Reuters, which reported that “the package has been in the works for several months. It was first brought to the congressional committees in September then submitted for review in October.”
Human rights advocates critical of Israel’s assaults on Lebanon and Gaza—which has led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—responded with alarm to the new reporting.
“If these reports are true, it’s heartbreakingly devastating news,” saidAmnesty International USA. “These are the weapons that our research has shown were used to wipe out entire families, without any discernable military objective.”
Amnesty highlighted a trio of resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have halted some arms sales to Israel. Although they failed to pass the Senate last week, the group was among several that noted over the course of three votes, 17, 18, and 19 senators supported halting weapons sales, “sending a clear signal that U.S. policy must change.”
“Yet, the Biden administration seems to be ready and willing to keep piling more and more, despite Gaza descending into what President Biden just yesterday described as ‘hell,'” Amnesty added Wednesday. “Sending more weapons that have been used to maim and kill with impunity doesn’t just put in jeopardy Palestinian lives and the elusive cease-fire the president is seeking, but also President Biden’s own legacy.”
The Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project declared Wednesday that “President Biden is spending the final days of his presidency going against the will of most Americans, U.S. law, and international law.”
“The weapons included in this package have been used by Israel in numerous apparent war crimes,” the organization noted. “On July 13, 2024, Israel attacked a so-called ‘safe zone’ in al-Mawasi, in which internally displaced Palestinians were sheltering, killing at least 90 people and injuring hundreds more. A CNN investigation found that Israel carried out this attack with at least one JDAM.”
John Ramming Chappell, an adviser on legal and policy issues at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, similarly stressed that “these are the very same weapons that for months Israeli forces have used to kill Palestinian civilians and violate international humanitarian law.”
“Continuing arms transfers risks making the United States and US officials complicit in war crimes,” he said. “These arms sales are unlawful as a matter of both U.S. and international law. They are immoral. The congressional committees of jurisdiction can and must place a hold on the sales.”
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, pointed out that “aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity is itself a crime for which U.S. officials may (and should) face prosecution at the ICC.”
Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, though Palestine is. Both the Biden administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national security adviser have attacked the warrants for Israeli leaders.
In a speech to Israelis on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that one of the reasons for the cease-fire in Lebanon “is to give our forces a breather and replenish stocks. And I say it openly, it is no secret that there have been big delays in weapons and munitions deliveries. These delays will be resolved soon. We will receive supplies of advanced weaponry that will keep our soldiers safe and give us more strike force to complete our mission.”
According to the Financial Times:
U.S. officials have denied there is any explicit link between the cease-fire deal and approval for the latest weapons delivery. While the cease-fire deal includes a so-called side letter from the U.S. to Israel, setting out Washington’s support for a certain freedom of Israeli action, people familiar with the text said it included no guarantees of weapon sales.
U.S. officials also deny that there have been deliberate delays to weapons shipments, aside from shipments of 2,000-pound bombs, which Biden paused earlier this year over concerns about their use in densely populated areas of Gaza.
The Times of Israelreported that Biden’s State Department declined to confirm the advancement of the package but said that U.S. support for Israel in the face of Iran-backed threats is “unwavering” and all weapon transfers are carried out in line with federal law.
“We have made clear that Israel must comply with international humanitarian law, has a moral obligation and strategic imperative to protect civilians, investigate allegations of any wrongdoing, and ensure accountability for any abuses or violations of international human rights law or international humanitarian law,” the State Department said.
As of Wednesday, officials in Gaza said the death toll had hit at least 44,282 Palestinians with another 104,880 people injured.
European movements call for an end to the US-imposed blockade on Cuba, condemning disinformation campaigns that hinder the progress of the socialist project on the Caribbean island
As Cuba continues to face the challenges of a US-imposed blockade and widespread disinformation campaigns, over 300 representatives of social movements, trade unions, and political organizations gathered in Paris during the weekend of November 22-24 for the 19th European Continental Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba. The delegates focused on strengthening ties between the Caribbean island and European countries, addressing the economic consequences of the blockade and everyday realities of life under these pressures.
The meeting produced a declaration outlining guidelines for European networks to counter mainstream defamation of Cuba, such as a campaign to end the country’s classification as a state sponsor of terrorism. In direct contrast to the stance of European leaders who align with the US-imposed blockade, participants expressed “unconditional support for the Cuban Revolution and its right to build the socialist project chosen by the majority of the people,” the Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples (Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos, ICAP) reported in a statement.
According to Rodrigo Suñe from the International Peoples’ Assembly, the declaration “reaffirms unconditional support for Cuba’s right to continue building its path to socialism in a sovereign manner.” This, Suñe explains, will be achieved by “gradually and collectively” strengthening political solidarity with Cuba’s struggle against attacks led by successive US administrations.
Among these attacks, Suñe highlights the US-imposed blockade, designed to strangle the Cuban economy, and a “permanent media war” aimed at spreading manipulation and misinformation. He emphasizes that those in solidarity with Cuba must actively denounce and counter these campaigns. To achieve this it is essential to raise awareness and exchange information about the everyday realities of life in Cuba under the blockade. Reflecting this priority, part of the meeting focused on analyzing the blockade’s impact on Cuba’s economy, trade, and financial systems.
“We left the meeting with a mission to strengthen material solidarity by financing and implementing new cooperation projects, as well as promoting and organizing campaigns to send priority donations,” says Suñe. “To achieve this, it will be crucial to involve young people and expand their participation in building solidarity.”
On the final day of the conference, participants staged a protest in central Paris, reaffirming their call for solidarity with Cuba and urging European countries to radically change their approach. Currently, European Union member states continue to follow US policy on Cuba, a stance that, according to ICAP, does not reflect the interest – or the will – of the peoples of Europe. As part of the meeting’s conclusions, an appeal was launched for the EU to break away from US interference and remove the obstacles hampering its relations with Cuba, Rodrigo Suñe told Peoples Dispatch.
This work is particularly important given the escalating crises at a global level. “We are facing a very complex situation, with the deepening of the capitalist crisis, wars, and the rise of the far-right and its neofascist ideals. This is why we need to improve the quality of our articulation of internationalist solidarity,” explains Suñe.
The commitment to strengthening solidarity between Europe and Cuba will remain a key focus for ICAP and other organizations as they prepare for the next meeting, scheduled to take place in Turkey in 2026. Leading up to that event, Suñe says, the movements involved will focus on building a unified strategy to strengthen both political and material solidarity with Cuba, addressing the challenges discussed during their meeting in Paris.
