How the US and Israel destroyed Syria and called it peace

JEFFREY D SACHS
The long history of Israel’s campaign to overthrow the Syrian government is not well known, but the documentary record is clear. Israel’s war on Syria began with American and Israeli neoconservatives in 1996, who designed a “clean break” Middle East strategy for Netanyahu when he came to power.

The core of the “clean break” strategy required Israel (and the United States) to reject the idea of ​​“land for peace,” according to which Israel would withdraw from occupied Palestinian lands in exchange for peace. Instead, Israel would retain the occupied Palestinian lands, rule over the Palestinian people in an apartheid state, ethnically cleanse the state step by step, and impose so-called “peace for peace” by overthrowing neighboring governments that resisted Israel’s territorial claims.

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When Al Qaeda jihadists are good

PASCUAL SERRANO
Today, a jihadist group from Al Qaeda has just violently seized power in a country that shares the Mediterranean coast with us, is two hours by plane from the EU and borders NATO. It does not seem like good news, but they are not going to present this Syrian splinter group of Al Qaeda or its leader Al Jawlani to us like this.

The reason that justifies this military coup in the eyes of the West is that the overthrown government of Al Assad was a partner of Russia, Lebanon and Iran, so Islamic terrorists are now seen in a different light in the West. It is time to launch an appropriate campaign to whitewash them.

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Trump, Europe and the Middle East

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON
The big puzzle is how far Trump will go with the Gaza Strip. Israel clearly wants to return to colonisation. To facilitate this, it has been keeping the bulk of its population, 2,3 million Palestinians, moving around for a year, not allowing them to stay anywhere in safety. The apparent intention is to drive them back to Egypt. To do this, he needs the green light from the White House, something Joe Biden has not been willing to grant. The question is whether Trump will allow it.

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A ghost is haunting the financial world: BRICS Pay

PASCUAL SERRANO
BRICS Pay will be a digital platform that would allow consumers and businesses in partner countries to make payments and transfer funds across borders with ease – precisely what we do now with SWIFT, except that they would not do so under Western domination. More than 50 countries have already expressed interest in joining this initiative ahead of the 2024 BRICS summit.

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China and the time of the BRICS

XULIO RIOS
There is a virtually unanimous perception of a worsening of the major international dilemmas, whether we are referring to issues of peace or development, manifesting itself in open discontent with the different yardsticks applied to certain conflicts and the persistence in preserving an exclusive hegemony that does not take into sufficient consideration the changes that have occurred in recent decades in the international economy and society.

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Sinwar's disappearance marks a change of cycle

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON 
More than a year into the conflict, when Yahiya Sinwar's whereabouts were perhaps the biggest mystery of the war, we learn that the Israeli army has killed him. Most assumed that the Hamas leader was somewhere remote in the Gaza Strip, probably hiding in a tunnel, and well surrounded by Israeli hostages who protected him as human shields.

The information provided by Israel indicates, however, that he died in combat, a circumstance that will contribute to increasing his legend.

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Nasrallah and the rehabilitation of Netanyahu

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON
The first poll since the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut has projected Benjamin Netanyahu's popularity to rise. After nearly a year of lackluster poll results and strong public hostility, the Israeli prime minister is once again moving freely and confidently, and it is difficult to know how far he is prepared to go.

Netanyahu has allowed himself to leave the Gaza Strip open pending what happens at the US polls in November. Depending on who enters the White House, it will be much clearer whether Israel can expel all or part of the Palestinian population, 2,3 million people, who since October 7, 2023 have been migrating relentlessly from one place to another in the Strip, forced by American bombs from Israeli fighter planes that pursue them everywhere.

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Spain and China, a linchpin for dialogue

XULIO RIOS
The visit of Spanish President Pedro Sánchez to China has enabled two important observations. First, that the harmony between both parties persists and that it is revealed as a political capital of great relevance to face common challenges. And second, that both governments are working together to promote dialogue as the main mechanism to find negotiated solutions to tariff tensions with the EU.

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Philadelphia Corridor, Netanyahu's last obstacle to ending the war

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON
The Philadelphia Corridor is a narrow belt 100 meters wide and 14 kilometers long that runs parallel to and along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. The name Philadelphia (without the letter a at the end) was chosen at random by the Israeli army, while the Palestinians and Egyptians call it the Saladin Corridor.

In recent months, this has become very important, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that any ceasefire agreement with Hamas include the permanence of Israeli troops in that axis. In contrast, the Islamist organisation's position is that any agreement should include the complete withdrawal of soldiers from the entire Gaza Strip, including the Philadelphia corridor.

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Gaza war and Jewish emigration

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON
A few weeks ago a statistic based on official data was published according to which in the first months of the Gaza war that began on October 7, 2023, more than 550.000 Jewish Israelis left the country because of the conflict. There is no way to know how many of those Israelis will return at some point and how many will decide never to return, but the data, which is barely discussed in the media, is worrying for Zionism.

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The war between the United States and China is commercial and Olympic

PASCUAL SERRANO
On August 7, the Reuters agency uncovered a serious complaint that has gone largely unnoticed in the Western media. The US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) allowed several athletes it had discovered between 2011 and 2014 violating anti-doping rules to continue competing then without being sanctioned.

The excuse given by the US authorities is that it was part of a plan for them to act covertly and continue competing without being prosecuted in exchange for information about other offenders. USADA maintains that the tactic is necessary and permitted, and wants to continue using it.

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