Tag: Humanitarian Aid

WTF Is This?

Note:  I hope everyone had an enjoyable and safe Veteran’s Day.

The news just keeps getting more and more convoluted….it seems that Donny is will to spend $500 million for a base in Israel….

The US is planning to build a large military base in Israel on the Gaza border, according to a joint report from the Israeli investigative outlet Shomrim and the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

The report said that the construction of the base would cost about $500 million and would be designed to house thousands of US and international troops tasked with maintaining the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The US has already established a military outpost in southern Israel to oversee the ceasefire, known as the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), but the construction of such a large base would mark a significant escalation of the US military presence. It would also increase the US involvement in Gaza, where Israel is regularly carrying out attacks and killing Palestinians despite the truce deal.

“It’s hard to overstate the significance of building such a base,” an Israeli security official told Shomrim. “Since the Six-Day War, Israel has sought to minimize international involvement in the territories. The establishment of an American base on Israeli soil shows just how determined Washington is to be involved in Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

The US has already deployed 200 troops to the CMCC, which has replaced Israel as the “overseer” of humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza, according to a report from The Washington Post. Israel has continued to restrict aid deliveries to Gaza in violation of the ceasefire deal.

Shomrim said that it asked the US Embassy in Jerusalem for a comment on the report and was referred to the US Department of War, which in turn referred to US Central Command. Shomrim said it hasn’t received a response from CENTCOM. Antiwar.com has asked the State Department for a comment on the report and has yet to receive a reply.

Bloomberg later reported that the US military was exploring the possibility of building a “temporary” base capable of housing 10,000 people near Gaza. The report cited a Request for Information document dated October 31 that said the US Navy was seeking a cost estimate for “a temporary, self-sustaining military base of operations capable of supporting 10,000 personnel and providing 10,000 square feet of office space for a period of 12 months.”

In response to the Bloomberg report, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “This story is based on a single piece of paper produced by random people within the military. Such a plan has not been considered or approved by the highest levels of the United States government and should not be deemed as an official plan in the Middle East.”

(antiwar.com)

WTF?  Why are we building a protection buffer for Israel?  If they cannot do it themselves then f*c k them and let them disappear and do the world a favor.

Plus they are in charge of aid distribution….the very country that has caused the aid problems now in charge…..what sanity is this?

It is time for the US to step back and let Israel do shit for themselves or hold them responsible for their atrocities.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

 

All The Humanitarian Aid

But first Biden has asked for another aid package for Ukraine….

President Biden asked Congress for an additional $33 billion for military, economic, and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine as the US is preparing to back Kyiv in its war against Moscow for the long term.

According to the White House, the massive request includes $20.4 billion in military aid, $8.5 billion in economic aid, and $3 billion in humanitarian assistance. The funds are meant to last through the 2022 fiscal year, which ends on September 30.

$33 billion in aid for Ukraine…..

Factoid:  Biden’s $33 billion “emergency” military aid package for Ukraine is three times the size of the EPA’s entire budget for 2022.

So basically a war half a world away is more important than saving the fragile environment of this country…how rich is that?

Enough!

Humanitarian aid for Ukraine…..NGOs are leading the way…..

Almost $397 million has been raised in response to the crisis in Ukraine in the two weeks since Russia invaded, according to data from Candid. The figure is likely higher, and will become clearer as grant totals and donations are reported over time – but the initial pledges of funding suggest a global response of support for Ukrainians.

The total includes a $10 million donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies to World Central Kitchen, $21.8 million from the IKEA Foundation to UNHRC, and $25 million from Open Society Foundations towards its Fund for a Free and Democratic Ukraine.

The aim of OSF’s Fund is to raise $100 million ‘over the duration of the crisis and its inevitably protracted aftermath’, according to a statement by the foundation.

And in fact, the Fund for a Free and Democratic Ukraine is already attracting donations from big funders, including $1 million from the Ford Foundation, announced in a letter from Darren Walker, Ford Foundation President.

‘We have one simple message: we will never abandon Ukraine,’ said Alex Soros, deputy chair of the Open Society Foundations. ‘As Putin tries to wipe the country off the map, we will do all we can for the people of Ukraine. We urge others to step forward and join us.’

$397 million in support donated for Ukraine so far

If you are interested in tracking the cash then this may help….

https://www.devex.com/news/funding-tracker-who-s-sending-aid-to-ukraine-102887

Now my question is all those that have privately donated to the Ukraine Relief….

I am sure that Ukrainians appreciate your generosity….but how much have you donated to help the people in your town that are hungry, homeless and ill?

What makes the needs of a world away more important than the people in your town…your neighbors?

Just a thought

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Where Did The Money Go?

I have been bitching about the amount of mo bey that the US is throwing at Ukraine……and like most of our endless wars we have no idea where the cash goes once it leaves the bank……well guess what Ukraine conflict is NO different……

US officials just admitted they don’t know where their arms shipments to Ukraine will actually end up, and that they could fall into dangerous hands.

Ever since the crisis over Ukraine began last year, a minority of commentators, including the present author, have cautioned about the dangers of inundating the country with weapons, and the risk of fueling extremist groups that could destabilize the country and create blowback for the West, as the United States’ anti-Soviet policy in Afghanistan did in the 1980s. A new CNN report suggests US officials are well aware of these risks.

A suite of anonymous sources told the network that Washington has no way of tracking the weapons they send or knowing where they end up when they enter Ukraine, one of Europe’s largest arms trafficking markets even before the war. “It drops into a big black hole, and you have almost no sense of it at all after a short period of time,” one source told CNN.

According to the report, both military analysts and US officials acknowledge that the massive quantity of arms being supplied by more than twenty governments could in the long term “wind up in the hands of other militaries and militias that the US did not intend to arm.” Ukrainian troops pick up trucks loaded with weapons mostly in Poland, states the report, before driving them across the border, at which point it’s entirely up to Ukrainians how and where they’re given out.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2022/04/united-states-military-aid-ukraine-war-weapons

This should be unacceptable to anyone serving in our government…..especially those morons in Congress that are always going on about smaller government…..but no the gutless wonders we elected just rubber stamp the pissing away of taxpayer money.

Not worry Biden and the rest of the pilferers will just throw more money and aid at Ukraine….

President Biden will ask Congress for an additional $33 billion to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion, two administration officials said Thursday, per the AP. Biden’s latest proposal—which the officials said was expected to last for five months—has more than $20 billion in military assistance for Ukraine and for bolstering defenses in nearby countries. There is also $8.5 billion in economic aid to help keep Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government functioning and $3 billion for food and humanitarian programs to help civilians and other spending, said the officials.

The new proposal would be more than twice as large as the initial $13.6 billion package of defense and economic aid for Ukraine and Western allies that Congress enacted last month and is almost exhausted. It seemed to signal a long-term US commitment to staving off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to expand his nation’s control of its neighbor, and perhaps beyond. The request comes with the fighting, now in its ninth week, sharpening in eastern and southern parts of the country and international tensions growing as Russia cuts off gas supplies to two NATO allies, Poland and Bulgaria.

 

There is wide, bipartisan support in Congress for giving Ukraine all the assistance it needs to fight the Russians, and its eventual approval seems certain. But Biden and congressional Democrats also want lawmakers to approve an additional $22.5 billion for vaccines, treatments, testing, and aid to other countries in continuing efforts to contain COVID-19, and that along with a Republican push to entangle the measure with an extension of some Trump-era immigration restrictions leaves the proposal’s pathway to enactment unclear. In a compromise with Republicans, Senate Democrats have already agreed to pare the $22.5 billion figure to $10 billion.

THis plan should sail through Congress with few problems….yet when funds are needed to help our fellow Americans there is debate and antics and nothing gets done…..

Why is that?

What makes Ukraine more important than feeding kids in this country?

Please do NOT give me the democracy thing as the excuse….that does not wash.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

How The West Can Assist Ukraine

There are way too many, in my opinion, that are calling for all out war with Russia…..since I am a staunch antiwar individual I will not support any armed involvement in the conflict between Ukraine and ‘Vlad the Invader’…..

But what can the West do to support and aid Ukraine in their fight?

Across the world, political leaders and ordinary citizens have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, there seems to be basically no chance that the United States or any other major world power would send its troops to fight on the Ukrainians’ behalf — for the simple reason that doing so could plausibly lead to a wider war, and even nuclear conflict.

The question then becomes: What can America and its allies do if they continue to rule out direct intervention?

The answer is quite a lot, much of which — though by no means all — is being done already.

The basic Western strategy has been to make the war more painful for Putin: Supply the Ukrainians with weapons while imposing crippling sanctions on the Russian economy. These measures are designed to shift Putin’s cost-benefit analysis, making the war costly enough that he’ll look for some kind of exit. In broad strokes, experts say, it’s a sound strategy — one that can still be escalated, albeit within certain bounds.

“The West has to keep going full speed in the current direction,” says Yoshiko Herrera, a political scientist who studies Russia at the University of Wisconsin Madison. “Right now is not the time to let up on pressure.”

At the same time, Washington and its allies need to think more carefully about their endgame.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22958725/ukraine-russia-us-nato-sanctions-military-aid-protest

My problem is that the US has found $800 million for aid to Ukraine…..with growing poverty and hunger in this country some of that cash would be better spent here helping struggling Americans.

That aside there needs to be a debate on foreign policy instead of always a knee jerk reaction with military hardware…..now is the time for such a debate…..as hard as it may be…..

Conflicts that we now think of as uniting the country were still political. Americans were torn over what to do in World War II, for example. Congress passed a series of neutrality acts in the 1930s, and these isolationist policies were responsible for America’s late entry into the war. And, of course, unity sometimes came at a price. The U.S. government’s steps to punish anti-war speech during World War I, for instance, are good examples of going too far with the idea that dissent is inherently harmful to war efforts.

The reality is that foreign policy has always been contested — and, more often than not, linked to questions of identity and ideology. But debates about war are so interwoven with our larger culture-war politics now that most questions of how to handle military conflict have been largely reduced to partisan scoring. And that’s a problem — not because we need to get back to some bygone bipartisan era, but because real dissension is vital in a democracy, especially in matters of foreign policy. 

The seeds of war politics’ merging with culture-war politics arguably date back to the late 1960s, when anti-Vietnam War protests overlapped with civil rights protests and other social movements that challenged the existing social order. Over time, conservatives and liberals diverged in their attitudes toward the war, especially as liberal elites began to criticize it. Starting with the 1968 presidential election, being anti-war became more closely associated with being a liberal Democrat. And the accusation that George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, was all for “acid, amnesty1 and abortion” helped solidify this cultural connection.

Why It’s Important To Debate Foreign Policy Even In Times Of Conflict

Time for a real debate before it is too late for a solution other than going to yet another war.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Medicine At Sea

During the time of medical emergency…..the whole world should be of one mind…..those that can should send help to the less fortunate…..like that of Cuba (here I do not care about their politics it is about the assistance for medical emergencies…..if you want to lambast Cuba then go elsewhere to do so….thanx)

Cuba has sent doctors and nurses to 15 nations as a help for the fight against Covid-19…..

One of Cuba’s flagship programs has been state-employed medical workers. The Cuban health system has always been the pride of the communist regime and highly praised by official propaganda, becoming almost a myth at the international level. For two years, the Trump administration has tried to eliminate that “good image” of Cuban doctors, labeling the doctors and nurses as exploited workers and agents of communist indoctrination, which made countries like Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia, when their administrations became more conservative, decide to do without them in order to replace them with others more friendly to Washington. 

But the coronavirus pandemic has brought about a change in the image of the Cuban regime and, through an exercise in medical diplomacy, many are the countries that have changed their discourse with the island, and now are grateful for the help given. At least 15 countries have received Cuban doctors from Havana, including Italy and the small principality of Andorra.  The Generalitat of Catalonia has also requested the help of Cuban doctors, pending the decision of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Health, which have to evaluate whether it responds to a real need.

https://atalayar.com/en/content/cuba-sends-health-aid-15-countries-fight-coronavirus

Cuba even offered to help Mississippi after Katrina and their offer was ignored….I think that was a mistake.

The US could be doing this very thing…..for we have two ships, medical ships, Mercy and Comfort…..are large naval vessels that are outfitted to go anywhere and dole out medical assistance….and yet we have all but moth balled these ships.

The white-hulled, 894-foot-long ships were designed with expansive surgical, laboratory and intensive-care facilities and 12 operating rooms. When deployed, about 70 civilian mariners operate each ship, and the embarked MTF’s size is dictated by the mission and beds planned, usually for 250 to 500 patients. Each ship can support a 1,000-bed capacity by double-bunking beds if needed.

…

But neither ship came close to reaching capacity, prompting scathing headlines and social media criticism that the deployments were unnecessary and politically driven. Both New York’s and California’s governors had requested the hospital ships, and officials praised the ships’ early medical support. Stay-at-home orders resulted in fewer trauma cases and infected patients sent to the ships. “Mercy and its highly-trained medical personnel… was critical to our ability to respond in the first stages of the pandemic,” Mark Ghilarducci, director of California’s office of emergency services, said in a statement.

Beyond Mercy: Navy’s COVID-19 Hospital Ship Missions and the Future of Medicine at Sea

These ships should be staffed and on stand-by to give assistance when it is needed…..plus it should be equipped with the most up to date equipment and drugs that may be needed…..

The US could do more to repair the crappy foreign policy by having these ships available for humanitarian missions.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Moral High Ground Is Gone

For many years the US has been the champion of human rights…we have tried to help when there has been a refugee crisis…that is until about 25 years ago when we started pulling away from any responsibility for we were helping create the problem.

Misery has become a weapon of war these days……

From Syria to Yemen, from South Sudan to Venezuela, war and political crisis are causing human anguish on a scale unseen in a generation.

That conflict and crisis take a high human toll is hardly new, of course. Yet the scope of suffering today is striking. The number of people displaced globally by conflict and persecution stood at 65.6 million at the end of 2016, the greatest number since World War II. Figures released earlier this month show that there were 11.8 million new internal displacements in 2017, nearly double the 6.9 million in 2016. The number of people facing acute hunger globally due largely to conflict and instability reached almost 74 million across eighteen countries in 2017. The trend is clear: war and crisis are destroying more lives and livelihoods, pushing more people toward starvation and driving more people from their homes.

https://www.crisisgroup.org/global/misery-strategy-human-cost-conflict

In the last 10 years we, the US, has contributed to the Middle East refugee crisis…..and now that we have officially pulled out of the UN humanitarian efforts we can NO longer claim any moral high ground and need to keep our mouths shut.

The crisis in the Syrian desert is just such an example……there is lots of finger pointing and little effort to solve the problem…..

Looking at a map, nothing would seem easier than to drive a convoy of food and medical supplies to Rukban, a camp for refugees and displaced civilians on the Syrian–Jordanian border some 260 kilometers east of Damascus. Though the terrain is rough, the camp is located in an area of relative calm and stability, and it could be reached from Amman, Damascus, or both. But Syria’s seven-year civil war says otherwise.

All sides now blame each other for preventing aid deliveries to the tens of thousands of Syrians trapped in this desolate desert region, and Rukban has emerged as a cruel illustration of how civilians are snared in the tangled threads of sovereignty and proxy control that constitute current-day Syria.

https://tcf.org/content/report/blame-game-syrians-stranded-desert/

Many countries contributed to the creation of this problem, including the US, and few want to help solve the very problems they have created.

Personally, my thoughts are if you had a hand in creating the problem then it is on your shoulders to solve it…..but instead we are asking those countries least able to weather the refugee crisis to do the heavy lifting.

I say that every defense contract has a provision in it that “X” amount of the profits go to a fund to help refugees…administered by Switzerland through the UN.

It is time for Americans to re-claim the moral high ground in war…but that will not happen in this writers lifetime….sad but there is hope, a small glimmer but hope nonetheless.

Closing Thought–05Oct17

Dammit!  I’m Hungry!

There has been many stories coming out of the 3 hurricanes that hit the United States this year….the loss of power, lack of potable water, the destruction, deaths and the biggie…..shortage of food.

This president has a lop-sided view of the ones that hit mainland US and the one the hit the territories….the latest the lack of food for those in Puerto Rico…there is cure for the mainland but not for the islands…..

The governor of Puerto Rico has claimed the Trump administration turned down a request that food stamps be made available for use in fast-food restaurants and in other places that serve prepared hot meals, amid power cuts and food shortages on the island.

Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria several weeks ago, leaving many of its inhabitants without running water or electricity—making it extremely difficult to prepare meals.

Island officials had requested that the U.S. federal government permit food stamps—on which almost 40 percent of Puerto Rico’s population, (or 1.3 million people), relies—to be used to purchase hot meals or in fast-food restaurants; a request the island’s governor said on Tuesday had been denied.

Source: Hurricane Maria: USDA Waives Food Stamp Restriction in Puerto Rico, Spokesperson Says

I am sure this is an oversight by some mid-level bureaucrat…..but if true it is a despicable act….like I said….If True.

Is this what this country has become?  Classifying Americans?  Some get benefits others do not.  A New form of segregation?

 

Closing Thought–27Sep17

Get Your Priorities Straight, Dipstick!

IST Factoid:  Puerto Rico is a US territory….ergo its residents are US CITIZENS!

The factoid was inserted because there seem to be many that did not know….

Nearly half of all Americans aren’t aware that Puerto Ricans are citizens, according to a new Morning Consult poll.

While 54 percent of Americans know that Puerto Ricans are citizens, 47 percent do not know that, according to the poll, which was first reported by The New York Times. Among Americans with a bachelor’s degree, 72 percent are aware of citizenship for people on the island.

The poll found a connection between knowledge of Puerto Ricans’ citizenship and a willingness to send emergency aid.

According to the report, 8 in 10 Americans who know Puerto Ricans are citizens support sending aid, while among those who do not know, 4 in 10 support sending aid.

It has been a week since Hurricane Maria roared ashore in Puerto Rico and demolished the island in all ways….infrastructure too the biggest hit….60% of the island has NO potable water….there is only spotty electric power and food is running ever so short.

The Island is a wreck and instead to making sure that the country stays laser focused on Puerto Rico Trump spend his Twitter time trying to ramp up some new form of division among us Americans.

After starting the shit storm about the taking of a knee he did finally Tweet about Puerto Rico……

Here are the tweets, in case you missed them:

“Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble…It’s old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars…owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities – and doing well. #FEMA”

Really?  All the compassion, empathy and concern for the people of Puerto Rico is just heart tugging….(complete sarcasm)……

I even saw a Tweet from a yahoo supporter of Trump addressed to some news anchor…..

“Trump is the president of the US….not Puerto Rico…..Move on”

The stupidity of these people is just amazing…..

Trump needs to MAN up and do more for Puerto Rico……why is the hospital ship. Comfort, NOT in Puerto Rico?  (word is leaking out the Comfort will be heading to Puerto Rice.  Why did it take so long?)

We have the perfect model for handling this disaster…..The 1948 Berlin Airlift….refresh your memory…..

Source: Berlin Airlift – Cold War – HISTORY.com

There should be planes landing at regular intervals and it should have begun mere days after Maria pushed through.

The president keeps Tweeting out that people think the US is doing a good job…..does not look like it….but please give me the names of those deluded individuals.

So far talk is cheap…..but talk does not feed, quench or shelter the Americans on the island of Puerto Rico.

Closing Thought–30Aug17

Your Assistance Is Needed!

By now even the dullest of person has seen the disaster that is the Texas after math of Hurricane Harvey.

Many Americans will be compelled to send aid or donations to help these people…there are many organizations that will help and if one is so inclined then this article in the NY Times will help.

Explains the organizations that are in the mix and some tips on what to watch out for in the cons come out in droves…..

If you’re outside the affected area, here are options to help. (If you’re in Texas and displaced by the storm, here’s how to get help.)

If your choice is the American Red Cross then maybe this is something that you need to know…..

Hurricane Harvey has devastated Texas, and it’s natural to want to help. But don’t try to help by donating money to the American Red Cross, journalist and author Jonathan M. Katz writes on Slate. The disaster relief organization may be iconic, but it’s far from effective, Katz notes, running down a list of issues the ARC has had, starting with the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The ARC raised $488 million, but it couldn’t quite figure out what to do with the funds. “ARC isn’t a medical aid group a la Doctors Without Borders. It doesn’t do development work or specialize in rebuilding destroyed neighborhoods,” Katz writes. And what it does do best—provide immediate emergency aid like blankets and temporary shelter—didn’t come close to costing $488 million. Two years after the quake, just a third of the money had been committed.

The ARC has been similarly ineffective in responding to US disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. The truth is, the organization is great at raising money, Katz says, but it fails to inform the public it doesn’t actually need nearly as much money as it raises, and after the money has been raised, the ARC isn’t transparent about what it’s used for. There are multiple other issues, including the fact that no regular independent evaluations of the organization are done. Looking at the bigger picture, though, Katz argues that our entire way of handling disasters is wrong, and what we should be doing is working to prevent them, or at least mitigate their impact. We need to look ahead to things like “the growing risk of a major Oklahoma earthquake,” Caribbean tsunami, and other potential disasters and bring “lots of attention to helping those areas adapt for the future.” His full column.

That is one person’s opinion…..

Me?  I donated to Salvation Army and SPCA

Please help if you can these people are suffering and need our help.

When Is It a Humanitarian Crisis?

A new year and the plight of the Palestinian people has not changed much since 1967 with the exception of the loss of land, crops and lives.

The Plight of the Palestinians hits close to home for me….when I was working in the Middle East I worked with a Palestinian named Rafiq, he was my interpreter and friend….when we would go on vacation we would go to his family’s home in Hebron….so I am have been doing my part to help the world understand the plight of the Palestinians in their desire for the nation to return….

As of today the countries that recognize Palestine as a Nation are in green……

Image result for countries that recognize Palestine

Look at the map….notice anything about the countries that do not recognize Palestine?

Last year I was asked to write for a site, Legationes, and my first op-ed was about the state of Palestine…

Source: Let the Wall define Palestine – In Saner Thought

Israel is building an apartheid wall around the West Bank….

Image result for Palestine Wall images

Do you remember the Berlin Wall?

Image result for Palestine Wall images

Image result for Palestine Wall images

I know the wall is a wall of separation….but why not let it define Palestine from the rest of the region……please just read my Legationes op-ed for further clarification.

But with that intro out of the way I want to talk about the humanitarian crises that the US has gotten involved in recently….

The US has used a humanitarian crisis to start a war…Syria, Iraq and Libya come to mind……

Iraq it was a couple of thousand Yazidis trapped on a mountain top without food , water or shelter and the US used airstrikes to keep ISIS at bay so that aid could make its way to those that needed it….then there is Libya….Qaddafi was poised to use airstrikes against his people who were up in arms and demanding more freedoms….the US used airstrikes to stop the airstrikes and eventually ended the life of Qaddafi

I bring this up because there is a real humanitarian crisis in Gaza……

After the total destruction wrought by Israel in 2014…not much has been done to repair the damage done by massive airstrikes and tank attacks…..

Image result for Gaza images

Since 2014 there is no food, fishermen prevented from fishing, water supplies are contaminated or none existent, building material banned by Israel and aid is help up in Israel…..all in all this is a humanitarian crisis.

If the US truly wants to do the humanitarian thing then this would be the perfect spot to practice what they preach.

Image result for Gaza images

Here’s my plan……since Gaza borders on Egypt then the US should put together an aid convoy with water, food and building supplies then drive in from Egypt……have the convoy with tanks and armored vehicles accompany the trucks and air cover from Cobras and A-10s.  Supplies would be those from aid NGOs…the US would be providing security only.

Unlike most Westerners I do have plans…none of which my country will sign onto….but at least they are plans…..this one is an op-ed that I wrote for an Italian site……

Source: Let the Wall define Palestine – Legationes

It is 2017….time for the Palestinian people to go global with their pleas and concerns…….the US has deaf ears…..

Another op-ed of mine this one was for Ace News Room……

Source: Palestine–2017 | Ace News Room

The Palestinian people have suffered much in 60 years….time for a realistic plan to end the cycle of violence and bring peace to a troubled land.