Senate..

AFP-India Image.

 All but two Senate Democrats are supporting a measure endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a national security package that includes military aid to Israel.

Why it matters: It's a clear rebuke of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent comments rejecting the notion of Palestinian statehood, which have inflamed tensions with congressional Democrats.

• The measure reiterates that it is U.S. policy to "support a negotiated comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in two states with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace."
• It comes after Netanyahu, despite pressure from President Biden to support a Palestinian state after the Israel-Hamas war, said Israel "needs security control" in Gaza and the West Bank as part of any peace deal.,,, Axios.
• Israel has to start rebuild the damage caused in Gaza by indiscriminate bombing for weeks.   Just a thought.

Veto..

 

BBC-Image.

Israel doesn’t have the right to “veto” Palestinian statehood, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday amid a fierce debate between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the international community over what happens once the Gaza war is over.

“Israel cannot have the veto right to the self-determination of the Palestinian people,” Borrell told reporters during a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday.

“They do not have a veto right. If the United Nations recognizes – as it has recognized many times – the self-determination right of the Palestinian people, nobody can veto it,” he declared.

Netanyahu, who is seeking to shore up political support, which has been flagging, on the right. He has been blunt in recent weeks about his opposition to Palestinian statehood, even as the United States, the EU, and moderate Arab countries have insisted that a two-state process must occur once the war is over.

Netanyahu still wants to absorb other parts of the Palestinian land to expand the Jewish State and displace the Palestinian people out of the land. 

Haley..

 

Heels..

 

Outcome..

 

Israel has reportedly proposed a two-month pause in fighting with Hamas as part of a deal that would include the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza.

The proposal, offered via Qatari and Egyptian mediators, "is the longest period of ceasefire that Israel has offered Hamas since the start of the war", said Barak Ravid, political reporter and Middle East expert, on Axios. 

Crucially, Ravid added, the proposal "doesn't include an agreement to end the war" in Gaza, where more than 25,000 people have died in retaliatory Israeli bombardment for the 7 October attacks, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. But if the deal were implemented, "IDF operations in Gaza would be significantly smaller in scope and intensity" after the pause. 

Comment:

After all this killing and destruction of Gaza and of killing the Palestinians men, women and children, what was the achievements?  Just a thought.

War Powers..

 

President Joe Biden’s decision to strike the Houthis in Yemen is reigniting the long-simmering congressional battle over war powers and it's become a rare point of consensus for progressives and hardline conservatives.

While the action had support on the Hill — military hawks and many conservatives praised the strikes, with many calling them overdue — a significant swath of both the left and the right quickly condemned the Biden administration for not seeking an explicit green light from Congress. 

They argued it's a requirement under the War Powers Act. Those factions have long aligned on curtailing sprawling war powers and military operations across the world over the past two decades.

When it comes to war, there is no one responsible for the death and the destruction of poor countries poor people's lives in the Middle East. Iraq, Syria, Libya,  and now Yemen.

The Web..

 

Former Trump staffer Michael Roman, who faces seven charges in Georgia, filed a lawsuit presented without tangible evidence alleging that Willis "engaged in a personal, romantic relationship" with Wade and "personally benefited from" the alleged affair, meaning she acted "to defraud the public of honest services."

The Willis-Wade relationship must now be addressed by the district attorney, Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote in a legal filing earlier this week. 

Willis must submit a written response by February 2 to allegations that she "engaged in a personal, romantic relationship" with Wade, which will be followed by an evidentiary hearing on February 15. 

Willis has not acknowledged or denied the allegations.

Willis' attorney, Cinque Axam, filed a motion to stop Willis from being forced to testify by subpoena in the divorce of Nathan and Joycelyn Wade on January 23, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  

Happening..

 

Is it clear up ahead what's happening here?

(Image credit: Christopher Weyant 

Yemen..

 

Who came out with the Idea that the people of the Middle East can be a target for various US fancy aromerment to just go and try it over there?  Just a thought. (Image credit: Steve Breen)

Storm..