Fight Back News Service is circulating the following October 3 statement from the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN).

Normalization with the racist, settler-colonialist, zionist entity of Israel often begins with a U.S. directive aimed at Arab regimes, as evidenced by the first attempt with the Camp David Accords in 1978, which led to a “peace” agreement between Egypt and Israel. In essence, normalization coerces Arab regimes in the region to accept their subjugated status as compliant agents, which serves the zionist agenda and its U.S. imperialist patron. In light of the fast pace of change in today’s world order, the U.S. finds it necessary to push for normalization in order to maintain its global, imperialist dominance over Arab nations and thwart their progress toward independent, modern democracies.

Therefore, the current Saudi Arabian (and previous efforts like the Abraham Accords and others) push towards normalization with the zionist enemy fundamentally signifies a recognition of the settler-colonialist state’s legitimacy and an attempt to erase our people's historical and national rights in all of Palestine. Any discussion about the so-called “two-state solution” is nothing but an attempt to stall and buy time to create new realities on the ground that will be impossible to reverse. This is when submission, surrender, and betrayal become the inherent traits of Saudi Arabia or any other Arab regime that normalizes relations with Israel. The Saudis and the other normalizers have always supported the repression of the Palestine national liberation movement, and believe that peace deals with Israel will eventually quell Palestinian resistance and bring quiet and “stability” to the region.

Within the normalization context, the zionist entity aims to establish economic, security, and political dominance over neighboring Arab nations, while extending its influence to North African nations as well. All these countries are envisioned as expansive markets for global – predominantly U.S. – capital, perpetuating their dependency and disintegration under the auspices of sell-out regimes, especially that of the most reactionary and traitorous of them all, the criminal kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Although our Arab masses reject normalization, and have been resisting it in the Gulf and other Arab nations like Egypt and Jordan for decades, these deals – brokered by a U.S. government that pays lip service to “democracy,” but promotes all the dictators (who are also, unsurprisingly, the normalizers) in the region – also allow Israel to focus its military firepower on the Palestinian people, as the militaries of the submissive and surrendering Arab states are neutralized.

#Palestine #USPCN #SaudiArabia #Zionism #Israel

San José, CA – Earlier in the day, I glanced at oil prices and saw that they were down 40% for the day at about $10 a barrel. Pretty bad, I thought. Then after financial markets closed, I got a call about it. I looked and saw that the closing price was negative $37.63 and let out an f-bomb, the first of about a half a dozen in my three minute conversation.

Oil futures for May fell more than 300%, from $18.27 on Friday, April 17, to deep in negative prices on Monday, April 20. With futures for June down but still at positive at about $20 a barrel, typically speculators could profit by buying the cheap May future, taking the oil delivery, and then selling the June future and delivering the oil in June. Normally this arbitrage would keep the futures prices within about $10 of each other. But the world is so awash in oil that there is almost no place to store extra oil in the United States. Thus, speculators and hedge funds were willing to pay to take the oil off their hands.

This crisis of overproduction in the oil market is mainly because of the steep drop in oil purchases because of the worldwide recession triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Socialist China, where the pandemic began, had to lock down their country in a successful attempt to control the virus. New infections are now down to less than 100 per day, many, if not most, from Chinese returning from other countries. But the cost was steep, as the total production of goods and services, or GDP, fell more than 6% from a year earlier. This is China’s first fall in GDP since they began to report it in 1992. Even though China’s manufacturing is returning, service industries are slower to come back. Now that China has become the world’s largest importer of oil, world oil markets took a big hit.

But the pandemic situation in Europe, another major oil importer, is much worse. Despite the news about ‘reopening’ some of the economies, COVID-19 is still raging, with the United Kingdom alone reporting almost 6000 new infections. Together with Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, each of which had over 1000 new infections reported, and other European Union countries, there were about 20,000 new COVID-19 cases despite stay-at-home orders across the continent. This has cut deeply into European imports of oil.

But Europe pales beside the United States, with almost 30,000 new infections reported, and much of the country (but not all) trying to stay at home. More than 20 million people in the United States have lost their jobs in just the last four weeks, and layoffs continue. Oil consumption in the United States has fallen by one-third just in the last month. The United States is still the world’s largest consumer of oil, which puts a huge dent in world oil consumption. While the U.S. is no longer a big oil importer, the drop in consumption means that the extra oil is piling up in the United States.

While not the main reason, a trigger for the recent collapse in the price of oil even before today was a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, the two biggest oil producers. While they were trying to gain market share from each other, they had a mutual target in mind: U.S. oil producers, where it is more costly to produce oil.

Even though the price of oil is now well below the cost of producing oil in the United States, U.S. oil companies cannot just turn off production. The big increase in U.S. oil production over the last ten years has been shale oil. The hydraulic fracturing or fracking process has never been turned off before and could lead to equipment damages or even not being able to restart production.

The drop in oil prices dragged down the stock market on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down almost 600 points or 2.5%. The Dow has fallen 20% from its all-time high earlier this year as Wall Street investors have faith in the huge efforts by the Federal Reserve and the federal government. In contrast, oil prices (using the barely positive $1.26 as oil prices bounced back after the close of U.S. trading) are down 97% from the beginning of the year, and show a much more pessimistic view of the real economy right now.

#SanJoséCA #International #US #MiddleEast #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #stockMarket #SaudiArabia #Russia #DonaldTrump #COVID19 #OilFutures

The attacks serve as the latest in an ongoing war of resistance by Yemen that began nearly five years ago. On one side, there are Ansar Allah (also known as the Houthis) and its allies in the camp of resistance including Iran, Syria, and the political organization Hezbollah, and the Palestinian movement; on the other side, Saudi Arabia and their coalition forces – made up in one form or another of the United States, Israel, several Gulf States, and others.

The involvement of the Saudi-U.S. coalition forces represents an intervention into the sovereign affairs of the Yemeni people. Ansar Allah has led the armed resistance against this foreign invasion. With the success of this attack, the tide of the war may have dramatically shifted in favor of the patriotic forces.

The conflict in Yemen has produced the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today, with tens of thousands of people dead, many more wounded, and millions either on the cusp of starvation, victims of disease brought on by the war, or on the move as they flee for safety. Despite the magnitude of the crisis and the fact that the fighting has been raging for nearly five years, the U.S. corporate media has hardly covered Yemen at all. Until now, that is.

Over the last several days, mainstream media outlets have released story after story about this massive strike. A key piece to this narrative being spun by the Western press is that the attacks did not originate from Yemen, but Iran instead. The Iranian government has denied these allegations. As ever, U.S. President Donald Trump was quick to address the situation. The administration claims to be looking into the situation. Trump declared that they are “locked and loaded, depending on verification,” implying that they’re more than ready to retaliate directly in some capacity.

Combining the denial of the Iranian government with the bluster of President Trump leads to the conclusion that the pinning of the attack on Iran is a part of the broader U.S. shift toward open military aggression. The situation represents a danger not only to the people of Iran and the greater Middle East, but to all peace-loving people on the planet.

The demands of the anti-war movement in the U.S. must be clear: No to war on Iran! End military aid to Saudi Arabia! U.S. hands off Yemen!

#MilwaukeeWI #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Iran #US #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #Yemen #SaudiArabia #Houthis #DonaldTrump

The Anti-War Committee calls on its supporters to demand Congress and the Trump administration immediately cease all support for Saudi Arabia’s military assault on Yemen.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia, with the support of President Obama, began waging a ruthless war against Yemen, with the goal of protecting Saudi and U.S. shipping, oil, and imperialist interests in the Middle East. The invasion began in reaction to the September 21 Revolution of 2014, when the Houthi movement for Yemeni self-determination, which for years had protested growing Saudi influence over Yemeni society, led a takeover of the most populous areas of Yemen including government institutions in the capital Sanaa. The war has been waged by a so-called “coalition” of Saudi-aligned governments in the region, together with the United States, and has involved a brutal aerial bombing campaign, a ground invasion and a blockade of Yemeni seaports.

While the ground assault has failed to capture significant territory from the Houthi-aligned forces, the aerial assaults—which have persisted for nearly four years—have destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure along with countless lives.

War on Yemen has Created a Grave Human Rights Crisis

International monitors have documented Saudi bombings of Yemeni refugee camps, hospitals, funeral processions, school buses, and many other civilian targets. Casualties from individual bombings have climbed into the hundreds; tens of thousands of Yemenis are estimated to have been killed overall.

The U.S./Saudi coalition has also blockaded seaports of the Houthi-held areas of Yemen, preventing food and medical supplies from reaching millions of people. As a result, famine has spread across Yemen, with international aid organizations estimating that hundreds of children die of malnutrition daily, and that 14 million Yemenis—half of the pre-war population—are at risk of starvation.

Adding to the carnage, the U.S./Saudi war and blockade have caused what international medical groups have deemed the worst cholera outbreak in human history, with over one million cases and thousands of deaths.

End U.S. Military Intervention!

None of this could have taken place without the initiative, weapons, intelligence, and approval of the United States. The U.S. supplies targeting information and intelligence for Saudi attacks, refuels Saudi planes in the air, has deployed Navy destroyers in the blockade, and supplies arms and training to Saudi forces. There are even U.S. “boots on the ground” near the Yemeni border. As of early 2018, about a dozen Green Beret commandos were stationed in Saudi Arabia along the Yemen border.

Historically the Saudi regime has proven itself a willing partner of NATO powers, chiefly of the United States. The war on Yemen is no exception, as it willingly aids the US in its bid to cement its domination of the oil-rich Middle East and the strategic Gulf of Aden shipping lanes, where Yemen’s southwest coastline forms a narrow choke point connecting Europe to Asia’s ports. Both the US and Saudi Arabia have also been eager to portray the war on Yemen as part of their long-standing beleaguerment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which neoconservative warmongers and regime-changers for decades have sought to punish for its rejection of Washington’s diktats.

In 2017, Trump and Saudi rulers crafted a US arms sales deal totaling $350 billion, all to fuel the profits of CEOs and shareholders of big corporations like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing. These arms sales continue the direct complicity of the United States government in Saudi war crimes against Yemen.

Khashoggi’s Case Sheds Light on Horrors of War in Yemen

Meanwhile, the outcry from U.S. media and political leaders about the brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been naive at best, and hypocritical and deceitful at worst. While his murder has led to some increased scrutiny of the war on Yemen, the shock being expressed belies the U.S. government’s years-long collusion in exactly the sort of violence and human rights abuses Khashoggi was silenced for writing about. Unsurprisingly, on November 14, House Republicans moved to block a vote to end US military involvement in Yemen under the War Powers Act. While a separate bill in the Senate would end arms sales for Saudi use in Yemen, the bill simultaneously threatens to levy even more sanctions on Iran—sanctions that are already choking off medical and humanitarian supplies—over its alleged support for the Houthi movement. We demand an end to US wars and blockades, with no exceptions!

No Ban, No Bombs, No War!

While continuing the war on Yemen, President Trump has outlawed Yemenis from traveling to the U.S. under his racist Muslim ban. It is criminal for the U.S. to bomb and attack other countries and then turn away refugees when the U.S. has destroyed their homelands! It is outrageous for Trump to ban Yemenis from traveling to the U.S. while destroying their country and starving their people. Trump, since the campaign trail, has painted the Middle East and Muslims in general as “terrorists” and this anti-Muslim rhetoric and this racist travel ban are legitimizing the increase in hate crimes and hate speech against our Muslim neighbors. We cannot be silent in the face of this bigotry! We need to speak out against the racist Muslim ban and the foreign policies which cause refugees to flee.

Take Action!

We at the Anti-War Committee know that the Congress will only end US support for Saudi Arabia if we demand with a united voice: STOP SUPPORTING THE WAR ON YEMEN!

Call Senator Amy Klobuchar at 202-224-3244 and Senator Tina Smith at 202- 224-5641 to tell them to vote against all aid to Saudi Arabia and to voice opposition to US coordination in the war on Yemen.

#TwinCities #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #US #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #Yemen #TwinCitiesAntiWarCommittee #SaudiArabia #DonaldTrump

The news came after more than a week of investigation and public pressure on the Saudi government by journalists and state officials around the world. Days earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had called on the Saudis to release whatever surveillance footage they had of the embassy, which was met by Saudi denials of involvement. Even President Trump gave into pressure from U.S. lawmakers and others to acknowledge the disappearance, by calling Kashoggi’s fiancé and making a statement.

But the revelation of Turkish surveillance footage within the Saudi embassy has adds another layer to this complex web of brutality and intrigue.

According to officials, these recordings show a Saudi special forces team of 15 men – called an “assassination squad” by Turkish media – capturing Kashoggi upon entry to the embassy. In a scene suited for a horror film like Saw, video and audio show this hit squad torturing and interrogating the U.S. journalist for hours before ultimately killing him and dismembering his body. They likely loaded Kashoggi’s remains onto a plane headed back to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

As a well-known journalist for a prominent U.S. newspaper, Kashoggi heavily criticized the Saudi royal family’s repressive monarchy and its murderous war on Yemen – the likely motivation for his murder at the hands of the Saudis.

On October 10, the Washington Post published a report by the U.S. State Department showing they knew of a Saudi plot to capture Kashoggi. In response, State Department officials commented on the disappearance. Whether U.S. officials warned the journalist of his imminent danger remains unknown.

The news brought a renewed wave of criticism and disgust aimed at Saudi Arabia, which had previously denied any involvement in Kashoggi’s disappearance. Activists and some politicians in the U.K. and the U.S. have called for a full stop of arms sales to Saudi Arabia in response to this murder.

Erdogan’s decision to make public the Turkish government’s own surveillance footage will likely shake the uneasy relationship between the two states, as well. Saudi Arabia has provided crucial investment for Turkey’s energy sector in recent years, and the two have cooperated, if unevenly, in attempts to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s national democratic government in Syria. The existence of these recordings paints a different picture: two regional rivals spying on each other to get the upper hand.

The U.S. has relied on Saudi Arabia as one of its main proxies, along with Israel, to dominate the Middle East. As the world’s largest producer of petroleum, Saudi Arabia remains critical to global energy markets, and the U.S. has maintained a close relationship with the repressive royal family to secure its cooperation.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has strengthened this toxic relationship. On his first major international trip as president, Trump signed an arms deal with Saudi Arabia totaling around $110 billion – money that would go towards their disastrous three-year war on Yemen. During the trip, the Saudi royal family rolled out the red carpet for Trump and his advisors and won the egotistical president’s favor through flattery. Since then, the Trump administration has consistently backed Saudi actions, whether through direct support or providing diplomatic cover – even as it threatens key U.S. allies like Canada.

Under the rule of Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has become increasingly bold and vicious in its actions, both at home and abroad. Last November, Saudi forces kidnapped Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, forcing him to issue statements denouncing Hezbollah aimed at stirring up civil war. Increasingly aligned with Israel, Salman’s monarchy has ramped up efforts to destabilize other nations, including other Gulf states like Qatar, and to push for war with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Domestically, Salman jailed rival members of the royal family in the name of ‘anti-corruption’ in 2017. He ordered the public beheadings of dozens of dissidents, including a prominent Shi’a cleric. Internal terror, always a fixture of Saudi society, has become more brazen and far reaching under Salman’s reign.

Saudi Arabia’s almost complete dependency on oil and low-paid foreign labor has plunged the ruling family into a sustained crisis. A global drop in oil prices and revenue from petroleum forced the monarchy to take on massive foreign debt, even as it continues to wage unrelenting warfare on neighboring Yemen. Salman’s anti-corruption campaign, backed by the Trump administration and praised by liberal journalists like Thomas Friedman, has nothing to do with government accountability – it is a move to eliminate internal challenges to Salman’s authority and consolidate wealth in the increasingly desperate Saudi state coffers.

As the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war on Yemen continues, officials have ceased reporting casualty numbers and UN offices have withdrawn much of their aid to victims. Civilian casualties now number in tens of thousands, according to most observers. Saudi Arabia’s blockade of its neighbor – the poorest nation in the Persian Gulf – has stopped critical food and medical aid from reaching the people. Devastation of public health infrastructure and water sources, deliberately targeted by Saudi warplanes, has led to the resurgence of diseases like cholera. War is literally starving the people of Yemen to death.

The brutal murder of the journalist Kashoggi reflects the monstrous nature of U.S. imperialism and its wars, whether waged through proxies like Saudi Arabia in Yemen or directly in places like Afghanistan. It’s an important event that should draw vocal criticism from people across the U.S. who value peace and free speech.

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #torture #SaudiArabia #Kashoggi #MiddleEast