"Bloody Blinken, Secretary of Genocide"
...shouted a protester to US Secretary of State. In the meantime a ceasefire deal in Gaza draws near, while YAF keeps targeting Israel and Cuba joins South Africa's genocide case against Israel at ICJ
If you have been following the news in the last couple of days, you probably know that we are inching closer and closer to a ceasefire agreement between Israel on one side and Hamas and the other Palestinian Resistance factions on the other side. We are getting so close to it that even The Guardian yesterday (Monday 13th January 2025) resurrected his “live” blog on the Middle East crisis, which was “dead” for a week. However, regular readers of my substack already got a glimpse of that almost a week ago, when I picked up early signals from both a Hamas representative in Lebanon and an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
Is a ceasefire in Gaza finally approaching?
Note to subscribers: the article exceeds the length limits of the e-mail. To read it in its entirety, just click on the title to open the full online version.
Yesterday Al Mayadeen reported that Hamas said that “it is keen on reaching a Gaza ceasefire deal” and quoted US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan as saying:
I think there is a good chance we can close this ... the parties are right on the cusp of being able to close this deal.
We are close to a deal, and it can get done this week. I'm not making a promise or prediction, but it is there for the taking, and we are going to work to make it happen.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also cited as saying:
We are very hopeful that we get it over the finish line, finally after all this time.
One wonders why it took so long… maybe because they aimed at weakening the Axis of Resistance in the region, first with Hamas and the other Palestinian Resistance factions in Gaza, then with Hezbollah in Lebanon and finally with Bashar al-Assad in Syria? It could be…
Nevertheless, Antony Blinken and his team are probably trying to rehabilitate themselves and their boss Joe Biden too before Donald J. Trump’s inauguration as new President of The United States (PoTUS) next Monday, 20th January 2025.
Today he was giving a speech, probably one of his last speeches as US Secretary of State, at the Atlantic Council thinktank, presenting his post-war plan for Gaza, when two protesters interrupted him, as reported by Al Mayadeen and by The Guardian and as shown in the video below:
Here is what the first protester shouted (all emphasis mine):
Secretary Blinken! Your legacy will be genocide!
You will forever be known as bloody Blinken, Secretary of Genocide!
You have the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people on your hands!
We have spent a year… We have spent a year trying to appeal to your humanity in front of your house. We bring you letters. We [incomprehensible] rallies.
The blood of innocent civilians, of children is on your hands!
We will not forget, we will not forget!
We will hold you accountable! We will hold you accountable!
BLOODY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF GENOCIDE!
SHAAAME! SHAME ON YOU, SHAME ON YOU, SHAME ON YOU, BLOODY BLINKEN!
And here is what the second protester said (all emphasis mine):
Blinken! How do you [incomprehensible] children, thousands and thousands and thousands?
How do you break American law? How do you do all that and then sit here and tell all these people, civilized people, that you are doing what? Kill, kill!
Your policy for the Middle East? Kill, kill and kill and kill!
[Something incomprehensible about Israel]
You are a brutal war criminal!
We sat in front of your house for a year!
You have no compassion!
You are monster!
Yes, that’s how we should remember Antony Blinken: as “Secretary of Genocide” and as a monster, even if he manages to get a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Going back to the ceasefire agreement, this has not been finalized yet, however some details have emerged. Here are some details, as reported by The Guardian, citing Associated Press, this morning:
Phase one, lasting 42 days, would see the gradual release of 33 of the remaining hostages, and Israeli forces would withdraw from population centres in Gaza, alongside a “surge” in humanitarian aid
Negotiations for phase two would take place during this period, with the aim of releasing all the remaining male captives and the “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza
A third phase would see the reutrn of the bodies of hostages killed in Gaza since their abduction on 7 October 2023, and the setting up of a rebuilding plan and new governance structure for Gaza
Further details about phase one emerged later during the day, as reported again by The Guardian, but citing Reuters as a source this time:
33 hostages would be set free. These include children, women including female soldiers, men above 50, wounded and sick. Israel believes most are alive but has had no official confirmation
On the 16th day from the deal taking effect, negotiations would start on a second stage, with the aim of securing the return of the remaining living hostages – male soldiers and younger civilian males – and the return of the bodies of dead hostages
In return for the hostages, Israel will free from its jails a significant number of Palestinian prisoners, although exactly how many will depend on how many hostages are still alive. The two officials have given Reuters slightly differing indications of how many – the Israeli official said the number would be “many hundreds”, while the Palestinian official said it would be more than 1,000
Where the prisoners would be sent has not yet been agreed but anyone convicted of murder or deadly attacks would not be released to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and anyone who took part in the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel would not be released
Israel will not fully withdraw its troops from Gaza until all the hostages have been returned but there will be a phased pull back, with Israeli forces remaining in the border perimeter to defend Israeli border towns and villages
There would be security arrangements at the Philadelphi corridor bordering Egypt, along the southern edge of Gaza, with Israel withdrawing from parts of it after the first few days of the deal
Unarmed North Gaza residents would be allowed back, with a mechanism to ensure no weapons are moved there, and the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza will start to work gradually. There would be a significant increase of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
However, it must be said that Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is trying to put a spanner in the works, calling on Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to join him in opposing it, as reported by The Guardian.
Also, at the time of publishing this article, “Hamas has not yet delivered its response to mediators yet because Israel did not submit maps of its forces' withdrawal from Gaza”, as reported by Al Mayadeen in its Short News tonight, citing Reuters and a Resistance official.
However, even if a ceasefire agreement in Gaza is reached and implemented, this does not automatically mean the end of the Middle East crisis. In fact, while Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is taking part in the ceasefire negotiations in Doha (Qatar), Trump's incoming Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, who is supposed to be negotiating peace with Russia, is instead thinking about preparing for a war against Iran. As reported by Reuters, a few days ago Kellogg was in Paris, where he addressed the Iranian opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the political arm of the Iranian terrorist organization called Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK - see these articles for more background information about it: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), stating that the Outlaw US Empire needs to return to a policy of “maximum pressure” against Iran to make it more “democratic”, adding:
These pressures are not just kinetic, just not military force, but they must be economic and diplomatic as well.
We must exploit the weakness we now see. The hope is there, so must too be the action.
…referring to Iranian isolation, following the weakening of Hamas and Hezbollah, and the collapse of Assad in Syria.
Despite the fact that ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas get closer to a deal, Ansar Allah has not stopped its military operations in support of Palestinians.
In fact, as reported by Al Mayadeen and Yemen News Agency Saba, yesterday the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) launched a Palestine 2 ballistic missile and four drones towards Yaffa (i.e. Tel Aviv).
This morning the YAF launched another Palestine 2 ballistic missile targeting the Ministry of Defense in Yaffa (Tel Aviv), as per Al Mayadeen and Saba.
Additional military operations were carried out during the day, as announced tonight by spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree, who was quoted by Al Mayadeen and Saba: the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) force of the YAF launched several drones targeting different Israeli military positions near Yaffa (Tel Aviv), whereas the YAf missile force targeted an Israeli power station in Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat) in southern occupied Palestine with a cruise missile.
It is also worth reporting that “Cuba has officially declared its intention to join South Africa’s genocide case against ‘Israel’ before the International Court of Justice (ICJ)”, as per Al Mayadeen and Saba, which quoted the following ICJ statement:
Cuba, invoking Article 63 of the Statute of the Court, filed in the Registry of the Court a declaration of intervention in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs also released a statement saying:
Havana shares the concerns expressed by the Republic of South Africa against "Israel" due to the genocide in Palestine.
The court is going through a complex historical turning point, as the credibility of the legal system built after World War II is threatened with collapse forever.
Other countries who joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel before the ICJ are: Nicaragua, Colombia, Libya, Mexico, Palestine, Spain, and Turkey.
UPDATE (15/01/2025): One hour after publishing this article last night, The Guardian reported that Hamas “accepted a draft agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages”, citing Associated Press and two officials involved in the talks.
Regarding the ceasefire agreement and how we got there, I strongly recommend the following article by Caitlin Johnstone:
…as well as this post by Richard Silverstein on his Tikun Olam blog, which also covers Antony Blinken’s post-war plan.
blinken and the usa's role here has always been about optics - not reality.... they are stuck in the marketing game of convincing others of their righteous path, when in fact their path is both hypocritical and knowingly dishonest... this is why after countless years, the usa is still trying to sell itself as an honest broker for peace, and everyone - except the usa admin - know they are full of bs and it is furthermost from the truth of the matter...
so, people have given up on the usa in any type of leadership role and rightly so... even if the usa continues to manipulate the various international institutions, or is more blatant about it - financial sanctions and etc - people see thru this and know they are the worst country to speak of negotiating for peace in a fair manner.... the usa wants power and control which explains all the foreign wars they have started over the past 60 or more years - and that is only in my lifetime! whatever the usa says - generally a rule of thumb is to believe the exact opposite and it will be much closer to the truth..
Dr. Death-Blinken, a soulless zombie..