International
The debate is growing about whether student protests in the US are anti-Semitic or anti-war
Protests over the war in Gaza in dozens of universities in the United States continue this Tuesday to show their rejection of US policy towards Israel, while the rhetorical controversy grows over whether such demonstrations promote anti-Semitism or are simply anti-war and include Jewish students.
The president of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, called on Tuesday “anti-American” that the current US president, Joe Biden, “is incapable or does not want to” condemn what is happening in some American universities and pointed to a lack of leadership at a “critical moment.”
“It’s not about freedom of expression,” the Republican added at a press conference about the pro-Palestinian protests, and opined that the country “desperately” needs a clear moral authority in the face of what it considers an increase in anti-Semitism.
Conservative Senator Tom Cotton has gone so far as to call the protesters “pro-terrorist tword” and has asked for more tough hand against the students from the police.
The governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbot, considered last week that students participating in the pro-Palestinian peaceful protests in that southern state should go to jail for promoting hatred and anti-Semitism.
The White House has also stressed on several occasions that President Biden supports the right to “peaceful protest,” but that he is against “any violent rhetoric, threats of hatred (…) and anti-Semitism,” something that some students have denounced, but it is not being widespread and from the beginning it has allowed the participation of Jewish students opposed to the war.
Apart from criticizing US support for Israel during the Gaza War, another common denominator among these demonstrations is the demand of students to their educational centers to cease their investments in the Israeli private sector and promote greater transparency about those relations and their possible involvement with the military industry.
Progressive Jewish senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders rejected the parallel drawn by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, between the protests of these days and those that occurred during Nazi Germany against the Jews.
“Anti-Semitism is a vile and despicable form of intolerance, but please do not insult the intelligence of Americans, trying to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of their extremist and racist government,” Sanders said in an interview.
“The vast majority of people who protest (…) are tired and disgusted by this war,” said the senator.
Omer Bartov, a Jewish professor and expert on the Holocaust and Genocide at Brown University, has warned that the accusations of anti-Semitism against university protests in the United States, in which he has participated by leading assemblies and debates at the University of Pennsylvania, are dangerous because they are used as a weapon.
“There is politics and there are prejudices. And if we do not make a distinction between the two, then what we are really doing is imposing a silence on the policies of the Israeli government that have now culminated in the total destruction of Gaza,” Bartov said in a radio interview on Tuesday.
The College Democrats of America, the student organization of the Democratic Party, supported in a statement the protests on U.S. campuses for “seeing this war as what it is: destructive, genocidal and unjust,” while condemning police actions to evict the camps.
International
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
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