A Year of Empty Threats and a “Smokescreen” Policy: How the State Department Let Israel Get Away With Horrors in Gaza

https://www.propublica.org/article/biden-blinken-state-department-israel-gaza-human-rights-horrors

First They Came For…

“The administration maintains that it has the power to revoke Khalil’s green card and deport him because he helped lead pro-Palestinian protests. Indeed, it’s becoming clear that Khalil was targeted because of his speech, rather than any other conduct that might be reasonably construed as criminal behavior.”

https://reason.com/2025/03/17/first-they-came-for/

Trump Attacked Biden’s ‘Crazy’ Yemen War. Now He’s Reopening It.

“Candidate Donald Trump thought that bombing Yemen was “just a failed mentality” when then-President Joe Biden did it. “It’s crazy. You can solve problems over the telephone. Instead, they start dropping bombs. I see, recently, they’re dropping bombs all over Yemen. You don’t have to do that. You can talk in such a way where they respect you and they listen to you,” Trump said in a May 2024″

“Trump is now dropping bombs all over Yemen. Over the weekend, the U.S. military launched its first air raids on Yemen in months, hitting targets around the country and killing at least 53 people. Sources in the administration have told The New York Times that the attacks will continue for weeks”

“Instead of calling Biden a warmonger, as he had a year ago, Trump claimed on Sunday that Biden’s “pathetically weak” policy had allowed “unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism” against American shipping.”

“Trump’s notoriously hawkish national security adviser, Mike Waltz, thinks this campaign will be different. “These were not kind of pinprick, back and forth—what ultimately proved to be feckless attacks. This was an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out. And the difference here is, one, going after the Houthi leadership, and two, holding Iran responsible,” he told ABC on Sunday.”

https://reason.com/2025/03/17/trump-attacked-bidens-crazy-yemen-war-now-hes-reopening-it/

Who Is the Palestinian Columbia Student Detained For His Protest Activity?

“In a previously unreported interview, Khalil also told Reason about his life story. “I was born in a refugee camp in southern Damascus. My grandparents were ethnically cleansed from Palestine in 1948,” he said. “They stayed in the closest camp to Palestine, and they lived and died in that refugee camp.”

As Syria fell into civil war, Khalil moved to neighboring Lebanon. He worked as a local manager for two British government programs, the Chevening Scholarship and the Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund, according to his LinkedIn profile. In 2023, he enrolled in a master’s program at Columbia’s School of International Public Affairs.

Khalil told Reason that he was not worried about the political repercussions of being such a high-profile activist, because he wasn’t planning to go back to Lebanon and Syria. Nor was he worried about how it would affect his career prospects in America, because “I wouldn’t work for an institution that doesn’t value Palestinian lives. So if they don’t want to employ someone who is standing for Palestine, that’s my gain,” he said.

The prospect that he might be arrested by the U.S. government seemed so remote that it didn’t come up.

It’s not clear exactly which legal authorities the Trump administration used to revoke Khalil’s green card, nor how that will hold up in court. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”

“”The Trump administration’s detention of Mahmoud Khalil—a green card holder studying in this country legally—is targeted, retaliatory, and an extreme attack on his First Amendment rights,” the New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman declared in a statement. “Ripping a student from their home, challenging their immigration status, and detaining them solely based on political viewpoint will chill student speech and advocacy across campus. Political speech should never be a basis of punishment, or lead to deportation.””

https://reason.com/2025/03/10/who-is-the-palestinian-columbia-student-detained-for-his-protest-activity/

Immigration agents arrest Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests

Revoking a green card because he protested?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ice-arrests-palestinian-activist-helped-162258497.html

Inside Trump’s Deportation Push, and the U.S. Holds Talks With Hamas

Trump paused tariffs on automobiles because big auto companies called him and convinced him to pause them. What about all those companies and consumers who do not have Trump’s ear?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mP0brCE_ig

The Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon | Mapped Out

We need to maintain and grow connections between the U.S. and China. Chinese immigrants and students are not just a nice thing, they improve relations and the immigrants make America stronger diplomatically and economically.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeYrhdTvwMY

Trump admin. lifts sanctions on Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians

“all sanctions imposed on Israeli settlers involved in violent attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and against organizations involved in the building of illegal West Bank outposts have been lifted and all frozen assets released.”

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/24/trump-lifts-sanctions-israeli-settlers-west-bank

Trump cancels sanctions on Israeli settlers in West Bank

“Trump..rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the new White House website said.”

https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-cancels-sanctions-far-right-israeli-settlers-occupied-west-bank-2025-01-21/