Jordan's king tells The United Nations that Israel's 'expansionist appetite' is a regional threat.... “This sense of impunity has reached terrifying levels,” he continued, warning that “no one in this assembly should assume [Israel's] ambitions stop at Palestine.”

Jordan's King Abdullah II speaks during the 81st session of the UN General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, on 22 September 2026 (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP)

22 September 2026 

Jordan's King Abdullah II told the United Nations on Tuesday that Israel's "expansionist appetite" poses a threat to the Middle East, pointing to its actions in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and southern Syria.

"This Israeli government's expansionist appetite is now a regional threat," he said in remarks to the General Assembly in New York, adding: "step by calculated step, Israel is testing how far it can go".

He said that, while Israel's actions have caused some international response, “resolutions end where they began: on paper,” calling this a wilful “choice” with the result being a “state without restraint”.

“This sense of impunity has reached terrifying levels,” he continued, warning that “no one in this assembly should assume [Israel's] ambitions stop at Palestine.”

  https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/jordans-king-tells-un-israels-expansionist-appetite-regional-threat

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Never forget also means remembering who else was hurt on 9/11 | - Ann Van Dyke, PennLive letters

 Published: Sep. 16, 2026

Twenty-five years ago, I worked for the PA Human Relations Commission. Part of my job was to follow up on reports of bias incidents to determine whether they violated anti-discrimination or criminal law, or were constitutionally protected acts of miserable behavior, which sometimes do not violate any law because of our extremely strong freedom of speech and expression.

Bias incidents directed at adults and children who appeared to be of the same ancestry or religion as the attackers surged.

While some people expressed widespread unity immediately after the 9/11 attacks, others carried out what they considered acts of retaliation. For example, a home in Enola belonging to a Muslim family originally from India was defaced with hate graffiti, and their mailbox was blown up anonymously.

While that was happening, members of the family were at a fundraiser for the 9/11 victims. “Acts of revenge” against people who had nothing to do with the attacks continued intensely in the months after and never stopped: destruction of property, assaults, anonymous hate mail, graffiti, slurs yelled during drive-bys, and public discourse increasingly full of vicious, false stereotypes.

All of that was and continues to be directed at adults, children and families who are Muslim, Middle Eastern, of Arabic descent, or who appear to be.

Twenty-fifth-anniversary calls to “never forget” need to include the innocent people who were harmed then and now because of what their ancestry or religion is or appears to be. The U.S. still strives to be better than that.

Ann Van Dyke, Mechanicsburg, Pa.

https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2026/09/never-forget-also-means-remembering-who-else-was-hurt-on-911-pennlive-letters.html?gift=e4c9a45f-441e-497f-84c7-31f77e3d66eb

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"Meanwhile, with his unwinnable war in the Middle East, capricious tariff regime and penchant for self-enrichment on an epic scale, Trump is turning the US into an increasingly unpredictable player in the global economy. Instead of the guarantor of rules-based markets and open global trade routes, the US has become a source of uncertainty and chaos." Heather Stewart in The Guardian

Economics viewpoint

 US economy 

Jumpy bond markets make it clear: Trump risks driving US into debt crisis

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s attempt to calm bond markets is a sign of weakness not strength 

 Heather Stewart

Sun 23 Aug 2026 

“Look, there’s nothing magic about that $40tn number,” the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, told CNBC insouciantly last week, as the country’s debt mountain surpassed another bleak record.

Yet Bessent’s decision to intervene in government bond markets in an effort to combat soaring yields belied his studied calm in TV interviews – and reignited fears the US may be on the road to a debt crisis.... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/23/jumpy-bond-markets-make-it-clear-trump-risks-driving-us-into-debt-crisis

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".... diplomacy, multilateralism and global standards are a better choice than a race for the bomb."

The Guardian view on a US-Saudi nuclear agreement: an offer that further erodes international safeguards

Editorial

Opinion 

US foreign policy

 

Even if no reactors are built, Donald Trump’s announcement of a double-standards deal with Riyadh has wrought further damage in a new era of proliferation

 

Sun 26 Jul 2026 12.29 EDT 

Even as he threatened to escalate an unlawful war sold in part as preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, Donald Trump opened the door to proliferation in the region on Wednesday. The US announced that it had signed a deal with Saudi Arabia which would potentially allow the kingdom to enrich uranium in future and to avoid the fullest inspection rights for the international watchdog.

Experts have long warned that a civilian nuclear programme could create a path towards a nuclear-armed Riyadh. Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince and de facto leader, has said that if Tehran gets a nuclear weapon, “we will have to get one”. Concerns are magnified by the agreement’s terms. Washington previously argued that the “gold standard” was the United Arab Emirates’ agreement to permanently forgo enrichment and accept full monitoring by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Weakening it sets a precedent that Russia or China could also cite in nuclear deals in future.

The turmoil that Mr Trump has created in the Middle East is encouraging governments both to hedge their bets and to tool up. The US paused attacks on Iran at the weekend, after 13 successive days of strikes, amid reports that it is concerned about declining interceptor stockpiles, but no exit is in sight. As António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said on Thursday, the region “is teetering on the edge of [the] unimaginable … One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next.” ... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/26/the-guardian-view-on-a-us-saudi-nuclear-agreement-an-offer-that-further-erodes-international-safeguards

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"Bombing the infrastructure people rely on will not make Iranians [or Palestinians] embrace those carrying out the attacks." .... ‘It’s truly hell here’: airstrikes, repression and water shortages become ‘new normal’ for Iranians

Iranians describe how daily life is becoming ever harder as conflict continues and human rights crisis worsens 

Three boys play in the shallow waters of the strait of Hormuz as a plume of smoke rises from an explosion in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran Photograph: Razieh Poudat/AP

As US airstrikes hit port and inland cities in Iran, and Tehran strikes at the US’s Middle East allies, the escalating conflict has left many Iranians fearing that, amid war and a worsening human rights crisis, they remain trapped in a cycle of violence and repression with no way out.

Bandar Abbas, on the strait of Hormuz and the headquarters of the Iranian navy, has been hit by strikes every night since the latest escalation began nearly two weeks ago. Soroush*, a writer based in the city who secretly publishes a newsletter documenting human rights violations in Iran, described a “new normal” for its residents.

“We need to accept this could just be our new reality now and it’s worked because we are less afraid as each day goes on,” the 37-year-old said. “We are less afraid of the future because we are now forced to accept this is the new normal. There’s no one coming to save us from the bombs or the regime’s bullets. Our brains have tricked us into making peace with this new reality.”

For those living near the port, loud explosions followed by prolonged power cuts have become the norm over the past week.

Mehnaz*, 39, depends on the internet for her work and says she was already struggling with the government-imposed internet shutdown, which has severely affected her earnings.

“We always had power cuts, but the hours have now extended and I fear I can’t rely on my online work any more. The war is far from the end and daily life is becoming harder under the bombs, power cuts and internet shutdowns. It’s truly hell here,” she said.

Another port city reportedly struck by the US this week was Jask. State media claimed US strikes hit 100 civilian vessels and that an attack on the Bonji desalination plant left 20 villages without drinking water... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/22/its-truly-hell-here-airstrikes-repression-and-water-shortages-become-new-normal-for-iranians

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United Nations photo- Palestine Refugees, Middle East, 1951: "The Palestinian conflict forced into exile nearly a million Arabs. Great efforts were made by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] to provide work and pay for the refugees. But available funds were [are] only sufficient to provide employment for a small minority, without producing lasting economic effects. Refugees make materials and clothes for their own use."

United Nations Photo Palestine Refugees, 1951

Palestine Refugees, Middle East, 1951

The Palestinian conflict forced into exile nearly a million Arabs. Great efforts were made by the UN Relief and Works Agency to provide work and pay for the refugees. But available funds were only sufficient to provide employment for a small minority, without producing lasting economic effects.

Refugees make materials and clothes for their own use.

UN Photo

1951

Middle East

Photo # UN7707935

https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/53376742762/in/album-72177720313177543/ 

This photo is in 1 album

• History of Question of Palestine 184 items  

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Palestine Refugees 1949 

A wagonload of refugee children in the U.N. demilitarized zone at Lake Tiberias on the Israeli-Syrian frontier. [Exact date unknown] 

Photo # UN7505381

https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/53376742872/in/album-72177720313177543/

"I learned about the Holocaust even in rural Oklahoma. I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was 10 years old. My mom watched Holocaust documentaries with me. We talked about it in high school -- to always, always, always look around and make sure we weren't BEING Nazis in some way...." Pamela Olson, author of Fast Times in Palestine

 

Pamela Olson  https://pamolson.org/

https://www.facebook.com/pamolson4/posts/pfbid02B46Qg3dgY9LaoGTjqRnfC9HDtioQYTizhiXqdEqXtuhEc8fmyH4tqo2qHYSuTg6al

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Pamela Olson

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A sponsored post on my feed asked people to share their experience of learning about the Holocaust as kids, and if they feared they might have to hide from Nazis one day.

 

I commented:

 

I learned about the Holocaust even in rural Oklahoma. I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was 10 years old. My mom watched Holocaust documentaries with me. We talked about it in high school -- to always, always, always look around and make sure we weren't BEING Nazis in some way.

 

I felt like the US was being Nazi-like when we sanctioned Iraq and starved all those children. I felt like the US was being Nazi-like when we invaded Iraq and murdered hundreds of thousands based on a lie. (I would later learn that was just the tip of the iceberg.) So I went to the Middle East to meet Arabs and Muslims for myself -- to see if they were really the demons our news media made them out to be.

 

I traveled solo from Cairo to Istanbul in 2003, when I was 23 years old. It took about three months, and it was one of the most magical stretches of my life. "Beautiful and friendly" doesn't begin to describe it.

 

I did skip Iraq (too dangerous), and I planned to skip Israel / Palestine. But in the Sinai, I met an Israeli man who invited me to Israel, and in Jordan I met a British guy who invited me to visit the West Bank. I took it as a sign.

 

And I'm so glad I did. I was totally enchanted by the Holy Land and ended up living there for two years. I wrote a book about it that anyone can read for free here:

 

Get a Free PDF of the book here

(Also available as Kindle, Audible, paperback)