Simone Filippini ☮️🌿

Really? Had to think today of an interview I had some time ago with Mohamed @ElBaradei, former IAEA Director General and ex-Egyptian Vice President. He said about the failure of the ‘Arab Spring’: the people of Egypt had no experience with democracy, people actually did not know what democracy means. Yes, democracy was a dream, a deeply felt wish. But what was needed, what should happen after the successful demonstrations, was unclear. Large-scale demonstrations led to the overthrow of the leadership. Infrastructure and expereinced leadership to effectively fill the gaps, lacked. At the same time, the deep state was supreme, according to ElBaradei: so, faces were simply replaced by other faces. And then the Arab Spring died a silent death. The protests imploded, people were harrassed, violently punished, and voices silenced. Think for example of #Libya, #Iraq, #Iran. What’s the difference after 50 years of theocratic oppression with the situation in Egypt in 2011.. ? The bombing by Israel and the US is not only illegal, but extremely risky as well, endangering regional stability and costing many additional civilians’ lives. And also think about the influence on oil prices.

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has said the world gave Israel a ‘licence to torture Palestinians’ as she presented her latest report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. She criticised governments for allowing violations to continue with impunity.

Dear UN Member States, As I prepare to deliver my 8th report to the UN, I reiterate: Israel poses a threat to international peace and security. I have documented its most egregious crimes. Now the obligation to act, and stop it, sparing innocent lives, rests with you.

BREAKING❗️ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan cleared of all charges of misconduct/breach of duty by a panel of 3 judges unanimously, beyond any reasonable doubt. The pro-Apartheid camp is already working to remove him ANYWAY: those who stand for justice must ensure this attempt fails.

Aruba viert vandaag 40 jaar status aparte! Van harte gefeliciteerd @MikeGEman! 🇦🇼 nos.nl/l/2606800

Israel launched a fresh wave of attacks on Iran on March 20, a day after President Trump told it not to repeat its strikes on Iranian natural gas infrastructure, which sharply escalated the US-Israeli war on Iran reut.rs/4sq2uJ8

23 years ago tonight, in an Oval Office address, George W. Bush announced the start of the Iraq War. 4,492 American service members were killed in the years that followed. 32,292 were wounded. At least 200,000 Iraqi civilians died. The humanitarian impact was immense. America wasted 9 years and 3 trillion dollars on a war that never should have happened—a war predicated on a lie, pushed by warmongering neocon politicians, and paid for by everyday people. Imagine what that $3 trillion could have bought here at home. Imagine the decade we could have spent focusing on America, our people, our place in the world. Imagine the lives our service members, stolen from us, would have lived. But instead, the president took us to war. Yet another costly quagmire in the Middle East. I voted against the Iraq War. I knew the White House would lie to Members of Congress and voters alike to manufacture the pretext for a conflict—and they did. Now, Iran is shaping up to be Iraq 2.0—new lies, new bloodthirsty politicians, still paid for by American families. Yesterday, we learned that Trump wants another $200 billion for his war. That's after Congress already gave the Pentagon more money than it even asked for in the budget. Enough is enough. It is not too late to learn from the past. Stop this madness. Bring our troops home. End this war.

This is probably the most important article of the month: an op-ed by Oman's Foreign Minister, who mediated the talks between the U.S. and Iran, in which he writes that the U.S. "has lost control of its foreign policy" to Israel. He repeats that a deal was possible as an outcome of the talks (something confirmed by the UK's National Security Advisor, who also attended: x.com/i/status/20341…) and that the military strike by the U.S. and Israel was "a shock." Interestingly, given he is one of Iran's neighbors and given that Oman has been struck multiple times by Iran since the war began (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Iran…), he writes that "Iran’s retaliation against what it claims are American targets on the territory of its neighbours was an inevitable result" of the U.S.-Israeli attack. He describes it as "probably the only rational option available to the Iranian leadership." He says the war "endangers" the region's entire "economic model in which global sport, tourism, aviation and technology were to play an important role." He adds that "if this had not been anticipated by the architects of this war, that was surely a grave miscalculation." But, he adds, the "greatest miscalculation" of all for the U.S. "was allowing itself to be drawn into this war in the first place." In his view this was the doing of "Israel’s leadership" who "persuaded America that Iran had been so weakened by sanctions, internal divisions and the American-Israeli bombings of its nuclear sites last June, that an unconditional surrender would swiftly follow the initial assault and the assassination of the supreme leader." Obviously, this proved completely wrong, and the U.S. is now in a quagmire. He says that, given this, "America’s friends have a responsibility to tell the truth," which is that "there are two parties to this war who have nothing to gain from it," namely "Iran and America." He says that all of the U.S. interests in the region (end to nuclear proliferation, secure energy supply chains, investment opportunities) are "best achieved with Iran at peace." As he writes, "this is an uncomfortable truth to tell, because it involves indicating the extent to which America has lost control of its own foreign policy. But it must be told." He then proposes a couple of paths to get back to the negotiating table, although he recognizes how difficult it would be for Iran "to return to dialogue with an administration that twice switched abruptly from talks to bombing and assassination." That's perhaps the most profound damage Trump did during this entire episode: the complete discrediting of diplomacy. If Iran was taught anything, it is: don't negotiate with the U.S., it's a trap that will literally kill you. The great irony of the man who sold himself as a dealmaker is that he taught the world one thing: don't make deals with my country. Link to the article: economist.com/by-invitation/…

@vanranstmarc @tijdvooreten Helaas heeft Netanyahu ook dit type uitspraken gedaan over Palestijnen… #leiderschap waar de wereld op geen enkele manier op zit te wachten

Elke dag een nieuw dieptepunt. Militair, strategisch, maar ook, zoals hier het geval is, ethisch. "No quarter" betekent geen genade. In de praktijk wil dit zeggen dat er geen gevangenen genomen worden, zelfs als verslagen tegenstanders zich overgeven. Het geven van zulk een bevel is verboden door de Conventie van Genève (1949), het Eerste bijkomende Protocol aan deze Conventie (1977) en het Statuut van Rome (2000 Internationaal Strafhof). De Verenigde Staten hebben de twee laatste teksten ondertekend maar niet geratificeerd. Maar ze stellen dat ze deze teksten volgen als gewoonterecht. Daarom is het hernomen in het handboek van het "US Department of Defense Law of War" waar het verboden is zulk een bevel te geven en de verplichting geldt om elke tegenstrever die zich overgeeft te behandelen als krijgsgevangene. Woorden en bevelen zijn belangrijk. Zeker als ze uitgesproken worden door de Minister. Zulke bevelen maken het leiding geven voor operationele commandanten op elk niveau een stuk moeilijker. Niet dat goed opgeleide militairen plots allemaal zulk een illegaal bevel gaan geven. Maar, de menselijke natuur kennende en op basis van mijn ervaring in leiding geven, weet ik dat er altijd een paar zijn die proberen er de lijntjes vanaf lopen. In een grote organisatie is dat een statistische zekerheid. Hiermee ontneem je commandanten op alle niveau's een deel van hun gezag om op te treden tegen overtreders. In de praktijk wil dit dus zeggen dat de Secretary of War een oorlogsmisdaad pleegt door dit bevel te geven. Het is zeer goed gedocumenteerd met beelden. Het duidt voor mij opnieuw aan dat binnen de huidige Amerikaanse Administratie men echt geen idee heeft wat oorlog betekent en wat de "nature of war" is. Hij heeft nochtans militaire ervaring op lagere echelons en heeft gediend in Irak en Afghanistan. Onderweg moet het ergens fout gelopen zijn. De rebranding van Ministerie van Defensie naar Ministerie van Oorlog was voor mij al een eerste aanduiding. Maatschappijen voeren oorlog, militairen voeren gevechten. Het terugbrengen van oorlog tot een militaire activiteit bewijst het onbegrip van wat oorlog inhoudt. En dat onbegrip wordt heel duidelijk in het huidige conflict met Iran. Op naar de volgende episode!

@Jurisdizzles @FranceskAlbs Troll?

@FranceskAlbs You are a US criminal and anyone who provides you financial support — donations, wire transfers, fees for services, ect— is subject to 20 years imprisonment. Decent and good people reject you and stand up against your illegitimate and criminal incitement to hurt and murder Jews

The human rights system resists the genocide, and so United Staff 4 Gaza. Time to unite against Genocide across all professions and paths of life. Together We can stop it and make it accountable. We, The People. #WeR1 x.com/UN4Gaza

Zeteo ended up buying the rights to the Gaza doctors film that the BBC refused to air and you can watch it here: zeteo.com/p/watch-now-ga…

@amanpour @ajboekestijn instagram.com/reel/DVZa3OJgf…

“This is an unnecessary war,” says former MI6 chief John Sawers. “It was not required, because it was not as if it was to pre-empt an imminent threat,” he tells me. “The very best you can expect is a sort of Venezuela-type outcome. But there are plenty of other, more dangerous outcomes coming from this.”

Trump’s negotiators have failed to deliver on all fronts. foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/03/wit…

The new Middle East, as seen by Netanyahu, is coming into view. "Summarising Israeli government’s position, Citrinowicz said: “If we can have a coup, great. If we can have people on the streets, great. If we can have a civil war, great. Israel couldn’t care less about the future . . . [or] the stability of Iran." ft.com/content/dd070e…

I spent years reporting on China's AI-powered repression of Uyghur Muslims. When I saw the Pentagon's threats against Anthropic, I immediately thought of China's "military-civil fusion," which forces private tech companies to make their innovations available to the military 1/4

Iran’s regime is illiberal and brutal, and the Iranian people deserve the freedom they have long fought for. This gives no right to the US or Israel -whose own policies in Palestine are also illiberal and brutal- to bomb Iran, nor to EU leaders to cloak escalation in hypocrisy.

As the world is distracted AGAIN by more war and manufactured despair, Israel is AGAIN deliberately starving Gaza. Don’t be fooled: a so-called "board of peace" that presides over this level of suffering isn’t diplomacy; it’s a grim omen of the world to come, if we don’t stop it.

#Netanyahu's authoritarian rule - a web of emergency powers and dysfunctional judiciary and legislator - is looking for pretexts 2,000 km away, in Iran. Still, its victims would be #Palestinians in the West Bank and #Gaza, much closer to home.

We have been told that Gaza’s borders are closed indefinitely. If they stay closed, @wckitchen will run out of food this week. We are cooking 1M hot meals every day. We need food deliveries every single day to feed hungry families who are not part of this war. All the NGOs in Gaza need more food, medicine, medical equipment, fuel, tents, personal care every day. We cannot wait...let the humanitarian trucks go through today! #ChefsForGaza