标签： Asia

A rare public split between a senior U.S. diplomatic representative and existing White House policy has emerged after Tom Barrack, the current U.S. ambassador to Turkey, openly labeled Israel’s long-standing control of Syria’s Golan Heights as an unlawful occupation that directly violates United Nations resolutions and global international law.\n\nBarrack’s comments mark a stark departure from the official stance of the U.S. government under former President Donald Trump, who formally recognized Israeli sovereignty over the contested strategic plateau in 2019 — a move that was immediately rejected by most of the international community.\n\nLocated at the intersection of Israel, Syria, and southern Lebanon, the Golan Heights is a strategically critical highland region that Israel first seized from Syrian control during the 1967 Six-Day Middle East War. Israel unilaterally annexed the territory shortly after its capture, but this territorial claim has never received formal recognition from the broader global community. Binding UN Security Council Resolution 242, adopted shortly after the 1967 conflict, explicitly requires Israel to withdraw from all territories captured during the war, including the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. Today, the Golan is home to approximately 20,000 Israeli settlers and 26,000 original Syrian inhabitants, most of whom are members of the Druze ethnic community who retain their Syrian national identity.\n\nBarrack made the contentious remarks during a wide-ranging interview with broadcaster Mario Nawfal, where he also discussed regional tensions over potential Israeli plans to annex additional Lebanese territory. On that topic, he argued that Israeli leaders recognize the international community would never allow such a move, noting that U.S. public and political support for Israel is gradually softening. ‘Even young Democrats are coming against them,’ he stated, adding that even former President Trump sought to carve out a moderate approach to the conflict. He added that upcoming Israeli national elections will likely reshape the country’s political and policy landscape, making any large-scale territorial annexation of Lebanese land even less feasible.\n\nReturning to the question of the Golan Heights, Barrack reaffirmed his assessment: ‘Now saying that, in the Golan with Syria, they still occupy the Golan against the UN resolutions, against all of the international order, which has said the Golan is Syria’s.’\n\nThe ambassador also addressed rising regional tensions following a recent Israeli air strike on Syria’s Abu al-Duhur air base, noting that the operation carried a significant risk of direct military confrontation between Israel and Turkey. He outlined multiple competing theories to explain what prompted the strike, which he described as ‘serious and worrying.’\n\nThe first theory he cited was unconfirmed Israeli intelligence that Turkish military assets were preparing to deploy to the base, a claim that has not been verified by subsequent checks. A second possibility is that Israeli forces detected unusual troop movements that other regional actors failed to pick up. Barrack called a third explanation the ‘probably most likely’ scenario: Israeli intelligence intercepted conversations indicating Turkey planned to expand its military training operations at the Abu al-Duhur base.\n\nHe also raised a more provocative possibility: that Israel deliberately baited Turkey by launching the strike without any prior notification to Ankara, as a test of Turkey’s response to Israeli military activity in the area. A final theory centers on internal coordination failure within Israel’s security establishment, suggesting the Israel Defense Forces, Mossad, and the prime minister’s office may have operated on conflicting intelligence assessments that led to the unplanned strike.\n\nBarrack warned that the risk of accidental escalation in the already volatile region carries severe consequences. ‘The unintended consequence of a mistake could be really consequential,’ he said, noting that Turkish forces could scramble fighter jets in response to an unannounced incursion with no advance knowledge of Israeli intentions, raising the risk of open conflict between the two military powers.\n\nBarrack also noted that reaching a diplomatic de-escalation of ongoing Israeli incursions into Lebanon remains challenging, as key decision-making power in the region is held by Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, with no ongoing negotiations between all relevant parties.

Growing tensions over Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank have triggered renewed pressure on the British government from senior UK lawmakers, who are demanding concrete action to oppose developments that threaten the viability of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Emily Thornberry, chair of the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has reiterated her longstanding call for a full ban on imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land. Speaking in an interview with Sky News, Thornberry pointed out that it has been one full year since her committee first formally recommended ending the legal sale of settlement-produced goods in the UK, yet the British government has failed to implement any policy change to meet this demand.

Thornberry has long backed a two-state solution, which would see an independent Palestinian state exist alongside Israel in mutually recognized borders. She noted that the international community has reached near-unanimous agreement that the entire West Bank is designated as the territory for a future Palestinian state under this framework. However, she argued, Israel’s current far-right leadership is actively working to eliminate any path to Palestinian statehood by rapidly expanding settlements across the West Bank. The most recent high-stakes plan, known as the E1 project, would effectively bisect the entire West Bank, cutting off geographic connectivity that is essential for a functional independent Palestinian state. Beyond settlement construction, Thornberry added that levels of violence carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities have reached the highest point ever recorded.

Thornberry’s comments came just as the UK government formally announced this week that it would introduce punitive measures against Israel over the advancement of the E1 settlement scheme, which is located east of Jerusalem. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband issued a clear warning that the new construction project, for which development tenders were opened this week, represents an existential threat to the two-state solution framework that has guided international policy on the conflict for decades.

Miliband confirmed that he had directly communicated to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar that the Israeli government must immediately halt all E1 planning, withdraw the recently issued construction tender, and end all expansion of illegal settlements across the West Bank. In a formal statement, Miliband emphasized that the ongoing wave of settler violence against Palestinian communities has had a catastrophic humanitarian impact, adding that settlement expansion and deliberate efforts to create irreversible geographic divisions on the ground undermine regional peace, security, and the entire prospect of a sovereign, viable Palestinian state.

On Tuesday, Israeli authorities formally issued a tender for the construction of 1,234 new residential units in the southern section of the E1 project, marking a major turning point for one of the most controversial settlement schemes in decades. After years of sitting in planning and approval phases, the project is now moving into active land marketing and on-the-ground implementation. The tender covers seven interconnected settlement complexes spanning roughly 12,000 dunams (approximately 3,000 acres) of land between Jerusalem and the large existing settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. The full development plan includes integrated residential zones, industrial areas, tourism sites, and new connecting roads and infrastructure that will permanently link the new settlements to existing Israeli settlement blocs.

Miliband stressed that the United Kingdom will not remain passive while the two-state solution is effectively destroyed. He confirmed that the UK government will lay out a full package of punitive measures in the coming weeks, including targeted sanctions against individuals and entities directly involved in advancing illegal settlement expansion. Minister of State for the Middle East Stephen Doughty joined Miliband in condemning the E1 tender, describing the move as a deliberate, destructive action explicitly designed to kill any hope of a two-state resolution to the conflict.

Weeks ahead of this official announcement, the independent news outlet Middle East Eye exclusively reported that the UK government was preparing to roll out new policies targeting Israeli settlement activity in September, including the long-debated ban on settlement-produced goods and potential sanctions against individuals, organizations, and even sitting Israeli ministers tied to the Israeli settler movement. The outlet also reported that UK officials are considering additional restrictions on arms sales to Israel, a longstanding point of contention between activist groups and successive UK governments.

Currently, the UK does not maintain a full ban on trade with Israeli settlements, though the government formally advises British businesses against engaging in any economic or financial activity within settlement areas. Under existing UK trade agreements with Israel and the Palestinian Authority, goods produced in settlements already do not qualify for preferential tariff treatment, but they remain legal to import and sell across the UK.

California has made history by electing the first Afghan-American member of the U.S. Congress, after progressive state senator Aisha Wahab overcame a $2.5 million opposition campaign funded by major pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC to claim victory in a tight congressional runoff.

State election officials declared Wahab the winner of California’s 14th Congressional District runoff on Thursday, 48 hours after polls closed. The Bay Area district, which stretches along the northern edge of San Jose and includes the populous cities of Fremont and Hayward, became an unexpected political battleground after the seat was vacated earlier this year.

The vacancy opened when former Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell resigned in the wake of public sexual misconduct allegations. His unexpired term runs through January 2025, meaning Wahab will first serve out the remaining months of that term before competing in the November 2024 general election to win a full two-year term of her own in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Wahab, 39, advanced to the runoff alongside her opponent, moderate candidate Melissa Hernandez, after neither candidate hit the required 50% vote threshold in the state’s June nonpartisan primary. Neither candidate centered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in their platforms; both campaigns focused heavily on local affordability issues that rank as top priorities for Bay Area voters. But the race drew heavy outside spending after AIPAC invested $2.5 million in negative attack ads targeting Wahab, who has publicly stated that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The lobbying group threw its full support behind Hernandez, who has repeatedly affirmed that Israel “has a right to defend itself.”

Wahab’s upset victory marks the second high-profile win for a progressive Muslim candidate over massive pro-Israel outside spending in 2024. Just two weeks prior, Michigan’s Abdul el-Sayed, an Egyptian-American progressive, won the state’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary after overcoming a $50 million opposition campaign from pro-Israel advocacy groups that sought to block his nomination.

This historic win adds another milestone to Wahab’s political career. In 2002, she made history as California’s first Afghan and Muslim state senator, and her personal story is deeply rooted in the district she now represents. Born in New York City, Wahab lost both of her parents during childhood and was raised by an Afghan foster family in the 14th District. Speaking to supporters after her victory, she framed the win as a rebuke to corporate and special interest money that increasingly dominates U.S. electoral politics.