Our Wednesday News Analysis | US Attack on Colombia, Venezuela: Six Takeaways from Dan Kovalik’s Interview

Ramzy Baroud in conversation with Dan Kovalic. (Thumbnail: Palestine Chronicle)

Colombia has taken one of the strongest governmental positions in the world against the genocide in Gaza. This stance has rippled across the Global South, directly challenging Western hegemony.

"President Petro’s decision to cut ties with Israel is not merely a reaction to the Gaza genocide, but also an acknowledgement of Israel’s historical role in supporting the most violent, anti-democratic elements in Colombia.

… Before President Petro, Colombia and Israel were “very close”, with Israel responsible for “a lot of military training in Colombia” and “very responsible for training and supporting the death squads, the paramilitary death squads in Colombia”.

... the founder of the AUC paramilitaries, Carlos Castaño, stated in his memoir that he “owes his life and his country to Israel, even though the paramilitary leader was “responsible for killing tens of thousands of innocents in Colombia.

President Petro’s move to cut ties with Israel was thus a huge and dangerous step.

… the sanctions [against Colombia] are retaliation for Petro’s actions: “It’s obvious. He spoke at the UN, calling for a military force to protect Gaza — and very shortly after, he was put on the OFAC list.

That’s not a coincidence.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s government has not only cut diplomatic ties with Israel and backed South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), but also called on the UN General Assembly to invoke a Uniting for Peace resolution to bypass the US veto.

In direct response to this unprecedented moral leadership, Washington moved swiftly, imposing sanctions on Petro and his family and initiating political pressure campaigns.

The move, officially related to counternarcotics, is widely viewed as a clear act of political retaliation aimed at isolating a key revolutionary leader on the world stage.

In this exclusive FloodGate interview, Ramzy Baroud spoke with Daniel Kovalik, the labor and human rights lawyer who serves as President Petro’s attorney in the United States.

Kovalik, who previously served as counsel for Colombian plaintiffs against US corporations for alleged human rights violations, offers a clear-eyed analysis of the legal fight ahead, the political stakes, and what this confrontation reveals about the growing role of Latin America in the global struggle for Palestinian rights and the contours of a new international alignment...

Read more: US Attack on Colombia, Venezuela: Six Takeaways from Dan Kovalik’s Interview

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THE HARDER HOPE BECOMES, THE MORE URGENT IT IS: A RECKONING FOR ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS IN 2026

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/haaretz-today/2025-12-31/ty-article/.highlight/the-harder-hope-becomes-the-more-urgent-it-is-an-israeli-palestinian-reckoning-for-2026/0000019b-7577-dd15-a3fb-fd778cdd0002

By David Issacharoff
Published December 31, 2025

Israel does not have to be a bad place. This rare moment of isolation is an opportunity for introspection. Most people here are good and willing, but many can no longer find hope

A protest for the return of the hostages on Highway 1, August 2025 Credit: Tomer Appelbaum

This year of destruction, ending today, began more than 16 months into the war in Gaza and marked the climax of the most profound crisis the people between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea have ever faced. Israelis and Palestinians end 2025 entrenched in a widening animosity over a land that feels as if it is growing ever smaller.

Israelis, together with Palestinians, can begin to close this trench. If they continue alone, it can only be widened, making this tiny piece of land unlivable for all.

The harder it becomes to hope, the more urgent hope is. But it must turn into action – something infinitely braver than the destruction of Gaza: rebuilding a shared kinship over this land, rather than waging a blood-soaked war over it.

This must begin in 2026, even if it takes an entire generation. Peace cannot be too much to ask; it is simply the only condition for living here.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government chose to turn Israel into a full-blown, menacing pariah, stirring resentment within its borders and isolating it abroad.

It deepened a brutal military offensive in Gaza that saw countless massacres of Palestinians, including 78 days in the spring that will live forever in infamy, as Israel closed Gaza's gates to food. In an already ravaged enclave, Palestinians were forced to choose between finding bread and risking death. The war ended with some 70,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, and counting.

Most Israelis found a sense of closure in the return of the hostages, some alive after almost 740 days in Gaza's tunnels. Only the body of Ran Gvili is yet to be returned.

Israel after 2025 is a battered, tired country, more bewildered than before. 2026 will inevitably be a year of reckonings, one hinging on the other.

The most important reckoning Israel will face is over what it has done in Gaza. Since the war's beginning, and even more so now at its end, Israelis must decide whether to look away, endorse it, or resist.

The choice to look away is a dangerous one, rooted in collective self-delusion. Above all, the indifference allows perpetrators of war crimes to claim victory, many of whom have vowed time and again not to stop until an Israeli flag is finally planted on land in Gaza where thousands of Palestinians once lived. If this is the choice, slowly but surely Jewish settlements will spread, and a project of ethnic cleansing will be taken to a new, unprecedented level...

Read more: The Harder Hope Becomes, the More Urgent It Is: A Reckoning for Israelis and Palestinians in 2026

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AS THE WORLD WELCOMES A NEW YEAR, WE, IN GAZA, DREAD WHAT IT WILL BRING

Source: Al-Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/12/31/as-the-world-welcomes-a-new-year-we-in-gaza-dread-what-it-will-bring

By Qasem Waleed
Published December 31, 2025

We have seen so much evil this year that we are afraid to imagine the future.

The author at a site of destruction in Gaza [Courtesy of Qasem Waleed]

[Editor’s Note | Tears of sorrow. Tears of joy.]

Another year has passed, and life in Gaza is still trapped between Israel’s killing machine and the growing indifference of the world. It is another year added to our unique calendar of loss, destruction, and death.

In Gaza, there is nothing to plan for, yet everything to wish for.

In March, I wrote about my fears that Israel might go even further in its genocidal drive than what it had already done. And it did. Israel went beyond even my darkest expectations, reaching an unimaginable level of evil. That evil marked the whole year for us in Gaza.

As I see many people posting recaps of their favourite 2025 moments, I thought I’d share my own version. Here’s what this year looked like for me.

It started with a 45-day ceasefire; the short respite from the bombs was not even enough for us to mentally process the 15 months of nonstop killing and destruction that preceded it.

In February, I met many of the Palestinian captives who were set free as part of the truce and listened to the horror stories they recounted about their time being forcibly disappeared by the Israeli army. Among then was my high school teacher, Antar al-Agha. When I first saw him, I could not believe it was him. He was so pale and gaunt that he couldn’t stretch his arm to shake my hand.

He told me about the long time he spent in what they called the “scabies room” in the Israeli detention centre – a room designated to be an incubator for scabies. “At one dawn, I was finally allowed to wash my hands, but it didn’t turn out to be a relief for me. Once the water touched my hand, the skin started to peel as if it were a hot boiled potato. The blood burst from all over my hands. I can still feel the pain,” he recounted.

In March, Israel resumed the genocide, killing more than 400 people in a single blow in the middle of that month. It blocked all crossings into the Strip.

In April, the first signs of mass starvation started appearing.

In May, the Israeli army forcibly displaced me and my family from our house in eastern Khan Younis...

Read more: As the world welcomes a new year, we, in Gaza, dread what it will bring