When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Geopolitics

Hamas Leader Makes Historic Visit To Gaza, Ending 45-Year Exile

AL JAZEERA (Qatar), BBC NEWS (UK), CNN (USA)

Worldcrunch

GAZA CITY – Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal set foot in Gaza on Friday, ending 45 years of exile from the Palestinian Territories, reports Al Jazeera.

After passing across the Egyptian border at Rafah, Meshaal knelt on the ground to offer a prayer of thanks and was then greeted by dozens of Palestinian officials.

"I consider this moment my third birth, and I pray to God that my fourth birth will be the moment when all of Palestine is liberated," Meshaal said in a statement to the media.



The Hamas leader had not set foot in the Palestinian territories since leaving the West Bank in 1967, reports BBC News. He was eleven years old when he fled to Kuwait with his family.

He has referred to his second birth as the day he survived an Israeli assassination in Jordan in 1997.

Meeshal traveled to Gaza to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Hamas, reports CNN. A huge rally on Saturday is expected to be the centerpiece of his three-day tour in Gaza.

The 56-year-old leader is also expected to engage reconciliation talks with Fatah, which Hamas removed from Gaza by force in 2007 after winning elections there.

"There is a new mood that allows us to achieve reconciliation," Meshaal said in an interview last Friday from Qatar, where he has been based since leaving Syria earlier this year.

[rebelmouse-image 27086092 alt="""" original_size="320x213" expand=1]Meeshal in 2009 (Trango)

Meeshal became Hamas's political leader in exile in 2004 after Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed in an Israeli helicopter missile strike on his car. His trip comes after a ceasefire that ended eight days of armed conflict between Israel and Hamas last month.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Ideas

Populists With A Plan: Welcome To The Age Of Reactionism

Right-wing reaction to the globalized, liberal order is starting to look less dispersed and more systematic, like 20th-century political movements like socialism and communism.

Photo of Bolsonaro Supporters Storming Congress

Supporters of former Brazilian President Bolsonaro clash with mounted police in the capital.

Juan Gabriel Tokatlian

-Analysis-

BUENOS AIRES — In a 2018 text published in the International Studies Quarterly, academics Joseph MacKay and Christopher David La Roche asked why there was no "Reactionary International Theory." In December of that year, speaking with Crisis journal, I myself stressed that beyond Europe and the United States, international reactionism was taking root in Latin America. Then in 2019, "Reactionary Internationalism" and the philosophy of the New Right were the subjects of another paper by Pablo de Orellana and Nicholas Michelsen.

As an emergent trend, the "reactionary international" is worth considering.

This international is comparable in scope to 20th-century currents like the Communist International, Socialist International and Christian Democrat International. While those were prominent in Europe, the new reaction has emerged most emblematically in Anglo-American countries and remains a solidly Western phenomenon. Its expressions in peripheral countries, eastern Europe or Latin America have effectively adopted its mainstream proposals.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

The latest