 A recent article in the U.S. publication, HuffPo, generated some interest, some shock and anger, where it was revealed that a senior U.S. official, Brent McGurk, is working on a plan for what happens in Palestine and West Asia after the war. Now this plan involves normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a lot of financial support for the Palestinians, but no addressing. Key questions that the Palestinians have been raising all these years, all these decades and also seems to pretend that this war does not exist at all, the war that over the past three months has led to thousands and thousands of Palestinian deaths. Now we usually don't talk about articles or individual articles in this show, but this is kind of indicative of what the U.S. policy on Palestine has been all these many years, so it's no surprise that there is this kind of thinking that is going on in the highest levels of the U.S. government and U.S. State Department. We go to Abdul to find out more. Abdul, thanks for joining us. Not very often that we discuss an individual article from a media outlet, but this is an interesting one because it talks about, of course, not only what certain sections in the Biden administration are thinking, also certain influential sections, but also seems to kind of tally with what the U.S. policy has been all these years through the Trump era, through the Biden era, and maybe even in the future. So maybe just take us through for the benefit of our viewers what this article is and what its central argument is. Well, it primarily argues about how its conversation with some of the U.S. officials, of course, it does not name those officials. It emerges that one of the main officials in the Biden administration called Brett McGurg is basically working on a plan that basically is related to the reconstruction of Gaza following the war in collaboration with some of the Arab countries primarily Saudi Arabia, of course, in return of some kind of normalization of relations with Israel and also this basically talks about how it will kind of lead to a recreation of the Palestinian authority, which has been not only seen discredited in the way it has governed West Bank for the last almost three decades, but also its absence of any authority in Gaza. So the rise of Hamas is primarily credited to the discredit or the problems with the Palestinian authority. And therefore, there is an attempt to recreate Palestinian authority with some new leadership, which are proposed. Of course, the details of this particular plan on which the McGurg is working, supposedly working is not given in the article, of course, but it does hint that there will be an alternative set of leadership proposed for the Palestinian authority, which will work to control Gaza, post the war, and under this leadership and in collaboration with the Arab States, Gaza will be rebuilt. So and all of this, of course, the primary objective would be the normalization of Israel's relationship with most of the Arab countries, primarily Saudi Arabia. So this is what the article is primarily talking about. And if you see Biden, sorry, Blinken's proposal, which he basically talked about during his Davos press conference or meeting on Thursday, sorry, on Wednesday, he basically talked on those similar lines. So it seems there is some kind of truth, maybe, related to what is claimed in the article. In fact, Blinken said that there should be attempts to revive Palestinian authority. It should govern Gaza, and there should be a two-state solution. And the only way Israel can normalize its relationship with the other countries are sorry, Arab countries is through creation of a two-state creation of an independent Palestinian state. But that independent Palestinian state will not be allowed to work freely, of course. So this is largely what the article is referring to, which has published, which has been published in half post. Yeah. Right. The reason to talk about this article also, I think, is because it, you know, the argument or the plan that is being concocted here almost pretends as though this war, Israel's war on Gaza has not existed at all because it is presenting exactly the same kind of, you know, suggestions or so-called solutions, which the United States was pushing many years ago that, you know, try to buy off the Palestinians with some kind of financial assistance, you know, legitimize Israel's position further in the region by bringing all the Arab countries under one umbrella and along with Israel and then sort of try to change the, you know, try to bring a more friendly Palestinian authority, like you said, which might deflect people's anger for some time. So no lessons learned at all, it seems. Exactly. In fact, it seems that there is a completely, you can say, avoidance, complete avoidance about even acknowledging that there was there is something which is happening at this moment in Gaza and that what is happening is nothing new. It has been happening for the last three decades, at least if we are just talking about the post Palestinian authorities creation. And all those Israeli atrocities, the killing of more than 24,000 Palestinians and complete wiping out of the Palestinian population attempts to wipe out the Palestinian population from Gaza. The repeated attacks in West Bank and has the none of these has been acknowledged, of course. And therefore, the solution is basically a repetition of, as you rightly pointed out, of what the U.S. has been propagating for many decades now, at least since the Oslo Accords in 1993. See, even the solution does not even refer to what would happen to the more than 500,000 illegal settlers which are there in the occupied West Bank and around 200,000 illegal settlers in East Jerusalem, which has been claimed by Palestinians as part of any independent state and said that this is non-negotiable. It does not offer any kind of concrete kind of redressant to the Palestinians' demand of a return of the refugees. One should remember that there are more Palestinians outside the occupied territories living across the world than inside the occupied territories and if, to some extent, those were displaced from the 1948 borders. So what would happen to them? None of these solutions and none of these issues have been raised primarily because it seems that there is an attempt to maintain some kind of status quo in terms of refugees and kind of work for a solution which basically a quote-unquote solution, of course, which addresses some parts of it with in collaboration with the states and does not address any Palestinian issue. So the idea that this will bring peace because that is the central argument both given by Blinken and hinted in the article which is referred to, of course, US officials acknowledge that part, of course, that even if this happens, it will not bring any peace because it does not address the main concerns which Palestinians have been raising since last 75 years. So, of course, so to just sum up, it does not neither addresses the current situation which is created by the Israeli war and completely tries to ignore it and nor it nor it tries to address the larger structural issues, the larger fundamental issues which Palestinians have been raising when it comes to independent state. So the solution, the so-called solution, basically it is an attempt to impose something which US thinks or the US officials have been thinking. It is something like Kushner's plan, which was proposed in 2020. They have a legitimate thing and they want to impose it on Palestinians without their consent, without addressing their basic grievances. Thank you so much for that. It does look like there is some opposition to this plan. In fact, I think democratic lawmakers are signing a letter against but nonetheless, I think it reveals that when it comes to the larger approach towards Palestine, the approach towards Israeli occupation, there is really not much difference when it comes to Democrats or Republicans and both of them prefer to sort of endorse, condone Israel's very genocidal attacks on the Palestinians. Thank you so much for speaking to us. Colorado is a very easily preventable disease and it's in fact a shame that in the 21st century, Colorado continues to exist. But here is the news, Colorado not only exists, but the number of cases has actually been rising over the past few months. Zambia being one country, which has recently been very hit very hard by this disease, which is so easily preventable. So why are these cases rising? And especially in Africa, what can be done about it? We go to Anna Bracha to find out. Anna, thank you so much for joining us. Colorado seems a disease that is very easy to prevent. Yet we are seeing it seems like we are seeing a resurgence in many parts of the world, like you pointed out in the article. Could you maybe take us through what is happening on the ground? Which are the regions most affected? Essentially, what we have seen last year is the continuation of a trend, which is quite worrying. And that's the number of the cases of cholera around the world are increasing. We are seeing very worrying numbers of people dying from cholera, which is a disease again that can be addressed by very simple intervention. So when you say that we need to fight a dense cholera, it means essentially ensuring that people have access to clean water and to sanitation. The increase of cases in cholera means that many, many people do not have that. So they don't have the essential living conditions that would allow them to lead a life free of such diseases. And now what the most recent UN data shows is that. In 2023, most of this burden caused by cholera was concentrated in Africa, especially in eastern and southern Africa. And that we had seen thousands of people losing their lives to such to this disease. And we speak many countries around the world are still struggling against active outbreaks of cholera, this includes Zambia, which which declared an outbreak near the end of 2023. But in this very short window of time, over 400 people died. Schools have been closed. They will remain shut until the end of January, it seems. And even sports complexes were turned into receiving areas for those for those that risk and for those who are being treated or suspected of having contracted cholera. So essentially what these latest examples are showing us that there haven't been the most essential steps taken in in the in the direction of addressing this this huge concern. And the huge concern is also being reiterated over and over again by both the World Health Organization, but but also other UN agencies that deal with this, including UNICEF. And in this context, of course, vaccines playing an important role. And as always, when we talk about vaccine, the question of inequity also rises. So what is the scene with regard to the distribution of vaccines globally when it comes to cholera? Well, as you know, as many global health experts have have said in the last months, of course, ensuring access to vaccines will not is not the way to address cholera outbreaks, but it can make a significant difference. Now, what we have seen in quite a recent past is that because of a lack of stocks at the WHO, the WHO has changed its recommendations for for the regimen. So previously, people would receive two doses of vaccines in cases of outbreaks of cholera, now they're only receiving one. And that's because we're not seeing enough vaccines being produced. So that's that's one of the things that it's likely to continue. Some estimates put the the shortage of vaccines will last at least until twenty twenty five, probably even longer, which leaves a huge amount of time for governments and for UN agencies to see what to do in the meantime. Of course, one of the one of the things that need to happen is for producers to actually scale up production. It is not acceptable for them to say it's not it's not a profitable vaccine. So we're not going to produce them. There need to there need to be some kind of mechanisms that the WHO can use in order to effectively lead them to produce enough vaccines to to meet the demand right now. But of course, this doesn't mean that the governments do not have the responsibility to essentially work on the improvement of living conditions, which would allow more people to to live free of of fear of cholera. Thank you so much, Anna, for that update. And that's all we have in this episode of Deli De Brief. We'll be back with a fresh episode tomorrow. In the meanwhile, do visit our website, peoplesdispatch.org. Follow us on all the social media platforms. And if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit the subscribe button.