Palestine

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blindpig
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Fri Dec 06, 2024 12:28 pm

Ex-‘Israeli’ Defense Chief: ‘Israel’ Guilty of Ethnic Cleansing
December 4, 2024

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Israel’s then Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon at the Pentagon, Oct. 28, 2015. Photo: Adrian Cadiz/Wikimedia Common.

By Joe Lauria – Dec 3, 2024

Moshe Ya’Alon Has Refused To Apologize for Saying Israel Is Committing Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza Because It “Reflected Reality on the Ground.” He Also Said the Idf Was “Not the Most Moral Army.” Joe Lauria Reports.

Moshe Ya’alon, a former Israeli defense minister and army chief, has caused an uproar in Israel by publicly accusing the Israeli government of ethnically cleansing Palestinians in Gaza.

Twenty-four hours after he first made the remark he was invited by a television interviewer on Monday to apologize. He refused.

“What I said accurately reflects what’s happening on the ground,” he said, adding that he intentionally used the term “ethnic cleansing.”

Ya’alon defined it as “evacuating civilians from their homes and demolishing those homes, as is happening in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya,” in northern Gaza. In his initial remarks, Ya’alon said Israel’s aim in Gaza was to “conquer, to annex, to purify an ethnic identity.” He added: “They are cleansing the area from the Arabs.”

Ya’alon is not blaming the IDF, but the government, whose extremist ministers like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotritch “have repeatedly declared their intentions to build Jewish settlements in Gaza,” according to the Haaretz daily.

“These politicians … speak openly and proudly of depleting Gaza’s population by half and building settlements on the ruins of the Strip’s destroyed cities and villages,” the newspaper said.

Ya’alon said these ministers should have been issued arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Despite not blaming the IDF, Ya’alon told Channel 12 News in Israel: “Thanks to political intervention, which has corrupted the army, it would be hard for me to say that the IDF is the most moral army in the world.”


The IDF denied their former chief’s accusation, contending that it is “acting in accordance with international law, and evacuating the population temporarily in accordance with operational need, for its defense.” It accused Ya’alon of harming the army and its soldiers.

Though the International Court of Justice is trying Israel for genocide, Ya’alon said he was not accusing Israel of that crime. Nonetheless, the outrage against Ya’alon was fierce in a society clearly in denial.

‘Sick With Hatred’
Naftali Bennett, the former prime minister, tweeted: “There is no military more moral than the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF has bent over backwards to minimize loss of civilian life. All of Israel’s actions in Gaza adhere to the Geneva Conventions.”

May Golan, a Likud member of the Knesset, said: “It’s clear that we’re dealing with a sick person, sick with power, sick with envy, sick with hatred, sick. The man is simply sick. It’s clear. …. Show empathy for his condition, don’t let his nonsense go viral. It also harms the country, but mainly humiliates him.”

“Ya’alon has long since lost his direction and moral compass, and his false and slanderous statements are a gift to the International Criminal Court and to Israel’s enemies,” read a statement from his former party, Likud.

“Israel is waging a just war against a murderous terrorist organization that carried out a mass slaughter against it,” the statement said.

These reactions reflect widespread credulity — or cynicism — in Israel that says the purpose of the “war” is to defeat Hamas and rescue the hostages, despite all evidence to the contrary: Hamas has not been defeated in 14 months and the hostages have not been returned, when they could have been in a prisoner swap.

This major Israeli military operation is instead intended to complete the process of ethnic cleansing indeed of Arabs in Palestine envisioned by Israeli founding father David Ben Gurion, first carried out on a large scale in 1948 and now continuing in Gaza.

Bluster about Hamas and hostages is an excuse and a cover for massive criminal intent.

There are too many clear statements of such intent and corresponding action by high-ranking Israeli officials to think otherwise, and those statements and those actions now appear as evidence before two world courts.

https://orinocotribune.com/ex-israeli-d ... cleansing/

New Report Shows Pro-Palestine Protests Suppressed in Democracies
December 5, 2024

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Authorities detain a protester on the campus of Emory University during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on April 25, 2024, in Atlanta. Photo: AP.

A report by CIVICUS Monitor highlights global crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protests, with authorities using excessive force and suppression tactics.

A new report by TIME magazine discussed a trend in civic liberties throughout the world: crackdowns on Palestinian solidarity marches in every kind of society, from the most open to the most closed.

Tara Petrović, author of a study by CIVICUS Monitor, a worldwide coalition of civil society groups headquartered in Johannesburg, highlights the war on Gaza’s effect on civic space as a key lesson for the year. “We’ve seen expressions of solidarity and we’ve seen repression of these expressions of solidarity at pretty much every corner of the globe.”

Western countries downgraded from ‘open’
The annual CIVICUS study, People Power Under Attack, assesses civic space in 198 nations, ranging from “open” to “repressed,” and discovered that approximately one-tenth of the protests blocked by authorities referenced “Israel’s” war on Gaza, or solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Global protests have erupted following the ongoing onslaught on the strip, which has killed over 44,532 people and injured over 105,538.

However, the organization notes that excessive force was used against Pro-Palestine demonstrators, including those where civic freedoms are listed as “narrowed,” like the Netherlands (whose standing was downgraded from “open” this year), Australia, and Italy. Some countries, such as France, have outright outlawed protests because they believe they constitute a security danger.

Germany has been particularly noted according to Petrovic, as it has criticized pro-Palestinian activism, including canceling events, raiding activists’ homes, and enforcing travel bans on pro-Palestinian figures.

Recently, it introduced a rule requiring naturalization applicants to affirm “Israel’s” right to exist. In 2023, Germany’s ranking on the CIVICUS Monitor dropped from “open” to “narrowed” due to its crackdown on both climate activists and Palestinian solidarity campaigners.

In the United States, whose CIVICUS rating has been “narrowed” since 2022, college campuses have been the focal point of controversy over pro-Palestine demonstrations, with over 3,100 individuals arrested or jailed at rallies that frequently featured encampments, the great majority of which were nonviolent.

The disputes lost numerous Ivy League university officials their jobs, and several colleges changed their policies about legal campus action and implemented additional disciplinary processes in an apparent attempt to prevent such demonstrations from occurring in the future.



Suppressing dissent
Last month, the House of Representatives proposed a bill that would empower the Secretary of the Treasury to designate section 501(c) charities as “terrorist supporting organizations” at his or her discretion without having to provide any evidence or explanations to the accused NGOs. 501(c) charities include any tax-exempt organizations like news outlets, colleges and universities, and civil society groups and deprive them of tax-exempt status.

Zaha Hassan, a human rights lawyer writes in “Suppressing Dissent: Shrinking Civic Space, Transnational Repression and Palestine-Israel”, which is due to be published on December 5 that “Engaging in activism or public debate concerning Israel and the situation of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation has become an incredibly fraught endeavor.”

Petrovic notes it is no coincidence that American classrooms and college campuses, which are frequently portrayed as safe settings for debating ideas, have become highly disputed territory. The most significant achievement of all has been raising awareness globally and protests, along with suppression efforts are expected to continue.

According to Petrovic, the demonstrations have made enough noise to influence policy with some countries withholding weapons sales to “Israel” and restoring funding to UNRWA.

https://orinocotribune.com/new-report-s ... mocracies/

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Abdul Malik Al Houthi Highlights Coordination Between Yemeni and Iraqi Fronts in the Fight Against Zionist Targets

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Leader of Ansorllah Movement, Photo: Al Mayadeen


December 5, 2024 Hour: 10:20 pm

The leader of the Ansar Allah movement, Abdul Malik Al Houthi, emphasized the joint actions of the Yemeni and Iraqi fronts directed against vital Zionist targets in occupied northern and southern Palestine. In a recent speech, Al Houthi stated that these operations have had a significant impact by achieving direct hits and disturbing the enemy.

Since the onset of the Palestinian battle “Deluge of Al-Aqsa,” the Armed Forces of Yemen have conducted a broad operation against U.S. warships or those linked to Israel, attacking at least 211 vessels.

Al Houthi warned that U.S. warships and battleships evade incursions by Yemeni forces by traveling alongside Chinese or other foreign ships. According to him, Chinese media have been monitoring how U.S. vessels smuggle their battleships for protection.


Additionally, he highlighted significant attacks on Israeli military bases in “Tel Aviv,” Ben Gurion Airport, and the settlement of Ashkelon. Al Houthi stressed the importance of collaboration between the Yemeni and Iraqi fronts in their fight against Zionist targets, noting that these actions have resonated throughout the region.

Regarding events in Syria, he warned that open conflicts aim to divert attention from the main cause: Palestine. He pointed out that the Israeli-American front represents a real danger to the Islamic nation, which seeks to plunge it into internal and sectarian conflicts. In this context, Al Houthi called on the Islamic community to understand the urgent need to support the Palestinian people and their unifying cause.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/abdul-ma ... t-targets/

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Deadly Israeli airstrikes blast Al-Mawasi 'safe zone' in south Gaza

The new Israeli attack on families sheltering in the overcrowded camp raised the day's death toll to over 50 Palestinians across the strip

News Desk

DEC 4, 2024

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(Photo Credit: X)

At least 20 Palestinians were killed when Israeli airstrikes hit the Al-Mawasi ‘safe zone’ area west of Khan Yunis city in south Gaza on 4 December.


The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) reported that Israeli aircraft targeted the tents of displaced Palestinians and food storage facilities. “The occupation knows very well that there are only civilians in the Mawasi area,” Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal told Al Jazeera.

Al-Mawasi was designated as a “humanitarian safe zone” by Israel in October 2023 under international pressure. Since then, the makeshift tent camp has become one of the most overcrowded areas in Gaza, where over two million people have been displaced at least once.

The camp has been hit at least eight times by the Israeli army since May, leaving hundreds of casualties.

The Israeli forces have continued to escalate their attacks against displaced civilians across Gaza, killing at least 70 people in the besieged enclave since dawn on Wednesday.

At least 10 Palestinians were killed in Gaza City, where Israel carried out a “belt of fire” operation in a residential block. Five others – four of them children – were killed by an Israeli drone attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp.


The violence has also escalated in north Gaza, where Israel is advancing with its brutal extermination and forced expulsion campaign.

“Occupation forces force displaced people to evacuate the last shelters in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip. The occupation army ordered the evacuation of shelters via loudspeakers in quadcopter aircraft in Beit Lahia,” Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif reported Wednesday night.

Overnight, Beit Lahia was subjected to exceptionally violent attacks as Israeli forces planted and detonated mines and explosive barrels between buildings to forcibly expel the remaining families.


Gaza’s Civil Defense described Beit Lahia as “uninhabitable” and declared that 60,000 Palestinians are at risk of death.

Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza has also been under relentless attacks by the Israeli army. On Wednesday, the hospital's oxygen supply was entirely cut off after being targeted by Israeli forces.

Israeli quadcopters have also been dropping grenades filled with shrapnel on “anyone who moves.”


“Drones are dropping bombs filled with shrapnel that injure and harm anyone who moves. Kamal Adwan Hospital has been subjected to a brutal assault by drones, and once again, the occupation is focusing its attacks on medical teams … Why are we subjected to such brutality? Every day, the hospital is systematically targeted,” Hospital Director Dr Hussam Abu Safia said on Tuesday.

https://thecradle.co/articles/deadly-is ... south-gaza

Israel committing genocide in Gaza: Amnesty

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face daily displacement, attacks, starvation, and restrictions on desperately needed humanitarian aid

News Desk

DEC 5, 2024

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(Photo credit: Fatima Shbair/AP)

Amnesty International released a report on 5 December saying there is “sufficient” evidence that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in its war on the Gaza Strip.

“Research has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip,” the report said.

Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said the report gives evidence that Israel has committed acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention.

“These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” she said.

The report notes the situation in northern Gaza, where the besieged Palestinian population faces constant displacement and relentless attacks, as well as starvation and severe restriction of desperately needed aid.

It highlights that Israel has repeatedly ignored and disregarded countless international warnings and three legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to take immediate action to prevent genocidal actions in Gaza.

It also says the continued recurrence of Israel’s actions, public statements by Israeli officials, the number of casualties, and the amount of destruction since the war started all point to genocide.

“Taking into account the pre-existing context of dispossession, apartheid, and unlawful military occupation in which these acts have been committed, we could find only one reasonable conclusion: Israel’s intent is the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, whether in parallel with, or as a means to achieve, its military goal of destroying Hamas,” Callamard said.

The report added that international law strictly states that a perpetrator does not need to succeed in their actions to destroy the entirety of a certain group for genocide to have been committed.

Numerous statements by government officials revealing a clear intent to commit genocide have been compiled over the past year.

“Until we see hundreds of thousands fleeing Gaza, the IDF has not achieved its mission,” Israel’s Education Minister Yoav Kisch said in October last year. At least 100,000 Palestinians have now been expelled from northern Gaza as part of Israel’s unofficial implementation of the Generals’ Plan – which aims to kill or expel those remaining in the north of the strip. Northern Gaza has become uninhabitable.

Israel has subjected 90 percent of the Gaza Strip's population to its forced evacuation orders – a clear war crime, according to a 154-page report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on 14 November.

Israeli troops forcibly displaced thousands of Palestinian civilians from the last shelters in Gaza’s northern city of Beit Lahia on 4 December.

Israel also continues to commit brutal massacres across the strip. At least 20 Palestinians were killed when Israeli airstrikes hit the Al-Mawasi ‘safe zone’ area west of Khan Yunis city in south Gaza on Wednesday.

Throughout the war, Israeli forces have filmed themselves committing war crimes and calling for the extermination of the people of Gaza.

Torture and sexual assault of Palestinians from Gaza inside Israeli detention centers have been thoroughly documented.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-co ... za-amnesty

Israel plans largest West Bank land grab in decades

The move aims to expand several illegal settlements in the West Bank and establish continuity between them

News Desk

DEC 6, 2024

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(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Israel plans to confiscate more than 23,000 dunams (around 5,900 acres) in the occupied West Bank and declare it as “state” territory with the aim of illegal settlement expansion, with the move being described as the largest Israeli land grab in decades.


“More than 23,000 dunams of land for the benefit of the settlement in Yosh. We determine facts on the ground and thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state!” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said via X.

According to Israel’s Channel 14, the move is one of the largest land appropriations since the Oslo Accords in 1993.

Since then and up until the end of 2023, about 50,000 dunams in the West Bank have been declared as Israeli “state land.”

Channel 14 notes that as part of the decision, the Maale Adumim settlement east of occupied Jerusalem will be expanded by around 2,600 dunams – aimed at linking it to the Kedar settlement.

Settlements such as Migdal Oz, Susya, and Yafit are also set to be expanded as part of the land grab.

Channel 14 cited Smotrich as saying that the decision is a “historic achievement that contributes to strengthening settlement activity and expanding land designated for infrastructure and settlement projects.”

Israel has recently taken several actions to prepare for the annexation of the West Bank, which was illegally occupied in 1967.

Smotrich ordered the Defense Ministry’s Settlement Directorate and Civil Administration in November to prepare the groundwork for annexing the West Bank and expanding settlement expansion. Last year, significant administrative powers in the West Bank were transferred from the military to Smotrich’s hands.

According to a report by Israel Hayom in early December, settler council in the occupied West Bank have been drafting a plan to tighten Israel’s grip over the territory and accelerate the path towards annexation as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-pl ... in-decades
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Dec 07, 2024 12:33 pm

The End of Pluralism in the Middle East
Posted by Internationalist 360° on December 6, 2024
Craig Murray

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The fall of Aleppo surprised even the residents of Aleppo…

A truly seismic change in the Middle East appears to be happening very fast. At its heart is a devil’s bargain – Turkey and the Gulf States accept the annihilation of the Palestinian nation and creation of a Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia minorities of Syria and Lebanon and the imposition of Salafism across the Eastern Arab world.


This also spells the end for Lebanon and Syria’s Christian communities, as witness the tearing down of all Christmas decorations, the smashing of all alcohol and the forced imposition of the veil on women in Aleppo now.

Yesterday US Warthog air-to-ground jets attacked and severely depleted reinforcements which were, at the invitation of the Syrian government, en route to Syria from Iraq. Constant, daily Israeli airstrikes on Syria’s military infrastructure for months have been a major factor in the demoralisation and reduced capacity of the Syrian government’s Syrian Arab Army, which has simply evaporated in Aleppo and Hama.

[It is very difficult to see the tide turning in Syria. The Russians now have either to massively reinforce their Syrian bases with ground troops or to evacuate them. Faced with the exigencies of Ukraine, they may do the latter, and it is reported that the Russian navy has already set sail from Tartus.

The speed of collapse of Syria has taken everybody by surprise. If the situation does not stabilise, Damascus could be besieged and ISIS back on the hills above the Bekaa valley within a week, given the speed of their advance and the short distances involved.


A renewed Israeli attack on Southern Lebanon to coincide with a Salafist invasion of the Bekaa Valley would then seem inevitable, as the Israelis would obviously wish their border with their new Taliban-style Greater Syrian neighbour to be as far North as possible. It could be a race for Beirut, unless the Americans have already organised who gets it.

It is no coincidence that the attack on Syria started the day of the Lebanon/Israel ceasefire. The jihadist forces do not want to be seen to be fighting alongside Israel, even though they are fighting forces which have been relentlessly bombed by Israel, and in the case of Hezbollah are exhausted from fighting Israel.

The Times of Israel has no compunction about saying the quiet part out loud, unlike the British media:

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In fact Israeli media is giving a lot more truth about the Syrian rebel forces than British and American media just now. This is another article from the Times of Israel:

While HTS officially seceded from Al Qaeda in 2016, it remains a Salafi jihadi organization designated as a terror organization in the US, the EU and other countries, with tens of thousands of fighters.

Its sudden surge raises concerns that a potential takeover of Syria could transform it into an Islamist, Taliban-like regime – with repercussions for Israel at its south-western border. Others, however, see the offensive as a positive development for Israel and a further blow to the Iranian axis in the region.


Contrast this to the UK media, which from the Telegraph and Express to the Guardian has promoted the official narrative that not just the same organisations, but the same people responsible for mass torture and executions of non-Sunnis, including Western journalists, are now cuddly liberals.

Nowhere is this more obvious than the case of Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani, sometimes spelt Al-Julani or Al-Golani, who is now being boosted throughout western media as a moderate leader. He was the deputy leader of ISIS, and the CIA actually has a $10 million bounty on his head! Yes, that is the same CIA which is funding and equipping him and giving him air support.

Supporters of the Syrian rebels still attempt to deny that they have Israeli and US support – despite the fact that almost a decade ago there was open Congressional testimony in the USA that, to that point, over half a billion dollars had been spent on assistance to Syrian rebel forces, and the Israelis have openly been providing medical and other services to the jihadists and effective air support.

One interesting consequence of this joint NATO/Israel support for the jihadist groups in Syria is a further perversion of domestic rule of law. To take the UK as an example, under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act it is illegal to state an opinion that supports, or may lead somebody else to support, a proscribed organisation.

The abuse of this provision by British police to persecute Palestinian supporters for allegedly encouraging support for proscribed organisations Hamas and Hezbollah is notorious, with even tangential alleged references leading to arrest. Sarah Wilkinson, Richard Medhurst, Asa Winstanley, Richard Barnard and myself are all notable victims, and the persecution has been greatly intensified by Keir Starmer.

Yet Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) is also a proscribed group in the UK. But both British mainstream media and British Muslim outlets have been openly promoting and praising HTS for a week – frankly much more openly than I have ever witnessed anyone in the UK support Hamas and Hezbollah – and not a single person has been arrested or even warned by UK police.

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That in itself is the strongest of indications that western security services are fully behind the current attack on Syria.

For the record, I think it is an appalling law, and nobody should be prosecuted for expressing an opinion either way. But the politically biased application of the law is undeniable.

When the entire corporate and state media in the West puts out a unified narrative that Syrians are overjoyed to be released by HTS from the tyranny of the Assad regime – and says nothing whatsoever of the accompanying torture and execution of Shias, and destruction of Christmas decorations and icons – it ought to be obvious to everybody where this is coming from.

Yet – and this is another UK domestic repercussion – a very substantial number of Muslims in the UK support HTS and the Syrian rebels, because of the funding pumped into UK mosques from Saudi and Emirate Salafist sources. This is allied to the UK security service influence also wielded through the mosques, both by sponsorship programmes and “think tanks” benefiting approved religious leaders, and by the execrable coercive Prevent programme.

UK Muslim outlets that have been ostensibly pro-Palestinian – like Middle East Eye and 5 Pillars – enthusiastically back Israel’s Syrian allies in ensuring the destruction of resistance to the genocide of the Palestinians. Al Jazeera alternates between items detailing dreadful massacre in Palestine, and items extolling the Syrian rebels bringing Israel-allied rule to Syria.

Among the mechanisms they employ to reconcile this is a refusal to acknowledge the vital role of Syria in enabling the supply of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah. Which supply the jihadists have now cut off, to the absolute delight of Israel, and in conjunction with both Israeli and US air strikes.

In the final analysis, for many Sunni Muslims both in the Middle East and in the West, the pull seems to be stronger of sectarian hatred of the Shia and the imposition of Salafism, than preventing the ultimate destruction of the Palestinian nation.

I am not a Muslim. My Muslim friends happen to be almost entirely Sunni. I personally regard the continuing division over the leadership of the religion over a millennium ago as deeply unhelpful and a source of unnecessary continued hate.

But as a historian I do know that the western colonial powers have consciously and explicitly used the Sunni/Shia split for centuries to divide and rule. In the 1830’s, Alexander Burnes was writing reports on how to use the division in Sind between Shia rulers and Sunni populations to aid British colonial expansion.

On 12 May 1838, in his letter from Simla setting out his decision to launch the first British invasion of Afghanistan, British Governor General Lord Auckland included plans to exploit Shia/Sunni division in both Sind and Afghanistan to aid the British military attack.

The colonial powers have been doing it for centuries, Muslim communities keep falling for it, and the British and Americans are doing it right now to further their remodelling of the Middle East.

Simply put, many Sunni Muslims have been brainwashed into hating Shia Muslims more than they hate those currently committing genocide of an overwhelmingly Sunni population in Gaza.

I refer to the UK because I witnessed this first hand during the election campaign in Blackburn. But the same is true all over the Muslim world. Not one Sunni Muslim-led state has lifted a single finger to prevent the genocide of the Palestinians.

Their leadership is using anti-Shia sectarianism to maintain popular support for a de facto alliance with Israel against the only groups – Iran, Houthi and Hezbollah – which actually did attempt to give the Palestinians practical support in resistance. And against the Syrian government which facilitated supply.

The unspoken but very real bargain is this. The Sunni powers will accept the wiping out of the entire Palestinian nation and formation of Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia communities in Syria and Lebanon by Israel and forces backed by NATO (including Turkey).

There are, of course, contradictions in this grand alliance. The United States’ Kurdish allies in Iraq are unlikely to be happy with Turkey’s destruction of Kurdish groups in Syria, which is what Erdoğan gains from Turkey’s very active military role in toppling Syria – in addition to extending Turkish control of oilfields.

The Iran-friendly Iraqi government will have further difficulty with reconciling US continuing occupation of swathes of its country, as they realise they are the next target.

The Lebanese army is under control of the USA, and Hezbollah must have been greatly weakened to have agreed the disastrous ceasefire with Israel. Christian fascist militias traditionally allied to Israel are increasingly visible in parts of Beirut, though whether they would be stupid enough to make common cause with jihadists from the North may be open to question. But should Syria fall entirely to jihadist rule – which may happen fast – I do not rule out Lebanon following very quickly indeed, and being integrated into a Salafist Greater Syria.

How the Palestinians of Jordan would react to this disastrous turn of events, it is hard to be sure. The British puppet Hashemite Kingdom is the designated destination for ethnically cleansed West Bank Palestinians under the Greater Israel plan.

What this all potentially amounts to is the end of pluralism in the Levant and its replacement by supremacism. An ethno-supremacist Greater Israel and a religio-supremacist Salafist Greater Syria.

Unlike many readers, I have never been a fan of the Assad regime or blind to its human rights violations. But what it did undeniably do was maintain a pluralist state where the most amazing historical religious and community traditions – including Sunni (and many Sunni do support Assad), Shia, Alaouites, descendants of the first Christians, and speakers of Aramaic, the language of Jesus – were all able to co-exist.

The same is true of Lebanon.

What we are witnessing is the destruction of that and imposition of a Saudi-style rule. All the little cultural things that indicate pluralism – from Christmas trees to language classes to winemaking to women going unveiled – have just been destroyed in Aleppo and could be destroyed from Damascus to Beirut.

I do not pretend that there are not genuine liberal democrats among the opposition to Assad. But they have negligible military significance, and the idea that they would be influential in a new government is delusion.

In Israel, which pretended to be a pluralist state, the mask is off. The Muslim call to prayer has just been banned. Arab minority members of the Knesset have been suspended for criticising Netanyahu and genocide. More walls and gates are built every day, not just in unlawfully occupied territories but in the “state of Israel” itself, to enforce apartheid.

I confess I once had the impression that Hezbollah was itself a religio-supremacist organisation; the dress and style of its leadership look theocratic. Then I came here and visited places like Tyre, which has been under Hezbollah elected local government for decades, and found that swimwear and alcohol are allowed on the beach and the veil is optional, while there are completely unmolested Christian communities there.

I will never now see Gaza, but wonder if I might have been similarly surprised by Hamas rule.

It is the United States which is promoting the cause of religious extremism and of the end, all over the Middle East, of a societal pluralism similar to Western norms. That is of course a direct consequence of the United States being allied to both the two religio-supremacist centres of Israel and Saudi Arabia.

It is the USA which is destroying pluralism, and it is Iran and its allies which defend pluralism. I would not have seen this clearly had I not come here. But once seen, it is blindingly obvious.

Beirut 6 December 2024

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/12/ ... ddle-east/

Textbook Case of Asymmetric Warfare: How Lebanon’s Resistance Defied Israeli Dominance
Posted by Internationalist 360° on December 6, 2024
Mohamad Hasan Sweidan

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Hezbollah’s ability to stretch Israeli forces across multiple fronts, disrupt strategic timelines, and endure overwhelming power disparities showcases how asymmetric warfare is ultimately about resilience – shifting a powerful opponent’s offensive into a costly, prolonged struggle.

In his book How the Weak Win Wars: A Theory of Asymmetric Conflict, Ivan Arreguín-Toft presents a compelling perspective on how conflicts unfold when there is a significant power imbalance. Toft argues that in asymmetric warfare, the more powerful side often ends up being defeated, not because they are outright beaten, but because they fail to achieve a decisive victory.

Conversely, weaker parties win by enduring, persevering, refusing defeat, and maintaining sustained resistance. This explains how resistance movements interpret their confrontations with powerful adversaries – as seen in the Israeli war on Lebanon, where the outcome of a ceasefire, without realizing the stated objectives, left many in Israel disillusioned despite military superiority.

The Lebanese front: A force that transformed the conflict

Militarily, Hezbollah’s involvement forced Israel to split its focus between Gaza and the northern border of occupied Palestine. This divide stretched Israeli forces thin, hindering their progress and complicating their strategy.

Hezbollah’s actions indicated that, for over a year, Israel faced a two-front battle – diverting troops and resources from Gaza to secure its northern regions. As acknowledged by The Times of Israel in August, Israel’s shortage of manpower was evident, “The IDF is suffering manpower shortages caused by the hostilities on the northern border and the ongoing war in Gaza.”

This two-front struggle also stalled several planned Israeli ground operations in Gaza. The heightened tension on the northern border gave Palestinian resistance movements the time they needed to regroup and disrupt Israel’s military timetable. An example of this was Israel’s delay of a major ground offensive in Gaza until the US reinforced their air defenses in the area – a move attributed to fears of escalation from Lebanon.

Economic and psychological impact on Israel

The war on the Lebanese front led to severe economic losses for Israel. Israeli newspaper Walla reported in August that Hezbollah’s attacks set off fires that destroyed approximately 180 dunams (around 44.5 acres) of land, including 7,500 dunams (around 1,853 acres) in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and 4,600 dunams (around 1,137 acres) in the Upper Galilee. Extensive devastation was seen in agricultural fields and forests, contributing to environmental and economic losses. Agriculture, a key sector in Israel’s economy, was heavily affected; over 1,000 dunams (around 247 acres) of cultivated land were damaged, including avocado, pear, apple, olive, and grape plantations. The departure of Thai and Palestinian workers due to the lack of safety and security in the area further exacerbated irrigation and pest control issues, as well as overall agricultural productivity.

Israel suffered from another huge blow – mass emigration – that came as a result of the Lebanese resistance’s attacks on the north. Around 62,480 settlers in Israel’s north fled or were evacuated – with many choosing not to return, citing safety concerns.

Moreover, as of August 2024, 4,378 claims for property damage had been filed in the north, and losses in tourism reached NIS 1.15 billion (around $320,998,164) in direct revenues, with indirect losses at over NIS 2.64 billion (around $736,900,135). Agricultural and poultry production, which represents 70 percent of Israel’s chicken supply, was significantly jeopardized, raising concerns over local food security.

The resistance heavily engaged in psychological warfare against the occupation state, planting an undeniable sense of insecurity and fear among the settlers and disrupting daily life across the north.

Psychological warfare waged by Hezbollah also sought to influence the awareness of Israeli leaders and civilians about the risks of confronting the Axis of Resistance forces beyond Palestine.

Hezbollah employed hybrid warfare, integrating military and non-military strategies, including cognitive warfare, to shape Israeli perceptions. This approach involves introducing and promoting narratives about the Israeli occupation that align with the resistance movement’s objectives while strengthening its social media presence to amplify these views.

Hezbollah also highlighted internal issues within Israel through multilingual broadcasts, videos, and media campaigns that underscore Israel’s vulnerabilities.

Additionally, it periodically showcases its military advancements and directly addresses the Israeli public to foster uncertainty about their security and the country’s future. These diverse tactics aim to influence the morale and perceptions of the Israeli population.

From resistance to repelling aggression

Despite these notable achievements, the war between Israel and Lebanon did not lead to the end of the war on Gaza. However, the occupation army was made to pay a hefty price, strategically undermining its broader objectives. As John Mearsheimer argues in The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, objectives in warfare are dynamic, often shifting when external pressures collide with internal challenges. Israel’s campaign, which began offensively, became increasingly defensive as the focus diverted from achieving outright victory to ensuring survival.

The Lebanese front’s objective developed, too – from supporting Gaza to directly countering Israeli aggression against Lebanon. Israel initially sought to eliminate Hezbollah and establish a buffer zone along the Lebanese border, aiming to reassure northern settlers of their safety. However, these goals remained out of reach; rather than demonstrating overwhelming dominance, Israel found itself embroiled in a familiar quagmire.

Hezbollah performed an average of 23 military operations per day on Israel since the start of the war, targeting military outposts, barracks, and bases – even reaching deep into occupied Palestinian territories. This displays the resistance movement’s enhanced capabilities.

Moreover, Israel’s ground invasion of south Lebanon, which was launched in early October, caused a lot of setbacks for the occupation forces: over 130 Israeli soldiers were killed, and 59 Merkava tanks, alongside various other military equipment, were destroyed. Despite multiple aggressive attempts to enter, Israeli forces failed to occupy any key towns in south Lebanon or to create a secure buffer zone. Hezbollah’s resilience turned what Israel had hoped would be a swift campaign into a costly ordeal, mirroring Israel’s defeat in the 2006 war.

The cost of war and the measure of victory

Modern warfare shows us that victory is not solely about inflicting the greatest losses or causing the most destruction; it is about achieving strategic goals. In conflicts like the Vietnam War or the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the weaker side’s ability to endure ultimately led to victory despite overwhelming casualties and devastation. The Lebanese resistance movement demonstrated the same resilience during the July 2006 war and again now – managing to withstand Israeli attacks and preventing the occupation from meeting its strategic goals.

Wars of national liberation always come at a high cost, especially for civilians. However, this is often a prerequisite for success against a militarily superior adversary. Hezbollah’s ability to withstand Israeli pressure and sustain its operations solidified its position as a formidable opponent – proving once again that true victory lies in thwarting the enemy’s stated objectives, and not in mere survival.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/12/ ... dominance/

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Hezbollah leader says group giving Lebanon ceasefire 'opportunity for success', vows to support Syria

UN officials say Israel has violated the one-week-old truce deal about 100 times

News Desk

DEC 5, 2024

Image
(Photo Credit: Marwan Naamani/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said on 5 December that, despite dozens of Israeli violations inside Lebanon, the group is “giving an opportunity” for the ceasefire agreement to succeed.

“Israel has committed more than 60 violations of the ceasefire agreement … The Lebanese state is responsible for following up on Israeli violations, and the resistance is giving the opportunity to make the ceasefire agreement a success,” Qassem said during a televised speech on Thursday.


According to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Israel has breached the ceasefire “approximately 100 times” since it went into effect last week. The US and France, the main guarantors of the deal, have also privately told officials in Tel Aviv they are violating the agreement.

As over one million displaced Lebanese begin to rebuild their lives following a nearly two-month-long battle with Israel, the Hezbollah chief also announced financial support mechanisms to help in the rebuilding process.

“We have distributed $57 million to 170,000 families as a gift from Hezbollah and Iran. Over the next year, we will provide $12,000 to $14,000 to those whose homes were completely destroyed,” Qassem announced.


“We will reflect on the challenges and conflicts we have endured, drawing valuable lessons for the future … The enemy wanted to crush the resistance through its aggression, so it confronted it with a battle of the brave,” the Lebanese resistance leader said.

He also confirmed Hezbollah's unwavering support for Syria, saying the group will “stand by Syria to thwart the goals of this aggression with our abilities.”

“After the failure in Gaza … after the agreement to end the aggression against Lebanon and after the failure of attempts to remove Syria [from the confrontation with Israel], they are trying to attain achievements by the destruction of Syria again through these terrorist groups,” Qassem said, referring to US and Turkish-backed extremist groups that have taken control of large swathes of western Syria.

“These groups want to topple the regime and spread chaos in Syria and shift Syria from the resistance camp to the camp that helps the Israeli enemy,” Qassem stressed, also calling on Arab countries to come to the Syrian government’s aid to defeat the “dangerous, expansionist Israeli project.”

https://thecradle.co/articles/hezbollah ... port-syria

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Pro-Palestine protest at train station in Nijmegen, Netherlands, on November 16. Source: Fjmustak, Wikimedia Commons.

How Israeli Hooligans Fueled Fascism in the Netherlands
By Chris de Ploeg, Jazie Veldhuyzen (Posted Dec 06, 2024)

On November 6 and 7, fascist goons from Maccabi Tel Aviv, an Israeli professional football club, descended on the streets of Amsterdam, chanting proudly about murdered children in Gaza while assaulting local houses, passers-by, and taxi drivers that appeared pro-Palestinian or Arab. As the police failed to protect its own citizens, some took matters into their own hands and started striking back, wounding multiple Maccabi supporters.

These events in our city have become worldwide news, portrayed by mass-murderers such as Benjamin Netanyahu and Joe Biden as a targeted “pogrom” against Jewish people. Yet not a single local Jewish person, store, or institution was attacked. The far right has seized onto Israeli propaganda to demonize the entire migrant community in the Netherlands and the right to protest, fueling a looming descent into fascism.

It is high time to set the record straight. We, as a local party with representation in the city council of Amsterdam, have been in touch with countless local citizens and journalists, who have told us a highly different version of events from what has been reported by the Western mainstream press. Much of this has been caught on camera and spread online from the start, but largely ignored by major Western media. It was independent YouTube journalists such as Left Laser, Bender, and Sallaheddine who broke the first major factual reports of what happened in Amsterdam. What follows is a reconstruction.

Maccabi Ultras Are Fascist Goons
Maccabi ultras—fanatical supporters of the team—are not random hooligans. Considering the obligatory military draft in Israel, practically all of them are soldiers or ex-soldiers, many of them coming straight from duty in Gaza or Lebanon, where they have been complicit in genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Hailing from an apartheid society, where pogroms against Palestinians are a daily reality, they are used to terrorizing Palestinians, Arabs, and political opponents with impunity.

In 2020, for example, Maccabi ultras attacked anti-Netanyahu demonstrators with batons and broken glass, wounding several of them. The club gained a reputation as “Israel’s most racist soccer club,” even before the ultras managed to cleanse its team of all Arab players by constantly intimidating and insulting them with racist slurs.

The Maccabi ultras take their fascist mentality with them when visiting other cities, from Malta to Athens. In March of this year in Greece, for instance, the Maccabi ultras beat an Egyptian man into hospitalization for holding a Palestinian flag.

The last time Maccabi goons visited Amsterdam, in 2016, they proudly sang their “rape song,” which includes lyrics about drinking the blood of the “whores of the Arabs,” raping their women, and hanging communists in squares. In the run-up to the football match this November, the ultras proudly reposted the video recording of that shameful episode in Amsterdam on their YouTube channel. An ominous warning.

Most citizens in Amsterdam are of a migrant background, many of them from the Middle Eastern and North African region. The city also has a strong movement in solidarity with Palestine, with demonstrations happening literally every single day at the central station. Clearly, trouble was coming. This is why Amsterdam citizens warned that the football match should be canceled—a request that we, as a local political party, amplified in the city council. Indeed, just next door, the Israeli national team was not allowed to visit Belgium last September for fear of violence. Yet, in Amsterdam, despite our warnings in the city council about the nature of this club and its racism, nothing was done. How is that possible?

How the Union of European Football Associations and the Dutch State White-Washed Maccabi Tel Aviv
The mayor of Amsterdam claims that Maccabi is not a high-risk club, based on assessments her administration had received from the local police in Tel Aviv, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and the Dutch security services (NCTV). However, her sources all have a deeply biased and racist history. Let us take a look, in particular, at the UEFA and Dutch NCTV.

For over a decade, the UEFA has consistently rejected demands to suspend or expel the Israel Football Association (IFA), despite numerous requests to do so by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) and the Red Card Israeli Racism campaign. Mouin Rabbani sums up the numerous arguments to sanction Israel:

That Israel is an institutionally racist state and should be treated no differently than apartheid South Africa (suspended by FIFA in 1961) and Rhodesia (suspended in 1970); that the IFA includes clubs based in illegal settlements in the illegally-occupied Palestinian territories; that the IFA discriminates against Palestinian clubs; that IFA teams discriminate against Palestinian players; that Israel in 2019 prevented the PFA cup final from taking place when it prohibited the Khadamaat Rafah team traveling from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank to play against Balata FC; that Israel has killed and maimed Palestinian players; that Israeli clubs systematically tolerate racist and genocidal conduct by supporters; and a variety of other grounds, most recently that Israel is perpetrating genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that has resulted in the killing of numerous Palestinian players, officials, and staff.

Indeed, in Gaza alone, over three hundred Palestinian football players have been murdered by the Israeli army since October 7.

The UEFA has defended their stance standing up for the Israeli league by claiming that they do not want to be involved with politics. Yet, they showed their true face by banning Russian teams overnight in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, even though Israel has been exterminating Gaza’s children at a rate nearly 450 times higher than Russia in Ukraine. Clearly, the UEFA cannot be considered an impartial source.

The reality of the Dutch NCTV is perhaps even worse, with a specific history of inciting racism against Muslims in Amsterdam. Most recently, in September, a Dutch court ruled that the NCTV had wrongly painted an Amsterdam Islamic school as extremist. The Amsterdam municipality had used the slanderous reports of the NCTV to try to close the school.

In that sense, it is no surprise that the local Amsterdam administration once again falls back on racist sources such as the NCTV to justify their dangerous policies that threaten their own citizens, especially those of migrant backgrounds. Indeed, the rot runs deep within the entire municipality, where a huge scandal has recently erupted about the systemic abuse of employees, who were “large-scale victims of racism, bullying, and abuse of power.”

Maccabi Fascists Terrorize Citizens in Amsterdam, Supported by Police
Already the day before the football match, on November 6, Maccabi ultras were roaming the streets of Amsterdam in search of pro-Palestinian citizens to terrorize. The ultras attacked multiple houses with Palestinian flags or posters, tearing them down, smashing their windows, and threatening the inhabitants.

For example, dozens of Maccabi fascists gathered in front of Villa Mokum on Wednesday night, a squat where various Palestinian flags are hanging. Videos show them throwing stones at the windows, climbing the building, and tearing off the flags.

“They were kicking our doors and trying to get into our house,” said a 23-year-old resident of the building to the local Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool. “They were giving us the middle finger and making beheading gestures, saying ‘we’re going to kill you and we will come back.’”

At one of the home raids by the Maccabi hooligans, a local taxi driver spoke out and the fascist goons attempted to beat him up. He got away uninjured, though with smashed windows and dents in his car. As even the mayor confirmed in her letter to the council, the Maccabi fascists then took off their belts and started smashing various other taxis in the vicinity.

In response to the Israeli violence, Amsterdam citizens struck back. Used to sniping Palestinian children from a distance, the Israeli fascists immediately cowered in fear. In an iconic video, one of the Maccabi hooligans jumped into a canal to flee, and agreed to shout “Free Palestine” to make his pursuers leave. Most of the hooligans were driven into a local casino, where they had to hide from a collective of taxi drivers, until the police came to save them. Yet there were no reported injuries that night.

Taxi drivers in Amsterdam are notorious for being well-organized and loyal, sticking up for one another. It is no surprise, then, that they immediately organized to defend themselves and sent a clear signal to the hooligans that they are not to be messed with. Later interviews also made clear that they wanted to protect Amsterdam citizens more generally from the fascist violence of Maccabi supporters.

On that first day, November 6, we saw a pattern that would repeat itself the next day. In the video footage, we can see how a police car drives by as Israeli thugs attack a house. Similarly, when the first taxi driver that was assaulted went straight to the police, the police simply told him off, even though his windows were clearly smashed.

The impunity with which the Israeli fascists were able to assault pro-Palestinian citizens was a major cause for concern within activist circles and migrant communities. We know from organizers of autonomous, pro-Palestinian community centers such as De Vrankrijk that they felt compelled to organize nightly reconnaissance teams and barricade doors to prepare for possible attacks by the Maccabi fascists. Chats and social media groups of human rights activists warned not to wear keffiyehs or other pro-Palestinian symbols in the city center, in fear of violence.

On November 7, Maccabi ultras clearly considered themselves untouchable. They again paraded through the streets of Amsterdam, intimidating passers-by and loudly chanting genocidal songs. “Let the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] win to fuck the Arabs,” was cheered loudly in clear daylight, part of a longer song that claims “there are no children in Gaza, because there are no children left.”

Indeed, the IDF has wiped out some 500 schools and 17,000 children in Gaza in a systematic campaign of mass murder, still ignoring the much larger death toll from the Israeli manufactured famine. According to UN figures, 70 percent of the murdered victims are women and children, with those aged 5 to 9 being the single biggest victim group. Again, the police stood by and did nothing, even though incitement to genocide is a criminal offense.

Passers-by wearing a keffiyeh or Palestine button were insulted, spat on, and had bottles thrown at them. Many that were assaulted have testified that the police did nothing, told them to leave, and blamed them for being near the hooligans.

When the Maccabi ultras finally came to the match, they loudly disturbed a minute of silence that was held for flood victims in Spain due to the country’s critical stance toward Israel.

When they left the stadium, they went to the city center on a warpath, armed with chains, sticks, and stones, seemingly ready to make good on their death threats from the night before. Bizarrely, they were escorted by police while carrying these weapons, even though the entire area was designated as high-risk by the mayor.

This time, however, the tables were turned

No “Pogrom” Against Jewish People
After the first attacks by Maccabi hooligans, various Dutch citizens seem to have organized themselves to prepare for retaliatory hit-and-run attacks, moving quickly on scooters to avoid being caught. This resulted in dozens of mostly light injuries against Maccabi hooligans, including five that briefly visited a local hospital.

According to the mayor’s office, the perpetrators were organizing themselves in Telegram groups where the term Jew hunt was repeatedly used. Nevertheless, most of these sources, nor the size or relevance of the Telegram groups, have not been made public. Regardless, this language was seized upon by pro-genocide politicians across the world to proclaim that what transpired on November 7 was a “pogrom” against Jewish people.

Even if we accept the police’s claims, the inflated language about a “pogrom” is clearly inaccurate. First, pogroms are associated with systemic state-sanctioned violence against minorities. Yet, the Maccabi fascists were the ones who were given free reign by the police, not the other way around.

Second, as even the most right-wing major newspaper in the Netherlands was forced to admit: “There are no indications yet that Jewish Amsterdammers or synagogues, for example, were also targeted. The authorities believe that a distinction was made between Israeli fans and Jews in general.” The perpetrators were mainly “after Maccabi supporters because there were supposedly Israeli ex-soldiers and Mossad agents among them.”

If the alleged Telegram messages about a “Jew hunt” turn out to be authentic, there seems to have been a clear conflation of terms between Zionists and Jewish people, even though they were clearly targeting the former, not the latter. A conflation of terms that Zionists themselves have, of course, been trying to create for decades, including every major political party in the Netherlands. Half of the people arrested for violent offenses on November 7 were minors, making ignorance a likely cause for the conflation.

Yet another possible cause for the conflation is the old tradition of Amsterdam Ajax supporters calling themselves “super Jews,” which has led their opponents to use anti-Jewish language, even if they don’t mean actual Jewish people. There are plenty of videos of mostly white football choirs literally singing about “Jew hunts” or how “the Jews are going to die.” Interestingly, in 2017, the Dutch national broadcaster publicly apologized to FC Utrecht supporters for having painted them as antisemitic for this reason.

Indeed, football is the main reason that antisemitism numbers spiked in 2023 according to figures from the Dutch public prosecutor. “The striking increase in the discrimination grounds of antisemitism cannot be related to facts related to the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023,” the prosecutor claims. “The strikingly high influx at this Public Prosecutor’s Office is related to various football matches that were played in Rotterdam or by Feyenoord.”

Although the hit-and-run attacks were aimed at Maccabi hooligans, not at Ajax supporters, the Amsterdam club itself has a reputation of being pro-Israel and some of its supporters had assaulted a Palestinian man just days before the match. It is entirely possible that the football lingo got mixed up in the Telegram chats. Indeed, not a single local Jewish person, store, or institution was targeted. Clearly, there was not an actual “Jew hunt.” And definitely not a state-sanctioned one.

Amsterdam Police Only Targets “Antifascists” and Racialized Minorities
There has been a lot of criticism about the relatively small amount of police present around the Maccabi hooligans on November 6 and 7. However, this does not mean that a small police force was present in Amsterdam those days. In fact, there was a huge special mobilization from neighboring regions, including riot police, arrest units, horses, dogs, reconnaissance units, football units, and the “peace” unit. The problem is that they were used against the wrong people.

Anti-genocide protesters were planning to hold a demonstration at the Amsterdam stadium against the presence of Maccabi Tel Aviv, in favor of a sports boycott against genocide, colonialism, and apartheid, as was done in the case of Apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia.

In violation of their constitutional rights, the demonstrators were told to go to the Anton de Kom Square, which is neither visible nor audible from the stadium. Regardless, the demonstrators complied with the orders from the mayor and the police. Despite their obedience, the anti-genocide demonstrators were confronted by a massive police force, including riot police and horses.

Although ten hooligans were briefly arrested, not a single Israeli was prosecuted. All of them were protected by the police, escorted to their hotels, and allowed to return to Israel, mirroring the culture of impunity in their home country. We have spoken to a taxi driver who attempted to file charges against Maccabi hooligans, but was literally refused by the police for days. Other taxi drivers are afraid of speaking out at all, in fear of being ethnically profiled and targeted.

Mossad agents accompanied the Israeli hooligans, in direct violation of Dutch sovereignty, which would have never allowed Iranian, Russian, or Chinese agents to enter the Netherlands, let alone to accompany foreign fascist and openly genocidal gangs. Now, the Dutch authorities are collaborating with the Israeli government to “research” the so-called “pogroms,” a government whose entire cabinet should be tried in the Hague for genocide.

On November 9, the Jewish anti-Zionist organization Erev Rav felt compelled to cancel their antifascist Kristallnacht commemoration at the Jewish resistance memorial in Amsterdam. They had asked the police for special protection against the Maccabi fascists, who have a history of attacking antiwar leftists, including Jewish ones, yet the police simply responded that they were more worried about “pro-Palestinian activists and antifascists.” Astounded, the spokesperson of Erev Rav replied: “Of course there would be antifascists. We are antifascists. And we expect the police to be antifascist themselves.”

Yet the Amsterdam police is clearly not antifascist. In fact, antifascist stickers are even shown as examples of “leftist extremism” in police training. It is no surprise then, that it was the pro-Palestinian antifascists who were surrounded by police.

The double standards of the Dutch state and police are no coincidence. Institutional racism in the Dutch police and criminal justice system is deeply entrenched. Figures show that racial inequalities in police killings, arrests, and imprisonment rates are significantly worse than in the United States.

The far-right Zionist Party for Freedom (PVV) has massive support within the police force, in some areas as much as 60 percent. Think of police officers who, according to several whistleblowers, call themselves “Moroccan exterminators” or who talk about “shit Africans” or “Natos” (“North African Cunts Wearing Sports Shoes”).

Like in so many countries, the Israeli laboratory of repression is directly imported into the Netherlands. The state has purchased two Israeli wiretapping systems to surveil its own citizens, the last one from Cyber ​​Intelligence, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, in 2019.

How the Netherlands Is Turning into a Police State
The Dutch complicity in the genocide in Gaza and climate breakdown have led to increasing protests on the streets of Netherlands. The response of the state has been staggering repression. When student encampments started in May 2024 in Utrecht and Amsterdam, for example, they were both met with speed eviction, swifter than in any country in the world.

We saw the same pattern of double standards in the first encampment in Amsterdam, which was attacked by Zionists with firebombs as the police stood idly by. The encampment was subsequently illegally evicted—as the public prosecutor admitted months later—with much violence, including a student whose skull was cracked by a police baton.

Since March 2024, the ruling coalition parties have openly proclaimed their intent to restrict the right to protest. The pretext was yet another Zionist lie, surrounding the visit of the Israeli president to Amsterdam for the opening of the National Holocaust Museum. As Isaac Herzog is guilty for inciting genocide, the Jewish anti-Zionist organization Erev Rav organized a demonstration. Major Dutch parties shamefully painted the protest as antisemitic, completely ignoring the presence of Erev Rav and blatantly lied about antisemitic statements that were never uttered. This lie became the basis for a campaign to restrict constitutional rights in the Netherlands.

The mayor of Amsterdam is a former leader of the GroenLinks (GreenLeft) party, a neoliberal imperialist party, which nevertheless considers itself constitutional, liberal, and in favor of civil liberties. In the past, the mayor has pushed back against some of the most extreme far-right threats against the right to protest. Since November 7, however, all pushback has gone out of the window.

GroenLinks leader Femke Halsema’s words about a “pogrom” were crucial in facilitating far-right propaganda, as an investigation by OneWorld revealed. It is reminiscent of how the supposedly “moderate” and respected Colin Powell facilitated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 with his speech at the United Nations, a turning point for liberal media. It is often the more “respectable” leaders who are crucial in facilitating colonial propaganda.

Granted, it is positive that Halsema—due to enormous pressure from below—walked back her statement about a “pogrom” ten days later. But it was too little, too late. That she did not see the far-right and Israeli propaganda coming, as she now claims, lacks any credibility.

More serious were the actual policies Halsema pursued in the aftermath of the Maccabi attacks. Claims of a “pogrom” were seized upon to promulgate emergency laws banning all protests in the city of Amsterdam. Anti-genocide demonstrators have peacefully gone onto the streets regardless, where they were charged with horses, and a Muslim shopper was beaten into a bloody pulp, leading to severe brain damage. Several clearly recognizable journalists were also beaten or arrested.

Before any investigation had been carried out, Halsema adamantly denied the police violence. This facilitated a feeling of impunity among the police. Three days later, protesters were dumped by police in an abandoned area on the outskirts of the city—out of sight of the media—where they were brutally chased and beaten in what some have called a “coordinated protester hunt.”

The protest ban remained in effect for nearly a week in Amsterdam. Even the neighboring city of Utrecht seized on the events to effectively ban a protest by the largest Dutch union against university budget cuts, with lies about an alleged threat of violence from pro-Palestinian groups. That was another supposedly left-wing mayor, Sharon Dijksma of the Labour Party.

The budget cuts are tied to the rapidly increasing military expenditures of the Dutch state, which has even started talking about reintroducing a military draft, like in Israel. Many of the weapons will in turn be bought from Israeli arms manufacturers, which are enabling the genocide in Gaza. A militarization that is also supported by the “leftist” opposition party GroenLinks-PvdA (an alliance between GroenLinks and the Labour Party).

The looming draft, too, is a threat to freedom in the Netherlands. During the Dutch colonial war in Indonesia from 1946 to 1949, countless draft resisters were imprisoned for years and have, to this day, never received any form of compensation or rehabilitation. The colonial soldiers, by contrast, have been honored as part of the official Second World War commemorations since 1961, even before the Dutch state did the same for actual Nazi Holocaust victims.

Rising Fascism and Islamophobia, a Colonial Boomerang
The Netherlands has a long and deep history of racism, having brought apartheid to South Africa, Indonesia, Suriname, and the Dutch Antilles, among other places. Even the previous “liberal” Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, is a convicted racist for ethnic profiling and a Zionist fanatic who instructed his own staff to cover up Israeli war crimes.

Rutte’s government notoriously destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of Dutch people of color in what became known as the “benefits scandal,” which plunged innocent civilians into huge debts, leading to divorces, suicides, and the loss of child custody.

Many far-right leaders in the Netherlands, including PVV leader Geert Wilders, have backgrounds as colonizers in Indonesia, the largest majority-Muslim country in the world. The Dutch East Indies were ruled as an apartheid state and leaders like Wilders aim to “avenge their ancestors” who were defeated. They see in the Palestinian resistance the same faces of the Indonesian freedom fighters. Wilders himself had his coming of age in a Kibbutz in the West Bank, where he recognized his political soulmates in the most fanatic settlers of Israel.

After the genocide in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, the Israeli mass murder was supported by a major propaganda offensive by the Dutch government and almost all Dutch political parties, with strong racist undertones. Think, for example, of the “leftist” opposition leader Frans Timmermans, who spoke about our “culture of life” and “their” “culture of death.”

In this context, the national elections in November 2023 further worsened the situation. The far-right PVV became the largest party, led by Wilders, an ardent Zionist and racist who believes in a “Jewish state” from the river to the sea and wishes to apply the same apartheid model to the Netherlands.

Wilders was convicted by a Dutch court in 2016 for “incitement to discrimination” after he told a rally that he “would arrange” for the country to have “less, less Moroccans,” essentially calling for their deportation. His lawyer for the court case was bankrolled by US Zionists to the tune of €200,000.

The PVV is the largest of the parties in the governing coalition and served as the king-maker in coalition talks, with the prime minister having been the former head of the Dutch secret services, under whose watch Dutch Muslims were specifically targeted and spied on.

The coalition seriously considered PVV parliamentarian Gidi Markuszower as a deputy prime minister and minister of asylum and migration. A fanatic Zionist who was born and raised in Israel, Markuszower brought his fascist views with him to the Netherlands. He talks of migrants as “African beasts” and advocated in a leaked email to murder anti-Zionist “despicable Jews.”

Those views were well-known by 2024 and not a problem for the ruling coalition. The reason Markuszower was not able to become the vice prime minister was because he did not pass the security clearance by the Dutch secret service, most likely because of his continued ties to the Mossad. Nevertheless, he remains on the bench in parliament for the PVV.

Since the far-right election victory of the PVV, Islamophobia has sharply risen in the Netherlands. According to the latest figures of Meld Islamofobie, 83 percent of Dutch Muslims have been personally experienced an Islamophobic incident last year. We have seen hatecrimes against Muslims on two separate occasions just in the last two weeks, where two Muslims were nearly beaten to death by racists in their own neighborhood. This summer, another Muslim was murdered by a racist neighbor.

The Racists and Antisemites Are in the Hague
The events of November 7 have escalated things further. Outraged by the complete betrayal of almost the entire spectrum of Dutch politics and media, which protected foreign fascist hooligans rather than its own citizens, youths rioted in the streets of Amsterdam West on November 11. The specific trigger was the beating up of a Muslim woman by police force during a peaceful protest the day before, which the mayor proceeded to lie about despite extensive video evidence.

Leaders of the governing coalition parties immediately seized upon the events to demonize the Muslim community. Think for example of Farmer–Citizen Movement leader Caroline van der Plas, who claims that “the thirst to beat up Jews and even worse: to want to kill them” is deeply ingrained in “a section of the population.” She also openly called for a ban against the Instagram account Cestmocro, in direct violation of freedom of speech. Wilders called for “deporting and denaturalizing” the “scum.” The prime minister, Dick Schoof, claimed the “Jew hunt” exposed the “integration problem” in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, at the urging of the Israeli state, the House of Representatives passed a motion to place human rights organizations on terrorist lists.

During the Council of Ministers in the week after the Maccabi riots, there was allegedly talk of “cunt Moroccans,” “halal eaters,” “pus” that “can’t just be squeezed out,” and “antisemitism that is in the genes of Muslims or Moroccans.” What was actually said remains fodder for speculation, since the Council of Ministers’ discussions are secret and the cabinet refuses to disclose them. In any case, it was reason enough for the only Moroccan-Dutch minister, Nora Achahbar, to resign and leave the cabinet. If the cabinet admits to having made racist statements, it would legally make it a “criminal organization.” That, according to criminal lawyer Gerard Spong, is probably the reason Achahbar also cautiously speaks of “polarizing” language, since she would not want to take credit for the fall of the cabinet.

The demonization of Dutch Muslims as antisemites has little to do with reality or with concerns for Dutch Jewish people. The party ideologue of the PVV, currently the chair of Dutch parliament, is notorious for spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and for having worn an National Socialist Movement (the party that collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War) flag to Dutch parliament. The Netherlands seems to have willfully forgotten that it was not Muslims but Christians who systematically murdered European Jews during the Second World War.

The claim that antisemitism is an Islamic problem has been a long-time talking point of the Israeli lobby, including the main lobby group in the Netherlands, the Center for Information and Documentation Israel. Esther Voet, then director of the center, claimed in 2014 that two-thirds of antisemitism came from Muslims, while the figures from the Public Prosecution Service showed that two-thirds of the perpetrators were “native” Dutch. The second-largest group of perpetrators were Dutch people with a “Western European” migrant background.

An extensive government study found that 12 percent of Dutch Muslim youth are “not so positive” about Jewish people. This is comparable to their attitude toward Kurds (12 percent), Dutch (10 percent), and even Moroccans (8 percent). Conversely, Islamophobia has been rampant, as Christian and non-religious youth are extremely negative about Muslims (around 30 percent) and Moroccans (around 40 percent).

We should see the demonization of Muslims by Dutch and Israeli politicians and government officials as an expression of increasing fascism. While Gaza has been transformed into an extermination camp and pogroms are a daily reality in the West Bank, right-wing politicians and government officials hope to bring this reality of apartheid and ethnic cleansing to the Netherlands. It is not without reason that they place themselves squarely behind Maccabi gangs who sang in the Dutch streets about hanging communists, raping their opponents, and murdering Palestinian babies.

The rhetoric of the right about the “Islamo-left” should be seen as the modern-day version of the “Judeo-Bolshevism” with which the Nazis justified their murderous actions against Jewish people. Let us also not forget that Jewish refugees were banned and expelled from the Netherlands in the 1930s with many of the same arguments that we hear about Muslims today, by literally the same newspapers such as the Telegraaf, the largest newspaper of the Netherlands. It was not without reason that the newspaper was banned after the Second World War, as it became known as an “SS hate campaign paper.”

The threat of fascism is real and wide. The genocidal apartheid state of Israel is simply the tip of the spear in a much broader and dangerous process, fueling fascist imaginaries that threaten to plunge the Western world into darkness. The liberal center, from Kamala Harris in the United States to Femke Halsema in Amsterdam, seems powerless and unwilling to truly confront them.

At the same time, we see more and more people piercing through the lies, organizing, and taking to the streets. There is tremendous anger about the genocide in Gaza, about the demonization of Dutch Muslims, and about the breakdown of the welfare state in favor of a war and police state. We will have to turn that anger into a powerful, broad, and well-organized mass movement for peace and solidarity. A movement that does not allow itself to be misled or divided by a government that does not care in the least about Dutch workers. As we say at De Vonk: may we be the spark that fires the flame of revolution. For little else will suffice.

https://mronline.org/2024/12/06/how-isr ... therlands/
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 09, 2024 3:31 pm

Palestinian Authority Clashes With Resistance Fighters in West Bank
December 8, 2024

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Jenin refugee camp, West Bank, Palestine. File photo.

Gunfights erupted in Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank between Palestinian resistance fighters and Palestinian Authority security forces following alleged theft of vehicles belonging to the Palestinian Authority.

The intense exchanges of fire began around 9:30 PM local time (1930 GMT) on Thursday, December 5, and followed the deployment of PA security forces around the Jenin refugee camp, which is adjacent to the city and a stronghold for Palestinian resistance groups operating in the territory.

Witnesses reported that the Palestinian security forces set up roadblocks on routes leaving the camp.

Tensions were running high in Jenin earlier in the day after a group of armed men seized two vehicles belonging to the PA and paraded through the streets waving Islamic Jihad flags.

In a statement, General Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the PA security forces, said that “a group of outlaws opened fire on the headquarters of the security services” and stole two vehicles.

He added the security forces would “recover the vehicles and hold accountable anyone who committed this act.”

Tensions between the PA and the resistance factions have been exacerbated by recent arrests by the security forces.

At a press conference inside Jenin camp, Mahmud Abu Talal, spokesperson for a collective of local armed groups, said that the PA had “abandoned its people in the most difficult circumstances.”

He rejected the label of outlaws and accused the PA of “carrying out a continuous operation to undermine those who protect their people.”

Jenin has long been a bastion of Palestinian resistance groups and was the focus of a brutal Israeli raid launched at the end of August this year.

Violence in the West Bank, already increasing, surged after the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023.

Israel has occupied the territory since 1967.

https://orinocotribune.com/palestinian- ... west-bank/

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Interview with Historic Activist Palestinian Leila Khaled: ‘Surrender or Fight’
Posted by Internationalist 360° on December 7, 2024
Lorenzo Santiago

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Leila Khaled is a historic activist for the liberation of the Palestinian people. At 80 years old, she continues to be active in promoting international collaboration with political organizations, popular movements and governments to denounce Israeli violence and broaden the struggle for the formation of the Palestinian state.

Venezuela is one of the countries that echoes this struggle the most. The defense of the Palestinian people has been, since Hugo Chávez, one of the pillars of Venezuelan foreign policy. In the last week of November, Khaled was in Caracas to participate in the International Conference of Solidarity with Palestine. She received Brasil de Fato at the hotel where she was staying in the Venezuelan capital. In a conversation that lasted almost 1 hour, she talked about the relationship between socialism and the Palestinian liberation process, the role of women in the armed struggle and the relationship between the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and other countries.

According to Khaled, it is necessary to discuss a specific political formation in each state that is adapted to the reality of each country. That is why the Popular Front understands that Marxism-Leninism is an important tool, for being an instrument of action that can be incorporated by any country.

Khaled was born in Haifa, which was part of the British Mandate of Palestine, but had to leave her home after the foundation of Israel in 1948. She then grew up in the Tyre refugee camp in Lebanon. At the age of 15, the young Palestinian began her activism and eventually expanded her involvement in the struggle for the formation of a Palestinian state.

Joining the PFLP was instrumental in the political line Khaled would take to this day. As a communist activist, she began to draw inspiration from leaders such as Fidel Castro, Lenin, Ho Chi Minh and Kim Il Sung. She is responsible for founding one of the Popular Front cells in Kuwait and participated in military operations in the Middle East, including the hijacking of two planes, one from Trans World Airlines and the other from the Israeli airline El Al.

Khaled sees two challenges in women’s participation in the armed struggle for the liberation of Palestine: from society, because society is sexist and patriarchal, and also from the Israeli occupation. According to her, for women in this context there is no middle ground: “surrender or fight”.

Brasil de Fato: Leila, what are the necessary adaptations of socialism in the Palestinian liberation struggles?

The Palestinian people are in different countries and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is where the Palestinian people are. There are many people in occupied Palestine, Gaza, West Bank and others in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other Arab countries. Our party is in these countries and we have a political program. And this is similar to other organizations. In some countries we don’t say that we are PFLP because it is a banned organization in some territories. So we speak in committees for a democratic Palestine or we form a union of delegations.

The political program is what guides the policy of the Popular Front. But the labor policy is different as an objective situation in each country. Some countries do not accept a militant organization, which is why we change the names. But they are still militants of the Popular Front. Therefore, the mission of each group of activists in each place is that they design and carry out their own line of work that fits our political program.

And here comes the discussion around socialism. In our cultural and educational program we have theory. From the beginning we adopted Marxist-Leninist thought. But in the fifth congress of the Popular Front, in 1993, we put Marxism-Leninism not only as a political line, but as an instrument of work. As we are citizens of the Third World, to speak of socialism and Marxism-Leninism has to be adapted to each territory and objective condition.

The context of each country is different in relation to another country. That is why Lenin always said that theory is gray, but reality is green. We apply a socialism different from ours in each country. These are experiences that we adopt from other countries. We, as a political organization, build alliances according to the political position of any country. And the position of a given country on the Palestinian cause is what determines our position in relation to that country.

And how can we build a Palestinian society that is socialist in a context of increasing Israeli attacks and an increase in violence in over 12 months?

It is a challenge, we need to educate our activists, educate them about socialism at the same time that we are in a process of national liberation. We set ourselves the historic goal of returning to our land to build a new society. In a liberation process all taboos and paradigms are broken, from religious to political. That is why we are interested in confronting the war and genocide suffered by our people. We raise our slogan: we have the right to return and to be a people whose self-determination is respected.

Can the coordination of international organizations help to put an end to the conflict?

This is the first time in Israel’s history since its founding that there has been a decision to hold Israelis accountable, as was the International Criminal Court’s decision that Netanyahu is a war criminal as its Defense Minister.

But Israel considers itself above the law. They do not surrender internationally because they are protected by the colonial West and US imperialism. For the first time, Israel in the war against Gaza asks for protection from the United States, this frightened Israel. But because of this protection, they follow.

Could China’s growing participation in the geopolitical chessboard change this?

Of course, today there is the Brics, which is an economic alliance that should be reflected in a political alliance to confront the imperialists. Not through arms, but through economics. I believe that this will change and the United States will no longer protect Israel, they are giant and powerful countries. In their history there are revolutions and we learn from these revolutions. In the Cold War between the USSR and the United States, the United States won and today the world is changing. And it must change in favor of the people. And this provides a positive environment for the people of the world. Specifically Latin America, because it is close to imperialism. This means that all together we can break this rule. This world will not continue to be ruled by the United States.

You have already mentioned several times the imperialist actions of the U.S. in different places, mainly stifling revolutionary struggles. What has been the role of the U.S. today in the Palestinian liberation movement and in Latin American revolutionary movements?

We always present our experience and the particular problems we face, but Latin America began to have revolutionary experiences a long time ago and Cuba is the great example. And this is reflected in a reaction from imperialism. Cuba has suffered sanctions since it decided to have its own revolutionary process and this has had an enormous effect on Latin American politics. [Salvador] The Allende revolution in Chile and Venezuela was also influenced by Cuba. Cubans play an important role in Latin American politics.

In many other countries there were revolutions that failed and this is because the United States and the Zionist movement penetrate these societies and have the role of destroying them. So that these societies see the United States as the “liberator”.

How was your relationship with Venezuela over time and with Chavez?

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Caracas, photo: Bill Hackwell

Chavez supported the Palestinian cause from the beginning and announced it publicly at the UN in 2003. This created a relationship between Venezuelans and Palestinians that was marked and continues to be an important point of support. I saw him in 2005 in Brazil, when I went to the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. We also met in other cities. When I came to Venezuela for the first time, he was already undergoing treatment for cancer.

How do political struggles in other countries serve as a reference for the Palestinian liberation struggle?

We study the results of different processes. In any national liberation process in a country, from the Bolshevik revolution, in China, in Vietnam, in Algeria, in South Africa, it is necessary to educate our activists through ideas. Our struggle is not of a few years, it is from one generation to the next. Because we face a common enemy: the Zionist movement, whose governments are Israel and US imperialism. This is the camp of the enemy. We understand in advance that we have to sacrifice ourselves and pass the flag of liberation from generation to generation until we liberate the Palestinian territory and return to Palestine, expelling the Zionists.

Personally and in general, we carry a scientific thinking and it is not an emotional thing based on this. I still carry this responsibility when I see friends in the world. Many revolutionary and progressive movements fought for our cause. From Europe to Tokyo and Latin America and this gives more hope that we will return to our homeland.

Carlos Ilich Ramirez was a Venezuelan activist who, from an early age, became involved in the struggle of the Palestinian people. Patricio Argüello, Nicaraguan, who became a martyr by hijacking a plane. We also have militants and comrades in Japan. They went to a military operation in occupied Palestine and were killed there. There are many internationalists who fought with us and this is not the only way to support them. We attended training courses in various countries of the world: China, USSR, socialist countries. And we also receive university education through university scholarships from these countries. So we are surrounded by friends in the world and we see these relationships now with what is happening in Gaza, with the whole world expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people, including the United States and Europe.

And at the same time it reveals the real reason for the conflict. It showed the terrorist face of Israel. This is what gives us strength and motivation to continue working.

How important is revolutionary and theoretical training for a militant and militancy for a theoretician?

Knowledge has its effect on men and women. We live in the age of telecommunications, so communication is easier through technology. We communicate more easily and this helps us to see that victory is closer. Therefore, the more knowledge we have, the easier our liberation process will be.

Before we read books, today everything is on the internet, on Google. This makes it easier for activists to learn more through communication. We used to see each other at international forums and conferences. Today there are many applications that help not only with videoconferencing, but with training. Getting informed or accessing training is easier.

The Palestinian people suffered the Nakba in 1948 and left Palestine. The context of the Palestinian people forced Palestinians to confront Zionism through university education, and this made it easier for men and women to enter universities. We have only 8% illiterate people, because we help everyone to be educated and to be students. Compared to other Arab countries, Palestinians have the highest university education and this increases the number of intellectuals.

Therefore, many of our students and young people will study political science, philosophy and culture to help spread and publicize the culture of resistance.

What are the main challenges for you as a woman in the armed struggle? Is there a different context within this gender cut?

I grew up in a political family. I never had a problem of this with my family, but the family is always afraid and worried. But this was not an underlying problem for me. Other women had difficulty joining activism because of their families. And there came a time when many parents forced women to stay at home, not to leave the house.

With the evolution and development of militancy work, this helped women to get involved in militancy, especially from 1987 onwards. This was the first Intifada and this gave women the opportunity to enter into direct confrontation with Zionism. Therefore, the face of the first intifada was that women were on the front line defending their children. Many women have been arrested and continue to be arrested. The enemy did not imagine that Palestinian women would participate in the intifada. When women participate in this work of organizational and revolutionary activism, they are defending their family. Women in this context of Palestinian struggle suffer a double oppression: from society, because society is sexist and patriarchal, and also from the Israeli occupation. There are currently many Palestinian women in Israeli prisons.

For women, there are two paths in this scenario: surrender or fight. A woman will always choose to defend her family and take on this role. She will not raise a white flag. So I did not experience oppression or challenges on this issue, but it is something that is above the diaspora, all these problems we suffer from in another way.

How do the Palestinian popular movements discuss the particular issues of the life of each group?

We have popular unions, the Palestinian women’s union and this group adopts the resistance program. Workers, farmers, doctors, journalists, each sector has a union. And this gives popular support and when Israel attacks the people join the revolution to defend it. Today we are witnessing a genocide against our people. And the world is studying this genocide.

Israeli attacks have a direct impact on land use. How is the land dispute in Palestine?

Our problem is that the settlers are occupying the land with the support of the Tel Aviv group. There is a decision of the Hague Court that says the settlements are not legal and now they say there could be genocide, but unfortunately that is not said. We saw this problem in the 1990s, because the Intifada was resisting and the Palestinian leadership signed the Oslo Accords and this affected the Palestinian revolutionary movement.

You have already been in Brazil and had contact with leftist movements in the country, how do you see the political organization of the Brazilian popular movements that struggle to transform the relationship between State, population and land?

Brazil is huge and has had many dictatorships that changed the system of government. Therefore, geography plays an important role. In Brazil, the MST has an important role in liberating land and giving it to the people. In the previous administration, Lula helped to some extent in this process in one way or another. During Lula’s government, the MST played a very important role and started to have a broader social base because these lands were appropriated from the feudalists.

And the MST managed to push for a law that determines that whoever does not make productive use of the land should not have possession of it. But the Brazilian oligarchies killed MST leaders and carried out acts of violence against militants. Many of the leaders of the Movement were assassinated by imperialism through terrorist and fascist groups in Brazil. But the MST continues today. Today the MST is a giant organization because it plays an important role for the people. Because when you give the poor something to live on and give them work, you expand the social base.

We studied the experience of the MST, but this cannot be applied to Palestine. Most of the Palestinian people are outside Palestine. In some countries it is called land reform, but what you did was not limited to the struggle for land reform, but people now have a better future and homes. And all this was done by workers and peasants, men and women. We saw this with our own eyes.

Translation by Resumen Latinoamericano – English

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/12/ ... -or-fight/

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Israel continues killing citizens in south Lebanon as ceasefire violations persist

The attack on the Marjayoun area came a day after Israel killed four people in southern Lebanon

News Desk

DEC 8, 2024

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(Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images)
Three people were killed on 8 December in an Israeli raid that targeted the Debbin area in the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun, as Tel Aviv continues to violate the ceasefire with Lebanon since it took effect last month.

“Three civilian martyrs fell in the Israeli raid that targeted the lower Al-Arid neighborhood in Debbin,” reported Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) correspondent in Marjayoun.

The attack came one day after four people were killed and six wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the southern town of Beit Lif.

“Rescue teams have stopped working due to the lack of the necessary equipment to remove the rubble,” NNA reported on Saturday.

The Lebanese outlet had reported last week that Israel has violated the ceasefire 129 times – after twelve violations were committed in a single day on Wednesday.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said on 5 December that, despite dozens of Israeli violations inside Lebanon, the group is “giving an opportunity” for the ceasefire agreement to succeed.

The resistance group launched a limited rocket attack on Israeli-occupied Lebanese land on 2 December, with its military media describing the operation as a “warning” in response to Tel Aviv’s consistent violations of the ceasefire.

Israel responded with over a dozen deadly airstrikes across southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army remains deployed across south Lebanon and is required to withdraw within 60 days from the announcement of the ceasefire on 27 November.

Sunday’s violations came as Israeli forces invaded Quneitra in southwest Syria to reinforce a UN-monitored buffer zone – coinciding with the fall of the Damascus government on 8 December and the storming of the country’s capital by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) extremists.

“In light of the events in Syria, and in accordance with the assessment of the situation and the possibility of armed men entering the buffer zone, the army has deployed forces in the buffer zone and at several points necessary for defense, in order to ensure the security of the Golan Heights settlements and the citizens of Israel,” the Israeli army said in a statement.

A closed military zone has been declared, and Israel said it would remain in the buffer zone for the time being.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-co ... ns-persist

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DISPLACED PALESTINIANS FLEE PAST ISRAELI TANKS FOLLOWING MILITARY ORDERS TO LEAVE KHAN YOUNIS AND GO TOWARD RAFAH NEAR THE EGYPTIAN BORDER IN THE SOUTHERN GAZA STRIP, JANUARY 26, 2024. (PHOTO: HAITHAM IMAD/EFE VIA ZUMA PRESS APA IMAGES)

Israel’s genocide in Gaza is fully intentional, and other takeaways from the Amnesty International report
Originally published: Mondoweiss on December 7, 2024 by Jonathan Ofir (more by Mondoweiss) | (Posted Dec 09, 2024)

Wednesday, a landmark report was issued by Amnesty International, titled: ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza.”

Amnesty is unequivocal—Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Agnés Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General presented the report with uncompromising terms. There are no ifs and buts, Israel has been committing genocide, it still is:

“Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” Callamard said.

These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them.

Israel’s intent to commit genocide
The crime of Genocide is known as the “crime of crimes”, and it is also considered the crime against humanity which demands the highest level of proof as to intent. It is not enough to refer to acts which in themselves may fall under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (‘Genocide convention’)—genocidal intent must be proven as the only possible conclusion of the analysis.

This is why the reports conclusive language is so important, it says:

There is only one reasonable inference that can be drawn from the evidence presented: genocidal intent has been part and parcel of Israel’s conduct in Gaza since 7 October 2023, including its military campaign.

Since the intent aspect is so singularly crucial in this, Amnesty dedicates nearly one-third of the 296-page report to intent (81 pages inside the main section “Israel’s intent in Gaza” p. 202-282, plus other parts on the matter in other sections of the report).

The genocide definition
The report refers to three of the five items in the UN genocide definition Article II and deems them fulfilled:

Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Any one of these could constitute genocide, as it states that “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such” (my emphasis).

The ‘military necessity’ argument
Amnesty concludes that “genocidal intent has been part and parcel of Israel’s conduct in Gaza since 7 October 2023, including its military campaign” (p. 35).

The claim of military necessity is a central claim of Israel, unsurprisingly so—under the apparent idea that such goals legitimize the means applied to achieve them. Israel is not an exception in this—the argument is often used in order to rebuff charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity.

But Amnesty rejects the either-or argument:

Amnesty International concedes that identifying genocide in armed conflict is complex and challenging, because of the multiple objectives that may exist simultaneously. Nonetheless, it is critical to recognize genocide when it occurs in the context of armed conflict, and to insist that war can never excuse it.

Callamard emphasizes:

Israel has repeatedly argued that its actions in Gaza are lawful and can be justified by its military goal to eradicate Hamas. But genocidal intent can co-exist alongside military goals and does not need to be Israel’s sole intent.

So the military intent can exist alongside the genocidal intent—but it does not cancel the genocidal intent. If the genocidal intent is “part and parcel” of Israel’s conduct, “including its military campaign”, then this means Israel’s “war” is indeed a genocidal one.

Genocidal statements by Israeli officials
In the chapter on Intent, concerning the statements on the destruction of Palestinians (7.3, p. 241), Amnesty limited itself to addressing 102 statements of high Israeli officials:

The organization identified 102 statements that dehumanized Palestinians, or called for, or justified, prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention or other crimes under international law against Palestinians in Gaza, such as settlement expansion, forcible transfer or indiscriminate attacks. They were made by members of the war and security cabinets and senior members of the military, as well as Israel’s president, in addition to some Knesset members and cabinet ministers.

To be sure, statements inciting genocide are almost countless in Israel, and the Law for Palestine project has a database with over 500 of these by leaders down to journalists and influencers. But Amnesty applied the limitation also in order to suffice Israel’s own claim to the International Court of Justice in the Genocide case (South Africa vs Israel).

Amnesty:

Given Israel’s contention before the ICJ that the “policy and intentions” of the Israeli government can only be determined through an examination of decisions by the war and security cabinets, as well as an analysis of “whether particular comments expressed conform, or not, with the policies and decisions made”, Amnesty International limited its analysis to statements made by officials with direct responsibilities over the conduct of the offensive on Gaza. With the exception of Israel’s president, this included members of the war and security cabinets and senior military officials. Amnesty International also limited its analysis to statements that appeared to call for, or justify, the destruction of Palestinians, including:

Calls to deny Palestinians in Gaza access to essential services and items critical for the population’s survival until Hamas is destroyed or until hostages are released;
Statements deliberately conflating Palestinians in Gaza with Hamas, thereby appearing to justify direct actions against Palestinian civilians;
Statements calling for the physical destruction of Gaza, including its entire population and civilian infrastructure, or calling for the destruction of Hamas by physically destroying Palestinians in Gaza.


Of the 102 statements it reviewed, Amnesty International identified 22 such statements. The remaining 80 statements either called for other crimes under international law against Palestinians in Gaza, such as settlement expansion, forcible transfer, or indiscriminate attacks or used racist and dehumanizing language against Palestinians. The organization analyzed the 22 statements apparently calling for or justifying the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza by focusing on the identity of the speaker and his/her influence and the content of the speech.

These genocidal proclamations have often used the Israeli hostages/captives as their excuse. This has also come from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

“Speaking at a joint press conference with then Minister of Defense Gallant on 5 December 2023, Prime Minister Netanyahu explained that the war cabinet’s recommendation to allow the entry of two to four trucks of fuel a day to meet “the minimum humanitarian needs” of the population in Gaza, which authorities “assess every day, even every few hours”, was designed to allow the fighting to continue:

We also know that if there is a collapse, plagues, diseases, groundwater contamination, etc., this will stop the fighting. We understand that. Therefore, we do not see a contradiction between the war effort, which… we have already seen is the most effective factor in returning our abductees, and the humanitarian effort that accompanies the war and is a major part of it.

This “reasoning”, by the way, was rampant across the Israeli political spectrum, and even the current leader of the Labor-Meretz party “The Democrats” has stated “you can die from starvation, it’s totally legitimate.”

Such statements informed Israel’s military campaign in a clear way. Amnesty:

The statements of senior Israeli officials were heard and received by soldiers engaged in the military campaign in Gaza, and appear to have communicated, either explicitly or implicitly through known cultural references, a perceived mission of the campaign.

These statements were then echoed by leading military officers, who were leading the military campaign, and the actions of their soldiers were boasted on social media through countless videos celebrating the genocidal destruction.

Amnesty rebuffs Israel’s claim before the ICJ that these statements were merely “rhetorical”:

Amnesty International recognizes that, at the start of the military offensive, Israeli officials defined its objectives as dismantling the military and governing capabilities of Hamas, subsequently adding to them the release of hostages and captives. Following that, Prime Minister Netanyahu, then Minister of Defense Gallant and Israeli army spokespeople publicly clarified on numerous occasions that the offensive was directed at Hamas rather than the Palestinian people.

However, they appear to have intensified such clarifications only following mounting pressure from Israel’s Western allies over the scale of deaths and destruction resulting from weeks of relentless bombardment. Crucially, as highlighted above, there is a large amount of evidence of soldiers continuing to circulate and make use of these officials’ earlier statements long after they were first uttered.

Videos point as well to soldiers making these calls while engaged in apparent acts of destruction. This indicates the widespread circulation and impact of officials’ statements. It also shows that Israeli officials largely failed to build alternative narratives. Indeed, the widespread circulation of statements calling for the destruction of Gaza and civilian objects within it appear to have been condoned and not adequately investigated, let alone punished, by the Israeli authorities, which failed to take any action for months.

Furthermore, throughout the nine-month period under review, Israel continued to carry out unlawful attacks that killed and seriously injured Palestinian civilians, and to deliberately impose conditions of life on the entire population of Gaza, challenging Israel’s defence that the statements made by senior government officials, and which reverberated through the military, were merely the type of inflammatory comments that can be expected at the start of an armed conflict.


But the intent is not just to be inferred from statements, the acts confirm the intents:

In assessing genocidal intent, Amnesty International analysed such violations of international law, including those detailed in Chapter 6 “Israel’s actions in Gaza”, in the context of the entire offensive: it reviewed them together and cumulatively, taking into account their recurrence and their simultaneous occurrence time and time again, compounding each other’s harmful impact. Furthermore, the organization considered the scale and severity of the casualties and destruction repeated over time, in spite of continuous warnings by the UN and Israel’s own allies, as well as the multiple binding orders of the ICJ”(p. 279).

Overall context of Israeli apartheid
Amnesty assesses Israel’s genocide in a historical context, to point out that the “endemic dehumanization of Palestinians” has been a feature that preceded October 7, 2023—it has a long history, including systemic war crimes and crimes against humanity:

“An assessment of the historical context demonstrates that Israel’s offensive is occurring in the context of its unlawful military occupation and system of apartheid against Palestinians, including Palestinians in Gaza, a context replete with serious violations of international law and predicated on endemic dehumanization of Palestinians” (p. 278).

It is a system of dehumanization of Palestinians in general, where Gaza in particular has been made “uniquely vulnerable”:

Indeed, many high-level Israeli officials, as well as other politicians and public figures with significant reach and influence in Israel, have used deeply rooted dehumanizing, derogatory and racist language towards Palestinians for years, without any genuine or effective accountability.

The dehumanization of Palestinians has been a constant feature of Israel’s apartheid system: they are treated as an inferior racial group undeserving of basic human rights and necessities. To maintain this system of oppression and domination, Israel has long subjected Palestinians, including those in Gaza, to torture, arbitrary detention, forcible transfer and unlawful killings and injuries. As part of this system of apartheid, Israel’s unlawful blockade of Gaza had been slowly inflicting harmful conditions of life on Palestinians there for 16 years prior to 7 October 2023, leaving them in a uniquely vulnerable situation.

Difference between motive and intent
Similar to the “military necessity” argument, people can claim various motives for their genocidal acts—they may not consider them genocidal intent as such (people rarely admit to that outright), and they may claim “security” or “revenge”—but these motives do not cancel out genocidal intent:

Finally, Amnesty International recognizes that Israel’s policy towards Gaza may have been driven by different motives held by various officials in the government. Motive does not equal intent, though.

International jurisprudence is clear that many motives may prompt genocidal acts, including a desire for profit, political advantage and so on. Ultimately, as long as genocidal intent is clear, the underlying motive of individual officials does not matter—whether it be security, revenge, a resolve to remain in power, the desire to show overwhelming strength in the region, or the pursuit of Gaza’s resettlement (p. 281).

Hesitancy to point out genocidal intent regarding Israel
One of Israel’s oft claimed points is the “double standards” point, saying that Israel is being unfairly “singled out”. This point has also made it into the notorious IHRA-definition of antisemitism, which conflates critique of Israel with hatred of Jews.

The 8th IHRA example says “Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”

But Amnesty points out the opposite—that there is precisely a double-standard of hesitancy in terms of addressing Israel with genocidal intent—where it would be easier done with other countries. It has proven harder for Amnesty’s separate Israel branch to accept the genocide finding, so they went against the findings of the international report—as was the case in 2022 with Amnesty International’s Israel-Apartheid report. Although Amnesty boasts of being “independent of any government [and] political ideology” (report, p. 2), local political bias does exist. Amnesty calls for a universal standard:

Amnesty International recognizes that there is resistance and a hesitancy among many in finding genocidal intent when it comes to Israel’s conduct in Gaza. This resistance has impeded justice and accountability with respect to past conflicts around the world and should be avoided in the future. Amnesty International rejects a hierarchy among crimes under international law.

Wake-up call
The world has been letting this happen, in a slumber of denial and Israel-bias that has allowed the most televised genocide in history to go on for over a year.

Callamard states:

Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.

Stopping this includes a range of actions, not least by third states. Amnesty is calling upon the International Criminal Court to upgrade its assessment of the situation of Palestine to include genocide, also in terms of arrest warrants like those issued for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant:

Urgently consider the commission of the crime of genocide by Israeli officials since 7 October 2023 in the ongoing investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine… Consider how the Office of the Prosecutor’s investigations into the situation in the State of Palestine could be further expedited. Where appropriate, apply for arrest warrants against suspected individuals, including for the crime of genocide.

This must be a great shock for those who believed that “never again” was under Israeli monopoly, to protect the Jews forever. It turns out that the self-proclaimed “Jewish state” is not immune to perpetrating genocide. Israel can now only respond with the knee-jerk of “fake news”, and deny, deny, deny.

But this report is no quick propaganda item. It is a lengthy and meticulous documentation by one of the leading legal heavyweights, Amnesty International. This will be adding weight to the growing international consensus on the matter. And all of us are responsible, all of us must wake up now, for it is already way too late.

https://mronline.org/2024/12/09/israels ... al-report/
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 17, 2024 12:29 am

PA troops launch deadly raid of West Bank's Jenin in coordination with Israeli army

As Israel sets the stage for the de facto annexation of the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority is conducting violent raids with the goal of 'reclaiming Jenin camp from the control of outlaws'

News Desk

DEC 14, 2024

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(Photo Credit: Reuters)

Palestinian Authority (PA) troops launched a deadly operation in the occupied West Bank's Jenin refugee camp during the early hours of 14 December, killing Yazid Ja'ayseh, a commander in the Jenin Brigades, the local branch of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's (PIJ) Quds Rbigades.

PA Security Forces spokesman Brigadier General Anwar Rajab said the operation, launched in close coordination with the Israeli army, aims to "preserve security and civil peace, establishing the rule of law, and ending strife and chaos."


Rajab added that the goal of Ramallah and Tel Aviv is “reclaiming Jenin camp from the control of outlaws who have made life miserable for citizens and deprived them of their right to receive public services freely and safely.”

During Saturday's raids, PA bullets also killed Palestinian child Mohammad al-Amer.


"The targeting of resistance groups by the authorities in Jenin aligns entirely with the aggression and criminality of the [Israeli] occupation,” the PIJ said in a statement.

Hamas official Abdul-Rahman Shadeed also condemned the actions of the PA, saying Ramallah was inviting “internal strife” with its actions and must “put a stop to this.” Speaking to Al Jazeera, Shadeed said: “The Palestinian Authority must strengthen the national cause, not target field leaders in the West Bank.”

Saturday's battles came five days after PA forces surrounded Jenin camp as part of the "penultimate stage of Operation Protect the Homeland,” according to Rajab.


As PA troops lay siege to Jenin camp, Israeli troops have also been intensifying a crackdown across the occupied West Bank. Since Friday evening, at least 15 Palestinians from Ramallah, Tulkarem, Hebron, Jenin, and Jerusalem.

“The raids were accompanied by assaults, threats against detainees and their families, and widespread destruction of property,” WAFA News Agency reports.

Over 11,900 people have been detained in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem since the start of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, according to local authorities.

In response to the renewed aggression, the PIJ Quds Brigades called for a general strike and mass mobilizations in solidarity with Jenin.

On Saturday night, PA troops assaulted civilians who took to the streets to demonstrate against the crackdown on resistance groups in the region.


The violent crackdown of resistance forces in the West Bank comes as Israeli officials move forward with plans for the de-facto annexation of the occupied Palestinian land. “I have directed the start of professional work to prepare the necessary infrastructure to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said last month, using the biblical name by which Israel refers to the occupied West Bank.

https://thecradle.co/articles/pa-troops ... raeli-army

Quislings, Sonderkommandos...

Israel to deploy remotely operated machine guns against Palestinians in occupied West Bank

National Security Minister Itamar Gen Gvir, along with other Israeli officials, have been preparing Jewish settlers for war to expel Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and eliminate the possibility of a Palestinian state

News Desk

DEC 15, 2024

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(Photo credit: Apaimages)

The Israeli army is preparing to deploy automated, remotely monitored machine guns to protect illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Army Radio reported on 15 December.

The automated weapons, developed by Rafael Combat Systems, will be installed on watch towers around dozens of settlements and near their entrances. They will be controlled remotely from command centers "to prevent armed attacks and infiltration operations."

The same system was installed on the Gaza border in 2008 and operated by spotters in bases. However, it failed to prevent fighters from the Islamic Resistance movement, Hamas, from approaching and breaching the barrier fence to attack settlements and Israeli military bases on 7 October 2023.

During Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Qassam Brigades fighters reportedly used attack drones to disable the automated weapons during the first hours of the operation.

The army will first deploy the weapons in locations it defines as ‘high-risk,’ and expand their deployment over time to include additional locations.

According to the report, the 636th Reconnaissance Unit of the Army's West Bank Division will operate the systems.

Israeli soldiers and settlers have escalated their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza last year.

The Israeli army and settlers have killed 812 Palestinians and injured 6,500 in the West Bank since that time.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has provided over 120,000 firearms to Jewish settlers in the West Bank since the outbreak of the Gaza War.

"Over 120,000 weapons were distributed to eligible citizens, while tens of thousands more received conditional approvals," Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power Party, said on his X account in October.

"We intend to continue arming Israel. That's what we did, and that's what we'll continue to do!"

Ben Gvir and fellow Jewish supremacist politician and minister have announced their desire to use the Jewish settlers to expel the indigenous Palestinian population from the occupied West Bank and annex it to Israel.

After Donald Trump's election to the US presidency in November, Ben Gvir, himself a resident of the Kiryat Arba settlement, declared that "this is the time for sovereignty" over the West Bank.

On 9 December, following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syra, Bezalel Smotrich called for increased Jewish settlement and establishing “facts on the ground” to ensure a Palestinian state would never be established.

https://thecradle.co/articles/yemen-ann ... n-tel-aviv

Yemen announces drone operations against Israeli sites in Ashkelon, Tel Aviv

The operations coincided with talk of a potential 'major' Israeli attack being planned against Yemen

News Desk

DEC 13, 2024

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(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

The Armed Forces of Yemen’s Sanaa government (YAF) announced several drone operations against Israel on 13 December, including one carried out in cooperation with the Iraqi resistance.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces' unmanned air force carried out two military operations, the first targeting a military target in occupied Ashkelon, while the second targeted a target in occupied Jaffa,” the Yemeni army, which is merged with the Ansarallah resistance movement, said in a statement.

“The two operations were carried out by two drones that were able to bypass the interception systems and successfully reach their targets,” it added. YAF also launched an operation with the Iraqi resistance “targeting vital targets in the south of occupied Palestine with a number of drones.”

The operations were carried out on 12 December. The Israeli army reported on Thursday that sirens sounded in Netivot south of Ashkelon due to drone infiltration, and that details were under investigation. It also said it intercepted a drone in the south Israel.

The operations came as there have been threats of an Israeli attack against Yemen and major developments in the region, most recently the fall of president Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria.

Israel’s Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) cited a senior official as saying on Monday that Tel Aviv is planning a “major attack” against Yemen.

Ansarallah leader Abdel Malik al-Houthi gave a speech on the same day of the Yemeni attacks against Israel, during which he commented on the recent events in Syria, including the Israeli airstrikes and expanded occupation there.

Houthi strongly condemned Israel’s destruction of Syria’s military capabilities across the country, describing it as “thuggery and impudence.”

“The Israeli aggression on Syria is a confirmation of the equation of violation, and it is working with American support and partnership to impose it on the peoples of our nation and the countries of our nation, and to impose another equation, which is that the military capabilities of our peoples be under a certain ceiling,” the Ansarallah leader said.

“How we wish that … those armed groups that took control of Syria would have received that Israeli invasion with their rifles and tanks and those capabilities that belong to the Syrian people,” Houthi added.

He said the new Syrian regime – ruled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) extremist group – has a “responsibility” to confront Israel.

Houthi said that the manner in which Syria’s new leadership approaches Israel is “a real test for them.”

“We declare and confirm our support for Syria and the Syrian people against the Israeli aggression and attacks. The issue of who controls the situation here or there will not affect us. When the aggression targets an Arab country and a Muslim people, we will stand by it,” he added.

https://thecradle.co/articles/yemen-ann ... n-tel-aviv

V-1s without German over-engineering...

Yemen targets Israel with new ballistic missile attack

US and UK forces bombed multiple sites in Yemen overnight in the midst of Israeli threats of a major attack against the West Asian country

News Desk

DEC 16, 2024

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(Photo credit: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)

The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) launched a drone and missile toward Israel, along with multiple drones and a missile at three commercial ships being escorted by the US Navy ships in the Gulf of Aden on 16 December.

Air raid sirens went off across central Israel Monday afternoon, stretching from the Shfela region to the Sharon area, as the Israeli Air Force intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. The alarms were triggered due to concerns over falling interceptor debris.

The Israeli army claimed a Yemeni drone targeting its territory was successfully shot down over the Mediterranean Sea.

The army claimed the UAV was intercepted by a Navy missile boat before it reached Israeli territory. No sirens were activated in the incident, and no injuries were reported, the army added.

Yemeni spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said on Monday that YAF forces had targeted US supply ships and two US destroyers.

A US official said the YAF had launched multiple drones and a missile targeting three commercial ships under escort by US Navy vessels in the Gulf of Aden.

The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said US Navy destroyers, a Navy helicopter, and a French Air Force aircraft shot down four of the drones and the missile.

No injuries or damage were reported.

Last night, US and UK fighter jets launched airstrikes at the Buhais area in the Midi district, northwest of Hajjah, and the Tuhayta district, in the southern part of the city of Hodeidah.

Hussein al-Ezzi, head of the political and foreign relations department of Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement, stated after the attacks that any US or UK escalation that affects cities and civilians or targets the lives of any Yemeni man or woman, in general, will give Sanaa the full right to target US interests wherever they are, and that Washington must bear responsibility for it.

The YAF announced several drone operations against Israel on 13 December, including one carried out in cooperation with the Iraqi resistance.

The operations were executed on 12 December. The Israeli army reported on Thursday that sirens sounded in Netivot south of Ashkelon due to drone infiltration, and that details were under investigation. The army also said it intercepted a drone in south Israel.

The operations came as there have been threats of an Israeli attack against Yemen and major developments in the region, most recently the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Israel’s Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) cited a senior official as saying on Monday that Tel Aviv is planning a “major attack” against Yemen.

https://thecradle.co/articles/yemen-tar ... ile-attack

Israeli army hastens Gaza annihilation campaign, leaves over 250 casualties in one day

Tel Aviv’s forces continue to target schools sheltering displaced Palestinians across the Gaza Strip

News Desk

DEC 16, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: AA)

The Health Ministry in Gaza announced in a statement on 16 December that at least 52 Palestinians have been killed and over 200 wounded by Israeli attacks on the strip over the past 24 hours.

“The Israeli occupation committed seven massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, resulting in 52 martyrs and 203 injuries arriving at hospitals during the past 24 hours,” the statement said.

The ministry added that the death toll in Gaza since 7 October 2023 has now risen to 45,028. Director of the Palestinian NGO Network Ahmad Shawa told Al Jazeera that the number could potentially be higher, as thousands are under the rubble of destroyed buildings or missing.

The Israeli army is launching brutal and indiscriminate attacks across the entirety of Gaza on a daily basis.

Four Palestinians were killed and 15 others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a gathering of civilians in the Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City on Monday. The night before, 20 were killed and a number of others wounded when Israel bombed the Ahmad bin Abdul Aziz school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the strip’s southern city of Khan Yunis.

Israeli army forces stormed the Khalil Oweida school housing displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun earlier on 15 December, opening fire and killing at least 40 civilians while forcing dozens to flee. All the men who were sheltering in the Khalil Oweida school in Beit Hanoun were abducted, while the rest were forced to evacuate at gunpoint. Several others were injured in the attack on the school.

The battered Gaza Strip has been subject to a severe lack of humanitarian aid due to Israel’s closure of all border crossings.

The head of the Palestinian NGO Network also confirms that children are suffering from malnutrition as “severe famine” has overtaken Gaza. “Our warehouses are almost empty of aid,” Shawa said, warning of “catastrophic conditions.”

Tel Aviv has stepped up its attacks and total siege – particularly in north Gaza – where over 100,000 people have been forcibly expelled and thousands killed in a few months.

This comes as part of the unofficial implementation of the Generals’ Plan, which aims to make northern Gaza uninhabitable through mass destruction, killing, and expulsion. Israel aims to completely empty out north Gaza and transform the area into an isolated military zone.

As part of this plan, Israel is also waging a brutal war against medical facilities in northern Gaza. The few remaining hospitals are under siege and constant attacks by Israel, particularly Beit Lahia’s Kamal Adwan Hospital – which has been raided numerous times by the Israeli military.

Amnesty International released a report on 5 December saying there is “sufficient” evidence that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in its war on the Gaza Strip.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-a ... in-one-day

Those nukes (that don't exist...) have stood the Zionists in good stead. Had the Axis of Resistance gone all in they could have overwhelmed the murderous bastards but the fear of mushroom clouds held Iran back. Now it looks as though they might hang separately. Tehran better get their nukes post-haste or they'll be next. The example of North Korea should not be dismissed or ignored.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 18, 2024 12:11 pm

Resistance is Not Dead: Challenges Ahead
Posted by Internationalist 360° on December 17, 2024
Robert Inlakesh

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There are a number of ways that this conflict can now go, all of which will involve resistance to the Zionist regime’s endeavours on every front.

While the recent series of events in occupied Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon have been broadly interpreted as the “defeat” of the regional Resistance, the current situation now presents the opportunity for a re-imagining of the struggle for liberation.

The crisis that now faces Palestine and the rest of the surrounding region is indeed great, this cannot be undermined. It is also indisputable that the path that everyone saw as the most obvious route to liberation is now cut off. Yet, if you are lost in the wilderness and cannot see a clear path forward, you either give up and die or decide to clear another route in spite of its evident challenges.

While it is easy to be dragged into a pessimistic outlook, the people of Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria simply cannot afford to do this. In Gaza, while the official death toll has surpassed 45,000, it is much more likely that the true figure is in the hundreds of thousands. The Lebanese people have also suffered immensely, losing nearly 3,000 people to the last Zionist onslaught.

The supply line to Hezbollah has for now been severed, the Syrian State is currently fractured and loses more land to the Zionist regime daily, while the Israelis eye West Bank annexation and continue to pulverise what infrastructure remains in the Gaza Strip. The plot hatched against Lebanon was enormous and led to the deaths of a large portion of Hezbollah’s senior leadership, including the group’s late Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

While the unprecedented loss of civilian life, destruction of infrastructure, blows to Resistance groups and loss of its leaders are all massive wounds, they are also gigantic sacrifices that have been offered in a battle towards a struggle that lives on until it achieves its goals. Giving up is not an option for the Lebanese people who still watch as Israeli soldiers occupy their villages in the South and destroy their homes, nor is it an option for displaced Palestinians who have suffered through 14 months of a genocidal assault, nor is it ultimately an option for the people of Syria; some of whom are now facing occupation and ethnic cleansing.

The Rebirth of Resistance

Looking at the history of armed and popular resistance against US-Israeli tyranny in the region provides a much more sober take on the predicaments of today, which require shrewd political decision-making, creativity, and motivation to achieve its success.

In Palestine, this resistance can be traced back beyond the confines of American involvement. Back in 1936, the Palestinian people launched what was called the “Arab Revolt”, an armed revolution intended to thwart the goals of the Zionist movement and the British Mandate authorities. Eventually, this uprising resulted in a defeat by the year 1939, even contributing to why the Palestinian Resistance was so weak by the time that Zionist militias decided to start ethnically cleansing the land in 1947.

While the Arab Revolt could be interpreted by pessimistic onlookers as having resulted in a net negative, due to the fact that both the British and Zionists had managed to thwart the uprising, dismantling many resistance factions, it ended up providing the inspiration, symbols and ideas for generations of armed struggle to come.

In 1948, the Arab World’s intervention on the side of the Palestinians failed to combat Zionist expansionism in most cases. This came down to a combination of the weakness of Arab forces following a tumultuous period of their own, coupled with deals that were struck behind the scenes and also hesitancy. Although fighters on the front lines confronted the European settler colonial forces valiantly, the newly declared Zionist regime would end up projecting an image of immense strength.

In 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser had managed to salvage the image of the Arab World to an extent after the failed tripartite invasion of Egypt by the Israelis, French and British forces. Yet, come 1967, the Zionists managed to illegally occupy the Golan Heights, West Bank, Gaza, East Al-Quds and Sinai Peninsula. Why? Because the Israelis launched a surprise attack against the Arab nations that had not developed sufficient defensive or offensive strategies in the midst of a worst case scenario situation.

The next year, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), alongside elements of the Jordanian army, fought a 15-hour-long battle against the Israeli occupation forces in the town of Karameh. Despite the PLO losing far more fighters than the Israelis did, the mere fact that they had managed to score successes against the Zionist army was viewed as a significant moment in the history of armed resistance. While many had viewed the Israelis as unbeatable, the battle of Karameh began to expose weaknesses and inspire further resistance.

Following Black September in 1970, when thousands of Palestinians were killed during armed conflict between the Jordanian army and PLO, the Palestinian Resistance was expelled and forced to create a new base inside Lebanon by 1971. During this period, Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser died and with him the ideology of secular Arab Nationalism was dealt an enormous blow.

Yet, the Palestinian Resistance continued even after losing the massive Jordanian border space with occupied Palestine from which to launch their assaults. After fighting battle after battle from Lebanon, in 1982 the Israelis invaded Lebanon. The invasion led to the expulsion of the PLO from Beirut, the occupation of southern Lebanon, and the murder of around 20,000 people; most of them civilians.

The PLO were frankly underprepared, failed to anticipate the Israeli assault properly, and following their forced expulsion to Tunisia, the Palestinian refugee camps were left open for the Israelis to use their fascist militia allies to massacre thousands of innocent people. For some time, it appeared as if the Palestinian revolution was slowly fading away and that the Palestinian leadership was too weak to launch any meaningful resistance against the Zionist Entity.

Seemingly out of nowhere, then came the rise of a new era of resistance, the Islamic resistance. In Palestine, the foundations for what later became Hamas and what emerged in the early 1980s as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), would emerge from Gaza. Similarly, in southern Lebanon, came the rise of Hezbollah.

In 1987, the Palestinian people of the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip launched a popular uprising, the Intifada, which put the Zionist Entity in crisis mode. The blow to Israeli public relations, economic strain, and distraction of their army forced them to reconsider the agenda going forward and would lead to the Oslo Accords that were signed with the PLO.

While it was clear that the Zionists only intended the Oslo Accords as a means of building a Palestinian entity that would work to achieve their security goals, taking advantage of a weakened PLO, this then led to the Second Intifada. In 2002, through the so-called Operation Defensive Shield, the Israeli army managed to crush the armed resistance that emerged and emanated primarily from the northern West Bank. Yet its 2004 “Operation Days of Penitence” in northern Gaza had failed to crush the resistance forces.

In the end, Gaza’s Resistance endured and managed to grow stronger by the year without receiving much foreign military support. In fact, today the weapons we see used by the some dozen armed groups in Gaza are almost solely manufactured locally underground. It wasn’t until 2021 that the resistance would re-emerge in the West Bank however, but the key point here is that it did begin to revive itself.

In Lebanon, the expulsion of the Israeli occupation in the year 2000 and the successful combating of the Zionist invasion of southern Lebanon in 2006, led to an equation of perceived deterrence. As significant as these victories were, the Israelis never stopped plotting for the day that the war would again open up with Lebanon and this is what the world witnessed earlier this September.

What happens next

The question of Hezbollah’s future is now the subject of great debate, with some even questioning whether it will collapse. The truth with Hezbollah is that it emerged and managed to expel the Israeli occupation forces without the more sophisticated weapons that it later acquired through Syria and currently has its own underground weapons manufacturing capacity.

As long as there is a will to combat the Israelis and their expansionist endeavours, Hezbollah will remain. It is now also possible that the Zionist Entity will choose to use what it sees as a historic opportunity to use its occupation of Syrian lands in order to invade Lebanese territory from the Bekaa Valley area, which could open up new pathways for resistance on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border.

Hezbollah can successfully combat an Israeli assault that seeks to annihilate it, which could be its next test. Despite it now having to use its sophisticated weapons more sparingly, it now has time to fix a number of more existential problems that it was forced to begin facing following the Israeli pager attacks and assassinations of its senior leadership.

In Gaza, the Resistance groups have managed to survive and continue recruiting new fighters over the span of more than 14 months. The Palestinian Resistance was never even close to the strength of Hezbollah, yet has still not been defeated amidst famine, the destruction of most of the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure, and a full-scale genocidal assault, the likes of which is unique in human history. Therefore, the assumption that Hezbollah is doomed without access to advanced missiles does not carry much weight.

On the Syrian front, it appears that the Israeli occupation forces will continue their advances into the south of the country and will remain in many areas they occupy. Although the current Syrian transitional government led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has repeatedly stressed that it will do nothing to protect the country from the ongoing Israeli airstrikes and invasion, only talking about how its enemies are Iran and Hezbollah, there is not yet any chance they will do anything in this regard.

Without going too deep into the Syria analysis, the leadership we see emerging will not likely last too long in its current form and even if it wanted to act against the Israelis – which it clearly expresses no interest in doing – it would be swiftly eliminated. Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham is faced with fulfilling the interests of the US, UK, Turkiye, Qatar, and others, which could lead to the current government’s collapse alone. However, the US holds most of the cards here, it dangles sanctions, terrorist designations, access to resources, and foreign aid above the head of HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, on top of the fact that a myriad of foreign intelligence agencies could act at any time to kill him and others within his ranks, if they step out of line with their interests.

Yet, the more brazen and aggressive the Israelis become in Syria, the more opportunities will present themselves for resistance against them. Eventually, it is inconceivable that there will not be resistance groups that emerge to fight the occupation forces inside of Syrian territory. In the event that this happens soon, there is little that the HTS-led government will be able to do to stop such resistance too, as the majority of the Syrian population are in favour of combating the Israelis.

The prospects for resistance against the Israelis to emerge in Syria are far from lost. Such a resistance may take some time to emerge and develop, but there is a window of opportunity that is still very much open and even the slightest mistake by the regime in Tel Aviv could plunge it into a new kind of chaos. The situation in Syria could also eventually create friction inside of Jordan, which creates another unpredictable front.

Inside the Zionist Entity, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now seems to have completely shifted the regional balance of power. While following October 7, 2023, the Iranian government appeared to be in a position of unmatched power, the Zionists now seem poised to deliver the last blows that will achieve what Netanyahu calls “total victory”. The US-Israeli partnership seeks to launch plots against Iran and Yemen, which would complete their project in response to the defeat they suffered due to the Hamas-led October 7 attack.

Despite the damage inflicted to Iran’s Axis of Resistance in the region, the Israelis are also battered and only currently exist on American life-support. The Israeli economic, society, political system, and military are all in tatters, while there is no clear vision for the future beyond pursuing expansionism and perpetual war. Even in the event that this round of the conflict is put on pause, it will inevitably reignite again. The image of the Zionist Entity has collapsed and it is hated globally on an unprecedented scale for its sheer racist barbarism.

There are a number of ways that this conflict can now go, all of which will involve resistance to the Zionist regime’s endeavours on every front. Even if it takes years to revive any one of the resistance fronts, a terrorised and occupied people will continually struggle for justice.

One thing that the Israelis succeeded at doing for years is presenting themselves as negotiable and rational actors in the region, allowing the impression that “deterrence” could be achieved against them and that they would not act out of line with what were perceived as “national interests”. Deterrence is impossible with the Zionist Entity, because it is not a State, it is a settler-colonial usurper project that acts as an American power projection tool with its own Daesh-type ideology behind it.

If it is going to be defeated, this will take innovative thinking. and whoever opposes it cannot live in a state of comfortability, because no matter how miniscule the role that any nation or organisation plays in combating the Israeli project, it will be targeted for complete annihilation. On the other hand, if the people of the region do not act against it and simply exist in its way, their very existence poses a threat to the Zionist project and therefore they will be a subject of its extreme oppression.

There is no such thing as normalisation, no such thing as being an Israeli ally and no such thing as achieving deterrence. All of these tactics will end in absolute disaster for the people of West Asia, no matter how cozy any regime feels it is with the Zionist Entity.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/12/ ... ges-ahead/

*******

Hezbollah without Damascus: Adapting in the wake of a severed supply line

Hezbollah has suffered a significant blow with the loss of its Syrian supply route and major setbacks on the battlefield. However, the movement's ability to adapt – through local weaponry production, scaling back operations, and tapping into black market networks – has enabled its survival and set it on a path to recovery as the year draws to an unpredictable close.


The Cradle's Military Correspondent

DEC 17, 2024

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Photo Credit: The Cradle

Since the devastating setbacks in September, Hezbollah has faced a grueling test of resilience. The losses have been severe – key leaders, cadres, and fighters have fallen – but the damage has not been limited to the human cost.

A significant portion of Hezbollah’s extensive arsenal, spanning light and heavy weaponry, has been targeted and disrupted, leaving the group in need of urgent reconstruction alongside its allies in the Axis of Resistance.

As the guns fell temporarily silent in Lebanon with the onset of an already violated ceasefire, the conflict took on a new dimension in neighboring Syria. Armed factions led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – formerly known as the Nusra Front – launched a swift and coordinated offensive, seizing one city after another, leading to the fall of Damascus.

The speed of their advance triggered the collapse of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government in a matter of 11 days. Assad's government was a critical ally of Hezbollah and a key logistical artery for the transfer of weapons and fighters from Iran. This collapse marked the severing of a lifeline that had long sustained Hezbollah’s military operations.

Hezbollah loses the Syrian supply line

Meanwhile, Israel intensified its aerial campaign, carrying out hundreds of precision strikes across Syria. These targeted not only the Syrian army’s strategic stockpiles but also warehouses used by Hezbollah and its allies as reserve storage. The Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, confirmed on Saturday what many had already suspected: the supply route through Syria has been severed.

“Yes, Hezbollah has lost the military supply route through Syria at this stage, but this loss is a detail in the resistance's work,” Qassem said before adding, “A new regime could come, and this route could return to normal, and we could look for other ways."

This predicament raises fundamental questions: Can Hezbollah overcome the loss of its most vital supply line? What strategies might allow it to adapt to this new reality? Are there alternative pathways to replenish its capabilities?

The role of domestic manufacturing

Hezbollah's resilience in overcoming past crises has largely relied on its focus on local manufacturing, especially of missiles and drones. Over the years, the resistance movement has domestically developed and modified weapon systems, combining ingenuity with limited resources.

Many of the launchers destroyed in recent strikes were locally produced, including those designed for saturation missile launches like the Fadi rocket.

In the field of precision missiles, systems such as Nasr 1 and Qader 2 appear to be modified versions of older models, like Zelzal and Khaybar, equipped with upgraded guidance systems. While most physical components – bodies, warheads, and fuel – are produced locally, critical electronic parts, despite being smaller and more discreet, may have been smuggled in or assembled using civilian-grade materials.

The same applies to drones. Systems like the Ababil 2-T and Shahed 101 have gained prominence precisely because their design relies heavily on civilian technologies: engines, imaging devices, and basic guidance systems. Warheads are then tailored to meet specific operational needs.

The expertise to produce these weapons remains unharmed. Yet what is uncertain is the extent to which Hezbollah can rebuild its production capacity under current pressures, given the difficulties in acquiring specialized components like thermal sensors or military-grade electronics.

Adapting strategy: Downsizing and redefining priorities

Faced with immense logistical challenges and diminishing resources, Hezbollah may need to transition from an offensive strategy to a more defensive stance. Previously, the group maintained two distinct forces in southern Lebanon: the geographic defense units, such as the Nasr and Aziz that were tasked with holding territory, and the elite Radwan Brigade trained for offensive operations deep into northern Israel.

The changing realities on the ground may now compel Hezbollah to redirect its offensive forces to bolster defensive operations. This would not only reduce logistical demands but also align with the group’s immediate needs: secrecy, flexibility, and a focus on resilience.

Naturally, defensive operations require fewer specialized weapons and mostly rely on geographic familiarity and asymmetric tactics. The recent Israeli strikes primarily inflicted losses on offensive capabilities – assets that may no longer be immediately necessary.

By consolidating its forces, Hezbollah can reallocate its resources to rebuilding its defensive infrastructure while maintaining strategic reserves for contingencies.

Smuggling and the black market

While the Syrian supply route has been disrupted due to the collapse of the Assad government, alternative avenues for acquiring arms remain. Lebanon’s black market has long served as a source for small and medium weapons, including machine guns, sniper rifles, and ammunition.

Smuggling networks – by land, sea, or even air – have proven resilient in the past and may provide a temporary solution. Despite international monitoring efforts led by an unreliable UNIFIL and western powers, Hezbollah could take advantage of enforcement gaps, similar to how weapons shipments previously reached Syrian rebels undetected.

Smuggling is risky, but history shows that where there is demand, supply routes will emerge – however clandestine they may be.

As long as trade routes exist, so will the black market and smuggling, allowing people to acquire what they need at the right price, much like the Lutfallah ship did when it entered to supply arms to the Syrian rebels in the past.

A partner in post-Assad Syria?

While Hezbollah was once firmly aligned with Assad, the movement has shown pragmatism in dealing with Syria's new leadership – despite ongoing hostilities and Israeli incursions. The new authority in Damascus faces a stark choice: align with Arab states that favor normalization with the occupation state, or seek alternative alliances to secure its survival.

If it opts for the latter, a renewed partnership with Iran and Hezbollah cannot be ruled out. However, such a scenario remains distant, contingent on shifting political and military dynamics. As Naim Qassem said in his speech on Saturday:

“We also hope that this new ruling party will consider Israel an enemy and not normalise relations with it. These are the headlines that will affect the nature of the relationship between us and Syria.”

The blow dealt to Hezbollah in recent months is undeniable, but it is far from decisive. While the loss of Syria as a supply line poses a significant challenge, the resistance movement’s history is one of adaptation and resilience.

From local manufacturing to strategic downsizing and exploiting black market networks, Hezbollah has proven its ability to adjust to even the harshest circumstances. While the current phase may be one of the most challenging the group has encountered, it is not without precedent.

Since its formation during the Lebanese Civil War and Israel’s ill-fated invasion of south Lebanon, Hezbollah has consistently demonstrated its ability to operate discreetly, adapt strategically, and endure when survival is at stake. Regardless of whether the resistance movement will ally with the new Syrian government or not, its primary focus remains clear: to weather the storm and emerge intact, prepared to face whatever challenges lie ahead.

https://thecradle.co/articles/palestini ... ing-report

Controversy hits CNN over 'staged' report on Syrian prisoner rescue

CNN's chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward has staged reports in the past and acknowledged her reporting in Syria has not been truthful

News Desk

DEC 17, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: CNN)

CNN has acknowledged that a report filed by star journalist Clarissa Ward from Syria claiming to show her discovering a prisoner in a Damascus jail was false.

The description of the video report stated that “Clarissa Ward discovers a man in a cell in a Damascus jail who claimed to be an ordinary citizen imprisoned by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.”

As Ward, her cameraman, and a militant from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the cell, a man lying under a blanket suddenly stood up and acted surprised to see them. He further claimed that he had been detained in the cell for three months and that he was not aware that the government of Bashar al-Assad had fallen.

However, observers online quickly observed the report was not accurate and had been staged for dramatic effect by Ward and CNN.

After CNN posted a link to the video report on X, which remains undeleted, a community note flagged the act as “clearly staged.”

“There is no chance a prisoner who was in the darkness can look with wide eyes at the sun. Additionally, his jacket is clean, and he has a new haircut and clean nails, which is not a possible case for Syria’s prisons,” the note explained.

Image

Further, the prison had been opened, and the prisoners were released days before as HTS fighters took control of Damascus on 8 December.

CNN later retracted the report, claiming Ward and her team had been misled by the man.

CNN explained the error by claiming that Syrians from Homs had identified the man as Salama Mohammad Salama, a lieutenant in the former Syrian government’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate.

“Facial recognition software provided a match of more than 99 percent with the man CNN met in the Damascus prison cell. The photograph shows him sitting at a desk, apparently in military clothing," CNN wrote.

However, CNN refused to provide evidence that the photo exists, saying, “CNN is not publishing the photo to protect the source’s anonymity.”

Syrian fact-checking organization Verify-sy cites locals as saying that Salama managed different security checkpoints across Homs and was involved in “theft, extortion and coercing residents into becoming informants." According to these sources, he had been recently detained due to his involvement in extortion.

After the fall of the government last week, many Syrians have gone to prisons and hospitals to search for loved ones detained or disappeared during the war, which began in 2011.

In March of that year, Al-Qaeda militants, including from HTS’s predecessor group, the Nusra Front, launched an insurgency to topple the government with help from foreign intelligence agencies.

Syrian intelligence detained many Syrians during the course of the war, some on suspicion of supporting the insurgency and others for no apparent reason. Many have never been seen again.

Clarissa Ward has a history of staging reports in Gaza and Syria.


Ward has also acknowledged that her past reporting in Syria has not been truthful.

In a June 2021 interview with CBS News, Ward, CNN’s chief international correspondent, acknowledged the bias in her reporting.

“Yeah, I mean, you know, I will cop to the fact that I think I crossed the line in Syria. I became so emotionally involved, and I was crushed by the US response and the US policy,” Ward stated while advocating for regime change and brutal economic sanctions that have punished Syrian civilians.

https://thecradle.co/articles/controver ... ner-rescue

Palestinians will not return to north Gaza, Israeli ‘Generals' Plan’ in full swing: Report

At least 100,000 people have been expelled and thousands killed in northern Gaza over the last few months

News Desk

DEC 17, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Anas al-Shareef/Reuters)

Israel’s military is inching closer towards the full implementation of the controversial Generals’ Plan in northern Gaza, and will work to prevent the return of displaced Palestinians to the area even after the extermination and siege campaign in the strip comes to an end, Hebrew media reported on 17 December.

“The ‘Generals' Plan’ is on its way to implementation, and the northern third of the Gaza Strip is expected to remain sparsely populated – unless a hostage deal changes the picture,” the Ynet news site said.

The Israeli army, which is “subject to the political echelon – is expected to leave the upper, northernmost third of the Gaza Strip as a dismembered and depopulated area,” the report went to say, added that “all of this, of course, could change if a hostage deal is signed that changes the current reality in Gaza.”

A Ynet investigation reveals that the Israeli army’s Southern Command is preparing “to prevent Gazans from returning to their homes in Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia, which overlook Israeli settlements such as Netiv Ha'esra, Sderot, Mefalsim, and Erez.”

It adds that the most significant element of the Generals’ Plan is about to be realized, “systematic cleansing of large areas in the northern Gaza Strip of the enemy one by one, without returning the Gazans to their homes.”

Ynet also says that Hamas needs the presence of a civilian population in order to regroup and rehabilitate, as well as the lack of an “alternative government” in Gaza.

“Israel refuses to establish an alternative government to Hamas, thereby helping it survive as a battered and weak asset – but one that exists. If Israeli policy does not change, the Hamas government is expected to remain in Gaza for years to come.”

Israel’s military and political establishment are divided on whether Tel Aviv should establish permanent military rule in Gaza or not. According to several recent reports, a permanent Israeli military and security presence in the strip is likely to be the case.

A new, three-stage truce and exchange proposal being discussed for Gaza is reportedly in its final stages.

According to sources cited by Times of Israel, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes he’ll have more flexibility under Trump to resume fighting after the first phase” of the proposed agreement.

Over 250 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza over the past two days. At least 100,000 people have been forcibly expelled and thousands killed in the north alone in just a few months.

https://thecradle.co/articles/palestini ... ing-report

'Hostage deal' ain't gonna change jack, Bibi would as soon see those people dead, they're a burr under his saddle.

Yemeni defense ministry comes under US–British bombardment

As Sanaa remains undeterred by Washington’s campaign against it, Israel is said to be planning a ‘major attack’ in Yemen

News Desk

DEC 17, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: AP)
US and British military aircraft launched violent strikes on Yemen early on 17 December, targeting the premises of the Sanaa government’s Ministry of Defense.

Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported that “the raids targeted the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in the Al-Ardi area” in Yemen’s capital Sanaa.

This was the second consecutive day in which US–UK jets targeted the country. US and British strikes targeted the Midi district in Yemen’s Hajja province on 16 December.

The strikes come as Yemeni military operations continue to target sites within Israel, as well as US warships and Israeli maritime interests in the Red and Arab Seas.

The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) launched a drone and missile toward Israel on Monday. It also fired multiple drones and a missile at three commercial ships being escorted by the US Navy ships in the Gulf of Aden that day.

“[In] response to the ongoing massacres against our brothers in Gaza … The missile force carried out a military operation targeting a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied Yaffa area, using a Palestine 2 hypersonic ballistic missile,” said Yemeni army spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree in a statement on Monday.

Sirens sounded in several areas. The Israeli army said it managed to intercept a missile and drone coming from Yemen.

Since the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel was signed on 27 November, Sanaa’s forces have continued to target Israel with drone and missile operations – sometimes executed in cooperation with the Iraqi resistance.

Israel’s Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) reported on Monday that Tel Aviv “has begun to notice that [Yemen's Ansarallah] has taken upon itself the responsibility of continuing attacks on Israel.”

The Yemeni army announced several drone operations against Israel on 13 December, including one carried out in cooperation with the Iraqi resistance.

KAN cited a senior Israeli official as saying last week that Tel Aviv is planning a “major attack” against Yemen.

In July this year, Israeli jets launched a massive and deadly attack on Yemen following a Yemeni drone strike on Tel Aviv that resulted in the death of one Israeli and injuries to ten others.

https://thecradle.co/articles/yemeni-de ... ombardment
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Thu Dec 19, 2024 12:12 pm

The Fenzel Plan: How the US Engineered the PA’s West Bank Crackdown
Posted by Internationalist 360° on December 18, 2024
Robert Inlakesh

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The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has initiated an armed crackdown against its own people in the occupied West Bank, a campaign reportedly backed and orchestrated by the United States. While corporate media narratives attempt to distance Washington from the operation, its roots trace back years.

On Saturday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas directed the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) to execute a large-scale operation targeting resistance groups in the embattled Jenin refugee camp. PA spokesperson Brigadier General Anwar Rajab justified the crackdown by accusing these groups of sowing “sedition and chaos,” portraying them as foreign-backed Islamist criminals.

The operation swiftly escalated, resulting in the killing of two Palestinians, including an unarmed teenager and a fighter aligned with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), who was a leader within the Jenin Brigades group. Accusations against the Palestinian Authority forces quickly mounted. UN officials condemned their actions, reporting that security forces had opened fire on unarmed minors.

PA forces were also documented using a hospital as a military base during the crackdown. From within the medical facility, they reportedly opened fire and detained eight individuals.

The Palestinian Authority has sought military support from the United States, specifically requesting armored vehicles and ammunition to bolster its forces. In response, Washington has reportedly urged Israel to approve the transfer of such equipment.

It’s a war zone.

The PA security forces (including the new S.A.T unit) have been waging a large scale military operation against Jenin refugee camp.

While PA spokesperson Anwar Rajab told reporters that this was an operation against lawlessness and chaos, it was clear that PA… pic.twitter.com/Vr4p0DGS52

— Mariam Barghouti مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) December 14, 2024


Ahead of the operation, U.S. Security Coordinator Michael Fenzel is said to have held meetings with the PA security forces’ leadership. These discussions reportedly centered on the planned crackdown.

Trained by U.S. and Canadian armed forces, the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) 2,000-strong 101st Unit has now been assigned the task of dismantling resistance groups based in Jenin. These groups span a broad political spectrum, from secular factions to religious ones.

In the wake of the siege on the Jenin refugee camp, which has resulted in the killing of at least four Palestinians, the injuring of several others, and widespread raids on civilian homes, residents of Jenin have begun staging demonstrations against the increasingly unpopular Palestinian Authority. Anger among the population has reached a boiling point, with many likening the PA’s actions to those of the Israeli military.

“The PA does not have bulldozers like the [Israeli] army does. That is the only difference. The raid is the same, the blockade is the same,” one Jenin resident told Reuters.

Mainstream media outlets, including the Associated Press, have characterized the crackdown as “an unusual step for the Palestinian Authority.” Other outlets sought to portray the resistance groups as Iranian-linked, attempting to paint them as foreign infiltrators instead of grassroots resistance movements in the court of public opinion.

Speaking to Axios, a Palestinian Authority official described the Jenin operation as an effort to prevent “a Muslim-Brotherhood-style or an Iranian-funded takeover.” The official further revealed that the PA had sought approval and guidance from the United States for the operation, submitting requests for “ammunition, helmets, bulletproof vests, radios, night vision equipment, explosive disposal suits, and armored cars.”

The Axios report also cited unnamed sources claiming that the Biden administration had urged Israel to release PA tax revenues to help cover employee salaries during the crackdown.

The United States had advocated for such a crackdown long before its recent implementation. In January 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the Palestinian Authority to accept the so-called “Fenzel Plan.” This American initiative proposed the creation of a specialized Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) unit, trained by U.S. personnel in Jordan, to carry out precisely the type of operation now underway in Jenin.

The PA is there to safely return the settlers that stormed Joseph’s Tomb but are shooting at Palestinians in Jenin as we speak.

Amazing. https://t.co/3YKqxa1DWp pic.twitter.com/5XUvk0WAYx

— cheri (@cheriblossom__) December 18, 2024


To advance this strategy, the United States facilitated a high-level security meeting in February 2023 in the Jordanian city of Aqaba. The gathering brought together Jordanian, Israeli, American, Palestinian Authority, and Egyptian officials to coordinate their approach.

A follow-up meeting was held the following month in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, where the same group of officials convened and issued a communique reaffirming their plans.

With Iran’s regional influence weakened by recent developments in Lebanon and Syria, and as the Israeli government advances plans to annex significant portions of the West Bank, the U.S.-backed strategy appears focused on suppressing Palestinian opposition to Washington’s agenda. Central to this effort is the use of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) as a proxy.

The Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a coalition of resistance groups, issued a statement condemning the Palestinian Authority’s crackdown as “a serious violation of all national norms and traditions … in line with the Zionist agenda that aims to eliminate the resistance in the West Bank.”

Initially concentrated in Jenin, the operation is now set to expand to other areas, including Nablus and Tulkarem. Its ultimate aim appears to be the total dismantling of armed resistance groups, paving the way for Israel to assert control over the northern West Bank without opposition.

Feature photo | A Palestinian security officer fires tear gas at protesters in the center of the West Bank city of Jenin. Nasser Ishtayeh | AP[/i]

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/12/ ... crackdown/

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Hamas replenishes ranks in Gaza with thousands of new fighters: Report

Recent days have seen fierce clashes reignite between Israeli troops and Palestinian resistance fighters in the besieged northern Gaza

News Desk

DEC 18, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has recruited thousands of new resistance fighters into its ranks in the Gaza Strip and is adapting to the harsh conditions it faces in battles with Israeli troops, who continue to suffer from exhaustion and mental disorders, according to Hebrew reports on 18 December.

“Hamas has recruited some 4,000 new operatives for the military wing in recent months,” Israeli news site Walla reported on Wednesday, citing sources in the military’s southern command.

“They continue to operate in an unusual manner in terms of methods of operation against the [army] … In some places Hamas has adapted itself to fighting against the forces in the southern Gaza Strip,” the sources added.

The report adds that throughout the war, Qassam Brigades fighters have been able to evade intelligence and foiling operations.

Mohammad Sinwar, Qassam Brigades military leader and brother of late Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, and commander Izz al-Din Haddad are the two leaders directing the Palestinian resistance group’s operations, according to the news site. “They have been very careful not to expose themselves.”

Recent days have seen a reignition of fierce battles in Gaza as Hamas’ military wing rebuilds its ranks.

A Qassam Brigades statement released on Wednesday said a resistance fighter managed to kill an Israeli soldier near his tank and seize his weapon before throwing two grenades into the Merkava. The operation took place in the northern city of Beit Lahia.

The group also announced targeting an Israeli troop carrier with an explosive device and killing five soldiers “point blank” in north Gaza’s Jabalia.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army is exhausted, depleted, and psychologically damaged by the war that has been ongoing for over a year, and fierce ground battles.

“The army estimates that by 2030, the number of disabled soldiers will reach 100,000, with 60 percent expected to suffer from mental disorders,” Israel’s Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) reported on Wednesday.

More and more soldiers are also refusing to serve in the army. Many are depressed, worn out, psychologically damaged, and unmotivated, according to a report by Ha-Makom magazine published on 20 October.

One parent of a soldier cited in the Ha-Makom report said that, according to her son, “The wards are empty. Everyone who is not dead or injured is mentally damaged. There are very few left who returned to fight. And they're not quite right either.”

It remains unclear, until this point, how long it may take for the war to end. While reports have indicated progress in recent ceasefire talks, Israel has not come close to accepting Hamas’ terms for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. On the contrary, it appears that Israel is gearing up for a long-term presence in the strip, according to Israeli media reports last month.

A new, three-stage truce and exchange proposal for Gaza is currently being discussed in Qatar. A Palestinian negotiator told BBC on Tuesday that the talks are in their final stage.

“Hamas confirms that in light of the serious and positive discussions taking place in Doha today under the auspices of the Qatari and Egyptian mediator brothers, reaching an agreement for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange is possible if [Israel] stops setting new conditions,” Hamas said in a statement on 17 December.

https://thecradle.co/articles/hamas-rep ... ers-report

You knew that was going to happen, 'the blood of martyrs'...a powerful motivator, as is revenge. And this is an additional motivation for Zionist's genocide.

ICU at Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital set ablaze by latest Israeli attack

Northern Gaza’s health sector is on the brink of total collapse as medical facilities and doctors face a brutal siege and non-stop attacks

News Desk

DEC 18, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images)

A large fire erupted in north Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital early on 18 December as a result of Israeli attacks on the facility as the health sector in the northern strip is on the brink of total collapse.

Following a night of relentless targeting and shelling of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Israeli tanks opened fire at the facility early on Tuesday, causing a massive fire to break out in its Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Images circulating on social media showed the fire in the ICU.

“We were surprised by the entry of vehicles and bulldozers into the vicinity of the hospital, which was preceded by a terrifying targeting of citizens' homes in the vicinity. We heard gunfire and shells without being able to do anything,” said the hospital’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safia, who was recently injured by Israeli attacks on the facility, in a video posted on X.

“Crazy gunfire was fired at the hospital with all kinds of weapons, and the occupation deliberately targeted the intensive care unit by firing at it clearly.”

He added that ICU patients on ventilators were “miraculously” evacuated from the department as the strikes made impact and the fire broke out.

Kamal Adwan Hospital’s ICU is now out of service, Abu Safia confirmed.

“We have appealed to the world for more than 75 days to provide protection for the health system and its workers, but there is no response."

Several other Israeli attacks targeted Kamal Adwan Hospital and its surroundings overnight. The hospital has come under daily attacks since Israel began its brutal siege on northern Gaza. It has lost a lot of essential equipment, as water and oxygen tanks have been destroyed by Israeli fire.

Israeli troops have also raided the hospital several times, detaining patients and medical staff.

An Israeli raid targeted the hospital’s vicinity on 14 December while a delegation from the World Health Organization (WHO) was present. WHO has still been unable to gain access to Kamal Adwan Hospital.

The Indonesian Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza are also under siege and constant Israeli attacks.

Last week, an Israeli drone opened fire at and killed the last orthopedic surgeon in Gaza, Dr Saeed Joudeh, as he was traveling between Al-Awda Hospital and Kamal Adwan Hospital.

https://thecradle.co/articles/icu-at-ga ... eli-attack

******

Shattering the Iron Wall
Posted by Internationalist 360° on November 15, 2024
Jianghuqizi (江湖弃子)

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Portrait of martyred Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Chinese web artist Dong Tian (東田)

Qiao Collective is pleased to present an original translation of a video essay by Chinese political analyst Jianghuqizi (江湖弃子), exploring in detail the dialectic of colonial counterinsurgency, collaboration, and anti-colonial resistance through martyred Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s semi-autobiographical novel The Thorn and the Carnation and its many parallels with China’s War of Resistance against Japan.
Qaio Editor’s Foreword

As the Zionist project continues to show its true, ugly colors, the parallels between the Chinese and Palestinian struggles grow clearer each day. For the Chinese people, Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza evokes painful, sobering memories of their own history. In 1931, following the annexation of Taiwan 36 years prior, the Imperial Japanese Army began its formal conquest of Mainland China as it annexed Northeast China and formed Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state.

Over the next 14 years, over one million Japanese settlers occupied the Northeast. They took control of Chinese farmland and formed segregated communities not dissimilar to the modern-day Israeli settlements. Throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1945, Japan made its way through China, conquering vast swaths of land and slaughtering over 20 million Chinese (the second-highest number of total casualties, following the Soviet Union). While Imperial Japan formally surrendered in 1945, China’s path to victory was paved with inner turmoil, ideological struggle, and painful tragedy.

Chinese political commentator content creator Jianghuqizi (江湖弃子) articulates the similarities between the Chinese and Palestinian struggles against occupation in his video essay “Shattering the Iron Wall,” part of a long-running series on Israel and Palestine. Jianghuqizi’s essay begins with a discussion of the infamous traitor Wang Jingwei before a lengthy analysis of Star Wars, Japanese and Israeli occupation strategy, and their Fanonian effects on the colonized psyche. He details the life and work of Yahya Sinwar, drawing from Sinwar’s autobiographical fiction The Thorn and the Carnation. Recalling painful memories of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Jianghuqizi masterfully shows that commonalities between China and Palestine run more than skin deep.

Qiao Collective is proud to transcribe, translate and present Jianghuqizi’s latest work. For a detailed history of Chinese support for the Palestinian struggle, we invite a close reading of our four-part essay, The Gates of the Great Continent: Palestine, China, and the War for Humanity’s Future.
Introduction

In 1942, the infamous hanjian1 Wang Jingwei2 climbed the Polaris Pavilion in northern Nanjing. During his journey, he recited a poem by the late Jin Dynasty poet Yuan Haowen. He wrote,3

On the Double-Ninth Day I climbed the Polaris Pavilion. While reading Yuan Haowen’s ci poem, I was struck by the line “Like a painting: mountains and rivers in my lost fatherland; / In drunkenness I forget about the rise or the fall [of states].” It stirred endless sorrow in my heart. So I composed the following song.

A soaring city tower leans against a gray sky;

Wild geese glide leisurely below.

Across the land the rustle of fallen leaves.

Yellow chrysanthemums hold back the sinking sun.

My palms have pounded all the railings;

My chest weighs heavy with a lump;

An airy landscape stretches before my eyes.

I ask the green mountains, the emerald waters:

How many rises and falls can you stand?


Yuan Haowen, witnessing the fall of the Jin Dynasty, refused to serve the ascendant Yuan Dynasty, living the remainder of his years in hiding, editing Jin Dynasty literature and history. Wang’s line “My palms have pounded the railings” was borrowed from the famous patriotic poet, Xin Qiji, whose grandfather Xin Zan served the Jin Dynasty. Xin Qiji fled southwards to Song Dynasty territory, where he spent his life dreaming of resisting the Jin, and for the Song Dynasty to reclaim the land that was once their own.4

Yuan Haowen and Xin Qiji. One was left a faithful orphan by the fall of the Jin Dynasty. The other dedicated his life to resisting the very same regime during its golden age. Nonetheless, the sands of time are not driven by sheer will alone. Yuan Haowen’s loyalty didn’t save the Jin Dynasty. Xin Qiji’s passionate resistance could not recover lost Song land. History, a never ending cycle of rise and fall, carries the people, who, unbeknownst to themselves, drown in its tides.

The above poem, written by Wang Jingwei, was written as a question to himself. Facing a seemingly indefatigable Imperial Japanese Army, he questions whether he has made the correct choice.

As he looked towards the lush tree-covered mountains surrounding Nanjing mountains, perhaps he would wonder, one day, far away beyond the western seas, if there would be another hero, facing an equally Sisyphean endeavor. A hero using his last breaths to hurl his wooden club towards his loathsome fate.

Not just a wooden club, but a torch. A torch that set our hero aflame, illuminating the road for the Palestinian people.

Under Wang Jingwei’s rule, Nanjing appeared at peace. But peace shrouded a system of slavery. Under Yahya Sinwar, Gaza has been reduced to rubble, a rubble of resistance.

Who is right, and who is wrong? Sinwar gives an answer in his autobiography:5

A minute of living with dignity and pride is better than a thousand years of a miserable life under the boots of the occupation.

The Tarkin Doctrine and the Iron Wall

Why do the Israeli Occupation Forces inflict unnecessary violence on civilians, and why did the Imperial Japanese Army lead a massacre in Nanjing? These are two separate questions united by a single answer, which is that invading forces require military superiority to kill and pacify the resistance.

In Star Wars, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin stated that state terror is the foundation of the Empire’s rule. Demonstration of oppressive military might, rather than military might itself is the most efficient means of preserving internal stability and the loyal subservience of the surrounding periphery. Known as the Tarkin Doctrine,6 this ideology is the basis by which the Empire constructs the Death Star and destroys Princess Leia’s home planet, Alderaan.

Prior to the founding of Israel, during the 1920s, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the spiritual father of current Israeli ruling party Likud, proposed the Iron Wall Doctrine, a series of ideas nearly identical to the Tarkin Doctrine. The Iron Wall doctrine correctly recognizes that Israel, as an outside colonial entity, would never be able to earn the genuine respect of the Palestinian people. The only way for Israel to exist would thus be an unbreakable, impermeable iron wall.

The practice of occupation, whether it be Japanese expansionism or Zionism, inflicts atrocities upon innocent civilians as a matter of military strategy. It hopes to use an unending barrage of attacks to create an atmosphere of terror, where the people are unwilling to stand up for themselves. The goal is to trick the occupied people into mistakenly believing that they have lost control of their own destiny. The occupied are deceived into seeing their imperialist occupiers as gods that threaten to take their lives at any moment. They are made to believe that the only means of living is to serve these gods.

The practice of occupation, whether it be Japanese expansionism or Zionism, inflicts atrocities upon innocent civilians as a matter of military strategy. It hopes to use an unending barrage of attacks to create an atmosphere of terror, where the people are unwilling to stand up for themselves.

However, this is merely the first step of oppression. Soon, the oppressed come to the sober realization that they are indeed oppressed. But a sizable portion of these people, facing the might of imperialism, lose hope. To combat their hopelessness, they lie to themselves, convincing themselves that there is some good in their occupiers, concluding that there is so called legitimacy in their occupiers’ governance.

The lie is nonetheless temporary. When the occupied come to their senses, they realize that they cannot breach the iron wall, yet simultaneously refuse to accept their fate. Following this realization, they begin to hate themselves and internalize the supremacy of their occupiers.

At the same time, the occupiers may exercise benevolence. For example, Israelis once gave lower class Gazans work permits, allowing them to work in occupied Palestine. And Hamas, in the interest of national sovereignty, had no choice but to destroy these permits. Resistance fighters were trapped between their nation and the struggles of survival, which Sinwar depicts in his autobiography. He writes of a middle-aged man who begged the resistance not to destroy his work permit, saying that he had a family of eight to feed. The resistance fighters intimately understood this reality, and denied his request with tears in their eyes, ripping his permit apart.

Incidents like these caused a handful of Palestinian laborers to sell resistance intelligence to the Israelis. Stories like these run abound. A Shin Bet spy would give an imprisoned Palestinian child a piece of bread and blanket in exchange for intelligence. These supposed acts of kindness coming from the Iron Wall, were designed so that the imprisoned would forget about the wall itself. The Palestinian child, given bread and a blanket such that they would cease to wonder who caused them to go cold and hungry in the first place.

Palestinians grew to hate themselves and turned towards Israel. Simultaneously, the coldhearted oppression created an epidemic of Stockholm Syndrome, such that Israelis could give away a tiny drop of kindness and see an unimaginable amount of intelligence in return.

These two phenomena combined together to create the broad, popular base for Fatah’s surrender. When Israel created the impermeable Iron Wall, Fatah became the executors of Israeli governance. When the Japanese Army demonstrated a seemingly insurmountable, violent offense and military might, Wang Jingwei and his cohort of hanjian chose to surrender.

To this day, the Iron Wall Doctrine has demonstrated the fidelity of its theoretical foundations.

When Israel created the impermeable Iron Wall, Fatah became the executors of Israeli governance. When the Japanese Army demonstrated a seemingly insurmountable, violent offense and military might, Wang Jingwei and his cohort of hanjian chose to surrender.

Betrayal

However, upon reading Sinwar’s autobiography, one realizes that Sinwar is not as vengeful towards the Israelis as expected. In his work, he describes quite a few kind, humane Israeli employers, some of whom would even cross the border to Gaza to attend their Palestinian employees’ weddings.

As for Palestinian traitors, however, Sinwar had much to say and zero mercy. And sadly, under Israel’s Iron Wall, traitors were everywhere. In the first chapter, Sinwar writes of an incident where a Palestinian civilian is singled out for providing intelligence about resistance fighters to Israel. This civilian lamented that all he gave was information on products that the resistance had purchased, not knowing that it would lead to death.

These were, according to Sinwar, the ignorant masses that unknowingly lived off the flesh and blood of their own kin. The Palestinian people had not undergone systematic information security training. They had no idea that seemingly innocent and exchangeable intelligence was in fact, lethal. At the same time, the Israeli security apparatus obtained other intelligence through means of force, torturing their prisoners.

These leaks led the resistance to retaliate against civilians. In his autobiography, Sinwar writes about how all factions of the resistance would treat the informants. Retaliatory measures included capital punishment, flogging, public execution, forced consumption of sand, interrogation through branding, and even live burial.

Sinwar denounces these acts of uncontrolled violence as “grave errors,” criticizing the lack of legal solutions to an increasingly severe informant problem. In other words, under enormous pressure from Israel, the Palestinian resistance weakened, and their reckless, violent treatment of informants deepend the mistrust the civilians had towards the resistance. A rift emerged between resistance forces and civilians. Israel continued their seduction and recruitment of informants, which the Palestinian resistance, trapped in chaos and violence, failed to stop.

This is a paramount problem in a war of resistance. The enemy’s strength allows them to buy out informants at relatively low cost. When informants run rampant, resistance forces cannot trust one another, creating a chain of suspicion. And when resistance forces lack trust among each other, they cannot communicate their wartime strategy, never mind fighting as a united front. This causes power to disperse, which in turn causes the resistance to become less and less effective.

Informants continued to grow in number. And when informants were indiscriminately killed, inevitably, there were civilians who were killed either unintentionally or erroneously. For a resistance that was already in critical condition, the consequences were severe. Sinwar illustrates this in his biography, where the resistance kills a civilian mistakenly believed to be an informant. His family, suffering an unrightable injustice, have no choice but to turn towards Israel.

[Sheikh Ahmed] Yassin, the founder of Hamas, valued Sinwar because Sinwar did not let his hatred of informants affect his judgment. He hated informants with every fiber of his being, but always stressed the importance of creating a security apparatus designed to handle these very situations. He stressed that this apparatus required strict internal standards. In the 1980s, Sinwar founded Hamas’ security agency, Majd. His writings tell us that he was neither a butcher nor a madman, but the opposite. He was a rational fighter for the resistance. Refusing to be blinded by vengeance, he worked tirelessly to find the long path to victory.

A fork in the road

On this long road, the Palestinian people considered giving up. On some level, the Iron Wall Doctrine is scientifically sound. When the Palestinian people face Israel’s insurmountable military strength, there were many voices from within Palestine calling for so-called peace. These voices led to the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Today, many scholars criticize Hamas’ resistance strategy, asserting that Hamas’ violent attack on Israel is what led to the present tragedy. All I can say is, these scholars are either malicious or full-blown idiots. As one of the greatest historical victims of non-violent resistance, somehow there are Chinese people who still believe that non-resistance can be exchanged for peace. When China faced Japanese invasion, the Nanjing government7 would often be led astray by the Japanese, who claimed that they did not seek expansion. During the Marco Polo Bridge incident,8 the same government continued to believe that so long as they fulfilled Japan’s demands, the two sides would be able to enter negotiations and peacefully resolve the issue at hand.

Today, many scholars criticize Hamas’ resistance strategy, asserting that Hamas’ violent attack on Israel is what led to the present tragedy. All I can say is, these scholars are either malicious or full-blown idiots. As one of the greatest historical victims of non-violent resistance, somehow there are Chinese people who still believe that non-resistance can be exchanged for peace.

Sinwar spent nearly 20 years in an Israeli prison. While incarcerated, he self-studied Hebrew and translated books written by Shin Bet officers. This process enabled Sinwar to develop a deep understanding of his enemy. In his autobiography, Sinwar criticizes the Oslo Accords, whose signing Hamas denounced as meaningless. Sinwar described the accords as a “strategic goal,” which provided Israel a means to delay an imminent crisis.

A month following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident (August 25th, 1937), the Communist Party of China stated clearly in “For the Mobilization of all the Nation’s Forces for Victory in the War of Resistance”9 that the challenge brought by the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the occupation of Beiping (Beijing) and Tianjin marked the start of a large-scale Japanese invasion of China. They remarked that the Japanese had already begun to mobilize throughout China. Their so-called “non-expansion” propaganda was simply a smokescreen, obscuring their offensive.

Unfortunately, the imprisoned Sinwar saw much further than the Palestinian people. The existence of the Oslo Accords allowed the transformation of Israel’s gradual annexation of the West Bank from a cold hard invasion to the subtle expansion of its settlements. And among the Palestinians crying for peace, it seems that it was only Sinwar and his organization, Hamas, who foresaw this outcome and unambiguously opposed the Oslo Accords.

In May of 1935, the Japanese China Garrison Army released a statement denouncing the Republic of China-sponsored assassination of Bai Yuhuan, the editor-in-chief of Zhenbao, a Tianjin-based pro-Japanese newspaper. The statement libelously denounced the Chinese Volunteer Army for entering a demilitarized buffer zone in Northeast China defined by the Tanggu Truce.10 Along with the statement, the Japanese Army once again expanded its troop presence in China. The Republic of China government sought damage control, and dispatched He Yingqin11 to negotiate with Yoshijiro Umezu.12 The two signed the He-Umezu Agreement, which guaranteed “the suppression of all anti-Japanese activity in China” and the removal of Chinese troops from the front line. As a result, China effectively lost all sovereignty in Hebei and Chahar13 Provinces, and Chinese people were forbidden from resisting the Japanese.

At the time, the Nanjing Government stated that He Yingqin did not formally sign the agreement, but in 2018, Taiwanese authorities revealed that Chiang Kai-shek had personally directed He Yingqin to accept the terms of the agreement. The documents revealed that Chiang wanted to publicly reframe the withdrawal of troops as a reorientation to destroy the communists in the name of defense. At the same time, knowing that the agreement would be unpopular, Chiang had He Yingqin inform Japanese authorities that Nanjing would acquiesce to Japanese demands, but request that the deal be made verbally, rather than in writing. The Japanese agreed to this request, and to this day, there is no written record of the He-Umezu Agreement.

The contents of this agreement highlights the difficulty faced by the resistance. It shows us that even under such dire straits, people are susceptible to the enemy’s supposed compromises. The Nanjing government continued to accept supposed “peace proposals” offered by the Japanese, demonstrating a willingness to give up its own territory in exchange for an end to the war.

But despite the Republican government’s compromises, the Japanese invaders refused to stop. Instead, the Japanese invaders’ voices grew in strength. In other words, one by one, Nanjing’s concessions fed into Japanese expansionist ambitions.

This is precisely why Hamas under Sinwar’s leadership cannot accept any compromises with Israel. While Israel proposes a softer 1:1 prisoner exchange, Hamas remains steadfast in its demand for Israel to release all Palestinian political prisoners.

The wooden club destroys the Iron Wall

Based on the above, we observe a few points:

1.Israel is incomparably strong. Israel’s governance over Palestine did not happen overnight. It was not done through reckless violence, but through a systematic, step-by-step oppression of the Palestinian people.

2.Israel will use any means necessary, including international treaties and so-called “suggestions for peace” to accomplish its goals.

3.Israel maintains a comprehensive intelligence network inside of Palestine. Under Israel’s oppressive rule, a portion of the Palestinian public’s will to fight is insufficient.

These factors both reflect the Iron Wall, and make up the Iron Wall itself. It exists on the border between Gaza and Israel, splitting Gaza from Israeli-occupied soil. It exists in the militarized zones of the West Bank that split apart Palestinian settlements. It exists in media narratives, which report Israeli benevolence to suppress the strength of the Palestinian anti-colonial resistance. It exists in the heart of the Palestinian people, who lose faith in their own futures.

The Iron Wall, both tangible and intangible.

Yet everything changed when the war broke out in October. Under Sinwar’s command, Hamas commando units crossed the Iron Wall under the cover of rocket fire. In Israel-occupied land, they captured their occupiers. They put Gaza on the world stage, putting on display Israel’s violent bloodthirst for all to see. And the Palestinian people have realized they control their own destinies. What’s interesting is that in his original essay, Jabotinsky warned Israelis that their plan could only work if the Wall was absolutely airtight. As long as there was a sliver of hope, the occupied would forever strive to break free from Zionism.

Despite the martyrdom of Hamas’ leadership and rank-and-file, the cracks in the Iron Wall grow bigger every day. The wooden club wielded by Sinwar has transformed into a great torch and has shattered Jabotinsky’s Iron Wall. Sinwar teaches us that we do not need a Dongfeng missile to win, nor do we need swarms of fourth generation heavy duty fighter jets. Even if all we have left is a wooden club, we can resist our occupiers.

Remember, comrades! As long as you have the will to fight, a wooden club is just as lethal as the Dongfeng missile!

Sinwar teaches us that we do not need a Dongfeng missile to win, nor do we need swarms of fourth generation heavy duty fighter jets. Even if all we have left is a wooden club, we can resist our occupiers.

A.汉奸, or traitor to the Chinese people. Commonly used as a derogatory epithet for Chinese individuals who collaborated with foreign imperialist powers at the expense of the Chinese nation. arrow_upward
A.Leader of the Japanese collaborationist regime based in Nanjing from 1940-45, known officially as the “Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China.” His name is synonymous with “quisling” in modern-day China. arrow_upward
A.Translation sourced from: Yang Zhiyi. Poetry, History, Memory: Wang Jingwei and China in Dark Times. University of Michigan Press, 2023. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.12697845. arrow_upward
A.A note on the dynastic Chinese history referenced here: the Song Dynasty (960-1279) lost northern China to the Jurchen-led Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) in a series of wars culminating in the Jin capture of imperial capital Kaifeng in 1127, after which the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze River to present-day Hangzhou. The Mongol Empire conquered the Jin Dynasty in 1234 and subsequently defeated the Southern Song, bringing all of China under the rule of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). arrow_upward
A.Al-Sinwar, Yahya. The Thorn and the Carnation (Part I), 2024. arrow_upward
A.From the Chinese 塔金主义. English language Star Wars fandom uses the term “Tarkin Doctrine” as a reference to Imperial Communiqué #001044.92v, though other less common terminology include “Tarkinism” and the “Doctrine of Terror” (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Tarkin ... ne/Legends) arrow_upward
A.Another term for the Republic of China. arrow_upward
A.On July 7th, 1937, at the Marco Polo bridge outside of Beiping (presently known as Beijing), the Japanese army requested to search the Chinese town of Wanping for a missing soldier. The Chinese army refused, and the two sides exchanged fire. This incident is generally regarded as the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War and of World War II in Asia. arrow_upward
A.https://www.marxists.org/reference/arch ... wv2_02.htm arrow_upward
A.The Tanggu Truce was a ceasefire and unequal treaty signed between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan on May 31, 1933. The truce formally ended the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, which had begun in September 1931. arrow_upward
A.At the time, the Acting Chairman of the Peiping National Military Council. arrow_upward
A.At the time, commander in chief of the (Japanese) Kwantung Army. arrow_upward
1.A former Chinese province whose territory is currently contained within present-day Inner Mongolia. arrow_upward
TRANSLATED BY KEVIN LI

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/11/ ... iron-wall/
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Fri Dec 20, 2024 12:26 pm

Palestine, Syria, and the Sickness Called Defeatism
Posted by Internationalist 360° on December 19, 2024

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Hanna EidThe events in Syria have occupied the news cycle for the last few weeks, and while these events are no doubt important, it seems that Palestine has been obscured from view.

“The de-emphasis on the war of movement stems from two sources. One is the overall illegalization and subsequent delegitimization of antisystemic armed violence, in contrast to the lionization of US-backed anti-state violence: notably, the Syrian opposition has been accepted by US Middle East studies. Another is the broader de-politicization of the Palestinian cause, turning it into a set of de-territorialized rights, sheared from the national movement as the agent to achieve and defend those rights” – Max Ajl

The events in Syria have occupied the news cycle for the last few weeks and while these events are no doubt important—the Arab region being the main theatre of imperialist kinetic warfare and thus the national question remaining crucial—it seems that in the corporate media and even in some left-wing independent media, Palestine has been obscured from view. The holocaust in Gaza continues, with daily massacres committed by the Zionist entity. Resistance continues daily as well. The defeatism on the left is both ideologically the incorrect position and a sickness that spreads like wildfire if left unchecked. So, because Palestine is at the heart of the national question in the Arab-Iranian region, the events in Syria must be analyzed through this lens. How do we make sense of Hamas’ congratulatory message to the people of Syria? How can we understand both the PFLP and DFLP’s warnings regarding Israeli land grabs in the Golan and beyond? Who are the new “rebel leaders” in Syria and what is their relationship to the Zionist entity and their NATO backers?

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is the force behind the advances on Hama, Homs, and the eventual capture of Damascus. While it is politically irresponsible to reduce the Syrian opposition to HTS and other Al-Qaeda and Daesh splinters, the reality on the ground is that this is the armed group that has taken state power. We must operate from this reality as our launching point for analysis. In an interview with a high-ranking HTS official, a reporter from DropSite News was stunned that the official refused to criticize “Israel” or even comment on the fact that “Israel” has conducted over 300 bombings of strategic Syrian military sites. There are multiple possible readings of this response. On the one hand, HTS members and their allies have been happy to do interviews on Israeli TV and praise the Zionists for helping them against their “main enemies” Iran and Hezbollah. On the other hand, it makes sense for a government to attempt to restore civic life after years of war. Most serious analysts are partial to the first reading. HTS is a Takfiri movement, a sectarian organization, concerned with its own narrow and sclerotic interpretation of Islam, which excludes minorities, women, and other Muslims from governance and social life.

Martyr Fathi Shiqaqi of PIJ knew that “the persistence of the Zionist entity means the failure of all [Islamic] renaissance projects.” Thus, it is clear that due to the HTS ideology, they are not presenting “a serious endeavor to build an integrated and coherent strategy for the contemporary Islamic renaissance’s project.” Instead, they are a useful tool of the West, denigrating Islam and the Syrian nation. Meanwhile, the US and their European vassals are scrambling to take HTS off their “terrorist lists”. So what of al-Assad? What about the Resistance?

Former President Bashar al-Assad has fled to Russia; the combination of the American Caesar sanctions, corruption, and bribery in the Syrian Arab Army ended al-Assad’s mandate in the eyes of the Syrian people. Ansar Allah and Hezbollah apparently pleaded with al-Assad to open up a front on the Golan Heights against the Zionists, which he refused. This was likely due to the weakness of the SAA as well as the fragility of the Syrian state in its fractured form. Within the last few days, the Zionists have destroyed quite literally every defensive battery in Syria, and they have advanced well beyond the UN buffer zone, now occupying the hills overlooking Damascus at a distance of only 25 kilometers.

So where does this leave the Axis of Resistance and the patriotic political forces in Gaza and the rest of Palestine?

While these are no doubt dark days, the war for the liberation of Palestine and the region is far from over. How have the Palestinian factions responded to the Syrian crisis and what are the prospects for the continuation of the struggle with the Syrian conduit disabled? Hamas congratulated the Syrian people and said that they “respect the will, the independence, and the political choices of the people of Syria.” This response seems like the reasonable and diplomatic approach that a group like Hamas would take, given that they straddle the line between being the government in Gaza and the tip of the spear of armed Resistance. PIJ, whose history of non-interference in the affairs of their neighbors has granted them many friends, took a similar position. The PFLP is active on the Resistance front. On December 11, they celebrated their 57th anniversary and have not ceased their military operations against the Zionist colonial army.

Many analysts, even respected communists and anti-imperialists, have been peddling a defeatist line regarding Hezbollah as well. Pointing–correctly–to the fact that a good portion of Hezbollah’s missile program in Syria has been crippled, and the martyrdom of key leaders, these analysts have cast Hezbollah aside as a spent force. This faulty analysis was also fueled by defeatist sentiments regarding the ceasefire agreement that preceded the Syrian crisis. None of these analysts have considered Hezbollah’s infantry and special forces who did not allow the Zionists to advance past Khiam village and caused numerous casualties among the Zionist shock troops prior to forcing “Israel” into the ceasefire.

The Zionists achieved far less, in more days, than in 2006 when they were also defeated. The settlers are not returning to the north of occupied Palestine because the Zionist government cannot guarantee their safety. On the opposite end of the colonial entity, the port of Eilat is bankrupt and inoperable due to the heroic and brotherly Ansar Allah’s operations. Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, in a recent speech, praised Yemen’s “active involvement in supporting the Palestinian cause, including joint operations between Yemeni and Iraqi Resistance forces targeting Israeli interests.”

Iran disengaged its forces from Syria during the crisis, prompting backlash from voices usually sympathetic to Iran and the Axis of Resistance. The idea that Iran betrayed al-Assad and instead favors a takfiri, anti-Shia terrorist organization on their doorstep is clouded judgment at best and ludicrous at worst. Iran is still in open conflict with the Zionist entity and remains a key element of the strategic depth of the Axis of Resistance. This strategic depth, referred to as the popular cradle in the Palestinian political lexicon “nests Hamas and Palestine as far afield as Tunisia,” according to Max Ajl.

To conclude, the situation in Syria brings with it a black cloud and the black flag of ISIS. It is certainly a strategic setback for Resistance forces. Yet, it is important that we don’t lose the woods for the trees. Al-Assad lost the mandate of his people, as well as the Resistance. It is politically irresponsible and incorrect line to say that the al-Assad government was the “backbone” of the Resistance. For the last decade, the Zionists have bombed the Resistance roads crisscrossing Syria, and yet Hezbollah and the Gaza Resistance have weapons manufacturing capabilities in their own locales. The same goes for Yemen and obviously Iran. We must agitate against the HTS-led ‘provisional government’ while also understanding that the Resistance is not broken or beaten. To peddle a defeatist line is reactionary and allows the Zionists to gloat and drive harder toward manufacturing sectarian hatred. We mustn’t forget that over the last years, and especially the last 14 months, the Axis of Resistance has been an exemplary force in destroying the Zionist-driven fitna (sedition). Sunni Hamas and PIJ, Zaydi Ansar Allah, Twelver Shia Iran and Hezbollah, and the Marxist PFLP and DFLP are all working in concert to remove the Zionist colony from our region.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/12/ ... defeatism/

*****

Palestine: Study Finds 96% of Gaza Children Feel ‘Death is Imminent’
December 18, 2024

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An injured Palestinian child. Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour/The Palestine Chronicle.

A new study of the psychological impact of the war on Gaza’s children has found that 96% of children feel death is imminent, with 49% wishing to die because of the war.

Conducted by the Community Training Centre for Crisis Management (CTCCM) with support from the War Child Alliance, the organizations said the study “paints a harrowing picture of children’s mental health in Gaza.”



Over 500 children, parents and caregivers, from families where at least one child is disabled, injured or unaccompanied were interviewed for the needs assessment study.

“We asked injured, separated, and disabled children and their caregivers about the toll of war on their lives,” a CCTM spokesperson said in a press statement on December 12. “Their answers are devastating—but sadly, not surprising. This study reinforces what we have seen, heard, and witnessed for more than a year. Children are traumatised by this war, and we must respond.”

Severe anxiety, hopelessness
The study also concluded that 92% of children are not accepting of reality, 87% display severe fear, 79% suffer from nightmares, 77% avoid talking about traumatic events, 73% exhibit symptoms of aggression and “many more show signs of withdrawal and severe anxiety, alongside a pervasive sense of hopelessness.”



The survey, conducted in June 2024 of 504 households, also reveals that 88% of families have been displaced multiple times, with 21% forced to move six or more times.

“Psychological destruction”
Most families live on just £100 a month/£3.28 per day, grappling with soaring prices for food and essentials due to the ongoing blockade and restrictions on humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, 80% of breadwinners are unemployed, with nearly 1 in 4 (24%) of the families surveyed “now led by a child aged 16 or under.”

“This report lays bare that Gaza is one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child,” said Helen Pattinson, the CEO of War Child UK.



“Alongside the leveling of hospitals, schools and homes, a trail of psychological destruction has caused wounds unseen but no less destructive on children who hold no responsibility for this war,” she stressed.

Pattinson called on the international community to “act now before the child mental health catastrophe we are witnessing embeds itself into multi-generational trauma, the consequences of which the region will be dealing with for decades to come.”

The psychological toll on children “was severe,” the study found, “with high levels of stress manifested in symptoms such as fear, anxiety, sleep disturbances, nightmares, nail biting, difficulty concentrating and social withdrawal.”

Unaccompanied children
It is estimated that at least 17,000 children are unaccompanied or separated from their parents, according to the report.

“These unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) face significant challenges,” the report stated, including “a heightened risk of exploitation, abuse and other serious violations of their rights.”

“Separation from family members is a profoundly painful event that can have lasting detrimental effects on children’s development and mental health,” the report stated.

Lost academic year
The war has severely disrupted the educational system in Gaza, the report said, with survey results showing that 54% of caregivers reported a need for tutoring classes, 35% needed stationery, and 1% requested learning devices.

“The academic year of 2023 was lost, and there is a possibility that 2024 will be lost as well. Since the conflict began, formal schooling has ceased entirely,” said the report.



The survey results indicated that “61% of children require individual and group psychosocial sessions, 40% need recreational activities, and 29% need camps to support their wellbeing.”

Moreover, caregivers themselves struggle with mental health issues which impact their ability to care for their children, highlighting the urgent need for psychological first aid (PFA) sessions for whole families.

Pattinson said a ceasefire must be “the immediate first step” to allow War Child and other agencies “to effectively respond to the intense psychological damage children are experiencing.”



Staggering death toll
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, 2023.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 44,805 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 106,257 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by “friendly fire.”

Women and children
Palestinian and international organizations highlight that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of numerous Palestinians, mostly children.



The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt, in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

https://orinocotribune.com/palestine-st ... -imminent/

******

New Reports On Gaza

Mainstream seem to have largely stopped to report about Gaza. But the Zionist genocide of the people in Gaza continues. Haaretz continues to document how the Zionist forces on the ground do it:

'No Civilians. Everyone's a Terrorist': IDF Soldiers Expose Arbitrary Killings and Rampant Lawlessness in Gaza's Netzarim Corridor - (archived) - Haaretz
'Of 200 bodies, only 10 were confirmed as Hamas members': IDF soldiers who served in Gaza tell Haaretz that anyone who crosses an imaginary line in the contested Neztarim corridor is shot to death, with every Palestinian casualty counting as a terrorist – even if they were just a child


The Neztarim corridor is a line from the eastern border of Gaza to the ocean. The Zionist smashed all buildings in the are to separate norther Gaza from the south. Every day the soldiers who 'guard' the corridor are ordered to commit arbitrary murder:

The Netzarim corridor, a seven-kilometer-wide strip of land, stretches from near Kibbutz Be'eri to the Mediterranean coast. The IDF has emptied this area of Palestinian residents and demolished their homes to construct military roads and military positions.

While Palestinians are officially prohibited from entering, the reality is more severe than a simple exclusion zone. "It's military whitewashing," explains a senior officer in Division 252, who has served three reserve rotations in Gaza. "The division commander designated this area as a 'kill zone.' Anyone who enters is shot."

This in not the doing of rogue soldiers but military policy:

"We approached the blood-covered body, photographed it, and took the phone. He was just a boy, maybe 16." An intelligence officer collected the items, and hours later, the fighters learned the boy wasn't a Hamas operative – but just a civilian. "That evening, our battalion commander congratulated us for killing a terrorist, saying he hoped we'd kill ten more tomorrow," the fighter adds. "When someone pointed out he was unarmed and looked like a civilian, everyone shouted him down. The commander said: 'Anyone crossing the line is a terrorist, no exceptions, no civilians. Everyone's a terrorist.'
...
In another incident, observation posts spotted two people walking toward Wadi Gaza, an area designated as restricted. A drone revealed they were carrying a white flag and walking with raised hands. The deputy battalion commander ordered troops to shoot to kill. When one commander protested, pointing out the white flag and suggesting they might be hostages, he was overruled. "I don't know what a white flag is, shoot to kill," the deputy commander, a reservist from Brigade 5, insisted. The two people eventually turned back south, but the protesting commander was berated as a coward.
...
A Division 99 reservist describes watching a drone feed showing "an adult with two children crossing the forbidden line." They were walking unarmed, seemingly searching for something. "We had them under complete surveillance with the drone and weapons aimed at them – they couldn't do anything," he says. "Suddenly we heard a massive explosion. A combat helicopter had fired a missile at them. Who thinks it's legitimate to fire a missile at children? And with a helicopter? This is pure evil."


It is not just the arbitrary killing of everyone in sight within some kill corridor but the systematic deprivation of the whole population of water, food and medical necessities.

Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) is the latest of many such organizations which state that this is an obviously intentional genocide:

Gaza death trap: MSF report exposes Israel’s campaign of total destruction - MSF

“People in Gaza are struggling to survive apocalyptic conditions, but nowhere is safe, no one is spared, and there is no exit from this shattered enclave,” says Christopher Lockyear, MSF secretary general, who visited Gaza earlier this year.
“The recent military offensive in the north is a stark illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped, and bombed,” says Lockyear. “What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza.”


“While we don’t have legal authority to establish intentionality, the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation – including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment – are undeniable,” Lockyear adds.

From the report:

Throughout the offensive, Israeli forces have blocked essential items such as food, water and medical supplies from entering the Strip. They have either denied, delayed or instrumentalised humanitarian assistance, allowing insignificant quantities of aid into Gaza with a complete disregard for the actual needs and the level of suffering of the population.

Each day the Zionist army continues to kill dozens in Gaza by force. But less noticed are those who die from the lack of means needed for living. Each week thousands perish because some fanatics believe that their sheer existence makes them superior to others.

It doesn't.

Posted by b on December 19, 2024 at 16:35 UTC | Permalink

And how are these Zionists different from the US Calvary 150 years ago? They're not, not one bit. And I have to wonder if the hideous callousness of US officials in this matter is in some part realization of these US crimes.

******

Israel, PA escalate West Bank raids as Jenin resistance vows 'no surrender'

The Palestinian Authority has been waging a violent siege and military operation against the occupied West Bank city of Jenin for nearly a week

News Desk

DEC 19, 2024

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(Photo credit: AFP)

Several Palestinians were killed by Israeli raids and an airstrike in the occupied West Bank on 19 December, as Palestinian Authority (PA) forces continue to besiege and attack the city of Jenin.

In the West Bank city of Tulkarem, four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone attack. At least two people, including an 80-year-old woman, were shot dead by Israeli forces, while others were injured by bullets in the Balata refugee camp east of the city of Nablus.

Israeli special forces stormed Balata camp on Thursday with several reinforcements of troops and armored vehicles, according to local sources cited by WAFA news agency.

Meanwhile, Palestinian resistance factions confronted Israeli and PA forces in different parts of the occupied territory, including Balata camp near Nablus and Tulkarem.

Israeli armored vehicles also stormed the town of Bir Basha south of Jenin.

“Our fighters in the Tulkarem camp continue to confront the enemy forces in the Balawneh axis, showering the enemy forces and military vehicles with heavy volleys of bullets and explosive devices, achieving confirmed casualties,” the Tulkarem Brigade of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement’s Quds Brigades announced in a statement on Thursday.

Clashes also continued between resistance factions, including the Quds Brigades’ Jenin Brigade, and PA forces in the city of Jenin.

The PA crackdown on the resistance in Jenin is being carried out on behalf of Israel. Ramallah’s forces have long been violently suppressing resistance and coordinating with Israel’s military to do so.

At least three Palestinians have been killed, including a top Jenin Brigade commander and a 12-year-old boy, since the PA declared its operation against the city on 14 December.

“We sent representatives to negotiate and find a solution, but the security services responded arrogantly,” a Jenin Brigade commander told Al Jazeera in an interview on Wednesday. He added that disarming the resistance is not an option.

“The Authority has been implementing its political program for 30 years, and it has achieved nothing,” the commander said. “We refuse to disarm, and we will not allow anyone to pressure us into abandoning our cause.”

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-pa ... -surrender

‘Unbearable burden of war’: Hundreds of officers retire from Israeli army

Israeli troops are facing psychological issues and exhaustion as a result of battles in Gaza

News Desk

DEC 19, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Hundreds of Israeli officers have withdrawn from military service this year – citing the “burden of war” and unsatisfactory conditions for reservists, Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported on 19 December.

“About 500 majors have already retired this year,” Israel Hayom said. The Israeli army is “surprised by the scope of the phenomenon, and admits that they estimated that the wave of departures would expand when the fighting subsides, and not in the midst of the war,” the daily added.

The report confirms that Israel started its war on Gaza last year with a “particularly acute manpower crisis.”

In 2022, a record number of over 600 Israeli majors retired from service. While the pace of departures slowed down at the start of 2023, as the war erupted in October of that year, the “trend is now worsening” once again, and the “outlook for 2025 is not encouraging.”

One of the reasons is “the unbearable burden placed on [soldiers] by the war.” Many are tired of leaving their houses and families and putting themselves at risk for a “not so rewarding” salary.

“The army is interested in increasing the number in order to establish more combat units, more defense battalions, more air defense units, and so on. At the moment, it is not clear how the army will manage to do this,” according to Israel Hayom.

Not only majors and captains are hesitant to continue service, but unit commanders are, as well.

The ground battles in Gaza and Lebanon have taken a toll on Israeli forces. A few weeks before the war and ground operations in south Lebanon ended, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Israel was facing a “huge” shortage of soldiers due to a serious enlistment crisis.

The newspaper said at the time that 7,000 recruits were urgently needed.

The atrocities and war crimes being committed against innocent Palestinians as part of the genocide that Israel has been waging in Gaza for over a year have also taken a psychological toll on some soldiers.

Earlier this year, dozens of Israeli reservists signed a protest letter saying they would not obey a government-issued call to Gaza, citing the atrocities being committed there.

An Israeli commander told Haaretz newspaper on 18 December that soldiers stationed on the Netzarim corridor in Gaza, which splits the strip into two, are under strict orders to “shoot anyone” they spot approaching the “killing area.”

“The killing area is the sniper's target range … We kill civilians there, and they are counted as terrorists,” he added, revealing that a “competition” exists between the different army divisions occupying the east-to-west corridor. “If Division 99 killed 150, then the next in line would try to reach 200.”

The war has also taken a significant physical toll on top of the psychological aspect.

“The army estimates that by 2030, the number of disabled soldiers will reach 100,000, with 60 percent expected to suffer from mental disorders,” Israel’s Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) reported on Wednesday.

More and more soldiers are also refusing to serve in the army. Many are depressed, worn out, psychologically damaged, and unmotivated, according to a report by Ha-Makom magazine published on 20 October.

https://thecradle.co/articles/unbearabl ... raeli-army
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Dec 21, 2024 12:24 pm

Renewed Clashes in Jenin: PA Operation Sparks Protests and Strikes Across the West Bank
December 19, 2024

Image
A strike was held in Jenin, in protest of the PA's operation. Photo: QNN

A comprehensive commercial strike swept Jenin on Monday, the 16th of December, in protest against the ongoing campaign, which has now lasted over a week.

Armed clashes continued on Monday between Palestinian resistance fighters and the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces, Quds News Network (QNN) reported.

These confrontations are part of an extensive operation launched by the PA in Jenin and its refugee camp, which has drawn widespread condemnation and protests from Palestinians.

A comprehensive commercial strike swept Jenin on Monday in protest against the ongoing campaign, which has now lasted over a week.

Shops throughout the city shut their doors, while intermittent gunfire from renewed clashes echoed through the area.

The unrest has already claimed the lives of three Palestinians, including a child and a senior leader in the Jenin Battalion, all killed by PA security forces.

Protests and Growing Resistance
The operation has sparked demonstrations not only in Jenin, but also across several areas of the West Bank, according to QNN.

Protesters have voiced solidarity with the resistance fighters and vehemently opposed the PA’s actions, which many view as targeting the backbone of Palestinian resistance.

Critics argue that labeling these fighters as “outlaws” undermines their role in defending Palestinian communities against Israeli occupation forces.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has strongly condemned the PA’s actions, describing the operation as a dangerous crossing of red lines.

In a statement, the PFLP affirmed that the resistance’s weapons are legitimate and declared resistance fighters as protectors of the Palestinian people, not criminals. It warned that the PA’s missteps could lead to internal conflict and further destabilize the region.

For his part, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mardawi also denounced the PA’s actions, calling its justification for the campaign “political suicide.”

Hamas mourned the death of Yazid Ja’ayseh, a prominent resistance leader, who was killed during the operation, calling him a “martyr leader” and condemning the campaign as fueling internal strife during a critical period for Palestinians.

US, International Involvement
Amid the escalating situation, reports suggest significant international involvement in the PA’s security campaign.

According to the “Israeli” news outlet Walla, the United States has urged “Israel” to approve an urgent shipment of equipment and ammunition for the PA security forces.

This shipment reportedly includes helmets, bulletproof vests, communication devices, night-vision equipment, bomb disposal suits, and armored vehicles.

The report revealed that US Security Coordinator General Mike Finzel met with PA security leaders ahead of the operation to discuss their plans.

During these discussions, the PA reportedly submitted a detailed list of its urgent needs to the US, which, in turn, sought Israel’s approval for the supplies.

Senior US officials, including Ambassador Jack Lew, have reportedly been pressing the “Israeli” government to greenlight the request.

Message to Trump
Palestinian journalist and editor of the Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud, had argued in a short video earlier on Sunday that the PA’s ongoing attacks on Jenin are linked directly to Washington, namely the PA’s desire to assert itself as a reliable partner to “Israel” in the West Bank.

A few hours later, a report published by the American news website Axios confirmed that analysis, saying that the Palestinian Authority ordered the operation “to send a message to the incoming Trump administration that the Palestinian Authority is a reliable partner”.

Axios quoted a Palestinian official as saying that this is “a pivotal moment for the Palestinian Authority — either act like a state you say you are or go back to being a militant organization”.

According to the report,

“The Biden administration asked Israel to approve U.S. military assistance to Palestinian Authority security forces for a wide-ranging operation the PA is conducting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian”.

Additionally, Axios cited US and Palestinian officials as saying that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “ordered the heads of the Palestinian security services to launch an operation in Jenin and take control of the refugee camp.”

“Abbas’ aides briefed the Biden administration and President-elect Trump’s advisers in advance of the operation,” the report noted, adding that “U.S. security coordinator Gen. Mike Fenzel met with the Palestinian security chiefs ahead of the operation to go over their planning”.

https://orinocotribune.com/renewed-clas ... west-bank/

Quislings deserve no mercy.

******

Image
The Israeli settlement of Har Homa, seen from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, December 17, 2024

Annexing the West Bank: Why Israel might pounce now
By Ramzy Baroud (Posted Dec 20, 2024)

Originally published: Morning Star Online on December 18, 2024 (more by Morning Star Online) |

ISRAEL is getting ready to annex the occupied Palestinian West Bank. The annexation will be a major step backwards on the road to Palestinian freedom and will likely serve as a catalyst for a new Palestinian uprising.

Though annexation has been on the Israeli agenda for years, this time around, a “great opportunity”–in the words of extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich–has presented itself and, from an Israeli point of view, cannot be missed.

“I hope we’ll have a great opportunity with the new U.S. administration to create full normalisation [of the Israeli occupation],” the minister was quoted as saying by Israeli media.

This is not the first time that Smotrich, among other Israeli extremists, has made the connection between Trump’s advent to the White House and the illegal expansion of Israel’s borders.

Two reasons make Israel’s far right optimistic about Trump’s arrival: one, the Israeli experience during Trump’s first term in office, where the U.S. president allowed Israel to claim sovereignty over illegal settlements, the Syrian Golan Heights, and occupied East Jerusalem; and, two, Trump’s more recent statement in the run-up to the elections.

Israel is “so tiny” on the map, Trump said while addressing the pro-Israeli group Stop Anti-semitism at an event last August, wondering:

Is there any way of getting more?

The statement, absurd by any definition, caused joy among Israeli politicians, who understood it to be a green light for further annexations.

Israel’s aims for colonial expansion also received a boost in recent days. Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s rule in Syria, Israel immediately began invading large swathes of the country, reaching as far as the Quneitra governorate, less than 20 kilometres away from the capital, Damascus.

What is taking place in Syria serves as a model of what to expect in the West Bank in the coming months.

Israel had occupied nearly 70 per cent of the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967. It cemented its illegal occupation of the Arab region by formally annexing it in 1981 through the so-called Golan Heights Law.

That illegal move came shortly after another illegal annexation, that of occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem the previous year.

Although the West Bank was not formally annexed, the boundaries of East Jerusalem expanded well beyond its historic borders, thus swallowing large parts of the West Bank.

The West Bank, like East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, are all recognised as illegally occupied territories under international law. Israel has no legal basis to maintain its occupation, let alone annexation of any Palestinian or Arab region. It is allowed to do so, however, due to U.S.-western support and international silence.

But why is Israel keen on annexing the West Bank now?

Aside from the “great opportunity” linked to Trump’s return to power, Israel feels that its ability to sustain a genocidal war on Gaza without any international intervention to bring the extermination to an end, would make the annexation of the West Bank a far less consequential matter on the international agenda.

Even though the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had issued a decisive ruling on the illegality of the Israeli occupation on July 19, followed by the issuing of arrest warrants of top Israeli leaders by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on November 21, no action was taken to hold Israel accountable.

The annexation of the West Bank is unlikely to change that, especially as Israel conducts its wars and illegal actions through direct U.S. support.

Indeed, the Democrat administration under Joe Biden has financed and supported all Israeli wars, including the current genocide. Trump is expected to be equally generous, or at least, not at all critical. All of this in mind, the annexation of the West Bank in the coming weeks or months is a real possibility.

In fact, Smotrich had already informed “workers of the defence ministry body in charge of Israeli and Palestinian civil affairs in the West Bank” about his plans to “shut down the department as part of an envisioned Israeli annexation of the area,” the Times of Israel reported on December 6.

While such annexation will not change the legal status of the West Bank, it will have dire consequences for the millions of Palestinians living there, as annexation is likely to be followed by a violent campaign of ethnic cleansing, if not from the whole of the West Bank, certainly from large parts of it.

Annexation will also render the Palestinian Authority legally irrelevant–as it was created following the Oslo Accords to administer parts of the West Bank in anticipation of a future sovereignty, which never actualised. Will the Palestinian Authority agree to remain functional as part of the Israeli military administration of a newly annexed West Bank?

Palestinians will certainly resist, as they always do. The nature of the resistance will prove critical in the success or failure of the Israeli scheme. A popular Intifada, for example, will overstretch the Israeli military, which will likely use an unprecedented degree of violence to suppress Palestinians but will unlikely succeed.

Annexing the West Bank at a time that Palestine, and in fact the whole region, is in turmoil is a recipe for perpetual war, which, from the viewpoint of Smotrich and his ilk, is the actual “great opportunity,” as it will secure their political survival for years to come.

https://mronline.org/2024/12/20/annexin ... ounce-now/

******

'Loss of safety' fuels exodus of Israelis

Well-off Israelis continue to leave the country over one year after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October

News Desk

DEC 20, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Turgut Alp Boyraz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Thousands of people have emigrated from Israel to western countries since 7 October 2023, saying they do not feel safe after over a year of war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, The Independent reported on 20 December.

Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics estimated in September that 40,600 Israelis departed long-term over the first seven months of 2024, a 59 percent increase over the same period a year earlier.

The Israeli Ministry of Immigration and Absorption said more than 33,000 people have moved to Israel since the start of the war.

Jews from around the world are allowed to immigrate to Israel and receive automatic citizenship, while the children and grandchildren of Palestinians expelled by the Israeli army from their homes and made refugees in 1948 and 1967 are not allowed to return.

The UK newspaper stated that after 7 October, many well-off Israelis do not feel Israel is the world's safe haven for Jews, as Zionist ideology promises it should be.

Israeli singer Shira Z. Carmel says that 10 days after Hamas invaded Israeli settlements and military bases enforcing the siege on Gaza, she emigrated to Australia with her husband and toddler.

She told family and friends that the move was only temporary so she could deflect the social pressure to remain.

“We told them we're going to get out of the line of fire for a while,” Carmel said. “It wasn't a hard decision. But it was very hard to talk to them about it. It was even hard to admit it to ourselves.”

Sergio Della Pergola, a statistician and professor emeritus of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, says it is possible the number of people who left Israel in 2024 will surpass the number of immigrants to Israel in the same year.

Gil Fire, deputy director of Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, said he has seen a trend of doctors leaving the country for good.

“Before the war, they always came back and it was not really considered an option to stay. And during the war, we started to see a change,” he said. “They said to us, ‘We will stay another year, maybe two years, maybe more.’”

Many Israelis are able to move because they have foreign passports, jobs at multinational corporations, or can work remotely.

“Thousands of Israelis have opted to pay the financial, emotional, and social costs of moving out since the Oct. 7 attack,” The Independent wrote, despite the military measures Israel has taken in the past year under the pretext of restoring security.

Israeli bombs and ground troops have killed over 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority women and children, while flattening much of the enclave in what is widely viewed as genocide.

In Lebanon, Israeli bombing killed over 4,000 Lebanese and wiped out many villages along the border while heavily damaging major cities, including Nabatieh and Tyre (Sour).

Despite these measures, Jewish settlers have not returned to their homes in Israel's north after they were displaced at the start of the war due to fire from Hezbollah.

In October, a poll found that 70 percent of Israeli settlers who were evacuated from northern settlements near the Lebanese border have expressed an unwillingness to return to their homes.

https://thecradle.co/articles/loss-of-s ... f-israelis

(Good. Let them go back to whence from they came.)

Gaza resistance hits Israeli troops in Netzarim corridor with heavy mortar attacks

Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, has been rebuilding its ranks and stepping up confrontations against Israeli forces

News Desk

DEC 20, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: X)

Netzarim, an Israeli military corridor that splits the Gaza Strip into two, came under fire from the Palestinian resistance on 20 December, coming as Hamas’ military wing has been rebuilding its ranks and stepping up confrontations against troops across the enclave.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement’s Quds Brigades said on Friday that it “bombarded gatherings of Zionist enemy soldiers and vehicles, with mortar shells and rockets, in the Netzarim axis.”

The Martyr Omar al-Qassem Forces, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), also announced a heavy mortar attack on an Israeli supply line north of the Netzarim corridor.

The Netzarim corridor was targeted with mortar fire by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades on Thursday.

The essential corridor splitting Gaza into north and south was established in the first months of the war in the strip, and has been used to prevent the return of displaced Palestinians to the northern strip. Israeli forces have significantly expanded the corridor in recent months, building a new military infrastructure and permanent housing facilities – signaling Tel Aviv’s plans for a long-term stay in Gaza.

Soldiers stationed in Netzarim told Israeli media this week that the army has transformed the area into a killing zone in which Palestinians are shot dead for sport.

The attacks on Netzarim come as Israeli forces are facing a surge in resistance attacks. Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, announced a suicide drone attack on the Majin military site on Thursday.


A Qassam Brigades statement released on 18 December said a resistance fighter managed to kill an Israeli soldier near his tank and seize his weapon before throwing two grenades into the Merkava. The operation took place in the northern city of Beit Lahia.

The group has recruited around 4,000 new resistance fighters and is adapting to the harsh battles against Israeli troops in Gaza, according to report released on Wednesday by Hebrew news site Walla.

https://thecradle.co/articles/gaza-resi ... ar-attacks
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 24, 2024 11:52 am

PA intensifies siege on Jenin camp as Israeli 'deadline' for West Bank operation nears

Washington has been seeking to arm and finance PA security services against the resistance in Jenin

News Desk

DEC 23, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Flash90)
Fierce clashes between resistance fighters and Palestinian Authority (PA) forces continued on 23 December in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where Ramallah’s security services maintain a brutal siege against the city’s camp.


Successive rounds of machinegun fire could be heard in video footage from inside the Jenin camp on Monday.

According to photos circulating in Israeli media, PA security forces are using RPG launchers in their ongoing assault on the Jenin camp and its resistance.

A general strike that was called in Jenin earlier this month continues across the city in protest against the PA siege. While the PA operation against the Jenin Brigade of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement’s Quds Brigades was officially declared on 14 December, Monday marked the 18th day since Ramallah’s security services began attacking and besieging the Jenin camp.

A PA security officer was killed on 22 December during the clashes with the resistance in Jenin. As a result of the siege, all entrances to the camp have been shut, and residents have been left without water, electricity, or the ability of free movement.


The PA is coordinating with Israeli forces for its siege against the camp. In other areas of the city, the Israeli army continues its raids and attacks.

“Our fighters in the Al-Sila al-Harithiya Company continue to confront the occupation forces storming several axes in the town and are showering the occupation forces with heavy volleys of bullets. Our heroes in the engineering unit were also able to detonate a number of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle bombs against infantry soldiers and military vehicles, achieving confirmed casualties,” the Jenin Brigade said on Sunday.

According to an Axios report released on 15 December, Washington has asked Tel Aviv to approve US military assistance to the PA to bolster its assault against the resistance in Jenin.

The Israeli military establishment has signaled that it would support such a move.

Yet Palestinian security services remain “chronically underfunded and ill-equipped to take on the responsibilities that Washington envisions for the West Bank,” Washington Post reported on 23 December.

“The Palestinian Authority has been acting resolutely against the Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters over the past several weeks, army and Shin Bet sources said, but the Israeli officials expressed the hope that their effectiveness could be enhanced,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported recently.

Hebrew news outlet Channel 14 reported that Israel has warned the PA and its leadership that the “deadline” to finish up the operation against the Jenin resistance is nearing.

Israeli officials have long scrutinized the PA for what it perceives as an inability to confront and rein in Palestinian resistance groups in the West Bank – which Ramallah refers to as “Iranian gangs.”

https://thecradle.co/articles/pa-intens ... tion-nears

The PA’s West Bank crackdown: A crisis of legitimacy

Under mounting external pressure and growing internal dissent, the Palestinian Authority’s crackdown on West Bank resistance groups has not only deepened public mistrust but also jeopardized its legitimacy and long-term survival.


Robert Inlakesh

DEC 23, 2024

Image
Photo Credit: The Cradle

In tandem with its relentless land annexation in the occupied West Bank, Israel has systematically severed connections between the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security forces and West Bank resistance groups.

This paved the way for PA President Mahmoud Abbas to give the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) orders to launch an armed crackdown, using US-trained forces, on the Jenin Brigades resistance groups. The decision sparked dissent among PA officials who viewed it as a strategy orchestrated by the US and Israel.

Under Israeli military supervision, the PA forces imposed a siege on Jenin Camp, cutting water and electricity, and enforcing a curfew that confined residents – many without food – for days.

Within days, the operation resulted in significant civilian casualties, including the deaths of a teenager, Rebhi Shalabi, and a senior Jenin Brigades commander, Yazid Ja’ayseh. The UN humanitarian office accused the PA of commandeering part of Jenin Governmental Hospital for military purposes, detaining eight individuals from within the health facility.

A divide-and-conquer strategy

The crackdown provoked widespread protests in Jenin and a general strike against the military incursion. A PA Preventative Security Force member, speaking anonymously to The Cradle, reveals that the US and Israel were behind the raid, pressuring the PA into compliance.

“This is not just the PA attacking Palestinians. This is the US and the occupation working together to force the PA into this situation,” he says, claiming that while some initial PA actions sought to protect fighters, connections with Hamas were deemed a redline.

“When Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] ordered the operation, most of the officials disagreed, and although most of us working with the authority disagreed, it was ordered anyway,” the source continues.

“This is what the US wanted from us for two years, then when Israel began attacking Jenin, pay attention to who they killed and how that changed the connection with the PA and the armed groups, they wanted to divide the people.”

This timeline aligns with Washington’s controversial “Fenzel plan,” first proposed in January 2023 to the PA during a visit to Ramallah by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The plot was drawn up by US Security Coordinator Michael Fenzel and sought to use a US-trained PA unit to crush the Palestinian resistance groups that had been emerging in the northern West Bank since 2021.

There were then two follow-up meetings hosted in Egypt and Jordan, held between PA, Israeli, US, Egyptian, and Jordanian officials.

The PA’s elite 101st Unit, trained by US and Canadian forces, spearheaded the Jenin crackdown. While PA sources denied direct implementation of the Fenzel Plan, three PA sources who spoke to The Cradle acknowledged US involvement. According to Axios, US officials provided logistical support, including “ammunition, helmets, bulletproof vests, radios, night vision equipment, explosive disposal suits, and armored cars.”

Mahmoud Mardawi, a member of the Hamas political bureau who is based in the West Bank, tells The Cradle:

“What the [Palestinian] Authority is doing in the city of Jenin is to be condemned and rejected. This targeting came because the city and its camp have become a center for resistance in the West Bank. We support the calls of the wise from all factions, political forces and dignitaries in the city of Jenin, who tried with all their might to contain the escalation scene.”

However, PA Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh has defended the crackdown, labeling Jenin Brigade fighters as “outlaws” and drug dealers, asserting the operation would persist until the resistance adhered to the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s “national program,” to which Mardawi responded:

“What was stated by Reeh, confirms that what is happening in Jenin is not a passing event or a response to a transgression committed by the sons of the Jenin Battalion against the Authority, but rather a political conviction of the leadership of the Authority to end the state of resistance as an extension of the Axis of Resistance and Iran. This diagnosis intersects greatly with the Israeli propaganda against the resistance in the city of Jenin. “

The PA’s existential dilemma

On 3 July 2023, the Israeli military launched a two-day military assault on Jenin Camp, dubbed “Operation Home and Garden,” during which it killed 12 Palestinians, injured dozens, and destroyed crucial infrastructure.

Immediately following the two-day assault that had included the use of attack helicopters and drones to launch airstrikes in Jenin, the PASF launched an arrest campaign against resistance fighters.

Protests erupted, and senior PA officials were expelled from public events in Jenin. Efforts to restore PA control through President Abbas’s visit to the camp did little to alleviate tensions.

Since then, the PA has intensified actions against resistance groups across the West Bank, often targeting fighters and dismantling explosives meant for Israeli incursions. The PSF member who spoke to The Cradle believes that Israel’s strategy allowed resistance groups to emerge only to justify eliminating them, a theory lacking concrete evidence but widely accepted within PA circles.

As revealed in a previous investigation for The Cradle, Israeli raids, arrests, and assassinations had worked to sever relations between the PA and the resistance groups. From the outset, the resistance groups were pluralistic and included fighters from varying political parties, many of whom were either active duty PASF officers or were related to PA officials.

In fact, a large portion of the fighters, who owed allegiance to the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, were closely linked to their local PA forces. Take the Lion’s Den group that emerged from the Old City of Nablus; while its founders included Tamir al-Kilani of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and prominent Hamas member Musab Shtayyeh, it was led by a PASF officer named Oday al-Azizi.

The PA initially appeared to tolerate the presence of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) within resistance groups in the West Bank, even as it firmly rejected any involvement from Hamas. However, this stance shifted dramatically with PASF spokesperson Anwar Rajab labeling all resistance fighters as Iran-backed “mercenaries,” accusing them of serving “the agendas of external forces that were responsible for the destruction of Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.”

Public discontent and leadership crisis

Amid these claims, Israel has intensified its actions, accelerating violence and signaling imminent annexation plans that threaten the very existence of the Ramallah-based PA itself. Since October 2023, Israeli settlers have established over 60 new outposts in the West Bank, actively participating in the ethnic cleansing of more than 26 villages and communities.

“Here, the question of timing emerges from the campaign carried out by the Authority,” says Mardawi. He questions why the PA would “fight the resistance in light of the threat of the Israeli enemy government to annex the West Bank and decide its fate.”

“Is it reasonable for the Authority to end the resistance that protects our people and prevents the encroachment of settlers? There have been dozens of settler attacks in which Palestinian homes were burned, the latest of which was a mosque in the village of Marda, and dozens of Palestinians were martyred in these attacks, and the Authority remained silent and unable to defend the Palestinians in the face of settler aggression.”

He calls for “an urgent national dialogue to protect resistance in the West Bank and confront occupation and settlement,” urging the PA to stop employing its security forces to serve Israel’s interests.

A former senior PA official in Ramallah, speaking anonymously, describes to The Cradle the PA’s precarious situation: “The Palestinian Authority is in a crisis. It wants to assume control of the Gaza Strip, it wants to look strong for the Trump administration, and it wants to be part of Saudi Arabia’s deal with Israel.”

The official suggests that the PA is unwilling to align with resistance efforts, fearing it would jeopardize its standing with the US and Israel. With the occupation state likely to annex significant portions of the West Bank and settlers poised for more aggression, the PA faces the grim choice of either embracing resistance or fading into irrelevance.

Public sentiment reflects this discontent. Polling from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) shows increasing support for armed resistance groups and declining approval for Fatah, which leads the PA.

By December 2023, 90 percent of Palestinians polled wanted President Abbas to resign. With consistent disapproval rates for the PA hovering at around 80 percent, its leadership is viewed as corrupt and ineffective.

As Israeli occupation forces and settlers carry out state, and state-backed violence, the West Bank’s economy deteriorates, while the PA’s survival seems increasingly uncertain. Its crackdown on the Jenin Camp has fueled internal dissent, raising questions about whether the PA can withstand the mounting pressures or if it is indeed on the brink of collapse.

https://thecradle.co/articles/the-pas-w ... legitimacy.

Quislings

Hamas fighters kill several Israeli soldiers, free Palestinian hostages in north Gaza

The Palestinian resistance has managed to replenish its ranks and step up operations despite relentless Israeli attacks and brutal siege warfare

News Desk

DEC 23, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Hani Alshaer/AA/Getty Images)

At least three Israeli soldiers were killed in an explosion in Gaza’s besieged northern city of Jabalia on 23 December, as a revived Qassam Brigades continues to step up attacks and sophisticated operations against Tel Aviv’s forces.

Pictures released on Hebrew telegram channels showed a helicopter transporting wounded Israeli soldiers from Gaza to hospitals in occupied Jerusalem.



Meanwhile, Hamas’ armed wing announced several operations against Israeli troops in northern Gaza – which has been besieged for over two months in a bid to starve out the resistance and ethnically cleanse the area of Palestinian civilians.

“In a complex security operation, a number of our Mujahideen managed to stab and kill three Zionist soldiers who were on a mission to protect a building where a Zionist force was fortified,” the Qassam Brigades said in a statement on Monday.


“They then stormed the house and killed all members of the Zionist force at point-blank range, seized their weapons, and took out a number of citizens who were detained by the occupation inside the house in the Beit Lahia project in the northern Gaza Strip,” the statement added.

The Qassam Brigades announced several other operations against the Israeli army in Gaza on 23 December, including explosive attacks against tanks and vehicles, and mortar attacks on troops taking refuge in buildings in northern Gaza

The resistance fighters also shot down an Israeli quadcopter in the new camp area north of central Gaza’s Nuseirat.

According to a report released by Hebrew news site Walla last week, Hamas’ Qassam Brigades has recruited around 4,000 new resistance fighters and is adapting to the harsh battles against Israeli troops in Gaza.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement’s Quds Brigades, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, and other resistance factions also continue to carry out operations against Israeli forces.

“We bombed gatherings of enemy soldiers and vehicles that had penetrated the Al-Mabhouh site east of Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip with regular mortar shells (60 mm caliber),” the Quds Brigades said on Monday afternoon.

https://thecradle.co/articles/hamas-fig ... north-gaza

'Larceny writ large': UN says criminal groups systematically looting Gaza aid under Israel's nose

Armed looters have 'filled the vacuum' left by Israeli attacks on the Hamas-affiliated Gaza police

News Desk

DEC 23, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Amir Cohen/Reuters)

Gaza aid deliveries are suffering “systematic, tactical, armed, crime-syndicate looting” by organized groups, said Georgios Petropoulos, a senior UN official based in the southern city of Rafah, in comments reported by the New York Times (NYT) on 23 December. “This is just larceny writ large.”

“There is continued tolerance by the Israel Defense Forces of unacceptable amounts of looting of areas that are ostensibly and de facto under their military control,” Petropoulos said.

Based on interviews with Israeli military officials, aid workers, and Palestinians in Gaza, the NYT concluded that the looting is taking place due to the vacuum left by the Israeli military in the besieged enclave by its targeting of Hamas, including its civilian police force.

The NYT reported the testimony of Hazem Isleem, a Palestinian truck driver whose aid convoy was ambushed by armed looters.

The armed men stole thousands of pounds of flour from about 100 UN trucks, an amount large enough to feed tens of thousands of people.

“It was terrifying,” said Isleem, 47, whom the looters held for 13 hours while they pillaged the flour. “But the worst part was we weren’t able to deliver the food to the people.”

The NYT notes that “Though Hamas has been routed in much of the territory, Israel has not put an alternative government in place. In parts of southern Gaza, armed gangs have filled the resulting power vacuum, leaving aid groups unwilling to risk delivering supplies.”

The looting has caused the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, to end aid deliveries through the Kerem Shalom crossing, which is now the main entry point for aid since the closing of the Rafah crossing from Egypt in May.

“Hundreds of truckloads of relief are piling up at the crossing in part because aid groups fear they will be looted,” the NYT added.

The armed groups are stealing flour, oil, and other commodities to resell to desperate Palestinians in Gaza for massively inflated prices.

In southern Gaza, the price of a 55-pound (around 25 kilograms) sack of flour, normally costing $10, has risen to as much as $220.

Israel has helped cause the security vacuum by repeatedly killing members of the Gaza police force in previous months as they accompanied aid trucks to their destinations, the NYT noted.

“Today, the ordinary Gazan’s dream, his aspiration, is to obtain a piece of bread,” said Abdelhalim Awad, a bakery owner in the city of Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza. “I can’t say anything sadder than that.”

On 29 February, the Israeli army massacred over 100 Palestinians seeking to receive aid from a humanitarian convoy. Testimonies gathered from Palestinians who survived the “flour massacre” describe Israeli forces opening fire indiscriminately on the crowd, causing those gathered to flee and trucks to drive away. Doctors at Gaza hospitals report that the majority of those injured had gunshot wounds, suggesting most of the dead were killed by Israeli gunfire.

https://thecradle.co/articles/larceny-w ... raels-nose

EXCLUSIVE: Israel seeks to occupy south Lebanon past 60-day truce period

Lebanese security sources told The Cradle that the Israeli army is ‘unsatisfied’ with the situation in the south

News Desk

DEC 23, 2024

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(Photo credit: AFP)

Israeli forces are unhappy with the Lebanese army's efforts to implement the ceasefire agreement announced on 27 November and are planning to maintain a presence in south Lebanon, according to exclusive information.

“The French conveyed to the Lebanese army that the Israeli military is not satisfied with what is happening [in south Lebanon] and that it will not leave before destroying all of Hezbollah's infrastructure [south of Litani River, even after the 60-day implementation period ends],” Lebanese security sources told The Cradle on 23 December.

The information came as an Israeli attack killed two people in the town of Taybeh in southern Lebanon’s Marjayoun District.

The Lebanese National News Agency’s (NNA) correspondent in Marjayoun reported on Monday afternoon that “two people were killed and another was injured in an enemy raid that targeted a group of people near the official school in Taybeh.”

Israeli ground troops continued their campaign of mass detonations and destruction of homes and buildings across southern Lebanon, blowing up houses in Al-Bustan and Al-Zaloutieh in the Tyre District.

They also put up an Israeli flag on a hill in the Naqoura area overlooking the main entrance to the town, in violation of the ceasefire announced last month.

Israeli troops are required to withdraw from Lebanon within 60 days of the ceasefire’s announcement. So far, it has been four weeks, leaving only a month before the Israeli army must withdraw, according to the agreement that is based on UN Resolution 1701.

The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) has deployed across south Lebanon with the aim of dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure south of the Litani River – which is required to take place within the 60-day period.

Tel Aviv has violated the ceasefire over 100 times since it took effect with deadly airstrikes, arrests of Lebanese citizens, troop advancements, and mass detonation campaigns in southern villages.

Israeli forces have exploited the ceasefire to advance into areas they were unable to during recent ground battles with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah responded once to dozens of violations in early December with a limited rocket attack on an Israeli site in occupied Lebanese territory, prompting a massive and deadly Israeli response in south Lebanon.

Israel claims it is acting in line with the ceasefire agreement by targeting what it says is Hezbollah infrastructure. However, according to the agreement, dismantling the resistance’s presence in southern Lebanon is the responsibility of the Lebanese state and army. Earlier this month, the Israeli army bombed Khiam after the LAF entered the city to clear rubble and prepare for civilian entry.

A secret side letter between Washington and Tel Aviv reportedly guarantees that Israel can act with force against “threats.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed on 22 December that Tel Aviv would “crush” Hezbollah’s “head” if the Lebanese resistance group violates the ceasefire, coming during a visit to an Israeli army position in southern Lebanon.

Two days earlier, Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad said that “the resistance will not be dragged into confronting Israeli violations and aggressions militarily, because its priority is the Israeli withdrawal from our land without giving it any pretext to exceed the 60-day deadline, and because we take into consideration the situation of our people who need shelter, reconstruction, and to clean up the effects of the war.”

“We want the Lebanese government and army to play their role in protecting the land and preserving sovereignty, based on the [agreement] based on Resolution 1701,” Fayyad added.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and UNIFIL called on Israel on Monday to hasten its withdrawal from southern Lebanon. Mikati called for the US and France to pressure Israel on the matter.

https://thecradle.co/articles/exclusive ... uce-period

Ex-Mossad agents boast about pager terror attack in Lebanon: 'We created a pretend world'

Anonymous former agents for the Israeli spy agency describe setting up shell companies to infiltrate supply lines and market the explosive devices to Hezbollah

News Desk

DEC 23, 2024

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(Photo credit: CNN)

Former Mossad agents revealed new details of Israel's pager and walkie-talkie terror attacks carried out against members of Hezbollah in interviews with the CBS News program 60 Minutes on 22 December.

According to a former Israeli intelligence agent known as Michael, Hezbollah bought more than 16,000 of the exploding devices.

When Mossad chief David Barnea gave the green light for the attack in September, the pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated on subsequent days.

Some 42 people were killed, including two children, while about 4,000 were injured. Many lost their hands and eyes or had their stomachs ripped open by the explosions.

Michael said the walkie-talkie batteries, which included explosive devices, were made in Israel at a Mossad facility.

Mossad then set up shell companies to infiltrate the supply chain and sell the devices to Hezbollah. The walkie-talkies were designed to go into armored tactical vests used in battle.

“We create a pretend world. We are a global production company: We write the screenplay, we're the directors, we're the producers, we're the main actors,” Michael said. “And the world is our stage.”

Another former Mossad agent, Gabriel, told 60 Minutes that the spy agency began developing booby-trapped pagers in 2022. They wanted a device that Hezbollah members would carry with them at all times, not just in battle.

Gabriel said Mossad had learned that the Lebanese resistance movement was buying pagers from a company in Taiwan called Gold Apollo.

Mossad set up shell companies, including one in Hungary, to produce the explosive pagers and market them under a licensing agreement with Gold Apollo.

The pagers had no intelligence capabilities and could not be used to track Hezbollah members or gather information about them, Gabriel said. They could only be detonated to kill or maim anyone holding them.

Hezbollah members, both in the military and civilian wings, used pagers instead of cell phones to communicate to avoid being surveilled by Israel.

“This is a very stupid device by nature. This is the reason they're using it. There's almost no way how to tap it,” Gabriel said.

Mossad paid for fake ads on YouTube, promoting them as dustproof, waterproof, and with a long battery life. They also posted fake online testimonials for the pagers.

“It became the best product in the beeper area in the world,” Gabriel said.

“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad. We make like the ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scenes,” Gabriel claimed.

A Mossad shell company also hired the Gold Apollo saleswoman Hezbollah was already working with. She offered Hezbollah the first batch of pagers as an upgrade, free of charge. By the time of the terror attack in September 2024, around 5,000 Hezbollah members were carrying the pagers.

At 3:30 pm on 17 September, Mossad detonated the pagers. The walkie-talkies were detonated the following day.

“Mayhem ensued as explosions went off. Hospitals filled up with the wounded. Limbs and fingers were torn off. People were left bloodied, blinded, and even with holes in their stomachs,” CBS wrote.

Following the pager and walkie-talkie terror attacks, the Israeli Air Force unleashed a major bombing campaign in Lebanon. The bombing killed over 500 citizens on just the first day.

On 27 September, Israel dropped over 80 2,000-pound bombs (around 907 kilograms) on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's bunker, assassinating him.

Over the next two months, Israel and Hezbollah fought a major war that ended in a 60-day ceasefire that took effect on 27 November.

https://thecradle.co/articles/ex-mossad ... tend-world

Israel builds 'beachfront retreat' for soldiers committing genocide in Gaza

Facilities include a desalination plant to provide soldiers with fresh drinking water at a time when human rights groups have accused Tel Aviv of imposing policies of deprivation that have led to the deaths of thousands from dehydration

News Desk

DEC 24, 2024

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(Photo credit: AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

In the latest sign that Israel's occupation of Gaza will continue for years to come, the military constructed a "beachfront retreat" in the strip to give its soldiers a break between ethnically cleansing the enclave.

“This unique respite, situated amid the devastation of enemy territory, offers soldiers a rare break from their grueling missions in the Gaza Strip,” the Ynet website reported on 23 December.

The facility provides soldiers access to mental health counselors, nurses, paramedics, massage therapists, and dentists. It also has a coffee bar, breakfasts reminiscent of a hotel buffet, grilled steaks from a barbeque station, and a dessert and candy station.

One corner of the retreat provides religious texts, tefillin sets, and prayer shawls for Jewish worship.

Charging stations allow soldiers to recharge their phones to keep in touch with family in Israel while washing machines and dryers enable troops to wash their uniforms.


“We've learned to cook for ourselves during combat operations, and we receive fresh meals several times a week,” said Sergeant Yaron Rabinovitch from the Nahal Brigade's 50th Battalion. “Each platoon gets a day here about every 10 days. It's rejuvenating. By the end of the third round, we get a short leave back home. This has been a game-changer.”

“You know this is Gaza, right? Yet we've created a sense of home here, with iced coffee, espresso, protein shakes, toast, shakshuka, fresh fruit, and even ice cream on warmer days,” boasted Chief Warrant Officer David Turjeman, head of food services for the army's Southern Command.

The Army has also built a desalination plant capable of producing 60,000 liters of drinking water daily. “This is unprecedented in a combat zone,” notes Colonel Michael Azulai, the Southern Command's logistics officer. “The facility's deployment reflects our readiness for prolonged operations, even if a ceasefire is reached in the context of a hostage exchange.”


At the same time, Israeli soldiers continue to commit war crimes and massacres against Palestinians in Gaza as part of the broader effort to depopulate the strip and prepare it for Jewish settlement.

On Monday, Israeli psychologist Yoel Elizur published testimony in Haaretz from soldiers who fought in past wars against Palestinians resisting occupation.

Elizur wrote that, according to one soldier, “A new commander came to us. We went out with him on the first patrol at six in the morning. He stops. There's not a soul in the streets, just a little 4-year-old boy playing in the sand in his yard. The commander suddenly starts running, grabs the boy, and breaks his arm at the elbow and his leg here. Stepped on his stomach three times and left.”

“We all stood there with our mouths open. Looking at him in shock,” the soldier explained. “I asked the commander: ‘What's your story?’ He told me: ‘These kids need to be killed from the day they are born. When a commander does that, it becomes legit.’”

“X shot an Arab four times in the back and got away with a self-defense claim. Four bullets in the back from a distance of ten meters ... cold-blooded murder. We did things like that every day,” another soldier's testimony stated.

“An Arab just walked down the street, about 25 years old, didn't throw a stone, nothing. Bang, a bullet in the stomach. Shot him in the stomach, and he was dying on the sidewalk, and we drove away indifferently,” said another soldier.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-bu ... de-in-gaza
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 25, 2024 3:15 pm

Israel’s Expanding Agenda with Laith Marouf
Posted by Internationalist 360° on December 23, 2024



Join me, Dr. Wilmer Leon, on Connecting the Dots with my guest, award-winning journalist and Middle Eastern affairs expert Laith Marouf. We’ll explore the high-stakes moves unfolding in the Middle East, from the ongoing war in Gaza to Israel’s broader ambitions and the global implications of these actions. What do these developments mean for the region and beyond? Don’t miss this critical conversation.



https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/12/ ... th-marouf/

******

Deception & Politics From Washington to Tel Aviv
December 24, 2024

U.S.-Israeli supremacist intentions, papered over and buried for decades, are now clear for all to see, writes M. Reza Behnam.

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U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper arriving in Tel Aviv, October 2020. (DoD/Lisa Ferdinando)

By M. Reza Behnam
Z-Network

In these difficult times, the voice of the late Palestinian-American scholar, Edward Said is ever present, “Writing is the final resistance we have against the inhuman practices and injustices that disfigure human history.”

For more than fourteen painful months Israel has passed off its inhuman actions against the people of Gaza as “defensive.”

We are to believe that the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians and attacks on its Arab neighbors are somehow Israel’s “right.” Championed by the Biden administration, Tel Aviv has grown ever more bold and barbaric in its efforts to crush the resistance and expand its “undeclared” borders; simply, because it can.

Since it proclaimed itself a state on Palestinian land in 1948, Israel has been and continues to be engaged in the largest dispossession of an ethnic group in modern history. And following its victory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Israel has emerged an expansionist, occupying and annexationist power, ruling over vast Arab lands and people.

The United States has, particularly since 1967, been the bulwark for Israel’s expansionist dreams. U.S.-Israeli supremacist intentions, papered over and buried for decades, are now clear for all to see.

Out of the ashes of World War II, the newly created United Nations, with U.S. pressure, helped legalize land theft. In 1947, the General Assembly (made up of 58 nations) said “yes” to the creation of a Jewish state on 62 percent of historic Palestine.

At the time of the unequal division, 68 percent of the population were Arab Palestinian Muslims and Christians, while only 30 percent were Jewish.

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Second Session of the United Nations General Assembly in November 1947, during which delegates approved the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish States. (UN Photo/Albert Fox)

Zionist plans to seize all of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, have never ceased, and are clearly stated in the Likud Party platform of 1977:

“The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable… therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”

The inhumanity, injustices and militarism that we see today in Gaza, in the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen have deep roots in the founding of the Jewish state and its ongoing desire to create a hegemonic Eretz Israel (Greater Israel) throughout the Middle East.

The expansionist policies of the current Israeli regime are not an aberration. They are rather a continuation and the inevitable outcome of Zionist political ideology espoused by Israel’s founding fathers, advanced by the Labour and Likud parties, and currently being prosecuted by the fanatics in the far-right Religious Zionism party.

Like the early Zionists, every Israeli leader has believed in the Jewish right to all of Palestine and the right to expel the indigenous population to achieve an exclusive Jewish state. Their plans, goals and strategies have been blatantly stated and well documented over many years.

European founders, men like the father of modern political Zionism, Theodor Herzl (1860-1904); Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940), founder of Revisionist Zionism (precursor of today’s Likud Party); Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952), the first president of Israel; and David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), Israel’s first prime minister, agreed that increased Jewish immigration and removal of Palestinians were required to secure control over Palestine and to create a Greater Israel.

Following are a handful of the many citations that should be weighed to understand European Zionism and its ethnic cleansing schemes for Palestine and its people:

“When we occupy the land, we shall bring immediate benefits to the state that receives us. We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our own country….Both the process of expropriation and removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” — Herzl, 1895 [to Herzl, Palestinians were “it”]

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Herzl en route to Palestine aboard a ship in 1898. (National Photo Collection of Israel, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

“There is no choice: The Arabs must make room for the Jews of Eretz Israel. If it was possible to transfer the Baltic peoples, it is also possible to move the Palestinian Arabs….We Jews, thank God, have nothing to do with the East….The Islamic soul must be broomed out of Eretz Israel….[Muslims are] yelling rabble dressed up in gaudy, savage rags.” — Jabotinsky, 1939.

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Jabotisky in 1926. (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

“By a Jewish National Home I mean the creation of such conditions that as the country is developed we can pour in a considerable number of immigrants, and finally establish such a society in Palestine that Palestine shall be as Jewish as England is English or America American.” — Weizmann, 1919.

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Weizmann in 1900. (Bain News Service, Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

“With compulsory transfer we [would] have a vast area [for settlement]….I support compulsory transfer. I don’t see anything immoral in it.” — Ben-Gurion, 1937.

And:

“My assumption…is that a Jewish state on only a part [referring to partition plan] of the land is not the end but the beginning….every increase in strength helps in the possession of the land as a whole.” — Ben-Gurion, 1938.

From Israel’s founder, Herzl, to its first prime minister, Ben-Gurion, its goal has been “a land for Israelis, without Palestinians.”

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Ben Gurion speaking at the cornerstone laying ceremony for the building of the Histadrut, which would become Israel’s national trade union, in Jerusalem, 1924. (National Photo Collection of Israel, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Furthermore, by looking back on Israel’s expansionist strategies, we can better comprehend what Tel Aviv and Washington are currently plotting for Palestine and the larger region.

Their schemes for becoming the hegemons of the Levant are revealed in the: 1948 Plan Dalet (Plan D); Oded Yinon Plan, “A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s;” and 1996 “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.”

Dalet Plan — Blueprint for Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

Long before the British terminated their mandate and pulled their army out of Palestine, a cabal of Zionist political and military leaders, led by Ben-Gurion, had been preparing militarily plans for the dispossession of the Palestinians once the British left.

Plan Dalet (Plan D) was officially put into effect on March 10, 1948. Military orders were given to the new Israeli army and Haganah militia to systematically and forcibly remove Palestinians from vast areas of the country.

The operational orders specified which population centers should be targeted and laid out in detail how to drive out the inhabitants and destroy their communities, using methods including intimidation, setting fires to homes, properties and goods, demolishing homes and planting mines to prevent inhabitants from returning.

On April 9, 1948, at Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, over 150 Palestinian men, women and children were massacred by Zionist terrorist militias (members of Irgun and Stern Gang).

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Jewish militias in the village of Deir Yassin, April 1948. (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

After six months, when the Nakba (the catastrophe) ended, over 750,000 Palestinians had been uprooted, 531 villages destroyed and eleven urban neighborhoods had been depopulated, soon repopulated with Jewish Israelis.

The destruction of Palestinian communities begun during and after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War marked the beginning of Israel’s apartheid system on 78 percent of historic Palestine.

Yinon Plan — ‘Strategy for Israel in the 1980s’

In February 1982, an essay appeared in Kivinum (Directions), a journal of the World Zionist Organization. It was written by Oded Yinon, a journalist for The Jerusalem Post with close ties to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

The Yinon Plan for the Middle East contained the key elements of the “Greater Israel” scheme reflected in the expansionist policies — underwritten by the United States — that Tel Aviv has implemented over more than eight decades.

Although the “de-Palestinezation of Palestine” has been a priority, every Arab state has been a target of Zionist expansionism.

The Yinon Plan emphasizes two key elements: To survive, Israel must become an imperial regional power; and to achieve that hegemony, it must weaken and divide neighboring Arab states.

Israel’s aim has been to create small, sectarian-based Arab states with little choice but to yield to Israeli domination.

The Yinon Plan has been taking shape since the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88) and U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Israel’s interest in weak states in the Middle East has been borne out in its air and cyber-wars and numerous assassinations of prominent opposition figures.

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US Army tanks pose for a photo under the “Hands of Victory” in Ceremony Square, Baghdad. (U.S. Air Force, John L. Houghton, Jr., Public domain)

Since 1967, Israel has swallowed up more Arab land. It has illegally annexed Arab lands in Palestine and the Syrian Golan Heights; with plans, as recently announced, to colonize the devastated Gaza Strip and to annex the West Bank.

A Clean Break — ‘New Strategy for Securing the Realm’

A U.S.-Israeli neoconservative research group at the Institute for Advanced Strategies and Palestine Studies in Washington, D.C. prepared a policy document in 1996 for newly-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The report titled, “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” laid out a plan of action for how Washington and Tel Aviv could integrate their policies to defeat Israel’s “foes” by reshaping the Middle East.

Notably, the authors of the manifesto worked in the George W. Bush White House, inside the Pentagon and Defense Department. Its lead author, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs (1981-87), Richard Perle, was one of the key figures in the formulation of the disastrous 2003 Iraq war strategy adopted by the Bush administration.

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Perle in December 2009. (New America Foundation, Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

To win American support, Netanyahu was advised to package the proposed policies in a language familiar to Americans; hence, standard-issue canards such as “Israel has the right to defend itself” and branding supporters of Palestinian rights as “terrorists.”

The strategies described in the “Yinon” and “Clean Break” plans were constructs for endless U.S.-Israeli wars and chaos in the region.

It should be noted, that the United States has engaged in or sponsored wars or conflicts — beneficial to Israeli strategy — in Iraq (2003), Libya (2011), Syria (from 2011 to the present), in Lebanon, Yemen, occupied West Bank and Gaza; and with Iran if Israel continues to have its way.

To “secure the realm,” Israel was urged to pursue aggressive policies of preemption and regime change against governments in the region that resisted Israel’s expansionist aims. Netanyahu was advised to collaborate with Jordan and Türkiye to destabilize Iraq and to contain Syria through proxy warfare.

Consistent with “clean break logic,” the Bush administration, under the pretext that Iraq harbored weapons of mass destruction, invaded Iraq in 2003, toppled Saddam Hussein and dismantled the ruling Ba’ath Party.

Iraq has yet to recover from America’s eight-year-long occupation and war.

Despite the Iraqi government’s request that the U.S. leave, Washington has refused to withdraw its remaining 2,500 troops.

The U.S.-Israel war on Syria, which led to the fall of President Bahar al-Assad in December 2024 began with the 1996 “Clean Break” strategy for the region.

It escalated in 2011 when President Barack Obama covertly instructed the C.I.A. to overthrow President Assad in Operation Timber Sycamore. Thirteen years of deadly war, frequent Israeli air strikes, and crippling U.S.-led economic sanctions, left Syria impoverished, fragmented and unable to resist foreign invasion.

Israel got what it wanted in Syria, a Balkanized and weakened country. The United States, Türkiye and their forces dominate in the North, while Israel controls areas in the South.

Tel Aviv now claims control over the demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, and has declared its intent to expand its illegal colonies in the Golan Heights, declaring them part of the Israeli state “for eternity.”

Netanyahu has eagerly embraced “Clean Break” proposals on ways to “secure the realm” in Palestine. He has perversely sabotaged the Oslo Accords (1993/1995), completely written-off the so-called two-state solution (land for peace) and sown division within the Palestinian national movement.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) tasked with limited government over parts of the occupied Palestinian territories by the now extinct Oslo Accords, has been reduced to an enforcement arm of the Israeli security state.

The Dec. 21 large-scale armed crackdown against Palestinian resistance groups in the Jenin refugee camp carried out by PA Security Forces exemplifies the extent of the collaboration.

It should be noted, that the assault was coordinated with Washington and Tel Aviv, and put under the direction of U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael R. Fenzel, who has served as U.S. security coordinator of the Israel-Palestinian Authority since November 2021.

Clean Break strategists callously advised Israel, “to pursue Palestinians into all areas.” In its sinister belief that it can physically destroy the Palestinian national desire to return home to a free Palestine, Israel has ravaged and pulverized the defenseless Gaza Strip.

And for more than 17 years, Netanyahu has made it his mission to kill as many Palestinians as the United States and its Western allies will tolerate.

From Herzl to Netanyahu

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on June 10. (State Department, Chuck Kennedy)

From Herzl’s “spirit them out” to Netanyahu’s campaign of genocide, the message and actions have been the same — remove all trace of Palestinians.

And from President Harry S. Truman to President Joe Biden, the message has been: the United States will prevent Israel from failing, whatever the political or economic cost.

When Biden asserts that he is a “committed Zionist,” he emphatically says to Israelis and Americans that the United States is in lockstep with Israel’s plans to erase Palestinians and their hopes for a sovereign Palestinian nation. Americans, too, many unwittingly, have become committed Zionists by financing Israeli supremacy and regional militarism.

In addition, by suppressing the truth about Israel’s expansionist plans, American politicians and the corporate media have fed the country’s addiction to regional supremacy and its dreams of a Greater Israel, without Palestinians.

Ben-Gurion’s words in a letter to his son in 1937 were menacing and foreboding:

“The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war.”

Israel’s current Zionist extremists have seized upon the Palestinian act of resistance on Oct. 7, 2023 to make Ben-Gurion’s hoped for “opportune moment” a reality, believing that they, like their predecessors, can continue to disfigure history.

https://consortiumnews.com/2024/12/24/d ... -tel-aviv/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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