The Financial Times published a report prepared by James Shooter in which he questioned the importance of the call submitted by South Africa to the International Court of Justice against Israel. He said that the International Court of Justice heard legal arguments in important cases, but the case presented by South Africa was the most important because it accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

A decision on the lawsuit, whose allegations Israel denies, will not be issued until years later. However, the court, with its 17 judges, will decide, in the coming days, whether it will accept the South African demand, which includes measures meant to limit the Israeli attack against Gaza.

  Even before the judges issued their decision, a country, which the writer says is democratic and supported by the West, was accused before the highest international crimes court, which led to global attention.

For Israel and its allies, the claim is baseless and arouses discontent.

For the Palestinians and their supporters, especially in the Global South, the situation is a test of the international system, which they see as always working against them.

“Few conflicts around the world have caused shocks like this,” says Dalia Scheindlin, a pollster in Tel Aviv. And all over the world, people have positions on it,” he said, so “I imagine that any decision from the court will ignite both parties, one way or another.”

In Israel, which the writer says was subjected to a Hamas attack on October 7, South Africa’s decision to bring it to court is incomprehensible and angering, especially since the 1948 Genocide Law, against which South Africa filed its lawsuit, appeared after the Nazi crimes against the Jews. During World War II.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a terrorist group committed the worst crime against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and one party is defending it, and in the name of the Holocaust? “What insolent bitterness.” He described the South African lawsuit as “a cry of hypocrisy that reaches the heavens.”

But the Palestinians see the situation in a different way: they hope that the international community will put pressure on Israel and stop its devastating attack on Israel, which has so far killed more than 25,000 Palestinians and displaced more than one million of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip. It is also an opportunity to hold Israel responsible for the oppression and oppression it has carried out against the Palestinians over the past 75 years. The Palestinian Ambassador to Britain, Hossam Zomlot, says: “This is the first serious international effort to end the horrific situation and demand accountability, after 75 years of denial of basic, equal rights for all people.” He said: “This is an important moment, and if the International Justice Organization adheres to its legal mandate and succeeds in its governance, it will succeed for itself and for the law-based international system.” If it fails, it will have failed itself, its mandate, and the entire international system based on law.”

In order to make a decision, the court's judges must decide whether Israel's actions are covered by the Genocide Charter and whether urgent measures are necessary to protect the rights of Palestinian citizens of Gaza, a lower threshold than that required to support the case presented by South Africa.

  If the court decided that the South African request was compatible with the provisions of the Genocide Charter, it might decide to approve all demands, from a ceasefire to preventing it from incitement to commit genocide or an act chosen by Israel. The decision will have a clear impact on the Gaza war.

  Legal analysts doubt the court’s decision is binding on Israel, as they say that Hamas is not covered by the case, and is still holding 130 hostages. The result may have been a compromise in terms of increasing humanitarian aid and opening the way for independent investigations.

Analysts say that if Israel decides to ignore the court's decision, any reprehensible decision will affect the way countries deal with Israel, such as not selling weapons to it, or preparing to impose sanctions on it.

Others believe that the decision will have an impact on other cases submitted to the Criminal Court, which deals with cases against individuals, not states. “The Genocide Charter is the Summit Charter, it is the crime of crimes,” says Sheila Bellan, an expert in international law and human rights. “So this is an explosive moment,” but there is a lot at stake, as there are many cases that have been paralyzed by the UN Security Council. States are willing to resort to the Court against other countries, and it carries opportunities and risks for the International Court of Justice, and may ultimately strengthen it and its influence, but there are also risks of dragging it into situations that expose it to accusation and politicization.

More US senators decided to sign an amendment that could impose conditions on military aid to Israel, amid growing demands for a ceasefire in Gaza, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu categorically rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state, according to what the British website Middle East Eye reported on Monday January 22, 2024.

Five Democratic members of the US Senate, Tina Smith, Raphael Warnock, Lavonza Butler, Tammy Baldwin, and Jon Ossoff, announced on Friday, January 19, that they would support an amendment presented by Senator Chris Van Hollen, requiring countries that receive US weapons to use them in a manner that... Complies with humanitarian law and US law.

With these five members, total support for the Van Hollen Amendment reaches 18 members, more than a third of the Democratic Caucus in the US Senate.

Van Hollen said, in an interview on Sunday, January 21: “Here is Prime Minister Netanyahu once again directly and publicly repelling the President of the United States.” He added: "It is time for a ceasefire. Biden must take a big and bold step. He must present the vision of a two-state solution."

A dispute has arisen between the Biden administration and Israel over the post-war plan in Gaza since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Strip, after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation. These differences worsened after Netanyahu publicly opposed the Biden administration's call to take steps to create a Palestinian state.

But growing support for Van Hollen's bill shows how opposition to Netanyahu is causing Israel to lose allies within the Democratic Party.

The Van Hollen Amendment also requires the administration to report within 30 days if recipients of US weapons are using them in compliance with US terms of use, as well as US and international law.

Van Hollen also directed sharp criticism at Israel, due to what he says is its lack of cooperation with the administration to provide more humanitarian aid to Gaza and reduce civilian casualties.

But the amendment allows the president to issue a waiver not to pressure recipients of US weapons to cooperate in humanitarian aid if doing so is in the interest of US national security.

While the Middle East Eye website indicated that this amendment will also not apply to air defense systems, or “other systems that the President determines will be used for purely defensive purposes.”

By Lemur Malik

There is a lot of talk about voluntary migration. And about Israel's need to allow hundreds of thousands of Gazans to immigrate to other countries, and even give them and the countries ready to receive them incentives. This idea, which was previously limited to the “Jewish Power” party and appears in its political program, became so prevalent after October 7 that even representatives from the left were not afraid to present it as a realistic idea.

In an article written by Representative from the “There is a Future” Party, Ram Ben Barak, with the participation of Representative Danny Danon, he said that the countries of the world must help the people of Gaza to immigrate and settle again. He wrote, "This can be done through an international coordination system, the goal of which is to help the residents of Gaza. In order to facilitate the adaptation of Gazans, the international community will have to help them with an economic facilitation package, which will allow every Gazan family to begin the process of assimilation with ease and comfort."

They added in the article, “A smaller number could be a start, 10,000 Gazans in each country, which will greatly reduce the suffering of the Gazan community and improve the conditions of those who remain in the Strip. There are 193 countries in the world, according to voting in the United Nations, that strictly support the Palestinians, "It can be assumed that, in the majority, they will not oppose helping them. What is required is that a number of countries respond to these demands and accept the Gazans. This is not only a moral duty, but an opportunity for the countries of the world to mobilize and show their commitment to a workable solution that helps push the entire Middle East to stability."

It is true that Ben Barak later tried to clarify the difference between himself and the Knesset members from the right, indicating that he only wants to allow whoever wants to emigrate, unlike the right-wingers who are concerned about displacement. However, a review of the political program of the “Jewish Power” party reveals that its proposal is similar to the party’s proposal that is deeply rooted in the Israeli right, a proposal that was written before the elections and stems from an understanding of the future.

The idea of voluntary immigration and settling in other countries that is open to those who want a new and dignified life is not new, especially since Israel finds itself, time after time, in a state of danger from these residents. It is the most ethical solution for the residents of Israel, and also for the residents of Gaza who are concerned about a better life. And to be far from their neighbors from the Hamas movement, who were the cause of destruction, destruction and death.

The idea of immigration is not unique to Israel, and when we discover, time after time, that there is no other solution, we have to allow whoever wants to do it. Moreover, the lack of possibility of immigration is immoral. We cannot force any child to live in an “environment that sanctifies death,” and to be educated in schools that foster “anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews,” where rockets are fired “from the classrooms” into Israel.

I know that there are those who will try to distort my statements and present them as a call for displacement. This is not the case. I want to kill Israel's enemies, not displace them, and I certainly do not want to push them into voluntary emigration. Past experience indicates that displacing enemies does not help in eliminating “terrorism.” On the contrary, the enemy becomes stronger away from our eyes, and when he returns, he is stronger and more trained. I want to open the door for those who want to choose a life away from “terrorism,” who want to stay away from the bad life full of death and evil in Gaza, and who want to develop their lives in another country of their choice.

Against the backdrop of ongoing discussions regarding the “day after” the war in the Gaza Strip, the international community is concerned about the Israeli public’s opposition to the two-state solution, taking into account the bias of this public toward the right since the October 7 attack. But a new public opinion poll showed that the Israeli public could support a settlement that includes the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, the political echelon has assessed in recent weeks that the Israeli public is leaning towards the right in its positions, and it will be difficult for it to accept pressures for a political settlement. According to these estimates, the public is likely to see the negotiations on establishing a Palestinian state in Gaza as an achievement for Hamas. Among Netanyahu's circles, there are those who warned against calling the current war in historical consciousness the "Palestinian War of Independence."

  A foreign diplomat with intimate knowledge of international efforts to reach a viable regional solution after the war said that the public in Israel would oppose pushing forward such a solution, and added: “We have the impression that the Israeli public has lost confidence in the settlement with the Palestinians, and must be encouraged to see that there is hope.” "With such steps." In the opinion of this diplomat, the establishment of a Palestinian state can be linked to the normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel. He said: “Saudi Arabia has made clear that it will not move towards an agreement with Israel without making real progress with the Palestinians, but it did not demand the establishment of a Palestinian state first.” He explained: “The American president has a limited time to pay attention to this, and he needs a major political achievement in the Middle East in his campaign for the presidential elections. If it is possible to reach a settlement with Saudi Arabia in exchange for a serious Israeli willingness to discuss the establishment of a Palestinian state, then this will be considered an achievement.” .

However, despite estimates that the Israeli public is biased towards the right, an opinion poll of 500 people showed that this public could support the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state within the framework of a settlement that includes the return of all kidnapped persons and normalization with Saudi Arabia. According to the poll conducted by the “Medgham” Center for Research and Consultation, headed by Manu Geva, at the request of the “Geneva Initiative” [a movement founded on 12/1/2023 that supports a permanent Palestinian-Israeli agreement], 51.3% of the public in Israel supports an agreement supported by the United States. , returns the kidnapped people, within which a demilitarized Palestinian state is established in the West Bank and Gaza, and a normalization agreement is reached between Israel and Saudi Arabia, while 28.9% opposed the agreement, and 19.8% said that they had no opinion.

In response to the question: What situation do you prefer after 3 years in the Gaza Strip? 50.5% responded that they prefer not to have Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, while 32% said that they prefer the presence of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, and 17.5% have no opinion. The question was also raised: Did their relationship with the United States change after October 7, and how? 65% responded that the relationship with the United States since October 7 is good; 38.2% saw that it has not changed, and is still good; 26.3% said that the relationship became better after October 7, and 17.1% said that it became worse.

The Director General of the Geneva Initiative, Gadi Baltiansky, considered that the results of the poll clearly prove that the Israeli public is ready to accept a demilitarized Palestinian state in exchange for regional security and the return of all the kidnapped.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the third phase of the war on Gaza will take an additional half a year.

This came according to what was reported by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Authority (“Kan 11”), today, Tuesday, which indicated that Netanyahu had said this, during the “closed part” of the government session that was held this week, in which he pointed out that the Israeli army would need To half a year, to end the third phase of the war, which “has already begun in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Netanyahu told his ministers: “As we said previously, the air part would last three weeks, and so it was, and as we said, the second part of the broad maneuver would last three months, and so it was.”

Netanyahu added: “Thus we say that the third part of consolidating control, the cleansing, will continue for half a year.”

Israeli official: Negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal “are still ongoing”

In a related context, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported, citing an unnamed Israeli official, that negotiations on reaching a prisoner exchange deal “are still ongoing, and we have not received a negative response,” after the Associated Press reported in a report today, That Hamas has rejected the Israeli proposal to release the detainees, in exchange for a two-month ceasefire, and “allowing” senior Hamas leaders in Gaza to leave the Strip for other countries.

Earlier today, the American Associated Press quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that Hamas insists on its refusal to release more Israeli prisoners in Gaza, until Israel ends its ongoing war on Gaza for 109 days and withdraws its forces from the Strip.

The official said that Egypt and Qatar, which are playing a mediating role with American support between the Hamas movement and the Israeli occupation authorities, are working to develop a multi-stage proposal to try to bridge the gaps between the two sides. Note that the Israeli side refuses to discuss offers that include a commitment to stop the war on Gaza, which is required by Hamas.

Netanyahu had said, in a meeting held yesterday, Monday, with a group of representatives of the families of detainees in Gaza, that Israel had presented an initiative to the mediators, the details of which were not revealed, in an attempt to release the detainees, stressing that Israel refuses to discuss proposals that include a commitment to end the war on Gaza.

A senior European Union official publicly criticized Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz for disrupting a crucial meeting aimed at addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza by offering "irrelevant" infrastructure, according to The Daily Beast.

Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign affairs coordinator and one of the bloc's top officials, told reporters on Monday  that “Katz walked into the meeting with a proposal to build an artificial island off the coast of Gaza — clearly revealing his view that the high-stakes summit was neither the time nor the place to showcase  the "unrealistic infrastructure”

The senior EU official said in remarks on Monday: “We had the pleasure of watching two very interesting videos; this had little to do with what we were discussing. I think Minister (Katz) could have used his time better to worry about his country’s security and the rise of the death toll in the Middle East and the high death toll in Gaza.

According to Borrell, the presentation included two videos: one promoting the plan to create the artificial island — which is supposed to serve as a commercial center — and another initiative focusing on the railway infrastructure project connecting Gaza to the West Bank. The official said that both matters had absolutely nothing to do with the purpose of the meeting.

Katz, who took over as Israeli foreign minister earlier this month, had previously marketed the artificial island project in his previous position as transportation minister in 2017. His attempt to revive the concept appeared to have failed on Monday, according to a European diplomatic source who told Euronews that other EU ministers present at the meeting were “puzzled” by his suggestion. In turn, The Guardian newspaper quoted another source as saying: “The ministers ignored the matter and went ahead with what they were there to talk about. No one dealt with it.”

Previous reports suggested the proposal may be part of a broader plan to move Palestinians to the island, with an Israeli official saying the initiative could include housing for Gazans, according to The New York Times. A Guardian newspaper report also quoted sources who claimed that Katz suggested transferring Palestinians to the island, which raised concern. The Israeli Foreign Ministry denied the report, telling The Times of Israel that “there is no such plan.”

The summit came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial statements rejecting the concept of a Palestinian state, and doubling down on his intentions to continue the war.

But that did not prevent Borrell from clarifying the European Union's position on this issue:

“All member states have told [Katz], of course, that they believe that the solution to a comprehensive and lasting peace that guarantees Israel’s security comes through the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said, adding, of course, “We will not do that and we will not accept anything less than a ceasefire.”

Today, Tuesday, the Israeli occupation authorities renewed the decision to seize tens of dunums in the Buqai’a Plain in the northern Jordan Valley.

The official responsible for the settlement file in Tubas Governorate, Moataz Bisharat, said that the occupation authorities renewed the order to seize approximately 91 dunums of citizens’ lands in the Buqi’a Plain in the northern Jordan Valley.

He added that the lands covered by the decision are located within the basins of Khallet al-Rikab, Ras al-Darina, Ras al-Madhabhar, and Jalama Makisima.

Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in Israel's worst day of losses in Gaza, the military said on Tuesday, as its forces encircled southern Gaza's main city, trapping Palestinian residents trying to flee.

Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said 21 soldiers were killed when two buildings they had mined for demolition exploded after militants fired at a nearby tank. Earlier, three soldiers were reported killed in a separate attack in southern Gaza.

"Yesterday we experienced one of our most difficult days since the war erupted," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "In the name of our heroes, for the sake of our lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory."

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had on Monday launched a major operation to seize remaining parts of Khan Younis, the main city in the south of the enclave, which is sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians.

"Over the past day, IDF troops carried out an extensive operation during which they encircled Khan Younis and deepened the operation in the area," the military said. "Ground troops engaged in close-quarters combat, directed strikes, and used intelligence to coordinate fire, resulting in the elimination of dozens of terrorists."

Israel tanks, advancing west across the crowded city towards Mediterranean, shut the last road out towards the coast on Tuesday, blocking the escape route for civilians trying to flee southwest towards the Egyptian border, residents said by phone.

"I am trying to leave for Rafah but the tanks are now very near to the coast and are firing toward the west," said Shaban, 45, an electrical engineer with four children. He said he still hoped to evacuate his family to the north.

At least 195 Palestinians were killed in the space of 24 hours, raising the documented toll to 25,490, according to Palestinian health officials, who say thousands more dead are feared lost in the rubble.

Palestinian officials said the advancing Israelis had blockaded hospitals, making it impossible to reach the dead and wounded.

At the European Hospital in Khan Younis, Ahed Masmah brought in five corpses, piled on a mattress on his donkey cart.

"I found them face-down in the street," he said. "I did a good thing and brought them in.”

Bodies were being buried in the grounds of Khan Younis's main Nasser hospital because it was unsafe to go out to the cemetery. Another hospital, Al-Khair, was stormed by Israeli troops who arrested staff, according to Palestinian officials.

Al-Amal Hospital, run by the Palestinian Red Crescent, was unreachable. The Red Crescent said a tank shell had hit its headquarters on the fourth floor, a civilian had been killed at the entrance and Israelis were firing from drones on anyone who moved nearby, making it impossible to dispatch ambulances.

Israel says Hamas fighters operate in and around hospitals, making them legitimate targets. Hospital staff and Hamas deny this.

'GRAVEYARD FOR THE OCCUPATION'

The Israeli losses announced on Tuesday were celebrated as a victory by Palestinians.

"The resistance said it is going to make Gaza a graveyard for the occupation, and this is what is happening,” said Abu Khaled, sheltering in a school in Deir al-Balah, one of the few areas yet to be stormed by Israeli forces. "The more they stay, the more we will suffer for sure - but the more they will suffer too."

Israelis spoke of the losses as a necessary sacrifice in a war against Hamas fighters who attacked Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing some 250 hostages, more than 100 still held in Gaza.

"You know, it’s our sons, it’s our brothers, it’s terrible - but we've got to do what we've got to do so that Oct. 7 doesn’t happen again," said Blina Rhodes on the street in Jerusalem. "You have to get rid of Hamas and make Gaza safe for us. Otherwise, we have no place to live."

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction and has controlled Gaza since 2007. Since Israel launched its ground assault in October, nearly all Gaza's 2.3 million people have lost their homes, most now penned into towns just north and south of Khan Younis.

Sami Abu Zuhri, head of the political office of Hamas in exile, said the Israeli losses were proof that the armed wing of Hamas was only getting stronger, and "the American and Israeli goal to get rid of Hamas or weaken it is not possible".

"We call on the American administration to stop this pointless policy and stop betting on the possibility of weakening or finishing Hamas," he said by phone from an undisclosed location.

Though the war still has overwhelming public support in Israel, discontent is emerging with Netanyahu's strategy - committed to the total annihilation of Hamas but with only vague discussion of what should follow and no talk since the end of November of a ceasefire to free hostages.

Since last week, Netanyahu has publicly vowed never to allow an independent Palestinian state, disavowing the decades-old bedrock of Middle East policy of Israel's main ally, Washington.

Relatives of hostages still held in Gaza have called for more effort to bring them home, even if that means reining in the war. Some burst into a parliamentary committee hearing on Monday.

Last week, a member of Netanyahu's war cabinet, former military chief-of-staff Gadi Eisenkot, whose own soldier son was killed in Gaza last month, said the campaign had yet to destroy Hamas and no military operation could free the hostages.

The conflict has been accompanied by unrest elsewhere in the Middle East where armed groups allied to Israel's arch-foe Iran operate, including Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, where the Iran-aligned Houthi movement has attacked ships in the Red Sea. The United States and Britain, which have retaliated against the Houthis this month, carried out more strikes overnight.

By Elise Lambert & Valentine Pasquesoone

Since 2022, two Jewish supremacist ministers have joined Benjamin Netanyahu's government. They campaign for a state governed by religion where the Palestinians would be absent. They intend to take advantage of the war in Gaza to achieve their objectives.

What might Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories look like after the war? At the beginning of January, two far-right ministers in the Israeli government sparked controversy by advocating the return of Jewish settlers to Gaza and the "emigration" of Palestinians. “We will help rehabilitate these refugees in other countries,” assured Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. “It is a correct, just, moral and humane solution,” added the person in charge of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir.

These statements have led to numerous condemnations around the world. According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (PDF document), "deportation or forcible transfer of population" is a crime against humanity.

Arriving in government at the end of 2022 thanks to a coalition between the right and the far right, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are not their first anti-Palestinian outing. For years, these Jewish supremacists have campaigned for a state governed by their reading of religious texts, where the Palestinians and their territories would not exist. They embody a current, religious Zionism, which has gradually permeated Israeli institutions and politics after being in the minority at the beginning of the 20th century.

For the creation of a “Greater Israel” without Palestinians

Basically, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir are similar. The first, a 43-year-old Minister of Finance, was trained in a small yeshiva (Talmudic school) in the settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. Beit El is a stronghold of the Hardal movement, which mixes nationalism and ultraorthodox thought, specifies Le Monde. Bezalel Smotrich is "a religious Zionist ideologue much more influenced by the rabbis than Ben Gvir. According to him, the 'Greater Israel' is a Jewish land, and its establishment will favor the coming of the messiah", explains for franceinfo Yoav Peled, political scientist at the Tel Aviv University.

At a very young age, Bezalel Smotrich fought against the dismantling of Jewish colonies in the Gaza Strip and then campaigned within Regavim, an organization opposed to Palestinian construction in the West Bank and in Israel. A lawyer, he was elected deputy to the Knesset in 2015. Father of seven children, he has increased his racist outings in recent years, for example deeming it necessary to separate Jewish and Arab patients in hospitals or even defining himself as a "homophobic fascist" , reports Le Monde. Bezalel Smotrich has previously said that Hamas was "an asset" for Israel because the Islamist group was preventing any peace process with the Palestinians. In March 2023, he went so far as to deny the very existence of Palestinians during a private visit to Paris.

Itamar Ben Gvir, 47, the Minister of National Security, is also a lawyer by training. Born in the suburbs of Jerusalem into a family of secular Iraqi Jews, he developed his anti-Arab ideology during the first intifada (1987-1993), within the Kahanist movement, summarizes La Croix. This movement, named after extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, was banned in 1994 for terrorism and racism.

Convicted several times for inciting hatred and provocative, Itamar Ben Gvir went after his appointment to the government on the Esplanade des Mosques, in East Jerusalem. A passage on the third holiest site of Islam which provoked the indignation of the international community. “Ben Gvir cares less about ideology than about Jewish power. He is not interested in the messiah, but in the possibility of allowing settlers to settle wherever they want,” underlines researcher Yoav Peled.

A resident of the colony of Kiryat Arba, stronghold of the radical and supremacist movement of "Youth of the Hills", Itamar Ben Gvir has long displayed the portrait of Baruch Goldstein in his living room. In 1994, this religious fanatic murdered 29 Muslim Palestinians who were praying at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, a holy site contested by Jews and Muslims. He has also never hidden his admiration for Ygal Amir, author of the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

A minority ideology until the turning point of 1967

The religious Zionism in which these ministers are part is ancient, reports Philosophie Magazine. It dates back to the end of the 19th century, when theorist Theodor Herzl called for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Israel. At this time, Zionist ideology was not necessarily linked to religion, and rather infused into socialist and labor circles. “For the religious ultraorthodox, Zionism is even blasphemy, since they only believe in the establishment of a Jewish state after the arrival of the messiah,” explains to franceinfo Stéphanie Laithier, historian of Judaism at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.

But Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, originally from Eastern Europe, helped to change the position of certain believers by calling for intervention in society to accelerate the coming of the messiah. The first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine, he created the Merkaz Harav yeshiva. This Talmudic school will convince more and more Orthodox people to adhere to Zionism.

The Six Day War of 1967 marked another turning point for religious Zionism. The lightning victory of the Jewish state against its Arab neighbors, Syria, Egypt and Jordan, is seen by Rabbi Kook and his young students as "the indisputable sign of a divine plan to make the Earth whole Israel to the people of Israel,” explains Yoav Peled in an academic article.

Therefore, occupying Palestinian territories such as the West Bank and Gaza is for these young religious Zionists “a divine command”. The Goush Emounim organization was created in their wake in the 1970s. It promotes the creation of Jewish colonies in the occupied territories and its vision gradually permeates all of religious Zionism, underlines in a recent study Alain Dieckhoff, research director at CNRS.

This current benefits from “a form of wear and tear of initial socialist Zionism”, adds Stéphanie Laithier. “Religious Zionists will present themselves as those who will regenerate the original Zionism. They highlight the fact that by settling in these territories, they are fulfilling biblical prophecy and securing Israel.” The Labor camp is more divided on the question of the occupied territories. With the Israeli failure of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, “Labor lost its grip on the territorial and security aspects of the Zionist project,” writes Yoav Peled. The left was ousted from power in 1977, replaced for the first time by Likud.

The third force in the 2022 legislative elections

In recent years, religious Zionism has gained ground at the heart of Israeli power. Former Education Minister Naftali Bennett became, in 2021, the first head of the religious Zionist government. During the legislative elections of November 2022, the current represented by the “Religious Zionism” list becomes the third force in the country, obtaining 11% of the votes and 14 seats in the Knesset.

Benjamin Netanyahu is forced to form an alliance with his members to return to power. This result was “the most significant fact of the last elections”, points out the study by Alain Dieckhoff.

Bezalel Smotrich is appointed Minister of Finance and gains significant power over the civil administration, responsible, among other things, for planning Jewish settlements in the West Bank. At the head of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir aspires to use the police "to repress more harshly the Arab citizens of Israel (...), but also the Palestinians", according to Alain Dieckhoff.

This “political environment” encourages Jewish settler projects, in the opinion of the Israeli NGO Peace Now. The year 2023 was a record year, both in terms of settlement construction and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Religious Zionist influence has also been seen since the terrorist attacks of October 7. “Benyamin Netanyahu fears losing his government [by losing the support of religious Zionists] if he announces ways out of the current fighting,” analyzes Yoav Peled.

This political progression reflects a more marked presence in Israeli society. The community is experiencing "very significant demographic growth", because it is often made up of families "with many children", observes Stéphanie Laithier. It represents between 10% and 30% of the Israeli population, reports the New York Times.

Its influence also reaches the army and education. According to Yoav Peled, in 2019, religious Zionists made up half of the graduates in the combat sections of the IDF officer school. At the same time, the researcher notes "an increase in Jewish religious content in the secular school curriculum", as well as "a greater emphasis on the Jewish aspect of Israel's identity".

With the Hamas attacks in Israel and the stagnation of the conflict in Gaza, can this ideology gain further ground? “There is a before and after October 7,” explains Stéphanie Laithier. A significant part of the Israeli population remains opposed to religious Zionism, but with the Hamas attacks, "there is still the idea that an installation in the occupied territories would make Israel secure." For Yoav Peled, the war even “accelerates” the influence of religious Zionism within society. “Some people don’t see any other way to deal with this situation.”

The Israeli army reacted on Friday by ensuring that its prisoners were treated “in accordance with international law”.

Detentions “in generally horrible conditions”. “Thousands” of men have been arrested by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war against Hamas, the UN said on Friday, January 19, citing ill-treatment that could amount to the torture. In response, the Israeli military reiterated that "those detained [were] treated in accordance with international law."

Some "described being beaten, humiliated, subjected to ill-treatment and what could amount to torture", all in unknown locations and for periods ranging from 30 to 55 days, according to the representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ajit Sunghay. “They reported being blindfolded for long periods, some for several days in a row,” the official said. “One man said he had access to a shower only once during his 55 days of detention. There are reports of men who were later released, but only in diapers,” he added.

The Israeli army told AFP that individuals suspected of being involved in terrorist activities were being arrested and questioned. “Individuals who do not participate in terrorist activities are released,” said this source, adding that it is often necessary “for suspected terrorists to hand over their clothes so that they can be searched and to ensure that "They are not hiding explosive vests or other weapons." Clothing is returned when possible, the army further specifies.

Today, Tuesday, settlers launched attacks on citizens and their property in the West Bank.

In Hebron, settlers damaged the tires of the vehicles of teachers of the Al-Tuwanah Mixed Basic School in Masafer Yatta, south of the city, and smashed their windows.

According to local sources, “Havat Maon” settlers, dressed as Israeli soldiers, damaged the tires of the school teachers’ vehicles with sharp tools and broke their windows with stones, while they were at the entrance to the village, which was closed by stones and earth mounds from the occupation forces.

In Jericho, colonists, protected by Israeli forces, carried out excavation and bulldozing work near the Al-Malihat Arab community on the Al-Marajat Road, northwest of the city.

It is noteworthy that in light of the war waged by the Israeli occupation on the Gaza Strip, human rights groups have documented an increase in settler-related violence and the forced displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced, on Tuesday, that the death toll from the Israeli war on the Strip had risen to 25,490 people and 63,354 injuries since October 7, 2023.

It added that on the 109th day of the war, “the Israeli occupation committed 22 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, claiming 195 dead and 354 injuries during the past 24 hours.”

The ministry added, "There are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them."

By Ahmad Samih Khalidi

 Attempts to excise the group and its leaders are unlikely to succeed and risk not only perpetuating the cycle of violence but spreading it wider

In late 1935, a small band of irregulars led by a Syrian-born Islamist cleric launched a guerrilla campaign against the British mandatory government that had the establishment of a Jewish “national home” in what was then predominantly Arab Palestine, as part of its purview. The campaign was swiftly suppressed by British forces, and its leader, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, was killed as were the majority of his men.

But Qassam’s readiness to take up arms and die in the service of the Palestinian cause made a deep and lasting impression on Palestinian society, and his “martyrdom” became a symbol of sacrifice that has continued to resonate throughout the past 90 years, eventually providing both inspiration and a name to Hamas’s armed wing in the late 1980s. The fact that Qassam failed was essentially irrelevant. More important was his embodiment of the spirit of dogged and selfless resistance to foreign domination despite the imbalance of power and the unlikely prospects of success. Qassam also set the Palestinian national movement down the path of “armed struggle” that was eventually adopted by Yasser Arafat’s “mainstream” Fatah movement from the late 1950s onwards but whose role has diminished since the 1993 Oslo accord with Israel.

The past 30 years have witnessed an accelerating competition between Hamas’s claim to embody national resistance to Israeli rule, and Fatah’s collapse into discord, corruption and collusion under the banner of the Palestinian Authority’s “security cooperation” with the Israeli occupation. This race culminated in Hamas’s 7 October assault that was designed as much to shock and terrorise Israel as it was to discredit Fatah/ Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority and consolidate Hamas’s position as the primary inheritor and embodiment of the Palestinian national movement and its liberationist cause.

Israel’s post 7/10 resort to massive force, dropping an unprecedented total of about 30,000 bombs by mid-December 2023 (equivalent to two Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs), has so far failed to eradicate the military force established by Hamas amid the torrent of bloodshed, 25,000 Palestinian dead and the 62,000 wounded, and the mass displacement of 1.9 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza (85% of the population), easily exceeding the toll of the ethnic cleansing that accompanied Israel’s establishment in 1948.

The issue of how and when the war will end remains shrouded in the fog of Israel’s opaque intentions and the US’s increasingly desperate diplomatic manoeuvrings, hoping for a clear Israeli victory over Hamas, while fearing the worst consequences of a regional conflagration as evident from the slow spread of hostilities from Bab-el-Mandeb to Irbil. US hopes of leveraging the moment into a redesigned Middle East living in peace and harmony must not only contend with the sheer contagion of the current conflict but with the political capital needed, especially in an electoral year, to shift Israel away from its current semi-consensual refusal to countenance any substantial change in the status quo of occupation, settlement and domination.

Hamas’s brutal tactics have been washed out of Palestinian consciousness by the mass erasure of civilian lives

Meanwhile, as “day after” scenarios pile up, ranging from the utopian vision of a region speeding towards peace and stability thanks to an as yet invisible “pathway to Palestinian statehood” dreamed up by US secretary of state Antony Blinken, to Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant’s fantasy of an Arab/international consortium taking over the Gaza Strip on Israel’s behalf, to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s promise that there will no Palestinian state and that the war will continue at least into 2025: in all these, one thing is missing: Hamas’s likely survival and its potentially growing influence both despite and because of the enormous damage inflicted on the movement itself and the people of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas’s brutal tactics in its 7 October assault have been washed out of Palestinian political consciousness by the subsequent indiscriminate and mass erasure of Palestinian civilian lives, and the US/west’s complicity in supporting, arming and allowing this onslaught to continue under the guise of Israel’s right to self-defence with no evident expiry date attached. Rather than crush Hamas, its most likely effect will be to remythologise the notion of resistance and sow the seed for future iterations that may be inspired by Hamas but have no necessary connection to its history, ideology or organisational structure.

With Israeli leaders openly talking of pursuing the war against Hamas and its leaders across national boundaries, another potentially dangerous turn could take the form of Hamas’s transformation from a national-religious movement focused on the conflict in the land of Israel/Palestine into a more global movement ready to take the war to arenas that Hamas has hitherto avoided.

With regard to re-establishing a viable political authority in the Gaza Strip and reconstituting a Palestinian representative body that is capable of taking and sustaining decisions whether relating to a future political horizon with Israel or any legitimate governance and reconstruction process, the real issue is how to incorporate Hamas and its associated “spirit of resistance” into a new Palestinian authority, rather than how to quash or excise it. Within or associated with such an authority, Hamas could be part of the solution; outside, it would remain both a spoiler and an opposite pole of attraction.

Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have made it clear that they will seek to impose a strict and indefinite Israeli-determined security regime over the Gaza Strip for the foreseeable future; in other words, to reinstitute what amounts to a long-term occupation. This, in turn, will not only keep the flame of Hamas alive and galvanise Hamas-inspired resistance but will ensure that Israel’s “right of self-defence” will only produce the very insecurity that Israel and its allies claim to be addressing. If the past 55 years of occupation have taught us anything, it is that this cannot be the path to a genuine and lasting peace. It took Israel and the US approximately 35 years to talk to what was then seen as the terrorist PLO, just as it took years for the ANC and IRA to be recognised as partners to a resolution. All those threatened or rightfully concerned about what may happen next, simply cannot afford the price of waiting that long.

The US administration affirmed its support for the Israeli approach to eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), reiterating its rejection of a comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and expressed its support for what it called “humanitarian breaks only.” "With the aim of extracting the prisoners and delivering aid to the region."

In a press conference held yesterday evening, Monday, in Washington, DC, the Strategic Communications Coordinator for the National Security Council in the White House, John Kirby, said in response to a question about the increase in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, “This is the military plan of the Israeli administration.”

He added, "The American administration supports the Israeli approach to eliminating Hamas, but also urges the need to protect Palestinian civilians." Given that Israel is fighting against Hamas, it has the right to defend itself.

For 109 days, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which as of yesterday left: 25,295 killed and 63,000 injured, most of them children and women, according to the Palestinian authorities, and caused massive destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that Israeli colonists committed 444 attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023.

OCHA said in its report that as 22 January 2024, it has "recorded 444 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians, resulting in Palestinian casualties (45 incidents), damage to Palestinian-owned property (344 incidents), or both casualties and damage to property (55 incidents). This reflects a daily average of four incidents. "One-third of the settler attacks against Palestinians after 7 October 2023 have involved firearms, including shootings and threats of shootings. 

In nearly half of all recorded incidents after 7 October, Israeli forces were either accompanying or reported to be supporting the attackers.

In 2023, 1,229 incidents involving Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (with or without Israeli forces), resulted in Palestinian casualties, property damage or both. Some 913 of these incidents resulted in damage, 163 resulted in casualties and 153 resulted in both. 

This is the highest number of settler attacks against Palestinians in any given year since OCHA started recording incidents involving settlers in 2006.

A U.S.-based Palestinian rights organization prevailed when the Supreme Court refused to take up a lawsuit brought by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and several U.S. citizens who live in Israel.

Citing the speech and expressive activities of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), including its support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the lawsuit argued that the group provided “material support” for terrorism.  The dismissal by the district court had been unanimously affirmed by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

This lawsuit is just one example of a long line of efforts to silence Palestinians for advocating for their freedom – in this case, by wielding the accusation of support for terrorism to discredit and dehumanize Palestinians for their advocacy, including their support for boycotts, said the Center for Constitutional Rights in a statement.

Multiple organizations with histories of seeking to silence Palestinian rights filed their briefs to have the Supreme Court of the United States endorse their suppression effort.

USCPR’s attorneys said today’s decision to let the lower court rulings stand is an important win for the movement and definitively sets the record straight. As the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals found, “[a]advocating and coordinating a boycott of Israel – ‘economically, academically [,] and diplomatically,’... – is not unlawful.”

In dismissing the suit in March 2021, the lower court said the arguments were, “to say the least, not persuasive.” Advocates say the suit is part of a broader effort to criminalize and silence the political activities of supporters of Palestinian rights, a threat that has only increased as Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza intensifies. “USCPR’s message is justice for all and an end to funding genocide. There’s no lawsuit in the world that can stop us from pushing our demands for human rights,” said Ahmad Abuznaid, Executive Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. “We will remain focused on opposing Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people and pursuing justice and freedom for the Palestinian people.”

Headquartered in Jerusalem, the JNF is a quasi-state institution that acquires and administers land for the sole benefit of Jewish Israelis. The JNF’s lawsuit alleges that USCPR bears responsibility for “incendiary terror balloons and kites” sent from Gaza onto JNF land during the 2018 Great Return March.

At issue were USCPR’s fiscal sponsorship of the Boycott National Committee and expressions of support for the rights and demands of Palestinians participating in the Great Return March, when Palestinians protested to demand respect for their right to return to the villages from which Israeli settlers expelled them in 1948. These two activities, the lawsuit claimed, amount to a violation of the U.S. Antiterrorism Act, which prohibits “material support” for terrorism. “The JNF’s prolonged and egregious pursuit of a fishing expedition to silence and intimidate urgent advocacy for Palestinian rights has been definitively put to rest by the Supreme Court,” said Diala Shamas, a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “The JNF’s accusations were baseless, as recognized by the district court, the court of appeals, and now confirmed by the Supreme Court. Now, as the government of Israel is carrying out an unfolding genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, it is more important than ever that activists be free to speak out without fear. This is an important victory, but USCPR shouldn’t have been subjected to these smears in the first place.”

.

Israeli media reported details of what they said were the broad outlines of a possible exchange deal with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which was drafted in cooperation with the Israeli security services, Mossad chief David Barnea, and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar.

Under the weight of protests in the Israeli street demanding the release of those detained by Hamas, strengthening convictions of the Israeli failure to achieve the goals of the war on Gaza, and disagreements in the “war cabinet,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that he had presented broad outlines for a possible exchange deal, refusing to go into details.

According to these lines, 136 Israeli detainees will be released in 3 stages:

- Civilian detainees.

- Then the female soldiers and the bodies of dead detainees.

- Finally, the soldiers and men who serve in the Israeli army are regular and reserve, which is the condition that Hamas has insisted on from the beginning.

In return, Israel will release at every stage thousands of Palestinian prisoners, male and female, including veteran prisoners, the sick, the elderly, people with high sentences, and prisoners who the occupation says “have blood on their hands,” and the army will gradually withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

Allegations

Netanyahu claimed that there was no serious offer by Hamas for an exchange deal, and he appeared contradictory during his meeting with a delegation of the families of Israeli detainees held by the Palestinian resistance, as he stated that he rejected the movement’s demands to end the war and reach an agreement that he says also includes the release of “elite forces” militants from Hamas. Who were arrested by Israel for allegedly participating in the "Al-Aqsa Flood" battle.

Israel recently handed over to the Qatari and Egyptian mediators a new framework for a possible exchange deal that includes preparing for a two-month truce in exchange for the return of all those detained by Hamas in Gaza, according to two senior Israeli officials.

According to Barak Ravid, a political analyst on the Walla website, this proposal is the most important that Tel Aviv has put forward since the beginning of the war, in an attempt to bring about a breakthrough in the negotiations to release the detainees.

Although the proposal rejects Hamas's request to stop the war, it includes preparations for the longest ceasefire agreed to by Israel so far, according to Ravid.

The analyst quoted two senior Israeli officials as saying that the “war cabinet” agreed about 10 days ago on a “framework” that includes the principles of what Israel wants and does not want to implement within the framework of the detainee release deal.

Ravid says that the deal includes the release of all living detainees and the return of all bodies held by Hamas in several stages.

The first phase will include the release of Israeli women who are still in captivity, men over the age of 60, and detainees who are in serious health condition.

In the next stages, men under the age of 60, female soldiers, male soldiers, and guard team members will be released, and the bodies will be returned.

According to the same proposal, Israel and Hamas would agree in advance on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released for each Israeli detainee in each of the categories, and then the names of the Palestinian prisoners to be released would be negotiated separately at each stage.

Cautious optimism

Ravid explained that the Israeli proposal includes preparations to begin redeploying army forces in the Gaza Strip, so that they gradually withdraw from large population centers, as well as allowing a “gradual and controlled” return of the Palestinian population to Gaza City and the northern Strip during the implementation of the agreement.

According to Ravid, the framework of the potential deal approved by the “War Cabinet” indicates that Israel will not agree to end the war after releasing the detainees and releasing all 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in its prisons.

He stressed that Israel is still waiting for Hamas’ response to the proposal, but the Israeli side expressed cautious optimism about the possibility of moving forward with negotiations on the basis of this proposal, and acknowledged that if the deal is implemented, the activity of the occupation army in the Gaza Strip two months after the truce will be significantly less in scope and intensity. .

In reading the implications of Israel's drafting of a proposal for a new exchange deal and what was reported about Hamas showing some kind of flexibility in negotiating the deal, Amos Harel, a military analyst for the Haaretz newspaper, believes that the gap in positions is still large, but there is a willingness on both sides to discuss the broad outlines of this deal.

Harel estimated that the United States, Qatar and Egypt are exerting pressure on both sides to enter into a process of negotiations that will lead to the conclusion of an exchange deal in stages, in the first stage of which some Israeli detainees will be released, and in the final stage the occupation army will withdraw from the Gaza Strip, and thus the end of the war will be declared.

Escalation and frustration

Harel added that it appears that no breakthrough has been achieved yet in the talks, but “for the first time in a long time there is a willingness from Israel and Hamas to discuss - and seriously - the broad lines of the deal, and it is expected that one of the channels of talks will resume this week in Cairo.”

The military analyst pointed out that Israel, in light of the widening circle of protests denouncing the government’s handling of the file of detainees held by Hamas, is seeking to move forward with another stage to release them in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners it holds in prisons, while agreeing to a two-week ceasefire.

He pointed out that the Egyptian mediators are seeking to reach a ceasefire for a period of 90 days, and to eventually move to a final stage of the agreement to end the war.

In this context, Harel points out that the families of the detainees have escalated their protests against the backdrop of frustration “with what appears to be the laxity of the political level regarding the deal.”

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed over the past 24 hours in Khan Younis as Israel expands its ground offensive there.

Latest updates

• The Israeli military fired artillery shells at the headquarters of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the organization said on Tuesday.
• Israeli media reported that Israel is offering Hamas a two-month truce in return for a phased release of Gaza captives.
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• On Monday, the United States Supreme Court decided not to take up a lawsuit brought by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) against the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), the Center for Constitutional Rights said. JNF had alleged that the USCPR was providing “material support” for “terrorism” for activities including the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) movement and the 2018 Great March of Return in Gaza.
• 
  
• German shipping group Hapag-Lloyd announced on Monday that it will continue to reroute its vessels around the Cape of Good Hope in response to Houthi attacks on Red Sea vessels while also implementing land corridors through Saudi Arabia to minimize the impact on business.
• 
  

Human impact and fighting

• Israeli forces killed at least 65 people in attacks on Khan Younis on Monday, according to medical sources.
• The World Health Organization, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have said they are “deeply concerned” by reports of “intense shelling” in the vicinity of El Amal City Hospital in Khan Younis on Monday.
• 
  
• The Israeli Air Force said on Monday that it struck Hezbollah infrastructures and observation posts in the villages of Leida and Itarun in southern Lebanon.
• 
  
• On Monday, Hezbollah also said it fired rockets at a gathering of Israeli troops around the town of Even Menachem, achieving “direct hits”.
• 
  
• Israeli settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Tuesday under the protection of Israeli police, Wafa news agency reported.
• 
  
• Diplomacy
• France’s Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne will chair a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) ministerial meeting on Palestine at 2pm New York time (17:00 GMT) on Tuesday. The council’s 15 members have been unable to agree on a draft presidential statement before the meeting, according to the Security Council Report (SCR), which monitors the UNSC’s activities.
• 
  
• After visiting Egypt, senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, Brett McGurk, will be travelling to Qatar this week. He is expected to discuss Israel’s proposal for a two-month pause, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Stefanie Dekker.
• 
  
• Biden held a phone call with the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday. The two discussed the “Houthi attacks against merchant and naval vessels transiting the Red Sea”, according to the White House.
• 
  
• The US and the UK have been carrying out attacks on Houthi positions in Yemen. Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands supported the latest US-UK air strikes targeting Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen on Monday, reported Reuters news agency.
• Aljazeera

After many Lebanese officials voiced similar positions, Prime Minister Najib Mikati took things further than his colleagues and seemed less embarrassed about his embarrassing position. Besides implicitly acknowledging that Hezbollah is the actual negotiator at the table in which the situation in Lebanon and its future are being discussed, Mikati echoed the party’s theory about linking developments in Lebanon to developments in Gaza.

Fear of death and destruction, which is justified, was not the only reason that broad segments of the population met his rhetoric with indignation, nor was the fact that he ignored those segments and sidelined their opinions and sensitivities regarding a matter of life and death. In addition to both, there is a history of “linking” that has cost and continues to cost the Lebanese dearly.

Indeed, since the mid-1960s, Lebanon has been linked to Palestinian militancy, with the 1969 Cairo Agreement granting this link “legal” justification. Successive wars erupted as a result, culminating in the Israeli invasion of 1982.

After that, with Lebanon under the influence of the Syrian police state and with Hezbollah’s power growing, Hafez al-Assad came out with his famous theories about the shared destiny and path of "one people in two countries." Once again, disasters whose repercussions continue to reverberate, and whose consequences continue to add up, ensued. Mind you, Assad’s theories did nothing to help the Palestinians and their cause, however one interprets that cause; rather, these theories went hand in hand with policies that wreaked havoc on the Palestinians in Lebanon.

Today, with the “unity of arenas,” we are looking at one people in five or six countries that supposedly share the same path and destiny, but instead of being led by Damascus, this time, they are led by Tehran.

The most dangerous aspect of all of that might be this nihilistic - militia perspective that is being broadly promoted in some environments. This view makes light of doing away with states, borders, and national sovereignty, not to mention the interests and opinions of the population. It is an idea that can be partially traced back to an imperial consciousness that preceded the emergence of modern states.

At that time, for example, many “mujahideen” who did not recognize borders emerged, going from Syria to fight in Iraq or from Lebanon to fight in Syria or Palestine... It is obvious that this is no longer part of the global zeitgeist, just as the mood of the times is no longer favorable to the emergence of forces like the “International Brigades,” the 40,000 volunteers who fought in the Spanish civil war of the 1930s. Nowadays, a group like ISIS has been left to present the perfect image of pasting everything on everything else over a geographical area that “unified” western Iraq and eastern Syria.

One consequence of the times and its novelty is that religious, national, and ideological wars have become a thing of the past, and with them, so has the epic image of “nations,” “peoples,” or “masses” rising up as one in defense of a cause, be it just or unjust. The consolidation of states and societies has given rise to a clear distinction between transnational moral and humanitarian solidarity, like that of the people around the world expressing their solidarity with Gaza or with victimized groups like the women of Afghanistan, and political solidarity that goes as far as direct military intervention, which is now contingent on a particular country whose parties are drawn together by a life cycle and common interests.

Today, we see this distinction between degrees of engagement even among the Palestinians themselves, depending on their different circumstances. The West Bank, for example, with the exception of pockets here and there, did not take its solidarity so far as to announce a mass insurgency, to say nothing about the Arab population inside Israel. As for those searching for epics “between the Atlantic and the Gulf,” or in the vast “Muslim lands,” their disappointment with the times turns them back cursing their luck and carrying crushing frustrations.

On the other hand, there is good reason to be extremely skeptical about the meaning of solidarity with Gaza as it is expressed by today’s solidarity specialists. It does not take a genius to refute, based on knowledge and experience, the prevailing militant narrative about these new solidarity experts.

The Houthis’ social environment in Yemen had sided with Imam Al-Badr and against Nasserism and Arab nationalism in the Yemeni civil war of the 1960s, at a time when the slogan of liberating Palestine had been tied exclusively to Nasser. As for the Shiite parties in Iraq, their social environment launched attacks of retribution against the Palestinians in Iraq after 2003, because they considered them to be Saddamists and Baathists. Meanwhile, the environment of Lebanese Hezbollah crystallized politically through its clashes with Palestinian armed groups in the 1960s and 1970s, before it wiped out the Lebanese affiliated with those armed groups.

That is not to criticize or glorify those past choices, but to ask by what miracle that their descendants became “enamored of Palestine”? In all likelihood, they have fallen under the spell of Iran, not Palestine.

Using Gaza as a pretext, what they want is to turn their countries into militias and impose their control over their societies and central authorities. They want to turn their countries into part of Iran’s imperial domain, and of course to cast as a traitor anyone who does not buy into this hypocrisy in the name of Gaza, or who refuses to exchange his homeland and patriotism for Iran. In turn, the latter acts in solidarity through Arabs bodies, countries, and societies, and it avenges Gaza in Iraqi Kurdistan and Idlib, or on the border with Pakistan, while Gaza’s fate is left to God.

Alsharq Alawsat

The child, Yamen Muhammad Hasiti (17 years old), was killed yesterday evening, Monday, during confrontations with the Israeli occupation forces in the town of Arraba, south of Jenin.

Local sources reported that the confrontations broke out after the Israeli occupation forces stormed the town, amid heavy live bullets being fired at citizens, which led to the child Hasiti being injured in the stomach.

It added, quoting eyewitnesses, that Israeli soldiers left the child Hasiti bleeding on the ground and prevented the ambulance from reaching him. They fired bullets at it, and after they confirmed his death, they left the area.

By ZAHA HASSAN

Summary:  Too much is at stake: too many Palestinian and Israeli lives, too much U.S. credibility, and too high the risk of regional conflagration.

Last week, South Africa presented a well-argued case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s judicial arm, alleging Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Israel denies the charges and claims its actions in Gaza are self-defense. A state-to-state complaint about “the crime of crimes” should be a big deal to the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, particularly when it involves a close ally receiving around $4 billion per year in U.S. security assistance (and fast-tracked for more). Yet the response of U.S. officials has been milquetoast, dismissing the case as meritless and without any factual basis. At the same time, the White House has also asserted that it has made no legal assessment about Israel’s conduct in Gaza or how U.S. weapons may have been misused.

How can both things be true? Either the United States has information about whether Israel is acting within the constraints of international law, including the 1948 Genocide Convention, or it is completely in the dark. The United States cannot have it both ways. Too much is at stake: too many Palestinian and Israeli lives, too much U.S. credibility, and too high the risk of regional conflagration.

Of course, the Biden administration knows what is taking place inside Gaza. It knows because it has had surveillance drones flying above Gaza since October 7. It knows because U.S. intelligence analysts are likely following journalists who are risking their lives to report and the Palestinians in Gaza who are live-streaming via TikTok, Instagram, and Telegram. It knows which types of munitions Israel has been dropping, firing, and shooting into Gaza’s densely populated cities and refugee camps because it is Israel’s principal supplier, and it knows what kind of damage these munitions do when used in such areas.

Numerous reports and accounts from UN special rapporteurs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Program, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and others explain the impacts of Israel’s war inside Gaza. Their reports are all public, as are the statements of their representatives. These organizations also report that civilians and civilian infrastructure are being targeted, that the vast majority of those killed are women and children, that the bombing is indiscriminate and not in proportion to the threat posed, and that hundreds of thousands of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are being forcibly displaced, starved, and deprived of water and medical treatment. They say that Palestinians are being killed in their homes and shelters, they are being killed when they try to flee, and they are being killed in the so-called safe zones that Israel has designated. They say 100,000 more Palestinians could die in the days and weeks to come if the bombing does not stop and a massive amount of humanitarian aid is not allowed in.

But knowing the facts on the ground is not the same as assessing them. And an assessment is needed in order to get to a legal conclusion that would require the United States to act to put in place a ceasefire. As a party to the Genocide Convention, the United States is required to “undertake to prevent and punish” the crime of genocide. That commitment becomes meaningless if the United States can simply look away when the party accused of international crimes is an ally or if the outcome of an assessment is inconvenient. As Biden has stated, preventing genocide is both a “moral duty and a matter of national and global importance.” That is why the White House has an atrocity prevention and response strategy and why the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act requires the State Department to monitor for such events around the world and prepare annual reports on what it is doing to prevent them. The act also requires foreign service officers to be trained to spot the early warning signs for such grave human rights violations and an all-of-government approach to prevent genocide from happening. 

The United States may want to maintain its certainty that Israel is not committing any grave human rights violations in Gaza by avoiding an assessment, but the ICJ case—which is supported by at least fifty countries, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—may force its hand, even if a decision on the case’s merits takes years. South Africa’s request for provisional relief, which includes a call for an immediate ceasefire and entry of humanitarian aid, may be only days away. The burden of proof required for provisional relief —“plausibility” that a violation of the Genocide Convention has occurred—is less than what is required for a final ruling.

The ICJ will likely rule that the provisional relief burden has been met, because the Israeli acts in Gaza are so well-documented, as is the apparent genocidal intent of Israeli officials leading the war. The most egregious of these statements includes directives to military personnel about starving Gaza, expressions of support for “voluntary immigration” of Palestinians, and the use of biblical analogies in speeches to soldiers about the permissibility of killing all innocents in war.

For Palestinians, the “Day After” Starts With a Plan for Ending Israel’s Occupation

Time is running out for Palestinians in Gaza. But it is also running out for the Biden administration. South Africa is reportedly preparing to file a complaint against the United States for complicity in the commission of genocide. Attempts to quietly coax and cajole Israel into opening up one more crossing for humanitarian aid or to allow one more truckload of supplies in from Egypt will not make for a convincing argument at the ICJ.

The United States must make an assessment about Israel’s actions in Gaza and act accordingly. The Biden administration must lead a renewed effort at the UN Security Council for a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, and it must be willing to back up the resolution with the full measure of its resolve, including suspending military assistance to Israel. U.S. inaction would continue to jeopardize Palestinians’ lives, risk an outbreak of regional war, and carry the permanent stain associated with a possible ICJ finding that the United States was complicit in or failed to prevent genocide. The U.S. response to the ICJ cannot be that it never made an assessment.

Israel has given Hamas a proposal through Qatari and Egyptian mediators that includes up to two months of a pause in the fighting as part of a multi-phase deal, Axios reported on Monday.

The deal would include the release of all remaining hostages held in Gaza, the report added citing two Israeli officials.

EU foreign ministers on Monday pressed Israel for an eventual two-state solution with the Palestinians after the war in Gaza, at meetings with the top diplomats from the two sides and key Arab states in Brussels.

The surprise Hamas attack on October 7 on Israel and the subsequent devastating military response from Israel has plunged the Middle East into fresh turmoil and sparked fears of a broader conflict.

For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. But while the bloodshed appears to have driven a long-term solution further out of sight, EU officials insist the time is now to talk about finally resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

The 27 EU ministers met first with Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz before they were due to sit down separately with the Palestinian Authority’s top diplomat, Riyad al-Maliki.

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were also holding talks with the European ministers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and defied key backer the United States by rejecting calls for a Palestinian state.

Israel’s assault on Gaza has left over 25,000 Palestinians dead, the vast majority women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Netanyahu has vowed “complete victory” over Hamas after the attacks by the militant movement’s fighters on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 remain in besieged Gaza.EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told Israel that “peace and stability cannot be built only by military means.” “Which are the other solutions they have in mind? To make all the Palestinians leave? To kill […] them?” Borrell said.

"The Only solution"

Katz ignored questions from journalists over a future two-state solution and said Israel was focused now on returning the hostages and ensuring its own security. 

The EU has struggled for a united stance on the conflict in Gaza as staunch backers of Israel such as Germany have rejected demands for an immediate ceasefire made by the likes of Spain and Ireland. But there is overall backing in the bloc for a two-state solution. “The two-state solution is the only solution, and even those who don’t want to know about it have not yet come up with any other alternative,” said German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock. 

Borrell circulated what he called a “comprehensive approach” towards finding peace involving the international community holding a conference that would come up with a plan to be put to both the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The paper said the international community should then eventually “set out the consequences they envisage to attach to engagement or non-engagement with the peace plan” by either side.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Israel’s “continuation of measures to undermine the two-state solution is dooming the future of the region to more conflicts and more war.” “The whole world is saying the only way out of this misery is the two-state solution. So, the party who’s standing against the rights of all peoples of the region, including Israelis, to have peace cannot just be left unaccountable,” he said. 

AFP

The Israeli army announced, on Tuesday, that 24 officers and soldiers were killed during the past 24 hours in the battles in the Gaza Strip, including 21 soldiers from the reserve forces who were killed in the bombing of two buildings in the Maghazi camp in the center of the Strip, which was described as the most violent day of combat since the start of the ground invasion on October 27. First past.

Al-Quds correspondent Dot said: “Yesterday morning, reserve soldiers from the 261st Brigade, who carry out security duties in the fence area in the south of the Gaza Strip, went on a mission to blow up buildings in the buffer zone near the fence. The soldiers entered a distance of about 600 meters from the fence in the Al-Maghazi camp area.” They were asked to destroy 10 buildings using mines, accompanied by engineering teams.”

Our correspondent said, "At the end of the operation, militants fired two RPG missiles. The first was fired at a tank, causing two wounded. A second RPG missile was fired at one of the buildings that already contained explosive materials ready to be detonated."

He added, "Both buildings collapsed and the site turned into complete destruction. The forces began rescue operations and many forces were sent to the scene to begin and rescue the victims from under the rubble."

He added, "In the first hours, there were also missing people who were not found among the rubble. The rescue operations continued for very long hours until the night. During the past few hours, the process of rescuing the victims was completed, there were no longer any missing people, and the event ended."

Since October 7, 2,665 Israeli soldiers have been wounded, according to Israeli army data, and of these, 1,207 were injured in the ground operation in Gaza.

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign co-chairman portrayed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace in the Middle East and suggested he’s wrong to reject calls by the US and Arab countries for movement toward a Palestinian state.

“This wouldn’t be the first time that there is some tension between Prime Minister Netanyahu, his personal, political goals and aims, and the challenges of crafting a positive, peaceful path forward for the Israeli and Palestinian people,” Chris Coons, a US senator from Delaware who’s a close ally of Biden, said on CNN’s State of the Union.

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Coons’ comments also hint at tension between Biden and Netanyahu, who spoke on Friday for the first time in almost four weeks. A day earlier, Netanyahu dismissed US calls to position the Palestinian Authority for eventual control of postwar Gaza, saying an Israeli leader must be able to oppose even “the closest of friends.”Netanyahu’ comments vowing to maintain Israeli control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the foreseeable future after the war prompted a rebuke by the US State Department.

Netanyahu has a history of weakening the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and accepting Iranian-backed Hamas as rulers of Gaza, which had “tragic consequences when Hamas militants at-tacked Israel on October 7,” Coons said. That attack prompted an Israeli military assault on Gaza with the declared goal of wiping out Hamas, which the US and the European Union have designated a terror group.

Civilian casualties and suffering in Gaza have prompted outrage in Arab countries, increasingly sharp calls for Israeli restraint among US allies and divisions in the US that have played out in election-year politics, at elite universities and in the streets. At the same time, the Biden administration has backed Israel’s right to self-defense against Hamas.

“This is a moment where the Israeli public needs to choose what is the best path forward,” Coons said. “And I know it would be a significant step for them to accept that the creation of a Palestinian state is the right path forward.”

Biden’s call with Netanyahu wasn’t a direct response to his dismissal of Palestinian statehood, John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, said Friday.

Biden “still believes in the promise in the possibility of a two-state solution,” which will require hard work and “a lot of leadership in the region,” Kirby said.

Hamas’s attack in southern Israel killed about 1,200 people. Israel’s counterstrikes have killed more than 25,000 people in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

CNN, on Tuesday, quoted two informed sources as saying that the Israeli occupation suggested that Hamas leaders leave the Gaza Strip as part of a broad ceasefire agreement.

CNN linked this to the failure of the Israeli occupation to achieve its declared goal of eliminating Hamas, noting that after about four months of war on Gaza, Israel was unable to arrest any of Hamas’ senior leaders or assassinate any of them in the Strip. While the occupation army estimates indicate that Hamas has lost only about 30 percent of its combat capabilities.

In details, the report said that the proposal to allow Hamas leaders to leave Gaza was discussed during broader talks that include a ceasefire at least twice in recent weeks.

Israeli media, including Channel 13, had previously promoted that Qatar had made a new offer to the Israeli occupation state regarding a deal that included the release of all Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of Hamas leaders in exchange for the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. However, the American network confirmed This offer was put forward for the first time by the head of the Israeli Mossad, David Barnea, in Warsaw last December, when he met with the Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, Bill Burns, and the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, adding that its source was an informed official. Regarding the discussions that took place during the meetings, he said that Blinken presented the proposal again when he visited the Qatari capital at the beginning of this month.

The same official indicated that the Qatari Foreign Minister told his American counterpart that this Israeli idea “will never succeed.”

The website also revealed, citing American and international officials familiar with the mediation efforts, that the involvement of the Israeli occupation and the Hamas movement in the talks appears encouraging, but they stressed that reaching an agreement on a ceasefire and prisoner exchange “is still a long way off.”

On the other hand, the CNN report pointed out that pressure is increasing on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accomplish something, after it was confirmed that his goal of “achieving complete victory” over Hamas has not been achieved, neither from near nor from afar, and because of his government’s inability. To recover prisoners detained in Gaza.

According to a comment by Carnegie Institute researcher Aaron David Miller, Israel “is not achieving its military goals,” noting that the pressure on Netanyahu and his government to return the detainees created a situation that made the occupation ready to accept the departure of Hamas leaders from the Gaza Strip.

A two-month truce in exchange for the release of all prisoners

For its part, the American news site Axios reported that the occupation proposed to Hamas, through the Qatari and Egyptian mediators, a two-month truce in the war, in exchange for the movement’s release of all its prisoners and detainees.

This proposal does not mean the end of the war on Gaza, but rather a second truce after the one that lasted a week and allowed the release of about a hundred prisoners and detainees.

According to Axios, the Israeli proposal stipulates the release of all detainees in Gaza in stages, initially including civilian women and men over the age of 60.

As for the subsequent stages, female soldiers are released, then civilian men under the age of 60, then soldiers, and finally the bodies of prisoners.

Within the framework of the plan, Israel and Hamas must agree in advance on the number of Palestinian prisoners who will be released in exchange for Israeli detainees.

This plan does not foresee an end to the war on Gaza or even a long-term political solution, but rather a redeployment of Israeli occupation forces outside the main cities in the Palestinian Strip and the gradual return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were displaced from the north to the south of the Strip.

A few years from now, a new father will hug his baby, his first son, and all of a sudden he will be rocked by a memory: a father carrying a baby in his hands, beside him a woman with her hair covered with a hijab and two or three children, all walking south with hundreds of others among shards of asphalt, piles of sand, blurred by the dust being kicked up as they march. Smoke rises from a distance, a drone hums relentlessly above, bombs explode one after the other.

The new father will remember how he – a soldier at the end of his compulsory service – called out over a loudspeaker to order that father (“You, in the green shirt, with the child”) to walk toward the soldiers behind the mounds of earth, standing alongside tanks. Through the clouds of dust, he sees the father handing over his baby to the woman, and with his arms raised in the air, approaching the soldiers.

It’s a silent movie. If they said something to each other, the new father who was a soldier back then couldn’t hear it. Perhaps at that moment of recollection he will tighten his embrace of his first son. Or perhaps, slightly alarmed, he will hurriedly place his son in the stroller and drink a glass of water as he wipes away the beads of sweat that suddenly dot his forehead. Or maybe he’ll just smile and say to himself: We showed those sons of bitches what it means to slaughter us like sheep. And he’ll kiss his son’s forehead.

Three or four years from now, a military correspondent will receive classified materials. At an editorial meeting, they’ll wonder if their competitors also received the same documents, and what the military censor will allow them to publish: For the past two and a half years, the military advocate general has been investigating about a dozen cases of point-blank executions of civilians in their homes, after they were separated from their wives and children, and further cases where women were shot at close range as they walked amid the rubble. Some of the names of the suspects who allegedly violated the rules of engagement are particularly embarrassing. The son of someone famous, an officer who was trumpeted by the media.

The advocate general has not yet decided whether to file indictments. The identity of some of those killed is also an embarrassment for Israel: One is a British citizen, and the United Kingdom has asked for clarification; another is a well-known anti-Hamas senior member of Fatah whom the CIA had pinned their hopes on. A senior editor will recall that there were reports in the Palestinian and Arab media at the time about such executions, but it was impossible to verify them – what else could one expect from the mobilized media, and who could believe the director of a Hamas-run public hospital?

A few years from now, the veterans anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence will map all the former soldiers who came to testify after the war: three young people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, four reservists who fought in Jabalya, two conscripts stationed at the detention center at the Sde Teiman base, and one female soldier from the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. There are no pilots or drone operators on the list.

Three years from now, activists will erect a monument in memory of the families who were wiped out in the bombings during the war (it will be a four-figure number). The names of the families and all those killed will be etched on a large rock that will be placed in the dead of night in Drancy, a suburb of Paris where the Nazis rounded up Jews before sending them to the death camps. The monument will be unveiled by one of the survivors of the bombings. The Jewish community will protest "antisemitism and Holocaust denial," and municipal employees will be sent to smash the rock. Or alternatively, the mayor will attend the unveiling ceremony and kiss the survivor, and the Jewish community will shout, "A collaborator, just like the Vichy."

Two years from now, USAID will start inviting bids for a contractor to remove the debris from Gaza and recycle it. The winning bid will be from a company jointly owned by the Egyptian intelligence apparatus, former senior officials at the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and a Palestinian contractor from Hebron.

Four years from now, a special committee composed of representatives of the Quartet, Israel, Jordan and Egypt will complete the specification for the reconstruction of Gaza. Until work begins, the Pleasant Travel company from Petah Tikva will win the bidding process to supply 280,000 rainproof tents of various sizes to the remaining residents, and the Empty Out company from Raanana will win the bidding for installing mobile toilets.

USAID will still be drafting the bidding process for the design and reconstruction of the entire sewage and water infrastructure that was completely destroyed in the war. It will also review a proposal by Holy Land Enterprises, Ltd. to create real-size plaster models of all the historical buildings and archaeological sites that the Israel Air Force destroyed in the bombings.

Six years from now, Hamas will win the majority of votes for the Palestinian National Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization in an election held in the Palestinian diaspora and a secret election in their West Bank self-rule enclaves.

Seven years from now, a former senior defense official will say: “We shouldn’t have been tempted to launch this war. We fell into Hamas’ trap, tens of thousands of people left the country, and now we have a severe shortage of medical and high-tech personnel.”

Asked by an interviewer from an international TV station if that isn’t what former senior officers always say once they’re no longer in the system, he’ll shrug. The security official holding his former job will condemn his remarks, and the Knesset will expedite the passage of a law to seize the pensions of former officials who speak out against the policies of the governments they had served.

Israeli historian Shlomo Sand, author of the controversial book “How Were the Jewish People Invented,” has published a new work entitled “Two Peoples for One State?” It supports the idea, which has been defended by many Zionist intellectuals since the end of the 19th century, which is the establishment of a bi-national state for Israelis and Palestinians.

Sand said - in an interview with him, summarized by Julie Conan for the French newspaper La Croix - that what is happening in the Gaza Strip is dangerous because no one in the Israeli authority knows what to do, and because aimless wars are dangerous, and almost turn into genocide.

When asked why he specifically rejects the term “genocide”? He explained that he believes that Israel is committing murders in the Gaza Strip, but genocide is an act aimed at eliminating an entire people, and this is a very rare phenomenon.

He gave an example of what the Nazis committed when they decided to eliminate the Jews and gypsies,, and what happened in Rwanda when the Hutus decided to eliminate the Tutsis and almost succeeded.

But he pointed out that the French liquidated half a million Algerians, and this was not considered genocide, but rather war crimes, and what Israel is doing now are war crimes in Gaza, in which it makes little distinction between civilians and soldiers.

A Suicide

The historian highlighted what he said was adopted by the philosopher Hannah Arendt in 1948, when she said that if there was an exclusive Jewish state, there would be a war every 10 years.

This is what Sand commented on by saying that Israel, after 75 years of almost continuous war, must realize that trying to continue living as a Jewish state in the Arab Middle East is suicide.

The Israeli historian explained that he never supported a bi-national state and was not against it, but after the 1967 war, he supported the two-state solution.

But after all these years of settlement, the idea of a two-state solution has become more and more hollow, because we have been living for half a century in a bi-national state under a clear apartheid system, in which people live side by side but with different rights, as he put it.

Hamas leaders from the Land of Israel

When asked about the two-state solution, Sand said, “I do not believe in love between Palestinian Arabs and Jewish Israelis, but the historical situation forces them to live side by side. I believe in a federal state more than an independent Palestinian state, as defended by French President Emmanuel Macron and American Joe Biden.”

Sand believed that it was Europe that vomited the Jews onto the Arabs of Palestine, and for this reason “the behavior of the Europeans bothers me a lot.”

Speaking to the Europeans, he added, "You are responsible for long-term tragedies. For all my life, I have been surprised that people who claim that they were taken from their land two thousand years ago do not recognize the rights of those who were taken from their land 75 years ago. Israel does not want to recognize this, despite the fact that all Hamas leaders, such as Yahya Al-Sanwar and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin come from the ancient land of Palestine, from Ashkelon and Ashdod, which is considered the land of Israel.”

Source: Lacroix

Israeli and American media reported that Israel submitted a proposal to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to conclude a deal to release detainees in Gaza in exchange for a temporary halt to the war on the Strip, amid cautious Israeli optimism.

Israeli Channel 13 reported - yesterday evening, Monday - that Tel Aviv had finished formulating the principles of a deal consisting of 3 to 4 stages, which includes changing the army’s deployment in the Gaza Strip and withdrawing from some areas without ending the war.

The American website Axios quoted two Israeli officials as saying that the proposal presented by Tel Aviv to Hamas through Qatari and Egyptian mediators includes a two-month cessation of war during which all Israeli detainees in Gaza will be released.

According to Israeli officials, there are more than 130 detainees still in Gaza, and many of the detainees were either killed on October 7 or in the subsequent weeks of the war.

Axios said that Brett McGurk, advisor to President Joe Biden, went to Egypt on Sunday and will later move to Qatar in order to conduct negotiations to secure the release of those detained by the resistance. The site added that the Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been trying for weeks to bridge the gap between the two parties to achieve progress in concluding a deal.

American officials told Axios that reaching such an agreement may be the only way to stop the war in Gaza.

According to the website, Israeli officials said that they were awaiting Hamas' response, but stressed that they felt cautiously optimistic about achieving progress in the coming days.

Stages of the deal

Channel 13 reported that the deal includes, in the first phase, Hamas releasing its remaining women and elderly men, although it is not clear whether they will be released all at once.

The channel said that in the second phase, younger detainees and youth will be released, while the third phase includes the release of soldiers and bodies held by Hamas.

Axios quoted Israeli officials as saying that the deal includes the redeployment of Israeli forces from the main residential areas, and the gradual return of Palestinians to the areas from which they were displaced in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials confirmed that the deal confirms that Tel Aviv will not agree to end the war and will not agree to release all Palestinian prisoners as demanded by the Palestinian resistance.

According to Israeli officials, military operations will decrease in number and intensity after two months, if Hamas agrees to the deal.

The channel quoted Israeli sources - which it did not name - that Tel Aviv received during the past few days messages from mediators indicating that Hamas seemed more flexible regarding its demand that the end of the war be part of a possible deal.

Earlier Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said - during a meeting with the families of detainees in Gaza - that he is working on a deal to release their relatives, but he added, “I will not go into its details,” according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

A group of families of Israeli prisoners detained in Gaza stormed a meeting of the Finance Committee in the Knesset in Jerusalem yesterday, demanding that representatives make more efforts to try to release their relatives.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas unleashed the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” after which Israel launched a devastating war on Gaza that, as of yesterday, left 25,295 killed and 63,000 injured, most of them children and women, according to the Palestinian authorities.

During a temporary humanitarian truce that lasted for 7 days and ended in early December, Hamas released 105 civilians detained by it, including 81 Israelis, 23 Thai citizens, and one Filipino, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons (71 female prisoners and 169 children).

Tel Aviv estimates that there are about 136 Israelis still detained in the Gaza Strip, according to identical media reports and statements by Israeli officials.

Source: Axios + Anadolu Agency

The Guardian newspaper published an article by Owen Jones, who began by asking this question: “What is the value of a Palestinian’s life?” Then he answered his question by saying: “For those who maintain illusions that have not yet been buried under the rubble of Gaza, along with entire families - such as the Zorob family, the Qashtan family, and the Atallah family - Joe Biden gave a specific answer last week...in the statement he issued on the occasion of the 100th day since the start of the war. In the current horror, he rightly showed sympathy for the plight of the hostages – whose kidnapping by Hamas represents a serious war crime – and their traumatized families. However, there was no mention of the Palestinians.”

Jones stressed that “the lack of interest by politicians and the media alike in concealing their disdain for Palestinian life will be of great importance.” The truth is that this phenomenon is not new, and these repercussions are now being felt violently. If the powerful countries of the world had not so impudently ignored three quarters of a million Palestinians who were expelled from their homes 76 years ago, accompanied by an estimated 15,000 who were violently killed, the seeds of today’s bitter harvest would not have been sown.” The writer wondered: “How many people know that last year, before the inexcusable atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, 234 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank alone, more than thirty of whom were children?” They say life is cheap. “It seems meaningless if you are Palestinian.”

He pointed out that if there had been some value attached to Palestinian life, perhaps decades of occupation, siege, illegal colonization, apartheid, violent oppression and mass massacres would not have occurred, as oppressing others becomes difficult when their humanity is accepted.

He said that even some who had succumbed to Western indifference towards Palestinian lives might have expected that after this deadly massacre, the dam would eventually collapse. Certainly, the violent killing of 10,000 children, or 10 children having one or both of their legs amputated every day, often without anesthesia, would arouse strong emotions. Certainly, the 5,500 pregnant women giving birth every month – many of them undergoing caesarean sections without anesthesia – or the deaths of newborns from hypothermia and diarrhea would arouse unstoppable revulsion.

He added that it is certain that projections that a quarter of Gaza's population may die, within one year, due to Israel's destruction of the health care system alone, would lead to urgent demands to end this obscenity. It is certain that the endless stories of aid workers, journalists and medics being slaughtered along with many of their relatives – or even their entire families – by an Israeli missile will eventually spark condemnations in Western society to stop this madness.

But this did not happen, and therefore the consequences will be dire, stresses Jones, who says that undervaluing Palestinian lives is not an assumption, but rather a statistical fact.

According to a new study of coverage in major American newspapers, for every Israeli death, Israelis are mentioned eight times — or 16 times more often than Palestinian deaths. An analysis of BBC coverage by data specialists Dana Najjar and Jan Litava found a similarly devastating disparity, and that humanitarian terms such as “mother” or “husband” were used far less often to describe Palestinians, while emotional terms such as “massacre” or “Carnage” was only used for Israeli victims of atrocities committed by Hamas.

The writer warned that all this would have a profound impact. “First, we must forget any future Western claims regarding human rights and international law,” he said. Much of the world has already viewed this self-justification with disdain, as merely the latest ploy to advance the strategic interests of countries that have grown rich at the expense of the rest of the world: centuries of often genocidal colonialism have generated lasting cynicism, as have more pigeons. Recent bloodshed such as the Iraq War, or active support for resilient authoritarian regimes across multiple continents.” He added, “After the West armed and supported Israel while imposing mass death on Gaza through bombs, bullets, hunger, thirst, and the destruction of medical facilities, no one but the naive will listen to such claims again.”

Then he said, but it is not only other countries that Western political and media elites should be terrified of. They are facing moral collapse at home as well. Younger generations in countries such as the United States and Britain have grown up taking racism much more seriously than those before them, and opinion polls show that they are more sympathetic to Palestinians than older citizens.

He points out that they are avid users of social media, watching footage of the seemingly endless atrocities in Gaza, and Israeli soldiers happily presenting war crimes as fodder for public amusement. Irish lawyer Blaine Ni Graleigh, while presenting South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, described what happened as "the first genocide in history, with its victims broadcasting their destruction in real time amid desperate hope... that the world will do something." For the younger generations who have watched numerous videos of mothers screaming while cradling the bodies of their newborn babies, these entire events have proven to be instructive.

Then he wonders: “So what do these young people think of the media coverage, or the statements of politicians, which do not seem to treat Palestinian life as having any value at all?” What conclusions are drawn about the growing minority populations in Western countries whose media and political elites make so little effort to hide their contempt for Palestinian lives as they are exterminated on such a biblical scale?

The writer concludes that this treatment of the lives of Palestinians will certainly constitute a turning point with repercussions that will not be understood until it is too late. He says: “Yes, we have seen how the refusal to treat Palestinians as human beings has made today’s nightmare inevitable.” We can see how the moral claims used to justify Western world domination are being permanently shredded. But little thought has been given to how political and media elites in Western countries set their moral authority on fire, leaving it to fester alongside the thousands of unidentified Palestinian bodies buried under the rubble. “It is certainly a turning point, with consequences that will not be understood until it is too late.”

Source: Sama News