By Anis Muhsen 

One of the most famous sayings of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels is: “Lie and lie until you believe it.” Today, Israel applies this statement to its fullest in Gaza, and the United States and the colonial powers that ruled the Arab countries after World War I agree with it, especially France and Britain.

In their campaign against Gaza, Israel and its allies are also inspired by the principle of “the end justifies the means,” which was adopted by Niccolò Machiavelli, the sixteenth-century Italian thinker, philosopher, and politician.

This propaganda and this principle are not new to the Zionist mentality. For example, but not limited to, and to justify the establishment of Israel on the ruins of Palestine, the saying “a land without a people for a people without a land” became widespread and was marketed in Europe, which had long been searching for a solution to the Jewish question in it. The Nazi Holocaust against the Jews and other peoples of Europe contributed to convincing those who were not convinced to immigrate to Palestine, in addition to the allegations that the Jews in Palestine were defending themselves against the Arabs who wanted to kill them, and that the Palestinians abandoned their villages by choice and not out of fear of frequent news of massacres committed by gangs. Zionism. In this regard, Ilan Pappe exposes many Zionist deceptions and propaganda in his book “Ten Myths about Israel.”

As for Zionism’s use of Machiavelli’s principle, Lenni Brenner reveals in his book “Fifty-One Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis” what was done by Rudolf Kaststner, head of the Zionist Rescue Committee, in Budapest, which negotiated with the Nazis during the period 1944-1945 regarding the fate of the Hungarian Jews, which Brenner considers to be merely a cover for collusion with the Nazis to displace the rich Jews, those holding degrees, and professionals to Palestine, and to leave the poor Jews to their fate by deporting them to Auschwitz.

In the same vein comes the propaganda that is currently being practiced in the Gaza Strip, and accordingly; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ministers of the war government come out, along with the media, Zionist “intellectuals” and journalists, and Western media coordinate with them, to declare “Hamas” a new “ISIS”, so what is required is to establish an international coalition to eliminate it. The funny thing about this matter is that the colonial powers that founded Israel (the United States, Britain, France, and other Western countries) adopted the Israeli lie by committing heinous acts in the colonies surrounding the Gaza Strip during the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation. From the cutting off of heads, the cutting of stomachs, and the burning of children and women, for the whole world to see US President Joe Biden shedding tears as he watched the Israeli victims who were slaughtered, raped, and burned, before the White House retracted this story and confirmed that the photos and videos referred to had not been verified, but after That day, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken adopted this Israeli propaganda, indicating that he had come to visit Israel, not only as US Secretary of State, but also as a Jew whose family had suffered as a result of Nazi persecution. Many Western media outlets have also adopted the story.

In conjunction with this propaganda, the pictures and videos of which were not published, because it would be easy to verify technically that it was not true, the Israeli machine of ethnic cleansing and military genocide was unloading all the hatred of its operators on Gazan women, children and the elderly who, despite direct transmission on Arab channels, did not receive coverage. In the Zionist-biased media, nor in the statements of Western officials.

Indeed, Israeli officials and many Zionist analysts did not hesitate to declare that what was required of the people of Gaza was their migration to Egypt within the most extreme right-wing Zionist concept of “transfer,” which is what US administration officials have called for, including National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications in the White House John Kirby. He declared the need for Egypt to open a crossing from Gaza to its territory to receive refugees from it, but without even talking about the possibility of their return.

Under the same pretext (fighting Hamas), and the same crying and wailing over the alleged massacres of the Gaza Strip, entire neighborhoods are destroyed in the cities of the Gaza Strip, and those from the north of the Strip are asked to migrate towards the south, where the border is with Egypt, in a scandalous scenario for the subsequent displacement of all Gazans from their land to Egypt. In a repetition of the ongoing Nakba.

If this scenario is achieved - and it will not be achieved as long as the resistance continues to resist and the people cling to their land - it will also mean the displacement of the Palestinians of the West Bank and Jerusalem, and perhaps the Palestinians of the territories occupied since 1948, out of their land, especially to Jordan, which sensed this imminent danger with Egypt, and is submitting with it. There is significant American and Western pressure, but this time, it does not seem that the Arab encirclement countries, nor the people of Palestine, are ready to yield to the threat and fear factor. Jordan and Egypt are adhering to their sovereignty, and the Palestinians are adhering to remaining in their land, and Zionist propaganda must be revealed for what it is through the steadfastness and resistance of the Palestinians, and the inability to stop the flow of correct information through social media, no matter how much these communication platforms try to prevent it, and the beginning of a change has recently been noticed. In some major Western media regarding the Israeli allegations.

Source: Institute of Palestinian Studies

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said that the Israeli occupation continues to carry out arrest campaigns in the West Bank, which are the highest in years compared to the level of arrests and the period during which the arrest campaigns were carried out.

The club explained in a statement issued today, Sunday, that the number of arrests since the start of the comprehensive Israeli occupation aggression against our people on the seventh of October this year amounted to about 470 arrests from the West Bank, including all categories, in addition to detained workers inside the West Bank. The 1948 territories and Gaza, whose exact numbers are not known until today.

The club indicated that arrests were concentrated in Hebron Governorate, where the highest rate was recorded.

The Prisoners' Club added that the occupation forces launched a massive arrest campaign last night and Sunday dawn, targeting at least 65 citizens, and the arrests were distributed in most of the governorates of the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem.

The Prisoner's Club stated that the testimonies we receive from the families of detainees reflect the level of brutality used by the occupation forces during arrest operations against detainees and their families, in addition to threats that amounted to death threats, in addition to the severe beatings that affected the majority of detainees, and the widespread acts of sabotage and destruction. For homes.

The club  stressed that the current escalation in arrest operations is accompanied by great complications and difficulties in following up on detainees in investigation and detention centers, as a result of a series of measures imposed by the occupation on the work of legal teams, and specifically procrastination in giving answers about the fate of detainees and their places of detention, specifically after the occupation activated the military order that includes: Increasing the first extension period, as well as depriving detainees of meeting with a lawyer for a minimum period of two days.

The Prisoner's Club directed all families of detainees in the West Bank to communicate with the institutions specialized in prisoners' affairs, in an attempt to monitor and follow up on the crimes and violations carried out against detainees and their families, and to follow up on them later, in light of the great challenges facing the institutions.

It is noteworthy that since the beginning of this year, arrests have reached approximately (6,000) cases.

Today, Sunday, settlers attacked a Palestinian citizen and his vehicle, and others stormed Mount Al-Arma in the city of Nablus.

According to local sources, settlers attacked a citizen's vehicle while he was passing his vehicle on the main road linking the village of Burqa and Deir Sharaf, northwest of the city, which led to damage to the vehicle's windshield.

According to other sources, dozens of settlers stormed the top of Mount Al-Arma in the town of Beita, south of Nablus, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces.

On Sunday morning, the Israeli occupation army bombed several villages in southern Lebanon, including Rmeish, Ramia, and Aita al-Shaab.

Israeli warplanes also fly over the Lebanese-Palestinian border.

Yesterday, two Lebanese citizens were killed in the southern town of Shebaa as a result of Israeli bombing.

An Arab worker was killed on Sunday morning after sustaining critical injuries as a result of an anti-armor shell being fired from southern Lebanon towards the town of Shtoula in the Upper Galilee near the Lebanese border.

Three other people were injured and taken to Nahariya Hospital, two in moderate condition and one in minor condition.

Hebrew media confirmed that a number of anti-tank missiles and missiles hit a number of workers in the town, killing one person and wounding 4 of them.

It confirmed that the injured were transferred to Israeli hospitals.

The Israeli media indicated that the occupation artillery fired a number of shells and missiles at Lebanon in response to the shooting.

Hezbollah said in a brief statement, "Our fighters targeted an Israeli army center in Shtoula with guided missiles, resulting in deaths and injuries."

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned that more than two million citizens in the Gaza Strip face the risk of running out of water, which has become life-threatening.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said: Water has become a matter of life and death. It is essential that fuel is delivered to Gaza to provide water for two million people.

The UN agency indicated in a press statement that humanitarian supplies have not been allowed to enter Gaza for a week. She said that the Strip is running out of clean water after the water station and public water networks stopped working.

According to UNRWA, in just the past 12 hours, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. The wave of displacement continues as people move to the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The number of displaced people reached nearly one million people within a week.

UNRWA called on the Israeli occupation authorities to protect all civilians sheltering in its facilities throughout the Gaza Strip, including those in the northern Strip and Gaza City.

The agency explained that despite the order to evacuate more than a million people from northern Gaza and Gaza City to the southern Strip, many will not be able to leave the area. They have no choice and must be protected at all times.

UNRWA stated that civilians, hospitals, schools, clinics, and United Nations facilities cannot be targeted, indicating that its shelters in Gaza and the northern Gaza Strip are no longer safe, which is considered unprecedented.

The American New York Times reported that the Israeli army decided to postpone its expected invasion into the Gaza Strip for several days “due to bad weather conditions.”

The newspaper quoted three senior officers in the Israeli army, whose identities were not revealed, that the ground attack was supposed to begin this weekend, but it was partially postponed due to cloudy skies that will make it difficult for Israeli pilots and drone operators to provide air cover for ground forces.

For his part, an Israeli army spokesman told CNN that they would begin a major military operation in Gaza “when civilians leave the area,” he claimed.

The spokesman added that the Israeli army had given the residents of Gaza sufficient warnings and that it was time for them to leave the south, accusing Hamas of thwarting the exit of foreigners from the Strip, because it did not allow them to leave, as he put it.

The war of genocide against our people in the steadfast Gaza Strip has shown once again the extent of the complicity of the colonial West, including the United States of America, which claims that all of these countries have democracy and human rights, but it is far from that. Indeed, its past and present history confirms its support for non-democratic countries that It rules its people with iron and fire.

The most prominent example of this is the support of these countries, led by America, for the war of extermination carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip under the guise of eliminating Hamas and the resistance factions, while those who are targeting, and even destroying and burning, are our people there, and this is exposed by the pictures coming out of the Gaza Strip, which confirm that... The most prominent targets in the Gaza Strip are children, women, and the elderly, in addition to young men. Indeed, entire families and households have been martyred as a result of the offensive occupation bombing, which comes with the clear complicity of these countries.

In addition to military, political and diplomatic support, the United States and its Western colonial allies threaten and intimidate anyone who tries to stand by our people or intervene against the occupying state in an attempt to mitigate the massacres carried out by this state in the Gaza Strip.

What is unfortunate is that the Palestinian Authority and other factions within the framework of the PLO are content with issuing statements of denunciation and demanding that the world stop this destructive war, while knowing that most of these countries cannot do anything as long as America and the colonial West dominate the world and are subjected to double standards. Rather, by several measures, they support the Israeli colonial regime openly, and this aggressive war has shown these countries their true colors to those who were and are still betting on them to find solutions, while these countries were and are still seeking and supporting the policy of the occupying state in liquidating the Palestinian issue.

Instead of the Palestinian leadership playing its role in providing protection for civilians as it is responsible for the occupied Palestinian territories, whether in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, by working to restore national unity, coming up with a unified political discourse, and agreeing on an action program to confront Israeli crime, we see it standing still and not progressing. What steps can be taken to end the division and unify the national ranks so that the confrontation of the occupation is comprehensive and integrated?

Despite what Gaza has been facing for days, there is still time for the leadership and the factions supporting it to take steps to prove to the world, especially the colonial alliance supporting the occupying state, that our people are one and that the time of division has ended and is irreversible, and that everyone is in one row in defense of our people, and not to submit to American and Western dictates. 

This matter is dictated by national, religious, and moral duty. One practical step is better than a dozen positions that do not satisfy or relieve hunger.

Israel was angry when a Hamas cell succeeded in entering southern Israel and taking control of several sites and cities, and it launched a strong response that led to Hamas withdrawing along with dozens of Israeli prisoners. It called this action “Al-Aqsa Flood.”

Israeli public opinion saw this Hamas operation as a strong blow in that it surprised the army and all Israeli intelligence capabilities, first, and because it captured a number of Israelis, including military personnel, second.

Their Prime Minister, Netanyahu, began preparing for what they described as a final blow to the Hamas movement by storming the entire Gaza Strip. Israel closed all routes into Gaza and did not even allow the entry of any medical or humanitarian aid, food, etc.
Today, Gaza and Israel stand before the moment of decisiveness, and the whole world has begun to move, whether America, which leads the countries that support Israel, or the other countries that call for non-escalation and finding political solutions.

Currently, everyone is in a state of anticipation for the next stage, when Israel will begin its aggression against Gaza, and what the results will be. Also, many of the people of the Gaza Strip began to leave the area adjacent to Israel and head to the farther southern regions. Egypt began to fear the entry of thousands of these people into its territory and took measures to prevent this, and also publicly and officially demanded that they not enter its territory.

As observers expect, the attack on Hamas may begin at any moment, and the results will be different from what is being talked about. However, what is certain is that the Gaza Strip will witness human massacres, sabotage of institutions, and demolition of buildings, and the occupation forces will pay a heavy price despite their excellent aircraft. Advanced weapons and many security plans.

Whatever the results, Israel will be the loser because our Palestinian people stand united and on one front, and if they see that their problem is in Gaza only, the West Bank tells them that we and Gaza are one body, and any attack on Gaza will spark a volcano of anger in the West Bank, the features of which have begun to appear in many areas. Locations and cities through what we see and hear of movements, statements, and resistance to the occupying army.

What Israel must understand is that its occupation of the West Bank, the establishment of settlements, the confiscation of land, the displacement of citizens, and the complete disregard for all national rights is a volcano capable of exploding, and any war against Gaza may be the spark of this explosion and ignition, and some of its features have begun to appear on the ground.

As for the truth that Israel ignores or is blinded by the arrogance of power from seeing it, we are one people in the West Bank, Gaza and all places of asylum and immigration, and any attack on a part of it will certainly lead to the movement of the rest of the parts. What it also ignores and is clear to everyone is that the occupation’s withdrawal from the entire West Bank is the key to peace and stability in the region. Otherwise, it will pay a heavy price, no matter how long it takes.

After a long year of conflicts, tensions, and deep internal rifts, the Israelis put their sharp differences aside, and all decided to line up behind the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and support its decision to launch a war of extermination and displacement against the Palestinian people. 

This happened even without any reservation by the opposition forces regarding the decisions of Netanyahu and his army to use an arsenal of killing, lethality and destruction to take revenge on the Palestinians, and to violate all the laws of war and international law, including committing described war crimes, such as the crime of preventing access to water, food, electricity, fuel, communications and medical supplies. 

About the people who have been under siege for more than fifteen years, and the crime of mass displacement, whether due to the terrible bombing, or because of the occupation army’s calls for the population to leave the north of the Gaza Strip and head to the south of the Gaza Valley and to demand that the citizens of the Gaza Strip in general go to Egypt, in addition to the crime of targeting civilians by bombing residential buildings. And the towers and demolished them on the heads of their residents without any distinction between fighters and civilians.

There is no surprise in the position of the Israeli forces, which culminated in Benny Gantz and his party joining the emergency government and the war council. Indeed, the other forces that did not join the government did not hesitate to express their support for the war and retaliatory efforts. 

It also postponed its calculations with Netanyahu until after the war, even though there is a consensus in the street and among the political forces to hold the Prime Minister and his partners fully responsible for the blow that Israel received on October 7, thus dragging the reputation of its army into the mud and dissipating the aura that surrounds this army Described as invincible. It also dealt a severe blow to the reputation of the Israeli military industries, which in the past decade have turned into a source of political, diplomatic and economic power for Israel and have become, through their integration with modern technology industries, the locomotive that drives economic growth. 

In the past year alone, Israel sold weapons, military equipment and spyware for more than Sixteen billion dollars, the share of the Arab countries participating in the Abrahamic Accords alone was about three billion dollars.

The blow that Israel received in the Al-Aqsa flood affected its regional status, prestige, and image before itself and before the world, but it does not affect its existence, while the war of extermination, destruction, and displacement that Israel is waging against the Gaza Strip heralds a new catastrophe no less disastrous and painful than the great catastrophe that befell our people in the year 1948. 

Talking about a new Nakba is not an invention by Palestinian analysts, nor is it merely constructive talk. Rather, it is a continuous threat issued by Israeli leaders, officials and analysts in response to every Palestinian act of struggle, and they had previously launched it during the Great Intifada, the Al-Aqsa Intifada, during the Battle of Saif al-Quds, and up to the events. witnessed in the West Bank over the past two years.

For all of this, it is better for our people, their forces, their factions, their civil organizations, and all their political and social components to put aside all their differences (including the excessive discussion about the justifications for Operation Al-Aqsa Flood) and agree on ways to confront the imminent dangers, the danger of genocide and displacement in the Gaza Strip, and the danger can easily spread to the West Bank. Especially after settler leaders announced that their militias would be in charge of controlling law and order in the West Bank under the pretext of the army being busy in Gaza.

We saw the immediate translation of this trend through declaring the West Bank a military zone, and closing most areas, including governorates, cities, and villages, with iron gates, military barriers, and cement blocks, and then in the series of attacks launched by settlers on some villages and external roads, including the bloody attack on the village of Qasra, and the assassination of the martyr Randa Ajaj from Deir Jarir.

The highest priority now is to protect our people in Gaza from the dangers of the war of extermination and displacement, which is a brutal war in which America and the colonial West in general side with Israel. Not only do they take political sides, but they also take part in the operations rooms, sending air bridges and aircraft carriers to supply Israel with death bombs and ammunition.

In this battle, our people need every Palestinian, Arab and humanitarian voice to support and defend them, unified political positions, and advocacy activities everywhere. Our people's forces and our friends around the world can deliver clear messages that our people in Gaza are not alone, and that the aggressors and their supporters will pay the price.

The priority associated with protecting Gaza and our people there is to unify the political and field position in the West Bank, and if it is difficult to resolve the differences and discrepancies that have divided us over the past years, it is easy to agree on a temporary and field work program to protect villages and towns threatened by settler militias, organize advocacy activities for Gaza, and deliver a clear message to the occupiers and to the entire world that we are one people, and we will never accept attempts to monopolize Gaza or any of the struggling political forces.

When the Israeli propaganda and lying machine shamelessly intends to fabricate all these slanders to demonize our factions and criminalize our entire people, this does not come in the context of a verbal debate and presentation of positions, but rather to justify the brutal attack that does not take into account any international controls or laws, and makes it permissible to commit war crimes without any reason or motive. 

A deterrent, total approval and practical alignment by the American administration, which over the past year had avoided meeting with Netanyahu and the pillars of his government after describing it as the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, but it was open to him to the extent of participating in his decisions after the Al-Aqsa flood, because of the blow that Israel received. On the 7th of October, it is a blow to its influence, its regional status, and its functional roles, as well as a blow to the heads of the Western colonial alliance.

We are not alone in the field of confrontation and defense of the values of justice, truth, and freedom, but mobilizing the forces supporting our people and their cause requires, first and foremost, a unified and effective Palestinian performance that is based on the heroism of our people in the field and invests in the justice of our cause and its standing in the conscience of the peoples and the liberation movements.

A coalition of Arab Americans, progressive American Jews, and civil liberties advocates in Atlanta recently mobilized to block the Georgia legislature from passing a bill that would change the definition of anti-Semitism to include legitimate criticism of Israel.

Similar bills have been passed in other states, as part of a national strategy by a few pro-Israel groups and right-wing think tanks.

Supported by successful legislation or executive orders in more than 30 states to punish entities or individuals who support boycotts or sanctions of Israel, these groups are expanding their campaign to silence criticism of Israel by pressuring state governments to adopt a controversial definition of anti-Semitism, saying, Efforts to demonize Israel or judge it as having “double standards” are anti-Semitic.

Although the Georgia bill failed, it will return next year. The bills and efforts to conflate legitimate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism are just one part of a broader campaign to stamp out growing pro-Palestinian sentiment in the United States. By penalizing pro-Palestinian speech on campuses and defeating politicians who criticize Israeli behavior, this campaign attempts to re-silence pro-Palestinian voices and critics of Israel, which have been prevalent for decades. During the 1970s and 1980s, members of Congress who dared to stand up for Palestinian rights were defeated. Professors lost their positions, speakers were cancelled, and groups and individuals were discredited.

As public opinion shifted during the intifada and the eventual inclusion of the PLO in the peace process, the power of this intimidation lost momentum and an open debate began. The (mostly recent) ups and downs of the peace process have led to renewed debate on Israeli/Palestinian issues. But the increasing behavior of the Israeli government's policies and increased scrutiny of its policies led to a radical shift in American public opinion. Today, majorities in both parties support linking US aid to Israel to the level of commitment to human rights.

By a large margin, the Democrats are now more understanding of the Palestinians' problems. Candidates who defended Palestinian human rights and criticized Israel ran for Congress and won. Outspoken students — including Arab Americans, Black and Asian Americans, and progressive Jewish youth — are engaging in pro-Palestinian actions on college campuses. This shift created a crisis for the extremist pro-Israel groups, which settled on a two-track attack.

First, the new pro-Israel political action committees (AIPAC) shifted from raising money for candidates who support Israel to raising money to defeat pro-Palestinian candidates. Their ads never focus on supporting Israel — an issue that won't win them — and instead focus on personal attacks against the candidates they oppose. Recently, AIPAC and its allies announced their intention to spend tens of millions in 2024 to defeat congressional candidates deemed insufficiently supportive of Israel.

The second path is the legislative path. As Lara Friedman recently noted: “Essentially, the pro-Israel community is seen as saying that it cannot win the debate on the merits of the issue, but instead should try to silence the other side.” They have launched smear campaigns against individuals and groups perceived to be critical of Israeli policies – including progressive Jewish groups – calling them anti-Semites.

This harms Arab American empowerment and civic participation. This effort stifles debate on an important foreign policy concern, crushes freedom of expression, and silences support for the Palestinians. By conflating anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel, attention is diverted from true anti-Semitism, which is holding, expressing, or acting on intolerant attitudes toward Jews, as individuals or a group, and attributing inherent characteristics of them, as Jews, to the Jewish people. This, like all forms of hatred, must be completely combated and prevented.

Because the people targeted in this pro-Israel campaign are mostly progressive critics of Israeli policies, a free pass has been given to right-wing pro-Israel anti-Semites. Criticizing Israel for seizing land, demolishing homes, or denying refugees the right to return is acceptable. Silencing critics of these behaviors is in itself intolerance. Pro-Israel groups often accuse Israel's critics of "unfairly targeting Israel out of criticism."

*President of the Arab American Institute - Washington

Air strikes and bombing are still continuing on the Gaza Strip, and every passing minute brings with it new victims and new destruction. At the same time, rockets are still being launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli towns and cities, reaching everywhere from north to south, causing new victims and new destruction, even though the injuries and destruction expected in Israel are almost insignificant when compared to the amount of killing and human casualties that Israel inflicts on the population of the crowded Gaza Strip. So populated that shells sow death and destruction wherever they fall, even if they are not directed against a specific target.

The declared Israeli goal of the counterattack launched by Israeli forces is to uproot the Hamas movement from the Gaza Strip and put an end to the threat it poses to Israel, according to its leaders, which is embodied in successive rounds every few years during which Hamas bombs Israel with missiles and Israel responds by sometimes invading the Gaza Strip or bombing it. At other times, the fighting stops waiting for the next round, which makes the Israeli government face increasing pressure from its public opinion demanding an end to these rounds and the provision of security to its southern settlements adjacent to the border with the Gaza Strip.

There is no doubt that the current round differs from previous rounds, and it appears that it will be the last of them because, in addition to internal political considerations and partisan bidding in Israel, other elements were available to the Israelis that give the impression that the current war government that was formed after Saturday’s attack will move forward more than any previous government. 

These elements are represented by the current government’s ability to turn international public opinion against Hamas because it succeeded in portraying Hamas as ISIS and presenting the results of the attack on Saturday 10/7 as a new Holocaust against the Jews, as well as the United States joining the battle, for American internal political reasons and international considerations affected by the nuclear file. 

Iran and the Russian war in Ukraine, not as a superpower trying to maintain international security and stability through United Nations institutions, most notably the UN Security Council, but as a direct party to the conflict by moving aircraft carriers and putting commando units on standby to enter the war, in addition to mobilizing an international coalition. Supporting its move, and by dealing with Israel as the Ukraine of the Middle East, providing it with weapons, equipment, and political and economic support!

This mobilization placed the region on the brink of a volcano that could erupt more violently if Israel carried out a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, which may have begun while this article was going to press.

The question remains: Will Israel succeed in uprooting Hamas and putting an end to the threat facing its southern regions, or will it fail and that the attack it is carrying out will deepen the conflict, complicate the problem, and enter the region into a closed bloody circle from which there is no escape?
If Israel enters the Gaza Strip, it will not go on a picnic, and its forces’ path will be paved with death, blood, and fire in every inch of it, which will make matters more miserable because its forces will also sow death and destruction in everything they reach.

When will Israel and America understand that the problem does not lie with Hamas, but rather lies in the self-evident fact that the Palestinian people have a right, and that the crime that was committed against them by trying to uproot them from their homeland in 1948 and is still continuing to uproot them from what remains of that homeland will not pass, and that the Palestinian people will not perish? They will not surrender and will continue to fight until they obtain their established national rights, taking into account that they has expressed on more than one occasion  agreement to deal with the fait accompli facts.

And coexistence side by side with Israel in an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and in the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative, which was adopted by the Arab countries in Beirut in 2002 and adopted by Islamic countries at a later time, which gives Israel the opportunity to normalize relations with all Arab and Islamic countries in exchange for ending the occupation and providing the opportunity for the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital. Arab Jerusalem and a just solution to the refugee problem.

Today we are living in difficult days, not only for the Palestinians but also for the Israelis. No matter how much the Israelis are able to practice killing and destruction against the Palestinians, they will not enjoy security and stability unless this is achieved for the Palestinians.

Today, what is required of America and the international community is to comply with truth, justice, and the logic of history, which confirms that a people who stood on their feet and demanded their right to freedom and independence cannot be oppressed.

Today, we are required to stop this bloody madness and get out of this cycle through a political initiative based on the Palestine Liberation Organization assuming responsibility for managing the Gaza Strip and strengthening this role Palestinianly with the participation of all national and Islamic factions, Arab and international, through a transitional phase that places the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under international protection that guarantees the transition. The peaceful transition from the stage of violence to the stage of security and stability, and addressing all the phenomena that generate violence and destabilize security and stability in the region, the summit of which is the Israeli settlement and occupation.

There is no doubt that the entrance to that stage must be through an immediate ceasefire and the immediate release of Israeli civilian hostages in exchange for the simultaneous release of Palestinian female prisoners and Palestinian children, ensuring the safety of the prisoners on both sides, entering into intense and serious negotiations to exchange prisoners, closing this file, and entering into a covenant. A new era of coexistence, and dedication to healing the wounds of the past and building a new era of peace and prosperity for the benefit of the two peoples, because war is not the solution, peoples are invincible, and truth and justice are what prevail in the end.

This may seem like a dream that does not relate to reality, but all great works begin with a dream that finds someone working to turn it into reality.
[email protected]

The ink of the pen has melted and the voice has “sharpened” and the Palestinian people are demanding the implementation of international resolutions related to the Palestinian issue, but unfortunately the major state that falsely claims to be the leader of democracy, human rights, and against racial discrimination, is becoming clear every day that it is against democracy when it comes to the Palestinian people.

It is true to say that the large number of Palestinian factions and their failure to agree on a single decision weakens our cause, but the Palestinian people have one word, meaning to seize independence and freedom like the rest of the peoples of the world.

We have been suffering for seventy-five years under the last uprooted and racist colonialism in the world. Neither America nor Europe is fair to us.

The crying joke is when the colonialist, the representative of the rogue state in the Security Council, speaks and claims with pictures that the Palestinian fighter, the owner of the land, is treated by his Ashkenazi enemy, who took away his homeland, Palestine, where his fathers and grandfathers lived for more than five thousand years, and he forgets what the colonizer did of burning Palestinian children while they were sleeping in their homes.

Every day, the occupation army executes our children and youth, and the Western world, led by America, does nothing to deter this army, which is ready to be armed by our enemy, America.

What's worse is that the Zionist Blinken says that Saudi Arabia would have agreed with the racist and occupying state if it were not for Hamas.

We are a peaceful people. The Liberation Organization ceded 78% of historic Palestine, and America and the occupier agreed, but unfortunately nothing happened. On the contrary, the colonizer increased the theft of lands, the demolition of homes, and the expulsion of residents and their children.

He was not satisfied with this, but we see daily his attacks on our sanctities, especially the storming of the colonists in the thousands, led by him and their ministers, on the first two qiblahs and the third of the Holy Mosque.

The Al-Aqsa flood was the result of the settlers’ practices, with the occupation army protecting it through daily raids on Al-Aqsa and holding Talmudic prayers in its courtyards, while the world did not move.

America and the Western world must do justice to the Palestinian Arab people and implement all international resolutions, the first of which is returning all refugees to their lands and homes, because there is no peace, security or stability in the region without the Palestinian people restoring their full inalienable national rights.

The racist, extremist, and murderous occupier, with the help of America, is impossible to defeat the owner of the land, who is fighting to regain his land and the land of his ancestors, and this is the fundamental difference between the one who fights to regain his land and the one who fights to occupy someone else’s land.

Now, not tomorrow, Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit (i.e., the Arab League) must provide all the Gaza Strip’s needs, including electricity, medical supplies, and food, because our people there are defending the honor of all Arabs and Muslims. Because proud Gaza is considered a disaster-stricken and besieged land.

The "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation is on behalf of the Arab and Islamic nation.

It is time to take away our national rights. History will not have mercy on anyone who neglects this duty. Praise be to God, there are no traitors in the issue of Palestine, and God is the One who seeks help.

*Member of the National Council

Today, Sunday, settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, under heavy protection from the Israeli occupation police.

According to local sources, dozens of settlers stormed Al-Aqsa from the direction of the Mughariba Gate, and carried out provocative rounds in its courtyards.

Settlers carry out provocative daily raids on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, except on Fridays and Saturdays, in an attempt to control it and impose temporal and spatial division.

In a related context, the occupation forces tightened their military measures at all doors of Al-Aqsa Mosque and prevented citizens from entering it. They returned many of them and prevented them from performing prayers in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque as well, in conjunction with allowing settlers to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel is unlikely to emerge victorious in the war in Gaza, and Hamas is equally unlikely to surpass the psychological victory it achieved on October 7. The US may manage to navigate a way out of the crisis without becoming directly involved, perhaps through a new plan to address the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that involves Arab and European participation, and implicit understandings with Iran.

People (mainly in the US and Europe) who are uncritically supportive of Israel will not understand those (mainly in the Arab and Islamic worlds, but also in the West) who contextualize Hamas's shock attack within the history of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and siege of the Gaza Strip. Both sides denounce each other without trying to understand or listen to the opposing viewpoint. But it is important also to note the astonishment felt by everyone about what Hamas has done by carrying out such a complex and daring operation. Indeed, most of the world did not anticipate such a failure in Israel's intelligence capabilities and performance.

The Israeli response, led by the devastating bombardment of Gaza and the forced displacement of civilians, has eroded some of the initial sympathy felt in the West. Now, the world is divided between those who support Israel's bid to crush Hamas at any cost and those warning against the folly of this and the political and military costs, not just the exorbitant human cost.

Any resolution will ultimately depend on Iran's final decision regarding Hamas's call to Tehran and its allies to activate all "resistance fronts", starting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. But at the time of writing, Iran has moved cautiously in the diplomatic arena to avoid slipping off the tightrope. Six days on from Hamas's operation, it remained off the battlefield and advised Hezbollah to exercise prudence.

Iran's priority is its nuclear program. Tehran may not want to jump into the fire with Israel when it is reported to be six months away from getting that program to a level where it can deliver a bomb. It will also have read the message sent by the US in the form of the deployment of the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier to the region: that Washington would be prepared to resort to force, potentially targeting nuclear facilities, if Tehran miscalculated. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has openly denied involvement in Hamas's operations, indicating American deterrence is still working.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden’s administration has, it seems, also worked to address the other side of this challenge by trying to convince Israel to scale back its plans for a ground invasion of Gaza, work with Egypt to secure a safe passage for civilians from Gaza, pressure Hamas through Qatar's leverage and engage with Arab and European leaders to formulate an alternative peace plan. The latter would likely start with freezing this crisis in its tracks and moving towards new negotiations under US sponsorship.

Washington’s anxiety over getting dragged into participating in a military conflict because of decisions made by Israel or Iran is evident. Then there is the unavoidable humanitarian catastrophe resulting from an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Indeed, the US has a heavy burden on its shoulders. It may succeed in leveraging its military, political, and diplomatic weight in Israel, a country it has committed itself time and again to defending.

Washington’s anxiety over getting dragged into a military conflict because of decisions made by Israel or Iran is evident

The Biden administration, moreover, was working for a qualitative shift in Arab-Israeli relations. But what it missed and is paying the price for today is that this qualitative shift is impossible if it ignores the Palestinians and their rights. Hamas's achievement is that it has awakened everyone involved and managed to undermine the assumption that the Palestinian issue had been settled among Arab governments, in the Arab and Muslim streets and on the international stage.

A forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza would be in line with a broader policy held by the most extremist camp in Israel of advocating for the expulsion of all Palestinians – even those in the West Bank and Israel proper. This camp believes Palestinians, even those with Israeli citizenship, pose a permanent demographic challenge. From this perspective, the epic proportions of Hamas's attack may ultimately serve extremist Israeli goals more than Palestinian aspirations, by providing the pretext needed for forced displacement.

That displacement would also put Egypt in a predicament. Cairo will be aware that some in Israel advocate for the resettlement of Gazan refugees in Sinai. Yet closing the border to Palestinian civilians to thwart the Israeli strategy is not an easy option, as its humanitarian cost is high and would unfold under the world's watchful eyes. Egypt is caught between a rock and a hard place, and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, like Mr Biden, has a presidential election to worry about.

If the Biden administration wishes to seize the diplomatic and political initiatives, it must have the courage to compel its ally, Israel, to adopt a new approach towards the Palestinians.

And the Palestinians themselves, particularly the Palestinian Authority (PA), are now under more scrutiny than ever. If the PA continues in its stagnation and obsolete methods, it will miss a historic opportunity inadvertently provided by Hamas. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas must rejuvenate himself and surround himself with younger advisers instead of dwelling on the past and the methods of rejection and boycotting negotiations with Israel. This is an opportunity for him to tell the youth of Hamas, not just the youth of his own party Fatah, that now is the opportune time to engage together in a new peace process with Israel, with Arab participation and perhaps later with Iranian blessing.

The Israelis, for their part, must find a way to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and open an opportunity for a realistic and honest review of the miseries brought about by religious and political extremism on them and others. It is time for the Israeli people to hold themselves and their leaders accountable and to seize this bitter moment to create a pathway to justice for the Palestinians, freeing themselves from the siege mentality and living in peace with their neighbors – if they change their ways.

Source: Annahar Al Arabi

By Raghida Dergham is the founder and executive chairwoman of the Beirut Institute

Three Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades fighters were killed in Lebanon during the implementation of the “Northern Occupied Palestine” operation yesterday, Saturday, according to a statement by the brigades.

The Al-Qassam Brigades revealed, in a statement, that a group of its fighters were able to blow up the border fence and target a control point and then reach an area near the “Margaliot” settlement and clash with the occupation army and inflict losses on its ranks.

The Al-Qassam Brigades added, in its statement, that during the clash, “enemy aircraft targeted our mujahideen so that they would rise as martyrs to their Lord, coming without retreating.”

It was reported that the martyrs were Ahmed Osama Othman from Ain al-Hilweh camp, Yahya Nayef Abdel Razek from Ain al-Hilweh camp, and Suhaib Omar Kayed from Wadi al-Zeina.

This is the first time during Israel's wars on Gaza that the Palestinian resistance carried out operations from outside the border, as several factions from southern Lebanon bombed northern Israel, and several fighters infiltrated and clashed with the occupation forces.

The Al-Qassam Brigades had previously announced the launch of a concentrated missile salvo from southern Lebanon towards Western Galilee, and the border area in southern Lebanon has witnessed an exchange of bombardments since last Sunday, following the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle.

Fellow journalist Giselle Khoury, wife of the martyr Samir Kassir, died at dawn today at the American University Hospital - Beirut after a struggle with cancer.

After the assassination of her husband, journalist and historian Samir Kassir, on June 2, 2005, the late woman launched a foundation bearing his name on February 1, 2006, transforming it into one of the most prominent regional institutions specialized in monitoring violations against media and cultural freedoms in the Arab Levant, and supporting independent media voices. In Lebanon and the countries of the Middle East and North Africa.

She took the issue of press freedom to global forums, urging the European Union to launch the Samir Kassir Prize for Press Freedom in 2006. She was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the World Forum for Media Development between 2016 and 2020, and a member of the jury of the Guillermo Cano Prize for Press Freedom awarded by UNESCO. She received the French Order of Arts and Letters, rank of officer, in 2012, and the French Legion of Honor, rank of Knight, in 2019.

Khoury’s professional career began in 1986 at the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, and she hosted the most prominent Arab and international political and cultural figures on her program “The Dialogue of a Lifetime” between 1992 and 2001, before joining the MBC group in 2002 and contributing to the launch of the “Al Arabiya” channel. She presented the “Bel Arabi” program between 2003 and 2013.

The deceased moved to the BBC Arabic channel in 2013, where she interviewed senior leaders and thinkers about pivotal moments in contemporary history within the “Al-Mashhad” program, and then to the “Sky News Arabia” channel, in 2020, with the “With Giselle” program, which It represented a turning point in the form, rhythm, and diversity of talk shows. She wrote and produced documentaries about prominent Arab political figures, and founded the “Rawi” documentary production company alongside journalist and ambassador Sahar Baasiri.

On Sunday morning, the Israeli occupation forces launched a campaign of arrests among citizens in various areas of the West Bank.

In Nablus, the occupation forces arrested: Mazen Al-Danbek, Sami Al-Asi, Nasrallah Yaliblah, Jaafar Rayhan, Moamen Rayhan, and Baraa Rayhan from the village of Tal, and Nasouh Shtayyeh and his son Muhammad from the village of Salem, east of the city.

Meanwhile, from Jenin, Ahmed Dhia Al-Ahmad, from the town of Rummana, Ali Samih Abu Bakr, and Tariq Muhammad Qabaha, from the town of Ya’bad, were arrested after the occupation forces raided and searched their homes.

In Hebron, the occupation forces arrested: the freed prisoner Yousef Abu Hashem (26 years old), Ali Izz al-Din al-Humaidan Abu Maria (21 years old), Bahaa Muhammad Khalil Zaqeq (28 years old), and Amir Qasim Khalil Akhalil (16 years old).

The occupation forces also caused material damage to citizens' homes and property during the search operations.

The two brothers, Mahmoud and Malek Iyad Thawabta, and Ahmed Saleh Thawabta, from the town of Beit Fajjar in Bethlehem, were arrested after their homes were raided and searched.

The occupation forces also arrested journalist Sabri Jibreen and Hisham Khalil Al-Amour from the town of Tuqu’, southeast of Bethlehem, and Mahmoud Nasri Salah and Ahmed Hassan Salah from the town of Al-Khader.

As Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” - which was launched by the Palestinian resistance and led to the killing of 1,300 Israelis - enters its ninth day, the violent Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip continues, leaving more than 2,384 martyrs and more than 10,150 injured, most of whom are women and children.

UN official warns that Palestinians are being subjected to "mass ethnic cleansing"

The United Nations rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, warned that Palestinians are exposed to a “grave risk of mass ethnic cleansing.”

The independent UN rapporteur said, in a statement, “There is a grave danger that what we are witnessing may be a repetition of the 1948 catastrophe and the 1967 setback, but on a larger scale. The international community must do everything to prevent this from happening again.”

You all may think I am crazy writing this, but believe me there will be a day after tomorrow. This horrible war will come to an end. We will all be traumatized by what we have gone through. We will see all around us the devastation, destruction, wounded people mentally and physically and a lot of death. We will bury our dead and we will not forget what has been done and who did it.  

That will remain with us for many years to come. These days and weeks and maybe months will reshape our narratives and Israelis and Palestinians will never agree about what happened to us.  For Israelis the attack on October 7 was the most severe military invasion and terrorist attack in 75 years. For Palestinians that day and the days to follow have become the harsh and acute continuation of the Nakba. These are very dark days and all of us are impacted by what is happening.

I am hoping for what I call “a Belfast moment”.  Perhaps it is an incorrect term and if so I apologize to the people of Northern Ireland. I am referring to the time when we, the civilians, not our governments, look around us and see all the death and destruction and say: No More. ENOUGH. We have to invest our time, energy, resources, faith and devotion not in killing each other anymore, but in building a new reality. We have to recognize that even after this horrific war, Israelis and Palestinians will remain here on this land between the River and the Sea and no one here has more right to be here than anyone else.  We have to look each other in the eyes and say we must all have the same right to the same rights. Then we can begin to rebuild a new reality.

Israel is very likely to re-occupy Gaza. At the time of this writing, it seems unavoidable. I don’t know will be the fate of the Israeli hostages. I have spent countless hours trying to advance an agreement on the release of the women, children, elderly and sick hostages in exchange for the 43 women and 190 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. I have pushed for a humanitarian ceasefire to implement the deal and to enable food and medical supplies to enter Gaza.  Once the Israeli ground operation begins, it will probably be too late. At that point the only hope for the hostages will be rescue operations which some will succeed and others will not. The number of civilian casualties in Gaza will skyrocket and the destruction will be beyond imagination.

On the day that Israel completes it occupation of Gaza it must announce that Israel will leave Gaza within x months – 8 months, 12 months, whatever – but Israel is not staying. The Gush Katif settlers are not going back to Gaza.  There will be no Israeli settlers in Gaza.  Israel must then also announce its plans which have to include working with the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank to end the conflict and to rebuild a peaceful Gaza. It has to be done with the Gaza business community and peace seeking civil society.  

This work will not be done by the Israeli government because on the day after the war, Netanyahu and his government, and people from previous governments are going to face their day of reckoning. The people who brought us to this situation must be forced to pay the price for their colossal failure. 

The military people who devised the policies that led us to the brink have to go home also and pay the price for their part of the failure. The Palestinian leadership will also have to face their day of reckoning and take responsibility for their failures in dividing the Palestinian people and creating an extreme fanatical leadership that set the Palestinian cause back 75 years.

The process of rebuilding and reconstruction and creating a new reality will have to be done by the people with new leadership on both sides. Not the same people we have seen for years, but new people with a new vision. This task of rebuilding our lives will have to include our neighbors – Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, hopefully Saudi Arabia and others. It will have to be supported financially by the international community. But it is we, Israelis and Palestinians, citizens, civil society, people who dreams and hopes, and a new vision who have to lead the process.

That is why is it essential that the current Military Cabinet in Israel have the first elements of a plan which begins with: we are not staying in Gaza.  We will leave Gaza by the following date. Let me remind you, when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 the Lebanese villagers in the south threw rice and candies at the Israeli soldiers who liberated them. Three months later they were placing roadside bombs to kill them. No one agrees to be occupied. No one in Gaza or the West Bank or East Jerusalem will ever agree to be occupied – not yesterday, not now, and not tomorrow. Israel may reoccupy Gaza, but if it stays in Gaza more Israeli blood will be the price paid, as well as Palestinian blood of resistance.

We must set a new course. I am thinking about this all of time. I have begun talking to some serious strategic thinking Israelis and Palestinians about creating a working group on this now. Only people who think strategically are capable of even imagining such a working group while we are still at war. But we all know how wars begin, and we never know how they will end.  We must be prepared for an exit strategy which is substantially more than just having the army exit Gaza. We have to be prepared with the plans for the day after tomorrow when we will all be engaged in building a new and hopefully peaceful reality.

Dr Gershon Baskin ran a secret back channel between Israel and Hamas in 2011, and is now director of operations for ICO – International Communities Organization

Global Review title: "Interview with Daniel Pipes about the Hamas Attack: "The Delusion That Enrichment Can Tame Palestinians Goes Back to the Very Origins of Zionism and Persists Despite Never Succeeding"

Global Review: Was the Hamas attack foreseeable?

Daniel Pipes: Given its history and ideology, that Hamas would again attack Israel was foreseeable. But the size and nature of the attack came as a complete surprise. It resembled 9/11 in the sense that both times, jihadis executed a previously unimaginable idea. By the way, it has caused the South Korean government to reconsider its border arrangement with North Korea.

GR: Was the attack related to preventing Israeli normalization with Saudi Arabia, to the Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich duo, to heightened violence on the West Bank, to demands from Tehran, to the date (50 years and 1 day), or something else?

DP: Perhaps any and all of these; we do not know the reason for the timing. It could simply have been that preparations were in place.

GR: Was Israel caught by surprise due to an intelligence failure or to a ruling coalition being so obsessed with other matters – notably judicial reform and a deal with Saudi Arabia – that it ignored warnings from the intelligence services?

DP: All reports concur that a massive intelligence failure occurred.

GR: Did the Israeli security establishment focus too much on Iran and Hezbollah, seeing these as the main threats, and forgot about Hamas?

DP: No, I believe the real problem was misunderstanding the nature of Hamas. The security establishment believed it could be managed through economics. The delusion that enrichment can tame Palestinians goes back to the very origins of Zionism and persists despite never succeeding.

GR: Did Israelis, with their high-tech defense systems, F-35s, and nuclear weapons, have a false sense of security that made them unprepared for asymmetric war?

DP: Yes, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has turned into a truly defensive force vis-à-vis the Palestinians, as Lazar Berman has eloquently explained.

GR: What does Israel Victory mean in the present context?

DP: That's easy. It means extirpating Hamas, removing it entirely from Gaza.

GR: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Gazans to get out of Gaza. But where should they go?

DP: That's tough. After that warning, an IDF spokesperson showed maps and instructed residents where to evacuate. I cannot tell if the proposed refuges really provide shelter or not. I suspect not. Israeli forces need to make minimizing civilian casualties a priority.

GR: Do you think a ground offensive in Gaza by the IDF will be protracted, especially given Hamas' years of preparation, including a sophisticated tunnel system?

DP: It depends how meticulous the IDF is. If it goes house to house, as in Jenin in 2002, the operation will be slower and costlier in lives than if it blasts its way through. That in turn depends in good part on the level of anger in Israel.

GR: What sort of leverage do the Israeli hostages give Hamas?

DP: My inclination is to predict "not much." Precious as each life is, the body politic is not in a mood to be deterred by further deaths, either of hostages or of soldiers.

GR: Will Hezbollah join in?

DP: That is a big uncertainty. I suspect feverish debates are taking place among Hezbollah leaders and with Tehran to decide this question. If I had to bet, I'd say no, because the rage in Israel will deter Hezbollah.

GR: What is your prediction on how the massacre will affect Israeli politics: the emergency government, putting aside judicial reform, the end of Netanyahu's political career?.

DP: The emergency government formed on Oct. 11 and almost nobody noticed. But it represents a major political development with many implications beyond Gaza; in particular, the ruling coalition no longer depends on its hard-liners. Judicial reform looks defunct. Netanyahu used up his ninth life on Oct. 7; in power for nearly all of the past fifteen years, he cannot escape blame for the catastrophe. I believe his political career will wind down.

GR: How does this affect the Abraham Accords, a possible Saudi-Israel deal, and the India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)?

DP: Israel's ferocious reaction shakes the Abraham Accords but I expect they will not break. A Saudi deal will be delayed but not halted. IMEC represents no more than a wish at this time.

GR: What are the non-Western responses (Russia, China, Muslim-majority countries, etc.) to the massacre?

DP: A survey by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Oct. 11 finds that "Around the globe, representatives of approximately a hundred countries have reacted to the war in varying ways. At least forty-four nations have publicly expressed their unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and explicitly decried its tactics as terrorism." This amounts to unusually strong support for Israel.

GR: Might the Hamas war affect the U.S. pivot to Asia?

DP: It temporarily returns attention to the Middle East but I expect long-term trends away from the region will continue.

GR: What concrete steps should Western governments take in response to the Hamas attack?

DP: Where do I begin? For starters: Urge Israel to destroy Hamas. Stop all aid to the Palestinian Authority. Sanction Türkiye and Qatar for their help to Hamas.

GR: What steps should Germany, specifically, take?

DP: The same steps as other democracies but more so, given Germany's unique and unchanging debt to the Jewish people.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said part of the motivation for Hamas’ latest attack on Israel may have been disrupting a potential normalizing of Israel-Saudi Arabia ties and said Washington will announce new assistance for Israel on Sunday.

Hamas fighters rampaged through Israeli towns as the country suffered its bloodiest day in decades on Saturday and battered Palestinians with air strikes in Gaza on Sunday, with hundreds reportedly killed on both sides. The spiraling violence threatens a major new Middle East war.

The attack by Hamas launched at dawn on Saturday represented the biggest and deadliest incursion into Israel since Egypt and Syria launched a sudden assault in an effort to reclaim lost territory in the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise that part of the motivation may have been to disrupt efforts to bring Saudi Arabia and Israel together, along with other countries that may be interested in normalizing relations with Israel,” Blinken told CNN in an interview on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month he believed his country was on the cusp of peace with Saudi Arabia, predicting it could reshape the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s two holiest shrines, has long insisted on the Palestinians’ right to statehood as a condition of recognizing Israel – something that many members of Netanyahu’s nationalist religious coalition have long resisted.

The United States said on Sunday that Saudi-Israel normalization efforts should continue despite the latest attack.

“We think it would be in both countries’ interests to continue to pursue this possibility,” U.S. Deputy National Security adviser Jon Finer told Fox News Sunday.

FIGHTING CONTINUES IN GAZA

Blinken added the United States has also taken note of reports of several Americans killed and kidnapped in Israel and Washington is looking to verify the details and figures.

“We have reports that several Americans were killed. We’re working overtime to verify that,” Blinken said.

The secretary of state said details of new U.S. assistance for Israel will be made public later, as he labeled the attack on Israel as a “terrorist attack by a terrorist organization.”

“We are looking at specific additional requests that the Israelis have made. I think you’re likely to hear more about that later today,” Blinken told CNN.

Blinken added there was relative calm on Sunday in most of Israel but intense fighting in Gaza, an Israeli-blockaded Palestinian enclave which has witnessed weeks of protests by youth groups due to long-time grievances related to the Israeli military occupation, the Palestinian national cause and prolonged economic strife.

He added that there was not yet any evidence seen by the United States of Iran being behind the latest attack in Israel but he noted the long-standing ties between Iran and Hamas, which governs Gaza.

Support for Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu has nosedived since the Hamas attack in Southern Israel of Saturday, and his ruling coalition would be driven from power if elections were held today, a poll published in the Ma’ariv daily Friday has found.

Only 29 percent of respondents thought Netanyahu should be prime minister, as opposed to 48 percent who preferred National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz. Some 23 percent replied “don’t know: in response to the question.”

And only 21 percent thought Netanyahu should be prime minister the day after the war, as opposed to 66 percent who chose the option of “someone else.”

If elections were held now, the center-right National Unity Party led by Gantz would receive 41 seats, the highest number won by any Israeli political party since 1992. The party currently holds only 12 seats in the current Knesset.

Netanyahu’s nationalist Likud party plummets to 19 seats, down from the 32 it currently has.

The poll also showed that parties making up the current 64-seat coalition would only win a combined total of 42 seats, way short of the 61 needed to form a majority coalition.

On Thursday the National Unity Party formally joined the coalition in an emergency government to fight the war with Hamas. Gantz, a former IDF Chief of Staff, will join Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Netanyahu in a small war cabinet, along with two observers, one from the Likud and one from the National Unity Party.

Anger at the current Israeli government, for its perceived failure in not preparing for the war has been growing as the details of Saturday’s assault by Hamas become clear. Environment Minister Idit Silman was forced to leave a hospital by angry, shouting Israelis, while at another hospital, Economy Minister Nir Barkat – seen as a future challenger for the Likud leadership – was subjected to an angry outburst.

It was Barkat too who, attending the funeral of one of the victims of Saturday’s slaughter, was forced to listen as the deceased’s brother railed at the government.

Senior Likud legislator David Bitan spotted sitting in a restaurant was harangued at by a passerby.

In a widely-circulated video clip this week, a resident of Southern Israel unleashed a furious tirade on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14, shouting that the government and Knesset needed to go, while the anchor sat there uncomfortably, trying vainly to interrupt.

The Ma’ariv poll questioned 600 people on October 11-12, and had a margin of error of 4 percent.

Source: algemeiner.com

New aid flights arrived on Saturday in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula where relief materials are being held until an agreement is reached for delivery into the nearby Gaza Strip, a Red Crescent official and an aid volunteer said.

Egypt says its side of the Rafah crossing that connects Sinai with the Gaza Strip remains open, though traffic has been halted for several days due to Israeli bombardments on the Palestinian side of the border.

Two Egyptian security sources said the planned evacuation of some people in Gaza holding foreign passports had been held up because of the lack of any deal being negotiated with Israel and the United States to send aid into the enclave.

A senior U.S. State Department spokesman said the United States had informed its citizens that they might move closer to the crossing, after talks with Egypt, Israel and Qatar aimed at opening it.

Washington has been in contact with Palestinian-Americans inside Gaza, some of whom expressed a wish to leave via Rafah, but it was unclear if Palestinian Islamist group Hamas would allow access to the crossing, a senior State Department official said earlier.

Egypt has been reinforcing security on its side of the border, including moving concrete barriers, but reports that troops were sealing off the crossing were incorrect, a third Egyptian security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Rafah crossing is the main exit point for the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million residents that is not controlled by Israel. Israel and Egypt have upheld a blockade on the enclave, controlling the movement of goods and people since Hamas took control in 2007.

Israel’s military spokesperson said on Saturday that the border remains closed and any crossing into Egypt needed to be coordinated with Israel.

Two aid flights, including one from Turkey, have landed at Sinai’s Al Arish airport, about 28 miles from the Gaza border, bringing the total number of planes that have arrived this week carrying humanitarian relief for Gaza to at least five, the Red Cross official and the aid volunteer said.

The World Health Organization said a plane carrying trauma medicines and health supplies had landed.

“Every hour these supplies remain on the Egyptian side of the border, more girls and boys, women and men, especially those vulnerable or disabled, will die,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

There is alarm in Egypt over the prospect that residents in Gaza could be displaced by Israel’s siege and bombardment of the territory, launched in retaliation for the devastating incursion by Hamas terrorists.

Like other Arab states, it has said that Palestinians should stay on their lands as the war escalates, and that it is working to secure delivery of aid into the Gaza Strip.

During a visit to Cairo on Saturday, Turkey‘s foreign minister said he supported Egypt’s position.

Germany is among the countries working to get aid into Gaza and evacuate its nationals, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during a separate visit to the Egyptian capital.

This Saturday evening, settlers attacked Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

According to local sources, the settlers, protected by the occupation soldiers, attacked the homes of citizens in Asfi al-Tahta, Maghayir al-Ubaid, and al-Tuba, and threw stones at them. Among the targeted homes was the home of Muhammad and Hassan Abu Ali.

Sources stated that the settlers vandalized water tanks, destroyed all the contents of homes and caves, and stole batteries and solar panels.

Al-Jabour added that settler attacks have recently recorded a noticeable increase against citizens and their property, and are now taking place almost daily, in full view of the occupation forces that provide protection for them.

The occupation forces also closed the road leading to the village of Al-Mufaqara in Yatta Musafer and other roads linking the villages and Kharib Al-Musafer to the bypass line.

The Israeli army announced for the first time, on Saturday, that the bodies of some hostages held by Al-Qassam Brigades fighters during operations inside Gaza this week had been found.

Army spokesman Colonel Peter Lerner told reporters: “We located the bodies of some of the Israelis who were kidnapped within an area in the Gaza Strip and found them.”

The sudden Hamas attack included seizing an unknown number of hostages and bringing them into the Gaza Strip, which is currently being subjected to heavy air strikes from Israel. For their part, the families of the Israeli hostages issued an appeal aiming to reach an agreement “by midnight” to urgently deliver medicines to their relatives who have been detained since Seven days, as they desperately need it to survive.

Ronen Tzur, head of the Forum for Families of Hostages and Missing Persons in Tel Aviv, said: “We demand that an agreement be reached by midnight to transfer medicines to the hostages.”

He added, "We expect to get answers from the International Committee of the Red Cross tonight."

The Israeli army announced during the past few days that it was working to rescue Israelis detained by Hamas and Islamic Jihad since the attack on Saturday. The government press office explained that Hamas kidnapped at least 100 people. Hamas and Islamic Jihad confirmed that they captured "many soldiers."

By Kareem Qurt

These days, you hear some voices saying that the size of the losses incurred by the occupation in Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” and the scenes of “humiliation” of prisoners of the enemy army, are the reasons that pushed the Israeli occupation to this brutality, of destruction and killing, that it inflicts on the Gaza Strip. However, the current Zionist crime would have been the same, even if the number of Israeli deaths had been much lower.

We must remember here that the scenario of the resistance taking control of the settlements was always dreamed of by the Lebanese Hezbollah, and the occupation took this scenario seriously and conducted maneuvers in preparation for it. The perception was that Hezbollah, relying on its “Al-Radwan” force, would launch a surprise attack in the Galilee, seize several settlements from several axes, and then its resistance members would barricade themselves there, keeping the settlers hostage until they neutralized the Israeli air force. The occupation also had visions for dealing with this plan, the most important of which was evacuating the Galilee settlers as quickly as possible in order to deprive Hezbollah of its strong point.

What is noticeable in this scenario is that the occupation would have done to Lebanon what it is doing to Gaza now if Hezbollah had implemented the scenario of controlling a number of settlements in the Galilee. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant stated, during the Crushing Strike maneuver last June, “If Hezbollah attacks Israel, it will return Lebanon to the Stone Age”. As is clear, the matter is not related to the number of deaths of the occupation, but rather to the essence of the occupation’s security doctrine, one of its manifestations was the “suburb approach,” which is a permanent behavior of the occupation, expressed by Gadi Eisenkot when he was the commander of the northern front in the occupation army, and it was called the “suburb approach.” In reference to the southern suburb of Beirut, where this approach was implemented during the July 2006 war, which is based on the use of disproportionate force to cause severe destruction and damage to any area from which Israel is attacked.

It must be pointed out that everyone who lives under Zionist settler colonialism realizes that the suburb approach is a routine daily behavior of the occupation, which it practices against individual civilians, not just against resistance movements. For example, a boy could throw a stone at an armored military vehicle without causing it any harm, and the occupation soldiers inside it may not hear the sound of the stone falling because it is armored from the inside, but the occupation soldiers’ response may simply be to shoot and kill this boy. directly. In another case, the occupation soldiers may arrest this boy for several months or years, and after he leaves prison, he will find that punishments are chasing him, and he will find himself prohibited from traveling, and deprived of obtaining all kinds of entry permits into the occupied interior. The matter does not stop with him, as the penalties may affect his family as well. The occupation deprives his family and relatives of permits and their sources of livelihood. In another example, when a resistor carries out an operation against the occupation soldiers and settlers, which may not result in any casualties among the ranks of the occupation, the occupation soldiers, after they kill the resistor, steal his body, and the military governor issues a decision to demolish his house, and his family and perhaps relatives are prevented from obtaining On permits, especially work permits.

These are just examples of what happens daily on the ground, and everyone who lives under colonialism must have a story about excessive colonial violence of which he was once a victim, whether it was physical, symbolic, or psychological. Therefore, we must remain aware that the excessive violence of the occupation is not related to the size of the act of resistance, but rather to the response to the essence of the act, no matter how simple.

Lifting the cover from the Palestinian people

Following the shock it received, the occupation began to promote a narrative that it was facing ISIS, and this narrative reached the point where the Minister of the Occupation Army, Yoav Galant, described the Palestinians as human animals. However, the occupation, in its rhetoric throughout its history, did not have a better description of the Palestinians and their resistance. Even when the PLO decided to turn to the peace option, neither Israel, nor America behind it, recognized that the Palestinian people are a struggling people who were practicing armed struggle to restore their national rights, but rather considered that they were dealing with With a group of “repentant terrorists,” according to the wording of the speech.

Whoever follows the Hebrew media, especially social media, and observes the discourse prevailing therein, will find that most of these media only describe Palestinians as “makhbilim,” that is, “saboteurs” or “terrorists,” even when the Palestinian is killed by mistake at the hands of the occupation forces. Or when he is defending himself against settler attacks. This description includes children, women, the elderly, and the sick. Every Palestinian killed by the occupation army and its settlers is necessarily a “terrorist,” according to Israeli discourse.

Since the emergence of ISIS, Israel has begun to compare the Palestinians to it. Following the attacks carried out by the organization in France in 2015, the Israeli ambassador to France participated in a condolence vigil with the French, and told them that he stands in solidarity with them because he understands what they are facing, because Israel is facing the same thing. In this context, he spoke about the “Jerusalem Gift” (knives) that was taking place in the occupied territories and likened it to the actions of “ISIS” that France is facing. This discourse was widespread among the occupation in those days, and it still continues, albeit in other forms that completely strip the Palestinian people of the legitimate struggle character.

What this means is that the occupation’s descriptions of the Palestinian people at the present time are not linked to the number of those killed in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle, but rather it is a permanent position from which it has never retreated, to the point that it has increased at the present time, and is receiving widespread resonance and American support.

Why does Israel liken the Palestinians to ISIS?

It can be said that the intensity of the Israeli description, at the present time, of the Palestinians as “ISIS” and “human animals” is merely a justification and pretext for what Israel intends to implement against the Palestinians, not only in the Gaza Strip but also in all of Palestine, specifically in the West Bank, as it is accompanied by Brutal killing and destruction in the Gaza Strip, killings and torture of citizens in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and it seems that the interior will soon follow. Itamar Ben Gvir, the Israeli Minister of National Security, announced that he directed his ministry to purchase more than 10,000 weapons to distribute to settlers,and added that he actually began distributing 4,000 pieces to settler militias in the settlements on the borders of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and in the interior ( mixed cities). Later, he announced that he had given orders to the police commissioner to prepare for the "Wall Keeper 2" scenario that he believed was around the corner.

In addition, it seems that Israel now sees that there is an opportunity looming before it to exploit the current situation to resolve the conflict, whether in Gaza, the West Bank, or the interior. This is because it is promoting propaganda to the West, specifically to the United States, that what happened to it on October 7 is... Like the American September 11th, and in another story, I likened it to the Pearl Harbor incident. These comparisons are neither innocent nor spontaneous. After these two events, the United States carried out very significant actions in the world, including after “Pearl Harbor” it entered World War II against the Axis powers, and eventually used nuclear weapons against Japan, and also after September 11, it occupied Afghanistan and Iraq. It sought to change regimes in other countries.

In this context, Netanyahu’s statement that Israel “will change the Middle East” in its declared war against the Palestinian people comes as an indication that Israel seeks to end the Palestinian issue once and for all in light of the green light that US President Joe Biden gave Netanyahu to be decisive. In his war on the Palestinian people.[6] Biden also used the pretext of the so-called "atrocities" committed by the resistance to justify his support and support and give the green light to Israel to do what it wants.

The "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation destroyed a large part of the occupation's image before itself, the region, and the world. The image that the occupation built for itself as the superior state militarily, security, technologically and intelligence, and the state with an invincible army, which defeated several Arab countries and destroyed their armies in six days, has been destroyed, which may change many things. The Arabs may no longer be enthusiastic about normalization with Israel, especially since normalization with it is often linked to efforts to confront Iran. 

How can the Arabs be convinced that a defeated Israel is capable of confronting Iran? On the other hand, this humiliating defeat will encourage other countries and parties to confront Israel, because they realize the extent of its fragility and the falsity of the image built around it. Therefore, Israel is now committing crimes in the Gaza Strip, and it seems that it will continue its crimes in order to prove to the world and the Arabs that it is the Israel it was in 1967.

In conclusion

The wheel of history does not move backwards, and if glass is broken, it cannot be repaired. Today, Israel faces a challenge that it has not faced in its history, even in the 1973 war. The whole world saw the defeat, weakness, and weakness that befell it, as factions were able to resist, and we are not talking here about armies. Within a geographic sector of no more than 360 square kilometers that has been besieged from all sides for more than 17 years, it must outperform its army, intelligence, technology, and military and security industries, and inflict a terrible, humiliating defeat in a few hours. Therefore, the current Israeli crime will not help in restoring its image, nor will it enable it to achieve any political goals, even with absolute American support. As for us, we should not care much about the discourse of Zionist colonialism and those loyal to this discourse. Frantz Fanon summed up this story when he explained that “colonialism is neither a thinking machine nor a discourse that can be dismantled, but rather it is reckless violence that can only be subjected to stronger violence.”

Source: Institute of Palestinian Studies

A senior Israeli official acknowledged, on Saturday, that there had been "mistakes" in the intelligence services' assessments ahead of an unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7.

He added, "We really believed that Hamas had learned its lesson" from the last war with Israel in 2021.

On October 7, Hamas launched Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” during which its fighters penetrated Israeli areas from the sea via boats, from land by penetrating parts of the barbed wire border fence, and from the air via automated gliders, coinciding with the firing of thousands of rockets toward Israel. They entered military sites and residential communities, killed people and captured others.

More than 1,300 people have been killed in Israel since the start of the attack, including 258 soldiers, according to the army’s latest toll. The number of wounded has reached 3,526, and the number of hostages taken by Hamas has reached about 120.

Hanegbi rejected any negotiations that would lead to a prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.

“There is no way to negotiate with an enemy we have sworn to eliminate,” he said.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli bombing rose to 2,215, including 724 children and 458 women, in addition to the wounding of 8,714 citizens with various injuries, including 2,450 children and 1,536 women, according to the latest toll announced by the Hamas Ministry of Health on Saturday morning.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced today, Saturday, “a tripling of European Union aid to the people of Gaza, to 75 million euros,” while the Strip has been subjected to continuous Israeli aggression since last Saturday.

The head of the Commission said: After holding talks with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, “The Commission will immediately increase the humanitarian aid package for Gaza by an amount of 50 million euros. This will raise the total to more than 75 million euros.”

She added in a statement, "We will continue our close cooperation with the United Nations and its agencies to ensure that this aid reaches those in need in the Gaza Strip."

She continued, "We are working hard to ensure that civilians in Gaza receive support in this context."

In turn, European Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic stressed that "it is necessary to ensure safe and unrestricted access to humanitarian aid."

This week, Israel canceled all work permits for thousands of Gazan workers who were legally residing in Israel, while hundreds of them were arrested and thrown into a camp near Ramallah.

Hundreds of Gaza workers took refuge in West Bank cities after the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip.

Haaretz newspaper says that some of them were arrested when they tried to move to the West Bank after the outbreak of the war. Hundreds of them are now in Anatot camp, near Anata camp in the West Bank. Some of them were arrested when they tried to move to the West Bank illegally when the war broke out

The newspaper adds, but it is not clear whether there is a legal reason for their arrest. An Israeli security source told Haaretz that they will be held in detention until they are returned to the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army says: “It is not possible at the present time to return them to Gaza. The issue of their continued possession of permits and the transfer of others to another place is being studied by the political level.”