Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that the occupation forces' targeting of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza is a tragedy and a humanitarian catastrophe, as it led to the martyrdom of more than 500 Palestinians, noting that the occupation provided more than one account of the Baptist massacre.

Putin stressed his country's permanent support for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Putin believes that the main players do not want the conflict to deepen.

27 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday afternoon, in an occupation bombing that targeted a house in the town of Jabalia, north of the Strip.

The occupation aircraft launches violent and intense raids on various areas of the Gaza Strip, while the Palestinian resistance responds with missile barrages at a number of targets.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced in its latest statistics that the number of martyrs in the Gaza Strip had risen to more than 3,300,000 martyrs during the occupation’s aggression, while the number of martyrs in the West Bank had reached 61 martyrs and more than 1,250 wounded since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa flood.

The mask that has long obscured the true nature and purpose of “international law”, the supposed foundation of the current global order, is finally off. As Palestinian cries for help from Gaza remain unanswered, the sinister truth is now undeniably out in the open: international justice, more often than not, is used as a tool to advance imperial interests, and not justice.

This was, of course, long known by anyone who has ever examined, even superficially, the history of imperialism, from the European scramble for Africa to more recent United States interventions in Latin America, and traced how that dark past has helped shape the way the world functions at present.

Sure, at first glance, international law appears to be a noble concept, promoting peace, universal application of human rights, cooperation and justice among nations. However, scratch beneath the surface, and a different narrative emerges, shaped by the ghosts of imperialism past.

Just look at how international law was eagerly used, and is still being used, to defend, heal and deliver justice to the Ukrainian people in the face of Russian aggression. Now compare that with how the same laws, norms and principles were reduced to mere footnotes and suggestions in the West’s response to the ongoing Israeli assault on the Palestinians. The West, led by the United States, clearly only champions adherence to international law and the rules-based global order when it suits its agenda.

So how did we get here?

For centuries, colonial expansion and exploitation, driven by a thirst for resources and geopolitical dominance, defined Western history. A handful of European states carved the world up between themselves, conquering lands, stealing resources, and brutally subjugating and enslaving peoples. Throughout this period of colonial dominance, Western states acted as if sovereignty and self-determination were their natural right and privilege and no one else’s.

The two world wars, which devastated European powers and sped up the deterioration of their control over most of their colonial territories, disturbed this unjust and untenable status quo.

In the late 1940s, with European states struggling to rebuild and national independence movements in Africa and beyond gaining pace, a new rules-based international order began to take shape and concepts like human rights and right to self-determination of nations started to be codified in law. With the formation of the United Nations, and establishment of bodies like the International Court of Justice and the UN Security Council, an illusion was created that these new set of rules applied to everyone – both the powerful Western states and their (former) colonies – equally and permanently.

While promoting the idea of national sovereignty and human rights on the surface, however, Western powers continued their habit of controlling, stealing from and exploiting other nations. They started to use this newly crafted “rules-based” order to covertly further their colonial policies and hinder similar efforts by their rivals. An initial test of international law and the institutions established to preserve it, came in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company case before the International Court of Justice in early 1950s.  When the results did not serve imperial interests, the US and UK initiated Operation Ajax.

The US also wreaked havoc in Latin America throughout the latter half of the 20th century, toppling democratically elected governments, arming murderous militias and propping up dictators favorable to its agenda. Not only did it never face any sanction for these actions that blatantly broke international law, ridiculed the concept of national sovereignty and violated the basic human rights of millions, as embodied in Operation Condor.

The ongoing siege of Gaza under the umbrella of Operation Iron Swords, and the Western world’s support for it, is the latest – and perhaps the most obvious – example of the hypocrisy at the core of international law.

Israel, which has been illegally occupying Palestinian land and subjecting Palestinians to apartheid for decades, is now keeping over two million Palestinians, half of them children, under total blockade in Gaza, and indiscriminately bombing them.

In the face of such blatant violations of international law, and the declared intent to commit many more, how did the Western leaders of the international community, the self-assigned defenders of human rights across the world, respond?

They announced their unwavering support for Israel.

Why is this?

The strategic location of the region, rich in oil and gas reserves, has always served as a magnet, attracting the attention of those who seek to secure their energy interests, and historically influenced Western policies in the region. Prior to 1948, it was oil interests in the Iraq-Petroleum Company spanning from Kirkuk, Iraq to Haifa, Palestine. Today it is the developing Mediterranean natural gas interests of Chevron and British Petroleum. These may not be the sole reasons, but important variables for consideration in making sense of current geopolitical positions. The parallels between historical events and contemporary actions are striking. The Palestinian Question has long served as a wrench in these imperial ambitions and now they see an opportunity to dictate their own final solution.

So, now, the mask is off.

The Western powers can no longer claim that “international law” is supreme, and applies equally to everyone. As they shamelessly greenlight an unlawful and inhumane assault on Gaza, they cannot stop the conscientious citizens of the globe from questioning the integrity of the international legal system and challenging the notion that it is an impartial arbiter of justice. They can no longer hide the fact that international law is a tool created to serve imperial interests – a tool that allows them to act with impunity.

The Palestinian struggle is not just a struggle against occupation, apartheid and colonialism; it is a struggle against imperialism.

We need and deserve a new, just and equitable international order –  one that truly upholds the principles of fairness, equality and respect for the rights of all nations, regardless of their size or geopolitical significance.

Only by acknowledging the true nature of international law, and its utter uselessness in delivering any sort of justice to people trying to resist imperial dominance, can we hope to dismantle the current global order and start building a world where justice prevails over power, and humanity triumphs over politics. It is a daunting task, but one that is essential if we are to create a future where the rights and dignity of every individual, regardless of their nationality, are respected and protected – a future where international law applies to everyone and is not weaponized by powerful states against their rivals.

By Wesam Ahmad

Palestinian human rights advocate at Al-Haq NGO in Ramallah, Palestine.

Source: Al Jazeera

by Yousef Al-Helou

From the moment Israel woke up in shock at the unprecedented Hamas operation on 7 October, its propaganda machine has pushed fake news to justify its all-out war of vengeance against the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip. From allegations such as Hamas beheaded babies to rape, burning bodies and even killing dogs, the resistance movement was demonized, and thus dehumanized. All of the claims were accompanied by tears and emotional speeches by Israelis and pro-Israel allies and supporters.

Despite the lack of evidence, world leaders including US President Joe Biden repeated them and stressed Israel’s “right” to self-defense. The White House retracted Biden’s statements, but the UK’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman have not apologized for pushing this propaganda.

A few international journalists also circulated the lies, naming an Israeli soldier who spread them in the first place. Their professional ethics require journalists to check the veracity of the “facts” that they use in any suspect story. This has not been done. Moreover, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared a photo of what he claimed was the charred body of an Israeli baby killed by Hamas. However, the original image has since been claimed to have been that of a dog which was photoshopped.

Social media companies have been censoring and removing pro-Palestinian content

With claims and counterclaims filling social media, some apologies have been received from international figures, but not from Israelis. What’s more, the social media companies have been censoring and removing pro-Palestinian content. Many accounts belonging to Palestinians have been restricted, while others have been taken down altogether. No such censorship by the companies has been heard of about Israeli propaganda and hate-filled messages in Hebrew directed at the Palestinians.

Citizen journalists are enthusiastic and plentiful across occupied Palestine, especially in Gaza. The internet has allowed them to raise awareness of their plight around the world in an instant. The Zionist massacres and colonization didn’t start in 2008 with Operation Cast Lead, or even in 1967 with the Naksa. They began in the 1940s in the run up to the creation of the colonial state of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The Nakba (Catastrophe) is ongoing.

While Israeli propaganda seeks to make out that the issue at stake here is the Hamas attack last weekend, Palestinians and their supporters point out that the cause of the issue Israel’s occupation of Palestine. As the Palestinian Permanent Representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said last week, “Regrettably, history for some media and politicians only starts when Israelis are killed. We will never accept a rhetoric that denigrates our humanity and reneges our rights, a rhetoric that ignores the occupation of our land and oppression of our people.”

It seems that many people agree. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in major cities across the world to demonstrate their opposition to Israel’s bombing of Gaza. Their demand is to end Israel’s apartheid and military occupation of Palestine.

Israel’s propagandists at home and abroad have been working hard to try to counter this. They are desperate to divert attention away from the occupation state’s war crimes and crimes against humanity. The so-called Israel “Defense” Forces have played their part by bombing the Gaza Strip’s main telecommunications company, leading to the disruption of landlines and internet services. International pressure meant that the collective punishment of cutting internet services to Gaza was not implemented.

During the devastating Israeli military offensives against Gaza in 2008/9, 2012, 2014, 2021 and 2022, Palestinian journalists and social media activists won the online battle in countering the pro-Israel mainstream media and political narrative. In doing so, they opened up events in Gaza to vast numbers of people around the world. Today they are doing the same again, even as Israel commits genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Source: MEMO

Arab and international condemnations continued for the Israeli army’s bombing of the Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip, leaving more than a thousand martyrs among the displaced civilians who took refuge in the hospital run by the Anglican Episcopal Church in Jerusalem after their homes were destroyed as a result of the Israeli occupation’s attacks.

President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning, stressing that the occupation’s bombing of the Baptist Hospital was a crime of genocide and a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Arab Republic of Egypt condemned in the strongest terms, in a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Israeli bombing of Al-Ahly Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in hundreds of innocent victims, wounded and injured Palestinian citizens in Gaza.

Egypt considered this deliberate bombing of civilian facilities and targets a serious violation of the provisions of international and humanitarian law, and of the most basic values of humanity, calling on Israel to immediately stop its policies of collective punishment against the people of the Gaza Strip.

Egypt called on all countries of the world, especially major and influential countries, to intervene to stop these violations and condemn them unequivocally, and to demand that Israel stop targeting the vicinity of the Rafah crossing to enable Egypt and any other countries and international and relief organizations it wishes to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as quickly as possible.

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned in the strongest terms the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces by bombing the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which led to the death of hundreds of civilians, including children and the wounded.

The UAE also strongly condemned the Israeli attack on the hospital in Gaza.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said, “Hundreds of martyrs fell in the Baptist Hospital in Gaza as a result of Israeli criminality and the global conscience that is silent about injustice and truth, so for how long?”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman considered Israel’s targeting of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza a “crime of war and genocide.”

The Mauritanian government expressed its "condemnation and denunciation of the heinous crime and horrific massacre committed by the Israeli war machine," and declared "national mourning for the souls of the martyrs of this painful massacre and the flags to be flown at half-mast for a period of 3 days."

It also called on the international community to "assume its legal and humanitarian responsibilities and impose an immediate halt to the genocide against the Palestinian people, and provide them with urgent protection."

The Algerian presidency strongly condemned Israel's "deliberate attack" on a hospital in the Gaza Strip.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry held Israel responsible for this dangerous development and condemned in the strongest terms the attack on the Baptist Hospital.

Iraq also declared a state of official mourning for 3 days across the country "in honor of the innocent lives that fell victim to international silence before falling victim to the fire of barbaric aggression."

Basem Al-Awadi, the official spokesman for the Iraqi government, said in a press statement, “We declare general mourning throughout the Republic of Iraq for a period of 3 days, out of loyalty and honor to the innocent souls who fell victim to international silence before they fell victim to the fire of barbaric aggression.”

The Iraqi spokesman called on the Arab countries, friendly countries, and the free world to adopt a unified position by issuing an urgent and immediate resolution from the UN Security Council to “stop this ugly, blatant aggression.”

The head of the Libyan National Unity Government, Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba, confirmed that targeting Al-Baptisti Hospital is a brutal crime that exceeded all limits.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Libyan unity government stated that "the Israeli occupation's deliberate bombing of Al-Ahly Baptist Hospital is a war crime in accordance with international and humanitarian law, and its perpetrators must be punished."

The League's Secretary-General, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said, "What kind of hell is the mind that bombs a hospital with its defenseless inmates? The West must stop this tragedy immediately."

Morocco strongly denounced the bombing by Israeli forces of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which left hundreds dead and wounded.

In a statement to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Kingdom renewed its "demand that civilians be protected by all parties and not be targeted."

In the statement, she emphasized "the urgent need for concerted efforts by the international community to stop hostilities as soon as possible, respect international humanitarian law, and work to avoid the region sliding towards further escalation and tension."

The Gulf Cooperation Council condemned the Israeli bombing of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, describing it as “brutal.”

On Wednesday, the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, accused Israel of committing a “war crime.”

Faki said in a post on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that “there are no words that adequately express our condemnation of the Israeli bombing of a hospital in Gaza today, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.”

The President of the African Commission called on the international community to take action, stressing that "targeting a hospital considered a safe haven under international humanitarian law is a war crime."

The United Nations Secretariat strongly condemned the attack on the Baptist Hospital and called for an end to attacks on civilians and health facilities.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations said that he was shocked by the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in a strike on a hospital in Gaza, which I strongly condemn and condemn, and my heart goes out to the families of the victims in Gaza.

The World Health Organization strongly condemned the attack on the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which claimed hundreds of lives, saying it was “unprecedented in its scope,” and condemned the attack.

Richard Peppercorn, the World Health Organization's representative in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said, "This attack is unprecedented in scope. We are witnessing continuing attacks on health care in the occupied Palestinian territories."

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) strongly condemned the attack on the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, and called for an immediate ceasefire.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, condemned the “completely unacceptable” bombing that targeted a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday evening.

Turk said in a statement, "Words are inexpressible. Tonight, hundreds of people were killed in a horrific way in the attack on the National Arab Hospital, including patients, health care providers, and families who took refuge in the hospital and its surroundings. Once again, the most vulnerable people are being injured. This is completely unacceptable." .

US President Joe Biden expressed his "anger and deep sadness over the explosion in the Al-Ahli Hospital" in Gaza.

The US President offered his "deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the explosion in a hospital in Gaza," wishing "a speedy recovery for the wounded," according to what the White House announced Tuesday.

The US Department of Defense said that it provides Israel with security systems to eliminate Hamas, but this does not mean killing innocent civilians.

Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's deputy delegate to the United Nations, said that Russia and the UAE requested a UN Security Council meeting to be held tomorrow, Wednesday, after the Israeli air strike on a hospital in Gaza.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that the news received about Israel's bombing of the Baptist Hospital was disastrous, and said that it was "a terrible and unacceptable matter."

European Council President Charles Michel said that Israel's bombing of a hospital in Gaza and the "comprehensive siege" of the Palestinian Strip "are not in line with international law."

Meanwhile, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, wrote on his account on the “X” platform that the attack on the Gaza Hospital is “a tragedy unfolding before our eyes.”

"Once again, innocent civilians are paying the heavy price," Borrell added.

The European official stressed that "responsibility for this crime must be clearly determined and its perpetrators held accountable."

The British Foreign Office said that it was monitoring reports of a “visibly visible raid” that targeted a hospital in Gaza.

French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Wednesday on the X social media platform that France condemns the attack on the National Arab Hospital in Gaza.

He wrote, "France condemns the attack on the National Arab Hospital in Gaza, which claimed many Palestinian victims. Our hearts are with them. The circumstances must be revealed."

He continued, "Humanitarian aid must be re-entered the Gaza Strip without delay."

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly urged on Wednesday to wait for the facts regarding an explosion in a hospital in the Gaza Strip that occurred on Tuesday, and said that many had already jumped to conclusions.

He continued, saying: “Understanding this incorrectly will put more lives at risk.” Wait for the facts and convey them clearly and accurately. "Calm minds must triumph."

The bombing of the National Arab Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Tuesday, caused a huge number of deaths and injuries and cast a shadow over the visit of US President Joe Biden to Israel.

Palestinian officials said that an Israeli air strike was the cause of the explosion, while Israel says that the cause was a missile fired by the Islamic Jihad movement that did not reach its target, which the movement denied.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi warned on Wednesday of the continuation of military operations in the Gaza Strip, and that they will have security and military repercussions that could get out of control. Al-Sisi said, in a press conference, while receiving German Chancellor Olaf Schulz, that displacing the Palestinians to Sinai means transferring the fighting there and it will be a base for attacking Israel, adding that the siege of the Gaza Strip ultimately aims to transfer the Palestinians to Egypt, according to what Egyptian television reported in a live broadcast.

Al-Sisi added: “If I ask the Egyptians to come out and reject the idea of displacing Palestinians to Sinai, and support the position of the Egyptian state, the world will see millions in the streets of Egypt.” He continued: “Egypt is sincerely keen on peace, and we need not to squander that with an idea that is not implementable.”

The Egyptian President explained that the matter would not be limited to the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, but would also extend to their displacement from the West Bank to Jordan. He pointed out that it is possible to transfer the Palestinians to the Negev Desert until Israel ends its operation in Gaza.

The Egyptian President said that he discussed with the German Chancellor Egypt's efforts to calm the situation in Gaza, and added that "Egypt has not closed the Rafah crossing since the beginning of the crisis," calling for allowing humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.

For his part, the German Chancellor said that Egypt and Germany agree not to expand the conflict in Palestine.

Source: Middle East

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden accused Palestinian resistance factions of being behind the Al-Ahly Baptist Hospital massacre in the Gaza Strip.

Biden said during a joint press conference with Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his arrival in Tel Aviv: “I was sad and angry about the explosion in the Baptist Hospital yesterday.”

Addressing Netanyahu, he added: “It seems that the other side is behind this, not you,” referring to the resistance factions in the Gaza Strip.

The American President stressed his country's determination to ensure that the occupying state has what it needs to respond to the attacks of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.

He stressed that his visit to the occupying state came "so that the people there and in the entire world know that we stand with Israel," claiming that Hamas "committed atrocities against Israel," as he put it.

For his part, Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Biden’s visit is the first by an American president during a time of war,” pointing out that “today’s level of cooperation with the United States is unprecedented.”

Addressing Biden, he added: “I know that you share our determination to recover those kidnapped by Hamas.”

The US President's visit comes after the cancellation of the Quartet summit, which was scheduled to be held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, with the participation of the United States, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, and Jordan, against the backdrop of the Israeli occupation bombing of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which resulted in more than 500 martyrs and hundreds injured.

Since October 7, the Israeli occupation has continued its aggression against the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to exterminate all forms of life in the Strip and forcibly displace its population by deliberately targeting residential areas and neighborhoods, in addition to convoys of displaced persons and medical service providers.

In a toll likely to rise, the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the death toll from the aggression had risen to more than 3,200 martyrs and about 11,000 people with various injuries, most of them children and women.

The history of Israel has often been a history of conflict. A partial list includes the 1948 Arab–Israeli War that followed Israel’s birth, the Israeli–British–French attempt in 1956 to seize the Suez Canal and topple Egypt’s Arab nationalist leader, the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

 There are also the two Palestinian intifadas and numerous smaller conflicts. To this list must now be added Hamas’s October 2023 invasion of Israel. Thousands of short-range rockets were launched from Hamas-controlled Gaza against towns and cities in western Israel. Hundreds if not thousands of Hamas fighters crossed into Israel by breaking through defensive barriers, flying over them or sailing around them. 

The human toll of these attacks is enormous and growing. More than 900 Israelis have lost their lives. Several thousand have been injured. Some two hundred Israelis attending a concert were killed in cold blood. At least 100 have been abducted. It was terror—the intentional harming of innocents by a non-state actor—on a large scale. It was also a colossal Israeli intelligence failure. The most likely explanation for Israel’s being caught unprepared is less a lack of warning than a lack of attention. As was the case in 1973, the attack has demonstrated that complacency and an underestimation of the adversary can be dangerous. 

It was a defensive failure as well. Deterrence broke down. Expensive physical barriers were overrun. Israeli military readiness and troop levels were woefully inadequate, possibly because attention had shifted to protecting settlers in the occupied West Bank. There will surely be official inquiries and independent investigations. Why Hamas attacked remains a subject of debate. The most likely explanation is that the group wanted to demonstrate that it alone—not the Palestinian Authority that rules the West Bank and not Arab governments—is able and willing to protect and promote Palestinian interests. The timing of the assault is another matter. It’s possible that the date was chosen to coincide with the last successful surprise attack against Israel, carried out by Egypt and Syria 50 years ago almost to the day. 

But the planning and training for the attack took place over months, which suggests a strategic purpose not tied to a specific event. The timing may have been motivated by a desire to disrupt the growing momentum in negotiation to normalize diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, an outcome strongly opposed by Iran, the principal backer of Hamas. Hamas may also have sought to take advantage of Israeli political divisions. Or all of the above. The Hamas attackers took hostages back to Gaza for two reasons: to limit Israel’s freedom of action lest those individuals be placed at even greater risk, and to exchange them for Hamas operatives held in Israeli jails.

Israel now faces an acute dilemma. It wants to deal a decisive blow to Hamas, both to weaken the organization militarily and to discourage future attacks and Iranian support for them. And it wants to accomplish this without bringing Hezbollah, which has some 150,000 rockets in Lebanon that could reach much of Israel, directly into the conflict. It also doesn’t want the war to expand to the West Bank. Restoring meaningful deterrence without widening the war will be difficult. 

There is the additional consideration that Israel’s military options are limited. The hostages are one reason. In addition, occupying—or, more precisely, reoccupying—Gaza would be a nightmare. There are few, if any, military undertakings more difficult than urban warfare, and Gaza is one of the most densely populated urban environments in the world. Many Israeli soldiers would lose their lives or be captured in such an operation. Massive attacks from the air, designed to avoid the need for a ground invasion, will inevitably kill or injure a significant number of innocent inhabitants of Gaza, thereby decreasing international sympathy and support for Israel. 

Efforts to shut off Gaza’s supplies of food, water, fuel and electricity will also be counterproductive. Regional and international pressure for a ceasefire would surely mount. There’s also the question of the operation’s strategic objective. Hamas cannot be eliminated, because it represents an ideology as organization. Efforts to destroy it risk building support for it. 

What comes to mind is the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the famous question posed by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who wondered whether American drone strikes on suspected terrorists, which at times killed innocents, were effective. His question—‘Are we creating more terrorists than we’re killing?’—remains worth asking. All of which is to say that while there must be a military component to Israel’s response to its security challenge, including reconstituting Israel’s ability to defend itself from attacks and targeted strikes on terrorists in Gaza, there is no solely military answer. 

A diplomatic element will need to be introduced into the equation, including a credible Israeli plan for bringing about a viable Palestinian state. There’s an American saying that you can’t beat something with nothing. Rewarding those Palestinians who are willing to reject violence and reach an accommodation with Israel is still the best way to marginalize Hamas.

AUTHOR 

Richard N. Haass is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations- Australia 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, condemned the brutal Israeli bombing of Al-Ahly Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of hundreds of sick and injured people, health workers and civilian residents who took refuge in the hospital in search of safety.

Turk also condemned the bombing of a UNRWA school in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, which was housing more than 4,000 civilians who were forced to flee their homes, stressing the need to immediately stop the violence and killing.

Turk called on influential countries to work to end the bloodshed, protect civilians and allow urgent access to humanitarian aid to all who need it, and hold accountable those responsible for flagrant violations of human rights and international law.

Reports: Biden’s visit is not the reason for postponing the ground invasion. * American military support “will bring a price, represented by an American attempt to demarcate the borders of the battle front, especially for the Israeli government, and expectations now are that we will allow humanitarian steps in the southern Gaza Strip.”

Israeli reports said today, Wednesday, that the visit of US President Joe Biden did not lead to the postponement of an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, and that the unprecedented American support for Israel in the war on Gaza is aimed at defining the borders of the war and not expanding it to other fronts.

Maariv newspaper reported, “The entry of Israeli army forces into Gaza was not postponed due to Biden’s visit. The considerations are different and related to military considerations and the approval of plans and orders, as a result of the missions that have changed.”

The newspaper added, "It is very clear that showing American power will bring a price, represented by an American attempt to demarcate the borders of the battle front, especially for the government in which there are ministers and members of the Knesset who do not stop criticizing the Biden administration."

The newspaper reported that the Israeli army believes that the war on Gaza will last at least four months, “and it is not certain that this is what the Americans want, as there is a huge possibility that this war will affect the entire stability in the region.”

Regarding the humanitarian crisis taking place in the Gaza Strip, the newspaper “Haaretz” quoted the former head of the political department in the Ministry of Defense, Zohar Balti, as saying, “The Americans give us time to work in Gaza. There is no pressure on us regarding time, but there are expectations of us to allow “With humanitarian steps in the southern Gaza Strip, to which we asked Palestinian citizens to move.”

The newspaper considered that American military support would lead, in the future, to demanding that Israel make concessions, and that if contacts were resumed regarding an agreement to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, these contacts would not be isolated from “the issue of advancing relations with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.”

...a text entitled “On the Iron Wall” (1923), Jabotinsky mocked Zionists who were trying to promote that the Arabs in Palestine were either “idiots who can be deceived by a diluted formulation of our true (Zionist) goals,” or “that they are a greedy tribe that will cede to us their right to Palestine vs...”

Israeli follow-ups on the repercussions of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood focus, among other things, on the miserable failure that befell the security wall that Israel erected in the border area with the Gaza Strip. It described it at its inauguration as “smart!” and boasted that it could not be penetrated at all. Most of these follow-ups do not stop at the fact that the flood of resistance swept away this wall as if it were a “layer of dust,” according to one analyst. Rather, they go beyond this to acknowledge that the matter includes something that would deal a strong blow to the image that Israel has built for itself in the world with regard to the structure of its meaning. A very advanced country in the field of production of defense technologies. According to the Israeli website "Israel Defense", which specializes in security affairs, the sudden attack by the Palestinian resistance on October 7, 2023 may lead, from the point of view of the security industries, to pulling the rug from under the feet of the bright promises that these industries made to the Israeli public, and to many of their customers in the country and the outside.

Thinking about building this wall began in 2014, following the aggressive war launched by Israel on Gaza that year, during which the Israeli army was unable to eliminate the attack tunnels or predict their location. Work on its construction continued between the years 2017-2021 and its cost amounted to more than a billion dollars. It is six meters high above the ground, and extends to a depth of tens of meters below its surface.

However, the most important result that can be drawn from the stream of Israeli analyzes in this axis remains in acknowledging the fact of the lack of military deterrence in the face of resistance in the Gaza Strip, even though since the rise of Hamas to power in the Strip in 2007 until now, Israel has launched ten attacks. Warfare, including the current aggression called "Iron Swords", under various names, as follows: "Hot Winter" (2008), "Cast Lead" (2008-2009), "Re-Echo" (2012), "Pillar of Clouds" (2012), “Protective Edge” (2014), “Black Belt” (2019), “Keeper of the Walls” (2021), “Rising Dawn” (2022), “Shield and Arrow” (2023). Prior to these aggressions, and coinciding with the last years of the second Palestinian Intifada, the “First Rain” (2005) and “Summer Rains” (2006) attacks were launched.

In another context, there were those who pointed out that Israel seems to have been fascinated, since its establishment, by the doctrine of the “iron wall” developed by the leader of the revisionist movement in the Zionist movement, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and adopted by the founding generation led by David Ben-Gurion, which is based on the necessity of establishing a defense force for the Jewish settlers. It acts as an "iron wall that the indigenous people will not be able to penetrate."

In this regard, it is right to point out that in one of the texts about this doctrine, a text entitled “On the Iron Wall” (1923), Jabotinsky mocked Zionists who were trying to promote that the Arabs in Palestine were either “idiots who can be deceived by a diluted formulation of our true goals (Zionism). ) or “they are a greedy tribe that will cede to us their right to Palestine in exchange for cultural and economic gains.”

He made it clear that he categorically refuses to accept this opinion regarding the Arabs of Palestine, declaring: They are just like us, knowledgeable of the interior of our souls, keen observers, and trained in the method of sharp argumentation, and no matter what we tell them, they will understand what is going on in the depths of our souls just as we understand what is going on in the depths of their souls. . He literally wrote the following: “They look at Palestine with the same instinctive love and the same organic fanaticism that accompanied the relationship of the Aztecs with their Mexico, and the Sioux with their desert. The illusion of some among us that they will be satisfied with the embodiment of Zionism in exchange for the cultural and economic returns that the Jewish settler brings with him stems from a view of contempt based on the idea of Preconceptions about the Arab people, and from unsubstantiated opinions, consider this race a group of rabble chasing money and willing to give up their homeland in exchange for a good railway network. Presenting matters in this way is completely baseless.”

Source: Arab 48

The Israeli occupation forces continue to carry out arrest campaigns against citizens in the West Bank as part of the comprehensive aggression against our people and systematic mass revenge operations. Last night and at dawn on Wednesday, the occupation forces launched a new arrest campaign, targeting at least 65 citizens from the West Bank, including Jerusalem.

The arrest operations were concentrated in the Hebron Governorate, where the number of detainees at dawn today reached (34) citizens, followed by the Aida camp in Bethlehem, which also witnessed an arrest campaign that affected at least (16) citizens, while the rest of the arrests were distributed in the Nablus and Jerusalem governorates.

Since the seventh of this October, arrests in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, have reached at least 750 arrests, and this statistic does not include workers or detainees from Gaza, as institutions have not been able to date to obtain accurate and clear numbers of detained workers, as well as detainees from Gaza.

It is noteworthy that the highest percentage of detainees in the West Bank was recorded in Hebron Governorate, amounting to about (220) arrests.

In light of the ongoing arrest operations, we confirm a number of facts:

First: The violence and criminality used by the occupation forces is escalating in an unprecedented manner, reaching the point of threatening families and detainees by shooting them.

Second: The majority of those arrested are either transferred to administrative detention, or charges are brought against them on grounds of incitement, specifically in Jerusalem.

Third: There are extreme difficulties in accessing information related to detainees in the first days of detention due to the occupation’s activation of military orders that contributed to this.

Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed that the situation in Gaza is “becoming out of control” due to the inability to deliver ready-to-deliver humanitarian aid.

Ghebreyesus said on the X platform (formerly Twitter): “With every second we delay bringing in medical assistance, we lose lives,” stressing that medical supplies have been stuck for four days at the border.

In its latest statistics, the Ministry of Health announced that the number of martyrs in the Gaza Strip had risen to more than 3,000 martyrs and 12,500 injuries, while the number of martyrs in the West Bank had reached 62 martyrs and more than 1,250 wounded since the start of the aggression on October 7. .

By Muhammad Hussein Abu Al-Hassan

Israel resembles the remora fish, which attaches to the stomach of the shark and feeds on its waste and leftover food. It moves freely in the oceans, safe from monsters. Because she is in the company of the biggest predator.

The beginnings of the Hebrew state were with the Balfour Declaration when Great Britain, and by declaring the state in 1948, was recognized by the two superpowers at that time, the United States and the Soviet Union. Even today, Israel remains the pampered girl of the West, supported by America and Europe with money, weapons, and influence, in its brutal war on Gaza. And its quest to “change the Middle East”; Which threatens waves of anger in the Arab and Islamic worlds, and the return of extremist groups and terrorism everywhere. And severely destabilize the world, even though the solution is possible and available!

Thank you America!

When you follow the media coverage and the statements of American and European officials about what is happening in Gaza and its environs, you realize that they are talking about a “people returning from exile” to their land (Israel), and not about a people who were forcibly exiled from their land (the Palestinians). As for the Arabs, they are trying to prevent the people. The Israelis are unable to live in peace in a homeland they built from nothing, in a land that did not have a people... This “Western hump,” so to speak, is confusing and deplorable. Because it violates all values, ethics and international law.

Imagine the scale of the “war crimes” that Israel commits every minute against the people of Gaza, including genocide, starvation, and displacement, with Western blessing, support, and support that are a blessing to humanity. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Thank you to America for standing with us today, tomorrow and always.” In response to US President Joe Biden’s statements in strong support of the aggression against Gaza, and his sending of the largest aircraft carrier, “Gerald Ford,” off the Israeli coast to show the “red eye” of any party that intervenes militarily to save the Palestinians, in contradiction to the values of freedom and human rights that Washington calls for in its foreign policies. In fact, it contradicts the supposed American interest with Arab and Islamic countries. Not surprisingly, Biden once described himself as a “Zionist,” and that if Israel did not exist, it would have to be invented; Therefore, it can be understood why Biden comes to the region supporting the Israeli plan - and Europe also supports him - to liquidate the issue forever and displace the Palestinians to Sinai and Jordan if possible.

The blatant American bias towards Israel is not new. Minutes after announcing the founding of Israel, on May 14, 1948, US President Harry Truman recognized the new state. There is a revealing quote by Yitzhak Rabin, the former Israeli Prime Minister: “American support for our country cannot be compared to any other support.” In modern history, we receive the largest American military and economic support at approximately $500 per Israeli annually.” Politicians and decision-makers in Washington disagree on almost all issues, but they often agree to support Tel Aviv.

A special relationship

The relationship between Israel and the West is a complex topic; The war of extermination waged by the Jewish state against the Palestinian people imitates the wars of annihilation of the indigenous peoples of the American Indians and others in North and South America. The underlying reasons for the West’s relationship with Israel vary between interest-based, material, and historical motives related to the legacy of the colonial era and the identity of the Protestant Christian American state influenced by Judaism, to the point of emergence of the term “Christian Zionism,” whose followers believe in the necessity of establishing a Jewish entity in Palestine. In preparation for the second return of Christ and his establishment of the thousand-year kingdom, in addition to other strategic, political and economic motives; As Dr. Abdel Wahab Al-Messiri explained in his book “The Jews, Judaism, and Zionism.”

The Americans, Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, and John Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, tried to search for the secret of the special relationship between the United States and Israel. Walt pointed out that the usual saying that Israel is a vital strategic asset for America, and that they share the same values, cannot explain all this unconditional support from the United States; Noting that this American support for Tel Aviv is one of the underlying causes of terrorism, and a strategic burden on America’s security and stability. With regard to values, Israel's racist treatment of its Arab and Palestinian citizens contradicts American values.

Walt attributes American support for Tel Aviv to the pro-Israel “lobby” in America, which is a loose coalition of individuals and groups that works to influence American policy in support of the Hebrew state, and includes American Jewish organizations, such as “AIPAC” and Christian Zionist groups, and this lobby works in two tracks: intervention In the various American elections, by supporting specific candidates and facilitating their access to government positions, also providing incentives for them to implement the required policies and enact legislation. So much so that most members of the House and Senate realize that any attempt to limit American support for Israel is “playing with fire.” It exposes its perpetrator to a serious accusation of "anti-Semitism." Indeed, US President Jimmy Carter, the sponsor of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, was not satisfied with that. When he published his book “Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid,” which pointed out that any American politician criticizing Israel is like committing political suicide, warning against the continuation of the current Palestinian reality; Israeli pressure groups attacked him, demanding that he apologize for what he wrote.

Great anger

The influence of the pro-Israel lobby extends to all aspects of American cultural, media, military, scientific, economic, and political life. John Mearsheimer investigated the negative effects of that lobby’s pressure on American foreign policy and its interests. He gave, as an example, the repercussions of America’s support for Israeli brutal practices against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as they lead to great anger. In the Arab and Islamic worlds; Which fuels extremism and terrorism, explaining that supporting settlement in the Palestinian territories and protecting Israel from international condemnations by using the veto and other things, was one of the most prominent motives for the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks, and explaining that the lobby led Washington to invade Iraq, which is one of the biggest blunders in history. American.

Despite the strength of the Israeli lobby’s influence in Washington, it did not always succeed in seizing control of the White House, as happened when US President Barack Obama signed the nuclear agreement with Iran. Israel, with the help of the lobby supporting it, sought to stand in the way of the deal and sabotage the agreement, to the point that Netanyahu He went to Congress speaking and challenging the American president in his home, and when he was succeeded by Donald Trump, he actually took the initiative to freeze the agreement. Gerard Baker wrote an article in the British newspaper "The Times" in which he alluded to the dissatisfaction of some in Washington with the influence of the lobby, and its push by America and the West to stand behind the Israeli aggression against defenseless Palestinians. Baker referred to the protest songs of the 1960s by the American artist Bob Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize, and one of them describes... Israel as a “neighborhood thug,” pointing out that despite Washington’s understanding of the motives for Israeli positions, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has become openly hostile, not only to specific Israeli actions, but, it seems, to Israel itself, indicating that the United States cannot It continues to give Netanyahu's right-wing government billions annually to commit crimes and atrocities against the Palestinians. For this reason, John Mearsheimer called for America to deal with Israel in a normal manner that takes into account American national interests, and does not deepen the imbalance in regional and international geopolitical balances.

The only guarantee for the stability of the region is that the Palestinian people obtain all their legitimate rights. As for Netanyahu’s boasting that he will change the “Middle East,” it is blind bullying, based on a feeling of power. Depending on the fact that Israel is sheltered in the corner of the American-European West; But it is a feeling full of false arrogance, because it ignores the will and vitality of the people. Even remora fish sometimes become food for predators while they are in the shark's embrace!

A former American official, who directly managed the Israeli-Palestinian file, believes that the time has come to fundamentally reconsider the relationship between the United States and Israel, arguing that “American support for Israel no longer serves American strategic interests.”

“The United States needs to move beyond Israel”

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz says that Stephen Simon, the former director of the US National Security Council for the Middle East and North Africa, under the Obama administration, recently published a book entitled “The Great Illusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East.” In it, he delves into decades of American policy in the Middle East, which has remained largely unchanged during successive administrations.

Haaretz says that Simon's arguments are considered more realistic, because Israel is now witnessing a major turning point in its own democracy, its relations with the Palestinians, and a possible normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia, all against the backdrop of US involvement in all of these matters.

Simon does not believe the United States is to blame for any of Israel's current problems. “Everyone is very interested in this current crisis precisely because it feels like a turning point,” he says of the simmering pro-democracy protests against the Netanyahu government’s extremist efforts to weaken the judiciary.

“What we are looking at now goes back to at least the 1930s,” Simon said. “There are technical problems, but the real problems are much deeper.”

“There is no specific strategic interest with Israel”

This brings us to the heart of the matter in Simon's eyes: issues related to Israel are purely political, not strategic. He says: “Why would the administration choose a battle with the current government in Israel over something over which the United States has no control? There is no specific strategic interest, and in the absence of a strategic stake, it is just a matter of politics.”

Simon points to the current political environment, whose roots go back to the late 1990s, as one that creates a structural disadvantage for Democrats, because the party as a whole is moving in a different direction than the Israeli government. “Based on that, why would there be an upcoming US election, where the stakes are really huge, is the Biden administration going into a minefield for this? It seems to me very unwise,” he says.

He claims that matters ostensibly related to strategic affairs such as military assistance are in fact political matters at heart. “It's easy to provide the things Israel wants from the United States,” he says. “A lot of it is primarily financial. We have a GDP of $21 trillion, so who cares if you give $4 billion of that every year (in military aid)? In practice, It's a small amount of money, and it's well spent, so you have to do it,” he says.

“American efforts to resolve the conflict are in vain.”

This extends to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the peace process. Simon says that the United States began to realize during Barack Obama's first term that its efforts were in vain, and also when the efforts of then Secretary of State John Kerry were not met with much enthusiasm.

According to Simon, the foundations of the US-Israel relationship rest on “the liberal mood of a particular era,” first established by Harry Truman. He said: “He was deeply disturbed by the Holocaust and what happened to the Jews, there is no doubt about that... Truman recognized the Jewish state only 15 minutes after declaring the establishment of the State of Israel.”

The Israelis liked it, because they thought it would be more durable than commitments based on shared values. By the end of the Cold War, the United States had done what it set out to do: defeat its adversaries and emerge as the most powerful player in the Middle East, Simon says.

The change took hold during Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, during which he made his claim for office partly on the basis that Obama had seemingly abandoned Israel. This was the first time Israel had been “blatantly used to attack an opposition party,” Simon said.

Manipulating American domestic politics

Simon believes that the Obama administration's decision to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan during the second term is due to personalities and not to a specific strategy. He says, "Why did the Obama administration make that play in the second term to try to do something about the Palestinians? Obama really wanted to do it, so he told them just do it, and it worked more or less how people expected it to work."

If the relationship between Israel and the United States is more about politics than strategy, as Simon argues, then the strategic elements within this relationship exist only as wedges that simply cause further separation between the two parties, such as Iran's nuclear program.

“Israel has the power to go its own way while still extracting resources from the United States,” Simon says. He adds: "Historians may view Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as strategically great for Israel because he succeeded in achieving independence from the United States while at the same time manipulating American domestic politics."

A clear shift in the position of Americans towards Israel

At the same time, the American street itself no longer has the same old mood towards Israel, as opinion polls indicate a clear shift in the position of Americans towards Israel, especially young people.

An opinion poll conducted by Gallup in March 2023 showed that the majority of American voters from the Democratic Party had shifted away from supporting Israel and had become more inclined and sympathetic to the Palestinians, for the first time ever.

Another opinion poll was conducted by the Jewish Electoral Institute in America in July 2021, the results of which showed that 35% of American Jewish voters believe that Israel has become a “racist state” that applies against the Palestinians the apartheid system that the white South African government was applying against citizens. Black people.

Many American writers and analysts attribute the clear shift in American public opinion towards Israel, which is considered Washington's first strategic ally in the Middle East and enjoyed unwavering support from both the Republican and Democratic parties, to Benjamin Netanyahu, the extreme right-wing politician and the person who served as Prime Minister in Tel Aviv for a longer period of time than any other politician.

But the Gallup poll was conducted last February, and the current Netanyahu government, which is described as the most extreme government in the history of the Jewish state, had not spent more than two months in power, which means that the striking change in the positions of the majority of American youth cannot be reversed. Only to that government.

The poll conducted by the Jewish Electoral Institute in America was conducted in July 2021, and at that time Netanyahu was not prime minister. Rather, the Israeli government was an alliance of left-wing parties and also included Arab parties for the first time. It was led by Naftali Bennett and then Yair Lapid, and the American politicians were They describe it as a "reconciliation government."

Therefore, one of the reasons for the shift in the position of American youth, which is becoming closer to the Palestinians than to Israel, may be linked - in no small part - to the Israeli shift towards the right in a fierce and accelerating manner. Extremist religious parties, parties defending settlers in the occupied territories, and politicians convicted of terrorism by Israeli courts, such as Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of Internal Security in Netanyahu’s current government, have become remarkably in control of Israel and its policies, and they are sparing no effort in eliminating any hope of establishing a state. Palestinian one day.

First went US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, followed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. US President Biden is on his way to Israel, and they are not coming for no reason. Blinken does not enjoy interrupting a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister to take shelter, because Hamas fired a rocket salvo. Americans come to Israel; Because they know that Netanyahu is unqualified and floundering, and they also know that there must be a responsible person, and that no one can be trusted to discuss what will happen in this confrontation with Gaza, as the Israeli newspaper Maariv says.

According to reports, Blinken participated in Israeli war cabinet discussions, and Biden receives regular reports on this situation. This reminds us of the air train of American officials that headed to Israel more than ten years ago, when they feared that Netanyahu would attack Iran. Their fear at the time was unjustified, as Netanyahu did not have the courage to attack Iran, as the Israeli newspaper says. Now, the circumstances are different. It is not that Netanyahu suddenly became brave, that did not happen, but that he simply lost the ability to manage events after the sudden Hamas attack, and therefore the Americans are taking responsibility. Because Netanyahu doesn't.

“Netanyahu has never taken responsibility for anything.”

Maariv says Shin Bet director Ronan Bar admitted responsibility for his agency's failure to warn of the Hamas attack in a letter to his subordinates. The Chief of Staff, Major General Herzi Halevy, acknowledged a few days ago that the intelligence department in the Israeli army, which is under his authority, had failed in its mission.

But only one person is not responsible. What is his responsibility? Netanyahu has never taken responsibility for anything. Not in the Meron disaster, not in the Mount Carmel forest fire, not in Iran's approaching transformation into a nuclear state, nor in the disastrous release of more than a thousand Palestinians in the Shalit deal. He will always find someone else to hold accountable. This is the world champion in long distance responsibility. At the time of receiving medals, honors, or coupons, you find him at the head of the class. But when you look for someone to bear responsibility for failures, he disappears and cannot be found.

And this man's wife, in closed conversations, blames everyone. She says that the Chief of Staff, the head of the Mossad, and the head of the Shin Bet are responsible for the failure. Her husband only did what they told him to do. It's not him who's responsible, it's them. Netanyahu's toxic propaganda machine publishes, in exchange for a fee, leaflets attacking the head of the Mossad. His outdated and ridiculous tactics in the media constantly undermine the position of military leaders and the intelligence system. And his corrupt comrades attack the few men who have taken responsibility for their actions.

The newspaper that launched an attack on Netanyahu says that it is necessary to remember that this man never established a government investigation committee. He is the prime minister who has been in office longer than anyone else, but he never thought about forming any investigative committees. Not even after the deadliest civilian disaster in history at Mount Meron. Nothing to investigate. Everything is clear: Netanyahu is not responsible, and anything else does not matter.

“Netanyahu will not succeed this time in escaping responsibility.”

The newspaper adds: What is amazing is that he thinks this will work this time as well. That he will be able to close his eyes again, that he will find a scapegoat to hold him responsible, and that he will somehow escape his greatest enemy: responsibility. But he is wrong. We will not leave him until he admits the obvious: that he is most responsible.

He is the head of state, the prime minister. He did not hold this position half a year before the disaster, but has been striving for it and clinging to it for more than 15 years. In all these years, he personally formulated the most prominent strategy for his administration: concessions to Hamas. He admitted it, his comrades admitted it, and he said it, wrote it, and called it: We must strengthen Hamas and weaken the Palestinian Authority in order to justify the settlements. In this way, which relies on the principle of divide and rule, he legitimizes this status quo and stagnation, while doing nothing but enjoying his time.

This strategy was not devised by the chief of staff, the head of the Shin Bet, or any other military entity. The Israeli army and defense establishment receive directives from the political authority and put them into practice. When the Israeli army's presentation was leaked, in the midst of Operation Protective Edge, in which it said that the occupation of Gaza would lead to the death of hundreds of people, he wanted to hide behind it to explain to the public why he fled again, avoided taking any action, and once again broke his electoral promise that he had made. 2009.

But the rescue mission has ended this time, Mr. Netanyahu. All your life you have been evading responsibility. In the end, I caught up with you. It is unfortunate that the price we pay for this pursuit is very high, Maariv says.

Blinken's trip to the Middle East was chaotic

In this context, the American newspaper The New York Times said, on Tuesday, October 17, 2023, that the trip undertaken by US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, to the Middle East extended from two to six days, during which he stopped at 10 stops until the morning of Tuesday, October 17. October 2023, which indicates the size and complexity of the diplomatic crisis facing the American Secretary, with the escalation of the war between Israel and the Palestinian resistance factions.

While speaking to reporters in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, last Sunday, Blinken said: “I think I forgot how many countries my plane landed in.” But he quickly mentioned the correct number of countries he had visited since leaving Washington on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 11, 2023, which are: Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Emirates, in addition to two visits to Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

This trip conducted by Blinken, which the newspaper described as “chaotic,” began a few days after the Hamas attack, as Blinken advanced the date of his visit to the region that was planned for the following week, and the State Department announced that he would leave to visit Israel and Jordan on October 11. , before returning on Friday, October 13th.

However, with the escalation of the war between Israel and the resistance factions, this plan was quickly canceled, after State Department officials expanded the itinerary of Blinken’s trip to include several other major capitals, in coordination with the White House.

The American newspaper indicates that Blinken has not yet succeeded in achieving one of his goals, which is to secure passage for American citizens from Gaza to Egypt through a border crossing, as hundreds remained stranded at the closed crossing until Monday, October 16, 2023.

But Blinken spared no effort despite his failure so far. After his arrival in the region, on Thursday, October 12, 2023, Blinken and his aides set their trip schedule for the next day, and settled on visiting four countries: Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.

Blinken intensified his meetings by traveling on a quick day trip from Riyadh to the Emirates on Saturday, October 14, 2023, then returned to the Saudi capital again, and prepared on Saturday evening to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

According to the American newspaper, the reporters traveling with Blinken were asked to prepare for the minister’s convoy to leave the residence hotel at any moment in order to go to meet the Crown Prince, but the wait continued for hours from midnight until two in the morning, and then four in the morning after that.

In the end, the prince agreed to meet Blinken after 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning inside his private residence on his farm, which meant denying entry to journalists who had stayed up almost all night.

Officials said it was common for the crown prince to keep his most important visitors waiting. However, the incident was rare and likely frustrating for the sleep-deprived Blinken, who is accustomed to foreign officials accommodating him.

The Russo-Ukrainian war is no longer the only cuisine forging a new world order. Chefs have moved to a new cuisine in the Middle East.

The October 7 war between the Israelis and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip may expand its tables for new players who are not in agreement in the ongoing political calculations. But the moment of war imposed its rules and defined its parties.

This round is not like all previous rounds, in terms of gains and losses. The shock and surprise confused Israel's calculations, and even revealed the emptiness and failure of its multiple intelligence agencies, as acknowledged by the head of the Israeli National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi. The blow is painful for Ben-Gurion's grandchildren in power.

The historical circumstance during which Israel was established is no longer appropriate for the dictionary of the twenty-first century. Palestine, which experienced the Nakba during the Israeli rise under international sponsorship, is no longer the traditional Palestine that lived for 75 years as a stage for players from different parts of the world. She was exhausted by promises and maneuvers. Its patience lasted long, and it paid heavy prices for its freedom, its people, its economy, and its stability. Half of its people are displaced and refugees, and the other half lives under the harshest occupation in history, committing the most heinous types of crimes against humanity. This occupation has not been deterred by all initiatives, agreements, nor international laws and covenants from continuing to implement its old, renewed plans that aim to expel the Palestinian brothers from their lands. , and replacing the settlers in their places, in the same way from which the idea of Israeli presence began before 1948.

This time in the wars taking place between the two sides, generations, rules, and balances of power differed. Israel came through a global system that marked the end of World War II in 1945. It is the same system that ignored the Palestinian right. Now this world order is cracking, with cracks in its walls caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war. Features of a phase for a new world order, but this time it will be signed on the morning of October 7, 2023.

The occupant of the White House was still asleep as the clock was a quarter past twelve Eastern time in the United States of America, while the master of the Kremlin was just awake to follow the last point reached by the Russian army in eastern and southern Ukraine. At the same time, the “Chinese Dragon” was trying to decipher the code. The complexities of the new American strategy in the Indo-Pacific region. Everyone was surprised by an unprecedented bloody scene, in one of the Israeli-Palestinian wars, and the cards were mixed up in Washington, Moscow, and Beijing.

Accounting fears chased the ambition of the Big Three. What is going on in the Middle East? Are the pawns of the three-way race moving to the region? Global support for Israel revealed the West's concerns about the new players establishing themselves in the Middle East, as Washington was the quickest to send the newest aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean. The messages carry more than one meaning, messages to its opponents in the region, and other messages that the Russian bear understands, and the Chinese dragon thinks well about.

There is no doubt that amidst these bloody messages, there are losing parties and others who are winning. The initial reading of what is happening now in the Palestinian-Israeli arena will rearrange the regional and international balances once again.

If Washington had openly announced its full support for Israel, showed the red eye to its competitors in the region, took the initiative to provide military, political, diplomatic and media assistance, and blessed the violent Israeli position from the first moment, then this was an incentive for Washington’s allies to move in the same direction. Indeed, they They traveled long distances in a short time in the direction of attacking the Palestinians, and this may have increased the complications of return or self-examination. America is moving according to geopolitical calculations that are broader than Gaza and Palestine, and even broader than the Arab region and the Middle East. The White House wears magnifying glasses with which it sees the future of its seat in the world order, the features of which this war has become part of shaping. Therefore, American calculations will not ignore the alliance of its competitors, which It includes Iran and its arms in the region, in addition to Russia, China and their allies.

If we look at American calculations, Washington sees the importance and necessity of resolving this Palestinian-Israeli conflict quickly, so as not to enter into a war on more than one front, and become divided between Ukraine and Israel. In addition, America has equations that say that a quick resolution will preserve Washington’s position in The prospective international system. At the same time, Moscow sees this conflict as an opportunity to prove itself and the validity of the Russian point of view that it has tried to market since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In addition, the Kremlin sees American involvement in this Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a beginning to ease Western pressure on Russia on the Ukraine front, and reduce NATO support for Ukraine; Especially since he will be heading towards Israel.

Beijing also has its own calculations. Everything it has accomplished in the Middle East during the past periods, it wants to confirm and build on to deepen its political and economic presence, as it is concerned with Taiwan and the South China Sea, in addition to the fact that China has a belief that America’s preoccupation with the events of the Middle East will ease the burdens on the Chinese shoulders in the Indo-Arabic region. “Pacific,” not to mention the Chinese vision that sees the heavy American presence in the Middle East as a great opportunity for people to side with Beijing’s policy and not Washington’s policy.

Therefore, this historical round between the two sides, the Palestinian and the Israeli, will not end without redrawing the borders of international balances and powers again, leading to writing a “new edition” of the world order.

Jamal Al-Kashki - Editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Al-Arabi magazine. Member of the Board of Directors of Al-Ahram Foundation

Source: Asharq Al Awsat

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a television speech on Wednesday, accused Israel of bombing the Baptist Hospital in Gaza and causing the deaths of hundreds. He said that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “crossed all red lines.”

Abbas described the incident as "a great tragedy and a hideous war massacre that cannot be tolerated or allowed to pass without accountability," pledging not to allow Netanyahu's government to escape punishment. He added that he cut short his visit to Jordan and decided to return to Ramallah. He said, "I agreed with Egypt and Jordan to cancel the summit with President Biden," referring to a four-way summit that was scheduled in Amman on Wednesday in the presence of the US President, the Jordanian King, and the Egyptian President.

Abbas continued, "We will not allow a new catastrophe and the displacement of our people again, and we will not leave, no matter the sacrifices. We will not accept any talk other than stopping the war in Gaza." The Palestinian President called on the Security Council to "assume its responsibilities and take the initiative to issue a resolution condemning this crime and stopping the aggression."

He said that the "Israeli plan" to displace Palestinians from their land will not pass. He added, "We will not allow anyone to deport us from our land, as happened in the past... and the past will not be repeated."

The Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hissein Brahim Taha condemned in the strongest terms the horrific massacre committed by the Israeli occupation by bombing the Al Ahi Baptist Hospital in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, which left hundreds of Palestinian martyrs and wounded, including women and children, slamming it as a war crime, a crime against humanity, and organized state terrorism that deserves accountability and comeuppance.
Taha held the Israeli occupation accountable for the consequences of its crimes, practices and brutal attacks against the Palestinian people, which contradict all human values and constitute a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.
He renewed his call to the international community, especially the UN Security Council, for the need to intervene urgently in order to stop the war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip and providing international protection for the Palestinian people.

The Israeli occupation army admitted that it bombed the garage of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City yesterday, Tuesday, announcing at the same time the start of an investigation into the bombing of the hospital in which more than 500 Palestinians were martyred, most of them women and children.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hageri said, "We bombed the hospital garage, but there were no direct hits on the hospital."

The spokesman repeated Israeli allegations that the Islamic Jihad movement was responsible for bombing the hospital, noting that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) inflated the death toll figures in what he called the "hospital explosion."

Hajri also said, "There are no craters and nothing to indicate that an air strike caused the hospital to explode," adding, "Our radar system showed the presence of missile bursts from Gaza."

Earlier yesterday, the spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said that they cannot meet the needs and that “the massacre is great,” stressing that there is no safe place in the Strip from indiscriminate Israeli bombing.

On the other hand, Al Jazeera's correspondent said that ambulances have not yet been able to recover any victim, and some victims have turned into scattered body parts.

The reporter described the situation as catastrophic, shocking and terrifying, and added that it was clear that the Israeli planes had targeted the hospital grounds, where hundreds of refugees and displaced people were taking refuge.

Source: Al Jazeera

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, said that most of the victims of the “massacre” at Baptist Hospital in Gaza were “children and women whose features were absent.”

This came in statements by the ministry’s spokesman posted on Facebook, commenting on the Israeli bombing that targeted the vicinity of the Arab National Hospital (Al-Baptist) in Gaza, resulting in the death of more than 500 Palestinians.

Al-Qudra added: “The Baptist Hospital massacre is unparalleled and cannot be described. Hundreds of victims arrived at the hospital and ambulance crews are still removing the body parts.”

He continued: "Most of the victims of the Baptist massacre were children and women whose features were absent. Some of the victims arrived without heads, with torn body parts and viscera out."

He added: "The torrent of victims and the type of injuries exceeded the capabilities of medical teams and ambulances. Doctors were performing surgeries on the ground and in the corridors, and some of them were without anesthesia."

Al-Qudra explained that “a large number of those injured in the hospital bombing are still waiting for operations, while the medical teams are trying to save the lives of others in intensive care,” pointing out that “the remaining treatment capabilities have only a few hours to go before we announce their actual exhaustion.”

An Israeli air strike Tuesday killed about 500 Palestinians at a Gaza City hospital crammed with patients and displaced people, health authorities in the besieged enclave said.
The strike was the bloodiest single incident in Gaza since Israel launched an unrelenting bombing campaign against the densely populated territory in retaliation for a deadly cross-border Hamas assault on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7.

The Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital (commonly known as the Baptist hospital), bombing took place on the eve of a visit by US President Joe Biden to Israel to show support for the country. The hospital is managed by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem. There is also a church inside the hospital complex.
Arab countries, Iran and Turkey swiftly condemned the attack. The Palestinian prime minister called it "a horrific crime, genocide" and said countries backing Israel also bore responsibility. The dead included patients, women and children.

"Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza," the statement said.

In Washington, the Pentagon said it was aware of the reports about the hospital being hit but had no details.
Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the "heinous crime" committed by Israeli forces by bombing the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza leading to the death of hundreds, the kingdom's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Health authorities in Gaza say more than 3,500 people have been killed in Israel's 11-day bombardment.
Israel has flattened parts of heavily urbanized Gaza with air strikes, driven around half of its 2.3mn population from their homes and imposed a total blockade on the enclave, halting food, fuel and medical supplies.

Amid the death and destruction, the humanitarian crisis in the enclave worsened as Israeli troops and tanks massed on the border for an expected ground invasion.

Scores of trucks carrying vital supplies for Gaza headed towards the Rafah crossing in Egypt on Tuesday, the only access point to the coastal enclave outside Israeli control, but there was no clear indication that they would be able to enter.

Source: Gulf Times

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that a strike on a hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds of Palestinians was a shocking crime, adding that Israel should provide satellite images to prove that it was not involved in the attack.

Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Radio Sputnik that the attack was a shocking “dehumanizing” crime.

The strike spread throughout the West Bank governorates, today, Wednesday, to denounce the ongoing Israeli aggression for the twelfth consecutive day on the Gaza Strip, and the heinous massacre committed by the occupation forces by bombing the Baptist Hospital in the city of Gaza, in which hundreds of martyrs were killed, and the continuing Israeli aggression against our people.

The strike called for by the national and Islamic forces in the northern governorates paralyzed all aspects of life, and universities, banks, banks, and shops were closed, amid calls from popular masses to continue confrontation activities with the occupation in all regions, streets, and squares.

Public transportation also witnessed a strike on all lines, and citizen movement was slight, and factories and factories closed their doors.

General mourning in Palestine and flags flying at half-mast for the souls of the martyrs of the Baptist massacre and all the martyrs of our people

Today, Wednesday, mourning spread across the Palestinian territories for the souls of hundreds of martyrs who died in the heinous massacre committed by the occupation forces by bombing the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City yesterday evening.

Flags were flown at half-mast on official Palestinian institutions in the West Bank governorates, in implementation of the instructions of President Mahmoud Abbas, who declared general mourning for three days, and flags were flown at half-mast in mourning for the martyrs of the Baptist Hospital, and all the martyrs of our people.

The Palestinians and the world are still in shock following the Baptist Hospital massacre carried out by the Israeli occupation, yesterday, Tuesday, which led to the death of more than 500 Palestinians, in the heaviest toll of the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since the seventh of this October, when the Palestinian resistance surprised it with an operation.” Al-Aqsa flood.

Renewed artillery and air bombardment on the Gaza Strip

At dawn today, Wednesday, the occupation warplanes and artillery continued raids and bombardment on several sites in the Gaza Strip.

Local sources explained that a series of raids carried out by the occupation aircraft targeted the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, west of Gaza City, the Central Governorate, the cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, and the northern areas of the Gaza Strip, especially Jabalia, in light of reports of the death toll.

The occupation artillery also bombed, with dozens of shells, the eastern areas of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, in an area close to the National Baptist Hospital, where the occupation aircraft carried out a massacre earlier, leaving hundreds of martyrs and wounded.

The occupation planes bombed a bakery in the middle of the Nuseirat camp, north of Deir al-Balah, in the middle of the Gaza Strip.

The UN Security Council will convene an emergency meeting Wednesday to address the attack on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza. 

According to a statement from a UN spokesperson, the meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. (1400GMT) and will be conducted in an open debate format.

A draft resolution from Brazil calling for a "humanitarian pause" in Gaza will be voted on during the meeting.

Previously, Russia and the United Arab Emirates jointly called for an emergency session of the Security Council.

More than 500 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on Tuesday, Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told Anadolu.

Footage on social media showed corpses scattered across the hospital grounds.

According to an Anadolu reporter, thousands of Palestinians were at the hospital when the building came under bombardment.

Source: Anadolu

US President Joe Biden will ask Israeli leaders "some tough questions” during his talks in Israel, the White House said Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters before departing for Tel Aviv, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden will meet with President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war cabinet.

Kirby said Biden wants to "get a sense from the Israelis about the situation on the ground, and more critically, their objectives, their plans, their intentions in the days and weeks ahead, and he'll be asking some tough questions".

"He'll be asking them as a friend, as a true friend of Israel, but he will be asking some questions of them," he added.

“By tough questions, I don’t mean menacing or in any way adversarial. Just hard questions that a good friend of Israel would ask about where they think they are going, what their plans are going forward.”

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the president is traveling to a region in which there is an active conflict.

"The president also believes it's an important moment to travel to the region to discuss humanitarian needs in Gaza and other crucial issues at hand," said Jean-Pierre.

The trip will be confined to Tel Aviv after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cut short his visit to Jordan and decided to return to Ramallah Tuesday night, on the eve of a planned summit with Biden, following an Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza.

The leaders of the US, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt were scheduled to take part in the summit in Amman on Wednesday.

Kirby said Biden intends to speak with both President Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the flight home.

More than 500 people were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital late Tuesday, Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told Anadolu.

Footage on social media showed bodies scattered across the hospital grounds.

The airstrike came on the 11th day of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, with a growing international chorus of non-governmental groups and world leaders saying the Israeli bombing campaign on the besieged enclave -- including healthcare facilities, homes and houses of worship -- violates international law and may constitute war crimes.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Protests broke out in cities across West Asia after a deadly strike at a hospital in Gaza claimed hundreds of Palestinian lives. The Hamas-administered Gazan authorities claimed more than 500 people died in the hospital airstrike committed by the Israeli side. Israel was quick to refute the claim and said that the blast occurred due to a 'misfired' missile that was aimed at Israel. 

A report in CNN cited sources to claim that Israel has provided the US with intelligence it has gathered related to the deadly Gaza hospital explosion, to establish its purported innocence in what has been the deadliest civilian casualty toll in a single incidence during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. 

The hospital was reportedly sheltering thousands of displaced people who were evacuated from their homes, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement. 

Here's a look at protests erupting across West Asia following the mass casualty event that occurred at the Gaza hospital:

In the Jordanian capital Amman, hundreds of protesters took to the streets as a group gathered near the Israeli embassy, a move deterred by the security forces stationed there.

Jordan's state-run Petra news agency also reported the protesters' attempts to reach the embassy and subsequent instances of arson in the area.

In an announcement that coincided with raging protests in Amman, Jordan cancelled a planned summit of the leaders of Egypt and Palestine with US President Joe Biden.

Biden's West Asia itinerary now includes only a visit to Israel. 

Gaza hospital strike: Protests break out in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran

In Lebanon, hundreds of protesters took to the streets near the US embassy in the capital Beirut while attempting to break through the security barriers.

In the Iraqi capital Baghdad, hundreds of people took to the streets to chant anti-Israel slogans.

Dozens of protesters reportedly attempted to cross a bridge that leads to Green Zone, CNN reported. But security forces prevented them from crossing it, the publication reported further.

Baghdad's Green Zone houses Iraqi government offices and foreign embassies. 

In the Iranian capital Tehran, protests also took place outside the French and British embassies. Anti-Israel protests also occurred in other cities such as Esfahan and Qom.

Israel's retaliation against Gaza Strip-based Hamas following the events of Oct 7-8 — that killed over 1,400 Israeli citizens — has led to the death of nearly 3,000 Palestinian people in the thickly populated Gaza Strip.

The Arab League for Change condemned the massacre of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, in which hundreds of martyrs and wounded, including children, women and the elderly, died, and Gazan blood was shed, in addition to the hundreds of civilian martyrs in the Gaza Strip who died since last Saturday.

The statement added, "In the face of this massacre, the Gaza Strip is still under siege and collective punishment in violation of international and humanitarian law, without water, food, medicine, and electricity, which portends a real humanitarian catastrophe every minute that this siege continues."

The statement stressed the need to provide international protection for civilians, which is one of the simplest rules in international humanitarian law, which countries of the world sang about in the Ukrainian-Russian war.

The statement added: "When the victims fell on the Israeli side, we expressed our rejection of the killing of civilians and stressed this humanitarian position, which we have always repeated in every forum, and today we see the world's silence over the massacres against civilians in Gaza, and here the double standards are blatantly evident."

The statement called for an immediate cessation of the war and an end to the bloodshed, noting that "the experience of wars has proven that no people can be subjugated by killing, war and destruction. Only peace and stopping the war can bring security, and continued killing, destruction and siege will never bring security."