President Joe Biden’s administration keeps pressing Israel to reengage with Palestinians as partners once fighting in Gaza is over and support their eventual independence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps saying no.

Even on actions to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians, the two allies are far apart.

That cycle, frustrating to much of the world, seems unlikely to end, despite US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's fourth urgent diplomatic trip this week to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war started. Though the United States, as Israel’s closest ally and largest weapons supplier, has stronger means to apply pressure on Israel, it shows no willingness to use them.

For both Netanyahu and Biden, popular opinion at home and deep personal conviction in the rightness of Israel’s cause, and each man’s battle for his own short-term political survival, are all combining to make it appear unlikely that Netanyahu will yield much on the US demands regarding the Palestinians, or that Biden will get much tougher in trying to force them.

Support of Israel is a bedrock belief of many American voters. Biden's presidential reelection bid this year puts him up against Republicans vying to outdo one another in support for Israel. For his part, Netanyahu is fighting to stay in office in the face of corruption charges.

Some experts warn it's a formula that may lock the US into deeper military and security engagement in the Middle East as hostilities worsen and Palestinian civilians continue to suffer.

“It’s a self-defeating policy,” said Brian Finucane, a former policy adviser in the State Department on counterterrorism and the use of military force.

“What may be expedient in terms of short-term domestic politics may not be in the long-term interests of the United States,” said Finucane, who is now a senior adviser to the International Crisis Group research organization. “Particularly if it results in the United States involving itself in further unnecessary wars in the Middle East.”

The administration says Biden's approach of remaining Israel’s indispensable military ally and supporter is the best way to coax concessions from the often intractable Netanyahu, whose government ministers were trumpeting their rejection of some of the US requests even as Blinken was still in the region.

Since Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, the US has rushed arms and other aid to Israel, deployed forces to the region to confront escalated attacks by Hamas' Iran-backed allies, and quashed moves in the United Nations to condemn Israel's bombing of Palestinian civilians.

On Thursday US time, the same day Blinken was wrapping up his diplomatic mission, US warships and aircraft hit targets in Yemen, hoping to quell attacks that the country's Iran-allied Houthi militias have launched on commercial shipping in the Red Sea since Israel started its devastating offensive in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

American officials claim modest success for Blinken's latest diplomatic efforts. He secured limited, conditional support from Arab leaders and Türkiye for planning for reconstruction and governance in Gaza after the war ends. But prospects are uncertain because Israel’s far-right government is not on board with several key points.

The Biden administration has placed a particular premium on Israel reducing the number of civilian casualties in its military operations. The US urging seemed to have some effect in recent days, as Israel began to withdraw some troops from northern Gaza and moved to a less-intensive campaign of airstrikes.

Israel has been not just uncooperative, but also openly hostile toward some smaller American requests, such as when Blinken pressed Israel to turn over the tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which Israel has refused to do.

“We will continue to fight with all of our might to destroy Hamas, and we will not transfer a shekel to the PA that will go to the families of Nazis in Gaza,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X, in a message welcoming Blinken to Israel on Tuesday.

But the biggest US disagreement with Israel has been with Netanyahu’s refusal to consider the creation of a Palestinian state. Arab states say a commitment on that point is essential to convincing them to participate in and contribute to postwar planning for Gaza.

Israelis and Americans are far apart on the matter.

The Palestinians have been divided politically and geographically since Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel’s destruction, overran Gaza in 2007, leaving internationally backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with self-rule over isolated enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The US wants Abbas’ Palestinian Authority to undergo administrative reforms before setting up a unified government in Gaza and the West Bank, as a precursor to statehood.

Blinken and his aides believe that Netanyahu — or his successor should Israel hold early elections — will eventually realize that Palestinian statehood is the key to Israel’s long-term security and accept it because it will have the effect of isolating Iran and its proxies, which are the biggest threat to Israel and the region.

“From Israel’s perspective, if you can have a future where they’re integrated into the region, relations are normalized with other countries, where they have the necessary assurances, commitments, guarantees for their security — that’s a very attractive pathway,” Blinken said in Cairo, his last stop. “But it’s also clear that that requires a pathway to a Palestinian state. We’ve heard that from every single country in the region.”

Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the US, called Blinken's remarks “tone deaf.” For Israelis, the US push to revive negotiations for Palestinian statehood signals that American leaders haven't realized how Israeli public opinion has hardened on Palestinian issues over the years, and especially since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.

The Israeli public felt “hurt, insulted, fearful and concerned that this is the way our allies are talking,” Oren said.

Ultimately, he said, US and Israeli interests don't always converge. “At the end of the day, there’s a limit, because if (Biden) says stop, we’re not going to stop,” he said.

Israeli leaders know they’ll need to make some concessions to the United States, Oren said. Some they have already made, like letting limited amounts of fuel into the Gaza Strip, something Netanyahu adamantly refused to do in the early days of the war.

Biden has resisted calls from some in his Democratic Party to use US leverage with Israel, chiefly US military support, to try to force the issue.

The administration spoke out publicly against a move by some Democratic senators to tie US military aid to Israel to ensuring that Israel take more concrete steps to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza. The administration says continuing to support Israel's defense is in the interests of US national security. Since then, it's twice declared emergencies to authorize new arms sales to Israel without Congress' OK.

Another attempt to pressure the Biden administration and Israel is expected next week, when Sen. Bernie Sanders plans a floor vote on compelling the State Department to tell Congress whether Israel is complying with international humanitarian law.

The United States also has some real incentives to use in encouraging Israel to improve its treatment of Palestinians, including when it comes to steering Israel and Israeli popular opinion toward a long-term political resolution. Israel knows the US is likely to be key in rallying any Arab financial and political support for postwar Gaza, and to Israel's deep desire to normalize relations with Arab nations, said Michael Koplow, chief policy officer for the Washington-based Israel Policy Forum.

But few expect big changes under Netanyahu. And some are skeptics on Biden.

“Blinken has turned into a political analyst who talks about things that may or may not happen,” said Hani al-Masri, director-general of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies.

The Biden administration “seems helpless in the face of Netanyahu’s government,” al-Masri said. "What is happening in the case of Israel makes it seem as if it is not serious in all the positive statements it makes about the Palestinian state and Palestinian rights.”

If you thought you knew all you need to know about the war in Gaza, think again. Much depends on where and how you get your news from. Last week I decided to do a little, obviously non-scientific, experiment by following the Gaza news through two channels: the old BBC, one of Great Britain’s most adulated institutions, and in parallel with it, the various news outlets controlled by Iran's Revolutionary Guard in Tehran.

A number of themes emerged.

The BBC has already sent the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel to its dead archives while the IRGC outlets keep mentioning it as “the battle that ended the myth of Zionist invincibility.” The fact that 7 October was an ambush unleashed against unarmed people, including youths attending a concert, and not a battle is beside the point; it must be constantly mentioned to justify Tehran’s thinly disguised hope that the Gaza war continues “longer than any think.”The BBC gives massive coverage to so-called diplomatic initiatives to bring about a ceasefire. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s “shuttle diplomacy” between Washington and the Middle East is presented as a serious enterprise rather than a banal version of shadow-boxing. If there is no sign of a ceasefire the reason is Israel’s obstinacy. Forgetting that fire is coming from both sides, even now, the Beeb only wants Israel to rein in its furies, never mentioning that Hamas, too, could help by stopping rocket and missile attacks on Israeli civilian targets.

Beeb commentators imply that Israel is no longer in real danger from Gaza and thus should be magnanimous and accept a “humanitarian ceasefire” which, again according to the wise men of London will encourage Hamas, too, to cease fighting.

IRGC propaganda, however, not only wants Hamas to stay in the game but also encourages other members of the queer club known as “Resistance Front” to join the deadly game. In fact, it already claims that the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Yemeni Ansar Allah and the Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi are already dealing “deadly blows” not only to the “Zionist enemy” but also to its ultimate protector “the American Great Satan”.

To back the claim that Israel is losing the war and that the “Resistance Front” must, well, resist, the IRGC strategist Hassan Rashvand recalls that since Pearl Harbor no foreign power dared attack the United States. Even the mighty Soviet Union backed out of a confrontation over the Cuban missile crisis with the US at the last minute. That gave the “Great Satan” the illusion of invincibility which led to Washington’s global hegemony. “It ended when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard hit the American base at in al-Assad with 14 missiles in 108 kilometers inside Iraq.” The Americans had no notion but to eat humble pie and prepare for leaving the Middle East.

Even now the “Great Satan” dare not try to rescue the “Zionist state” because of “heroic” operations by the Houthis who, according to the daily Kayhan, now control the Red Sea and decide which shop can get through Bab al-Mandab.

While the Beeb believes that Hezbollah does not intend to go beyond gesticulations, IRGC theorists claim the Lebanese militia has already launched “680 deadly attacks” on Israel and is mobilizing ground forces for an invasion of “usurped Palestine.” 

The official agency IRNA quotes a retired Israeli general, named Yithzak Brik, as telling the Israeli daily Maariv that Hezbollah has the ability to just walk into Israel without encountering serious resistance. IRNA adds that Hezbollah attacks have already made 94 Israeli towns and kibbutzim “un-livable” and forced inhabitants to flee. If you follow Beeb you may get the impression that the only victims in this war are unarmed people of Gaza, especially women and children, old men and journalists, and that Israelis are mainly bombing schools, hospitals shopping malls, and cultural centers. That helps sustain the narrative of victimhood by Hamas and its apologists. The narrative is backed by footage of ruins often with a child, mostly a little girl, sitting among them and looking straight into the camera and saying “I want to be back in my home.”

Unwittingly perhaps, IRGC propaganda gives the impression that it is Israel that is the victim. The IRGC cannot tell its audience that those heroes of the “Resistance” have been unable to protect the people they have under their rule for almost two decades. Thus, IRGC offers no footage of “charred bodies of children” or heaps of rubble where once stood a Gazan village or town.

The ayatollahs greet the deaths of so many Gazans as an occasion for “both congratulation” (tabrikat) and “condolences” (tasliah”. Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi assures everyone that “martyrs” in Gaza have the good fortune of going straight to paradise.

Asked why some people wonder why the IRGC isn’t sending its “volunteers for martyrdom” to help Hamas; Muhammad Hussaini, President Ibrahim Ra’isi’s Assistant for Parliamentary Affairs, says “The question is why, instead of attacking the Islamic Republic in Iran, Daesh doesn’t go to Gaza to help the Resistance there.”

However, last week’s attacks by Daesh on a funeral cortege in Kerman claiming at least 100 lives, and two days later (in Bampour, also in southeast Iran have not stopped questions about Tehran’s turning Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and now Gaza into battlegrounds against it real or imagined enemies by asking Arabs to pay the rice with their blood.

For Beeb, the word Hamas is synonymous for Palestine while the IRGC tries to avoid both words using, instead, the word “Resistance” (Muqawimah) to imply that Gaza is on fire because of the war declared by the “Supreme Guide” on Israel and the US.

While the Beeb constantly warns of the Gaza war expanding into a regional one involving Iran, the Khomeinist leaders in Tehran pretend to be no more than interested observers as if they are just watching the tragedy on TV.Quds Corps chief Major-General Ismail Qa’ani has put it succinctly: “We give our Arab brothers who join the Resistance Front everything they want including arms and training. But we shall not fight on their behalf.”

A similar message comes from former Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi: “Resistance Front members are mature enough and take their own decisions. We support them and educate them on how to handle a crisis (i.e. war) but this is as far as we go.” In other words, the glory of martyrdom is not for us but for those we hire to die on our behalf.

If Israel were to calculate the losses it has suffered in its ongoing war, it could only come to this conclusion: Gaza, with its tunnels, has become a nightmare that strikes more fear than armies and all their lethal and devastating tools. Israel has dug itself into its own tunnel, and it is struggling to find a way out.

We have gotten used to comparing losses according to the number of lives lost and the extent of destruction on each side. That is part of the picture, but it can be the least bleak of other aspects.

The casualties figures are high. And if material losses leave less of an impact because they can be easily replaced, the lives that have been lost cannot be. As for the disabled, who have become a chronic burden on society, how can Israel get them back to work?

The state of morale could well be the most dangerous threat. The Israeli public is used to feeling superior, and Jews around the world have become accustomed to seeing Israel as their safe haven - a readily available backup if they ever wanted to leave their places of residence, where they hold citizenship and enjoy full citizenship rights. That is no longer the case, neither for the residents of Israel nor for the Jews living outside it. The pendulum has swung from immigration to Israel to emigration from it. 

In parallel, many citizens’ lives have been upended after being forced to move from their residences in the north and south more than once, to crowd into the center or places that seem safer. Indeed, Israel is suffering from internal displacement, which has had a negative impact on social and even psychological stability, not only for those who have been displaced but also for those who are inconvenienced by the hoards of displaced people who have overwhelmed their villages and cities.

Economy: None of the pillars of the stability and development of the Israeli economy are still sound. There are no local workers due to mobilizations of reservists, nor Palestinian workers, who are more productive and less costly, nor are there foreign workers to partially fill the gap. Rather, after everything that has happened, they might never come, and if they do, they create more problems than they do solutions.

This is a conundrum. Even if a temporary solution is found after the battles die down, a permanent solution will not be found as long as Israel maintains its arsenal and the Palestinians continue to resist with the arms available to them and refuse to surrender.

Narrative: The world, to a large extent, has accepted the Israeli narrative: it is the only oasis of democracy in the desert of the Middle East. This narrative was pushed due to the large number of dictatorships surrounding Israel and because of many of the “adornments” of modernity in Israel. Another narrative presented every time Israel wages war is that it is fighting to defend itself against terrorism and enemies of progress and civilization.

Even at the best and calmest of times, there was no international consensus around this narrative. However, it found some acceptance and even formed the basis of some states’ relationships with the Jewish states. However, this war has flipped things on their head. Nothing is more dangerous to a narrative than people debunking and deviating from it. That is what happened, especially in what had been considered strongholds of Israeli support in Western capitals, including the US. While there was broad sympathy for Israel following the events of October 7th, a radical shift indeed occurred when the world began to see the brutality of Israel’s attack on Gaza and the West Bank. It went beyond reacting to what had happened, reaching an unprecedented level of destruction and killing; especially of civilians and children. 

This did merely change how Israel’s friends see it; people’s conscience and sentiments, more than anything else, flipped this image around.

Since the war has not ended, even after 3 months, it will inevitably continue indefinitely. Israel is hemorrhaging everywhere. Meanwhile, we see growing sympathy for the victims and a better appreciation of the Palestinians' right to self-defense.

The idea of integration in the Middle East has: no one can deny that Israel has made significant progress in establishing new relationships with many countries. These new relationships will continue, but they are now shrouded in wariness.

For example, Egypt sees the Palestinian displacement happening at its expense, warranting its attention, apprehension, and even preparedness, and so does Jordan.

The greatest challenge is that of the International Court of Justice, which is prosecuting Israel as it was accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing, charges substantiated by solid facts and evidence. In such a matter, lawyers, no matter how skilled, will be helpful, nor will the US, which has no “veto” in institutions like this. 

These are the tunnels that Israel has dug for itself, decision-makers know it but ignore this fact. Many in Israel have started to ask: Until when?

South Africa's Minister of International Relations, Naledi Pandor, responded to the attacks on her personally, after her country announced that it would sue Israel before the International Court of Justice, on charges of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

“I have no doubt that what Israel will try to do is focus on the attack launched by Hamas on October 7, which we condemned,” Pandor said. They will ignore the large number of deaths resulting from the careless bombing of Palestinian civilians who had no role in this attack.”

She added, "It will be very difficult after these atrocities committed against civilians to convince the world that they were committed with the motive of arresting and stopping those who carried out the attack."

Regarding some of Israel’s supporters directing personal insults at her because of her country’s lawsuit in the International Court of Justice, Pandor said, “I have always believed that insults are the last resort of villains,” rejecting the attempt to link her name to specific groups.

On Friday, South Africa rejected Israel's accusation that it represents the Palestinian Hamas movement at the International Court of Justice.

The country’s legal team said, in a press conference in front of the headquarters of the International Court in The Hague, after the end of the hearing on Israel’s defense, “We do not represent Hamas as Israel claims, but rather this team represents the people of South Africa,” noting that “Israel’s claim that we praised Hamas “After the October 7 attack, it is baseless and we reject and condemn it.”

I was on Judge Napolitano’s “Judging Freedom” show on 11 January 2024. We discussed the South African presentation at the International Court of Justice that morning, which made the case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The Israeli presentation denying that charge had not yet happened, as it is scheduled for 12 January 2024.

The Israeli "Wala" news website revealed yesterday evening, Friday, that 4,000 Israeli soldiers have been disabled since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, suggesting that the number may rise to 30,000.

The website said that the Israeli army does not provide all the information about the wounded to public opinion for fear that this will lead to a decline in morale.

The United Nations confirmed - in the latest report on the situation in Gaza, issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - that Israel's prevention of entry into northern Gaza led to only 21% of all planned supplies of food, water and medicine reaching the residents of the northern Gaza Strip.

The UN report stressed that Israel has imposed strict restrictions on humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza since the beginning of the new year, compared to last December.

The international organization explained in the report that last December, 13 of 18 UN aid missions planned to reach the north of the Strip were arriving in the northern sector, but this number deteriorated sharply at the beginning of this year.

The report added that every day of loss of assistance leads to the loss of lives and suffering of hundreds of thousands of people who remain in northern Gaza.

This comes amid the Israeli authorities' denial that they prevented the entry of aid or controlled it into the Gaza Strip.

As the war on Gaza entered its 99th day, Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip witnessed intense bombing and clashes between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli forces, which suffered new casualties.

Press sources confirmed that there were fierce clashes and continuous Israeli bombing east of Deir al-Balah and al-Maghazi in the central Gaza Strip.

Since the early morning hours, sounds of intense gunfire have been heard east of Deir al-Balah, especially in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which announced yesterday, Friday, that it had run out of fuel and had completely cut off electricity, putting the lives of premature infants and those injured in intensive care at risk.

The exhaustive 84-page brief submitted by South Africa to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) charging Israel with genocide is hard to refute. Israel’s campaign of indiscriminate killing, wholesale destruction of infrastructure, including housing, hospitals and water treatment plants, along with its use of starvation as a weapon, accompanied by genocidal rhetoric from its political and military leaders who speak of destroying Gaza and ethnically cleansing the 2.3 million Palestinians, makes a strong case against Israel for genocide. Israel’s smearing of South Africa as “the legal arm” of Hamas exemplifies the bankruptcy of its defense, a smear replicated by those who claim that demonstrations held to call for a ceasefire and protect Palestinian human rights are “anti-Semitic.” Israel, its genocide live streamed to the world, has no substantial counter argument.

But that does not mean the judges on the court will rule in South Africa’s favor. The pressure the U.S. will bring – Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called the South African charges “meritless” - on the judges, drawn from the member states of the U.N., will be intense. A ruling of genocide is a stain that Israel - which weaponizes the Holocaust to justify its brutalization of the Palestinians - would find hard to remove. It would undercut Israel’s insistence that Jews are eternal victims. 

It would shatter the justification for Israel’s indiscriminate killing of unarmed Palestinians and construction of the world’s largest open air prison in Gaza, along with the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It would sweep away the immunity to criticism enjoyed by the Israel lobby and its Zionist supporters in the U.S., who have successfully equated criticisms of the “Jewish State” and support for Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism.  Over 23,700 Palestinians, including over 10,000 children, have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, when Hamas and other resistance fighters breached the security barriers around Gaza. Some 1,200 people were killed – there is strong evidence that some of the victims were killed by Israeli tank crews and helicopter pilots that intentionally targeted the some 200 hostages along with their captors. Thousands more Palestinians are missing, presumed buried under the rubble. Israeli attacks have left over 60,000 Palestinians wounded and maimed, the majority of them women and children. 

Thousands more Palestinian civilians, including children, have been arrested, blindfolded, numbered, beaten, forced to strip to their underwear, loaded onto trucks and transported to unknown locations. A ruling by the court could be years away. But South Africa is asking for provisional measures that would demand Israel cease its military assault – in essence a permanent ceasefire. This decision could come within two or three weeks. 

It is a decision that is not based on the final ruling by the court, but on the merits of the case brought by South Africa. The court would not, by demanding Israel end its hostilities in Gaza, define the Israeli campaign in Gaza as genocide. It would confirm that there is the possibility of genocide, what the South African lawyers call acts that are “genocidal in character.”  The case will not be determined by the documentation of specific crimes, even those defined as war crimes. It will be determined by genocidal intent - the intent to eradicate in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group – as defined in the Genocide Convention.

These acts collectively include the targeting of refugee camps and other densely packed civilian areas with 2,000-pound bombs, the blocking of humanitarian aid, the destruction of the health care system and its effects on children and pregnant women - the U.N. estimates there are around 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, and that more than 160 babies are delivered every day - as well as repeated genocidal statements by leading Israeli politicians and generals. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu equated Gaza with Amalek, a nation hostile to the Israelites in the Bible, and cited the Biblical injunction to kill every Amalek man, woman, child or animal. 

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called Palestinians “human animals.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated, as the South African lawyers told the court, that everybody in Gaza is responsible for what happened on Oct. 7 because they voted for Hamas, although half the population in Gaza are children who are too young to vote. But even if the entire population of Gaza did vote for Hamas this does not make them a legitimate military target. 

They are still, under the rules of war, civilians, and entitled to protection. They are also entitled under international law to resist their occupation via armed struggle.  The South African lawyers, who compared Israel’s crimes with those carried out by the apartheid regime in South Africa, showed the court a video of Israeli soldiers celebrating and calling for the death of Palestinians – they sang as they danced “There are no uninvolved civilians” - as evidence that genocidal intent descends from the top to the bottom of the Israeli war machine and political system. They provided the court with photos of mass graves where bodies were buried “often unidentified.” No one – including newborns – was spared, the South African lawyer Adila Hassim, Senior Counsel, explained to the court.

The South African lawyers told the court the “first genocidal act is mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza.” The second genocidal act, they stated, is the serious bodily or mental harm inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza in violation of Article 2B of the Genocide Convention. 

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, another lawyer and legal scholar representing South Africa, argued that “Israel’s political leaders, military commanders and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent.”

Lior Haiat, spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called Thursday’s three hour hearing one of the “greatest shows of hypocrisy in history, compounded by a series of false and baseless claims.” He accused South Africa of seeking to allow Hamas to return to Israel to “commit war crimes.” Israeli jurists, in their response on Friday, called the South African charges “unfounded, “absurd” and amounting to “libel.” Israel’s legal team said it had – despite U.N. reports of widespread starvation and infectious diseases from a breakdown in sanitation and shortage of clean water – not impeded humanitarian assistance. Israel defended attacks on hospitals, calling them “Hamas command centers.” It told the court it was acting in self-defense. “The inevitable fatalities and human suffering of any conflict is not of itself a pattern of conduct that plausibly shows genocidal intent,” said Christopher Staker, a barrister for Israel.

Israeli leaders accuse Hamas with carrying out genocide, although legally if you are the victims of genocide you are not permitted to commit genocide. Hamas is also not a state. It is not, therefore, a party to the Genocide Convention. The Hague, for this reason, has no jurisdiction over the organization. Israel also claims the Palestinians are warned to evacuate areas that will come under attack and provided with “safe areas,” although as the South African lawyers documented, “safe areas” are routinely bombed by Israel with numerous civilian casualties.

Israel and the Biden administration intend to prevent any temporary injunction by the court, not because the court can force Israel to halt its military assaults, but because of the optics, which are already disastrous. The ICJ’s ruling depends on the Security Council for enforcement – which given the veto power by the U.S., renders any ruling against Israel moot. The second objective of the Biden administration is to make sure Israel is not found guilty of committing genocide. It will be unrelenting in this campaign, heavily pressuring the governments that have jurists on the court not to find Israel guilty. Russia and China, who have jurists in The Hague, are battling their own charges of genocide and may decide it is not in their interests to find Israel guilty.

The Biden administration is playing a very cynical game. It insists it is trying to halt what, by its own admission, is Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Palestinians, while bypassing Congress to speed up the supply of weapons to Israel, including “dumb” bombs. It insists it wants the fighting in Gaza to end while it vetoes ceasefire resolutions at the U.N. It insists it upholds the rule of law while it subverts the legal mechanism that can halt the genocide.  Cynicism pervades every word Biden and Blinken utter. This cynicism extends to us. Our revulsion for Donald Trump, the Biden White House believes, will impel us to keep Biden in office. On any other issue this might be the case. But it cannot be the case with genocide.

Genocide is not a political problem. It is a moral one. We cannot, no matter what the cost, support those who commit or are accomplices to genocide. Genocide is the crime of all crimes. It is the purest expression of evil. We must stand unequivocally with Palestinians and the jurists from South Africa. 

We must demand justice. We must hold Biden accountable for the genocide in Gaza.

The number of dead in Gaza has risen to 23,708 people, the majority of whom are women and children, while the number of injured has exceeded 60,000 since October 7, according to what the Ministry of Health in the Strip reported on Friday.

The ministry stated that "Israel committed 13 massacres against civilians, claiming 151 dead and 248 wounded within 24 hours."

For the 98th day in a row, displaced people in shelter centers in the northern Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions in light of the Israeli continued siege of the area and the prevention of fuel from reaching municipalities, which has led to them being out of service.

10 killed, including children, in the Israeli bombing of a house east of Rafah

At least 10 citizens, including children, were killed, and others were injured, this Friday evening, in the Israeli aircraft’s bombing of a house housing displaced people east of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli artillery also bombed the Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi camps and the town of Al-Zawaida, and the Israeli aircraft launched raids on Salah Al-Din Street and near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip.

Ambulance and rescue crews recovered the bodies of two dead from Al-Qudra Street in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, and they were transferred to Nasser Medical Complex.

The Israeli aircraft launched raids on the town of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Yunis, and targeted areas southeast of the governorate.

The Israeli aircraft also bombed the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City, and a number of wounded arrived at Al-Shifa Medical Complex.

Earlier, three citizens were killed in the Israeli aircraft’s bombing of a house in the Al-Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City.

The young man, Khaled Ahmed Zubaidi (18 years old), was killed after he was severely beaten by the Israeli forces in the town of Zeita, north of Tulkarm, this Friday evening.

Sources reported that two other young men were injured as a result of clashes that broke out with the Israeli forces in Zeta.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the death of Zubaidi as a result of the severe attack on him by the Israeli army in the town of Zeita.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that its crews dealt with a very serious injury resulting from a severe beating, which led to the heart and lungs of the injured person stopping during confrontations in the village of Zeita.

Eyewitnesses reported that 3 young men were injured by bullets and attacks by the Israeli forces, and were transported by private vehicles and ambulances to hospitals in the city of Tulkarm.

Confrontations broke out in the town this evening, after the Israeli forces stormed it, resulting in the injury of 3 young men, one of whom was severely beaten, and the other two were shot with live bullets in the lower extremities.

Local sources said that the Israeli forces fired heavy live bullets and poisonous tear gas towards the citizens, while preventing the ambulance from reaching the injured, before they could transport them after the Israeli forces withdrew from the town.

Zubaidi is a student in his second year at Khadoori University, majoring in communications engineering.

Thus, the toll of Palestinian dead due to bullets and attacks by the Israeli forces and settlers has risen to 344 dead since October 7, 2023, including 90 children and 47 dead whose bodies were withheld by the Israel.

The International Court of Justice adjourned its session today, Friday, after hearing the Israeli legal team in the case of committing genocide in Gaza, while South Africa, the plaintiff, said that Tel Aviv failed to respond to the evidence presented.

The court's judges will examine the arguments of both parties after they heard yesterday, Thursday, the justifications and evidence presented by South Africa, and then the Israeli response on Friday.

The court is expected to issue a ruling this month regarding a possible urgent decision ordering Israel to stop the war, but it will not quickly rule on genocide charges because this issue may take years.

For his part, South African Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola said - in a press conference in front of the court in The Hague - that Israel failed to respond to the evidence presented by his country, and did not provide anything to refute the facts of which it was accused.

Lamola described the Israeli responses as "unbalanced" and said that Tel Aviv seemed unable to condemn the actions of its soldiers, stressing that the statements of Israeli officials regarding the genocide could not be ignored.

He pointed out that the United Nations admitted that it could not provide humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza due to the Israeli bombing.

The South African team rejected Israel's accusation that it represented the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) before the court, and said, "We do not represent Hamas... Rather, this team represents the people of South Africa."

The team added, "Israel's claim that we praised Hamas after the October 7 attack is baseless and we reject and condemn it."

Israel's responses

Earlier today, the court heard the response of the Israeli team, which demanded that South Africa's request to take emergency measures to stop the war be rejected, saying that halting military operations would prevent Israel from "defending itself."

Israel's representative before the court, Tal Becker, said, "The attempt to use genocide as a weapon in the text currently submitted to the court presents a very distorted picture of what is happening with empty words."

Baker added that if there were acts that might amount to genocide, they were committed against Israel, according to his claim.

He continued, "We do not agree with what Hamas did, but we do not consider it a terrorist organization, and we deal with all Palestinian parties."

On the other hand, supporters of the Palestinian people organized a march in The Hague carrying Palestinian flags, and followed the court proceedings on a giant screen outside. While the Israeli delegation was speaking, they chanted, "Liar! Liar!"

In Cape Town, South Africa, a rally was organized in support of Palestine with the participation of Mandla Mandela, grandson of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela, who led the struggle against the apartheid regime.

"My grandfather considered the Palestinian struggle to be the greatest moral issue of our time," Mandela's grandson said during the vigil.

South Africa filed the lawsuit before the International Court of Justice on December 29, accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a devastating war for more than 3 months that has left tens of thousands martyred and wounded and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

Three Palestinians were killed and an Israeli was moderately injured in a shooting attack that took place in the “Adora” settlement located near the city of Hebron, this Friday evening.

The Israeli army announced that its forces killed three "terrorists" after they infiltrated "Adora" and opened fire on an army force while it was in the settlement.

The Israeli army did not report that any of its forces were injured, and stated that the forces were continuing search operations in the area.

Alarm sirens sounded in the settlement after suspected resistance fighters had infiltrated it. While Israeli soldiers fired flare bombs in the airspace of the area.

Israeli reports reported that an armed clash took place between an Israeli army force and the perpetrators of the shooting attack in the settlement.

According to Magen David Adom, one injured person suffered moderate wounds as a result of being shot in the extremities of his body near Adora in the south of Mount Hebron.

The Israeli army sent reinforced and special forces to the site of the operation, and began searching for the perpetrators of the shooting attack, as there is suspicion that a cell had infiltrated the settlement.

The Israeli Home Front said, “Terrorist infiltration was detected in Adora,” and called on settlers not to leave their homes, stay in shelters, and stay away from windows and doors.

On Friday evening, the government media office in the Gaza Strip announced a power outage and the cessation of generators at Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Gaza Strip.

The office said that the power outage heralds the occurrence of a new humanitarian catastrophe and the suspension of the health service due to running out of fuel.

He warned of the death of patients and children in intensive care and nursery departments, holding all competent and relevant authorities fully responsible for any disaster or deaths that patients and children may be exposed to, especially in intensive care and nursery departments.

Al-Aqsa Hospital had previously warned of the cessation of health and medical services due to running out of fuel, indicating that the World Health Organization had informed that fuel would enter the hospital at noon yesterday, Thursday.

This Friday evening, Israeli settlers stole 35 heads of sheep belonging to Samer Assi, from Qarawat Bani Hassan, west of Salfit.

Ayoub Assi, Samer's brother, said: "The herds of Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Ras area, west of the town, and stole 35 sheeps after they removed and broke the door of the livestock pen."

Pointing out that the area is targeted by settlers who are constantly storming it and attacking citizens and their property, under the protection of the Israeli army.

The State of Palestine expressed its welcome and appreciation for the unprecedented legal advocacy presented by the Republic of South Africa before the International Court of Justice as part of its efforts to prosecute Israel, the occupying power, for its egregious and widespread violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

An Israeli public opinion poll conducted by the Maariv newspaper yesterday (Thursday) showed that if the Israeli general elections were held now, each of the party camp lists supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would obtain 44 seats (two seats less than the number of seats it obtained in last week’s poll). ), while the lists of the parties camp opposing him will obtain 66 seats (two seats more than the number of seats they obtained in last week’s poll). The coalition list between Hadash [the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality] and Ta’al [the Arab Movement for Change], and the Ra’am list [the United Arab List] will each get 5 seats, and the Balad list [the National Democratic Rally] will not be able to exceed the electoral threshold (3.25%).

According to the poll, the Likud Party list headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will get 16 seats, the “Official Camp” list headed by Knesset member Benny Gantz will get 39 seats, and the “There is a Future” list headed by Knesset member Yair Lapid will get 13 seats.

The “Religious Zionism” party list, headed by Minister Bezalel Smotrich, gets 4 seats, while the “Otzma Yehudit” list [“Jewish Power”] headed by Minister Itamar Ben Gvir gets 8 seats, and the Shas party list of Haredi [religious extremist] Eastern Jews gets 8 seats. 9 seats, the Haredi United Torah Judaism Party list gets 7 seats, the “Israel Our Home” party list headed by Knesset member Avigdor Lieberman gets 10 seats, the Meretz Party list gets 4 seats, while the Labor Party list will not be able to exceed the electoral threshold.

62% of respondents said that Israel has achieved victory in the war against Hamas in Gaza, while 30% of them confirmed that it has lost the war.

51% of the survey participants said that the head of the “Official Camp” coalition, Benny Gantz, is the most suitable to assume the position of Prime Minister of Israel, while 29% of them said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the most suitable.

The survey included a sample of 515 people representing all categories of the adult population in Israel, with a maximum error rate of 4.3%.

By John Whitbeck

Today's Israeli defense in the ICJ genocide case was a painful-to-watch flood of substantive lies and distortions which should be obvious anyone who has been paying attention to Israel's actions and publicly expressed intentions over the past three months and which judges who have been paying attention should have found insulting, objectionable and prejudicial to Israel's defense.

Extraordinarily, the Israeli legal team argued that the Hamas attack of October 7 meets the legal definition of "genocide" and that South Africa is therefore complicit in genocide, while everything that Israel has done in Gaza since October 7 has not only been in legitimate self-defense but in full compliance with international law, with constant attention to avoiding or mitigating any harm to Palestinian civilians.

However, there was one technical argument to which the Israeli legal team paid considerable attention which is potentially worrying -- that, prior to December 29, when South Africa submitted its application to the ICJ, there was no "dispute" between South Africa and Israel, as is necessary to establish ICJ jurisdiction in this case.

Somehow, this technical argument does not appear to have been an obstacle to Gambia's genocide case against Myanimar, but it may be Israel's best hope in this case and could be seized upon by any judge reluctant to anger the American and Israeli governments.

I would hope that no judge other than the American judge will be tempted to seize this escape route.

If the ICJ does not decisively order all or most of the "provisional measures" sought by South Africa, it will, in my view, be definitively destroying the very concept of international law which Israel and the United States have done so much to destroy or deform in recent decades, giving a legal green light to continuing genocide and restoring "Might Makes Right" as the only functional principle of international relations.

Much more than the potential relief of Palestinians from the genocidal assault currently being inflicted upon them is at stake in this case.

Today, Friday, Israeli aircraft launched a series of raids on southern Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah positions and forces.

The Lebanese News Agency reported that “hostile (Israeli) bombing targeted Mays al-Jabal, shells were also fired at the vicinity of the government hospital, and a house was burned in the Tarash area.”

Two members of the rescue crews were killed and others were injured in an Israeli bombing that targeted, yesterday, Thursday, a civil defense center in the town of Hanin, southern Lebanon. The occupation army also launched raids on sites and towns in southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah announced targeting forces and sites of the Israeli occupation army in the border area.

By Joseph Massad

The question is no longer whether the Israeli government is racist and genocidal but whether the Israeli Jewish majority supporting its crimes against Palestinians also fit this description

Ever since the current Israeli cabinet, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, came to power in December 2022, there has been a consensus, even in the western mainstream and among the Israeli political opposition, that it is a Jewish supremacist, racist government.

Characterizations of the government, which clearly expressed the preferences of a majority of the Israeli Jewish electorate, as “the most extreme”, “the most fundamentalist”, and “the most racist” in Israel’s history, became common. Other descriptions deemed it Israel’s “first fascist” government.

This is aside from the fact that two years before the rise of the current government, historically pro-Israel mainstream western human rights organizations had adjudged Israel a racist “apartheid” state since its founding. Palestinians and their supporters have also used this label to describe Israel since at least the 1960s.It is the same government, which was the object of international condemnation, that has launched the ongoing genocidal war against the Palestinian people, which has so far killed and injured upwards of 100,000 Palestinians and displaced more than two million.

Yet this very same racist government and its genocidal war are supported, armed, and financed by the US and its European allies, who, forgetting their earlier criticisms, have not flinched from justifying Israeli crimes, just as they previously defended the Jewish settler colony against accusations of apartheid.

Increasingly, however, the question being debated is no longer whether the Israeli government is racist, fascist, or genocidal, but whether a majority of Israeli Jews also fit those descriptions and that this government is, indeed, no more than a manifestation of Israeli Jewish political culture. 

‘No longer fringe’ 

Middle East Eye editor-in-chief David Hearst recently observed that those expressing genocidal racism among Israeli Jews - including soldiers, singers, artists, and politicians - “are no longer a fringe. They represent what mainstream Israel thinks. They have become genocidal, racist and fascist when talking about Palestinians - unashamedly so. They are proud of and joke about their racism and do little to disguise it.”

Since its inception, the Zionist movement has always set out to ethnically cleanse Palestine of the country’s indigenous Palestinian population

According to the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University’s Peace Index polls taken more than a month after the beginning of the massive Israeli bombing of Gaza, which by then had killed thousands, “57.5 percent of Israeli Jews said that they believed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were using too little firepower in Gaza, 36.6 percent said the IDF was using an appropriate amount of firepower, while just 1.8 percent said they believed the IDF was using too much firepower.”

Commenting on the genocidal views of a majority of Israeli Jews and their support of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy appears to be at a loss: “Either that’s the real face of Israel, and the attack on the 7th legitimized it to be above the surface, or that the 7th really changed things,” he said, adding: “I don’t know which one is true.”

Levy’s response is surprising, however, given the documented racism of the Zionist movement since its inception and the well-known fact that it has always set out to ethnically cleanse Palestine of the country’s indigenous Palestinian population. The Israeli press has published seemingly “reasonable” articles, which frame Israel’s planned ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians of Gaza and their potential expulsion to the Egyptian Sinai as something wonderful, describing it as “one of the most suitable places on Earth to provide the people of Gaza with hope and a peaceful future.”

Yet one could presumably and just as reasonably counter that proposal with one suggesting that Israel’s Jewish colonists voluntarily move to the US and Europe, particularly Germany, where their rights and privileges are safeguarded. Indeed, these are among “the most suitable places on Earth to provide [Israeli Jews] with hope and a peaceful future”.

This is especially true since Israeli officials and intellectuals often claim that they live in a “bad” or “tough” neighborhoods, or even in the “jungle”. Europe and the US are clearly far superior neighborhoods with very low security concerns. After all, Europe is a “garden", while “most of the rest of the world is a jungle”, as European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell infamously declared last year.  

The EU’s German President Ursula von der Leyen has also emphasized that “Jewish culture is European culture” and that “Europe must value its own Jewish-ness. So that Jewish life in Europe can thrive again.” Such a voluntary move on the part of Israeli Jews, more than one million of whom already hold European and US passports, would spare the Palestinian people (and the Middle East more widely) the violence and wars that Zionist colonization since the 1880s and especially after 1948, has visited on the people of the region.

Perhaps, rather than having Israel and its western sponsors secretly negotiate with “Congo” or Canada to take in expelled Palestinians, as was recently reported, the United Nations and Arab states should most enthusiastically urge western countries to welcome Israeli Jews in their midst.

A violent cult

With recent polls and analyses revealing the hatred and genocidal attitudes of the vast majority of Israel’s Jewish citizens towards Palestinians, their relocation to Europe and the US should bring hem more happiness and peace of mind. 

In addition, those who justify the annihilation of Palestinians in order to “save” western civilization and values with which Israel identifies, would find themselves better off saving western civilization from the heart of it, far from the colonial frontier and the anti-colonial Palestinian resistance.

In this vein, the European Commission coordinator on combatting antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, the German Katharina von Schnurbein, recently affirmed that “Europe would not be Europe without its Jewish heritage.” She added: “Jewish heritage is part of Europe’s DNA. And as European institutions, we want to protect Jewish heritage, to safeguard and cherish it. This is a key aspect of fostering Jewish life, which is the ultimate goal of the EU strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life.”

One might expect, as a result of such affirmation, that Europe’s doors this time would open for Jews, unlike in the 1930s and 1940s, or that the US, which refused to admit Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis and sent back a ship filled with them in 1939 to Europe where many of them perished in Hitler’s death camps, would welcome Israeli Jews to their better neighborhood with open arms.

A large number of Israeli psychiatrists have already left the country for greener pastures in the United Kingdom, citing a high workload that has only increased since 7 October and a mental health system on the brink of collapse.

This is unsurprising, as support for the slaughter of Palestinians in untold massacres and wars since 1948 has evidently become a veritable genocidal cult in Israel across all segments of society and government. Like all members of violent cults, the only way to save them from themselves is to deprogram them. This will undoubtedly be a lengthy and complicated process that, in the case of many Israeli Jews, will require undoing decades of brainwashing.

Perhaps those same psychiatrists who left could help deprogram Israeli Jews in a safe European environment to rid them of their attachment to ethnic cleansing and genocidal wars.

A peaceful future

Meanwhile, the case South Africa has brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide is raising alarms in the White House and Western European capitals. This is only the latest case that the ICJ received accusing Israel of crimes.

A year ago, the United Nations General Assembly approved a request for an advisory opinion from the ICJ on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories with 87 votes in favor and 26 against – the opponents mostly are the same countries that today support Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

The ICJ is set to hold public hearings about the case next month. As for the more recent case that South Africa brought, the ICJ is looking into it in an emergency hearing on 11 January.

The ICJ has faced similar requests in the context of settler-colonialism since the Second World War. Most notably, in July 1966, the ICJ dismissed a petition put forth in 1962 by Liberia and Ethiopia concerning the South African settler colony of Namibia, on the basis that neither of them had legal standing to bring the petition. Both countries had been former members of the League of Nations, which had selected South Africa as the mandatory power over Namibia after World War One.

Liberia and Ethiopia’s 1962 petition called on the court to adjudicate the legal status of Namibia. The president of the court, Sir Percy Spender, himself from the settler colony of Australia, cast the deciding vote in the seven-to-seven decision in favor of South Africa. 

That decision launched the armed struggle by the South West Africa People’s Organization (Swapo) against the South African apartheid occupiers. That year, the General Assembly revoked South Africa’s mandate but to no avail.

In 1969, the UN Security Council finally endorsed the General Assembly’s 1966 revocation of South Africa’s mandate. When South Africa defied the UN and refused to withdraw, the matter was referred in July 1970 to the ICJ for an advisory opinion.

It was the 1971 ICJ decision that led to international recognition of the anti-colonial Swapo and the right of the Namibian people to self-determination

Unlike in 1966, this time the ICJ’s opinion, issued on 21 June 1971, completely vindicated the UN position, ruling that the UN was the lawful governing authority in Namibia and that South Africa must withdraw.

In contrast with the 1966 pro-colonial ICJ decision, the 1971 decision removed the last vestige of legitimacy the white supremacist regime still had. Not that South Africa abided by the decision; it did not. South Africa’s western Nato sponsors continued unabashedly to support its delay tactics masquerading as a “peace process” and vetoed UN resolutions that called for sanctions on the white supremacist state.  Nonetheless, it was the 1971 ICJ decision that led to international recognition of Swapo and the right of the Namibian people to self-determination. It would take a war of liberation for Namibia to finally obtain independence in 1990.This is to say that an ICJ decision that condemns Israel’s war as a genocide will augur well for the Palestinian people’s struggle against their cruel and bloodthirsty colonizers.  

While it will not bring about immediate liberation and decolonization, it will accelerate that process measurably until it dismantles Israel’s regime of Jewish supremacy and saves both Palestinians and Israeli Jews from the genocidal cult of Zionism.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza said that only 5 shipments of 24 humanitarian aid that were scheduled to arrive in the region in the first 11 days of this year had arrived in the northern Gaza Strip.

The UN office stated that the Israeli occupation refused to allow the entry of several shipments to resupply medicine and supplies into Gaza City.

Other convoys that were supposed to deliver food, drinking water and other necessary supplies, as well as medicines, did not pass, and the shipments were stopped for long periods at checkpoints of the occupation forces or because the roads through which they were approved were not suitable for vehicles to pass.

The Israeli occupation forces caused widespread damage to the infrastructure of Nour Shams camp, east of Tulkarm, after storming it for about 7 hours.

On Friday morning, public works crews and the Tulkarm municipality began removing rubble and dirt barriers and rehabilitating some streets, especially Nablus Street, which is considered the main entrance to the camp that connects the city to the villages and towns of Wadi Sha’ir and the rest of the West Bank governorates.

The head of the emergency department in the Tulkarm municipality, Hakim Abu Safiya, said that what the camp was exposed to this time was a broader and more comprehensive attack, which caused greater devastation in the infrastructure of sanitation, water, and electricity, adding that there is no street inside the camp and its alleys that was not affected by destruction and vandalism.

Abu Safiya continued that the municipality and public works crews went directly to the camp immediately after the occupation withdrew, and worked to remove the rubble, open roads, and rehabilitate some of what had been vandalized.

Today, Friday, the International Court of Justice resumed its sessions to try Israel on charges of committing “genocide” crimes in the Gaza Strip, based on a lawsuit filed by the State of South Africa and supported by dozens of countries, in a historical precedent in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In today's session, the court will hear Israel's response, the "occupying power," to the lawsuit filed against it by South Africa.

Yesterday, Thursday, the International Court of Justice began its first session to try Israel on charges of committing “genocide” crimes in the Gaza Strip, as South Africa submitted to the court an elaborate 84-page file, in which it collected evidence of Israel’s killing of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and the creation of conditions “ Prepared to inflict physical destruction on them,” which is considered a crime of “genocide” against them.

The hearings dealt exclusively with South Africa's request for urgent action ordering Israel to suspend its military operations in the Gaza Strip.

The court sessions began with an introductory pleading presented by the South African State Attorney and Minister of Justice, Ronald Lamola, followed by the South African representative’s pleading before the court.

The lawsuit filed by South Africa before the International Court of Justice against Israel, the occupying power, received Arab and international support and support.

Since the seventh of last October, the occupation has launched a devastating aggression against the Gaza Strip, leaving an infinite toll of more than 23,000 dead and 59,000 injured, more than 70% of whom are women and children, and more than 7,000 people missing under the rubble, in addition to massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented health and humanitarian disaster.

The humanitarian organization Save the Children announced that the Israeli occupation army has killed 1% of children in the Gaza Strip since October 7, which means the death of 10,000 children.

The organization explained that - according to data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza - more than 10,000 children were killed in the Strip during the Israeli aggression.

It added that children who survived the violence in Gaza suffer unspeakable horrors, including life-changing injuries, burns, illnesses, inadequate medical care, and the loss of their parents and other loved ones.

Hundreds of Israeli citizens have signed an online petition to submit to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in support of South Africa's case against Israel for genocide.

To the Registrar of the International Court of Justice

Peace Palace

Carnegieplein 2

2517 KJ The Hague

The Netherlands

CC: South African Embassy in Israel

Regarding Case 192 – Prosecution brought by South Africa against the State of Israel on December 29, 2023.

We, Israeli citizens, with an obligation to prevent genocide, write to you to express our support for South Africa's representations before the ICJ declaring that Israel's conduct in Gaza violates its responsibilities under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The elements that emerge from South Africa's request are horrific and credible. Israel is taking systematic measures to annihilate the population of Gaza, to starve, mistreat and displace them. It implements a policy that deliberately inflicts living conditions calculated to bring about his physical destruction as a group. It systematically kills large sections of the population, prominent academics, writers, doctors, medical personnel, journalists and ordinary citizens.

We associate ourselves with the dual concerns expressed in the proceedings, namely that Israel is violating its obligations by committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and by failing to prevent the genocide, including by failing to hold senior Israeli officials and others responsible for their direct and public incitement to genocide. We also join the applicants who are calling for a series of “provisional measures” necessary to protect against future serious and irreparable harm under the Geneva Convention, which Israel continues to violate with impunity. Among others, we join the petitioners' urgent call to order Israel "to cease inflicting living conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction as a group, and to prevent and punish direct incitement and public policy to the genocide, and to repeal related policy and practices, including with regard to the restriction of aid and the issuance of evacuation directives.”

Signed by more than 700 Israeli citizens

There is a growing awareness in Israel that the lawsuit submitted by South Africa to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and the evidence included in the lawsuit and presented before the court yesterday, have made parties in Israel admit that there is actual and widespread incitement to genocide taking place in Israel. The central charge in the lawsuit is that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and the central request is for the court to issue a decision to stop Israel’s military operations in the Strip.

This was expressed by legal expert, Mordechai Kremnitzer, in the Haaretz newspaper today, Friday. He considered that issuing a decision by the International Court “only against Israel will tie Israel’s hands and leave Hamas a space for aggressive action. It will place the court on the side of the aggressor, on the side of genocide and crimes against humanity, and against the victims of Hamas’ attacks in the past, present and future. The most dangerous thing is that it will put ( The International Court (the International Court) itself is on the side of the kidnappers and against the kidnapped, as human beings and victims of a serious crime, and will strive against the natural right to self-defense.

It is not clear what the decision of the international court will be, which will hear Israel’s response to South Africa’s lawsuit today. Israel insists that its war on Gaza is against Hamas, but the South African lawsuit confirms that it does not represent Hamas, but rather seeks to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip and stop their killing, after the death toll reached about 24,000. Kremnitzer claimed that South Africa's lawsuit attempted to "absent Hamas."

However, Kremnitzer considered that if the International Court convicted Israel of committing genocide and issued a decision to stop the war, “it would side with the aggressor and against those who defend themselves, and would not allow the aggrieved person to defend himself, and such a decision would lose his right to exist. The Court of Justice would turn into an Injustice court.”

Israeli analysts pointed out, in recent days, that the harm to Israel in the South African lawsuit has become inevitable, regardless of the decision that will be issued by the court, and that the stigma of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip has attached itself to Israel, and this stigma is supported by the terrible reports and scenes of killing and massive destruction in the Strip that Published in media and social networks around the world.

Israeli officials in the legal field expressed their hope that the court would not issue a conviction for genocide, and they believed that it would issue a lenient decision. Kremnitzer also expressed this, noting that “it would not be right to fight against decisions aimed at ensuring humanitarian supplies to the residents of Gaza, and imposing on Israel the duty to combat incitement to genocide. If decisions like these lead to the fall of the government, we will not respond with bitter tears.”

He added, "The problem that Israel faces in The Hague is essentially psychological. It is not easy for a judicial institution to destroy the basic principles that grant it powers. In a simplified view, for someone who does not live here and is a moral person, fighting is considered a harmful situation that is best avoided. For this very reason “Israel is obligated to put at the top of its attention the necessity of preventing a decision to stop the fighting.”

Kremnitzer stressed the existence of incitement in Israel to commit genocide against the Palestinians, which the South African legal team reviewed extensively and in detail before the court yesterday. “This calamity was brought upon us, largely by people holding the highest positions, through their stupidity, arrogance, and human weakness. The Israeli government also bears responsibility for this miserable failure. The minimum that could have been expected, but cannot be achieved, is for the Prime Minister to hit the table and stop the discordant voices calling for To genocide, because the Prime Minister is among those directing this cacophony.”

Netanyahu described Hamas and South Africa as “Amalek,” a description borrowed from biblical mythology to describe enemies seeking to exterminate the Jews. Kremnitzer saw this as "an abusive use of the Jewish religion in order to legitimize the most dangerous abominations in its name. This religiosity in the army and outside it must be uprooted from its roots. The army cannot allow itself to surrender to this by ignoring it."

Kremnitzer pointed out the racist tendencies and ideas spreading within the ranks of the Israeli army. “It is important to examine whether the spirit of the Israeli army withstands the evil winds that blow and continue to beat in the hearts of the soldiers... Weakness has appeared in Israel in everything related to our human nature as a society. The occupation and strangling around the neck of Gaza is the basis of impurity.”

He added, "It is good that South Africa has penetrated our consciousness. If we continue to be peace rejecters, and this includes the opposition parties, we will end up being expelled from the city (the international community), like the apartheid regime in South Africa at the time."

Three jurists, whose statements were cited by the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" in a report published late Thursday evening, believed that the South African representatives behaved in a professional manner during the first session held on Thursday, and they warned that accusing South Africa of "hypocrisy", which is the accusation made by Netanyahu, will only make the situation worse for Israel.

Haaretz noted that the South African representatives placed at the heart of their argument “the relationship between the extremist statements made by senior officials in Israel and the Israeli army’s operations in the Gaza Strip.”

The report quoted Roy Schendorff, the former deputy advisor to the Israeli government on international law, as saying: “They (South Africa) were not surprised by their arguments, but they did not commit serious mistakes,” noting that refuting South Africa’s argument is a challenge for Tel Aviv to deal with.

He said, "The petitioners claim that even if these statements do not reflect official Israeli policy, they permeate the field (during Israeli army operations in Gaza), and that is why they showed video clips of soldiers proud of killing in the Strip. They are trying to manipulate," he said.

Shendorff stated, “There is a competition between narratives, and not just a technical and legal argument, and Israel will have to present its narrative well tomorrow (Friday), according to which it did not choose war. Hamas committed terrible acts, and Israel is defending itself and acting within the limits of the law to eliminate "A serious threat."

An international law expert from the Hebrew University, Dr. Tamar Megiddo said that “the argument of hypocrisy (referring to Netanyahu) will not only serve Israel in court, but will actually harm it,” explaining that “many in the world see things as presented by South Africa.”

She pointed out that "Israel must take advantage of the opportunity to present its point of view, without belittling or disrespecting the (judicial) process or the court."

She added, "Although it can be assumed that the court will accept the petitioner's argument to justify issuing a temporary (ceasefire) order; in my estimation, this is not enough to win the main petition."

For his part, former Deputy Attorney General, Yehuda Schaefer, described the strategy adopted by South Africa in Thursday's debate as "throwing mud and hoping something sticks." This comes, as he put it, in light of “their (South African representatives) reliance on TikTok clips of fighters, irresponsible statements by politicians, and questionable reports.”

On Friday evening, the UN Security Council will hold an open briefing on “the situation in the Middle East, including the question of Palestine.”

Algeria, the only Arab member of the Council, requested that the meeting discuss the threat of forced displacement of our people in Gaza.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, and Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ilse Brands-Keres, are expected to brief Council members.

On Wednesday, the Council held a closed consultation session, at the request of the State of Malta, to discuss the implementation of Resolution 2712, which was issued last November and calls for a “temporary pause and urgent and extended humanitarian corridors” throughout Gaza to facilitate the provision of basic goods and services to people.

There are very clear signs of concern in Israeli circles about the possibility of Tel Aviv being condemned during the deliberations of the International Court of Justice, and the harmful international repercussions that could result from it.

Yesterday, Thursday, the court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, began examining a request from South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide crimes against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Among the repercussions that Israel fears from possible conviction at the International Court of Justice are:

- Any conviction in the Court of Justice would pave the way for the trial of Israeli leaders and officials before the International Criminal Court (also in The Hague).

- Damaging its international standing.

- Creating international public opinion against it.

- Increased international boycott.

- Refrain from providing it with weapons.

- Imposing military and economic sanctions on it.

-Severing political and economic relations with it.

A pariah state

The Israel Democracy Institute (private) said on Wednesday, “The South African issue represents a major challenge to Israel, and Tel Aviv is dealing with it seriously, and investing significant legal and financial resources in the issue.”

The research institute noted, "Israel must act more forcefully against the calls made by (Israeli) public figures from time to time, which could literally be interpreted as calls for genocide."

The institute considered that "South Africa's request is part of the ongoing efforts made by the Palestinians and many countries to make Israel a pariah state."

He explained, "Losing the case could put Israel in a very problematic position on the international scene... The court has the authority to issue 'temporary measures (orders)' in urgent cases, and these measures may be somewhat vague."

An example of this is the possibility of “the court issuing an order for Israel not to commit genocide, or to immediately cease fire, or to allow unlimited entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” according to the institute.

"Israel's main focus appears to be on ensuring that the actions taken by the court are not seen as interference in the war effort in Gaza," the institute said.

It pointed out that "the court does not have a police or military force to implement its rulings, but if Israel violates the court's orders or rulings, many countries will view it from a very negative perspective, which will harm Israel's standing in the international arena, and many countries may refrain from selling weapons to it." 

Serious snowball

For its part, the newspaper "Israel Hayom" said, "The court hears the petitions before a full committee consisting of 15 judges from various countries, and the hearings continue for years, but South Africa also requested temporary measures (until the case is decided), that is, issuing an order for Israel to stop the fight immediately,” according to its report.

The newspaper believed that "the chances of success of such a request are unclear, and the court could also issue a more lenient measure ordering Israel to stop actions that expose civilians to danger, which carries the same meaning."

The newspaper pointed out that something like this “does not have a direct impact on Israel, but it may prompt some countries to cite it in the Security Council in their efforts to impose military and economic sanctions on Israel.”

It pointed out that it is also possible that "various countries and organizations will view it as confirmation that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, and use it as an excuse to sever political and economic relations."

It also described the matter as "like a dangerous snowball," warning that "Israel's enemies will certainly exploit it in the various media and universities to create public opinion against it."

The newspaper considered that "such pressure could even affect the administration of (US President Joe Biden, who supports Tel Aviv in its aggression against Gaza) to the extent that it may restrict sales of weapons systems to Israel."

It explained that this pressure could lead "to an investigation at the International Criminal Court, which may culminate in the trial of Israeli leaders and army officers who participated in the war."

Boycott and sanctions

As for the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz", it said that the court does not have executive powers, "however, an action such as an order to stop the war immediately would prove that Israel committed genocide, which would cause it to be isolated, boycotted, and impose sanctions on it or against Israeli companies."

The newspaper added, "Informal procedures in court can affect procedures in the criminal court. If it is determined in the court of justice that Israel is committing acts that constitute genocide, the prosecutor in the criminal court can consider taking steps against senior Israeli officials for their involvement in these acts." .

Haaretz noted that if the court orders a ceasefire in Gaza, “the court’s order binds Israel from a legal standpoint, as a signatory to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”

It added, "But Israel could also decide not to implement the (temporary) order or claim that the required steps are not relevant."

Haaretz stressed that in this case, "other countries will be responsible for taking their own measures against Israel, at the international level."

Since last October 7, the Israeli occupation has launched an aggression against Gaza that left more than 23,000 dead and 59,410 wounded, most of them children and women, massive destruction of infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Gaza Strip authorities and the United Nations.

Source: Al Jazeera + Anatolia

The Houthi group in Yemen announced at dawn today (Friday) that the capital, Sanaa, and six other governorates under the group’s control were subjected to air strikes from American and British warplanes.

The (September 26) website, the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of the Houthi government in Sanaa (not internationally recognized), stated that “the American-British aggression launched several raids on the capital, Sanaa, the Hodeidah Governorate, Saada, Dhamar, Hajjah, and Taiz.”

The ministry explained that "the raids of the American-British aggression targeted Al-Dailami Air Base, north of the capital, Sana'a, and Camp Kahlan, east of the city of Saada, and the vicinity of Hodeidah Airport, and areas in the Zabid District in the Hodeidah Governorate, in the Abs District in the Hajjah Governorate, and Taiz Airport."

Abdullah bin Amer, deputy director of the Houthi forces’ moral guidance department, said, “Opening the airspace for American and British military aircraft to attack Yemen is clear participation in the attack and direct involvement in the aggression,” stressing that “the American-British aggression will not go unanswered and that the confrontation has not and will not stop.” ", according to the official website.

In the same context, local residents in the capital, Sana'a, told Xinhua that a series of air strikes targeted Al-Dailami Air Base in the northern side of the capital, Sana'a, which is under the control of the Houthis, and that the bombing caused large explosions whose sound was heard in various parts of the capital, as well as the escalation of flames. .

In the coastal governorate of Hodeidah on the Red Sea, western Yemen, local residents confirmed that an air bombardment targeted the vicinity of Hodeidah airport and the air base in the Dune area, in addition to targets in a number of districts of the coastal governorate.

Violent air strikes also targeted the Abs camp in the Abs District, west of Hajjah Governorate, causing huge explosions inside the camp, according to a local source.

Warplanes launched air strikes on Taiz International Airport and the 22nd Armored Brigade camp in the southern side of Taiz Governorate, causing huge explosions, according to local residents.

America and Britain announced launching attacks against Houthi targets against the backdrop of Houthi military operations in the Red Sea and the group’s threat to international corridors for global trade.

Since last November, the Houthis have been launching military operations in the Red Sea, which the group says are against Israeli ships or those heading to Israel against the backdrop of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip since last October.

On Wednesday, the Houthi group announced that it had carried out a military operation using ballistic missiles and drones that targeted an American ship in the Red Sea, west of Yemen. The group said that the ship was providing support to Israel and that the targeting came in response to an American bombing of its boats in the Red Sea.

At the end of last December, the group announced the death and loss of 10 of its members in an American attack on boats in the Red Sea, while the group’s naval forces were carrying out a military operation against a container ship, and the Houthis repeatedly threatened to respond to that.

At the beginning of this month, the United States and 11 countries issued a joint statement affirming that the Houthis will bear responsibility for the consequences if they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and the free flow of trade in the region’s vital waterways.
For more than nine years, the Houthis have controlled the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and most of the northern Yemeni governorates, including the strategic coastal governorate of Hodeidah on the Red Sea in the west of the country.