Axios revealed on Monday that a White House delegation headed by Phil Gordon, National Security Advisor to Vice President Kamla Harris, is heading to Israel on Monday to discuss the “day after” the war in Gaza and the policy that the Biden administration wants to implement regarding the Israeli-Palestinian issue after the war.

Experts believe that Vice President Kamala Harris will take over the Gaza file in particular, and the Palestinian situation as a whole, while Biden continues to focus on helping Israel globally, and ensuring the continued flow of weapons, and American military and financial aid.

According to the report, the Biden administration wants Israel to actually start thinking about the “day after” in Gaza and adjust its policy accordingly, including how to conduct its military operation on the ground.

In Israel, Gordon will meet with National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi, Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, and other senior officials, and in Ramallah, he will meet with Palestinian President Abbas and his aides.

Gordon arrives in Israel from Dubai, where he accompanied Vice President Harris in her meetings with the leaders of the Emirates, Egypt and Jordan on the sidelines of the climate summit, and Harris also spoke on the phone with the Emir of Qatar.

Experts believe that Vice President Kamala Harris will take over the Gaza file in particular, and the Palestinian situation as a whole, while Biden continues to focus on helping Israel globally and ensuring the continued flow of weapons and American military and financial aid.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas received a phone call from US Vice President Harris on Sunday, where “during the meeting, the latest developments on the Palestinian arena were discussed, and the latest developments in the ongoing efforts to stop the aggression against Palestinian people, as he stressed the necessity of immediately stopping the aggression against Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip  and spare civilians from the scourge of bombing and destruction carried out by the Israeli killing machine,” according to the Palestinian presidency.

By Abdul Wahab Badrakhan

At the moment of writing this article, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was repeating in another press conference that the President of the Palestinian Authority has not yet condemned the Hamas attack, and that this authority does not fight terrorism but rather funds it, and does not raise Palestinian generations for peace but rather to “remove Israel.” Therefore, this authority cannot return to Gaza and be relied upon to manage the Strip “unless it is changed.”

Moreover, Netanyahu went on to consider that allowing the Palestine Liberation Organization to return to Palestine was the “biggest mistake” committed in the “Oslo Accords.” The maximum position that President Mahmoud Abbas could declare was to condemn “the killing of civilians on both sides,” which is what most countries of the world have adopted and what could be proven in international resolutions or draft resolutions, after the occupation forces had begun bombing operations, deliberately mass killing civilians in the Gaza Strip, and not especially children and women, with the intention of disrupting hospitals and tightening the siege to deprive the population of water, food, medicine, electricity, the Internet and shelter.

Israelis do not have the right to talk about the “education” that Palestinian children receive, as they live the ongoing tragedy, generation after generation, throughout Palestine, and not all of them are involved in armed resistance. Rather, there is a generation of them who grew up hoping for a “normal life,” but they see with their own eyes brutality of the occupation's practices and crimes block their horizons. On the other hand, they see that all generations of the other people on his land are camped. When International Children's Day finally came (November 20, 2023), international reports said that five children were being killed every hour in Gaza, while a tape prepared for the occasion was broadcast of Israeli girls singing: “Israeli fighters are bombing, destruction, destruction / There will be nothing else left.” “We will eliminate them within a whole year.” The song was an expression of spreading hatred and what Israeli “education” instils in the minds of its children. Criticisms later prompted Israel to delete it from all websites.

Before Netanyahu appeared alone at the press conference, saying that his Defense Minister Yoav Galant did not want to appear with him, the US Vice President was giving a statement in Dubai (on the sidelines of her participation in the COP 28 conference) about what were considered the main goals of Washington upon the “end” of the war on Gaza. That is, the American administration continues to support the war and the Israeli goals, but it deceives international public opinion that it is trying to stop it through truces of exchanging prisoners and hostages, or perhaps it is trying to express its despair about the possibility of convincing Israel to “correct” this war to be “more respectful” of international humanitarian law. After the United States was quick to “absolutely support” Israel, it was late in trying to tame its brutality, assuming that it was sincere.

When Secretary Anthony Blinken said that the Israelis would make an effort to “avoid civilians,” he immediately added that America still supports “Israel’s right to defend itself,” and the second statement denies the first. Hours ago, the New York Times had revealed the existence of documents confirming that the plan for the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation was in the possession of the military and intelligence agencies a year before its implementation, wondering, of course, why this information was neglected. The moment Blinken was issuing his ambiguous “reassurances” to Gazan civilians, seven hundred of them had been killed or wounded with the collapse of the truce and renewed Israeli bombing. At the same time, the American media began announcing several things: 

First, that Washington had provided Israel with a shipment of penetrating bombs that it needed in its upcoming operations (so how will it spare civilians). 

Secondly, Israel intends to create a “buffer zone” in the Gaza Strip (this is a deduction from Gaza’s territory). 

Third, the genius of Ron Dermer (Netanyahu’s strategic advisor) came up with a plan to displace the Palestinians of Gaza by sea to other countries, as if he had been inspired by the biblical “Book of Exodus” or the incident of ships transporting European Jews (in 1947) to the land of Palestine.

What Blinken does not say explicitly is clarified by John Kirby (National Security Council spokesman), and from what he said is that the administration has not evaluated the Israeli military approach and that it is “in principle against reducing the territory of the Gaza Strip,” but it “supports Israel’s right to defend itself.” 

This insistence on supporting this “right” implies American disdain for everything that has been said over the past weeks about the contradiction between the occupation and its “right” to defend and expand the occupation. As for Vice President Kamala Harris, she used the same American cylinder and added that Israel has “a legitimate right to carry out military operations against Hamas, which launched attacks against it,” but “international humanitarian law must be respected.” However, she did not specify who (other than Washington) decided that it did not respect it. Most of the world said that it “exceeded that right” and “committed war crimes,” and Pope Francis was even quoted as saying that “what is happening has gone beyond war and has become terrorism,” that is, “state terrorism.”

No one in the American administration utters the word “occupation,” but what is important is that the Vice President presented what are supposed to be “principled” and “official” American positions with which Washington deals with all parties concerned with the crisis, with the exception of Israel. However, these are positions after the “end of the war,” and do not take into account that the war may lead to results that force Washington to change its positions, in the interest of Israel.

Harris said that the United States “urges Israel to make greater efforts to protect civilians” (knowing in advance that it has not and will not do so), and that it “demands that the combat zone be narrowed during any attack in southern Gaza and that safe areas be designated for civilians” (but just access to the south means impossibility of any safe area to exist). She also said that Washington “will not allow the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank” (but no one sees the Israeli bombing as an encouragement for residents to stay, but rather as an insistence on uprooting them from their homes and forcibly displacing them), and that it “wants to see the West Bank and Gaza united under the Palestinian Authority.” After strengthening its security forces” (Netanyahu did not delay in responding, rejecting the return of authority to Gaza, and he already opposes the unification of the West Bank and Gaza)...

Which one can be believed here: the actual Israeli displacement or the American verbal rejection of displacement, and does Washington distinguish “forced displacement” (considered a war crime according to international law) from “voluntary displacement” to Arab or African countries so that it can then be presented as “more humane” than murder? This mercurial American stance aims only to cover up Israeli crimes, and it becomes clear every day that what is said about “disagreements” between Israel and Washington is just “nonsense,” as the latter is committed to supporting the war and it is not possible to pull Israel out of a criminal war like this and into a “peaceful political process.”

spource: Annahar

More than 83 citizens were killed today, Monday, and others were injured in continuous Israeli bombing of inhabited homes in various areas in the Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera said that 83 dead were transferred to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City since dawn on Monday.

Press sources reported that Israeli warplanes bombed with missiles dozens of homes in the Al-Zaytoun and Al-Shuja’iya neighborhoods, belonging to the families of Abu Halima, Al-Dahdouh, Ishtaiwi, Al-Thalateeni, Abu Al-Zour, Abu Aklin, and other families, which led to at least 30 dead, the majority of whom were children, and the wounding of others. Houses were destroyed on top of their residents.

Warplanes had bombed a group of civil defense crews in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, resulting in two deaths, 10 others being injured, and the place being damaged.

Occupation artillery surrounded the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, specifically the old town of Gaza City, amid heavy fire from warplanes and drones.

In a related context, the Red Crescent Society reported the death of paramedic Osama Tayeh (37 years old), a volunteer first responder with the Crescent Ambulance Team in the Al-Faluja area in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, after he refused to leave northern Gaza for the south and insisted on continuing to provide emergency health care services to the people suffering from the scourge of the bombing, and the employee, Muhammad Abu Rukba, who was with him, was also injured.

A poll by the American Gallup Research Company revealed, on Sunday, that the majority of American young men and women do not support the Israeli attacks on the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

1,013 Americans participated in the poll conducted by Gallup last November.

The poll stated that 52 percent of women do not support the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

44 percent view the attacks as “justified.”

Also, 67 percent of participants between the ages of 18 and 34 oppose the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

According to the results, 50 percent of the survey participants support the Israeli attacks on Gaza, while 45 percent do not support them.

The poll also revealed that 71 percent of Republicans participating in the poll support the Israeli attacks, and 23 percent of them oppose.

While 63 percent of Democratic participants in the poll do not support the Israeli attacks on Gaza, and 36 percent do.

On the other hand, 59 percent of men support the attacks on Gaza, while 37 percent of them oppose them.

According to the poll, 61 percent of “white” Americans support the Israeli attacks on Gaza, and 36 percent of them reject them.

Regarding the other ethnicities participating in the survey, 64 percent of them disapprove of the attacks, and 30 percent support the attacks.

67 percent of participants expressed their satisfaction with the United States providing military aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to Palestine.

While 31 percent of participants believe that their country “provided too much aid” to Israel.

72 percent of American adults are closely following the progress of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, which have continued since October 7.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told ABC News this weekend that he predicts the war in its current intensity will last at least another two months.

After that, Gallant thinks Israel will be fighting in Gaza for multiple months doing mop-up operations and "taking out pockets of terrorist resistance."

Gallant said the only way Israel would consider resuming any negotiation talks with Hamas is if "Hamas fulfills the original agreement and returns the 15 women and two children it is still holding" hostage, with no preconditions and nothing in return.

Gallant said he's committed to bringing home the rest of the more than 100 people who remain hostage in Gaza.

He added, "The only way with Hamas is to use force. Eventually they will give you something. … Hamas has two options: to die in the tunnels or on the surface, or surrender with no conditions.”

Gallant said Israel's goals for the war are to kill Hamas’ Gaza leader and Oct. 7 architect Yehye Sinwar, "break Hamas' chain of command" and ensure Hamas will “no longer function as a military organization that can launch organized attacks against Israel.

“The most difficult decision of my life,” is how a nurse in a besieged hospital in the Gaza Strip described how he felt about his experience when he was caring for five “premature” infants, who were born prematurely and lost their fathers.

Speaking to the Washington Post, the nurse, a Palestinian working with Doctors Without Borders based in Paris, confirmed that this was at the height of the Israeli aggression on the northern Gaza Strip, which began last October, and Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital was a war zone.

He explained that the day before the incident, air strikes cut off oxygen supplies to the facility in Gaza City, as Israeli tanks surrounded the hospital complex, and the Israeli occupation army was calling the doctors and sending them text messages urging them to leave.

But ambulances were unable to safely reach Al-Nasr Hospital to transport the wounded, and doctors refused to leave the facility without their patients, according to the nurse.

Speaking to the newspaper, the nurse spoke about the children, saying that the five premature babies were particularly at risk, as they needed oxygen and medications given to them at regular intervals. There were no portable respirators or incubators to transport them. Without life support, the nurse feared they would not survive the evacuation.

Then the Israeli occupation army issued a warning, according to what the director of Al-Nasr Hospital, Bakr Qaoud, told the Washington Post: Get out or you will be bombed. Meanwhile, an Israeli official confirmed that ambulances would be arranged to transport patients.

The nurse did not find any other option before him, and he told the newspaper that he evaluated the situation and condition of the children, then decided to take one child with him, who he thought would be most likely to withstand a temporary interruption in the oxygen supply. Reluctantly leaving the four others on their breathing apparatus, he headed south with his wife, their children and only child.

The nurse, who spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity to protect his privacy, said: “I felt like I was leaving my children behind. “If we had the ability to take them, we would have done so, but if we had cut off their oxygen, they would have died.”

Two weeks later, the newspaper reported that the truce allowed a journalist from Gaza, Muhammad Baalousha, to venture into the hospital, and in the neonatal intensive care unit, he discovered a horrific thing: the decomposing bodies of the four children, which had been eaten by worms until they turned black due to mold. They had also been attacked by  stary dogs. 

Baalousha told the newspaper: “The scene is terrible and horrific.”

The newspaper stated that this horrific discovery serves as “a reminder of the heavy losses inflicted on civilians during the war launched by Israel to eliminate Hamas, a campaign that did not spare hospitals or children, as thousands were killed.”

Israel has long accused the Palestinian resistance movement “Hamas” of hiding command and control centers in hospitals, and the administration of US President Joe Biden supported this claim. Hamas and the medical staff in Gaza deny this.

However, the newspaper confirmed that Israeli leaders made the region's healthcare infrastructure a focus of the military campaign. After a month of war, this included Al-Nasr Hospital.

source: Sama News

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assigned his chief advisor Ron Dermer, who holds the position of Minister of Strategic Affairs, to develop plans to reduce the number of Palestinian residents in the Gaza Strip to a minimum, according to the Hebrew newspaper “Israel Today”.

It added that the plan consists of two main elements. The first element is to use the pressures of war and the humanitarian crisis to persuade Egypt to allow refugees to flow to other Arab countries, and the second will open sea routes, allowing Israel to allow refugees to flow to Arab countries, and then to flee en masse to European and African countries as well.

Ron Dermer, one of Netanyahu's close associates, was previously Israel's ambassador to the United States, and enjoys close relations with many members of Congress.

The newspaper pointed out that the plan to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians in Gaza is facing some internal resistance, from less extremist members of Netanyahu's government.

The Hebrew "Israel Today" and other Hebrew media are also talking about a plan being pushed to Congress that would make aid provided to Arab countries conditional on their willingness to accept Palestinian refugees.

The plan also proposes transferring specific numbers of refugees to each country, with Egypt receiving a million Palestinians, half a million going to Turkey, and a quarter of a million to Yemen and Iraq.

The reports refuse to mention who put together the proposal, and the newspaper added, “The proposal was presented to key figures in the House and Senate from both parties, and Representative Joe Wilson expressed his public support for it, while others, who were familiar with the details, have remained out of sight until now.” 

A new initiative submitted to the US Congress calls for making US aid to Arab countries conditional on their willingness to receive refugees from Gaza.

The proposal was presented to key figures in the House and Senate from both parties. Even the longtime lawmaker, Rep. Joe Wilson, has expressed public support for it while others who were privy to the details of the text have so far kept a low profile, saying publicly coming out in favor of the program could derail it.

“Israel is trying to keep civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip as low as possible, but Hamas does not allow refugees to leave and Egypt is unwilling to open its borders,” the plan’s authors wrote in the opening paragraph.

They later go on to explain that “the only moral solution is to ensure that Egypt opens its borders and allows refugees to escape the tyrannical control of Hamas.” The US government provides Egypt with approximately $1.3 billion in foreign aid, and this money can be allocated to refugees from Gaza who will be allowed to enter Egypt.

They continue: “The neighboring borders have been closed for too long, but it is now clear that in order to liberate the people of Gaza from the tyrannical oppression of Hamas and allow them to live without war and bloodshed, Israel must encourage the international community to find the right, moral and humane ways to transfer Residents of Gaza.

The plan indicates that Egypt should not bear the entire burden, but rather that other countries in the region should share this burden. Iraq and Yemen receive nearly $1 billion in US foreign aid, and Turkey receives more than $150 million. The plan's authors stress that each of these countries receives enough foreign aid and has a large enough population to be able to accept refugees who make up less than 1% of its population.

The plan also calls for the United States to make foreign aid to Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, and Turkey conditional on those countries accepting a certain number of refugees.

The plan even goes so far as to envision the number of Gazans that each of these countries will receive: one million in Egypt (representing 0.9% of the population there), half a million in Turkey (0.6% of the population in Turkey), and 250,000. For Iraq (0.6% of the population of Iraq), and another 250,000 for Yemen (0.75% of the total population there currently).

Each of these countries receives generous financial aid from the United States, and under the plan, this aid should continue to be provided only on the condition that the residents of Gaza accept it. 

It should be noted that the Biden administration opposes the forced displacement of Gazans from the Strip, but it has not ruled out voluntary migration for those who choose to do so. The text of the plan says: “This will not be the first time that other countries accept refugees.” “According to the UNHCR database, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, for example, more than 6 million Ukrainians have fled the country. Poland received nearly 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees, Germany received nearly a million refugees, and the Czech Republic nearly half a million.

He continues: “Similarly, since 2011 and the ongoing Syrian civil war, 6.7 million Syrians have fled Syria to spread throughout the surrounding countries. 3.2 million Syrian refugees were transferred to Turkey, 789,000 to Lebanon, 653,000 to Jordan, and 150,000 to Egypt, while other Middle Eastern and European countries took in hundreds of thousands.

The document's authors point out that UNRWA is a problematic factor in perpetuating the conflict, in contrast to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which works to resettle refugees around the world. “UNRWA is renewed under a UN mandate every three years and receives funding mostly from the United States, Canada, Britain and the European Union, all of whom are strong supporters of Israel.”

They blame the agency for “spreading the refugee narrative” and “preventing the rehabilitation of Palestinian refugees for more than 70 years, in effect deepening the refugee crisis.” Therefore, they say: "It must be closed."

Both Egypt and Jordan warned that they would not open their borders to a mass exodus of Palestinians, after the outbreak of the events of last October 7.

Two weeks ago, the White House stated that President Joe Biden and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, confirmed during a phone call that “the Palestinians will not be displaced to Egypt or any other country.”

The White House added in a statement at the time that Biden and Sisi also discussed the necessity of protecting civilian lives, and not displacing Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt, or any other country.

Al-Sisi said, during a phone call with his counterpart Biden, that Egypt “did not and will not allow the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egyptian territory.”

Al-Sisi also affirmed “Egypt’s firm position of rejecting the policies of collective punishment and displacement, and that Egypt has not and will not allow the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egyptian territory.”

Source: Sama News

China called for an end to the war and the protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip, expressing its "deep concern" about the renewed conflict.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in a press statement held in the Chinese capital, Beijing, on Monday: “Under the current circumstances, the comprehensive goal of a ceasefire and ending the war in Gaza cannot be changed,” according to the local newspaper “Global Times.” .

Wang stressed the need "not to abandon the main principle of protecting civilians in Gaza."

The Chinese official also expressed his country's "deep concern about the renewed conflict in the Strip."

The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, called for a regular flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, describing the level of suffering of the people of the besieged Strip as unbearable, in her first visit to the besieged Strip since the beginning of the Israeli aggression.

The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross spoke during her visit to the Gaza Strip about her observations of the suffering of Gaza residents and displaced people, noting that there is no safe place in Gaza. She said: “The level of human suffering is unbearable, and it is unacceptable that civilians do not have a safe place to go in Gaza, and “Under the existing military siege, there is no adequate humanitarian response at the present time.”

Spoliatric reiterated the Red Cross’s calls for the protection and respect of civilians and the application of international humanitarian law. She said: “The purpose of my visit is to strengthen efforts aimed at alleviating the desperate humanitarian situation. I will express my deep concern about the plight of civilians and stress the ICRC’s full commitment to doing everything possible to alleviate their suffering. We have issued an urgent appeal to protect and respect the lives of civilians by all parties, in line with international humanitarian law, and I repeat this call today.”

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross called for allowing aid to flow into the besieged Strip: “Aid must be allowed to flow regularly and without hindrance into Gaza, and all those deprived of their freedom must be treated humanely.”

Spoljaric praised the humanitarian truce that took place the previous week, expressing the Red Cross’ readiness to support similar agreements that would reduce the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip: “Last week a small amount of humanitarian relief was provided, and a positive glimpse of humanity that raised hopes around the world that a way could be found.” To reduce suffering now, as a neutral actor, the International Committee of the Red Cross stands ready to support further humanitarian agreements that will reduce suffering and grief.”

A United Nations spokesman said that Israel has notified the United Nations that it will not renew the visa of its humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, Len Hastinger, due to the diplomatic position on the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip.

“The Israeli authorities have informed us that they will not renew Hastings’ visa beyond its due date later this month,” Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

Dujarric declined to specify whether Hastings, who is based in Jerusalem, would be replaced or whether she would continue her work from another operating base.

He stressed that Guterres retains "full confidence" in Hastings.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, appointed Canadian diplomat, Lynn Hastings, as his deputy special envoy for the Middle East peace process and resident coordinator for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The spokesman said: “You have seen some public attacks against her on the X platform (formerly Twitter), which are completely unacceptable.”

In late October, the Israeli Foreign Ministry criticized Hastings on X, saying: “According to the ethics of the United Nations, she is supposed to be neutral and objective, but unfortunately she is not.”

Israel has also criticized other officials, including Guterres, since the start of its war on Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 15,000 Palestinians, including more than 8,000 children.

An Israeli army spokesman said that his forces have not defeated the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in northern Gaza yet, explaining to CNN that the operation is difficult and its combat terrain is as well.

For his part, the commander of the Israeli Armored Forces said that they are close to completing their mission in the northern Gaza Strip, adding, “The objectives in the northern part have almost been achieved and we have begun moving in other parts,” according to what Reuters reported.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), as the implementing agency for Japanese official development assistance, announced today, Monday, the provision of the second batch of relief aid, by providing medical supplies, including bandages, gauze, gloves, and medical syringes, to improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.

JICA explained, in a press release, that the aid arrived at Al-Arish Airport in Egypt on December 1, 2023, and will then reach the Gaza Strip via the Egyptian Red Crescent, to be distributed inside Gaza via the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

The aid batch was received at Al-Arish Airport by a Japanese delegation from the Japanese government headed by the Minister Plenipotentiary, Deputy Head of Mission at the Japanese Embassy in Egypt Takada Katsunobu, Director General of the Middle East and Europe Department at JICA Matsunaga Hideki, and Director General of the JICA Egypt Office Kato Kane, accompanied by the Egyptian Red Crescent team. Who handles the transportation process?

The Japanese Ambassador to Egypt, Oka Hiroshi, witnessed the signing of the confirmation of receipt from the Egyptian Red Crescent. The delegation also visited the Rafah crossing, and witnessed the flow of trucks and humanitarian supplies into Gaza.

This payment comes in response to the increasing critical health needs in Gaza resulting from the conflicts and clashes that have erupted since October 7, 2023.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the number of victims exceeded 15,500 as of December 3, and about 1.7 million people were displaced to southern Gaza. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that two-thirds of hospitals and primary health care clinics have stopped operating due to damage, fuel shortages and insecurity, and that hospitals in northern Gaza are “completely out of service,” with functioning hospitals suffering from a shortage of medical supplies and consumables. Currently, only the logistical route via Egypt is operational.

Since the Egyptian Red Crescent is the only body responsible for transporting humanitarian aid supplies to the Gaza Strip, JICA has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Egyptian Red Crescent to ensure the rapid transport of aid supplies, as it will undertake the transport process to the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society will undertake the distribution process within Gaza. .

The families of Israeli prisoners in Gaza threatened the Israeli war cabinet with escalatory steps if the cabinet did not meet with them until eight o’clock on Monday evening.

The families are demanding a ceasefire and the revival of the exchange deal to return the remaining prisoners held by the resistance, fearing for the lives of their relatives, and because of fear of the severe shortage of food and medicine and the difficult conditions in which they are detained inside the tunnels in Gaza.

Sources in Netanyahu's office said that a meeting was scheduled to be held with the families the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, but if the families wish, the date will be brought forward.

Today, Monday, Israeli occupation forces destroyed an electricity network in the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus.

The mayor of Sebastia, Muhammad Azem, said that the occupation stormed the town accompanied by a military bulldozer, and demolished an electricity network on Columns Street.

He pointed out that the town is systematically subjected to multiple raids by colonists and occupation soldiers, in an attempt to control the archaeological monuments inside the town.

On Monday, Agence France-Presse quoted eyewitnesses as saying that dozens of Israeli tanks were penetrating the southern Gaza Strip.

The agency said that dozens of Israeli tanks, troop carriers, and military bulldozers entered the southern Gaza Strip in the town of Al-Qarara, north of the city of Khan Yunis.

It pointed out that dozens of tanks penetrated “two kilometers” into the town of Al-Qarara, while “tanks are present on both sides of Salah al-Din Road and completely blocking it,” which is the road linking the north and south of the Strip.

On Sunday/Monday night, Israeli forces intensified their air strikes and artillery shelling in the northern, central and southern Gaza Strip, while battles continued with Palestinian faction fighters in more than one axis.

In this context, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced on Monday that it had targeted 10 Israeli vehicles in the eastern Gaza axis, and its fighters killed Israeli soldiers in the Sheikh Radwan area.

The Hebrew Walla website reported on Monday that an American delegation from the White House is arriving in Israel today to discuss the “day after” the war in the Gaza Strip.

The website noted that the American delegation is headed by Phil Gordon, National Security Advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris.

The American delegation is scheduled to meet with the Israeli National Security Advisor and the Minister of Strategic Affairs in the Israeli government.

The Hebrew website said that American officials will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

Efforts and endeavors are intensifying to reduce the escalation and cease fire in Gaza, with the Israeli forces resuming their military operations in the entire Strip last Friday, after 7 days of a truce, which included an exchange of prisoners between Tel Aviv and the Hamas movement.

In this context, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that he held talks with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani about ongoing efforts to facilitate the safe return of all hostages and increase levels of aid to civilians in Gaza.

On the other hand, a diplomatic source in Ankara told a Novosti correspondent that the contact group for resolving the situation in Gaza will visit the United States this week to conduct negotiations with the American administration.

The aforementioned contact group, composed of the foreign ministers of Turkey, Indonesia, Nigeria, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, was formed following the summits of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the League of Arab States in Riyadh. Earlier, the group held negotiations in Beijing, Moscow, London and Paris.

Source: agencies+ Sama

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stressed the need to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.

According to a statement published on the website of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two sides discussed, in a phone call on Saturday, the latest developments in Gaza as well as cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Amir Abdullahian stressed the need to stop Israeli “crimes” against the Palestinians, urging the need to immediately stop Israeli military attacks against the residents of Gaza and pave the way for the delivery of more humanitarian aid to the coastal Strip.

He warned of Israel's "conspiracy" and its move to forcefully displace the Palestinian people from their land. He also warned of expanding the conflict in the region if the Israeli attacks did not stop.

Amir Abdullahian blamed "American support as the main factor encouraging Israel to continue its military aggression against civilians and their killing in Gaza," stressing that Washington's policies supporting Israel also played an important role in prolonging the conflict and expanding its scope.

Referring to Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Abdullahian said that cooperation will continue within technical and legal frameworks.

For his part, Borrell stressed the need to reduce tensions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as soon as possible, stressing that the European Union is making efforts to make Israel committed to respecting international law.

He stressed Iran's role in helping to ease tensions in the region, saying, "We also believe that the solution to the Palestinian issue lies in focusing on the diplomatic track and that continuing military attacks will only exacerbate tensions."

He also expressed his hope for continued constructive cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

A number of citizens were injured by occupation bullets, during confrontations that broke out following the storming of Qalandia camp and the town of Kafr Aqab, north of occupied Jerusalem.

The Ministry of Health reported that the young man, Ali Ibrahim Alqam (32 years old), was killed by a bullet in the heart fired at him by Israeli occupation soldiers in Qalandiya.

The Ministry added that 4 serious injuries were reported by occupation bullets during confrontations in Qalandiya following the storming operation.

The occupation also stormed the headquarters of the Jerusalem Governorate in Qalandiya camp, and a number of shops on the airport road.

From yesterday evening until Monday morning, the Israeli occupation forces arrested at least (60) citizens from the West Bank, including former prisoners. The arrests were concentrated in the Dheisheh Camp/Bethlehem, while the rest of the arrests were distributed across the majority of the West Bank governorates, and a group of them were later released.

During the arrest campaigns, the Israeli occupation forces continue to carry out widespread acts of abuse, severe beatings, field investigations, and threats against detainees and their families, in addition to widespread sabotage and destruction of citizens’ homes, in addition to detaining citizens as hostages to pressure family members to surrender themselves.

Thus, the total number of arrests after the seventh of last October rose to more than (3,540), and this total includes those who were arrested from homes, through military checkpoints, those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure, those who were held hostage, and those who were summoned and arrested later.

The ongoing arrest campaigns come within the framework of the comprehensive aggression against our people and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, after the seventh of last October, and have included all groups, including children, the elderly, women, and hundreds of former prisoners who spent years in Israeli occupation prisons.

The Israeli occupying state, and behind it the countries supporting it, led by America, Britain, and the rest of the colonial West, are wrong if these countries believe that the popular incubator of the resistance in the Gaza Strip can break away from those around the resistance or its hostility, despite all the crimes committed against Gaza Strip.
The Israeli occupying state’s targeting of citizens in the Gaza Strip, in agreement with America and the colonial West, which has so far claimed about 16,000 dead and thousands of wounded and missing people, thinking that this targeting will make them turn against the resistance and thus fight it, or abandon it, is an illusion that follows another illusion, and a miscalculation that follows it. 

The masses always embrace everyone who defends them from the scourge of colonialism, currently represented by the occupying state, and works to liberate them from it, so that they can live in security, stability, and peace without occupation, oppression, and genocide, as is currently happening by the occupation forces in Gaza, and at the hands of these forces and herds of settlers in the West Bank, including Jerusalem. 
The 17-year siege of the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air, the war waged against it from time to time, and the practices and crimes of the occupation forces and herds of settlers are what generated resistance from among the masses. Therefore, this resistance cannot be turned against by whoever generated it as long as it works to get rid of the occupation and its calamities are devastating to humanity, especially to countries that claim democracy and human rights and raise them as slogans to throw dust in the eyes, as they practice the most heinous practices, crimes, and human rights violations on the ground.
Our people, who are tired of the occupation and its calamities, cannot abandon their resistance, which is the ammunition with which they defend their stolen national and human rights. So how can they abandon this weapon and this ammunition to remain submissive to the occupation? This has not and will not happen, because our people are determined to continue their struggle until achieving their full and inalienable national rights to return, self-determination, and the establishment of their independent state with its capital, Al-Quds Al-Sharif, whether Israel wants it or not.
The shortest path for the occupying state, and behind it, America and the colonial West, if they want the region to calm down, and for the volcano to stop spewing lava, is to stop the brutal aggression and give our people their full national rights, because without that, the region will continue to boil and explode, and this will have repercussions not only on the region, but also on the whole world.

Will these countries learn before it is too late and emerge defeated from the region, as they were recently defeated by Afghanistan and Iraq, and by Vietnam, India and many other countries, trailing the tails of defeat and failure iinfront of the entire world?

President Mahmoud Abbas today received a telephone call from US Vice President Kamala Harris during which they discussed the latest developments in Palestine and the ongoing efforts to end the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.

President Abbas stressed the need to immediately stop the aggression in the Gaza Strip and spare the civilians the torment of the bombings and destruction carried out by the Israeli killing machine.

The President stressed the importance of increasing the entry of relief, medical and food supplies into Gaza, providing water, electricity and fuel as quickly as possible, and providing the necessary aid so that hospitals and basic facilities can resume their work to treat thousands of wounded and provide services to the people.

The President reiterated his rejection and prevention of the forced displacement of the Palestinian people, whether in the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, stressing the need for the United States to intervene to prevent the attacks, murders, demolition of homes, and expulsions of Palestinians carried out by the Israeli occupation authorities and terrorist colonists in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley which are facing silent and premeditated annexation.

The President pointed out that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the Palestinian state and that it is not possible to accept or deal with plans by the occupation authorities to separate, occupy, cut off, or isolate any part of the Gaza Strip, stressing the necessity of releasing the Palestinian clearance funds, adding “we will not and did not abandon our people in the Gaza Strip.”

President Abbas assured US Vice President Kamala Harris of his readiness to work to implement the two-state solution based on international legitimacy resolutions, starting with the State of Palestine gaining full membership in the United Nations by a decision of the Security Council, convening an international peace conference to provide international guarantees and a timetable for implementation, and assuming full responsibility for the entire Palestinian territory in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

He stressed that peace and security are achieved by ending the Israeli occupation of the entire territory of the State of Palestine along the 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and resolving the refugee issue and their return as per Resolution 194. He stressed that security and military solutions have proven their failure and will not achieve security and stability for the region.

Two young Palestinians were killed, at dawn on Monday, by Israeli occupation army gunfire in the city of Qalqilya.

The General Authority for Civil Affairs informed the Ministry of Health that two young men were killed by occupation bullets, and their bodies were detained, following a storming of the city of Qalqilya.

Local sources told our correspondent that Israeli undercover special forces, "Musta'aribin", fired live bullets at a vehicle, seriously wounding two young men, prevented them from being treated, and arrested them.

In this context, two young men were injured by live bullets during the occupation forces’ storming of the city of Qalqilya. They were transferred to Qalqilya Hospital to receive treatment, where their injuries were described as moderate.

According to the Ministry of Health, the death toll in the West Bank since the beginning of this year has risen to 464, including 256 dead since the seventh of last October.

Dozens of Palestinians civilians were killed and injured, at dawn on Monday, during a series of Israeli raids on various areas of the Gaza Strip.

In the south, occupation warplanes bombed a house in the city of Rafah, killing three citizens, in addition to others being found under the rubble.

Also, 9 citizens were killed and dozens injured, in an Israeli aircraft raid on the Al-Tanour neighborhood, east of Rafah.

The occupation warplanes bombed a house in the center of the city of Khan Yunis, resulting in the death of a woman and the injury of at least 8 other people, in addition to two dead and several wounded in a raid on the town of Al-Qarara, northeast of Khan Yunis. The occupation artillery also bombed the eastern area of the city.

In Gaza City, occupation aircraft and artillery launched violent raids on the Al-Shuja'iya and Al-Tuffah neighborhoods, east of the city.

3 civil defense crews were killed, and others were injured as a result of Israeli bombing on eastern Gaza City.

Local sources reported that a child was killed in a raid that targeted a house in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, in addition to bombing that targeted Palestine Square and the vicinity of the Baptist Hospital in central Gaza City.

The occupation warplanes also bombed a house in the Al-Baraka area in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

In the north of the Gaza Strip, the occupation warplanes targeted several inhabited homes in the Jabalia camp, leading to the death and injury of dozens, in addition to the bombing of homes in Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.

At midnight, the occupation aircraft targeted the northern gate of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalia with a missile fired by an Israeli reconnaissance plane, which led to the death and injury of dozens of citizens.

John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the White House National Security Council, said the current Palestinian Authority does not have the credibility to manage the Gaza Strip.

Kirby added during an interview with ABC: “We do not believe that the current Palestinian Authority is in a position to be a credible leader in Gaza.”

Kirby stressed that the United States is still committed to the idea of a “two states for two peoples” solution, but with “reforming the Palestinian leadership so that it meets the interests of the Palestinians.”

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the Palestinian Authority will not enter the Gaza Strip now, indicating the necessity of establishing “a complete Israeli security zone for years” under the pretext of “preventing the emergence of more terrorism.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to resume his trial sessions on corruption charges, Monday, December 4, 2023, after a hiatus that lasted more than two months, since the start of the war on the Gaza Strip, according to what the “Israel Hayom” newspaper published on Sunday.

The trial was scheduled to continue, but was halted after October 7, when Israeli courts were operating on an emergency basis following the Al-Aqsa Flood attack.

As the courts return to normal activity in December, Netanyahu's trial continues despite the war.

The court session will begin on Monday with the testimony of investigator Eran Bushnik, who investigated the Netanyahu corruption case. After Bushnik, the court will hear the testimony of investigator Dotan Malichi and Israeli Securities Authority investigator Lior Shpetz.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is on trial on criminal charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

It is worth noting that on December 1, 2023, a humanitarian truce between the Palestinian resistance factions and Israel ended. It was concluded with Qatari-Egyptian mediation and lasted for 7 days, during which prisoners were exchanged and limited humanitarian aid was brought into the sector, which is inhabited by about 2.3 million Palestinians.

It is noteworthy that the Israeli occupation army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, which left massive infrastructure destruction and an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to official Palestinian and UN sources.

Source: Sama News

#Netanyahu

In an op-ed, former Doctors Without Borders president Rony Brauman, La France Insoumise MP François Ruffin and Green Party national secretary Marine Tondelier call on Emmanuel Macron to support International Criminal Court investigators's entry into Palestinian territories.

We call on the French president to support urgent entry of International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators into Gaza, in order to put an end to impunity. It must be possible to establish the facts and responsibilities of the belligerents in their conduct of the war impartially and objectively. France must lend a hand to the ICC investigators, as it is already rightly doing in Ukraine.

Ending impunity is a moral and political imperative. It involves reminding the belligerents of their legal obligations, and reminding them that ignoring these cannot remain without consequences. Pressure must be brought to bear in every possible way for an immediate ceasefire, necessary in order to put an end to the suffering of Palestinian men, women and children trapped by the bombing, as well as Hamas civilian hostages in captivity.

Israel's refusal to ratify the ICC treaty is not an obstacle to the law. Palestine has declared that it will submit to international law. Since 2021, the ICC has had jurisdiction in the occupied territories and Gaza. The challenge is ensuring that it has access to  investigate. France's request for the ICC to enter Gaza would make our country audible again on the international stage, particularly in Arab and emerging countries. This should be accompanied by a demand for an immediate ceasefire and a real lifting of the blockade.

Audible on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and on the 2003 American intervention in Iraq, this unique voice has unfortunately faded over the last 15 years. Our image is now that of a power that selectively applies standards and principles of law and democracy that it nevertheless claims to be universal.

Cautionary double standards

France's policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict prior to October 7 has largely contributed to this negative image. Our policy is incantatory and ineffective. It doesn't drive any of the practical levers at its disposal likely to influence Israel's policy of colonization and discrimination against the Palestinian population.

France's lack of influence has become even more pronounced after October 7. Even if the two contexts cannot be compared in every respect, there are cautionary double standards between our policy toward Ukraine since the Russian invasion and our policy on Palestine.

Under the headline: “Netanyahu flees forward in the war,” the French newspaper Le Monde said that the Israeli prime minister, obsessed with his political survival, rejects the idea of a Palestinian state and offers only hypothetical solutions for the future of the coastal strip.

According to the newspaper, “After about two months of war, the results were poor. Less than half of the hostages returned, and Hamas still controls Gaza so well that the truce lasted for seven days without any major violation, before the Palestinian movement decided, anticipating the failure of the negotiations.” Aiming to renew the “humanitarian truce,” on Friday morning, it launched its missiles at Israeli territory, thereby demonstrating that it maintains the initiative,” according to what the newspaper said. With 75 soldiers killed on the Israeli side and more than 15,000 on the Palestinian side, the vast majority of them civilians, this confrontation is already the longest and bloodiest in the series of wars between the two camps, which began in 2008. If Israel’s goals are to “destroy” the Islamic movement The road will still be difficult.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu is consolidating his record as the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history. Despite his unpopularity, highlighted by the massive demonstrations against Supreme Court reform, and despite his responsibility for the security failure that occurred on October 7, the date of the Hamas surprise attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel, there is no guarantee that he will remain in power. He will eventually resign.

“Le Monde” quoted Ksenia Svetlova, a former member of the Knesset and member of the American Atlantic Council, as saying: “The prime minister is carving out a political space for himself while nibbling on both sides. He (Netanyahu) is fighting for his survival, and allows the extreme right to say that Gaza must be reoccupied and the settlements must be rebuilt. He says that he is the only one who can prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. On the other hand, he is marketing himself as a man of peace, in the context of his competition with former Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, who is a priestly figure, and Benjamin Netanyahu coexists with him within the framework of a national unity government responsible for managing the ongoing war.”

Le Monde continued to say that Benjamin Netanyahu, since entering the world of politics in the early 1990s, has always opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state. But under pressure from US President Barack Obama, in 2009, Netanyahu became the first leader of the Israeli right to publicly accept the idea of a two-state solution - but under conditions so extravagant that this commitment lost all meaning. In 2017, following Donald Trump’s rise to power in the United States, where he was then promising the “deal of the century,” he promised Likud executives that he only wanted to offer the Palestinians “a small state.”

Therefore, the Americans, through the voice of White House Press Secretary John Kirby, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and President Joe Biden himself, are asking their Israeli ally to carry out more cautious military operations in Gaza. However, the chances that Israelis, starting with Benjamin Netanyahu, will comply with the two-state solution are slim […] Benjamin Netanyahu merely repeats his message: “As long as I sit in this chair, the Palestinian Authority, which supports and finances terrorism, will not rule Gaza in the wake of Hamas’ departure.” He said this during a war cabinet meeting during Anthony Blinken's visit to Israel, according to Israeli media, in response to the American plan to return the Palestinian Authority to Gaza after the end of the war.

Le Monde went on to say that Benjamin Netanyahu only has to present a hypothetical strategy and maintain his approach, which nevertheless led to the disaster of October 7. Hamas, which is described as a “hostile entity,” has long served the Prime Minister to divide and discredit the Palestinian national movement. This model of conflict management, designed and maintained by Netanyahu, collapsed on the day of the Hamas attack, as the hostile entity is now considered an existential enemy that must be expelled from Gaza, whatever the cost to the population. Even if it means considering the most radical solutions. According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, Benjamin Netanyahu asked his advisor Ron Dermer for a plan “to reduce the population of Gaza to the lowest possible level,” and to consider opening the Strip’s maritime borders, to allow “large-scale air travel toward European and African countries.”

Meanwhile - “Le Monde” continues - the Israeli army is organizing a new forced displacement operation. After the northern Gaza Strip was emptied of a large portion of its population, Gazans in Khan Yunis, southeast of the Strip, including hundreds of thousands of displaced people, were asked to evacuate this area, in light of the risk of cramming two million people into Rafah, the southernmost part of the Strip. At the same time, Israel informed several Arab countries that it intends to establish a buffer zone on Gaza territory, according to Reuters. What was already one of the most densely populated regions in the world is at risk of shrinking. After dividing the West Bank, the Prime Minister is dividing Gaza.

This government will prefer to remain in the northern Gaza Strip, to control it as much as possible, so as not to give way to the Palestinian Authority and continue to put pressure on Hamas. The solution is to deport the Hamas leadership with the help of Qatar, the Egyptians and the Americans, according to the newspaper. This would bring success to Israel. “In the future, with another government, we can accept the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, the establishment of an international force, and a return to the strategic goal of a two-state solution,” said Michael Harari, a former Israeli diplomat. To do this, it will be necessary to provoke the departure of the irremovable Benjamin Netanyahu, who repeats again and again: “We will continue until the end, until victory. “Nothing will stop us,” without knowing whether he was talking about Israel or himself, as the man had linked his fate to the fate of his country for a long time.

Source: Sama News

Non-specialists in political and strategic sciences may not know that until now we do not have a comprehensive theory of victory, “Theory of Victory.” This calls us to think about how Benjamin Netanyahu dealt with his war on Gaza, and whether he can achieve a victory, and what is the relationship of this to the Russian theory of victory in Ukraine? And to be precise, Before that, the Kosovo War. Also, how do the Chinese think about the theory of victory over the Americans if they decide to send their aircraft carriers to the Strait? There is, of course, another nuclear-armed regime in Pyongyang with a completely different theory of victory. Putting these theories side by side may give us clear indications of the fate of Netanyahu and the fate of Gaza, as well as the fate of the American presence in the greater Middle East region from Afghanistan to Morocco.

In Taiwan, the Chinese idea was not to deter the Americans nuclearly; because, simply put, the Americans have more than five thousand nuclear warheads, but their idea was that the Americans have vulnerabilities in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia that make even defining victory in the sense of hegemony in the Pacific Ocean impossible, and thus America may be able to achieve a limited victory and lose. Peace, either in time of war or after war, whether with regard to hegemony in the Asian theater from Japan to Taiwan, or it is losing in the real sense in the areas of weak points in its bases in Akunawa, southern Japan, or in Guam, the Philippines, and South Korea, all of which are areas of weakness that China can exploit, if China does not decide to use its ballistic missiles to strike cities from California to Texas. Here, even the theory of victory in the sense of domination and excessive control remains limited.

I know that the reader is wondering: What does the theory of victory have to do with what is happening in Gaza?

The theory of victory in Gaza is more complex than in Ukraine or Taiwan. In Ukraine, for example, there is the Russian theory of victory, the limited theory, the basis of which is to keep NATO outside Russia’s scope, and for NATO not to have complete control, and Ukraine - according to Putin’s opinion - is not a backyard, but rather the road to the borders of the Tsar’s bedroom.

But it is important to understand the American theory of comprehensive victory, which consequently applies to the Israeli military doctrine. Let us understand whether Netanyahu's victory over Gaza is possible.

The American comprehensive vision of deterrence, which represents the closest thing to the American theory of victory, consists of six elements: The first is that political ties between allies are strong, and this is what the Obama administration tried to confirm. What do political alliances mean as a deterrent? If North Korea noticed that Japan could be separated from South Korea, or from the American political alliance, this would mean that political deterrence would have ended. The second element is maintaining military superiority with conventional weapons (and this is also what America is trying with Israel in our region - Israeli qualitative superiority over the Arabs combined). The third element is the sudden conventional strike force. This happened in the 2003 Iraq War, and perhaps this is why there are now aircraft carriers to neutralize Iran from trying to enter the Gaza war. The fourth element is cyber power and control of space, and this is something that competing countries may not know regarding American capabilities. Fifth, the missile defenses in the theater of operations, and also at the level of America itself (and the intervention of the Israeli Iron Dome in the framework of American territory, as some Americans consider Israel part of the homeland. Sixthly, it concerns the use of nuclear capabilities in the theater of operations, which makes the allies safe and also prevents any war on American territory. This is the comprehensive American theory of deterrence, which can be described as a preliminary outline of the American theory of victory. 

But the recent nuclear use, as Paul Nietzsche, the most important theorist of the 1950s, explained, is like the king in a game of chess: all moves are to maintain the king, but when the king moves, the game is almost over.

Are the six American elements available for Netanyahu to achieve victory in Gaza? I believe that Netanyahu can win the war, but, like the Americans, he will lose the peace for two reasons: The first is historical and relates to the comprehensive reputational contamination that Israel will bear by killing this huge number of children (a Palestinian Holocaust), and the second is the loss of trust with its neighborhood.

So, like America's wars; From Afghanistan to Vietnam, Netanyahu will win some of the war and lose some of the peace, and he may lose in terms of internal cohesion in Israel itself.

Above all, the American theory of victory is linked to victory over traditional countries, and it has failed to deter groups and movements. Most notably, Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, which cost the United States an unforgettable attack on its soil on September 11, 2001.

What applies to Al-Qaeda also applies to Hezbollah and Hamas, with a difference, but here we are talking about the theory of victory against a traditional enemy who has something to lose, but these movements have nothing to lose, and victory for them is just one individual coming out from among the rubble to say that “Hamas” remains.

Above all, if victory is the imposition of sovereignty and dominance over the theater of operations, such as the American presence in Europe or the Pacific Ocean and East Asia, then I do not believe that Israeli hegemony over the Middle East region can lead to results, as the Democratic Peace Group says, as its  Its theorists, such as Michael Doll, or economic interpenetration, as Joseph Nye and Robert Cohen see, or the spread of democracy and the end of history in the Middle East, as Fukuyama sees.

The theory of victory in all its forms, as interpreted by the literature, does not bode well for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, and not for Netanyahu alone, but for all Israeli governments for whom victory would be more efficient by withdrawing inside an iron dome to protect itself from Hezbollah missiles, or to remain under an American umbrella as a deterrent to Iran, and I do not think that America will remain in the region forever.

Source: Alsharq Alawsat

Do the people chanting “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” have any idea of the irreparable harm they’re doing to any hope of Palestinian sovereignty? 

For decades, the question of a Palestinian state has come down to two dates: 1948 and 1967. Most Western supporters of Palestinian statehood have argued that the key date is the Six-Day War of June 1967, when Israel, faced with open threats of annihilation, took possession of the Golan Heights, the West Bank, east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula.

According to this line of thinking, the way to peace rested on Arab diplomatic recognition of Israel in exchange for the return of these so-called occupied territories. That’s what happened between Egypt and Israel at Camp David in 1978, and what might have happened at Camp David in 2000 if Yasser Arafat had only accepted the offer of full statehood made to him by Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel.

Yet there has always been a second narrative, which dates “the occupation” not to 1967 but to 1948, when Israel came into being as a sovereign state. By this argument, it isn’t just east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights that are occupied by Israel: It’s Haifa, Tel Aviv, Eilat and west Jerusalem, too. For Palestine to be “liberated,” Israel itself must end.

Starting in the 1970s, the 1948ers were known as the “rejectionist front.” More recently, they have become the “axis of resistance.” Membership includes Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Assad regime in Syria and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard — a who’s who of designated terrorist groups and their state sponsors. 

On Oct. 7, the axis of resistance became the face of the Palestinian movement. On Oct. 8, demonstrators around the world chose to embrace that axis. Sometimes they did so unwittingly, believing there was no contradiction between being pro-Palestinian and supporting Israel’s right to exist, or not understanding the implications of the slogans they were chanting. 

But just as often they have done so wittingly. When Mohamed Khairullah, the mayor of Prospect Park, New Jersey, said “75 years of occupation is too long” at an October rally, he was embracing the 1948 narrative. When Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., posted that “75 years later, the Nakba continues to this day” and declined to accept Israel as a Jewish state, she was embracing it. When Judith Butler, a Berkeley professor, told an interviewer that “the roots of the problem are in a state formation that depended on expulsions and land theft to establish its own ‘legitimacy’” and supported a binational state, she was embracing it. When the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter responded to the Oct. 7 massacres with a Facebook post claiming, “When a people have been subject to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense,” it was embracing it. When the BBC Arabic service repeatedly described ordinary Israelis as “settlers,” it was embracing it. 

Such embraces have consequences. 

For one, they put a growing fraction of the progressive left objectively on the side of some of the worst people on Earth — and in radical contradiction with their self-professed values. “A left that, rightly, demands absolute condemnation of white-nationalist supremacy refuses to dissociate itself from Islamist supremacy,” Susie Linfield, a professor of journalism at New York University, wrote in an important recent essay in the online journal Quillette. “A left that lauds intersectionality hasn’t noticed that Hamas’ axis of support consists of Iran, famous most recently for killing hundreds of protesters demanding women’s freedom.” For another, they reinforce the central convictions and deepest fears of the Israeli right: that Palestinians have never reconciled themselves to the existence of Israel in any borders; that every Israeli territorial or diplomatic concession is seen by Palestinians as evidence of weakness; that a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would only serve as a launchpad for an intensified assault on Israel; that every criticism of Israeli policies in the occupied territories veils a deep-seated hatred of the Jewish state. 

When the left embraces the zero-sum politics of Palestinian resistance, it merely encourages the zero-sum politics of hard-core Israeli settlers and their supporters. 

A third consequence is that it abandons the Palestinian people to their worst leaders. It’s bad enough that the West has long accepted, and funded, Mahmoud Abbas’ repressive kleptocracy based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. But what Hamas has given the people over whom it rules is infinitely worse: theocratic despotism, soaked in the blood of Palestinian “martyrs,” most of whom never signed themselves or their families up to serve as human shields in an endless — and in the long run, hopeless — battle with Israel. 

It’s fine for Israel’s harshest critics to ask hard questions of Israel’s leaders. But when those same critics stop asking equally hard questions of Palestinian leaders, they are not advocating a cause. 

They are merely submitting to a regime.

The world, including Israel, has a common interest in an eventual Palestinian state that cares more about building itself up than tearing its neighbors down; that invests its energy in future prosperity, not past glory; that accepts compromise and rejects fanaticism. Since Oct. 7, the loudest self-professed champions of the Palestinian cause have advocated the precise opposite. It may be a recipe for smug self-satisfaction, but it’s also how to kill a Palestinian state.

Source: Alsharq alawsat

Haaretz newspaper published a report on Sunday in which it refuted much of the Israeli narrative about the attack carried out by members of Hamas and other factions on October 7th, on military barracks and Jewish towns surrounding the Gaza Strip. The summary of the report stated that the attack was accompanied by many crimes against Jewish and Arab civilians from the population of Israel, but the story about it “was characterized by huge exaggerations, promoted by senior military officials, politicians, and civil society activists, including the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife, and numerous ministries and government departments.”

The report, conducted by journalists Nir Hasson and Lisa Rozobsky, says: “Politicians, officers in the Israeli army, volunteers from ZAKA - the Disaster Victim Diagnosis Association - and activists on social networks have been talking since October 7 about terrible stories committed by Hamas members. Mostly, the talk is about true testimonies based on a lot of evidence, but among the public in Israel and around the world, incorrect stories and narratives are also spreading.” The report warns that this exaggeration of events “provides ammunition for those who deny the massacre.”

The report stated, “The men of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the residents of Gaza who entered Israel committed crimes against humanity. They brutally killed about 1,200 people, most of them unarmed civilians, and kidnapped about 240 civilians and soldiers, including the elderly, children, and teenagers” and women. All of this is undisputed, but (several parties published baseless information about what happened that day).”

Severed children's heads

Among the accounts refuted by the report are those that talked about “finding dozens of bodies of children who had been beheaded.” It said: “This description appeared in a report by the I24 News network, for example, in which the writer described that one of the officers in the field told her that there were more than  40 children who were killed, the vandals beheaded some of them.” He added: “We learned from this network that the reports about the atrocities and the number were based on the testimonies of officers who evacuated bodies in the cover towns,” and that they were collected on a tour of foreign correspondents accompanied by the Israeli army spokesman four days after the outbreak of the war, and that similar numbers were also repeated in Testimonials of ZAKA members.

The report continued: “This description was quoted on social networks, and sometimes the story was changed so that it became (the bodies of children were burned or the bodies of children were hung on a rope). For example, the official channel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published testimonies from Colonel Golan Bach of the Home Front Command, according to which the burned bodies of eight children were found in one of the houses. On the account of the Prime Minister’s Office on the X Network, pictures resembling drawings were published with a comment: (These are terrible pictures of children who were killed and burned by the monsters of Hamas). The post stated that (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed these pictures to the US Secretary of State. (Anthony Blinken).

Similar descriptions were also published by an officer in the Israeli army. A few days ago, the correspondent in “Sabbat Square,” Yishai Cohen, met with Lieutenant Colonel Yaron Buskila of the Gaza Division. “The last one talked about children being hung on a clothesline.” Things similar to his statements were quoted by right-wing man Joel Vaknan in “X”. Cohen commented that after publishing his response, he noticed that the story was inaccurate: “Why would an army officer make up such a terrible story?”

It turns out, according to Cohen, that these descriptions are actually incorrect. During the massacre, Hamas terrorists abused the bodies, especially the bodies of soldiers. There were cases of beheadings and organs being cut off, but National Insurance Institute data on the dead and information collected from the site of the massacre, from leaders in the kibbutzim and from the police, showed that on October 7, one child, Mila Cohen, from Kibbutz Be'eri, and her father, Ehud, were killed.

An undated photo published by the Israeli Forum for Hostages and Missing Families shows Emily Hand (9 years old) from Kibbutz Beeri among 13 Israelis released by Hamas on November 25 (AP)

According to the National Insurance Institute, five other children also died on the same day: Omer Siman Tov Kedem (4 years old) and his twin sisters, Erbil and Shahar (6 years old), who were killed in Nir Oz, and the child Yazan bin Jamaa from Arara in the Negev, who Eytan Kavshtar (5 years old) was wounded by a missile attack, and he was killed along with his parents and brother near Safir College. In addition to them, 14 boys aged 12-15 years were also killed. Three of them were caused by a missile and not in the area of the massacre in the Gaza envelope. Some other children were killed in or near their homes, most likely along with other members of the family. Until now we do not know of a scene in which children from several families were discovered killed together. Hence, it becomes clear that even Netanyahu’s descriptions mentioned in his conversation with US President Joe Biden, according to which Hamas terrorists “took dozens of children, handcuffed them, burned them, and executed them,” are not descriptions that accurately agree with the picture of reality.

Paramedics exaggerations

The report adds that some incorrect descriptions were published by ZAKA members, one of whom spoke about another terrible scene, which was the discovery of the body of a woman he found on Kibbutz Be'eri. Her stomach was open and the fetus that was tied by the umbilical cord was also found stabbed. He repeated this testimony in a conversation with Haaretz, and even said that he saw this scene in the kibbutz, and “there was a lot of blood.” He added: “When we moved her, we saw that her stomach was open, the knife was near her, and the fetus was tied to the umbilical cord. She was shot from behind.”

The paramedic added that he found the woman near the house, and in the safe room he found a 6 or 7-year-old child who had been shot. The Haaretz report confirms that among those killed in Be'eri there were no children aged 6 or 7 years, and that the story of the pregnant woman was completely fabricated.

Netanyahu's wife and the kidnapped pregnant woman

The report touched on another story promoted by Netanyahu’s wife, about which she sent a letter to the wife of US President Jill Biden, in which she said that “one of the women who was kidnapped to the Gaza Strip is nine months pregnant, and that she was born in (Hamas) captivity.” On social networks, a photo of the kidnapped woman, whose name is Netvari Mulkan, was published, and it turned out that she was a Thai citizen.

In a “Magazine” report, Netafari Molkan’s colleagues, her employer, and her family members denied that she was pregnant. When Mulkan was released last Saturday, it was confirmed that she was not pregnant at all. The army also does not yet have any information about a kidnapped pregnant woman. The security apparatus is treating this story as a baseless “rumor.” From the Prime Minister's Office, no answer was received.

Baby in the oven

Another story published a few weeks ago was particularly harsh; The president of the Relief Union Society, Eli Bear, spoke of a child who was put into an oven and burned to death. Bear spoke in these details at a donor conference in the United States. From there, this story spread to the point that it was published at the beginning of this month in the British newspaper “Daily Mail”, in which the child became, according to the report, “several children”, but this story is also incorrect. Mila Cohen was the only child killed in the “massacre,” and the police do not have any testimony about the body of a child that meets these signs.

Source: Arab48