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Palestine Open Thread 2024-153
News & views related to the war in Palestine …
Of interest:
US has sent Israel thousands of 2,000-pound bombs since Oct. 7 – Reuters
Between the war's start last October and recent days, the United States has transferred at least 14,000 of the MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs, and other munitions, according to the officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
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Israel Reduces Food for Palestinian Security Prisoners, Conceals Data, Sources Say (archived) – Haaretz
The petition was filed following the dozens of testimonies from security prisoners and detainees who are not connected with Hamas that the Prison Service has significantly reduced their food rations, to the point of starvation, causing them to shed dozens of kilograms.
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The Postwar Vision That Sees Gaza Sliced Into Security Zones Concentration Camps (archived) – Wall Street Journal
The plans—whether or not they get adopted in full—reveal hard realities about the aftermath that rarely get voiced. Among them, that Palestinian civilians could be confined indefinitely to smaller areas of the Gaza Strip while fighting continues outside, and that Israel’s army could be forced to remain deeply involved in the enclave for years until Hamas is marginalized.
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Israel Is Officially Annexing the West Bank (archived) – Foreign Policy
In late February, Smotrich—an avowed homophobe and proponent of Jewish superiority—signed an agreement with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to transfer a number of governmental powers in the West Bank from the territory’s military commander to Smotrich. (In addition to serving as finance minister, Smotrich is also a minister in the Defense Ministry.) The move was agreed upon in the coalition agreement between Likud and the Religious Zionist Party.
I’m going to go back to some of what Giyane had to say, because the lines of thought are offered every now and again but are not taken up in depth. I won’t add much but possibly help explain why. VERY oversimplified here.
Like most regions of the world, the middle east has a long history of ethnic and religious conflict. This goes back well before UK or US or the west even existed. I will just say “the west” because I am covering this broadly. In more recent history, the west has used, encouraged or manipulated these differences to own ends. That obviously includes “Israel” . The post world war pre-current framework was broadly Russia closer to Iran, Syria and Iraq, the French similarly and including Lebanon. We exclude the time of monarchy in Iran from that, which was western. The Ayatollah resided in france while waiting.
The west was basically more closely tied with the rest. Iranian and Russian influences, and pan Arabist movements were pushed back from the rest of the region.
Modern era starting around the time of the gulf war. The instalation and expansion of western military bases is noticed from that point. They remain once established , as do the defense and economic infrastructures that resulted from the conflicts.
So Qatar, Saudi, Egypt, Kuwait, Afghanistan previously, Iraq currently, and various other countries are of this line of influence. It also happens to fit with traditional Sunni/Shia majority of population.
I leave Turkey out because it seems to play all sides. Lebanon is now an exception of precariously housing all factions. Iraq and some others have regional populations also that are different to the majority.
In Palestine the majority are Sunni, that is to say they are in various ways closer to the western backed Arab governments. Their lot is one of resistance to western backed imperialism though, and so they have the support of Iran, and the likes of the muslim brotherhood, to a degree.
“Israel” has been used as pretext in most recent conflicts in the region. The modern definition of terrorism much emanated from Palestinian resistance last century. Iraqi pan Arabist, Baath movement and Iranian political positions are against western imperialist realities, and “Israel” is the most obvious representation of those.
So we skip forward to Hamas and current conflict . The fighters are local lads. They have lost family and friends, have only to look forward to being humiliated and subservient to “Israel” lies, to watching as their lands are continuously taken. So they fight. I think many would also in a similar circumstance. The spiritual direction they hold flows from early resistance Sheikh Yassin for example.
Due to the economic restriction on the last remaining territory and political isolation on the world stage, Hamas at a political level, take the funding and support available. That support happens to be from western orientated Arab Sunni countries. The ideological based external military support against “Israel” is more from the Iran and Russia axis. The differences between Haniyeh in Qatar, Yahya Sinwar, and the Abu Obaida militia are due to the different political realities each has to deal with.
The west and “Israel” via Qatar hold financial and political controls. Via Egypt they hold political, military and territorial controls. The west is therefore informed of and influencing the direction Hamas takes at ground level. That does not mean Hamas are directed by the west or “Israel”.
Possibly Hamas learned from what Saddam Hussein eventually learned, of the methods used. Possibly not. Either way, the Palestinians have been left with little or no choice. Many people in the west realise this, which is why “Israel” is labelled as an atrocity no matter.
Where Russia stands is not very clear, I think it quietly establishes firm boundaries. The previous link on pro-“Israel” Putin comments means little , is set to a backdrop of the potential unification of Russia and Europe of the day, along with the western aspiration of a geopolitical boundary including north Africa and near east. There are other ties with Russia, obviously, and they will be part of strategic negotiation, but Putin is also a statesman and he acts according to what the world stage presents him, in the interests of his own country. That is called diplomacy, keeping an open hand, or cynically building influence, or more so of keeping potential enemies closer still.
This is all why the circumstance is very dangerous, because local populations will sympathise against “Israel” as much as they do for their own western orientated security.
The fault lines of Shia vs Sunni are an alternative direction, which is Arabian peninsula against Iran and allies, which is then west vs Russia in certain circumstances
If I were to be cynical, I would say “Israel” is purposefully being used as catalyst for a regional conflict that involves confronting Russia. An example :
West funds Hamas into action, which draws Hezbollah into action, which gives “Israel” pretext to go into action in Lebanon, which elicits Iran and Syrian reply , which draws western orientated countries into confrontation on geopolitical, economic, security, and religious grounds, which calls in Russian open intervention on behalf of Syria and Iran.
However this sort of scenario has been building for decades. That is to say Iran or opposition should already have methods of neutralising western military support in the region. If bases are destroyed or unusable, local population no longer see security from their leaders, fundamentalist or strong ideology confrontation based on corruption overthrow or discapacitates those countries, then either you end up with chaos or a strong independent lineage takes the military in a new direction that is both against the west and Iran/Russia, or even simply against “Israel” until that is resolved.
Those are imaginings, clearly. The point being that even what the west or other countries imagine as guided direction, are also.
It would be easy to criticise the above, I have left so many relevant facets out. However it is just to say to any reader not to think they know something because of one coincidence or reality or another, because that would be to invite missing the wider picture completely.
What lies behind the presentations that we find, or the fronts that we are presented with publicly, is more disturbing, more violent and much more critical.
I just say this to try to help anyone center themselves better from a more detached perspective. I hope not to have upset anyone in the process.
Posted by: Ornot | Jul 2 2024 18:54 utc | 309
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