(January 17, 2025)
Finally, as Americans, we must grapple with our role in this dark chapter. The United States allowed this mass atrocity to continue by providing an endless supply of weapons to Netanyahu and failing to exert meaningful leverage. This blanket military support took place in clear violation of U.S. and international law. This must not happen again. Future political leaders should learn from this terrible lesson and restore respect for our own laws and moral principles.
(December 23, 2024)
From the beginning it was clear that the only feasible post-Hamas arrangement would be a return of the Palestinian Authority, which now runs the West Bank autonomy zones, back to Gaza, from which Hamas expelled it in 2007 by force. Israel itself once yearned for this, back when rational people governed the country. The proposals pushed by President Joe Biden for more than a year now envision versions of this, with the PA rejuvenated and assisted by Arab and perhaps other forces.
An Israel that wanted this would have ensured that Hamas is out of the way, publicly and persistently offering its remaining troops exile. Arab pressure on the group would have been overpowering. Israel would possibly get peace with Saudi Arabia as part of the bargain.
Instead, Netanyahu’s goons flooded the airwaves arguing that Israel cannot pull out of Gaza and end the war because Hamas would regain power.
Trump’s comments came after Hamas issued a video statement saying 33 of its captives have been killed during Israel’s brutal war on Gaza dating back to October last year, when Hamas attacked Israel and took more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
“Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site.
He added that, “Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!”
A new video released by al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas‘s military wing, warns Israel against furthering the war on Gaza and says 33 Israeli captives held in the strip have already been killed by Israeli airstrikes
An Israeli soldier was killed and a battalion commander seriously wounded by Palestinian fire in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military announced on Wednesday.
This brings the death toll in the army to 800 since the war started on 7 October 2023.
At least 38 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli shelling that targeted residential buildings in the Al-Manara area, south of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army admitted on Friday morning to the killing of two officers and three soldiers during battles in southern Lebanon, bringing the death toll in the last 24 hours to ten.
(September 30, 2024)
„The Democrats cannot win without the support of the Muslim American community. And that community has left the station and is not coming back unless the Democrats decide that it‘s more important to them to win the election than it is to conduct the genocide,“ Stein said in an interview with Newsweek.
„So they have to do a 180 on the genocide and they don‘t appear willing to do that. They could win those votes back, but it doesn‘t look like that‘s on the cards. So it looks like they are sacrificing several swing states.“ Israel denies it is conducting genocide.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, launched by Hezbollah hit an army base adjacent to Binyamina, a town north of Tel Aviv that lies some 40 miles from the Lebanese border.
In addition to the four soldiers killed, seven soldiers suffered severe injuries, the IDF said.
According to Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service, a total of 61 people were wounded in the attack.
„As an enemy Zionist force advanced at 2:00 AM on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, towards the border area of Labouneh, supported by bulldozers and vehicles, our fighters rained artillery and rocket fire on them, causing confirmed casualties and forcing them to retreat,“ the group said in a statement reported by al-Mayadeen channel.
It also reported „direct confrontation between the resistance and a special Israeli force that infiltrated from behind a Unifil position in Labouneh.“
Satellite images on Tuesday showed 40 Israeli military vehicles near Unifil‘s base in Maroun al-Ras, southern Lebanon.
Lord Michael Levy, the former Middle East adviser to Tony Blair, told BBC Radio 5 Live yesterday: “The whole Middle East is potentially in a blow-up situation. And if that happens … how much further can that go for all of us in the world today, there must be a way forward.
“I don’t think there’s any hope for peace with [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu in power,” he added. “I would like to think that Netanyahu could be part of a positive way forward. Regrettably, I just don’t think that is possible at all.”
According to the Zionist news website „Ynet“: „Netanyahu said in a special session of the government on the first anniversary of the October 7 attack that he wants to rename the „Iron Swords“ war to the „Resurrection War“.
„We choose to keep up the fight in a long war of attrition, one that is painful and costly for the enemy,“ said Abu Obeida, spokesman of the militant group‘s armed wing.
He also warned that scores of people taken captive into Gaza on October 7 last year were enduring a „very difficult“ situation.
His statement, broadcast on Al Jazeera, came on the one-year anniversary of the Aqsa Flood operation.
He now has the political capital for negotiations that could set the country‘s next budget and allow him to continue to call the shots for at least another year in the multi-front regional war Israel is fighting.
„He feels he is winning,“ one of Netanyahu‘s aides told Axios.
The six-time prime minister will outlast President Biden, who has largely failed in his attempts to contain the conflict in the Middle East and rein in Netanyahu.
Even more surprising is the Israeli public’s near-total embrace over the last three weeks of Netanyahu’s declared desire to prosecute a war for “total victory”. Prior to this, hundreds of thousands of people were out on the streets, demanding a “deal now” and accusing the prime minister of prolonging the war for his own ends.
Now, it seems the majority of Israel’s Jewish public, from Ben Gvir supporters to fans of the centre-left Zionist Yair Golan, wants a never-ending war. Even the first casualties from the ground invasion of Lebanon are not shifting this support – at least so far.
Figure 1: Direct Deaths from Violence Reported in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank
(Oct. 7, 2023 – Oct. 1, 2024)
Israeli Fatalities in Israel 1,200
Israeli Fatalities in Gaza 34
Israeli Fatalities in West Bank 339
Palestinian Fatalities in Gaza 41,615
Palestinian Fatalities in West Bank 693
Palestinians Missing/Estimated Dead Underthe Rubble 10,000
Total > 53,887
(…)
Figure 2: Estimates of Indirect Deaths in Gaza (Oct. 7, 2023 – Sept. 30, 2024)15
Estimated Deaths from Starvation 62,413
Estimated Deaths from Lack of Access to Care for Chronic Diseases 5,000
Estimated Deaths from Infectious Diseases, Maternal/Neonatal Deaths, and Others ?
Total > 67,413