Tag: Israeli politics

These are the paradigm shifts Israel urgently needs

Post By World , , , , ,

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.

Victory for Israel is not just on the battlefield — it is also through regional reconsideration and a shared desire for life, prosperity, creative development, and a better future, Erel Margalit writes.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 7 October massacre committed by Hamas has shifted the ground beneath Israelis’ feet in profound ways. 

The terror onslaught on communities of mainly unprotected civilians has shattered the unwritten but imperative social contract between the state and its citizens, a contract by which citizens serve in the military, and in turn, we — particularly those of us who build their lives near enemy lines — are defended by the country’s security apparatus.

That contract came crashing down with the unprecedented, gruesome terror attack broadcast to the world, representing the single biggest intelligence and security failure since the establishment of the state.

To restore what has been lost, Israel must now usher in an urgent paradigm shift on multiple fronts: security, diplomatic, and economic.

On the security front, the devastating aftermath of the hours-long assault brought a disastrous end to the containment doctrine upheld for many years — that Israel can appease the neighbouring terror-run territory by helping transfer finances to it, hoping they are used to build the Gazan economy, and praying that indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli cities are minimal.

Action against Hamas is not just an act of self-defence

Over the years, Hamas has rolled in $2.5 billion (€2.27bn) annually in Gaza, with finances flowing through Iran, Qatar, and a network of global charitable organisations. 

Most of this money goes towards funding the lives of luxury for top Hamas leaders, building tunnels under Gazan cities, shoring up the terror infrastructure in the territory, and acquiring weapons and ammunition.

This apparatus was aimed squarely at Israeli civilians on 7 October, with catastrophic consequences. 

It must be clear now that coexistence with a terror group is impossible, and Hamas must be fought and defeated, just as Western powers fought and defeated the so-called Islamic State, and the US fought and defeated Al-Qaeda before that.

Israel has a duty to eradicate Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups as a security threat to its people. 

Citizens from across the gamut of Israeli society will no longer tolerate the danger posed by Hamas’ evil vision of terror, and Israel’s soldiers will fight this war until its conclusion. 

Israel’s decisive action against Hamas is not just an act of self-defence; it is a stand against terrorism that threatens global peace and security.

But war alone is not a policy. Adroit diplomacy must be at the heart of any winning strategy.

Moderate allies — including Palestinians — want to see a transformed Middle East

Indeed, by leveraging diplomatic ties and economic agreements with major moderate Arab states like the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, Israel must craft an exit strategy for the war that would drive extensive reconstruction efforts in Gaza, in conjunction with robust economic development incentives for Palestinians.

Currently, however, it appears Israel’s plans for the day after the war are woefully underdeveloped.

Regional moderate allies, including Palestinians, have a stake in seeing a transformed Middle East and must be tapped as welcome partners for a solution to end the conflict, together with the US, NATO, Europe, and the UK. 

This sort of strategic alliance would not only bolster Israel’s security but also lay the groundwork for a united front against extremist ideologies that plague our region.

A Mideast re-alignment will have to include elements of existing cooperation and partnership between Israel and Arab allies in sectors like agriculture tech, water tech, cybersecurity, and healthcare. 

ADVERTISEMENT

If we do so, Gaza could one day be a place where schools, hospitals and places of worship are free of the terror tunnels and the Hamas terrorists, where people can work quality jobs and have a chance at a better life in coexistence with Israel.

The PA is the only partner capable of administering Gaza

Critically, stakeholders should work together to boost support for the eventual Palestinian Authority-steered leadership of Gaza that would rebuild the Palestinian enclave and chart a new course for the Strip and the region. 

Moderate Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank, with whom we and our portfolio companies have worked for years as colleagues, friends, and partners, are our allies for a future of peace and coexistence.

For this to take place in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority will need to be reformed to re-earn the trust of both the Palestinian and Israeli people, as well as the international community. 

It must rid itself of the crippling corruption that its leaders have let flourish and denounce once and for all any support for terror. 

ADVERTISEMENT

But we must also recognise that the PA has been a key security partner for Israel, helping fight extremists for some three decades. It is the only partner capable of administering Gaza.

Victory for Israel lies in the shared desire for a better future

On the economic front, Israel must envision a transformation of its communities and capitalise on existing partnerships and programs developed by its robust tech ecosystem to draw talent, drive job creation, and build inclusive institutions. Innovation is ultimately the key to a collective future.

By fostering local and regional economic development, Israel has the potential to forge fresh opportunities across various domains — from professional fields and education to the military, high-tech sector, and on the ground — ushering in a new era.

Victory for Israel is not just on the battlefield; it is also through regional reconsideration and a shared desire for life, prosperity, creative development, and a better future.

The day after the war is Israel’s opportunity to reshape Gaza and the Middle East as a whole.

ADVERTISEMENT

Erel Margalit is a former Knesset member, Israeli high-tech investor and social entrepreneur. He is the founder and Executive Chairman of the Jerusalem-based venture capital firm Jerusalem Venture Partners, and Margalit Startup City, the international collection of thematic socio-economic hubs.

At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at [email protected] to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.

Source link

#paradigm #shifts #Israel #urgently

Does Israel have a vision for the day after Hamas?

Post By World , , , , ,

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.

Hamas’ rule in Gaza may end due to its own strategic miscalculation, but the real question is what happens after, Shlomo Roiter Jesner writes.

ADVERTISEMENT

On 7 October, Hamas militants shocked Israel and the world by perpetrating an act of terrorism deadly enough to be considered the worst act of violence against Jews since the Holocaust. 

The depravity of the violence, which saw over 240 hostages taken and around 1,200 civilians murdered, provoked an Israeli military response more powerful than anything the decision-making ranks of Hamas would have anticipated, revealing the gravity of the strategic miscalculation made by the extremist group.

Although Hamas’ rule in Gaza was never Israel’s preference, it was seen by many as the best of the bad options available. 

The 7 October events changed that strategic calculus completely, with Israel, the US and many European allies now concurring that the continuation of Hamas’ rule in Gaza is indeed untenable in the long term for both Israel and the region.

Following the 7 October attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a rare statement in which he clarified that “Hamas has started a brutal and evil war … What happened today is unprecedented in Israel, and I will see to it that it does not happen again.”

The status quo since 2006 to change once and for all?

This was far from the first skirmish with Hamas, which has historically seen a relatively small-scale flare-up with Israel every few months surrounding one issue or another.

The last of these was Operation Shield and Arrow in May, which saw Israel assassinating three senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants, followed by rocket fire from Gaza and a targeted limited Israeli retaliation. These exchanges have traditionally ended with a settlement in which the baseline was that Hamas remain in power.

The difference now is the extent to which the Netanyahu government feels compelled to underscore that Hamas extremists governing Gaza is an unacceptable arrangement, which after being the status quo since 2006, must now change once and for all.

In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, removing 8,000 Israeli citizens who resided there in 21 settlements. A remaining 3,000 Israeli troops were removed gradually, following the eviction of its settlers, with the Israeli disengagement leaving Fatah in control of the Gaza Strip, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.

In 2006, however, Hamas came to power in the last Palestinian election to date, which saw it violently seizing complete control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Small-scale conflicts and Israel’s default acceptance of Hamas’ control of Gaza suggested the existence of an equilibrium; Israel refrained from large-scale military operations and Hamas did not commit atrocities on the scale of 7 October. 

That uneasy equilibrium was shattered by Hamas’ strategic miscalculation, a move which has ended the Israeli and international acquiescence towards Hamas’ rule and which may well culminate in the return of the PA to Gaza in one form or another.

Meanwhile, Iran and its proxies left Hamas out to dry

A primary component of Hamas’ mistake was its reliance on support from Iran and specifically its regional proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. 

While the early days of the war saw a big question mark regarding the support which Hamas could expect, the extent of Israel’s response, alongside a firm actionable response from Washington and European allies, made it clear that despite perhaps assurances received to the contrary, Iran had no intention of putting its meticulously constructed forward forces at risk.

Immediately following the attacks, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a carrier strike group to the Mediterranean led by the USS Gerald R Ford, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, intending to deter opportunistic actions by Iran. 

Despite this, Hezbollah could not stand by idly leading to the firing of missiles towards northern Israel, and even reports of attempted infiltrations from the air.

The response from Lebanon was very clearly carefully thought out, however, and despite the hundreds of thousands of missiles which Hezbollah reportedly has on Israel’s northern border, the scope of every individual attack or response was such that they could not be expected to draw Israel into a full-fledged conflict.

Make no mistake. Hezbollah’s decision not to open an additional front on Israel’s northern border was no accident and certainly was not the product of restraint. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Had it wanted to, Tehran could have easily escalated the situation with the help of the proxies it has carefully been rebuilding since the 2006 Second Lebanon War with Israel.

Rather, understanding the leeway in its response that Israel was being granted by the international community, and particularly the US, which finds itself amidst election season and therefore more careful to decisions that could be perceived as not “pro-Israel”, led the powers that be to decide otherwise.

That the status quo which has been in effect since 2006 cannot continue is now evident to all parties involved. 

Proposed solutions are optimistic at best, naive at worst

Although optimism regarding the war’s end was expressed in light of a Qatar-negotiated ceasefire, which saw the release of some of the Israeli civilians held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners, the war itself is far from over, and indicatively, the discussion has already turned to the question of Gaza after Hamas.  

Some have suggested a transition period in which Gaza would be in the hands of a United Nations-led international body, whilst it rebuilds its infrastructure and public services after fifteen years of Hamas neglect, before passing control of Gaza back to the PA.

ADVERTISEMENT

This idea is unrealistic for many reasons, primary among which is the inability to rely on the UN to ensure the security situation remains stable, particularly in light of how Hezbollah has managed to build itself up in Lebanon under the watchful eye of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

Others claim that this post-Hamas scenario presents an opportunity for Israel and the PA to return to the negotiation table and explore a peace process of sorts and even a return to the two-state solution.

This view has been shared in Israel by policymakers such as Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, who argued domestically that, “in the end, the best thing is that the Palestinian Authority goes back into Gaza … It’s not ideal, and if you ask me what the exit strategy should be, it should be helping the international community help [the PA take control]”.

The lack of leadership in the ranks of the PA (President Abbas is 88 and ill, with no apparent successor) combined with no domestic legitimacy among Palestinians themselves, makes this perspective optimistic at best.

Netanyahu’s future is uncertain, too

Aside from promising the end to Hamas’s rule of Gaza, and despite the opportunity presented by Hamas’ gross miscalculation, Netanyahu and his government have yet to clarify a cohesive vision for Gaza post-Hamas. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Taken aback by the attack on 7 October which saw Israel’s seemingly impenetrable border security bypassed with ease, the Netanyahu government can no longer simply ensure its longevity by promising Israeli citizens “security”.

And while it is almost all but certain that Netanyahu will soon find himself ousted from the Likud leadership, as soon as the security situation finds itself stable enough for a party leadership race, it is far from clear that the incumbent Israeli government has any sort of idea at all what will happen to it, let alone what follows the inevitable demise of Hamas’ rule in Gaza.

Shlomo Roiter Jesner is the president and co-founder of the Cambridge Middle East and North Africa Forum. He is also the CEO of London-based F&R Strategy Group, a geopolitical consultancy at the intersection of politics and business.

At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at [email protected] to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.

Source link

#Israel #vision #day #Hamas

From outrage to hate: In the wake of October 7, Israel’s far right seeks to extend its influence

Post By World , , , , , , , , , ,

Ministers from Israel’s extreme right have been making increasingly controversial statements since the Hamas attacks on October 7 in a game of one-upmanship that has seen the right wing seek to extend its influence over Israel’s government and beyond.

In a radio interview on November 4, Israel‘s Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu said there were “no non-combatants” in Gaza before adding that providing medical aid to the enclave would amount to a “failure”. Dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip would be “one of the options” for dealing with Hamas, he said. 

Eliyahu is a member of the religious supremacist party Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”), part of Israel’s ruling coalition.  

Public outrage was swift and furious. “Amihai Eliyahu has got to go” ran an editorial headline in the Jerusalem Post on November 6. Liberal newspaper Haaretz went farther, with a call to “fire Israel’s far right” altogether.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was also quick to condemn the statement, saying Eliyahu was “divorced from reality” before suspending him from government meetings until further notice.

‘Outrageous’ 

“It doesn’t sound like something a savvy politician would say,” says Eitan Tzelgov, a specialist in Israeli politics at the University of East Anglia in the UK. “[It is] just outrageous and so wrong on many levels – one of them being that Israel has never officially acknowledged it has the nuclear bomb.”  

Tzelgov says such declarations are symptomatic of a culture of one-upmanship among politicians on Israel’s extreme right, who have been vying to make increasingly outlandish statements since the deadly Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7.      

Omri Brinner, an Israel analyst and specialist in Mideast geopolitics at the International Team for the Study of Security Verona says these declarations have included warnings that Arab-Israelis “are about to embark on a violent campaign within Israel” – from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is also leader of the Otzma Yehudit party – or that “Jews murdered in the West Bank are more important than Jews murdered in Gaza, because the former are right-wing settlers and the latter are left-wing kibbutz members”, from Simcha Rothman of the far-right Religious Zionist Party. 

Eliyahu’s comments on nuclear weapons were not his first brush with controversy. In a Facebook post from  November 1, he wrote that north Gaza was “more beautiful than ever” following Israeli bombardments.

He also called for the “mass movement” of Palestinians out of Gaza, reiterating a longstanding and controversial talking point from the extreme religious right. 

Waning influence 

Many Israelis reject the views of the far-right ministers who entered into government following electoral gains in 2022 that saw them acquire six seats in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, heralding the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. 

For some, the Otzma Yehudit party is the political offspring of the radical orthodox Kach party, which was banned under Israel’s anti-terrorism laws in 1994.   

But widespread public shock at the brutality of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel has played into the hands of the most radical fringe of the Israeli government, and making brash statements has become part of a calculated political risk.

“Right now, it may be more acceptable for the constituency to say things like this because of the emotional state in Israel,” says Artur Skorek, Israel specialist at Jagiellonian University in Krakow and director of the European Association of Israel Studies.

Netanyahu is personally reliant on politicians on the extreme right to maintain his grip on power and avoid the damning legal charges against him for fraud, breach of trust and accepting improper gifts.

Right-wing politicians “are crucial for the survival of the coalition”, says Brinner. “Without them Netanyahu doesn’t have a majority in the Knesset, meaning that he will not be able to continue as prime minister, which means that he will not be able to weaken the judicial system and cancel the trial on the three charges he faces.”

So far, the prime minister has avoided taking a firm stance on the most controversial of the far right’s comments, with the exception of condemning Eliyahu’s endorsement of using a nuclear bomb.

But beyond their hold over Netanyahu, far-right ministers are likely using strong rhetoric to mask their waning influence.

“This war marks a reduction in their influence at the heart of Netanyahu’s government,” says Peter Lintl, a specialist in Israeli politics at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik).

This is partly because Netanyahu’s war cabinet has seen the return the centrist Kahol Lavan (Blue and White) party to government, led by retired army general Benny Gantz – a fierce opponent of Israel’s extreme-right parties and Netanyahu. 

Within the cabinet itself, “the extreme-right ministers and Knesset members do not have direct operational influence on how Israel conducts the war”, adds Brinner.

“The state and security executives who run the war don’t take them into consideration and even look down at them. None of them even served in the military.”

Lacking tangible power, the far right “are trying to win [over the electorate] by making outrageous comments like this – they can use this language because they don’t have influence and power on how the war is fought”, Skorek adds. 

Targeting the West Bank 

But Israel’s vocal far-right ministers are likely aiming to do more than just persuade potential voters with outlandish statements.

Despite the shock waves that have swept through Israeli society since 7 October, the far right seems focused on longstanding goals: the “transfer” of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank and the eradication of the Israeli secular left.

“Their ultimate goal is to have a very different Israeli state – religious rather than secular – and it starts in the West Bank,” says Brinner.

“Keeping the eyes of the world on Gaza allows them and their followers to advance extreme right-wing agendas in the West Bank, even violence against Palestinians there; the bigger the war in Gaza, the less oversight there is in the West Bank.”

Read moreGaza conflict spills into West Bank amid settler attacks

Ben-Gvir has already succeeded in playing on fears stirred up by the Hamas attacks to advance a long-held political goal – loosening firearms regulations to allow more Israelis to carry guns.  

Since October 7, more than 180,000 applications for weapons permits have been submitted in Israel. “The minister has used this crisis to promote a plan to make it easier for citizens to carry weapons,” says Tzelgov.

“His followers will be the first to ask for them.”

Far-right politicians are also playing a long game, aiming to be as aggressive as possible now so that once the war is over, they can settle scores with political opponents.

“They are preparing the stage for the next round: continue to target their opponents – [including] the left, NGOs and the media – as not sufficiently aligned with what was necessary to defend Israel’s interests,” says Tzelgov.

At the same time, provocative rhetoric from far-right ministers is likely to cause “great damage” to Israel’s overall war effort, says Brinner, stirring discontent both inside and outside the country.

“People who support the religious parties are going to question why the government is not being more aggressive in the war against Hamas,” adds Lintl, while internationally, the extremely nationalist tone risks weakening support for Israel and accelerating calls for a ceasefire.

In the long-term, Lintl says, the inflammatory statements could also have a lasting negative impact on relations with allies  – including the US and regional powers like Saudi Arabia – who might be less inclined to sit around the negotiating table with an Israel that is so unwaveringly combative.

This article was translated from the original in French.

Source link

#outrage #hate #wake #October #Israels #seeks #extend #influence

Can the Palestinian Authority lead a post-Hamas Gaza Strip?

Post By World , , , , , , , , , , , ,

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is working hard to involve the Palestinian Authority in a resolution of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Despite having a significant security apparatus, a civil service and other trappings of a state, the weaknesses of the internationally recognised Palestinian leadership mean it may not be well positioned to play a meaningful role in Gaza’s future.

Antony Blinken reiterated Washington’s opposition to Israel reoccupying the Gaza Strip once its war with Hamas ends at a G7 meeting in Japan on Wednesday. “Palestinian people must be central to governance in Gaza and the West Bank as well,” the US secretary of state told reporters, adding: “Gaza cannot continue to be run by Hamas.”

But Washington’s stated opposition to an Israeli occupation of Gaza begs a key question: Who can lead a post-Hamas Gaza Strip?

Blinken’s recent trip to see Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas may provide an insight into US thinking.

On November 5, Blinken passed through Israeli checkpoints on his way to Ramallah to meet with Abbas, his second trip to the region since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7 and his first to the Palestinian administrative capital.

Blinken reiterated that the United States would like to see the PA playing a central role in any post-Hamas Gaza.

But according to Palestinian media, Abbas told Blinken that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the state of Palestine and that the PA could only have a role there if Israel ends its occupation of both Palestinian territories within the framework of a “comprehensive political solution that includes all of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip”.

“There are no words to describe the genocidal war and destruction that our Palestinian people in Gaza are enduring at the hands of the Israeli war machinery, with no regard for international law,” Abbas added.

The Palestinian Authority in 2023

Established in 1994 as a consequence of the Oslo Accords, Yasser Arafat was elected PA president two years later. Today the PA formally exercises authority over only 18% of the West Bank, known as “Area A”. The remaining 82%, separated into Areas “B” and “C”, is controlled either jointly with or entirely by Israel.

Faced with the largest crisis in decades, Arafat’s successor appears more powerless than ever. The PA has been absent from the Gaza Strip since Hamas made gains in the 2006 legislative elections and its subsequent victory in the Battle of Gaza, which saw the Islamist group take complete control of the enclave in 2007.

Among Palestinians, the PA is deeply unpopular, seen as corrupt, repressive and in the service of Israel. But it has a semi-functioning political structure, a civilian administration, and security and intelligence services. It also receives financial support from the United States and the European Union as well as Saudi Arabia and other Arab League states.

There is limited data available about the Palestinian security apparatus in the West Bank but its forces are thought to number in the tens of thousands. These forces are divided among several agencies – including the Palestinian Civil Police, the National Security Forces and the internal Preventive Security Force, which includes the presidential guard – some of which are equipped with light armoured vehicles.

All of these forces loyal to Abbas are restricted to certain areas of the West Bank and have engaged in continuous security cooperation with the Israeli state.

Read more‘We are failing again’: UN, US resignations highlight splits over Israel’s Gaza assault

“The cooperation between the Palestinian and Israeli [security] services is extensive and has withstood any challenge. Every time Mahmoud Abbas has wanted to suspend security cooperation, the Americans have opposed it and he has fallen in line,” says Jean-Paul Chagnollaud, director of the Paris-based Institute for Research and Studies on the Mediterranean and Middle East (Institut de recherche et d’études Méditerranée Moyen-Orient).

“It’s an almost organic relationship, and for many Palestinians, security cooperation comes with no political return. That’s why many accuse the Palestinian Authority of a sort of collaboration.”

Chagnollaud says the idea that the PA would return to Gaza – with Israeli armoured vehicles – as part of an occupying army would be unacceptable to most Palestinians and politically untenable for Abbas and his government.

Can the Palestinian Authority govern Gaza again?

Frédéric Encel, a specialist in Middle Eastern politics at Sciences Po University in Paris, says the Palestinian Authority’s return to Gaza is the only viable solution.

“Israel has no legitimacy and no intention of reoccupying, let alone annexing, the enclave,” he says. “Egypt, which occupied it until 1967, has no interest in taking charge. And no state will send peacekeepers to control the Gaza Strip.”

However, for a PA return to be possible, many preconditions need to be met.

“The first condition, which is not easy, is the demilitarisation of Hamas’s main forces, meaning its missiles and especially any terrorists who could enter Israel. As long as this condition remains unmet, the Israelis will not stop the war,” says Encel.

“The second condition is massive support from the international community. And the third is that the current Israeli government [of hard-right Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu] collapses in the short term.”

Encel has “guarded expectations” that these conditions can be established, particularly given Netanyahu’s plummeting approval ratings in the wake of Hamas’s attack in southern Israel. “This combination of circumstances is certainly difficult, but not impossible. All opinion polls conducted in Israel since the Hamas massacre on October 7 consistently give substantial advantage to a centrist and centre-left cohort who are not at all opposed to the two-state solution and the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians.”

Read moreShock Hamas terror attack: The beginning of the end for Israel’s Netanyahu?

US bets on Abbas

The United States would like to have an “effective and revitalised Palestinian Authority take back governance and ultimately security responsibility in Gaza”, as Blinken told a Senate hearing in late October.

But the Biden administration’s hope faces clear obstacles, principally Hamas itself.  

Osama Hamdan, one of Hamas’s Lebanon-based leaders, said on Monday that his people “will not allow the United States to impose its plans to create an administration that suits it and that suits the [Israeli] occupation, and our people will not accept a new Vichy government” – a reference to the collaborationist government that controlled northern France during World War II. 

But the US project also faces opposition on the Israeli side.

Netanyahu once again rejected the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza on Monday. He promised Israel would take “overall security responsibility” in the enclave after the war, prompting a round of denials from Washington, which made clear it would not support an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza.

But the US diplomatic initiative may have a long road ahead, since it would rely on an agreement between the Palestinian Authority and a future Israeli government – one run not by hawks and their far-right allies, but one willing to partner with the Palestinians to map out Gaza’s future.

This article is translated from the original in French.

Source link

#Palestinian #Authority #lead #postHamas #Gaza #Strip

Intense airstrikes as Israeli forces cut Gaza in two

Post By World , ,

The latest developments from the Israel Hamas war.

EU announces 25 million euros aid for Gaza

ADVERTISEMENT

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday an extra 25 million euros of assistance for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, bringing the EU’s total aid to 100 million. 

From Brussels, von der Leyen also spoke of the establishment of a maritime corridor from Cyprus to transport humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

“Israel has the right to fight Hamas, but it is also essential that it does everything possible to avoid civilian casualties,” she stressed in a speech to European ambassadors.

Israel carries out intense strikes on Gaza

Israel bombarded the Gaza Strip heavily on Monday, as ground fighting rages. 

Hamas said overnight strikes killed more than 200 people in the besieged Palestinian enclave, where the war with Israel has already left nearly 10,000 dead, half of whom are children. 

“These are massacres! They destroyed three houses on the heads of their inhabitants, women and children, we have already taken 40 bodies out of the rubble,” Mahmoud Mechmech who lives in central Gaza told AFP. 

Israel’s army previously announced it would carry out “intensive” strikes, warning they would last “several days”.

Israel began attacking Gaza on 7 October, after Hamas launched a deadly strike on its territory that killed 1,400 people. 

Savage fighting is now taking place in the Strip’s north around Gaza City,  which is now surrounded, according to Israel. 

Israeli army spokesperson General Daniel Hagari said his country’s soldiers have cut the territory in two: “Gaza south and Gaza north”.

The army launched a new call on Monday morning for Palestinian civilians to leave the northern Gaza Strip, saying soldiers will soon be “less limited” in their operations.

“We will then be able to dismantle Hamas, stronghold by stronghold, battalion by battalion until we achieve the ultimate goal, which is to rid the Gaza Strip – the entire Gaza Strip – of Hamas,” said a spokesperson.

US ‘encourages’ Israel to ‘kill’ –  Iran’s president

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi on Monday accused the United States of “encouraging” Israel to “kill and perpetrate cruel acts” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Meeting Iraq’s prime minister in Tehran, Raisi once again called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.

“We believe the bombings must stop as soon as possible, that a ceasefire must be declared immediately and that aid be provided to the oppressed and proud people of Gaza,” he said at a press conference with Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani.

“These horrible crimes against humanity are a genocide, which is carried out by the Zionist regime with the support of the United States and certain European countries,” claimed Raisi. 

“American aid to the Zionist regime encourages it to kill and perpetrate cruel acts against the Palestinian people. The Americans’ claim that they seek to help Gaza is a false promise, which is not consistent with their actions,” he added.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, rocket and drone attacks have targeted Iraqi bases housing US troops.

ADVERTISEMENT

Washington accuses Iran of being involved by proxy in these attacks which also targeted American soldiers in neighboring Syria.

Iran and Iraq do not recognise Israel and the Iraqi government is close to Iran, a country which supports Palestinian Hamas.

Palestinian star arrested by Israel

The Israeli army announced on Monday it had arrested Ahed Tamimi – an icon of the Palestinian cause around the world – during a raid in the occupied West Bank.

A spokesperson for the army said the 22-year-old activist was “suspected of inciting violence and terrorist activities.” 

Tamimi was apprehended in the town of Nabi Saleh and “transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning,” they told AFP. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Ahed Tamimi became famous at 14, filmed biting an Israeli soldier to prevent him from arresting her little brother, who was pinned to the ground and had his arm in a cast.

She has since become a global icon of the Palestinian cause and is seen by Palestinians as an example of courage in the face of Israeli repression in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

A giant portrait of her was also painted on the Israeli separation wall in the occupied West Bank, in the Bethlehem sector.

Since the start of the war in October, Israel has severely cracked down on dissent in the West Bank, arresting and detaining Palestinians on mass. 

In Israel itself, the government has ramped up repression of domestic criticism of the war, with activists, academics and citizens subjected to doxxing, job terminations, threats and arrests. 

ADVERTISEMENT

The crackdown on dissent in the occupied West Bank has accompanied an upsurge in violence – already at fever pitch – involving Israeli settler attacks on civilians and deadly raids by Israel’s security forces.  

Some 150 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by fire from Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Far-right Israeli minister says nuking Gaza an option

Israel’s heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu said on Sunday that one of Israel’s options could be to drop a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disavowed his cabinet minister’s comment and suspended him from meetings. 

Eliyahu, a member of the far-right Jewish Power party – made the comment in response to a question during a radio interview. 

ADVERTISEMENT

“Your expectation is that tomorrow morning we’d drop what amounts to some kind of nuclear bomb on all of Gaza, flattening them, eliminating everybody there,” the Radio Kol Berama interviewer said.

“That’s one way,” Eliyahu responded. “The second way is to work out what’s important to them, what scares them, what deters them… They’re not scared of death.”

When the minister was told there are around 240 hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip, he doubled down.

“I pray and hope for their return, but there is a price to be paid in war,” he said. “Why are the lives of the abductees, whose release I really want, more important than the lives of the soldiers and the people who will be murdered later?”

The Israeli minister also voiced objection to allowing any humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying “we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid”.

ADVERTISEMENT

Calls for an immediate ceasefire to stop ‘horrific’ killings

The heads of 11 UN agencies and six humanitarian organisations issued a joint plea for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. 

They called for the protection of civilians and swift entry of food, water, medicine and fuel into the Strip.

In a statement issued Sunday night, the group called Hamas’ surprise 7 October attacks in Israel “horrific.”

“However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage, as is cutting off 2.2 million Palestinians from food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel,” the heads of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory said.

The UN and humanitarian organisations said more than 23,000 injured people need immediate treatment and hospitals are overstretched.

ADVERTISEMENT

“An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship,” the joint statement said.

The UN and aid organization leaders said over a hundred attacks against health care operations have been reported and 88 staff members from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have been reported killed – “the highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict.”

Source link

#Intense #airstrikes #Israeli #forces #cut #Gaza

‘Nili’: Is a secret Israeli unit hunting Hamas militants behind the October 7 attack?

Post By World , , , , , , , ,

Israeli media are reporting that a special unit of security and intelligence agents has been set up to track down and eliminate the Hamas members responsible for the deadly October 7 attacks in southern Israel. The operation is reminiscent of the plot to find the Palestinian militants who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Israeli media have been reporting over the past week that Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service) along with the Mossad intelligence service have set up a special unit to track down the Hamas members who organised the killing of more than 1,400 Israelis during the deadly October 7 attack. The unit is reportedly known as NILI – a Hebrew acronym for the Biblical phrase “Netzah Yisrael Lo Yeshaker,” or “The Eternal One of Israel will not lie”.

To date, neither NILI’s existence nor its activities have been confirmed by the Israeli government. But Ahron Bregman, an Israeli political scientist at King’s College London who spent six years in the Israeli army, is fairly confident the special unit is real.

“Shin Bet along with Mossad formed a special operations centre tasked with tracking down and killing members of Hamas that entered Israel and massacred Israelis on 7 October,” says Bregman. “I know from a reliable source that this forum already exists.”  

The formation of such a unit would not be surprising, says Shahin Modarres, a specialist in Iran and Israeli intelligence at the International Team for the Study of Security Verona (ITSS).

“Mossad’s charter specifies that its missions include neutralising threats to Israel and exacting revenge,” he said. “In other words, tracking down Hamas fighters is perfectly within the remit of these spies.”

The perception that the October 7 assault was partly the result of an intelligence failure is all the more reason that Israel would launch this kind of operation, says Modarres; the failure left Shin Bet and Mossad with no choice but to try to redeem themselves.

Operation Wrath of God

NILI’s ambitions would be similar to Operation Wrath of God, considered the archetype of Mossad retribution operations and popularised by the 2005 Steven Speilberg film, “Munich.”

“After the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics [by the Palestinian militant group Black September], Mossad tracked down those involved in the massacre, killing them one by one. This is what is now to be expected from NILI,” says Bregman.

The precedent of Operation Wrath of God also gives us an idea of the resources the Israeli state is likely to mobilise for hunting terrorists – up to five different teams of spies and assassins were supported financially and logistically over two decades to track down and eliminate Black September members and those who helped them.

Israel set up a top-secret unit within Mossad’s undercover operations section dubbed Kidon (“bayonet” in English). It remains the flagship of the Israeli secret service’s assassination squad and is responsible for most of the Black September killings. Kidon agents, who are also known for targeting Iranian nuclear scientists, will likely take part in NILI, says Modarres. 

Unlike other spy services, Kidon’s modus operandi of Kidon is not to kill as discreetly as possible. Indeed, their goal is to make a statement – often using explosives.

“They want to send a signal to other terrorist groups and often stage their assassinations,” Modarres says.

Kidon agents are suspected of assassinating Iranian nuclear engineer Darioush Rezaeinejad, who was killed by gunmen on a motorcycle after picking up his child from school in Tehran in 2011.

The 1978 death of Palestinian activist Wadia Haddad is also the suspected work of Kidon agents. According to differing accounts, either Haddad’s toothpaste or some Belgian chocolate given to him by a friend was poisoned.

But the comparison with Operation Wrath of God has its limits.

“The main difference is that NILI will take place while Israel is at war with Hamas,” says Modarres, who argues tracking down Hamas fighters hiding in or underneath Gaza will be more complicated to organise, as it is likely to take place in parallel with the broader military operation.

“I don’t think NILI agents will go in during the first phase of the ground operation, as it would be too dangerous for them,” says Modarres. “They will go in once the purely military objectives have been achieved, to eliminate those who have managed to survive.”

Bregman believes that NILI agents will go in at the same time as the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). “They will have two key missions,” he says. “First, to try to locate the remaining Israeli hostages and, if possible, release them. Second, try to locate Hamas terrorists who killed Israelis on 7th October and kill them.”

In Gaza and beyond

The most obvious targets of Israeli assassins are members of the Nukhba force, the elite corps of fighters of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. These Hamas commandos are the suspected perpetrators of the October 7 attack.

The brains behind the attack are also on the list. The elusive head of the Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif, and his No. 2 Marwan Issa as well as the head of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, are all suspected to be hiding out in the enclave.

Read moreMohammed Deif, the elusive architect of Hamas’s attack on Israel

Mossad’s involvement also offers a clue to NILI operations. It means the assassinations will not be restricted to the Gaza Strip, Bregman says.

“The fact that the body includes Mossad means that Israel will also go after Hamas members who are not in the Gaza Strip, but also living in places such as Qatar and Turkey,” he says.

“I refer to people such as Khaled Meshaal (the influential former leader of Hamas) and Ismail Haniyeh (the chairman of the Hamas political bureau) who, I’m pretty sure, will be looking over their shoulder and for good reason,” adds Bregman.

And the list of targets is likely to grow as the NILI operation continues.

“NILI members will draw up lists of individuals to target as they go along, and it will have to be validated at the highest level of government,” explains Modarres. But not as high as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, “so that he can plead that he didn’t know about it”, he adds.

A certain distance must be maintained between elected officials and the intelligence services, as this kind of operation can be very risky for the government, Bregman says.

“The Mossad will have to act carefully. The last time they tried to assassinate Khaled [Meshaal] in Amman [in 1997], they failed, and their combatants were arrested by the Jordanians. This then led to a terrible crisis with Jordan and Netanyahu.”

Tel Aviv then had to agree to release prisoners, including the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin.

Yassin was assassinated by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip seven years later.

This article was translated from the original in French.

Source link

#Nili #secret #Israeli #unit #hunting #Hamas #militants #October #attack

Former Israeli security chief Ami Ayalon: ‘The military can defend us; it cannot secure us’

Post By World , , , , , , , ,

Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on Saturday has triggered outright war between Israel and Palestine, with levels of violence not seen in decades. FRANCE 24 spoke to Ami Ayalon, the former director of Israel’s national security service Shin Bet, to discuss what is happening on the ground and how the conflict may evolve.

A new episode of heightened violence began in Israel and Palestine this week with an attack by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Israel and Israeli retaliation in Gaza that has seen a combined death toll climb into the thousands. 

In Israel and around the world, many were shocked by both the extreme brutality of Hamas’s attack and the fact that national intelligence and security services did not foresee the intervention, which saw hundreds of fighters enter Israel by land, sea and air. 

The violence has been compounded by Israel’s response in Gaza; the Palestinian enclave has so far been hit with 6,000 bombs, the Israeli army said on Thursday, and supplies of electricity, gas and water have been cut off. 

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to destroy Hamas, and it is widely expected the Israeli military will soon begin a ground offensive in the Palestinian territory. There are also fears that rising tensions could spread into the wider region.

FRANCE 24 spoke to the former director of Israeli national security service Shin Bet, Ami Ayalon, to discuss Israel’s response to the attack, military action in Gaza and prospects for a regional conflict. 

Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas in the wake of Saturday’s attack. Do you think that’s a good security strategy? And is it possible? 

Keeping Hamas on the other side of the border is not acceptable. We have to destroy the military capability of Hamas. Today, I see that this is the only way.  

But when we say that our war is against Hamas, we should add it is not against the Palestinian people, and Israel is not saying that. Our government does not recognise the Palestinians as a people.  

As long as there is conflict, we will not come to an agreement, and we will not see stability.

We should be ready to speak to any Palestinian leader who accepts Israel’s existence as a state and to start to negotiate on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative.  

We have to get rid of the political and military power of Hamas, and it will be very, very violent. But what next? Next, Israel should say it doesn’t want to control Palestinians anymore. We have to start to revive the concept of two states, side-by-side. 

This is my dream, but I understand that the present government and probably the future government will not accept it. I’m 78 years old now. Probably it will not happen in my lifetime, but we have to start. What we see around us is a horror but, in every conflict, there is an opportunity.  

How risky is the ground offensive that Israel seems to be preparing for in Gaza? 

Very risky. Many people will die. Many Israeli soldiers and many more Palestinians, but we do not have another option. The other option – that Hamas goes on living on the other side of the border – is unacceptable.  

Most of the directors of Shin Bet are responsible for advising the government on terror and, for years, we said Israel cannot speak to Hamas. It is a fundamental radical organisation that does not approve Israel’s existence as a state, and it will do everything in order to destroy us.  

[The Hamas attack] was a wake-up call that was so painful, I don’t have the words in English or Hebrew to describe the feelings in Israel now. 

Israel could have done something [different] earlier. We could have tried to empower the Palestinian Authority and to decrease the power of Hamas, but we did the opposite.  

Read moreGaza braces for ground offensive, but can Israel achieve its objectives?

Speaking about the feeling in Israel now, it has been reported that there were Israeli intelligence and security failures that allowed the Hamas attack to happen. How confident can Israelis feel that the same kind of attack isn’t going to happen again?  

There is a difference between defence and security.  

Defence is something that you can measure. Israel wanted to achieve more defence against attacking missiles, so we built the Iron Dome. We put in money, had great minds to develop this technology and we can measure the input and output. It gives us a level of defence of about 95 to 97 percent against attacking missiles. 

When it comes to security, it’s totally different because security is what you feel. The answer to security comes from culture. It’s the leaders’ role to create confidence and to give a sense of security to the people.  

Israel is defended more than any other state as a whole, but the Jewish people do not feel secure. If you ask why, some people start to speak about 2,000 years ago when the Second Jewish Temple was destroyed [by the Romans], some talk about the Spanish Inquisition or the Holocaust or history with the Arabs…  

What we do not understand is that … the military will never give us security. The military can defend us; it cannot secure us. And in our public debate, we do not understand the difference.  

What do you make of the reports that Israel ignored advanced security warnings from Egypt and early reports on the ground that this large-scale attack was about to happen? 

It is clear that our political policy [towards Palestine] was totally wrong and that there were intelligence and operational failures. 

It’s identical to what happened before the Yom Kippur War. It was clear that we were going to war, we had a peace offer on the table, and we were not ready to discuss it. (Editor’s note: In the lead-up to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israeli intelligence dismissed the movement of Egyptian and Syrian troops near the border prior to a surprise attack coordinated by the two states. The war was part of an ongoing Israeli-Arab conflict during which Israel initially rejected an Egyptian peace deal – the first publicly offered to Israel by an Arab government)

Read moreFrom 1947 to 2023: Retracing the complex, tragic Israeli-Palestinian conflict

But, if somebody tells you tomorrow you will be attacked by Hamas but all your intelligence officers are telling you that there are no signs, you will listen to all the experts around you. You want so much to see it as true.  

In these [security] meetings, people tend not to ask questions. It’s against the culture of the organisation.  

There is this myth that Israel is invincible due to the strength of its intelligence and security services. Is that idea now dead? 

It’s damaged, for sure. It can be fixed, but it will take a lot of time. 

Deterrence is the major factor in Israel’s defence, and we are losing our deterrence. Until now everybody was afraid of Israel, and this was a great asset. When we lose our deterrence, it presents a major, major threat because we live in a very dangerous region which does not forgive weakness. 

Israel is also not doing enough in the region. We speak to all our neighbours in the language of the military and they see us as a military power, but we need to speak two languages; military and diplomacy.  

We have to fight the military wing of Hamas. And we have to speak with anybody who accepts us, immediately. And we are only doing the first part. 

We have to communicate to our neighbours that we are a military and diplomatic state, and it’s up to them to choose which language they prefer.  

Israel now says it’s at war. Is it inevitable that this war is going to include neighbouring countries like Lebanon and Iran? Is Israel ready for a regional conflict? 

I have no idea. I think that it depends on whether Israel makes clear to our neighbours and to the international community that we do not have any intention to conquer Gaza, to occupy Gaza, or to build settlements in Gaza, [as per] the Arab Peace Initiative. 

What you see today is a military operation with a very specific goal to destroy Hamas’s military wing, and nobody knows where it will lead. It will cause many casualties on both sides, and the other risk is that it will spread to Hezbollah. We have to assume that we will see more violence in the West Bank.  

At this moment, we need to tell the Saudis and all our neighbours that we accept, after 21 years, the idea of the Arab Peace Initiative and will negotiate on a future two-state solution. That would create an immediate impact on the spread of violence. 

Source link

#Israeli #security #chief #Ami #Ayalon #military #defend #secure

Mohammed Deif, the elusive architect of Hamas’s attack on Israel

Post By World , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas’s Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, organised the deadly assault on Israel over the weekend. The attack plunging Israel and Gaza into a new war brings to the forefront a little-known character who has managed to elude Israel’s intelligence services for over 30 years.

Issued on:

4 min

Mohammed Deif has been on Israel‘s ‘most wanted’ list for nearly three decades. The leader of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, is unlikely to lose the designation anytime soon.

Deif is behind the military operation launched from the Gaza Strip that caught Israel off guard on Saturday, October 7. After intense fighting that caused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war on Hamas, Deif, perhaps more than ever, is in Tel Aviv’s crosshairs.

As Deif’s bounty rises, his star in Gaza is expected to rise too. His “prestige” was already strong, says Omri Brinner, an Israel and Middle East analyst at the International Team for the Study of Security Verona (ITSS). “But with this operation – the most successful in the history of Palestinian resistance – his legacy will live forever. He can fail now, Israel can assassinate him now: his legacy will outlast him.”

‘Nine lives’

As someone who has escaped multiple assassination attempts, Deif is the “ultimate survivor of Palestinian resistance”, says Brinner. His ability to evade Israeli intelligence services has earned him the nickname “the man with nine lives”.

Considered an international terrorist by the United States since 2015, Deif has represented a direct and constant threat to the internal security of Israel for over 30 years. “Militancy against Israel is a field with low life expectancy. It’s quite remarkable that he has been able to survive so long. He is a long-lasting stain on Israel’s reputation of taking down designated targets,” says Jacob Eriksson, a specialist in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the University of York.

The trick to survival lies in remaining hidden. The only official photo of Deif in circulation is over twenty years old. However, he is far from unscathed. Deif is said to have lost his sight, one arm, and one leg after an Israeli attack in 2006.

The only known photo of Mohammed Deif, taken sometime around the year 2000 in an unknown location. Handout file photo, AFP

His real name is also unknown, although several media outlets suggest it is Mohammed al-Masri. “Deif” is, in fact, an Arabic moniker that translates literally to “guest”. “It’s a reference to the fact he doesn’t stay more than one night in the same place to avoid being caught by Israel,” explains Eriksson.

Other details about Deif’s life are scarce. Deif was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza in the 1960s, according to an Israeli intelligence official who spoke with the Financial Times.

In 2014, the Washington Post reported that Deif studied at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he frequented members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas would later become an offshoot.

Attack from both above and below

The future architect of Hamas’s military operations joined the Islamist organisation in the late 1980s with the help of Yahya Ayyash – known as “the Engineer” – one of Hamas’s main explosives experts with whom “Deif was very close”, according to Eriksson.

After orchestrating suicide bombing attacks in the 1990s, Deif became increasingly important within Hamas after Ayyash’s assassination by Israeli intelligence services in 1996. He was appointed head of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades in 2002.

One of his early achievements as a leader was to apply lessons from the second intifada in the early 2000s. He masterminded the construction of underground tunnels allowing Hamas fighters to launch incursions into Israeli territory from Gaza. He also emphasised the use of rockets as extensively as possible.

“In response to Israel’s fortifying the border with walls, he developed Hamas’s ‘below and above strategy’, meaning digging tunnels for Hamas militants to go into Israel and sending rockets,” explains Brinner. 

His modus operandi has “always been to directly hit Israeli territory by any means possible to make it pay the highest price for its treatment of the population in Gaza”, notes Eriksson.

Deif’s ideology is about making any purely political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible, says Brinner. “His philosophy is about a military solution to the conflict.” It’s no coincidence, Brinner adds, that Deif organised a major campaign of suicide bombings in the mid-1990s, shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords.

A matter of prestige

This reputation for using purely military means also partly explains “why he enjoys unparalleled popularity among the Gaza population”, says Brinner. In 2014, in a poll conducted by a Palestinian news site, “Deif was voted more popular than Khaled Meshal, the overall leader of Hamas, and Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s top political leader in Gaza – both highly visible personalities and known to every Palestinian,” reported the Washington Post.

“He is a military leader, so he is immune to critiques of how Hamas has handled the humanitarian and social aspects of Gaza’s administration,” says Eriksson.

“He is also the only one who lives in Gaza and has educated his children there,” adds Brinner. This is significant from the perspective of Gaza residents, who accuse Haniyeh of leading Hamas from a “luxury hotel in Qatar”.

Deif’s personality and the respect he inspires in Gaza can also partly explain how the ambitious attack succeeded despite the Israeli intelligence services’ widely recognised effectiveness. “The fact that Hamas planned this operation for a year – according to the latest estimations – without any information leaking speaks to the loyalty the select few who were involved in the planning of the operation have to Deif,” says Brinner.

This loyalty has already resulted in the deaths of more than 1000 Israelis and 830 Palestinians since the start of the attack on Saturday.

This article has been translated from the original in French.

Source link

#Mohammed #Deif #elusive #architect #Hamass #attack #Israel

Hostages held in Gaza complicate Israel’s ‘mighty vengeance’ for Hamas incursion

Post By World , , , , , , , , ,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “mighty vengeance” against Hamas following its dramatic surprise incursion into the country on Saturday, October 7, all the while emphasising the importance of rescuing the “significant numbers” of hostages now being held. As families mobilise to find their missing loved ones, Israel must balance tough trade-offs. 

In a video circulated on social media, a 25-year-old Chinese-Israeli named Noa is shown being kidnapped by men on motorcycles as she attends the “Tribe of Nova” music festival in southern Israel‘s Negev desert. Since the surprise offensive by Hamas against Israel on Saturday, dozens of videos of this nature have gone viral, causing an international outcry. 

According to Israel, around a thousand members of terrorist group Hamas took part in the large-scale operation of bombings and armed raids. With clashes still ongoing on Monday in several locations, hundreds of deaths and dozens of abductions have already been recorded.

Israeli hostages, including military personnel and “women, children, babies, elderly individuals, and the disabled”, are being held “in significant numbers” in Gaza, acknowledged Netanyahu on Saturday.

On Sunday evening, a senior Hamas official confirmed that the group was holding over 100 people hostage following the assault on Israel. Al Qassam, Hamas’ armed wing, claimed to be holding “dozens” of Israeli soldiers “sheltered in safe places and resistance tunnels”, including “high-ranking officers”.

The head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad also stated in a televised speech that his group was holding dozens of “Israeli prisoners” in Gaza.


Families without answers

Parents and relatives of the missing held a press conference on Sunday in Tel Aviv, expressing their despair and calling on the government for help.

Like Noa, Merav Leshem Gonen’s daughter was attending the “Tribe of Nova” music festival ten kilometres from the Gaza Strip when it was attacked by armed men. Speaking at the conference, Gonen describes the last time she heard from her daughter, who called her while hiding from the attackers. “I’m on the phone with her and I’m saying ‘we love you’ and ‘it’s ok’,” Gonen says. “I know I’m lying because we don’t have answers.”

According to preliminary reports, about 250 people died during the attack on the music festival while several others were kidnapped by armed men.

For Vincent Lemire, a historian and former director of the French Research Centre in Jerusalem (CRFJ), the events of the weekend mark a turning point for the entire country. “It’s unprecedented in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab conflict,” he says. “The population is completely traumatised.”

Dual and foreign nationals are also among those taken hostage. Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog indicated that American citizens had been taken hostage. According to the Thai foreign ministry, eight Thai labourers were wounded, 12 killed and 11 taken captive. And at least eight French citizens are still missing, “deceased or taken hostage by Hamas”, according to Meyer Habib, an MP representing French citizens abroad, including in Israel.


Several German-Israelis have been also reported kidnapped by Hamas by the German foreign ministry, which did not specify the number of individuals involved.

CNN journalist Anderson Cooper spoke to German-Israeli Ricarda Louk, who says she recognised her daughter unconscious in a car with Palestinian militants in a video online. 

To assist families in their search for loved ones and to try to coordinate information, the Israeli police and civil defence have opened a “command centre for missing persons” in Lod, 15 kilometres southeast of Tel Aviv. 

Bargaining chips

The abduction of soldiers and civilians complicates the IDF’s retaliation, says Héloïse Fayet, a Middle East specialist at the French Institute of Foreign Relations (IFRI).

“We know that Israel places a high value on its hostages,” says Fayet, recalling the case of the Franco-Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, exchanged in 2011 for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

On Monday, Hamas announced that four “prisoners” had been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza. “Will the government be willing to sacrifice the hundred Israeli or dual nationals as hostages to neutralise the Hamas threat through a large-scale aerial operation?” asks Fayet.

A second option for Israel is to conduct a ground operation in Gaza, but this also involves serious risks, says Lemire. “There will be hundreds of [IDF] casualties because they will have to retake Gaza street by street,” he says.

According to Israeli media, the army has mobilised 300,000 reservists, an unprecedented move in Israel’s history. However, Netanyahu has shown little inclination to conduct ground campaigns in Gaza thus far in his long political career.

“The cruel reality is that Hamas has taken hostages as insurance against Israeli retaliation, especially a massive ground attack, and to exchange them for Palestinian prisoners,” Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, told Reuters.

Negotiating the release of the hostages is the most likely outcome, says Lemire. “It is currently difficult to see how a far-right government and ministers like Ben Gvir [Minister of National Security] and Smotrich [Minister of Finance] could bear the political cost,” says Lemire. “But from my perspective, it is the most likely option. In the past, Israel has always negotiated to secure the release of its hostages.”

According to estimates, around 4,500 Palestinians are currently being held in Israel, convicted or awaiting trial for “terrorist activities”. “Our detainees in [Israeli] prisons, their freedom is looming large. What we have in our hands will release all our prisoners,” said Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chief of Hamas’s political bureau in an interview with Al-Jazeera, in anticipation of future negotiations.

 

This article has been translated from the original in French.



Source link

#Hostages #held #Gaza #complicate #Israels #mighty #vengeance #Hamas #incursion

As Israel struggles for its democratic soul, this could be a solution

Post By World , , ,

By Joshua Hantman, Partner, Number 10 Strategies

An additional legislative layer with an oversight role made up of ordinary individuals from all walks of life with no political ambition could well be the panacea to Israel’s constitutional conundrum, Joshua Hantman writes.

Last week was a dark week for Israel’s democracy. The first legislative shot of a battle for Israel’s democratic future was fired officially, as the first piece of legislation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul passed the Knesset. 

The law removes one of the key tools the Supreme Court has in its arsenal to strike down legislation deemed unreasonable — such as the current government’s attempt to put a convicted financial felon in the position of finance minister.

With hundreds of thousands taking to the streets to protest for the 30th week in a row, the minister of national security — who himself was convicted of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organization in 2008 — declared that this was “just the beginning”.

Politics of procrastination

In Israel, large-scale reforms are rare. Political survival in unstable coalitions is often accompanied by legislative bottlenecks, tactical flipflopping and incessant procrastination.

In fact, procrastination is the name of the game in Israeli politics, dating all the way back to day one. 

The Declaration of Independence stated that the newly formed state must adopt a constitution “not later than 1 October 1948”. As the country marks its 75th year of independence, there is still no progress — Israel still doesn’t have a written constitution — and the legal limbo is quite literally tearing the nation apart.

The current judicial reform — or “regime overhaul” to its critics — arises from a lack of clearly defined rules regarding the function and powers of Israel’s judiciary and an illiberal government who, unashamedly inspired by “successes” in Hungary and Poland, are looking to take advantage of this.

In Israel’s parliamentary democracy, the executive, or the government, automatically controls the legislature — the unicameral parliament — with a simple majority. 

If Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s declared plans to hamstring the courts and even grant veto power to the government over judicial appointments and judicial review are to succeed, Israel will be in a situation where a simple majority controls all three branches of power. 

No checks. No balances.

Only one obstacle to the tyranny of the majority

Furthermore, unlike in many European democracies or the US, with no federalism, executive president, bicameral legislature, constituency-based accountability, or any form of binding constitutional bill of rights, Israel’s high court is the only official gatekeeper against the tyranny of the majority.

Israel, therefore, urgently needs a nationally agreed-upon constitution which lays out the role of the courts, the rights and obligations of the citizens of the state, codifies the balance of powers, and formalises its liberal democratic future.

However, the constitution-building process itself has the potential to tear the nation apart further. The “tribal” nature of Israel’s society, with such differing world views, requires an extremely careful consensus-building process.

One way to do this could be to get the politicians out of the way and establish a citizen’s assembly in both the constitution-building process and, indeed, our day-to-day politics. 

Such an assembly could provide a desperately needed additional layer of oversight — not of politicians — but of normal people who want to find common ground.

The solution: Citizen’s assemblies

Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, discusses the concept in his book “The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism”, as well as in a series of recent podcasts and articles.

He argues that democratic politics has become a zero-sum game of professional politicians, creating dangerous winners and disgruntled losers. 

Created by lottery, “these [citizen’s] assemblies would be more representative than professional politicians can ever be.” 

He also notes that “it would temper the impact of political campaigning, nowadays made more distorting by the arts of advertising and the algorithms of social media.”

Indeed, elected representatives around the world are often focused purely on the game of constant campaigning to their base, with no incentive to either govern responsibly or find a compromise. In Israel, in particular, five elections in four years have exacerbated this sentiment.

And while in Israel’s one lonely but loud unicameral parliament, a multitude of sectoral parties means representation is relatively high, accountability is extremely low.

With list-based proportional representation, each “tribe” tends to have a voice, but the lack of constituencies or personal answerability on behalf of the members of parliament undermines trust in the democratic process. 

Governments claim that once elected, they have a “mandate” to do as they please — a dangerous majoritarianism which, lacking checks and balances, endangers minorities and individual rights.

A checks-and-balances panacea

A citizen’s assembly, while unelected, could act like a jury, or even a House of Lords-style upper house, serving as an additional layer of institutional protection. 

It would have to be both random and representative, perhaps created in conjunction with the President’s Office and the Central Bureau of Statistics.

This “people’s branch of the legislature”, as Wolf calls it, would be advisory in nature but “could decide to investigate particularly contentious issues or even legislation. 

If it did the latter, it might ask for the legislation to be returned to the legislature for secret votes, thus reducing the control of factional party politics. 

The people’s house might even have oversight of such issues as electoral redistricting or selection of judges and officials.” Another level of much-needed checks and balances.

Importantly for the Israel case, it could even serve as a constituent assembly, working with legal experts from all sides and building on the Declaration of Independence to help finally formulate Israel’s constitution. A constitution which would both clarify and codify the toolbox and authority of a truly independent supreme court.

An additional legislative layer, with an oversight role, made up of ordinary individuals from all walks of life, with no political ambition, who do not have to raise funds to campaign and therefore are not at the whims of special interests or lobbyists, that neither win nor lose — this could well be the panacea to Israel’s constitutional conundrum.

Joshua Hantman is a partner at Number 10 Strategies LLP and a former advisor to Israel’s Minister of Defence and Ambassador to Washington.

At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at [email protected] to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.

Source link

#Israel #struggles #democratic #soul #solution