View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog

Israeli soldiers in Gaza in tears

Rai el Youm. December 22, 2023. (translated from Arabic with Google Translate)

The disaster in Israel did not end on October 7, and there will be more bitter news from Gaza and a major failure in the plan to eliminate and defeat Hamas.. The Hebrew media reveals what “Tel Aviv” is hiding from the world.. and 784 officers and soldiers have been injured since the start of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

Jerusalem – “Opinion of the Day” – Anatolia – Israeli journalist, Avery Gilad, said, “The disaster did not end on October 7, but rather it only began, as there will be more bitter news.”

In an article on the Israeli “Serogim” website, Gilad referred to the difficult news that arrives every day of the war in Gaza, recalling the incident of occupation army soldiers shooting 3 prisoners by mistake, describing the incident as a “tragedy.”

In this context, the Israeli journalist confirmed that “disasters will continue in the near future,” adding: “We are in a very difficult war, and what is more difficult is that we are against an enemy that is not stupid, and has been preparing for this war for years, while we were busy with trivial disputes among ourselves.”

In turn, the military affairs correspondent for the “Israel Hayom” newspaper, Lilach Shoval, indicated that the number of deaths of the occupation “army” since the beginning of its ground incursion into Gaza had risen to 139, adding that this matter was “unbearable,” and indicates “the continuation of fierce fighting throughout The sector, 8 weeks after the start of the ground maneuver, according to Al-Mayadeen.

Shoval also spoke about Israel’s failure to “defeat Hamas after two and a half months of continuous war, which has implications for the region, as the entire Middle East is awaiting the outcome of the war in Gaza.”

She explained, in this regard, that “any Israeli operation in Gaza, and any result achieved, will also have a very broad impact on what happens on the Lebanese border, and also on what happens in the West Bank, Iran, Yemen, and others.”

“Frustration and embarrassment”

In the same context, Zvika Haimovich, former commander of the “Air Defense” formation in the “army” of the occupation, said, “The announcement of operational control in Shuja’iyya, and of a decision in Beit Hanoun, and of control over the northern Gaza Strip, indicates embarrassment, frustration, and hesitation, and not a direction.” Accurate, every morning we hear about dead people whose names have been allowed to be published.”

Haimovitch added, addressing those who believe that “Israel” will go into a long operation in the north, at such a pace in terms of the home front, “the army,” the reserves, and erosion, saying that “Israel is losing flexibility and ability, as time passes.”

In this regard, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth spoke yesterday, in an article by journalist Nahum Barnea, that the news about the Israeli “army” expanding its ground incursion into the Gaza Strip indicates two things, the most prominent of which is its inability to achieve victory so far.

According to Barnea, the first thing is that “control has not yet been achieved in the northern Gaza Strip, while fighters are emerging from tunnel openings and buildings and pursuing army soldiers.”

The second matter is that “the army smells the end and is trying to reach more achievements before declaring a ceasefire,” according to the Israeli journalist.

In turn, the American Wall Street Journal reported that the Israeli forces are still facing “an unexpectedly fierce battle in the northern Gaza Strip,” which is delaying their efforts to shift their focus to the south of the Strip, especially in the city of Khan Yunis.

As for the war with Hezbollah, Major General in the Israeli Reserve, Yitzhak Brik, said that this war will turn into a regional war, indicating that “Israel” has not prepared itself for it.

Israeli army statistics also indicate that 784 officers and soldiers have been injured since the start of the ground war in the Gaza Strip on October 27.

Based on the data published on the army’s website and seen by Anadolu, 179 of the wounded were seriously injured, 302 were moderate, and 303 were minor.

The site also pointed out that 139 officers and soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the ground war.

The Israeli army indicated that in total, since the beginning of the war on October 7, 471 officers and soldiers have been killed.

He also stated that since the beginning of the war, 1,952 Israeli officers and soldiers had been injured, noting that among them, 311 were seriously injured, 548 were moderate, and 1,093 were minor.

Boulder Colorado – 2003. Long history of Palestinian Solidarity. Ida Audeh speaking. In the background Joel Edelstein and Juliette Wittman. If I recall properly – not sure – we were mourning the death of U.S. peace activist, Rachel Corrie. Tom Mayer has been a part of the mix all these years. 

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As a passionate antizionist Jew I am outraged by House Resolution 894 which equates antizionism with antisemitism.  This is an appalling canard intended to demonize any advocacy of Palestinian rights.  In reality, Jewish antizionism  exemplifies the most attractive features of Jewish culture: universalism, rationality, egalitarianism, and concern for justice. It follows a longstanding Jewish social tradition epitomized by Baruch Spinoza, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg, Albert Einstein, Isaac Deutscher, and Noam Chomsky among others.

 The history of my own family makes me deeply conscious of the menace of antisemitism.  I was born in Germany in 1937.  My father was much involved in the struggle against burgeoning Nazism and was eventually clapped into the Buchenwald concentration camp.  He managed to get out alive and my parents and I were able to exit Germany very shortly before the start of World War Two.  However, my grandmother and many other relatives died in Auschwitz.

In the United States my father eventually became the director of a large Jewish agency for troubled young people.  But my parents never lost their concern for human rights and social justice.  They taught me that the holocaust was a calamity that was not unique to Jews but could happen to any human population subject to racism and colonial oppression.  One of my tasks in life, they convinced me, was doing everything possible to prevent another holocaust no matter who the victims might be.

 It is with this cultural heritage and family tradition that I have become an ardent antizionist and a zealous advocate of Palestinian rights.  I think Zionism embodies some of the least attractive elements of Jewish culture: exclusionary particularism, xenophobic nationalism, and archaic dogmatism.  If anyone is responsible for a resurgence of antisemitism it is fanatic Zionism as revealed by the current massacre of Palestinian children and adults in Gaza. Fanatic Zionism makes many people think Jews are a self-centered people unconcerned with justice, equality, human rights, or democracy.

 As a committed antizionist, I keenly desire that Jews and Palestinians live together in freedom, peace, and harmony in the entire region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.  But this is only possible if Israel/Palestine becomes a truly democratic secular state with absolutely equal rights for all its inhabitants.

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Tom Mayer is a retired Sociology professor who taught for many, many decades at the University of Colorado – Boulder. He has worked and written for social justice as long as I can remember. Currently he spearheads the Global Peace Collective of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder. He is a long time friend and companero.

Rob Prince in front of the “L’Institut Bourguiba des Langues Vivantes” or simply “Bourguiba School” where I taught a long, long, long time ago.

Last week I was interviewed by a new podcast called “The Our World Podcast” . The title of the interview is “How The State of Israel Was Created“. There is some of that in the interview but it dealt with other issues too. It’s long – about an hour and forty minutes. I don’t expect too many people to listen to the whole thing. That said, it’s not too bad – a number of salient points covered.

And ..

There will be a follow up interview sometime after the new year on Israel’s current war against Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Stay tuned.

Architect of the Axis of Resistance in the last days of the Trump Administration, Qasem Souliemani celebrated in Gaza

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Listening to the commentary coming from both the U.S. and Israeli governments and their media one would think that all history between Israel and the Palestinian people began on October 7, 2023 with Hamas’ surprise attack, bursting out of the Gaza concentration camp into southern Israel. Before that date, the assumption goes, Israel and the Palestinian people lived harmoniously.

No Balfour Declaration, no Nakba with its Deir Yassin, no 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 wars; no settlement growth from less than 100,00 in the late 1960s to 750,000 today, no Intifada 1 or 2, no 2000 war in which Israel was push out of much of S. Lebanon, no 2006 war in which Israel was decisively defeated in S. Lebanon, no Gaza “mowing the lawn” repeatedly from 2006 onward every few years, no 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, no non-stop U.S. arming, funding of Israel, no ethnic cleansing.

Nope.

Here we have a classic example of “cancel culture” – the pathetic attempt to erase history. Events without context resulting in the moulding of historical lies. It was all kumbaya, a harmonious interaction of the two peoples summed up by U.S. National Security Agency head, Jake Sullivan’s impressively stupid statement of September 29 that “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.” He made those remarks one week before the Palestinians launched their offensive on October 7.

Except …

There is a context, there is history, there are facts, undeniable facts that are, once one investigates, actually are found in the public record. Read more…

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This is not a “military operation.” This is a bloodbath with Israeli death squads killing 10,000 people a month, turning entire cities into dumping grounds for the dead and maimed. We are all watching. 

Linda Mamoun

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“New Guantánamo”: Euro-Med Monitor calls for international probe into Israel’s torture and murder of Gaza detainees

Geneva – An impartial and urgent investigation is needed to probe the Israeli army’s torture and murder of Palestinian civilians detained in different areas of the Gaza Strip, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement issued on Monday.

Testimonies gathered by Euro-Med Monitor teams confirm reports published by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper about Israeli field executions of Gazan detainees. Additional detainees have died after being subjected to extreme torture and mistreatment in the “Sde Teman” Israeli army camp, located between Beersheba and Gaza.

The aforementioned camp has been turned into a new Guantánamo-like prison, the Geneva-based human rights group said, where detainees are caged in inhumane conditions; Euro-Med Monitor cited the Israeli army’s use of open-air chicken coops to house the detained and withholding of food or drink for long periods of time.

The Sde Teman camp detains Palestinians of all ages, from young children to elderly people. Within fenced compounds, detainees are blindfolded and subjected to harsh interrogations with their hands tied. According to testimonies, lights are turned on and intensely shone upon them at night, with the intention of exhausting and torturing them.

Testimonies gathered by Euro-Med Monitor from newly-released detainees of the Sde Teman camp state that the detained endured various forms of torture and mistreatment there, were not allowed to use phones, and were barred from meeting with lawyers and from receiving visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The testimonies also affirm that multiple elderly prisoners endured cruel beatings and humiliating treatment, the human rights organisation said. The detainees were blindfolded and bound, with both their hands and feet handcuffed, and if they tried to ask for anything, were met with abuse and threats.

One of the released detainees, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said that he witnessed Israeli soldiers directly shooting and killing five detainees in separate incidents. For its part, Haaretz reported that two Gazan detainees died in the Israeli army camp. But unlike in similar cases involving the deaths of prisoners in Israeli jails, the Israeli army chose not to announce the deaths.

According to Haaretz, one of the prisoners—a former employee in Israel—asked for medical treatment prior to his death, but the army ignored his request and kept him in appalling conditions, which ultimately caused his death.

Just 71 out of 500 detainees arrested during the ongoing violence have been brought before Israeli courts by the Israeli army, Haaretz noted; the remaining detainees have been moved to prisons run by the Israeli Prison Service or to detention facilities run by the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet).

Euro-Med Monitor reported the death of Palestinian worker Mansour Nabhan Muhammad Warsh on 3 November, only 24 hours after his arrest. His body was covered in bruises, which is evidence of handcuffing, and likely contributed to his fatal heart attack.

Palestinian worker Majed Ahmed Zaqul, 32, was proclaimed dead on 7 November in Israel’s Ofer Prison after being subjected to severe torture. The fate of hundreds of other Gaza Strip workers remains unknown.

The Euro-Med Monitor field teams previously documented the detention of more than 1,200 Palestinian civilians in random Israeli arrest campaigns in different areas of the Gaza Strip during Israel’s current genocide there. These arrests occurred after the storming of residential homes and schools sheltering thousands of displaced people.

Following their release from detention, the Israeli military has purposefully left Palestinian prisoners blindfolded, nearly nude, and kneeling on the ground, after subjecting them to all forms of beatings and ill-treatment. Furthermore, Euro-Med Monitor stated that it has been unable to report the arrest of a single Palestinian resistance fighter at the time of this publication, either because fighters’ families have been unwilling to report such cases, or because the Israeli army has not disclosed the identities of the detainees or even actually captured any members of the resistance.

Following their release from detention, the Israeli military has purposefully left Palestinian prisoners blindfolded, nearly nude, and kneeling on the ground, after subjecting them to all forms of beatings and ill-treatment. Furthermore, Euro-Med Monitor stated that it has been unable to report the arrest of a single Palestinian resistance fighter at the time of this publication, either because fighters’ families have been unwilling to report such cases, or because the Israeli army has not disclosed the identities of the detainees or even actually captured any members of the resistance.

In fact, members of Israel’s army have forced some detainees to carry weapons, so that they can be filmed in order to support Israeli campaigns of arrests, torture, severe beatings, and other abuses, according to testimonies obtained by Euro-Med Monitor from recently released detainees. At the same time, the Israeli military has deliberately published shocking footage and photos showing Palestinian detainees blindfolded and nearly naked, kneeling on the ground being guarded by Israeli soldiers, or being transported in military buses to unknown destinations.

These random arrest campaigns have targeted doctors, nurses, journalists, and elderly people, including dozens of women, such as Hadeel Youssef Issa Al-Dahdouh. In an inhumane scene, Al-Dahdouh appears in a photo alongside a group of naked men in an Israeli military truck.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor urged the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to pressure Israeli authorities to reveal the fate of all detainees from the Gaza Strip, release every arrested civilian, and investigate the horrific violations that these detained civilians are being subjected to.

Gaza Palestinians being led away by IDF

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That a small group of guerrillas recently come to power in a part of Yemen, one of the world’s poorest countries, could effectively interfere with one of the world’s most important maritime transit alleys, striking blows both to Israel and international trade, suggests how fragile security is in that part of the world. Yemen’s Ansar Allah, all by themselves, are hitting the West where it hurts, imposing a comprehensive trade embargo, and creating a massive logistics crisis. The Global South should take note.

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Despite ghastly media images of the bestiality of Israel’s war on Gaza that has now claimed more than 20,000 lives, more than half of which are women and children, Israel is not doing well. It has failed to destroy Hamas and is unlikely to do so. Underreported are the Israeli casualties Hamas is exacting on Israel in men and material. Beyond Gaza, Israel (and the United States) are in trouble as well. Yemeni rebels have disrupted maritime trade with Israel passing through the Red Sea. Hardly reported in the American media, U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria are getting hammered by missiles from local rebel groups. Global sympathy for Israel is shrinking to naught as a fury of world public opinion is pressing Israel to end its murderous campaign and accept entering into a ceasefire. 

Note: the day after this posting:  According to Rai al Youm this morning (December 17, 2023) 55 cargo ships have been diverted from passing though the Bab al Mandeb Straits north into the Red Sea to Israel as a result of Ansar Allah threats to shell them. 

1.

Their formal name is Ansar Allah, the Houthi-led movement in Yemen that controls the western part of the country and that has gone blow for blow with the Saudis and U.A.E. now for eight years. They are part and parcel of what is called the Axis of Resistance, a loose coalition of Middle East forces that includes Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah (both its Lebanese and Iraqi branches), the Syrian government of Bechir Assad and last but not least Iran.

It is a different kind of coalition or “united front” than that which existed during the Cold War in that it does not unite ideologically close countries and movements. Instead it brings together diverse tendencies who share common geo-political problems. Amazing that given their recent tensions that they can come together in common purpose.

It is true that Iran provides financial resources and in some cases direct military assistance. With Yemen there is no doubt that Iran provides the resources needed to challenge Saudi Arabia by proxy – ballistic missiles, drone capability – but the Houthi do what the Houthi want to do; they do not take orders from Teheran.

Let’s probe some of these differences for a moment before concentrating on Ansar Allah’s latest action in solidarity with Palestine:

• Hamas has historic roots with the Moslem Brotherhood from whence it sprang; it is dominated by Sunni religious thinking. Yet it is in alliance with Shi’a Iran and (still) largely secular Syria.
• Hezbollah and Hamas found themselves on opposite sides of the Syrian civil war and yet now are working together.
• Then there are the Yemeni Houthis, Yemen’s most powerful force that have withstood the Saudi-led military offensive. Indeed they have given the Saudis something of a bloody nose. “Indigenous to northern Yemen’s mountainous Saadah province and belonging to the Zaydi sub-branch of Shiism the Houthis now control much of  Yemen’s western regions. They too are part and parcel of the Axis of Resistance

Diversity in perspective, united in action.

What are the Axis of Resistance participants “resisting”? The answer in a few words: U.S. regional influence and Zionism. While Washington – both Democratic and Republican Administrations – consider the Axis of Resistance members as nothing other than Iranian clones or proxies, this is not the case. Each has its own national interests and priorities with the idea that Iran is somehow pulling the strings of each wildly inaccurate. Their interests converge around a number of issues, among them Palestine. Read more…

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(Several weeks ago I happened upon the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor website. The information presented is well documented and not just about Israeli war crimes – perhaps even too light a term – being committed in Gaza. It covers human rights violations across the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries. I checked with some of the countries that I tend to follow closely – Tunisia and Algeria – and my impression is that the reports are just as accurate – and ethically courageous – as the stuff below. Euro-Med’s executive director is the world renowned Richard Falk, a scrupulously serious human rights researcher who spent a few months at the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies when I was teaching there. 

Israel’s revenge offensive against Gaza knows no bounds; ethnic cleansing of Gaza includes those whose life has ended; their eternal journey disturbed by Israeli bombs and bulldozers. Euro-Med’s reporting on Israel’s war on Gaza, its attempts to crush the Palestinian resistance (marketed as an effort to eliminate Hamas), is devastating. In the piece below, just published yesterday – December 13, 2023 – examines the Israeli practice of demolishing Gaza cemeteries. It includes the confiscation of dead Palestinian bodies. RJP)

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Euro-Med Monitor received testimonies about Israeli army forces carrying out unjustified field executions and killings of Palestinian civilians after detaining them for days inside the same schools where they had sought refuge from the violence.

The testimonies reveal horrific human rights violations and atrocities against civilians killed after their release. The timing of the murders indicates that there was no reason to shoot them, other than to satisfy the bloody desires of Israeli soldiers or express the comprehensive moral permissibility—in the eyes of Israel’s military—when it comes to slaughtering and humiliating Palestinian civilians.

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Israel turns schools into military centres, conducting field executions and mass killings

13 Dec 2023 Israel-Palestinian Territory

Geneva – The Israeli army has turned schools sheltering tens of thousands of displaced people into military centres and field execution sites as part of its ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, which began on 7 October, Euro-MedHuman Rights Monitor said on Wednesday.

Euro-Med Monitor received testimonies about Israeli army forces carrying out unjustified field executions and killings of Palestinian civilians after detaining them for days inside the same schools where they had sought refuge from the violence.

The testimonies reveal horrific human rights violations and atrocities against civilians killed after their release. The timing of the murders indicates that there was no reason to shoot them, other than to satisfy the bloody desires of Israeli soldiers or express the comprehensive moral permissibility—in the eyes of Israel’s military—when it comes to slaughtering and humiliating Palestinian civilians.

Around 15 dead Palestinians’ decomposed bodies were found in Al-Falujah neighbourhood, west of the Jabalia camp. Based upon its initial investigation, Euro-Med Monitor confirmed that the individuals were subjected to field executions while being questioned by members of the Israeli army at the Shadia Abu Ghazaleh government school.

The bodies were discovered following the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the surrounding area of the school, following several days of abuses and violations against displaced people evacuating there.

“We were shocked to discover 15 bodies after the Israeli forces left the school,” Muhammad Jalal, 37, told the Euro-Med Monitor team. “It was obvious that they were directly shot, and some of them had their bodies disintegrated due to the heavy gunfire.”

Along the same line, displaced people at the Salah al-Din School in Gaza City affirmed that they were subjected to heavy gunfire three days ago, after the Israeli army stormed the school amid heavy and random gunfire, which led to the deaths of about 50 people.

One of the displaced people, who asked to remain anonymous, said that after Israeli forces separated the women and children from the men, they forced them to take off their clothes and subjected them to rough interrogations before forcing them to leave the school at gunpoint.

As the displaced people moved toward the Gaza Valley, he continued, the Israeli forces opened their machine gun fire at them, leaving five dead and several others injured.

The same incidents that were reported at the Salah al-Din school also occurred at the nearby Al-Ma’umaniyah and Al-Mukadssa Family schools in the same area, according to Euro-Med Monitor.

Field observations and eyewitness accounts indicate that Israeli forces stormed the Al-Mukadssa Family School, arrested the males, mistreated them, set some of them free, and severely tortured others.

Three days later, members of the Israeli military released more detained Palestinians before firing upon them without justification, killing two individuals: Abdel Nasser Khader Haboub, an engineer, and Dr. Ahmed Hamdi Abu Absa, adean at the University of Palestine.

Additionally, according to Euro-Med Monitor, a direct Israeli artillery shelling of the UNRWA-run Abu Hussein School in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip resulted in the deaths of 20 Palestinians and the wounding of numerous others, some of whom were critically injured.

The bodies were found in pieces inside the school, which had been sheltering thousands of internally displaced people who had escaped Israeli artillery and air strikes on their neighbourhoods.

Euro-Med Monitor said that it receives daily reports of horrific atrocities and killings committed by Israeli forces, who regularly storm schools sheltering displaced people, and called for an independent and impartial international investigation into these egregious incidents.

The Geneva-based organisation called for allowing the entry of investigation committees and specialised technical committees into the Gaza Strip in order to document and determine the extent of the horrific Israeli crimes in shelter schools, including field executions, torture, starvation, and the Israeli military’s use of civilians as human shields.

Israel, stated Euro-Med Monitor, is determined to escalate its genocidal war against Palestinian civilians in order to push for their forced displacement, which is in violation of international law. This amounts to a war crime, stressed the rights group.

A total of 24,142 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, including 9,420 children and 4,910 women, while 48,901 more have been injured, according to Euro-Med Monitor estimates.

Israel has relentlessly violated the international Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor emphasised,by collectively targeting the people of the Gaza Strip for simply being Palestinians. This targeting, the organisation reiterated, is ongoing and has included mass killing, physical and psychological torture, and undermining the basic living conditions that are necessary for survival.

“The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish,” reads Article 1 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Article 2 of the Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

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Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe

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(Washington might be “concerned” but history suggests it will do nothing about this. RJP)

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America directs a “rare criticism” of Israel over the use of white phosphorus in bombing, expresses its concern and demands information, and the occupation army admits to possessing internationally prohibited materials and tries to justify

Rai al Youm – December 11, 2023 (original in Arabic translated with Google Translate – Arabic to English)

Washington – (AFP) – Anatolia – The White House expressed concern on Monday about reports that Israel used white phosphorus supplied by the United States in attacks on Lebanon, indicating that it is seeking more details regarding this information.

Lebanon accused Israel of using incendiary weapons repeatedly in October, while the Washington Post reported on Monday that an analysis of fragments of Israeli attack shells showed that the bullets were American-made.

“We have seen the reports, and we are certainly concerned about this,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. “We will ask questions to try to find out more.”

The use of white phosphorus as a chemical weapon is prohibited under international law, but it is permitted to illuminate battlefields and can also be used as a smokescreen.

“Any time we supply material like white phosphorus to another military, we do so with the expectation that it will be used in keeping with those legitimate purposes and in keeping with the law of armed conflict,” Kirby said.

The Washington Post reported that nine civilians were injured in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon that apparently used white phosphorus that Israel obtained from the United States.

She added that a journalist working for her found the remains of three artillery shells bearing serial numbers showing that they were manufactured in the United States in 1989 and 1992.

On October 31, Lebanon accused Israel of using white phosphorus in “repeated” attacks, amid tensions that followed the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

The United States is strongly supportive of Israel, but it is trying to prevent the conflict from spreading in the region, especially to Lebanon, the stronghold of Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran.

“In this context, we are concerned about these reports” of the use of white phosphorus, Kirby said.

For his part, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the United States is “seeking additional information.”

Miller added, “Any time we see white phosphorus being used in a way that harms civilians, of course this concerns us.”

In turn, the Israeli army admitted, on Monday evening, that it possesses shells containing white phosphorus.

The official Israeli Army Radio said: “We have smoke shells containing white phosphorus, intended for camouflage, and not for the purpose of attacking or starting fires.”

The army added: “Like many Western armies, the Israeli army also possesses smoke shells containing white phosphorus, which is legal according to international law.”

He pointed out that “these shells are designated in the Israeli army for the purpose of camouflage, not for the purpose of attacking or starting a fire, and they are not legally defined as incendiary weapons.”

Phosphorus bombs are an internationally prohibited weapon under the Geneva Convention of 1980, which stipulated the prohibition of the use of white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against humans and the environment.

The Israeli army’s acknowledgment comes in conjunction with a devastating war waged by the Israeli army on Gaza since last October 7, which, as of Monday evening, left 18,205 martyrs, 49,645 wounded, most of them children and women, massive destruction of infrastructure, and an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.” According to official Palestinian and UN sources.

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I know, the headline sounds strange: both Israel and the United States are losing the war in Gaza against Hamas? Strange as it sounds, it’s accurate.

When Lloyd Austin speaks about a strategic defeat, and saying that Israel might suffer that strategic defeat, yes, he’s probably right actually in talking about Israel, but the strategic defeat that Lloyd Austin is actually worried about is a strategic defeat for the United States and for this administration especially, a strategic defeat for itself, an electoral defeat in the United States and a larger geo-political defeat in the Middle East.

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1.

I know, given the reports in the U.S. media,the headline sounds strange: both Israel and the United States are losing the war in Gaza against Hamas? Strange as it sounds, it’s accurate.

Let me try to explain.

Here is Israel is literally pounding Gaza to  smithereens with U.S. weapons, U.S political covering for Israel in the United Nations Security Council, US funding. Virtually all of Gaza has been turned into a wasteland; No food, medicine, energy (or hardly any) going into the area; 1,2oo,000 of the 2,300,000 Gaza residents made refugees, 20,000+ deaths the majority of them women and children and who knows how many more probably going to die of exposure, starvation, lack of medical care.

The Gaza health ministry said 18,205 people had now been killed and 49,645 wounded in Gaza in just over two months of warfare – hundreds since the United States vetoed a proposal for a ceasefire at the United Nations Security Council on Friday. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find refuge or food in the densely populated coastal enclave. Many, probably thousands, maybe more, will soon starve to death.

How could Israel (and the United States) possibly be losing?

You’d think – given such a report that Israel is “winning” the war but the reality is far different; both Israel and the United States are in a pickle, a quagmire in the making. As with so many other recent cases. They have no Plan B and they are stuck in the Gaza sands. They can’t withdraw: Israeli public opinion and much of American p.r. doesn’t permit it. At the same time the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) can’t move forward much either. Any further escalation could bring Hezbollah even more into the war than it already is.

Israeli can slaughter civilians at will – and is doing just that – but militarily the Gaza operation is not going well. Hamas and other guerilla groups remain strong. Their fighters and infrastructure remain in tact. Israel’s plans to “annihilate”, to “totally destroy” the guerilla movement through “surgical strikes” are not going well. Civilian casualties resulting from Israeli missile attacks are soaring, but Hamas military capabilities remain strong. The destruction of so much infrastructure through missile attacks has created an excellent terrain for Hamas guerillas to operate. The latter are taking out many more Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles than the Israeli media is admitting. Same goes for IDF military casualties which are seriously under-reported.

Israel has tried to make considerable public relations hay out of the capture of some Palestinian Gazans which they have stripped nude and paraded before the world. But a day later it turns out that only 10-15% of them are Hamas fighters, the rest civilians.

But the bottom line is that with the fighting now going into its third month, the much vaunted IDF has been unable to defeat what amounts to a ramshackle army of guerillas who are giving Tel Aviv a bloody nose. The intense pressure which is Israel is placing on Hamas militarily might have triggered one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in modern times, but destroying – even weakening Hamas – is not working. Nor are attempts to pressure Hezbollah in the north.

No matter what Israel is reporting, Hamas is hitting the IDF left, right and center. A few days ago a Hamas missile strike from Gaza closed Ben Gurion Airport with international flights temporarily canceled.

The war has caused significant damage to Israel’s economy; there are questions as to just how long it can remain on the military offensive economically. Israel’s internal refugee problem, which grows daily, has generally been underreported in the Western media. It grows daily with hundreds of thousands displaced from Gaza border towns in the southwest and Lebanon border towns in the north. These Israeli refugees are living in tents; they are adamant about not returning to their homes until the security situation stabilizes, signs of which are non-existent.

Furthermore Israel and the United States have lost the public relations war. Too much blood in the soil: too many dead and wounded women and children blown to pieces before the eyes of the world. Israel might claim it is targeting Hamas but overwhelmingly its victims are Palestinian civilians, a large portion of which are women and children. Israeli plans for population expulsion, Nakba II as it has been claimed, have been thoroughly exposed as has the frequent cowardice and militarily unpreparedness of so many IDF fighters.

But it is overwhelmingly the utter cruelty and savagery of the Israeli Gaza bombardments which has shocked the world and which try as they might, neither Israel nor the United States can downplay or keep hidden. Israel’s claim that it is engaging in a defensive operation in Gaza convinces no one (or hardly anyone but its more hardcore supporters). It finds itself increasingly isolated as never before among the Global South; Russia and China’s criticisms of Israeli behavior are becoming increasing sharp. Israeli ability to point a finger of responsibility on Iran is falling flat (outside a small circle of neocons and Zionist supporters in Washington).

And Washington is becoming increasingly nervous about the long term repercussions to its influence in the Middle East and beyond as the world, correctly it must be noted, sees the martyrdom of Gaza as not merely an Israeli plan but as a U.S.-Israeli plan. There are worries being expressed that as a result of its all out support for Israel that U.S. influence in the Middle East has been shattered for decades as its erstwhile allies – the Saudis, the Egyptians, the U.A.E. turn look increasingly eastward for economic and political support. Chinese, Russian and Iranian influence grow by the day.

2.

Yes, the Biden Administration is becoming increasingly dismayed about how Israel’s war on Gaza is going, a nervosity publicly expressed recently by Secretary of Defense (and former Raytheon board member, Lloyd Austin) who a few days ago suggested that if Israel  continues fighting the  Gaza war in the brutal manner it has, especially with regards to the death of civilians in Gaza, then Israel is heading towards strategic defeat.

While once again giving Israel the green light to pursue its murderous war against Gaza – which furthers U.S. geopolitical goals, Washington wants to see this Gaza war somehow wound up or slowed down to a snail’s pace. Having encouraged Israel, actually given it a green light to attack, now Washington finds itself incapable of ending the Israeli offensive, or even slowing it down.

Netanyahu on the other hand wants this military campaign to continue (and has the support of his cabinet to this end). It’s important for him if only to insure his own political survival as he risks facing all kinds of prosecutions if or when he steps down.

U.S. and Israel interests are heading in somewhat different directions, and seriously so. The  conflict between the Administration and the Israeli government is now intensified.

Although Lloyd Austin is correct to suggest that Israel is heading towards strategic defeat, he leaves out an even bigger part of the equation: the Biden Administration, itself is looking at a political disaster.  The President’s ratings of the United States are still slipping, in part as a result of repeated foreign policy disasters (Afghanistan, Ukraine and now Palestine).

The Biden Administration is  conscious that many people within their coalition that makes up the Democratic Party are becoming antagonistic and alienated by these events, by the horror of it all. Even in Britain the Labor Party’s position is now cracking and that they are becoming more critical of what Israel is doing; they are now talking about a cessation of hostilities.

When Lloyd Austin speaks about a strategic defeat, and saying that Israel might suffer that strategic defeat, yes, he’s probably right actually in talking about Israel, but the strategic defeat that Lloyd Austin is actually worried about is a strategic defeat for the United States and for this administration especially, a strategic defeat for itself, an electoral defeat in the United States and a larger geo-political defeat in the Middle East.

Also under-reported (for obvious reasons) – U.S. bases throughout the Middle East, in Syria and Iraq, are being hit by missile attacks. Little Yemen – at east that part of it controlled by Ansar Allah – has been able to threaten shipping to and fro the Suez Canal in the Red Sea causing a number of ships to divert their travel plans around Africa and hitting several ships with missile strikes. The U.S. embassy in Bagdad was recently hit. Washington fears that too strong a military response (either by Israel or itself)to these (admittedly pin prick) attacks on U.S. installations will trigger a regional war. They are probably right.

The Administration is now trying to find some way out of that. It’s proving very, very difficult for them as was with Afghanistan and Ukraine, they have no Plan B. Joe Biden’s embrace of Netanyahu on his recent hurried trip to Israel made it glaringly clear that the United States is going to back Israel all the way: its ability to be some kind of uninterested, neutral broker (always more illusionary than real) evaporated.

Its plans to regain its political momentum in the region are also in trouble. Plans to use the crisis for attacking Iran are shrinking; moves to neutralize Hezbollah in Lebanon, its demented political wet dream to bring down the Assad government in Syria, break the recently formed Iranian – Saudi rapproachment – all these are going up in smoke.

All of this is playing out domestically as the Biden Administration looks worrying at opinion polls. The president is losing support raising questions as to his re-electability. The spectre of a Donald Trump second electoral victory haunts them.