A warning for the lobbyists of Israel: don’t go with that game. Israel cannot get out of Gaza, Ukraine cannot get rid of Putin’s army
To understand what is driving so much geopolitics today, you need to go back a long way. Israel is trying to join a new Middle East. And Russia and Iran have teamed up to try to block both.
The cold hard truth is this: Israel cannot get out of Gaza and sustain Western support without a credible Palestinian partner to govern there, and Ukraine cannot sustain Western support unless it makes substantial gains against Putin’s army this winter or decides that’s impossible and agrees to some kind of dirty deal. That is, some kind of territorial compromise with Putin in return for a NATO security guarantee and a pathway to the European Union. Western support forUkraine cannot and will not be there for an endless war of attrition, that’s what the Western leaders know, and they all know it.
He conditioned even the $14.3 billion the administration wants to send to Israel on President Biden agreeing to give the IRS the money they wanted to collect taxes from cheaters. The Israel lobby has a warning for you: don’t go with that game. Aid to Israel will be tied to pro-life positions in the future.
Source: Opinion | Seeing the Big Picture in Two Big Wars
What Do We Need to Know About the American Global Leaders in the Post-Cold War Era? The Case of Israel-Basis and Hamas
Thank goodness Johnson was not the speaker during World War II; he and his myopic members might have pressed to fund the war against the Germans in Europe but not against the Japanese in the Pacific. Or they would have agreed to Lend-Lease assistance for the allies only if President Franklin Roosevelt would eliminate the I.R.S. altogether. There were more guns, more butter, no taxes and two fronts.
It would undermine American global leadership if it sounds like an incoherent worldview, because it is. If it feels like House G.O.P. leaders are small thinker in a big time, that is because they are. They are not nice or helpful. Please do our country a favor and audition for Fox News on some other issue.
If these tectonic shifts can happen then the post-Cold War world has a chance to deal with other global challenges, like climate change.
But you don’t need to speak Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Russian or Ukrainian to understand that Iran-backed Hamas launched its war to stymie the Saudi-Israel normalization and prevent Tehran from being isolated and that Vladimir Putin launched his war to stop Ukraine from expanding a Europe whole and free and prevent Moscow from being isolated.
The author of a book about war between Russia and Iran argued that the two countries have a lot in common. “Both leaders have nothing to offer their people other than quasi-religious wars which enable them to stay in power by keeping their countries either at war or primed for war,” he told me.
Source: Opinion | Seeing the Big Picture in Two Big Wars
Israel’s War in Gaza: No Hezbollah Needs a Wartime Peace Process with the Palestinian Authority, And Israel Is Risking It
Meanwhile, normalization of relations between the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, would very likely pave the way for normalization between Israel and the most populous Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, as well as Malaysia and maybe later even Pakistan. It would prove that Jews and Muslims aren’t destined to be forever in conflict and can revive the not always harmonious — but often harmonious — relations their communities enjoyed throughout much of history before the Palestinian conflict.
And Hamas knew that if Israel was able to normalize with Saudi Arabia on terms that would satisfy the more moderate Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and bring it significant financial advantages and more legitimacy, the Hamas Gaza resistance-forever model would have been totally isolated. So Hamas launched this war knowing it would bring death and ruin not only to many Israelis but also to many more of its own innocent civilians. Disgusting. Iran knew the same.
Israel is reoccupying Gaza to eventually turn it over to some kind of legitimate Palestinian Authority while its politicians and settlers are working to destroy that authority in the West Bank. This is a strategic contradiction. Israel actually needs a wartime peace process with the Palestinian Authority.
Since the war in Gaza began after Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, people across the Middle East have feared it could set off a second war between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militia, and ignite a broader regional conflagration.
That is not Hezbollah’s plan, the group’s leader said in a widely anticipated address to his followers on Friday.
Israel and Hezbollah have clashed repeatedly along the Israel-Lebanon border since the war began, targeting each other’s positions and killing combatants on both sides. Mr. Nasrallah’s address, which lasted more than an hour and repeatedly erupted into fiery crescendos, was far from a call for peace.
The Hezbollah leader said that the Lebanese front has lessened a large amount of the forces going to escalate the attack on Gaza. “Some in Lebanon say that we are taking a risk, it’s true. This risk is part of a correct calculation.
Hamas was praised for carrying out the Oct. 7 attack by Mr. Nasrallah early in the speech. The Hezbollah leader said that no battle was more justified from a religious, moral or humanitarian perspective than “the battle with these Zionists.”
Mr. Nasrallah did not rule out anything, however, warning that he was keeping Hezbollah’s forces ready should hostilities with Israel escalate. He said all the possibilities on the Lebanon front are open. The choices are there and we can use them at any time.
One of the most tense periods in recent years offered some solace to many, that one powerful force did not intend to plunge the region into even greater violence.
As Blinken addressed the media, Nasrallah spoke for the first time since the war between Israel and Hamas began. The leader of the Iran-backed group stopped short of announcing an all-out war with Israel, but threatened that the group’s actions will depend on developments in Gaza.
Mr. Nasrallah lashed out towards the United States, accusing him of lying to Israel when he stated that Israel had the right to defend itself.
He said that the group was not intimidated by the two aircraft carriers that the United States had dispatched to the eastern Mediterranean.
“Your fleets in the Mediterranean do not scare us and will never scare us,” Mr. Nasrallah said. We are prepared for your fleets that threaten us as well.
Hezbollah will retaliate if the US intervenes in the war, with attacks on its bases and other locations, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hasan Nasrucheh said.
The U.S. military has said the carriers were sent to deter a wider regional war — a fear that has grown alongside mounting anger in Arab countries over the crisis facing Gazan civilians and the death toll in the strip, which has risen into the many thousands since Israel’s bombardment began. Israel has faced increasing international criticism over the dire conditions in Gaza, but has so far resisted calls for either a cease-fire or humanitarian “pauses” to help deliver aid.
In his closely watched televised speech, Nasrallah denied that Hezbollah had anything to do with the Oct. 7 About 1,400 people were killed by the attacks on Israel by Hamas. He celebrated it, however.
Thousands of Hezbollah supporters gathered to watch the speech on giant screens in locations throughout Lebanon. The largest site, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, was decorated with Hezbollah and Palestinian flags. Celebratory gunfire rang out when he appeared onscreen, and supporters chanted, “We are here for you, Nasrallah.”
He said the future of this front with Israel hinges in large part on the development of events in Gaza. He called foreign nations, and on the U.S. in particular, to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza. If you want to prevent a war, you have to end the aggression on Gaza.
After Mr. Nasralla finished his speech, Mohamad Sbeti fired celebratory gunshots into the air with a pistol. He said if Hezbollah called him to fight Israel, he would do so.
A driver who had grown poorer during Lebanon’s deep economic crisis in recent years, Mr. Sbeti was not overly worried about the vast damage that Israel could do to Lebanon in a new war.
On October 7th, when the brutal Hamas attack on Israel happened, Mr. Abramson turned to Fox News, a place he had not relied on before.
But more than any of the other major cable news channels — and perhaps more than any other major American media outlet — Fox News has wrapped itself in the Israeli flag in the weeks since the Hamas attack. The pro-Palestinian opposition tends to be radical and antisemitic while the civilian casualties from Israeli strikes are downplayed in its coverage.
It is an alliance that is somewhat out of the ordinary. Jews identify with the Democrats. And as the Republican Party came to embrace a more populist brand of politics that vilifies “globalist” corporate interests and wealthy liberal businessmen like George Soros — something many see as coded antisemitism — Fox News hosts and guests promoted those views.
All of this shows that this collision of values is happening not just here in Israel but everywhere and that the terrorist ideology threatens all decent people, not only Jews. According to history, foul ideologies often find the Jewish people first. We find ourselves on the frontlines of this battle but all nations are facing the same threat, so they must understand that their own could be next.
“We stand strongly for the proposition that Israel has not only the right but the obligation to defend itself and to do everything possible to make sure that this Oct. 7 can never happen again,” Blinken said Friday.
TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for another visit to urge the country to prioritize the protection of civilians in Gaza, as Israel continues its offensive in the Palestinian territory and tensions rise in the region.
In his own remarks, Netanyahu rejected calls for a pause, saying Israel’s military forces will continue its operations in Gaza until Hamas is defeated and the kidnapped hostages are returned. Hamas is holding over 200 hostages, according to the Israel military.
“We’ve been clear that as Israel conducts its campaign to defeat Hamas, how it does so matters. It matters because it’s the right and lawful thing to do. It matters because failure to do so leads to the control of Hamas and other terror groups.
The talks on Friday focused on the U.S. wish for a “humanitarian pause” in order to allow for more aid to enter Gaza and the release of hostages.
Gaza’s Hezbollah leader apologizes to Hamas and condemns the israeli response to the Oct. 7 attacks
The leader of the Hezbollah militant group promised an increase in battles with Israel and was set to travel to other parts of the Middle East.
The Israeli military has launched ground operations in northern Gaza and Gaza City, along with continued airstrikes. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that between Wednesday 12 p.m. and Thursday 2 p.m., there were more than 200 Palestinians killed in Gaza.
On Thursday, 102 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing, bringing the total number of trucks that have entered to 374, the U.N. said. Israel continues to block the delivery of fuel, a problem for Gaza’s hospitals, despite the fact that they have brought in much needed medical and food assistance.
Despite mounting international criticism on Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks, Herzog sought to defend the country, claiming Israel has followed international law in its reaction.
Herzog said Gaza citizens are receiving millions of leaflets, text messages and phone calls to alert them in advance of airstrikes and to warn them to leave the area he claimed in accordance with international law.
“We want her immediate release, our hearts go out to the families and we know that we want her to come out, we want her to come out quickly,” he said.
I write these lines from Jerusalem, after spending time with the families of some of the 240 people kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. Jewish Israelis, Muslim Israelis and foreign citizens of different ethnicities are among the hostages now held in Gaza.
In all my years of public life, the meetings with these families were the most difficult and fraught I’ve ever held. Some of the people who were killed on that day were murdered in their living rooms and kitchens, while other were killed at a music festival. When I returned from one kibbutz devastated in the attack, I had to wash the blood off my shoes.
The civilians are suffering due to these sickening tactics. Many reports of the humanitarian difficulties in parts of Gaza are unverifiable, but there is real suffering, and it concerns us, too. The full withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 was intended to give these neighbors free lives, as well as open the door for peace. To our dismay, Hamas and its many Palestinian supporters chose otherwise.
Hamas terrorists who attacked Israeli homes and families burned babies just the way they have been burned by other groups. They tortured children, raped women and destroyed peace-loving communities. They were so proud of their deeds that they made sure to capture them on video and even broadcast them live. These videos will forever remain a stain on those Palestinians and their supporters who celebrated that day and a testament to the depravity of the terrorists and of the ideas that inspired them.
But almost as disturbing for me is the realization that many in the world, including in the West, are willing to rationalize these actions or even support them outright. In the capitals of Europe we’ve seen rallies supporting the total destruction of Israel “from the river to the sea.” American colleges have professors and students justifying terrorism.
We are trying to give early warning to the civilians in Gaza as Hamas fires rockets at our cities and as our soldiers fall in battle, to move them out of the main battle zones and to help us get humanitarian aid through Gaza’s border with Egypt. The number of aid trucks arriving is increasing each day.
The questions will be at the forefront of our discussions with the Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to the region starting on Friday, and they were during the visit to Israel of President Biden few weeks ago.