The AP reports that satellite images show a large new tent city being built near Khan Yunis. Israeli state broadcaster, Kan, reports that the IDF is building a tent city with Arab allies, Egypt and United Arab Emirates. Both are members of the Abraham Accords and considered Arab allies.
Egypt built a camp last February just outside Rafah, for Palestinians it anticipated might be expelled; which makes it a possible culprit. So it’s no surprise it would participate in this venture. It is petrified that those 2-million Rafah refugees will storm its border with Gaza and pour onto its territory. As I reported a few months ago, Egypt has enough problems of its own without absorbing those of 2-million angry Palestinians who’ve just suffered a genocide. Thus, it’s in Egypt’s interest to keep as many of them in Gaza as possible.
It is a shameful betrayal of Palestinians that the UAE and Egypt permit themselves to be used by Israel to Arabwash the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
An Israeli security source told me that the tent city is coordinated with the invasion of Rafah, which he said is “expected to begin soon.” This is the strongest confirmation I’ve heard that there will be such a military operation. And it will be yet another disaster.
The Kan report above says the camp will house “thousands of refugees.” Thousands, when there are millions. How cynical. How pathetic. How cruel. This new tent city will become the Theresienstadt of Gaza; the model camp it can show off to the world as a sign of its decency and humanitarian concern.
The $17-billion Congressional appropriation for Israel includes $1-billion is “humanitarian aid.” The bill’s language specifies that it may be used for Gaza refugees expelled from Gaza or those ethnically-cleansed within Gaza, as future inhabitants of this camp would be. I’ve asked the State Department whether any of those funds will support the building or maintenance of the tent city.
Israel has faced enormous pressure from the Biden administration, which does not want Israel to invade Rafah. Publicly, the US insists that Israel provide protection for the civilians there prior to any attack. It seems more theater than anything else. This new camp is clearly designed to mollify US concerns, while doing little more than going through the motions.
Israel must partner with the Arab states because it knows that no Gazan, no matter how desperate. would enter a camp it built. Apparently, it believes if it has such a collaborator, Palestinians would be more willing to agree to move. However, it would be foolish to think that they will not discover who is senior partner in the project. In addition, the refugees have witnessed the army guaranteeing safety and then firing on them. They know that trusting in Israel is often a death sentence.
Israel undoubtedly wants the US to know it is pursuing this project because it will score humanitarian points; proving it is concerned for the welfare of civilian refugees in Rafah. As I wrote above, this is performative humanitarian relief. Pure tokenism.
Aside from the few thousand refugees lucky enough to find refuge in the new tent city, nearly two-million less lucky ones would be exposed to the fighting in Rafah. This would also add to tension with the US, whose pressure to protect civilians and lessen the death toll has been consistently ignored.
Biden, Gaza and the price to be paid
Biden is paying a great price for standing by Israel, despite its routine rejection of every plea for moderation. Nearly a million voters in Democratic primaries refused to vote for him.
Similarly, Columbia University students erected their own tent city in the campus plaza. The University, under pressure from a GOP-led House committee, used NYPD riot police to forcibly remove the students. Scores of them were arrested. The next day a new tent city took its place in the same location.
The president then suspended all the students, evicting them from the dorms, denying them food services and prohibiting them from attending classes. Among them was Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter. The former was critical of the University’s approach to the protest during House committee testimony by Shafik.
My marvelous colleague Prof Christopher Brown (@CUHistoryDept) brought the 🔥 at today’s Columbia faculty action opposing the arrests of students, suppression of free speech and the congressional threat to independence in higher education. Here’s the whole thing.#NoCopsOnCampus… pic.twitter.com/QuxLe5LWH3
— Jennifer S. Hirsch #BlackLivesMatter (@JenniferSHirsch) April 22, 2024
This recalls the last Columbia president, Grayson Kirk, who summoned police to quell a student anti-war uprising. The cops led a violent mass riot, when they dragged students from the campus buildings they’d occupied.
Columbia faculty have decried the tactics and voted no confidence in Pres. Mouniche Shafik. In addition, students at universities around the country have created their own protest encampments in solidarity with the Columbia students. They include MIT, Emerson College, University of Michigan, Yale, and UC Berkeley. It is sweeping campuses and creating a national mass anti-war/anti-genocide movement.
This puts further pressure on the Biden administration to take action against the war. Not to mention, a Rafah invasion will lead to tens of thousands more Gazan dead. It could be a disaster for his election prospects.
This may be precisely what Netanyahu wants: the defeat of a Democratic president. He will find a Trump presidency far more obliging to his fascist government and its agenda of ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and Gaza.
The energy and passion of the student anti-war movement could easily spread to the general public. 60% of Americans want Biden to stop the war now. Last March, 55% of Americans opposed Israel’s conduct of the war. It can only get worse. A similar set of events happened in 1968, when a national anti-war movement emerged, which galvanized wider opposition to the Vietnam War. That year, the Democratic candidate lost the election in large part due to opposition to the War.
If the president has any hope of beating Donald Trump in November, he must hold together this fragile coalition of progressive and moderate Democrats. Now, he is in danger of losing a significant portion of the former. It will be a tight election. Polls are mixed. Most show Biden with a slight lead. Others show Trump with a similarly small lead. In each, the gap is 2-3% and within the margin of error. In an election in which only a few thousands votes in battleground states could deprive him of victory, Biden cannot afford to lose anyone. As of now, he has lost enough of them to raise an alarm.
If anti-Biden forces managed over the summer to derail the Biden candidacy, the Democratic Party might have to nominate a less genocide-sympathetic candidate that might defeat Trump more easily.
Anybody in mind? From what I’ve seen, Biden has the best numbers among potential Democratic candidates.
Biblical Verses at Time of Passover 2024 – Pesach 5784
Meanwhile Haaretz investigation … a gruesome read
Murdoch’s rag WSJ has all the answers … naturally … total bs. Israel and Iran have exchanged threats of total destruction.
Biden will never give up his course because building the coalition against Iran is more important to the American Empire than his re-election prospects. And this did not start with him, or Trump, or Obama, or even Bush jr (Although it heavily accelerated with the Axis of Evil speech)
Without normalization, there can be no true regional coalition against Iran. No Saudi/UAE/Israeli/Jordanian/American group.
Of course, it runs into the problem that none of the participants really want to be the ones who would invade Iran first – Iraq and Lebanon two decades ago and then Yemen and Syria in the next made everyone aware that a grinding long war (against countries far weaker than Iran!) was not acceptable. Far too expensive, and far too much risk in this case. Netanyahu will gladly fight Iran to the last American – but everyone else is ready to fight Iran to the last member of the other participants. It’s the parable of the mice wanting to the put the bell on the cat.
And thus, the Arab regimes want their assurances that Israel won’t make the first move to drag them all in the deep end. Their insistence on the two state solution of Palestine is not about their sympathy (they have absolutely none) for Palestinians but rather a show of good faith that Israel can cool it off with the war mongering. MBS is having money and trade problems, the Emiratis are getting sick of bad business, everyone wants the threats to their rule to go away for a bit. It’s becoming a serious issue internally because the general public are angrier than ever at Israel and normalization is going to cause a lot of serious unrest at this point.
Even Biden at this point knows that his optimal exit strategy will be that six week ceasefire he never shuts up about because then he thinks he can pull the two state agreement and normalization out of his hat like magic and get back all those angry voters.
None of the political heavyweights in Israel, either Netanyahu or Gantz have absolutely any interest in peace or diplomatic solutions, so the situation remains politically unresolvable until someone submits and concedes. And America and Israel alike believe in bombing until someone submits.
When Rafah is destroyed, they will be sure to blame Hamas entirely for not stopping the genocide but also for fighting back.
The Mosul Model for Gaza?
Grande’s lesson from Mosul: Engage with military for civilian protection
https://www.devex.com/news/grande-s-lesson-from-mosul-engage-with-military-for-civilian-protection-91081
U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq Lise Grande tells Devex how the military operation to liberate Mosul adopted a humanitarian concept — through persistent humanitarian engagement.
She replaces veteran David Satterfield.