Netanyahu-Trump plan to expel 2-million Palestinians "at least temporarily"
NOTE: Jacobin Magazine just published my latest piece: Genocide Has Turned Americans Against Israel
An IDF general wrote a damning report (English story) about the latest attack on Gaza, Gideon’s Chariot. It has been leaked to an Israeli TV channel.
A word of context: though it eviscerates virtually every claim about the military operation’s success, the document proceeds from a military perspective. . It offers no moral considerations or regard for Palestinians, as one might hope. In fact, it is couched in terms of preparation for the next stage of the war: the “conquest” of Gaza.
The main takeaway is, in his words: “we failed.” Among its conclusions:
- “Israel made every possible error it could in conduct of the war, contradicting its own military doctrine.”
- No timeframe, nor clearly defined objectives.
- Eroded its forces
- Lost international credibility
- Did not adhere to its own combat doctrine, nor adjust to Hamas’ combat strategy
- Hamas had all necessary conditions for survival and victory: objectives, fortified positions, effective military strategy
- Hamas unsubdued militarily or politically.
- Hostages not freed
- Strategic conception behind operation collapsed
- No concentration of forces in areas of heaviest fighting
- Troops operated in zones already cleared
- Slow pace due to manpower constraints and an emphasis on protection, was barrier to achieving objectives
- Emphasis on protecting forces crippled mission objective
- Poor understanding of Hamas’ guerilla strategy
- Incompetence of humanitarian aid distribution, offered Hamas an opportunity to mount global anti-famine campaign
Though the report analyzes the failure of this particular military offensive, it might as well apply to Israel’s entire Gaza war. Despite committing genocide and virtually wiping out all semblance of civilization, it has not achieved its main objectives: Hamas still exists; it still fights; it still inflicts losses on the IDF; hostages remain captive; the world is revolted. Israel’s military strategy is unfocused, its mission is unclear. The rationale for the war seems to change day by day.
Bibi and Don’s not so excellent adventure
Not satisfied to fail in Gideon’s Chariot, Netanyahu has devised yet another military adventure to invade Gaza City. The army has called up 60,000 reservists, some of whom are on their sixth tour of duty. This new offensive is a prelude to the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Gazans.
The Washington Post reports, with hardly a shred of skepticism that the plan, devised by those Israeli “geniuses” who conceived the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid plan:
…Would turn it [Gaza] into a trusteeship administered by the United States for at least 10 years while it is transformed into a gleaming tourism resort and high-tech manufacturing and technology hub…It envisions at least a temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population,
Historically, trusteeships are established for a territory by the United Nations. In this case, there isn’t a hope in hell that the UN will buy this. But Israel is claiming sovereignty over the enclave and right to “dispose” of it to a third party (presumably Arab states, who would be only too happy to take this lemon off Israel’s hands). That theory should go over well with the ICC and ICJ.
The plan projects that unspecified “private investors” would reap $400-billion in profits from the redevelopment of Gaza once it is Araberrein. The grift is strong in this one.
The entire scheme is ludicrous. Every premise is preposterous. This is what passes for solid, grounded strategic thinking in Israeli and US circles. In reality, it is an economic version of Israel’s failed military strategy: unrealistic goals poorly executed.
Hamas won by surviving
As I’ve written here before, a guerilla insurgency wins by surviving. In that sense despite massive losses, Hamas has won, while the Israeli army has failed to understand its enemy–and why and how it fights. Considering that the IDF has been fighting such insurgencies in Lebanon and Gaza for decades, it doesn’t have much to show for it.
The army has not, as it has regarding previous embarrassing leaks, reprimanded the report’s author or denied its claims. Further, 600 former IDF generals and intelligence chiefs joined to denounce the continued fighting. They denounced Netanyahu and called for the war’s end, which would leak to release of the hostages. They went further than the report, saying that not only had the army failed to achieve its objectives, the objectives themselves of eliminating Hamas were unattainable.
In contrast, Israel’s far-right political leadership has repeatedly trumpeted the operation’s success. There is simply no truth to its appraisal, which is solely grounded in ideological, rather than military terms.
The global campaign against Israel’s genocide has rightly focused its immorality. But less have noted the failure of the operation in strategic-operational terms. It has not achieved its objective because it cannot. The army was asked to do an impossible job because the political echelon refused the only true solution: a negotiated agreement. Few have rebutted Netanyahu on these terms. It is critical not only to denounce Israel’s criminality, but to rebut the prime minister and his toadies based on their own terms.
TP Watchlist Borderlines on Terrorism
Targeted harassment of faculty …
Documentary “Surviving Turning Point USA” delves into the fear-mongering and intimidation tactics employed by Turning Point USA against college professors across the United States. Discover the true impact of the Professor Watchlist and its chilling effects on academic freedom.
The group that wants to ‘out’ liberal professors | BBC News – 26 Nov. 2016 |
Appears quite likely TP Professor Watchlist is a copy-paste of CampusWatch, terrorizing American Universities for decades now … the AIPAC lobby extended.
Nothing Will Stop Trump From Weaponizing Charlie Kirk’s Killing to Attack the Left … Lauded by “friend” Bibi Netanyahu. We have a MAGA martyr.
Worst of them all … never saw/heard him mentioned.
Top AIPAC Donor JAN KOUM, Ukrainian-American billionaire, Founder of WhatsApp. Yan Borysovych Koum was born in Kyiv, then in the Ukrainian SSR, on February 24, 1976. In 1992 moved to California with his mother. Donated $7.4m ahead of Adelson and Jacobson both at $ 5m.
Today UAE statement: The Zionist state crossed a red line … incredulous. Politics has become a cruel kabuki theatre spectacle.
Setting the
warpeace ☮️ narrative in GazaThe chosen people … 5.000 years of tribalism
“Israel’s Smotrich sparks outcry with West Bank annexation maps” (Arab News)
Annexation? Recovering what is rightfully theirs … empty space … nothing here to see, move on. (sarcasm)
Bearing in mind that
for BB the purpose of the war is to delay – until irrelevance – his moral and legal accountabilities,
for his base the purpose of the war was pure revenge for the humiliation of their nationalist pride,
and
for most Israelis the purpose of the war was a final solution of the Palestinian problem through genoside as a pretext for ethnic cleansing
– the military pracical failures in their pathetic “battlefields” are small change.
Excellent article Richard!
As someone who has long been opposed to Israel’s occupation, oppression and treatment of the Palestinians, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 I condemned Hamas for the carnage they did. Someone wrote a letter to the Chico ER to praise Hamas, and further stated that she wished that she could have helped Hamas with what they did. I responded to her letter and said that anybody who praises Hamas is antisemitic. Having said this, at the time this happened, I said that I hoped that Israel would do this. However I hoped that it would be a quick operation and that the hostages would be freed. Although I am not the least bit surprised, I was not counting on Netanyahu and his cohorts would kill 60,000 and counting Palestinians committing far more carnage than what Hamas did. Long before these events, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states came up with an Israeli Palestinian peace plan and those nations were willing to set up an force to police such an agreement. Unfortunately, then President Biden never got on top of this to see to it that this happened and had he done, so Donald Trump would not be president now. Biden was stuck in this time warp about there being “no daylight between the United States and Israel” The U.S. “standing side-by-side” with Israel etc. and no matter what. Somebody that I know who is not antisemitic(of course I don’t associate with such creatures) said that if Israel continues to block peace and doesn’t agree to a Palestinian state, that some years down the road Palestinians and people from the Arab countries will attack and overrun Israel. Perhaps Israelis who oppose what their country is doing and who want peace, could be part of a new Palestinian government. Of course my first choice, will be for an Israeli government that works for peace and accepts a Palestinian state. About my saying this, this could happen with there being much less appetite among the American people for our government giving unconditional support to Israel in which a future president and congress won’t have such an appetite for. Note that new polls show that in view of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, that only 32% of Americans support Israel and that only 8% of Democrats support this. What is happening now, cannot be allowed to go on forever.
You think hamas did something wrong do you? Perhaps you do not understand that they were taking a few hostages to 1. free thousands of Palestinians being tortured to death in Israeli prisons for up to 40 years without charge, 2 Gvir and others were threatening very loudly to invade and occupy Al Aqsa out of sheer bastardry, 3. the population of the Israel imposed outdoor prison called the Gaza strip was being strangled to death after 17 years of blockade.
And by 15 October it was already known that the IDF killed their own in Be’eri, Kfar Azaz, Nir Oz, Eretz crossing and in particular they opened fire with 11,000 helicopter rounds on those fleeing the rave – hamas shot cops.
If you doubt these points here is the law as pointed out by their lawyer Ben Cohen in 2017 after yet another attack and slaughter by Israel. link to aljazeera.com – Long ago, it was settled that resistance and even armed struggle against a colonial occupation force is not just recognised under international law but specifically endorsed.
In accordance with international humanitarian law, wars of national liberation have been expressly embraced, through the adoption of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (pdf), as a protected and essential right of occupied people everywhere. The article provides a short list of the 500 terrorist attacks rained down on the UK soldiers and cops that led to the illegal occupation of the land – the sadism then was no different to the sadism today.
So for all those who believe the Palestinians acted illegally I ask this, – how many times and how many decades should they live under a brutal illegal occupation before they say enough
Marilyn Shepherd, It seems that you only replied to the beginning of my response to Richard’s blog. I condemned Israel for killing 60,000 and counting Palestinians. That of course is only what the Israelis did in Gaza. I condemned Biden for not taking advantage of the plan put forth by Saudi Arabia and the gulf states that could have settled the entire Israel Palestine conflict LONG BEFORE October 7th. I said Biden was stuck(I’m sure he still is) in a time warp regarding his unconditional support for Israel and supporting Israel right-or-wrong. I said that down the road if Israel won’t agree to peace and accept a Palestinian state, that Palestinians and people from the other Arab states might overrun Israel. In view of all of the events that took place AFTER October 7th, that I won’t condemn Palestinians and people from other Arab countries for doing something again. It will make October 7th look like a picnic. I did say that of course my first choice, will be for an Israeli government that works for peace and accepts a Palestinian state and I stand by that. And yes, regarding the Israeli hostages the thousand of Palestinians being held and tortured by Israel must be freed. That means Omar Barghouti whose been held prisoner for many years must be freed. He could be the leader of a free Palestine. So is this not good enough for you?
Also Marilyn Shepherd, There are people in the pro-Israel crowd who say that what I say is too much for them.
And I’ll just add Marilyn Shepherd and this is all I have to say for now, it’s not like Hamas is so good. They haven’t done good for the people in Gaza and there are many people there that don’t like them either. There haven’t been any elections in Gaza since Hamas was elected in the mid 2000’s and even when they were elected, they got just a plurality of the votes. What was Hamas thinking when they committed those attacks on October 7th? Did they think that Netanyahu was going to drop flowers on Gaza? Granted that Israel did FAR WORSE! And I say that it’s Israel and the United States with all the arms our country provides to Israel, that are PRIMARILY RESPONSIBLE for this conflict going on. But it’s not like Hamas is so wonderful.