Saturday, February 15, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

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Middle East expert: “Israel wants to get rid of the Palestinians for good”

The situation in Gaza

Published 3 November 2023
– By Editorial Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant together with Israeli soldiers.

According to British journalist and long-time Middle East correspondent Jonathan Cook, who has long covered the Israel-Palestine conflict for various media, Israel now sees its chance to rid itself of the Palestinian population of Gaza for good. He suggests that the Israeli strategy simply involves making life so unbearable for Palestinians that they are driven into Egypt.

“The main goal is not what is being highlighted. Israel has much bigger ambitions than just destroying Hamas”, he elaborates in an extensive analysis.

Jonathan Cook has also previously written several books on what he argues are the long-term plans to expand the Israeli state and ethnically cleanse the occupied territories of Palestinians. In an analysis published against the backdrop of Hamas’ attacks on October 7th, and Israel’s subsequent bombings and invasion of Gaza, he writes that Israel now sees its chance to permanently displace the Palestinian people into Egypt – to get rid of them once and for all.

He notes that Western institutions initially defended Israel’s retaliation campaign on the basis that it had the right to defend itself, but this rhetoric has already been abandoned as the death toll rises – and now the conversation has shifted to Israel needing time and space to “destroy Hamas.”

That requires a ground invasion by Israeli troops – many of them religious extremists from illegal settlements in the West Bank – who are certain to be seeking vengeance for Hamas’ attack on October 7. The atrocities are only likely to intensify. But there is method in Israel’s military madness. And the main goal is not the one being promoted. Israel has much larger ambitions than ‘destroying Hamas'”, he writes.

Support from the West

According to Cook, Israeli power-holders are fully aware that the Palestinians will never accept their subjugation – and will continue to resist, whether Hamas is annihilated or not and regardless of who is in power in Gaza. Hence, Israel’s solution is to displace the entire Palestinian population permanently.

Jonathan Cook is a long-time observer of Israel and Palestine. Photo: facsimile/Liwan Documentary

“Israel’s strategic problem was compounded by the humanitarian crisis it had created by penning such a large and growing population into a tiny area with no resources. Poverty, malnutrition, unclean water, overcrowding and lack of housing, as well as the trauma of being encaged and intermittently bombed by Israel to subdue any resistance, was slowly turning Gaza from a prison into a death camp. The UN had warned that the enclave would be effectively ‘uninhabitable’ by 2020.”

The solution to this – one that accorded with Israel’s long settler colonial ambitions to replace the Palestinians in their own homeland – was clear. Israel needed to create a consensus in the West justifying the expulsion of the Palestinians from Gaza. And the only realistic place for them to go was into the neighbouring Egyptian territory of Sinai”, he continues.

Cook points out that details of the planned expulsion of Palestinians started leaking in Israeli media as early as 2014 – but at that time “relied more on carrots than sticks“. The idea was to unite Gaza with Sinai and erase the border between the two areas, and Washington would help secure international financing for a free trade zone.

The impoverished and often unemployed Palestinians would gradually move their lives to Sinai and either settle there or move on to other Egyptian cities.

Egypt pressured

“Following the leaks, Egyptian and Palestinian officials hurriedly denounced the plan as ‘fabricated’. However, there were plenty of clues that Egypt had begun facing pressure from 2007 onwards. In response to the Israeli media leaks of 2014, an official close to former president Hosni Mubarak admitted that the screws had been turned on him in 2007 to agree to annex Gaza”.

Five years later, Egypt was again subjected to American and Israeli pressure to cede a third of Sinai to Gaza – but refused. In 2014, Egypt’s current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was close to capitulating to the demands, but ultimately he also refused.

 “The gains for Israel in moving Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai, whether voluntarily under the Greater Gaza Plan or by force during a ground invasion, are obvious.Egypt’s military dictatorship would inherit the problem of crushing Palestinian resistance groups like Hamas – largely out of view – rather than Israel. Hamas would not be likely to fare well, given the Egyptian military’s repression of the country’s own political Islamist movements”.

“Making Gaza uninhabitable”

“The costs of confining and policing Gaza would shift from Israel to the Arab world and international community.Once inside Sinai, ordinary Palestinians could be expected to seek alleviation from their poverty and suffering by integrating into wider Egyptian society, eventually moving to big cities like Cairo and Alexandria. They would be stripped of their right in international law to return to their homes. In a generation or two, their children would identify as Egyptian, not Palestinian”, Cook continues.

Meanwhile, the West Bank would become even more isolated and vulnerable than today and, according to the journalist, subject to intensified attacks by Jewish settlers backed by Israeli soldiers.

“The problem is that no Egyptian leader has dared to accept such a plan, however much international arm-twisting and bribery was involved.None wanted to be seen conspiring in Israel’s ethnic cleansing and final dispossession of the Palestinian people, one of the gravest and longest-running grievances shared by populations across the Middle East”.

“Which brings us to Israel’s current bombing campaign, which accords with no conceivable principle of proportionality, and its imminent ground invasion. Far from targeting Hamas, Israel has every incentive to use the Hamas attack of October 7 as a pretext to wreak as much damage on Gaza as possible. Israel’s goal is to speed up the process of making Gaza uninhabitable”, declares Cook.

Images of the destruction of Gaza. Photo: Al Araby/CC BY-SA 3.0

From Carrot to Stick

Cook believes that Israel “needs Palestinians in Gaza so desperate to leave that they will ethnically cleanse themselves” and an Egypt that is under so much pressure for not opening the border to Sinai that it eventually gives in and opens the border for Palestinians.

“With its current bombing campaign, Israel has moved from carrots to a very large stick.Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is aware that he has only a limited time-window to effect enough carnage to realise Israel’s plan”.

“The aim appears to be to squeeze Palestinians into the tiny space of Gaza’s south, next to the border with Sinai, destroy all civilian infrastructure, and bomb and terrorise Palestinians in the south too.Palestinians are already clamouring to be allowed into Sinai, while Sisi is presumably coming under the severest pressure behind the scenes to back down and open the border”, he elaborates.

Creating a precedent

Cook concludes by assessing that Israel hopes for a precedent that the international community will overlook – and that the remaining Palestinians in the West Bank, after Gaza has been emptied, will also be pressured to join their families and compatriots in Egypt.

“Having been embarrassed by the festering wound of the Palestinians’ dispossession for more than 75 years, the West and Arab world will be only too happy finally to bury the Palestinian cause for good”, Cook concludes.

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Israeli army shelled its own on October 7

The situation in Gaza

Published 10 February 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Yoav Gallant was dismissed as Minister of Defense on 5 November.

Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant now admits that the Israeli military used the much-criticized Hannibal Directive during the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023.

The military protocol allows for the use of lethal force even if it carries a very high risk of killing hostages and aims to prevent Israeli prisoners from falling into enemy hands.

I think that, tactically, in some places, it was given, and in other places, it was not given, and that is a problem, Gallant said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12.

The policy has long been the subject of harsh criticism, including from Israel, and is believed to have been used unofficially in several conflicts. The directive prioritizes preventing the enemy from gaining an advantage over protecting the lives of its own soldiers.

One version of the directive states that “kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces”.

Tanks and helicopters

According to figures from Israeli authorities, Hamas killed around 1,100 Israeli soldiers and civilians during the 2023 attack but Gallant’s admission is interpreted by analysts as meaning that many of these may in fact have been killed by the Israeli military instead.

In connection with the October 7 attacks, the Israeli army deployed helicopters, drones and tanks on its own territory to fight Hamas, and an unknown number of Israelis are believed to have lost their lives during that operation.

Mr. Gallant has not commented on how many of his own citizens may have been killed during the Israeli counter-offensive, but according to witnesses, Israeli attack helicopters were used to fire on civilian targets at the Nova music festival, near the Reím military base.

“Shot at civilians”

An independent international commission concluded last May in a report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council that

The Commission is aware of allegations that ISF used the “Hannibal Directive” to prevent the capture of Israeli civilians and their transfer to Gaza, even at the cost of killing them. Such allegations were made in relation to ISF actions in the Nova site, including reports of ISF attack helicopters shooting at Israeli civilian cars, resulting in the killing of Israelis”.

The Commission confirmed the presence of at least eight attack helicopters in various locations on 7 October, but it could not confirm that they shot at civilians or civilian cars, including in the area of the festival. The Commission documented one statement by an ISF tank crew, confirming that the crew had applied the Hannibal Directive by shooting at a vehicle which they suspected was transporting abducted ISF soldiers”.

“The Commission also verified information indicating that, in at least two other cases, ISF had likely applied the Hannibal Directive, resulting in the killing of up to 14 Israeli civilians. One woman was killed by ISF helicopter fire while being abducted from Nir Oz to Gaza by militants. In another case the Commission found that Israeli tank fire killed some or all of the 13 civilian hostages held in a house in Be’eri”.

Israeli defense minister: Europe should take in Gaza’s population

Population replacement in the West

Published 9 February 2025
– By Editorial Staff
“The people of Gaza should have the right to freedom of movement and migration, as is customary everywhere in the world”, said the Minister of Defense.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz praises Trump’s plans for the US to take control of the Gaza Strip.

He also emphasizes that European countries are legally obliged to take in Gaza’s Palestinian population and that their “hypocrisy will be exposed” if they refuse.

The Nordic Times has previously reported on Trump’s plans to take control of the Gaza Strip and permanently empty the area of Palestinians.

Like Netanyahu, Katz praises the plans, describing them as a “bold initiative”. He also claims that European countries are legally obliged to receive the displaced Palestinians and that he expects this to happen.

“Countries such as Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have falsely accused Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow Gazans to enter their territory. Their hypocrisy will be exposed if they refuse. Meanwhile, countries like Canada, which has a structured immigration program, have previously expressed willingness to take in residents from Gaza”, he writes.

The people of Gaza should have the right to freedom of movement and migration, as is customary everywhere in the world”, the Minister of Defense further argues.

Mr. Katz announces that he has instructed the Israeli army to “allow any resident of Gaza who wishes to leave to do so, to any country willing to receive them”. The plan is to deport the Palestinian civilian population, partly via land crossings, but also by ship and airplane.

Unclear how Sweden will be affected

The Swedish government has so far refused to distance itself from or condemn the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will not even answer whether the systematic bombing of Palestinian hospitals falls within the scope of proportionate self-defence.

Instead of pressuring Israel, he has chosen to focus on protecting Israeli interests in Sweden – for example, by monitoring parts of Stockholm with drones around the clock.

Historically, Sweden has also been hit very hard by mass immigration in connection with conflicts and wars in the Middle East – but there is no information yet on how many Palestinians the government plans to accept this time.

Trump: US to take over Gaza – and deport all Palestinians

Donald Trump's USA

Published 6 February 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Trump and Netanyahu during yesterday's press conference.

In a stunning announcement on Tuesday, President Donald Trump declared that the US will “take over” the entire Gaza Strip, “level the site” and then rebuild it.

The US President also believes that the two million Palestinians currently living in the area must leave Gaza permanently.

– They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety, and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony in other areas or countries, he said at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

– The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings and create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area, the President continued.

Gaza, according to Trump, will be transformed into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. However, it is not mainly Palestinians in Gaza who will benefit from this prosperity instead, “people from all over the world will live there”.

“Can’t live in Gaza”

Trump wants the entire Palestinian population to be permanently relocated to other countries such as neighboring Jordan and Egypt.

– We should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this, and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza.

Forcing the entire Palestinian population to leave their homes forever has, according to the President, great advantages because in such a scenario they’re “going to have peace” and will not be shot at and killed.

– The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative.

“Everyone loves the idea”

He also believes that a US “long-term ownership” of Gaza will “bring great stability” to the region and that this is a very popular idea back home in the US.

– Everybody I have spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.

Asked if the displaced Palestinians will have the right to return in the future, the President says this is not an issue.

It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn’t want to return. Why would they want to return? That place has been hell.

“Fresh ideas”

Speaking briefly after Trump, Netanyahu praised the US president for his “fresh ideas”.

– I believe, Mr. President, that your willingness to puncture conventional thinking, thinking that has failed time and time and time again, your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas will help us achieve all these goals.

Jordan and Egypt have so far resisted taking in millions of displaced Palestinians but Trump said he still had “a feeling” that the countries’ leaders “will open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done. And people can live in harmony and peace”.

MEP at the Holocaust ceremony in Brussels: “Let us pray for the victims in Gaza”

The situation in Gaza

Published 31 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Grzegorz Braun has recently attracted attention for several controversial actions.

The European Parliament’s annual minute’s silence for the victims of the Holocaust on Wednesday was interrupted by Polish MEP Grzegorz Braun, who instead focused on Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

Let us pray for the victims of the Jewish genocide in Gaza, Braun declared and then repeated his call once more.

 

Thank you very much, thank you very much, for your prayers for the victims of the Jewish genocide in Gaza, Braun repeated once more before the minute of silence ended.

According to Braun, he did not interfere with the purpose of the ceremony, but rather wanted to draw attention to how some victims of war crimes and genocide are valued more than others.

I shared the observation that all victims are apparently equal, but some are more equal than others”, he explained afterwards.

Dragged out of the room

The move was not appreciated by the President, Roberta Metsola, who shortly afterwards ordered Braun to be dragged from the room. Braun’s outburst has been described by critics as “hateful rhetoric”, with Dutch Christian Democrat Bert-Jan Ruissen, among others, calling for Braun to be punished and subjected to the “highest possible sanctions” that the EU body can impose.

Braun is a member of the national conservative party Korona, the “Crown”, and is running for president in Poland later this year. He has come under fire for strong statements against the Jewish lobby and for demolishing a sign for an official press conference on COVID passports when they were launched in Poland.

Perhaps Braun’s most high-profile action in the past was when he used a fire extinguisher to put out a Jewish candlestick (menorah) placed in the Polish Parliament for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

– The people participating in the Satanic cult should be ashamed, he declared in connection with this event.

Following the incident, Mr. Braun was suspended for six months and legal proceedings were initiated. However, Braun later followed up the high-profile action by condemning Jewish racism against European nations in the Polish Parliament.