Hamas will not lose the will to fight. Nor will the Palestinian victims of its actions and the Israeli response insist, to any meaningful effect, upon an end to violence. As on the Israeli side of the equation since the horrors of 7 October, a fundamental line has been crossed.
Western rhetoric notwithstanding, there will be no two-state solution, nor much prospect of meaningful steps being taken towards achieving one. Instead, there will be recurring cycles of violence.
Israel will prevail in those conflicts with the Palestinians until, one day, it doesn’t. And when that day comes, even generations from now, the reckoning will be terrible.
Wow... Just wow. ---------------------- Israel has itself painted into a corner. To use another metaphor, they have a tiger by the tail. They can't let go because the tiger will eat them, and sooner or later they'll tire and slip... and the tiger will eat them.
I actually have more hope than that, but I don't know. Years ago a friend of mine said, there are a lot more Arabs than there were Indians, and they're not quite as friendly or quite as unsophisticated (I paraphrase a little)
---------------------- As to this part.
"Remember, from the river to the sea - Greater Israel has always been the most powerful Zionists' all-time goal. "
True again. It's in writing.
From the beginning, Zionists advocated a "Jewish State" not just in Palestine, but also in Jordan, southern Lebanon, and the Golan Heights as well. In 1918 Ben-Gurion described the future "Jewish state's" frontiers in details as follows:
"to the north, the Litani river [in southern Lebanon], to the northeast, the Wadi 'Owja, twenty miles south of Damascus; the southern border will be mobile and pushed into Sinai at least up to Wadi al-'Arish; and to the east, the Syrian Desert, including the furthest edge of Transjordan" (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 87 https://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story600.html)
Map of Greater Israeli as submitted by the Word Zionist Organization soon after the end of WWI
In an article published by Ben-Gurion in 1918, titled "The Rights of the Jews and others in Palestine," he conceded that the Palestinian Arabs have the same rights as Jews. He explained that Palestinians had these rights since they had inhabited the land "for hundreds of years". He stated in the article:
"Palestine is not an empty country . . . on no account must we injure the rights of the inhabitants." Ben-Gurion often returned to this point, emphasizing that Palestinian Arabs had "the full right" to an independent economic, cultural, and communal life, but not political. (Shabtai Teveth, p. 37-38 https://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story795.html)
But Ben-Gurion set limits. The Palestinian people were incapable by themselves of developing Palestine, and they had no right to stand in the way of the Jews. He argued in 1918, that Jews' rights sprang not only from the past but also from the future. In 1924 he declared:
"We do not recognize the right of the [Palestinian] Arabs to rule the country, since Palestine is still undeveloped and awaits its builders." In 1928 he pronounced that "the [Palestinian] Arabs have no right to close the country to us [Jews]. What right do they have to the Negev desert, which is uninhabited?"; and in 1930, "The [Palestinian] Arabs have no right to the Jordan river, and no right to prevent the construction of a power plant [by a Jewish concern]. They have a right only to that which they have created and to their homes." (Shabtai Teveth, p. 38)
'Eradication of Journalism in Gaza' Continues as Israel Kills Two More Reporters
Ok, was placing Israel where it is a very costly mistake?...
A press helmet is placed over the grave of Hamza Dahdouh, a Palestinian journalist who worked for Al Jazeera and was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Rafah on January 7, 2024. (Photo: Mohammed Talatene/picture alliance via Getty Images)
The international community must "hold Israel accountable for its heinous crimes," said the Al Jazeera Media Network.
The Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement .. https://network.aljazeera.net/en/press-releases/al-jazeera-condemns-assassination-hamza-aldahdooh-al-jazeera-correspondent-wael .. that the Israeli military targeted the journalists' car as they were driving through the northern part of Rafah. The strike killed Hamza Dahdouh, the 27-year-old son of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, and Mustafa Thuraya, a freelance videographer working with Agence France-Presse. Hazem Rajab was injured in the Israeli strike.
"The assassination of Mustafa and Hamza, Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh's son, whilst they were on their way to carry out their duty in the Gaza Strip reaffirms the need to take immediate necessary legal measures against the occupation forces to ensure that there is no impunity," the network said, imploring the international community to "hold Israel accountable for its heinous crimes."
"Hamza was everything to me, the eldest boy, he was the soul of my soul," Wael said in anguished remarks from the cemetery where his son was buried. "These are the tears of parting and loss, the tears of humanity."
“Hamza was not part of me. He was all of me.”
Al Jazeera’s Wael al-Dahdouh says goodbye to one more family member, his son Hamza, 'just like droves of people here do every day, every hour and every second.'
Christophe Deloire, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, expressed "shock" in response to news of Dahdouh and Thuraya's killing.
"This unbearable massacre must stop," Deloire wrote ..
According to @RSF_inter figures, the deaths of Hamza and Moustafa bring to 79 the number of journalists killed in Gaza by Israeli strikes. 79 journalists killed! This unbearable massacre must stop. Israel must be held accountable for this eradication of journalism in Gaza. We…
.. on social media. "Israel must be held accountable for this eradication of journalism in Gaza. We will continue to refer to the International Criminal Court so that maximum priority is given to crimes against journalists. Justice must be served."
(Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)
"CPJ is particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting journalists and their families by the Israeli military," the group said last month. An investigation .. https://www.commondreams.org/news/reuters-journalist-targeted .. by Reporters Without Borders concluded that Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah and his colleagues were deliberately targeted in October 13 strikes in southern Lebanon.
Thousands brave Sydney heatwave conditions to demand ceasefire in Gaza in week 15 of protests
"[...] Report: Israel in Talks With Third Country to Expel Palestinians Entirely Israel’s solution to the conflict is moving Palestinians in Gaza to another country 4,500 miles away. [...] "We'll make a pastrami sandwich of them" November 17, 1993 The Iron Wall https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=173515834 .. also here .. 75 years of Israel: A 'Jewish state' to a full theocracy? "Service to Israel Tugs at Identity of Arab Citizens "Grading Biden on the Israel-Hamas War"" https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=173521273 The idea of a Palestinian state being created alongside Israel always ran counter to the Likud vision of Israel extending from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. (Indeed, a song popular among Likud supporters used to go further: harking back to Churchill’s creation in the 1920s of the Hashemite state east of the river, at the expense of Zionist wishes, it said: ‘The Jordan has two banks, and both of them are ours.’)"
War on Gaza: Pro-Palestine protesters block Israeli ship from port of Melbourne Around 4,000 protesters staged a blockade to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and block workers from unloading an Israeli-owned ship Protesters gather at the Port of Melbourne to block workers and the unloading of Israeli ships (Supplied/Matt Hrkac) By Nadda Osman Published date: 21 January 2024 13:25 GMT | Last update: 9 hours 27 mins ago https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-australia-pro-palestine-protesters-block-israeli-ship-port-melbourne