Middle East Press on: Iran, Israel, Palestinians, US, Gaza, ICC: New Age Islam's Selection, 23 November 2024
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
23 November 2024
History Repeats: World Feigns Ignorance To Iran's Network Of Terror
The Netherlands Are Lost: Dutch Seek To Blame Israeli Victims Of Amsterdam Pogrom
Calls For Minister's Firing Could Tip Israel Into Constitutional Crisis
Are The ICC Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu And Gallant A Victory For Palestinians?
US Veto Confirms Its Responsibility For Israel’s Crimes In Gaza
In Syria, Turkiye Wants To Rein In Russia, Get US On Board
Gaza War Crimes Exposed: ICC’s Historic Arrest Warrants Against Israeli Leadership
Israel's Leadership Is Failing IDF Soldiers
Israel's Status Hits A New Low After ICC Issues Arrest Warrants
Gazans Deserve The Right To Freedom Of Movement
What's Next After ICC Issues Warrants For Israeli And Hamas Leaders?
Realism And The Invasion Of Gaza: Critiquing Israel’s Zionist Agenda
Israeli Prepares To Annex The Occupied West Bank And Impose A Fait Accompli On The Palestinians
Hezbollah Causing The Destruction Of Itself And Lebanon
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History Repeats: World Feigns Ignorance To Iran's Network Of Terror
By Amotz Asa-El
November 23, 2024
Adventure, the thrill of crossing vast lands en route to victory, glory, and prize, quickly made way for disaster.
Told they would help fascism defeat Bolshevism, the Italian Army’s Alpine Division journeyed east, to the depth of the Russian steppe; 16,000 men went, and fewer than 4,000 returned, part of a huge non-German corpus that lost an estimated 250,000 Italian, Hungarian, and Romanian men in the snowfields of Stalingrad.
Wars are, by definition, celebrations of folly, but the futility of those soldiers’ deployment stands in a league of its own, considering the distance and harshness of the land where they fought, and the madness of the cause for which they died.
Now, as foreigners crowd battlefields from the Middle East to Ukraine, the madness returns.
FEW WARS were the exclusive business of just two nations. King David’s army had two foreign battalions (the Kerethites and Pelethites); Hannibal deployed Libyans, Greeks, and Gauls; and modern Britain and France conscripted multitudes of Africans and Asians.
Seen this way, Russia’s current deployment of more than 10,000 North Korean troops to help it fight Ukraine is natural. Well, it isn’t. The Korean deployment is an improvisation forced by Russia’s huge casualties, at least 408,000 irreplaceable soldiers, including 78,000 killed, according to independent analyses surveyed this week by The New York Times.
Ironically, Russia’s Korean cannon fodder will be deployed not far from where other foreigners once fought not for Russia, but against it, led to die in an alien land for an alien people in the name of ideas in which they didn’t believe.
Yes, it was a very cynical deployment of foreign warriors, an inversion of what happened in the 1930s in Spain, where thousands of foreigners died in a civil war they joined voluntarily, to serve a cause in which they really believed.
Then again, even wartime Germany’s abuse of its foreign fighters does not compare with what Iran’s foreign legion has been doing to the rest of the world.
Iran's network spreads
THE IRANIAN network of foreign militias evolved gradually and spread opportunistically.
What began in the 1980s with the establishment in Lebanon and Gaza of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, was emulated two decades later in Iraq, as Tehran used the unraveling of Saddam Hussein’s state to plant in it militias like Asaib al Hal Haq and Harakat Hezbollah al Nujaba.
The following decade, Iran used the Yemeni civil war to sink roots in the Arabian Peninsula, by funding, arming, and training the Houthi militia that deposed the Yemeni government. By this decade, Iran has emerged, thanks to its proxy scheme, as the effective ruler in three Arab capitals – Beirut, Baghdad, and Sana’a – in addition to its older domination of Damascus.
Iran’s proxy warriors are not mere adjuncts to someone else’s war effort, the way the Italians, Hungarians, and Romanians were for the Germans. The Germans also fought the Russians, and German soldiers died in much larger numbers than the foreigners who joined them.
That’s not what the Iranians do. The Iranians have foreigners die not alongside Iranian soldiers, but instead of them. In all their foreign meddling, the mullahs have been careful to send from Iran only commanders, advisers, and mentors, not fighters. The Iranian military itself, notwithstanding its recent pair of missile salvos on Israel, has not fought anywhere since the Iran-Iraq War ended in 1988.
Morally, this method of having others die for your cause is appalling, an emblem of the Islamist Revolution’s hollowness, hypocrisy, and cowardice. This scheme’s masterminds are the same people who, during the Iran-Iraq War, cleared mines by collecting from their cities homeless children before sending them to walk on minefields.
One is at a loss to understand how Iran’s Yemeni, Iraqi, and Lebanese underlings, all ethnic Arabs, tolerate the Persian masters who send them to die. But that is their problem, not the rest of the world’s. What is the world’s problem is not Iran’s methods, but its aims. And the aim, it takes no statesman to suspect, is to dominate the Middle East today, the Arab nation tomorrow, the Muslim faith the morning after that, and the rest of mankind the morning after that.
ON THE face of it, the Iranian project is driven by ordinary imperialism, a quest to expand Tehran’s sway by creating one overland corridor from historic Persia through Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea, and another, through the Arabian Peninsula, to Africa’s shores.
In this sense, Iran’s ploy is a version of Russia’s imperial agenda. Yet Russia is not out to destabilize the Middle East. Iran is. In all three lands where it deployed its proxies – at an estimated annual cost of more than $1 billion – the local government has lost its political effectiveness and the country itself lost its sovereignty.
That is how Lebanon became politically paralyzed, economically destitute, and militarily someone else’s battlefield; that is how Iraq became someone else’s garrison; and that is how Yemen became a launchpad for a war on international navigation.
These schemes are not merely about Iran’s relations with its neighbors. They are about the entire world; about the international system’s foundations; about respect for sovereignty, independence, and inter-civilizational harmony.
It is no coincidence that this scheme comes from the same people who, as a matter of strategy, faith, and reflex, oppress women, machine-gun demonstrators, and hang gays. The proxy project is their way of taking what they do at home to the rest of mankind.
The rest of mankind, for its part, has yet to fully understand Iran’s menace, but that is natural, certainly not unprecedented. The Alpine Division’s Italian soldiers also didn’t get it, not even when already on the train that took them east, never suspecting that their locomotive’s driver was the Angel of Death.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-830182
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The Netherlands Are Lost: Dutch Seek To Blame Israeli Victims Of Amsterdam Pogrom
By David Ben-Basat
November 23, 2024
As I write these words, a demonstration of hate is taking place in one of Amsterdam’s main streets, an unlawful protest by Muslims that signals, all too clearly, that the Netherlands, like other nations, has lost control of its own state to a fanatical Muslim mob. Just days after the antisemitic at carried out by Muslim rioters, it’s apparent that nothing has been learned. The Dutch authorities – including Amsterdam’s mayor and police, who banned the protest – did nothing to stop it.
On the same day that Muslims lay in wait outside hotels to target Jews, one’s thoughts traveled to an even darker period in Dutch history when, on a nearby street about 80 years ago, the Nazis captured Anne Frank and her family, leading to their eventual murder.
A Dutch friend recently sent me an image of the Star of David, writing, “Our thoughts and hearts are with you. This is no longer our Holland.” This message reminded me of the embrace and love Israel received worldwide after the Six-Day War, in which we triumphed over Arab states that sought our destruction. The times have indeed changed, yet the hatred remains the same. Antisemitism is reemerging globally and in the Netherlands, where Muslims and antisemitic Dutch citizens have joined forces, rallying with calls for Israel’s annihilation. Witnessing Dutch citizens shouting “Free Palestine” without grasping the implications of their words, while police stand by and allow blatant law-breaking, is deeply troubling.
A history lesson
We grew up on the legend of the Dutch as “Righteous Among the Nations,” heroes who helped save Jews during World War II. However, the truth is starkly different. Many Dutch citizens betrayed Jews to the Nazis, exposing their hiding places.
Nevertheless, on my first visit to the Netherlands many years ago, I met one of the war’s most condecorated heroes, Maurice Kiek. He hosted my wife and me in the beautiful town of Wassenaar near Rotterdam, and over dinner, we heard about the Dutch who fought alongside Jews against the Nazi scourge.
The Netherlands was different then. Amsterdam was, and perhaps still is, a cosmopolitan city that allowed for diverse beliefs and lifestyles. But with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants, crime and violence have surged. Some of them brought with them a culture that has begun to overshadow Dutch traditions.
Authorities fail Jews
Following this week’s attack on Israeli fans who came to watch a soccer game, and despite countless videos documenting the violence, Dutch police released all the detainees, who, it turns out, had already been arrested in unrelated events prior to the game.
Meanwhile, Dutch media, which initially expressed “shock” at the pogrom, now shifts the narrative, unjustly blaming Israelis. The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, commenting on police failures, suggested that officers secured irrelevant areas, attributing the problem to misallocated police resources rather than a lack of personnel. This sums up Amsterdam police’s monumental security lapse.
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinians continue to stage demonstrations “for Palestine,” rejecting the notion that Jews are victims – a claim that defies belief. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Palestinians have turned victimhood into an art, duping the public with the media’s help, embedding their false narrative.
While Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema banned protests after the violent events, no one seemed deterred, as a demonstration held two days later proved the police are either unwilling or unable to halt the rioters.
Though Dutch media criticized Galatasaray player Hakim Ziyech – a former Ajax player – for his comments about the violent incidents involving Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, his provocations continue unimpeded.
Olivier Dutil, the Netherlands’ chief of police, reports that random passersby are repeatedly asked by pro-Palestinians to show their passports to verify whether they are Jews.
The chaos in Amsterdam persists.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-830199
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Calls For Minister's Firing Could Tip Israel Into Constitutional Crisis
By Reuters
November 22, 2024
A petition by a group of non-governmental organisations for the Supreme Court to order the dismissal of far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has caused a rift in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and could plunge Israel into a constitutional crisis.
In a letter to Netanyahu last week, Attorney-General, Gali Baharav-Miara, asked the Prime Minister to consider firing the Minister, citing evidence that he allegedly interfered directly in police operations and politicised promotions within the force, threatening its status outside politics.
Baharav-Miara’s appeal to the Prime Minister came before the Attorney-General must give her opinion to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks on whether it should accept and review the NGOs’ petition, filed in September.
In her letter, made public by her office, Baharav-Miara backed the NGOs contentions that the Minister had personally intervened in the way police chiefs responded to anti-government protests.
She also cited a letter from former Israel Police Commissioner, Kobi Shabtai, who left office in July, saying that Ben Gvir had instructed senior police officers to disregard cabinet orders to protect humanitarian aid convoys heading to Gaza.
Her letter drew a stinging response from the Minister who called publicly for the Attorney-General to be fired, saying that her request was politically motivated. He has denied any wrong-doing.
When he entered Netanyahu’s coalition at the end of 2022, Ben-Gvir was given an expanded portfolio, including responsibility for Border Police in the Occupied West Bank, despite having been convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and backing an extremist nationalist religious group, Kach, designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel and the United States.
A “police law” passed by the Knesset that month – one of Ben Gvir’s conditions for entering the coalition – expanded the powers of the Security Minister over the police, including setting general policy as well as its operational priorities and guidelines.
Ben Gvir said the law would strengthen the police force and its ability to combat crime, and argued that in all democratic countries the police reported to an elected minister. Critics have argued that the amendments gave Ben Gvir overarching powers over operations and made him the “ultimate police chief”.
Four former police commanders and two legal experts told Reuters that changes Ben Gvir has made to the structure and culture of Israel’s police force have led to its politicisation.
“Minister Ben Gvir is trying, with his authority, to approve appointments or to be involved in promotions and advancements, in order to advance his own political interests,” said Amonon Alkalai, a former police sergeant who resigned in 2021.
Neither the Israel Police nor Ben Gvir’s office responded to requests for comment on the Minister’s role in police appointments or influence over operations.
Netanyahu – who faces corruption charges – has resisted past calls to dismiss Ben-Gvir. If the Minister’s far-right, nationalist Otzma Yehudit party were to withdraw from the governing coalition, Netanyahu would only have a slim majority. Adding to his legal difficulties, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest on Thursday for alleged war crimes in the Gaza conflict. Netanyahu maintains his innocence on all counts.
Should the Supreme Court order the Prime Minister to dismiss his Minister and he refuses, Israel could be plunged into constitutional crisis, with the government in defiance of the judiciary, some legal experts say.
“We don’t know what would happen in that situation,” said Amir Fuchs, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based think tank. He added that could put Israel “in a very dangerous situation.”
Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Hard line on protests
Tel Aviv District Police Commander, Ami Eshed, resigned last year citing political reasons, after publicly stating he would not use force against anti-government protestors despite requests from Ben Gvir to do so. In a televised statement, Eshed said “the ministerial echelon” had blatantly interfered in professional decision making.
Ben Gvir’s office did not respond publicly to Eshed’s comments. Israel’s High Court has ordered Ben-Gvir to stop instructing the police how to use force in response to protests last year and again in January.
The four former officers who spoke to Reuters said a sign of the change in policing under Ben Gvir was when police did not make arrests when right-wing Israeli protesters broke into two military compounds in July after investigators arrived to question soldiers about suspected abuse of a Palestinian inmate.
In contrast, police have clamped down on anti-government demonstrations. Israel Yediot newspaper, in June, reported that at one evening of protests, a record 110 arrests were made, out of which only one individual was charged.
In response to public criticism of the high numbers of arrests, police have said some protestors at demonstrations behave violently, including attacking law enforcement and lighting fires.
The police did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters on the handling of protests.
Temple Mount
Senior appointments in recent months have transformed the police leadership. After the government approved in August his choice for national Police Commissioner, Daniel Levy, Ben Gvir said the new chief would follow “a Zionist and Jewish agenda” and lead the police “according to the policy I have laid out for him.”
Just over 20 per cent of Israel’s population is Arab and this community suffers much higher rates of violent crime. Neither Ben-Gvir nor Levy attended a meeting convened by Netanyahu in September to tackle rising crime rates in the Arab-Israeli community.
A new Jerusalem District Chief appointed under Ben-Gvir, Amir Arzani, has eased restrictions on access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on a site holy to Jews who know it as Temple Mount and one of the most sensitive places in the Middle East.
One former senior commander who oversaw law enforcement in Jerusalem told Reuters that, in the past, when ministers tried to ascend to the Temple Mount to conduct Jewish prayer, senior officers would seek permission from the Justice Ministry to arrest them on the basis that it posed a threat to national security.
Ben Gvir has ascended to the Temple Mount several times since his tenure began, without being stopped by police.
The Israel Police said in a statement, in response to Reuters‘ questions about the guidelines, that Knesset members could request access to Temple Mount via the Knesset Guard, and approval depended on a security assessment conducted close to the planned visit.
One former commander, who served during Ben Gvir’s tenure and asked not to be identified due the sensitive nature of his former position, said Ben Gvir was not prevented from ascending to the Temple Mount because it was deemed to pose no credible threat.
Long-last damage
Eugene Kontorovich, head of the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a conservative think tank based in Jerusalem, said an order from the Supreme Court for the Prime Minister to dismiss the Minister would overstep judicial authority.
“If a Prime Minister can’t choose which ministers to hire and fire, he’s not the Prime Minister, he’s just a puppet of the courts,” Kontorovich said. He said the Attorney-General had not identified any specific laws that Ben-Gvir had violated.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a campaign group that aims to promote democratic standards, has appealed the 2022 police law before the Supreme Court.
Ory Hess, a lawyer at the Movement, said the law gave Ben Gvir dangerous authority to intervene in Israeli politics because he could use the police to stifle anti-government sentiment.
Yoav Segalovitz, a member of Israel’s Knesset in the opposition, Yesh Atid party, and a former law enforcement officer who headed the police’s investigations and intelligence division, said Ben Gvir’s changes may do irreversible damage that would take years to correct.
“A political person should never have power over how the police is used because the police is not the military: the police deal with the citizens; the police deal with the most sensitive issues,” Segalovitz said.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241122-calls-for-ministers-firing-could-tip-israel-into-constitutional-crisis/
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Are The ICC Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu And Gallant A Victory For Palestinians?
By Motasem A Dalloul
November 22, 2024
Rejecting the Israeli challenge against the lack of jurisdiction, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, over allegations of “crimes against humanity and war crimes”.
This measure means that 124 states, which are members of the ICC, including European, Latin- American countries and others around the globe would be entitled to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they landed on their soil.
Legal experts, who stressed on the importance of this warrant, say that the Court has no means of enforcing the warrants, so that its members might not respect them without facing any consequences. A number of members states have already rejected the warrants and reiterated they would invite the Israeli leaders to visit their capitals.
Whether Netanyahu and Gallant are arrested or not, does it benefit the Palestinian people who have been murdered and ethnically cleansed by the Israeli Occupation for the past 14 months in a row, and there is no potential end for these crimes on the horizon?
Those, who believe the ICC’s measure is a victory for the Palestinians, still believe that it would not end the ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, but they argue that “this precedent” would reinforce the international isolation.
As the Court is a highly respected international means of justice, people around the world who believe that the Israeli Occupiers are oppressing the Palestinians, would gain more credibility and strength for their arguments. The Court said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed in Gaza.
However, beside it being too late, the Palestinians themselves do not believe that the rulings against Netanyahu and Gallant are beneficial to them because they will not even help to end their suffering and daily losses, even if the two Israeli leaders were actually arrested.
In addition, the effective ICC member states, which said they would respect this decision or issued a vague response to it, their stance is still disappointing as they continue flooding arms to the Israeli Occupation to carry out more and more war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Let us imagine that they arrested Netanyahu, what does it means if we, the Palestinians, continue being killed and exterminated by the weapons manufactured by their countries and sent to Israeli by their governments? Or their armies are taking part in the war crimes, such as what the British army is doing? It has recently been revealed that the UK has carried out more than half of the spying missions of reconnaissance crafts over the skies of Gaza.
Regarding the great powers which are not involved in the arms supplies for the Israeli Occupation army or diplomatic support for the Israeli Occupation through the international bodies, what will they do? We do not expect more than strong statements or celebration of the “victory” of justice.
Meanwhile, they will continue, as they have been during the past 14 months, their passive rejection of the Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity being carried out day and night against us. If they wanted to do more, they would have done so before the ICC’s ruling.
All great powers, including the US, Russia, the EU, China and even India, which have or have not denounced, or those which backed the Israeli crimes, have their own interests that they would not see jeopardised by taking real and actual measures pushing Israel to end its “livestream genocide” in Gaza.
Each one of these countries has its own issues related to oppression and occupation of other nations – many of them with Muslim nations. So these powers do not get involved in real measures because they would be faced with real and actual measure by their counterparts in relation to their issues with their rivals.
For example, the US keeps a close eye towards Chinese oppression of the Uyghurs, in return for toning down Chinese support for Russia regarding the war in Ukraine and not taking real measures against Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians. It is a very complicated issue that needs thousands of words to explain.
Regarding the EU, its top leaders have been adopting a vocal critical language against the Israeli crimes, but this is not more than a cover for their real support for the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians and their willingness for Israel to be the strongest state in the region.
Israeli crimes against the Palestinians did not start 14 months ago, but more than 8 decades ago, with the support of money, arms and human resources from the European countries, the US and Russia. They are the countries which planted Israel in the middle of the Arab and Muslim region in order to continue having a hand there.
To create Israel, they themselves carried out war crimes and crimes against humanity in the whole region. They continue committing crimes directly, through their military occupation and, indirectly, through their proxy state leaders in the region.
In order to keep Israel strong, they give it all licenses, greenlights and impunity to carry out war crimes and crimes against humanity with full premeditation because they know very well that no Occupation can continue with this. If they really did not want this, they might have stopped their support for Israel so that it would not stay in Palestine for one day.
In light of such contradictions and clash of interests, the Palestinians recognise that the ICC’s arrest warrants for Israeli leaders is not a victory at all and that justice will never be truly served unless the world order is changed. We see this is happening very soon.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241122-are-the-icc-arrest-warrants-for-netanyahu-and-gallant-a-victory-for-palestinians/
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Us Veto Confirms Its Responsibility For Israel’s Crimes In Gaza
Dr Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg
November 22, 2024
On Wednesday, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza. Although the draft also demanded “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” the US UN representative said that was not enough. The vote was 14-1 in favor of the resolution, but it was not adopted because of the US veto.
The US move is inexplicable, considering the continuing humanitarian catastrophe visited by Israel on the people of Gaza. Health officials on Wednesday put the death toll from Israeli attacks at 43,985 people so far, the majority civilians, in addition to countless more missing under the rubble of their homes and many more injured and maimed for life. Almost all Gazans, more than 2 million of them, have been displaced, some multiple times since the war started last year.
The veto is a dangerous move because it will certainly be understood by Israeli officials as a green light to continue their onslaught. It could thus be seen as aiding and abetting the atrocities being committed by Israel.
The arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court on Thursday have provided further proof of the crimes committed by Israel. The court’s Pre-Trial Chamber unanimously agreed to issue warrants for the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, “for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest.”
Given the overwhelming evidence of Israel’s criminal behavior, the US administration now appears to be an accessory to those crimes, if not an active accomplice and partner.
The administration’s responsibility is compounded when you take into account that it continues to provide Israel with the arms used in committing those crimes.
In addition to the International Criminal Court warrants regarding war crimes and crimes against humanity, there is mounting evidence of genocide being carried out in Gaza, for which the US administration would also be liable, as it has failed to stop it and has provided Israel with the means to carry it out. The International Court of Justice is deliberating the matter, but it said there was a plausible case of genocide as early as January. Since then, there has been more evidence and experts have weighed in convincingly in that direction.
Amos Goldberg, an expert on genocide and professor of Holocaust history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has argued that Israel is in fact committing the crime of genocide. In April, he wrote a blistering article titled “Yes, it is genocide” in Hebrew in an Israeli publication. “Although it is so difficult and painful to admit this and despite all efforts to think otherwise, at the end of six months of a brutal war it is no longer possible to escape this conclusion … What is happening in Gaza is genocide because the level and pace of indiscriminate killing, destruction, mass expulsions, displacement, famine, executions, the wiping out of cultural and religious institutions, the crushing of elites (including the killing of journalists), and the sweeping dehumanization of the Palestinians — create an overall picture of genocide, of a deliberate conscious crushing of Palestinian existence in Gaza,” he wrote.
Goldberg wrote this more than six months ago. The crimes he described have only become more evident and more devastating since.
Aryeh Neier, America’s most prominent advocate of human rights and civil liberties, came to the conclusion that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, citing its obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza since the start of the war. Born in Nazi Germany in 1937, Neier is a Holocaust survivor and author of important works on human rights who has dedicated his life to the promotion of human rights, including the prevention of genocide and prosecution of human rights violators. He was the head of the American Civil Liberties Union, the largest advocate for civil rights in the US. In 1978, he co-founded Human Rights Watch, the US’ largest global human rights monitoring group. He was also instrumental in the move to establish the International Criminal Court in 2002.
First in an article in the New York Review of Books in June, and since in several media interviews, Neier said that he had come to that conclusion in the face of the incontrovertible evidence of Israel’s culpability of genocide. Goldberg and Neier’s conclusions have been corroborated by extensive evidence provided by international organizations operating in Gaza.
Article IV of the Genocide Convention of 1948 makes it imperative for all states to take measures to prevent, stop and punish the crime of genocide, including by punishing its perpetrators, “whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.” This duty is incumbent on states whenever there is sufficient evidence of the crime of genocide being committed and does not need a final conclusion by the International Court of Justice, which has already found that there was a plausible case of genocide. Thursday’s International Criminal Court decision, reports by international organizations in the field and expert conclusions all point in the same direction.
In the face of these serious accusations, the US should, at the very least, allow the UN Security Council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire, which is a minimal ask given the enormity of the atrocities being committed against the people of Gaza.
Since the beginning of the conflict, the US has used its veto power several times to shield Israel from censure. Reacting to Wednesday’s veto, Human Rights Watch said: “Once again, the US used its veto to ensure impunity for Israel as its forces continue to commit crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.” Many countries have echoed this statement, roundly criticizing the US veto.
In addition to giving Israel the nod to continue its violation of Gaza, the decision to block the UN vote will further damage the US’ reputation in the region, as it provides further evidence of blind support for Israel’s brutal war, eroding what remains of the goodwill and support for America in the region and globally. It also weakens the US’ attempts to promote human rights and respect for the rule of international law in other parts of the world.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2580374
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In Syria, Turkiye Wants To Rein In Russia, Get Us On Board
Sinem Cengiz
November 22, 2024
In 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as an “occupier” in Syria. This statement came at a time when Turkish-Russian relations were extremely tense after Turkish forces shot down a Russian jet that briefly violated its airspace in 2015. The situation worsened as Russia deepened its military involvement in Syria. However, by the end of 2016, the two countries unexpectedly began to repair their relationship after seven months of harsh rhetoric and sanctions. It is important to recognize that a combination of domestic and international factors played a key role in this reconciliation.
International factors, in particular, play a crucial role in shaping how states perceive and interact with one another. This is especially evident in the changing rhetoric from Russia since the reelection of Donald Trump as US president. Just last week, for example, an interesting statement came from the Kremlin. Russian Special Envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev reportedly referred to Turkiye as an “occupying force” — a term I do not recall ever being used by Russian officials to describe Turkiye’s presence in Syria.
While Russian policymakers have, at certain phases of the Syrian crisis, expressed discontent with Turkiye’s actions or military operations in the country, they have also at times tacitly supported some of Ankara’s moves. Notably, it was the Astana peace framework that enabled Turkiye and Russia to draw their limits in Syria and shape their policies within these limits to avoid a serious confrontation that may escalate the tone of dialogue between them. So, why has a Russian official, particularly one engaged with the Syrian dossier, adopted such a tone toward Turkiye? Two factors come to mind: the US election and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The US election appears to have sparked some hopes in Ankara and concerns in Russia. The latter may regard any positive momentum between Ankara and Washington as being at its expense in Syria. Through these recent statements, Russia may be signaling a message to Ankara, which is already preparing for the Trump 2.0 era. Ankara expects Trump, once back in the White House, to fulfill his promises of removing American troops from northern Syria, where Washington is allied with PKK/YPG forces — largely Kurdish groups that Ankara considers to be terrorist organizations. Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler has already stated that he expects the US to pull its troops out of Syria under Trump’s upcoming administration.
The hope that the new US administration might take a step in this regard became stronger after Trump’s political ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is expected to play a major role in his government, stated that Trump wants to pull American troops out of northern Syria, instead of leaving them as “cannon fodder” if fighting breaks out between other parties. This statement was warmly received by Turkish policymakers, who have long wanted such a thing to happen.
Despite the changes in administrations since 2014, no US president has changed the country’s policy of supporting the Kurdish forces in their fight against Daesh. While the US-YPG alliance became the main issue of contention with Turkiye, it also paved the way for closer Ankara-Moscow relations. Syrian-centric cooperation between Turkiye and Russia became so unique that, although the two states have sharply opposed objectives in the war-torn country, they established a sort of cooperation that has, at times, worked even better than any American-Turkish cooperation in Syria.
Thus, no issue has shaped Turkish-Russian relations in recent years as much as the crisis in Syria, not even the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, Ankara’s approach toward the Ukraine war could have implications for Russia’s perception of Turkiye’s role in Syria.
I think this way because the term “occupier,” used by a Russian official to describe Turkiye in Syria, emerged in the wake of Moscow this week rejecting a peace proposal for Ukraine put forward by Erdogan. The Kremlin called Erdogan’s plan, which reportedly included freezing the current front lines, supplying Ukraine with weapons and deploying international troops to a demilitarized buffer zone in the eastern part of the country, “unacceptable.”
This proposal came while NATO countries are preparing for a second term in the White House for Trump, who has vowed to end the war in Ukraine. It appears that Turkiye aims to position itself as a key and influential player in the Ukraine file, particularly when Trump returns to power and he begins shaping his approach to the war.
Turkiye’s position in the Ukraine war is clear: it supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but it also opposes Western sanctions on Moscow. However, despite this clarity, Russia has sought to challenge Ankara’s stance, particularly regarding its military support for Kyiv. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he is “surprised” that Turkiye is continuing to supply weapons to Ukraine while offering to act as mediator in the conflict. These statements from the Kremlin suggest that, for Russia, Turkiye’s policies in Ukraine and Syria are increasingly intertwined and Moscow perceives Ankara’s actions in both cases as interconnected.
It appears that the US is looking for a way out of Syria, while Turkiye is seeking to bring Washington on board in a way that can safeguard its interests. However, given the uncertainties over any shift in US policy in Syria, Turkiye must also carefully manage its relationship with Russia to protect the partnership it has developed there. For Ankara, the worst-case scenario would be the continuation of US support for Kurdish groups combined with potential tacit Russian support for them, as it offered during periods of tension between Moscow and Ankara in Syria.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2580378
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Gaza War Crimes Exposed: ICC’s Historic Arrest Warrants Against Israeli Leadership
By Sher Ali Bukhari
November 22, 2024
On Thursday, in a ground-breaking decision, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, Gallant and Mohammed Deif on the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, specially in the context of their alleged role in the post-7 October, 2023 events in the Gaza Strip. In its ruling, the ICC has asserted that Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu, and his former Defence Minister, Gallant, have been involved in heinous crimes against the civilian population of Gaza. Food, water, medicine and shelter are being weaponised by the top Israeli leadership as tools of starvation for civilian people of Gaza in a very systemic and organised way which especially targets vulnerable groups, children and women, in the conflict zone.
Meanwhile, charges have been made against Mohammed Deif for the 7 October attack on Israel, which resulted in the killing of 1,200 Israeli and 250 captives of Israel at Hamas’ hand, as reported by Israel. However, since that time, this allegation has been refuted by Israeli media and reputable independent journalists, all of whom have established that the Israelis were, in fact, killed by Israeli helicopters and tanks and not by Hamas.
Since the 7 October 2023 attack, which prompted Israel to carry out a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip for the elimination of Hamas, the civilian population has remained the primary target of Israel, resulting in the massacre of roughly 44,000 Palestinians in the Gaza, in which half of them are children and women, according to Health Ministry of Gaza. Meanwhile, recent finding has revealed that more than 14,750 children have been killed during the whole year of military siege of Gaza by Israel Defence Forces. Additionally, 80 per cent of vital infrastructure of Gaza such as hospitals, schools, shelter-houses and universities are critically damaged due to intense violence and brutal tactics of the IDF.
Therefore, the ICC’s ruling gives a relief hope for the people of Palestine and their supporters across the globe who have been voicing, since the start of the Gaza war, about criminal and genocidal intent of state of Israel, who viewed fellow Palestinians as inhuman and sub-human, even lower than animal, such a bizarre and unjustified human objectification.
Unsurprisingly, Israel has rejected the ruling of the Court, calling it absurd and misleading and even equivalent to anti-Semitism. Israel, which is not member of ICC, raised the question over the jurisdiction of the verdict of ICC; however, the opposite side claimed that Palestine became a member of the ICC in 2015, and now parts of the Occupied Territories of Gaza and the West Bank are in the jurisdiction of the ICC and this verdict is fully applied to the Gaza war. Beside the jurisdiction dispute, Israel has also raised objection that it has not been given the right to self-defence itself and the Prosecution and court judges seemed in haste to issue the arrest warrant to the top official of Israel, calling them biased and unacceptable to people of Israel.
Meanwhile, the strongest ally of Israel – the USA – has rejected the ruling of the ICC and called it fundamentally biased and wrong; the USA is not a member of the ICC. Inside reports claim that the USA is irritated over the issuing of the arrest warrant of top official of Israel. One has to be reminded that USA’s support is critical and a lifeline for the survival and existence of Israel and, since the October 2023 attacks, Israel’s reliance on the USA has doubled down, as it requires more economic and military assistance for its jingoism and militancy in Gaza and beyond, especially in Lebanon and Syria. On the previous day, before the ruling of the ICC, the USA vetoed a resolution calling for a comprehensive ceasefire agreement in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, although it was not first time the USA vetoed such a resolution. Additionally, the USA has pumped billions of dollars into Tel Aviv for the continuation of its war crimes and crime against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
The distinguished Professor, John Mearsheimer, in his seminal book, “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy (2007)”, documented that the Jewish lobby is one of the strongest lobbies in Washington, which has remained very influential and powerful over the White House, State Department, Pentagon and the America media due to its strong economic and logistic base. And this Jewish lobby is the key to the unfettered support of Israel from the corridors of Washington. The recent ruling is definitely not viewed positively by this Jewish lobby, and the lobby will assert its power and influence over the American system to dilute the effectiveness and implementation of the ruling of the ICC.
It is also worth noting that the ICC is an inter-governmental organisation formed in 2002 for convicting individual criminal charges of war crimes and crime against humanity, which has 124 members across the globe. Although great powers like the USA, China, Russia and India are not members of the ICC, yet significant blocs like the EU and developed countries such as Britain and Japan and other Latin, Asian and African countries are enjoying full membership of ICC and are in compliance of the implementation of ICC ruling if a convicted individual would travel to these countries; therefore, the risk of arrest via international travelling will be manifold for Netanyahu and Gallant. A top official of the EU has stated that the EU would enforce the ruling of the ICC if these individuals will travel to EU countries. However, legal experts opined that the ICC has lacked enforced mechanism and force to implement the arrest warrant of Netanyahu and Gallant.
Despite the real implementation of these arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, an overwhelming number of Palestinians feel delighted and happy over the ruling of the ICC, which has accepted the public opinion of Palestinians that Israel is bent on killing and the massacre of people of Gaza in very systemic way. One key Palestinian observer opined that, since 1949, the Palestinian are being subjected to large killing, murder, torture, displacement and denial to any basic human right or any freedom under the UN Charter. “Genocide, occupation and apartheid” are the tools of Israel against the peaceful struggle of Palestinians for their independent homeland and their rights, he added. And Karim Khan, the top Prosecutor of the ICC, who sought the arrest warrant for Israeli top officials on 20 May, stated that the ruling of the ICC is historic.
Additionally, South Africa which is framing charges of genocide in the ICJ against Israel for its war crimes and crimes against humanity felt that the ruling of the ICC will strengthen its case in the ICJ; South Africa is also seeking an arms embargo on Israel due to the violation of Convention on Genocide in the Gaza war.
In conclusion, it is crystal clear that Israel has been pursuing genocide, Occupation and apartheid tactics against civilian population of Palestine for decades. On the legal front, Israel has been losing ground to legal jurisprudence for its military campaign and siege of the civilian population of Gaza. Like any other nation, under the UN Charter, Palestinians have the right to self-determination and their own sovereign and independent state; however, Israeli intentions and actions seem that it has torn down the two-state solution which is widely accepted by the international community, including the USA. Sooner or later, looking at the unbreakable resistance of the Palestinians for their homeland, their rights will materialize and the recent ruling by the ICC is right step in that direction.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241122-gaza-war-crimes-exposed-iccs-historic-arrest-warrants-against-israeli-leadership/
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Israel's Leadership Is Failing IDF Soldiers
By Yaakov Katz
November 22, 2024
It was petty politics at its worst.
On Wednesday, a law proposed by Gadi Eisenkot, the former IDF chief of staff and MK with the National Unity Party, was brought to the Knesset for a vote. The law sought to provide full state funding for university studies for IDF combat veterans.
It should have been a simple law to pass. For the last 14 months, soldiers have been fighting on multiple fronts, enduring an unprecedented strain not seen before in the IDF. Offering them free university studies – with 100 percent of tuition covered for combat soldiers and 70 percent for non-combat soldiers – is a small but meaningful way to show gratitude for their sacrifices.
Moreover, it sends a message at a time when the ultra-Orthodox continue to evade the draft: Those who serve will be rewarded.
“This vote is a test,” Eisenkot declared from the podium as he introduced the bill. “It is a test of our gratitude to the soldiers and fighters of the IDF.”
Failing Israel's soldiers
Unfortunately, the coalition failed that test. Fifty-five members of the government – from Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, the Religious Zionist Party, and Otzma Yehudit – voted against the law. This decision denied IDF soldiers, not just financial assistance but also the recognition they deserve for their service and sacrifices.
The vote was more than a political failure. It was a deeply personal affront to Eisenkot, who has borne immeasurable loss in this war. On Sunday, his nephew, Capt. Yogev Pazy, was killed in Gaza. Pazy’s death marked the third devastating blow to Eisenkot’s family during this conflict. In December, another nephew, Sgt. Maor Cohen Eisenkot, was killed in Gaza his son, just one day after his Eisenkot’s son, St.-Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Gal Eisenkot, was killed there.
Did these tragedies soften the hearts of coalition members? Apparently not. Eisenkot, along with the families of over 800 soldiers killed since October 7, 2023, continues to carry the unbearable burden of loss while the lawmakers responsible for this vote remain unmoved.
What does the Knesset’s decision tell the men and women who are losing comrades in battles against Hamas and Hezbollah? How does it resonate with those who continue to serve despite their injuries and the trauma out of a determination to protect the nation? For the soldiers currently risking their lives in Gaza and Lebanon, the Knesset’s decision sends a chilling message.
SINCE THE war’s outset, the government – particularly the Knesset – has shown a disturbing lack of appreciation for the sacrifices made by soldiers, especially reservists. Instead of focusing on ways to end the war or support those bearing its brunt, lawmakers have prioritized self-serving legislation. On Wednesday, for example, a Likud lawmaker proposed a bill aimed at shielding the government from scrutiny for the catastrophic failures that led to the October 7 Hamas massacre.
The ongoing war has already claimed over 800 soldiers’ lives and left thousands of reservists serving months on end. The IDF faces a shortfall of more than 10,000 soldiers, yet the Knesset remains paralyzed on this critical issue. Instead of addressing the gap in manpower by drafting the over 50,000 ultra-Orthodox men of eligible age, the Knesset is focused on exempting them.
The indifference extends beyond the Knesset. It is mirrored in the IDF leadership, where serious lapses in judgment and accountability continue to endanger IDF soldiers.
Consider the tragic death of 20-year-old Gur Kehati, a Golani Brigade soldier, who was killed on Wednesday while protecting a private tour that his commanders had decided to give a civilian in Lebanon. Ze’ev Erlich, a 71-year-old scholar, was being escorted to examine an ancient fortress, and he, too, was killed in the incident. A senior officer sustained injuries as well.
The circumstances surrounding Kehati’s death raise urgent questions. Why are IDF commanders organizing personal tours into Lebanon? Shockingly, this was not an isolated incident. Politicians and civilians have also been taken across the border, reportedly without proper authorization. Earlier this month, the head of the Northern Command suffered injuries when his jeep flipped over – allegedly because he wasn’t wearing a helmet.
These examples point to a broader cultural issue within the IDF: a lack of discipline and oversight. This problem manifests from unauthorized excursions into Lebanon and Gaza to soldiers who post videos of bombings on social media. These actions not only harm the IDF’s operational integrity but also undermine public trust.
The root of these issues lies in a systemic failure of accountability at the highest levels of the IDF. The military’s top brass has yet to take responsibility for the intelligence and operational failures that led to October 7. While soldiers and reservists continue to pay the price, the leadership remains unscathed.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR these failures does not rest solely on IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the architect of Israel’s broader strategy and bears significant culpability. Still, the IDF’s leadership must answer for its role in the disaster.
It is worth reading the remarks that Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asur, the outgoing head of the IDF Manpower Directorate, delivered during his change-of-command ceremony on Monday. In a stinging rebuke of the military’s top leadership, Asur accused the IDF of lacking transparency and accountability.
“For over 400 days, we have been working to restore the people’s trust,” Asur said. “Above all, trust is based on successes on the battlefield, but also on the leadership being held accountable for their actions. This means conducting incisive investigations, examining failures in-depth, deriving lessons, and applying them.”
Tellingly, Asur’s remarks were omitted from the official readout provided by IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari. The omission was no oversight. It reflected a deliberate attempt to suppress criticism of Halevi and the broader leadership, who have promoted a culture of homogeneity within the IDF’s top ranks.
Asur’s comments alluded to this issue, warning against the dangers of “excessive homogeneity” within the IDF leadership. Many of the military’s top generals hail from the Paratroopers Brigade, the same background as Halevi. Asur argued that this uniformity fosters “mental fixation” and “tunnel thinking,” which contributed to the failures leading up to October 7.
Halevi’s leadership decisions further underscore these concerns. Asur himself was forced into early retirement after being denied a regional command, reportedly due to clashes with Halevi. Meanwhile, other senior officers implicated in the October 7 failures – such as Major Generals Yaron Finkelman, Oded Basiuk, and Shlomi Binder – have retained or even been promoted within the IDF.
For soldiers, the parallels between the Knesset’s betrayal and the IDF leadership’s failures are glaring. Just as they look to lawmakers for support and see indifference, they also look to their commanders and find a lack of accountability.
What lessons does this impart to the young officers and soldiers on the front lines? How do they shape the culture and effectiveness of the IDF in the long term? These are the questions we must grapple with – and demand answers to.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-830196
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Israel's Status Hits A New Low After ICC Issues Arrest Warrants
By Shuki Friedman
November 21, 2024
The hypocritical and distorted decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant is very bad news for Israel. The potential travel restrictions on Netanyahu are a minor personal price compared to the dramatic cost Israel might pay for this decision.
The ICC's reasoning for issuing the arrest warrants amounts to a harsh indictment of Israel's policies in its war on Gaza. Simultaneously, proceedings in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accuse Israel of "genocide," and sanctions are being imposed on Israelis in the West Bank. Only a dramatic change can prevent Israel from becoming a pariah state.
This hope for change lies in the shift of power in Washington and statements by senior officials in the incoming administration against these courts. However, these efforts might not suffice to counter the broad consensus among European nations and others that Israel's policies in the war are indeed illegitimate.
Investigations into Netanyahu and Gallant
After months of investigation and warnings from the ICC about its intention to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the court published the warrants yesterday. This was done after the prosecutor presented the findings of his investigation regarding the crimes attributed to the two, and the pre-trial chamber approved the request.
The warrants state that Netanyahu and Gallant are suspected of systematically depriving Gaza’s population of food, water, medicine, and electricity and using humanitarian aid as a tool to achieve military goals, causing severe suffering to the population, including "surgeries on children without anesthesia" and more. They are also accused of "classic" war crimes, such as killing innocent civilians during "disproportionate attacks" carried out by the IDF in Gaza.
Israel’s claims that the ICC lacks jurisdiction over it were also rejected by the court.
The ICC's decision to issue arrest warrants against Israel's prime minister and defense minister is a significant blow to Israel’s legal and diplomatic status. First, in terms of its image, it places Israel and its leaders on the same bench as some of the world’s worst dictators, including Vladimir Putin, Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, and other African tyrants. But it also has far more concrete implications.
Israel, as a Western-style democratic state, has been perceived as one over the years. This perception has enabled most Western nations to cooperate with Israel on military matters and supply it with weapons and components essential for their production. The possibility that its leaders are war criminals, and hence its policies are criminal by the standards of international humanitarian law, could further erode the willingness and ability of Israel's allies, and certainly its critics, to collaborate on critical fronts.
From a legal perspective, the court's decision is hypocritical and illegitimate. From the outset of the war, despite this being the easiest path for Israel to gain an advantage in the conflict with Gaza, Israel has consistently acted with international law as its guiding compass. It has provided humanitarian aid and water to Gaza throughout most of the conflict and conducted strikes only when they conformed to the laws of war. Even experts familiar with such wars worldwide acknowledge that the number of uninvolved casualties in Gaza is proportionate.
However, the ICC is heavily influenced by political trends. While it has never taken such steps against the U.S. or other Western countries involved in similar conflicts, anti-Israel sentiment allowed—and even encouraged—the court to feel comfortable acting in this manner. While this may comfort Israelis, it does not tangibly benefit Israel, as much of the world relies on these erroneous warrants, with some even welcoming them.
Israel's lifeline in countering the ICC might be the incoming U.S. administration. Past actions and statements by senior officials in the new administration since the warrant’s publication indicate that Trump’s administration may be willing to exert significant pressure on the ICC to reverse its actions against Israel. This will not guarantee success, but it would undoubtedly ease the pressure on Israel.
Together with the ICJ proceedings against Israel, the country’s legal situation looks dire. Israel's current policy, which adheres to international law, is legitimate and essential. Its efforts must now focus on providing a legal response, not necessarily directly, to the ICC’s claims and demonstrating the court’s anti-Israel politicization to countries that might be influenced. Close collaboration with the incoming administration could potentially mitigate the harmful consequences of this decision.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-830156
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Gazans Deserve The Right To Freedom Of Movement
By Ari Zivotofsky
November 21, 2024
In many ways, the world treats the Arabs of Gaza differently than other people – and often to the Gazans’ detriment. This is true with regard to the violation of their basic right to freedom of movement. Over the years, the international community has agreed upon certain fundamental rights that all inhabitants of planet Earth should be entitled to, yet these same nations are now denying one of those rights to a particular group.
The “International Bill of Human Rights” is an informal name given to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted in 1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (both having been adopted in 1966 and coming into force 10 years later). Regarding freedom of movement, Article 13 of the declaration and Article 12 in the covenant both declare that everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own.
Indeed, for all of human history, people have been migrating in the hopes of a better life, and that has been true of the residents of Gaza in recent times as well. And until recently, there was no widespread objection from world leaders. Estimates vary widely, but since Hamas violently seized control of Gaza in 2007 and imposed their fundamentalist Islamic rule, likely over a quarter of a million young Gazans relocated, with the limiting factors preventing even greater numbers being Hamas bureaucracy and the hesitancy of some countries to accept them.
Although infamously flouted by the former Soviet bloc, this right is in general respected. For example, Cuba, which used to trample it, is currently experiencing economic hardships and political uncertainties that have led to a mass exodus of about 500,000 in the last three years, leading to a 3% drop in the island’s population.
DURING ARMED conflict, there is often a desire of citizens on both sides to flee the embattled region. The last decade has witnessed major conflicts that spawned floods of refugees, none of whom were told by the international community to stay put. Two years ago, Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine, from which the world has absorbed over five million Ukrainians and nearly a million Russians as they fled the conflict zone. Afghans have been leaving for years, and in the wake of the Taliban takeover following the botched 2021 US withdrawal, millions have fled.
The Syrian civil war and governmental atrocities have motivated millions of Syrians to relocate since 2011. Lebanon has been a less-than-ideal location for many years, as the civil war of 1975-1990 was followed by the ascendancy of Hezbollah, which continues to terrorize the country. This has led to emigration of such magnitude that more Lebanese now live outside of their country than in it; Brazil probably has more Lebanese than Lebanon has. No one has suggested that the international community block them from leaving.
Middle Eastern Jews saw their own migration. In the 1940s, murderous antisemitic rampages in Arab countries where Jews had lived for millennia resulted in almost a million Jews fleeing their homes, abandoning their property and assets, and resettling in Israel and other Western countries, resulting in those Arab countries becoming essentially Judenrein.
Those are but a few examples of recent mass migrations.
There have also been forced or encouraged “population transfers” or “resettlement” of masses of people, often based on ethnicity or religion, sometimes as a means to defuse tensions and encourage non-belligerent coexistence.
Greece and Turkey have twice been involved in mass transfers that have indeed brought quiet, if not peace, to the region. Muslim-majority Turkey and Christian Greece fought a bitter war ending in 1922, at which point the League of Nations initiated a plan to move Greek Muslims to Turkey and Turkish Orthodox Christians to Greece. The plan was pushed by Fridtjof Nansen, High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations, and eventually 1.5 million Christians and half a million Muslims moved to the other sides of the border, quiet ensued, and Nansen was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. That of course did not mean the two countries had become friends, and in 1974 the Turkish army invaded Greek-ruled Cyprus, leading to a division of the island. In order to bring stability there, which has so far endured, both sides agreed to permit voluntary relocation from the other side, and within the next year about 150,000 Greek-Cypriots moved from the northern Turkish side to the southern Greek side and about 60,000 Turkish-Cypriots crossed to the north.
The Indian subcontinent has seen its share of migrations (although not necessarily resulting in peace). When India was being granted independence from the colonialist British Empire, the local Muslims demanded a Muslim-majority country alongside India and were given East Pakistan (today Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (today Pakistan).
In order to make the newly established countries more religiously homogeneous (Muslims do not seem to get along with non-Muslims), more than five million Hindus and Sikhs moved south from Pakistan to India leaving their homeland over 96% Muslim, and millions of Muslims moved the other way, although a large number remained behind and still comprise over 15% of the Indian population.
A cause that people care about?
DO THE nations of the world actually care about the welfare of the Gazans or are the Gazans mere pawns being used to harm Israel? Gaza is unquestionably a mess. After Israel pulled out in 2005, Hamas took control and spent the massive foreign donations digging tunnels and accruing weapons, and now the full-scale war they started has left the coastal enclave devastated. It would make sense for the world to support, even encourage, the suffering Gazans to leave, a desire of many people in war zones.
A poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) just before the Simchat Torah massacre of October 7, 2023, found that nearly a third of Gazans were interested in emigrating – and for those between 18-29, it approached half, with the overwhelming motivations being economic and educational. One can assume that due to the war, those numbers are even higher. Similarly, according to a January 15 article in this newspaper, over three-quarters of Israelis favor voluntary emigration of Gazans.
The global community welcomed the Ukrainian and Afghan refugees without any hint that they should stay and watch their countries burn. Why is choosing to flee a combat zone or an economically challenged region deemed logical and acceptable for all except the Gazans? Politicians from around the world complain about the supposed civilian death toll in Gaza, yet one concrete step available to them is to provide them with a safe haven. Yet when Israel suggested voluntary Gazan emigration, the EU and UK slammed it.
To complain about the Gazan suffering and to also bar them from leaving is the height of hypocrisy. Nobody, not the neighboring Arab states, not the wealthy Gulf sheikhdoms, not the enlightened West, not even the litigious South Africa are offering refuge to Gazans. And not only are they not offering refuge, they are insisting that they stay put and be barred from leaving.
Prior to the current war, emigrating Gazans left via Egypt. At present, neither Israel (for obvious reasons) nor Egypt permits them to transit. However, I would like to believe that if the world showed real willingness to take in Gazans, Israel would work with the international community to facilitate their exit. Only America has started toying with the idea recently.
Voluntary relocation is a recognized right. The migration of Gazans should not only be allowed, but should be encouraged. Many Israelis and Gazans are in favor. The UN, foreign countries, and all those claiming to be concerned for the welfare of the Gazans should give them no less consideration than they do to fleeing Syrians, Afghanis, Ukrainians, and Sudanese.
There is no moral or legal justification to deny Gazans the right and ability to flee what has now become an inhospitable locale. And yet the Biden administration and other Western leaders have been preventing Gazan emigration. Their freedom of movement should be respected, and they should be given a chance to build new lives in another land – and thereby also contribute to stability in the Middle East.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-830134
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What's Next After ICC Issues Warrants For Israeli And Hamas Leaders?
November 21, 2024
Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former Defence chief and a Hamas leader for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, Reuters reports.
The move comes after the ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced on 20 May that he was seeking arrest warrants for alleged crimes connected to the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas and the Israeli military response in Gaza.
Here is a look at what could happen next, and how the ICC Prosecutor’s move might affect diplomatic relations and other court cases focused on Gaza.
Will Netanyahu and the Hamas leader be arrested?
All 124 member states of the ICC are obliged by the Court’s founding statute to arrest and hand over any individual subject to an ICC arrest warrant if they set foot on their territory.
But the Court has no means of enforcing such an arrest. It has no police force, so the arrest of suspects must be carried out by a member state or a cooperative state.
Sanctions for not arresting someone despite a warrant are little more than a diplomatic slap on the wrist, such as the referral of a country to the ICC’s governing body made up of member states and ultimately to the UN Security Council.
ICC members include all European Union countries, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Brazil and Australia. In the Middle East region, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan are ICC members. Israel is not a member state, nor is the United States.
The Court bases its jurisdiction over Israeli officials on the fact that the Palestinian Territories were admitted as a member state in 2015. The Court can prosecute alleged atrocity crimes committed by nationals of member states and crimes committed by anyone, regardless of their nationality, on the territory of member states.
Can an ICC investigation or warrant be paused?
The Court’s rules allow for the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that would pause or defer an investigation or a prosecution for a year, with the possibility of renewing that annually.
After a warrant is issued, the country involved or a person named in an arrest warrant can also issue a challenge to the jurisdiction of the Court or the admissibility of the case.
A case can be deemed inadmissible at the ICC when it is already being investigated or prosecuted by a state with jurisdiction over the crimes alleged.
But the Court has made it clear in the past that this exemption could only apply when a state is investigating or prosecuting the same people for substantially the same alleged crimes. An investigation into corruption charges, for instance, would not meet that “same person, same conduct” rule.
If there is a request to delay the investigation, the Prosecutor will pause the case and review if the state which requested the deferral is, indeed, carrying out a genuine investigation.
If the Prosecutor deems the national investigations are insufficient, he can apply for judges to reopen the investigation.
Can Netanyahu and other accused still travel?
Yes they can. The issuance of an ICC arrest warrant is not a formal travel ban. However, they do risk arrest if they travel to an ICC signatory state, which may influence indictees’ decision-making.
There are no restrictions on political leaders, lawmakers or diplomats from meeting individuals with an ICC arrest warrant against them. Politically, however, public perceptions of this may be bad.
Will this application for warrants influence other cases?
Not directly, but perhaps indirectly.
The ICC application is a separate matter from, for example, court cases demanding an arms embargo against Israel or South Africa’s case at the UN’s top Court, the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of violating the Genocide Convention in Gaza.
However, a decision by ICC judges that there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, it could strengthen South Africa’s ICJ case, as that Court also looks at other courts’ determinations.
The decision to issue a warrant can also bolster legal challenges demanding an arms embargo elsewhere, as numerous states have provisions against selling arms to states which might use them in ways that violate international humanitarian law.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241121-whats-next-after-icc-issues-warrants-for-israeli-and-hamas-leaders/
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Realism And The Invasion Of Gaza: Critiquing Israel’s Zionist Agenda
by Syeda Fatima Shuja
November 21, 2024
Realism is a prominent school of thought in international relations and often justifies state actions based on national interests, power dynamics and security. It prioritises the preservation of the state’s autonomy and survival, even at the expense of ethical considerations. However, realism fails to address the moral implications of state actions adequately, particularly when they result in human suffering and violations of international law.
“States,” said Kenneth Waltz in 1979, “are the principal actors in international politics, and their primary concern is survival. The structure of the international system compels states to act in ways that maximise their security.”
In the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict, realism’s reliance on power and security has often masked the underlying injustices and deprivations faced by the Palestinians. It has perpetuated a binary understanding of the conflict, overlooking the complexities of historical grievances, political motivations and the legitimate Palestinian struggle for self-determination.
Israel’s latest invasion and occupation of the Gaza Strip, a densely populated territory now under complete Israeli control, is a stark example of how realist thinking can fail to address fundamental moral concerns. The ongoing blockade, military operations and restrictions on movement have caused immense human suffering, yet these actions are often justified by the need to ensure Israel’s security. This approach ignores the long-term consequences of the occupation, including the erosion of trust, the perpetuation of violence and the hindering of peace negotiations. Not for nothing has it been called a “plausible genocide” by the International Court of Justice.
The justification used by Israel for its capture of the Gaza Strip is rooted in a combination of historical narratives, security concerns and political calculations. The claim that Gaza is a strategic buffer zone for Israel is often used to justify the occupation, arguing that the territory’s control is vital for Israel’s security. This narrative, however, is highly contested, with critics arguing that it overlooks the disproportionate use of force against Palestinian civilians and the role of the “unlawful” (as per the ICJ) occupation itself in fuelling conflict.
For Israel, the war in Gaza is framed as a war of self-defence against the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, but, in reality, it amounts to a genocide against the Palestinians. The occupation of the Gaza Strip can be seen as a strategic move, aiming to gain an advantageous position in future negotiations. Moreover, Israel is interested in the natural gas fields off the coast of Gaza. The Zionist state also wants to eliminate the possibility of serious resistance from Gaza when extremist Jews seek to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and build a temple in its place.
Although the ongoing air strikes, blockade of humanitarian aid and essential goods and services, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure including hospitals, schools and homes have led to a staggering number of civilian casualties, there has been little or no adequate action by the international community to stop the carnage. At least 44,000 Palestinians have been killed, mainly women and children, while 104,000 have been wounded. The sheer scale of the violence, along with the targeting of civilians, has drawn accusations of disproportionate force and collective punishment.
Thousands of children have been killed or severely wounded in their homes and schools, leaving families in shock. Women’s rights and safety have also been undermined as they bear the burden of displacement, loss of loved ones and injury. Rapes by soldiers have been reported. Whole communities and generations have been affected, losing their homes, futures and hopes.
The ongoing genocide in Gaza raises serious questions about Israel’s treatment of civilians. This is not self-defence as outlined by the realist perspective, as the state is not focusing on addressing the threat posed by Hamas, which it regards as a terrorist organisation. That’s just an excuse. Ethnic cleansing of the enclave is the objective, either through killing or displacement. What’s more, an occupation state — Israel in this case — has no legal right to claim “self-defence” against the legitimate resistance of the people living under its military occupation.
The occupation state has ignored the repeated calls by the international community to respect international law and protect civilians. This highlights the need for reform of the United Nations, where Israel has been protected by the US veto and no means of enforcing resolutions are available. This emboldens Israel and allows it to act with total impunity. The effects are starting to be felt badly across the whole region.
While there has been much talk about the political aspects of “the day after” the war, little thought has apparently been given to the undoubted serious physical and mental health issues affecting the Palestinians in Gaza. Children are traumatised, as are their parents. Who is going to help them?
In the middle of all of this, even as Western governments struggle with poverty and declining public services in their own countries, they continue to give billions of dollars in aid to Israel as well as preferential trading, research and arms agreements.
Realism fails to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza because it focuses solely on power dynamics and security concerns, ignoring the human suffering and rights violations. This narrow perspective perpetuates the cycle of violence without tackling the underlying cause: the decades-old occupation. A just approach based on international law and human rights is needed to end the conflict.
“The Israeli occupation of Palestine is an affront to human rights, an act of aggression, and a violation of international law,” said Noam Chomsky. How right he was.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241121-realism-and-the-invasion-of-gaza-critiquing-israels-zionist-agenda/
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Israeli Prepares To Annex The Occupied West Bank And Impose A Fait Accompli On The Palestinians
By Aziz Mustafa
November 21, 2024
s soon as it was known that Donald Trump will be back in the White House in January, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that 2025 would be the year to impose the occupation state’s sovereignty over “Judea and Samaria”, known to the rest of the world as the West Bank. Naftali Bennett made a similar announcement in 2016, when Trump was a US presidential candidate for the first time. The Palestinian territory, said Bennett, should be part of the occupation state.
Any Israeli attempt to annex the West Bank projects a worrying picture of the consequences. The Israelis themselves are monitoring this, but it is not acknowledged by the right-wing government, because even partial annexation could lead to some negative responses that would jeopardise the occupation state’s position. While the Jewish settlers and their leaders who support annexation claim that it can be implemented gradually and thus be revealed as a fait accompli, with reduced negative consequences, research suggests that this is a delusion.
The gradual annexation of so-called Area C of the West Bank (delineated by the Oslo Accords and controlled fully by Israel), or even part of it, is expected to lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and thus the end of its security coordination with the occupation state, and the occupation army will have to control the occupied Palestinian territory. In such a situation, Israel will be forced to fund a military-run regime and be responsible for the lives of 2.8 million Palestinians. The cost of such a move is estimated at $14.5 billion annually, including expenses for health services, education and national insurance for Palestinians.
Moreover, the annexation of the West Bank could damage the Israeli economy due to a predicted decline in foreign investment and the imposition of international sanctions. Security will also be affected, as the occupation army will be required to double its presence on the ground, hindering its readiness for war on other fronts. Vital security cooperation under the peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt will be hit, with the potential for Jordan to become dangerously unstable within the international arena, and Israel could find itself in a serious diplomatic crisis.
Even if the incoming Trump administration supports the annexation move, even tacitly, the reaction of Europe and the Arab world is expected to be harsh. It is likely to include economic and diplomatic sanctions, and Israel’s international legitimacy, such as it is, will be damaged severely.
The main fear, though, is that annexation will lead to a point of no return, where the occupation state will be forced to choose between two impossible options: a binational state in which it will lose its Jewish majority, or an apartheid regime in which millions of Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, without full civil rights. Israel has already been found to have passed the threshold as an apartheid state by B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Coinciding with Israeli preparations to annex the West Bank, the government’s attitude towards Palestinian construction, especially in Area C, means implementing a demographic and population revolution in favour of the Jewish immigrant settlers at the expense of the indigenous Palestinians.
There were 2,868 new Palestinian buildings built in Area C from June 2023 to May 2024, less than half of the number built in the corresponding periods in previous years since 2018. The monthly average in 2023 was 260 new Palestinian buildings, compared with an average of 608 buildings per month in previous years from 2018 onwards. This is a 57 per cent decrease. Meanwhile, there has been very intense activity by the occupation army, prompting many Palestinians to stay in their homes and postpone their housing plans.
The operations of the army-run Civil Administration in the West Bank; the appointment of far-right extremist Smotrich as Finance Minister and as an additional minister in the Defence Ministry; and the establishment of the Settlement Directorate have all contributed to imposing more control over Palestinian land in the West Bank. This began with building a strategy for work and determining the location for Palestinian construction, and has been extended to a legal advisory system to deal with petitions, the confiscation of engineering equipment and the demolition of “unlicensed” structures that deter Palestinian residents from trying to extend their homes or build new properties.
A major factor in the decline in Palestinian construction has been the decisive move by the Ministry of Settlements and National Missions, headed by Orit Strook, to fund land coordinators in all settlement councils. Their job is to patrol in a vehicle and use drones to detect and report any Palestinian construction. The result has been the confiscation of more than 440 tractors, small trucks and engineering tools used by Palestinian contractors, leaving them without tools for lengthy periods, which is costly and forces them to think twice before their next construction project.
Unlike the past, the procedure is short and sharp. The heads of Palestinian villages know that anything being built has a low chance of survival and faces rapid demolition. The occupation authorities have destroyed 901 Palestinian buildings in Area C this year alone, and declared 5,978 acres to be state land. This is equivalent to half of the entire area that was declared as state land since the 1993 Oslo Accords.
With 19 per cent of Palestinian new-build sites destroyed in 2021, 27 per cent in the following year, 2022, and 22 per cent in 2023, a shocking increase has been recorded this year, with 68 per cent of new Palestinian buildings destroyed. All of this is in preparation for the annexation of the West Bank as soon as Donald Trump takes office in January. With many supporters of Israel’s illegal settlements nominated for major positions in his administration, the incoming US president may be unable to stop the annexation plan, even if, as Republican Party sources claim, he opposes it.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241121-israeli-prepares-to-annex-the-occupied-west-bank-and-impose-a-fait-accompli-on-the-palestinians/
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Hezbollah Causing The Destruction Of Itself And Lebanon
Khaled Abou Zahr
November 21, 2024
It is undeniable that Hezbollah is being hit and destroyed like never before. It hit Israel with extreme violence at the beginning of the Gaza war to try and extract gains. This message of violence has been answered by Israel in multiples and it is now inflicting a total reckoning on Hezbollah. This has also come at the price of the destruction of Lebanon and Lebanese lives.
Hezbollah, through its actions, has brought chaos to Lebanon, just like in 2006. Yet, this time, while Israel refuses any mediation (and why would Tel Aviv accept it?), opposition groups in Lebanon have become much more vocal than in the past. They are now clearly and openly accusing Hezbollah of being responsible for this destruction. It has, through another reckless and unilateral decision of war, brought even more despair to Lebanon.
It is clear now that Hezbollah, despite its declarations, is unable to cope with Israel’s superior capabilities. The question of the timing of the exploding pager operation —which, we must remember, even injured the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon — has now been answered. Yet, the main question is what Hezbollah will do in the face of this mounting external and internal pressure. The answer is the same as in the past: violence against the Lebanese.
Whenever Hezbollah or the Syrian regime — its predecessor as occupier of Lebanon — were pressured externally, they chose to assassinate Lebanese. We are now back to the UN Security Council Resolution 1559 scenario of extreme pressure, which led to the waves of assassinations we all remember. And so, because it is weakened and unable to match Israel militarily, Hezbollah will go after the Lebanese voices of freedom.
On top of the horrors of death of the current war due to this group’s unilateral decision, it will also add the death of its critics and opponents. The momentum for these actions has already been set in the same way as in the past. A clear indicator is an increase in the number of accusations of treason against journalists and truly free voices, mainly through social media for now.
Once again, lists are circulating. While in the past they were spread via rumors and taxi drivers, now these lists circulate openly on social media and WhatsApp. This season of threats has even added video clips of the filthiest kind, created by artificial intelligence, to dehumanize its critics. It is the signature of this group and a sign of its level of despair.
The pressure of potential defeat has not only contributed to the destruction of Hezbollah’s infrastructure, but also its image of might and strength. Despite the destruction the Lebanese are enduring, they are still seeing hope and a potential end to this never-ending cycle of violence. They are now clearly articulating the way out, which is by openly requesting for Hezbollah to surrender its weapons to the Lebanese Armed Forces. In response, the group is accusing the Lebanese opposition of seeking to use the Israelis to strengthen their position against it.
This increase in blaming Hezbollah for the situation and the growing defiance, along with the demand to an end of its special status, is something the armed militia will look to quell with brutal force. It will look to do so before the end of the war, despite what its internet influencers are stating. Hezbollah knows, just like the Syrian regime did in the past, that its violence against the Lebanese will kill two birds with one stone. The first is to reestablish deterrence, not toward Tel Aviv but the voices of freedom in Lebanon, and the second is to add pressure to the international mediation efforts to stop the war.
Unsurprisingly, these are the methods of an occupying force. And we also need to remind people that, in October 2023, the only occupying force was Hezbollah. I am indeed rehashing myself when I state that Israel was no longer occupying Lebanon following its unilateral withdrawal in 2000. There was hence no reason for Lebanon’s involvement.
Everyone is heartbroken and despairing when seeing the destruction taking place today. Yet, the Lebanese pundits that do not condemn, first and foremost, the action that led to this expected Israeli reaction are and will always be accomplices in the violence that Hezbollah inflicted yesterday and will inflict tomorrow and every day on the free Lebanese. They are accomplices in the violence against journalists we have already witnessed, which is nothing but a trial balloon for what is to come. We are now in Hezbollah’s intimidation phase. Despite the war, it must be denounced and vehemently opposed to stop the next phase of possible assassinations.
Moreover, if people do not stand up for Lebanon now, they will live under the rubble and foreign domination in this never-ending cycle. We are also noticing a tentative effort by Hezbollah to break the opposition by accusing some of treason and threatening them, while praising others for standing with the refugees from the south. These are futile methods that everyone should be aware of and reject.
Hezbollah is now demonizing its critics in the worst possible way. The same methodology was used before assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Gebran Tueni, Samir Kassir, George Hawi, Pierre Gemayel, Walid Eido, Antoine Ghanem, Francois Al-Hajj, Mohammed Chatah and Lokman Slim. The same volatile situation and pressure on Hezbollah exist today as during the waves of assassination of the past.
Hezbollah has caused, just like in 2006 and for absolutely no reason, the destruction of Lebanon. As it faces a close to existential threat of annihilation and is unable to answer the Israelis, it will fight the Lebanese who are honorable and courageous enough to demand the surrender of its military arsenal. This time, the voices of freedom need to win.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2580213
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/middle-east-press/iran-israel-palestinians-us-gaza-icc/d/133792
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