Middle East Press On: SAHA Expo 2026, Turkey, Libya, Greece, Netanyahu, Palestinians In Israeli Custody, Israeli Media, Iran War, Gaza Genocide, New Age Islam's Selection, 13 May 2026
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
13 May 2026
SAHA Expo 2026: Showcase of Türkiye’s deterrent power
Libya in the middle: Can Greece’s moves rival Türkiye’s years-long strategy?
Third Intifada? Why Netanyahu Just Backed Down From Cancelling Oslo
‘Permission to Rape’ – NYT Details Sexual Violence against Palestinians in Israeli Custody
‘It Was About Missiles All Along’: Israeli Media Recasts the Goals of the Iran War
The Gaza Genocide: When the End Comes, Who Will Be Sorry for Israel?
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SAHA Expo 2026: Showcase of Türkiye’s deterrent power
BY MUHITTIN ATAMAN
MAY 13, 2026
The SAHA Expo 2026 International Defense, Aviation and Space Exhibition, a major platform for Türkiye’s growing defense sector, was held in Istanbul last week. Almost all high-level Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and almost all members of the Cabinet, attended the exhibition. Türkiye hosted high-level delegations, namely ministerial or deputy ministerial levels, from 55 different countries.
The exhibition, the first of which was held in 2018, brought together more than 1,700 companies from 120 different countries. Throughout the week, over 150,000 visitors attended SAHA Expo 2026, which lasted for six days. More than 30,000 defense industry professionals and purchasing representatives from all over the world attended the event. Approximately 30,000 B2B meetings were held between companies.
Türkiye hosted one of the world’s largest defense and aerospace exhibitions, during which Turkish defense industry manufacturers showcased their new-generation, domestically developed and produced weapons systems. Furthermore, international export agreements worth approximately $8 billion (TL 363.20 billion) were signed between Turkish companies and their international counterparts.
More than 200 new products were introduced at the exhibition. Turkish defense companies unveiled newly developed systems at the exhibition, especially emphasizing low-cost autonomous weapon platforms, AI-supported weapons and enhanced naval capabilities. For example, Roketsan, one of the leading firms of the Turkish defense industry, introduced the Cirit anti-drone missile and the Cida long-range anti-tank missile system.
Similarly, Aselsan, the leading and largest Turkish company in the Turkish defense industry, introduced several new naval warfare platforms. Among its new products, two of them stood out: Kılıç, Türkiye’s first autonomous kamikaze underwater vehicle, and Tufan, a new kamikaze unmanned surface vessel capable of carrying a warhead comparable to a heavy torpedo.
The collapse of the global order, the return of power politics to international relations and the growing number of regional wars are the main drivers behind this significant change. This is a critical development for Ankara, considering the increasing regional conflicts and rising regional and global security threats. Türkiye closely monitors all developments in its region and around the world and takes all necessary measures.
Implications of defense industry
The exhibition demonstrated the Turkish defense industry’s motivation and capabilities at the international level and proved that Türkiye is one of the world’s leading players in the sector. Türkiye is now a country that is closely followed by its rivals and sets trends in the defense industry. The increasingly unstable security environment is forcing all countries, including Türkiye, to invest more in the defense industry.
There are several significant implications of these developments in the sector.
Following its revolutionary achievements in the defense industry, Türkiye is on the verge of becoming a self-sufficient state in this field. Ankara has dramatically reduced its dependence on foreign defense products. Türkiye is now capable of producing the weapon systems needed by its land, naval and air forces. Thus, Türkiye will be freed from technological dependence, which is a prerequisite for self-reliance and survival.
The defense industry is the country’s leading sector in research and development, which will help sustain its momentum in the future. Moreover, the defense industry has become a rising star of innovation in the Turkish economy. At present, more than 100,000 qualified professionals work in the sector’s research and development activities. Türkiye has invested billions of dollars to meet its defense industry needs and to become a major exporter in the sector.
Türkiye demonstrated that it is ready to establish trade partnerships in the defense industry and transfer necessary technology to friendly countries. Following its significant achievements in the defense industry, Türkiye can now easily establish defense cooperation with various groups of states.
Therefore, the defense industry has become a new star of Turkish exports. Turkish exports in the defense and aerospace sectors exceeded $2.8 billion in the first four months of this year. Compared with the same period last year, this represents a 28% increase. Similarly, annual Turkish exports in the defense and aerospace sectors exceeded $10 billion, marking an increase of about 48%. Just 20 years ago, this figure was approximately $250 million.
Finally, Türkiye currently exports more than 230 different defense products to 185 countries. Türkiye is determined to become one of the top 10 biggest defense exporters. Furthermore, this development will not be limited to the defense industry. It will also improve the country’s production in industry, technology, science and telecommunications.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/columns/saha-expo-2026-showcase-of-turkiyes-deterrent-power
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Libya in the middle: Can Greece’s moves rival Türkiye’s years-long strategy?
BY GÖKTUĞ ÇALIŞKAN
MAY 13, 2026
On May 6, Istanbul hosted Libya’s Deputy Defense Minister Abdulsalam Al-Zoubi as part of SAHA Expo 2026, one of the region’s largest defense exhibitions. His presence in Istanbul was not a courtesy visit. It came just days after eastern and western Libyan military personnel completed a joint phase of EFES-2026 on Turkish soil, the second time rival Libyan factions had trained together under Ankara’s coordination in a short span of time. Taken together, these are not isolated moments.
What makes the timing critical is the backdrop. Only days before al-Zoubi’s appearance in Istanbul, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis was in Tripoli, meeting Government of National Unity (GNU) officials and pushing for the activation of a joint technical committee on maritime delimitation. Athens called it a step toward “new agreements.” The core of the message, though, was less about new beginnings and more about undoing something old, specifically, the 2019 Türkiye-Libya maritime memorandum that Greece has spent years calling legally invalid.
The two capitals have indeed two very different approaches. This competition is no longer mainly about weapons, oil contracts or military bases. It is about legal architecture, diplomatic presence and who gets to influence the terms of Libya’s slow and uncertain reintegration into the regional order.
Paperwork or personnel
Athens has been methodical, as Gerapetritis’ visit to Tripoli consisted of several steps. The visit came with a package of joint technical committee for maritime delimitation, coast guard training and a broader signal that Athens wants to rebuild institutional ties with the GNU.
The proposal promises training for coast guard and military officers focused on migration control and search-and-rescue operations, support for the repair of ships and patrol vessels and closer cooperation with European institutions on border management. The offer tells you a great deal about who it is really designed to serve.
In other words, Athens is saying that if Libyan actors align more closely with Greece on maritime issues, they will also be better positioned within the networks that shape the EU’s migration policy and funding. Yet these offers are tightly framed by what Europe wants Libya to stop, not by what Libya itself is trying to build.
Athens did not stop there. Shortly before, Greece sent an official letter to the United Nations reiterating its position that the 2019 agreement is geographically inconsistent due to the location of Greek islands between the two countries and that this situation makes a common maritime border legally impossible.
Still, a legal record is one thing. Field presence is another. While Greece was proposing its commission in Tripoli, Libyan military personnel from both Benghazi and Tripoli were already in Izmir and Istanbul, transported on Turkish Air Force aircraft, for a joint exercise that, by its very nature, required both sides to accept Ankara as a trusted coordinator. This relationship is not the result of a newly established technical committee. It is the result of years of accumulated experience that has been tested under pressure.
The limitations of a strategy based on paperwork are, of course, not merely hypothetical. Internal divisions in Libya have not yet healed, and any external actor that relies primarily on legal arguments and official proposals will find that these tools quickly lose their effectiveness when the political landscape shifts. Even if Greece puts forward a legally sophisticated argument, this approach on paper rarely translates into leverage on the ground.
Both sides at the table
For years, Türkiye’s Libya policy was practically synonymous with Tripoli. The relationship with the GNU was deep, institutionalized and politically loaded, built during a civil conflict in which Ankara made consequential choices. That depth was real, but a relationship anchored entirely to one side of a divided country has obvious ceilings.
What has changed recently is the widening of Ankara’s contacts. Turkish naval vessels docked in Benghazi. Defense Minister Güler held direct talks with Haftar‘s deputy commander, Saddam Haftar, in Ankara. And now EFES-2026 has brought soldiers from both sides of Libya’s fault line to the same drill for the second time.
In this year’s exercise, 331 personnel from eastern Libya and 177 from the west participated in the joint exercise EFES-2026, which included assets of the Libyan Navy, such as the fast attack craft Şafak.
The logic is to put soldiers from opposing camps through the same drills, let them share a mess hall and a planning room and they go home with something no commission proposal can manufacture.
Coordinating rival military factions under a joint exercise requires trust from both parties, logistical investment and a willingness to absorb the political risk if it goes wrong. Managing to do it twice, in a short period, says something about where Ankara actually stands in Libya’s security landscape. It is not simply the preferred partner of one camp. It is trying and apparently succeeding at being relevant to the whole country.
That is what real leverage looks like, and it is a position Greece has no credible path to replicating soon. For Libyan commanders trying to stitch together a broken security sector, this is less a theory and more a lived experience with units traveling, training and eating together under a partner that speaks to both camps.
Ankara's difference
The asymmetry between the two approaches should be highlighted. Greece’s Libya strategy is essentially defensive in origin. It was built to challenge the 2019 memorandum, limit Türkiye’s maritime footprint in the central Mediterranean and manage migration flows across the central route. The strategy is largely about what Greece does not want to happen, rather than what it wants to build.
Türkiye’s interest in Libya runs in a different direction. Remaining embedded in Libya’s security sector, maintaining operational access to the central Mediterranean and supporting a political process that does not exclude Ankara, which requires a long-term presence, not a one-time diplomatic push. Equipment supply, field training, joint exercises, high-level military dialogue and now engagement with both political blocs is a model that compounds over time.
On the civilian side, Ankara is pairing security cooperation with bricks, roads and hospitals. Turkish contractors have already signed development deals in four eastern cities, Benghazi, Al-Bayda, al-Shahid and Tobruk, covering roads, utilities and public hospitals. With a cumulative project portfolio in Libya exceeding $30 billion, the focus is now shifting toward airports, energy facilities and modular infrastructure. Training programs, meanwhile, are structured to keep command and doctrine in Libyan hands while Turkish teams focus on qualification, joint planning and maintenance support. This is a model that a Libyan official described as one in which Ankara seeks to be inside their security architecture, but not above it.
Competition over Libya has intensified in recent weeks. Athens has been more active than at any point since the 2019 memorandum was signed. The U.N. letter, the Tripoli visit, and the commission proposal reflect Greece’s efforts.
Yet the memorandum remains in effect. Tripoli has shown no genuine interest in distancing itself from it, despite consistent Greek pressure. Libya’s GNU has its own reasons for keeping that relationship stable and a newly formed technical committee does not outweigh them. For a country trying to become whole again, the partner who trains, rebuilds and stays will almost always speak louder than the one who only files objections.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/libya-in-the-middle-can-greeces-moves-rival-turkiyes-years-long-strategy
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Third Intifada? Why Netanyahu Just Backed Down From Canceling Oslo
May 13, 2026
By Robert Inlakesh
Despite his rhetoric about further settlement construction and West Bank annexation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed down on a bill that would formally scrap the Oslo Accords. The reason why exposes the inner workings of Israeli occupation politics.
A member of Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s ‘Jewish Power Party’ recently proposed a bill to the Knesset that would repeal the Oslo Accords- the agreements signed in the 1990s between Tel Aviv and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that created the occupied West Bank and Gaza models of today. The purpose behind the bill would be to formally abandon any recognition of the Palestinian Authority and begin to construct illegal settlements inside of what is known as Area A and Area B on the West Bank.
“The Government of Israel decided on Sunday not to move forward with the bill proposed by Knesset Member Limor Son Har-Melech,” a source cited by The Times of Israel reported, noting that Netanyahu himself personally ordered that the Ministerial Committee for Legislation refuse to back it.
This move has come as a shock to some, who have witnessed the Israelis’ progress towards a de jure annexation of the occupied West Bank. In fact, just last month, Tel Aviv approved a record of 34 new settlements inside the occupied territory.
Why Did Netanyahu Back Down?
The reason cited in the Hebrew-language media, explaining why the Israeli PM decided to rule out the idea of repealing the Oslo Accords for now, is that such a step required coordination with the United States.
Yet, there is another explanation that the Israeli media is not talking about: the repercussions of such an action. There is scarcely any reflection on what major violations of international law will have, because Tel Aviv’s philosophy is to simply scream anti-semitism at retaliatory measures.
While a move of this nature would require an American greenlight, it isn’t exactly difficult to attain it from a Trump administration that has been dragged into a war of aggression against Iran, one that has run contrary to the strategic goals of the United States. Israel’s richest billionaire, Miriam Adelson, along with a who’s who of Zionist billionaires, bankrolled Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign.
Adelson, who is close to the Israeli Premier and owns Israel’s most distributed tabloid newspaper, threw her weight behind President Trump with the quid pro quo that he would enable West Bank annexation. Trump’s first term in office was also bankrolled by Miriam and her since deceased husband Sheldon Adelson, with the quid pro quo being the recognition of occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital City.
Trump simply doesn’t know how to say no to Israel, which is why the refusal of Netanyahu to go through with the move at this time has to be down to certain limitations.
To begin with, the bill was proposed out of the blue, in a sense, and from a Jewish supremacist fanatic settler. Although MK Limor Son Har-Melech may be part of the coalition, she isn’t exactly someone who is pushing well-thought-through legislation. If a move of this nature is going to be taken, it will be more likely led by the PM or someone more significant in the Israeli government, with a carefully calibrated plan behind it.
The lowest stake response to a move of this nature would be a likely European move to punish the Israelis, as European Union member States agree upon the Two State solution consensus, adopted by the vast majority of the international community. Some speculate that sanctions could be triggered. Considering the lackluster responses to Israeli crimes to date, lesser retaliatory measures would be more likely.
Then there comes the main reason why repealing the Oslo Accords comes with significant potential backlash, it has to be put down to the Palestinian popular response. Unlike many would expect, the chances for an immediate mass civil uprising in the West Bank are relatively low. Something that makes the move much more volatile.
Instead, the cancellation of the Oslo Accords would mean that the Israeli government would no longer recognize the configuration of the existing power-managing agreement inside the territory. The Palestinian Authority (PA) works as a subcontractor for the occupation forces, having limited security control in Area A of the territory and only administrative powers in Area B, while 60% of the territory – known as Area C – is under full Israeli occupation.
For the Israelis, this system has enabled the first-ever cost-free belligerent occupation, where the EU and other nations foot the bill that pays for the PA, as they continue to hold onto the majority of the West Bank and constantly inject more settlements. Meanwhile, the majority of the Palestinian population lives in Area A and B, meaning that the PA’s security and intelligence apparatus is responsible for policing them, coordinating with the Israelis when they seek to go after any Palestinian who seeks to resist.
If the Oslo Accords were scrapped, this means that the PA will become obsolete and will face imminent collapse. Israel currently controls the PA’s tax revenue and chooses when to release these funds to their Palestinian subcontractor, but if Oslo is nullified, they will no longer hand over the currency needed for the PA to function.
The Oslo Accords set up the Palestinian Authority as what was supposed to be a precursor to a government for a future State of Palestine, laying the groundwork for a 5 year Israeli withdrawal from the territory. What happened instead is that the Israelis refused to withdraw, accelerated illegal settlement expansion; securing de-facto annexation of Area C. The PA was then forced into a gradual “reform” process, transforming it into a collaborator regime that is led by corrupted officials who are only allowed to remain in power for the purpose of serving Israel’s occupation.
Any collapse of the PA will mean that the Israeli occupation forces will be forced to occupy the major Palestinian cities, which will eventually trigger fierce resistance and require an enormous amount of manpower to handle. The Oslo Accords favored the Israelis and ended the First Intifada, creating a buffer between the majority of the Palestinian population and the Israeli occupying army. If that is done away with, a dangerous reality will set in.
The Palestinian Authority has a security force that numbers up to 70,000 men. Due to family and tribal alliances, there is also an abundance of weapons inside the territory. If the PA collapses, there will be no restraint when it comes to retaliatory measures when certain families are subjected to Tel Aviv’s criminality.
Another enormous threat to the Israelis is the fact that their settlements are placed in and around the Palestinian population, enabling resistance factions to easily reach them and breach the security fences/walls. In the case of Gaza, the surrounding settlements were not quite as easy to reach. In addition to this, there are large contingents of religious extremist settlers who are armed and trained, who already take matters into their own hands, making for a deadly reality.
Although many Israelis despise the PA because they outwardly advocate for a Palestinian State and because they are seen as an entity that has been placed as a roadblock to further Jewish colonization of the occupied West Bank, the Ramallah-based authority is actually protecting them. Without the PA and Oslo, the West Bank front will ignite in an unprecedented way.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/third-intifada-why-netanyahu-just-backed-down-from-canceling-oslo/
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‘Permission to Rape’ – NYT Details Sexual Violence against Palestinians in Israeli Custody
May 12, 2026
Systematic Abuse
In a lengthy opinion investigation published by The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof detailed testimonies from Palestinians recounting widespread sexual violence committed by Israeli soldiers, prison guards, settlers and interrogators.
Kristof, a longtime war correspondent and senior opinion columnist at The New York Times, wrote:
“It’s a simple proposition: Whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemning rape.”
“There is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes,” Kristof wrote, but added that Israeli authorities have built “a security apparatus” in which sexual violence has become, according to a UN report, one of Israel’s “standard operating procedures.”
Accounts from Palestinian Detainees
Kristof said he interviewed 14 Palestinian men and women who described sexual assaults by Israeli security personnel or settlers.
Among them was Palestinian journalist Sami al-Sai, who said he was assaulted by prison guards after his detention in 2024.
“They were all hitting me, and one stepped on my head and neck,” al-Sai told The New York Times.
He said guards stripped him and assaulted him with objects while laughing.
“It was extremely painful,” he said. “I was praying for death.”
Kristof also described the testimony of a Palestinian farmer who was repeatedly assaults with a metal baton after he sought to file a complaint against prison guards.
“Now you have even more to put in your complaint,” one guard told him.
The farmer later withdrew permission to publish his name after, he said, Shin Bet officials warned him not to speak publicly.
Women, Children and Gaza Prisoners
The New York Times report also included the testimony of a Palestinian woman arrested after October 2023, who said Israeli soldiers threatened to rape her and members of her family.
She told Kristof she was repeatedly stripped, beaten and groped by guards.
“They had their hands all over my body,” she said.
A Gaza journalist similarly described abuse in detention, telling The New York Times: “No one escaped sexual assaults.”
Kristof also interviewed Palestinian boys who said rape threats were routine during detention.
One 15-year-old detainee recalled guards saying: “Do this or we’ll put this stick up your butt.”
Human Rights Findings
Kristof cited reports by the United Nations, B’Tselem, Save the Children, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
A Euro-Med report described Israeli sexual violence against Palestinians as “systematic” and part of an “organized state policy.”
B’Tselem documented what it called “a grave pattern of sexual violence,” while Save the Children reported that more than half of surveyed Palestinian children detained by Israel said they witnessed or experienced sexual violence.
Israel’s prison service rejected the allegations.
According to The New York Times, a prison service spokesperson said it “categorically rejects the allegations” and claimed complaints are examined by relevant authorities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced accusations of sexual violence by Israeli forces as “baseless accusations.”
‘Giving Permission to Rape’
Kristof argued that impunity has enabled the abuse to continue.
He referenced the 2024 case of a Palestinian prisoner from Gaza who was reportedly hospitalized with severe rectal and internal injuries after alleged abuse by Israeli reservists. Although several soldiers were initially detained, the charges were later dropped.
Netanyahu celebrated the dismissal of the case as the end of a “blood libel.”
Sari Bashi, executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, told The New York Times:
“Rampant sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners is a thing; it’s been normalized.”
She added: “I don’t see evidence that it has been ordered. But there’s persistent evidence that the authorities know it’s happening and are not stopping it.”
After the charges against the reservists were dropped, Bashi said:
“I would say that dropping the charges — that’s giving permission to rape.”
Kristof concluded that because the United States continues to financially and militarily support Israel, Washington bears responsibility for addressing the allegations.
“Yet our American tax dollars subsidize the Israeli security establishment,” he wrote, “so this is sexual violence in which the United States is complicit.”
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/permission-to-rape-nyt-details-sexual-violence-against-palestinians-in-israeli-custody/
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‘It Was About Missiles All Along’: Israeli Media Recasts the Goals of the Iran War
May 12, 2026
Ballistic Missiles
In an analysis published by The Jerusalem Post, military and intelligence correspondent Yonah Jeremy Bob argued that Iran’s ballistic missile program — rather than its nuclear infrastructure — was the central reason behind Israel’s war on Iran.
The report said Israeli and American political leaders publicly framed the conflict around “imminent threats” tied to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but claimed the reality inside Israeli military planning was more nuanced.
According to the analysis, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir warned senior US military officials that Iran’s missile production was accelerating too quickly to delay military action.
“The Post has learned that the IDF chief said that putting off attacking would heavily harm the war effort later,” the report stated.
Iran Rebuilding Missile Capacity
The analysis claimed Iran had rebuilt roughly half of the ballistic missiles and launchers it lost following the June 2025 war.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Iran was producing “an additional 200-300 ballistic missiles per month.”
The report said Israeli officials estimated Iran already possessed around 2,500 long-range missiles capable of striking Israel before the latest war began.
Zamir reportedly warned that waiting six more months could have allowed Iran to reach “around 4,000 missiles,” while another year could have pushed the arsenal “over 6,000 missiles.”
The analysis argued that such numbers could potentially overwhelm Israel’s air defenses and rapidly exhaust interceptor supplies.
Not about Nuclear Program
The report argued that Israel’s campaign was “not primarily about the nuclear issue.”
“The IDF barely attacked any nuclear sites,” the analysis stated, adding that many facilities “have still not been rebuilt after they were destroyed in June 2025.”
“Nor was it regime change,” the report said, arguing Israeli officials did not believe airstrikes alone could topple the Iranian government.
Instead, the article alleged that Israel’s goal was to reduce Iran’s existing missile arsenal and delay future missile production “by several years.”
Dispute over Damage Assessment
The analysis also challenged recent US intelligence leaks suggesting Iran retained most of its missile capability.
A Washington Post report citing CIA officials claimed only around 30% of Iran’s missiles and 25% of its launchers were destroyed during the war.
But The Jerusalem Post said Israeli intelligence estimates were far higher, with some assessments claiming between 60% and 75% of missile launchers were destroyed.
The article argued part of the confusion stemmed from differing definitions of “ballistic missiles.”
According to the report, many US estimates may include Iran’s large stockpile of short-range missiles targeting Gulf states, while Israel’s assessments focus specifically on long-range missiles capable of reaching Israeli territory.
Underground Sites
The analysis acknowledged that Iran surprised both Israel and the United States with the speed at which it restored underground missile infrastructure after Israeli bombardment.
“This issue is especially dynamic as Iran surprised both Israel and the US with the speed at which they were able to excavate and uncover underground missile sites,” the report stated.
The article also raised concerns about possible Chinese assistance in rebuilding Iran’s missile capabilities.
While Chinese officials reportedly denied involvement in illegal weapons transfers, the report said Beijing did not appear to object to supplying Iran with “dual-use fuel” that could support missile production.
Future Wars
The analysis concluded that future Israeli military action against Iran is now more likely to revolve around conventional missile threats rather than nuclear facilities.
“In fact, if Israel needs to strike again in future years, it is more likely to need to be because of the conventional ballistic missile threat than the nuclear threat,” the article stated.
According to the report, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure remains heavily damaged and under close surveillance by both Israel and the United States.
But the missile issue, the analysis warned, remains largely absent from ongoing US-Iran negotiations.
“Absent an understanding and limit of some kind,” the report concluded, “in two or three years, Israel might need to strike again.”
Reframing a Failed War
The US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28 with the declared objective of dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities, degrading its missile arsenal and, ultimately, weakening or toppling the Iranian government.
However, Iran’s response — which included sustained missile attacks against Israel and strikes targeting US and Israeli military and strategic assets across the region — disrupted the assumptions underpinning the military campaign.
The scale and intensity of the Iranian retaliation appeared to force both Washington and Tel Aviv to gradually shift their public discourse regarding the purpose of the war itself.
In that context, the Jerusalem Post analysis appears to reflect an attempt to retrospectively redefine Israeli objectives and portray the military campaign as strategically successful despite the absence of decisive political or military gains.
Many analysts, including voices within mainstream Western policy circles, now argue that the war may ultimately strengthen Iran’s regional position rather than weaken it.
Instead of isolating Tehran, the confrontation demonstrated Iran’s ability to sustain military pressure across multiple fronts while exposing vulnerabilities in Israeli and American planning.
Several analysts also argue the conflict is likely to push Gulf states toward closer relations with Iran as regional governments increasingly prioritize stability and de-escalation over alignment with Israeli military escalation.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/it-was-about-missiles-all-along-israeli-media-recasts-the-goals-of-the-iran-war/
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The Gaza Genocide: When the End Comes, Who Will Be Sorry for Israel?
May 12, 2026
By Jeremy Salt
A Jewish settler wearing the uniform of an occupying army crouches on a hill outside the occupied West Bank village of Mughhayir and sprays bullets at a school.
Aws al-Nasaan, 14, and Jihad Abu Naim, 30, a construction worker nearby, are shot dead. Teachers and students take cover in their classrooms. Some students bravely rush outside to take their mortally wounded classmate away.
Other occupation forces arrive. They do nothing to restrain the gunman but fire tear gas into students and villagers gathering outside the school. They follow this up by disrupting the funeral procession and firing tear gas into the mourners.
The murderer is not arrested or charged, but suspended and has his gun taken from him. That is the extent of his punishment and no more will be heard about it. The London ‘Guardian’ refers to the killer not as a murderer or terrorist but as a ”militant.”
Aws’ father, Hamdi, was murdered by a settler in 2019. Such is the fate of untold thousands of Palestinian families. The violence and humiliation heaped on them seems to have no limits, as indicated by the depravity of using dogs to rape Palestinians in an Israeli prison.
Needless to say, dogs don’t naturally sexually assault human beings. They have to be trained. The evidence of this particularly sick crime is abundant but the media is not interested. Israel denies it, so it can’t be true; thus, there is no need to investigate.
In Gaza, rats feed off human feet because Israel has deliberately reproduced the conditions of a medieval plague. It has turned Gaza into a rat breeding ground, where life flourishes for lice and the scabies mite, not human beings. Israel has massacred and maimed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with bullets, missiles, and tank shells, but they can also be killed by denying them everything needed to live.
About 80 percent of Palestinian families are now living in tents. With 90 percent of sanitation and water infrastructure destroyed or damaged, with sewage pooling on the open ground, and with no fuel available for water pumps, sanitation is a critical issue.
There might be one lavatory for hundreds of people and they have to queue to use it. Some tents have makeshift lavatories or portable alternatives provided by aid agencies.
About 150,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers have been forcibly ‘displaced’ into tents and makeshift shelters in southern Gaza.
The UN’s Population Fund (UNFPA) says the lack of menstrual products, clean water, and soap for Gaza’s 700,000 women and girls makes it impossible for them to manage their periods.
Aid blocked by Israel includes sanitary pads. Less than a quarter of the 10 million pads needed every month are not available so women and girls, UNFPA reports, “are using torn clothes, sponges or old rags, often without proper cleaning.” UNFPA is distributing two-month supplies of sanitary pads as well as post-partum kits for new mothers.
With only 12 of 35 hospitals even partly functioning, all are overcrowded. There has been an unprecedented rise in congenital ‘anomalies’, a 140 percent rise in stillbirths, and at the Nasser hospital in Gaza, a 41 percent fall in births, along with maternal deaths.
Physicians for Human Rights says Israel is deliberately intending to prevent Palestinian births, with its attacks on medical facilities, including the December 2023 destruction of 5000 embryos and samples of sperm and eggs at the Basma fertility clinic. These actions are genocidal under the terms of the 1948 convention,
Skin diseases, watery and bloody diarrhea, and chickenpox are spreading among children, while an outbreak of polio in 2024 was the first in more than 25 years.
This is Israel’s ‘year zero,’ the genocide not just of people but of their landscape, their culture, and their history. The records of human life in Gaza over thousands of years are being obliterated.
This tidal wave of zionist anti-humanity is gradually engulfing West Asia without anyone stopping it, and with many supporting it. In the past year, scores of villages in southern Lebanon have been wiped off the map or destroyed to the extent that they are no longer inhabitable.
This is a replay of 1948-9, when the Zionists destroyed hundreds of villages and hamlets across Palestine, with the same intention as now in Gaza and southern Lebanon, which is to create nothing to come back to. The media calls the depopulation by an invading army in Lebanon “evacuation,” when it is again large-scale ethnic cleansing, a sub-unit of genocide.
The US/Israel have (or ‘has’, seeing they operate as a single unit) massacred 3468 people in Iran and wounded 26,500 since launching their attack on February 28, 2026. The dead include 4000 women and more than 1000 children. In Lebanon, 2702 civilians have been killed and 8311 wounded in Israeli attacks.
The UN’s Office for the Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHRA) says that in just three weeks from March 2, 2026, invading Israeli forces killed 1029 people in Lebanon and wounded 2768. One million people were “displaced,” when again the accurate phrase is ‘ethnically cleansed.’
On the occupied West Bank, settlers are licensed to kill, burn, vandalize, and drive out as they wish. Many have been inducted into the army as an untrained but murderous auxiliary force. The head of the occupying forces on the West Bank says matter-of-factly that they are “killing like we haven’t since 1967.”
This state-sanctioned murder of unarmed people is accompanied by the expulsion of thousands from their villages and even their complete abandonment. The settlers are jubilant. They have ‘returned’ to the land in which none of their forebears ever lived.
The Israeli-born scholar Omer Bartov has just published a book on the theme of ‘what went wrong’, when Zionism did not go wrong but was wrong from the start and is working out just as its architects had planned.
Israel’s annihilationist intentions are now proclaimed openly and brazenly by Netanyahu, Ben Gvir, Katz, Smotrich, and many others. They are summed up by Jonathan Pollard, the Jewish American spy who stole enough classified documents to fill the bedroom of a suburban home, and was released in 2015 after 28 years in prison.
He is now seeking election to the Knesset on an open ticket of genocide. “I personally prefer the forcible removal of all current residents of Gaza and the annexation of Gaza and its repopulation by us.”
This is his campaign ticket. Note the similarity between the temporary “current residents” and Arthur Balfour’s “existing non-Jewish communities” in Palestine, as if the time will come when they won’t be “current” or “existing” any longer, which is precisely what Balfour had in mind and what the Zionists have always had in mind.
Israel is the most dangerous state on the planet. This is a swollen colonial settler regime of about 10 million people, insignificant numerically on a global demographic basis, but very significant when its lawless nature and possession of nuclear weapons are taken into account. It has let it be known that the day might come when it is crazy enough to use these weapons, and it would be folly not to take it at its word.
Zionism is a kin ideology to Nazism and should be outlawed for the same reasons. Nazi ideology gave rise to the Nazi regime and its crimes, and Zionist ideology gave rise to a Zionist regime and its crimes. The two are linked by the same inhumane instincts.
Yet, armed and indulged by ‘western’ governments, Israel’s time is finally running out. The favored child of the 1950s and 1960s is now recognized globally as the monster it always was.
Gaza will turn out to be the greatest mistake Israel ever made. It flaunted the crimes it was committing. It boasted about them. It filmed the humiliation of its victims and lied about its massacres. It raped, imprisoned, and tortured as if it wanted the world to know that there was no crime it was not prepared to commit in defense of the Jewish state.
Is there a humane solution to this, a settlement without further wars and mass destruction? At this point, the clear answer has to be ‘no.’ Israel’s choices center not on peace but on conquest and the complete extinguishment of the Palestinian people.
Some will say there must be a peaceful solution, but there are times in life when dialogue and negotiations run out of steam, and nothing is left but to run away or stand up to the bully. Western and Arab governments are running away. Hamas, Hizbullah, Yemen, Iran, and pockets of resistance elsewhere are standing up to the bully.
If there is hope, it lies in the rising opposition to Israel in the US. A young generation is coming into power and will want to shake this parasite from America’s back.
After Gaza, it is no longer fanciful to imagine US arms and economic embargoes against Israel, accompanied by threats of suspension from the UN and complete diplomatic isolation, as the tide gathers momentum. The good days for Israel have gone for good.
Without the steroids of US money and weaponry, Israel will be stuck. No one else is likely to step up as the replacement benefactor for a racist, genocidal state. The choices before it will then be stark, but by this time, it will be too far gone to make the choices it could have made decades earlier. It will realize it has boxed itself into a corner and can’t get out. Who but itself will feel sorry for it?
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-gaza-genocide-when-the-end-comes-who-will-be-sorry-for-israel/
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