[RD] War in Gaza News: Pas de Deux

At least 70 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since the announcement of the ceasefire

Yeah that's what the current administration is holding out hope for... but it not going to be Sunday... that's January 19th. The "ceasefire" will go into effect on Monday, Jan 20th, Trump's first day in office, or maybe Tuesday the 21st, because Trump isn't going to want his inauguration to share headlines with anything else.
 

The BBC is failing to report the various ways in which the UK government has supported Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, Declassified’s new analysis finds.


Our research into the BBC’s written outputs since October 2023 finds the corporation has mainly not reported at all the major ways the UK government has been working with Israel.

It found that the BBC has reported just four times in 15 months that the Royal Air Force (RAF) has been conducting surveillance flights over Gaza.

Only one BBC report on the subject has been written since December 2023, despite the fact that hundreds of such spy missions have been conducted, almost daily, in aid of Israeli intelligence.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) says these flights are solely to aid the rescue of hostages held by Hamas. Only one BBC online report mentions the UK may be providing targeting information to Israel or flying weapons to the country.

None of the articles otherwise raise concerns about the UK being willing to collaborate militarily with Israel at a time it is devastating Gaza.


What the BBC will NOT tell you about Israel, Keir Starmer and Gaza

Omitting the news

When Israel’s chief of staff, General Herzi Halevi, was allowed to attend a British military meeting in London last November, this also went unreported by the BBC in its written outputs.

Halevi’s visit was highly controversial, given he has led Israeli military operations throughout its destruction of Gaza. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant are wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.


Our research also finds that the BBC has never reported that the British military has been training Israeli armed forces personnel in the UK during the Gaza war.

Last February, the MoD admitted in parliament there were six Israeli military officers posted in the UK. The Labour government has refused to provide further details.

In June last year, the New York Times reported that a British intelligence collection team had been present in Israel “throughout the war”, ostensibly assisting Israeli intelligence in collecting information related to the hostages.

This information has not been reported by the BBC.

Neither has the key background to Britain’s military support to Israel. This derives from a Roadmap agreement signed between the two countries a few months before the Hamas attacks of October 2023.

The accord committed the two states “to tackle shared threats” as part of a “close strategic partnership, with extensive defence and security cooperation”.


Another key document is a secret military accord signed by the UK and Israel in December 2020, which was mentioned on social media by Israel but which the UK government has long refused to publish.

We could find no evidence that BBC journalists have reported either of these two key documents in the corporation’s online news.

Arms exports

In sharp contrast to other UK government policies concerning Israel, the BBC has published many articles mentioning British arms exports to Israel.

In these reports, the BBC has occasionally cited concerns by human rights groups and MPs about the possible use by Israel of these arms, at the same time as citing pro-Israel figures.


However, article headlines have rarely been critical of these weapons sales.

The only overtly disapproving headlines Declassified could find were: ‘Brother of aid worker killed in Gaza criticises arming Israel’ and ‘Amnesty criticises ministers for arms firms funding’.

Another headline was: ‘Foreign Office official resigned over Israel arms sales’.

By contrast, many headlines are conciliatory towards Israel. These include:

  • ‘UK defends partial Israel arms ban as Netanyahu calls it “shameful”’
  • ‘UK ban on selling arms to Israel would benefit Hamas, says Cameron’
  • ‘Boris Johnson: Shameful to call for UK to end arms sales to Israel’
  • ‘Deputy PM: It’s still legal for the UK to sell arms to Israel’
There are no headlines about the possible use of UK arms by Israel in Gaza, or any directly reflecting the repeated calls by groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, to halt all UK arms exports and military assistance to Israel.


The prominent legal action against the government for arming Israel brought by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), the Global Legal Action Network and Al-Haq, has been ignored by the BBC. Declassified could find no BBC written coverage of this at all.

The most prominent group challenging British arms exports, the Campaign Against Arms Trade, has been mentioned six times on the BBC website in 15 months.

Declassified has uncovered three other disturbing aspects of Britain’s arming of Israel, none of which appears to have been covered by the BBC.

These include Britain continuing to provide military equipment to Israel after announcing limited sanctions last September, and allowing UK airspace to be used to supply weapons to Israel.

Also unreported by the BBC is that the UK has been sending components for F-35 warplanes to the US, where they can be then exported to Israel.

How the BBC is covering up UK support of Israel


‘National Scandal’: The BBC’s Gaza Cover-Up

‘National Scandal’: The BBC’s Gaza Cover-Up

Voluntary censorship

Neither has the BBC covered the possible role of UK spy agency GCHQ or the army’s special forces, the SAS, in facilitating Israeli military operations.

These are live issues given that GCHQ operates an extensive intelligence operation on Cyprus, from where the RAF planes are flown over Gaza.


GCHQ is known to have aided past Israeli combat operations in Gaza. Yet Declassified could find no reports on the BBC website mentioning GCHQ in the context of Gaza.

Reporting on the SAS was subject by the government to a D-Notice – a voluntary gagging order not to publish ‘sensitive’ information concerning ‘national security’- in October 2023.

It followed reporting by the Mail that an SAS team was positioned on Cyprus, reportedly to help rescue British hostages held by Hamas.

Since then, it appears the entire UK national media, including the BBC, has complied with this. The BBC has no articles covering or speculating on an SAS role in Israel or Gaza.

Unreported collusion

There are other ways in which the British government is in effect colluding with Israel which have gone unreported by the BBC.

Perhaps incredibly, the BBC has not reported in its written outputs since October 2023 that the UK is engaged in negotiations with Israel to secure a free trade agreement.


Conservative and Labour ministers have since 2022 held five rounds of talks with the Israeli government, whose economy minister, Nir Barkat, is an outspoken supporter of its attacks on Palestinians.

Jonathan Reynolds, the current trade minister pursuing the prospective new deal, is a recipient of funding from Britain’s Israel lobby.

Neither has the BBC reported on the arrests by the UK authorities of pro-Palestinian journalists in Britain.

In October last year, officers from the Metropolitan Police raided the home of Asa Winstanley, a well-known pro-Palestinian journalist with the Electronic Intifada, and seized his devices under provisions of the UK’s Terrorism Act.

This failed to concern the BBC, as has the similar use of anti-terror laws by the authorities to try to silence other pro-Palestinian voices in recent months.

Lobby, what lobby?

Neither has any effort been made by BBC journalists to highlight the influence in the UK parliament exercised by the Israel lobby, notably Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) and Labour Friends of Israel (LFI).

This is a major gap in reporting since these are among the largest lobbying forces in British politics, funding dozens of MPs to go on “fact-finding” visits to Israel.


CFI has been mentioned five times, LFI six times, in BBC reporting in the past 15 months.

In no article has the BBC flagged the possible influence of these groups over parliament or government policy-making.

Indeed, in the BBC’s written news outputs, the Israel lobby appears not to exist at all: the term ‘Israel lobby’ has been used just once in quote marks.

Yet Declassified found that a third of Keir Starmer’s Cabinet, and no less than a quarter of UK MPs overall, have been funded by pro-Israel groups, including LFI.

In one article, the BBC reported that former foreign minister Sir Alan Duncan was under investigation by the Conservatives for saying that CFI was “doing the bidding” of the Israeli prime minister.

This was followed by the report stating that “The Campaign Against Antisemitism said he was ‘invoking classic antisemitic tropes of Jewish power and disloyalty’”.


Duncan was later cleared by the Conservatives, but the BBC did not report this online.

‘National scandal’

Des Freedman, professor of media and communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, said: “The BBC is clearly utterly failing to inform the public about how the UK military and government is complicit in the horrors of Gaza. This is a national scandal, showing how far away the corporation is from being a public service broadcaster.”

He added: “The BBC’s failure to accurately report on Israel’s genocide in Gaza is as much to do with what it refuses to report as with what it does report. It is high time for the corporation to be truly held to account and be reformed in the public interest”.

“Mainstream media like the BBC will never meaningfully challenge those governments who are aiding the destruction of Gaza because they are overwhelmingly tied to existing foreign policy interests that see Israel as a crucial watchdog for Western power in the region.”


A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC News teams are editorially independent and make their own decisions about what to cover and how to cover it.

“We have reported the Gaza-Israel conflict in great depth and consistently across our programmes and services since 7 October 2023, ensuring audiences are kept updated with the latest developments as well as providing comprehensive analysis.

“We hold ourselves to the highest journalistic standards and have reported the conflict impartially – without fear or favour.”

Notes:

BBC online coverage under the tag ‘Israel-Gaza war’ amounted to over 1,000 articles from April 2024 to January 2025 alone.

Research on the bbc.co.uk website was conducted for the period 7 October 2023 to 5 January 2025.
 
If there is any considerable amount of Palestinians who still believe their grievances can be best settled by continuing shooting, then the peace is doomed as premature. 🤷‍♂️
As I said my primary concern are the US hostages, as much as I'm sure other countries have similar priorities for their own. More on that.

But lest anyone think I always lean on Israel's side here, I don't very much care for their idea of wanting some semi-autonomous territory (Gaza, West Bank) then say it's a stepping stone towards an independent Palestine when it really is not. They basically conceded that point after 2005 when any resentment against them was allowed to fester even more once they withdrew from Gaza. From what I gather, the excuse was "see, we're letting the Palestinians have their own space; see how compassionate we are!", but to me it's more like "fine I'll take my toys and go home". So, so long as Israel is engaged in this "our mission is to destroy Hamas" angle, there are always going to find someone more than willing to fill that "Hamas" role and want to push all Jews into the Med. A role that Iran is happy to subsidize so they can have general chaos in the West. But hey I'm a biased American here and my borders weren't really shaped by Cold War power dynamics like in Israel so what do I know...

Anyway this is very bad for Trump (or any president) if one of his citizens is still left over there when he's in office. Whatever fight he wants to pick with other countries, they'll just revert back to this point and explain that he can't defend his own people. And they'd be right.
 
Very normal country


The Israel Prison Service said on Friday it was taking measures to prevent any "public displays of joy" when Palestinian prisoners are released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
"The commissioner of the Israel Prison Service, Major General Kobi Yakobi, instructed that.. to prevent public displays of joy in Ashkelon and other areas of Israel, the escort from 'Shikma' Prison will not be handled by civilian buses of the (International Committee of the) Red Cross," the statement said.

The Geneva-based ICRC oversaw the only previous prisoner exchange of the war, in November 2023, when 105 hostages held in Gaza were freed, the 80 Israelis among them in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Instead "special units" from the prison service would handle transport, the statement said.

Jakobi also told prisoners earmarked for release to "refrain from expressions of joy within Israel".
 
Good luck with that.
 
Yep, definitely Hamas' fault


According to Israeli media reports, Smotrich demanded not only guarantees that Israeli troops would return to the Gaza Strip but that Israel would retain control over the flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave.

“Without a full return to war, we will resign,” Smotrich reportedly said.

The finance minister previously released a statement saying he would only remain in Netanyahu’s coalition government if the prime minister promised to resume the war following the six-week first phase of the ceasefire.

His remarks come after Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister and head of the far-right Jewish Power party, said he would resign if the cabinet approves the ceasefire deal.

Ben Gvir, who described the deal as an Israeli “surrender”, has previously called on Smotrich to support him in thwarting its implementation by collectively resigning from the government.

Ahead of Friday’s cabinet vote, Ben Gvir called on his “friends” in Religious Zionism and in Netanyahu’s Likud party to support him in his attempts to stop the deal.

“It's not too late yet. We are before a cabinet meeting. We can stop this deal. Join me. We can stop it,” he said.
 
Very normal people in the Israeli government

Smotrich then referred to the current state of the Gaza Strip, saying that "it is ruined and disintegrated, uninhabitable, and it will remain that way. Don't be impressed by the forced joy of our enemy. This is an animalistic society that sanctifies death. Very soon, we will erase their smile again and replace it with cries of grief and the wails of those who were left with nothing."
 
A ceasefire has been reached and is in effect. From the presidential briefing this afternoon:

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. And it’s a very good afternoon, because at long last, I can announce a ceasefire and a hostage deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas.

For more than 15 months of conflict that began with Hamas’s brutal massacre on October the 7th; more than 15 months of terror for the hostages, their families, the Israeli people; and more than 15 months of suffering by the innocent people of Gaza, fighting in Gaza will stop and soon the hostages will return home to their families.

The elements of this deal were what I laid out in detail this past May, which was embraced by countries around the world and endorsed overwhelmingly by the U.N. Security Council.

The deal is structured in three phases.

Phase one will last six weeks. It includes a full and complete ceasefire, a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza, and — and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas, including women and elderly and the wounded.

And I’m proud to say Americans will be part of that hostage release in phase one as well. And the vice president and I cannot wait to welcome them home.

In exchange, Israel will release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

And during phase one, the Palestinians can also return to their neighborhoods in all the areas of Gaza, and the surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza will begin, and the innocent people can have a greater access to these vital supplies.

You know, during the next six weeks, Israel will negotiate the necessary arrangements to get phase two, which is a permanent end of the war. Let me say that again: a permanent end of the war.

There are a number of details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two, but the plan says if negotiations take longer than six weeks, the ceasefire will continue, as long as the negotiations continue.

I’ve spoken to the amir of Qatar and the president of Egypt, and we have pledged to make sure the negotiations will keep moving forward for as long as it takes.

Then, when phase two begins, there will be an exchange of — for a release of the remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and all remaining Israeli forces will be withdrawn from Gaza and the temporary ceasefire will become permanent.

And finally, phase three. Any final remains of hostages who have been killed will be returned to their families and a major reconstruction plan for Gaza will begin.

This — this is the ceasefire agreement I introduced last spring. Today, Hamas and Israel have agreed to that ceasefire agreement and the whole — ending the war.

And indeed, at least for the first day, it is going according to plan. Biden also announced that four more hostages will be released this week, and three more each week thereafter.

I was a bit skeptical of the general plan when outlined in May, given the notorious difficulty of achieving peace in the Middle East and the seeming lack of interest from the Israeli government side in particular. But it's been pulled off. Quite a last two months in the Middle East, with the Hezbollah ceasefire, fall of the Assad regime, and now this Hamas ceasefire.
 
So in the end it really didn't matter how many kids were killed. Israel clearly won and got what it wished to get.
I am sure other sides will attempt similar, further emboldened - though Israel does enjoy a rather unique protection by the US.
 
You should pay some attention to what members of the Israeli cabinet are saying about the deal...
This is one area where I think the words are not as important as the deeds. Political changes in the Knesset means Netanyahu can tell the Jewish Power factions to piss off without immediately collapsing his government.
The Crook also cares about the conflict to the extent it was becoming an embarrassment that America couldn't get it to end and Israel was ignoring us. Netanyahu needs to keep the Crook happy in a way that he didn't need to keep Biden happy, because the Crook has the 'only Nixon can go to China' option open to him. (To quote an old Vulcan proverb.) Keep the Crook happy and feeling like he is a big influential dealmaker, and Netanyahu can go on pushing into Lebanon and the West Bank; both of which he and his allies care far more about than the ruined wasteland that is Gaza.
 
Political changes in the Knesset means Netanyahu can tell the Jewish Power factions to piss off without immediately collapsing his government.

Well, I've been wondering about that. I guess, if he continues with the ceasefire, Netanyahu will find out about this by experiment.
 
So in the end it really didn't matter how many kids were killed. Israel clearly won and got what it wished to get.
I am sure other sides will attempt similar, further emboldened - though Israel does enjoy a rather unique protection by the US.

No. Israel clearly lost. What the israeli wanted was a genocide. They failed. The started one but they couldn't complete it. The damage to palestinians was terrible but they keep fighting, they still hold the field even if the field is rubble. That is a military victory for Hamas, a defeat for Israel. Israel went for broke and failed, this has serious consequences.

First, never more can they whine about being victims and ben taken seriously by anyone not on their pay. Younger people see Israel for what it showed itself to be. A racist, ethno-supremacist state willing to carry out genocide to steal land from other people around it. Everybody around it. Israel has kept attacking everybody around and will not have any peace.

And how can Israel pay for foreign support? It is not a "safe state", they won't have a growing population necessary their dreams of greater Israel. Without that they can't have a growing eeconomy. They can't recover from the war. They won't even have a population to keep their current state going. Their economy is not self-supporting, it's actually a tiny country very dependent on trade. They have nothing relevant to offer the rest of the world, nothing to negotiate with. With the US, their only source of serious "free" support, finally having a nationalist/transactional government that is not on their leash, foreign support dries. The UK, France, Germany, are broke and will be squeezed by the US for all their governments can cut from welfare spending. If they cvan keep governing themselves that it. The armories are empty after the defeat in Ukraine. The only source of support for Israel that remained for Israel's genocide plan was the US and Trump cut it even before the ammo in the US ran out.

All this was predictable. The idea of greater Israel, of killing everyone around and taking their land, was always unfeasible. Israel lacks the economy, the resources, the people to enact such a plan. They though they could compensate bu mooching off the US and certain european countries but there's a limit to how many resources can be siphoned out before that causes a backlash. The drain on "western" resources by the war in Ukraine helped hasten their failure, but Israel could never do it in any case. They might otherwise have managed a full genocide in Gaza, with more support from a continued Biden government. But then there was the much larger West Bank. Lebannon. Parts of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq. It's crazy. The US is not and never was all-mighty. It could not win its own wars in Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan, had to evacuate. It could never support this colonial project in a region where people are armed and numerous. They are not plains indians to mass murder with a rag-tag army and corral the remnants into some reservation. That doesn't work against any serious opposition. with numbers and on the same technology level.

If Israel wanted to survive as a state it sould never have escalated this war. It could easily have negotiated its way out of the tactical defeat on October 7, made relatively small cocessions and keep moving slowly to either partition or an unitary, non-apartheid state. They went instead for total war and lost. The unitary state was buried. The south african model out of their situation is now closed. That leaves no way out but fleeing.

The israely cabinet may want to break the cease-fire. They are crazy. But they have a resource problem, lack of it. And now they stuck their nose further into Syria whoch is impossible to stabilize in any near future. They don't lack the will to continue the genicide, they lack the capability. Imo cease-fire will hold.
 
No. Israel clearly lost. What the israeli wanted was a genocide. They failed. The started one but they couldn't complete it. The damage to palestinians was terrible but they keep fighting, they still hold the field even if the field is rubble. That is a military victory for Hamas, a defeat for Israel. Israel went for broke and failed, this has serious consequences.

First, never more can they whine about being victims and ben taken seriously by anyone not on their pay. Younger people see Israel for what it showed itself to be. A racist, ethno-supremacist state willing to carry out genocide to steal land from other people around it. Everybody around it. Israel has kept attacking everybody around and will not have any peace.

And how can Israel pay for foreign support? It is not a "safe state", they won't have a growing population necessary their dreams of greater Israel. Without that they can't have a growing eeconomy. They can't recover from the war. They won't even have a population to keep their current state going. Their economy is not self-supporting, it's actually a tiny country very dependent on trade. They have nothing relevant to offer the rest of the world, nothing to negotiate with. With the US, their only source of serious "free" support, finally having a nationalist/transactional government that is not on their leash, foreign support dries. The UK, France, Germany, are broke and will be squeezed by the US for all their governments can cut from welfare spending. If they cvan keep governing themselves that it. The armories are empty after the defeat in Ukraine. The only source of support for Israel that remained for Israel's genocide plan was the US and Trump cut it even before the ammo in the US ran out.

All this was predictable. The idea of greater Israel, of killing everyone around and taking their land, was always unfeasible. Israel lacks the economy, the resources, the people to enact such a plan. They though they could compensate bu mooching off the US and certain european countries but there's a limit to how many resources can be siphoned out before that causes a backlash. The drain on "western" resources by the war in Ukraine helped hasten their failure, but Israel could never do it in any case. They might otherwise have managed a full genocide in Gaza, with more support from a continued Biden government. But then there was the much larger West Bank. Lebannon. Parts of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq. It's crazy. The US is not and never was all-mighty. It could not win its own wars in Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan, had to evacuate. It could never support this colonial project in a region where people are armed and numerous. They are not plains indians to mass murder with a rag-tag army and corral the remnants into some reservation. That doesn't work against any serious opposition. with numbers and on the same technology level.

If Israel wanted to survive as a state it sould never have escalated this war. It could easily have negotiated its way out of the tactical defeat on October 7, made relatively small cocessions and keep moving slowly to either partition or an unitary, non-apartheid state. They went instead for total war and lost. The unitary state was buried. The south african model out of their situation is now closed. That leaves no way out but fleeing.

The israely cabinet may want to break the cease-fire. They are crazy. But they have a resource problem, lack of it. And now they stuck their nose further into Syria whoch is impossible to stabilize in any near future. They don't lack the will to continue the genicide, they lack the capability. Imo cease-fire will hold.
But now Israel got some lands in Lebanon and Golan heights, and some part of Syria.
And damage was huge for Hamas and Hessbola. And Iran.
Yes, military operation in Gaza failed, but overall it's win for Israel
 

Israel's top general resigns over Oct. 7 attack, citing security and intelligence failures​

Large Israeli military operation in occupied West Bank, meanwhile, kills 8 and wounds 35 Palestinians

Israel's top general resigned on Tuesday, taking responsibility for security failures tied to Hamas's surprise attack that triggered the war in Gaza and adding to pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has delayed any public inquiry that could potentially implicate his leadership.

While a fragile new ceasefire in the Gaza Strip held, Israel launched a large operation in the occupied West Bank, killing at least eight people, Palestinian officials said.

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi is the most senior Israeli figure to resign over the security breakdown on Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led militants carried out a land, sea and air assault into southern Israel, rampaging through army bases and nearby communities for hours.

The attack killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw another 250 abducted. More than 90 captives are still being held in Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel's ensuing military campaign has killed over 47,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities but do not say how many of the dead were fighters.

In his letter of resignation, Halevi said the military, under his command, had "failed in its mission to defend the State of Israel." Halevi, who began what was meant to be a three-year term in January 2023, said his resignation would go into effect March 6.

'Significant' military operation in Jenin​

Israel had earlier announced a "significant and broad military operation" against Palestinian militants in Jenin. The city has seen repeated Israeli incursions and gun battles with militants in recent years, even before Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in Gaza.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said 35 were wounded in the operation. It does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its tally.

The latest operation came just days into a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza that is supposed to last for six weeks and see 33 militant-held hostages released in return for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Three hostages and 90 prisoners were released on Sunday, when the ceasefire took effect.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek an independent state encompassing all three territories.

The ceasefire does not apply to the West Bank, which has seen a surge of violence since the start of the war. Israeli troops have carried out near-daily raids that often ignite gun battles.

Rise in attacks on Palestinians in West Bank​

There has also been a rise in attacks on Palestinians by Jewish extremists — including a rampage in two Palestinian villages overnight Monday — as well as Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Hamas condemned the Israeli operation in Jenin, calling on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to step up their own attacks.

The smaller and more radical Islamic Jihad militant group also condemned the operation, saying it reflected Israel's "failure to achieve its goals in Gaza." It said it was also a "desperate attempt" by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to save his governing coalition.

Netanyahu has faced criticism from his far-right allies over the ceasefire, which required Israeli troops to pull back from populated areas in Gaza and envisions the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including militants convicted of involvement in deadly attacks on Israelis.

The ceasefire has already seen Hamas return to the streets, showing that it remains in firm control of the territory despite 15 months of war that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread devastation.

One of his erstwhile partners, Itamar Ben-Gvir, quit the government the day the ceasefire went into effect, weakening the coalition but still leaving Netanyahu with a parliamentary majority.

Another, far-right leader, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has threatened to bolt if Israel does not resume the war after the first phase of the ceasefire ends in six weeks.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-top-general-resigns-jenin-west-bank-attacks-1.7436965
 
No. Israel clearly lost. What the israeli wanted was a genocide. They failed. The started one but they couldn't complete it. The damage to palestinians was terrible but they keep fighting, they still hold the field even if the field is rubble. That is a military victory for Hamas, a defeat for Israel. Israel went for broke and failed, this has serious consequences.

First, never more can they whine about being victims and ben taken seriously by anyone not on their pay. Younger people see Israel for what it showed itself to be. A racist, ethno-supremacist state willing to carry out genocide to steal land from other people around it. Everybody around it. Israel has kept attacking everybody around and will not have any peace.

And how can Israel pay for foreign support? It is not a "safe state", they won't have a growing population necessary their dreams of greater Israel. Without that they can't have a growing eeconomy. They can't recover from the war. They won't even have a population to keep their current state going. Their economy is not self-supporting, it's actually a tiny country very dependent on trade. They have nothing relevant to offer the rest of the world, nothing to negotiate with. With the US, their only source of serious "free" support, finally having a nationalist/transactional government that is not on their leash, foreign support dries. The UK, France, Germany, are broke and will be squeezed by the US for all their governments can cut from welfare spending. If they cvan keep governing themselves that it. The armories are empty after the defeat in Ukraine. The only source of support for Israel that remained for Israel's genocide plan was the US and Trump cut it even before the ammo in the US ran out.

All this was predictable. The idea of greater Israel, of killing everyone around and taking their land, was always unfeasible. Israel lacks the economy, the resources, the people to enact such a plan. They though they could compensate bu mooching off the US and certain european countries but there's a limit to how many resources can be siphoned out before that causes a backlash. The drain on "western" resources by the war in Ukraine helped hasten their failure, but Israel could never do it in any case. They might otherwise have managed a full genocide in Gaza, with more support from a continued Biden government. But then there was the much larger West Bank. Lebannon. Parts of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq. It's crazy. The US is not and never was all-mighty. It could not win its own wars in Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan, had to evacuate. It could never support this colonial project in a region where people are armed and numerous. They are not plains indians to mass murder with a rag-tag army and corral the remnants into some reservation. That doesn't work against any serious opposition. with numbers and on the same technology level.

If Israel wanted to survive as a state it sould never have escalated this war. It could easily have negotiated its way out of the tactical defeat on October 7, made relatively small cocessions and keep moving slowly to either partition or an unitary, non-apartheid state. They went instead for total war and lost. The unitary state was buried. The south african model out of their situation is now closed. That leaves no way out but fleeing.

The israely cabinet may want to break the cease-fire. They are crazy. But they have a resource problem, lack of it. And now they stuck their nose further into Syria whoch is impossible to stabilize in any near future. They don't lack the will to continue the genicide, they lack the capability. Imo cease-fire will hold.
They're out of bullets, eh?

The plains wars weren't fought with a rag tag army, btw. They were fought with what the US was left with after the Civil War - which was world class.
 
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