The outcome of the Israeli/Hamas war is reflective of a new world order. The battle is for influence and Hamas's grotesque provocation was a Grand Plan to launch a propaganda war. One side of the new shake up is headed by Russia, China, Iran and its allies while on the other are the democracies of United States, NATO countries, the EU, former British Commonwealth Countries and chunks of SE Asia. The battle is for the support of the Arab Middle East, Africa, South America and other “neutral” countries”. The immediate objective was to kibosh the Israeli - Saudi deal. At this inflection point the world is settling into Cold World II with the threat of WWIII looming. But more immediate is Hamas’s Grand Plan.
What is urgently relevant is the fact that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Behind the scenes there has to be intricate negotiations going about a pause, humanitarian aid, the Israeli hostages, the foreign nationals in Gaza and the 10,000 Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism in Israel. The latter need to take humanitarian aid out of the equation and deliver it.
THE GRAND PLAN
The two year plan of Hamas has become crystal clear - attack Israel in such a brutal sadistic way that they had to respond with the objective of reflexively wiping out the perpetrators with massive widespread collateral damage. Their cynical strategy was that, Israel, by attempting to obliterate Hamas would reduce Gaza to rubble killing a vast number of citizens in the process. This would be a propaganda war highlighting Israeli aggression. There was the added bonus that the Israeli Defense Force would rush in and Hamas would be ready for them.
The question, remains however, is why would Hamas contemplate the possible destruction of their own people and mass suicide of their good selves ? An attempt to explain this by Jay H. Ell is the blog below this one, “Gaza’s Civilian Crisis - Whose Responsibility”, Hamas had planned their attack over two years with not the tiniest provision for their 2,000,000 population and now are obstructing their fleeing from the North to the South of Gaza. NBC featured the unlimited resources available to Hamas side by side with the Palestinian poverty.
So when Israel retaliated they could claim that Israel had created a humanitarian crisis, while killing a large number of the IDF.
Hamas believed that the then divided Israel would be despondent and hopeless and the divisions would deepen. They reckoned that as their massacre had not been foreseen and not responded to this would further rupture Israeli society. Their narrative subsequently received a windfall with their rocket hitting the al - Ali hospital where the world swallowed hook, line and sinker that Israel had perpetrated the atrocity.
Another aspect of this unholy war is that Hamas is part of an Axis consisting of themselves, “The Resistance”, Iran, and Russia. In the grand plan the Palestinians could be sacrificed. Little did Hamas appreciate that they too could be abandoned by the major players depending on how the war unfolded.
WHO IS THE PROPAGANDA OFFENSIVE AIMED AT?
The propaganda war is aimed at many constituents,
Within two weeks into the struggle the focus of the world was almost entirely on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and whether Qatar, could engineer a hostage exchange and broker other collateral issues. There were many audiences that "The Axis” was playing to. There was the Israeli society itself which was at the time split asunder. The Sunni Arab states were top of their list where Israel has already made many allies and was on the cusp of forming a relationship with, the largest prize of them all, Saudi Arabia.
The World
Then there was the world at large appealing to sympathetic and neutral countries and or their citizens who have anti semitic leanings as well as those who genuinely believe that the Palestinians are in such dire straights and that Israel is an aggressor, period, so that they would seize on any chance to show support. Following Hamas's calls for "rage", protests followed in world capitals as well as the unleashing of anti semitic attacks. No attempt was made to even pretend they were just anti Zionist it was death to all the jews.
The student University protests in America have raised the most press coverage. The protestors are screaming The Resistance slogans such as driving the Israelis into the sea The argument that they are “just anti Zionist” does not jive in this instance as there are widespread reports of victimization of jews just because they are jews. The behavior, is so pervasive that the President of the USA felt the need to publicly condemn it.
Mahmoud Abbas, Head of the Palestine Authority, accurately explained the roots of this behavior citing the Holocaust. In the latter the Nazis claimed not to be anti semites per se. Rather the Jews needed to be liquidated because of their behavior. The Jews with their greed were responsible for WW1 and Germany losing it. They deserved the Holocaust. (Source Times of Israel). Much like those on the campuses and in the streets who believe that Israel deserved October 7.
“The Resistance”
While there have been known meetings between Hezbollah. Hamas and Iran a.k.a as "The Resistance", Hamas has still felt the need to publicly exhort the citizens of Iran, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and West Bank as well as the citizens of the other Shia countries to rise up and force their governments to militarily back Hamas, “who have delivered”. There has been increasing rocket fire from Hezbollah leading to the evacuation of Israelis from their Northern border. As there has been no all out aggression by Hezbollah, Hamas has made a public demand in an attempt to shame them to launch a full scale war.
It is worth mentioning that the top Hamas leaders are in Qatar, wallowing in luxury. They are probably not subscribing to the theory that it is better and holier to be a dead martyr than an alive human being.
Arab Sunni States
The next group are the surrounding Arab nations particularly the Sunni nations that Israel have relationships with and with others in the wings, most important of which is Saudi Arabia. Responding to their people in the streets, who have answered Hamas’s calls for “days of rage”, each and every Arab nation. was supportive of a Jordanian resolution at the General Assembly of UNO.
Jordan has a population of 9,000 000 of which 3,000,000 are illegal immigrants. Of the remainder 2,000,000 are Palestinians, the majority of which have now gained citizenship. Jordan have been the unwilling recipient of Palestinian refugees in the past. With porous borders they have to be terrified that, once again, they will to bear the brunt of accommodating fleeing Palestinians.
Jordan have thus been very vocal in their protest, King Abdullah warning that the ending of the war was an urgent necessity otherwise there could be an “explosion” in the Middle East. The Jordanian UNO General Assembly resolution called for, "... an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce and demands all parties comply with international humanitarian law and continue sufficient and unhindered provision of essential supplies and services into the Gaza Strip…… and the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages….. in compliance with international law…”
UNO
The UNO General Assembly is the numero uno forum to condemn Israel. (For practical purposes the motions in the Security Council, which have some legal significance in that sanctions can follow, have been avoided as a result of vetoes by the USA). Over 253 times Israel has been declared "a threat to world peace and guilty of crimes against humanity" in various UNO resolutions. Hamas has not been condemned once. To take another comparison, Assad's Syria in their wholesale annihilation of their opposition, including using chemical weapons, have had only about 5 condemnation resolutions.
The most infamous UNO Resolution 3379 passed by the General Assembly “…determined that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination..”. This resolution was subsequently reversed.
All this led to the outgoing Secretary General of UNO Ban Ki - Moon to opine in 2016, “ …that for the last decade or so we have had a bias against Israel… this has foiled the ability of the UN to fulfill its role effectively…”.
The current Secretary General, Antonia Guiterres, is more in sync with the mood of the General Assembly. His take on the current conflict, after a short condemnation of the massacre and hostage taking stated that the action, “….didn’t take place in a vacuum....”. Guiterres went on to detail a whole list of alleged Israeli misdeeds. Realizing that he may have shot his mouth off, he added, “…but the grievances cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas…”. Then in the next breath back to character, "....(nor) the collective punishment of the Palestinians......"..
The out cry was immediate, Guiterres had implicitly maintained that the "appalling attacks", were understandable and the Israeli response to knock out Hamas forever and a day was "collective punishment". Israel called for his resignation while he wrung his hands in despair crying that he was shocked that his statement had been, “misinterpreted”.
So back to Jordan’s resolution which in spite of Israel’s impassioned plea, producing evidence of the slaughter and that Hamas was using Palestinians as human shields, was overwhelmingly adopted. Canada’s amendment was likewise defeated as they called for the October 7 carnage to be part of the resolution. A feature of the debate was the onslaught on the USA for their backing of Israel.
The decision on Jordan’s resolution was barely covered in the media as it coincided with the major land invasion of Northern Gaza.
The International Axis
What came as a shock, but really was obvious, as there had been no contact by the Russian leader with his Israeli counterpart, was Putin publicly abandoning his long time cozy relationship with Bibi Netanyahu, who had been rejected by another of his authoritarian mates, Donald Trump. Russia and Iran are allies and China has come along for the ride. They were all cheering Hamas on and Iran told the USA that they were not intimidated by the two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean. However it is pretty obvious that Iran, who it has been revealed trained 500 of Hamas “soldiers”, will only offer bellicose support.
Vladimir Putin has put a new meaning to cynicism with Russia proposing, in the Security Council, a cease fire to allow humanitarian aid into the Strip. He then invited Hamas to Moscow further proposing a combined indaba of the terrorist organization, Iran and his good self in Russia.
Syria, Iraq and the West Bank jihadists are engaging Israel while Iranian and Syrian proxies are lobbing missiles at US posts and soldiers. America is rushing armaments into the area having already militarily responded to the Iraqi and Syrian salvos.
So "The Axis" is consolidating with the Hamas offensive heralding a new phase in the world order. It remains to be seen how far they are prepared to escalate. While Biden is a pacifist he believes this conflict is for all the marbles and it would be dangerous for "The Axis" to play chicken with him.
HAMAS’S PRINCIPLE OBJECTIVE - PRODUCING HOPELESSNESS AND DESPAIR IN A DIVIDED ISRAEL.
Hamas really misread over three thousand years of Jewish history by prophesying the disintegration of Israeli society in the face of unspeakable horror - been there done that! “Never Again” is not a slogan it is for real. Israel galvanized and created a coalition war cabinet. Bibi Netanyahu, like all populists, finds it difficult to accept that he and the state are not synonymous, blamed the security establishment for October 7. He was forced to apologize when publicly rebuked by fellow war cabinet member Bennie Gantz. Reckoning of how and why this could have occurred was postponed till the threat was thwarted.
USA President Joe Biden has to receive much credit for lifting the Israeli psyche from out of the doldrums. Hamas had to reckon that Israel would would reflexavely act in “rage” and unprepared would rush into Gaza.
Another factor is that Israel is the powerhouse in the Middle East and while its Sunni allies have to shut up for the moment they will sing a different song if Hamas will be defeated and humanitarian aid is delivered. They detest Hamas and the Shia "Resistance" almost as much as Israel does.
Hamas has reunited the Israeli citizenry and the political landscape will never be the same and in the not to distant future Israel has to renew what Israeli Prime Minister Olmert offered Premier Abbas in 2018, a two state solution, which Abbas now says he regrets that he didn’t accept. Jay H. Ell missed that historical fact in his blog of October 15, "The Consequences of Hamas's Barbarism and the Genesis of the Conflict".
AT THE END OF THE DAY
All of the commentary above does not to take into account the allegation by the Israeli Defense Force Information Officer, Rear Admiral Hagari, that Hamas had their main operation center, under the largest hospital in Gaza, Shifa Hospital and was the site where the terrorists rushed after October 7. Nor does the release of intelligence that Hamas has food, water and fuel for forty days impact perceptions of those who have long ago taken sides.
This Middle East war is shaping up to consolidate the power factions in the 21st Century. "The Axis" powers need to show democracy is unworkable so as to keep their citizenry from rising up.
The Israeli war cabinet has to realize that the world including their allies are screaming for humanitarian aid and adjust accordingly.
There is a sentiment amongst some Jews that it is shameful to be stronger than their enemies, who thus by definition are the victims. History is strewn with genocidal outcomes where they were weaker. The genocide included anyone with Jewish blood as far back as a grandparent.
Anti semitism is alive and well and living on planet earth.
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