July 2, 2024. From Gaza and the Gaza Envelope to Ireland.

Who remembers the Irish Republican Army, its bombs in Belfast, London, Brighton... at all times of the years, from 1969 to 2005, and the ceasefire that was first implemented in 1997, one generation ago ?

Who remembers Enniskillen and its fateful Remembrance Day bombing in November 1987, when eleven civilians were killed by the IRA ?

Listen to what Gerry Adams (President of Sinn Fein from 1983 to 2018) wrote about it in his 2003 memoir, A Farther Shore, Ireland's Long Road to Peace :

"...the operation was wrong in its conception as well as in its execution. It was a disaster."

Comes a time when the most responsible leaders of the Palestinian struggle for self-rule and freedom will be clear enough to say, "October 7 was wrong in its conception as well as in its execution. It was a disaster."

And comes a time when the most responsible leaders of the Israeli State will have to state that

"October 7 was wrong as far as intelligence and army protection was concerned. It was a disaster."

Both statements are not on the same level, since one side attacked the other unexpectedly, and triggered the whole deadly chaos, but responsibility has to be acknowledged for the unending suffering of the people, Israelis and Palestinians likewise.

This is the day Liora Argamani, born in China, Noa Argamani's mother, has passed, from terminal brain cancer.

Three weeks after her daughter Noa was released from Gaza where she was held hostage, in a daring raid that took the lives of dozens of people, one of them an Israeli commander, fighting to rescue her.

May Liora's sweet soul be blessed and rest in peace.

May Noa and her father know countless joys to come.

May the non-involved people of Gaza, where Noa was detained, be relieved of their ordeal and gain their freedom.

 

July 4, 2024. Challenging the image of the MIR (aka Hamas).

 Bashir Ziyadne, 28, has spent the past nine months campaigning for the release of his relatives, still in the hands of Hamas: his second cousin, Youssef Ziyadne, 53, and Youssef’s son, Hamza, 22, who were abducted to Gaza while working in Kibbutz Holit on the Gaza border on October 7.

“Before October 7, I didn’t feel equal to [Israeli] Jews, to be honest. 

“But after all that happened after October 7, I feel equal to everyone else,”

‘We challenge the narrative that Hamas are good Muslims,’ says Bedouin hostages’ relative

https://www.timesofisrael.com/we-challenge-the-narrative-that-hamas-are-good-muslims-says-bedouin-hostages-family/

Bashir Ziyadne, 28, who studies law at Beersheba, is from Rahat, 80,000 inhabitants, which makes it the largest Bedouin city in the world, not just in Israel. Five years ago, one of the earliest rural mosques worldwide was excavated in Rahat, dating of the seventh or eighth century.

"I don’t have anything to say to Hamas, because I am not represented by them. I see Hamas as a terrorist organization, so I don’t expect much of them.

I’m an Israeli citizen, and I am represented by Israel. I want to see that my government, which takes pride in the fact that we choose life over death, will actually walk the talk."

"The families of Bedouin hostages are caught between a rock and a hard place. Some in Arab countries view us as collaborators and traitors because we are part of the Families Forum and demand the release of all the hostages. They see reality as black and white, either our [Arab] narrative or their [Israeli] narrative, but the situation of the families of Bedouin hostages is quite the same as that of the Jewish hostages.

Al Jazeera did not want to speak with us, because we challenge their narrative that Hamas is the resistance, that they’re good Muslims. 

People really like this polarization where Israel is portrayed as the occupier and Palestinians as freedom fighters, but it’s not true. We [Bedouins] show that Hamas captured Muslims and even killed 17 from our community. Hamas does not really want peace or prosperity. It is a terrorist group run by fundamentalists who will destroy everyone and everything in order to achieve its goal, which is unrealistic, and quite horrifying as well."

Hamas’s foremost condition to release the hostages is for the IDF to stop all military activity inside the Gaza Strip and withdraw its forces. Should this or any other Israeli government agree to that condition?

"If that is what Hamas wants, so be it. I don’t think Hamas will refrain from shooting rockets at Israel in the months after the ceasefire, and when it does, it will be legitimate for Israel to attack it again."

July 5, 2024. New British PM making sense.

"Starmer stands by Israel's right to self-defense and backs an end to the war only when hostages are freed; he is expected to be more critical of Netanyahu's government and supports a Palestinian state after a comprehensive peace agreement"

July 6, 2024. Begging to disagree with Rear Admiral Hagari.

Rear Admiral Hagari is an outstanding sailor, who has served in the Israeli Navy, and is currently the spokesperson of the Israel Defence Forces. We, at Peace Lines, are nobodies, in no position to give lessons to anyone, especially from afar, in complex matters of strategy and security.

Still, involved in constructive coexistence and non-violent alternatives in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories, including in Gaza for years, our analysis is neither from the press nor from comfortable offices in some distant land, but based on continuous presence on the ground, at crucial and ordinary times, for 25 years now, from Jenin to Rafah, from Tulkarem to Shejaya in Gaza. And when Rear Admiral Hagari declares that "Hamas is an idea, Hamas is a party. It's rooted in the hearts of the people - anyone who thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong"we beg to disagree, in particular about the hearts' part.

It has become a worn cliché that "Hamas is an idea", but then again, what is not an idea ?

This writer's testimony is that when I first re-entered the Gaza Strip after Hamas had violently seized power from its secular rivals of the Palestine Liberation Organization, my first impressions were positive, you had young men in white on the streets,  sweeping the pavements, there was an eery feeling of quiet and order, after years of insecurity and chaos to a degree. This was on the surface.

The reality underneath was that the clashes between secular and religious forces in June 2007, known as the Battle of Gaza, had left over 160 killed, with 700 wounded, during the most violent week the Gaza Strip had known since Israel had evacuated all its residents and forces there in the summer of 2005. From then on, June 2007, Hamas became the leading party in the Strip, imposing an iron-hand rule on all aspects of life. More than one thousand people were arrested and detained in 2007, and a number of persons were abducted and tortured, as documented by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Amnesty International.

Human Rights Watch spoke of war crimes, targeting and killing non-involved people, engaging in gun battles inside and around hospitals, with public excecutions of captives, political opponents, and throwing prisoners off high-rise buildings. Such was the new reality that was to prevail in Gaza.

As for freedom of thought, as soon as it seized power, Hamas declared "the end of secularism and heresy in the Gaza Strip". A school and a convent of the tiny Palestinian catholic community were immediately looted and burned. The militants of Jihadia Salafiya, and the Sword of Islam, radical offshoots of Hamas, enforced a ban on alcohol, internet cafes, bars, pool halls, and women had to cover their head in public. There were countless attacks against all Christian targets (barbers' shops, music stores, businesses). The Teacher's Bookshop in Gaza City was bombed repeatedly from 2006. In early October 2007, its owner, Rami Ayyad, was kidnapped by masked men and beaten to a pulp with rifle butts and clubs, to be finally stabbed and shot. Accused of "spreading Christianity". His wife and children then fled to the West Bank.

All this has been documented. You can find the reported facts through the net.

So much for Hamas winning the hearts of the people, from 2007 till now.

As for public schools in Gaza, due to the rift between the secular regime in Ramallah and the Islamists' one in Gaza, they are all under full control. The Ramallah regime sent the order to all teachers in Gaza to stop working after the Hamas coup, and stay at home, still receiving their salaries, thinking this would disrupt the daily organization of families in such a way that it would lead to general unrest. Wrong move. The experienced teachers were immediately replaced by young folks, students, who were selected by Hamas. The whole educational system was hijacked in no time.

So much for the way Hamas is rooted in the minds, after the hearts.

July 7, 2024. The case against Hamas, from the Palestinian viewpoint.

This is the case that matters now. It has to be made clearly, thoroughly.

Again, from the point-of-view of Gazans, upon the period from 2007 till now, mid-2024.

1- Hamas functions as an autocracy and an exclusive theocracy. Not only have there been no elections in seventeen years, but it is a closed, pyramidal system, without sharing of inside facts and info. There is no room, whatsoever, for non-Muslims - the three thousand Palestinian Christians in Gaza have been violently targeted as such, starting in 2007, contrary to the West Bank, where even a Jew was nominated in the Palestinian Legislative Council under President Arafat, along with Samaritans.

2- Hamas has invested countless millions of dollars in its secret underground labyrinth, reserved for its military ranks. Without any public consultation. Where did all the money come from ? Who made the financial decisions ?

3- Part, or most of this fantastic concrete network could have been used for the protection of the population in times of troubles. No part of it has ever helped the people escape bombings, be it in 2014 or 2024. It has been Elite Only. Compare it with the way the neighbours/enemy has built hundreds of shelters for its people. Are our lives less sacred than theirs ?

4- Likewise, the decision to attack, on October 7, 2023, was taken by a tiny handful of men - as few as five or a half-dozen. Even the local commanders received their orders at the last minute, in the night of October 6 to 7. The political echelon was kept out of the loop, inside Gaza or abroad.

5- This decision, taken by such a limited number of men, involving over two million civilians, revealed poor anticipation of the enemy's reaction. As strategy, it has cruelly failed the people.

6- Had the operation been limited to an attack of army bases, it would have been justified according to the global rules of warfare. It could have been deemed brilliant. And indeed, it was perceived as such by many, in the first days. As it was deliberately spread to all civilian zones, targeting Thai workers, Jews, Bedus, Palestinians, indifferently, it has to be said it was wrong in its conception. It has given the worst view of Islamic values, for targeting infants, elderly people, women too.  The conception of October 7 was clearly anti-Islamic.

7- It was wrong in its execution as well, for enabling uncontrolled crowds to rush into the breaches, and behave in a way that is so clearly opposed to the highest values of behaviour prevailing in Islam.

If you look at history, and compare with movements of national liberation worldwide, you will rightly learn of the Enniskillen disaster in Ireland, considered as a turning-point in the chronology of "The Troubles", as they are known. In Enniskillen, in November 1987, a group of IRA militants set a bomb to explode during a "Remembrance" ceremony (of the soldiers killed in World Wars). Twelve people were killed, mostly elderly, and over sixty were wounded. Enniskillen was something like the death sentence of the armed struggle against the English. In this regard, you can say that October 7 has been, for Palestinians, Eniskillen well over 12 to the power of 4.

Actually, 14 Enniskillen to the power of 4, and counting. 38,000 killed so far. Horribly.

And if you think that Enniskillen does not apply as a parallel, due to its Western setting, think of Tibhirine, in Algeria. The kidnapping of seven elderly French monks, by the Islamic Armed Group, and their massacre, in 1996.

This too, for obvious reasons, as a treason of the highest Islamic principles, marked the turning-point after which the armed struggle/"resistance" lost all legitimacy.

July 11, 2024. The price of opposition in Gaza.

In case our friends in West Belfast or elsewhere would find the July 7 chronicle above surprising, we have more news for them, coming from inside Gaza.

 Ihab Hassan

 “What happened to me was a terrorist act, a crime. It prevents me from protecting my people, I won’t hesitate for a moment to protect my people no matter the price.”

“We’ve known the price from the moment we began opposing the Hamas movement politically and ideologically.” 

July 12, 2024. There is still work to do.

 

 July 18, 2024. July 24 Turning of the Tide.

Reading "Opinions" in the various media, about who did what and who should have done what, since October 7, you feel the need not to add more judgmental confusion to the bloody mess.

Again, who are we, to pretend we know better, and have the ultimate say ?

Again, Bibi-bashing is not our cup of tea. Or any kind of bashing for that matter.

We'd rather stick to signs of change on the ground, and signs of change there are, after nine months of war.

Not just from men like Amin Ebad in Gaza, but in the West Bank as well.

Take it from the Palestinian president, on July 13 :

“The presidency considers the Hamas movement — by avoiding national unity and providing free pretexts to the occupying state — a partner in bearing the legal, moral, and political responsibility for the continuation of the Israeli war of annihilation in the Gaza Strip with all the suffering, destruction and killing it causes to our people.”  

After the strike targeting Hamas commander Deif in Gaza, which left dozens killed and wounded, this is how a Palestinian Authority official reacted, on (Saudi) Al-Arabiya:

 “If Hamas wanted to fight face-to-face with Israel, it would’ve done so in areas where the army is located, and not in places where there are people. Hamas is actually hiding between the residents to protect and save itself.”

It still may be "early" to let different voices soar in the open, but if you forget, or ignore, the toll and aftermath of the Battle of Gaza, as the short and violent civil war of 2007 was named, you will not realize how complex things really are, under the surface of the present war.

Underneath the horrendous Gaza War ongoing since the "Hamas" onslaught of October 7, you find the Battle of Gaza, between the islamists and the secular forces expelled from Gaza.

Defining the Hamas movement as "a partner in bearing the legal, moral, and political responsibility" is indeed a turning-point in Palestine. All the more as it is not just "Hamas".
Human Rights Watch is a respected n.g.o., one that cannot be suspected of buying the "Israeli narrative". Yesterday, on July 17, it published a report, shedding more light on the fabric of October 7.

At Least Five Palestinian Groups Committed War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Oct. 7 Attacks

Namely, after the (Hamas) Qasam Brigades leading the assault, the (Islamic Jihad) Quds Brigades, the (DFLP) National Resistance Brigades, the (PFLP) Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, and last, the (Fatah) Aqsa Martyr Brigades. For details :

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/17/october-7-crimes-against-humanity-war-crimes-hamas-led-groups

 

July 19, 2024. Samad 3 from Yemen over Tel Aviv.

Nobody knew what a Samad is. Now we know.

Wingspan of 4.5 m. Length about 3 m. Speed 200 to 250 kmh. Explosive payload up to 40 kg. Can fly at 8,000 m.

In Wikipedia, they say their origin is "unknown". Only named after Saleh Al-Sammad, a major leader of God's Partisans (aka Houthis), assassinated in Yemen by the United Arab Emirates in 2018.

Yet, what is known is that their engines are... made in Germany, under the reference 3W-110i B2 CS : simple 110 cc engines, with a power of less than 13 HP. A "state of the art" small engine which achieves "a high standard of performance", made by Motoren und Flugmodelle, sold for slightly less than 1,400 €. At this stage, we do not know where their factory is, but it should be possible to find it. And trace the special chain from Somewhere in Germany to Somewhere in Yemen... Otherwise, the Chinese also build a suitable engine : the DLE 170.

According to the Center for War Studies, at the University of Southern Denmark, it is clear that these drones are supplied by Iran. Who else would have that sort of technology, explosive payloads and guiding system included ?

https://theatrum-belli.com/quels-enseignements-tirer-de-lattaque-des-drones-houthis-sur-abu-dhabi/

 

July 21, 2024. Check the World Happiness Report.

 For there is such a thing as a world ranking of countries (143), according to how happy people are and feel in each nation. Unsurprisingly, Afghanistan ranks last (143) for the years 2021-2023. You find Hezbollah's Lebanon right next to it, at 142. Houthis' Yemen at 133. Slightly higher up, Egypt (127) and Jordan (125). Ukraine and Palestine, (105) and (103). Iran (100). Russia ranks 72. China, 60. France, 27. Germany, 24. The US, 23. The UK, 20. Ireland, 17. Switzerland, 9.

Would you believe it, Israel ranks 4, with Sweden. Behind Iceland, Denmark, and N° 1 Finland.

Guess the 2024-2025 index won't be as high, both for Israel and Palestine.

Still, the gap between the two will remain. Confounding.

Describing two antagonizing ways of life, one that belongs to the Afghanistan/Iran/Lebanon block; the other, that belongs to the Sweden/Switzerland/Costa Rica block.

 Interestingly, there is no such gap nowadays between the United Kingdom (20) and Ireland (17).

How can you be so high in happiness, while having to fight back North, South-West and South-East, with bellicose Iran behind all fronts ? The criteria are the GDP per capita, but also the measure of social support, a healthy life expectancy, the freedom to make life choices, generosity, the perceptions of corruption, citizen engagement, the opportunities of education, emotions (in terms of well-being), food and shelter, the state of law and order (safety), the quality of transportation.

**********************************************************************************************************

On the other side of World Happiness Reports, you still get the darkest waves, from reality :

The Times of Israel, July 21, 2024

 IDF probe finds it failed to properly respond to Oct. 7 Nir Oz invasion – report

 

July 22, 2024. Sad day. Another sad day.

They say he was killed months ago. In Khan Yunis. Possibly in early March, after six months of detention. Likely, by the army.

Alex Dancyg, from Nir Oz. Born in Warsaw, on July 21, 1948. 76 years ago.

Why do they release the "truth" now, for his birthday ?

He was nine years old when his parents migrated to Israel.

Alex was a farmer, like many in Nir Oz, and a historian, like his mother.

Heart is heavy. We know he was alive earlier this year, as were Chaim Peri, Amiram Cooper, Yoram Metzger, all from Nir Oz, all in their eighties.

"Now is the time for grieving and memorializing. The time to settle the score with those responsible for what happened will come,”  Yuval Dancyg

116 hostages kidnapped on October 7 remain in the Strip. 44 of them now declared dead - their bodies left rotting down some forsaken shaft or pit. How would you feel if that were your father ?

Seventy-two are still alive.

Back to June 3, when we learnt of the death in captivity of Chaim Peri, Amiram Cooper, Yoram Metzger :

"Definitely. It feels like Israel did not do enough to release them. It was a huge mistake to stop the first deal that brought back my mother (Tamar Metzger). I don’t know why that deal was halted. It seems like it was due to various ego battles. They thought they could get a better position or something, but it turned out to be a mistake. That deal should have continued until all the hostages were released. Why stop halfway? Why take just 110 when you can get 240? Hamas isn’t going anywhere. They’re in Gaza, and you can deal with them later – or on another pretext. Our hostages are dying, they’re not going anywhere and we’re left with nothing. Even for one person, it was worth continuing the deal. I don’t understand this casual attitude toward human life. I’m sorry."

 July 27, 2024. Eleven kids on a soccer field.

Eleven kids killed on a soccer field. By a Falaq 1 rocket made in Iran by Aerospace Industries Organization.

Falaq 1 rockets have a range of 10 km and a payload of 50 kg, fired from a 4/4 jeep.

The soccer field is in Majdal Shams, a Druze town in the Golan Heights.
The Druze do not consider themselves Muslims, and serve in Israel Defense Forces (although fully considered as equals, women are exempted).

They have their own Book of Wisdom, Epistles of Wisdom. Its bottom line being "to highlight the role of the mind and truthfulness".

There are 145,000 Druze in Israel, 24,000 of them in the Golan Heights. Out of a million and a half worldwide, the others living in Syria and Lebanon.

The same day, a school was hit by an Israeli missile in Deir al Balah, Gaza, leaving some thirty dead, children, women, and men. They say the school was used as a Hamas command center and for weapons storage.

The Party of God (Hezbollah) loudly denies any responsibility in the firing of the Iranian rocket.
So does Hamas, in using another school as weapons storage facility and command center.
They're all innocents, in the name of God, aren't they.

July 28, 2024. Embrace us Druze in life and not just in death.

 July 30, 2024. World of pain.

You wake up, feeling tense and restless, get up, and the first thing you do is get into the crow's nest, check the level of the hemorragia. Whether it's bleeding "normally", or what. Doc said you have to check your blood pressure  too. They called from his office, prescribed a blood pressure monitor. You put it on, tighten the strap, let it blow, up and down. Damn, Systolic says 155, diastolic 98. That's hypertension stage 2.

Try Tuscaloosa for relief. Because of that song ringing in your head, Neil Young introducing : "I'd like to do a song now for soldiers coming home from Viet-Nam". "Look out Joe, you're coming home, Old times were good times". 

You know you're still there. From Nam to the damned tunnels. And when things move from another direction, up North, you find these eleven kids slaughtered on a soccer field, by some Iranian rocket, while playing. And they say a twelfth child has been found dead. Do you see "Druze" when you look at their faces, their eyes ?

Where do we go from here ? All we hear is "retaliation". Retaliation to retaliation to retaliation.

Have not heard from Masoud in Gaza since July 8. Displaced to Rafah, with his whole family, and displaced again, and re-displaced to Deir al-Balah, where they hit that school three days ago, leaving thirty dead, a hundred injured. Could they be among them ?

Wondering about Oded Lifshitz too, from Nir Oz. Oded, born in 1940, such a fervent peace maker. Kidnapped on October 7, with his wife.

Have we become so inured ? 

Ordering Barbara Tuchman's March of Folly, after reading Alon Pinkas and Nissan Shor in Haaretz.

 "we reject the shedding of even a single drop of blood under the pretext of avenging our children"

 the Druze faith "forbids killing and revenge in any form"

the community rejects the "attempt to exploit the name of Majdal Shams as a political platform at the expense of the blood of our children". 

Who will we strike? Our people in Syria and Lebanon?" 

 the Druze faith "forbids killing and revenge in any form" 

 the Druze faith "forbids killing and revenge in any form" 

 

 

 

July 31, 2024. Death of a billionaire in Tehran.

Doron Peskin, YNet News, July 15, 2014 

Hamas got rich as Gaza was plunged into poverty

What matters to me this morning is that i finally got a message from Masoud in Gaza, after three weeks of black-out. His youngest son has hepatitis A. The outbreak of hepatitis is spreading. 

 

GAZA’S DISPLACED PEOPLE FACE A NEW PERIL: HEPATITIS A OUTBREAK

 When July 24 started, we had Bobby Sands in mind. 

Bobby died in the aptly named Maze prison, nine miles southwest of Belfast, back in May 1981, after 81 days of a hunger strike. He was 27.

Aryeh Zalmanovich died in the underground maze of Gaza, by the end of November 2023, after some 81 or 82 days of detention. He was 85, and had been kidnapped in Nir Oz on October 7, 2023.

Bobby had been arrested after planning a bombing, consecutively to a gun battle. He was charged with possession of firearms, and being a member of the banned IRA P, defined as a terrorist organization.

Aryeh, a father of two, grandfather of five, was a man of the earth, one of the founders of the Nir Oz kibbutz. He worked the earth his whole life. He was a fervent reader, with a deep passion for history.

Bobby started his hunger strike as he wanted to be considered as a political prisoner, not a criminal.

Aryeh died of hunger, as he needed a special diet and drugs that were not given to him in the 80+ days of his calvary at the hands of his captors.

In the end, after the Good Friday Agreement between the British and the Irish (1998), the Maze (what was left of it) was closed in 2000, and demolition began in 2006. In 2013, there was a plan to transform the remaining buildings into a peace centre. In 2019 though, the developers set the plan aside. You wonder why.

The Irish "Troubles" lasted some thirty years. The last conflict-related deaths were in 2000 (19) and 2001 (16).

Bobby should be 70 now. Nine others died like him then, sacrificing their lives for their ideology.

May we ask what it really was that they died for ?