I posted yesterday morning. In the afternoon I went to the Israeli Knesset for the program marking the defeat of Nazi Germany. While waiting for the program to begin I spoke with the Belgian Ambassador to Israel. I mentioned much of what I had posted during our conversation. Then we entered the main hall.
After the second speaker the warning sirens in Jerusalem began to wail. We were evacuated to another hall, deeper, and safer. When we returned, the program continued.
By the time I returned home there had been over 100 rockets fired into Israel from Gaza. The word from Hamas in Gaza was that this would continue until their demands were met. To paraphrase Clausewitz war is just diplomacy using methods other than speech. The problem is, of course, that when you use violence rather than words, you don’t always know how it will end. As I’m writing this there have been over 250 rockets fired into Israel, and the Israeli Air Force has bombed hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip. There have been casualties on both sides. But I’m not sure how to evaluate the ones reported by Hamas. Are they real? or just a means of trying to grab world attention?
The entire week of rioting and demonstrations at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem looks to me like a well planned activity to bring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict back into the headlines. The Palestinian Authority was certainly not gaining support during the COVID crisis. Israel was making diplomatic gains by establishing official relations with a few Arab countries. The Palestinians needed a way to get back in control, and it had to be done without making any agreements or concessions. The Sheikh Jarrah homes were one incident that could be used. And there was always the (obviously false) claim that Israel was trying to gain possession of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Together, these led to a series of violent confrontations in Jerusalem. But it obviously wasn’t enough. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas declared there would be elections. Not a believable declaration if you consider that he probably knew the Hamas party from Gaza would probably win. But he made the declaration, and then cancelled the elections claiming Israel was responsible because Jerusalem resident would not be allowed to vote in Jerusalem. Hamas was frustrated and joined in the chorus by shooting rockets.
Bottom line. It looks to me like a planned propaganda ploy. The main objective is to focus world opinion against Israel, and to do so without yielding on any point under negotiation. The various Palestinian political factions all continue to claim the entire area of the former British Palestine Mandate and call for the elimination of “The Zionist Entity”/ Mahmoud Abbas continues on as president (in the 15th year of his original 5 year term of office), and if there are casualties on the Arab side they can be presented, with pictures, as victims of Israeli “Apartheid” and “Occupation”. The real victims are the Arabs who consider themselves Palestinians but are denied a state, and often, even basic governmental services, by the corrupt Arab political factions that have orchestrated this whole scenario.
As a footnote: It’s interesting to see that CNN has apparently taken the bait and has been broadcasting some items that I can only describe as 100% Palywood. What I haven’t seen yet on CNN is any focus on the 420 victims of gun violence who were killed in incidents across the USA during the last 3 days.
Wetherhorn 