Israel-Hamas Thread II

Philip_B said:

One of the things I have some trouble with is the generalisation that all Palestinians are Muslim, given that they are not. There are Palestinian Christians across a range of denominations, including various forms of Orthodox and Anglican Christianity, as well as Samaritans. I will leave the long essays to others.

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What is the percentage weighting of the various religious communities among the ‘Palestinians’ in the Gaza Strip agglomeration?

According to the latest census, more than 1.8 million people live their. According to the UN, around one million people are currently in Gaza City.

According to Wikipedia, the population of Gaza consists mainly of Muslims who follow Sunni Islam, Muslims make up 99% of the population. The Christian population is likely to be negligible. Wikipedia estimates the number of Christians in the Gaza Strip at just 1,000 before Oct 7. Now there are only 650. Yet the Christian community there is older than Islam. In ancient times, Gaza was a thriving Christian landscape, with archaeological remains bearing witness to numerous churches and monasteries. With several hundred members, the Greek Orthodox Church is the oldest and strongest of the three Christian communities in Gaza. The Catholics number 135 members, followed by the Baptists with 25. The followers of the Samaritan religion are estimated to number between 550 and 600 believers, most of whom live in Judea and Samaria, with the rest living in Israel.

Judea and Samaria, with approximately 3.3 million "Palestinian" inhabitants, has roughly one million more residents than Gaza. Children represent about 44% of the total population (41% in Judea/Samaria, and 47% in Gaza Strip). The number of Christians is around 45,000 to 50,000 in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem combined. This represents approximately 1–2% of the total population of the historical heartland of the Jewish people.

While the US plans a new post-war order for Gaza, Israel's military warns of an old mistake: billions from Qatar could flow not into homes and schools, but once again into the hands of Hamas.

For years, the Gulf emirate was considered Hamas' most important source of funding. Millions in cash, approved by Israel in the hope of buying stability, flowed into the sealed-off territory every month. The result, as we know, was not peace, but a terrorist organization that consolidated its military power until Oct 2023 and plunged Israel into a devastating war.

Following Israel's military victory over Hamas and the ceasefire, Washington worked closely with Arab states to draft a plan for the future of Gaza. The explicit aim of this structure was to exclude Qatar, the state that had financed and provided political cover for Hamas for decades.

Neither Qatar nor Turkey should ever be allowed to regain influence in Gaza. Qatar has fed Hamas with cash, with millions flowing into rockets, tunnel systems, and propaganda.

A glance at western Khan Younis shows that this concern is not unfounded: the orange-red apartment blocks of the “Hamad Quarter”, financed by Qatar after the 2014 war, still stand there, almost undamaged, while the surrounding city lies in ruins.

The army is calling for the flow of money into Gaza to be placed under international control. Without strict supervision, Israeli authorities warn, there is a risk of repeating the mistakes of 2014: billions spent on supposed reconstruction projects that ultimately served to expand Hamas' arsenal.

Qatar and Turkey are ideologically close to the Muslim Brotherhood and protect Hamas. Egypt and the Emirates, on the other hand, see them as a threat. That is the crucial difference that Washington needs to understand.

Washington can talk about the end of the war, Israel celebrates the return of its hostages, and Hamas presents itself as a surviving force. Reconstruction is imminent, but for Jerusalem, the crucial question remains unanswered:

Who will rebuild, and for whom?

After 737 days, Israel can breathe again.

Amidst the chaos of nations, as the world order shifts and, sadly, many countries increasingly turn against Israel, only a few, such as Donald Trump, stand courageously and openly on the side of the Jewish state.

Especially at this time, this moment reminds us of the prophetic words from the Book of Joel:

I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. Joel 3:2

This land does not belong to people, governments, or organizations. It is G-d's land. And He has given it to His people, not for a limited time, but forever. Therefore, any attempt by the nations to weaken Israel politically, territorially, or morally is not a diplomatic process, but a spiritual conflict.

The demand for a two-state solution and the division of the land, these are not neutral decisions, but direct interventions in G-d's plan of salvation.

The prophets have announced it: He will hold the nations accountable, not out of vengeance, but to establish justice. F-r God cannot be mocked. What the world calls a “peace plan” may prove to be a “judgment” in G-d's eyes when it concerns His land.

But in the midst of it all, one promise remains: Israel will endure forever

And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy G-d. Amos 9:15

Every time Israel seems to be surrounded by darkness, G-d kindles a new light, a sign of His faithfulness and His covenant.

A call to all Christians and concregations:

When we witness such events today, we are not neutral observers, but part of what G-d is doing on earth. We are called to stand with Israel, pray for Israel, and raise our voices where the truth is being silenced.

How Israel reinterprets the term: ceasefire

Vanellus said:

How Israel reinterprets the term: ceasefire

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To those who don't understand that this country must defend itself, I ask: What do you actually expect? Should the Israelis just let themselves be slaughtered?

Virtually every day since Hamas terrorists murdered 1200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 more, Owen Jones, known for his activism for left-wing ideology and advocating class struggle positions, has been fulminating against the evils of the Jewish state.

For him it is out of the question, that Israel had the right to seek to destroy the Islamist psychopaths who not only carried out the attacks on Oct 7, but had promised endless repeats until Israel was destroyed. Not for Jones the observation that, tragically, civilians are killed in every war, something made deliberately more likely in Gaza by the terrorists’ tactic of using their own people as human shields.

Since the beginning of the ceasefire, it has been trying to regain control of the Gaza Strip. A terrorist group with thousands of fighters, tunnels, and weapons cannot be defeated overnight.

Those who oppose Israel in its efforts to eradicate Hamas are, protecting brutal terrorists.

Hamas threatens escalation instead of seizing the opportunity to withdraw in an orderly manner, they are throwing petrol back onto the fire that has been laboriously extinguished, while the battered "Palestinians" are still on their way back to their destroyed villages and towns. It's incomprehensible.

Benaiah468 said:

Those who oppose Israel in its efforts to eradicate Hamas are, protecting brutal terrorists.

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While Hamas executes dissidents in Gaza and hangs alleged informants from lampposts, young activists in the US cheer on an organisation called National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP). The group posted a message on Instagram that leaves nothing to be desired in terms of clarity: ‘Death to the occupation. Death to Zionism. Death to all collaborators.’

This is not a political opinion, it is a call for murder. And it does not come from a basement in Rafah, but from students at elite American universities.

The NSJP is no longer a loose protest movement, but an ideological network. Dozens of local branches operate under its umbrella, at Harvard, Berkeley, Columbia, UCLA and dozens of other universities. Officially, they present themselves as ‘human rights activists,’ but in reality they bluntly adopt the language and logic of Hamas.

In their latest post, they declared the death of Palestinian internet star Saleh al-Jafarawi, known as ‘Mr. FAFO’, a ‘martyrdom operation.’ He was killed in fighting between Hamas and the Doghmoush militia, two rival armed groups vying for control and money sources in Gaza. But the NSJP turned it into a piece of propaganda: Jafarawi was ‘murdered because he fought against Zionism.’

Anyone who dies for the truth in Gaza is a hero to them. Anyone who is murdered there by Hamas is hushed up.

The fact that American students are posting this sentence shows how far the brutalisation has progressed. ‘Collaborators’, in Hamas' vocabulary, this is a death sentence. This is what the terrorist organisation calls anyone who talks to Israel, distributes aid or calls for reforms. In recent weeks, Hamas has had dozens of such people shot, many of them without trial. Videos of these executions are circulating on social media, without any outrage from the ranks of the NSJP.

On the contrary, the movement is now calling for the destruction of precisely such people worldwide. Its statement reads: ‘Collaborators have no place in a liberated future.’

This rhetoric is no different from the language of the so-called Islamic State.

What is happening at American universities is a moral failure in academic garb. Under the guise of anti-colonialism, violence is glorified, and under the slogan of liberation, calls for lynching are spread. Those who support Israel are publicly defamed; Jewish students are threatened, lecturers silenced.

The NSJP styles itself as the ‘voice of the oppressed,’ but its methods are those of the oppressors themselves. Those who call for the murder of those who think differently are abandoning all democratic principles. This movement is not demanding justice, it is demanding blood.

Students for Justice in Palestine is no longer a marginal phenomenon in the United States. They receive donations from anonymous foundations, their spokespersons appear on television programmes, and they influence political discourse. But behind the appealing slogans lies a dangerous ideology: it divides the world into victims and perpetrators, into ‘Zionists’ and ‘resistance fighters’.

According to this logic, every Jew, every Israeli, everyone who cooperates with Israel becomes an enemy. The fact that such thinking is taking root at universities, places of free thought and tolerance, is a sad reflection on the American education system.

When students at an elite US university call for people to be killed because of their political views, it is not just a red line that has been crossed, it has been erased. This is no longer a discussion, this is incitement.

The NSJP has exposed itself: as a movement that legitimises murder in the name of ‘justice’, as a mouthpiece for terror in academic garb.

Those who call for ‘death to all collaborators’ today are calling for lynch law, and contributing to the return of hatred as socially acceptable. It is time to call this ideology what it is: anti-Semitic, totalitarian and deeply misanthropic.

Benaiah468 said:

In their latest post, they declared the death of Palestinian internet star Saleh al-Jafarawi, known as ‘Mr. FAFO’, a ‘martyrdom operation.’ He was killed in fighting between Hamas and the Doghmoush militia, two rival armed groups vying for control and money sources in Gaza.

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For weeks, sources in Gaza have been reporting serious clashes between Hamas security forces and armed family groups.

He was the digital poster boy for a deadly ideology, now he lies dead in the streets of Gaza City.

The man who presented himself on social media as a ‘reporter of the resistance’ and blurred the lines between journalism, propaganda and self-promotion died by the same violence he had glorified for years.

Aljafarawi was not a neutral observer, but a digital fighter in the service of a terrorist organisation. His videos from the ruins of Gaza, in which he presented himself as a ‘survivor,’ were carefully composed stagings. Time and again, he suddenly reappeared after allegedly deadly attacks, from his hospital bed, his head bandaged, smiling at the camera. Millions watched his clips, believed his stories, shared his messages. For many Western viewers, he became a symbol of the ‘suffering in Gaza.’ For Hamas, he was a weapon in the information war.

Gaza is sinking into internal "Palestinian" violence, and the death of the Hamas influencer marks a new stage of decay.

Saleh Aljafarawi knew how to turn the war into a stage. He posed with children amid the ruins, wearing a ‘PRESS’ vest and the smile of someone who appeared to be fearless. His message was simple: we are the victims, Israel is the perpetrator. But this portrayal was as manipulative as it was transparent. Behind each of his appearances was the goal of morally discrediting Israel and obscuring Hamas' role as the perpetrator.

The fact that he himself has now been killed by Palestinians finally destroys the façade. It is the image of a system collapsing in on itself, an organisation that can offer neither protection nor loyalty, not even to its own propagandists.

For Israel and the international community, the death of ‘Mr FAFO’ remains a symbol: Hamas' violence has no direction, no moral framework and no goal other than self-preservation. The people who serve it are devoured by it. And while the organisation continues to paint a picture of ‘just resistance’, its tools and faces lie in the dust, shot, forgotten, exposed.

In an interview with the Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya, "Palestinian"-American negotiator Bishara Bahbah outlined what the Gaza Strip could look like in the future. His statements have been received with quiet hope in US diplomatic circles, but with growing concern in Israel.

According to Bahbah's model, Hamas should surrender its heavy weapons, i.e. weapons that ‘can kill more than five people at once,’ the definition apparently taken from a conversation in the White House, and be integrated into new security structures.

Hamas itself gives no cause for optimism. Spokesman Hazem Qassem said almost simultaneously in an interview with Al-Arabiya: ‘We do not have to adhere to Israeli definitions of weapons. There are many other ways to act nationally.’ These words are not empty rhetoric. They mean that Hamas will find ways to continue arming itself – technically, organisationally and ideologically.

Even more worrying is the second part of the plan: amnesty for Hamas officials. Those who surrender their ‘heavy weapons’ will not be prosecuted by Israel or internationally – and will be allowed to either remain in the Gaza Strip or leave under US guarantee. This is not a peace offer. It is a diplomatic free pass for those who organised the murder, torture and kidnapping of Israeli civilians on Oct 7 2023.

In Israel, people remember well where such agreements lead. The PLO in the 1990s, Hezbollah in Lebanon, now Hamas in Gaza, every time the international community tried to tame terror through political integration, it came back stronger.

The idea of entrusting terrorists with administrative tasks may sound reasonable in diplomatic offices. On Israeli soil, it means that in a year's time, the same fighters who are now being ‘demobilised’ will be operating again in the name of a new ‘national authority’, with the same goals, the same symbols and the same ideology.

In Washington, they call it ‘a new political beginning.’ In Jerusalem, they call it what it is: a dangerous illusion.

The ceasefire has stopped the bloodshed, not the hatred. And as long as Hamas continues to exist under whatever name, Israel knows that the calm in Gaza has no future, only a pause.

For Israel, this does not sound like peace, but rather a countdown to the next war.

Following Hamas' refusal to release the remains of further Israeli hostages, Israel has decided on comprehensive punitive measures. The Rafah border crossing will remain closed until further notice, and humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip will be severely restricted.

Defence Minister Israel Katz speaks of a ‘targeted signal to a terrorist organisation that breaks every agreement’. ‘You cannot deliver humanitarian aid and at the same time stand by and watch our dead being used as political hostages,’ said a member of the security cabinet. Katz emphasised that Israel would act in close coordination with the US and Egypt, but would not make any further gestures as long as Hamas openly violated international law. A senior Israeli security official stated, ‘Hamas knows exactly where the remaining bodies are. They are holding them back to exert pressure.’

According to reports by Al-Arabi TV, Egyptian search teams are currently operating in the Gaza Strip to locate the sites where Hamas is believed to have buried the bodies of Israeli hostages. At the same time, a team of Israeli experts is holding talks in Cairo to find a technical solution for the return of the bodies.

The episode shows how fragile any agreement with Hamas remains: as soon as the calculation changes, cooperation turns into blackmail. For Israel, withholding the bodies is not a logistical problem, it is a moral affront.