Israel-Hamas Thread II

Benaiah468 said:

Mamdami believes that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state in any territory.

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Israel’s right to exist​

During the long mayoral primary campaign, Mamdani repeatedly said that Israel has a right to exist, though he has not said it has a right to exist as a Jewish state. He usually qualifies the statement by adding that Israel is flouting its responsibilities under international law, based on its treatment of Palestinians.

He has been asked if Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. As he stated at the town hall with the UJA-Federation, he feels it should exist “with equal rights for all.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/what-...ally-said-about-jews-israel-and-antisemitism/

And before you call him anti-semitic, you might remember he is a semitic person.

Philip_B said:

And before you call him anti-semitic, you might remember he is a semitic person.

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Anti-Semitic is the wrong term anyway. Ideologically motivated anti-Zionism is more appropriate. Zionist means, that you believe that jews have the right to self determine in Jerusalem. That's it. It doesn't mean kicking any "Palestinians" out; it doesn't mean that muslims can't live there or christians or Arabs ant that's why today in Israel there is the most diverse country in the middle east with the most ethnic minorities living in it.

The American leftists are celebrating their own demise! Because they do not understand at all that there are no left-wing Muslims and there never will be! Because the left-wing worldview is fundamentally an atheistic-political ideological movement, founded by Marx and Engels! A millionaire's son preaches Marxism and is celebrated for it. The real anchor of his political existence lies in his parents' massive wealth.

Since members of left-wing Jewish groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice have formed close alliances with Mamdani and are likely to expand their influence under his government, the Jewish Majority has taken a counter position.

The true source of funding for his political power was revealed by Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour. She explicitly named the CAIR-funded Political Action Committee (PAC) Unity and Justice Fund, which she described as ‘the largest institutional donor to pro-Zohran PACs in New York.’ The Unity and Justice Fund donated $120,000 to the Mamdani camp, making it the main source of funding among the institutions. The explosive nature of this revelation lies in the fact that CAIR is under congressional scrutiny for alleged links to Hamas.

Mamdani advocates the ‘de-Zionisation’ of Israel and its establishment as a ‘state for all its citizens,’ which is nothing less than a call for the abolition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people by reinterpreting the national movement of the Jewish people as a moral evil. The abolition of Israel as a Jewish state is not even being discussed in the Knesset by the left-wing parties. Instead, the debate revolves around the interpretation and implications of the Nation-State Law. This law declares Israel to be the nation state of the Jewish people and stipulates that the right to national self-determination belongs exclusively to the Jewish people. Hamas claims that Jews stole the land from the Arabs and occupied it. The truth is that the land has belonged to Israel since the exodus from Egypt over 3,600 years ago.

Several hundred Hamas terrorists have barricaded themselves in their terror tunnels in the Gaza Strip and are now apparently trapped there. The tunnels run beneath the zone to which the Israeli army has withdrawn according to Trump's plan. Many of the passages are said to have collapsed, making it impossible for the terrorists to reach the area of the Gaza Strip vacated by Israel via underground passages.

Israel is calling on the terrorists to surrender. Hamas refuses to do so.

"Palestinians" always say no to peace. Half of "Palestinian" society has been taken over by radical Islamists supported by Iran. The other half is moving away from peace with unilateral resolutions at the UN. Those who trample on all human rights and are prepared to slaughter masses of civilians have no regard for democracy or peace. In fact, Hamas and other terrorist subgroups call for Israel's destruction, for genocide. And they are openly supported by Iran, which also calls for genocide. Israel seeks peace and coexistence; they want exactly the opposite.

Israel has a terrible history on European soil. Six million Jewish people were murdered. The State of Israel was created from the ashes of the Holocaust. This state is attacked again and again, by Arab states and now by terrorists supported by Iran. And it is repeatedly attacked verbally, through slander.

Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa has ruled out direct talks on normalising relations with neighbouring Israel for the time being. When asked about US President Donald Trump's desire for Syria to join the Abraham Accords for the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states, al-Sharaa pointed to Israel's ongoing "occupation" of the Golan Heights.

‘Syria shares a border with Israel, and Israel has "occupied" the Golan Heights since 1967. We will not enter into direct negotiations at this time,’ al-Sharaa said, according to the broadcaster's translation.

Most of today's borders were forged by war and geopolitical considerations. Loss of territory is nothing unusual for the losers of a war. War and conquest are brutal, and the spoils belong to the victors, whether you like it or not.

Israel's claims to these territories and the issue of the Arabs stranded there posed a long-term challenge for Middle East diplomacy. Syrian President Hafiz al-Assad was keen to recapture the Golan Heights militarily. The recovery of the territories lost in 1967 was an important motive for the Arabs attack on Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. After the second week of the war, the Syrians had been completely driven out of the Golan Heights. This resulted in another bloody defeat for the Arabs. When will they realise that they are fighting against something greater than just an army? Have Arabs and pro-"Palestinian" advocates ever asked themselves why they have lost all their wars against Israel? The Qur'an refers to the ‘children of Israel’ and the ‘holy land’ that G-d has assigned to them.

The military significance of the area is crucial to Israel's security in order to prevent attacks on Israeli settlements. Under the Trump administration, Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights was recognised. The Israeli government plans to promote settlement of the Golan Heights. As a result of the armed conflicts with Arabs, furthermore Israel gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, Judea/Samaria, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Israel has a sole and inalienable right to all parts of the land. Forty to sixty per cent of the Jordanian population is of "Palestinian" origin. Essentially, they do not belong in Gaza/Judea/Samaria, but in Jordan.

The Golan Heights are often mentioned in the Bible in connection with the land of Bashan, which was designated as the territory of the Israelites, especially the descendants of Manasseh. The land of Bashan was allocated to the half-tribe of Manasseh as a settlement area. The city of Golan in Bashan was designated as one of the six cities of refuge in Israel. People who had accidentally killed someone could flee there to be safe from blood vengeance (Deu 4:43: Josua 20:8; 1 Chr 6:71).

The Trump team considers its 20-point plan for the Gaza Strip to be the greatest foreign policy achievement of Trump's second term in office to date. It also sees it as a milestone in the expansion of the Abraham Accords, which were a major achievement of Trump's first term. Trump has promised his Republican supporters to keep America out of the ‘endless wars’ in the Middle East – this is also part of Trump's motivation.

Netanyahu also has a strong interest in the ceasefire working. He is aware that it will be difficult for the IDF to mobilise enough willing reservists to resume fighting in Gaza now that the last surviving hostages have been released.

For its part, Hamas is testing its limits with the slow return of dead Israeli hostages and occasional attacks on IDF troops in the Gaza Strip. But Hamas has lost its biggest leverage against Israel after releasing all living hostages, and it knows that the IDF could now act much harder and faster if fighting resumes. Therefore, despite sporadic clashes, the current ceasefire is quite stable.

So is Trump's plan for the Gaza Strip good for Israel?

In the first phase, Israel has control over 53 per cent of the Gaza Strip behind the ‘Yellow Line’, including control of the Rafah border crossing, in order to prevent Hamas from rearming. The IDF also has complete control or a clear line of sight over the entire Salah al-Din motorway, the most important north-south transport artery in the Gaza Strip. It has also been decided that there will be no reconstruction in the Hamas-controlled areas for the time being. Israel has a say in which countries provide troops for the international stabilisation force in Gaza. All these conditions are very advantageous for Israel and were accepted by the Arab parties when they agreed to Trump's plan.

Given that it will probably be extremely difficult and humiliating for Hamas to surrender its weapons, as required for the transition to phase two, the ‘yellow line’ or phase one could prove to be the new status quo in Gaza for the next few years. This is also evident from the fact that Hamas is reluctant to hand over the last bodies of the hostages. Once all the bodies are back, they know that this would mean the end of the first phase and the beginning of the second phase, in which Hamas must be disarmed and its terror tunnels destroyed.

Hamas will certainly cheat, delay and try to survive and regain control of the Gaza Strip. But if that happens, Israel has an agreement approved by the Arab states that legitimises the continued security presence of the IDF in the Gaza Strip.

The success of the Trump plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip will depend on how strong the pressure from the Arab/Muslim world on Hamas remains to disarm and relinquish control of the Gaza Strip. Many of these moderate Sunni Arab rulers are grappling with the problem of radical Islam in their own countries, and it is to be hoped that they will have the wisdom to continue to exert pressure on Hamas.

A report from Ankara is causing considerable unrest in Jerusalem: the Turkish government under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is apparently preparing to send a large-scale military contingent to the Gaza Strip, despite Israel's explicit opposition.

Around 2,000 Turkish soldiers are reportedly undergoing training for an international ‘peace mission’ that will officially operate under the mandate of the United Nations.

In Ankara, the planned mission is being presented as a contribution to the ‘stabilisation’ of Gaza and to securing the ceasefire. But behind the humanitarian rhetoric lies a clear political ambition: the return of Turkey as a dominant player in the Middle East even at the expense of Israel.

Government sources emphasise that Israel considers the presence of Turkish soldiers in Gaza unacceptable. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have made it unmistakably clear to US Vice President J.D. Vance during his visit to Israel last month that this constitutes a ‘red line’.

Turkey wants to expand its regional influence by presenting itself as the protector of the Palestinians. In reality, it is undermining Israel's sovereignty and attempting to gain Western legitimacy for its neo-Ottoman ambitions.

American advisers see the Turkish initiative as an attempt to limit Iran and Qatar's influence on the post-war order in Gaza – but Jerusalem does not believe in altruistic motives. Israel's position remains clear: no foreign military on land that has been demilitarised under Israeli control.

Experience from Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh shows that Turkish ‘peace missions’ are rarely neutral. They regularly serve as instruments of geopolitical influence through military presence, intelligence activities and economic expansion.

Erdoğan does not want to secure peace, but to control the narrative. When Turkish soldiers come to Gaza, they will not withdraw, they will remain there, physically or politically.

While Ankara is pushing ahead with its plans, other countries are pulling back. Azerbaijan, which was originally considered a possible participant in the international stabilisation force, has stated that it will not send troops at present ‘as long as the security situation remains unstable’. The United Arab Emirates has also ruled out any military involvement. Their foreign policy adviser, Anwar Gargash, described the proposal as ‘dangerous and premature in a highly sensitive situation’.

This threatens to derail the entire concept of a multinational peacekeeping force before it has even begun. Without broad international participation, Turkey could attempt to send its troops unilaterally if necessary, a scenario that Israel would consider provocative.

While the US and Israel are trying to establish a technocratic transitional administration, Ankara is exploiting the uncertainty to gain influence.

Gaza is not only a humanitarian hotspot, but also a geopolitical chessboard, and Erdoğan has just announced his next move.

Benaiah468 said:

Several hundred Hamas terrorists have barricaded themselves in their terror tunnels in the Gaza Strip and are now apparently trapped there.

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Israel and the US have now agreed on a deal to deport around 200 Hamas members who are currently staying in tunnels within the so-called ‘Yellow Line’ in the southern Rafah area. The aim of the agreement is to remove the remaining core of Hamas fighters and thus advance the complete demilitarisation of Gaza.

However, one crucial issue remains unresolved: no country has yet agreed to take in the 200 Hamas terrorists after their deportation. Neither Egypt nor Qatar, both of which acted as mediators in earlier negotiations, have signalled their agreement.

Whether and where the arrested terrorists will ultimately be taken remains unclear. However, one thing is certain: the decision will be made in close consultation between Jerusalem and Washington and marks a further step in the joint policy that there will be ‘no more room for Hamas’ in the Gaza Strip.

The ambitious Gaza agreement, which was celebrated as a foreign policy triumph for President Donald Trump, is in danger of failing due to a lack of planning and realpolitik feasibility. Documents originating from an internal security forum speak of a ‘strategic gap’ between the announced ceasefire and a sustainable peace agreement.

According to internal sources, key prerequisites are missing: no "Palestinian" partner capable of acting, no occupied ‘peace council’ structure, no binding coordination between the nations involved. A high-ranking participant in the meeting of CENTCOM and the new civil-military coordination centre in Kiryat Gat summed it up dramatically: ‘Everyone is talking about peace from 40,000 feet up, but no one knows who is supposed to stand in the dust below and implement.'

Internal presentations show that Israel currently still controls around 53 per cent of Gaza's territory, while 95 per cent of the population lives in areas that are de facto outside Israeli control. According to the figures, this is precisely where the terrorist organisation Hamas has already redeployed over 7,000 security forces and is exploiting the power vacuum following the ceasefire to restore its structures.

Meanwhile, the establishment of a civil administration is not progressing. Neither the PA nor independent local actors have the legitimacy or resources to take on this responsibility.

Currently, there is no clear leadership structure, no defined distribution of roles and, above all, no countries that would actually be willing to send troops for the planned international security mission.

According to internal notes, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Turkey have signalled their ‘fundamental willingness’ to participate, but are demanding an official UN mandate and are meeting with scepticism from Israel, particularly in the case of Turkey. Most countries are willing to send money, but not soldiers.

There is uncertainty in Gaza, mistrust in Israel and frustration in Washington. Military stability may have been achieved, but political peace is still a long way off. Without capable partners, clear responsibilities and sustainable strategies, the ceasefire threatens to become a dangerous limbo: too calm for war, too unstable for peace.

The agreement with Gaza was intended to demonstrate that American diplomacy can function without endless peace processes, but rather through clear power relations. However, it is now apparent that power can silence weapons, but it cannot build civil society.

If the US and Israel cannot find a credible administrative framework, other forces, Iran, Qatar, Hamas, will fill the void. The success or failure of this agreement will thus become a touchstone for the entire regional security order.

Israeli soldiers engaged in a firefight with four armed terrorists who emerged from a tunnel near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The terrorists opened fire when they crossed the so-called ‘Yellow Line’. Israeli forces responded immediately, killing three attackers and then searching for the fourth, who had fled back into the tunnel system. The incident occurred on Wednesday while Israeli engineering units, under heavy protection, were working to destroy a sprawling Hamas tunnel system, remnants of what was once the terrorist organisation's largest underground complex.

In another incident in Khan Yunis, IDF soldiers shot and killed an armed man who approached the Israeli line. According to the army, the fighters belonged to a remaining group of about 200 terrorists still holed up in tunnels in southern Gaza – an area the military refers to as a ‘terror pocket.’

At the same time, IDF units attacked other targets in and around Rafah, including buildings that had been identified by intelligence as command posts or weapons depots. The attacks were part of a systematic operation to ‘neutralise the last Hamas structures in the south’.

How that beacon of democracy in the Middle East treats Palestinian prisoners (not charged with anything of course).

Israel is keeping dozens of Palestinians from Gaza in isolation in an underground prison where they never see daylight, lack sufficient food, and are denied information about their families or the outside world.

The detainees have included at least two civilians held for months without a charge or trial: a nurse apprehended in his scrubs and a young food seller, according to lawyers from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) who represent both men. The two men were transferred to the underground Rakefet complex in January, where they reported regular beatings and violence similar to well-documented torture in other Israeli detention centers.

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They [the visiting lawyers) were led underground by masked, heavily armed security guards, down a flight of dirty stairs into a room where the remains of dead insects littered the floor. The toilet was so filthy it was practically unusable. Surveillance cameras on the walls violated the basic legal right to a confidential discussion, and guards warned that the meeting would be cut short if they talked about detainees’ families or the war in Gaza.

“I asked myself, if the conditions in the lawyers’ room are so humiliating – not just personally to us but also to the profession – then what is the situation for the prisoners?” Abdu said. “The answer came soon when we met them.” The clients were brought in bent over, with guards forcing their heads to the ground, and remained shackled at their hands and feet, she noted ...
Prisoners told the lawyers they faced regular physical abuse such as beatings, dog attacks with iron muzzles, and guards stepping on them, in addition to being denied adequate medical care and provided with starvation-level rations. Israel’s high court ruled this month that the state was depriving Palestinian prisoners of adequate food.
They have very limited time outside the cell in a tiny underground enclosure, sometimes just five minutes every other day. Mattresses are taken away early in the morning, usually around 4 a.m., and only returned late at night, leaving detainees on iron frames in otherwise empty cells.

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https://inview.org.uk/news/186168-p...gn=duckduckgo.com&utm_referrer=duckduckgo.com

Vanellus said:

How that beacon of democracy in the Middle East treats Palestinian prisoners (not charged with anything of course).

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Crimes are never good, but where is there a country where they don't happen? I don't know anyone who loves Israel (including the Israelis themselves) who would ever claim that there are no crimes in Israel or no people who commit violence against non-Jews. Israel is human, with all the good and all the bad.

Genocide is actually happening in Sudan right now, and you hear absolutely nothing about it from the vocal pro-Hamas activists and Israel haters in the West. This shows that they never cared about the people in Gaza.

No Jews, no news.

All the good and all the bad, take, for example, the violence perpetrated by settlers. They attack "Palestinians" and even Israeli soldiers. Israel's Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir describes the perpetrators as ‘a criminal minority that disregards the law and denigrates Israel's values’. Since the start of the olive harvest in Oct, there has been a significant increase in such attacks. The Israelis are dealing with hundreds of rioting youths who are out of control and must be severely punished. When anarchist youths use violence against innocent people and even against security forces, they cross every line. A small, violent minority does not represent the half a million law-abiding residents of Judea and Samaria. The government is also in contact with rabbis and community leaders to find a social response to the problem. These violent offenders are not only harming the “Palestinians”, but also Israel's moral integrity and international reputation. Every case is being investigated independently of origin or motive, and arrests will be upheld if there is sufficient evidence. Release on bail is not a matter of leniency, but of commitment to the rule of law.

While settler violence draws criticism, a deeper frustration simmers beneath the surface, fuelled by relentless "Palestinian" attacks that reinforce the impression among some members of the settler community that the state authorities are incapable of providing adequate security in contested areas. Last year alone, "Palestinian" terrorist groups carried out more than 6,300 attacks on Israeli civilians in the region, according to Rescuers Without Borders. These attacks resulted in the murder of 27 Israelis and injuries to over 300 other For some, this has reinforced the belief that deterrence must sometimes be created locally, even if that belief is flawed and ultimately destructive.

The challenge for Israel's leadership is to combat violence wherever it arises, while restoring public confidence that the state can and will protect its citizens without resorting to vigilante justice.

Political discussions about the future of the Gaza Strip are in full swing: international drafts, American models, Israeli demands, UN papers. But while committees meet and governments negotiate, a completely different reality is emerging on the ground. Hamas is using every hour of the new calm to re-establish its grip on the civilian population, quietly but consistently. The terrorist organisation, whose military and political leadership suffered massive blows during the war, is showing a different face on the ground: it is reorganising itself, appointing replacement cadres, carrying out executions and re-establishing coercive structures that determine people's everyday lives.

No reconstruction, no functioning administration, no reliable protection, but instead new ‘rules’, new taxes and the old fear. For the people, the situation today is hardly any more stable than it was during the fighting. For Hamas, however, it is strategically valuable: it fills the power vacuum before any decision has even been made on an alternative model of administration.

In neighbourhoods that the Israeli army has left, armed Hamas troops reappeared within a few days: not as shadow warriors, but openly on the streets. At the same time, Hamas is trying to take over civilian services such as rubbish collection and supply posts again.

The international community is discussing models that are slowly progressing, while a terrorist organisation is actively creating facts on the ground. The longer transitional mechanisms are lacking, the deeper Hamas becomes entrenched in everyday life, and the more difficult it becomes to actually establish future civil structures that are not characterised by fear and extortion.

Until the international community, the UN and regional actors present a clear and workable structure, this pattern will intensify. The question is not whether Hamas wants its power back. The question is whether anyone is currently preventing it from getting it.

It is a statement that is difficult to bear.

‘No independent investigation has found that rapes took place on Oct 7.’

With this statement, Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, has once again caused outrage. Not because there is a lack of information, but because she is disregarding the available evidence. While teams of United Nations experts, forensic specialists and humanitarian organisations have meticulously documented the atrocities, Alsalem has decided to publicly downplay this reality.

The fact that this statement comes from a high-ranking UN official makes it all the more explosive. On Oct 7, Hamas terrorists committed acts of sexual violence with a brutality that is almost impossible to describe. Most of the victims did not experience liberation. They were murdered, mutilated and buried. Many bodies were only brought to forensic scientists weeks later, in a condition that left no doubt as to what had happened.

An international team of UN experts reviewed hours of video footage, thousands of photos and numerous statements from survivors, first responders and independent witnesses. After this analysis, the experts determined that rapes had taken place in several locations at the same time: along Route 232, in the vicinity of the Nova Festival, and in Kibbutz Re'im. The patterns were clear. The violence followed a calculated approach aimed at humiliation, intimidation and maximum destruction.

These findings are the result of structured work, not political rhetoric. And yet Alsalem chooses the path of denial. This is not the first time she has ignored the Israeli context. She had previously stated that she knew nothing about rocket attacks on Israeli towns. Now she claims there is no evidence for crimes that have long been documented.

The crimes of Oct 7 are among the most serious attacks the country has ever experienced. The fact that a UN representative is ignoring the suffering of those affected sends a devastating signal: anyone who does not fit into the political narrative will have their pain downplayed. Those who are no longer alive cannot defend themselves.

In New York, the US and Russia are wrestling over the future of the Gaza Strip. The US has presented its own draft, and Russia has countered with a rival version. Both talk of stability, reconstruction and a ‘comprehensive solution’. But behind the diplomatic rhetoric lie two fundamentally different visions and both disregard Israel's core security interests.

The American initiative is based on Donald Trump's 20-point plan, which has been considered a possible foundation for a political solution since the Sharm el-Sheikh conference in Oct. Its core is simply formulated: the weapons should be silenced, the region should be administered internationally, and in the long term, the Palestinian leadership should return in a reformed, technocratic form. What sounds friendly in theory means, in reality, far-reaching international control over Gaza, with a newly created ‘mission architecture’ that would intervene more deeply than ever before.

Russia's version, on the other hand, dispenses with any concrete mechanism that could eliminate Hamas's terrorist apparatus. Moscow is relying on ‘continuous monitoring,’ a formula that in crisis areas around the world often means nothing more than inaction. While Washington speaks openly of demilitarisation, Moscow consistently avoids the word. The name ‘Hamas’ does not appear as a problem, not as an obstacle, not even as a topic.

However, one thing remains the same and it is significant. Both drafts want to establish the PA as the legitimate ruler of Gaza. In the American draft, this would only happen after far-reaching reforms, while in the Russian draft it would happen immediately and without preconditions. For Israel, both mean the same thing: a return to the structures that have failed for years to prevent terror, stop hatred and establish a stable administrative order.

To make matters worse, both drafts define the path to a Palestinian state as the ultimate political goal. This is a formula that is rejected across party lines in Jerusalem, not out of ideological rigidity, but out of bitter experience. Every attempt to put political constructs before the security situation has caused suffering and instability in the past. Without fundamental changes to structures, ideology and power relations, the concept remains a dangerous illusion.

What the US is proposing is a newly invented, costly international administrative structure designed to create order on paper. What Russia is offering is a diplomatic smokescreen that leaves the existing balance of power untouched. However, neither approach addresses the core issue: without the sustainable disarmament of terrorist organisations in Gaza, any political solution will lead to further escalation.

While Washington is at least attempting to address the reality of the terrorist network, Moscow is deliberately leaving this point open. a concession to actors who have no interest in a stable, peaceful future.

Which international initiative actually recognises that Israel's security is non-negotiable and that any plan for Gaza that ignores this principle is doomed to fail?

Israeli leader insists there can be no Palestinian state​

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday to oppose any attempt to establish a Palestinian state, a day before the U.N. Security Council planned to vote on a U.S.-drafted resolution on Gaza that leaves the door open to Palestinian independence.

essentialsaltes said:

Israeli leader insists there can be no Palestinian state​

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday to oppose any attempt to establish a Palestinian state, a day before the U.N. Security Council planned to vote on a U.S.-drafted resolution on Gaza that leaves the door open to Palestinian independence.

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For Israel, it is not the diplomatic text that is decisive, but the military reality that follows it. A arabic state emerging in the heart of the country without robust security mechanisms would be a direct path to the next escalation. The experiences of recent decades, from the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to the military build-up of Hamas, shape this view.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar has spoken out with unusual clarity against international efforts to put a "Palestinian" state back on the political agenda. He stated that such a state would become a ‘terrorist state’, referring to the security reality after Oct 7 2023.

Europe, according to Sa'ar, has been gripped by a ‘new obsession’ that ‘lacks any geopolitical logic.’ State-like entities are currently emerging in the Middle East that are completely controlled by terrorist organisations. ‘We are facing three terrorist states: Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen,’ he said, drawing a comparison with historical totalitarian regimes: ‘It's like the difference between today's neo-Nazis and the Nazi regime, which controlled territory and population.’

According to the Foreign Minister, many governments in Europe ignore this reality. Especially since Oct 7, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israeli communities and carried out a massacre, the Israelis' view has become even more acute. ‘If you now propose to establish a "Palestinian" state in the heart of our tiny homeland, just two kilometres from Jerusalem, that means it would gain topographical control over our population centres,’ he warned. Such a construction would be ‘an experiment that would inevitably lead to another terrorist state.’

This assessment is also reflected in public opinion. Many Israelis do not expect it to contribute to stability, but rather to pose an additional security risk, which is a logical conclusion based on the experiences of recent decades.

As long as terrorist infrastructure exists in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen, Jerusalem sees no basis for the establishment of a "Palestinian" state. The clear rejection of this by the population, over 70%, further underpins this position.

New data reveals 98 (a significant undercount, but these are verified) Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody since October 7​

Post-mortems of the deceased and testimonies from former detainees suggest many died from torture, medical neglect, and food deprivation. According to a leaked Israeli intelligence database, dozens were civilians​

Of those detained from Gaza, who make up the majority, less than one-third were classified by the Israeli army itself as militants — meaning Israel was responsible for the deaths of dozens of Palestinian civilians in custody.

Previously unreported data on Palestinian deaths in detention was obtained from the Israeli army and Israel Prison Service (IPS) by Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI), which released a reporttoday publicizing these figures. According to PHRI, 98 is likely a significant undercount with human rights groups unable to locate hundreds more people reportedly detained in Gaza.

Despite almost 100 recorded deaths in custody and abundant testimonies and other evidence of severe physical abuse — including widespread sexual violence, as documented in a damning new reportby the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights — only one Israeli soldier has been prosecuted; he was sentenced in February to seven months for assaulting detainees from Gaza. Five other soldiers have been charged with aggravated abuse and causing serious bodily harm to a detainee at the Sde Teiman detention center, after footage was leaked to the Israeli media last year.

As Haaretz reports, the Israeli army’s top legal official deliberately avoided launching investigations into alleged war crimes by Israeli soldiers, including in relation to deaths of detainees in custody, due to anticipated right-wing backlash.

essentialsaltes said:

New data reveals 98 (a significant undercount, but these are verified) Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody since October 7​

Post-mortems of the deceased and testimonies from former detainees suggest many died from torture, medical neglect, and food deprivation. According to a leaked Israeli intelligence database, dozens were civilians​

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The "Palestinian" Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is a leader in anti-Israel legal campaigns, ignores the existence of terrorism against Israeli civilians, and presents a distorted version of the conflict based solely on the "Palestinian" narrative. It is controlled by Hamas, which undermines the credibility of its reports.

I don't think anyone would question the democratic legitimacy of the US, despite Guantanamo. No matter who the perpetrator is, torturing people is always wrong.

Israel is judged as a democracy, but according to moral criteria that do not apply to any other democracy. When abuses are uncovered, it is seen as ultimate proof of an ‘unjust state’. It is an encouraging sign that such events are coming to light in Israel, even if it hurts and shakes confidence. When Israel examines itself, this is interpreted as proof of injustice.

In war, the horrors experienced repeatedly lead to brutalisation. But in every nation there are also malicious people whom war gives the opportunity to act on their inclinations with little risk of punishment, as there are no surviving witnesses (torture out of malice for their own satisfaction).

But even people who were normal before can slip. Imagine your child or brother is being held hostage and you have one of the suspected accomplices in your custody and want information about where your relative is being held. The temptation to go beyond what is permitted is certainly great (torture out of desperation).

The UN Security Council has adopted Resolution 2803, whereby the so-called international community has approved key points of Trump's peace plan for the Gaza Strip and granted it an international mandate for implementation.

Viewed soberly, however, the resolution will prove to be just as insubstantial as the Trump plan on which it is based. Yes, the intense phase of the war has come to an end, the surviving Hamas hostages have been able to return home after endless torment, and the terrorist organisation has returned most of the bodies that were still in its possession. But apart from that, there is no indication that the rest of Trump's 20-point plan could actually be implemented.

First and foremost, this is because Hamas has no intention whatsoever of surrendering its weapons, as demanded in the adopted resolution. Unsurprisingly, the terrorist group rejected the resolution outright: there will be no ‘demilitarisation’ of the Gaza Strip, nor will there be an international stabilisation force tasked with disarming Hamas.

This, of course, renders everything else superfluous, as Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon noted after the vote in New York: ‘The demilitarisation of Hamas is a basic prerequisite for the peace agreement. As long as Hamas has weapons, there is no future for Gaza.’

Those who are pleased with Resolution 2803 because it holds out the prospect of a future "Palestinian" state should perhaps read the text a little more carefully to see what it actually says. Point 2 refers to a ‘Peace Council’ that will ‘determine and coordinate the financing’ of the administration and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip

‘until such time as the Palestinian Authority (PA) has satisfactorily completed its reform program, as outlined in various proposals, (...), and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza.’. S.: Resolution 2803 (2025)

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There is no mention of who is to decide when a fundamental reform of the PA, which has indeed been repeatedly called for but never implemented, has been ‘satisfactorily completed’.

And further

‘After the PA reform program is faithfully carried out and Gaza redevelopment has advanced, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood’. cf.

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So if one day all these miracles were to come true, the conditions for a path to a "Palestinian" state might eventually be in place. And that would only happen after the US had succeeded in initiating a dialogue between "Palestinians" and Israelis on ‘peaceful and prosperous coexistence’. Is it necessary to point out at this juncture that the supposedly moderate PA has refused to sit down at the negotiating table with representatives of Israel for over ten years?

Only if one insists on seeing all this as confirmation of a future "Palestinian" state should one honestly add that its establishment has been postponed indefinitely by the UN Security Council. It is interesting to note that the highest UN body thus also clearly stated that this state does not yet exist today. The Security Council thus directly contradicted countries such as France, Great Britain and Canada, which had recently ‘recognised’ this non-existent state. (Whether the representatives of these states, including two veto powers, were aware that they had rejected their own policy in the Security Council remains to be seen.)

Remarkably, many of those in favour of the resolution saw its adoption as proof of the relevance and effectiveness of the UN. The adoption of a document that has no chance of being implemented is thus supposed to prove the importance of the UN: a worse judgement could hardly be possible.