NO PICKNIC AT GAZA

Six months after Israel's fierce incursion into the Gaza Strip, everyone agrees that Tel Aviv cannot claim any kind of victory. How much time does the Jewish supremacists have left in power?

 

By Sidney Hey

I could not find a better title for this article than to allude to British Royal Marines veteran Julian Thompson's account of his experiences in the Falklands War in 1982 as a way of explaining how the Foreign Office and especially he and his comrades came face to face with a reality they did not expect.

Something very similar but magnified to the nth degree is happening in Israel with what has been going on in the 162 days of intermittent battles between the IDF and the unpredictable actions of a Palestinian resistance on the ground in Gaza that has left “Bibi” Netanyahu and his Israeli generals with a severe headache.

According to the logic of Israeli commanders, fuelled by military intelligence, Shin Bet and Mossad reports, in two weeks they would crush "Hamas" and take full control of the Gaza Strip. Nothing of the sort has happened. These failed speculations did not arise from the IDF's vaunted (and false) professionalism or the vaunted effectiveness of its intelligence, they simply came from being able to count on the continuous and almost inexhaustible supply of arms, bombs and financial resources provided from Washington. Despite this fabulous aid they have failed and that is where the migraines originate from the commander of the General Staff Herzi Halevi on down.

It is precisely this headache of impotence and the setbacks that their units are suffering on the ground that the Israelis are taking out on the Arab civilian population in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and the West Bank, committing all kinds of outrages, violations and crimes that have been recorded for possible criminal investigations.

Likewise, all these massacres and human rights violations that the IDF is committing in the strip have an impact on the psyche of the Israeli soldiers who, in addition to the physical wounds they may suffer, are already experiencing serious psychological and even psychiatric problems, causing suicides and a growing rejection of conscription among the population. These reactions are very understandable since, murdering women and children who only have canvas tents as their only shelter against their automatic rifles, shells and the bombardment of their F-16 planes, it must not be a pleasant thing to see the pieces of these innocents scattered around, let alone to live with it in your conscience for the rest of your days.

Obviously, Tel Aviv is hiding this from the world, and understandably so, as it is part of the lies it has been running on throughout its existence. Today, global public opinion is certain that Israel is not a victim.

Little by little the whole Tel Aviv victimhood narrative accusing Hamas of having carried out beheadings and rapes against women from the Kibbutz captured on 7 October is collapsing under the weight of the lies that make it up. So blatant has this been that many of the survivors of that day not only denied this, but accused the IDF of opening fire indiscriminately, killing both Hamas fighters and the hostages accompanying them.

Unsurprisingly, US media such as The New York Times (renowned for its neocon and pro-Israeli editorials) even published a story endorsing these alleged violations that had occurred at Kibbutz “Be' eri”. But this story was promptly denied by the same people who were the victims of these sexual abuses and with that, the doubts and discredit to the version Tel Aviv has been using to justify the massacres against the Palestinians increased.

In turn, these crimes are feeding back into the actions of the Arab-Islamic resistance on the eastern and northern fronts, which have so far led to a paralysis of the Israeli economy, especially in the port area of Eilat, and the flight of thousands of its settlers from the settlements bordering southern Lebanon.

With each passing day and each massacre committed by the IDF against the Gazans, the forces of “Hezbollah”, “Ansar Allah” and the Islamic resistance of “Kataib Hezbollah of Iraq” show greater determination and adjust with greater precision and power their attacks against Israeli targets and those of their Anglo-American allies, making it clear to them that they are not picknicking in occupied Palestine.

In northern occupied Palestine, “Hezbollah” attacks have intensified in number and firepower, destroying several Israeli military and intelligence posts, which in addition to casualties have caused great cost in terms of equipment destroyed or damaged. One of these targets has been the electronic intelligence facility on Mount Meron which has been bombed on several occasions with various weapons systems causing losses that Tel Aviv does not disclose. At the same time, the settlers in all the settlements near the border and especially “Kiryat Shemona” who boasted of being protected by the “Iron Dome” systems and even mocking the Lebanese with laughter and mockingly shouting “Allah Hu Akbar” (God is Great), are now the same ones fleeing, whimpering at the side of the roads forced to get out of their cars for fear of being hit by some “Hezbollah” projectile.

In the face of this, defence minister Yoav Galant and his generals are reportedly planning an invasion of Lebanon that could not only further intensify the predicted (by Henry Kissinger) non-viability of the state, but even its disintegration.

Meanwhile on the Red Sea waterfront and throughout the Arabian Peninsula, Yemeni operations by “Ansar Allah” and Yemeni Arab forces in their steadfast support for the Palestinians have given no respite to Israeli and their Western partners' commercial vessels attempting to pass through these waters with impunity. Despite the presence of the Anglo-American naval force trying to open the way, resistance operations against them continue. Even to the surprise of the Anglo-American naval forces, the Yemeni resistance using ballistic missiles and drones managed to strike hard blows in the Indian Ocean, backing up the words of their leader Sayyed Abdel-Malik al-Huzi who vowed to make it difficult for these ships to pass even as far as the Cape of Good Hope.

Against this, the Israeli government continues to accumulate more protests and disrepute both abroad and from its own population, not because of the indiscriminate massacres of Palestinians but because it is suffering heavy losses in the IDF and the economic cost to the entity.