DAILY SABAH – October 11, 2023
Palestinian death toll in Israeli strikes on Gaza climbs to 950
At least 950 people have now been killed and over 5,000 others injured in Israeli airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip, its Health Ministry confirmed Wednesday.
Israel has pounded neighborhood after neighborhood in the densely populated coastal enclave, home to nearly 2.2 million people, since Sunday.
The attack came in response to a surprise incursion of Israeli towns near the seaside territory by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas early Saturday.
At least 1,200 people were reportedly killed in Israel and around 2,700 others injured, the military claimed on Wednesday morning.
Israel has also placed a total siege on the enclave, already reeling under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007.
DAILY SABAH – October 10, 2023
Putin backs independent Palestine in US Mid-East policy criticism
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday the Israel-Gaza conflict showed the "failure" of Washington's Middle East policy and called the creation of "an independent sovereign Palestinian state" a "necessity."
The Russian leader made the comments while meeting Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Moscow, days after clashes broke out between Palestinian resistance group Hamas and Israel.
"I think many people would agree with me that it's a clear example of the failure of U.S. politics in the Middle East," Putin said.
He spoke of the "necessity to implement the decisions of the UN Security Council on the creation of an independent sovereign Palestinian state."
Putin said the U.S. had "tried to monopolize regulating (the conflict) but, unfortunately, were not preoccupied with looking for compromises that would be acceptable for both sides."
The West had "not taken into account the fundamental interests of the Palestinian people," he said.
A day earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the creation of a Palestinian state was the "most reliable" solution for peace in Israel.
The Kremlin said earlier Tuesday that a visit by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas – planned before the Hamas-Israel clashes – to Moscow was in preparation but did not give a date.
Moscow has said it was concerned that a foreign player could enter the conflict after the U.S. moved warships closer to its ally Israel.
https://www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/putin-backs-independent-palestine-in-us-mid-east-policy-criticism
Daily Sabah – October 11, 2023
Is a new Middle East emerging?
BY BURHANETTIN DURAN
The Qassam Brigades launched a comprehensive attack on Saturday, causing the Israel-Palestine conflict to recapture the world’s attention anew after long years. Initially shocked by the assault, Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that “our response to the Gaza attacks will change the Middle East” as his government’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, described the scope of the Israeli counterattack as follows: “Everything will be cut off – no electricity, no water, no food, no fuel. We are fighting human-like animals, and we will act accordingly.”
Those statements suggest that all options, including a ground offensive, remain on the table and that “the war” won’t be limited to Gaza. Saturday’s attack may have been a surprise for Israel’s security apparatus, but anyone keeping an eye on that country’s increasingly rigid policy on Palestine, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa in recent years had already predicted a major crisis.
Israel benefited more than others from civil wars and military coups in the Middle East and North Africa in the aftermath of the Arab revolts. Taking advantage of the diminishing level of attention paid to the Palestinian question, Netanyahu’s governments completely brushed aside the two-state solution. Moreover, the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital during Donald Trump’s presidency, encouraging Netanyahu to sign the Abraham Accords with the Arab states and double down on the extreme right-wing policy toward Gaza and the West Bank. Imposing a blockade on Gaza, Israel expanded its settlements in the West Bank and took steps to change the status of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa. Finally, the oft-ignored everyday violence to which Jewish fanatics have been exposing the Palestinians culminated in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Analysts highlighted the military capabilities of Hamas, the shortcomings of the Israeli intelligence establishment, political tensions among security institutions, opposition protests and the Iron Dome’s ineffectiveness. That the latest escalation coincided with normalization talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia, too, was duly noted. Again, observers underscored the importance of Hamas receiving assistance from Iran – where Israel has been carrying out assassinations. It goes without saying that Hamas’ unpredictable assault serves Iran’s strategic interests. One cannot help but wonder whether Tehran, which responded to Israeli attacks in Iran and Syria with silence, made its move from Gaza.
The answer to that question remains unclear. Even if one were to answer that question affirmatively, that would not suffice to disregard the agency of the Palestinians nor the unbearable nature of Israeli occupation. It has thus been established that the conflict won’t end until a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, is established. The post-Arab revolts era is now over. Palestine, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa will receive more attention going forward.
It is too early to tell where the conflict is headed. If Israel intends to target Iran and its proxies as Netanyahu initially suggested, however, that violence might spread across the region and create a new wave of turbulence. It was no secret that Israel would deliver a harsh response to Saturday’s assault. What we do not know is how Iran would respond to an attack against itself or its proxies – including Hezbollah. The nature of the Israeli counterattack and how others will respond shall determine whether a new Middle East will emerge.
Initial statements highlighted the possibility of an extremely violent and widespread conflict. To stop a new conflict-ridden period in the Middle East, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has urged all parties to stay calm and instructed Turkish diplomats to step in.
Burhanettin Duran is General Coordinator of SETA Foundation and a professor at Social Sciences University of Ankara. He is also a member of Turkish Presidency Security and Foreign Policies Council.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/columns/is-a-new-middle-east-emerg
The Intercept – October 9, 2023
Biden Doubled Down on the Abraham Accords — to “Devastating Consequences”
The Biden administration’s policy of ignoring conditions in Gaza contributed to this weekend’s explosion of violence.
By Murtaza Hussain
RECENT EXPLOSION of violence in and around the Gaza Strip, triggered by a Hamas assault that killed hundreds of Israelis, including scores of civilians, has drawn the U.S. back into a region from which the Biden administration has spent years trying to pivot away from. The U.S. has reportedly begun to move naval assets into the Mediterranean to provide support for Israel’s military operation against Gaza, a full-scale invasion that will likely take weeks, if not longer, to complete.
The new outbreak of intense violence represents a total failure of the Biden administration’s Middle East policy. The administration has centered its regional policy on the expansion of the “Abraham Accords,” a set of diplomatic normalization agreements between Israel and regional Arab countries. It is an effort in which President Joe Biden has sunk much resources and political capital.
The de facto premise behind the accords, initiated under former President Donald Trump and led by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, was to “solve” the Israel–Palestine conflict by simply ignoring the Palestinians and treating their conditions as irrelevant. This weekend’s events show that this approach, premised on Palestinian invisibility, has now collapsed. Indeed, the expectation that Palestinians would simply resign themselves to a slow death, an assumption evidently carried forth by Biden, was never realistic.
Rockets fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza as an Israeli missile launched from the Iron Dome defense missile system attempts to intercept them over the city of Netivot in southern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023.
“If you pay attention to their public statements, every government in the Middle East has been saying for years that you need to pay attention to the Palestinian issue and that it cannot be ignored,” said Yousef Munayyer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington. “The Biden administration’s policy has been to simply ignore the tragic situation on the ground, perhaps more than any other administration. It’s deliberate ignorance that has had very devastating consequences.”
Days before the conflict began, speaking at a public event on September 29, national security adviser Jake Sullivan praised the administration’s Middle East policy, stating that “the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”
“The ignorance and hubris it took to make a statement like that is stunning,” said Munayyer.
There have been long warnings that conditions in the Gaza Strip were a ticking time bomb. Gaza’s residents have lived under permanent siege for over a decade and a half, without the prospect of a diplomatic process anywhere on the horizon — let alone a solution. Their desperation had been building for years prior to the present war. Palestinian demonstrators, many of whom had never left Gaza in their lives, have organized several large protest marches toward the Israel-run border fence in recent years. They were met with indiscriminate gunfire from Israeli forces that killed civilians as well as medical personnel — as well as indifference by the international community, which carried on in the aftermath of the killings with business as usual.
In the meantime, the U.S. has sat on the sidelines as diplomatic off-ramps were proposed — and floundered. In 2018, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar wrote a letter in Hebrew to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking him to take a “calculated risk” in agreeing to a long-term truce with Hamas. The truce would have led to an end to Hamas rocket fire against Israel, in exchange for the reestablishment of economic infrastructure on the territory. Although some aid reached Gaza, Netanyahu ultimately rejected the entreaty for a broader truce. The U.S. did not apply any notable pressure on Israel to pursue this or other possible openings.
The U.S. government under both Trump and Biden administrations has remained AWOL in the years since and left the situation in the territory to fester, while U.S. diplomats spent time in distant Dubai and Riyadh dreaming up splashy new economic and political agreements to sell as successes to domestic audiences. Under Biden, the U.S. has devoted little effort to seeking even tactical détente, let alone peace, between Israel and the Palestinians, preferring instead to continue the Trump administration’s approach of ignoring the Palestinians to seek quid pro quo diplomatic deals between Israel and foreign Arab and Muslim countries with whom Israel has no direct conflict.
Even as the massive bloodshed began around Gaza this week, with Hamas militants massacring Israeli civilians and Israel apparently indiscriminately bombing the Gaza Strip, the administration has rushed to try and salvage its approach to the region. The New York Times reported on Sunday that top Biden aides were scrambling to “reaffirm their commitment to the idea of potential normalization of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.” This shoddy simulacrum of real diplomacy — which inevitably requires resolving tough differences between enemies — has now collided with horrifying reality in Gaza and southern Israel.
Precise numbers of the dead are unclear, as the Israeli government carries out a campaign of airstrikes and prepares for a ground offensive that it says is aimed at ending Hamas’s ability to conduct military operations in the future. But conservative estimates say that hundreds of both Palestinians and Israelis are already dead. It is almost certain that the toll will rise in the weeks ahead, particularly among Palestinian civilians, as the campaign inside Gaza gains steam.
Palestinians, Israelis, and officials of neighboring states have long tried to warn of the impending calamity that is now playing out. They warned that the rotten status quo in Gaza was close to producing a new and bloodier conflict. The Biden administration is not primarily responsible for the horror now taking place. But given the U.S.’s pivotal role in the region, it undoubtedly deserves a large share of the blame. A conflict that sat upon several major civilizational, religious, ideological, and racial fault lines deserved real diplomatic resources and attention from the U.S., rather than the pursuit of vanity projects focused on winning points in domestic politics. Once the bloodshed eventually stops, it is unclear how much may be left to salvage.
https://theintercept.com/2023/10/09/israel-palestine-gaza-diplomacy/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter
When peace fails to yield results war becomes inevitable
By Yusuf Dinç
A Palestinian, speaking about the war that began, said, "When peace, which has been patiently sought for many years, does not yield results, resistance becomes inevitable." Yes, when peace does not deliver what all sides hope for, war becomes inevitable.
The fate of war is similar in this regard. When war does not deliver what all sides hope for, peace becomes inevitable. However, there is one more possibility for peace. Peace is always a potential when even one party believes it cannot achieve what it hoped for.
Leo Tolstoy also had something to say about war and peace. Tolstoy says that those who start the war and those who desire peace can both be blamed.
How the war that started between Israel and the Palestinians will end, or if it will end, remains to be seen.
But the whole world is part of this war that Gaza had to start. It was the silence of the whole world that killed children in Gaza. It was not being with Moses and against Pharaoh.
While children, women, disabled individuals, journalists, and civilians were being killed in Gaza, the world that watched is unfortunately also responsible for civilians being targeted in Israel.
This war is not like the ones before. It doesn't seem to be ending easily.
What if Zelenskyy wants peace?
On the other hand, I think about the war in our north. Zelenskyy has almost thrown his people into the fire for the benefit of others. Let's say there was a chance, even a small one, of winning. But what does it matter... Peace was in the interest of all parties.
In Ukraine, too, dozens of civilians were killed or became victims of this war. There are many examples where it is said that it is not even clear who killed them.
If you pay attention, it's the Russian side that is talking about peace... Because Zelenski knows that as soon as he demands peace, he will also be blamed for the war.
But his deadlock is also leading Ukraine and perhaps Russia to the brink of destruction. There must be a way out of this situation. A way out seems possible only through a change in leadership.
An oasis surrounded by fires
Türkiye is like an oasis surrounded by fire from the south to the north... But this state of war and conflict threatens Türkiye's geo-economic equations. Although Türkiye has the capability to overcome these environmental crises and stay on its course, it could have provided much higher leverage for its own plans in a peaceful environment.
Under these circumstances, significant plans regarding corridors, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea cannot be realized. For instance, consider the Istanbul Canal...
There is no problem with the cost of the investment when it comes to the Istanbul Canal because it has the potential to yield billions of dollars and can easily recoup the investment. However, such an investment that would bypass the Montreux Convention while there is a war in the Black Sea should be put on hold until peace is achieved.
These tensions in the surrounding areas can have a high impact on Türkiye. But this period is not a time for inaction either. The most correct and efficient action to be taken is to continue operations until terrorism is completely eradicated. So, Türkiye should continue its operations without stopping until terrorism is completely eradicated.
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/columns/yusuf-dinc/when-peace-fails-to-yield-results-war-becomes-inevitable-3671575
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: violence solves nothing!
By Olivier Turquet
It may be trivial for some but in this dramatic and confusing moment of military escalation and propaganda I believe it is important to reiterate a simple concept: Nothing can be solved with violence!
This is not just my statement but a voice that is rising in the background of numerous comments that we see around, comments of more or less “authoritative” people according to common feeling, people who often due to their courage in saying things do not have that much space in the media.
When faced with a conflict, stopping at the juncture of things is a fatal mistake: nonviolence analyzes historical processes and the dynamics of events. When, starting from the First World March for Peace and Nonviolence, we included the withdrawal from the occupied territories among our demands, we were certainly thinking of Palestine, the territory occupied for the longest time and with growing contempt for the UN Resolutions, but we were also thinking of all the similar situations of territorial violence where the current realpolitik is preferred to the feelings of the people, and we know that every violence unleashes chains of other violence that can only be stopped with decisive and long nonviolent action: this is because all human actions have immediate and mediated consequences and because, as Silo says in Humanizing the Earth “contradictory and unitive acts accumulate in you.”
In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it derives from the claim to resolve a terrible violence with another violence and from the subsequent actions perpetrated to maintain this state of violence: the current deaths, however many they are and will be, are the price that the people pay to the senselessness of governments and international organizations established with the hope of resolving international conflicts; solutions, experiences of peaceful coexistence, associations that work together have already existed for years. These experiences, in addition to needing to be better known, should be a model, transformed into law, and a reference point.
Likewise, we will have to explain, once again, to our friends and comrades that violence does not allow for justifications and exceptions. We can discuss and delve deeper into the right of reply, often invoked as a justification for sending weapons to Ukraine: “They are attacked, they must defend themselves”. The right of reply is punctual and tactical: it is punctual because it ends in the action and it is tactical because even if I am part of a group that is authorized to use violence for a social purpose (the police force, for example) I must exercise that force in the least violent way possible and only for as long as necessary. The education of law enforcement in nonviolence, as Peppe Sini often reminds us, must be a priority for nonviolent people. And we know how far the police forces and armies are from this vision.
But if you don’t want to make it an ideal question, you can always remind all those who think that an armed struggle can solve the problems that the monopoly of the means of producing weapons is in the hands of the actors and builders of this violent system who turn on or off the taps of technology with respect to their market needs, certainly not to the needs of the people. If we don’t want to recognize the ideal principle, let’s at least recognize the practical question: how long can we resist with weapons against the best armed and organized army in the world? And, above all, at what cost to our loved ones?
Finally, I would like to launch a proposal for a different analysis of the current facts: there is a general process of destructuring of systems, beliefs, habits, and certainties that is increasingly manifesting itself across the planet; we could see which elements of this destructuring are at play in the current moment and we would probably discover that it is precisely the values that support violence that are profoundly in crisis and that, on the verge of collapsing, give back blows like a dragon hit by the hero’s arrows, just before falling to the ground.
I also carry out this analysis with the aim of comforting those who see in this human tragedy the annihilation of the Human Being who instead usually awakens his best qualities precisely in moments of crisis and nonsense.
So let’s roll up the sleeves of noble workers because it is a good time to build a new world with a new foundation.
Olivier Turquet founded the electronic news agency humanist Good News. He was press secretary to various events such as: the International Humanist, Florence Play, the World March for Peace and Nonviolence. Currently coordinates the Italian team of Pressenza. olivierturquet.wordpress.com
https://www.pressenza.com/2023/10/israeli-palestinian-conflict-violence-solves-nothing/
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