Focus on the Middle East

Israel continues to escalate - now in Lebanon

30.09.2024

The Middle East is becoming more explosive every day - after the Israeli military has devastated Gaza - including Hamas - to such an extent that a threat to Israel's interests can be largely ruled out from there, the Israeli military is concentrating on the northern border - against Lebanon and Hezbollah, which rules in the north of Lebanon. With this fixation, Iran, which supports Hezbollah, is being targeted at the same time. After many years of close friendship with the Shah regime, which was overthrown by the Iranian population because of its reign of terror against large sections of the Iranian population, Iran is the declared main enemy of Israeli governments, especially those of Netanyahu.

The latest wave of escalation began with the Mossad's sabotage operation against Hezbollah, first the pagers, then the next day against other communications technology, which also affected a large number of civilians. This in turn led to increased rocket and artillery fire on enemy positions from both sides.

But far more serious is the planned ‘targeted killing of apartment blocks’ of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, precisely at the time when Western states, including the USA and Germany, were brokering a ceasefire between the Israeli army and the pro-Palestinian forces, which from a Western perspective was promising. According to the US government, it too was not informed of the attack. It seems that Netanyahu is also gradually slipping away from the control of his unconditional patrons, regardless of the arms and financial aid that is important for the Israeli army. It is again the same Israeli reaction as in Gaza, bombing away the negotiator on the other side of the table until someone more favourable sits there. Imagine if other states operated in the same way - if suddenly Zelensky was bombed when he had a foreign guest visiting?

How much longer will the Western states continue to support this policy of the Netanyahu government, which is aimed solely at maintaining power and delaying his indictment for corruption? This is always followed by a velvety soft ‘condemnation’ of Israeli military actions and calls to negotiate - but with whom? With the Pope?

As an initial reaction, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, declared that all Israeli and US objects were legitimate targets ‘in the global war’. It is questionable whether Iran will react in the same controlled and de-escalating manner as it did after the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran - announcing the attack, slow drones to shoot down Israeli air defences began the attack - only then did some cruise missiles arrive ...

In the past, Israel always coordinated its major actions with the USA in advance, but this time it doesn't look like that - Biden needs success for US election tactical reasons - and he is now on the brink of a regional war - from Gaza - Israel - West Bank - Syria - Lebanon - Iraq - Iran. Western foreign policy is to be congratulated; it is effective on a large scale?

‘On the other hand, it (the IDF) is a brutal army of occupation, similar, mind you, not identical, to the German troops in World War II. I'm not talking here about the behaviour of the Germans towards the Jews, that was something completely different, I'm talking here about how they behaved towards the Poles, Belgians, Dutch, Czechs and so on.’

Avraham Shalom
Director of the Shin Bet (Israeli domestic intelligence service) 1980 - 1986
in ‘Kill first! - Der israelische Geheimdienst Schin Bet’ - A documentary by WDR (German TV) - Very worth seeing!

Transcript in German of the documentary is linked here – if you like you can translate it in each modern Browser

It is time for the Western states - especially the USA and Germany - to distance themselves from the Netanyahu government

The situation in the Middle East is tenser than ever, with almost all national and international powers and organisations pushing for a ceasefire. In recent weeks, this has appeared to be blocked more and more by the policies of the Netanyahu government than by the various Muslim groups. The constant escalation is coming more from the Israeli side than from the Muslim side, as more depends on it for Mr Netanyahu - above all personally. Incidentally, the Israeli public sees it the same way, it is strongly divided, but there is a virtually unanimous view that the events surrounding the Palestinian attack on 7 October 2023 must be clearly clarified, which presupposes Netanyahu's resignation. However, this would also bring all pending legal proceedings against him up to date, which have so far only been covered by his official immunity thanks to his role as acting prime minister.

It seems to be time not to directly dismiss criticism of Israeli government activities as anti-Semitic, but also to deal with it positively in policy towards the Israeli government. Enough time has passed to form a picture of the current Netanyahu government, which is as right-wing and religious as Israel has ever had, and on the other hand most Western countries are putting off the legitimate claims of the Palestinians by constantly emphasising the Oslo two-state settlement, while at the same time, like the USA and Germany, supplying weapons and ammunition to the Israeli armed forces, thus enabling the Israeli attacks in the first place.

The situation in Palestine has been in an escalation phase for several years - in the meantime recognised as a separate state by the majority of UN states - see map - 141 out of 193 internationally recognised states - almost 75% of all states. This is a trend, some Western European countries have joined this year, the rift also goes through the EU and NATO.

Countries that have recognised Palestine as a state - as of July 2024

Even the USA and Germany emphasise the right of the Palestinian state to exist, albeit only verbally. If we want to end the Gaza war, which these two states also emphasise verbally time and again, we will have to negotiate with HAMAS, whether we like it or not. This is even more true now that international institutions are also calling for an end to the war, as all Palestinian groups have agreed on a unified policy in Beijing and the support of HAMAS has increased among the Palestinian population, but also in the entire Arab region. If the USA and Germany are now seeking these negotiations, how can they justify the killings - I refuse to use the term ‘targeted’ here, because in the Gaza Strip one would otherwise have to assume that the Palestinian civilian population is the target of the killings. The civilian casualties are disproportionate to the military results, unless Israel wants to completely destroy the Gaza Strip and make it uninhabitable. Peace negotiations, but also a ceasefire, can only be negotiated with the opponent. If you ‘bomb the other side of the negotiating table empty’, this is not possible, and experience shows that by removing the leader of a Palestinian group, a new one grows up, and it is hardly ever more moderate representatives of the groups who then take over.

The current problem is particularly acute because it directly involves Iran. A long-standing ‘favourite enemy’ of Netanyahu. First the US bombed the airport in Baghdad, ‘deliberately’ killing high-ranking members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, then the Israelis bombed the Iranian embassy in Syria, with the same aim and result. You can imagine the Iranian attitude to this. How would Germany react if Israeli generals had been ‘deliberately’ killed by Palestinians with drones or bombs while visiting a major German city? We don't even need to talk about imagining how the USA would have reacted to a similar allegation.

After the US attack on Baghdad airport on 3 January 2020¹ , the pro-Iranian forces limited themselves to smaller retaliatory attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria; after the attack by the Israeli air force on the Iranian embassy in Syria on 1 April 2024² , in which 16 people were killed, Iran responded with what was widely reported in the Western press as a ‘major attack with two waves of missiles and drones’. However, the fact that the otherwise unanimous condemnation of the Israeli action by the UN Security Council could only be thwarted by the veto of the USA, Great Britain and France is also part of the prehistory of the attack. It is actually unanimous under international law that embassy and consulate buildings of third countries are subject to special protection³. The Iranian reaction was again quite restrained and controlled, the attack with more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and rockets was announced by the Iranian Foreign Ministry to the neighbouring states, including Saudi Arabia, in advance in the first wave the comparatively slow Shahed drones flew - to shoot in, so to speak, followed by the cruise missiles and rockets. So the Israelis were warned, the only casualty was a child who was hit by parts of a missile that had been fired. Incidentally, this is a typical case: expensive rockets and cruise missiles, but also drones, are usually shot down by the defenders before reaching the actual target, and the falling parts, some of which are explosive, are scattered in the area where the missile was launched. If the targets are high-ranking targets in important cities, they are sometimes launched over residential areas, with the corresponding consequences for the civilian population living there. This applies to all modern wars, in the Middle East as well as in Ukraine.

The current Hezbollah attack on a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which is being labelled as an ‘Israeli retaliation’, could be analogous - there is an Israeli military post on a hill overlooking the village.

The rocket, or parts of it, hit a football pitch where children were playing. According to Israeli reports, 12 children were killed and 20 others injured. Despite their grief, the residents of the village spoke out against Israel using the death of their children as an excuse for further attacks.

Israel-Lebanon attacks on the respective neighbouring country according to UN statistics from ACLED

The map also shows the Hezbollah attack on the Israeli base near the village of Druze, which was previously reported.

Another low point in the security situation in the Middle East was the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh⁴ in Tehran on 31 July 2024. According to current reports, which as usual have not been commented on by the Israeli side, he was killed with a bomb by Israeli agents during his inauguration visit. The former Austrian Foreign Minister makes it clear that if Israel wanted to kill Haniyeh, as publicly stated, then Israel would have had the opportunity to kill him, it would not have had to be in Iran. The choice of Tehran as the target was deliberate in order to increase tensions in the region. In addition, Haniyeh's death has also eliminated Hamas‘ main negotiator for an arms freeze in the Gaza Strip and the liberation of Hamas’ Israeli hostages, which has an absolutely negative effect in this respect. Finally, it should be mentioned that Haniyeh was the Hamas leader who was responsible for the 10 ‘year ceasefire’ to find a peace solution, in which Hamas, as the de facto government in the Gaza Strip, also co-operated with the Israelis on security issues.

Haniyeh's successor has also been decided in the meantime - it is a Hamas hardliner, as was to be expected after Haniyeh's killing. This means that the negotiations regarding the Gaza war are once again at dead centre, and the question is who can be interested.

There is no doubt in Israel and all other states around the world that the attack on the rock festival on 7 October 2023 was a barbaric act. But this is also a result of the long-standing escalation of violence between the two parties, incursions by the Israeli army and Shin Beth into the territories A of the West Bank - under the sole administration of the Palestinians - are common, in which civilians are regularly wounded and killed with the justification of accessing terrorists, without this attracting major attention in the media or even official Western policy. Certainly, the number of victims per action in these incursions into Zone A is not as high as on 7 December 2023, but these actions are permanent.If one calculates the number of victims, the usual ratio for the conflict of both parties is at least ten times the number of victims on the Palestinian side ... This should not and cannot relativise the shock of the Israelis after 7 October 2023, but it does illustrate the Israeli policy of massive retaliation, which, as with the killing of Haniyeh, goes far beyond the actual conflict area in a deliberately provocative manner. Not to mention the statements made by Israeli ministers from right-wing religious parties - cutting off water, energy and food supplies - whose demands go as far as the expulsion of Palestinians and do not even stop at demands that are completely contrary to international law.

Either way, an investigation into the events around 07.10. 2023, which must also clarify whether the redeployment of Israeli military units to the West Bank triggered the Palestinian action, as the troops were needed there to repress major unrest; Whether special orders were given to the Israeli military to avoid hostage-taking - it has been a trauma for Israel for years that the Palestinians have captured Israelis - including military personnel, who are always referred to as abductees by the Israeli side, although characterising them as prisoners of war would significantly improve their status, as the relevant international conventions would then apply. But Israel wants to brand Palestinian resistance to the occupation as acts of terrorism and not recognise the Palestinians' status as combatants, as the majority of the world's states do. Israel must recognise that the Palestinians also have a right to their own state and that the only alternative solution to date has been the Oslo negotiations, which were also actively supported by Israel, but which have been undermined and deliberately undermined in recent years by the policies of the right-wing Netanyahu government.

The current Netanyahu government is extremely far to the right, as an alliance with far-right parties was necessary for Netanyahu to remain in power. One example is Israel's Minister of Internal Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir⁵, who regularly pours oil on all available fires. Whether with provocations on the Temple Mount on Fridays when Muslim worshippers visit, or with comments and demands that are almost unanimously rejected even in Israel.But Netanyahu needs him, without his Kach successor party⁶ Netanyahu could no longer govern.

An even more telling picture of Netanyahu's way of thinking and acting, which has also moved further to the right in recent years, can be derived from Israel's new nation state law, which he pushed through in 2018 and in which non-Jewish Israeli citizens (around 20% of the population) have lost many rights and are strictly subordinate to those of the Jewish faith.

Another example is the murder - classified as manslaughter by an Israeli military court - of the Palestinian Abdel Fattah al-Sharif on 24 March 2016 in Hebron⁷ - carried out by the Israeli military medic Elor Azaria. The Palestinian is already tied up and wounded on the ground, surrounded by around 10 Israeli soldiers, when Azaria arrives and points his rifle at the already secured Palestinian and shoots him in the head.
This would certainly have gone down in Israeli statistics as another anti-terrorist action that ended in the death of the assassins, as Abdel Fattah al-Sharif and another Palestinian had previously attacked an Israeli soldier with a knife, according to Israeli reports. But this time everything was different. An activist from the Israeli NGO B'Tselem⁸ had recorded everything with his mobile phone. As B'Tselem published the video on the internet, a trial had to be held. The charge was downgraded to manslaughter from the outset and he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The prison term was then reduced to 12 months and he was finally released after 9 months following direct intervention by Benjamin Netanyahu. Incidentally, former IDF deputy chief Uzi Dayan testified on behalf of Azaria on 19 September, after his admission at the trial, and stated that terrorists should be killed even if they do not pose a threat⁹.

Another fact for the evaluation of the Netanyahu government's policy is that the number of victims on both sides is not comparable at all; there are currently tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths, which are disproportionate to the number of Israeli deaths. The euphemistic description of ‘targeted killings’ should be banned, or at least banned from the media news. This was true for individual executions - see the Moroccan Ahmed Bouchiki¹⁰, who was accidentally murdered in Norway on 21 July 1973 - because he was mistaken for someone else - and even less so for the more than 100 dead, mostly civilians, who were killed by bombs in a school in Gaza on 10 August 2024 - a week ago - according to Israeli military information as part of a ‘targeted killing’ of the staff of a Hamas command post.

Incidentally, this applies not only to Israeli killings, but also to all other ‘targeted killings’ worldwide.
Because when one of the leaders of militant groups is killed in this way, hundreds of followers of the organisation always ‘grow back’. Terrorism is a criminal offence - suspects belong in court, not in the ruins of a school or a multi-storey block of flats.

With regard to the hostages still held by Hamas on 7 October 2023, it should also be noted that, as reported by Western media, the Palestinians who were in Israel on the day of the attack on the rock festival have since been interned in military camps, some of which have already attracted international criticism, as they are all civilians who entered Israel legally. There are several thousand people, including children, who cannot be linked to the attack. At the same time, the Berliner Zeitung reported on 13 August 2020 that the Israeli government had approved the construction of further settlements in the occupied West Bank. This is illegal under international law, and the German government has also objected to such activities - but this time it failed to do so. Is this how the Israeli government is contributing to the negotiations currently taking place in Qatar?

Apparently, Netanyahu is endeavouring to escalate the conflict in Gaza, attacks on Lebanon, Syria - Iranian embassy - and Iran suggest this. There are various interpretations as to why this is the case: his dependence on right-wing religious parties, his desire to postpone the clarification of the events before and on 7 October 2023, or even to extend his term of office for as long as possible, as he will have to deal with the legal investigations against him after leaving office.

Western governments, above all those of the USA and Germany, should react accordingly and actively support the peace negotiations, even if it means renouncing the supply of weapons. The defence of Israel against attacks from Iran is obviously not valid.Whatever your opinion of the Iranian government, it has so far reacted in a very balanced and rather de-escalating manner - even after the first attack.
Now the reactions of Western supporters of the current Israeli government are needed - how do they react?

As always, stay in silence?

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1	Iran: US military kills top general Kassim Soleimani -  Wikipedia
2	Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus
3	The only known analogous case is the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on 7 May 1999 during the war in Serbia, in which three Chinese were killed. Clinton later apologised to China for this mistaken attack. However, more recent independent investigations apparently refute this. US-amerikanisches Bombardement der chinesischen Botschaft in Belgrad – Wikipedia German
4	Ismail Haniyya – Wikipedia
5	Itamar Ben-Gvir - Wikipedia
6	Kach_und_Kahane_Chai - Wikipedia
7	Killing_of_Abdel_Fattah_al-Sharif - Wikipedia
8	btselem.org – An Israeli website that is worth reading
9	Uzi Dayan - Wikipedia
10	Ahmed Bouchiki - Wikipedia

Israeli military kills demonstrator in the West Bank by shooting her in the head

Turkish-American citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot in the head during a peaceful demonstration in front of one of the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank on 6 September 2024 in Nablus. The Israeli military claims that stones were thrown at the soldiers from the demonstration and that the soldiers had to protect themselves. Did the soldiers shoot by firing into the demonstration, or was it a targeted shot, as in the case of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh? In both cases, the general problem of the Israeli military is evident - it has lost, or never had, a sense of balance. Shooting at demonstrators can in no way contribute to calming the situation - on the contrary, it is an advertisement for terrorist forces. But perhaps that is the intention?

What is so special about Aysenur - she was Turkish and had the courage to take to the streets for the Palestinian cause, in support of the demand to stop the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. She paid for this courage with her life. But why has this murder been so explicitly publicised in our press by the Springer newspaper ‘Die Welt’, which is otherwise so pro-Israel? She had both Turkish and US citizenship - the more than 600 other people killed this year were mentioned at most summarily, and the occupier always defended itself in the occupied territory.

The fact of their dual citizenship virtually forced an enquiry to the US Secretary of State - who, as in other cases, was ‘waiting for clarification from the Israeli military’ before he could take a position. In the worst case, throwing stones against live rounds - a trend should have been established. But far from it! It is not the first death of US citizens and dual nationals that Washington, without a reaction, cannot be said to have done - it continues to supply ammunition to the Israeli armed forces, as does Germany, but without a backlash. Two cases should be mentioned here that are analogous and should not be forgotten in people's memories, as they have remained unpunished until now:

The case of Rachel Corrie

Born 10.04.1979 in Washington State, USA, died 16.03.2003 in Rafah, Gaza Strip

The young woman had taken part in protests against the demolition of Palestinian residential buildings in the Gaza Strip as part of the US solidarity organisation ISM and was crushed to death by an Israeli army armoured bulldozer. No international consequences.

Furthermore, the case of the storming of the Mavi Marmara on 31 May 2010

Entering the ship 9 Turkish citizens died, including one with dual citizenship - also US-American - Furkan Doğan, born on 20 October 1991 in New York State, USA

The solidarity flotilla, led by the Mavi Marmara, consisting of a total of 6 ships, wanted to transport relief supplies to the Gaza Strip.On board the Mavi Marmara were also international observers, such as the Swedish author Henning Mankell, Mairead Maguire - Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1976, Haneen Zoabi - Palestinian Knesset member and Edward Peck - a former US ambassador.In addition to these, at least 2 Left Party members of the German Bundestag also took part in the trip.

The ships - mainly the Mavi Marmara - were boarded by the Israeli navy while still in international waters, i.e. before reaching Israeli waters or the Gaza Strip. During the boarding, 7 Israeli soldiers were slightly injured, on the side of the travellers on the ships - 3 were boarded, but only on the Mavi Marmara was there live fire from the Israeli military, this was different.

An autopsy by Turkish pathologists revealed, quoted by Wikipedia, that one person had been hit by five shots from a distance of less than 45 cm, once in the face, once in the back of the head, once in the back and twice in the leg. Five of the nine fatalities had been shot either in the back of the head or in the back, and one shot had been fired from a maximum distance of 14 cm. A further 48 activists were also injured by gunfire, one of whom died in hospital.

The death of Furkan Doğan initially caused a stir - a US citizen dead - but then everything fizzled out again. In 2013, the Israeli government agreed to compensate the victims' families in return for the cancellation of the pending proceedings in Turkey against the senior Israeli officers responsible. Nothing more was heard in the press about a reaction from the USA.

The Western interpretation of the law in this case is also interesting - at the time, the version favoured by the West was that the ships carrying humanitarian aid were a legitimate military - not a civilian - target, as they interfered with Israel's claimed control over the Gaza Strip. Curiously, the basis of the statement was the International Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Israel has not ratified. The boarding of civilian ships by heavily armed special forces was therefore legal.

Incidentally, this view was also shared by the German Federal Public Prosecutor General in 2014, who closed all further investigations.

Nothing but deaths - imagine if Nicaragua had reacted in this way to ships and boats hired by the USA to supply the Nicaraguan Contras with weapons!

But back to Aysenur Ezgi Eygi - she was shot in the head during a peaceful demonstration. Let's keep our eyes open and see how we can get justice for her, because the major political decision-makers are suffering from acute dementia on this issue - and the media, if necessary, translate the Israeli Military Information Service, which is also responsible for censoring reports.

So our demand: Justice for Aysenur Ezgi Eygi - an international commission of enquiry should investigate the circumstances of her death.

After the judgement and its execution - if one can speak of it - on the murderer Elor Azaria, who murdered a wounded Palestinian suspected terrorist lying tied up on the ground in front of the cameras by shooting him directly in the head. After 13 months he was released at the instigation of Netanyahu. Such an investigation is not an investigation, it is a mockery of the victims. An investigation must be impartial - and the Israeli authorities can no longer be seen as impartial.

Trump's big "Peace Deal" - 01/28/2020

In the run-up to the meeting, Trump was expected to announce the farewell to the two-state plan of Oslo, which had so far only been half-defended by the western states - including the EU - in his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and the opposition leader - taking advantage of the worldwide wave of sympathy with Israel, resulting from the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, which justifiably occupied the world media the previous day and dealt with the crimes of the Nazis. At the same time, the meeting can be seen as mutual aid from both governments - Trump is under pressure - Impeachment and elections are in sight - Netanyahu - Corruption tank charges and also early elections. Trump did not go that far today - formally the two-state solution remains, even if another annexation of Palestinian land and anti-Palestinian planning were given a new, more aggressive face - an initiative that was immediately rejected by the Palestinian government.

The US-Israeli plan is now designed to create Bantustans for the Palestinians, and has unlimited control and power from the Israeli army, and can in no way satisfy the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people.

This assessment is also shared by the Israeli civil rights movement and summarized briefly as follows:

Not peace, but Apartheid: A brief response to the “Trump Plan”

What has changed today? The reality on the ground is already one of full Israeli control over the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and everyone living in it. It is a reality of one, inherently undemocratic, state. And so, the main change today is that Israel and the Trump administration are taking a step further in laying bare their intention to perpetuate this reality. This clarity significantly reduces the gap between the situation as it is, and the euphemistic terms used to describe it.

What hasn’t changed today? Tomorrow, there will still be 14 million people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, five million of them Palestinian subjects who have no political rights. And all of us here, in one way or another, will remain under the rule of the same government in Jerusalem, a government that works relentlessly to advance the supremacy of one people at the expense of the other, while continually trampling its rights underfoot.

And the future? What the Palestinians are being offered right now is not rights or a state, but a permanent state of Apartheid. No amount of marketing can erase this disgrace or blur the facts. But, the painful facts of today give rise to hope for the future, the only future that can genuinely offer peace. A future not based on supremacy for some and oppression for others, but on full equality, liberty, dignity, and rights for all.

That day will come.

Hagai El-Ad
B’Tselem Executive Director

Info mail B´Tselem from 28.01.2020