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Sat. Apr 12th, 2025 2:55:57 PM
Trending News: Palestine in 1944Israel’s Right is to Pack up and GoHow The West Came to Control ArabismGaza in Starvation Mode Thanks to IsraelGeorge Clooney For PresidentPalestineRemember a Late BirthdayIsraeli Academics, Soldiers, Airmen Say ‘No’ to NetanyahuIsraeli Planes Bomb Baby 50 Meters Into The Sky!Can Israel Change The Middle East?UK MP Calls For Expulsion of Israel’s AmbassadorTalk of Resistance Weakness is Wrong – Military ExpertNetanyahu Has Irked Trump. Why?Iraq Announces November ElectionsGuterres: ‘…Time to End the Gaza Dehumanization’Middle East PsychosisGaza Under The RubbleControlling AmericaIsrael Bombs ‘Journalists Tent’ in Khan Younis10 British Citizens Face Gaza War Crimes – Guardian NewspaperIsrael Kills Photojournalist No 2011 in GazaVictory For PalestineUS Senate Votes For Israel WeaponsIsrael Beheads BabiesIsrael’s Gaza Bombing Surpasses ISIS DaysCan Arab States Stop The Israeli Genocide?‘In Gaza We Die a 1000 Deaths a Day’Amnesty Condemns Netanyahu’s Visit to HungryTrump, Iran And The ‘Nuclear Fight’Israel Violates Syria With 11 Air Raids15 Martyred: Why Does Israel Kill Ambulance Men?Burning Muslim CivilizationIsrael Kills Journalist and His Family in Gaza‘Its as Bad as Ever in Gaza’ – UN WorkersThank You AnnieGaza Cracks Trump’s Image as ‘Peacemaker’How Israel Uses Its Legal System For GenocideThis is GazaThe Middle East OctopusGaza: Back to The Killing FieldsHouthi Missiles, Trump and The Israeli depth‘All Attempts at Displacing Gazans Failed’ – A Historical OutlineCanadians Say No to Arms Sales to IsraelUS Launches War on Yemen With 15 Airstrikes‘No One in Lebanon Wants to Normalize with Israel,’ says PM Nawaf SalamIsrael Kills Children as World Looks onIsrael Sentences Dr Abu SafiyaCartoon Made 13 Years AgoThis is Not Hiroshima, This is GazaAl-Duwairi: Houthi Missiles on Tel Aviv Confirms Failure of US Airstrikes on YemenIsrael’s Top Court Says No to NetanyahuIsrael: Displacement Versus Regional ExpansionGaza Massacres ContinueS. African Ambassador Gets Huge Welcome After Expulsion by TrumpSaudis Say No to Israeli Displacement AgencyGaza Deaths Top 50,000 as Israeli Army Continues Bloody OnslaughtIsrael Kills Two Journalists in Gaza Spiking their Number to 208Netanyahu’s Trap!Israel Destroys Turkish-Palestinian Friendship HospitalGenocidal Maniac From The Start!Israel’s Intensifies Displacement Campaign in GazaIsrael Kills 200 Children in GazaIn a Psychedelic Arab WorldIsrael Kills 130 Children in Gaza in a Single-Day – UNICEFIsrael, Trump and the Latest Bombing of GazaIsrael Kills One of Its Prisoners, Injures Two in Latest Gaza Attack – Hamas OfficialWhite House Complicity: Bloody Days Return to GazaTop Pakistani Architect Says No To Israeli PrizeIsraeli Raids: 326 Killed in Gaza in Five HoursIsrael Re-Launches Its War on GazaRachel Corrie RememberedWar in The Red Sea EscalatesIreland Stands TallHow Do You Deal With a ‘Political Earthquake’?Trump Orders US-Israeli Airstrikes on YemenRamadan Iftar Among The RubbleIsrael Kills 3 Palestinians Every 24 Hours in GazaTrump: Arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is The First of Many’Indonesia to Rebuild 100 Mosques in Gaza18,000 Bombs Delivered to IsraelThe A, B, C to Rebuilding GazaTrump: ‘Nobody is Expelling Any Palestinians,’ From GazaRebuilding Gaza: The Arab Plan V. Trump’s DisplacementPezeshkian: Iran Will Not be Bullied, Tells Trump to ‘Go to Hell’‘Godmother’ of Illegal SettlementsUS-Hamas Talks: Netanyahu’s Double-WoundTrump’s Envoy Boehler: Hamas Leaders Are “Actually Pretty Nice Guys, Guys Like US”On Hamas Talks: ‘The US Has its Own Interests’ Says Adam BoehlerShut!Israel Did This!Copenhagen’s Palestine SquareDark Days in Gaza ReconfirmedDevastating Loss!Israeli Settlers Want a Deal!Talking to Hamas: What is Trump up to?Litmus Test: Israel-USA Ties Dive as Trump Officials Talk to HamasStranger Than Fiction: Hamas in Trump’s WorldIsrael’s Forgotten Story: Palestinian Women PrisonersIsrael Kills 24 Women Journalists in Gaza‘You Have No Rights’
Sat. Apr 12th, 2025 2:55:57 PM
Archive
Avi Shlaim: ‘I am proud of my Arab heritage and proud of my Jewish heritage’ 
Avi Shlaim: ‘I am proud of my Arab heritage and proud of my Jewish heritage’ 

Editor’s Note: On the first anniversary of the bloody 7 October, 2023, I reprint the story I wrote on Professor Avi Shlaim that was scribbled early this year and published in countercurrents. Avi Shlaim is an eminent Israeli-British historian and international relations expert at Oxford University in the UK with many books on the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is part of what is called the “New Historians” who sought to provide a critical analysis of the prevailing Israeli view claiming Palestinians left their land of their own free will and were not forced out in 1948 as Israel was created.

In the light of Israel’s latest genocide in Gaza, he provides what he calls a “personal commentary” of his views as a Jewish Arab and on the current Netanyahu government.

“I am an Arab Jew. I was born in Baghdad and I grew up in Israel. My Iraqi birth certificate gives my name as Ibrahim. So, I am the real Ibrahim Al Baghdadi. The other chap is a fake. He stole my Identity,” he says in a mirthful manner.

Baghdad

“I am proud of my Arab heritage and I am equally proud of my Jewish heritage. The three pillars of Judaism are truth, justice and peace,” the historian, who left Baghdad at the age of five in 1950, emphasizes.  

“The Netanyahu government is the opposite of these core Jewish values,” adding “it is the most aggressive, expansionist, overtly racist and Jewish supremacist government in Israel’s history,” Shlaim maintains.

“The essence of Judaism is non-violence.” The present government is the anthesis of this non-violence,” he laments.

“As a Jew and an Israeli, I therefore feel that I have a moral duty to denounce Zionist-settler colonialism and American imperialism and to stand by the Palestinians in the anti-colonial struggle, in the just struggle to live in peace and dignity in their own land,” he concludes.

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Analyses
Is an Israel-Iran War Coming?
Is an Israel-Iran War Coming?

By Dr Khairi Janbek

In the late 1990s, the grandiose talk of a new order for the Middle East emerged which turned out to be nothing more than a euphemism for Disney Land Arab countries, poverty and conflict-stricken regional reality, with a mixture bordering on more than buffer zones.

Now we have a less ambitious notion and that is a new balance of power in the Middle East, another euphemism for Israel calling the shots and all its neighbors being called on to abide.

But how does this new notion translate in practical terms? Well basically, to all concerned and less concerned waking up every morning asking the question: Will Israel strike Iran or will it not? 

Of course, this is a horrific question if indeed Israel does hit Iran as it carries with it many important existential perils for the whole region and beyond.

One believes whatever is on Benjamin Netanyahu’s mind to achieve advantageous results must be carried out before the date of the US elections this November because no matter what he has been told by the US prospective candidates, at the end of the day, a sitting president doesn’t act like a president-elect.

Now what would a direct confrontation and open warfare between Israel and Iran entail? Well primarily, direct confrontation takes precedence over war by proxies, which means Israel will have to go directly into destroying the military capabilities of Iran in a hugely destructive war.

This would ultimately open the possibilities for its own destruction which means dragging the US and western powers into the conflict, no matter how reluctantly they maybe to defend it, and/or basically go into a slippery-slope open warfare reaching Syria and Iraq and Iran and whatever is on its plate regarding Gaza and Lebanon.

The current wisdom dictates a large scale war does not seem to be likely on the agenda, but that does not exclude a cycle of tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Iran.  Clearly Israel knows that for the economy of the west which is seriously preoccupied with prices and inflation, to target the Iranian oil facilities is a red line.

Moreover, to target the Iranian nuclear facilities would open the door for Tehran to retaliate against the Israeli nuclear facilities which will have dire consequences for the whole region and the world.

Therefore, if Israel is seriously thinking of dealing a blow to Iran, it will either resort to targeting personalities from the hierarchy of the country, and/or will be a just a face saving act with superfluous consequences.

Dr Khairi Janbek is a Jordanian writer based in Paris and the above opinion is that of the author and doesn’t reflect crossfirearabia.com.

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Analyses
‘Israel Will Not be Able to Defeat Hezbollah’ – Military Expert
‘Israel Will Not be Able to Defeat Hezbollah’ – Military Expert

Israel will not succeed in achieving the goals it set in Lebanon and will not be able to defeat Hezbollah said military expert Retired Maj-Gen Mamoun Abu Nawar.

He pointed out Israel is still unable to cross the border into southern Lebanon due to the heavy losses and after seven failed attempts to do so by its soldiers.

He stressed Israel does not have the ability to defeat Hezbollah despite the losses and assassinations it carried out through its air strikes on southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern district in the last two weeks.

Abu Nawar added to Jordan 24 the Israeli occupation army is trying to get out of the Gaza impasse and its inability to achieve the goals it announced there by opening the Lebanese front and is trying to cross the border and establish a foothold there to start extensive military operations later.

But he pointed out it is failing to do so after the heavy losses inflicted on its invading soldiers.

Abu Nawar explained opening a third front with Iran will not be easy and Israel does not have the ability to confront the strikes and ballistic and hypersonic missiles, which are considered among Iran’s most powerful weapons.

Abu Nawar pointed out that the air strike on Iran requires the approval of four countries for the aircraft to cross, namely Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria. He noted Jordan has already refused for its airspace to be used by both parties and the other countries will not allow the use of their airspace because they will be partners in the operation and this is not easy either.

Abu Nawar continued that there are also technical, technological and logistical reasons for Israel’s inability to strike Iran by air, including because the lack of aircrafts available to refuel after they were taken out of service; and in this case it needs the intervention of the USA to supply it with them or use its military bases in the Middle East, and this is not possible at the present time.

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News
Iraqi Drones Strike Eilat
Iraqi Drones Strike Eilat

Iraqi drones breached Israeli airspace, Wednesday night, striking Eilat which was built on the ruins of Umm Al-Rashrash. Sirens blared across the city as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) originating from Iraq penetrated deep into area, according to local reports.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for the operation, stating its drones targeted a “vital site” in the occupied city. The group emphasized that the operation was part of its continued resistance against Israeli occupation, expressing solidarity with Palestinians and Lebanese people, adding the attack was a response to massacres committed by the occupation against civilians, including children, women, and the elderly according to the Quds News Network.

Israeli Channel 14 confirmed three drones entered Israeli airspace over Eilat. One drone reportedly crashed near the port, a second was intercepted, and the whereabouts of the third remains unknown. In their statement the Israeli military acknowledged only two drones.

Israeli sources reported two injuries among Israeli settlers following the explosion of one of the drones in a targeted location in the city. Footage from the scene showed significant damage in the area where the Iraqi drone had landed.

This drone strike comes as tensions are escalating across the region. Israel is currently conducting a large-scale military offensive in Lebanon, while its genocide in Gaza has persisted for almost a year. Earlier today, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq also claimed to have launched a missile attack on a key target in northern Israel, describing it as part of its broader retaliation for Israeli actions against civilians.

The same group recently carried out a drone attack near the Jordan Valley, signaling its ongoing campaign of strikes in response to Israeli massacres of civilians.

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Analyses
Duwairi: Israel Not in Position For ‘Ground War’
Duwairi: Israel Not in Position For ‘Ground War’

Military expert Major-General Fayez Al-Duwairi said the Lebanese Hezbollah’s bombing of the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv is a qualitative but a disciplined shift so that things do not develop into a large-scale ground battle both sides are trying to avoid so far.

Earlier Wednesday, Hezbollah announced targeting the Mossad headquarters in the suburbs of Tel Aviv with a “Qader I” ballistic missile, in a precedent move since the beginning of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip about a year ago.

The party stated it targeted Mossad headquarters because it “is responsible for assassinating leaders and blowing up communication devices.”

According to Al-Duwairi, the party did not target Tel Aviv directly but rather targeted a military headquarters responsible for blowing up the pagers, which means it is an operation similar to the assassinations carried out by Israel in the Beirut suburb.

Therefore, he believes that the targetting does not mean bringing Tel Aviv into the unfolding battle, saying current Israel’s operations in Lebanon do not aim to destroy the suburb randomly. He added this reflects the keenness of both parties not to escalate in a way that leads to an open ground war, even if the comprehensive war is already underway.

No ground war yet

He explained the ground operation is the missing part of the comprehensive war between the two sides, suggesting Israel will continue to maintain this situation for another period in the hope of breaking Hezbollah’s will and subjecting it to its dictates.

He said Israel is using the Gaza Strip approach in Lebanon, but warned that the military solution will not be achieved and that Hezbollah will not retreat beyond the Litani River as Israel wants.

Al-Duwairi described Hezbollah’s operations as a war of pressure on the Israeli economy and society and not a war of attrition, noting the latter is based on targeting the civilian and military dimensions and that will only be completed through a ground confrontation.

He expected that a ground war would only break out if Netanyahu felt that the current pressure would not force Hezbollah to retreat. However, he pointed out that Israel previously remained in the Litani area for 20 years and was forced to leave due to the Lebanese resistance.

Hezbollah must rely on itself

He said the situation in southern Lebanon is completely different from Gaza, noting that Hezbollah will not deploy its forces on every square meter but will rely on the combat contracts that will grant it the desired victory in the end, because a ground confrontation means great losses for the occupation army.

Regarding Hezbollah’s strengths in a ground war, Al-Duwairi said they are represented in its ability to manage the battle and activate the unity of the arenas in Yemen and Iraq in an effective manner and not symbolically as is the case now according to Al Jazeera.

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