Israel: Displacement Versus Regional Expansion

Dr. Maysaa Al-Masry

It’s a war game between an isolated leader and an accused leader, a leader fleeing corruption and the courts, and a leader selling homelands like real estate on the pavement of the White House. How can they make peace? With the blessing of pseudo-leaders, once described as Arab Muslims, they have forgotten that history disowns false heroism, no matter how long it lasts. Indeed, it’s a stain that history will never erase, for conspiracies have an expiration date.

The game is aggressive and contradictory, with diminished rights and usurped land, and it is being exaggerated to create new heroes, expose traitors, and burn paper heroes. Announcing radical change is more Trumpian than it is a way to achieve the goal. The goal is geopolitical whose stakes are greater than those in the ruins of Gaza, or for the people of the West Bank.

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What we perceive now on the ground is the result as actually being implemented in the region of Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and elsewhere. This is far removed from the American political legacy, which has come to present itself as an unfair mediator with its possibility of implementing peace by force!

A Zionist base

We are faced with an occupying state that wields American power, a Zionist base in the heart of America and entity. America studies the state of politics firsthand. It is the largest country to explore the concept of state with military, geographical, and geopolitical capabilities. Geopolitical power is the most important element of its strength, exploited on the basis of geographical expansion.  

States are considered human communities that grow and expand, weaken and shrink. The plan, my dear friends, is a trial balloon the size of the Middle East, with its peoples remaining stagnant and helpless. But the question is: Where does its success lie?

Let’s address this point by point. Reality shocks us, while history never forgets the amount of public discussion about settlement and the forcible preparation of political conditions to weaken the position of the international community and Europe in the ongoing conflict to subjugate the Arab situation to the point of fragmentation, division, and subservience.

Yes, Netanyahu continues his war to preserve his government with Smotrich, and Ben-Gvir, to pump billions of dollars into the government budget, to evade prosecution, and to realize the agenda of the Likud and religious Zionism to control the levers of the occupying state in its extremist Jewish nationalist form. But to what extent can Netanyahu can he continue to be evasive?

Netanyahu is now using the concept of force through traditional methods of exterminating civilians and then displacing the largest possible number of Gazans. He is also seeking to change the map of the region, annexing lands in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Judaizing Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem, reshaping security to suit Israeli interests, and impose normalization. The region is in turmoil and change whilst undergoing a process of formation and renewal. The Syrian model is a prime example.

Regional expansion

The imposition of further conditions of humiliation on the Arab environment, the multi-front military campaign, as is happening in Syria and southern Lebanon, to reshape and strengthen Israeli security and regional influence in the long term. These developments will impose new facts on the ground to prevent any future political solution, as Israel seeks to expand settlements, forcibly displace Palestinians, and annex the remaining land.

Recognizing the Jewishness of the state and following the provisions of the Nation-State Law stipulates that Jews have the right to settle in the Arab region wherever they wish, and that the Israeli state must provide protection and care for every Jew. Declaring the Jewish state from the sea to the river is a form of soft displacement by all means, both covert and overt. Israel’s ambitions span the entire Arab region, as the Nation-State Law does not define the borders of the Jewish state posing great dangers to the delusional states that normalize relations with Israel, whilst believing that Israel will be an ally against an imaginary, fabricated enemy.

We should not overlook the fact that some Zionist political and military leaders believe that Israel should not consider the “alternative homeland” concept of displacement as a strategic and ultimate goal because it poses a constant danger and threat to its existence based on its assumption of a neighboring state(s) hosting the displaced Palestinian people within its vicinity as an occupier of their land and homeland.

Additional questions that must be raised is: To what extent should the goal be security-related? How large is the required area for expansion? Is this a fundamental and permanent requirement for Israel’s security, as has been stated? How does the area of ​​land, whether in Syria, southern Lebanon, or elsewhere, fit into a general Zionist plan to serve as Israel’s eastern flank? To what extent should the region be expansionist, to what extent should it be aligned with Zionist expansion into the Gulf states?

Another issue is: Will there be a push to conclude an agreement with Israel that is more important than Wadi Araba and be in Israel’s favor? What about the four-party negotiations or more, and to whom will the invitation be addressed? And what would be the price that would follow? Perhaps the Palestinian Authority itself? The contradiction in the statements is clear and deliberate, and Israel is the ruling authority there! The most important question remains: What leverage do the countries of the region possess and use to prevent its negative influence?

Greater Israel

What is of certain is that Israel is pursuing of what is beyond for the greater Zionist entity reach. While discussing the Jewishness of the state, we cannot overlook other aspects of Zionist lore, the most important of which is the construction of the pagan Third Temple on the ruins of the Dome of the Rock. Are we concerned about that?

Unfortunately, the entity of Israel as a whole is illegitimate, but the world offers nothing but rejection of our Arab and Islamic identity.

They continue with the Zionist entity’s plan for the Middle East under the guise of the Sharon-Eitan strategic regime, the “spit of the century,” and other labels, provided there is Arab and Islamic division, an increasing imbalance of power, and the absence of genuine Arab peoples calling for the freedom of their homelands…not to provide for their livelihood, whose voices will be silenced by the provision of aid and debt forgiveness, or such some.

The writer is a researcher specializing in Middle Eastern affairs and the above article was edited from Arabic that appeared in Alrai Alyoum website.

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Saudis Say No to Israeli Displacement Agency

Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned Israel’s announcement of establishing an agency aimed at displacing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry also denounced “the approval of the separation of 13 illegal settler neighborhoods in the West Bank, paving the way for their legitimization as colonial settlements.”

Saudi Arabia reiterated its “unwavering rejection of Israel’s continuous violations of international law and international humanitarian law.”

The Kingdom further stressed that “lasting and just peace cannot be achieved without the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

Israel’s Security Cabinet has approved the formation of a directorate to encourage what it called the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement late Saturday that the new directorate will work to “prepare for and enable safe and controlled passage of Gaza residents for their voluntary departure to third countries.”

Katz’s office said the new administration will be responsible for establishing movement routes, checking pedestrians at designated crossings in Gaza, and coordinating the provision of infrastructure that will enable passage by land, sea, and air to the destination countries.

Trump has repeatedly called to “take over” Gaza and resettle its population to develop it into a tourist destination. His plan was rejected by the Arab world and many other nations, who say it amounts to ethnic cleansing according to Anadolu.

The Israeli army launched a surprise aerial campaign on the Gaza Strip on March 18, killing at least 730 people and injuring nearly 1,200 others despite a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.

Over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 113,000 injured in a brutal Israeli military onslaught on Gaza since October 2023.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.​​​​​​​

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

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Gaza Deaths Top 50,000 as Israeli Army Continues Bloody Onslaught

At least 61 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, raising the death toll since October 2023 to 50,082, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

A ministry statement said that the toll included four bodies retrieved from the rubble in the last 24 hours.

The ministry said 134 more injured people were transferred to hospitals, taking the number of injuries to 113,408 in the Israeli onslaught.

“Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.

The Israeli army launched a surprise aerial campaign on the Gaza Strip on March 18, killing at least 730 people and injuring nearly 1,200 others despite a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

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Israel, Trump and the Latest Bombing of Gaza

Israel relaunched its bloody war on Gaza, with vehemence and callousness and with the blessing of the Donald Trump administration in the White House.

Its back to the “good old bloody days” of murder, mayhem and slaughter of mostly innocent women and children who have no part in the current war waged between Israel and Hamas.

Unwilling to quench its thirst for blood, Israel relaunched its war on the 364-kilometer Gaza Strip by killing over 322 people in the first five hours of early morning Tuesday while everyone was fast asleep.

Up until then it has been a “slight” rest bite reached through a ceasefire on 19 January between Hamas and Israel through US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators bringing an end to the daily killing of Gazans that today stands at 48,500 people.

Everyone is asking if the ceasefire is wrecked and stands in ruin on day 525, the total length of the carnage started on the people of Gaza soon after 7 October 2023, when about 1200 Israelis were killed.

Whatever the politics of the recent war, it has become amply clear the Israel slaughter has not been aimed at Hamas fighters, which it couldn’t eradicate even after 15 months of war on the Islamic organization but resulted in the mass killing of the women and children of Gaza.

The latest spate of dropping bombs on the people of Gaza, facilitated by the United States which stands as complicit in this genocide, sees no end light, but is seen as just the beginning although Gaza and its infrastructure is already annihilated with its people displaced and living in the wild and under the skies.

The world stands and waits to see, if the genocide will continue from this day onwards, or is it just a pressure tool to get Hamas to release the 59 or so Israeli prisoners it currently holds. If the latter is the case however, Hamas has long shown, it has a long breath and will not release the prisoners that originally were around 250 and now stands at the current number through exchange deals with the fact that the Israeli army has killed around 23 of them in failed rescue operations.

The latest bombings, carried from the air starting from the south of the strip on the southern city of Rafah, Nuseirat, Al Shati and Maghazi camps, and Deir Al Balah in the center of the enclave, including Gaza city and the destroyed northern areas, speaks of dark days are expected ahead.

Hamas are yet to respond militarily. There are couple of issues to consider here. Hamas officials have been talking to the Trump administration officials in the last couple of weeks about different paths.

Will that continue, particularly after this bloody debacle. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who long wanted to destroy Hamas, and thus the war to continue, said this time around, the latest military operation in Gaza is being carried out “in consultation” with Trump and his associates.

If this is the case, the latest Israeli deadly spate, may not last long, particularly because Trump is on record of stating that he doesn’t want the war to continue but wants to end it which means he will not continue to supply Israel with weapons indefinitely and there will come a time when he will stop.

But that might be a while before that and he may continue to tolerate the mass bombing of Gaza. However, since he is talking to different parties through his envoy Steve Witkoff, he will likely “manage” what Israel continues to militarily do in the Gaza Strip and be involved in a “stop-go” war process.

The problem with Trump is that also he is looking for different objectives in Gaza. He first wanted to displace its 2.2 million people to neighboring countries like Jordan and Egypt. Now, he appears to be retracting from this position because of Arab and world pressure.  

Will he backdown and order Israel for a quick “fix” and or let the war on Gaza continue by which time Hamas, will once again, start fighting Israel again, both in the Strip and through endlessly targeting its major cities, towns, settlements for the past 15 months.

Despite the fact that Trump said that “all hell will break lose” on Gaza if the war doesn’t stop and Hamas is not brought to heed, the US president is choosing to forget the Houthis, despite mass bombing them in the last couple of days. They promised they will continue to strike Israel if it continues to stand as an obstacle to humanitarian and food delivery to Israel and will not be deterred by US and British bombing of Yemen. And to prove their point, a ballistic missile was fired on the same day, Tuesday, after the Israeli bombing of the Strip.

Hence what Trump wants and what he will get on the ground are two different things. His wish to end the Israel-Hamas war and establish a “new Gaza” will not be achieved through parochial thinking.

The Palestinians are on the ground, they have no wish to go anywhere while Hamas continues to have a formidable fighting capability and have no qualms to going back to war. The fact they are talking to the mediating parties, including the US doesn’t mean they are ready to put their guns down and leave the grounds of Gaza.

Netanyahu must realize that unless he wants the whole Middle East region to be engaged in a perpetual long-term war. The question is Trump and the United States military establishment prepared for that?

The above-analysis is written by Dr Marwan Asmar, chief editor of the crossfirearabia.com website.

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