GAZA RELIEF #42 August 23, 2024
YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS
We have had little word from our friends in Gaza. Haitham sent the video and map that you see below and wrote a single line in response to my question of whether they are near the ongoing shelling in the middle of the Strip.
Haitham: “Not so near. But we can't sleep from the voice and the smells.”
MILLIONS ON THE MOVE, AGAIN, AN EVER SHRINKING TERRITORY, AND THE ISRAELI MAP FOR RE-SETTLING GAZA
AP: Israel's evacuation orders have displaced 90% of Gaza residents, UN says
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-latest-23-august-2024-5c56af12beed1004cb30801f6e7c283c
The past few days have seen moments of hope, all quickly dashed, more savagery, and continuing examples of the United States inability or unwillingness to be a true mediator.
Some views and comment:
AP: Blinken ends latest Mideast visit without a cease-fire, warning ‘time is of the essence’
This article contains some points that just make me wonder. Air strikes continue in Gaza, killing mothers and their children walking in the streets. Two kids here, five kids there. Another 12 in a schoolyard. Very soon we are up to 150 additional deaths.
But, meanwhile, according to the cited sources:
U.S. officials believe that they cannot use restrictions on arms sale to pressure Netanyahu because then he might dig in ?!?!?!?
“Time is of the essence,” says Blinken. Perhaps so, Antony, but It certainly doesn’t seem to be of the essence for Netanyahu, who, still tops the Israeli polls.
This headline from Haaretz says even more:
Duped Again: The U.S. Somehow Heard Netanyahu Say 'Yes' to a Gaza Deal. He Didn't
Or, maybe Netanyahu did say he agreed, for effect.
But what’s the background?
We are seeing once again evidence of the long United States tradition of playing lawyer for the Israelis, and getting screwed for it.
Secretary Blinken goes to the Middle East and comes out of his negotiations with Qatar and Egypt with what he calls his bridging proposal, which quickly gets labeled the “deal,” indicating at the same time that it’s a “take it or leave it” proposal requiring compromise on both sides and that it may be the last hope for an end to the war in Gaza. Blinken is, however, amazingly short on the specifics of his plan.
Or, for that matter, short on any aspects of the deal.
Blinken then arrives in Jerusalem and presents the deal to only one side in the conflict, spends three hours with Netanyahu, and then announces that Netanyahu, man of peace that he is, has accepted the deal. But which deal? The same deal? Blinken is particularly succinct and clear in stating — without mentioning any of the terms — that Netanyahu has accepted the peace deal, and his version gets prominent, unquestioning play on all the front pages.
Blinken also asserts that, with Netanyahu having “accepted” the (totally opaque) bridging deal, it is up to Hamas to compromise, accept the deal, and to make peace happen. In other words, if there’s no agreement then, it’s Hamas’s fault, just as it was Arafat’s fault at Sharm and Camp David under the Clinton-led negotiations.
So, which deal did Netanyahu accept? Almost certainly not the one that Blinken negotiated in Doha. Perhaps one with additional demands from Netanyahu that he knows Hamas will not accept? And now, it appears, he actually didn’t agree to anything.
Again, Bill Clinton’s previously cited “superpower” comment comes to mind.
But why can’t the U.S. ever present its proposals to both parties at the same time, with full transparency?
Well, that’s because the U.S. always gives the Israelis a full veto over anything that it presents to the Palestinians. Only if the Israelis accept it, can it be presented to the Palestinians. That’s not a negotiation. And that’s not what a legitimate mediator does.
And, as we have seen, and as Israeli media has repeatedly reported, Netanyahu has spent the past months constantly adding additional demands of Hamas. Do we really think that he suddenly caved to the hardly forceful Blinken and decided that he wanted a peace deal, or more to the point, the peace deal negotiated in Doha?
As late as August 23, the U.S. is sticking to the same line, placing the responsibility on Hamas.
REUTERS: US envoy tells UN: Gaza ceasefire deal 'now is in sight'
The U.S. Ambassador to the UN told the Security Councl "Israel has accepted the bridging proposal. Now Hamas must do the same.”
UPDATES FROM NYTimes
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/08/22/world/israel-hamas-iran-gaza-war?unlocked_article_code=1.E04.mv51.a2fBMoFUFll0&smid=url-share
From Haitham: IDF destruction of the Rafah City Municipal Building.
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