2023-11-08 Hillary Clinton: Israel, Palestinians Need New Leadership for Peace “I think there needs to be new leadership of the Israelis and the Palestinians in order to have any chance at some kind of peace deal, especially a two-state solution.” Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks about the Israel-Hamas war. She speaks with John Micklethwait via video conference for the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore. (Excerpt)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iorNGSeazk
2023-12-10 Gaza is a weapons lab for the arms industry w/Antony Loewenstein | The Chris Hedges Report Whether it’s drone technology or the infamous Pegasus spy software, Israel has long developed and refined repressive technologies used by governments around the world by testing them on Palestinians. Antony Loewenstein, journalist and author of The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World, joins The Chris Hedges Report for a deep dive into the disturbing links between Israeli Apartheid, the arms industry, and global repression of civilian populations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PEWDLunejA
2023-11-14 Antony Loewenstein: Israel Is Testing New Weapons on Gaza as Arms Dealers Profit from Gaza War Worldwide protests calling for a ceasefire are drawing attention to the role of weapons manufacturers and distributors supplying machinery to Israel’s assault on Gaza, with demonstrators blocking shipping tankers and entrances to weapons factories, and unionized workers refusing to handle military materiel over the war in Gaza. There is “a growing public awareness and anger” about the global connection between Western powers and the Israeli military industry, says Antony Loewenstein, who has investigated how Israeli weaponry and surveillance technology are used on Palestinians and exported around the world. “Israel is already, as we speak … live-testing new weapons in Gaza,” says Loewenstein. He also discusses what he characterizes as the “intelligence” and “political” failures of the October 7 Hamas incursion. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGUoYnlboZk
2023-12-17 The NYT Is Fanning the Flames of a Fake Outrage When covering right-wing claims of antisemitism on campus, reporters for an ostensibly liberal paper should be looking at what is actually being said and what is actually happening. University presidents are under fire from politicians and the media over what is being framed as their waffling over allowing antisemitic speech on their campuses. But it is a concocted outrage that has nothing to do with safeguarding Jewish students, and The New York Times is going along for the ride.
As a subsequent Timesreport explained (12/7/23), Stefanik repeatedly tried and failed to get them to agree with her that calls for “intifada” and use of slogans such as “from the river to the sea” were appeals for genocide against Jews that should not be tolerated on campuses.
First, let’s be clear: Calls for “intifada” or a free Palestine “from the river to the sea” are not the same as calls for genocide. Merriam-Websterdefines the Arabic word “intifada” in the context of Palestine to mean “an armed uprising of Palestinians against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a slogan that’s long been used by Palestinians to “represent the vision of a secular democratic state with equality for all,” as University of Arizona Mideast studies professor Maha Nassar (Conversation, 11/16/23) noted.
The American Jewish Committee describes the phase as “a rallying cry for terrorist groups and their sympathizers,” saying it calls for the “establishment of a state of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, erasing the state of Israel and its people.” But as Nimer Sultany of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies told Al Jazeera (11/2/23), the word “free” in the slogan refers to “the need for equality for all inhabitants of historic Palestine.” So much for right-wing opposition to “cancel culture.”
2023-11-16 “From the river to the sea”: Palestinian historian on the meaning and intent of scrutinized slogan hat does the call “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” mean to Palestinians who say it? And why do they keep using the slogan despite the controversy that surrounds its use?
As both a scholar of Palestinian history and someone from the Palestinian diaspora, I have observed the decades-old phrase gain new life – and scrutiny – in the massive pro-Palestinian marches in the U.S. and around the world that have occurred during the Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Pro-Israel groups, including the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League, have labeled the phrase “antisemitic.” It has even led to a rare censure of House Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, for using the phrase.
But to Tlaib, and countless others, the phrase isn’t antisemitic at all. Rather, it is, in Tlaib’s words, “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence.” I cannot speak to what is in the heart of every person who uses the phrase. But I can speak to what the phrase has meant to various groups of Palestinians throughout history, and the intent behind most people who use it today. Simply put, the majority of Palestinians who use this phrase do so because they believe that, in 10 short words, it sums up their personal ties, their national rights and their vision for the land they call Palestine. https://www.salon.com/2023/11/16/from-the-river-to-the-sea-palestinian-historian-on-the-meaning-and-intent-of-scrutinized-slogan_partner/
2023-12-12 Pro-Palestinian commentator urges allies to stop with ‘from the river to the sea’ chant: ‘Incredibly hurtful’ [MEK Note: What’s wrong with you, Turk. Stop letting Zionists to control the any narrative!] “The Young Turks” show host and announced 2024 Democratic Party presidential candidate Cenk Uygur turned heads on social media this week after asking his fellow critics of Israel to stop using the “From the River to the Sea” chant, calling it “hurtful” to the Jewish people. Uygur, who maintains that Israel is committing “war crimes” in Gaza with its response to Hamas’ massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, added that the chant is “counterproductive” to the Palestinian cause. On his X account Monday, Cenk asked, “Can everyone please stop the dumb ‘from the river to the sea’ chant? It is incredibly hurtful to our Jewish brothers and sisters.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/pro-palestinian-commentator-urges-allies-to-stop-with-from-the-river-to-the-sea-chant-incredibly-hurtful/ar-AA1loIfI
2023-11-18 What ‘From the River to the Sea’ Really Means What does the call “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” mean to Palestinians who say it? And why do they keep using the slogan despite the controversy that surrounds its use?
Pro-Israel groups, including the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League, have labeled the phrase “antisemitic.” It has even led to a rare censure of House Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, for using the phrase.
But to Tlaib, and countless others, the phrase isn’t antisemitic at all. Rather, it is, in Tlaib’s words, “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.” Simply put, the majority of Palestinians who use this phrase do so because they believe that, in 10 short words, it sums up their personal ties, their national rights, and their vision for the land they call Palestine.
One reason for the phrase’s appeal is that it speaks to Palestinians’ deep personal ties to the land. They have long identified themselves—and one another—by the town or village in Palestine from which they came. And those places stretched across the land, from Jericho and Safed near the Jordan River in the east, to Jaffa and Haifa on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the west. These deeply personal ties were passed down over generations through clothing, cuisine, and subtle differences in Arabic dialects that are specific to locations within Palestine. And those ties continue today. Children and grandchildren of Palestinian refugees often feel a personal connection to the specific places their ancestors hailed from.
But the phrase is not simply a reference to geography. It’s political. “From the river to the sea” also seeks to reaffirm Palestinians’ national rights over their homeland and a desire for a unified Palestine to form the basis of an independent state. When Palestine was under British colonial rule from 1917 to 1948, its Arab inhabitants objected strongly to partition proposals advocated by British and Zionist interests. That’s because, buried deep in the proposals, were stipulations that would have forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs off their ancestral lands.
2023-11-10 “From the River to the Sea”: Omer Bartov on Contested Slogan & Why Two-State Solution Is Not Viable Israeli American scholar Omer Bartov says the two-state solution is dead after decades of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, making the creation of an independent Palestinian state all but impossible. He says a one-state solution — a single democratic state for all Jewish Israelis and Palestinians — is also unlikely to work given the competing national visions of the two communities. “The only solution is a confederation,” says Bartov, describing a scenario in which two states would be closely intertwined and interdependent. He also discusses the phrase “from the river to the sea,” used by both Israelis and Palestinians to refer to the land. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBaf3LpNJeQ
2023-11-10 ‘From the river to the sea’: Why these 6 words spark fury and passion over the Israel-Hamas war The Jordan River is a winding, 200-plus-mile run on the eastern flank of Israel and the occupied West Bank. The sea is the glittering Mediterranean to its west. But a phrase about the space in between, “from the river to the sea,” has become a battle cry with new power to roil Jews and pro-Palestinian activists in the aftermath of Hamas’ deadly rampage across southern Israel Oct. 7 and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” pro-Palestinian activists from London to Rome and Washington chanted in the volatile aftermath of Israel’s bloodiest day. Adopting or defending it can be costly for public figures, such as U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was censured by the House on Tuesday.
Many Palestinian activists say it’s a call for peace and equality after 75 years of Israeli statehood and decades-long, open-ended Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians. Jews hear a clear demand for Israel’s destruction. “From the river to the sea” echoes through pro-Palestinian rallies across campuses and cities, adopted by some as a call for a single state on the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. “From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” Tlaib tweeted, cautioning that conflating anti-Israel sentiment with antisemitism “silence(s) diverse voices speaking up for human rights.” Tweeted Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program and a senior Fellow at Arab Center Washington: “There isn’t a square inch of the land between the river and the sea where Palestinians have freedom, justice and equality, and it has never been more important to emphasize this than right now.”
Ask Jewish people in London what’s so chilled them about the current spike in antisemitism, and many will cite what seems like the ubiquity of the slogan. It is a sign, they suggest, that there’s much to fear. “Have no doubt that Hamas is cheering those ‘from the river to the sea’ chants, because a Palestine between the river to the sea leaves not a single inch for Israel,” read an open letter signed by 30 Jewish news outlets around the world and released on Wednesday. https://apnews.com/article/river-sea-israel-gaza-hamas-protests-d7abbd756f481fe50b6fa5c0b907cd49
2024-08-22 “So Horrific”: Doctor Recounts Treating Patients in Gaza Injured in Massacres Enabled by U.S. Bombs Tanya Haj-Hassan is a pediatric intensive care physician who has volunteered in Gaza multiple times over the past 10 months. She joins us to recount what she witnessed there and to explain why she is calling for an end to U.S. support for the Israeli military and the resumption of comprehensive humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Over the course of Israel’s assault, Haj-Hassan has treated victims of “massacre after massacre,” with injuries and casualties “enabled by American bombs.” She joins demands for Palestinian voices to be allowed to address the convention onstage and argues that Democratic Party leadership’s refusal is part of a systematic “process of dehumanization” targeting Palestinians. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsmOCcyl8Gs
2024-08-21 What I Saw Was “Unfathomable”: Doctor Who Worked in Gaza Speaks Out Against U.S. Arming of Israel A group of American doctors who treated patients in Gaza held a press conference in Chicago on Tuesday to describe the suffering they saw among Palestinians injured and killed in Israel’s war on the territory. The press conference, taking place during the Democratic National Convention, was organized by the Uncommitted National Movement, which is pressuring Democrats for an end to blanket U.S. support for Israel. Among those who spoke was Dr. Ahmed Yousaf, who returned from Gaza just weeks earlier. “When we got to the hospital, everything I saw on TikTok and Instagram and all the television, all the stuff that we had in alternative media … it was 100 times worse than I could have ever imagined,” he said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tywixc3GLDk
2024-08-20 ‘History Is Watching’: Gaza Doctors Urge Harris to Back Israel Arms Embargo at Democratic Convention As humanitarians opposed to the U.S. government’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza continued to protest during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Tuesday, American doctors who recently volunteered in the besieged enclave implored the party’s presidential nominee Kamala Harris—based on the carnage and heartache they have witnessed—to embrace an arms embargo on Israel and an immediate cease-fire.
during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the Uncommitted National Movement held a Tuesday press conference at which American doctors who volunteered in Gaza implored Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, to embrace an arms embargo on Israel and an immediate cease-fire. https://www.commondreams.org/news/uncommitted-dnc
The group includes evidence of a much higher death toll than is usually cited: more than 92,000 people, which represents over 4% of Gaza’s population. The doctors write, “With only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both. Israel’s continued, repeated displacement of the malnourished and sick population of Gaza, half of whom are children, to areas with no running water or even toilets available is absolutely shocking.”
The conditions in Gaza are “unacceptable,” and “people know this is wrong but no one is speaking up,” says Dr. Thalia Pachiyannakis, an obstetrician and gynecologist who volunteered at the Nasser Medical Complex. “We all saw evidence of a death toll that is certainly much higher than what is reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health,” adds Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon who volunteered at the European Hospital. https://truthout.org/video/us-doctors-back-from-gaza-push-kamala-harris-joe-and-jill-biden-for-a-ceasefire/
2024-07-24 Bay Area ER Doc Returns from Gaza; Netanyahu Faces Genocide Complaint to DOJ as Protests Mar his DC Visit Well over nine months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, many of the Palestinians throughout the area who survive Israel’s attacks have been disabled by either direct blasts or by the fallout from crumbling buildings. Meanwhile, access to medical care is severely limited, and over the weekend reports came out that polio had made its return to Gaza, where vaccines are generally inaccessible except to Israeli soldiers. Our guest in this segment is a Bay Area emergency doctor who just returned from his second trip to Gaza since October, providing emergency medical care amid the ongoing genocide. Dr Mohammad Subeh is a Palestinian American ER doctor who normally works at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. https://kpfa.org/episode/law-disorder-july-24-2024/
2024-07-05 Palestine Post: Latest News and Developments This week marks 9 full months of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. As we’ve done just about every Monday since October, we’ll turn back today to our recurring segment – The Palestine Post, talking about the latest news from Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the efforts that people are taking from across the world to stop it. We spend an extended hour (far too long to air on our slot on KPFA’s radio airwaves) in conversation with Nora Barrows-Friedman, a staff writer and editor at The Electronic Intifada, and also a former KPFA host and producer.
We’ll discuss a new report by the Lancet on the projected direct and indirect death toll in Gaza to be in the area of 170,000. Then we’ll talk about Haaretz’ report that Israel used the ‘Hannibal Directive’ on October 7th, which the Electronic Intifada previously reported just a few days after the Al Aqsa Flood and were lambasted for their coverage by mainstream media. We close with a discussion on the potential for ceasefire talks as representatives for Hamas and Israel meet in Cairo and Doha as well as a new commitment from the Presbyterian Church to divest from Israel bonds. To read the Lancet report: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltexthttps://kpfa.org/episode/law-disorder-july-8-2024/
2024-06-24 Palestine Post: Doctors Without Borders Doc Returns from Gaza; CAIR Demands Condemnation of Israeli Treatment of Palestinian Detainees On this week’s Palestine Post, we speak with James Smith who recently returned to London following two months of performing emergency medical care in Gaza. We speak with him alongside Zahra Billoo, the Executive Director of the Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
2024-06-24 Remember the Palestinian Doctors Killed by Israel In the first week of June 2024, the Palestine office of the World Health Organization (WHO) released figures about the atrocious attacks on health care facilities and workers in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
Thus far, according to the WHO, the Israelis have attacked 464 health care facilities, killed 727 health care workers, injured 933 health care workers, and damaged or destroyed 113 ambulances. “Health care,” the WHO’s Palestine office argues, “is not a target.” And yet, during the past seven months, health care workers have faced relentless attacks by the Israeli military. Each of the stories about the deaths is heartbreaking, the names of the dead are too long to list in any article (although a group called Healthcare Workers for Palestine did read the names of their dead colleagues as a protest against this war).
2023-11-14 We Are Not Numbers: Palestinian Journalist Ahmed Alnaouq Mourns 21 Family Members Killed by Israel One-and-a-half million residents of Gaza have been displaced by Israeli bombing and siege since October 7 in what many Palestinians are calling a second Nakba, or catastrophe, referencing the 1948 expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians to create the state of Israel. “It’s what has been going on for the past 75 years,” says Palestinian journalist Ahmed Alnaouq, who describes how 21 members of his family were killed in Gaza, including his father and several siblings. Alnaouq had not been able to visit his family for four years prior to their deaths, due to restrictions upon entry into Gaza. He joins us from London, where historic protests calling for a ceasefire were deemed “hate marches” by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who was fired shortly thereafter. Alnaouq speaks about global support for Palestinians and responds to U.S. President Joe Biden’s latest comments on Israel’s targeting of hospitals in Gaza. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-1dmng0TCk
2023-11-13 “Beacon of Light”: Fellow Doctors Recall Dr. Hammam Alloh, Gaza Doctor Killed by Israeli Airstrike We speak with two physicians who knew Dr. Hammam Alloh, a Palestinian nephrologist at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital who was killed Saturday in an Israeli airstrike. They recall him as a “committed physician, wonderful father” and “beacon of light.” He had refused to heed Israeli directives to evacuate in order to continue providing care to his patients. “He spent a decade learning how to serve his people,” says Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan with Doctors Without Borders. “He wanted his children to be able to see a day when they had a free, just, durable, free life in Palestine, without occupation,” says Dr. Ben Thomson, a fellow nephrologist who worked with Dr. Alloh. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hourhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvLS_zbVwGM
2023-11-13 ‘WE ARE BEING KILLED HERE, PLEASE DO SOMETHING’: NURSES AND DOCTORS PLEAD FOR GAZA CEASE-FIRE Doctors and nurses in the Gaza Strip issued urgent pleas for a cease-fire as Israeli forces encircled and attacked the territory’s largest hospital, trapping thousands of displaced people and threatening the lives of medical workers and patients. One Doctors Without Borders nurse texted his colleagues from the basement of al-Shifa Hospital early Saturday, writing that “four or five families”—including his own—were sheltering there amid heavy bombardment and fighting around the facility. “We are being killed here, please do something,” the nurse wrote. “The shelling is so close, my kids are crying and screaming in fear.” https://therealnews.com/we-are-being-killed-here-please-do-something-nurses-and-doctors-plead-for-gaza-cease-fire
2023-11-09 “Unspeakable”: Dr. Fady Joudah Grieves 50+ Family Members Killed in Gaza & Slams U.S. Media Coverage Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza has killed more than 10,500 Palestinians, including dozens of family members of award-winning Palestinian American writer, poet and physician Dr. Fady Joudah. “It is really beyond words to describe what it means to be a Palestinian in this moment,” says Joudah, who calls for the humanization of the people of Gaza and allowing more Palestinian voices into the public spotlight. “Palestinians in the West are only alive when they are dying, and that is abhorrent and unacceptable.” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf_R6xxebfI
2024-06-24 ‘Faith in Dialogue’ Won’t Stop Zionist Violence I spoke at academic institutions, civic organizations, and to religious groups. However there were always two groups which kept me away from their members:
Most synagogues — It was easy enough to explain this. Most organized Jewish institutions are partisan. They were and mostly still are, dedicated to the dream of a Jewish state functioning as a safe haven in an anti-Semitic world.
The downside of racism felt toward, and oppressive policies applied against, the Palestinians were realities they chose not to deal with. Even today, in the midst of overwhelming evidence of Israel’s failure to preserve either Jewish lives or Jewish ethics, most synagogues will not allow anti-Zionists to speak, even if they are Jewish.
The other group, Black churches, was at first harder to comprehend. During the struggle for racial justice in the U.S., culminating with the civil rights legislation of 1964-1965, there was an alliance between American Jewish and Black organizations.
That alliance was not as smooth and solid as it is popularly believed, but it was real in the sense that you had two groups who saw something to be gained by supporting each other. Black American success in the mid 1960s actually loosened the alliance because it created the space for a Black reassessment of Zionism.
However, that reassessment did not reach those Black Americans who were religiously motivated to identify with a biblically imagined picture of Jewish history. Or, as the authors we are about to analyze put it, “our shared history of slavery and oppression and our common biblical commitment to the prophetic traditions of justice and equality.” https://consortiumnews.com/2024/06/24/faith-in-dialogue-wont-stop-zionist-violence/
2023-13-26 Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes: ‘Occult element’ among Jews must be executed [MEK Note: Fuentes is a perfect example of right wing Christians who support Israel while hating Jewish people. They believe that Israel needs to be whole to fulfil the 2nd coming that will forsake all including Jewish believers but bring everlasting life to true Christians.]
The white supremacist figure Nick Fuentes said earlier this month that “there is an occult element at the high levels of society, and specifically among the Jews,” and that “when we take power, they need to be given the death penalty.” Fuentes, 25, who denies the Holocaust, came to prominence with an online far-right broadcast called “America First,” drawing its name from the 2016 campaign slogan of former president Donald Trump. It was on this show, banned from most major platforms, that Fuentes made these most recent statements on December 8. “I’m far more concerned,” Fuentes said, about “these people that are communing with demons and engaging in this sort of witchcraft and stuff” than “I am [concerned about] even non-white people or mass migration.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/neo-nazi-nick-fuentes-occult-element-among-jews-must-be-executed/ar-AA1m3K6A
2023-11-07 America’s Christian Zionists: Israel’s strategic weapon? Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a recent speech that the “prophecy of Isaiah ” would be fulfilled. This is a reference to a Christian evangelical belief in the second coming of the Messiah, which opposes the mainstream Christian belief that the Messiah was Jesus himself. So why do Christian evangelicals — who constitute a significant voter bloc in the US Republican Party — support Israel? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bprofax5SPk
2022-12-12 How Evangelicals Betray Christians In The Holy Land [Pt. 2] For millions of American evangelical Christians, supporting Israel is a core part of their faith. They believe Israel needs to exist so that the “end times” prophecies and return of Jesus Christ are guaranteed. But what does that support mean for people who share their religion but live under Israeli occupation? Dena talks to Palestinian Christians about the evangelical Christian Zionist movement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHT-SjIM0tA
2022-03-05 Don Wagner: Christian Zionism and growing backlash inside American churches 2022 Transcending the Israel lobby at Home & Abroad conference March 4 at the National Press Club.
Rev. Dr. Don Wagner recently retired as national program director of Friends of Sabeel-North America. Prior to that he was a professor of Middle East studies at North Park University, where he was also the director of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies. During the 1980s he was the national director of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Rev. Wagner has served churches in New Jersey and Evanston, IL. He is the author or co-author of five books dealing with Palestinian human rights, Christian Zionism, a theological critique of Zionism and a history of Christianity in Palestine-Israel. These include Anxious for Armageddon: A Call to Partnership for Middle Eastern and Western Christians (1995) , Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land (2014) and Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost to 2000 (2003).
The history and theology of Christian Zionism is a central topic of the book he is currently writing. Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApbD9-fJFHk
2021-06-21 What is Christian Zionism and why does it matter?? (Understanding the End Times) JM’s debate with Dr. Michael Brown that was mentioned in this video, as well as additional resources for understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be found at: www.discipledojo.org/blog/israel-palestinehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT1Wv6Vqw8U
2021-02-11 Confronting Christian Zionism Webinar (2/11/2021) The Working Group on the Middle East of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod presents “Confronting Christian Zionism as Faithful Witness.” The event was held on February 11, 2021, and featured the Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel and the Rev. Dr. Robert O. Smith. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRdgTlfn73A
2020-04-26 With God on Our Side (2010) | Full Movie | Evan Albertyn | Gary Burge | Ron Dart With God On Our Side takes a look at the theology of Christian Zionism, which teaches that because the Jews are God’s chosen people, they have a divine right to the land of Israel. Aspects of this belief system lead some Christians in the West to give uncritical support to Israeli government policies, even those that privilege Jews at the expense of Palestinians, leading to great suffering among Muslim and Christian Palestinians alike and threatening Israel’s security as a whole. Is there a Biblical alternative for Christians who want to love and support the people of Israel? A way that doesn’t favor one people group over another but instead promotes peace and reconciliation for both Jews and Palestinians?
2023-11-15 BREAKING: IDF TARGETING Hamas Inside Al-Shifa Hospital, INTERCEPTS Houthi Missile | TBN Israel TBN Israel’s Yair Pinto reports from the frontlines of the Israel-Gaza War while on active duty with the IDF. Pinto reports that the IDF has initiated its operation targeting Hamas locations inside Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital while also delivering humanitarian aid and supplies to the hospital. Israeli forces continue to make progress in the Al-Shati refugee camp by eliminating access to Hamas terror tunnels. In the south, a ballistic missile attack launched from Yemen was intercepted by Israel’s Arrow Missile Defense System. Stay up-to-date with the latest developments here on TBN Israel. Please join us in praying for the peace of Israel and Jerusalem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsxlyZaxNaM
2023-11-15 IDF Publishes Evidence of Weapons found inside Gaza’s Shifa Hospital’s MRI Center The Israel Defense Forces releases evidence of Hamas weapons found inside Shifa Hospital during a raid in the medical center today. It says members of the elite Shaldag unit and other forces of the 36th Division found the weapons inside Shifa’s MRI center. Troops had battled Hamas gunmen outside the hospital, killing five.
“During searches inside one of the hospital’s wards, the troops located a room containing unique technological means, combat equipment, and military equipment used by the Hamas terrorist organization,” the IDF says. It publishes images and videos showing several assault rifles, grenades, and other military equipment. It says that in another ward, it found a Hamas operational headquarters and “technological means” which it says indicates Hamas’s use of the facility for terror IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, in an evening press conference, says troops found Hamas uniforms “that were thrown on the hospital floor so that the terrorists could escape in civilian guise.” “These findings unequivocally prove that the hospital was used for terror, in complete violation of international law,” he says. The IDF says it will continue to operate in Shifa Hospital, under which Hamas is believed to have its main command center, in order to find intelligence information and Hamas assets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQDawQ4IR2o
2023-11-15 Israel army claims it found Hamas items at Al Shifa Israel’s army claims its troops have located a small number of items belonging to Hamas inside Al Shifa Hospital. Weapons and some gear were shown in video provided by the Israeli military. The claims cannot be independently verified. Hamas denies using the hospital as a base. The troops are seen searching the MRI building of the Al Shifa hospital complex. Mustafa Barghouti, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, joins Al Jazeera live from Ramallah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qs829DDrSo
2023-11-28 Jeremy Scahill: Israel’s “Lethal Lie” About Al-Shifa Hospital as Hamas Base Was Co-Signed by Biden The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill deconstructs Israel’s narrative around Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, including unsubstantiated allegations Hamas uses tunnels under the hospital as its command center — tunnels that Israel itself built. “We were told that this was like a Hamas Pentagon,” says Scahill, who describes how the Israeli military’s own evidence disproves its allegations that the hospital was dangerous enough to justify its siege and bombardment. The World Health Organization says Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, “is no longer functioning.” The Israeli disinformation campaign against it was a “lethal lie,” says Scahill. We also discuss the status of Palestinian prisoners who are now candidates for release in Israel and Hamas’s ongoing hostage exchange. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Tfkz33-sE
2023-11-27 Report: Israel Knew Real Hamas HQ; Lies Enabled “War of Obliteration of the Population “Although corporate news media have made it clear they don’t buy the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claim that al-Shifa Hospital has been a cover for a Hamas command and control center and weapons armory, Western media have failed to report a much bigger story.
“The IDF and the Israeli government already knew when they launched their propaganda campaign about al-Shifa that Hamas had no military command and control facility hidden there because it had already found the complex kilometers away.” Porter gives details about the actual Hamas HQ, citing a leak to the Jerusalem Post.
“The real story of the Israeli effort to sell its argument that Hamas took over al-Shifa and other hospitals to coordinate attacks is the massive deception aimed at U.S. media and public opinion in order to justify Israel’s war of obliteration of the population of Gaza.
2023-11-21 CNN Host STUNNED By Israeli Admission Tunnels under hospital built by Israel engineers in 1983. No conclusive evidence Hamas has command center there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTF1zLzrpw8
2023-11-21 Israel Built Bunker Under Shifa Hospital, Ex-Israeli PM Say Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said bunkers underneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza had been built by Israeli engineers decades ago and were later used by Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have targeted Gaza’s biggest medical facility which it said was the site of a Hamas command center, a charge denied by the group.
On Sunday, the IDF and Israel’s Shin Bet security agency released footage it said showed the site was a Hamas command center, with a clip of a tunnel shaft and a winding staircase which descends for 20 feet until it reaches a tunnel.
Amid widespread condemnation about Israel’s targeting of the hospital, CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour asked Barak if the IDF and the Israeli government had done a “good enough job of proving their claim” that there was a “major” Hamas command center and bunker under Shifa.
Barak replied “It’s already been known for many years that they have a bunker that originally was built by Israeli constructors underneath Shifa,” which was used as a “command post” for Hamas and as a “junction of several tunnels”
2023-11-20 What Israel’s video of ‘Hamas tunnel’ under al-Shifa tells us The Israeli military also released a video that was recorded using two separate cameras on November 17. Spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters the entrance was uncovered when a military bulldozer knocked down the outside wall of the hospital, revealing a metallic spiral staircase that descended 10m (32ft) and led to a blast door, which is typically a metallic door with strong closures and hinges, designed to resist explosions. Such doors are usually found on facilities such as bomb shelters.
But military analyst Zoran Kusovac quoted a civil engineer from Gaza who suggested that the video is actually clips of two different tunnels spliced together. The first section of the video shows the vertical shaft that goes down. It shows features such as load-bearing concrete columns. They seem to be built with regular civil engineering techniques, which would have required large and loud machines such as concrete mixers. Such a construction could not have been done in secret, the way Hamas tunnels are usually built. The purpose of this construction remains unknown.
The second part of the clip shows the horizontal tunnel. This displays features characteristic of Hamas tunnels — pre-fabricated pieces connected together section by section. A control centre has not been found so far. Israeli troops have not yet tried to open the blast door at the end of the tunnel that they claim was under al-Shifa, fearing it could be booby-trapped, said Hagari.
Al-Shifa is not the only hospital that Israel has alleged is used by Hamas as a military base. On November 8, Al Jazeera’s verification unit Sanad disproved Israel’s claim that there was a Hamas tunnel under the Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics, commonly known as the Qatari Hospital.
Satellite images and archival photos showed that the hatch that Israel claimed was the tunnel entrance was actually part of a water reservoir system that was used to fill therapeutic pools for amputees, water the grounds, and also was an emergency water source.
2023-11-19 ‘It’s basically hell on earth’: Gaza City left totally bereft of healthcare In the early hours of Saturday morning, over piles of concrete and rubble, crowds of doctors and patients walked miles through the destroyed streets of Gaza City, forced to evacuate on foot from what remained of its hospitals. Medics said they feared leaving critically ill patients behind in a city now largely reduced to rubble and overtaken by Israeli forces, where hospitals had been operating without power, fuel, water or food.
“It’s basically hell on earth,” said William Schomburg, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, describing what remained of life inside the city.
2023-11-17 Majority of ICU patients at Gaza’s largest hospital have died, Al-Shifa doctor says Most of the intensive care unit patients, who were on ventilators due to the lack of fuel and oxygen at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, have died, the doctor who leads the burns department at the hospital told Al-Jazeera over the phone from inside the facility on Friday.
Dr. Ahmad Mofeed Al-Mokhalalati noted a significant decrease in the number of premature babies in their care, with little hope for the survival of the remaining infants under the current conditions.
The hospital, which is Gaza’s largest, is grappling with a severe shortage of basic necessities — no water and no electricity in the main buildings of the compound, the doctor said. As a result, surgical operations have come to a halt due to the lack of electricity. This has led to an increase in suffering, especially among children who are now facing severe intestinal infections, a direct consequence of the unavailability of clean water, Al-Mokhalalati added. And although he noted that Israeli forces promised to provide food, the supply delivered was grossly insufficient, catering to for only 40% of those inside the hospital, he said. The situation escalated when the Israeli forces stormed two buildings within the medical compound, with tanks still present in the area, the doctor said. Snipers have been deployed around the hospital, adding a layer of fear and uncertainty according to Al-Mokhalalati. https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-11-17-23/h_97fe902b6b49d81f27362059314b87e9
2023-11-15 Israel army claims it found Hamas items at Al Shifa Israel’s army claims its troops have located a small number of items belonging to Hamas inside Al Shifa Hospital. Weapons and some gear were shown in video provided by the Israeli military. The claims cannot be independently verified. Hamas denies using the hospital as a base. The troops are seen searching the MRI building of the Al Shifa hospital complex. Mustafa Barghouti, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, joins Al Jazeera live from Ramallah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qs829DDrSo
2023-11-15 IDF “Stripping” People At Al-Shifa | Israel A “Terror State”, Hamas A “Political Entity”: Erdogan Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel a “terror state” that is committing war crimes and violating international law in Gaza. Speaking to lawmakers in parliament, Erdogan repeated his view that Hamas is not a “terrorist organisation” but a political entity elected by the Palestinian people. The Turkish leader also called on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to announce whether Israel has nuclear weapons. An Al-Shifa Hospital official said the Israeli army was “blindfolding, stripping and taking displaced people sheltering to an unknown destination”. A video released by Gaza’s Ministry of Health shows medics at the Al-Shifa Hospital were hit by a shell while attempting to evacuate patients. Watch this video to know what’s latest in the Israel-Hamas conflict.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jln4HDJkiwo
202311-15 Hamas blames US for giving Israel ‘green light’ to raid al-Shifa Hospital US President Joe Biden is “wholly responsible” for the Israeli assault on Gaza’s largest hospital, said Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules the enclave. The accusation came in a statement on Wednesday, a day after the White House said US intelligence sources corroborated Israel’s claims that Hamas has buried an operational centre under the hospital. Al Jazeera’s White House correspondent, Kimberly Halkett , joins live from Washington, D.C. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UOx_sgeKP8
2023-11-15 ‘Time of truth’ on Israeli ‘command centre’: Analysis Andreas Krieg, a professor of security studies at King’s College London, says Israel’s allegations of al-Shifa Hospital being a Hamas command centre have been “going around for a decade”. “Israel has always pushed that narrative and now it’s the time of truth. They have boots on the ground and now they have to come up with evidence that this is actually true,” Krieg told Al Jazeera. “Evidence presented over the last couple days from other hospitals has not only been inconclusive but to a great deal has been inconsistent and showed a lot of flaws and misinformation, which also makes it difficult to trust their word. “From an intelligence point of view, I’d say the Americans are just copying the Israelis instead of actually presenting their own evidence. So there isn’t a lot out there.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaN_x05_NCc
2023-11-15 Worse Than Hell: Dr. Mads Gilbert Decries Israeli Military Raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza The Israel military raid on Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering, is an “unprecedented attack on civilian society” in the “darkest time in modern history,” that is being justified in the West by “a deep-rooted and frightening racism,” says Dr. Mads Gilbert, who worked at Al-Shifa. “You don’t do these things to people you consider equal.” Dr. Gilbert is a Norwegian physician who just spent weeks in Cairo trying to enter Gaza to help his colleagues and has worked extensively in Palestine since 1981. “The civilian population of Gaza [have] done nothing wrong other than being born Palestinians in Gaza,” he says. “Israeli impunity has reached a new level, and we are all sinking into that abyss of disregard for human life.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4U-g9JIoQA
2023-10-25 Gaza’s Al-Shifa: A hospital on the brink On the verge of collapse, Gaza’s biggest hospital faces darkness as fuel, water and medicine are running out. Gaza’s main hospital is overflowing with both the living and the dead. The morgues are at capacity, and the bodies spill onto the street outside Al-Shifa Hospital.
Inside, hundreds of seriously injured people fill the hallways as the doctors decide which lives they can save. Men, women and children are among the wounded, and doctors work under immense pressure, knowing all services will soon grind to a halt when the backup generators stop working.
Israel’s siege on Gaza has meant no food, no water, no electricity and no fuel. As these necessities deplete faster than the hospital can cope, Al-Shifa is on the brink on catastrophe. While the hospital struggles to cope with arrivals of the injured, its staff also worries for other patients – 70 people on ventilators, hundreds receiving dialysis and 118 babies in incubators. Without electricity, they will die. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called the escalation of the conflict “abhorrent”.
“As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues,” Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement.
We visit Al-Shifa’s neonatal intensive care unit. Most of the babies in incubators there are connected to mechanical ventilation. As the generators fall silent, the incubators will stop working, and most of these babies will die. Dialysis patients face the same fate. The dialysis department at Al-Shifa treats 1,800 patients who receive dialysis three times a week. We meet some of these patients whose lives are not only threatened by the bombardments but who are also vulnerable if they are unable to receive this life-saving treatment.
The hospitals of Gaza have also become a shelter to many Palestinians, and Al-Shifa is no different. It is now home to hundreds of displaced people with nowhere else to go. With basic services and necessities no longer available, we hear from several who had no choice but to come to the hospital for refuge. With so many dead, the morgues are overwhelmed. Undertakers struggle to identify and bury the deceased. When the generators stop working, the morgues will no longer be able to function.
[MEK Note: I apologize to Scott Ritter for duplicating his entire article here as it is too important at this stage in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians to not be fully available. I hope readers will support and seek out more articles by Scott.]
Hamas paraglider troops cross into Israel, October 7, 2023
There is a truism that I often cite when discussing the various analytical approaches to assessing the wide variety of geopolitical problems facing the world today—you can’t solve a problem unless you first properly define it. The gist of the argument is quite simple—any solution which has nothing to do with the problem involved is, literally, no solution at all.
Israel has characterized the attack carried out by Hamas on the various Israeli military bases and militarized settlements, or Kibbutz, which in their totality comprised an important part of the Gaza barrier system, as a massive act of terrorism, likening it to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks against the United States. Israel supports this characterization by citing the number of persons killed (some 1,200, a downward revision issued by Israel after realizing that 200 of the dead were Palestinian fighters) and detailing a wide variety of atrocities it claims were perpetrated by Hamas, including mass rape, the beheading of children, and the wonton murder of unarmed Israeli civilians.
The problem with the Israeli claims is that they are demonstrably false or misleading. Nearly a third of the Israeli casualties consisted of military, security, and police officers. Moreover, it turns out that the number one killer of Israelis on October 7 wasn’t Hamas or other Palestinian factions, but the Israeli military itself. Recently released video shows Israeli Apache helicopters indiscriminately firing on Israeli civilians trying to flee the Supernova Sukkot Gathering held in the open desert near Kibbutz Re’im, the pilots unable to distinguish between the civilians and the Hamas fighters. Many of the vehicles that the Israeli government has shown as an example of Hamas perfidy were destroyed by the Israeli Apache helicopters.
Likewise, the Israeli government has widely publicized what it is calling the “Re’im massacre,” citing a death toll of some 112 civilians it claims were murdered by Hamas. However, eyewitness accounts from both surviving Israeli civilians and military personnel involved in the fighting show that the vast majority of those killed died from fire from Israeli soldiers and tanks directed at buildings where the civilians were either hiding or being held hostage by Hamas fighters. It took two days for the Israeli military to recapture Re’im. It only did so after tanks fired into the civilian residences, collapsing them onto their occupants, and often setting them ablaze, causing the bodies of those inside to be consumed by fire. The Israeli government has publicized how it has had to make use of the services of forensic archeologists to identify human remains at the Kibbutz, implying that Hamas had burned the occupants’ home. But the fact is it was Israeli tanks that did the destruction and killing.
Footage from Israeli Apache helicopters of attacks on Israeli civilians, October 7, 2023
This scene was repeated in other Kibbutzes along the Gaza barrier system.
The Israeli government treats the Kibbutz as being purely civilian, and yet has publicized how armed security teams of several Kibbutzes—drawn from the so-called “civilian” residents—were able to mobilize in time to successfully repel the Hamas attackers. The reality is that every Kibbutz had to be treated by Hamas as an armed encampment, and as such assaulted as if it were a military objective, for the simple fact that they were—all of them.
Moreover, until Israel relocated several battalions of IDF forces to the West Bank, each Kibbutz had been reinforced by a squad of around 20 IDF soldiers who were billeted in the Kibbutz. Given that Hamas had planned this attack for well over a year, Hamas had to assume that these 20 IDF soldiers were still located in each Kibbutz, and act accordingly.
The Israeli government has had to walk back its claims that Hamas beheaded 40 children and has provided no credible evidence that Hamas was involved in the rape or sexual assault of a single Israeli female. Eyewitness accounts describe the Hamas fighters as disciplined, determined, and deadly in the attack, and yet courteous and gentle when dealing with civilian captives.
The question arises as to why the Israeli government would go out of its way to manufacture a narrative designed to support the false and misleading characterization of the October 7 attack by Hamas on the Gaza barrier system as an act of terrorism.
The answer is as disturbing as it is clear—because what happened on October 7 was not a terrorist attack, but a military raid. The difference between the two terms is night and day—by labeling the events of October 7 as acts of terrorism, Israel transfers blame for the huge losses away from its military, security, and intelligence services, and onto Hamas. If Israel were, however, to acknowledge that what Hamas did was in fact a raid—a military operation—then the competency of the Israeli military, security, and intelligence services would be called into question, as would the political leadership responsible for overseeing and directing their operations.
Hamas video still of drone attack on Israeli guard tower, October 7, 2023
And if you’re Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this is the last thing you want.
Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his political life. He was already facing a crisis of his own making, having pushed for legislation which re-wrote Israeli Basic Law in a way which placed the Israeli judiciary under the control of the Knesset, effectively terminating its status as a separate but equal branch of government (so much for Israel being the “greatest democracy in the Middle East”). This act brought Israel on the verge of a civil war, with hundreds of thousands of protesters taking to the streets to denounce Netanyahu. What makes Netanyahu’s actions even more despicable is that it represented little more than a naked power play designed to prevent the Israeli court system from trying him on several credible allegations of corruption which, if Netanyahu were found guilty (a distinct probability), would have put him in jail for many years.
Netanyahu had billed himself as Israel’s top defender, a specialist on the threats facing Israel abroad, and how to best respond to them. He has openly advocated a military confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program. Netanyahu is also a proponent of political Zionism in its most extreme application and has promoted the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which use tactics that forcibly displace Palestinians from their homes and villages, as part of an overall plan to create a “greater Israel” that mirrors that of Biblical times.
Part of Netanyahu’s strategy to accomplish this dream of a “greater Israel” is to weaken the Palestinian people and their government to the point of irrelevancy, thereby preventing them from achieving their dream of obtaining an independent Palestinian state. To facilitate this strategy, Netanyahu has, over the course of the past two decades, promoted the growth of Hamas as a political organization. The purpose of this support is simple—by promoting Hamas, Netanyahu weakens the Palestinian Authority, the governing body of Palestinian people, headed by its President, Mahmoud Abbas.
Mahmoud Abbas, President, Palestinian Authority
Netanyahu’s plan was working—in September 2020 Netanyahu signed the Abaraham Accords, a series of bilateral agreements brokered by the administration of then-President Donald Trump that sought the normalization of relations between Israel and several Gulf Arab States, all at the expense of an independent Palestinian nation. Prior to the Hamas attack on October 7, Israel was on the cusp of normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia, an act which would have proven to be the final nail in the coffin of Palestinian statehood.
One of the main reasons for Israel’s progress in this regard was its success in creating a political divide between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
On October 7, however, this success was washed away by the victory that Hamas achieved over the IDF. The precise means by which this victory took place is the subject for another time. But the basic elements of this victory are well-established.
Hamas effectively neutralized Israel’s vaunted intelligence services, blinding them to the possibility of an attack of this scope and scale.
When the attack occurred, Hamas was able to strike with precision the very surveillance and communication nodes the IDF relied upon to mobilize a response in case of an attack.
Captured Israeli Merkhava tank, October 7, 2023
Hamas defeated those Israeli soldiers stationed along the barrier wall in a stand-up fight. Two battalions of the Golani Brigade were routed, as were elements of other vaunted IDF units.
Hamas struck the Headquarters of the Gaza Division, the local intelligence hub, and other major command and control facilities with brutal precision, turning what should have been a five-minute response time into many hours—more than enough time for Hamas to carry out one of its primary objectives—the taking of hostages. This they did with extreme proficiency, returning to Gaza with more than 230 Israeli soldiers and civilians.
The Marine Corps defines a raid as “an operation, usually small scale, involving a swift penetration of hostile territory to secure information, confuse the enemy, or to destroy his installations. It ends with a planned withdrawal upon completion of the assigned mission.”
This is precisely what Hamas did on October 7.
What were the objectives of this raid? According to Hamas, the purpose behind the October 7 raid were threefold.
First, to reassert the right of the Palestinian people to a homeland not defined by the Abaraham Accords.
Second, to release the more than 10,000 Palestinians held prisoner by Israel, most without having been charged with a crime, and none with any notion of due process.
Third, to return the sanctity of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest place, which had been desecrated repeatedly by Israeli security forces over the past years.
Hamas Special Forces
To accomplish these goals, the October 7 raid needed to create the necessary conditions for victory. This was achieved by humiliating Israel sufficiently to provoke a predictable outcome—the implementation of the Dahiya Doctrine of collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza, combined with a ground attack on Gaza that would lure the IDF into what was in effect a Hamas ambush.
The taking of hostages was meant to provide Hamas with negotiating leverage for the release of the 10,000 prisoners held by Israel.
The Israeli bombardment and invasion of Gaza has resulted in international revulsion against Israel as the world recoils from the humanitarian disaster that is unfolding before their very eyes. The streets of major cities around the world are full of angry protestors demonstrating on behalf of the Palestinian people—and Palestinian statehood. The United States is now stating that a two-state solution—something the Abrahams Accord was designed to prevent—is now the only way forward for peace in the Middle East.
The United States would never have said this on October 6.
The fact that the United States has taken this stance is because of the Hamas raid of October 7.
Attendees, Meeting of Islamic States in Saudi Arabia
Israel is in negotiations with the United States and others about a possible prisoner exchange involving the Hamas hostages and certain categories of political prisoners—women and children—held by Israel (yes, you read that right—children. And now you know the wisdom of Hamas’ decision to take Israeli children hostage.)
Such a possibility would never have occurred if it weren’t for the Hamas raid of October 7.
And in Saudi Arabia, the largest gathering of Islamic nations in modern history has convened to discuss the Gaza crisis. One of the top agenda items is the issue of the Al Aqsa Mosque and ending Israeli desecration.
This was a discussion that would never have taken place if it were not for the Hamas raid of October 7.
It goes without saying that the Hamas raid of October 7 unleashed a firestorm of brutal recrimination in the form of bombs, shells, and bullets on the civilian population of Gaza. These are people who, for nearly eight decades, have been denied a homeland of their own by the Israelis, who violently evicted the Palestinians from the land currently called Israel in one of the greatest acts of ethnic cleansing in modern history—the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948.
The destruction of Gaza by Israeli forces, October 2023
These are people who have suffered untold deprivation at the hand of their Israeli occupiers while awaiting the moment they will see their dream of a Palestinian homeland come true. They know that a Palestinian homeland cannot be realized so long as Israel is governed by those who embrace the notion of a Greater (Eretz) Israel, and that the only way to remove such people is by defeating them politically, and the only way to trigger their political defeat is to defeat them militarily.
Hamas is accomplishing this.
But there is a price to pay—a heavy price. The French lost 20,000 civilians killed to achieve the liberation of Normandy in the Summer of 1944.
So far, the Palestinian civilians of Gaza have lost 12,000 civilians killed in the effort led by Hamas to militarily defeat their Israeli occupiers.
That price will go higher in the days and weeks to come.
But it is a price that must be paid if there is to be any chance of a Palestinian homeland.
The sacrifice of the Palestinian people has compelled an Arab and Islamic world which, with few exceptions, has been mute over the depravations carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people. Who did nothing as the cause of Palestinian statehood was mooted by the Abraham Accords.
Only because of the suffering of the Palestinian people is anyone paying attention to the cause of Palestinian statehood today.
Or the welfare of the Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Or the sanctity of the Al Aqsa Mosque.
These were all stated objectives of Hamas in launching their attack of October 7.
And all objectives are being accomplished as we speak.
Only because of the actions of Hamas and the sacrifices of the Palestinian people.
Which makes the October 7 assault on Israel by Hamas the most successful military raid of this century.
[MEK Note: I post the entire article because of its importance in understanding what actually happened on October 7-8, 2023, and why Israel has shown so little concern about the hostages!]
The Hannibal Directive (Hebrew: נוהלחניבעל) (or “Procedure” or “Protocol”) is a controversial procedure that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have used follow to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces.
It was introduced in 1986, after a number abductions of IDF soldiers in Lebanon and the subsequent controversial prisoner exchanges. The full text of directive has never been published and until 2003 Israeli military censorship even forbade any discussion of the subject in the press. The directive has been changed several times. At one time the formulation was that “the kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces.”[1]
The Hannibal directive have, at times, apparently existed in two different versions, one top-secret written version, accessible only to the upper echelon of the IDF, and one “oral law” version for division commanders and lower levels. In the latter versions, “by all means” was often interpreted literally, as in “an IDF soldier was “better dead than abducted”. In 2011, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz stated the directive does not permit killing IDF soldiers.[2]
The Hannibal directive has not prevented the capture of a single Israeli soldier. Among the 11 Israelis involved in the seven reported Hannibal incidents, only one soldier (Gilad Shalit) survived. In his case the declaration of Hannibal occurred too late to have any influence on the cause of events. There is however only one case where Israeli forces have been officially confirmed to be directly responsible for an Israeli death.
Background
Israel has with several notable exceptions adhered to the principle of not negotiating with terrorists and this especially in hostage situations. This policy led to some notable successes, such as Operation Entebbe, but also to tragic loss of human life, as in the Maalot Massacre. In cases where Israeli soldiers were captured and no military solution was found, Israel was forced to negotiate with the captors about an exchange of prisoners. Large parts of Israeli public opinion would not accept simply abandoning captured soldiers to their fate.
Already in 1970, the Palestinian movement Fatah managed to sneak over the Lebanese border and abduct a security guard in the northern settlement of Metulla and secure a swap of the guard for a senior member in Fatah, jailed in Israel. In 1979 Israel agreed to swap an Israeli POW in Palestinian hands for 76 convicted militants in Israeli jails.
After the 1982 Lebanon War Palestinian forces were holding nine IDF soldiers as POWs. Six were held by Fatah (the main faction of the PLO) and three by the pro-Syrian PFLP-GC. In 1983, Israel agreed to free 4,700 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners, including several high ranking PLO officers, against the six Fatah prisoners. The following year Israel accepted to free another 1,150 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Many of them were allowed to remain in Israeli controlled territory.
The directive
According to Haaretz reporter Leibovich-Dar, the background to the formulation of the directive was the capture of two Israeli soldiers during a Hezbollah ambush in South Lebanon in June 1986. Both soldiers presumably died during the attack, and their bodies were returned to Israel in an exchange with Hezbollah in 1996. The authors of the order were the three top officers of the IDF Northern Command, Major General Yossi Peled, the command’s operations officer, Colonel Gabi Ashkenazi, and its intelligence officer, Colonel Yaakov Amidror. The order was top secret, and its mere existence was denied by Israeli military authorities.
On August 1, 2014, the New York Times reported that Hamas had captured an IDF officer and that the IDF had answered with an assault that killed scores of Palestinians. The “Hannibal Directive” was not mentioned in the article. But the paper was contacted by the Israeli military censor and informed that any material related to the missing officer had to be submitted for prior review before publication. The paper had not been subjected to this level of scrutiny for more than six years.[3][4]
The exact wording of the directive was not known, though Leibovich-Dar claimed that it had been updated several times over the years. The Jerusalem Post Journalist Anshel Pfeffer described the order in 2006 as the “rumored” standard procedure in the eventuality of a kidnap attempt: “soldiers are told, though never officially” the content of this order.[5]
Maariv quoted a version of the directive apparently applicable to 2014:
“A. During a kidnapping, the main task becomes to rescue our soldiers from the abductors, even at the cost of harming or injuring our soldiers.
B. If the abductors and the kidnapped are identified and the calls are not heeded, a firearm must be fired in order to bring the kidnappers to the ground, or arrest them.
D.(sic) If the vehicle or the hijackers do not stop, they should be fired at individually, intentionally, in order to hit the hijackers, even if it means harming our soldiers. (This section was accompanied by an asterisk comment emphasizing: “In any case, everything should be done to stop the vehicle and not allow it to escape”).[6]
Apparently, the Hannibal directive existed in several versions at that time. It had been amended by the IDF General Staff in October 2013, but neither the corresponding orders at the IDF Southern Command, nor the one at the Gaza Division had been similarly updated by July 2014. The three different, simultaneously current, versions of the directive could therefore be interpreted in many different ways, especially on the sensitive question of the value of a soldier’s life.[7]
Although Israeli officials insist that the directive’s name was a random computer-generated designation, many observers do not find this convincing. The historic Carthaginian general Hannibal is said to have preferred suicide by poison, rather than being taken prisoner by his Roman enemies.[8][9][10]
According to statements by several Israeli officials, the aim of the directive is to prevent the capture of an IDF soldier by enemy forces, even by risking the soldier’s life or the lives of scores of non-Israeli civilians. Israeli spokespersons claim that IDF forces are forbidden to attempt to kill a captured soldier, rather than having him captured. Many testimonies from IDF soldiers and other sources contradict this claim and suggest that the IDF in practice adheres to the principle that a dead soldier is better than a captive soldier.[8][11]
According to the directive, once it has been declared by a field officer, Israeli forces are to open fire on enemy forces carrying away an IDF prisoner. Vehicles suspected of removing such a prisoner from the battlefield may thus be attacked, even at the risk of harming, or even killing, the abductee himself. According to some interpretations, this includes even firing missiles from attack helicopters or firing tank shells at suspected escaping vehicles.[8]
Amos Harel of Haaretz wrote in November 2011 that the Hannibal directive was suspended for a time “due to opposition from the public and reservist soldiers” but was revised and reinstated by IDF Chief-of-Staff Benny Gantz after the abduction of Gilad Shalit in June 2006. The revised order stated that IDF commanders may take whatever action is necessary, even at the risk of endangering the life of an abducted soldier, to foil an abduction, but it does not allow them to kill an abducted Israeli soldier. The new directive gave local field commanders the right to invoke Hannibal and take action, without waiting for superior officers’ confirmation.
Former head of Israeli military intelligence (1974–1978) Shlomo Gazit criticised the fact that a low level officer (“a corporal”) could invoke the Hannibal Directive, with such potentially far reaching consequences. The invokation of the Hannibal directive in the 2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid had far-reaching consequences. An IDF tank sent in pursuit of the abductors was blown to pieces, killing its crew. Attempts to rescue the bodies of the tank crew led to further IDF losses. By the time the Israeli government convened to decide how to respond to the attack, Israel – according to Gazit – “was already at war”.[12]
The Hannibal Directive was officially cancelled in 2016,[13] but a new directive was introduced in its place. Very little is known about its present content or even if it is still called the Hannibal Directive.
Controversy within the army
Dr. Avner Shiftan, an army physician with the rank of major, came across the Hannibal directive while on reserve duty in South Lebanon in 1999. In army briefings he “became aware of a procedure ordering soldiers to kill any IDF soldier if he should be taken captive by Hezbollah. This procedure struck me as being illegal and not consistent with the moral code of the IDF. I understood that it was not a local procedure but originated in the General Staff, and had the feeling that a direct approach to the army authorities would be of no avail, but would end in a cover-up.”[14]
He contacted Asa Kasher, the Israeli philosopher noted for his authorship of Israel Defense Forces’ Code of Conduct, who “found it difficult to believe that such an order exists” since this “is wrong ethically, legally and morally”. He doubted that “there is anyone in the army” believing that ‘better a dead soldier than an abducted soldier’. Haaretz article about Dr. Shiftan’s experience was the first to be published in an Israeli newspaper.[14]
In contrast to the view of Kasher, the IDF Chief of StaffShaul Mofaz said in an interview with Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth in 1999: “In certain senses, with all the pain that saying this entails, an abducted soldier, in contrast to a soldier who has been killed, is a national problem.” Asked whether he was referring to cases like Ron Arad (an Air Force navigator captured in 1986) and Nachshon Wachsman (an abducted soldier killed in 1994 in a failed rescue attempt), he replied “definitely, and not only”.[14]
According to Prof. Emanuel Gross, from the Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa, “Orders like that have to go through the filter of the Military Advocate General’s Office, and if they were not involved that is very grave”, he said. “The reason is that an order that knowingly permits the death of soldiers to be brought about, even if the intentions were different, carries a black flag and is a flagrantly illegal order that undermines the most central values of our social norms”.[8]
Harel writes that a kind of “Oral Law” has developed inside IDF, which is supported by many commanders, even at brigade and division level. It goes further than the official order, including the use of tank shells or air strikes. “A dangerous, unofficial interpretation of the protocol has been created,” a senior officer told Haaretz. “Intentionally targeting a vehicle in order to kill the abductee is a completely illegal command. The army’s senior command must make this clear to officers.”
In anticipation of the Gaza War in 2009, Lt. Col. Shuki Ribak, the commander of the Golani Brigade‘s 51st battalion instructed his soldiers to avoid kidnapping at any cost and even made clear that he expected his soldiers to commit suicide rather than being abducted:
[N]o soldier in Battalion 51 will be kidnapped at any price. At any price. Under any condition. Even if it means that he blows himself with his own grenade together with those trying to capture him. Also even if it means that now his unit has to fire a barrage at the car that they are trying to take him away in.[15][16]
After a recording of Ribak’s instructions was distributed by an anonymous source, the IDF reiterated its denial of having a policy of intentionally killing captured soldiers.[15]
Incidents where the directive was invoked
Shebaa farms (2000)
The Hannibal Directive was invoked in October 2000 after the Hezbollah capture of three Israeli soldiers in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms area. An Israeli border patrol was attacked by a Hezbollah squad with rockets and automatic fire. St.-Sgt. Adi Avitan, St.-Sgt. Benyamin Avraham and St.-Sgt. Omar Sawaid were captured and brought over the ceasefire line into Lebanon by their captors. When the abduction was discovered, the Northern Command ordered a “Hannibal situation”. Israeli attack helicopters fired at 26 moving vehicles in the area since they assumed that the abducted soldiers were transported in one of them.[8]
Kerem Shalom crossing (2006)
Tank gunner Cpl. Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas in a cross-border raid from Gaza 25 June 2006. Two IDF soldiers were killed in the attack and another two were wounded. Shalit was held for five years, before being exchanged for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, which was the highest number released for a single Israeli prisoner. According to the Israeli commission of inquiry, headed by Giora Eiland, the Hannibal directive was declared more than an hour after the capture. By that time, Shalit and his captors were already well inside the Gaza strip.[17] The declaration of Hannibal therefore had few practical consequences.
Ayta ash-Shaab (2006)
On 12 July 2006, two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were captured by Hezbollah in an ambush, in which three other soldiers were killed. The Hannibal directive was invoked and a force consisting of tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers was sent across the border to capture a Hezbollah post and block the exit routes out of the town of Ayta ash-Sha’b. A Merkava II main battle tank however ran over a powerful explosive charge and was totally destroyed and its four crewmen killed. The rescue mission was therefore aborted. An eighth IDF soldier was killed trying to retrieve the bodies of the tank crew.[18][19][20] The Hannibal directive triggered instant aerial surveillance and airstrikes inside Lebanon to limit Hezbollah’s ability to move the soldiers it had seized. “If we had found them, we would have hit them, even if it meant killing the soldiers,” a senior Israeli official said.[21] The bodies of the two soldiers were returned in an exchange with Hezbollah in July 2008.
Erez Crossing (2009)
In 2009 Israeli civilian Yakir Ben-Melech was shot dead by Israeli security guards while trying to enter the Gaza Strip from Israel, by jumping the fence at the Erez crossing. In the Israeli press the man was described as a mentally disturbed Israeli citizen, who wanted to contact Hamas, so as to secure the release of Israeli captive Gilad Shalit. Officially, Ben-Melech was mistakenly identified as a potential terrorist.[22]
According to a report by Israeli radio the Hannibal procedure was declared and Ben-Melech was shot to death when he refused to stop. Chief of Staff of the Southern Command, Brig.-Gen. Zvika Fogel commented: “We can’t afford now any soul mate of Gilad Shalit” Apparently, Ben-Melech was killed, not by IDF soldiers, but by members of a private security firm, responsible for security at the Erez gate.[23][24]
Gaza (2008–09)
During the 2008–2009 Gaza war, an unidentified Israeli soldier was shot and injured by a Hamas fighter during a search of a house in one of the neighbourhoods of Gaza. The Hannibal directive was declared. The wounded soldiers’ comrades evacuated the house due to fears that it was booby-trapped. According to testimony by soldiers who took part in the incident the house was then shelled to prevent the wounded soldier from being captured alive by Hamas. According to the IDF spokesman, however, the soldier was already dead, killed by terrorist gun fire.[25]
Rafah (2014)
During Israel’s offensive military operation launched in 2014, the third major offensive launched by Israel in Gaza since 2008, IDF Givati Brigade Lieutenant Hadar Goldin was captured by Hamas soldiers after a brief skirmish on August 1. Despite announcing a 72-hour ceasefire agreement earlier that same day, Israel reportedly initiated the Hannibal Directive in an onslaught later dubbed “Black Friday.”[26][27][28] The IDF carried out a relentless air and ground attack on residential areas of Rafah in order to carry out the Hannibal Directive and attempt to foil the capture of Lt. Goldin.[29] A 2015 joint report by Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture found that Israel’s indiscriminate violence against all human life amounted to war crimes. That report, along with the United Nations’ investigation,[30][31] details the massive Israeli bombardment that killed between 135 and 200 Palestinian civilians, including 75 children, in the three hours following the suspected capture of the one Israeli soldier.[32][33][34] Israel’s large-scale military onslaught during the declared ceasefire was reported by Haaretz to be the “most devastating” execution of the Hannibal Directive to date.[35]
In December 2014, audio recordings from the IDF’s communication system were obtained by Ynet.[36] This evidence, in addition to the July 2015 release of full transcripts from the IDF’s communication system, reveal the initiation of the Hannibal Directive.[37][38] However, an IDF investigation denied that the “Hannibal Procedure” was implemented, despite admitting to using the phrase on IDF field radios. The IDF investigation concluded that 41 people were killed, 12 of them Hamas combatants.[39]Asa Kasher, a winner of the Israel Prize and the author of the IDF’s ethical code, contradicted the IDF’s report while speaking at a conference of the Tzohar Zionist rabbinical organization. Kasher stated that a soldier had been killed during the summer of 2014 by his comrades due to a mistaken understanding of the directive, and Kasher intimated that the soldier was Lt. Goldin.[40]
Testimonies from IDF soldiers involved in the attack provide further evidence against the IDF’s official story.[41] An Israeli army infantry officer described the events of August 1 to Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence: “The minute ‘Hannibal Directive’ is declared on the radio, there are consequences. There’s a fire procedure called the ‘Hannibal fire procedure’ – you fire at every suspicious place that merges with a central route. You don’t spare any means.”[42] He reported that the initial burst of fire lasted three hours. An artillery soldier said his battery was “firing at a maximum fire rate” right into inhabited areas.[43] According to the Givati Brigade inquiry, more than 2,000 bombs, missiles and shells were fired in Rafah on 1 August 2014, including 1,000 in the three hours following the capture.[44]
Shuja’iyya (2014)
During the Battle of Shuja’iyya, on July 20, 2014, Hamas fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF armored personnel carrier carrying 7 soldiers, including St.-Sgt. Oron Shaul.[45] Hamas rapidly claimed to have captured an IDF soldier named Aron Shaul, backing up its claim with the soldier’s “photo ID and credentials”.[46][47][48] The IDF later confirmed that the body of Oron Shaul had not been identified among the dead found inside the vehicle.[49][50][51][52] It is unclear if Shaul was captured alive or dead or whether the Hannibal directive was invoked or not.[53]
The second case concerned St.-Sgt. Guy Levy who was killed on July 25. According to the IDF, Levy was killed by an anti-tank missile.[54] Apparently, his body could not be found and the Hannibal directive was reportedly invoked in this incidence.[9]
The IDF Hannibal Protocol Golani Battalion 51 commander briefing his troops on the eve of their entry into Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Video report broadcast on Israel Television Channel 2 News, 16 October 2011.
The Hannibal Directive, documentary by Benny Brunner, al-Jazeera English. 7 October 2016.
Notes and References
Book: Forensic Architecture, VIOLENCE AT THE THRESHOLD OF DETECTABILITY . 2017 . Weizman, Eyal . 9781935408864 . Zone Books . New York., page 176.
News: הרמטכ”ל איזנקוט: נוהל חניבעל שמופעל לאחר אירוע חטיפה ייכתב מחדש (Chief of Staff Eizenkot: The Hannibal procedure used after a kidnapping incident will be rewritten) . Maariv . Noam Amir . 28 June 2016 . 26 January 2022. Hebrew text: “א. בזמן מחטף הופכת המשימה העיקרית חילוץ חיילינו מידי החוטפים גם במחיר של פגיעה או פציעת חיילינו. ב. במידה ויזוהו החוטפים והחטופים ולא נענו לקריאות לעצור, יש לבצע ירי נק”ל (נשק קל), על מנת להוריד את החוטפים לקרקע, או לעצור אותם.ד. אם לא עצר הרכב או החוטפים, יש לירות לעברם ירי נשק קל בבודדת, במכוון, על מנת לפגוע בחוטפים גם אם המשמעות פגיעה בחיילינו (סעיף זה לווה בהערת כוכבית שהדגישה: “בכל מקרה ייעשה הכל על מנת לעצור הרכב ולא לאפשר בריחתו”).
Hannibal Directive Explained The Hannibal Directive (Hebrew: נוהל חניבעל) (or “Procedure” or “Protocol”) is a controversial procedure that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have used follow to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces. It was introduced in 1986, after a number abductions of IDF soldiers in Lebanon and the subsequent controversial prisoner exchanges. The full text of directive has never been published and until 2003 Israeli military censorship even forbade any discussion of the subject in the press. The directive has been changed several times. At one time the formulation was that “the kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces.”
The Hannibal directive have, at times, apparently existed in two different versions, one top-secret written version, accessible only to the upper echelon of the IDF, and one “oral law” version for division commanders and lower levels. In the latter versions, “by all means” was often interpreted literally, as in “an IDF soldier was “better dead than abducted”. In 2011, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz stated the directive does not permit killing IDF soldiers.
The Hannibal directive has not prevented the capture of a single Israeli soldier. Among the 11 Israelis involved in the seven reported Hannibal incidents, only one soldier (Gilad Shalit) survived. In his case the declaration of Hannibal occurred too late to have any influence on the cause of events. There is however only one case where Israeli forces have been officially confirmed to be directly responsible for an Israeli death. https://everything.explained.today/Hannibal_Directive/
Hannibal Directive – Wikipedia The Hannibal Directive (Hebrew: נוהל חניבעל; also Hannibal Procedure or Hannibal Protocol) is a controversial procedure used by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces. The directive was revoked in 2016, to be replaced by a new directive of unknown content. It was introduced in 1986, after a number of abductions of IDF soldiers in Lebanon and subsequent controversial prisoner exchanges. The full text of the directive was not published, and until 2003, Israeli military censorship forbade any discussion of the subject in the press. The directive has been changed several times. At one time, the formulation was that “the kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Directive
2024-07-07 Israeli Newspaper Confirms IDF Employed ‘Hannibal Directive’ on October 7 The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday that Israel’s military repeatedly employed a protocol known as the “Hannibal Directive” during the October 7 Hamas-led attack in an attempt to prevent the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers—even if it meant putting the lives of army captives and civilians at risk.
Haaretz found based on documents and interviews with soldiers and senior Israeli officers that Hannibal—an operational order developed in 1986 that “directs the use of force to prevent soldiers being taken into captivity” by enemy militants—was used “at three army facilities infiltrated by Hamas, potentially endangering civilians as well.”
During the first hours of the Hamas-led attack, according to Haaretz, Israeli soldiers were given an order: “Not a single vehicle can return to Gaza.”
“At this point, the IDF was not aware of the extent of kidnapping along the Gaza border, but it did know that many people were involved,” the newspaper continued. “Thus, it was entirely clear what that message meant, and what the fate of some of the kidnapped people would be.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-hannibal-directive
2024-01-17 Briahna Joy Gray: Is Israel KILLING HOSTAGES? Inside the IDF’s Reported Oct 7 ‘Hannibal Directive’ Briahna Joy Gray delivers a radar surrounding media coverage of the Israel-Hamas War. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziC95CJ8lU0
2023-12-13 If Israel Used a Controversial Procedure Against Its Citizens, We Need to Talk About It Now Did Israel implement the so-called Hannibal Directive – which allows the military to endanger a soldier to prevent them from being kidnapped – at the hostage-taking incident in Be’eri on October 7?
2023-11-17 The Chris Hedges Report with reporter Max Blumenthal on how the Israeli military launched a series of attacks on Oct. 7 designed to kill Hamas gunmen along with their Israeli hostages. There is growing evidence that in the chaotic fighting that took place once Hamas militants entered Israel on October 7, the Israeli military decided to target not only Hamas fighters, but the Israeli captives with them. Tuval Escapa, a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be’eri, told the Israeli press, he set up a hotline to coordinate between kibbutz residents and the Israeli army. Escapa told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that as desperation began to set in, “the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.” The newspaper reported that Israeli commanders were “compelled to request an aerial strike” against its own facility inside the Erez Crossing to Gaza “in order to repulse the terrorists” who had seized control. That base housed Israeli Civil Administration officers and soldiers.https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-chris-hedges-report-with-reporter
2023-11-03 What’s Israel’s Hannibal Directive? A former Israeli soldier tells all Now 41, Shaul is a co-founder of the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, the first such organisation of Israeli military veterans calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. It was during his time stationed at the border with Lebanon that Shaul was first told about the Hannibal Directive, a former controversial Israeli military policy aimed at preventing the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces – at any cost.
Israel last invoked it in 2014 during the war on Gaza that year, according to leaked military audio recordings, though the army denied it had used the doctrine. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in the Israeli bombardment that followed, sparking accusations of war crimes against the Israeli army.
The directive, also known as the Hannibal Procedure or Hannibal Protocol, is an Israeli military policy that stipulates the use of maximum force in the event of a soldier being kidnapped, said Shaul. “You will open fire without constraints, in order to prevent the abduction,” he said, adding that the use of force is carried out even at the risk of killing a captive soldier. In addition to firing at the abductors, soldiers can fire at junctions, roads, highways and other pathways opponents may take a kidnapped soldier through, Shaul said.
2016-10-08 The Hannibal Directive – Featured Documentary This film, by award-winning director Benny Brunner, explores the secret history of the Hannibal Directive – tracing its origins, its most recent use and how it has been applied The Hannibal Directive was a top-secret military order used by the Israeli army. First devised in 1986 by three senior army commanders, it stipulated measures to be taken when an Israeli soldier was captured during combat. Its purpose was to prevent the enemy from escaping with that soldier, even if it meant endangering the soldier’s life and the lives of civilians in the vicinity.
The order was last executed during the 2014 Gaza War – known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge. During that conflict, more than 2,000 Palestinians and 72 Israelis were killed. On Friday August 1, 2014, at Rafah in the south of Gaza, the Israeli Army invoked the Hannibal Directive to try to stop Hamas fighters from fleeing with a captured Israeli officer. The unprecedented ferocity of the action that followed cost the lives of least 135 civilians – 75 of them children. Amnesty International and other NGOs have described the events of that day, “Black Friday”, as a war crime.
2014-08-06 Hadar Goldin and the Hannibal Directive Just what those circumstances were began to filter out early this week, and they attest to deep contradictions in the Israeli military—and in Israeli culture at large.
A temporary ceasefire went into effect last Friday morning at eight. At nine-fifteen, soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces headed toward a house, in the city of Rafah, that served as an entry point to a tunnel reportedly leading into Israel. As the I.D.F. troops advanced, a Hamas militant emerged from the tunnel and opened fire. Two soldiers were killed. A third, Goldin, was captured—whether dead or alive is unclear—and taken into the tunnel. What is clear is that after Goldin was reported missing, the I.D.F. enacted a highly controversial measure known as the Hannibal Directive, firing at the area where Goldin was last seen in order to stop Hamas from taking him captive. As a result, according to Palestinian sources, seventy Palestinians were killed. By Sunday, Goldin, too, had been declared dead. Opinions differ over how this protocol, which remained a military secret until 2003, came to be known as Hannibal. There are indications that it was named for the Carthaginian general, who chose to poison himself rather than fall captive to the Romans, but I.D.F. officials insist that a computer generated the name at random. Whatever its provenance, the moniker seems chillingly apt. Developed by three senior I.D.F. commanders, in 1986, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, the directive established the steps the military must take in the event of a soldier’s abduction. Its stated goal is to prevent Israeli troops from falling into enemy hands, “even at the cost of hurting or wounding our soldiers.” While normal I.D.F. procedures forbid soldiers from firing in the general direction of their fellow-troops, including attacking a getaway vehicle, such procedures, according to the Hannibal Directive, are to be waived in the case of an abduction: “Everything must be done to stop the vehicle and prevent it from escaping.” https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/hadar-goldin-hannibal-directive
