Countercurrent – April 13, 2024
Israel is Losing its War in Gaza – Jewish Sources
by Dr Marwan Asmar
Gaza no more! All of its 364-kilometers have been totally destroyed and obliterated. If the Israeli army had the capability, they would have wiped it off the face of the earth. But the resistance is another story. They stand strong and unflinching.
Israel has barely scratched the surface in “eradicating” Hamas and the other Palestinian groups. By all counts, and despite its colossal destruction, they give as good as they get and even better.
The Israelis, their politicians and army stand bewildered. The only thing they are doing is more destruction and bombing. They are bombing towns, cities and neighborhoods a second, third and fourth times simply because the resistance is too strong. They are bogged down. In Gaza there is no “cleaning operations”.
But it has been tough for the Palestinians in this smallest enclave in the world. Its destruction has been magnified and brutal.
“Every time I walk the streets of Gaza, I am overwhelmed by the desire to cry over what the city has become,” Bayan Abu Sultan writes on her X platform page @BayanPalestine.
“The smell of the blood of the martyrs’ wafts in every neighborhood,” the journalist whose home behind Al Shifa hospital was destroyed by the Israeli army says.
“The rubble extends as far as the eye can see in every direction,” the journalist who lived some of the worst onslaught on Al Shifa hospital by the Israel army, and was thought killed at one time points out.
“The garbage has piled up to an extent that prevents the continuation of normal life, and the features of the people only appear helpless.
Gaza has become uninhabitable,” she adds.
Quoting from what she said the Quds News Network points out “female Palestinian journalist Bayan Abu Sultan says after more than six months of brutal Israeli genocide, Gaza has become uninhabitable.
At one time when the Israeli army raided Al Shifa Hospital and started killing many of its people and destroyed its surrounding the French Reporters Sans Frontiers sounded the alarm bells that she may have been killed by the Israelis because she disappeared from the radar screen after 18 March.
Despite the mass slaughter, killing and destruction – 33,000 killed, 76,000 injured, 1.9 million displaced out of a total population of 2.3 million – many observers, a lot are Jewish and Israelis says after seven months of war on Gaza, it is Israel which is being defeated.
Many of the Hebrew media and newspapers are talking about a major defeat for Israel in its seventh months of war on Gaza. The daily Yedioth Ahronot headlines its report as “Israel defeated and Isolated” saying “the Israeli regime” is “defeated in the war against the Gaza Strip and is in sever isolation.”
The daily paper says the government and army has failed and “the main reason for this failure is the short-sighted party policy pursued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Haaretz, another influential daily, writes: “We shouldn’t say that [word defeat] but there is no other option “We are defeated, it’s a total defeat.” Quoting the paper one blogger points out “admitting defeat is a matter of time…the entity is paying the price for its crimes”.
Adding insult to injury, he says none of the Israeli objectives were achieved in the war, only victories against women and children.
And Haim Ramon, an ex-Justice Minister, agrees. He says Israel has indeed, been strategically defeated in its war on Gaza. He made the comments in a radio interview quoted by the Hebrew Maariv newspaper.
And further to that, former Israeli Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan says that the Israeli army is stuck in Gaza without any real goals and/or exit strategy to leave the enclave.
One blogger (@HealthRanger) put it this way: “Israel’s only real military capabilities lie in bombing and slaughtering innocent, unarmed women and children who have no weapons, no air defenses and no armor.” He points out the IDF is “snowflake” and has been defeated whilst “Israel has only destroyed its reputation with the entire world.”
He says “Netanyahu has put Israel on a path of self-destruction that will earn the Zionists a place in history alongside the worst genocidal murderers the world has ever known”. Another blogger says Israel has “lost everything against the civilians of Gaza” whilst “Hamas has not been defeated and Israel appears for what it is: A genocidal state that aims only to take Gaza.
Finally, another Jewish blogger says in this war Israel sends the best of its soldiers but they return back handicapped, crippled and no longer of any use to the army that is if they are not killed.
Dr Asmar is based in Amman and covers Middle East affairs
https://countercurrents.org/2024/04/israel-is-losing-its-war-in-gaza-jewish-sources/
'Israel attempts to eliminate journalists who document crimes'
Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun condemned Israel for deliberately targeting TRT Arabic journalists in Gaza, in an attempt to not only conduct “ethnic cleansing” but also “eliminate journalists.”
Noting that cameraman Sami Shehada underwent a leg amputation due to Israel’s attack, Altun said he extends his sincerest prayers and wishes to the journalist and his team.
“Israelﾒs deliberate targeting of journalistsﾠhas been well documented by international organizations. They are not only conducting ethnic cleansing in Gaza but also attempting to eliminate journalists, who are simply doing their job by documenting Israel’s crimes,” Altun said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He noted that targeting journalists and civilians is unacceptable, adding that Türkiye is committed to holding Israel accountable for these war crimes.
“We know that Israel is especially upset with Turkish news agencies and their work on the ground because they have provided the best documentary and visual evidence to the International Criminal Court and other international observers. Anadolu Agency and TRT’s heroes on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank risk their own lives to get the news out,” Altun said.
The top communications director said that Turkish media outlets will continue to report the news and Ankara will not spare any resources for them.
“Although I have little faith that they will, Israel must abide by the international law and protect civilians including journalists,” he said.
The attack occurred when a TRT Arabic team vehicle, stationed in the Nuseirat camp in the heart of the Gaza Strip, was targeted by the Israeli army while preparing for a broadcast. Sami Shahada, an independent cameraman, was seriously injured and underwent surgery. TRT Arabic reporter Sami Berhum escaped unhurt.
Israel has waged a military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, which killed around 1,200 people. More than 33,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Gaza since the war began. Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the seaside enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.
Israel's attacks have pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while much of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed. Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has urged it to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.
Israel killed at least 103 journalists since Oct. 7, according to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The number of media workers killed by Israel in approximately three months exceeds the total count of journalists killed throughout the entire six-year span (69) of World War II, according to the Freedom Forum, a Washington-based foundation advocating for press freedom.
In comparison to Gaza, during the 20-yearlong Vietnam War (1955-1975) 63 journalists were killed while 17 media workers lost their lives in the three-year-long Korean War (1950-1953).
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) based in New York, in the war between Russia and Ukraine that started in February 2022 and has been ongoing for about two years, a total of 17 journalists have lost their lives.
In Gaza, however, the issue is not only murder but how their immediate families have also been targeted by Israel.
https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/diplomacy/israel-attempts-to-eliminate-journalists-who-document-crimes
Jordanian protesters demand ending normalization with Israel, despite arrests
Despite hundreds of arrests, Jordanian protesters keep coming out to demonstrate in front of the Israeli embassy in Amman. They are calling for an end to Jordan's 1994 peace treaty with Israel in response to the genocide in Gaza.
BY SYNNE FURNES BJERKESTRAND AND BAYAN ABU TA'EMA
“I would sacrifice my blood for you, Palestine!”
The chants resound from thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets of Amman, Jordan, for the third week in a row.
Since March 24, an average of 6,000 to 10,000 people have gathered every night in front of the Israeli embassy to protest the genocide in Gaza and call for a halt to normalization with Israel. The Israeli ambassador to Jordan left the country in October, and the embassy no longer has a diplomatic mission.
Khaled al-Natour, a political and youth activist, is a founding member of the Jordanian Youth Gathering to Support the Palestinian Resistance. This umbrella group was formed after October 7 and consists of fourteen groups with different orientations, including leftist, nationalist, and Islamic factions.
They are responsible for the demonstrations outside the embassy, alongside other Jordanian youth and political groups. They have been engaging in activism through peaceful demonstrations, sit-ins, and human chains.
“The beginning of the round of protests on March 24 was called for under the title ‘Activities of the Israeli Occupation Embassy Siege: The Jordanian Wave of Anger,’” al-Natour told Mondoweiss. “Our demands are specific and divided into several parts. One demand is for an economic boycott of Israel, which goes in line with the statements of Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.”
Additionally, the protests demanded canceling all agreements with “the Zionist enemy” and stopping the export of vegetables, as well as the “land bridge” to the Zionists in order to break the siege on Gaza, al-Natour said. “They also want the end of criminalizing Palestinian resistance movements in Jordan and encourage Arabs to show their solidarity by protesting in the streets,” he added.
The Jordanian wave of anger
Amira, a Jordanian citizen in her twenties, told Mondoweiss that the reasons for the protests are many. Her real name will not be published due to security reasons. She says that in the first weeks after October 7, the protests were a way of expressing people’s anger at Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians of Gaza.
“Through protesting and putting pressure on the government, we want them to stop the genocide and to end the agreements between Jordan and the occupation,” Amira said.
This latest round of demonstrations was ignited by Israel’s atrocities at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. At least 1,500 people who were at the hospital were either killed, injured, reported missing, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which described it as “one of the largest massacres in Palestinian history.”
“We see it as a duty to support Gaza,” al-Natour told Mondoweiss.
One of the protesters’ demands is that the defense agreement between Jordan and the U.S., signed in 2021, be canceled.
“Our goals are not only related to the war on Gaza but also to the danger of the occupation for Jordan,” al-Natour explains. “There is ongoing talk from the Israeli side about annexing the Jordan Valley to the borders of the occupying state.”
Al-Natour here refers to the plan of Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who drew up a map of “Israel” which includes Jordanian territories.
“The Zionist project poses a direct threat to the Jordanian people and the state, also shown through the aggression against the occupied West Bank, which increases the possibility of immigration to Jordan,” he said.
The ongoing genocide and the discussion of opening “safe passages” to Egypt has sparked fear within the Jordanian government that Israel could forcibly push Palestinians from the occupied West Bank into Jordan.
One of the protesters’ central demands is to challenge the longstanding normalization agreements between Israel and Jordan. Some of the most prominent chants during demonstrations are “End the normalization!” and “Wadi Araba is a betrayal!” Normalization agreements were formalized between Jordan and Israel in the Wadi Araba Treaty in 1994, which demonstrators are calling to be effectively abrogated.
“We reject Wadi Araba and demand its cancellation because it does not represent the popular opinion in Jordan,” Amira told Mondoweiss. “We also refuse normalization with the Israeli occupation and do not believe in peace with them.”
She added that the Israeli occupation posed a national threat to Jordan and the Arab region as a whole.
Between March 24 and April 5, about 200 people were arrested during the protests, among them journalists, politicians, and union figures.
During the initial period of demonstrations, protesters used to stay outside the embassy all night, but the last few weeks have witnessed tighter restrictions by the police, who started shutting down demonstrations by 11:30 p.m. every night and chasing away demonstrators, sometimes with the violent use of batons and shields.
This has not stopped Amira and thousands of others from continuing to go out on the streets of Amman.
“As time passed and the demonstrators were subjected to more harassment and oppression, and some got arrested, it motivated me more to continue protesting,” she said.
Return to the homeland
“We are going back to our land, Palestine” is one of the chants that the protesters scream, as there are over two million Palestinians in Jordan.
Amira says that the demands of the demonstrators are divided into two parts: one part demands an immediate halt to the genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the other calls for doubling Jordan’s effort to alleviate the suffering.
She said that the demands are related to her as a Jordanian citizen and to defending Jordanian national security.
“Jordan is being threatened by treaties and agreements, such as the water, gas, and electricity agreements,” Amira explained. “Which are in the hands of a brutal occupier.”
Amira also added that she is demonstrating for her own conscience, knowing that through “this very simple act,” her voice is reaching the besieged Gaza Strip.
Despite the arrests and increasing restrictions, she is determined to continue protesting.
“I have been going out to protest almost daily for the past six months,” she said. “And I will continue to do so as long as the genocide continues — unless I am arrested or somehow restricted from participating.”
Synne Furnes Bjerkestrand
Synne Furnes Bjerkestrand is an independent journalist based in Amman, Jordan. She has written for Norwegian media, Al Jazeera, and Middle East Eye, and is currently finishing her masters degree in journalism with a focus on the framing of the genocide in Gaza in western media.
Bayan Abu Ta’ema
Bayan Abu Ta’ema is an independent Palestinian storyteller and filmmaker based in Jordan. She produces audible and visual journalism and documentary films, often related to human rights.
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