US special envoy Amos Hochstein is trying to reassure Lebanon and the rest of the world that Israeli troops will withdraw from southern Lebanon, despite repeated media reports that Israel is planning to announce that they’re going to remain. DM Israel Katz said yesterday that Israel might scrap the ceasefire entirely.
The Israel-Lebanon ceasefire stipulated Israel withdraw from Lebanon within 60 days. We’re now 42 days into the ceasefire, and Israel has just started to leave a second town, Naqoura. So far Israel had only pulled out of Khiam.
Leaving Khiam and Naqoura isn’t necessarily a step in the right direction, as Israel has entered more than two additional Lebanese towns since the ceasefire began. Israel now holds more towns than when the deal was put into place.
Reporters from LBC International entered Naqoura after the announced withdrawal, and documented widespread destruction inside the town. That’s no surprise, as military bulldozers have been systematically demolishing civilian homes and other infrastructure in Israeli-occupied areas of Lebanon.
Hochstein’s assurance that Israel will leave Lebanon conspicuously fails to mention a departure date. As it’s increasingly apparent Israel won’t leave during the 60-day ceasefire window, Hochstein’s comments don’t mean much.
The bigger near-term concern is Israel’s repeatedly violating the ceasefire in other ways, namely, the hundreds of incidents attacking civilians and destroying property.
Lebanese PM Najib Mikati is calling for a “final halt” of Israeli ceasefire violations, seeking an assurance of a timely withdrawal, and for the international community to uphold UN Resolution 1701. While the US is upbeat about Israel’s intentions, it appears unlikely either of these things will happen.
If the Israelis can hold onto the territory, ethnic cleansing will ensue. Then, settlers will arrive.
They still need a place to send Palestinians. They haven’t finished eating Palestine.
However, I guess the game is to eat the high ground. Oct 7, the day that keeps giving.
There are two ways of doing ethnic cleansing.
One way is to drive the population out of the desired area. If you can make life hell for the population, they will be willing to leave. Of course, they have to have somewhere to go. That’s where the Israelis are stuck on their population transfer project. Perhaps eventually the Egyptians can bribed, or coerced, into accepting the Palestinians.
The other way is to exterminate the population(aka genocide). Every person you kill represents one less problem. Also, running a genocide makes the population even more willing to leave.
Whether the Israelis can make all this work is an open question, but the intent is clear.
They can send them to Lebanon… or Syria. Israel doesn’t need permission. It has a military.
Killing them looks bad, as Trump points out.
Obama “noticing” that Israel was expanding into Palestine revealed for me how little politicians know. But Trump won’t like bad optics.
We have lots of fly-over underpopulated land and we do need cheap labor, we could take them. Would that not be the humane thing to do?
Trump wouldn’t allow it.
You are right, Biden did not do it either, they are too evil to be humane anyway.
Well, it could cause problems. I think there’s some teaching that if you harm someone you finish him off rather than offering him mercy. The idea might be to finish off an entire clan, maybe it’s a concept from China I don’t know.
Anyway, if they survive, they will dream of reconquest. Tge idea of destroying Palestinians is to make it unlikely the group identify endures. Individuals can outmarry with outsiders to lose their identity, but if you resettle 2 million to the US, that creates the potential for a powerful identity in a powerful location.
Alexander the Great and his father would relocate and disperse troublesome groups. Christians in Europe banned cousin marriage. Destroying competing group identities is a powerful move. Israel doesn’t want a memory of a claim to its land.
I may be wrong, but I do believe that the big Palestinian family groups helped them to survive as long as they have.
The world will never forget the evil, the sadism of the Zionists and who's land it really is
If you have a Palestinian who marries a Brit, they’ll produce half-Palestinians. Those children wouldn’t be fully accepted in the region, would identify less with it anyway. A generation later, and they’re a quarter Semite, then an eighth. Where do they belong? With what do they identify with? If they live in the region, they might identify with it, but if they live outside it, that’s only a distant tie.
But if they marry other Palestinians, they produce full blooded claims to the land.
I’m curious about Jewish identity though. A child of a Jewish mother is Jewish, but some Arabs were once Jewish. When does it change, I wonder?
Hopefully if a Palestinian marries a Brit, they’ll produce children who aren’t nearly as obsessed with tribal identity as you seem to be.
Israelis are willing to exterminate Arabs for their identity.
Those same Arabs are willing to die for their identities, or because no one will take them in due to their identities.
You sometimes reveal a bit of muddled identity too.
If we could speak freely, and by speak I mean speak and not write or type, these topics would be more readily understood.
There are books on this stuff. That doesn’t mean the books are fully correct, but it’s sociology.
Some Israelis are willing to exterminate Arabs for their identity.
Some Arabs are willing to die for theirs.
Some people won’t take other people in because of their identities.
And all three groups I just described are part of the problem. The tribalist death cult evolves into the nationalist death cult, and the result of both cults is lots and lots of death.
Families are presumably positive at least.
Be careful what you wish for. You might just get the reforms you want. We’re moving in your direction.
What “reforms” do you think I want? Noticing the fact that tribalism and nationalism produce deadly results isn’t a request for “reform,” any more than noticing that something falls when dropped is a request for modification of the law of gravity.
You might miss them when gone.
Unless a cheap immortality pill comes on the market in the next few years, there’s little likelihood that they’ll be gone before I am — if ever.
Humanity has likely spawned suicidal death cults since humanity has existed. Nationalism is just the most virulent one to date.
In the Alien movies, the aliens benefit from their ability to sacrifice for the collective. It provides an advantage or can.
You’d probably risk your life to save a child in a fire, if there were a reasonable chance of survival anyway. You’d figure that your life is spent, his unspent.
The family is everything – mafia saying. I was trying to find a specific poem about the founding of the mafia but can’t find it. I’m, um, not desiring to be in a mafia, but identity groups often behave like them.
The Brit could become a member of the Palestinian family clan. But you are right, there are lots of changes they have to deal with.
We frequently mock Muslim cousin marriage, now that I think of it, even though powerful clans like the Rothschilds are known for such practices. We mock them to destroy them as a group identity that can resist.
NIMBY!
Time to kick the Israelis out of the Middle East and populate it with civilized people who have some idea how to get along with their neighbors.
All pre-designed to keep Israel troops in southern Lebanon to achieve Phase 1 of Greater Israel ambition…!
There is no time like the present! Let’s get it done! Time is of the essence!…
Donna, this is not a good present time either, it would be nice, but it is not. They are deceptive people without honor, they can't be trusted.
Pure unadulterated horseshit as we say out here in the west.
short and to the point.
This is part of the greater Israel agenda to annex parts of Lebanon along with other parts of other people's countries with the blessing and funding by Wash. with our taxes taken from our wages and banking interest. When will it stop? Don't look to Trump for any reform, he's already on a big ego/power trip ready to annex parts of other people's territory and countries just like Israel. I thought it wouldn't get worse a long time ago, but every day it not only gets worse, but more and more loony.
You can't trust criminals, the Israeli government consists of a pack of war criminals, the same is true of the American Biden administration. 99% of what comes out of their mouths are lies and Trump and friends will not be better. His current behavior testifies to it.
No one’s buying the diplomacy, U.S. is selling. And no one else is giving a discount to provide an alternative choice.