There’s a theory that holds that one of the critical reasons that Hamas is holding on to power in Gaza, in the face of its devastating losses, is its seizure of food and its resale on the black market. In top of the purely financial aspect is a measure of social control: disloyalty is penalized.
Of course, the answer would be for the IDF to take control of the distribution - something which would likely only expose its soldiers to increased casualties. I suppose another option would be for Israel to target the warehouses where Hamas hoards the food, but that too would divert the IDF from its combat mission. And if the IDF simply destroyed those warehouses, it would be accused of deliberately starving civilians etc.
As to the US’s supposed fear that munitions, bulldozers and whatever else we are slow walking or blocking altogether might be used against Gazan civilians only rewards Hamas for its human sacrifice strategy - and this should be something so obvious as to make you wonder what the aims of the Biden Administration might actually be.
It would not surprise me if the goal is to insure the survival of Iran’s “equities” (to use Obama’s term in a misguided effort to keep Israel and the Sunni states dependent on Uncle Sam’s protection. Hence the threatened arms cut-off on November 14 and the recent news items about yet another impending famine.
The real question is whether Trump will try to warn away the Biden Administration on the arms cutoff. He might but I remember that he tried to have Obama veto that UN Security Council resolution that threw Israel under the bus in December 2015. Obama ignored him and had our ambassador abstain - allowing the resolution (which according to some we orchestrated in the first place) to pass.
I’ve read that Israel has more than sufficient munitions to see it through, but the end game will likely be either an Israeli rejection of any further 10 year arms purchasing agreement with the U.S. (which would hurt our manufacturing to some extent) or one with less restrictive terms that limit Israel’s independent arms manufacturing.
Similarly, once Trump is in office, I can see (as I’ve optimistically noted elsewhere) that an actual peace treaty between Israel and Lebanon be agreed to as a condition for Lebanon’s inclusion into the Abraham Accords and U.S. involvement (directly or indirectly) with any reconstruction project.
Platitudes about a Palestinian state once its ruling authority accepts Israel’s legitimacy and history as the nation state of the Jewish people, forswears its annihilationist goals and shows itself able to create a transparent and peaceful society - none of which is currently likely, but who knows - should be sufficient for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, further isolating and, along with the return to a US-led “maximum pressure” campaign and whatever Israel’s response would be to Iran’s currently threatened attack, destabilizing the Iranian regime.
Had Harris won the election, not one element of my rosy predictions would happen. They might not under Trump, but then again, some or even all might. We shall see because an enlarged Abraham Accord and a weakened Iran is the est recipe for regional calm - which would be the sweet spot for a President who says he is committed to ending wars not starting the.
There’s a theory that holds that one of the critical reasons that Hamas is holding on to power in Gaza, in the face of its devastating losses, is its seizure of food and its resale on the black market. In top of the purely financial aspect is a measure of social control: disloyalty is penalized.
Of course, the answer would be for the IDF to take control of the distribution - something which would likely only expose its soldiers to increased casualties. I suppose another option would be for Israel to target the warehouses where Hamas hoards the food, but that too would divert the IDF from its combat mission. And if the IDF simply destroyed those warehouses, it would be accused of deliberately starving civilians etc.
As to the US’s supposed fear that munitions, bulldozers and whatever else we are slow walking or blocking altogether might be used against Gazan civilians only rewards Hamas for its human sacrifice strategy - and this should be something so obvious as to make you wonder what the aims of the Biden Administration might actually be.
It would not surprise me if the goal is to insure the survival of Iran’s “equities” (to use Obama’s term in a misguided effort to keep Israel and the Sunni states dependent on Uncle Sam’s protection. Hence the threatened arms cut-off on November 14 and the recent news items about yet another impending famine.
The real question is whether Trump will try to warn away the Biden Administration on the arms cutoff. He might but I remember that he tried to have Obama veto that UN Security Council resolution that threw Israel under the bus in December 2015. Obama ignored him and had our ambassador abstain - allowing the resolution (which according to some we orchestrated in the first place) to pass.
I’ve read that Israel has more than sufficient munitions to see it through, but the end game will likely be either an Israeli rejection of any further 10 year arms purchasing agreement with the U.S. (which would hurt our manufacturing to some extent) or one with less restrictive terms that limit Israel’s independent arms manufacturing.
Similarly, once Trump is in office, I can see (as I’ve optimistically noted elsewhere) that an actual peace treaty between Israel and Lebanon be agreed to as a condition for Lebanon’s inclusion into the Abraham Accords and U.S. involvement (directly or indirectly) with any reconstruction project.
Platitudes about a Palestinian state once its ruling authority accepts Israel’s legitimacy and history as the nation state of the Jewish people, forswears its annihilationist goals and shows itself able to create a transparent and peaceful society - none of which is currently likely, but who knows - should be sufficient for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, further isolating and, along with the return to a US-led “maximum pressure” campaign and whatever Israel’s response would be to Iran’s currently threatened attack, destabilizing the Iranian regime.
Had Harris won the election, not one element of my rosy predictions would happen. They might not under Trump, but then again, some or even all might. We shall see because an enlarged Abraham Accord and a weakened Iran is the est recipe for regional calm - which would be the sweet spot for a President who says he is committed to ending wars not starting the.
Hornik telling it like it is.
Many thanks, Ehud.