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Does Biden’s Framework Pave Path to ‘Hezbollah Model’ in Gaza?
US President Joe Biden speaks on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this White House handout image taken in the Oval Office in Washington, US, April 4, 2024. Photo: The White House/Handout via REUTERS
JNS.org – Hamas could be positioning itself to adopt a model similar to Hezbollah’s structure in Lebanon, where it remains a dominant military-terrorist and political force while allowing a toothless civilian administration to formally “govern.”
This goal potentially aligns well with the three-stage proposal for an end to the Gaza conflict proposed on May 31 by U.S. President Joe Biden, which was highly vague on how to ensure Hamas does not rebuild its power in the Strip.
The possibility of Hamas adopting the Hezbollah model in Gaza has garnered recent attention as a feasible strategy for the jihadist movement to maintain its military and political influence while ostensibly relinquishing civilian governance in Gaza to a nominally independent technocratic authority, or, in a similar version of this blueprint, the Palestinian Authority.
Jacky Hugi, the Arab Affairs editor at Army Radio, discussed Hamas’s possible adoption of the Hezbollah model in Gaza in Maariv in recent days, in which he explored how Hamas might use this approach to maintain its influence while reducing its direct governance responsibilities.
Hamas is fundamentally driven by the strategic goal of preserving its ability to retake Gaza following the war. The Islamist faction’s primary objective is to emerge from hostilities with an ability to rebuild its rocket arsenal, tunnels and jihadist attack army, presumably with Iranian help, and with its leadership largely unscathed, which it would rightly consider a significant victory.
If Hamas can’t immediately restore its political regime, its interim vision could include modeling its operations on Hezbollah in Lebanon—a potent terror army entity operating within a state where official civilian governance is nominal and ineffectual.
The burden of day-to-day governance in Gaza proved cumbersome for Hamas, particularly in the face of economic hardships and infrastructure failures. By handing over civilian administration to the Palestinian Authority or a technocratic body, Hamas could focus on its core activities: rebuilding its military capabilities and continuing its jihadist attacks against Israel.
Ultimately, Hamas’s end goal, in line with its Muslim Brotherhood ideology, is to establish an Islamic caliphate on Israel’s ruins, and it is flexible on how to reach that vision.
President Biden’s presented his three-point proposal as a means to stabilize the Strip and alleviate civilian suffering, but it could also enable a framework in which Hamas can step back from overt governance without disarming or dissolving its terror army.
Hamas’s interest in this kind of model is not new.
Professor Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy in Jerusalem and a former deputy director general and head of the Palestinian desk at the Ministry for Strategic Affairs, already noted in March this year, in a paper published at the Institute for National Security Studies, that Hamas has expressed willingness to let a technocratic government handle Gaza’s administrative functions. He noted that this sentiment was echoed by senior Hamas leader Abu Marzouk, who suggested that Hamas could agree to such an arrangement.
The risks of this approach are clear. For Israel and its allies, a Hezbollah-like Hamas entrenched in Gaza represents the resurgence of a massive security threat to the Israeli south and the entire country.
Hamas could initiate attacks or escalate conflicts far more frequently while allowing an empty shell of an administration to take responsibility for civilians’ welfare. The international community, under this scenario, would likely condemn any significant Israeli action to neutralize Hamas threats with the claim that this would destabilize the civilian government, which would become a fig leaf for Hamas.
As such, the international community, including the United States, must consider the long-term implications of facilitating a scenario where Hamas retains significant power behind a civilian facade. Such an outcome would boost and embolden the entire Iranian-led jihadist axis.
Israel, for its part, will likely be on guard so as to able to pre-empt Hamas’s potential strategy to replicate the devastating Lebanese model in Gaza.
Ensuring that Hamas’s terror army cannot resurface, and that any future civilian government in Gaza is free from Hamas’s influence is therefore paramount in preventing the rise of the “Hezbollah model” in Gaza.
If the model is allowed to gradually take shape, Hamas could in the future attempt to re-enact its 2007 coup and take full political power as well, as part of the goal of turning Gaza, once again, into an Iranian-backed terror fortress.
The post Does Biden’s Framework Pave Path to ‘Hezbollah Model’ in Gaza? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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John Fetterman Meets With Israeli President in First-Ever Visit to Jewish State
US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), left, meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Israel, June 25, 2024. Photo: Ma’ayan Toaf (GPO)
US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday while on his first-ever trip to Israel.
Herzog thanked Fetterman for his steadfast support for the Jewish state in the months following Hamas’ Oct. 7 slaughter across southern Israel and throughout the ensuing war in Gaza. The Israeli president praised Fetterman as a “beacon of moral clarity” for his unrelenting defense of Israel.
“Welcome to Israel my friend. I know that you come out of passion and love for this country,” Herzog said. “And I want to say thank you, on behalf of our nation and behalf of Israel. Those who stand with us showing moral clarity, we shall never forget them. And we want to thank you; you’re a true leader.”
Fetterman showed Herzog a bracelet gifted to him by family members of the victims of the Oct. 7 Nova Music Festival massacre. The senator told Herzog that he will not remove the bracelet until all the remaining hostages are released from Hamas’ captivity in Gaza and reunited with their families.
“I was moved to see you wearing a bracelet from the Nova festival. We deeply appreciate your vocal support for the hostages brutally held by Hamas and your clear demand for their immediate release,” Herzog said.
“I’m honored by those words, but I don’t really believe I should be thanked for just doing my job,” Fetterman responded. “It’s been a very easy and clear choice throughout all of this, through everything your nation has been through after Oct. 7. I’ve always wanted to be a very consistent voice throughout all this.”
Though the Pennsylvania senator campaigned as a progressive, he has surprisingly emerged as a staunch ally of Israel in the months following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. Fetterman has repeatedly condemned the anti-Israel voices within his own party in Congress.
The Democratic senator has even slammed US President Joe Biden for withholding weapons meant for Israel, arguing that there should be “no conditions” on arms transfers to the Jewish state.
“If there should be any kind of conditions, it should be on Hamas and its enablers and its benefactors,” Fetterman said on Fox News.
Fetterman’s decision to align himself with the pro-Israel cause has rankled some of his closest allies. Last year, 16 former campaign staffers penned a letter urging the senator to “join the right side of history” by supporting a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas. Several of his top communications staffers have fled to join anti-Israel operations such as the Working Families Party or the office of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
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Doorstep Postings: In the name of God it’s time for Justin Trudeau to go, now that the Liberals lost St. Paul’s
This is a special edition of Doorstep Postings, the periodic political commentary column written by Josh Lieblein for The CJN, covering the aftermath of the federal byelection in the St. Paul’s riding of Toronto, where Conservative candidate Don Stewart defeated Liberal candidate Leslie Church—and the 82 others on the ballot. The trouble with Justin Trudeau has […]
The post Doorstep Postings: In the name of God it’s time for Justin Trudeau to go, now that the Liberals lost St. Paul’s appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Paris Hotel Refuses to Serve Israeli Family as Antisemitism Continues to Spiral in France
Anti-Israel demonstration supporting the BDS movement, Paris France, June 8, 2024. Photo: Claire Serie / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect
An Israeli family visiting Paris was denied service at a hotel after an attendant noticed their Israeli passports, continuing a record spike in antisemitism across France that has increasingly led to violence against the Jewish community.
According to the French magazine Le Point, the Israeli family of three intended to spend three nights in Paris. Although they had booked their Novotel Paris Porte de Versailles hotel room online, an attendant informed the family, after seeing their Israeli passports, that the price of the room had increased.
“He completely changed face,” the father said in a complaint to French authorities, according to the publication.
Novotel’s Porte de Versailles hotel in Paris. An Israeli family was turned away from the hotel after an attendant noticed their Israeli passports. Photo: Accor Group
“When he saw that I had an Israeli passport, he told me that the room would cost 1,219 Euros in the end; he increased the price voluntarily,” the father continued.
The attendant also allegedly hurled antisemitic accusations at the family, including, “Israel, you think you are kings of the world; you will not have a room in this hotel!”
The family was turned away from the hotel at 1:30 am and forced to stay elsewhere. The attendant “treated us with contempt and racism,” the father said.
Accor, the group that manages Novotel, offered the family compensation after their poor treatment.
The incident came amid a spike in antisemitism to record levels across France.
In an especially egregious attack that has garnered international headlines, a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped by three Muslim boys in a Paris suburb on June 15, according to the French authorities. The child told investigators that the assailants called her a “dirty Jew” and hurled other antisemitic comments at her during the attack.
The three alleged attackers were arrested by French police two days after the rape. Two of them were indicted for gang rape, death threats, antisemitic violence, attempted extortion, and invasion of privacy. The third boy was charged as a witness.
After the attack, French President Emmanuel Macron “denounced the scourge of antisemitism” overtaking French society and spoke of the need to combat hatred of Jews in schools.
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference in Paris, France, June 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
The parents of the girl agreed to speak anonymously with the French newspaper Le Parisien in an interview that was published on Monday. They described the attack as a “mimicry” of Hamas’ sexual violence against Israeli girls and women during the Palestinian terrorist group’s onslaught across southern Israel on Oct. 7.
The rape in France reportedly occurred after the assailants discovered that the victim was Jewish. “Why did you lie? I know you are not Muslim. So what religion are you?” the boys yelled at her before the attack, according to her parents.
According to the girl’s mother, “before they let her leave, they made her swear by Allah not to tell her parents or police.”
The assault was antisemitic and motivated by the war in Gaza, her parents told Le Parisien. “This incident is a sign of a collective social failure in the fight against antisemitism and extreme violence,” they said.
Jewish children were also targeted in another Paris suburb this past weekend. On Saturday, six Jewish minors were assaulted at a movie theater in the suburb of Levallois-Perret. According to reports, three assailants yelled antisemitic slurs at the minors and “slapped one of them several times,” before the victims fled toward Jerusalem Square in the French capital’s 17th arrondissement, where they filed a police complaint. French police are investigating the incident.
“I condemn the physical attack of antisemitic nature in which several young minors were victims,” Geoffroy Boulard, mayor of the 17th arrondissement, wrote on X/Twitter in response to the assault.
The recent antisemitic attacks came amid a record surge of antisemitism in France in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Antisemitic incidents rose by over 1,000 percent in the final three months of 2023 compared with the previous year, with over 1,200 incidents reported — greater than the total number of incidents in France for the previous three years combined.
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