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Gaza War Diary: 2-3 FEBRUARY 2024

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Looks like Haniyeh and Sinwar aren’t getting along, arguing over who is running this sh—show. Sinwar rejects Haniyeh’s demands to be the one who decides on accepting or rejecting the Israeli hostage release offer. In the meantime, they are delaying any response.

While they dither, the IDF is blowing up Khan Yunis. There are reports of a “belt of fire” attack in the area of Kian al Najjar and Miraj in southern Khan Yunis, attacks near the Nasser Hospital, also, southern Khan Yunis. They also blew up the entire compound of the Abdullah Assam Mosque in the Sabra neighborhood of Khan Yunis.

There are also reports that Hamas is trying to reassert its rule in Gaza City in areas the IDF has left, showing up and paying partial salaries, using whips and sticks to attack Gazans lining up for their share from the aid trucks.

Gazans are complaining that people are using their plight to create internet scams, posting pictures of the ״poor Gazans״ then requesting donations, which they pocket. Ah, the internet equivalent of the video I saw yesterday of a long line of shirtless Gazans, hands tied behind their backs, herded by Hamas after having been found looting homes. They marched along, forced to declare themselves “thieves and pigs.”

According to Abu Ali Express, Fatah supporters are complaining that Hamas is screwing up: “What we liberated in the Oslo Accords was recaptured because of Hamas.” Apparently, the Israeli plan to establish a buffer zone a kilometer deep in the Gaza Strip, is driving Fatah supporters nuts, as Israel retakes the parts of the Strip our stupid government handed over to them, gratis, in the insane Oslo Accords. Now we are taking it back. It’s not much, even according to them. The Gaza Strip, which covered an area of 365 square kilometers, will now be reduced to 315 square kilometers following the buffer zone plan. Fatah mocks Hamas: in the past you said you wanted to return to the ’67 borders. Now you’d be happy to return to the 10/7 borders.

Some Israelis would like to undo the equally stupid “disengagement” and get their peaceful and productive settlements back in Gaza. Most Israelis, and the government, do not back such a plan.

But reducing the territory of the Strip is undoubtedly the most triggering of all for the Palestinians. Land to them is their measure of victory. It’s their glory. We need to hit them where it hurts.

We in Israel are delighted that the Americans finally hit back at the Iran-backed Shitte militias in western Iraq and eastern Syria for the death of their soldiers, especially since among the targets were ammunition depots that also pose a threat to Israel. Israel, no doubt, shared intelligence with American forces to pinpoint such strategic assets. The White House, however, announced it had informed the Iraqi government in advance, information surely passed on to the Shitte militias responsible for American deaths. They did however say this was just the beginning. Good.

A Fatah supporter writes on social media: “After everything that happened in Gaza, the destruction, deportation, killing, senior Hamas officials are now demanding in negotiations that everything in Gaza be restored to the way was before 10/7….So why did you do it in the first place if all you want now is to go back to 10/6?”

Dear Fatah, dear Hamas: there is no going back, ever. For either of you.

The numbers released by the “Palestinian Ministry of Health” (big joke), keep getting higher and higher. Now they are claiming 27,238 dead. We in Israel hope they are minimizing out of embarrassment for their total failure. But if they aren’t, I’m not losing any sleep over it. Whatever the numbers, these are all people who would be alive and well eating shwarma by the seashore if Hamas, and the Gazans, hadn’t decided to invade and murder Israelis on 10/7. You killed over a thousand Israelis. Now your dead are in the tens of thousands. Seems fair to me. And we aren’t done yet, because you aren’t done yet. Surrender. Give us back our hostages and we can talk about a ceasefire. But there is no going back to what you had before, get it? It’s called losing a war.

What is this whole story about “settler violence against Palestinians?” Journalist Amit Segal explains on his website:

The entire fabricated blood libel against settlers is based on a UN report claiming that between 2016-2022 there were 5,656 settler attacks against Palestinians. Criminologist Dr. Michael Wolfovitz at Hebrew University Law School analyzed the report. Turns out, that out of this number, 1,600 didn’t happen in “settlements” but in Jerusalem, and all of them had to do with Jews simply going to visit Temple Mount, or Israeli police dealing with riots of Arabs on Temple Mount. Of the remaining 2,500, they are connected to attacks against property or people, and include taking out terrorists trying to murder Jews.

For example, on April 8, 2018 Muhammed Abed al-Krim Marshood attempted to stab Israeli citizens in Mishur Adumim. He was neutralized and died the following day from his wounds. This is listed in the UN report as two events: April 8 he was wounded, and April 9 he died. Both are counted as settler violence towards Palestinians. On July 26, 2018 Israeli Yotam Ovadiyah, was stabbed 30 times and murdered by a seventeen year-old Palestinian. Yotam’s attempts to neutralize his attacker is listed by the UN as “settler violence.” And also many more defensive acts by Israelis against Palestinian attackers in Har Hevron and Yitzhar as well as IDF attempts to stop Palestinian rioters at Joseph’s Tomb and the entrance to the gravesite of Yehoshua Ben Nun are listed as “settler violence.”

Even traffic accidents in which Palestinian and Israeli cars were involved are listed as “settler violence against Palestinians.” What we are left with are twenty incidents a month, the majority mutual conflicts, not one-sided attacks, and which involve many uncorroborated Palestinian reports.

And even if all those 20 were true, it pales in comparison to Palestinian violence against Israelis. According to the IDF, from 2019-2022 there were 25, 257 documented cases of Palestinian attacks against settlers, over 500 a month, and this year about 763.

The overblown cases of “settler violence” is a way of assuaging the consciences of the world community by creating some kind of false symmetry to justify the violence of Hamas, and pave the way for yet another expulsion of Jews from their homes in order to facilitate the creation of yet another “Palestinian State” run by neanderthal Nazi terrorists. While UNRWA, thankfully, is on its way to being defunded and hopefully permanently shut down , the world will only be truly on the correct path when the UN itself follows the same path to oblivion. Not only isn’t it fulfilling the mandate for which it was created, but working in the exact opposite direction to deepen conflict and prolong hatred among nations with partisan politics, lies and deception. Enough.

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4 comments on “Gaza War Diary: 2-3 FEBRUARY 2024”

  1. Kenneth Duthie

    I have copies of the top secret (at the time) correspondence between Anthony Eden and London, during Eden’s trip to Moscow in December 1941. Stalin took the opportunity to tell Eden that from the Soviet perspective, the issue was expanding their territory to the west, so that there would be a “buffer zone” against any further attacks in the future.

    Stalin had already taken over the Baltic States by that time. Eden informed him that the British government had already written those countries off. Stalin wanted the British government to agree, there and then, to the Soviet takeover of more territory in Eastern Europe. Eden hummed and hawed, but when he returned to London, he wrote a memo advising that Britain should agree to the Soviet territorial demands. After all, Eden said, once the war ended, Britain would not be able to turn them out. All this was going on behind the scenes . . . but it *was* going on!

    The British people, then and now, have been told that the war was about all sorts of things. But really, it was about territory. The British government didn’t want Germany to expand their territory (to the east – away from Britain!) so they gave a guarantee to Poland. That set the whole thing in motion. A catastrophic decision by Chamberlain and Halifax!

    Once the war started, and the British government allied themselves with the Soviet Union, they couldn’t do anything about the Soviet Union expanding their territory. But one look at the pre-war map and the post-war map of Europe will show what the war was actually about.

    I think it’s important to remember that the events of 7th October were a “casus belli” (not just a “terrorist attack”) and Israel is now at war.

    So the enemy can expect to lose control of at least some of the territory it controlled before *they* decided to start this war.

    That’s what happens.

    • Ryan Keogh

      Stupidest thing about WW2 was the fact that Poland lost the most territory, despite technically being on the winning side. I understand the people of Britain had fought a long and hard war against the Germans and did not have the stomach for a war against their former ally., but the price was the Poles had to deal with five decades of Communist rule, but at least they got Silesia and East Prussia, because those territories were part of Germany, and thus better developed. But tell me Kenneth, why do you say giving Poland a guarantee was a big mistake by Halifax and Chamberlain?

      • Kenneth Duthie

        Hi Ryan,

        I was thinking about my earlier comment. What I was trying to say was that countries take over (or lose control of) territory at the end of every war. The Finns reached an accommodation with the Soviets at the end of the “Winter War” for example, and the British government – despite having signed the Atlantic Charter – went along with the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States. In the run-up to Eden’s visit in 1941, Stalin pretty much bullied the Brits into sending Eden, and accepting the Soviet demands about expanding their territory at the end of the war. This is all a matter of record.

        The insistence of Stalin on the British government declaring war on territories the Soviets intended to take over can be seen as a pre-emptive move on Stalin’s part. At the end of the war, how could Britain stand up for a country they had declared war on, and go against the country who had been their ally? Stalin was all about territorial expansion, and he made sure the Brits couldn’t do anything – or even say anything – about it at the end of the war.

        Given their track record, it’s difficult to see how the British government – or any other government – could object to Israel taking control of part of the Gaza territory at the end of this war, so as to ensure its safety.

        The decision by Chamberlain & Halifax to give a verbal guarantee to Poland on 31st March 1939 – I have read the minutes of a Cabinet meeting held on 20th March (ten days prior) in which Chamberlain himself says that the problem with giving guarantees to other countries is that it alters their attitude and behaviour towards their neighbours – they are (according to Chamberlain) more likely to dig their heels in over “minor matters” and since they now have that guarantee and everyone else is now obliged to get involved, a major war is in fact more likely to happen, not less. This was pretty insightful by Chamberlain – he went ahead and did it anyway though.

        Also – several MPs told Chamberlain that he should have obtained some kind of agreement with the Soviets *before* he issued the guarantee. As things stood, Britain could do nothing to actually help the Poles in the event of an invasion. (Whereas the thought of having to fight a war on two fronts might actually have served as a deterrent to the Germans.)

        The British did try to get an agreement from the Soviets (you can read about this in my book ) but they failed to do so.

        In fact, the Germans were also negotiating with the Soviets – and what was the outcome of all this? The British government was left out in the cold, the Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed, and even although he now knew that his verbal guarantee had always been worthless, Chamberlain issued a written, formal guarantee to the Poles – on the day after the Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed!

        A major war was now inevitable.

        So what did we get from Chamberlain and Halifax during 1939? False promises, failed diplomacy and a major war at the end of it all. The sad thing is, our current politicians are even bigger liars, are even more incompetent, and do not appear to have learned anything from history.

        I’m starting to get a very unsettling, we’re all in the summer of 1939, kind of feeling about things . . .

  2. Ryan Keogh

    Funny, I just witnessed an example of million-dollar settler violence involving a Porsche 918 Spyder in front of my house. Anyway, I forgot about Fatah, but I was thinking at the beginning of the war when Gaza started getting pounded, I wondered if Mahmoud Abbas secretly had an evil smile reminiscent of the Grinch when that happened. I wonder if he was actually satisfied that the people who rebelled against Fatah and his rule were getting blown to kingdom come. The attack against the militias has been one of the few things Biden got right starting the year. The only thing I consider “settler violence” is when mobs attack Palestinians unprovoked, but I imagine in this time that it is increasingly rare.

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