Re: [Salon] Israel-Palestine war: 'Hellfire' and chaos in Rafah tests Biden's opposition to displacement

[Todd Pierce <todd.e.pierce@icloud.com>]

I join Center for Constitution Rights in charging Biden and his officials with genocide! But also House Speaker Johnson and his Republican co-conspirators in Congress with the same. And other Republican/Conservatives aligned with Biden in all that Biden is doing in support of Israel’s genocide, while demanding he do even more, with “Incitement to Commit Genocide,” as the same with many other Democrats beyond Biden. It’s indisputable under standards set at Nuremberg, and at the ICC. Which of course means nothing in the US with a broad grant of impunity to ourselves. 

Here’s the U.S. law:  

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1091

(c)Incitement Offense.—

Whoever directly and publicly incites another to violate subsection (a) shall be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(d)Attempt and Conspiracy.—

Any person who attempts or conspires to commit an offense under this section shall be punished in the same manner as a person who completes the offense.

 So what’s the corrective to the Biden administration for a so-called “democracy,” with essentially a one-party system though consisting of multiple factions, but all coming together in a conspiratorial coalition to wage aggressive war on the world, differing only in “targeting priorities?” Especially in an election year, which we’re in as the election campaign never ends in the US anymore, with a constant “conditioning of our minds” throughout, never-ending as like a “cognitive war operation.” With some like Trump and DeSantis, the “New Right,” RW Peaceniks, simultaneously waging a cognitive campaign to convince an American public increasingly war-weary that they stand apart from the rest, as they stand for “peace.” As Trump did amongst his multiple micro-targeted messages from 2015 to the present. Should we just accept whatever a politician says at any given moment as their actual proposed policy, without doing a deeper analysis?

If so, with Biden’s genocidal actions, the logical answer would be for the vast majority of American to campaign, or at least vote, for the “opposing party,” and propagate this "convincing argument,” as the Right-wing Peaceniks/National Conservative Kahanists are:

https://flvoicenews.com/desantis-office-slings-at-biden-over-giant-lie-about-hamas-and-palestine/

And heed the calls of Israeli right-wing media platforms for a return to Trump’s “clandestine war" against Iran: 

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-768626

"Actions have consequences, and for years, President Biden has signaled weakness in a region that only respects strength while keeping our closest ally Israel at arm’s length. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not been received at the White House, and the administration has focused its energies on shamefully meddling in Israel’s domestic affairs. An American president, through his actions, must show the world that the US stands with Israel and reverse the disastrous policies that embolden the Iranian terrorist regime and its terror proxies. . . During this past legislative session, he expanded Florida’s anti-BDS law, making it the strongest in the country. . . . DeSantis has made it clear that as US president, he would reverse all of Biden’s appeasement policies towards Iran and impose crippling sanctions. Any foreign adversary, especially Iran, will know not to mess with the United States, Israel, or any of our allies. DeSantis will deepen the US-Israel relationship in unprecedented ways, and Israel will know no stronger ally."

So sayeth: The writer has served as a board member of ZOA (Zionist Organization of America) Florida. He has served in leadership roles of Jewish organizations, and in 2021, received the Zionist In The Spotlight Award at the 2021 ZOA Superstars Gala."

To my stupid, deductive reasoning mind, the above serves as explanation for why extreme Zionist Bari Weiss’ media platform would join the Boston Globe, The American Conservative, and Quincy Institute, in propagating a fallacious claim of the mythical “Right-wing Peacenik,” as the epitome of Cognitive Warfare, with the candidates they all expressed appreciation for more correctly defined as “Right-wing Zionist,” if one only looks at the list of the right-wing politicians promoted as the mythical "Right-wing Peacenik,” and their recent statements, and over time, as can be found in part here, with the odious Trumpists Sharma and Hemingway push a completely false revisionist history of US political history, and so easily proven to be false: 

:  

https://quincyinst.org/event/the-new-right-ukraine-marks-major-foreign-policy-shift-among-conservatives/

And here’s Weiss’ platform: https://www.thefp.com/p/the-rise-of-the-right-wing-peacenik

But there’s a notable exception to such "Peacenikism,” like an “elephant in the room,” as this quote from the link above shows: "The one exception to the rule is China, the only country on Earth that actually threatens American hegemony.

"Many on the right are not so much anti-war as they are China-focused. This includes Elbridge Colby, a deputy assistant secretary of defense under Trump and a leading advocate of channeling dollars and military assets away from the Middle East and Eastern Europe and toward East Asia.

Colby suggested we need to abandon the post–Cold War policy that held that the United States should be able to wage two wars simultaneously: “Is confronting the first peer superpower in our history walking or chewing gum? How about wrestling a dragon and sprinting a marathon?” 

And as I’ve shared in the past, as Kevin Roberts, falsely portrayed as a “Restrainer,” promotes, is Project 2025, a document which is being peddled and promoted as a book which reads much like that other book once published in Germany calling for a massive, massive military buildup, in describing “My Struggle,” of the author. Which if you read closely, should be apparent to all but the most obtuse in this article for the “Common Plan”: 

But here’s Roberts stating his actual position, not even duplicitously, though he usually does (in my opinion): https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/interview/politicians-dont-like-doing-the-right-thing-interview-with-kevin-roberts/

"What is the US’ primary responsibility in this war in your opinion?

"The US has two responsibilities: first, it should have sent war material to Ukraine months before the invasion, (TP-sayeth Roberts, ignoring that per Mearsheimer, Trump always was) which may have prevented the war, to begin with (TP-or provoke it, like the building of “Dreadnoughts” contributed so much to for WW I). But the haplessness of the Biden regime prevented that. Second, the US needs to be more actively brokering a diplomatic solution (TP-Duplicity, thy name is Roberts [in my opinion]). The war isn’t ending anytime soon, so the tragedy and evil propagated by Putin will persist (TP-leaving no doubt who is responsible). I should add that the war would never have happened had President Trump still been in office: the only thing that thugs like Putin understand is raw power, which our former president, to his credit, referenced selectively and effectively (TP-against Russia, per Mearsheimer). 

". . . Obviously, then, you know that on your spectrum regarding the Fidesz government, I am a huge fan—with the exception that soon, your government must find a way to untether from China, Russia, and Iran, otherwise it risks losing the open support from American conservatives who consider those regimes our enemies.”

That sums up Right-wing Peacenik Roberts “Friend/Enemy Distinction” in Carl Schmitt’s terminology perfectly!

Embedded in the above isn’t “subliminal messaging,” its blatantly declared that “China, Russia, and Iran,” are our enemies.  

And what do American Conservatives demand be done with “Enemies?” Massively buildup the US military for more capability of destroying them! As Project 2025, led by R-W Peacenik Kevin Robertsdemands, as I’ve shared repeatedly, as Project 2025, while fallaciously claiming Conservatives stand for “restraint 🤣.

So once again, like with Mein Kampf, what Conservatives plan to do with the US military and to our remnant of the “Rule of Law,” is fully laid out for all to see:

Attachment: pdf3CwlHFcdPV.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Attachment: Heritage Foundation Total-War Militarization of America Plan.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

With a partial listing of the “Network” behind it included.

On Dec 16, 2023, at 10:03 AM, wrote:

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-hellfire-and-chaos-rafah-tests-bidens-opposition-displacement

December 15, 2023

Israel-Palestine war: 'Hellfire' and chaos in Rafah tests Biden's opposition to displacement

Biden’s public pledge to oppose the forced displacement of Palestinians from the besieged enclave is looking increasingly tenuous amid a humanitarian crisis brewing in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.

Stark warnings that social order is breaking down in southern Gaza, with the potential to send hundreds of thousands of desperate Palestinians across the border to Egypt, is testing one of US President Joe Biden’s clearest red lines on Israel's offensive, current and former US officials told Middle East Eye. 

“We seem to be on the glide path to displacement by desperation,” William Usher, a former senior Middle East analyst at the CIA, told MEE. “That would be an embarrassment for the Biden administration, which is clearly growing more frustrated with Israel.”

Roughly 90 percent of Gaza’s population - 1.9 million Palestinians - are internally displaced as a result of Israel’s offensive, with about one million of those now boxed into tiny Rafah, where they are living in squalid conditions under Israeli bombardment.

Palestinians in Rafah have been forced to sleep on the street and in makeshift tents. The UN has documented the outbreak of chicken pox, meningitis, jaundice, and respiratory infections because of severe overcrowding, and says Palestinians are now defecating outside due to a lack of latrines. Poor sanitation is causing diarrhea.

On Wednesday, Unrwa commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini warned that “civil order was breaking down” in Rafah.

“The sight of a truck carrying humanitarian assistance now provokes chaos,” he said. “People are hungry. They stop the truck and ask for food, and they eat it on the street. I witnessed this first-hand.”

“It is unrealistic to think that people will remain resilient in the face of unlivable conditions of such magnitude,” he said, “especially when the border is so close.”

His comments follow a warning from UN chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday that there was “increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt”.

'Tipping point' 

Just as thousands more Palestinians stream into Rafah to escape Israel's southern offensive, the packed border town is in the Israeli military's cross-hairs. At least twenty-six Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on Rafah this week, according to Palestinian health officials in Gaza.

“You put everything together and it’s not haphazard or accidental. It’s impossible not to draw the conclusion that Israel’s ultimate goal is to force people over the border,” Khaled Elgindy, director of the Middle East Insitute’s programme on Israeli-Palestinian affairs, told MEE.

The UN's warnings come as the US increases its public criticism of Israel, exposing a new unease with its ally’s offensive.

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Israel was losing support globally because it was carrying out an “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza. He later said Israel should focus on saving civilian lives.

Young Palestinians rest under a makeshift tent at a camp for displaced people in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on 13 December 2023 (AFP)

On Thursday, US national security advisor Jake Sullivan told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the US wanted Israel to switch to a “low intensity” phase of the war.

The Biden administration is calling on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, but the fear of forced displacement hits at the intersection of Washington’s humanitarian concerns and wider political and security fears.

Israeli lobbying for a forced displacement of Palestinians in the early days of the conflict inflamed neighbouring states like Egypt and Jordan. Cairo, which controls the Rafah crossing, lashed out at the US over Israeli maneuvers for forced displacement, MEE previously reported.

Jordan and Egypt have joined other Arab states demanding a ceasefire to the war. While Amman and Cairo's assertiveness failed to stop the fighting, it did elicit a public pledge from Biden to oppose the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.

One current US official and one former official familiar with the administration’s thinking told MEE the Biden administration hopes a more targeted Israeli offensive would, in part, address its Arab allies' concerns as well as facilitate more aid into the Strip and limit civilian casualties. 

“Nowhere is safe for civilians in Gaza right now,” Abbas Dahouk, a former senior military advisor at the State Department, who previously served as a military attache at the US embassy in Saudi Arabia, told MEE.

“What the administration would like to see is the kind of counter-insurgency that the US conducted in the early days of Afghanistan with elite units targeting Hamas with minimal further uprooting of civilians,” he said. “But it’s unclear whether Israel has the capability or desire to switch tactics.”

So far, it has been a mixture of Palestinian resilience and beefed-up Egyptian security that prevents the Biden administration’s pledge to oppose forced displacement from being tested, experts say.

Palestinians say they have no intention of fleeing the Gaza Strip. Many of those braving the humanitarian crisis today are descendants of Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from their homes in 1948 after the creation of the state of Israel in an event known as the Nakba or "catastrophe". Refugees made up around 70 percent of Gaza's population before the current war began. 

“Palestinians would rather die in Gaza than flee, but what do you imagine people who are starving and trying to save their children are going to do?” Elgindy told MEE.

“There is an intangible tipping point.”

'Sinai is a pressure-pot'

Egypt fears that an influx of Palestinians could destabilise Sinai, as the government has spent years fighting a festering insurgency including against local affiliates of the Islamic State group.

Cairo is also fearful of allowing an influx of refugees that could potentially allow Palestinian fighters to establish bases to attack Israel, as they have in Lebanon, which could lead to direct Israeli military action in the desert peninsula.

“Sinai is a pressure-pot. Gaza is something that would make the entire Sinai peninsula blow up,” Mohannad Sabry, an expert on Sinai at King’s College London’s defence studies department, told MEE.

“But Israel is giving Palestinians two options, either you die under hellfire or flee to Egypt. The real question is what if the influx happens?

“Will Egypt fire on Palestinians? That’s a nightmare. But if Egypt allows any Palestinians to settle in Sinai, it would basically mean Cairo is green-lighting a second Nakba. Egypt has no good options.”

Usher, the former senior Middle East analyst at the CIA, said a large wave of Palestinians crossing the border is the type of scenario that could lead to the collapse of Sisi’s regime, already under pressure from a blistering economic crisis and trying to manage pro-Palestinian sentiment on the street.

Sanam Vakil, director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa programme, told MEE a crisis at Rafah would result in “a boomerang effect” on the Israeli government “because that is the collective red lines from the Arab world as well as the Biden administration”.

'A lot of explosives in Gaza'

One of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's first acts after coming to power was to bolster security at the border.

He constructed a massive metal wall with high fencing and destroyed more than 3,000 tunnels leading to the enclave. Since the war erupted, he has put the border under even tighter control, building sand barriers and deploying additional troops and tanks.

Egypt has agreed to allow only dual nationals and a trickle of wounded from Rafah. On 13 December, 268 dual nationals were evacuated via the crossing. There are signs that those with means desperately want to flee.

The standard bribes Palestinians in Gaza once paid to cross the border have doubled or tripled in some cases to $5,000 per person. 

While the border is stronger today, Sabry said the physical Rafah crossing itself would be no match for thousands of Palestinians trying to storm it. 

The Egyptian-Gaza border has been breached before. In 2008, Hamas blew holes in its fence with Egypt and allowed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to pour into Sinai in a show of defiance at Israel’s siege of the enclave.

While Hamas has largely vanished from above ground, the fact that Hamas or others in Gaza haven't repeated the 2008 move has left some experts to assess that the group is still working with Egypt on security to prevent an embarrassing situation for Cairo. 

“There are a lot of explosives in Gaza. The fact that no one has shot anything at the border wall makes it likely that some deal has been cut,” one former senior US official told MEE, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic. 

Sabry said that if the border was breached, the number of Palestinians streaming into Sinai would be “an avalanche”.

“In 2008, 750,000 people came in. This time you have starvation and hellfire raining down on Gaza.”