ColumnsTashjian's Take
How the military escalation in Gaza could impact the South Caucasus
On October 7, 2023, Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas launched operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” aiming to destroy the Israeli army positions near Gaza and capture as many soldiers as possible, in order to exchange them with the almost 7,000 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons. The operation created a shockwave in Israeli society, killing more than 1,000 soldiers and civilians. As a result, Israelis started indiscriminately bombing Gaza, killing civilians and threatening ethnic cleansi
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Let’s not forget that Israel created Hamas with the specific aim of undermining Yasser Arafat, and that in 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu decided to strengthen Hamas for political gain. As to the claim that Hamas wants to eliminate Israel, Noam Chomsky noted that the people who wrote Hamas’s charter have no power anymore, and the younger generation has expressed willingness to negotiate (meanwhile, the Likud Party’s manifesto calls for Israel to be an exclusively Jewish state).
It’s easy to blame Israel for all this, but the fact remains that the US gives Israel $3 billion per year. Biden could simply cut off aid to Israel and it would have no choice but to withdraw its troops from the occupied territories, much like how Clinton cut off aid to Indonesia and it withdrew its troops from East Timor the next day.
Every statement you make is false. Israel did not create Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood did. The purpose of Hamas as stated in its 1988 charter is to destroy Israel and murder its inhabitants. You can see by the recent actions of Hamas in Gaza how much that original intent has changed. As to the money/year Israel gets from the USA, it’s well worth the money for the security/military/intelligence cooperation the USA gets in the heart of the Muslim world. What Does the annual $1.3 Billion in military assistance to Egypt buy American taxpayers?
Good analysis Yeghia. I enjoy reading your articles. It would be very informative if you can expand in a separate article the proposed International corridors; their regional geopolitical importance and specially The India -Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Europe, which still bypasses Russia.
It would be good if Armenia can develop links with Georgia and Iran disregarding Russia. Iran to Asia and the Indian Ocean and Georgia to the black sea and Europe. Nevertheless wars and shenanigans will play their part along with economics.
Gary, the first three sentences of this article by Yeghia Tashjian are deliberate lies. These statements could not have been made out of ignorance. The aim of “Al-Aqsa Flood” was not to capture as many Israeli soldiers as possible to trade for convicted criminals in Israeli prisons. When the terrorists came upon soldiers sleeping in barracks, early that morning, they murdered them in their beds. Capturing soldiers was incidental. The main aim was to murder noncombatants and/or take hostages from the noncombatant population.
As to the “almost 7,000 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons” how many of them are Arab Israelis who are convicted of crimes such as burglary, honor killing, revenge killing, spousal abuse, terrorists with blood on their hands, etc. A Google search on “how many arabs in israeli prisons” gives the result that Israel holds about 4,500 Palestinian prisoners. The State of Texas hold 133,772 prisoners. Israel has 1.6 million Palestinian Arab citizens so maybe some of them belong in prison.
As to “indiscriminately bombing Gaza”, how would that stop the missiles? Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Our planes reach each and every point, this aircraft has many missions – but each missile has an address. We will reach each and every Hamas member” https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/378663
Regarding “threatening ethnic cleansing” in Gaza: Which minority is threatened to be “cleansed” now that virtually all of the Christian Arabs in Gaza have left Gaza due to religious persecution.