The Israeli army is planning forced evacuations of West Bank civilians, and the military operation in the territory is expected to last several days

The Israeli army launched its biggest operation in the occupied West Bank in over two decades early on 28 August, raiding Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas with hundreds of troops and launching airstrikes on the three cities, considered major hotbeds of resistance in the territory.

The Israeli army announced in a statement early on Wednesday that its forces “have now begun an operation to counter terrorism” in Jenin and Tulkarem. Israeli forces are also operating in the Faraa camp near Tubas.

Military sources told the Times of Israel that the operation is expected to last several days.

“We need to deal with the threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed. This is a war in every sense,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said via social media.

“Iran is working to establish a terror front against Israel in [the West Bank], according to the model it used in Lebanon and Gaza, by funding and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan,” he added.

Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said that Israel is planning the forced evacuation of West Bank neighborhoods as part of the operation. “The process will likely be long,” the daily’s correspondent, Yoav Zeyton, said.

Israel’s Kan channel reported that the operation is the largest since Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, which took place in the occupied West Bank during the Second Intifada. It will reportedly involve thousands of soldiers.

Tel Aviv has dubbed the operation “Camps of Summer,” targeting the refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, including Tulkarem’s Nour Shams camp, the Jenin camp, and the Faraa camp.

“Terrorists in the northern West Bank – The gates of hell have opened. Either you surrender or you die,” said the Hebrew Channel 14 military correspondent Hallel Bitt.

The operation was launched after a blast in Tel Aviv last week, which was claimed by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement.

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed and several others injured.

At least three were killed in a drone strike on a vehicle southeast of Jenin, and another four were killed in a drone strike on the Faraa camp south of Tubas, according to WAFA news agency. Others were killed by Israeli gunfire during clashes.

Israeli forces have bulldozed the roads leading to several major hospitals in Jenin and Tulkarem and have threatened to raid the Khalil Suleiman Governmental Hospital in Jenin.

“The occupation forces are imposing a siege on medical institutions in the city, as they have blocked roads to Ibn Sina Hospital with earth mounds, and besieged the Martyr Khalil Suleiman Hospital and the headquarters of the Red Crescent,” said Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub.

Meanwhile, several Palestinian resistance factions are confronting Israeli troops across the three cities targeted by the massive Israeli raid.

“We have named the battle being fought by the heroes of Saraya Al-Quds on the combat axes in the West Bank as ‘The Horror of the Camps,’ where the enemy has mobilized its forces in search of an image of victory after its failure over the past 10 months in confronting the fighters of our people in Gaza and the West Bank,” the PIJ’s Quds Brigades said.

“With God’s help, our fighters are ready and will make the enemy taste the horror of the camps, and their soldiers will know the hell that awaits them,” it added.

The Tulkarem and Jenin branches of the Quds Brigades said on Wednesday morning that their fighters were engaged in fierce battles with the Israeli army in the two cities. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also took part in confronting Israeli forces in Jenin.

“Our fighters are confronting the invading occupation forces in Al-Faraa camp and are showering the enemy forces and military vehicles in the Beirut axis with heavy volleys of bullets,” the Quds Brigades’ Tubas Brigade said.

The Tulkarem Brigade said its fighters “targeted the [Israeli] snipers’ positions entrenched inside a house in Nour Shams Camp and showered them with bullets, achieving direct hits.”

‼️Continuous clashes between the resistance fighters and the occupation forces as the resistance fighters confront the occupation’s aggression on Nour Shams camp in Tulkarm, West Bank pic.twitter.com/Myy88udjpi

— Monitor𝕏 (@MonitorX99800) August 28, 2024

Source: The Cradle

“Free Palestine!” and “Stop the genocide!” chants rang out from the steps of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) headquarters on Aug. 8. LAUSD employees, United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) Human Rights Committee, Association of Raza Educators, Teachers for Justice in Palestine, Unión del Barrio, the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, and other community-based organizations demanded an end to the harassment, intimidation and doxxing of teachers who teach their students about Palestine and the ongoing U.S.-funded Israeli genocide.

Teachers have been forced to switch schools to do their jobs. Ethnic Studies pioneer Dr. Theresa Montaña explained that ethnic studies is to “reveal what has not been taught about oppressed and marginalized people everywhere, including oppressed and marginalized people in Palestine. It is incumbent upon us, as critically conscious folks, to teach our children about that so that it never happens to a single human being ever again, anywhere. These teachers are heroes.”

David Feldman, a Jewish educator and chair of the UTLA Human Rights Committee, chaired the press conference/rally: “As teachers, it is our duty to stand up for children in our city and around the world. Schools are being bombed and children are being killed in Palestine. We demand that our tax dollars be used to fund schools, health care and housing; not to fund Israel who is commiting genocide in Palestine.”

Ron Gochez, a 20-year high school history teacher, has filed complaints to LAUSD about the threats he has faced, but there has been no response or protection from LAUSD. Gochez said, “The work we do is out of love for our students, community and humanity … we are being cyber-stalked, doxxed, and harassed, we are being attacked in different ways: at our school sites, during school time, at home and online at all times. They are publishing our work and home addresses. They think we are going to quit – we are not going to quit, we are organizing – we are building. We will continue to say, Long Live Palestine, End the Occupation and End the Genocide!”

Palestinian resistance continues despite Zionist assassinations

As the genocide in Gaza marked its 300th day of bloodshed, Israel continues to demonstrate its intentions to prolong the genocide while provoking a possible regional war. 

In a series of assassinations in late July, Israel targeted and killed Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah military commander Fouad Shukur. Mohammad Deif, a senior Hamas military leader and a founder of the Qassam Brigades, was also confirmed killed in an Israeli air raid in southern Gaza on July 13. 

These assassinations reveal a sense of desperation from the Netanyahu regime, as their campaign has failed to destroy the Palestinian resistance. More importantly, the assassinations demonstrate the regime’s total disinterest in achieving a ceasefire-hostage deal, given that Haniyeh was Hamas’ chief negotiator. 

The string of assassinations has also not affected the U.S. imperialists’ support — far from it. Washington has ordered its naval assets in the region to move into position expeditiously while also approving an additional $20 billion worth of tanks, jets, and missiles to Israel. This is on top of the $3.5 billion released to Israel just earlier this month in August. As a client state, Israel is powerless and cannot exist without the U.S. 

Meanwhile, there’s no relief for working-class people in the U.S. who can’t afford food and rent. The Guardian recently reported that, between 2014 and 2023, 11,500 people died unhoused just in Los Angeles County. Three thousand were seniors. This contrast in the allocation of resources makes Washington’s priorities clear. 

The question remains how Israel’s latest provocations will alter the political landscape of West Asia and affect ceasefire negotiations moving forward.

A path to peace? 

It’s important to highlight how central Haniyeh was to the negotiation process. He and his delegation were adamant that any deals made would need to include a full and complete end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, and the relinquishing of control over the Rafah Crossing – all of which have been nonstarters for the Netanhayu regime since a ceasefire proposal was first put forward. 

What is made clear now is that the Israelis were never interested in negotiating to begin with and instead used the notion of a ceasefire-hostage deal as a stalling tactic. At the same time, they pursued their stated agenda of incapacitating Hamas and the Palestinian community both politically and militarily. 

Before the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, hopes for a hostage-ceasefire deal were at a standstill. In May of this year, Hamas, through its mediators in Cairo and Doha, had agreed in principle to a hostage-ceasefire proposal. However, negotiations quickly unraveled as Netanyahu doubled down on his commitment to “eradicate” Hamas from the Gaza Strip and continued with his siege of Rafah. 

The following month, in June, Hamas responded positively to a U.N.-backed ceasefire plan. Yet that same week, the Israelis responded by pressing on with their assault and embarking on yet another bombing campaign in Al-Mawasi, the only designated humanitarian “safe zone” by the Israeli military. 

The assassination of Haniyeh marks a dangerous new turn in the conflict. It not only places any hopes for a ceasefire deal on the back-burner, but it further escalates simmering tensions in the region. 

Because the assassinations of Haniyeh and Shukur took place within the sovereign borders of Iran and Lebanon, respectively, both nations are entitled under international law to respond however they see fit. Both the United States and Israel are keenly aware of this, which is why the U.S. has already preemptively dispatched warships and fighter jets to the region in anticipation of an Iranian response.

As of now, U.S. forces have been attacked at the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, while Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for a drone attack in northern Israel.

Notably, assassinations are one of Washington’s preferred tactics, going back many decades. Obama pioneered the use of drones in this regard, and we are only four years out from the Trump administration’s assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, Iraq. 

That same month, January 2020, Iraq was rocked by massive protests that forced the country’s parliament to pass a resolution to expel all foreign troops from the country. The U.S. has still not complied, showing its imperial disregard for the sovereignty of both Iraq and Iran. 

A legacy of targeted assassinations

Make no mistake, the assassination of Haniyeh continues a long legacy of targeted killings by U.S.-backed Zionist occupation forces meant to disorient and demoralize regional resistance forces. Extrajudicial killings have been a hallmark of Israeli intelligence agencies going as far back as the beginning of the settler state. 

In 1972, Israel launched Operation Wrath of God in response to the righteous actions of Palestinian athletes — banned from that year’s Olympic Games held in Munich — who held Israeli athletes hostage, demanding an exchange for hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails. 

Despite these actions being heralded as military successes and a show of might in popular media, such as Steven Spielberg’s 2005 dramatization of the events, the assassinations strengthened the resolve of the Palestinian people and the resistance.

It should go without saying that positions of leadership within Hamas are not without their occupational hazards. Since its inception, many of Hamas’ leaders have been assassinated while still in office. Hamas’ founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was assassinated in 2004 – and just 15 days later, Yassin’s successor, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, was targeted and killed by the Israeli air force. An attempted assassination was also carried out on Khaled Mashal, the successor to al-Rantisi.

Similarly, Haniyeh’s predecessor and founding member of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Saleh al-Arouri, was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon earlier this year, in January.

Upon closer examination, it becomes apparent that Israel’s strategy of high-profile assassinations does very little to break the resolve of resistance groups on the ground, nor does it make very much sense strategically, as Hamas continues to demonstrate its ability to seamlessly transition between leaders if and when one is martyred. However, it is not out of the realm of possibility that these actions are simply meant to provoke a response from its neighbors and non-state actors alike.

Where things currently stand

Hamas recently announced that Yahya Sinwar is the new political bureau chief. As the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Sinwar has played a critical role in ceasefire negotiations and is believed to be one of the principal architects of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7, 2023. Because of this, Sinwar stands as a wanted man by the International Criminal Court and the Netanyahu regime, who’ve placed Sinwar at the top of their most wanted list.  

Sinwar’s appointment as head of Hamas’ political bureau not only places Gaza at the front and center of any future ceasefire-hostage negotiations but also demonstrates that despite Israel’s declared objective of wiping Hamas “off the face of the Earth,” the group remains resilient and united on multiple fronts. 

In recent days it has been reported that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has pressured Sinwar to accept a deal on less than favorable terms, stating that Sinwar “has been and remains the primary decider when it comes to concluding the ceasefire,” and urged Hamas to meet to finalize negotiations scheduled for Aug.15. Hamas has responded to this by reiterating its support for the previous proposal put forth earlier this summer and stating that Hamas would “study” the invitation despite reports in the Western press claiming they had pulled out of negotiations entirely. 

U.S. President Joe Biden mumbles his way through diversions while increasing the arms shipments to Israel and sending an additional armada to the region while threatening Iran. He issued a joint statement with European allies that calls on Iran to “stand down” when it is Israel that is on the attack. 

This serves as a reminder that the genocide of the Palestinian people is being carried out with the explicit endorsement of the U.S. government, both militarily and financially.

Brooklyn, New York, Aug. 11 – A hundred people gathered in the Bay Ridge neighborhood to honor the late Ismail Haniyeh. The Palestinian leader was assassinated in Tehran by the Zionist apartheid regime on July 31. Three of his sons and four grandchildren were murdered in Gaza in an Israeli air strike in April. 

Haniyeh was born in 1962 in Gaza’s Shati refugee camp, where his family lived after being driven from their home in the occupied Palestinian city of Ashkelon in 1948. 

The vigil and Salatul Ghaib (a funeral prayer) was called by PAL Awda, New York / New Jersey: the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. 

 A leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, Haniyeh had been a key negotiator in the talks to stop the genocide being committed in Gaza by Netanyahu and Biden.

The foul murder of Ismail Haniyeh shows that the Zionist occupiers and its Pentagon backers want that genocide to continue.

Haniyeh’s assassination was as if Nixon and Kissinger decided to murder Lê Đức Thọ, the leading Vietnamese negotiator, at the Paris Peace Talks.

The vigil opened with a statement from PAL Awda: 

“We send our condolences to Palestine and Palestinians across the world, for whom this loss is a national and personal tragedy as much as it is a political and legal crime. The Honorable Ismael Haniyeh lived a life in sacrifice and service to Palestinians with profound love and humility. He endured the most difficult conditions, lived a life in struggle, and under constant threat of assassination for his sacrifice and service to protecting the lives and lands of Palestinians. A life he was forced to live by the criminal and sadistic zionist project which has perpetrated the worst crimes seen in modern history for 76 years. Despite this, and in a show of epic mercy, patience, and peacefulness, the Honorable Haniyeh spent decades trying to broker peace. 

“For all that he was, he was deeply beloved as a father, son and brother by Palestinians and all who met and worked with him. The Honorable Haniyeh was known for his depth of kindness and his affectionate demeanor. He truly embodied the traits of the most committed of freedom fighters and servants of the people. For this, he remains the last democratically elected leader in Palestine, to date.” 

The statement held “the entire U.S. ruling class responsible” for Haniyeh’s assassination. “While the ICC has issued seven charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Benjamin Netanyahu,” less than a week before the murder, “Washington shamelessly welcomed and honored him at Congress. President Biden, Vice President Harris and GOP candidate Trump all met with him privately.”

A message was read from Lamis Deek, a human rights attorney and leader in the Palestinian community, denouncing Haniyeh’s murder. Omowale Clay, chairman of the December 12th Movement, praised  Ismail Haniyeh as a leader dedicated to liberating Palestinians. Rabbi Weiss of Neturei Karta, who attended Haniyeh’s funeral in Qatar, condemned Zionism and its apartheid regime.

While an estimated 700 million people around the world have taken part in prayers to honor Haniyeh, corporate-owned social media in the U.S. censored publicity for the New York vigil.

The mourners marched a short distance through the community to a masjid, where prayers were held. Ismail Haniyeh will not be forgotten.

As the PAL Awda statement concluded, “In the words of the late Fred Hampton, Black Panther leader and Field Marshal of the Illinois Chapter who was murdered in 1969 by Chicago PD: ‘You can kill a revolutionary, but you can’t kill the revolution.’”

So, the Democratic Party finally has a complete ticket in the race for Warmonger in Chief. In a text message to supporters, presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris announced that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will be her running mate this November. Within minutes of Harris’ selection, the entire Democratic party establishment was crowing over Mr. Walz. 

Marc Mellman, chair of the Democratic Majority for Israel fundraising PAC, commented that Walz is a “proud pro-Israel Democrat with a strong record of supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship.” Former President but forever corrupt racist, Bill Clinton heralded Walz as “a terrific choice.” That alone should give one pause. 

Several media outlets commented on the electoral logic of Harris’ decision to pick Walz instead of Pennsylvania governor and genocide cheerleader Josh Shapiro. Unlike Shapiro, Walz does not have a long history as an openly firebrand Zionist. Walz’s campaigns and political administrations have focused on domestic and Minnesota-specific issues, and his comments on foreign policy are limited. 

Luckily, the Zionist propaganda service known as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) was kind enough to compile and publish all of Walz’s pro-”Israel” comments and policies, presumably to comfort conservative Zionist-Jewish voters who may view the selection of Walz as a move away from “Israel.” These Zionists need not be worried. Their genocidal regime is safe in the hands of Harris and Walz. 

As Minnesota’s governor, Walz consistently refused to take any action to repeal Minnesota’s anti-BDS law or disinvest Minnesota’s government from its $3 billion investment in Israeli war bonds and U.S. defense contractors. 

As printed in the JTA, Walz referred to the Palestinian rebellion of Oct. 7 as demonstrative of an “absolute lack of humanity, terrorism and barbarism.” Walz continued, “That’s not a geopolitical discussion. That’s murder.” So, Gov. Walz, are the Palestinian people supposed to meet missiles with “geopolitical discussion”? Imperialist politicians can’t help but shame the oppressed for their resistance. 

In June, Walz told the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas that those who fail to recognize “Israel” are anti-Semitic. For what it’s worth, there are plenty of Jewish people as well who refuse to recognize “Israel.” Tim Walz from Minnesota does not have the right to call anti-Zionist Jews anti-Semites. 

As the genocide continued and the campus encampment movement against Zionism grew, Walz condemned protesters and framed the pro-Palestine movement as anti-Semitic. 

Tim Walz, from Minnesota to Palestine, has made his position clear. Harris’s decision to choose Walz over Shapiro should not fool anyone into believing that a Harris administration will mean the end of the U.S.-backed genocidal regime in Palestine. After all, Walz essentially said so himself. 

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – The Iranian mission to the United Nations said in a letter to the UN Security Council shared with Sputnik that an Israeli rocket strike that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh could not have occurred without the authorization and intelligence support of the United States.

“The responsibility of the United States, as the strategic ally and main supporter of the Israeli regime in the region, cannot be overlooked in this horrific crime. This act could not have occurred without the authorization and intelligence support of the U.S.,” the letter said.

The letter stated that “such a heinous crime, targeting a high-ranking official guest, is a serious infringement on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” It also constitutes a blatant violation of international law, the letter said.

The Iranian mission called on the Security Council to take immediate action to ensure Israel’s accountability for its acts of aggression, including “the potential imposition of sanctions and other measures.”

The assassination of Hamas Political Bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh has killed any chance for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza – on terms favorable to Palestinians – and leaves a huge political vacuum within the resistance movement.

The assassination, which took place during an official visit to Tehran for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, coincided with 300 days of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. Haniyeh was the chief Palestinian negotiator in indirect months-long ceasefire talks with the Israeli delegation, among them Mossad Chief David Barnea, whose organization reportedly executed the shocking kill operation.

This targeting of the head of the political movement reflects Israel’s systematic policy of assassinating leaders who can unify ranks and deepen relations with regional and international powers. This also explains the reasoning behind Israel’s 2 January assassination of Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, the key Hamas figure managing relations between Tehran, Ankara, Lebanon, and Doha.

Haniyeh, too, was distinguished not only by his ability to bridge the vision gap between Hamas’ military and political wings but also by successfully liaising with various regional and international powers and playing a major role advancing the interests of the resistance group in its three target regions – Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and abroad.

Haniyeh’s assassination has created an urgent need to reorganize Hamas’ internal house – particularly urgent given Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza – and reconcile the disparate views of its leaders, such as Yahya Sinwar in Gaza and Khaled Meshaal abroad.

Today, nothing would suit Israel more than seeing Meshaal, in particular, regain the reins at Hamas. The former Hamas politburo chief, after all, controversially split up Tel Aviv’s biggest regional adversaries – the Resistance Axis – at the start of the Syrian war by turning his back on the only Arab state member of the Axis, Syria.

It has taken Hamas years to fully reintegrate into the Axis after that betrayal, which is often blamed on Meshaal and his cohorts who decamped from Damascus to Doha. It was only through tireless efforts by leaders like Haniyeh and Arouri that Hamas’ relations with the regional resistance were publicly mended.

Meshaal has since suffered the indignity of being spurned by Syrian, Iranian, and Hezbollah leaders, so his return to the top would be manna to Israeli ears – even though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had, almost successfully, undertaken to kill Meshaal in 1997.

Those were different times, though, and alliances and interests in the region have shifted many times since. Today, it is the unifying, pro-resistance qualities of leaders like Haniyeh and Arouri that pose a far bigger threat to Israel.

Rising role

Haniyeh was, by consensus, a popular Hamas leader able to straddle the breadth of the Palestinian political community, and led an exceptional career that began with the establishment of the Hamas movement in the 1970s.

He was born in 1964 in the Shati refugee camp, where he lived, breathed, and experienced the suffering of Palestinian refugees in all its painful details. Haniyeh joined Hamas early under the guidance of the charismatic founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. His memorization of the Quran before the age of 14 made him an eloquent preacher – he had a beautiful recitation voice that drew the respect and admiration of many.

Haniyeh toiled alongside Sheikh Yassin in the earliest stages of building important Islamic institutions in Gaza, including the establishment of the Islamic Society and the Islamic University. Despite his young age, Sheikh Yassin relied on him heavily and would call him one of the leaders of the future who would play a great role. Haniyeh joined the Islamic University, became the head of its student council, and then assumed a professorship there after graduation.

Having played a prominent role in the first intifada in 1987, Haniyeh was arrested alongside other Hamas leaders for three years. Although released from Israeli detention in 1991, he was deported a year later with the movement’s leaders to Marj al-Zuhur in Lebanon, where they cemented their resistance mindset before returning to Gaza in 1994.

Under the Oslo Accords, which Hamas strongly rejected, Haniyeh emerged as one of the movement’s most critical voices to politically challenge the agreement, especially in the media. He swiftly rose to become director of Yassin’s office and helped reorganize the Hamas’ security, military, and religious apparatuses in the Gaza Strip, paving the way for the Second Intifada in 2000.

After Israel’s assassination of a stream Hamas leaders, Haniyeh was elected as the movement’s Gaza leader in 2004, which marked a new chapter in the organization’s history – a phase of comprehensive resistance, which culminated in Israel’s troop withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. With a resounding victory for the “Change and Reform” platform Haniyeh led in the 2006 Palestinian elections, he became the head of the first elected Palestinian government in history.

As a government steeped in resistance doctrine that refused to recognize Israel, his administration was placed in direct confrontation with the occupation state. Haniyeh led Gaza and Hamas during three wars launched by Israeli military forces, in which he became a key target for assassination.

In 2017, Haniyeh was elected Hamas leader, succeeding Khaled Meshaal. Although forced to leave Gaza in 2019 for security reasons, he remained a powerful symbol for Palestinians in the strip and ‘abroad,’ able now to communicate regularly with heads of state, international organizations, and global media.

When Israel launched its brutal military assault on Gaza last October, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly threatened to assassinate Hamas leaders – despite knowing that targeting Haniyeh would have to be done in a third country. The assassination of Haniyeh is a violation of international law on so many levels: political assassination, breaching the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations, an act of aggression, and the targeting of a diplomatically immune person. Haniyeh was an international and Islamic symbol, and his killing is the stuff that triggers wars.

But will this blow to Hamas and the Palestinian people end their resistance to the occupation and deter them from retaliating against Israel? Decidedly not. Tel Aviv has murdered countless Palestinian leaders, thinkers, politicians, and military commanders in decades past, yet the events of 7 October 2023 took place, unhindered. The resistance and the broad segment of its population that supports these sacrifices wholeheartedly are likely to transform grief into further strength and resolve.

Furthermore, they are calling – alongside West Asia’s entire Axis of Resistance – for a hard retaliation against Israel, a punishment for a heinous crime that violated global laws and conventions.

Current challenges

Hamas has a strong organizational structure that includes its Shura Council and Political Bureau – institutions that play an important role in managing the movement’s affairs and making decisions. This is in addition to the judicial bodies that ensure internal justice and control of disputes.

The killings of Haniyeh and Arouri have left a gaping vacuum in Hamas, both at the leadership level and in its coordination with regional and international allies. But the movement has also historically proven its ability to overcome crises, as demonstrated in the aftermath of an Israeli assassination rampage against most of its leaders in Gaza and the West Bank in 2003 and 2004. Hamas showed remarkable resilience by overcoming its ordeal and went on to expand its clout, develop some astounding military and strategic capabilities, and continue its resistance struggle.

Furthermore, today, Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has stand-alone capabilities, resources, and funding, having expected the deepening of Israel’s siege of Gaza and prepared for that eventuality. In recent days, messages coming from Gaza have emphasized the continuation of Al-Qassam’s military operations.

If anything, Israel’s killing of Haniyeh is interpreted by the resistance as a failure by Tel Aviv to achieve its military goals and a manifestation of deep weakness.

Hamas’ next leader?

Several prominent Hamas officials are likely replacements for Haniyeh. One is Hamas’ Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, who is Haniyeh’s deputy. Sinwar played a major role in engineering Operation Protective Edge with the Qassam Brigades and enjoys very close ties to the movement’s security and military apparatuses. Despite his presence in Gaza, which is experiencing an ongoing war, Sinwar remains a strong leadership option.

Meshaal is expected to play a pivotal role in leading the movement during this transitional period, given his prior experience as head of the political bureau until 2017. Although not a Resistance Axis favorite, Meshaal is familiar with regional political complexities and has strong relations with some key regional states, which could bridge the leadership vacuum for some time.

Although tensions with Iran remain, Meshaal was among those who established relations with Tehran and strengthened cooperation after the Syrian war. He could endeavor to overcome any current differences by emphasizing the importance of Arab and Islamic unity at this crucial juncture, displaying preparedness to continue Hamas’ confrontation with the Israeli occupation, and cleaving closely to the late Haniyeh’s policies.

Other prominent candidates include Nizar Awadallah, secretary of Hamas’ executive committee and political bureau, a leader close to Haniyeh with broad acceptance within the movement. Despite his lack of media exposure, Awadallah’s organizational competencies make him a possible choice.

There’s also Musa Abu Marzouk, a former leader and head of the International Relations Office, who reportedly enjoys deep ties with countries such as China and Russia and is widely accepted within the movement.

Khalil al-Hayya, deputy to Yahya Sinwar and head of the Arab Relations Office, is a politically decisive figure with solid relations with Iran, Qatar, Turkiye, and Egypt. Hayya played an important role in the current ceasefire negotiations, has strong ties with the Resistance Axis, and is in constant contact with Hamas operatives inside and outside of occupied Palestine.

Decades after its inception, Hamas has demonstrated that it is both a political institution and a strong grassroots movement capable of making critical decisions in the most difficult of circumstances.

The Shura Council, which has decision-making authority, will decide who leads the movement at this critical stage. Despite the great challenges facing Hamas – and its cadres on the battlefields of Gaza – it is likely to continue its resistance struggle and rearrange affairs to achieve its goals.

Source: The Cradle

On July 24, tens of thousands took to Washington, D.C.’s streets to protest war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu’s United States Congress address. The police presence in response to the pro-Palestine and pro-human rights protesters was unprecedented. 

The jackbooted police presence included local, state, and federal forces, some of them from secret agencies (not unlike the Gestapo – the German Secret State Police). The NYPD even sent 200 officers to assist the Capitol Police, the D.C. metropolitan police department, the Secret Service, and the U.S. Park Police in their repression of anti-Netanyahu protests. And repress, they did. 

After a rally near the corner of First and Constitution Avenues, the protesters began a march around Capitol Hill. They were almost instantly confronted by the police, whose first action to “de-escalate” the situation was to shower the demonstrators with pepper spray and pepper pellets. 

Eventually, the march made its way to Union Station, where a mob of frothing-at-the-mouth police officers again confronted them. Even before the protesters burned a bust of Benjamin Netanyahu in effigy, along with U.S. and Zionist flags, the police engaged in a series of provocations against the demonstration. These provocations included riot-gear-covered officers marching through the crowd in formation and restricting access to the train station. Once the war criminal sculpture was burned in effigy, the police deployed more chemical agents and brutally arrested multiple protesters. 

It should be noted that many of the individuals who the police attacked throughout the day were easily identifiable as Jewish activists by their clothing and signage. This is important to note because multiple U.S. officials, including current Vice President Kamala Harris, condemned the protests as anti-Semitic and unpatriotic. Harris was joined by her opponent, fascist demagogue Donald Trump, in condemning these allegedly anti-semitic protests. 

The political mainstream threw similar slander at student organizers who pitched campus encampments across the country in solidarity with Palestine. In fact, Jews could be found on both sides of the encampment issue, some standing with the Palestinian people and some standing with the genocidal U.S. war industry. 

The repression our movement faces isn’t going to lessen, but that should not deter us from filling every single street with our solidarity for Palestine and our movement against imperialism. Neither Harris nor Trump is our ally or the ally of the Palestinian people.

Arrest Netanyahu for war crimes! Free Palestine! 

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.

Netanyahu echoes Kipling on ‘the white man’s burden’

A threat of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court didn’t stop Benjamin Netanyahu from being welcomed rapturously on July 24 by the U.S. Congress. Over 300 senators and representatives obscenely applauded the serial killer 39 times, of which 23 were standing ovations.

Journalist Ben Norton estimated that the total applause time for the bloody war criminal exceeded 10 minutes. That’s the sort of reception that Hitler got from his Reichstag deputies.

Those members of Congress were cheering the deaths of at least 40,000 Palestinians, including 15,000 children. The actual figure may be much higher. According to the British medical journal The Lancet, as many as 186,000 or more people have been killed.

As Netanyahu spoke, Rashida Harbi Tlaib — the only Palestinian-American member of Congress — bravely held up a sign reading “war criminal” on one side and “guilty of genocide” on the other.

Meanwhile, outside the U.S. Capitol, police used pepper spray on people protesting the slaughter. Tens of thousands came to Washington, D.C., on a workday to say “NO!” to this genocide. Many were from Arab and Muslim communities.

Netanyahu called these protesters “Iran’s useful idiots.” How gracious of the Zionist leader — whose apartheid state has been showered with over $300 billion in U.S. tax money — to attack demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech. 

They included American Postal Workers Union president Mark Diamondstein, who is Jewish. He spoke at the rally, demanding a ceasefire.

There was a large labor contingent at the July 24 march. The APWU and six other unions, representing 6 million members, wrote a letter to Biden demanding that military aid to Israel be cut off.

The mass murder of Palestinians is being carried out with more than $12 billion in weapons supplied by Genocide Joe Biden over the last nine months. Even in these inflationary times, that’s enough money to build apartments for 40,000 homeless families at $300,000 per unit.

Back to 1914

Netanyahu’s repulsive, lying speech was aimed at a Fox News audience of Trump supporters. While people are starving in Gaza, Netanyahu claimed that “every man, woman and child” there was getting more than “3,000 calories” a day.

The truth is that 96% of Gaza’s population is suffering from “crisis or worse levels of food insecurity,” according to the UN.

The Zionist leader was speaking directly to the military-industrial complex when he said, “We also keep American boots off the ground while protecting our shared interests in the Middle East.”

Those “shared interests” belong to Big Oil and Wall Street banksters who loot trillions from Western Asia. The supremacy of the U.S. dollar as world money rests upon oil being sold in dollars.

Netanyahu was echoing former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, who declared that “Israel is the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk.” 

For the capitalist class, Israel represents what the world was like in 1914, before the Bolshevik, Chinese, and Cuban revolutions and liberation struggles erupted throughout Africa and Asia.

On April 20, 1914, over 20 people were killed by the Colorado National Guard in Ludlow. This atrocity occurred during a United Mine Workers strike against Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron. The Rockefellers were the founders of Big Oil.

The next day, April 21, 1914, the U.S. began a military occupation of Veracruz, Mexico. Hundreds of Mexicans were killed during the invasion.

That’s the world to which Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, wants to return. Musk attended the July 24 Capitol affair as a guest of Netanyahu. 

It was the Musks that Netanyahu was addressing when he declared, “For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together.” That’s the language of white supremacy. It’s claiming that Palestinians, all Arabs, and two billion Muslims are “uncivilized.”

Netanyahu’s speech was a modern version of the British poet Rudyard Kipling’s call to “take up the white man’s burden.” Kipling described Africans and Asians as “half devil and half child.”

The year after Kipling addressed his poem to Queen Victoria, the United States invaded the Philippines, killing at least a million Filipinos. In the same period, at least a hundred Black people were lynched every year.

That’s the nightmare that people in Gaza are living through today, a nightmare that’s being pushed back all over the earth.

Earlier this year, the Zionist entity’s highest court ended the exemption from military service offered to ultra-orthodox, or Haredi, citizens of “Israel.” With a few long-standing exceptions, military service has been compulsory for non-Arab citizens of “Israel” since the imperialist outpost’s founding in 1948.

“Israeli” law does not expressly prohibit Arab people from serving in the Zionist military. However, the “Israeli” occupation force, commonly referred to as the IDF, has maintained a ban on Arab military service within its regulation. As second-class citizens, the ability to join the military is just one of many restrictions that the Arab community within the 1948 borders faces. 

Nonetheless, compulsory military service is a subject of great pride for Zionist Jewish citizens. Many wear it as a badge of honor. For some, their IDF service is their identity. 

The emphasis on Jewish military service is simply an extension of Zionism’s broader ideology and purpose. It would be impossible for the Zionist entity to protect U.S. imperialist interests in the region without a strong and ideologically fascist military. 

As such, the IDF has historically allowed very few populations within the 1948 borders to be exempt from military service. Until recently, the most significant of these narrow exemptions was the one that applied to Haredi Jewish men. Historically, Haredi men could avoid military service entirely if they remained enrolled in yeshiva, a traditional Jewish educational institution. 

This is no longer the case. Under the high court’s decision, nearly 63,000 eligible Haredi Jewish men will have to report for military service as the Zionist genocidal war in Gaza rages. The Zionist high court did not attempt to conceal its motives, stating in its decision: 

“In these days, in the midst of a severe war, the burden of inequality is more acute than ever — and requires the promotion of a sustainable solution to this issue.”

The message is clear. The Zionist entity is facing an unprecedented protracted struggle in Gaza, a growing conflict with Hezbollah, and a potential full-scale war with Iran. Frankly, the morality of whether Haredi Jews should have to serve is irrelevant and should not be a concern for socialists and anti-imperialists. 

The entire IDF is an illegitimate occupying force. The individuals allowed to participate in that occupying force are really of no consequence to the millions of Palestinians fighting for their mere existence. 

However, this development does have broader political implications worth analyzing. First, the end of the Haredi exemption could mark the end of Netanyahu’s political alliance with the religious Zionist right-wing, upon which his most recent rise to power was entirely dependent. With Netanyahu’s military now drafting Haredi men into service, this coalition could fracture, further destabilizing internal Zionist politics and presenting an opportunity for the Axis of Resistance to continue to strike against the imperialist outpost. 

Second, the rationale behind the move clearly demonstrates that resistance against occupation is never futile. No matter the odds against them when facing a well-funded and well-equipped Zionist military, the Palestinian people, supported by the Iraqi Islamic resistance, Yemen, and Hezbollah, have persevered in their militant resistance against the apartheid regime. This resistance is thinning the Zionist will and striking blows against “Israel’s” strategic ability to continue to fight wars on multiple fronts of resistance. 

The U.S. wants us to believe that its empire, including its Zionist arm, is inevitable and impervious. Luckily, the Palestinian people and the broader Axis of Resistance have shown us that this is not the case. If it weren’t, the Zionist military wouldn’t have broken with 76 years of tradition to draft ultra-orthodox Jews into the IDF terror force. 

When people are occupied, resistance is always justified. 

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.