'No choice but war,' says Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Leiberman as IDF deploys largest number of armored forces at Gaza border since 2014 Gaza War
Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen. Israeli soldiers speak next to tanks as military armoured vehicles gather in an open area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip October 18, 2018.
In preparation of a military ground assault on Gaza, Israel began massing tanks and armored vehicles near the Gaza border last Thursday. A Reuters reporter counted 60 tanks and armored personnel carriers at a deployment zone along the Israeli/Gaza border on October 18, calling it the largest number he had seen there since the 2014 Gaza war, dubbed by Israel as Operation Protective Edge.
Israel ramped up its armoured forces along the Gaza border on Thursday in a daylight show of force, a day after a Palestinian rocket destroyed a home in southern Israel.
A Reuters photographer counted some 60 tanks and armoured personnel carriers at a deployment area near the border, calling it the largest number he has seen there since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. - Reuters
Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen. Armoured Israeli military vehicles are seen gathered in an open area near Israel's border with Gaza Strip October 18, 2018.
This open show of force came a day after Israeli forces and militants in Gaza exchanged fire and one rocket fired from the Gaza Strip destroyed a house in southern Israel while another fell into the sea dangerously close to Tel Aviv, with Israeli airstrikes hammering Gaza killing one Palestinian and injuring three others. Israel blamed Hamas for the attack, while on the Gaza side both Hamas and Islamic Jihad denied firing the two rockets at Israel.
This recent escalation of violence between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip follows threats of war made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on both October 8 and 14 if the March of Return protests were not brought to an end. The weekly border protests which began in March became increasingly violent through the summer until now following months of disproportionate force used by the IDF wherein unchecked Israeli sniper fire killed over a hundred and wounded thousands of protesters, many unarmed, including blatant war crimes such as intentionally targeting unarmed children approaching the border fence and medics helping the wounded.
On October 8, The Times of Israel reported that Israeli PM Netanyahu told his ministers in a cabinet meeting that "we are preparing militarily," adding "that is not an empty statement.":
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned ministers Sunday that Israel is preparing for the possibility of a military campaign in the Gaza Strip should the humanitarian conditions in the territory cause border clashes to spiral out of control, Hadashot news reported.
Netanyahu spoke of the Palestinian Authority’s attempt to “choke” Gaza during the weekly cabinet meeting, according to the TV report, and said: “If the reality of civil distress in Gaza is diminished, that is desirable, but that is not certain to happen, and so we are preparing militarily — that is not an empty statement.” - TOI
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Following an intense day of border protests on Friday October 12 in which seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire and no Israeli injuries were sustained, Netanyahu again on October 14 threatened war on Hamas in Gaza if the border protests were not completely halted:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday threatened “very painful blows” against Gaza’s Hamas rulers if they don’t halt protests along the perimeter fence that have led to clashes with Israeli troops.
Netanyahu said Israel is very close to waging a “different kind of activity” against the Islamic militants. He said “if it has any sense, Hamas will cease its fire and violent outbursts — now.” - AP
Then later last week ahead of Friday's demonstrations, MintPress News reported that:
According to a statement from Amnesty, Israel’s Housing Minister and former Commander of the Israeli army’s Southern Command, Yoav Gallant, told Israeli media that “the rules of the game are about to change.”
Israel accuses Hamas of organizing and paying the protesters, as well as busing them to the weekly protests, while the Palestinian protesters themselves say they are protesting at the border of their own free will and are not being paid by anyone, demonstrating out of frustration at the wretched living conditions in Gaza caused by the 10-year Israeli military siege and also the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capitol as well as Israel's recent decision to officially recognize itself as an apartheid state.
Trump's decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel this spring was a very provocative move made at the behest of Zionist leaders which directly led to the increased Palestinian frustration which fueled the weekly March of Return border protests, while the Israeli choice to use disproportionate deadly force against Palestinian protesters, along with its choice to further escalate this deadly violence carried out by IDF snipers led to increased violence on the Gaza side of the border, and eventually Hamas and Islamic Jihad retaliatory rocket strikes on Israel.
Following the most recent border protest last Friday, on Monday October 22 Defense Minister Lieberman announced that having "exhausted the other options," there is now no choice but war. I guess killing 200 and counting Palestinians at March of Return border protests this year hasn't been enough - It's time for that "different kind of activity" waged against Hamas in the Gaza Strip Netanyahu had warned of: Israel is now ready to wage another war [slaughter] on Gaza in the style of 2014.
Israel has reached a breaking point regarding the situation in Gaza, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said on Monday, and “anything less than the toughest response won’t help anymore. We have exhausted the other options.”
Speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the defense minister said, “Wars are only conducted when there is no choice, and now there is no choice.” - JP
Unfortunately another Israeli war on Gaza now looks imminent, and if history is any indicator, the result would be the slaughter of too many innocent Palestinian civilians. History has repeatedly shown Israel forces incapable of defeating Hamas on the ground during three such previous wars, so the Zionists instead resort to indiscriminate airstrikes across the entire Gaza Strip, but never have they been able to carpet-bomb Hamas into complete submission or surrender. Israel doesn't win, Hamas doesn't win, but Gaza sure does lose and the Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip are the biggest losers in wars like these. If Israel does end up going forward with these war plans to presumably wage a 2014-style war and invade the Gaza Strip, it will once again be the Palestinian civilians rather than Hamas feeling the brunt of the Israeli violence.
Between 2,125 and 2,310 Gazans were killed and between 10,626 and 10,895 were wounded (including 3,374 children, of whom over 1,000 were left permanently disabled).
The UN estimated that more than 7,000 homes for 10,000 families were razed, together with an additional 89,000 homes damaged, of which roughly 10,000 were severely affected by the bombing.
67 Israeli soldiers, 5 Israeli civilians (including one child) and one Thai civilian were killed and 469 IDF soldiers and 261 Israeli civilians were injured. - Wikipedia
A very dull prospect for the Palestinians, if the outcome is anything like the outcome has always been in these wars - more Palestinians dead, Hamas not dead at all, infrastructure in ruins, and then off to another ceasefire agreement and back to the daily suffering and oppression that comes with living life in a Gaza under siege. There are a few major differences in the world right now compared to 2014 however, that could possibly alter the potential outcome of such a war waged by Israel against Hamas in Gaza.
The geopolitical climate has shifted significantly over the past year following the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capitol, Israel's passage of the apartheid law, the Israeli violence at the Gaza border since March, and Israel's continued illegal demolitions of Palestinian West Bank villages throughout the year. International pressure against Israel is on the rise. Jordan, long at peace with Israel and pressured by its citizens, has just announced its withdrawal from parts of a decades-old peace treaty with Israel which granted Israel the rights over small sections of captured Jordanian land which Jordan now wants back. There are now war crimes proceedings against Israel in the International Criminal Court.
Another major change on the world stage since 2014 is Hezbollah's experience, capabilities, and possible willingness to directly engage Israel during any possible war effort waged against Hamas in Gaza, with the potential of Israel having a real war on their hands. Hezbollah successfully defeated Israeli forces in the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon, and has since 2014 gained quite a lot of invaluable battle experience during their fight against foreign-backed terrorist armies in Syria alongside the SAA and Russian forces. Unlike Hamas, Hezbollah has become a highly capable army in its own right, with far more advanced missiles and a much greater regional reach than Hamas.
In 2014, Syria was spiraling quickly towards complete collapse and Hezbollah alongside the SAA were on the verge of defeat by the Zionist-backed terrorist armies they were fighting in their proxy war against Israel. Now Hezbollah is on the winning side of that war, with the Syrian coalition having successfully defeated the Zionist-backed terrorists in numerous battles, and liberated a majority of the country from terrorist control. It is possible that if they were to mount an offensive front against Israel during a Gaza war, it could be enough to pressure Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, while rumors have already been swirling recently that Israel and Hezbollah are both preparing for a possible Israeli military move against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Much too has changed in favor of Syria since 2014 including the recent delivery of the more advanced S-300 surface-to-air missile defense systems by Russia, a very big game-changer. One might not think of Syria as a threat to Israel, but since Israel sees Syria as a threat, Israel is a threat to Syria and has been waging a proxy war against her for seven years, with the Israeli Air Force playing a very direct role. Syria has long been in a state of war with Israel, with the Syrian Golan Heights being under Israeli occupation for decades, and Syria often coming under attack by Israeli warplanes which in the past Syrian air defenses were mostly helpless to defend against. Over the past several years Israel has stepped up its war on Syria with over 200 unprovoked airstrikes on Syrian territory in the past two years alone, and yet Syria is on the verge of winning the 7-year proxy war against Israel, now coming close to the complete defeat of the Zionist-backed terrorists remaining in the country.
That leaves Israel to deal with directly, and as of late Israel seems more or less thwarted from its usual course of action, directly attacking Syria on a regular basis as its custom had become. No attempted airstrikes on Syria yet since the delivery of the S-300s, though Israel did announce they were going to continue striking targets in Syria anyway. If and when that takes place, it is likely Syria would be able to successfully shoot down an Israeli fighter jet or two, which would obviously further escalate tensions between the two countries, dragging them further into a more direct war than previously, and could easily drag the US further into the conflict as well.
It seems unlikely to me that President Assad would turn his now defensive war against Israel into an offensive one if Israel goes on the offensive in Gaza, but Syria is an ally of the Palestinian cause, and has been under constant attack by Israel for several years without retribution, so who knows what could happen. Syria does want the Zionist occupied Golan Heights back, and I suppose if Hezbollah was to mount a counter-offensive on the Lebaneze-Israeli border and possibly also elsewhere (like alongside the SAA in Syria) in coordination with the SAA mounting a counter-offensive to take back the Golan Heights, Israel could be in for a war it might just have a hard time winning. If Iran were to get involved, and states like Jordan were to take the side of the Arab alliance then I could almost see a 6-Day War scenario that might just take a lot longer than six days to play out.
In all reality, another Gaza war will probably end up much more like the previous ones, and who knows, maybe a peace deal will be brokered in the next few days and this war can still be averted, but at this point it does seem inevitable. One thing is certain, in war the losers are always humanity, the people being killed. War is not the answer, but another thing is also apparent, that the Zionist US Empire will not go down without a violent fight, and at the same time I do hope the Zionist New World Order dies.
In the end I just hope for the sake of humanity that the Zionist New World Order orchestrating all of this perpetual war is defeated, and with the least amount of bloodshed possible. And maybe someday soon there will even be a Free Palestine.
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