Ian Bremmer on The Israel-Hamas War, and What It Means for the World

Good analysis. The only hope he offered is that with Hamas gone, there might emerge a Palestinian leadership that is effective in negotiating for the Palestinians’ benefit, especially ending Israel’s settlement expansions. For now, of course, the Palestinians will bear the brunt of the war.

Qatar donated $250,000 to some of the most extreme pro-Israel
organizations in the United States, including one that funds senior
Israeli military officers to go on propaganda tours.

Joseph Allaham, a lobbyist working for the Qatari government,
transferred the money through his firm Lexington Strategies in late 2017
and early 2018.

The sums included $100,000 to the Zionist Organization of America
(ZOA), $100,000 to Our Soldiers Speak and $50,000 for Blue Diamond
Horizons, Inc.

Our Soldiers Speak describes itself
as the “vehicle through which the IDF [Israeli army] and the Israeli
National Police dispatch senior officers to select campuses overseas”
and to give “briefings” to members of the US Congress.

Blue Diamond Horizons is a company controlled by Mike Huckabee, the Christian Zionist former governor of Arkansas.

Qatar funded Zionist Organization of America

During the past month of demonstrations along the border between Gaza and Israel, at least 17 Palestinians have suffered gunshot wounds that ultimately cost them their legs, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.

In at least three of the cases, Israeli authorities rejected the transfer of wounded Gazans to the West Bank, where they could receive medical care that might have saved their limbs, according to lawyers and one of the patients’ families.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/43842828-47d4-11e8-8082-105a446d19b8

Palestinian soccer player Mohammed Khalil was filming himself at the “March of Return” protests in Gaza when he was shot and wounded in both legs on March 30.

“IDF troops act according to clear rules of engagement that are tailored to the scenarios they are contending with,” a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said. The spokesman declined to detail those rules but said live fire is a last resort.

In that case, the “tailoring” of the “rules of engagement” is grossly fucked up.

Scores of Palestinians have been shot in their legs, and some face amputation

Ateret Cohanim, along with other pro-settler organizations, commonly uses Israel’s 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters law to evict Palestinians from their homes. According to the law, Jewish Israelis are allowed to claim ownership of property if they can prove it was under Jewish ownership before 1948.

However, the law only applies to Jewish Israelis, and not to Palestinians who were dispossessed of their lands and properties prior to and after the establishment of Israel in 1948, despite their right being upheld by UN General Assembly Resolution 194.

Ateret Cohanim has forced out several Palestinian families from properties which were owned by Jewish families before 1948, with some 30 families currently threatened with eviction in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Batan al-Hawa, as hundreds of Palestinians have been targeted through discriminatory legal channels.

Israeli forces evict Palestinian family in East Jerusalem to make room for Israeli Squatters