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Qatar could mediate, but it couldn't make decisions for Hamas. Its influence was real only when it served as the organization's main ATM, funding its activities and civilian institutions, paying salaries to officers and fighters, and helping to rebuild Gaza after every Israeli military operation. And all that was done with the permission of the Israeli government.
Similarly, Egypt could put pressure on Hamas only as long as it controlled the economic pipeline that fed Gaza and Hamas – the Rafah border crossing. But this lever disappeared after the Israel Defense Forces took control of both the crossing and the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border.
As a result, in an unprecedented development, the
Americans are now directly negotiating with Hamas, but nobody is complaining about them violating the principle of not negotiating with a terror group. Moreover, Trump can no longer threaten to open the gates of hell on Gaza if Hamas doesn't accept the proposed deal. Hell has already been achieved.
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haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-0…
(w/o paywall)
archive.is/QKI9u
Eternal war: Israel is marching straight into the trap of 'seizing' Gaza
Israel's leaders seem to have no plan for the Strip but occupying it. They must ask themselves what they'll do when the enclave's 2 million people, who have nothing left to lose, rise upZvi Bar'el (Haaretz)
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Bilal Barakat 🍉
in reply to Bilal Barakat 🍉 • • •Speaking of confusing ISIS Mosul with Gaza, and since Pride Month just finished...
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Thread by @MouinRabbani on Thread Reader App
threadreaderapp.comstephie
in reply to Bilal Barakat 🍉 • • •Bilal Barakat 🍉
in reply to stephie • • •@stephie_hamburg
The English translation of his book won't come out before next year, unfortunately. I hope there's also interest from a German (countercurrent) publisher.
stephie
in reply to Bilal Barakat 🍉 • • •I just looked, there's no announcement in German yet. And it seems only one book from filiu was translated in german.
I think I will read the English version, my french is not sufficient enough.
Bilal Barakat 🍉
in reply to Bilal Barakat 🍉 • • •Another thing occurs to me, a propos of this piece:
Filiu managed to get official permission for entry into the Gaza Strip from Israel, without being part of a humanitarian mission. Which proves that it is not the case that “international journalists are not getting in because no-one is getting in except humanitarians". Whatever security hoopla they made a history professor jump through they could make a CNN correspondent jump through. Israel is choosing to ban international journalists from Gaza, and journalists specifically.
EDIT: In another interview (Le Monde) he clarifies: "I was integrated into the local team of Doctors Without Borders, which is doing extraordinary work in Gaza and which I assisted thanks to my intimate knowledge of the enclave". It's unclear whether that was just for logistics or whether that means he was officially allowed in •as• "humanitarian assistance".
@palestine