In Lebanon there IS a piecemeal Government Army….
And a Government….
In Gaza?…..
NO such Thing exists and the Israeli hunt for Hamas has made things worse…
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas, the war in Gaza has been dogged by a persistent question: What happens after the conflict ends?
Recent events point to one worrying possibility: Gaza, without a centralized governing authority, could be dominated by warlords and organized crime.
Wartime is notorious for giving rise to black markets and criminal gangs, and the conflict in Gaza is no exception. In one troubling episode last month, armed gunmen looted a convoy of 109 United Nations aid trucks. Over the last year, a contraband trade in tobacco has become a particular problem for humanitarian aid convoys, with organized gangs ransacking aid shipments for cigarettes smuggled inside them that can sell for $25 to $30 each.
The Israeli military is determined to wipe out Hamas, but Israel has not laid out a plan for the day after the conflict stops. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has resisted calls for the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza
Hamas was a repressive regime that used violence against its own people. But because it also ran the local government in Gaza, its weakened condition threatens to leave the territory without any governing institutions.
Such power vacuums create ideal conditions for so-called criminal governance, in which criminal mafias, sometimes linked to families or tribes, take over much of the traditional role of a government within their territories, competing with weak official institutions. It may even devolve into outright warlordism, in which territory is carved up between armed groups into self-governing fiefs.
Such groups are difficult to dislodge, often fueling long-term cycles of violence in countries like Haiti, Somalia and Afghanistan. I talked to experts on organized crime and warlordism who described how a grimly predictable pattern had played out around the world — and the risk that something similar might unfold in Gaza…..
Negitive Things ARE beginning to boil to the surface With IN Israel’s Gaza Op…..
And secret Israeli governemnt goals are becoming headlines…..
A ex-General calls out his government leaders for pushing it’s military to do something the army KNOWS is NOT a viable goal for the future…
A former Israeli defense minister has accused Israel of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, a rare critique from a member of the security establishment at a time of war.
The comments by Moshe Yaalon — first on Saturday, and then multiple times on Sunday, including in an interview with one of Israel’s biggest television channels — came amid mounting criticism of the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza. They were swiftly denied and condemned by allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, saying that they would hurt the country and help its enemies.
Mr. Yaalon served as the Israeli military’s chief of staff during the second intifada and as Mr. Netanyahu’s defense minister during the 2014 war in Gaza, the longest conflict between Israel and Hamas before the current war. But he broke with Mr. Netanyahu in 2016 and has since become a critic of the Israeli leader.
At an event on Saturday, Mr. Yaalon denounced Mr. Netanyahu’s government for its actions in Gaza.
“The path they’re dragging us down is to occupy, annex, and ethnically cleanse — look at the northern strip,” he said. He also said Israel was being pulled in the direction of building settlements in Gaza, a notion that is supported by far-right politicians in Mr. Netanyahu’s government….
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They’re basically cleaning the territory of Arabs,” he said, referring to towns and cities in northern Gaza where a renewed Israeli offensive against the militant group Hamas has caused extensive damage in recent months…
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He later said, in an apparent reference to the government: “At the end of the day, they’re perpetrating war crimes” — while making clear that his issue was not with the soldiers themselves….
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Some Israelis worry that Mr. Netanyahu’s indecision about plans for postwar Gaza could result in a long-term occupation of the enclave, leaving open the possibility for right-wing members of the coalition to advance their ambitions to build settlements.
Some Palestinians from Gaza also took note of Mr. Yaalon’s comments….
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Akram Atallah, a Palestinian columnist originally from Jabaliya, said he considered Mr. Yaalon’s remarks to be “extremely important.”
“This remark strengthens the Palestinian narrative of what is happening in Gaza,” he said. “And it isn’t coming from an Arab official or a sympathetic member of the international community. It’s coming from someone who was a general at the top of the Israeli system.”…
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