When the American aircraft carrier USS General R. Ford with accompanying warships anchored in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the local war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas has in some ways become a passive global conflict. In order to back up President Joe Biden's threat that no one would think of trying to take advantage of Israel's current weakness after the carnage carried out by Hamas in the south of the country on October 7, the United States immediately sent to the region and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Together, these two aircraft carriers can carry over 150 fighters and up to 10.000 sailors, crew and marines.
Such an American military force in the Middle East, with the clear task of actively coming to the aid of Israel in case of emergency, should above all deter Tehran from opening new fronts through Syria or Hezbollah in Lebanon, while about 360.000 Israeli soldiers are deployed around the Gaza Strip and await orders to launch a ground offensive. As the cards in the intricate Middle Eastern game of fickle alliances forged for temporary benefits are being shuffled for the final game, the US services and military are providing Israel with full intelligence and logistical support.
AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC INITIATIVE
The Biden administration has fully taken the diplomatic initiative with the aim of calming passions in the region while the humanitarian crisis of the Palestinian population exposed to Israeli bombs and blockades is reaching catastrophic proportions. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt in just a few days after Israel. He appealed to the American allies in the region to use their influence on Hamas to release at least part of the kidnapped civilians, among whom there are Americans, and to establish humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, and a special appeal was sent to Egypt to open its borders at least to the most vulnerable Palestinians. In Tel Aviv, Blinken was joined by US Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd. The message could not be clearer.
Hamas has said it may release some hostages, especially foreigners, if Israel restores water, electricity, gas and fuel supplies to Gaza and stops airstrikes, and the Israeli government has said it will end the blockade once Hamas releases all those held captive. civilians. And as for the proclaimed goal of the complete destruction of Hamas, there is no giving up at any price.
Blinken prepared the ground for Biden to visit Tel Aviv and Amman on Wednesday, October 18, and with his presence once again make it clear that anyone who attacks Israel will deal with America. It is unusual for an American president to visit a war-torn area, but next year there are presidential elections in the USA, and what a hero Biden would be at home if he freed the kidnapped Americans, prevented the flare-up of the conflict in the Middle East and at least eased the immense suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza that they are reporting about world television. It's worth the risk to expose yourself.
While diplomatic negotiations are being conducted, Israel is mercilessly carrying out airstrikes day and night on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, citing its "right to self-defense." At the time when this text was written, about 3000 Palestinians were killed, of which close to 800 were children, several thousand people were wounded, and about 600.000 were internally displaced because Israel declared the north of the Gaza Strip a "war zone." The number of killed and wounded is increasing day by day.
The number of people killed in the attack by Hamas has risen to 1400. The Israeli army announced that this Palestinian terrorist organization is holding 222 hostages.
BIDDLING WITH THE DEAD AND PAIN
Palestinians Israel...
As time passes, the image of the massacre of Jewish civilians committed with a certain lust by the Hamas terrorists slowly fades, and the scenes of human suffering and suffering from the Gaza Strip come to the fore in full bloody glory. In the world of fast information exchange, nothing holds the audience's attention for too long.
Western televisions twisted the shocking conversations with the survivors of the October 7 bloodbath, with the parents and relatives of the murdered and abducted children. It is unimaginable pain and anxiety that everyone can identify with. Young people at a music festival, in their homes like ours, on streets like ours were liquidated by bursts from automatic weapons. Israeli girls and boys were killed in shelters by Palestinian terrorists' hand grenades. The crime of the Hamas killers was special in its ferocity, it was an eruption of uncontrolled hatred.
The State of Israel responded with a modern version of the flaming sword. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas once and for all. That fight is taking place over the heads of the Palestinians who have nowhere to escape from Gaza, all the borders of their refuge, which they call Palestine, are closed.
In the first days of the airstrikes, the Western world was largely sympathetic to the decisive reaction of the Jewish state. But with every guided missile fired, with every artillery projectile, with every picture of a Palestinian child killed or wounded, understanding of Israel began to slowly wane. The total siege of the Gaza Strip and the destruction of infrastructure began to resemble a collective punishment of 2,3 million Palestinians.
The auction of the dead, the wounded, the pain, the suffering, the justifications for the actions of one side or the other has begun. Allies of the Israelis point out that the Israeli army does not kill Palestinian civilians on purpose, that they are collateral damage because Hamas uses them as human shields, unlike the Palestinian killers who deliberately targeted the Jewish civilian population. As if the cry of parents of murdered children is not always the same.
A wide variety of humanitarian organizations accuse Israel of causing a humanitarian disaster, of not complying with the laws of war, individuals and of crimes against humanity. Even America, in its unwavering support, has warned its ally to pay more attention to Palestinian civilian casualties, if for no other reason than because it's bad political marketing.
UNSUSTAINABLE SITUATION
The longer this situation lasts, the greater the chances that the war that Israel is waging against Hamas will spill over into neighboring countries and the region. Perhaps that was the plan of the leaders of the attack on Israeli civilians. Islamic religious leaders will not be able to stand idly by for too long watching the Jewish slaughter of their Palestinian brothers, no matter what else they think of them. Each new day of destruction of Gaza accompanied by collateral human damage soaks the ground in blood and creates new warriors against the Jews.
The key is the dissatisfaction of the Palestinians in the West Bank and the eastern part of Jerusalem. A mass uprising, an intifada, could break out at any moment. The media reports that in less than 10 days, Israeli security forces killed dozens of Palestinians there.
It is only a matter of time before Israeli tanks and infantry invade Gaza. And what after that? Nobody knows that.
The greatest danger for Israel at the moment is lurking, however, from Lebanon, where the strongest non-state military force in the world is located, whose strategic goal is the destruction of Israel - Hezbollah (Party of God).
POLICE ARMED AS A STATE
For Western military analysts, it is a "terrorist organization", "police dressed as an army and armed as a state", as formulated by an American think tank. Center for Strategic and International Studies. It is assumed that there are about 100.000 well-trained, war-hardened fighters in Syria.
Hassan Nasrallah...the leader of Hezbollah Sheikh Sayed Hassan Nasrallah
In a report prepared for the US Congress, it is written that Hezbollah in Lebanon could dispose of about 150.000 rockets of various destructive powers - from small, unguided, short-range missiles based on Russian, Chinese, Iranian structures, to medium-range guided missiles with explosive charges. from half a ton. He mainly gets money and weapons from Iran, via Syria. Hezbollah in Lebanon has its representatives in both the parliament and the executive branch. The religious, political and military leader of this powerful organization since 1992 is Hasan Nasr Allah (63), who in the last major conflict between Hezbollah and Israel gained the status of a "national hero" in the Shiite world.
The Israeli intelligence services, which have completely failed in the Gaza Strip, are worried whether Hezbollah will try in this situation to achieve the goal for which it was founded - to give Israel a deadly or at least a paralyzing blow.
DESTRUCTION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
The hatred in one part of the Arab world for Israel, whose mere existence is contested, is so great that even suicidal actions cannot be ruled out. Israel is the most powerful military power in the Middle East, one of the most powerful in the world, and also a nuclear power. After the massacre committed by the militant Hamas and which violated the myth of Israel's invulnerability, the words of Defense Minister Yoav Galant should be taken literally that in the event of an attack, Israel would "bomb Lebanon and return it to the Stone Age". The official government of Lebanon has no influence over Hezbollah.
Hamas has demonstrated with simple, cheap, unguided rockets how Israel's extraordinary Iron Dome missile defense shield can be outwitted - by firing thousands of rockets simultaneously from different directions at different targets. Military experts believe that Hezbollah's ballistic missiles could penetrate Israel's shield if accompanied by cruise missiles and drones.
At the end of 2021, during a military maneuver, Iran simulated a missile attack on the Israeli nuclear power plant near the desert town of Dimona, the German "Spiegel" wrote. The demonstration showed that the attack should come in two waves - the first would "make a hole" in the anti-missile system, the second should hit the target. From Lebanon, ballistic missiles would only take a few minutes to reach their target.
In such an apocalyptic scenario, if it were backed into a corner, Israel would be justified, or it could claim the right to retaliate with nuclear weapons - which would really return some parts of Lebanon to the "stone age". To prevent such a possible scenario, there are now American aircraft carriers.
A THREAT TAKEN SERIOUSLY
That Israel takes seriously the potential threat in the north of the country is also shown by the fact that Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi personally went to the border with Lebanon. The shooting has already taken place, there are victims on both sides. After the intelligence services got so burned in the Gaza Strip, Israel is taking the threat posed by Hezbollah very seriously and has evacuated the civilian population from settlements along the border with Lebanon to give the army room to maneuver.
Voices can also be heard in Tel Aviv that Israel should not wait at all for an attack by Hezbollah led by Iran, but rather take advantage of the opportunity, when so many soldiers have already been mobilized, and destroy both Hamas and Hezbollah.
It can be assumed that in the event of a major Hezbollah attack on Israel, the American war fleet would also be involved in the conflict. At that moment, the local conflict would turn into a global one.
