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... first declaring an increased no go area inside Gaza as "to protect ... , and then once the land is empty Israel will increase building on that land, the expansion of settlements.
I regret not having a link to the article, but I recall that the Economist summed this up with proper data. The Israeli state sort of have facts on their side when they claim that they don't support or allow settlement expansion in the West Bank. How they get around this however is that the Israeli army have a clause that lets them annex and clear Palestinian land with any flimsy excuse. This land then sits mostly barren for typically around a decade before the army decides to revert the land to civilian use. But when they do, according to the Economist, there is not a single example of the land being returned to arabs, it's always given to settlers.
starfish&coffee-
Interesting, but I ask if you believe they painted a full picture. I remember how badly The Economist downplayed and brazenly rejected the data on Obama-ordered airstrikes in Pakistan. I've never got a sense that they're impartial, independent and balanced since then, though they do a better job than many.
Did this article cover the Sheikh Jarrah controversy and the related issues, how Jewish Israelis (an important distinction in this particular case) in areas of the West Bank are allowed to make 'claims' over land that they supposedly owned before 1948, wherein falsified documents were used? Case in point - that infamous, Brooklyn idiot (and there are many like him) who "settled" in Palestine and stole a portion of the family's house, and the best thing he could say on camera for the whole world to witness was, "If I don't steal your home, someone else will"? Of course, all this was illegal under the UN, international law, and all those other useless bodies that can't enforce jack.
Edit: maybe Zionist Israelis is a better term.
infmz
My opinion here is that yes, Israel is going for the long-term here... they'll force the population South and thin them out, and fear is a powerful weapon to get people moving so whether or not they targeted the hospital or not is irrelevant as it creates more fear on the ground.
Israel will shrink the size of Gaza by first declaring an increased no go area inside Gaza as "to protect our people against being taken hostage we need to create a buffer zone", and then once the land is empty Israel will increase building on that land, the expansion of settlements.
They have done this repeatedly for decades, it is nothing new. But areas like Gaza are so densely populated that they've never been able to succeed with this strategy there. Netanyahu's funding of Hamas to force this situation has created an opportunity for a massive land-grab (relative to their past progress on Gaza), and so they will take as much of that land as possible whilst the window of opportunity is open for them.
The Israeli government and right wing do not care about the human suffering, they do not value non-Jewish lives, so long as progress towards a one-state Israel and the end of Palestine is achieved.
This is all but a single step towards that, it doesn't need to achieve everything this time around, as the past created many opportunities, and the future will create more. So long as every opportunity is taken, and they always take as much land as they can and never give it back, it's progressing the right direction and is worth it in their opinion.
They certainly do not care what the international community think, so long as evangelical Christians in the USA who believe in end time prophecy keep supporting this madness.