Weekend long read

1) The ITIC’s analysis of casualties in the Gaza Strip during Operation Guardian of the Walls is now available in English.

“An analysis of names of the 234 Palestinians killed in the attacks indicated that at least 112 of them (47.8%) belonged to terrorist organizations, most to the military-terrorist wings of Hamas and the PIJ: 63 belonged to Hamas, 20 to the PIJ, 25 to Fatah, two to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), one to the Mujahedeen Brigades1 and one to the Popular Resistance Committees. Eleven of the men between the ages of 17 and 40 were killed in IDF attacks on terrorist targets but we have no information linking them to terrorist organizations (one of them was a driver for terrorist squads). At least five who were operatives of Hamas’ military-terrorist wing were also operatives in Hamas’ security forces (police, naval police or internal security forces). It has often been found that operatives of Hamas’ military-terrorist wing were also operatives in its security forces.”

2) At the INSS Yoel Guzansky and Ofir Winter ask ‘Does Qatar’s Return to the Arab World Run through Egypt?’.

“Recent months have witnessed changes in inter-Arab dynamics in general, and in relations between Qatar and Egypt in particular, which have been tense and even hostile in recent years. Warming relations between Doha and the Arab Quartet (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain), which boycotted Qatar until January 2020, is expected to affect the nature of Qatar’s involvement in the Gaza Strip and its ties with Hamas after Operation Guardian of the Walls – and hence the importance to Israel. This trend gains momentum precisely at a time when there are some in Israel who want to distance Qatar from the understandings toward the arrangement with Hamas taking shape (under Egyptian auspices) in the wake of the operation. The struggle over Qatar’s role in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip may emerge as one of the stumbling blocks in the discussions between Jerusalem and Cairo. Moreover, Cairo’s relations with Doha will be a critical variable in shaping Israeli policy toward the Gaza Strip.”

3) At the FDD Andrea Stricker provides a monograph on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

“The OPCW and CWC have recently come under strain due to Russia’s and Syria’s uses of chemical weapons in violation of international norms and laws. Russia, a CWC signatory and OPCW member state, has used the organization to shield itself and its client regime in Damascus from accountability for their uses of chemical weapons. The CWC has few enforcement mechanisms, and some member states have been unwilling to challenge Moscow.”

4) Writing at Newsweek, Gil Troy discusses the rise of a Nazi slur.

“Jew-haters’ obsession about Jewish “power,” as Jews endured centuries of powerlessness and persecution, proves that Jew-hatred, the world’s oldest hatred, is also the most plastic hatred—artificial, fungible and sometimes lethal. Jews have been persecuted for being rich and poor, Marxist and capitalist, fitting in too much and standing out too much. Nazis justified their mass murder of Jews by escalating the canard about Jews controlling the world into a struggle against “Jewish supremacy.” […]

There is no justification whatsoever for resurrecting this horrific Nazi term to now slander Zionism. Beyond the millions who were tortured and murdered based on this vile lie, the term remains rooted in an obsessive, distorting hatred of the Jewish people.” 

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