A-Infos (en) Bulgaria, FAB: On the Middle East front - St (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Fighting continues in the Gaza Strip and on the border between Israel 
and Lebanon. This is a regional war, but it has the prospect of growing 
into a much larger one. In Lebanon, the state is in ruins, so it is more 
correct to talk about the confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel. 
"Hezbollah" is not so concerned about the Gaza Strip, but it works at 
the expense of Iranian investments and has been shelling the territory 
of Israel for eight months, because of which about a hundred thousand 
Israelis from the border towns and kibbutzim are refugees in their own 
small country. Lebanon, which is half the size of Israel, also has many 
internally displaced people and many casualties because the Israeli army 
answers to Hezbollah. And Israel's defense against rocket attacks is 
much more effective than Lebanon's: rocket attacks on Israel are not 
without casualties, but far more often when the sirens go off, people 
end up in hospitals, dislocating their legs as they run to bomb 
shelters. For weeks now, the intensity of artillery duels, bombings and 
drone warfare on the Lebanese-Israeli border has been increasing. There 
is a real risk of so-called "all-out war". Hezbollah is much more 
powerful than Hamas, it has enough missiles to destroy all of Israel. 
And Israel has enough missiles to destroy Lebanon... Recently, the 
region thought it would begin now: due to shelling from Lebanese 
territory on Kiryat Shmona, a town close to the border where 20,000 
people once lived. It caught fire and was abandoned. Fortunately, the 
Israeli army was smart enough not to launch a counterattack after Kiryat 
Shmona, but no one is immune to the missile apocalypse.

Demonstrations "for Israel" and "for Palestine" continue in Western 
countries without a clear understanding of the situation. A few myths on 
both sides can be debunked. Even before the October 7 attack by Hamas, 
masses of people were living in poverty in the Gaza Strip. Israel is 
said to have blockaded Gaza. Yes, but the Gaza Strip has a long border 
with Egypt. Egyptian authorities fear the spread of Hamas ideas (as part 
of the Muslim Brotherhood) and have also tightly blockaded Gaza. So 
Israel is not the only problem. Many Gazans have been treated in Israeli 
hospitals, where water and electricity still flow from Israeli territory.

During Hamas' rule in Gaza, billions of dollars in humanitarian aid 
flowed into the Strip each year from Qatar, the UN, the EU and others, 
not to mention Iran's support for Hamas, the group's various criminal 
proceeds and the taxes it collects in the Gaza Strip. They say it's 
Israel's fault that Gazans live in poverty, but Hamas has vast amounts 
of weapons and a network of tunnels comparable to the Moscow subway.

Almost everyone in Israel has someone they know who was killed or taken 
hostage as a result of the October 7 attack. This is the reason for the 
hatred and ferocity with which war is waged. It is true - the Israeli 
army uses clearly excessive force, but how to explain the actions of 
Hamas, which is shelling Israeli positions with rockets from the city of 
Rafah in the Gaza Strip, which in peacetime lived 90,000 people, and now 
- over a million internal refugees? Is this not a provocation to kill 
more Palestinians? Or the recent story of the release of four Israeli 
hostages: the Israeli operation killed, according to Hamas, hundreds of 
Palestinians. What else could have been the result if the hostages were 
held in the middle of a crowded urban neighborhood, and when Israeli 
special forces came for them, Hamas started fighting with heavy small 
arms? The recent interesting statement by representatives of the 
Palestinian Authority that the Palestinians are a bargaining chip for 
Iran in its international expansion has gone unnoticed.

On the other hand, inside Israel, unfortunately, some rather crazy ideas 
are widespread, such as the idea that the occupation of the West Bank 
must be maintained "because it is written in the Tanakh (the sacred 
texts of Judaism) that it is Jewish land'. For Jews, the life of a 
Palestinian is not worth a penny (Arabs with Israeli citizenship are 
treated qualitatively differently). For Israel, there is a continuing 
belief that bombs and bullets are the best way to deal with the 
Palestinians.

In Israel's war with Hamas, justice is not on anyone's side. And if you 
go to a demonstration under the Israeli or Palestinian flag in Europe or 
America, you are more than likely covering up the crimes of one side and 
ignoring the civilian casualties of the other.

https://www.anarchy.bg/
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