CHRONTICLE #8 C27,A47(NOTES): 2012-2014 IL ATTACKS GAZA , PA IN THE UNGA, SETTLEMENTS INCREASE IN WB, FAILED PEACE TALKS, ATTACKS ON CIVILIANS BY HAMAS, UNGSCR 2334
I have gone into some considerable detail during this period in light of it seemingly being a run up to the ghastly events of Oct 7, 2023 and the war in Gaza, events which are not part of the postings until possibly some later date.
2012
Nov14, 2012 IL began 8 day Operation Pillar of Defence in Gaza
NOTE 1: IL assassinated the Hamas military commander and launched air strikes against various positions alleged to be strongholds of Hamas military and rocket launching sites. Hamas launched missiles into Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. 162 Gazans including 37 children killed, 3 IL civilians and 1 soldier. Hamas declared a victory even though much of its armament stockpile was destroyed and a lot of infrastructure damage occurred. IL’s Iron Dome defence system deployed and effective against incoming missiles.
Nov29, 2012 UNGA voted to give PA ‘non member state with observer status’. It gave the PA access to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court of Justice. This by coincidence or otherwise was the same date as the 1947 UNGA Partition Vote
Talks with Iran by the major powers over it’s attempt to become a nuclear power were closing in on an agreement. Netanyahu opposed any agreement with Iran. Some of his critics opined that the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians was a greater existential threat to IL than was the Iranian push to go nuclear.
2013
Jan, 2013 Elections for the Knesset resulted in Netanyahu continuing as PM after making an alliance with the party that got the second largest percentage of the vote, which was a secular middle of the road party but mostly focused on domestic issues.
IL starts building settlements that would cut off East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claimed would be the capital of a Palestinian state, from any other Palestinian settlement.
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NOTE 2: While never stated, it became evident that IL was intent on increasing the Jewish population of East Jerusalem, and if possible, diminishing the Palestinian. The land appropriations, budget inequalities and discriminatory planning made that evident. However, as difficult as it was for East Jerusalem Palestinians, their lot was somewhat better than their brethren in the WB, for example Nablus or Hebron. There was more freedom of movement, and better access to the labour market and as a result they were more prosperous than those in the rest of the WB. The eviction of WB Arab families living in homes owned by Jews up to 1948 became a flash point. Apparently the Jordanians in 1948 on taking over the WB failed to pass any legislation giving Arab occupants of the deserted Jewish dwellings ownership, which might have protected them from the Jewish legal attacks. Also, there was a habit during the centuries of Ottoman rule, of failing to register ownership papers to avoid paying taxes.
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July, 2013, John Kerry, US secretary of state, initiated peace talks between IL and the PA . His goal was a full peace agreement within 9 months. See below for a description of those talks.
July 2013, the military in Egypt overthrew the duly elected government of President Morsi, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt closed tunnels and cut off trade and revenues to Hamas in Gaza
2014
Jan, 2014 Arial Sharon died after 7 years in a coma.
Apr 14, 2014 US efforts at mediating a full peace agreement by US Secretary of State John Kerry abandoned
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NOTE 3: IL reneges on a Palestinian prisoner release; Abbas withdrew from an agreement to not seek UN membership and goes ahead with membership applications to 15 UN organizations including the ICCJ and ICJ. Hamas and the PA inked a reconciliation agreement. Israel increased cutoffs of power to Gaza, and prohibited passage across the border of various goods
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Mar-May, 2014 IL stopped the transfer of $1million in tax revenues after Hamas and PA endorsed a government of technocrats without a single Hamas member. although IL made one payment fearing a PA total collapse.
June 8, 2014 Hamas operatives in the WB abducted and killed (likely almost immediately) 3 Israeli teenagers hitchhiking home to their Yeshiva settlement in the WB. Hamas was blamed, but it denied the accusation although celebrated the murder.
June 15-20+-, 2014. IL conducted Operation Brother’s Keeper to find the killers of the 3 Israelis. It killed 10 Palestinians, injured 130 and imprisoned more than 600.
June 15-30 Tensions between Palestinians in IL and Jews exacerbated, as Jews attacked Palestinians and some chanted “Death to Arabs” while Palestinian children celebrated the deaths of the 3 holding up 3 fingers to photographers and newscasters representing a celebration of the death of the 3..
June 28, 2014 IL assassinates one of Hamas militants.
June 28th IL finds the bodies buried shallowly of the 3 killed youths.
June 29, 2014 During funeral for 3 murdered Israelis, Hamas launches rockets into IL ostensibly in reprisal for the murder of their militant. Then IL attacked Gaza in retaliation for the rocket attack.
June 30?, 2014 Revenge for the murders taken on an East Palestinian youth who was abducted and murdered in East Jerusalem by 3 Jews from the WB. Ultimately 2 were sentenced to life imprisonment, the other to 20 years imprisonment
July 8- August 26, 2014 IL conducted its Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, called Eaten Straw by Hamas (Quaranic verse referring to defeat of Islam’s enemies) causing massive human and property/infrastructure loses. But Hamas claimed victory once a ceasefire was reached
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NOTE 4: It was estimated that perhaps up to 20,000 homes were rendered uninhabitable. A 15 storey building was brought down by bombs. Estimates given by Hamas and the UN were around 2,250 Gazans killed of which probably 2/3 were civilians, the rest Hamas fighters. The statistics from IL differed as to loss of life, stating that 765 civilians were killed. Israel’s death toll stood at 67 soldiers and 4 civilians, killed by a couple of the 3,700 rockets fired into IL, one of which landed near Ben Gurion Airport in IL, causing a suspension of International flights. IL destroyed 32 tunnels that were not for smuggling of goods, but rather warfare. This represented far more than IL intelligence had stated and caused a furor over the quality of IL intelligence gathering.
NOTE 5: There was significant international media coverage including directly from Gaza. The carnage was evident and reporting included photos and videos of Gazans killed, including many children whom the UN estimated were about 550. IL claimed that civilian structures (houses, mosques, schools, hospitals) that were sheltering civilians were also used by Hamas to fire rockets into IL and tunnels were built under them. IL made efforts to alert civilians to coming attacks by dropping leaflets, sending text messages and making phone calls but it appeared the civilians no matter where they were or the time they were there were subject to being killed or wounded in a bombing attack. It was claimed that the level of destruction and death indicated war crimes were being committed.
NOTE 6: As much as IL was condemned internationally. it’s population supported by over 90% the attacks. Netanyahu, a skilled user of the media, talked about the desire of Palestinians to murder Jews wherever they were. And Palestinian leaders made sure that they broadcast photos of Palestinians “telegenically dead”. Those leaders were accused of being of the view the more dead Palestinians the better. Muting opposition occurred in IL including banning broadcasting the names of dead Palestinian children. Public support for Gazans from Palestinians living in IL was suppressed. Netanyahu’s critics pointed out that Hamas, although suffering a setback were still in power, and this after 3 warlike operations in 6 years. Others, more forcefully blamed him for all the violence.
NOTE 7: Hamas was viewed by the majority of Gazans (and by the Palestinians in the WB) as representing the resistance, while the PA was viewed at best as ineffective and at worst collaborators with IL. WB Palestinians came out in numbers to protest the war and show support for Gazans. One Palestinian commentator from its Human Rights Centre opined that resistance was part of the Palestinian DNA. Collaborators were publicly executed. During warlike conflict the Gazans rarely raised their voices against Hamas although once the fighting ended some complained.
NOTE 8: IL under Netanyahu had turned its back on the 2 state solution. For the conservative IL leadership that meant that the PA and Fatah had to in some way be sidelined. Notwithstanding Hamas’s charter to kill Jews and eliminate IL, apparently Netanyahu had come to the conclusion that IL could always deal with outbreaks from Hamas so it was best to do whatever it could to make sure that Hamas and the PA remained at loggerheads. As between these two, IL decided to view Hamas as the lesser evil because of it’s adamant opposition to the 2 state solution. Accordingly at some point, I believe likely after Operation Protective Edge ,IL became complicit in helping Qatar fund millions of dollars into Gaza, sometimes into the hands of non Hamas actors but other times simply turning a blind eye to what was going on, Qatar being a strong supporter of the Palestinians financially. This continued throughout the next decade and more apparently.
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Fall, 2014, 4 rabbis and a policeman were hacked to death in a synagogue by 2 Palestinians, part of PFLP. Photos of the bloody meat cleavers were circulated widely on Arabic social media. Tensions became so great that Arab taxi drivers refused to enter into Jewish areas of Jerusalem after dark.
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#33 THE KERRY LEAD PEACE TALKS 2013-2014
1 The 2013–2014 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks were part of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians began on 29 July 2013 following an attempt by United States Secretary of State John Kerry to restart the peace process.
Hamas rejected Kerry's announcement, stating that Palestinian president Abbas had no legitimacy to negotiate in the name of the Palestinian people.
Over the 9 months period, John Kerry met with the Palestinian president on 34 occasions, and Israeli prime minister roughly twice as many times. On 29 July 2013, as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met for a second day in Washington to discuss renewing peace talks, Abbas said "in a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli – civilian or soldier – on our lands." although at one point he had offered that any Jewish settler who wanted to live in a Palestinian state was welcome to apply for citizenship. 4.5% of settlers indicated they would if such a state was established where they were living.
2 The principal issue that scuttled the talks was Israel’s continuation of issuing building permits for the West Bank, which for the Palestinians was completely unacceptable. As well, the Palestinians reiterated that they would not recognize Israel as a Jewish State because to do so would compromise any negotiations about the right of the refugees to return. There were exchanges of positions, but nothing that launched the parties into a negotiation, face to face, which might result in a final settlement. The talks finally collapsed on April 14, 2014.
THE NEXT POSTING: CHRONTICLE #9 (C8 /A28): ANOTHER VIOLENT FEW YEARS, IL CONTINUES ITS POLITICAL SHIFT RIGHT, MANY PALESTINIAN HOUSE DEMOLITIONS AND HOME EVICTIONS 2015-2017