Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 attacks, was a top target for Israel. After months of Israel claiming that Sinwar was hiding in tunnels behind “human shields,” the Hamas leader was gravely wounded by tank fire when he was above ground and alone, as he sat on a chair covered in dust in a ruined apartment, according to drone footage released by the Israeli military.
Following the news of Sinwar’s death, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a post on X: “After recent conversations w/leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia & UAE, I have real hope that Sinwar’s death creates truly historic opportunities for Israel’s security, cessation of fighting & regional peace & stability through normalization of relations. The moment must be seized.”
Just beneath the surface of Blumenthal’s remarks is a widely discussed mega-deal that would effectively create a U.S.-Gulf regime neo-colony in Gaza, commit the U.S. to going to war for Saudi Arabia, and plunge us deeper into a new cold war with China.
I’m so confused. I can’t keep up with any of this anymore. I don’t know what I was expecting considering this is a massive circus. Please forgive my ignorance, but why the heck is the Saudi even being considered? I thought this whole thing with Israel was to secure the land for themselves.
I know I sound like a complete idiot, but I can’t seem to be able to read this article–can someone point me to a resource I can read, even a book or video that helps clarify what the heck is going on. What a nightmare our world has become.
Israel does want the land, but they can’t “just take it”. The humanitarian crisis and the many civilian casualties they have caused, or are at the very least willing to accept, are seriously damaging their relations with the rest of the world. They have to make this go away, one way or another, otherwise they will be isolated at some point, and they really can’t afford to reach it.
If they were to occupy Gaza and expell all Palestinians now, you’d have hundreds of thousands of refugees. No one wants to take in that many people, so it would cause significant tension with everyone around them and play into the hands of their enemies. If they don’t drive them off but suppress them (or worse…), the problem continues, so that’s not really a good option either. Giving up on some land, that isn’t theirs to begin with, is a small price to pay to (maybe) make their problem go away. At the same time, they will likely even keep a bunch of land they already occupy.
As for Saudi Arabia: They want influence. And this would give them a whole lot of it, even if they only kinda solve this conflict.
Brett Stephans was masturbating in the NYT about this today, apparently the new western dream is for an “Arab-led” security force to take over Gaza in order to “de-radicalize” it with the help of “European economic power”. It seems they have finally admitted that direct Isntraeli occupation of Gaza will only cause Palestinians to hate them more and strengthen the resistance. Though they still think annexations of the Egyptian border and cutting Gaza in half are necessary. Then I guess eventually a “deradicialized Gaza”
It’s an absolute fantasy, he literally made up a fictional Gazan man named “Mohammad” in the article to fabricate Palestinian support for this insane idea. No Arab state, even the collaborators, wants to get directly involved in this genocidal shitshow. I doubt NATO even wants to show up in person, except the US of course.
It reminds me of what the US is trying to do in Haiti with the Kenyan police. That has been a complete failure and it would be even worse in Gaza.