Reuters reports: “Israeli attack on Syrian Aleppo airport puts it out of service.” See X (Twitter) list on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

BASHIR SAADE, bashir.saade@stir.ac.uk, @bashir_saade
Saade is author of Hizbullah and the Politics of Remembrance (Cambridge University Press).

He is a lecturer in politics and religion at the University of Stirling. He previously held posts at the University of Edinburgh and the American University of Beirut; he holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from King’s College London. He focuses on contemporary political Islam and nationalism.

He said today: “Hezbollah’s decision to intervene may well depend on what happens next in Gaza.

“How good is Israel at ‘defending itself’? We’re not seeing it significantly inflicting damage on Hamas’ infrastructure, only deliberate large-scale targeting of civilian areas. Those brandishing this ‘right’ must be fully aware that all Israel does is punish a population?

“In reality, all Israel seems to be doing is taking this opportunity to pursue a long-standing dream: force a large-scale exodus out of Gaza, the home of 2 million or so Palestinians, many of whom in the first place escaped other areas of Palestine to be trapped there.

“Hamas is first and foremost attempting to break the prevailing military-security status-quo the way Hizbullah did in 2006 during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It wants to redraw the rules of the game, namely, force Israel to realise that it is not able anymore to act with complete impunity, seizing land, building settlements, turning Gaza into the biggest open air prison etc. While the other Arab regimes normalise with Israel, and while the Western world is complicit with their actions, Hamas’s only solution is to become a force to be reckoned with. The price to pay is very high, in many ways, but at the end of it, Israel may well have to compromise, agree to an exchange of prisoners, and probably review its methods of occupying and controlling territory.”