Our Wednesday News Analysis | An Iranian Retaliation is Coming: This is Why – ANALYSIS

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (R) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Design: Palestine Chronicle)

The matter has been resolved. Israel, in the words of the Iranian mission to the United Nations, will be “punished”.

"… if the Iranian response does not instigate a regional war,
thus does not feed Netanyahu’s political agenda,
the Israeli prime minister would lose his only remaining card,
and there would be no need to prolong the Gaza war any further.

… in the unlikely chance that Iran does not respond, Israel is likely to expand its escalation, possibly by hitting deep inside Iranian territory –

regardless of the outcomes."Iran knows this very well, thus the clear understanding that an Iranian response is coming,
the only logical step following the destruction of a diplomatic mission.

This punishment is not just the direct outcome of Israel’s deadly attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, but an overdue retaliation to many such aggressions.

Why is Israel targeting Iran?

Israel has been bombing Iranian facilities in Syria for years.

Additionally, and though Israel does not claim official responsibility, Tel Aviv has also hit Iranian targets on Iranian soil as well, including the assassination of top Iranian scientists.

Quite often, attacks on Iran are coordinated between Tel Aviv and Washington, if not other Western capitals.

These attacks have exponentially increased since October 7, when Israel launched a major war, turned genocide, against the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the Palestinian Resistance Operation, Al-Aqsa Flood.

Yet Israel could easily continue to bomb targets belonging to Iran’s allies in the region. In fact, it is already doing so in its daily clashes with the powerful Lebanese Resistance group, Hezbollah.

Therefore, the Israeli attack on the consulate, considered a sovereign territory according to international norms, can only mean one thing: escalation...

Read more: An Iranian Retaliation is Coming: This is Why – ANALYSIS

___________________

AFTER SIX MONTHS OF WAR, I FEAR WE MAY LOSE PALESTINE COMPLETELY

Source: The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/09/50-years-mourned-palestine-parents-israel-gaza-hope

By Raja Shehadeh
Published April 9, 2024

Israel’s onslaught has been on a scale never seen before. I spend my days searching for hope

A Palestinian family continues to live in the rubble of their destroyed house in Gaza City, 7 April 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

_________________________

Editor’s Note | Sunshine Breaks Through the Clouds. Always!

I look forward to reviewing your new book, 'What Does Israel Fear From Palestine’ (publishing date: 7 June 2024).

Dear Raja, the majority of the people on all divides crave peace. Nonetheless, a minority of ‘kill, get killed’ extremists continue to tyrannize the majority who long for life, 'to live, let live.'

The people in Israel-Palestine — on both sides — must democratically replace their leadership. Another Nelson Mandela must rise from the ashes. We must work toward a one-state democracy, to quote Martin Luther King, Jr. “a beloved community for all.”

The present remnants and half-breeds of the former Judeans of 2,000 years ago do not need to fear the present indigenous Palestinians, many of whom are descendants of the half-breeds and remnants of Israel, cited in the Gospels 2000 years ago.

It is time for both to recognize the other by saying, “Welcome home.”

Raja, sunshine will break through the clouds. BELIEVE!

_________________________

Six months into Israel’s murderous war on Gaza, I spend my days in Ramallah reading the devastating news, feeling helpless and heartbroken. Yet one morning, I turned instead to Lyndsey Stonebridge’s excellent book on Hannah Arendt in which the author observed: “It is when the experience of powerlessness is at its most acute, when history seems at its most bleak, that the determination to think like a human being, creatively, courageously, and complicatedly matters the most.” I wonder whether those in Israel who feel powerless against the majority who want the continuation of the seemingly endless war; or us Palestinians, the victims of the full thrust of Israel’s might and expansionist agenda, are succeeding in doing that. So far, the evidence indicates that we are not...

Read more: After six months of war, I fear we may lose Palestine completely

___________________

TUCKER CARLSON QUESTIONS EVANGELICAL SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL IN GAZA CONFLICT

Source: Juicy Ecumenism
https://juicyecumenism.com/2024/04/11/tucker-carlson-questions-israel/

By Jeffrey Walton
Published April 11, 2024

American Evangelicals are partly responsible for the deaths of Palestinian Christians in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, a prominent anti-Israel Palestinian cleric and activist told Tucker Carlson this week. That cleric is among many among the fast-shrinking Palestinian Christian population who highlight their opposition to Israel and blame American Christianity without acknowledging Hamas or Hezbollah terrorism.

“… many Evangelical leaders in the United States
care “much more about the highly secular government of Israel
than they care about Christian communities in the Middle East.”

Tucker Carlson

The Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, who serves as academic dean of Bethlehem Bible College, was featured by Carlson on his X (formerly Twitter) streaming show. The former primetime cable television host, who historically draws a conservative audience, expressed concern that the United States was providing aid to Israel in its ongoing conflict with Hamas. The radical Islamist group was itself unmentioned during the 43-minute conversation, which was limited to criticism of Israel and U.S. foreign policy.

Carlson, an Episcopalian, has more often been sympathetic to Evangelicals, and critical of his own Episcopal Diocese of Washington, including a resolution calling upon the denomination’s General Convention to “avoid the use of gendered pronouns for God” spotlighted on his Fox News show in 2018. More recently, Carlson has drawn criticism for an interview of Vladimir Putin, in which the Russian President was across two-hours afforded meandering answers by an interviewer unafraid to be confrontational with other guests.

Almost the entire April 9 interview was Isaac speaking at length, with Carlson leaving the Palestinian pastor’s claims unchallenged. Isaac, perhaps aware that he was addressing a more conservative audience, was himself more measured than in previous pronouncements, in which he has accused Israel of an intentional “genocide” against Palestinians, even as he live-streams from a studio in the West Bank with electricity and internet access and freely travels to the United States...

Read more: Tucker Carlson Questions Evangelical Support for Israel in Gaza Conflict