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.
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.
I hear what you are saying here, but I am still a bit confused.
Again, I thought this was why they (Israel) has been given the OK to commit genocide. This is what is so confusing to me, because on one hand Israel seems to get to do whatever they want to the Palestinians including decimating their populations, but on the other hand, for what purpose are they committing the genocide if all they wanted was to kill the “terrorist(s)” (which they invented by creating the conditions in the first place! Sorry, point of digression there). The point I suppose I am trying to make is that these seem like two different things. Killing the leadership of the “terrorist” and committing genocide. And now, to make matters worse, I am learning that Israel can’t have the land, so all of this seems like a bunch of BS. (Not what you are saying, what is being done there) This feels like when the Saudis were at least partially responsible for 9/11 and suddenly we were creating false narratives about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction and a means to mess their countries up. Sorry, I’m a bit frustrated by this entire situation that has been playing our for the past few decades and it just feels like we are digging deeper and deeper into hell on earth.
Quick edit–I just want to make it 100% I do not support ANY form of genocide whatsoever! I realize my comment might be taken out of context and wanted to clarify that. :|