Agreed, if they thought they would trigger a regional war it seems they hadn't factored in that the Arab Spring had failed, that the Atab nations are rules by reactionary regimes.
But looking beyond the events around Oct 7 2023, the assassinations of specific individuals by Israel has been particularly effective and the assassinations of a few leaders by Palestinians is completely explicable. On Sun, 18 Aug 2024, 15:23 Mark Baugher via groups.io, <mark= [email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Aug 17, 2024, at 6:30 PM, John Edmundson via groups.io > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > The assassination of the King Abdullah of Jordan was justified. > > My reaction is "so what" if it doesn't advance the movement, which it did > not. Rashid Khalidi discussed the problems of building the Palestinian > liberation movement in a recent interview with Tariq Ali, > https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii147/articles/the-neck-and-the-sword. > Regarding the weaknesses of that movement: > > Q: How do you explain the persistent weakness of the modern Palestinian > leadership? I know that the best people were killed. > > A: That’s the first important point. Assassinating Palestinian leaders > became an Israeli speciality. An Israeli author, Ronen Bergman, has a > chilling book about this, Rise and Kill First. The title says it all. They > have been very careful in picking out the ones they want to eliminate. > > Khalidi also noted "I am constantly struck by how poor a job the > Palestinians did in publicizing their cause, starting in 1917 and going > well beyond 1967. It’s only really with the current generation that there > has been any kind of a breakthrough. And this has not come from the > political leadership, but from civil society." > > And he considered 10/7 a tragic miscalculation by the Hamas leadership, > who expected that transforming their population into cannon fodder (my > characterization, not his) would lead to a regional war of liberation: > > "But while it may still explode into a full-scale war, so far it’s been > tit for tat, very measured and controlled. This is a function of what > anybody with eyes to see could have told the boys in the tunnels, which is > that Iran did not invest in building up Hezbollah’s capabilities for the > sake of Hamas. It did so in order to create a deterrent to protect Iran > against Israel; that’s the only reason. The idea that Hezbollah and the > Iranians would shoot every arrow in their quivers to support Hamas, in a > war it started without warning its allies—it beggars belief that anybody > could think that that would be the case. Iran is a nation state that has > national interests, which are restricted to regime preservation, > self-defence and raison d’état. You can talk about Islam, ideology and the > ‘axis of resistance’ until you’re blue in the face. I will tell you: raison > d’état, regime protection—that’s what they care about, and that’s why they > backed the build-up of Hezbollah’s capacity. And they’re not going to shoot > that bolt. There was no possibility under any circumstances of their doing > that to support Hamas. If, heaven forbid, a full-scale war erupts, it will > be because of a miscalculation, or an accident, or an irrational move by > Netanyahu, not a decision by Hezbollah." > > AFAICT, all the talk of justifiable retribution, particularly against a > civilian population, has never proven to be an effective means of building > the liberation movement. > > Mark > > > > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#31689): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/31689 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/107935124/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
