The Palestinian self-delusional mindset.

It’s difficult to find a completely impartial foreign news media account of the recent IDF incursion in the Jenin refugee camp. So instead, I am quoting from a CNN description and have added margin notes where required.

“Early on Monday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched a major operation in Jenin, carrying out drone strikes and targeting a ‘command and control’ centre for militants in the refugee camp there.

The incursion involved hundreds of Israeli security personnel, at least ten drone strikes, and bulldozers that were used to disarm potential explosives buried under asphalt-sealed roads. Tanks were also deployed on the outskirts of the city.

 

     A road in the Jenin refugee camp ‘ploughed’ by an IDF bulldozer.

 An IDF spokesperson told reporters that the operation had been planned for some time, with the object of dismantling the ‘safe haven’ Jenin has become for militants.”

Margin note: - Like most foreign news outlets CNN prefers to call terrorists - militants.

Back to the main text: -

“According to the spokesperson, the IDF entered all parts of the refugee camp and said at least 120 people were detained. Israeli soldiers dismantled hundreds of explosive devices, weapons caches and underground tunnels. Fierce firefights were reported between soldiers and militants. In one of the clashes IDF soldier St.-Sgt. David Yehuda Yitzhak was killed.”

Enough of CNN. Here are some of my own comments: -

“It didn’t surprise me at all when I read the accounts of how Palestinians in the West Bank and elsewhere celebrated what they termed the IDF’s ignominious defeat at the hands of their ‘courageous Palestinian fighters.’

 “Hundreds of Palestinians, chanting Allahu Akbar! took to the streets of Jenin and its refugee camp late Tuesday to celebrate after Israeli security forces completed their withdrawal from the area.

Flashing V-for-Victory signs with their hands, the Palestinians also chanted slogans in support of the local armed groups, specifically the Jenin Battalion, a militia directed and funded by the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).”  Margin note: - Most of the commanders of the Jenin Battalion had fled the Jenin Refugee Camp shortly before the start of the large-scale Israeli security operation.

Back to the main text-

“They (the Israeli security forces) were forced to pull out less than two days after the incursion because they failed to achieve most of their goals. Thank God, most of the fighters have not been harmed.”

Palestinian sources said 12 Palestinians were killed and at least 120 injured, 30 of them seriously, during the Israeli operation. “

Another margin comment: - It’s likely that more Palestinians were killed, almost all of them were identified as armed terrorists. 

Returning to the main text-

“Shortly after the Israeli withdrawal, dozens of Palestinians attacked the local headquarters of the Palestinian security forces in Jenin with stones and explosive devices. The protesters accused the Palestinian security forces of ‘hiding’ during the Israeli operation and failing to ‘defend’ the Palestinians against the ‘aggressors.’ No one was hurt as Palestinian security officers responded with tear gas to disperse the assailants. 

The attack on the PA headquarters was not the first of its kind. On a number of occasions over the past two years, gunmen attacked the compound, largely in response to the arrest of some of their friends by the Palestinian security forces.

Recently, several Palestinians took to social media to voice outrage against the PA and its security forces for their alleged “collusion” with Israel. 

Some pointed out that, according to reports in the Israeli media, Israel notified the PA in advance of its intention to launch a massive operation against terrorists in the Jenin Refugee Camp. They said this was proof of the ongoing “collaboration” between Israel and the PA.”

(IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht confirmed that the Palestinian Authority and Jordan had been informed about the incursion in advance, but didn’t elaborate further.)

On Monday night, the PA leadership, after holding an emergency meeting in Ramallah, decided to halt all contacts and meetings with Israel, as well as security coordination between the two sides. 

“No one believes the Palestinian leadership,” said Murad Awad, 28, a resident of the camp. “They did nothing to help the people during the Israeli incursion. They ordered the Palestinian security forces to stay away. We didn’t see one security officer on the streets. This proves that the security coordination has not been suspended.”

A senior Palestinian security official dismissed the charges as “lies.” He claimed that the security coordination, which was suspended earlier this year after an Israeli security raid on Jenin, has not been resumed since then.

“The main goal of the operation was to end the phenomenon of resistance in Jenin,” said Mu’taz Khalil, a 35-year-old political activist from Nablus. “But it’s clear that this goal was not achieved. There are hundreds of gunmen in the camp. This operation, on the other hand, showed that all the armed groups are united in the field. There is no difference between Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad when it comes to confronting the aggression.”

On Wednesday morning, Palestinian activists called on Palestinians to head to the Jenin Refugee Camp to help the local residents, especially those who left their homes and sought shelter in the city. 

PIJ Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhaleh said in a statement after the Israeli withdrawal that “the Palestinian people scored a great victory by defeating the aggression against Jenin and its camp.”

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, said the Palestinian “resistance taught the enemy a harsh lesson and made it suffer heavy losses.”

In a statement early Wednesday, Haniyeh said that the coming days “will expose the size of the violent blow the resistance dealt to the enemy.” He added that “the resistance is the strategic choice of the Palestinians to respond to the aggression and expel the occupation from our Palestinian lands.”

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem praised the Jenin camp and its “resistance and victory over the Zionist enemy army.” He added: “Jenin has once again defeated the occupation army. We announced from the beginning that the occupation will fail to achieve its goals. Jenin camp will remain a fortress of resistance and a thorn in the side of the occupation, and the revolution in the Arab West Bank will continue to escalate until the goals of our people are achieved.”

Time for another margin note: - These bombastic claims about inflicting heavy losses on the IDF are part and parcel of the Palestinian self-delusional mentality. Hezbollah, Syria and other not-so-friendly neighbours also have delusions regarding Israel.

On the other hand, Israel has no delusions about the incursion and what it achieved. Throughout the operation, accurate military intelligence enabled pinpoint strikes on predetermined and live-time targets.

That being said, the IDF has no delusions about the need to “clean-up” the Jenin hornets’ nest from time to time.

Predictably, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said. The IDF airstrike on Jenin may be ‘wilful killing’. The Jenin operation, “raises a host of serious issues with respect to international human rights norms and standards.”

Further to that, Turk said the scale of the Jenin operation, including the use of repeated airstrikes, along with the destruction of property, raised serious issues regarding international human rights norms and standards.

Some of the methods and weapons used “are more generally associated with the conduct of hostilities in armed conflict, rather than law enforcement,” he said.

 If Volker Turk believes the IDF Jenin operation could have been conducted by law enforcement methods, then he is delusional.

Have a good weekend,

 

Beni                           6^th of July, 2023