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A retired American intelligence officer criticized Israel’s handling of the Palestinian issue, and the way it managed the propaganda campaign behind which it wanted to gain international sympathy for its military operation in Gaza strip.
Paul Pillar, a former CIA officer, said that there are similarities between Israel’s claims that the Islamic Resistance Movement (agitation) is used Al-Shifa Hospital Gaza is a command center for its military operations, and among the allegations made by America is that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction.
He added in an article in the National Interest magazine that the Israelis are doing their best to search for anything to present to the international media and to the world as evidence of Hamas’ use of Al-Shifa Hospital for military purposes.
He continued that the public relations campaign that Israel is currently engaged in to promote its vision of war is not going smoothly so far, despite the strict controls, propaganda prowess, and priority it gives to this effort.
Israel’s claims are easy to refute
To demonstrate this, the writer gave an example of a video clip published by the Israeli army, considering that its content included an “easily refuted” claim that the laptop shown was supposed to be part of Hamas’s documents on prisoners captured by Israel, but the device did not In fact, it was nothing but an Israeli machine.
Pillar concluded that Israel has not yet provided anything indicating that the hospital is a leadership center for the Hamas movement, but it is still searching the hospital’s website for something it can present that would serve as “more convincing evidence.”
The retired intelligence officer considered this search operation a “major deviation” from the political goals of the war, just as the United States used the issue of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as a “strong” argument for waging its war against Iraq.
America’s motives were in another direction
He pointed out that the main motives To invade Iraq It lay elsewhere, particularly in the neoconservative ambition to use regime change in Baghdad as a means of injecting democracy and free market economics into the Middle East.
According to the writer, the Iraq war was a “terrible and expensive mistake,” as it killed 4,400 Americans and wounded 32,000 others, and cost American taxpayers more than two trillion dollars. It exacerbated sectarian tensions in the Middle East, led to the emergence of “terrorist” groups, destabilized Iraq, and damaged the credibility of the United States in its efforts to hold other aggressors accountable, such as the Russian president. Vladimir Putin“.
There is no justification whatsoever for invading Iraq
Even if Washington had discovered evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq, that would not have been a justification for an invasion, according to Pillar, adding that the alternative was diplomacy and other peaceful measures.
In his article, Pillar emphasizes that the violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict did not begin on October 7, and Hamas is not a clearly defined capsule of evil, whose elimination will solve the problem of that violence.
Hamas cannot be destroyed in any case because, in Pillar’s view, it is a nationalist movement and one of the manifestations of the anger simmering in the souls of Palestinians due to the “denial” of their national aspirations.
Israel’s destruction of Gaza will backfire
The writer believes that by destroying Gaza and exposing its residents to enormous suffering, Israel is fueling that anger and increasing – not reducing – the risk of its citizens becoming victims of violence at the hands of Palestinians in the future.
In Pillar’s estimation, the current war was an opportunity for Israel to accelerate the process of expelling Arabs from the lands in Palestine, and that there is an official Israeli document recommending the expulsion of the residents of Gaza to Sinai peninsula Egyptian.
He added that at the same time, acts of violence and intimidation by Jewish settlers escalated West Bankwhich the Israeli army and police left largely unrestricted, and led to the evacuation of many Palestinian villages by their besieged residents.
The National Interest article concludes that Israeli citizens will not be safe from Palestinian “violence” unless Palestinian aspirations for self-determination are achieved through a negotiated settlement of the conflict.
