I haven’t seen such relentless interrogation of Palestinian leadership before, esp. in Arabic.
On Saudi Arabia’s main TV channel, Hamas leader is clearly startled by the intensity of the questions & responses to his answers.
Crucial points in next tweets
One of the most significant ones to Hamas leader by the Saudi TV interviewer is why Hamas expects Arab countries to back them up when Hamas hadn’t consulted them before carrying out an operation akin to declaration of war.
‘You didn’t consult even fellow Palestinians.’
Hamas leader gets visibly angry when she asks him if he would condemn Israeli civilian killings.
The interview is clearly very strategic, & can further reveal where Saudi Arabia stands on the issue.
A repeated question throughout is about Hamas expecting others to join in despite it making a unilateral decision it knew would have Israel respond with unprecedented brutality
Another key question is why your backers in Iran and Hizbollah didn’t intervene or back you back as you expect other countries to do so.
“Did Iran do what you expected it to do?”
The final point is one you just wouldn’t expect to hear on an Arabic television channel, accusing Hamas of being ISIS, of making the world sympathize with the Israelis and that Israel reacted to Hamas targeting of civilians.
A gaffe by Hamas leader is to dismiss civilian casualties as a natural consequence of wars. Something we’ve heard from the Israelis to justify the killing of civilians in Gaza (Hamas has previously blamed civilians in Gaza for the killings of Israeli civilians on Oct 7.)
Here is where Hamas threw the innocent people of Gaza under the bus in its attempt to excuse the targeting of civilians
We had a few important stories to make sense of this conflict, some on the way next week. Follow @newlinesmag, and sign up to receive our *free* essays (one essay a day, or all once a week) newlinesmag.com/become-a-membe…
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Folks, there is misreporting on Qatar’s decision to expel Hamas.
Reuters’ reporting is the most accurate — and logical — so far.
Context in following tweets:
Reuters reports it as an ultimatum, Doha warning it’ll pull out of Gaza ceasefire mediations until Hamas & Israel “demonstrate a sincere willingness to return to the negotiating table”.
Not just expulsion, because the US asked it to expel Hamas.
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This is still in the unofficial leaking territory. Reuters also cites officials as saying the office "no longer serves its purpose", which requires more detail but seems to be a separate issue beyond mediation.
As always, Syria is the most important "non-important" story in the Middle East -- the story that doesn't seem to matter, but ends up being a key piece of the puzzle.
A short #thread
Two stories that begin to demonstrate how Syria is central:
For months, actually, the chatter in Syria & elsewhere is that the Israeli attacks against Iran were enabled by collaborators from within the Syrian regime.
Even the “car crash” of a top Assad aide in July was interpreted in this context.
When Iran’s Gen. Qassem Soleimani was assassinated in 2020, there was intense debate over whether his killing would set back Iran’s proxy warfare in the Middle East. It took years for us to see the effects of it, and few today dispute that the vacuum he left remains unfilled. 👇
Some believed his killing won’t matter significantly, because he’d already built a well-oiled machine.
But even for sympathizers his absence has been felt on multiple key occasions. In Iraq and Syria, there are numerous examples where the machine has been degraded both tactically and strategically. Something acknowledged by insiders or people close to their circles.
Two crucial points. Al Faisal isn’t an official, but you can think of this speech as the *clearest* indicator of the Saudi leadership’s thinking beyond the generic official remarks. Thus: Saudi is messaging that the Gaza war must NOT end the Saudi-Israeli normalization talks 1/2
Second, and despite the growing conventional wisdom about this, I never believed even for a second that the latest round of the conflict has sabotaged the Saudi-Israeli normalization talks.
They’ll be resumed, albeit in greater secrecy than for a while until progress is made.
ISIS announces its leader Abu al-Hassan Al-Qurashi has been killed in action, and declares Abu al-Hussain al-Hussaini al-Qurashi as its new leader.
[Important to note that this is quite possibly a fake announcement. See next tweets]
Scenario 1 is that the ISIS leader was killed "accidentally" during a raid or fighting without him being known to whoever killed him (the US, Iraqis, Kurds) so those did not know they killed the leader.
That'd be unprecedented, but possible.
Another scenario is this is fake:
The above scenario wouldn't explain basic information we already have. The suspected leader was arrested by Turkey, confessed he was made a leader against his wishes middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-is… catching an ISIS leader alive would be unprecedented, & extremely damaging to the group >>
#important Our institute has released a significant and legally-reviewed report detailing evidence of how Russia is inciting genocide in Ukraine. Tremendous work in @NewlinesInst - coverage of the report in @nytimes here