Is Israel really Palestine

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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/xgcwgy5CaBg" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/v/xgcwgy5CaBg</a>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgcwgy5CaBg

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Democrats have no interest in Israel's survival!

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Key Takeaways:

• Northern Gaza Strip: The IDF Nahal Brigade (162nd Division) conducted clearing operations in the northern and central Gaza Strip on March 17.
  
• West Bank: The IDF arrested seven wanted individuals across the West Bank on March 17. The IDF also confiscated materials needed for manufacturing improvised explosive devices during an operation in Hebron.
  
• Northern Israel: Iranian-backed militias, including Lebanese Hezbollah, have conducted at least seven attacks from southern Lebanon into northern Israel since CTP-ISW's last data cutoff on March 16.
  
• The Red Sea: The Houthis likely fired at least one unspecified missile targeting the Marshall Islands-flagged LPG tanker MADO in the Gulf of Aden on March 16. This incident marks the second time the Houthis have targeted this vessel in two days.
  
• Syria: The Israeli Air Force likely conducted air strikes targeting a Hezbollah ammunition depot and other Syrian army positions along the Damascus-Homs highway on March 17.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-march-17-2024

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Key Takeaways:

• Gaza Strip: Israeli forces conducted a "high-precision operation" at al Shifa Hospital based on intelligence that Hamas was using it for militant activity.
  
• Syria: Syrian Defense Minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas traveled to Tehran to discuss military cooperation with senior Iranian officials.
  
• West Bank: Israeli police have conducted training exercises in recent weeks to prepare for possible Palestinian militia attacks into Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
  
• Southern Lebanon and Golan Heights: The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed a one-way drone attack targeting an unspecified Israeli airbase in the Golan Heights.
  
• Yemen: Houthi-affiliated media claimed that the United States and the United Kingdom conducted 10 airstrikes targeting two Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-march-18-2024

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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/0n1tishSzJM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/v/0n1tishSzJM</a>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n1tishSzJM

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The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) is an Iraqi state security service that Iran has infiltrated and uses to wield significant influence in Iraq. Iran’s cooptation of the PMF enables Tehran to pursue its objectives in Iraq while obfuscating its actual involvement in Iraqi internal affairs. Understanding how Iranian leaders wield direct and indirect influence over this significant component of the Iraqi security sector is crucial as the United States considers how to deter Iranian-backed Iraqi militias from attacking US forces in Iraq and Syria.


The PMF originated as part of the effort to stop and reverse the advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) from Syria into Iraq but has become largely a front for militias responsive to Iran. Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki formed the PMF in June 2014 by "institutionalizing” pre-existing and predominantly Shia militias that were engaged in the fight against ISIS. ISIS captured Mosul in June 2014, prompting prominent Iraqi Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani to issue a fatwa calling for Iraqi citizens “able to take up arms and fight terrorists...[to] volunteer and join the security forces to achieve this holy purpose” against ISIS. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) separately and simultaneously mobilized Shia militias responsive to then-IRGC Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani. Many of the militias responsive to Soleimani came to comprise the PMF along with some of the fighters who had responded to Sistani‘s call and remained loyal to him. The militias responsive to Soleimani were — and remain — close to Iran, and several are US-designated foreign terrorist organizations that killed hundreds of US service members in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. The 2016 PMF Commission Law formalized the PMF as an independent entity reporting directly to the Iraqi prime minister, separate from the Iraqi Defense and Interior Ministries.


The militias that are part of the PMF and their leaders, in reality, answer to Iran — not the Iraqi prime minister. Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, who was Soleimani’s top Iraqi lieutenant, served as the PMF Chief of Staff prior to his death in a US airstrike in 2020. Some Iraqi officials described Muhandis as a more important representative of Iran than the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad. Muhandis planned and executed PMF operations while simultaneously serving as Iran’s Iraqi “emissary and messenger.” The current Popular Mobilization Commission (PMC) Chairman, Faleh al Fayyadh, has similarly cooperated with the IRGC to implement Iranian directives in Iraq and reinforce Iranian influence over the militias. The PMC, which oversees a range of administrative, planning, and training responsibilities, is formally responsible for ensuring that PMF militias answer to the Iraqi federal government. Fayyadh’s installation as the chairman of this commission and his relationship with the IRGC shields the PMF from actual Iraqi federal government control, however, essentially ceding part of what should be Iraqi government authority to Tehran.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/leadership-and-purpose-iraq%E2%80%99s-popular-mobilization-forces

Beijing Biden and Obama funded Iran's successful infiltration of Iraq's government and security services!

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Key Takeaways:

• The Caucasus: Iran is likely concerned that Armenia’s deteriorating relations with Russia and outreach to the West could increase NATO’s presence along its northern border. Iranian leaders previously expressed concern that the United States and NATO would exploit Russia’s focus on its invasion of Ukraine to increase their influence in the Caucasus.
  
• Iranian Supreme Leader Foreign Policy Advisor Ali Akbar Velayati, for example, warned Russia in July 2023 to not “neglect” the Caucasus because “ill-intending parties…would attack the interests of Russia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
• Velayati also claimed that Turkey aspires to create a “pan-Turkic” belt that would “surround Iran from the north” and “spread NATO’s influence in the region.”
• Northern Gaza Strip: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued its raid at al Shifa Hospital on March 19. Hamas' infiltration into the al Shifa Hospital area after Israel’s initial clearing operation highlights Hamas’ efforts to reestablish itself in the northern Gaza Strip.
  
• Southern Gaza Strip: IDF Egoz and Maglan special operations forces concluded clearing operations in Hamad, northern Khan Younis, on March 19.
  
• West Bank: Israeli media said on March 19 that the IDF has established a unit of engineers and intelligence personnel to locate “offensive” tunnels in the West Bank. The unit has not discovered any offensive tunnels in the West Bank at the time of this writing, according to Israeli media.
  
• Lebanese Hezbollah in Syria: Israel likely conducted multiple airstrikes targeting Hezbollah facilities in southern Syria.
  
• Lebanese Hezbollah in the Region: Senior Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa traveled to the UAE on March 19 to negotiate the release of Lebanese detainees suspected of having ties to Hezbollah, according to Lebanese media.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-march-19-2024

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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/_jrq9gx1q8Q" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/v/_jrq9gx1q8Q</a>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jrq9gx1q8Q

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Key Takeaways:

• Iraq: Kataib Hezbollah Secretary General Abu Hussein al Hamidawi said during a meeting with unspecified leaders in Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” in Tehran that the current pause in attacks on US forces does not mark the end of efforts to expel US forces from Iraq.
  
• Gaza Strip: Israeli forces continued to conduct an operation in and around al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
  
• Negotiations: Hamas’ senior representative to Lebanon Osama Hamdan said on March 20 that Israel responded negatively to Hamas’ ceasefire proposal.
  
• West Bank: The IDF Air Force killed four Palestinian fighters, including two low-level PIJ leaders, in a drone strike in the Jenin refugee camp.
  
• Southern Lebanon and Golan Heights: The IDF said that it has degraded Hezbollah’s ability to transfer weapons since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.
  
• Yemen: The Houthi supreme leader said on March 15 that the Houthis intend to target international shipping transiting the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope. This statement is likely aspirational given the current maximum range of Houthi weapon systems, which is roughly 2,200km.
  
• Iran: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei acknowledged the Iranian government’s shortcomings in “controlling inflation” and economic production during his Nowruz speech.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-march-20-2024

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Key Takeaways:

• West Bank: Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and other Palestinian militias cooperating against Israel have likely established at least one cell in Jenin to target Israeli civilian areas outside of the West Bank.
  
• A March 20 IDF airstrike targeting PIJ fighters coordinating a suicide attack cell in Jenin likely failed to destroy this cell, which was responsible for the manufacture, planning, and execution of an attempted March 11 suicide attack.
• Palestinian militias in the West Bank almost certainly maintain additional cells focused on attacking Israel proper.
• Palestinian militia presence in Jenin and other West Bank cities along the barrier wall—such as Tulkarm—offer geographic advantages for Palestinian militias that the groups could use to launch attacks into Israel proper.
• Northern Gaza Strip: Israeli forces continued to conduct an operation in and around al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on March 21. Israeli forces detained several high-level Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters at al Shifa Hospital.
  
• Iraq: Kataib Sayyid al Shuhada Secretary General Abu Ala al Walai described Israeli maritime ports and airports as “legitimate targets” on March 21.
  
• Iran: The US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned three procurement networks across four different countries on March 20 for supporting Iran’s ballistic missile, nuclear, and defense programs.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-march-21-2024

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Key Takeaways:[LIST=1]

• Gaza Strip: The IDF continued to conduct an operation in and around al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Palestinian fighters may be retreating from certain areas of the Gaza Strip during Israeli clearing operations there before reentering those areas after the Israelis depart.
  
• West Bank: Palestinian militias may be maintaining at least one VBIED cell near Tubas.
  
• Iraq: The pause in Iranian-backed Iraqi militia attacks does not indicate a change in the long-term Iranian and Iranian-backed proxy objective to expel the United States from the Middle East.
  
• Yemen: US CENTCOM and the French Navy intercepted multiple Houthi ballistic missiles and a Houthi naval attack drone in the Red Sea in several separate incidents.
  
• Iran: Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian discussed the Israel-Hamas war in separate phone calls with Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh and PIJ Secretary General Ziyad al Nakhalah.

https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-march-22-2024

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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/05X520F0DAU" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/v/05X520F0DAU</a>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05X520F0DAU