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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| 'Competition in Cruelty.' Will Israel achieve the release of the hostages? |
| 2023-10-15 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Oleg Krivoshapov [REGNUM] The topic of hostages falling into the hands of militants of the Palestinian group Hamas since the start of its invasion of Israel on October 7 has become one of the key ones in the general flow of news about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Thus, on October 13, the foreign ministers of the CIS countries in a joint statement expressed concern about what was happening, condemning, among other things, any manifestations of terrorism and extremism, including the taking of hostages. A few hours earlier, Hamas reported that 13 hostages in the Gaza Strip, including foreign citizens, had died as a result of Israeli strikes. The day before, on October 12, the coordinator for strategic communications at the US National Security Council (NSC), John Kirby , said that the White House allows any options for the release of US citizen hostages, including negotiations with Hamas and exchange. In turn, the Washington Post reported that the organization's militants delivered at least 64 people captured during the attack on Israel to the Gaza Strip. And the Qatari TV channel Al Jazeera showed a video of the release of one hostage and her two children by the military wing of Hamas. Earlier, on October 11, the Turkish television channel Habertürk reported that Turkish President Recep Erdogan in Ankara discussed the topic of releasing the hostages with representatives of the Palestinian group. ORIGINS OF TERRORISM Since the emergence of the modern Israeli state, there has been an expansion of its borders, which was accompanied by the eviction of Palestinians, recalls retired FSB Colonel Vladimir Klyukin . This, he believes, is where the origins of their terrorist activity lie. Which, however, in any case has no moral justification. Now, 75 years after the proclamation of the State of Israel, the territory inhabited by the Palestinians has actually shrunk to the limit. “And those who remained on Israeli territory found themselves in the role of sort of “guest workers” in the lowest paid jobs ,” notes Klyukin. At the same time, Israel tried to lay claim to part of the territory of Egypt, which it occupied following the Six-Day War of 1967. And the Israelis still occupy the Golan Heights in Syria to this day. Under the influence of these circumstances, anti-Israel sentiments were formed in the Middle East, which resulted, among other things, in the high-profile hostage -taking of the Israeli Olympic team by Palestinian terrorists in 1972. Then, in connection with the tragic death of 11 Israeli athletes around the world, the security system for sporting events was revised. And less than two years later in the USSR, in the bowels of the State Security Committee (KGB), a specialized anti-terror group was created for the first time, which later became the legendary group “A” (“Alpha”). THERE WILL BE NEGOTIATIONS AND EXECUTIONS However, the now classic understanding of terrorism should not be confused with the events in Israel and Palestine that began on October 7, says Sergei Goncharov, president of the Association of Veterans of the Alpha anti-terror unit . “The hostage-taking in Beslan or later in Moscow, at the musical “Nord-Ost” - these were operations during which the bandits demanded that some political conditions be fulfilled,” says the expert . “ But now there is a war in Palestine and Israel, and I think it is wrong to confuse terrorism with war. Another question is that the cruelty of this war goes beyond all limits. When one of the warring parties takes hostage civilians of another country and announces that they will shoot them, this is already an interweaving of war and terrorism . ” So the release of civilians caught in the role of hostages in such a situation becomes much more difficult. The case of the current conflict between Palestine and Israel from the point of view of the practice of releasing hostages is indeed very difficult, agrees intelligence colonel, veteran of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and the Vympel special forces (KGB) Lev Korolkov. On the one hand, the postulate known from the practice of Israel, which states that no negotiations can be conducted with terrorists, is in fact rarely observed. “We still have to negotiate when a problem needs to be solved for political or social reasons,” says the expert. — Yes, and there are massive seizures. In principle, they are resorted to quite often." But how to organize work during hostilities? It is also impossible to free the hostages by force; they will absolutely become victims. Negotiations are still conducted through third parties - neutral countries and people who enjoy the appropriate authority. Due to the surprise of the attack, for the Israeli leadership, the problem of freeing the hostages is relegated to the background, Korolkov believes, since real chaos is happening in the conflict zone: “I mean the massive bombing of residential areas when the city is destroyed. This is an American version, this happened in Iraq.” It is clear that both Hamas and Israel have already shown a willingness to compete in brutality, says Goncharov: “The Israelis have said that they will wipe Gaza off the face of the earth, and they have every opportunity to do this. And Palestine, most likely, will respond by shooting hostages.” THE UKRAINIAN CONFLICT IS NOT LIKE THE MIDDLE EAST Due to the complexity of the current situation, which could be a death sentence for many hostages, Russian special services must analyze this negative experience in order to avoid its repetition, IA Regnum interlocutors note. From the point of view of Lev Korolkov, a veteran of the Russian special services, what happened in Israel is the result of a malfeasance. Numerous powerful organizations - for example, foreign intelligence Mossad or army intelligence at the General Staff (analogous to our GRU) - did not believe that this could happen. The incoming materials were piling up, but analysts believed that there were disparate groups operating that were simply carrying out demonstration training for the sake of obtaining funding. “All Hamas structures, all Hezbollah structures are filled with Israeli agents. I think the materials have arrived. And the information received cannot just lie there; there is an obligation to report higher up the chain. But at some levels, the information simply “stuck” and was not put together to make complex decisions,” says Korolkov. The head of the association of veterans of the Alpha group, Sergei Goncharov, also calls for special attention to be paid to the outright failure in the work of the Israeli intelligence services and the country’s armed forces (IDF). “Conclusion: there is no need to boast in the spirit of ‘our army is the greatest, our security service is the greatest, our intelligence is the greatest,’ there is no need to boast,” he notes. Russia also has its own serious pain - the intelligence apparatus that the SBU, NATO and the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate have . “We catch three or four Ukrainian spies every day, that’s the problem,” says Goncharov. At the same time, the expert still calls not to compare the degree of bitterness that is now observed in the Middle East. “What is happening here with Ukraine cannot be compared with what is happening between Palestine and Israel, ” he believes. — Roughly speaking, we are still in a civilized war. And they are waging a war aimed precisely at complete physical destruction, no one even hides this.” |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #5 What about throwing a bag of kittens in the lake? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2023-10-15 09:03 |
| #4 Slitting babies’ throats is not terrorism, claims smirking ex-BBC correspondent |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-10-15 06:35 |
| #3 Will Israel achieve the release of the hostages? They're dead. Oleg |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-10-15 02:58 |
#2 But at some levels, the information simply “stuck” and was not put together to make complex decisions History shows this happening again and again. Ask Martin & Bellinger what happened when they predicted the Pearl Harbor attack in March 1941 or ask how Gen. Westmoreland reacted to well-founded intelligence reports predicting the Tet Offensive in 1968. |
| Posted by: Elmaper McGurque1612 2023-10-15 02:54 |
| #1 Avigdor Liberman joins coalition |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-10-15 02:03 |