Israel shuts down Al Jazeera offices: A ‘message’ being sent to Qatar, expert says • FRANCE 24

Israel shuts down Al Jazeera offices: A ‘message’ being sent to Qatar, expert says • FRANCE 24

speak to John Lyon the executive director of the allines for Middle East peace hello to you John thank you for speaking to a Paris direct this Sunday um before we uh came on the eror in the past hour we have had a couple statements Hamas says it’s still keen on reaching a comprehensive statement but Israel’s beniman Netanyahu saying it can he cannot accept hamas’s demands to uh end the war and leave Hamas in power how far apart are we from finding a ceasefire deal um it’s very difficult to tell because I think both sides are practicing um some pretty obvious brinksmanship and also different interpretations around some kind of constructive ambiguity about what a ceas fire may or may not mean it’s very clear that Hamas is demanding an end of the war and that Netanyahu prime minister Netanyahu has said that just this afternoon in fact that that is an unacceptable demand and that he would see that as being um commen it with surrender H and I think if you look at the sort of leaked and reported on Contours of any deal the ambiguity um begins to become a little bit clearer we’re talking about several phases perhaps three phases where at the very end which could be 100 days from the signature of the deal that the talks around the withdrawal the permanent withdrawal of the IDF would take place now it’s sort of in the eye of the beholder about whether or not that means uh a ceasefire it certainly isn’t immediate uh with regards to withdrawal of of Israeli troops um and I believe those details if they’re correct should provide enough for both Hamas and the government of Israel to be able to sort of claim some kind of qualified Victory and to bring the violence that we’ve been seeing escalating again in the last 24 hours to an end yeah and that would be phase three if I understand correctly does that mean phase one and phase two are taken care of no I think it’s all or nothing and so we know that in the the first sort of phase of this we’re talking about the again there’s different interpretations but I’ve heard 33 hostages being released a th000 Palestinian prisoners being released and and a cessation of violence for that period now we haven’t had anything like that since uh back in November and just as a a change in the current Dynamic those 16 days or so will be extraordinary for the people in Gaza for the um the the access of humanitarian Aid obviously to be able to disrupt the the growing concerns around famine that you spoke about earlier and then obviously for families of hostages to be reunited with their loved ones after more than 200 days of captivity it’s hard to overstate how um disruptive that would be and I think it would create hopefully the conditions for those second two phases to be implemented and the prospect of ever returning to the kind of violence that we’ve seen would hopefully become less and less imaginable as politics begin to take over another concern is uh gaza’s most southern city of uh Rafa where over 1 million gazans have been Sheltering for some time a lot of concern that regardless of what plays out in Cairo that Israel be will be moving forward with um uh an assault on Rafa and Hamas concerned about that wanting to lean on the US to try to persuade Israel not to do that how do you think that plays out my hope is that this is part of a strategy of pressure I mean prime minister netan said over the weekend um I think embarrassing secretary blinkin who was traveling in the region that there would be a Rafa operation with or without a deal now if you zoom out and think about that that’s that’s an impossibility the idea that Hamas would sign on to a deal regardless of its terms if they if they knew that an operation with Rafa was um uh was happening regardless so it’s again hard to square that sort of rhetoric with what we understand is taking place today in Cairo and I think all of Israel’s friends around the world literally all of them have been very clear about the uh the unacceptability of an operation in Rafa H for many of them full stop and for others such as the United States without um preparations taken in order to uh look after the well-being of the more than million Palestinian refugees at this stage in in Rafa without that being brought to the flo and I I’ve heard from sources in Washington that they still haven’t seen any uh any plans that would adequately take care of that humanitarian uh catastrophe that we would see in Rafa if if an operation took place the other part of this is the Egyptians you need to understand these talks are taking place in Cairo rely upon Egyptian support and facilitation and the Egyptians are very very alarmed this would bring Israeli forces right up to the border with uh with the state of Egypt h we’ve never seen uh an operation like this at the border with Egypt since there has been a peace deal with between Egypt and Israel and deconflict deconfliction mechanisms to avoid some kind of an incident between the Egyptian and Israeli military would be would be necessary and even with those mechanisms you really can’t discount the possibility of an accident that would have extraordinary ramifications for for the region in any War uh B the control of information is vital to either side um this Sunday reports that Israel has uh decided to shut down alzer’s offices in Israel um what do you make of that this has been sort of uh discussed at cabinet level and within the isra media for for a couple of months now and it’s very hard not to uh understand it within the context of everything we just spoke about so kater alongside Egypt are the core sort of facilitators for these negotiations that are taking place katar is obviously where the Hamas leadership is currently residing um and I think this has probably got a lot more to do with these negotiations and um pressure or some sort of message being sent to CER then it has to do with Al jazer as a television network that would be my my assumption it’s hard to know exactly what’s trying to be communicated though um uh the qataris in recent days have said that they would be reports were at least seem that katar would be willing to expel Hamas if they weren’t willing to accept uh a deal that was on the table and I suspect some of this is pressure perhaps coordinated with the United States and others on cater to try and ensure they can Bridge some sort of proposal and and pressurize and force Hamas to accept a deal that’s on the table one final question on the humanitarian level this Sunday an interview is going to be airing in America on Meet the Press uh the head of the world food program saying famine has finally arrived to Northern Gaza if that isn’t the case because we’ve been hearing These Warnings for months now just how urgent is this situation to get a ceasefire deal and Aid access uh improved just how urgent is that it’s incredibly urgent and if you look at the warnings we’ve been hearing from a long time they have been saying May so there you know again those complex mechanisms and formula for calculating this but people have predicted that sort of May was the time when famine conditions may be met and it’s very hard to know until it’s retrospective that you are in famine and once you are it has a momentum a deadly devastating momentum all of its own um and so anything to be done to disrupt that to get food and basic uh humanitarian supplies into Gaza needs to be the Forefront of everybody’s thinking right now um and you know even if we manage to get at ceasefire today and and and flood the Gaza Strip with Aid there are still huge developmental consequences for the lack of food for particularly the youngest Palestinians over the last seven months now that they’ll be living with the legacy of this for their lives so I think this should go above politics and I think it’s notable that you see Cindy McCain you know somebody who comes from a storyed republican family very very strong uh support for the state of Israel now heading the word world food program uh making this warning directly on us network television it should be again Beyond politics Beyond Pro Israel Pro Palestine this is about uh safeguarding human life John thank you very much for speaking to us this Sunday John London from the alliance for Middle East peace thank you

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his government has voted unanimously to shut down the local offices of Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera, escalating Israel’s long-running feud with the channel at a time when ceasefire negotiations with Hamas — mediated by Qatar — are gaining steam. Qatar is currently hosting Hamas’s leadership. “This has probably got a lot more to do with these negotiations, pressure, or some sort of message being sent to Qatar than it has to do with Al Jazeera as a television network,” said John Lyndon, executive director at the Alliance for Middle East Peace.
#Qatar #Al Jazeera #Israel

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