Gabriel B
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Middle East - July 23, 2024

Middle East - July 23, 2024

Jul 24, 2024

Hudaydah's port still burns, days after the Israeli strikes crippled its ability to operate. Attempts by local authorities to extinguish the fires have so far failed. The United States announced that they were responsible for a new wave of strikes against the Houthis, claiming to have destroyed several missile launchers. The Houthis also launched naval drones against merchant vessels today. The Ukrainian crew of one such vessel successfully defended themselves with small arms fire, simply shooting the attacking drone until it was destroyed. However, this is an option of last resort, as it is not a particularly easy nor reliable method of defense. A lot of recognition should be given to the skilled Ukrainian crew, who accurately destroyed a fast moving, armored target while they themselves were moving up and down on the waves. Still, it proves that the tactic is at least a plausible added layer of defense that merchant vessels could choose to use as the American led coalition continues to struggle to prevent Houthi attacks on merchant shipping.

As Israeli attacks have intensified in Gaza over the past few days Starlink has been deployed to a hospital backed by the UAE and Israel within Gaza. This will provide crucial and reliable internet connectivity to the outside world for the hospital, power permitting. It also comes as Netanyahu has arrived in the United States.

His visit has hardly begun, and it's already going poorly. Harris is spurning public appearances with Netanyahu, and many congressional leaders have said they will either boycott is speech or have denounced him. The senior most Jewish representative laid into Netanyahu, calling him the worst Jewish leader in over 2000 years, and confirmed his attendance only so that he could act as a voice against Netanyahu. Even Trump, who is a fervent defender of Israel and ally to Netanyahu, posted a letter from Mahmoud Abbas thanking him for the solidarity after the assassination attempt against Trump. He also expressed support for peace in the Middle East, rather than Israel's campaign to wipe out Hamas. Netanyahu and Trump are expected to meet Friday. The American Secretary of Defense as of now has no public plans to meet with Netanyahu, and Biden is giving a major speech on domestic politics hours after Netanyahu's address, which will suck away the media attention form Netanyahu.

Furthermore, China has butted in once again into the Middle East with an effort to establish some sort of deal, having previously helped a detente to form between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The result is that Hamas, Fatah, and a number of other Palestinian factions have agreed to join forces to establish an "interim national reconciliation government" for Gaza after the war. Notably, this means that Hamas in some form would have input in post-war governance; preventing Hamas from having any say whatsoever has been a very firm line for Israel. My view is that this was largely a reaction by Hamas and other Palestinian factions to the Israeli strikes on Mawasi and other humanitarian zones in Gaza; once trust in the diplomatic process was broken, Hamas and the others are now doing what they need to do to put up a fight and a united political front outside of the ceasefire talks.

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