Project Sword
Wen Sister Xiong. No one expected that it would be an Asian country that fired the first shot to sanction Israel.
According to the "Global Times", citing foreign media sources, on December 20, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that from now on,It is forbidden for any Israeli flag merchant ship to call at Malaysian ports, and it is also forbidden for any ship destined for Israel to load cargo in Malaysia. The Malaysian side said that this is a response to Israel's "disregard for basic humanitarian principles, violation of international law, and continued atrocities against the Palestinians."
The Malaysian side also made special mention of Israel's largest shipping company, Israeli ZIM. They allege that in 2002, Malaysia had authorized ZIM to dock ships in Malaysian ports, but that authorization has now been officially revokedZIM's vessels will not be allowed to call at any port in Malaysia.
The statement concludes by emphasizingThe ban is a "permanent ban".。At the moment, the Israeli side has not responded to this.
Malaysia's move marks them into a new round of post-Israeli-Palestinian conflictThe first country to impose substantial sanctions on Israel. Therefore, as soon as this decision was announced, it attracted widespread attention.
In fact, the relationship between Malaysia and Israel has not been good all along. At present, there are about 30 countries around the world that do not recognize Israel as a country, and Malaysia is one of them. Even, Malaysian passports are clearly printed in Malay and English".This passport is valid in all countries except IsraelWe can also imagine how bad the relationship between the two parties is.
On the one hand, this is because Malaysia is a Muslim country and is more inclined to Palestine in terms of faith;On the other hand, Malaysia also used to have friendly relations with Israel, but in the military confrontation between Malaysia and Indonesia that began in 1963, Malaysia lost the support of many Arab countries because of its friendly relations with Israel, but Israel did not support Malaysia more. This eventually led to a direct change of stance on Malaysia's side of "anti-Israel".
What's more, Malaysia is no wonder that Malaysia will intervene because of Israel's atrocities in Gaza, where the killing of children and women has angered the world.
After the outbreak of the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,Malaysia, for example, has taken a clear stand in support of Palestine and condemns Israel. The Malaysian side not only came forward to call on the people of Malaysia to actively participate in the activities of solidarity with Palestine, but the Ministry of Education even encouraged schools to organize "Palestinian Unity Week" and issued a document asking students to support Palestine.
In addition, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathia Mohamad also said that Malaysia has received threats from some Western countries because of its public "support for Pakistan and opposition to Israel," but he will not give inPrime Minister Anwar Ibrahim even appeared in front of Biden at the APEC summit in San FranciscoCall on Biden to take the same position as Malaysiato stop Israel's indiscriminate killing of the Gaza Strip. All this has made Malaysia one of the "anti-Israeli" pioneers in the Muslim world.
And such a ban on shipping will obviously make Israel face a more serious situation. In particular, Malaysia, a key coastal country in the Strait of Malacca, has closed its doors to Israel after the Houthis have already validally blocked Israel's shipping lanes in the Red SeaThis will be a very serious blow to Israel's shipping industry, foreign affairs and even its national economy.
As a country highly dependent on maritime transportation, although Israel is not a major flag state, such restrictions and blockades are likely to cause its energy and other aspects to be affected quite seriously. Israel's Haaretz newspaper said that in the past two weeks, transportation activities in various Israeli ports have almost completely stopped, and there is no cargo entering or leaving the port of Eilat. The direct economic losses to Israel could be as high as nearly $10 billion.
What's more, such a ban may only be the beginning of a global isolation of Israel. Will other countries, especially Muslim countries, follow Malaysia's lead and impose blockades on Israel in numerous areas?How should Israel and the United States respond to such a situation?We don't know these questions yet, but what is certain is that life in Israel will become more and more difficult.