Reality is always so magical that although we live in the same world, what we see in our eyes is like a parallel universe.
For example, the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Zesheng ran to the United States to ask for 60 billion in aid, and Biden's response was: 200 million. The EU summit approved Ukraine's accession negotiations and rejected 50 billion in aid to Ukraine.
A few days ago, the American White House said that the funds for aid to Ukraine would be "exhausted" by the end of this month.
Blinken is already defining Russia's "failure." Contrary to some people's understanding, Blinken put it this way: Russia has already lost the war because it has not erased Ukraine from the face of the earth and incorporated it into Russia.
In the case of the famous Wuyou Dr. Liu, Russia lost 87% of its total personnel at the beginning of the special military operation, and thus set back 18 years of military modernization.
Just looking at this, you may think that the Ukrainian army has come to the city of Moscow.
The magic is not only the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, but also the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In the case of the Protestant Israelis, Hamas has been defeated one after another, and its elimination is already a sure thing, and it is only a matter of time sooner or later.
It stands to reason that Hamas should have surrendered early.
At the United Nations, a number of countries have launched proposals calling for an immediate ceasefire.
In the UN General Assembly, even Ukraine abstained, Israel and the United States voted against.
In the Security Council, the United States vetoed it, France and Japan and other US allies did not follow, and Britain abstained.
However, the reality today is that Israel, which has voted against the United Nations one after another and scolded the United Nations, is now proposing a ceasefire. But to their embarrassment, Hamas, who is seen by some as "the soon-to-be-wiped Hamas", rejected Israel's proposal for a ceasefire.
Slap in the face!What's going on?
Let's start a week ago.
In the middle of this month, U.S. Affairs Assistant Jake Sullivan visited Israel.
The high-level Israeli leaders attending the meeting were no longer as arrogant and open-mouthed as before, but generally began to be cautious.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoaf Galant said a lot, mainly in several meanings:
Hamas has been fighting Israel for more than a decade.
They build infrastructure underground and above ground, and it is not easy to destroy them.
The fighting could last for months or more.
We will win, we will destroy them (Hamas).
The head of IDF intelligence, Aharon Haliwa, chimed in.
Gallant said so many beautiful things, in fact, just to cover up his own difficulties, and in the end what he wanted to convey was that we are having a hard time now, and "it is not easy to destroy Hamas".
Therefore, foreign media reported that the Israeli military top brass finally admitted that "Hamas is not so easy to destroy".
Now there is no mention of the rhetoric that wiped Hamas off the face of the earth.
An important reason is that Israel thought of itself as a dish, but did not expect such a dish.
Sullivan's visit comes just two days after Israel suffered its biggest setback since the war began: 10 people were killed in a single day.
Of the 10 soldiers, seven are from the Golan Brigade, an elite IDF unit, and even include the Supreme Commander of the Golan Brigade, Colonel Yitzhak Ben Bassat.
Others were: a lieutenant colonel, two majors, two company commanders and other middle and senior officers, and three others from the 669th *** Search and Rescue Force.
It is said that the situation at that time was that the brigade commander led a large group of men and horses to rescue the ambushed people, but they were ambushed again, and then the search and rescue force arrived and also filled the heads.
Ambushed continuously!
Hamas has used the terrain to ambush Israel, not once or twice since the start of the war. Previously, some pro-Israel experts had said that Israel would not fight in the streets with Hamas, and that Hamas would be wiped out by bombing and then advancing with a large force.
The Israeli dead list is basically full of officers, but there are few small soldiers, and it seems that their officers are all soldiers like sons and protect their soldiers well. Hamas, for its part, has consistently said that the Israeli side is hiding the actual number of killed.
On the one hand, the war is unfavourable, as is the international moral pressure, but more importantly, the Israeli economy is under tremendous pressure.
Israel is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the Red Sea to the south, and on this side of the Red Sea, there is a port of Eilat (red dot location in the map below).
The impact of the recent Houthi interception of merchant ships heading for Israel in the Red Sea has been significant.
In the port of Eilat, Israel has a large oil refinery and pipelines to Ashkelon and Haifa on the Mediterranean coast. It is from this port that oil imported from abroad enters Israel.
On December 21, local time, the Times of Israel reported that the business volume of the terminal has dropped by about 85% since the Houthis in Yemen began attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea waters, citing the head of the port in southern Israel.
As soon as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict began, Israel declared a siege of the Gaza Strip. Fortunately, the Houthis have encircled Israel farther away, in a larger circle.
The Houthis are too far away from Israel and Palestine to directly confront Israel.
This kind of plan to block the Red Sea to encircle Wei and save Zhao is actually more effective than directly fighting with Israel, because Israel has no way to start if it wants to fight back, and it is very uncomfortable.
At present, the Panama Canal is suffering from a once-in-70-year drought, and the traffic volume has dropped significantlyThe Red Sea-Suez Canal line was disrupted by the Houthis;Malaysia also did not allow Israeli ships to dock. It can be said that the world's three major shipping routes are closed to Israel.
Israel was a small country at the time, although some people boasted about how high-tech Israel was, even if it was indeed very advanced in some places, but the country was small and poor, and energy, raw materials, and sales markets were extremely dependent on the outside.
As soon as the external blockade is made, a small country like Israel will not be able to hold out for long.
In order to relieve Israel's siege, the United States has transferred its aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden, and in the past few days, it has been pulling in people to carry out "Operation Prosperity Guardian" to escort ships sailing in the Red Sea.
The result was very embarrassing, the Houthis not only continued to attack merchant ships in front of American aircraft carriers, but also refused to communicate with the United States, saying that communicating with the United States would make their faces disgraceful and slap the United States in the face.
Operation Prosperity Guardian has not been carried out either, and one of the allies of the United States is counted as one, and all kinds of foreign grinders and empty cannons are used, or they send people to the US ship to "guide the work," or they do not actually work.
Except for a few ** ships sent by the British, the others were not very motivated.
See: Tragedy!The United States formed a multinational force, but it turned out to be self-inflicted
The United States has become a loner?The allies are all fun people!》
In the face of the Israeli military's loosening of tone, Sullivan said don't talk about it for a few months, you don't, we don't have either. A small suggestion, give you three weeks to reduce the scale of the war.
Sullivan's suggestion is very specific, that is, stop fighting big battles, shrink across the board, and focus on Hamas's **.
Looking at it now, Israel's all-out war against Palestine has been very ineffective, and the pressure from all sides is a little unbearable.
Israel hastened to retreat and fought on a small scale, so that there would be little pressure on the economic, political, social, and military fronts.
Just a few days after Sullivan left, Austin went over on the 18th to have a discussion with Israeli Defense Minister Gallant. At the press conference that followed, Austin said a few things:
The United States urges Israel to protect civilians.
U.S. support for Israel's right to self-defense is an unwavering ......That's not going to change.
Hamas can no longer threaten Israel from Gaza, or even ...... GazaThis is important.
Don't you believe the words of these Western bandits, the United States cares about civilians?Don't be funny. The United Nations let the armistice vote one the United States which time did not object.
When he emphasized, "It's important," you know that it doesn't matter at all.
Every time they want to admit it, they pretend that they are not cowardly at all, say a lot of cruel things to forcibly find face for themselves, and finally simply say "I coax".
You can ignore what he said in front of him, just listen to the back :
We also have some great ideas on how to transition from high-intensity operations to low-intensity, more surgical-style operations. ”
This is in line with Sullivan's suggestion not to fight a full-scale ground war, but to carry out precision bombing against Hamas**.
Gallant followed Austin and said that the Israeli army's operations will transition to the next phase, continuing to be carried out in Gaza with varying intensities.
That's the ready turn.
A day later, on the 19th, at a regular year-end press conference for foreign ambassadors to Israel, Israel's Herzog said that Israel was ready to agree to implement the humanitarian moratorium again and (allow) more humanitarian aid to enter.
"For us, again, it's important (he says it's important, it's not important at all): we're not fighting the people of Gaza," he said. They are not our enemies. We are fighting Hamas, and they are our enemies. Based on this, we are taking all possible humanitarian measures in accordance with international humanitarian law".
Do you remember what this big brother said when he first started the war?
No one in the Gaza Strip is innocent.
And now?We are not fighting the people of Gaza. They are not our enemies.
180-degree turns.
There's one more person in Israel who is very busy, Foreign Minister Cohen. He went to Cyprus.
He visited the headquarters of the Joint Relief Coordination Centre in Cyprus and inspected the arrangements for the coordinated delivery of humanitarian assistance from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip at the port.
Cohen said worriedly (pretendingly) that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip was so worrisome that it would not be enough to rely on a single land route
We want to establish a fast-track track for Gaza, and we want the more access the merrier!Can you open up another maritime humanitarian corridor from here in Cyprus?
Cyprus is the closest to the Gaza Strip by sea.
Regarding Cohen's proposal, Cypriot Foreign Minister Compos said that the Serbian side is ready and is waiting for the Israeli side's formal approval.
From the beginning of the current round of the conflict, Cyprus has proposed the establishment of a maritime humanitarian corridor, but it has not been done until now.
Guess who disagrees?
Consider the interesting question of Israel's previous total blockade of the Gaza Strip and its determination to keep supplies out of the country. Because in their view, supplies may fall into the hands of Hamas, and to send them is to "finance" Hamas.
The first batch of supplies after the start of the war was sent by UN Secretary-General Guterres standing at the Rafah port and using his own body as a shield.
It is strange that Israel has begun to offer supplies to the Gaza Strip.
Are they kind-hearted, pity the people of Gaza?
Of course not.
Imperialism is very arrogant, and anyone who is unreasonable will never be reasonable, but if he starts to be reasonable, he must be forced to do nothing.
This was fought by the Houthis.
Usually, the first request for a truce or negotiation between the two warring parties is the weaker side. The superior side is still waiting to continue to fight and expand its advantage, so how can it mention an armistice and negotiations first?
The Houthis are refusing now, which is to suppress Israel's arrogance again, and you can't fight as much as you want, and stop when you want.
Didn't Sullivan give him three weeks, and it was very early.
It is completely possible to put Israel and the United States on the fire and roast them again.
It's easy to start a war, it's hard to stop, and it's usually not up to you.
Does Israel want to stop considering additional conditions?
This article was first published on WeChat***Kunpeng**.