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piqer for: Boom and bust Global finds
I am a Dutch journalist, writer and photographer and cover topics such as human rights, poverty, migration, environmental issues, culture and business. I’m currently based in The Hague, The Netherlands, and frequently travel to other parts of the world. I have also lived in Tunisia, Egypt, Kuwait and Dubai.
My work has been published by Al Jazeera English, BBC, The Atlantic's CityLab, Vice, Deutsche Welle, Middle East Eye, The Sydney Morning Herald, and many Dutch and Belgian publications.
I hold an MA in Arabic Languages and Cultures from Radboud University Nijmegen and a post-Master degree in Journalism from Erasmus University Rotterdam. What I love most about my work is the opportunities I get to ask loads of questions. Email: [email protected]
Not Negotiating With One Side Doesn’t Help This Awful Stalemate
Every Thursday, in Vox Worldly, Zack Beauchamp, Jennifer Williams and Alex Ward help you to "navigate the world around you" (from an American perspective).
This time they talk about one of the biggest military escalations between the Gaza strip and Israel since they went to war in 2014.
Two weeks ago, two rockets were fired from Gaza to Tel Aviv. Normally, the rockets don’t make it that far. The Israeli military then claimed it hit around a hundred targets related to Hamas, the group that controls Gaza.
That’s a pretty big jump from a couple of rockets to a hundred targets in a very small piece of land against an enemy that really can’t fight back against Israel.
Then another rocket followed that injured a family in northern Israel. Hamas denied responsibility, but Israel reacted with more retaliatory airstrikes.
That made a lot of people think like: Oh, oh, maybe we’re going to have a full war, an actual ground invasion of the Gaza strip.
Why is this happening now?
National elections are coming up in Israel on April 9. Netanyahu is once again a candidate to be the prime minister. He generally benefits from a big security crisis before elections. This time there is also a serious competitor from a mainstream party, so Netanyahu can’t be seen as weak.
Besides, things aren’t going right in the Gaza strip, not just because of Hamas’ terrible management of the economy, but also because they are under the Israeli blockade and have large difficulties getting basic goods like food and medicine. There have been protests against Hamas’ leadership, so an escalation is a really good way to divert attention.
There is no peace agreement. These people are still at war. Because that’s not settled, any little flare up can lead to potentially massive escalation and another full-blown conflict.
Making it more complicated is the fact the US doesn’t want to negotiate with Hamas because they see them as a “terrorist group that seeks the destruction of the Israeli state”.
