Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. Where cross-border smuggling once flourished, a new shadow now moves through the city’s ruins. His name: Yasser Abu Shabab. A Bedouin who escaped from prison after an Israeli airstrike and now leads an armed militia that, according to senior sources, operates on Israel’s behalf.
This is nothing new. It’s part of a strategy Israel has pursued for decades. Israel has repeatedly engaged pragmatically with ideologically opposed groups when it served the strategic goal of weakening greater threats. Supporting Hamas, arming the PLO, and backing Lebanese militias are among the most well-known examples—with varying long-term outcomes: some were effective in the short term, while others proved dangerous later.
The news hit like a bomb: Israel is reportedly arming local militias in the Gaza Strip as a counterweight to Hamas. This explosive information has been known for weeks, but now it wasn’t just any analyst raising the issue—it was Avigdor Liberman, former Defense Minister, who sharply criticized the move.
In an interview on Israeli radio, Lieberman said: “Israel...
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