NB: This is a watery editorial on a blatant massacre which warrants far more serious analysis. It recognises the plain facts, but ‘demands our attention’ doesn’t cut it. You’re still sleeping. A child is killed every ten minutes in Gaza; and over 700 have been murdered in the last 24 hours. What attention are you talking about? Racist Genocide by Israel: Over 1,000 Murdered in 48 hours with US/UK Arms & Finance. I would like to ask all peace-loving Israeli citizens, Jewish or otherwise: do you really think a mountain of Palestinian corpses is going to result in lasting peace? Horrendous as the Hamas attack of October 7 was; and yes that includes the assaults on women and children, is 15 thousand – and counting – dead Palestinians a fit enough figure for revenge? God knows how many more are buried in the rubble. Little kids getting their legs amputated, babies getting death certificates before their birth certificates; can you imagine the levels of grief? Why do you think it is an acceptable ethic of ‘just war’ to do this, is there any morality in killing children whom you know had no culpability in the atrocities of October 7? Why are you permitting Netanyahu to commit genocide? Have you gone mad? And if you can lose your minds over October 7, don’t you think Palestinians have some cause for madness after decades of expulsion and occupation? Are we not all human beings, or do you think some of us are more human than others?
UN warns of ‘blatant disregard for basic humanity’ in Gaza warfare
There’s much more to this enormity: viz., the centuries-long history of Christian antisemitism (remember, the Arabs are also Semites); the nefarious role of the British Empire from 1917 till 1948; the fact that the partition plan (two state solution etc) was never allowed to be implemented, etc. And above all the collapse of the Western ideological pretence of being the guardian of democracy and the ‘free world’. With some honourable exceptions, the Western establishment stands forth as unashamedly racist. This article by Arwa Mahdawi in the same portal as the editorial highlights Western hypocrisy. Here is my argument in more detail; and I append below some more comments.
Palestine and Israel: Historical, Legal and Moral Issues
Dogs of war / New acronym in Gaza: WCNSF – Wounded Child No Surviving Family
To the rulers of Anglo-American led democracy, all I can say is this: it’s over; you’ve buried your already suppurating reputation. It’s the age of implosion for all ideocracies, communist to liberal-democratic. Israel’s Western-enabled genocide will solve nothing, but will leave a wound that will last beyond this century. A hundred years ago, arch-imperialist Lord Curzon, Britain’s Foreign Secretary in 1923 warned that the driving out of peoples (in the exchanges between Greece and Turkey) was ‘a thoroughly bad and vicious solution, for which the world will pay a heavy penalty for a hundred years to come’: R. M. Douglas; Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War; p. 71. It’s clear you have no conscience whatever, compared to him. DS
***************************************************************************************
As Israel pursues Hamas, the horrifying cost to civilians demands our attention. The ramifications don’t end there
We cannot and must not look away from what is happening in Gaza. Half its population was forced from the north by merciless bombardment; now the Israel Defense Forces’ attacks upon the south have intensified and dozens of tanks have entered. Adults and children alike anticipate their deaths. More than 15,900 people in Gaza have been killed already, the vast majority of them women and children, according to Palestinian officials. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has directed the military to act with “increasing force” in its pursuit of Hamas, this time facing an even larger, denser population in even more desperate circumstances.
The IDF says its concern for civilians is evinced by its evacuation orders. Given the lack of power and connectivity, even the most assiduous would struggle to keep up with complex and fast-changing instructions – and this is a hungry, exhausted, grieving and traumatised population, many of whom have already moved multiple times. In any case, there is nowhere to go: “Safe places have no water, no sanitation, are often not safe anyway … They are not safe in hospitals, they are not safe in shelters,” James Elder, a Unicef spokesperson, said on Monday.
The US, which pays around a fifth of Israel’s defence budget, is increasingly blunt in public as well as private, reflecting growing discontent among Democrats. The vice-president, Kamala Harris, warned that “too many innocent Palestinians have been killed”. The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, couched it in terms of Israel’s own interests: “If you drive [the civilian population] into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat.”
But though Joe Biden has described conditionality as “a worthwhile thought”, administration officials swiftly shut down further discussion. The US could perhaps slow-roll its replenishment of shells. But Mr Netanyahu appears confident that the administration will not actually use its leverage. Israel reportedly plans a “very long war” stretching into 2024, and still has no plan for what comes next.
Yet while Gaza’s suffering appears to have no end, we must also look to the broader picture. The UN human rights office last month warned of an “alarming and urgent” picture in the West Bank. A sharp increase in raids by Israeli forces and attacks by settlers since the Hamas attacks of 7 October have killed a growing number of Palestinians, including children, and forced more from their homes. Violence was already at a higher level than it has been for more than 15 years. Last Thursday, Hamas claimed responsibility for shooting dead three Israelis at a bus stop in West Jerusalem.
In the Red Sea at the weekend, the US reported that one of its destroyers shot down two drones as it came to the aid of three commercial vessels under attack by Yemen’s Houthi militia, though it is not clear if the warship itself was targeted. This appeared to be the most significant of attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis in the area since 7 October, mostly on Israeli targets. The US has regarded its principal achievement in embracing Israel (and dispatching two aircraft carriers to the region) as averting an uncontrollable escalation between Israel and Hezbollah and ultimately the latter’s patron, Iran. Though the Houthis are far less of a concern for Israel, and the initial fears of regional conflagration have ebbed, the incident highlights the ongoing risks of conflict spreading. This war is devastating Gaza. But its effects are not containable there.
***************************************
Dogs of war / New acronym in Gaza: WCNSF – Wounded Child No Surviving Family
Michael Brenner: Europe-Jews-Muslims
Patrick Lawrence: Deeper Into Depravity
A Conspiracy of Silence / The Killing Floor of Gaza
Palestine and Israel: Historical, Legal and Moral Issues
Israel’s Colonial Revenge Genocide in Gaza is the latest in a Long History of such Massacres
Alfred McCoy: The crumbling delusion of Washington’s endless world dominion
Biden’s Historically Illiterate and Hypocritical Speech on Ukraine and Gaza
A real friend of Israel would be making it face up to some uncomfortable truths
What will the children who survive the onslaught of Gaza think of those who let it happen?
Belgian Minister Says What Biden Won’t: Israel Is Wiping Entire Palestinian Villages Off the Map
After the truth-shower 