ZELENSKY ATTENDS DECEMBER EU MEETING

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NoW UPDATE: GAZA: GOING…GOING…GONE!

IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE it’s been fifteen months since that fateful day in October 2023 when Hamas launched its attack beyond the fence separating the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and Israel. Hundreds of civilians and IDF soldiers were killed or kidnapped in the lightning assault by Hamas fighters. It was a murderous, criminal action, no doubt, and it shocked Israeli society to its core. But there are questions that need answering: Was the Hamas attack unprovoked? Was it unexpected? And was Israel’s subsequent response in Gaza a proportionate one, and in keeping with international law and humanitarian codes of conduct? And I think it is fair to say that the answer to all three questions is no, no and no.

 

IN THE WAKE of October 7, former Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant said:

 

“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”

 

IT is to be expected that emotions ran high following October 7, and intemperate speech and expressions of anger and outrage are understandable. But when such statements are made by a cabinet minister in charge of directing Israel’s military response to the Hamas attack, such statements are troubling. Furthermore, expressions like Gallant’s, and worse, are shared repeatedly—to this day—by most of Israel’s government and a considerable majority of its citizenry. Unfortunately, these statements have been matched by actions carried out by the Israeli military forces. Since last fall, the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) has conducted a relentless siege on the Palestinian enclave resulting in the destruction of virtually the entire Gaza Strip and the displacement of 90% of Palestinians from their homes. Over one million Gazans have been forced to move to the southern part of the Strip with minimal food, water and medical services available. The twenty-five mile long by five-mile-wide Gaza Strip was called the “world’s largest open-air prison” by Britain’s then-PM David Cameron on a visit in 2010. Even before Israel began its ethnic cleansing campaign of the northern third of the enclave, the Gaza Strip was considered to be the most densely populated region on earth. Now, most of its citizens are further crowded into refugee camps in the south, with inadequate infrastructure and services, their lives in limbo, their homes and communities razed to the ground, and where they are subjected to daily bombings by Israeli Air Force jets and drones and IDF ground forces who justify their actions by saying they are targeting Hamas fighters embedded in the Gaza population.

 

   ICJ Court at The Hague, Netherlands

Israel’s actions in Gaza have been so intense and deadly that a charge of genocide has been raised against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which is adjudicating the case and will shortly issue its ruling. Furthermore, Israel’s prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) and the Israeli minister of defense have had international arrest warrants* issued against them by the ICC (International Criminal Court) for their role in committing war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Currently, 123 countries have ratified the “Rome Statutes”, the legal instrument establishing the ICC in 2002. Travel to any of these countries could make the PM and former DM subject to arrest. 

Fun times in the Levant….

 

PALESTINIAN DEATHS due to direct military actions by Israel and its deliberately withholding the necessities of life (food, water, medicines and shelter) are estimated to be upwards of 50,000 with three times as many injured and sick due to the horrific conditions in the enclave and the near complete destruction of its residences, businesses, farmlands and critical infrastructure (including hospitals). It should be noted that this death toll may be a gross underestimate because it is based on statistics compiled by the Gazan Health Authority for hospital deaths only. There may be three times as many dead under the rubble, their remains never to be recovered. Some put the death toll closer to 200,000, a genocide by anyone’s definition. Including Amnesty International which said in its recent report:

 

“Our research reveals that, for months, Israel has persisted in committing genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza. It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.”—Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.   

 

👉SO, was the 10/7 attack by Hamas unprovoked, a shot out of the blue, without rhyme nor reason? The true history of the Palestinian people since WWII says otherwise. Israelis, since the inception of the state¹ in 1948, have worked to confiscate Palestinian lands and properties, using the courts as well as by force and violence. Contrary to popular opinion, the land was not ‘uninhabited’ and free for the taking after the war. It wasn’t “a land without people for a people without a land.” It was inhabited by Arabs, but also Christians, Jews and other minorities who got along well enough when Palestine was considered “a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society." In 1945, Arabs were the majority, over 63% of the population, with Jews at around 30%. Jewish immigration from Europe increased dramatically in the wake of Nazi armies, and afterwards in the exodus of survivors of the European Holocaust who came to see Palestine as the only safe place that would have them. And they had a point if we recall the less-than-warm welcome most nations gave Jewish emigrants before, during the war, and afterwards.

 

Nevertheless, ever since 1948’s Nakba, or “Catastrophe”, where over 600,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes, either fleeing the country or settling in other regions (like Gaza), Israel’s goal has been the expulsion of all Palestinians from lands many Israelis believe were gifted to them by God. Through wars, legal chicanery, violence and outright murder, they continued to ethnically cleanse the country until October 2023 when Gazans once more rebelled, this time dealing Israel a significant blow. But the Hamas attack also gave Israel the excuse to eradicate, once and for all, the people of Gaza by any means necessary, up to and including ethnic cleansing and genocide. In doing so, Israel has become a pariah state in the eyes of the world, except for the United States and its Western cucks followers. Gaza and the West Bank are considered occupied territory according to the United Nations and Israel, as an “occupying force”, has no right of self-defense to justify its actions in Gaza. In addition, Gazans and Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are an “occupied people” and as such have rights under international law to take up arms against their occupiers.

So, no, the 10/7 attack on kibbutzim and military outposts by Hamas was not ‘unprovoked’. As terrible and bloody as it was, it nevertheless was born out of decades of disenfranchisement, settler violence and apartheid rule.  Given the same circumstances, would we not take up arms against our oppressor and fight for our rights, like the Palestinians?

 

👉WAS 10/7 unexpected? Attacks into Israel—be it car bombs, suicide bombers, missiles and what have you, have long been a feature in the relationship between Palestine and Israel. While Israel had a modern military with an air force, navy etc., Palestinians had to rely on homemade bombs and missiles and smuggled guns and munitions. It was always an asymmetric warfare conducted between the two. But after Israeli settlers left the Gaza Strip in 2005 and Hamas came to power in 2006 elections, the dynamics changed as Hamas, a political party, developed a militia that could challenge Israel’s IDF using guerrilla warfare tactics. Israel, for its part would periodically “mow the grass” in Gaza, meaning it would use its air power, missiles and artillery to destroy parts of the Strip where militias were said to be found. But these ‘overkill’ operations by Israel were really meant to cow the Gazan population into submission. This was the pattern of aggression between Palestinians and Israelis until October 2023.

THERE IS INTERESTING speculation that suggests the Israeli government had prior knowledge of the 10/7 attack and chose to let it happen in order to give free rein to the Israeli military to render Gaza uninhabitable and its population immiserated and amenable to forced emigration. Whether Israel knew of the impending attack or not, they knew Palestinians would attack at some point because they have been left with no alternative other than armed resistance. Israel may not have known about the 10/7 attack specifically, but they did know that another attack from the “occupied people” of Gaza against their “occupiers” was inevitable. No, 10/7 was not unexpected. It just upped the ante on the ‘business as usual’ conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

 

👉AS FOR WHETHER THE ACTIONS taken by Israel in Gaza (and increasingly the West Bank) were proportionate and in keeping with international laws and standards of war, I think after more than fifteen months of horrific siege warfare the evidence is in to suggest they were disproportionate and criminal under international law. 

“Ethnic cleansing”, “genocide”, “war crimes” are words bandied about a bit too freely these days but, in this case, they are words the state of Israel must wear around its neck like a reeking albatross.²

 

Cheers, Jake. ____________________________________

 

* Recently, Brazilian authorities launched an investigation into a vacationing IDF soldier’s activities in Gaza and whether they constituted war crimes. The Israeli consulate in Brazil [Brazil is a signatory of the ‘Rome Statutes”. Ed.] had to spirit the soldier out of the country pronto. We may see more such investigations in the future as countries around the world honour the ICC’s arrest warrants against traveling Israeli military and political leaders who are deemed culpable in committing war crimes, including genocide, in Gaza.

1. For some time now, Israel has been seen by many to be an apartheid state as described in a February 2022 report by Amnesty International because of its treatment of Palestinians who live in the occupied territories (Gaza, West Bank, East Jerusalem) and for those Palestinian-Israelis living within Israel proper who are treated as second-class citizens, lacking the same roster of rights as Jewish-Israelis. The apartheid label has become even more relevant and descriptive following Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza.

2. For the record, I predict that in six months we will not hear a peep on the news about “Gaza”. Other ‘stuff’ will be foremost in our brains by then, I’m afraid.

IF THE WORLD community can watch a genocide happening in real time on billions of cell phones AND DO NOTHING to stop it, I think Israel will get away with (mass) murder. Most Palestinians left inside Israel, especially those from the occupied lands, will leave and become part of the diaspora and disappear from the headlines. Those who are left will either die or submit to a life under an apartheid regime. I hope I am wrong, very wrong, about this....

 

THE OTHER DAY retired American Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, commented on the lack of a global response to the genocide happening daily before our eyes in Gaza. He suggests we have become “accustomed to bestiality”. By this he meant we have become habituated into accepting more and more intense levels of violence, criminality and depravity as features (and not faults) of our modern age. He may be right.

 

    GAZA, TODAY