It sure is a crazy coincidence how western politicians and media always start urgently telling us about an invisible epidemic of left wing antisemitism every time western military ties to Israel are subjected to widespread public scrutiny.
It’s getting bad, and it will likely get worse.
The mass media are filling up with op-eds and cable news segments about how antisemitic leftist anti-genocide protesters are becoming.
Instagram progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently hosted two virulent Zionists in a livestream where the three spent their time concern trolling about the rise of antisemitism in left-wing activist circles.
Whoever runs Joe Biden’s presidential Twitter account for him is tweetingabout “horrific acts of Antisemitism” by demonstrators, citing four incidents which were demonstrably not in the least bit antisemitic.
These same false claims about antisemitic activity by protesters are being used by US officials like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to push through the “Countering Antisemitism Act”, a bill which would give the White House new powers to “counter the spread of antisemitism online” (read: government internet censorship to promote US and Israeli information interests).
ran the exact same script a few years ago in the UK to kill the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, who supports Palestinian rights. It’s the exact same bad faith concern trolling op where the whole political-media class suddenly starts pretending to believe something that is transparently ridiculous in order to protect an agenda of the empire.
It’s also important that everyone understand that every part of this is 100 percent cynical manipulation. The people pushing this narrative are fully aware that it is false. Everyone knew Jeremy Corbyn was a lifelong anti-racist who didn’t have an antisemitic bone in his body. Everyone knew there was no crisis of antisemitism in the Labour Party. But they pretended to believe otherwise because they didn’t want to see socialism and anti-imperialism gain a political foothold in the UK. The same thing is happening in the US and throughout the west right now regarding protests against the genocide in Gaza.
So when you see people aggressively rejecting the concern trolls on this issue, that’s why. They’ve seen this schtick before, and they know how politically devastating it can be. They’ve seen how it can be used to suck all the oxygen away from real discourse about real things and funnel it all into this insanely vapid, idiotic conversation about a problem that exists nowhere outside the imaginations of the people talking about it. It’s a deeply evil, disgusting thing to do, especially now in 2024 when it’s being done to facilitate an active genocide.
There is no crisis of antisemitism on the left. It is not happening. The people pushing this narrative know it is not happening. Even the claim that anti-semitic incidents overall are on the rise is highly dubious, given that the figure everyone always cites for this claim comes from the Anti-Defamation League, who after October 7 began categorizing pro-Palestine rallies as antisemitic incidents — including rallies organized and attended by Jewish groups.
People get into left-wing politics exactly because they oppose racism and injustice. Nobody who actually understands the pro-Palestine movement sincerely believes all these peaceniks and commies have suddenly morphed into Jew-hating Nazis in contradiction of their entire worldview. They might pretend to believe this is a real thing that is actually happening in order to advance a political agenda, but they won’t actually believe it.
There’s plenty of hatred for Jews to be found on the extreme right, where the ideological inability to acknowledge capitalism and western imperialism as the source of today’s ills leaves a void for blame that will be filled by anything from Jews to immigrants to Satanic pedophile cabals to drag queens. But it’s always the lefties who get the overwhelming brunt of the antisemitism accusations, because their pro-peace, pro-justice, anti-colonialist, anti-racist activism makes them an obstacle to the information interests of Israel and the murderous empire which supports it.
We saw it with Corbyn, and we’re seeing it again today.
All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon, Paypal, or Substack, buying an issue of my monthly zine, and following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
This is a dispatch from our ongoing series by Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlin Johnstoneis a brave journalist, political junkie, relentless feminist, champion of the 99 percent. And a powerful counter-propaganda tactician.
VITAL
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Help us grow our reach. Lies cost countless lives. And freedom.
We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
Israel does not belong in the modern world. It is the child of European colonialism and Europe’s genocidal anti-Semitism, imposed by force and fire and Western guilt on a land already inhabited by an indigenous people.
Israel is a contemporary trespass of that old world’s colonial ethos that justified genocide, ethnic cleansing, wholesale plunder, endless theft and destruction of indigenous peoples in the name of settlement and divine entitlement of a superior group of humans.
But the modern world has moved on with incremental moral evolution. It long ago repudiated, at least in principle, the racist and violent impulses that powered the genocidal colonial engines of old.
One can hear Israel’s anachronistic nature in the rhetoric of its leaders and citizens. Benjamin Netanyahu points to America’s nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to justify Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Zionists, especially those in settler-colonial nations like the United States and Australia, love to remind us that these countries were founded on the genocide and ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples.
And from these reminders come their accusations of double standards and hypocrisy. “You’re living on stolen land, why don’t you leave?” so their rhetoric goes.
Implicit in their accusations is an admission of sameness with the violent and racist settler-colonial force that created the United States.
In other words, while humanity has tried and continues to strive to prevent and right the wrongs of the past, Israel points to these base moments in human history, not in the context of “never again,” but as precedents it should be free to emulate.
As we still today uncover mass graves in “Indian schools” where Indigenous children were ripped from their families and tortured to death in boarding schools, Israel demands the right to create more mass graves of Palestinians in the name of “self-defense.”
While we engage in discourse to push for acknowledgement and reparations, much as the world did for European Jews, Israel demands an entitlement to ethnically cleanse indigenous Palestinians, steal their lands, plunder resources and raze their cities and farmlands.
While we imagine and endeavor to create a post-colonial reality of revolutionary universalism, inclusion, equity and understanding, Israel demands the right to Jewish exclusivity and Jewish entitlement at the expense of non-Jews.
Invoking American settler-colonialism to justify its own version of the same is no different than invoking America’s industrialized enslavement as a precedent to emulate.
Rules-based order?
But look how quickly they denounce, veto and attack any courts, human rights organizations and UN protocols when the institutions they helped create do not serve their imperial interests. Look how quickly they shut down speech and sic their police on their own citizens trying to exercise those freedoms.
They do this because Israel is antithetical to democratic values. It is antithetical to human rights and the so-called rules-based order.
The West must therefore choose between Israel and the ideals it claims to uphold. And thus far, it is choosing Israel.
And in the process, it is dragging itself and the world into an abyss.
Already, Indian commentators are talking about an “Israel-like” solution in Kashmir. The world is silent as Arab dictatorships like the UAE are arming genocidal militias in Sudan to take control of the country’s vast gold and uranium treasures.
Israel is dragging the world into an infectious darkness that will spread across our planet unless it is stopped and held accountable for the holocaust it is committing in Gaza and now, it seems, in the West Bank as well.
The “solution” is not at all complicated, contrary to pervasive Zionist propaganda.
It is simply an adherence to accepted universal morality that rejects Jewish supremacy as it rejects all other forms of supremacy. This means equality of rights for all those who inhabit the land, a return of Palestinian refugees in a nation of its citizens founded on the principle of one-person-one-vote.
Looking out my window, I saw vast numbers of people fleeing. Israeli military tanks were approaching Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The scene felt wearily familiar. I have witnessed previous horrors.
Israel’s extreme violence had caused me to leave Gaza City for Nuseirat during the early stages of the current genocide.
I was desperate to make contact with my husband when the 8 June invasion began.
He was working in a clinic run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA). The clinic is located in the heart of the Nuseirat camp.
Frantically, I dialed his number. No reply.
My husband did make it home safely later that day. His testimony of what occurred was frightening.
He spoke about how the sounds of chatter and business that normally fill Nuseirat’s streets were replaced with cries of pain.
He spoke about a general sense of panic.
He spoke about how “bodies littered the streets and the injured struggled to find help.”
Nedaa al-Tahrawi was at home in Nuseirat when she heard gunfire piercing the air.
Her family quickly assembled in one room after hearing her brother shout that the camp was being invaded.
“The situation was terrifying,” Nedaa said. “Before long, there was a deafening explosion that shook the ground itself.”
The family tried to flee their home. But there was a huge crater outside which meant they could not escape.
“In a matter of minutes, our house and neighboring houses were reduced to rubble,” Nedaa said. “We were trapped in a nightmare.”
Nedaa’s brother was among the very many people injured during the massacre.
More than 270 Palestinians were killed. Yet that fact was completely overlooked by Joe Biden, the US president, who welcomed the attack on Nuseirat as it invovled the rescue of four Israeli captives.
Zainab al-Jamal was injured in the attack, which killed her father, her brother and his wife.
In a Facebook post, Zainab wrote about how Israel’s soldiers stormed into her home and opened fire.
Zainab and some other members of her family managed to hide under a bed and somehow evaded detection.
When the gunfire eventually halted, Zainab emerged from beneath the bed to find her father’s dead body.
Zainab wrote of closing “my eyes in pain, trying to shield the children from noticing, as we evacuated the house before it collapsed on us.”
About the Author(s)
Iman Abo Qamar is a writer and translator in Gaza.
Lili News 029
In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.
Scott Ritter: Biden’s PROVOCATIONS Forced Russia To Bring Nuclear Missiles to Caribbean
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Scott Ritter
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Scott Ritter: Biden's PROVOCATION Forced Russia To Bring Nuclear Missiles to Caribbean
Lan Handmade
Jun 13, 2024 Scott Ritter reminds Americans that the US and its allies are now on the brink of a highly probable (and totally avoidable) nuclear war with Russia, as the US, after dismantling all crucial nuclear weapons accords with Moscow that guaranteed mutually assured destruction (and thereby kept the peace through a balance of terror), continues to seek first- strike nuclear capability, a reckless and criminal idea that almost guarantees a nuclear Armageddon.
Scott wonders aloud how we could come to this point, surely a huge failure of democracy (in that regard Scott still talks as if we had a genuine Constitutional democracy in the US, or still have it, which is a civics textbook ideal, but not a reality in America for at least 175 years. Ritter details the absolutely reckless path currently followed by the US: we are attacking Russia's early warning radars against a sudden Western attack; we keep taunting the Russians by flying nuclear bombers toward Russia's most sensitive strategic centers, aborting the attack only a minute before crossing the line of no return; we've been tickling the Russian bear for a long time, and it's only through the patience and wisdom of Russian leaders that we have avoided a nuclear war, notes Scott.
"The greatest threat to American security is American nuclear policy," says Ritter. "We have a gun pointed at our head."
These videos are lessons in cautionary history, serious warnings that we should heed, as the consequences of being mistaken are simply the end of the living world as we know it. And that's no hyperbole.
Scott Ritter: Russia's BIG & SECRET Move In Cuba Causing PANIC In US Military
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Indrajit
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The brave and devout Palestinian people, still turning to Allah (via)
After October 7th, 'Israel's' stated goal was eliminating Hamas. Specifically, destroying the Al Qassam Brigade's ability to 1) leave Gaza 2) launch rockets 3) exist at all. On all three counts 'Israel' has lost. As spokesman Abu Obeida (who is notably not dead) said in late May, “despite their genocide war and indiscriminate destruction, our fighters have been and remain vigilant against the enemy force.”As Henry Kissinger (who thankfully is dead) said, “The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.” And Hamas has not lost. 'Israel' is winning the genocide and losing the war.
Let me show you, using footage from Hamas HQ (largely via the Resistance News Network on Telegram). This is just a fraction of the information out there, which may be news to western audiences, but which is all over Arabic satellite TV and social media, ie the people that 'Israel' is supposed to be deterring.
Terms
Before we get into it, note that I'll use 'Hamas' and 'Al Qassam Martyrs Brigade' interchangeably though they are (having evolved in the crucible of assassination and infiltration) operationally separate. Also note that I, up to a point, use Hamas as the representative of the entire Resistance, which actually comprises many groups, most notably Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PFLP (commies), the Mujahideen Movement, and even the armed wing of Fatah. You can read more about the whole Axis of Resistance here, but I think that's too much detail for this article. I also use the term White Empire to refer to 'Israel', America, Germany, the UK, Australia and all of the colonizers and colonized because they are, to us at the bottom, one phenomenon.
Tactics
First we'll discuss how Hamas is winning tactically, then strategically anon.
Tactically, Al Qassam can still penetrate 'Israel', they can still fire rockets, and their leadership still has full command and control. 'Israel' has won against hospitals and lost the plot to Hamas.
1) Ground
The main problem on October 7th—from the 'Israeli' perspective—was that the Palestinians got out of the Gaza 'envelope'. On that day, Hamas broke down walls, flew paragliders, disabled 'Israeli' spy cameras and towers, attacked their military outposts, and took hostages to exchange for the thousands of hostages 'Israel' holds in horrific conditions. The Resistance called this operation the Al Aqsa Flood, and has outlined their reasoning on it in this document, written in English for you. I encourage you to read it yourself.
Our Narrative-Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
Hamas's own description of what on October 7th, and why they did it
This 'problem' is not solved. October 8th, 9th, 10th, nth have been attempts by 'Israel' to stuff the Palestinians back inside the envelope and burn it, but it hasn't worked. 'Israel' has razed the earth, but Hamas is literally underground. This completely upends all imperial counter-insurgency tactics. The Empire may figure out tunnels someday (or maybe not), but right now, they're completely flummoxed.
Hence, in a small but significant operation on June 6th, Al Qassam was able to pop up outside the perimeter fence, and hit the 'Israelis' all over again. This was really a disproof of concept. The conceptual border around Gaza that forms 'Israel's' psychological security blanket is still broken. And, indeed, southern 'settlers' have still largely not returned.
As Al Qassam said in a statement, “In a landing operation behind the (enemy) lines, the Al-Qassam Mujahideen were able to breach the fence and attack the headquarters of the enemy division operating in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.” The IOF acknowledged that one of their soldiers was killed, and three Palestinians martyred. This was a small operation but with big significance because of where it happened. Hamas is still pushing the envelope.
In new footage, first aired by Al-Jazeera Arabic channel, Al-Qassam revealed its most complex military operation since the start of the Israel war on Gaza.
The Beit Hanoun ambush was carried out by Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Resistance Movement… pic.twitter.com/tcFw0l45Ab
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) June 6, 2024
Inside Gaza, 'Israel' cannot secure an inch of ground. They can invade and occupy almost anywhere, but they can't hold anything. As the 'educated martyr' Basil Al-Araj wrote in his '8 Rules',
Since the Palestinian Resistance is underground, the IOF is always outflanked (in three dimensions). It doesn't matter what the map says if your enemy is taking the metro. Thus the Resistance lets the IOF take land, monitors them from underground, plans meticulous ambushes, and then pops out and executes them. There are countless videos like this, I'm just selecting a recent one (from May 22nd). Bear in mind that this happens every day that the 'Israelis' are in Gaza. As the Al Qassam video says:
At dawn on Tuesday, 22/5/2024, the fighters of Al-Qassam carried out a complex operation, setting up a tight ambush against a zionist special force that penetrated north of Beit Hanoun. The fighters detonated a Ra’adiya explosive device in the infantry force, a Shuath explosive device in the rescue force, and after 6 hours, after additional forces advanced to evacuate the dead and wounded, the fighters sniped 3 soldiers, including a senior officer.
Again, I have seen countless videos like this. This selection is just based on recency, I can't even go through them all. Like the Nazis in Stalingrad, the Bizarro Nazis of 'Israel' have completely fucked themselves by reducing Gaza to rubble. They made a mess and now Hamas is rubbing their nose in it. There's no way they can find the tunnel entrances under all that shit, but Hamas can find them. This is a huge tactical problem because the IOF is always surrounded (in the third dimension, as mentioned). Hamas is literally playing 3D chess while the IOF is playing checkers.
In one crazy example that I already discussed a few weeks ago, multiple 'Israeli' tanks park in an area without securing it. Because they practically can't, their Air Force made such a mess of it. Hamas militants are able to emerge surrounded by tanks, literally touch one, and place explosives directly up its ass. You can see an IOF soldier right behind the tank, their situational awareness is null while the Al Qassam fighters are Metal Gear Solid.
Once they place the charges, they run back to the tunnels where another guy is waiting with an RPG (homemade Yassin 105s) to hit the other tanks, just as the charges go off. The guys look simple (they're just out there in tracky bottoms and sandals) but the coordination and planning is highly sophisticated. Al Qassam's bullet discipline is legendary. They make every shot count. Again, note that I (and everybody in the Arab world) have seen this happen over and over again. The IOF is hopeless against anyone who shoots back, and the Resistance is still shooting, mashallah. There is no deterrence when you look like dumbasses, which is how 'Israel' has looked for this whole campaign.
Despite the massacrely bloody rescue of four hostages (with American help, cynically disguised as an aid convoy), the flow of battle (not genocide) is still with the Resistance. As Hamas Political Bureau member, Izzat Al-Rishq said:
Despite the occupation's claim to have destroyed all Hamas brigades in Gaza, it was only able to liberate its captives through a difficult and complex operation and under massive firepower eight months after the start of the war, facing fierce resistance, which cost it heavy prices, contradicting its claims.
The resistance is still at the heart of the battle and has a lot up its sleeve, and the battle is back and forth. At a time when the occupation announces the release of four captives, after eight months of war, this is evidence of a strategic failure in achieving its declared goals.
Al-Qassam Brigades are still increasing their yield of enemy captives, and the best evidence of this is what happened in the qualitative operation in Jabalia at the end of last month. The enemy is trying hard to hide its real losses in the operation to free its captives, but the final word always belongs to the resistance. This operation will not change the final price the occupation will be forced to pay.
After eight months, three nukes worth of bombs, and the support of America and the whole White Empire, 'Israel' simply cannot bury the Palestinian Resistance. They can 'take' land, they can massacre innocents, but they cannot accomplish their stated goal of eliminating or even meaningfully degrading Hamas. All they've done is degrade their reputation and eliminate their own soldiers. How do you bury what's already underground? The IOF is just joining Hamas there, but in coffins.
2) Air (Artillery)
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Hamas has no air force, but the entire Resistance has invested in fuck-off missiles
Hamas has no air force but artillery remains the 'god of war'. For decades, the Axis of Resistance (led, technologically, by Iran) has prioritized 'stand-off' missiles. The technology transfer has included manufacturing, many of these weapons are homemade, across the Resistance. Hamas has its own small but functional military-industrial complex underground, which is bonkers.
On October 7th, Hamas fired at least 3,000 rockets into occupied Palestine and haven't stopped firing since. These rockets are often shot down, but this is an advantage in and of itself. 'Israel' is spending millions of dollars to shoot down tens of thousands of dollars worth of rockets. Hamas is bleeding 'Israel's' coffers, overwhelming its Iron Dome, and the settlers around the Gaza 'envelope' still can't resettle. As I've discussed, 'Israel's' Iron Dome is simply broken in the north (against the more powerful Hezbollah) and it's increasingly ineffective in the south against Hamas. More and more of these rockets get through, and Hamas has strategically not used the good stuff yet.
Hamas has a wide range of missiles, with the number usually denoting the range (the M90, for example, goes 90 km). Some of the rockets (as you can see in the 'promo' video above) are quite sophisticated, but even the small mortars are a constant irritation to the IOF. Just look at this Al Qassam fighter, having a coffee while reloading his mortar. These guys can do this shit all day, and 'Israel' can't do shit about it.
As the Palestine Chronicle says, “The video has predictably ignited Arabic social media with comments about the bravery of Palestinians, 242 days after the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The video also contains a message to the Israelis, that the Resistance is prepared to fight a long war, and that repelling invading Israeli forces in Gaza has now become a routine, as in drinking a cup of coffee in the morning.”
Artillery is the god of war, and Hamas is unbroken and unbowed. Their artillery is still firing and increasingly hitting, as the Iron Dome becomes the Iron Sieve from sheer exhaustion.
3) Command and Control
The Al-Qassam's military leadership of Mohammed El-Deif,Yahya Sinwar, and spokesman Abu Obeida are household names across the Middle East, and they're still living. This is a huge problem for 'Israel'. Many field commanders and soldiers have been martyred—as you can see, these operations are insanely risky—but the military leadership (within Gaza) is completely intact. 'Israel' has responded by assassinating Hamas leaders abroad or killing the political leadership's children and grandchildren in Gaza, but they're just mindlessly lashing out. Hamas's brain-trust inside Gaza is still going strong.
Like the Americans when they invaded Iraq, the 'Israeli's' have released a deck of playing cards with high-value targets.
This guy is supposed to be Mohammed Shabana, a field commander in Rafah, but it is actually Mohamed Shabana, an Egyptian sports writer. A football commentator. This has made 'Israel' a laughingstock around the Arab world which, again, is the opposite of what they're trying to do. Machiavelli said a prince could be feared or loved, but they cannot be laughed at. This is fatal to anyone trying to project power, and 'Israel' is just a killing joke right now.
I won't go on in this section because what can I say? The Al Qassam leadership is completely intact in Gaza. Far from decapitating them, 'Israel' hasn't harmed a hair on their bodies. Though it does look like Abu Obeida has lost a bit of weight, peace be with him someday, inshallah.
'Israeli' Strategy
So far I've been analyzing 'Israel's' stated goal which is, of course, bullshit. 'Israel's' actual goal is ethnically cleaning Palestine once and for all. Genocide most foul. As Abu Obeida said, ‘genocidal war and indiscriminate destruction.’ So now let's look at what 'Israel' is actually doing, and how they're still fucking that up.
'Israel' is completely open about their genocidal intentions in Hebrew and open enough in English. Just hit auto-translate on a Zionist's post if you want to singe your eyebrows off. As 'Israel's' Minister of National Insecurity Itamar Ben-Gvir has saidwhen asked “Dad, what is the solution for Gaza?”
Occupation, settlement, and encouragement of migration. Only in this way can we solve the problem of Gaza. To occupy all the land, to settle in all the land, and—of course—to encourage the voluntary [?] migration of as many people as possible to other countries. We need to live in security.
relevant part is this:
I fear Allah (just the Arabic word for God) and I apologize for taking this out of context. Netanyahu is trying to make it look like he has some biblical command, while he's really just trying to duck corruption charges. What 'Israel' is doing is really just colonialism 101. The British did this in the Uva Province of Sri Lanka, ask anybody in the south and they probably have some story like this. Killing everyone and salting the earth. The general colonial policy in case of rebellion is massive retribution, kill or subjugate/enslave everyone. 'The seed of Amalek' was really just mendacious marketing, and it worked within 'Israel'. Soldiers sing about it before committing war crimes and this genocidal rap song went to #1 in Israel. Those racist rappers say:
We brought the whole army on you and I swear there will be no forgiveness Tffi, the children's of Amalek All the units are ready? (Listen up)
The rappers added death threats to Mia Khalifa and Dua Lipa for good measure. This seems bonkers but 73% of 'Israelis' said (in March/April) that their military response had been 'about right' or 'not gone far enough'. Once you separate out Arabs trapped inside, it's even worse. Only 4% of Jewish 'Israelis' think the military response has 'gone too far'. This is a population in the throes of genocidal mania even more than Nazi Germany, and they've dragged Hip Hop into it.
Again, just hit auto-translate on random 'Israeli' posts if you want to strafe your eyeballs. Genocidal rhetoric is quite common and open in Hebrew and they don't even try to hide it in English. The western media does, but the 'Israeli's' don't give a fuck. As the former header of the occupation National Insecurity Council, Giora Eiland, wrote:
The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics. We must not shy away from this, as difficult as that may be. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer and reduce casualties among IDF soldiers. And no, this is not about cruelty for cruelty’s sake, since we don’t support the suffering of the other side as a goal but as a means.
Thus actual aim of 'Israel' in Gaza today is the same as their aim since the Nakba began in 1947. Kicking the Palestinians out and taking their land. Hitting them so hard they never complain again. The truth is not that complicated. But the lie is.
I mention this not to point out that 'Israel' is hypocritical or heinous, though they are. I mention this so that we understand the strategic thinking behind the tactics. 'Israel's' tactics make no sense if you believe that they're actually trying to eliminate Hamas, but they make total sense once you realize that they're attacking hospitals, homes, and food/water supplies on purpose. 'Israeli' is not following the Clausewitzian strategy of engaging and annihilating the enemy's forces. They are trying to annihilate Gaza entirely. To understand this as a continuous 'Israel' policy just listen (or, ideally, don't) to this hate crime recorded by children and posted by their national broadcaster:
Autumn night falls over the beach of Gaza Planes are bombing, destruction, destruction Look the IDF is crossing the line to annihilate the swastika-bearers
In another year there will be nothing there And we will safely return to our homes Within a year we will annihilate everyone And then we will return to plow our fields
This is actually an updated version of a 1948 poem, which they've made explicitly genocidal instead of implicitly so. As you can see the Nakba (catastrophe) is still going and culminating in the genocide of Gaza. October 7th was the beginning of the end, not the beginning at all.
I mention the difference between stated and actual goals because it's a big reason why 'Israel' has not eliminated Hamas. They're not trying to. I suppose the logic is that Hamas is a people's movement therefore kill all the people, but this just isn't practical, to be quite bloodless about it. Complete genocides are basically impossible in the modern era. 'Israel' has certainly killed or wounded at least 10% of the population of Gaza, but there's still 90% to go! And then the West Bank after that, and the people in occupied Palestine, and the surrounding diaspora. In addition to being evil, this genocide is just not feasible. Sadism is not, in itself, a strategic position, but that's what 'Israel' is standing on.
Hamas Strategy
Hamas, on the other hand, is a rational actor. They have their guns and they're sticking to them. As Hamas's famously unkillable Khaled Mashal said in the past,
Dear sister, nations are not easily liberated. The Russians sacrificed 30 million people in World War II, in order to liberate it from Hitler's attack. The Vietnamese sacrificed 3.5 million people until they defeated the Americans. Afghanistan sacrificed millions of martyrs to defeat the USSR and then the US. The Algerian people sacrificed six million martyrs over 130 years. The Palestinian people are just like any other nation. No nation is liberated without sacrifices.
Blood sacrifice seems to be required for true liberation. I wish it wasn't so, but that's how it goes. If you watch interviews with Hamas members these are dudes who were into the gym, or studying, or entirely normal things once. They have simple dreams, but they were born into a nightmare. Many of them are orphans, the children 'Israel' didn't kill in previous incursions. Before you condemn them A) shut the fuck up and B) ask yourself, what would you do in their situation? One of my favorite quotes (which I've seen on the tents of student protest in the US) is“whoever is in solidarity with our corpses but not our rockets, is a hypocrite and not one of us.”
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
