It appears Palestinians in Gaza are not dying quickly enough to satisfy the real estate development timetables of some Israelis. So eight members of the Knesset sent a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu and Chair of Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Yuli Edelstein, pressing them to pick up the genocide tempo by making more comprehensive efforts to deny the remaining Gazas entirely of food, water, and power, and also drone-executing “anyone that moves” not exiting areas to be cleared while waving a white flag.
We thank Mondoweiss for reporting this appalling story and for readers guurst and Stacey B for calling it to our attention. We are reproducing Mondoweiss’ translation below. It makes a weak attempt to depict this Final Solution for Gazans as something other than what it is by pretending there will be humanitarian evacuation. As anyone who has been following the horrors in Gaza knows well by now, Israel has taken to herding Palestinians into purported safe zones and then killing them either en route or attacking the designated arrival area.
It was obvious where Israeli officials wanted their campaign to go within weeks of October 7. From an October 21, 2023 post, Israel Intends to Make Gaza Uninhabitable by Cutting Power Permanently:
It is striking to see how politicians, pundits, the press, and even key figures discuss the obvious trajectory of what Israel is doing to Gaza and its population. “Humanitarian crisis” winds up being inadequate since it averts attention from the deliberate steps Israel is taking to make living in Gaza untenable. “Genocide” is more apt but without describing the clear program Israel is launching, it can be depicted as overwrought.
Israel will reduce Gaza to a place where it is impossible to live, at least until if and when Israel decides to decides to repossess it bit by bit and rebuild. It is indifferent to the question of whether neighboring countries will relent in the face of escalating starvation, dehydration, and disease and take Palestinians in. It just wants them dispatched by whatever means necessary.
Israel plans first to reduce Gaza to rubble, as anyone could see when it started bombing apartment buildings on an indiscriminate basis. The excuse is it needs to do that as a preliminary to a ground operation to rout Hamas from the underground tunnels that survive the bombing campaign. Note military experts such as Scott Ritter have said that any clearing operation in Gaza would be a dangerous and high-casualty enterprise even for a military with the right equipment and equipment, and the IDF is not that. More important, Ritter and others have argued that the destruction of the buildings is likely to make any effort to wipe out the Hamas forces in Gaza more difficult….
The latest Seymour Hersh article describes the current Israel plan, which again could be inferred from actions and other statements. But Hersh usefully gets on the record the malignant intent, per the boldfaced section:
Netanyahu’s attitude, as assessed by the intelligence analysts, I was told, amounts to a determination “to wipe out Hamas.” One knowledgeable official told me that “Gaza City is in the process of being turned into Hiroshima with no nuclear weapons used.” At some point, he said, American-made bombs in the Israeli arsenal, including those known as “bunker busters,” may be targeted on the underground tunnel systems where Hamas manufactured the weapons and conducted planning for the horrific attacks in southern Israel on October 7.
If you have any doubts, see the additional detail today from the BBC, in Israel aims to cut Gaza ties after war with Hamas….
In other words, the elimination of Hamas from Gaza is the fig leaf for clearing Gaza of all Palestinians permanently. It would be impossible to resume water supplies or operate a hospital with no electricity. It’s been obvious this is the plan. The Israelis are now making it explicit. So why are officials and pundits mincing words?
Again, the destruction of hospitals and the targeting of medical personnel made it indisputable that Israel was intent on slaughtering all Gazans. Aside from the words of Israeli leaders, pundits and citizens, some of them captured in ICJ filings, we have acts like the choking off of food relief, gunning of people running to aid trucks, and videos of sacks of grain being emptied and filled with sand.
So why the ratcheting up now? Did someone have Nazi death camp like estimates of how long it ought to take before the Palestinians succumbed from starvation, disease, and exposure, and they’ve collectively managed to outlive forecasts, to much annoyance? Or is it that Israeli officials feel emboldened by the collapse of Syria and the just-around-the-corner arrival of the unconcerned-about-appearances Trump Administration? The worst is one can’t even see this missive as the product of hardliners; the co-signers skew to right wingers but are still broadly representative.
Needless to say, some things speak for themselves, and the document below is an example. The key bit is in the section numbered (1) to (3).
Concerning: the operational plan in the Gaza Strip
We approach you, as members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, so that you re-examine the military operations in the Gaza Strip, due to its harsh results until now and prospects for the future. We shall thus specify:
- The military operation in the Gaza Strip, as it was presented to us at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by the former Defense Minister even before the beginning of the ground operation on October 27, 2023, and as it has been conducted since, on the ground, does not allow for the objectives as determined by the governmental echelon: Toppling the governance and military capabilities of Hamas, and they are indeed not materializing until today, despite dealing with a small territory and an enemy that does not possess tools or capabilities of a modern army.
- As was mentioned by the [IDF] Chief of Staff publicly, IDF operates with the method of local raids, a method which lacks the central component of a guerilla war of this kind: control. Effective control of the territory and the population is the only means towards cleansing enemy lines from the strip, and naturally towards decisive victory, rather than treading [water] in a war of attrition, where the side that is most worn is Israel. Therefore we end up inserting our soldiers again and again into neighborhoods and alleys that were already conquered by them many times, places which IDF leaders have declared as such, where Hamas divisions were dismantled and toppled, [declared] cleansed of enemies. (And in these same places we pay a dear and intolerable price in blood).
- From the date October 6, 2024, in the north of the Gaza Strip, south of the Mefalsim [Jabalia] corridor, a one-way operation ensued, one which included encirclement and evacuation of the population southwards. We all hoped that this was the beginning of military actions that would bring the required change, yet it seems that this operation is not being conducted properly: that is, after the encirclement and humanitarian evacuation, the IDF does not regard, as is custom in international law and all western armies, those who remain, as enemies. And is again risking the lives of our soldiers by entering the dense residential territory.
- After encirclement and evacuation of the population, the instructions to IDF need to be clear:
(1) Remote elimination of all energy sources, that is fuel, solar panels and any relevant means (pipes, cables, generators etc.)
(2) Elimination of all food sources including warehouses, water and all relevant means (water pumps etc.)
(3) Remote elimination of anyone who moves in the area and does not exit with a white flag during the days of the effective siege.
After these actions and the days of siege upon those who remain, IDF must enter gradually and conduct a full cleansing of the enemy nests.
- This should be done in the northern Gaza Strip, and similarly in any other territory: encirclement, evacuation of the population to a humanitarian zone, and effective siege until surrender or full elimination of the enemy. This is how every army acts, and so must the IDF act.
Despite repeated questions and requests at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, until today we have not received satisfactory answers from IDF representatives at the committee, concerning why they do not act as is required, to determine victory over Hamas as an ‘end of operations state’ concerning the fighting, and what the plans are for the future. Therefore we ask for your immediate intervention in response to these questions, as well as the issuance of suitable instructions to IDF in order to reach a decisive victory and a cessation of unnecessary risking of our soldiers’ lives.
Copy: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chair of Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Yuli Edelstein.
[Signatories]: Amit Halevy [Likud], Nissim Vattori [Likud], Ariel Kellner [Likud], Osher Shekalim [Likud], Zvi Sukkot [Religious Zionism], Ohad Tal [Religious Zionism], Limor Son Har-Melech [Jewish Power], Avraham Bezalel [Shas].
The Final Solution v2.0: Palestinians. These things drive me sick. I could be considered relatively unsurprising that descendants of the Final Solution v1.0 have found this as the proper fate of the Palestinians.
They might be descendants, generally not victims, but certainly beneficiaries.
“It could be considered relatively unsurprising that descendants of the Final Solution v1.0 have found this as the proper fate of the Palestinians.”
Please explain this assertion in more detail when possible. I would like to think it incorrect, but I do not know why it should be incorrect. I think exploring this comment quite important.
‘It could be considered’ is not an assertion; it indicates suggestion or an opinion, which in turn invites exploration as you advocate. I agree the opinion is incorrect as it is a gross generalisation. Including ‘some’ between ‘that descendants’ would make it less controversial.
It took almost 25 years after the end of World War II before the Holocaust Industry really fired up and we got deluged with books and, eventually, movies about the uniqueness of Final Solution v1.0 and of the suffering of its victims. Meanwhile Indonesia, East Timor, and Cambodia were killing fields, to some–but really not much–commentary among the literati and Hollywood studios, in comparison.
Reading about the severe PTSD of the IDF soldiers carrying out Final Solution v2.0, I have the uneasy feeling that in another 15 or 20 years we’ll be deluged with more books and movies about the unique suffering of the victimizers in this genocide, their guilt and anguish and lasting trauma. By then, the actual victims will have been long forgotten, but their murderers will have had time to mythologize the events. Fortunately, I will have departed the planet years before this comes about.
Max Blumenthal in his book Goliath says that the Israelis created the Holocaust Industry in the late 1960s. A cynical cudgel to batter all non-Israelis into silence over occupation.
“Reading about the severe PTSD of the IDF soldiers carrying out Final Solution v2.0…”
Was there such writing about, say, soldiers who destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto? Was there such writing about soldiers who destroyed Nanjing? I have no idea.
I know there are books on this topic (although I can’t think of any title off the top at the moment). The reason the Nazis resorted to using gas chambers is because doing massacres “manually” put a lot of mental strain on the perpetrators after a while, even when they were hardened SS fanatics. If you make killing as apersonal as possible, i.e. it’s the gas doing it, not your trigger finger, a lot of that strain goes away, or so the argument went.
The strain, perhaps, but not the stain.
“I know there are books on this topic…”
Thank you.
There are former Japanese soldiers who have recently been returning to China, attesting to the occupation’s cruelties, and the Chinese record the testimonies in museums and are always respectful. Memory is there.
Anyone committing inhumane atrocities deserves zero respect and should be shunned and shamed the rest of their miserable lives.
PTSD is less of a personal problem within a cohesive unit. It is when you are among civilians outside the cohesive unit it becomes a problem.
The Warsaw Ghetto is overblown in comparison to the 1944 Warsaw Rising which was bigger and bloodier using Bach-Zelewski‘s SS units but also the deranged Ukrainian Dirlewanger-Brigade which destroyed Wola District and blew up hospitals and tied women to tanks and bayoneted babies
Admittedly Allied Powers did tell Bach-Zalewski he would face retribution but Dirlewanger had to be executed by Germans for doing what Israel does with Biden consent
A good example is the rash of Vietnam memoirs detailing the mental health and trauma issues of US servicemen. Most did not linger or even mention the impact on the Vietnamese victims.
There were Vietnamese memoirs and fiction that told their stories, but they never got much of an audience among us.
The date of the linked post near the beginning of the article should be October 21, 2023, not 2024.
Major oops! Fixing!
Again, the destruction of hospitals and the targeting of medical personnel made it indisputable that Israel was intent on slaughtering all Gazans.
Yes, it is indisputable. I’ve been following closely what has been happening since Oct 7 by reading NC, watching all the podcasters, people most on this site probably also follow (Judge Napolitano, Dima, etc…) and the outrage in me burns. I don’t give a hoot about flying saucers of the coast of NJ, Funerals of presidents, domestic “terrorist” attacks, Elon Trump theater, it’s all secondary, tertiary, and trivial besides the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
What cuts me to my core is that 99% of the Congress that’s is supposed to embody the will of the people are either enabling or promoting this “slaughter of all Gazans.” I can not envision a future where Israel’s demonic actions, wholesale destruction of a people, and the embracing of evil will ever be able to create a narrative that can remove this stain, from both countries.
>>>I can not envision a future where Israel’s demonic actions, wholesale destruction of a people, and the embracing of evil will ever be able to create a narrative that can remove this stain, from both countries.
Being somewhat selfish as I am more concerned about my own people, I wonder about the stain that Americans will have on themselves. If there is any other genocide with less justification or greater exposure, I do not know which one it is; if there is any single reason to damn my country, this is the one because it is so clear to see, unless we endure some process of excoriation for this great sin akin to what we endured for slavery, that is. Just what kind of penitence would be appropriate is frightening to think about.
Of course, if this happens, it will be after the holocaust is completed and the beachfront properties properly developed, being all clean, orderly, and beautiful while providing plenty of money for the new owners. A wonderful encapsulation of neoliberalism.
Perhaps we can foresee how the genocide will be handled in the USA media in the future.
“It was just Netanyahu and a few others who were responsible, and it did not have broad support in Israel.”
And taking a cue from St. Obama, “It’s time to look forward, not backward.”
This will not work well in the rest of the world.
>some process of excoriation for this great sin akin to what we endured for slavery
who exactly has endured what?
>>>who exactly has endured what?
Do you think that the oppression, the whole package of justifications, lies, and violence used to justify, protect, and extend slavery or the later neo-slavery before, during, and after the Antebellum was used only on the slaves and their descendants? What about the continuing excrescence of the Southern ruling class as a body, which has spread its malign influence throughout the country to this very day? Then there is the roughly 3% of the American population that died because of the civil war if you want some concreteness in numbers.
Really, the whole of the cancer of slavery of which racism is a part, was not excised completely, but was allowed to mutate and spread throughout the whole of the nation’s body, which too many Americans refuse to see. Or if they do see it, they use its existence as a tool for personal gain.
The only way to end the war is to find a Palestinian willing to donate $101 million to offset the money Miriam Adelson “donated” to Trump.
It’s refreshing to see the cost of buying your politicians is out there in the open.
pretty sure the presidents name is joe biden
https://www.timesofisrael.com/miriam-adelson-gives-100-million-to-trump-campaign-making-good-on-reported-pledge/
October 17, 2024
Miriam Adelson gives $100 million to Trump campaign, making good on reported pledge
Not that easy. It’s not just the money but the blackmail networks like Epstein and Diddy, plus who knows what the Israelis accumulated over the decades as a “wet works” contractor for the American Empire.
Exactly. Add in some Christian Rapturists and their twisted love for Israel, and some pragmatists who see the value of Israel as an ally and outpost in the most strategic region. Stir well and add hatred of Islam.
The problem is that Israel is in the dock at the International Court of Justice for genocide and was already found by ICJ that has been behaving in an illegal way in the occupied territories. ICC has a mandate of arrest for war crimes for Nethaniaho and Gallant. The verdict of genocide will come maybe in a year or two, maybe sooner and the very slow wheels of justice will start turning. Already IDF soldiers vacationing in various countries in Latin America have been retained being accused of war crimes, while being banned entry in countries like Australia. While Bibi could not attend the 80 comemoration ceremony of liberation of Auschwitz in Poland, given the arrest warrant on his head. The fact is, there is plenty of evidence of the crimes of Israel as well as of the widespread popular opinion in Israel that condones the killing of children in Gaza, that the past alleged blood libel placed on Jews, now will become factual and will stick with Israel and its citizens for the next 1,000 years, while the rest of the world Jews, especially the younger generations, will turn completly from and likely against the state of Israel. I say good job Israel!
Plus, the legal war is on and will only pick up pace:
Some positivity there in Sunny California
‘We Have to Act’: Taxpayers Suing Congressmembers for Funding Genocide Speak Out
https://scheerpost.com/2025/01/04/we-have-to-act-taxpayers-suing-congressmembers-for-funding-genocide-speak-out/
The taxpayers are asking the district court to certify the proposed class and declare that defendants Thompson and Huffman violated the Constitution’s tax and spend authority as well as federal statutes when they voted for the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act. They also ask the court to restrain the defendants from providing further military aid to Israel. And they are requesting compensatory damages for the emotional trauma, mental health problems and depression they have suffered as a result of the ongoing genocide.
Carol Bloom, a class member from Sonoma County, stated in a release for the Institute for Public Accuracy, “The moral injuries that I and countless other constituents of Representative Huffman have suffered resulting from his vote to arm the genocide in Gaza are immeasurable.”
155 million Americans voted for this operation last Nov. 5.
They voted for the genocide?
I voted Green myself, but partisan politics is often a wonder to see especially as both major political parties have essentially the same policies towards the genocide. This means that there is no practical “mainstream” alternative to it. The Israel government controls the United States government more than the American people at least on Israeli policy.
It’s the American way.
Was it on the ballot,explicitly?
If not,are you sure all 155 million approved?
If they voted for the people who explicitly says they support Israel’s actions, they approve of it. Genocide was clearly not a redline for them. They could have voted for the Greens, PSL, or the libertarians.
it was on the ballot – both candidates specifically supported it. Genocide was a red line for many of us. Like claiming you voted for George Bush because of No Child Left Behind, but were against the war or weren’t aware of it.
It is terribly cynical to say that Americans voted to commit genocide in Gaza. They did not. Across the board media in the US has been co-opted. There is almost no reporting on what’s happening in Gaza. The New York Times has been disgracefully silent and when not silent has always promoted a pro-Israel point of view. Ditto the Washington Post. Ditto most media outlets. Americans are fed entertainment instead of news, propaganda narrative instead of news, and so are dangerously ignorant, even while our tax dollars, more and more of them, go to fund these escalating criminal wars.
It is terribly cynical to pretend that this is the first genocide Americans are OK with. They have always cared more about $1 gas price increase, than death of 1 million non-Americans. There is nothing new under the Sun.
When Internet became a thing, ignorance became a matter of choice. That choice is what precedes voting.
In the United States ignorance is not a matter of choice – it is, and has been, mostly a matter of class with accompanying class indoctrination. Information is what opposes ignorance.
“When the internet became a thing” – so glib – as if anyone has a grasp on this ‘thing.’
It seems to me that the only thing Americans got a grasp on, is making excuses. Everything is the fault of x, y, and z, but never thee.
Aaron Bushnell – a vote against.
Yeah, to be honest, some of the responses in this thread are pretty depressing.
My cynical take is that even if all those 155 million voters had known for a fact that both Trump and Harris are fervent Israel supporters and thus genocide enablers (picking my words carefully here), few would have switched votes to Stein or not voted, because a) their candidate being able to “win” is more important, b) people “don’t want to throw their vote away”, and c) Gaza is perhaps a tragedy but far away and doesn’t affect them directly, so not that important to them. Stein being opposed to the genocide would have simply not been enough of a factor (it was a red line for me, fwiw).
I don’t think the existence of propaganda excuses people from doing due diligence before they cast their vote, as I think exercising one’s critical thinking and fact-finding skills to evaluate candidates’ major policy positions is an important part of being a voter/citizen.
Choose wisely what to believe, is my motto.
They’re all okay with living in a “successful” settler colonial state built in the extermination of tens of millions of native inhabitants and enslavement of millions more. And made up lies about manifest destiny and bringing civilization while doing it.
Well said, Emma.
People stating they are proud to be American either don’t know its history or are not bothered by its violent and corrupt past, sometimes even applauding it.
How was one to cast a meaningful vote against “this operation”?
Don’t vote?
Vote for Jill Stein, knowing she had no chance?
To quote Emma Goldman: “If voting mattered, they’d make it illegal”.
This would not have been the case, if USians had simply read the writing on the wall and started seriously voting third party decades ago.
Evidently, this point is still too much of a mental stretch for some.
Using a time machine as the foundation for your argument is unserious.
And Jill Stein was an unserious presidential candidate. She’s never run an organization of any size. She has no experience in working with a legislature. She’s therefore among other things a novice at bureaucratic infighting and would be quickly made into policy road kill.
Voting for her as a protest is not in the same category of treating her as a viable candidate.
I read Acacia’s post as simply pointing out that the real problem started a long time ago.
Back then, we could have probably course-corrected but I think it’s too late now and we are not going to vote our way out of this.
Hence my suggestion that people not vote so as to at least withhold their consent, however symbolic and otherwise pointless that may be.
Stein may be a vanity candidate but at least she seems like a decent human being, unlike Trump or Harris.
Thank you, jobs. That is pretty much my point.
Indeed, it is far too late to fix problems such as Gaza through electoral politics. And I don’t see that it’s a “time machine” argument to simply point out the history of how the US got where it is today. Viz., USians don’t have “serious” third-party candidates today because as an electorate they never got serious about third parties.
In any case, we’re now living in a world in which many putatively “civilized” states have taken the position that genocide is perfectly OK, as long as our team is doing the extermination.
I have no idea which groups will be targeted for genocide next, but there’s really nothing to stop that from happening now.
The US deep state made sure that there were no serious candidates available inside or outside the duopoly. Even Sanders and Gabbard were too much of a threat.
But voting for anybody openly endorsing genocide means genocide isn’t a redline for them. That’s not a matter of choice but morality.
Exactly, Emma.
That behavior says a lot about those people, whether they realize it or not.
It’s a huge moral issue in my opinion – a logical progression from accepting corrupt politicians lying incessantly.
Then why lend the system any legitimacy by participating in voting, if bad things will continue to happen anyway, no matter who wins, as the Goldman quote suggests? LOTE? How’s that been working out?
With enough people voting for her, Stein would have won the presidency.
There’s a simple way to test this. Hold a referendum to determine whether the American people support providing of American weapons, technological, human and financial support to enable Israeli Jews in the genocide of the Palestian people.
Amen. I am sick of people saying they know what the American people think and approve of as if it were some sort of monolithic culture. It is not.
I am sick of people ignoring the fact that USians en masse keep voting for horrible “leaders”.
If you voted for Trump, you support his positions, one of which is his fervent support for Israel, which is currently committing genocide in Gaza. If you didn’t know this, that’s on you. You didn’t have to vote for Trump, nobody forced you to.
Now you may argue you don’t support this particular position of his. This is where genocide being a red line comes in; it should have disqualified him as a candidate. But apparently him supporting a country committing genocide is not a red line for the people that voted for him.
Man, I have been so focused on the 90 Million eligible to vote who sat out, I never pondered the 155 Million who voted for Israel and for the Extirpation. This was a stunning framing. Thank you— sort of.
I was watching Sunday AM blah blah, and The Narrative(tm) is that all of the ills /attacks are stemming from The Unsecure Border. My thought was, if you have a problem with Islamist reaction to US policies in the post -WW2 world, don’t blame the southern border. Blame US policies, spending, and war -and-oil economy.
Blame the US as Israel’s proxy, and resultant mid-east mayhem.
So bad politicians and their bad policies are a problem, I agree, but apparently it’s too much to point out that 155 million people just voted for bad politicians. Again. At least nominally, those votes are why bad politicians will continue to be in power.
This is badly flawed reasoning. We do not live in a democracy. Voters en masse do not choose who appears on the ballot. Voters can “choose” only what is offered to them. Political scientist Tom Ferguson has documented over the decades that the notion that voters decide anything is spurious. It is moneyed interests that call the shots.
Your argument is analogous to criticizing a starving person coming to a McDonalds (with no other options available) for ordering unhealthy food.
Thanks to NC, I am fully aware the US is not a democracy. :-)
People have to eat but don’t have to vote, as unlike e.g. in Australia, in the US voting is not compulsory.
If you don’t vote, you die. If you vote, others die.
As they say in the gift shops, “you break It, you bought It”. I don’t mean Palestine. It is the US and our clone, the Zionist state that are broken. Somehow “we” must find a way to stop the madness. Rip It out by the roots. Tear It down. I wish there was a way other than violence and economic ruin. The Russians won’t do It for us. Nor will the Chinese, the aliens from outer space, or Jesús. I should be more careful of what I wish for.
The words, among others less sanguine, that come to mind are obscene, outrageous, disgusting, criminal, morally depraved, The US no longer has any credibility whatsoeer, , as whoever if running foreign policy, have no regard for US prestige as they openly cater to terrorists and genocidal maniacs. And the sound of silence amongst the people of the US is depressing at best. Sites like this are the only ones that put things in perspective. Otherwise, its obvious that the ‘MSM” is actively suppressing the news and distorting the facts of the matter. E.G The names of Israeli hostages are printed, but not one of the names of dead Palestinian children. OMG, The NYT, WaPO, and WSJ would run out of space if they did that.
Excuse me for barging in, but when did the US have any credibility? Before the US implemented a killing spree eventually resulting in 150,000 victims in Guatemala? Or before it laid to waste over 50,000 by years of interventions in Nicaragua? Or before murdering roughly 3 million Vietnamese through the sixties and seventies? Or just before destroying an independent state and killing about 2 million Iraqis? Sorry I can’t seem to recall, my history is patchy.
Let’s not understate the American government’s culpability or death toll. I could add almost every single country in the Americas and the Caribbean being overthrow and/or invaded, plus Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia (the Jakarta Method), Iran, the Republic of the Congo, Ukraine, and so and so forth. It is quite a list going back over a century.
However, unlike in the past, there is no buffering, no serious filtering, not really if one makes even a modest effort. There is no need to wait for the film case to be shipped overseas for broadcasting the next day’s evening news as in Vietnam. I can see what is happening as it is happening and from the very beginning. In the past, it was easier to hide from or have hidden great evil. For something like Gaza or Lebanon, there is precious little excuse if one takes the effort to ignore the propaganda and to look and see. And now we have a deliberate, on-going, genocide of millions of people and we can see it as it happens. This is what is different from the past.
Well put jbird!
It’s a difference that may matter to Americans, it’s not a difference that matters to the victims of American crimes or other bystanders to their actions. The world doesn’t obey America because of its sterling character, but because they don’t want to choose between starvation and being blown to bits. When it comes to televising their crimes, the US government has always only cared about concealing the truth from American people, not the rest of the world. Because that is the constituency that represents the greatest threat to US foreign policy. And this continues to be true today. The firings, silencing, censoring, twitter bans etc. are all part of that effort. The media is not more disciplined now than it was during the decades of couping, assassinating and terrorizing of Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Chile, Vietnam, Laos, Iraq, Syria, Libya etc. All this hair-splitting Americans engage in about the nature of coverage, the character of the new elite vs the old elite, the distinctions between Democrats and Republicans, the disputes between the president and his staff, the governments orders vs CIA’s secret machinations, appear to outsiders as a performance in exculpatory rationalizations.
Please don’t think I regard American’s as special in this. The intellectual classes in other countries do it too, vis-a-vis their government. We do it as well, with respect to our government. The only difference is, America is an empire.
To: The Minister of Defense of Israel
Subject: Reassessment of the Military Operation Plan in the Gaza Strip
Date: 31 December 2024
Dear Sir,
We, members of the Foreign and Defense Committee, after carefully reviewing the current state of the military operation in Gaza, feel the need to reassess the operation plan and its achievements to date. We wish to present the following conclusions and recommendations:
1. Overview of the Gaza Operation:
• The operation, which commenced between October 2-3, 2024, achieved significant accomplishments in terms of military and security objectives in its initial stages. However, the prolonged continuation of the operation has led to diminishing returns, and certain critical security goals remain unmet.
• A major concern is the humanitarian crisis developing in Gaza, which is creating increased international pressure against the State of Israel.
2. Analysis of the IDF’s Strategy:
• While the IDF has achieved tactical successes, a lack of clear strategic direction regarding the long-term outcomes of the war has led to logistical and operational difficulties.
• The absence of a structured exit strategy poses significant risks, both in terms of Israeli security and its global standing.
Recommendation:
• Convene an immediate discussion with the IDF General Staff to develop a comprehensive strategic and operational plan that aligns with the original objectives of the operation.
3. Humanitarian and Diplomatic Challenges:
• As of October 6, 2024, the situation in northern Gaza, including refugee displacement and widespread destruction, has deteriorated significantly.
• Reports of international criticism and accusations of disproportionate use of force require immediate diplomatic engagement to counteract potential damage to Israel’s global standing.
4. Steps to Mitigate the Crisis:
• Provide humanitarian aid (water, electricity, medical supplies) to Gaza while maintaining security constraints.
• Ensure the evacuation and treatment of civilians in humanitarian zones.
5. Final Recommendation:
• Halt the continuation of the operation until a clearly defined military objective is set. Engage with international stakeholders to ensure the preservation of Israel’s legitimacy and security.
We urge the Ministry of Defense to reevaluate the continuation of the Gaza operation immediately, as failing to do so could lead to further unnecessary harm to the IDF’s image and Israel’s security.
Sincerely,
[Signatures from committee members]
CC: Chief of General Staff, National Security Council
Puting on paper the actual military and political objective would be prima facie evidence of Israel commiting genocide. So not going to happen…
The Zionist Entity keeps solidifying South Africa’s case at the ICJ.
They care less about that case than Putin does about his.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin, and, of course, Netanyahu and Gallant . I’m unaware of an ICJ case against Russia.
The Zionists ARE concerned about losing the ICJ case, but not so much that they will change anything. By the time the ruling comes down the Palestinians will be history, so tragically.
It won’t be that simple and it will matter. Countries, all countries will be bound by the ICJ ruling. An internal struggle within countries will start against governments to respect the international and national laws and do something about it.
In California there is a class action suit against two congresmen that voted to fund Israel. The plaintiffs are asking for damages due to moral trauma they have suffered just watching the available information and news. IDF soldiers vacationing to relax in poor Latin American countries are being retained for war crimes or not allowed entry in the country for participating in genocide.
And that is at individual level. Wait and see for economic sanctions to start, as in no economic intercourse with Israel, no participation in sports, cultural events, academic exchanges. Those wanting to leave won’t be able to because they will be tainted by the blood libel put on Israel’s head by ICJ.
One can hope, but homo sapiens is a rationalizing species.
Now if the US flipped, it would be all over.
It is the abused becoming the abuser, and it is God’Swill, plus Oil, Gas, water and nice beachfront lots to build your dream home on.
I am in Sonoma County and have joined the class action suit Vs the Hon. Thompson and Huffman and I have mentioned it to a number of people who live in Sonoma County.
I’d like to see similar suits brought in other States…
Let them know their their constituents are paying attention and are NOT HAPPY about being made complicit in Genocide.
AIPAC’s interference in the last election was right in your face, no subtlety attempted.
The corruption and of our Congresscritters who are enabling Genocide is unapologetic. There’s more $ for Ukraine and Israel,always..
Depravity.
I applaud your involvment in the suit, Tom, and I respect your commitment. I will bring the tactic up with Palestinian lawyers here.
That said, regretfully, I have to take issue with your comment about “the abused becoming the abuser”: I strongly disagree. If you associate the Israeli state with European Jews and European Jews with the Nazi holocaust, then in that sense, fine. But this argument holds only at an immaterial, airy, cultural level. No IDF pilots are survivors of the death camps. Many survivors emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine, and, after 1948, to the newly established state of Israel (where they were often mistreated), but that was several generations ago.
We ought to question in whose interests this association is made. Israeli teens are bombarded with the horrors Jews and others were subjected to under the Nazis far before they might have the emotional maturity or intellectual self-sufficiency to ask what relevance this has for them, why they should identify with this history. This is because they are subject to compulsory conscription and the violent expansionist state they were born in needs hateful, fear-driven draftees.
Those guilty of planning and executing this genocide may have, individually suffered abuse of some kind in their personal histories, but in light of what they’re doing it would be an inappropriate focus, and the same is true, or would be true, with a focus on the history of a people, broadly defined. An aside: I am not sure we humans are responsible enough to keep historical memory safely.
A more relevant psychological question might be to ask what identifying with a racist conquistador state does to your attitudes towards others, but the answer is evident in the news daily and so is uninteresting.
Cheers, Tom, and best of luck in court.
I signed onto the suit as I am in Huffman’s district.
A bit of background on the two.
Huffman is on record rejecting the existence of God.
Thompson is a Vietnam vet.
One would hope that their willingness to go against the grain (Huffman’s profession of non-belief) and Thompson’s experience in a long running, devastating foreign war would cause them to vote differently.
That they do not is more evidence, to me, of the political rot in the USA.
It’s just sickening to see what our feckless politicians are doing to whatever was left of our good name and reputation for decency and humanitarianism around the world. No amount of propaganda can ever erase what we’ve done.
The Jewish state Israel has taken a century of world wars & endless terrorism to create. Many multi millions murdered for the land stollen from existing owners & the enormous monies that all of this destruction has made the owners of our world. All this for their god ‘money’
Now at last this is shown live on the web so the creators of this (in)humanity can celebrate. Thank you the 20th century’s Herzl Rothschild & Balfour + so many more- the rest.
This is what we vote for, this is all of us.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=In8rHxbg6SQ
I did not vote in November.I did not vote as all the serious candidates declared support for Israel. That they did so in November 2024 means they were supporting genocide. That is abhorrent. That those elected will continue to support genocide puts them beyond the Pale as far as I am concerned. I want nothing to do with them. I want nothing to do with any government that supports genocide. My stance is simple: Do not treat others like s–t. The candidates, the elected,and the governments they serve are by their official actions and votes and words and careful evasions and silences complicit in treating other people like s–t. So it is in the US. So it is elsewhere.
These monsters are utterly revolting.