Spineless on Gaza

Photo by Joel Filipe on Unsplash

I have waited a while before responding to the latest crisis in Gaza, having learned from experience that the first draft of the story is often woven from lies. Whether it be babies being tossed on bayonets by The Hun in WW1 or babies being tossed from incubators during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, atrocity stories often turn out to be more about inciting further violence rather than revealing truth. So indeed it has turned out, as the stories of 40 decapitated babies have been revealed to have no evidential basis whatsoever. This despite Joe Biden’s claim to have seen photos of said babies. Joe can of course be forgiven as, even before his mental deterioration, his recall has never been that good; he also has a lively imagination and tends to believe his own stories. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/16/politics/fact-check-biden-amtrak-grandfather-pittsburgh-bridge-debt/index.html

Reporters on the ground however, are expected to exercise due diligence and when they say they have seen the bodies of said babies being bagged up and do not check the claims of IDF soldiers that those bags contained decapitated children they must take some responsibility for the wave of revulsion and retributive violence that ensues. Nicole Zedek said in a subsequent interview;

‘As journalists, if we don’t show it, then no one knows what’s really happening, but unfortunately to show it, you also have to see it first hand.

Indeed, Nicole, but you didn't, did you? And now hundreds of Palestinian babies lie dead as a result of Israeli bombs launched under the cover of that story. Is a baby crushed or suffocated to death trapped under rubble or torn apart by bombs rather than cut with a knife a death that will be easier on the conscience of those who irresponsibly spread the story?

Similarly, there is scant evidence I am aware of for the mass rapes that are alleged to have taken place, just as it turned out that Colonel Gaddafi had not actually issued viagra to his troops to encourage his troops to commit barbarism in Libya back in 2011. Is this more atrocity propaganda, portraying Palestinians as ‘Animals’ and ‘Beasts’ that need to be put down? Or is it projection of the attitudes of some in Israel itself towards those it regards as sub-human?

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-israel-rabbi-idUKKCN0ZS1Q1

It may well be the case that Hamas carried out terrible crimes against innocent civilians during Operation Al Aqsa flood. It is a well established fact that people who grow up under horrific conditions are traumatised and can be psychologically and emotionally damaged in such a way that they lose some of their humanity. Even the best of us can be twisted under such conditions. As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for the welfare of the people of Gaza and for decades it has subjected them to random acts of violence, harassment, siege and crushing humiliation.  The western media would have us believe that this crisis began on October 7th. It didn’t.  The crisis has been brewing in Gaza ever since it was turned into the world’s largest concentration camp. Power, control, force and violence have always been the Israeli way when it comes to dealing with Palestinian resistance. And look where that has got us. The doubling down we have seen lately shows they have learned nothing. What is their solution other than killing until there is no Palestinian left standing?

Israelis understandably don’t wish to address issues of proportionality any more than they do responsibility. Despite what the mainstream media may have you believe, far more Palestinians are killed every single year than Israelis. It is just that Palestinian deaths don't make it into the news, Israeli deaths do. Even when Palestinian deaths do get reported they mysteriously just die, whereas Israelis are invariably killed. How many people knew that record numbers of Palestinians had been killed before October this year?

https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/1483-2023-becomes-deadliest-year-for-palestinians-in-the-west-bank-as-israeli-military-launches-fresh-attack-on-jenin-refugee-camp

The above article only covers the West Bank, an area not controlled by Hamas. 

Under Just War Theory, proportionality is a key criteria, but with a Palestinian death count last time I looked of 4,800, of whom two thirds are children, one can see why Israelis wish to avoid discussing it.

One apologist for Israel, Jeremy Boreing, told Piers Morgan that proportionality was meaningless. The purpose of war is to defeat your enemy. The only way to morally justify a war is to win it. Which begs several questions.

Could this not be used as a justification for any war crime? Does this mean might is right? Sounds a bit like Goebbels urging Germany on to total war to me. How would he respond if Putin said it would be immoral to seek peace terms with Ukraine as the only way to morally justify the war is to win it, however many millions of Ukrainian civilians need to die in the process? How would Israel know it has achieved victory? Does he simply believe that with enough terror bombing the Palestinians will cry uncle and submit meekly to their slow motion genocide and ethnic cleansing? Experience tells us otherwise, so if the pursuit of victory is all, does this mean the total eradication of all Palestinains from the Levant? Once again, it seems that the logic of his arguments seems to lead to something very like what we saw in Germany in the 1940s.

Elsewhere in the same interview, we saw the typical framing of the issue. It's always about how we respond to Israel’s suffering. When it comes to Palestine’s suffering we in the west are eyeless in Gaza and the West Bank. However, this framing was masterfully subverted by the brilliant Egyptian comic Bassem Youseff. Whilst watching it I had a sense of what a Zen Buddhist must feel when he achieves Satori. The usual logic of Israel discussion was totally bypassed as the narratives and thought patterns that the media uses to channel our perceptions on the issue in a certain way were obliterated by his satire. Joking about death is normally something one would associate with the heartless but Bassem, the wise fool was the one who was all heart, contrasted with the cold, emotionless banality of Jeremy Boreing and much of the mainstream media whose words of sympathy for the suffering of Palestinains are trotted out but whose tone communicates everything about their lack of empathy.

I really do recommend you watch the interview, as I have been in despair at the effectiveness of Israeli propaganda, having forced myself to sit through hours of GB news, with its relentless repetition of Israel talking points and outright lies. Israel has a powerful ability to apply pressure to the media, which is why it feels it can lie and, when caught out, double down with even more lies. You have to be on very strong ground to challenge Israeli lies and that requires making an ironclad case. Once you have done so, as Channel 4 news admirably did regarding Israeli claims that Hamas has been responsible for the bombing of the Christian hospital in Gaza, they simply move on to the next lie.

Anybody caught making the slightest mistake in their reporting which seems to favour the Palestinians knows that it will be game over. The effect of this is that Israeli propaganda is able to run rampant, whilst those up against it are always reluctant to back themselves, knowing one false move will prove catastrophic. As a result, most of the mainstream media lacks a spine on this issue feeling discretion is the better part of valour.

The same can be said of our politicians. The Israeli lobby is extremely powerful in the US , with politicians from across the isle routinely performing homage to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee).  The UK and EU have become so subservient to the US in recent years that we too have lost our tongues and our conscience when we need to be speaking out about the outrageous behaviour of Israel in Gaza and the (Hamas free) West Bank. Not only does our government (and gutless opposition) not speak out, it is increasingly subverting rights of free speech and democracy to ensure that none of its citizens can speak out either. Bans on BDS, on demonstrations against the genocide in Gaza, on flying Palestinain flags all show the way the wind is blowing. Such behaviour is blatant in its fatuousness and hypocrisy.  We fly Ukrainian flags but ban Palestinian flags. Ursula Von der Leyen calls out Russian barbarism for attacking Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, yet assures Israel of unqualified support as it does worse to Palestine’s. Anyone who cries out for justice and mercy for the Palestinians gives the authorities the vapours as the rustle up a panic about rising anti-Semitism. No one seems overly concerned by the state and its compliant media ramping up of Islamophobia that resulted in the tragic death of an Arab child, stabbed to death in Chicago for being an Arab.

The authorities have used bogus fears of anti-Semitism to shut down legitimate criticism of Israeli barbarism. Palestine is condemned for turning to violence when all avenues of peaceful protest have been relentlessly eliminated. BDS banned, criticism of Israel censored, peaceful demonstrators shot. It is no good asking where Palestine’s Mandela is when he would have no chance of making an impact in the current climate. Even if such a figure were to emerge, it seems there are elements in Israel who are not interested in peace. The PLO moved towards peace and the likes of Netanyahoo boosted Hamas. A final and binding peace deal would mean no more settlements in the West bank; Palestinians remaining in Gaza; Palestinians retaining control of East Jerusalem. Peace isn’t an attractive option for some powerful elements of Israeli politics. And no, the status quo before October was not peace, it was a slow motion ethnic cleansing by a bullying state, contemptuous of those it saw as weak, and indulged by Western powers. Since October the ethnic cleansing has intensified in a frenzy of victim blaming. I don’t know if I could go along with those who can’t believe Israel didn’t know this was coming and allow it to happen to justify what has happened since, but the relish with which they have jumped on this does suggest an element of poking Palestine until you get the reaction you need to carry out your agenda; ‘Go on punk, make my day.’

I want Israelis to live in peace. Where I differ from my government is that I want Palestinians to live in peace too. I feel sorry for Israelis as our spineless politicians give it blank cheques to carry on with policies that will never, can never bring peace. We get what we want; control of a strategically vital part of the world and its resources via our regional enforcer. But the people of Israel will never get what they need. We are using them as we indulge the likes of Netanyahoo. We have lost any pretense to a moral high ground. We must distinguish the Israeli state from the Jewish community, despite efforts by Israel and western governments to conflate the two. As Christian US Congressmen stood by the Israeli state while it committed its crimes, they were put to shame by activists of Jewish Voice for Peace. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/23/us/jewish-palestinian-protest-israel-gaza/index.html

Therein lies the way forward. Violence breeds violence. Only the heroism of love can break the cycle.