(written by Terry MacNeil, on October 10 and 25, 2024)
During Israel’s war on Gaza during late-2023 and most of 2024 – I did not call what Israel’s military was doing genocidal. For me, the casualties were too low (I kept dwelling on Holocaust statistics, from WWII). But the body count kept climbing, the percentage of the population of Gaza being mass murdered kept increasing. And now, I can deny it no longer.
In 2023, from what I remember, I’d say it was clear Israel wanted to commit ethnic cleansing – by pushing everyone in the Gaza Strip into Egypt. But the Egyptian government refused to let that happen (for good reason, because it would have been abetting in a crime against humanity, in addition to creating a humanitarian crisis it did not want to deal with).
So, since the Palestinians were remaining in Gaza – the new Israeli goal was to make Gaza uninhabitable. So Gaza was bombed back into the stone age, food aid was blocked by Israel, and Gazans began to die of starvation and disease (like polio).
BUT in more recent days, since Palestinians are still committed to remaining in the Gaza Strip (a part of Palestine), the Israeli goal now seems to keep bombing Palestinian civilians – until they’re ALL dead. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if at a certain point in the future, Israel will allow the surviving Gazans a one-way ticket into permanent exile in a foreign country(s).
What’s wonderful about these choices – is that now Israelis will become conscious of their genocidal wars/strategies. But the sad thing – is that MANY Israelis cheer on the genocide.
The way MANY Jewish Israelis react (in public) to the genocide of Palestinians, is with applause – which is the exact reaction neo-Nazis in the Western World LOVE to see, because it suits their anti-Semitic propaganda.
But it must be remembered Israel is doing TODAY what it knows it must do – if it wants to keep the apartheid state going. Israel is convinced it MUST prevent a two-state solution (or else Jewish Israelis think the Jewish state will end). And Israel MUST prevent a unitary state where Israelis and Palestinians live in the same country while having equal voting rights – because then the Palestinians will be the majority (and if that happens, Jewish Israelis think the Jewish state will end). But would Palestinians become the ruling class in a unitary state? If Nelson Mandela’s South Africa is anything to go by – then no, they won’t. Because Mandela granted South Africa’s blacks political freedom – but did NOT grant them economic equality with South Africa’s whites (there was no redistribution of wealth/property). And I’d expect the same in Israel/Palestine.
Also, I’m older than a lot of today’s critics of Israel – many of them, are “Gen-Z”. For MANY years, I had criticisms of the Israeli state – that I would never publicly express, because I feared that if I did, I’d be branded an “anti-Semite”. And I’m a Millennial, and that fear seems to be even MORE pronounced for OLDER shitheads like Joe Biden. But the youth of today, are CLEARLY LESS afraid of being painted as anti-Semitic – because they are concerned about JUSTICE more than anything else. And so… I think there is hope for a better future.
In closing, would the Hamas attack on October 7th, 2023 have happened IF Israel had NOT been an oppressive/violent apartheid state, that hadn’t blocked a two-state solution? Would it have happened if Israel treated all Palestinians as the political equals of all Jewish Israelis? The answer is clearly NO – the only reason organizations like Hamas has support among Palestinians, is because of atrocities routinely carried out by the State of Israel. Ⓐ