I agree Kamala, after the centuries of persecution suffered by Jewish people over the centuries from Clifford’s Tower in York, England, in 1190 to the mass genocide committed against them by the Nazis, Jewish people have the right to feel safe and ensure such atrocities never again are committed. Therefore after Hamas attacked Israel on 7th October 2023 some kind of response was to be expected. The Hamas attack was aimed at Israeli civilians, not military or economic targets and therefore could not be said to be an act of war as such. Neither were these civilians “collateral damage” as the USA likes to claim when it bombs hospitals and schools.
Since that shameful day Israel’s response has been murderous and barbaric against not Hamas but Palestinian civilians. Israel, for a long time proven to be the strongest military power in the region, has bombed the Gaza Strip, occupied by millions of Palestinians, making the area a wasteland. Time and again the Palestinian population have been ordered from their homes to so called; ‘safe havens’ only then a few days later to be informed they would have to move again as these ‘havens’ were no longer safe! During their revenge, and under the guise of hunting down Hamas, schools, hospitals with patients, medical supply convoys and Mosques have been blasted out of existence by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). This genocide cannot be considered Israels “right to defend itself” by any stretch of the imagination. Then again, was it ever supposed to be about self-defence?
The self-defence excuse was very thin to start off with due to the tactics of ‘blanket bombing’ (perfected by Britain's Arthur “Bomber” Harris during WW11) but that thin veil has become blatant eradication of Palestinian civilians. Occasionally the IDF by some miracle do manage to hit a leading Hamas official. The IDF then magnify the relevance of this success, making it headline news while, at the same time, diluting the horrors they have committed murdering civilians. It is not and, I believe never was, about hunting and destroying Hamas, though the odd hit on a Hamas target is a bonus! This, it increasingly appears, is more about eliminating the Palestinian people from the face of the earth, and Israel should, given the persecution suffered by Jewish people, know better. The fact is they do know better, and the question must be asked; have the Zionists leaned the art of genocide from their former tormentors? Are the Netanyahu Government in Tel Aviv using the same principles of extermination by different methods as were used on their forebearers?
Israels armed forces and, more importantly special forces including their intelligence service, are among the most advanced in the world. Mossad, the secret intelligence service of Israel are one of the most competent on the planet. In 1961 they travelled, clandestinely, to Argentina, a right-wing haven for some Nazi war criminals on the run, under the noses but unknown to the authorities there, and captured Nazi fugitive and mass murderer, Adolf Eichmann. They could travel half way round the world and return successfully, bringing this bastard back to face justice. Ten out of ten for that one, yet the same Mossad could not travel a few miles down the road into Gaza and take out the Hamas leadership! They are more than capable of doing so given the right orders from Tel Aviv, orders which never came because this was perhaps never the intentions of the Netanyahu regime. Neither was it, and perhaps is not, the primary intention to rescue the hostages taken on 7th October because if it was/is Mossad would have had them home, or most of them back, months ago. It appears Netanyahu’s sole intention is the obliteration of the Palestinian people, not only in Gaza, but also the West Bank where an albeit weak Palestinian authority are supposedly in charge of domestic affairs.
For many years now the Israeli Government have been illegally under so-called international law planting settlers in the West Bank. So much so there is barely any land left for the Palestinian people to live! Not content with obliterating the Gaza Strip the Israelis want to occupy permanently the West bank. On the 29th August they bombed and eradicated a Mosque, a Palestinian place of worship, on the West Bank. More collateral damage? To add insult to injury Israel's far-right security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said “if he had his way, he would build a Synagogue” on the site where a Mosque once stood in East Jerusalem before the bombing. Ben Gvir epitomises the kind of people who infest the government in Tel Aviv. Have they forgotten how their synagogues were burned to the ground in Nazi Germany?
Israeli special forces recently rescued another hostage held by Hamas, Quaid Farhan Alkadi from the minority Bedouin community, but according to Tel Aviv “108 hostages” are still being held. This rescue proves the Israelis have the capability to bring their hostages to freedom if they so desire. Evidently such rescues are not top of the agenda for Tel Aviv. Neither, it would appear is the destruction of Hamas because the Israeli special forces are more than capable of decapitating that organisation and the infantry well able to mop up the rest with minimal civilian casualties. Instead, the Tela Aviv government prefer a policy resulting in eradication of an entire race (depending on the definition of race), the Palestinians! International law, it appears, does not apply to the Israelis, courtesy of the US. Several times now the Israelis have told international law and the United Nations, including the USA, to fuck off and mind their own business insisting they are “conforming to international law” which is a blatant lie.
What the Israelis are doing is reuniting the presently divided Palestinian resistance groups. Meetings, the first in a long time, have taken place between Hamas and the Fatah organisation to discuss the way forward for Palestinian resistance. It may be worthy of Israeli consideration for any future sensible government in Tel Aviv that their security and civilian safety may be better served by a policy of détente, discussion and cooperation! It is perhaps long overdue for the Israeli Government, not including Netanyahu or his henchmen, to sit down with the voice(s) of Palestinian opinion to discuss a Palestinian nation state alongside that of a reformed Israel. A nation state, not a homeland or authority, must contain to reach this status: the ability to defend its borders, by force if necessary, its own airspace and, where applicable, its own coastal waters. It must also have its own stable government and currency (or be part of an agreed bloc sharing a currency such as the EU), the ability to lever its own taxes and make its own foreign and domestic policies (these are the criteria under capitalist conditions for nation state recognition). It must have its own judiciary and police and be free from outside interference in making such laws while taking other countries' positions into consideration. As has been said, Israel has long proved itself to be the major military power in the region and maybe the time for détente and discussion has arrived. This strategy may give Israel much more security and a feeling of wellbeing than this constant warring. Such a move will also give the Israeli state more legitimacy among the millions, never mind international bourgeois opinion, of individuals who because of their warring actions refuse to accept Israels existence!
Individual opinions across the globe are clearly not with the Israelis in their genocidal crusade against the Palestinians. This crusade is unnecessary and totally illegal. If international law carries any weight, which it clearly does not, then the same international arrest warrant served on Russian President, Vladimir Putin, would also be served on Benjamin Netanyahu. The same applies to the leadership of Hamas for their slaughtering of Israeli civilians on 7th October.
From an Israeli civilian point of view, particularly the relatives of hostages the warring aggressive policies pursued by the Israeli government are clearly not working. These policies are not bringing home the hostages in any significant number therefore a change of direction is needed. Such a change can only come about through “regime change” as the US call it in any other country it does not like. Such a change in government the Israeli people must decide for themselves sooner rather than later!
Since that shameful day Israel’s response has been murderous and barbaric against not Hamas but Palestinian civilians. Israel, for a long time proven to be the strongest military power in the region, has bombed the Gaza Strip, occupied by millions of Palestinians, making the area a wasteland. Time and again the Palestinian population have been ordered from their homes to so called; ‘safe havens’ only then a few days later to be informed they would have to move again as these ‘havens’ were no longer safe! During their revenge, and under the guise of hunting down Hamas, schools, hospitals with patients, medical supply convoys and Mosques have been blasted out of existence by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). This genocide cannot be considered Israels “right to defend itself” by any stretch of the imagination. Then again, was it ever supposed to be about self-defence?
The self-defence excuse was very thin to start off with due to the tactics of ‘blanket bombing’ (perfected by Britain's Arthur “Bomber” Harris during WW11) but that thin veil has become blatant eradication of Palestinian civilians. Occasionally the IDF by some miracle do manage to hit a leading Hamas official. The IDF then magnify the relevance of this success, making it headline news while, at the same time, diluting the horrors they have committed murdering civilians. It is not and, I believe never was, about hunting and destroying Hamas, though the odd hit on a Hamas target is a bonus! This, it increasingly appears, is more about eliminating the Palestinian people from the face of the earth, and Israel should, given the persecution suffered by Jewish people, know better. The fact is they do know better, and the question must be asked; have the Zionists leaned the art of genocide from their former tormentors? Are the Netanyahu Government in Tel Aviv using the same principles of extermination by different methods as were used on their forebearers?
Israels armed forces and, more importantly special forces including their intelligence service, are among the most advanced in the world. Mossad, the secret intelligence service of Israel are one of the most competent on the planet. In 1961 they travelled, clandestinely, to Argentina, a right-wing haven for some Nazi war criminals on the run, under the noses but unknown to the authorities there, and captured Nazi fugitive and mass murderer, Adolf Eichmann. They could travel half way round the world and return successfully, bringing this bastard back to face justice. Ten out of ten for that one, yet the same Mossad could not travel a few miles down the road into Gaza and take out the Hamas leadership! They are more than capable of doing so given the right orders from Tel Aviv, orders which never came because this was perhaps never the intentions of the Netanyahu regime. Neither was it, and perhaps is not, the primary intention to rescue the hostages taken on 7th October because if it was/is Mossad would have had them home, or most of them back, months ago. It appears Netanyahu’s sole intention is the obliteration of the Palestinian people, not only in Gaza, but also the West Bank where an albeit weak Palestinian authority are supposedly in charge of domestic affairs.
For many years now the Israeli Government have been illegally under so-called international law planting settlers in the West Bank. So much so there is barely any land left for the Palestinian people to live! Not content with obliterating the Gaza Strip the Israelis want to occupy permanently the West bank. On the 29th August they bombed and eradicated a Mosque, a Palestinian place of worship, on the West Bank. More collateral damage? To add insult to injury Israel's far-right security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said “if he had his way, he would build a Synagogue” on the site where a Mosque once stood in East Jerusalem before the bombing. Ben Gvir epitomises the kind of people who infest the government in Tel Aviv. Have they forgotten how their synagogues were burned to the ground in Nazi Germany?
Israeli special forces recently rescued another hostage held by Hamas, Quaid Farhan Alkadi from the minority Bedouin community, but according to Tel Aviv “108 hostages” are still being held. This rescue proves the Israelis have the capability to bring their hostages to freedom if they so desire. Evidently such rescues are not top of the agenda for Tel Aviv. Neither, it would appear is the destruction of Hamas because the Israeli special forces are more than capable of decapitating that organisation and the infantry well able to mop up the rest with minimal civilian casualties. Instead, the Tela Aviv government prefer a policy resulting in eradication of an entire race (depending on the definition of race), the Palestinians! International law, it appears, does not apply to the Israelis, courtesy of the US. Several times now the Israelis have told international law and the United Nations, including the USA, to fuck off and mind their own business insisting they are “conforming to international law” which is a blatant lie.
What the Israelis are doing is reuniting the presently divided Palestinian resistance groups. Meetings, the first in a long time, have taken place between Hamas and the Fatah organisation to discuss the way forward for Palestinian resistance. It may be worthy of Israeli consideration for any future sensible government in Tel Aviv that their security and civilian safety may be better served by a policy of détente, discussion and cooperation! It is perhaps long overdue for the Israeli Government, not including Netanyahu or his henchmen, to sit down with the voice(s) of Palestinian opinion to discuss a Palestinian nation state alongside that of a reformed Israel. A nation state, not a homeland or authority, must contain to reach this status: the ability to defend its borders, by force if necessary, its own airspace and, where applicable, its own coastal waters. It must also have its own stable government and currency (or be part of an agreed bloc sharing a currency such as the EU), the ability to lever its own taxes and make its own foreign and domestic policies (these are the criteria under capitalist conditions for nation state recognition). It must have its own judiciary and police and be free from outside interference in making such laws while taking other countries' positions into consideration. As has been said, Israel has long proved itself to be the major military power in the region and maybe the time for détente and discussion has arrived. This strategy may give Israel much more security and a feeling of wellbeing than this constant warring. Such a move will also give the Israeli state more legitimacy among the millions, never mind international bourgeois opinion, of individuals who because of their warring actions refuse to accept Israels existence!
Individual opinions across the globe are clearly not with the Israelis in their genocidal crusade against the Palestinians. This crusade is unnecessary and totally illegal. If international law carries any weight, which it clearly does not, then the same international arrest warrant served on Russian President, Vladimir Putin, would also be served on Benjamin Netanyahu. The same applies to the leadership of Hamas for their slaughtering of Israeli civilians on 7th October.
From an Israeli civilian point of view, particularly the relatives of hostages the warring aggressive policies pursued by the Israeli government are clearly not working. These policies are not bringing home the hostages in any significant number therefore a change of direction is needed. Such a change can only come about through “regime change” as the US call it in any other country it does not like. Such a change in government the Israeli people must decide for themselves sooner rather than later!
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| Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist. |
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