Aditya Chakrabortty wrote an article in the Guardian last week that is well worth reading. It was on student protests on Gaza in Luton and the absurd reaction of the school in question. But let me pull out one quotation because I think it very true (I have edited it to remove his multiple arguments):
Well, sometimes the biggest favour a journalist can do their readers is to step outside, hold up a palm and report back that, yes, it really is raining. So in that spirit let me make … [a] simple observation. Th[at] is that for many people under 25 – whether brown or black or white – the daily pulverisation of Gaza is the totemic international issue of their time, just as the Iraq war was 20 years ago or apartheid in South Africa was for me as a kid.
I think Aditya is right, but that very few people get this as yet.
I know how significant apartheid in South Africa was in my own political development at a great many levels.
Iraq showed up the fact that the West's superpowers could be very wrong, and changed perceptions forever.
And so it is with Gaza. The daily imposition of unwarranted death on innocent people will leave the perception of Israel changed for good, and that will have long term political implications, whatever side anyone takes on this issue.
What does a world where Israel can do no wrong in the international political arena look like? It is a question that needs an answer.
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Good post on an important issue.
It’s not about ‘taking sides’ – Israeli v. Palestinian – at all for me. It is about justice and fairness and humanity – taking sides with those elements. But putting up Palestinian flags good students of Luton is not a good idea – it turns the dissent into one that looks nationalistic and dare I say, you are already merging into fascism when you do that.
We need to be using the totems of justice, fairness and humanity – not national flags!!
And the Israeli response to being attacked is not I think proportionate at all, and its context is not pertaining to a one-off event (the HAMAS attack) – both sides have previous in this matter. This was a fascinating and pertinent article in the Guardian recently:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/21/the-netanyahu-doctrine-how-israels-longest-serving-leader-reshaped-the-country-in-his-image
What I see in Luton is fear – fear of anti-Semitism being weaponised perhaps? It is redolent for me of what we saw during Corbyn’s time as Labour leader.
The root of this weaponization is what is fascinating me at the moment. I’ve been reading Howard Jacobson in the Guardian and his writing gives us a fascinating insight (and also sometimes, a disappointing one) into the Jewish community’s mindset.
The way I would sum it up is one aspect thrown up by events in Gaza can only be described as a form of ‘Jewish exceptionalism’. The exceptionalism I speak of seems to me to be about monopolising notions of suffering, persecution and ethnic obliteration.
I for one am not denying anything Jews have been through in their history at the hands of Christians to Nazis to Muslim extremists, nor denying that there is a right to a collective memory of these events (if only we’d all learn from them and apply the lessons).
But to somehow use them as a marker, stepping in a direction of suggesting that everyone else’s suffering is not as bad (and therefore justifiable perhaps?) has to be questioned.
The Jewish notion of being victims or of ‘victimhood’ is a precious commodity. It has enabled historians and scholars to understand the nature of the human evils of fascism and racism – how it works – read Hannah Arendt – a Jew who nearly ended being consumed herself by the Holocaust. At once a horror – but also a gift to humanity that keeps being ignored, Jewish suffering cannot, must not be reserved exclusively for Jews. What has happened to Jews – our Jews – the world’s Jews – the human race’s Jews – can also happen to others.
The tragedy is that the victims can be perpetrators too. Thus, somehow, We suffer together. Lets try to stop it for once.
Forgive me, for I speak only from weariness.
Some perceptive pieces also by Jonathan Freedland, in particular:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/17/hamas-benjamin-netanyahu-ceasefire
and
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/08/israel-bombardment-hamas-gaza
Thank you PSR. Very well put. The point about exceptionalism rings true.
Whilst recalling that the liberal end of the Jewish community has a fine record in taking the lead in challenging discrimination against others. Civil rights in the USA and apartheid in South Africa.
Although the UK abstained in the UN vote, to most of the world it looks like backing the US and Israel. It will impact on our foreign policy with no up-side. Public support for Palestine will grow despite attempts to label it as anti-Semitism or ‘hate speech’. (Arabs are Semites too)
The key principle here is the overwhelming priority to save life. Humanitarian aid has broken down. We face hundreds of preventable deaths in the next few days, and thousands in the next week or so. Other considerations are secondary.
The argument that doesn’t convince is that the IDF have to eliminate Hamas or Israel will face further attacks in the future. The savagery of their response will ensure many trying to exact revenge and even eliminate Israel to get a Palestinian state. It would be asking a lot of human nature to think otherwise. Further killing will not make Israel safer.
Targeting precisely depends on good intelligence in fast moving situations.They seemed to have flattened most of Gaza . Israeli intelligence failed to see the October attack coming. How much faith can we put in the intelligence?
The argument that continuing bombardment will free hostages is weak. The released hostages were released in a ceasefire.
The US has long spoken of a two-state solution but vetoed it in practice. They are now saying it is the only long term solution. The Likud party have no intention of allowing a Palestinian state, I can see a clash coming between the US and Israel.
The ret of the world vote at the UN for Palestinian state or abstain-like the UK who also say they believe in the two state answer.
The only way a two state solution will come about is if the US marches Israel into it by not using the veto and restricting the supply of arms.
The US argues that in a ceasefire, Hamas will remain in control. It is a point though secondary to preserving civilian life. One wonders how much ‘control’ Hamas have when people desperately need basics like food and water. They can’t provide it.
An obvious solution IMHO would be for the UN to re-impose the mandate and send in peacekeepers who could arrest Hamas or, at least, prevent further rocket attacks. They would supervise the transition to an independent state which would include the West Bank. Even Jeremy Bowen and the BBC are reporting the repression in that area. ( I wonder if he and Orla Guerin were among the eight BBC reporters who sent a letter to Al Jazeera saying the BBC was not reporting fairly )
I don’t see any viable alternative. It needs some statesmanship.
Its not just whether Israel can do no wrong – its the kind of wrong – pulverising 2 million civilians with 2000lb bombs and laying waste whole cities and refugee camps , killing 18000 along the way, laying siege – starvation, denying water, medicines, fomenting deadly infections.
As the Pope said this is not ‘war’ – terror does not justify terror.
‘We ‘ are implicated – it shows the world that ‘the West’ has double standards – Russian leader is a war criminal but Netanyahu is legitimate.
‘We’ have done nothing to try to implement the vaunted two state solution – and have been happy to watch Israel systematically destroy its chances over thirty years.
The world is much more likely to see ‘us’ ‘the West’ as just as morally corrupt as the authoritarian dictatorships we are supposed to be better than, and that military force is the only language we understand – no wonder the Doomsday Clock is only 90 seconds to midnight
Letter from Corbyn to Cameron about Gaza. We are supplying Israel with weapons. We must stop. Certain companies and factories have been closed down by demonstrators. More needs to be done.
https://labouroutlook.org/2023/12/07/jeremy-corbyn-pens-letter-to-david-cameron-over-british-military-involvement-in-gaza/
Corbyn gave a brilliant speech at yesterday’s march through London. Strange how many of the MSM say thousands or tens of thousands. The police said 300,000. The organisers say over 100,000. Why does the MSM need to tone it down?
However many thousands there were, there were only 13 arrests. Very well behaved.
Corbyn on the right side of the argument and of history, as he usually is. Even his 2019 proposal to renegotiate BREXIT, and have a 2nd Referenduml, based then of full awareness if rhe implications of one’s vote, made sense. What a missed opportunity 2017 was!
Except that I fear, had he won in 2017, as he very nearly did, I believe he would have lasted a fortnight before being toppled in a CIA-managed “A Very British Coup”, & clapped in the UK’s Guantanamo, HMP Belmarsh, & the country run by a “puppet” appointed by the Crown, under martial law, with no reference to Parliament.
There’s NO way, short of a real revolution from below (which the horrors of Gaza, added to the clear incompetence of our asset-stripper bandit government, may be engendering), that the 1% who really run things would let such an inconclast anywhere near power.
Agree on Corbyn.
But I think, certainly in the UK, at least, that we are a very long way from any sort of real revolution that could alter the status quo. The level of public apathy and the focus of public preoccupation, albeit that the latter is almost entirely media-engendered, would both suggest that there is no likelihood that the public are going to rise up to make things change.
And, tragically, on the Gaza issue, if one considers where the profit in the situation is and who derives financial benefit from it, which I think is largely those in the western military-industrial domain, it’s difficult to see how what needs to be done, which is to stop the provision of arms to either side in the conflict, is actually politically feasible, particularly in the US – the lobby against it is probably simply too powerful, both economically and politically.
We live in a world where we define war crimes in an international context, and have courts to regulate the criminality of incidents in war but, absurdly, we don’t declare all war itself to be a crime, which in any social or humanitarian sense it patently is. Until we reach that level of civilisation as a species, where at the level of common human consciousness and morality, it has become impossible to engage in war because the human mindset will not allow it to be contemplated, a level which it seems unlikely we will ever attain, military slaughters and genocides will continue unabated and politicians will continue to mouth meaningless platitudes and empty statements of intent while the blood flows.
The world should be horrified, like I am about what is happening in Gaza. Its like medieval battle scenes where all you see is bodies and destruction. Only the dead horses and swords are missing. It is also getting very tiresome that any criticism of Israel is deemed to be “anti-Semitism or “anti-Israel hate speech” and Jewish students complain of being “unsafe” rather than engaging with those who criticize their country. There was an interesting article in the Times of Israel (no paywall.. read it online)by Jewish US university student Rebecca Raush, ” My campus is not a hotbed of anti-Semitism” where she can acknowledge the differences of opinion without withdrawing into fear. I wonder what other country could have got three prestigious University presidents on an online bullying session or get its citizens to meet the US and other world leaders to plead the case for their hostages? Haven’t seen any similar Palestinian families pleading for their families to world leaders. The death toll of journalists should definitely be investigated. Am hoping this ends soon for these poor people and that the world does its best to help them return to an independent, normal life although its going to take a long time and I suspect will have to go up against the intransigence of the Israeli Government.
Hate breeds hate. Palestine and Israel are just the latest examples.
Power corrupts. As the US (and UK) demonstrate with Israel.
At least the GermN nation on WW2 could plead ignorance: we have no such excuse.
Yet youth still dreams of better, despite our generation’s appalling example.
There is still hope.
I really don’t buy the argument that the German population didn’t know anything about the behaviour of the Nazi regime. Many of them may have felt helpless to do anything about what was happening out of fear for themselves and their families, and that’s not uncommon in ruthless, totalitarian regimes, but running a country requires the acquiesce of a vast number of civil administrative staff who at the very least would have had some idea of what was going on.
During the Iraq War, I was part of a small group who attempted to send cheap digital cameras to Iraq in the (mistaken) belief that were people to see what was being done in their name, then they would hold their (western) governments to account. We made no difference. We met some interesting people – such as the nuclear scientist who told us the American intelligence was based on his bosses attempts to ingratiate himself with the Americans to get his green card. But then Hans Blix told us as much. None of that stopped the coalition launching a war in violation of UN rules – or the slaughter of civilians in Falluja. Much of what is happening in Gaza is based on that (one sided) battle.
I suspect that during WW2 people had even less information than we had during the Iraq war. Which of the suspect streams of ‘news’ you chose to believe – whether as a British, German, or other ‘patriot’, or even just as an ordinary person attempting to make sense of why others were trying to kill you – you would have found plenty of ‘evidence’ to support whatever prejudice you chose to have.
And so it is today. That is why the mainstream ‘press’ is focused on ‘history began on 7 October’. It is the fig leaf many choose to believe to dispel any sense of personal responsibility for the genocide being perpetrated by those they voted for. Humans seem more than capable of casting off any pretence at civilisation when they so choose.
Did the German people know? Do we know? Of course. And what are we going to do about it? In the short term we shall (collectively) choose to ‘believe’ the ‘press’, or perhaps we can plead either ignorance or impotence, or both? Is any of that true? No. Collectively the power rests with the people .. we just need to find a way to use it.
The long-standing grip of American Christian fundamentalism on US politics is perhaps not as widely understood as it should be in the general public. The establishment and existence of the state of Israel is thought to fulfil biblical prophecy and to be associated with the second coming of Christ. The prominent politicians who believe this and have believed this over time is on record. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so demonstrably destabilising. It’s about Christianity, not about Judaism.
The thing is, an important part of genocide is obviously killing women who can only produce the next generation and the children themselves. The casualties in these two groups are disproportionate. To anyone living and dying in Gaza right now it must feel like genocide and to me it looks like it.
The Jewish collective memory recognises this for itself and quite rightly so. Jewish women and babies were not spared the Holocaust. But how can a portion of Jews in Israel be so blind to that and treat it as a point of expediency and not expect any consequences?
Howard Jacobson really upset me the other day in the Guardian mentioning that only progressives would use the the ‘g’ word in this context and immediately joined the anti-woke brigade – consciously or unconsciously. His article should not have been published in my view.
When it comes to Christians and Jews all I see as not one of them is a love hate relationship, with my attention being drawn to the duplicity and inconsistency of the Christians in particular whose emphasis on ‘forgiveness’ seems to be a get out clause for all sorts of dodgy behaviour towards others.
The problem with Christianity in the West is that it has become a flag of convenience. To me and as such it no longer represents the word of Jesus as I know it. Christianity has been collectivised by the rich and powerful.
Having said that I do not think the Christian issue is as big as the fascism that inculcates these behaviours – the use of victimhood to justify any means, the denouncing of any dissent and insistence on one view and the emphasis on reacting rather than thinking.
Towards the end of Norman Finkelstein’s 2018 book on ‘Gaza’, he cites Confucius, “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.”
Well, the US House of Reps has just overwhelmingly passed a motion that, ‘Anti-Zionism is the same as anti-semitism’. That has angered a lot of Jews in the US although one might presume not Howard Jacobson, given what he’s written.
So in response to Richard’s posing: what does a world look like when Israel can do no wrong? . .it looks like a world where truth and reality have been cast adrift. It’s a road, certainly in the US, now pointing towards fascism. Can the English-speaking, thus US-focussing, UK really escape that influence?
Israel is Zionism, which is inherently expansionist and exercises apartheid and ‘ethnic cleansing’. Zionism has long since served its purpose. The UN resolution to partition Palestine, of November 1947, allocated Jews more than 50% of Palestine when Jews owned about 6% of the land. Israel’s statement of its independence was not tied to any geographical document defining its borders. Since 1948, Israel has expanded, not just through military means, but enabled by false narratives at all scales over many decades. Erskine Childers in the early 1960s exposed the Israeli false narrative that the Nakba was mass exodus perpetrated by Palestinian leaders, a narrative that had seeped into the international thinking of the 1950s. (Recommend Ilan Pappe’s 2017 book, 10 Myths about Israel)
So, . . a world where Israel can do no wrong . . means opposition to Israel is now seen as anti-semitism. A world where mainstream media is intimidated to draw the distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-semitism, a situation which, ironically, only encourages more of the un-informed to actually become anti-semitic.
So, . . a world where is Israel can do no wrong . . it is a world far too ready to drink up false narratives. To para-phrase The Washington Post by-line, a world where democracies can die in darkness.
That’s Starmer’s world, too. So many Jewish ex party members have been abandoned by the party because they abhor what is going on in Gaza. But it’s actually been happening for a few years, since Starmer took over and realised he could rid the party of those who do not support Zionism. Even members of his own constituency, and those who have family members who were killed in the Holocaust have had their membership removed for no good reason.
Starmer said he was born a Zionist and would die a Zionist, but not until after he had been elected leader.
I have not been able to have a conversation on this war, and yes it is a war, with anyone but my husband.
I made the statement at a holiday party, held by my neighbors, last weekend that Bibi and Hamas deserve each other and you would have thought I stated that I was voting for Trump by the reactions. The reaction(s) was almost to point that I thought I would have to leave the party.
This was published in today’s Scotsman:
The Ukraine war has faded from the headlines, to be supplanted by Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza. The US, EU and UK’s unconditional support for an Israeli regime that has murdered 17k Palestinians, displaced 1 million and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes is morally and legally beyond the pale. Anyone dissenting from the IDF’s brutal ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is branded anti-Semitic, clearly absurd since many Jews are appalled at what Israel is committing in their name.
The US, in particular, is an accomplice to the massacre. It is sending munitions and bombs for Israel to drop on tens of thousands of women and children. Israel’s President Herzog has said there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, a breath-taking statement. Israel is following the Dahiya doctrine, treating all civilians as military targets. This means women and children are fair game.
The rest of the world is watching this ‘ethnic cleansing’ in real time. The New York Times admits that Israel has killed more women and children in the first 8 days of the war than have been killed in Ukraine in 18 months.[1] Which nation is the real monster?
The West has abandoned any attempts at diplomacy in Gaza just as it has in Ukraine, claiming there is no alternative to dropping bombs. This is not only patently false but geopolitical suicide, especially for Israel. The Arab world has said time and again that it is interested in Israeli security which can only be achieved via a political settlement. There have been five decades of UN security council resolutions saying the solution is a state of Palestine and a state of Israel, all ignored by the US.
There is a peaceful way out of this nightmare but it can only happen if the West stops bombing and starts talking.
Leah Gunn Barrett
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-death-toll.html
Not just the US.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/bae-systems-israel-glasgow-campaigners-workers-b1125345.html
Another squadron has arrived at RAF Marham, with US fighter jets. We are definitely becoming Airstrip One for the US.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/america-norfolk-hms-prince-of-wales-ukraine-nato-b1125770.html
I saw this ‘antisemitic’ trope start in the 70s, when criticising Israel became ‘supporter of PLO terror’. What I was ignorant of until recently was the Zionists position up to WW2 and their long antipathy to the largely euro centric and socialist Bund. The seeds of today were there, it seems. Michael Rosen, who was smeared by elements of British Zionism recently, wrote a piece a couple of years ago about his Yiddish forebears, and this led me to the Bund history. I recall the vile terrorist Begin becoming Israeli leader, a man with British blood on his hands, and a virulent far right racist. Bibi is his spiritual spawn it seems, not just Arabs but non whites in general. I hope he does not become the Galtieri of our time, reviled internationally but welcome here by our right wing masters.
Very powerful. I read it with my grandson.
https://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/portfolio/the-missing-the-true-story-of-my-family-in-world-war-ii/
More anti semitism by the hard left..repugnant the lot of you!!
Here’s the working definition of anti-semitism adopted by the IHRA in 2016, which one could regard as being reasonably authoritative:
“ Adopt the following non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism:
“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
I’ve just read through all if the comments above to this this article and none of them seems to meet the criteria set out in the definition – so, no – not more, or even, any, antisemitism – just reflections on a situation which in all of its aspects, including both the Hamas atrocities and the subsequent assault on Gaza, is utterly horrifying.
If you are going to make assertions such as yours above, then it would be appropriate for you to ensure that those assertions are logically and factually sustainable, otherwise all you do is call your own credibility as a commentator into question and undermine the validity of your position.
Really?
https://waronwant.org/resources/uk-arms-israels-attacks-gaza
What do you call this? Justice?
This open letter by 122 Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists and intellectuals expressing their concerns about the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism provides very useful context in the most measured tones. Most of it is shown below:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/nov/29/palestinian-rights-and-the-ihra-definition-of-antisemitism
“Through “examples” that it provides, the IHRA definition conflates Judaism with Zionism in assuming that all Jews are Zionists, and that the state of Israel in its current reality embodies the self-determination of all Jews. We profoundly disagree with this. The fight against antisemitism should not be turned into a stratagem to delegitimise the fight against the oppression of the Palestinians, the denial of their rights and the continued occupation of their land.”
and
“The IHRA definition of antisemitism and the related legal measures adopted in several countries have been deployed mostly against leftwing and human rights groups supporting Palestinian rights and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, sidelining the very real threat to Jews coming from rightwing white nationalist movements in Europe and the US.”
and
“The IHRA definition’s statement that an example of antisemitism is “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, eg, by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour” is quite odd. It does not bother to recognise that under international law, the current state of Israel has been an occupying power for over half a century, as recognised by the governments of countries where the IHRA definition is being upheld. It does not bother to consider whether this right includes the right to create a Jewish majority by way of ethnic cleansing and whether it should be balanced against the rights of the Palestinian people. Furthermore, the IHRA definition potentially discards as antisemitic all non-Zionist visions of the future of the Israeli state, such as the advocacy of a binational state or a secular democratic one that represents all its citizens equally. Genuine support for the principle of a people’s right to self-determination cannot exclude the Palestinian nation, nor any other.
We believe that no right to self-determination should include the right to uproot another people and prevent them from returning to their land, or any other means of securing a demographic majority within the state. The demand by Palestinians for their right of return to the land from which they themselves, their parents and grandparents were expelled cannot be construed as antisemitic. The fact that such a demand creates anxieties among Israelis does not prove that it is unjust, nor that it is antisemitic. It is a right recognised by international law as represented in United Nations general assembly resolution 194 of 1948.
To level the charge of antisemitism against anyone who regards the existing state of Israel as racist, notwithstanding the actual institutional and constitutional discrimination upon which it is based, amounts to granting Israel absolute impunity. Israel can thus deport its Palestinian citizens, or revoke their citizenship or deny them the right to vote, and still be immune from the accusation of racism. The IHRA definition and the way it has been deployed prohibit any discussion of the Israeli state as based on ethno-religious discrimination. It thus contravenes elementary justice and basic norms of human rights and international law.
We believe that justice requires the full support of Palestinians’ right to self-determination, including the demand to end the internationally acknowledged occupation of their territories and the statelessness and deprivation of Palestinian refugees. The suppression of Palestinian rights in the IHRA definition betrays an attitude upholding Jewish privilege in Palestine instead of Jewish rights, and Jewish supremacy over Palestinians instead of Jewish safety. We believe that human values and rights are indivisible and that the fight against antisemitism should go hand in hand with the struggle on behalf of all oppressed peoples and groups for dignity, equality and emancipation.”
Thank you
In most of the reporting we get, somehow trying to justify Israel’s slaughter in Gaza albeit with some handwringing, it is as though events only started on October 7th. There is depressingly little recognition of the brutalisation of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza that has continued for decades. Killings and destruction or theft of property and land by Israelis supported and armed by their army. Actions that no less that an Israeli general described as ‘pogroms’. Combined with mass arrests and incarceration, few trials or just military tribunals, with abusive treatment the norm.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/settler-extremists-sowing-terror-huwara-riot-was-a-pogrom-top-general-says/
The language used by members of Netanyahu’s government described Palestinians as less than human long before Oct 7, with calls for a greater Israel – no different in intent to the ‘river to the sea’ phrase attributed to Hamas. Most Israelis seem to have adopted the same attitudes with honourable exceptions such as organisations like +972 or Btselem. There is some surprisingly frank reporting in the Israeli newspapers like Haaretz and Times of Israel. Also other Jewish organisations like JFJFP and Jewish Currents in the US.
You don’t have to be an expert on terrorism to know that history shows that Israel’s behaviour is just that which foments terrorism. Arguably Israel itself in its treatment of Palestinians has become a terror state as that is how it treats a section of its population. Apartheid in practice.
In defending Israel’s slaughter in Gaza writers suggest that criticism is just another form of anti-semitism, when in practice it feeds the cancer of anti-semitism. And when they cite the Holocaust as somehow justifying any action by Israel they profoundly demean the memory of that horror.
In Berlin the Jewish museum is superb, a ‘must visit’ and a sobering reminder, as it explains what led to the Holocaust. In one section they have dozens of banners showing in sequence the laws and regulations passed during the 1930s, that steadily squeezed Jews out of society, marginalised them and made life impossible. Meanwhile the bulk of the German population became detached and disinterested. If you visit Dachau you find it on the outskirts of Munich. People knew. Just as Israelis know what has been happening but have ceased to care, apart from a small minority of courageous principled people. See Jeremy Bowen’s recent interviews in Hebron.
All Israel has achieved is the alienation of many who might have given it the benefit of the doubt before. Attempts to normalise relations with the Gulf states have been trashed. And a whole new generation of Palestinians determined to avenge the killings of their families and friends have been created.
PS And the high level of civilian casualties is quite deliberate.
https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/
I’ve just seen an article about a group of Jewish elders, male and female, chaining themselves to the railings of the White House to tell the government to make up their minds and ask for a ceasefire. It gives me hope.
Matt Carr’s latest piece on Substack is worth a read, drawing parallels with the historic treatment of Native Americans in the USA by Sherman.
https://open.substack.com/pub/mattcarr/p/old-post-sheridan-in-gaza?r=qshi&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
He has written extensively about terrorism and its roots, notably in his book Infernal Machine.
https://labourhub.org.uk/2023/12/12/we-are-watching-genocide-in-real-time/
So sad and upsetting, by someone who set up cancer courses and clinics in Gaza.