March 25, 2024
The U.N. Human Rights Council’s advance, unedited report calls for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and international protection for Palestinians in the occupied territories, among other recommendations.
U.N. Human Rights Council room in Geneva. (U.N/ Photo/Jean Marc Ferré)
By Brett Wilkins
Common Dreams
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday published a draft report that found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a move that came on the same day as the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the ongoing war.
The advance, unedited version of the report — entitled “Anatomy of a Genocide” — concludes that Israel’s far-right government and military “have intentionally distorted jus in bello principles, subverting their protective functions, in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.”
“The overwhelming nature and scale of Israel’s assault on Gaza and the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group,” the draft report states, enumerating Israeli actions that violate Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide:
“Killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to group members; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
“Israel has de facto treated an entire protected group and its life-sustaining infrastructure as ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorist-supporting,’ thus transforming everything and everyone into either a target or collateral damage, hence killable or destroyable,” the paper continues.
“In this way, no Palestinian in Gaza is safe by definition. This has had devastating, intentional effects, costing the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroying the fabric of life in Gaza, and causing irreparable harm to its entire population.”
‘Obscene’
Israel rejected the report as “an obscene inversion of reality.”
According to Palestinian and international humanitarian officials, Israel’s 171-day Gaza onslaught has killed at least 32,333 Palestinians, most of them women and children, while wounding nearly 75,000 others and displacing around 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
Thousands more Palestinians are missing and believed to be dead and buried beneath the rubble of bombed buildings. Disease and deadly starvation caused and exacerbated by Israel’s siege and blockade of Gaza are spreading rapidly.
“Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza is an escalatory stage of a long-standing settler-colonial process of erasure,” the draft report asserts. “For over seven decades this process has suffocated the Palestinian people as a group — demographically, culturally, economically, and politically — seeking to displace it and expropriate and control its land and resources.”
Referring to the flight and ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs from Palestine during the foundation of the modern state of Israel in 1948, the paper contends that “the ongoing Nakba must be stopped and remedied once and for all. This is an imperative owed to the victims of this highly preventable tragedy, and to future generations in that land.”
“The ongoing Nakba must be stopped and remedied once and for all.”
The draft report urges U.N. member states to “enforce the prohibition of genocide in accordance with their… obligations” under international law.
An Israeli Merkava Mk IV tank on a street in Gaza, Jan. 4. (Yairfridman2003, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
In January, the U.N.’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Israel was “plausibly” perpetrating genocide in Gaza and ordered the country’s government to “take all measures within its power” to prevent genocidal acts. Human rights defenders say Israel has ignored the order.
“Israel and those states that have been complicit in what can be reasonably concluded to constitute genocide must be held accountable and deliver reparations commensurate with the destruction, death, and harm inflicted on the Palestinian people,” the publication argues.
The draft report recommends measures including:
Immediate implementation of an arms embargo on Israel, as it appears to have failed to comply with the binding measures ordered by the ICJ;
Immediate referral of the situation in Palestine to the International Criminal Court in support of its ongoing investigation;
Ensuring that Israel, as well as states who have been complicit in the Gaza genocide, acknowledge the colossal harm done, commit to nonrepetition, with measures for prevention and full reparations, including the full cost of the reconstruction of Gaza;
Deploying an international protective presence to constrain the violence routinely used against Palestinians in the occupied territories; and
Ensuring that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is properly funded to enable it to meet the increased needs of Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel on Monday informed the U.N. that it will no longer allow UNRWA convoys carrying food aid into northern Gaza, even as the Palestinians are starving to death, a move that one humanitarian campaigner called a “death sentence.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/03/25/d ... on-israel/
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New York Times Misreports Gaza UNSC Resolution
To no ones surprise the very same New York Times which relied on lying witnesses to falsely claim that Hamas had raped Israeli women is also lying about a ceasefire resolution for Gaza that yesterday passed the United Nations Security Council.
U.N. Security Council Calls for Immediate Cease-Fire in Gaza as U.S. Abstains
The United Nations Security Council on Monday passed a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip during the remaining weeks of Ramadan, breaking a five-month impasse during which the United States vetoed three calls for a halt to the fighting.
The resolution passed with 14 votes in favor and the United States abstaining, which U.S. officials said they did in part because the resolution did not condemn Hamas. In addition to a cease-fire, the resolution also called for the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” and the lifting of “all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance.”
UNSC resolutions are legally binding documents under international law. They therefore use a very specific language. If the UNSC 'calls upon' someone to do something it is the legal equivalent of asking 'pretty please'. It has no real consequences.
However, UNSC Resolution 2728 which passed yesterday on a 14 to 0 vote with the U.S. abstaining, does not 'call upon' Israel or Hamas to do this or that.
It demands them to do something:
The Security Council, ...
...
1. Demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs, and further demands that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain;
2. Emphasizes the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip and reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale, in line with international humanitarian law as well as resolutions 2712 (2023) and 2720 (2023); ...
Soon after the resolution passed the U.S. falsely claimed that it is not legally binding:
Heidi Matthews @Heidi__Matthews - 22:45 UTC · Mar 25, 2024
The U.S. is unilaterally claiming that Security Council resolution 2728 is non-binding and therefore has no impact on its policy or the legality of Israel’s continued war. This is not so obvious…
...
How do we figure out the will of the UNSC (the 14 members that voted in favour)? We turn to the principles of treaty interpretation contained in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. We try to figure out the 'ordinary meaning of the text in light of its object & purpose'.
This could be a looong discussion. But for now, note that para 1 of the resolution uses exhortatory language: "*Demands* an immediate ceasefire". "Demands" looks a lot more like it creates an obligation than, for example, language of "emphasizing", "calling upon", "urging", etc.
Finally, many of the states who spoke at the session today noted their understanding of the resolution as binding. (I'd have to go back to the transcript for a fuller picture, but several so noted). ...
Verfassungsblog - On Matters Constitutional agrees:
In conclusion, the resolution is – despite statements to the contrary – legally binding and creates a legally binding request for an immediate ceasefire during Ramadan and a legally binding request to immediately release all hostages.
The obvious elephant in the room is enforcement: who is to enforce the Security Council resolution in the current situation? It ultimately falls to the parties of the conflict to heed the Security Council’s call, and to the Council itself to enforce its requests. Given the experience of the past months, this is no cause for enthusiasm. Yet, the fact that the Council could agree on the text, after five vetoes on the matter, is, perhaps, a shred of hope.
By using the 'calls for' wording instead of the 'demand' used in the real resolution the New York Times is deceiving its readers about the obligations the resolution created.
The Washington Post is, in comparison, using the correct language:
The latest resolution, demanding an end to fighting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the release of all hostages, was backed by 14 nations including China and Russia. The United States abstained, allowing it to pass.
While the language is correct even the Washington Post report is still a bit deceiving. The U.S. and Israel have tried to combine the two issues of a ceasefire and of a hostage release into one issues. The ceasefire would depend on the hostage release and vice versa.
But the UNSC resolution has explicitly separated those issues into two different demands and has added the immediate provision of food as another one.
It demand that both sides cease fire. It demands that both sides release hostages. It does not connect the two items.
Posted by b on March 26, 2024 at 14:39 UTC | Permalink
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/03/n ... .html#more
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Netanyahu govt on shaky legs over ultra-orthodox draft bill
War minister Yoav Gallant and others have warned that exemptions of the ultra-orthodox from army service will accelerate a severe manpower crisis in the military
News Desk
MAR 25, 2024
(Photo credit: EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that his government is at risk of collapsing over a bill that would extend the exemption of the ultra-orthodox community from military service, as several members of the coalition are embroiled in a dispute over the matter.
The draft bill is set to be put to the vote in the Israeli cabinet on 26 March.
On 25 March, Hebrew media reported that Netanyahu would “not renege on passing the ultra-Orthodox draft bill and that without the bill, the government would not remain in place.” On Monday, the prime minister raised the age at which ultra-orthodox are exempted from 26 to 35.
Opposition and Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid called on the same day for Benny Gantz, war cabinet member and leader of the National Unity Party, to walk out on the government if the bill is passed.
Gantz said a day earlier, on Sunday, that the bill is a “red line.”
“The people will not be able to put up with it, the Knesset will not be able to vote for it, and my colleagues and I will not be able to be members of the emergency government if such legislation passes the Knesset,” Gantz said.
“I call on the Likud ministers and members of the Knesset – make your voices heard,” he added, saying the legislation represents a “serious failure of values” that threaten to cause deep divisions in Israeli society.
Members of Netanyahu’s party, the Likud, have recently said that the exemptions no longer make sense.
Dispute over the bill has resulted in deep divisions within the Israeli government, with many, including war minister Yoav Gallant, warning that exemption of the ultra-orthodox threatens to accelerate the severe manpower crisis the army is facing.
Gallant has continued to assert that he will not support any legislation unless all members of the government can reach a consensus.
“This coming Tuesday, a proposal for a decision on the recruitment issue will be brought to the government by the prime minister, on his initiative. My position has not changed. I will not be a party to any proposal that isn’t agreed upon by all coalition factions – and under my leadership, the security system will not submit it for legislation,” he said.
“There is still time to come together and form a joint proposal,” he added.
A law authorizing ultra-orthodox exemption from the army expired in June last year. Next week, the temporary regulation that extended it will also expire.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose extreme far-right and religious parties have majority government representation, oppose ending ultra-orthodox exemptions.
Netanyahu’s warning over the potential collapse of the government comes as Gallant is set to travel to Washington to discuss war efforts. This will be the first official visit by an Israeli official to the US since Gantz went earlier this month. Netanyahu has yet to receive an invite to Washington.
https://thecradle.co/articles/netanyahu ... draft-bill
Israel tells EU nations that recognizing Palestine ‘reward for terrorism’
Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and Malta released a joint statement last week announcing that the four nations will recognize Palestinian statehood
News Desk
MAR 25, 2024
(Photo Credit: Reuters)
Israel told four European nations on 25 March that their plan to recognize Palestinian statehood constitutes a “reward for terrorism” that would hinder efforts towards a ceasefire.
“The comments of the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, about recognizing a Palestinian state, as well as the joint statement by Spain, Malta, Slovenia, and Ireland about their readiness to recognize a Palestinian state, constitute a reward for terrorism,” Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Lior Haiat, said via social media.
Haiat added that recognizing a Palestinian state following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood “sends a message to Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations that murderous terror attacks on Israelis will be reciprocated with political gestures to the Palestinians.”
“Any engagement in the recognition of a Palestinian state only distances reaching a resolution and increases regional instability,” he added.
On Friday, the heads of Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and Malta released a joint statement announcing that they would take steps towards recognizing a Palestinian state.
The four leaders said in their statement that “the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability in the region is through the implementation of a two-state solution, with Israeli and Palestinian States living side-by-side, in peace and security.”
All four EU nations have been vocal about their support for Palestine.
Spain has repeatedly made moves against the wishes of Tel Aviv, most recently vowing to continue support of the UNRWA
Malta has accepted to offer medical aid to Palestinians like three-year-old Selah Hajras, who was injured in an Israeli airstrike.
Haiat added in his social media post that “the only way to fight Palestinian terrorism is to unequivocally condemn Hamas for the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and sexual crimes that it committed during the 7 October attack and continues to commit and to issue an explicit call for the release of all the hostages.”
Israel continues to push atrocity propaganda around the 7 October military operation, despite the refutation and lack of evidence for such claims, as well as mounting proof that the Israeli army killed its own civilians that day.
Meanwhile, it continues to wage what has come to be recognized as a genocidal war on the people of Gaza.
Most recently, first-person testimonies from witnesses of the crimes committed by the Israeli army during its Al-Shifa Hospital raid have emerged, indicating army personnel “forced 65 families to leave the area around the Al-Shifa Medical Complex whilst burning and killing entire families.”
According to eyewitness Jamila al-Hisi, women who were trapped in the medical complex were subjected to rape, starvation, torture, and extrajudicial execution.
https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-te ... -terrorism
Hamas is intact, so has Israel lost?
Six months after Al-Aqsa Flood, Israel has made little progress in eradicating Hamas or its capabilities, and its Gaza war only fueled and expanded support for resistance. Tel Aviv has miscalculated badly; you can't fight ideology with guns.
Xavier Villar
MAR 25, 2024
(Photo Credit: The Cradle)
Six months into Israel's blitzkrieg on Gaza, the occupation state's military intelligence has reluctantly acknowledged what many had suspected: achieving a decisive victory over Hamas is an unattainable goal. Despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's initial rhetoric of total annihilation, the reality on the ground speaks differently.
Tzachi Hanegbi, head of Israel's national security, had previously declared that nothing short of 'total victory' would suffice. Yet, as military Spokesperson Daniel Hagari conceded on 18 March, Hamas continues to persist, regrouping – he alleges – around Al-Shifa hospital in the northern Strip.
As US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan pointed out last week: "Israel cleared Shifa once. Hamas came back into Shifa, which raises questions about how to ensure a sustainable campaign against Hamas so that it cannot regenerate, cannot retake territory."
Mission impossible
From a political standpoint, this suggests that the occupation army can neither eradicate the Palestinian resistance movement nor assert control over the besieged territory.
Reserve General Itzhak Brik, who has previously criticized the "total chaos" among the ranks of Israeli soldiers in Gaza, has long warned that "the complete destruction of Hamas is not feasible, and Benjamin Netanyahu's statements regarding this matter are only intended to deceive others."
Tel Aviv's failure to dismantle Hamas's extensive tunnel network further highlights the inadequacy of its military efforts. Israeli authorities have confirmed that around 80 percent of Hamas' tunnel system remains intact despite months of airstrikes and ground operations.
This network, according to Iranian defense ministry officials speaking on condition of anonymity, is estimated to stretch for between 350 to 450 miles – an astonishing feat, given that Gaza's longest point is 25 miles. Two officials also assessed that there are close to 5,700 separate shafts leading to these tunnels.
Israeli boasts of repeatedly bombing Hamas tunnels ring untrue in light of these discoveries. Even advanced munitions like GBU-28 'deep penetration' bombs have proven to be ineffective against the tunnels' depth and complexity.
The evidence of Israel's inability to break through Hamas defenses continues to mount. In a 12 March speech, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei revealed that he had received a message from the Palestinian resistance saying that "90 percent of our capabilities are intact."
According to US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, the Israeli army was at most able to destroy less than a third of the Hamas tunnel network, adding: "The idea that you're going to eliminate every Hamas fighter, I don't think is a realistic goal."
It's abundantly clear that Israel's stated objective of destroying Hamas has not been achieved, nor will it be in the future. Even the Wall Street Journal, in a 29 February article lauding the occupation army's successful strikes on Hamas forces, acknowledged that "Israel is still far from its declared war aim of eliminating Hamas as a significant military and political entity."
Israel's failures can be analyzed from two distinct perspectives. Firstly, Hamas's form of military resistance is asymmetrical, allowing it to inflict damage on a much larger adversary without bearing significant casualties.
Understanding the necessity to safeguard its dual political-military structure, Hamas organizes military operations into independent cells under the authority of the Al-Qassam Brigades.
Secondly, Hamas consists of not only a fighting force but an ideology deeply rooted in the Palestinian struggle for national liberation within the Islamic notion of jihad – or "meritorious effort." The potency of this anti-colonial movement, and particularly its broad, entrenched popularity among the people, renders eradicating it a near-impossible task.
In contrast to the Fatah-led, US–Israeli-backed Palestinian Authority's (PA) acceptance of self-government with numerous constraints – exemplified by the Oslo Accords – Hamas's rejection of such agreements reflects its steadfast opposition to Israel's colonial vision and offers an attractive alternative political stance.
Assessing war as a tool of politics
In short, threats to annihilate Hamas and destroy Gaza are futile. From the rational perspective of the Palestinian resistance group, it is understood that the consequences would be far more severe if they were to submit to Israel's demands.
This same logic of resistance, which is fundamental, is shared by the overwhelming majority of Hamas followers, including secular ones. Furthermore, the logic of anti-colonial resistance is passed down from one generation to the next, and the genocidal dynamics of Zionism only serve to perpetuate this same logic.
The acknowledged failure of Zionism's pursuit of 'total victory' over Hamas must be comprehended from a political perspective. As long as Israel's colonial occupation persists in its objectives of displacement and conquest in Palestine, the ideology of resistance, epitomized by Hamas today, will maintain its dominance among the colonized.
Polls conducted among Palestinians corroborate this analysis. A survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in December 2023 indicates growing support for Hamas across all occupied Palestinian territories, alongside stunningly diminished support for the PA.
The data further reveals widespread endorsement of Hamas' actions, including the 7 October resistance operation Al-Aqsa Flood, and a significant demand for the resignation of Mahmoud Abbas, the PA's president.
The statement from the Former Deputy Chairman of the Israeli National Security Council, acknowledging that "there are no military solutions to the conflicts Israel is engaged in, particularly in the southern region," confirms the political blindness of the current Israeli status quo.
Understanding the Axis of Resistance
It is important to note that, at times, it is assumed that an ideology may be subordinate to a set of political interests, which could lead to that ideology modifying its political objectives at some point. However, this is not the case with Hamas, nor is it when analyzing the reasons for Hezbollah and Iran's opposition to Israel.
Neither Hamas nor the rest of the members of the Axis of Resistance can be threatened or bombed into submission, as these autonomous groups have their own political agenda that they consider non-negotiable even in the face of Israel's genocidal campaign. As Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah emphasized repeatedly in a 16 February televised speech:
We are before two choices – resistance or surrender – and the price of surrender … means submission, humiliation, slavery, and disdain for our elders, our children, our honor, and our wealth … The price of surrender in Lebanon meant Israel's political and economic hegemony over our country.
To illustrate, consider Iran's steadfast commitment to Palestine despite the internal risks it poses to Iranian national security in confronting both the US and Israel. Yet, these risks and threats hold no sway over Tehran's regional political strategy, which is rooted firmly in its revolutionary vision.
This marks a fundamental difference with classic western military coalitions created ad hoc by like-minded states to combat a common threat without long-term commitments. The "collapse" of the lackluster US-led coalition aimed at countering Yemen's anti-Israel naval operations in the Red Sea is a case in point.
In contrast, the Axis of Resistance is more than just a coalition of groups; it is anchored by an anti-colonial ideology that shares non-negotiable objectives but allows for different strategies to achieve them.
In other words, all the groups that comprise the Axis of Resistance – whether Sunni, Shia, Arab, non-Arab, secular, or Islamist – are capable of reaching occasional agreements and disagreements using the same language of the anti-colonial Islamic tradition.
As the war on Gaza has raged for half of a year, the unprecedented toll on Palestinian lives and infrastructure has been devastating. Despite some tactical advances by the occupation forces, it's becoming increasingly clear that Israel is headed towards a strategic defeat.
Its failure to achieve its objectives contrasts sharply with the unwavering resolve of the Palestinian resistance, bolstered by a regional alliance united in its uncompromising stance against the occupation state.
https://thecradle.co/articles/hamas-is- ... srael-lost
Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa, inflaming Jerusalem tensions
Violent settler incursions into the holy site are one of the main factors that led to the 7 October attack by the Palestinian resistance
News Desk
MAR 25, 2024
(Photo Credit: Anadolu Agency)
Tensions in Jerusalem rose after dozens of violent settlers charged the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard on the second day of the Jewish holiday of Purim on 25 March.
The extremist settlers were under the protection of the Israeli police, according to Jerusalem’s Islamic Endowments Department. Settlers started entering the compound in the early hours of Monday from the Mughrabi gate and continued to push into the eastern and northern courtyards.
Israeli police searched those entering the mosque for the Islamic dawn prayer and prevented many worshipers from accessing the holy site.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), as well as several other global organizations, have voiced condemnation over the settlers’ actions at Al-Aqsa Mosque, noting that their behavior could worsen the chances of a prolonged peace deal.
Settler violence against the Palestinians has reached all-time highs under the Benjamin Netanyahu government and has only increased since 7 October.
Over 140 families have been displaced in the West Bank since the beginning of Israel’s hostilities against Gaza, amounting to around a thousand people.
Settlements in the West Bank have also been reinforced with heavy weapons and fortified with defensive measures like bombs and machine guns.
Hamas’ statement on the reasoning behind their operation in October asked what the “world expects the Palestinian people to do in response” to the decades of violence they endured at the hands of the Israelis.
One point laid out in the statement was “the Israeli Judaization plans for the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, its temporal and spatial division attempts, as well as the intensification of the Israeli settlers’ incursions into the holy mosque.”
The violence by the extremist settlers against the Palestinian people and the storming of and plans to demolish Al-Aqsa are some of the factors leading to the Qassam Brigades' decision to launch its Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October.
https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-s ... m-tensions
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Things That Have Been Discredited During The Destruction Of Gaza
Israel, the “rules-based international order”, liberals, the label “antisemitism”, the mainstream media, Joe Biden, the “two-state solution” myth, Bernie Sanders, RFK Jr, etc.
Caitlin Johnstone
March 26, 2024
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List of things that have been discredited during the destruction of Gaza:
• Israel
• the “rules-based international order”
• liberals
• the label “antisemitism”
• the mainstream media
• Joe Biden
• the “two-state solution” myth
• Bernie Sanders
• Robert F Kennedy Jr
• the label “terrorist”
• the “human shields” lie
• the ADL
• AIPAC
• the US war machine
• right wing “free speech” supporters
• the Democratic Party
• the Republican Party
• Zionism
• all western governments
• all of western civilization
• everything westerners believe about their society
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The US vetoed multiple UN ceasefire resolutions, then put forward a fake “ceasefire” resolution that didn’t actually demand a ceasefire and accused Russia and China of “sabotaging” peace when they vetoed it, then an actual ceasefire resolution was passed which the US abstained from voting on rather than vetoing in order to save face over its Russia/China moralizing, and then the US declared (100% falsely) that the UN ceasefire resolution which passed is “non-binding”.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continues to support and defend Biden and just endorsed virulent Israel supporter Hakeem Jeffries for House Speaker, even after accusing Israel of genocide in a House floor speech.
If you say this is a genocide and then you support the people who are backing this genocide, it means either (A) you’re fine with genocide or (B) you only called it a genocide to score progressive political points and don’t actually believe what you said.
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Biden supporters keep trying to spin his genocidal actions as some kind of aberration in his otherwise lovely behavior due to highly unusual circumstances, as though he hasn’t been a bloodthirsty warmonger AND an extreme pro-Israel hawk his entire fucking political career.
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Don’t babble at me about how bad and wrong it is for Palestinians to use violence unless you can offer me a coherent plan for what they should do instead.
Civil disobedience won’t work because Zionists have no conscience and don’t care about Palestinian death and suffering.
The doors to a two-state solution with a real Palestinian state are slammed shut by Israel’s political landscape and are being further bolted down by continually expanding settlements deliberately designed to prevent such a solution from ever emerging.
A one-state solution where everyone has equal rights and no ethnicity gets preferential treatment is an even more remote pipe dream which not even Israel’s western allies support.
So what can the Palestinians do? It doesn’t look like anyone who opposes armed resistance has any good answers. Really what they want is for Palestinians to just lie down and submit to whatever abuses Israel wants to inflict upon them and just slowly fade into obscurity and become a forgotten people, but they can’t say that aloud without sounding like psychopaths so they just finger-wag at Hamas without ever offering any legitimate solutions.
Palestinians have been forced against their will into an impossibly horrible situation, and they sometimes use violence out of desperation because all the other doors are closed to them. If you want me to “condemn” them for this you can kiss my ass, especially since you can’t even tell me what they should do instead.
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The overwhelming majority of westerners spend roughly zero percent of their day thinking about Jews and Judaism, but because Israel stands accused of genocide people are being gaslighted into believing our society is overflowing with a widespread seething hatred of Jewish people.
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All popular online posts about Israeli atrocities will have numerous comments underneath claiming that it didn’t happen, or that it was justified, or that it was good actually, or that it should be blamed on Hamas. Every single one, without a single solitary exception. No matter how strong the evidence is. No matter how horrific the atrocity.
This shows you that Israel apologists don’t care about truth or morality, and it shows you that they never have. All throughout Israel’s history they’ve been lying and manipulating the public narrative about what the Israeli state has been doing this entire time. That’s why they push so hard to get people de-platformed and censored and to get TikTok shut down: all they care about is controlling the public narrative, so they want to silence anyone who makes that harder for them.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/03 ... n-of-gaza/
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