Israel’s latest war on Gazans – paving the way for genocidal retribution.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/17/world/middleeast/biden-israel-gaza-anger.html

The current war on Gazans – not war in Gaza – represents the Israel government’s latest attempt at genocidal retribution against Palestinians. One could argue the cause (a horrific attack on largely defenseless men, women and children by Hamas militants inside Israeli borders on 7 October 2023 and the taking of hostages) justifies such retaliatory action.

Unfortunately, violence begets violence representing a display of collective blood lust. Where will this end, one wonders? The brunt of the state-sanctioned violence by Israel against the population of Gaza is being aided and abetted by the United States meekly supported by its allies in the collective West. Belatedly, one sees some voices of dissent within the EU (most notably Spain). All the talk seems to be about ‘humanitarian corridors’ and ‘safe zones’ to make the relentless Israeli bombing campaign against the people of Gaza seem more palatable. What is needed is an immediate ceasefire, the safe release of hostages, the ending of the blockade of Gaza by Israel, its reconstruction and rehabilitation and a move towards a durable political settlement between Palestinians and Israelis. Sadly, this is unlikely to happen as an entrenched, apartheid, ethnonationalist and highly militarized state finds that it can essentially inflict collective punishment with impunity on a population of more than two million to avenge the crimes committed by a few thousand paramilitary forces. Concerns about acts of war crimes by Israel and Hamas have been raised in some quarters but whether this will be pursued by the International Criminal court remains to be seen.

Israel has already realized that the narrative of good guys seeking justice by chasing bad guys is being rapidly replaced in the court of global public opinion by the rather negative view of a vengeful nation prepared to kill thousands simply to show how powerful it is. This realization is likely to mean that the Israel government will possibly go through the motion of a full-scale invasion, declare victory, and go home. At some point, the hostages will be released in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Hamas will declare victory too simply by saying that they are still around. The enormous bill for reconstruction and rehabilitation will be picked up by the ‘international community’, while Israel will simply look the other way and wait for the next round of violence. How long this situation will last is anybody’s guess.

Genocidal retribution is not just a primitive urge to exact revenge. The case for it has to be carefully constructed over time to dehumanize the ‘other’ so that one is eliminating unworthy objects rather than human beings. The killing of thousands and /or their displacement will merely be seen as unavoidable collateral damage in the pursuit of the bad guys. This is where the use of particular words and their projection in the public domain becomes important. Thus, Defence Minister Yoav Galant did not make any distinction between Hamas and ordinary Gazans when he said that Israel s dealing with “human evil”. He cheerfully announced a ‘total siege’ of Gaza creating an evolving humanitarian crisis that is compounded by relentless aerial bombing.

Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, opined:

‘It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible’.

Israeli Deputy Foreign minister Danny Ayalon, in an interview with Al Jazeera, pointed out that the Israeli plan is to force Palestinians into the “almost endless space in the Sinai desert, just on the other side of Gaza,” where they can live in “tent cities. As Aron Mate notes,

‘Invoking the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians before and after Israel’s founding in May 1948, known as the Nakba (“catastrophe”), Ariel Kallner, an Israeli parliamentarian, said that Israel has “one goal”: a “Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 1948”.

US politicians are keen to match the bloodthirsty rhetoric of their Israeli counterparts. Thus, President Biden invokes the notion of ‘pure evil’ in describing Hamas. Nicky Haley, Republican Presidential nominee, wanted to ‘finish them’  (referring to Iran, the patrons of Hamas). Senator Lindsay Graham could not contain his enthusiasm for murder and mayhem. I am with Israel,” Graham said. “Do whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself. Level the place.” 

Some even deny the grim reality of large-scale human suffering of Palestinians. Thus, Israeli Ambassador to UK in a TV show denies that there is a ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Gaza. As a veteran UK journalist points out, one must use the ‘language of genocide’ to engage in genocide. Any attempt to cultivate compassion and empathy gets in the way of this grisly endeavour. It is one of the bitter ironies of history that the descendants of the Holocaust have become the tormentors of millions of innocent people.