By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
October 16, 2023
Stop calling it the "Israel-Hamas war". It's the Israel-Gaza massacre. Calling it the Israel-Hamas war creates the false impression that this is a war that is directed exclusively at Hamas when it's really an ethnic purge that's directed at all Palestinians in Gaza.
The child body count alone makes it clear that this isn't a war against Hamas; I saw an anonymous account 𝕏 point out on Twitter that the number of children killed in this onslaught after one week already exceeds the total number of children killed after a year and a half of fighting in Ukraine, per the United Nations.
Laying complete siege to a civilian population and bombing anything that stands would be an extraordinary abomination in any war. And this is not a war, it's an enclosed shooting range with military explosives and human targets.
❖
Americans should probably worry about the rapid legitimization of this idea that civilians who have a government that kills people are all legitimate targets.
Half of the population wasn't even alive 18 years ago.
According to the logic of collective punishment we're seeing circulated with regard to Gazans and Hamas, all American civilians deserve to die horribly because they permit themselves to be ruled by a regime which is orders of magnitude more violent and destructive than Hamas.
❖
Hamas is responsible for Hamas' decisions, Israel is responsible for Israel's decisions. Hamas is responsible for the Hamas attack, Israel is responsible for provoking that attack via apartheid abuses and for bombing civilians in retaliation for it. It's not actually complicated.
❖
Israel has been struggling with a rapidly worsening PR crisis ever since Palestinians started 𝕏 getting internet access and smartphones with video cameras and exposing Israeli apartheid abuses. So if you're wondering why they cut off Gaza's internet and electricity, that's why.
Israel was 100% aware that cutting off power and internet to Gaza would prevent Palestinians from recording and publishing footage of its coming war crimes. They struck a fatal blow to citizen journalism in Gaza, thereby blinding the whole world to what's happening there.
❖
The mass media asked you to believe the Hamas attack was "unprovoked". Then they asked you to believe blatant babies-on-bayonets atrocity propaganda. Now they're 𝕏 asking you to believe Jewish kids were in school before dawn on a Saturday morning in Israel. Western journalism, folks.
'Top secret' Hamas documents show that terrorists intentionally targeted elementary schools and a youth centerDocuments exclusively obtained by NBC News show that Hamas created detailed plans to target elementary schools and a youth center in the Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Sa'ad, to "kill as many people as possible."
❖
The only reason so many Israel apologists scrambled to circulate unverified stories about beheaded babies and mass rapes instead of waiting for evidence was to make the real atrocities Israel is perpetrating and will continue to perpetrate in Gaza look reasonable and appropriate.
❖
After this current crisis is over I'm probably going to think a lot about the fact that MSNBC suspended three Muslim reporters during Israel's Gaza assault because it didn't want Muslims reporting on it.
❖
I used to think all genocidal massacres are bad but then some really smart Israel apologists explained to me that this genocidal massacre is completely different because this genocidal massacre's perpetrators believe they are doing the right thing for a good reason.
❖
If there were two million Jewish people trapped by Christians in a giant open-air prison and placed under total siege, being told that half of them had 24 hours to relocate into the other half or be killed, nobody would have any confusion about what they were witnessing.
❖
❖
Everyone's got a serious case of 9/11 brain right now.
You know about 9/11 brain, kids? It's when something scary happens and everyone goes insane and starts believing a bunch of lies and consenting to power-serving agendas that do exponentially more damage than the initial trauma.
❖
I keep getting people acting like it's controversial or even outlandish to say that Israel is an apartheid state. It's not. The leading mainstream western human rights groups say it's apartheid, as does the top human rights group in Israel.
❖
They said we need more censorship because of Covid. They said we need more censorship because of Russia. They said we need more censorship because of January 6. Now they say we need more censorship because of the Hamas attack.
Maybe they just want more censorship?
❖
❖
Before engaging an Israel apologist in a debate about the ongoing Gaza purge, it's probably a good idea to ask them to clarify whether there's any amount of death and destruction Israel could inflict there that would cause them to stop supporting what Israel is doing. Is there a death count that they'd consider too much? How many dead Palestinian civilians are they willing to tolerate in this current operation? Tell them to give you a number.
If they can't give you a number and place a limit on how much human butchery they're willing to accept from Israel, that tells you they're not actually defending Israel for reasons that have anything to do with humanitarian concerns or valuing human life. They're saying they'll defend Israel no matter what it does and no matter how many atrocities it commits, because their support for Israel is entirely based on ideology and/or religion. In which case there's no reason to continue the debate, because you can't debate someone out of their Christian fundamentalism or Zionism or Islamophobia or whatever it is that's driving their support. They're not arguing with you out of any interest in morality or justice or truth or facts, they're arguing with you solely to advance an agenda.
❖
The greatest trick white anti-semites ever pulled was getting Jews to leave western society in droves and move to a far away country to spend their lives beating up Muslims.
________________
My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.