{"id":190687,"date":"2023-10-11T08:43:38","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T12:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=190687"},"modified":"2023-10-11T08:45:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T12:45:05","slug":"israel-must-be-defeated-vt-senior-editor-jonas-alexis-makes-the-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=190687","title":{"rendered":"

Israel Must Be Defeated — VT Senior Editor Jonas Alexis Makes the Case<\/span><\/b><\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Enough is enough! Israel needs to suffer a major defeat. VT Senior Editor Jonas Alexis Makes the Case<\/h3>\n

introduction by\u00a0Jonas E. Alexis, VT Senior Editor<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Norman Finkelstein made the point a few years ago that \u201cIsrael has to suffer a major defeat\u201d in order to join the civilized world. Why did he say that? Well, Israel has never followed international and universal laws when it comes to politics and wars. Israel does whatever it pleases when it comes to wiping out civilians and innocent people. This is exactly what we are currently witnessing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his recent work\u00a0Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom<\/a>, which is published by the University of California Press, Finkelstein takes the Israeli project in Gaza by the balls by producing one document after another showing that Israel has committed crimes in Gaza\u2014crimes that would put people like Ted Bundy or Ted Kaczynski to shame.<\/p>\n

Finkelstein writes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated places in the world. More than two-thirds of its inhabitants are refugees, and more than half are under eighteen years of age.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2018operations\u2019 against Gaza\u2019s largely defenseless population. Thousands have perished, and tens of thousands have been left homeless. In the meantime, Israel has subjected Gaza to a merciless illegal blockade. What has befallen Gaza is a man-made humanitarian disaster.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Gaza, Finkelstein writes in the preface of the book, \u201cis a distinctly evil crime,\u201d and \u201cthe documentary record bears it out.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Finkelstein takes all of Israel\u2019s arguments with respect to its operation and Gaza and scholarly tears them to shred. Israel continues to act in ways that are incompatible with the moral and political order largely because Israel has been getting away with its evil deeds without any repercussions from the West. Enough is enough.<\/p>\n

\n

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Israel\u2019s Murderous Attacks on Gaza<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Yanis Iqbal<\/p>\n

Israel is again conducting bloody attacks on Gaza. Interminable rounds of shelling by Israeli terrorists \u2013 known as Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) \u2013 have left in their wake infant corpses and blood-stained rubble of residential buildings. Every attempt is being made to decapitate the present and disembowel any hope for a better future. The current massacre campaigns by the Zionist state have followed the well-established pattern of colonial aggressions, characterized by an unconscionable logic of inhumanity.<\/p>\n

1) Israeli state & Zionist settlers\u00a0tried<\/a>\u00a0to illegally displace Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah.<\/p>\n

2) Palestinians\u00a0resisted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3) Israeli troops brutally cracked down on Palestinians,\u00a0storming<\/a>\u00a0one of the holiest sites, Al-Aqsa Mosque, on one of the holiest nights, Laylat-al Qadr, of the holiest month, Ramadan, in one of the holiest cities, Jerusalem, while Muslims prayed peacefully. Israeli raids\u00a0continued<\/a>\u00a0for two days, injuring hundreds.<\/p>\n

4) Palestinians\u00a0fired<\/a>\u00a0rockets in retaliation.<\/p>\n

5) Israel ruthlessly\u00a0bombed<\/a>\u00a0Gaza, killing 24 Palestinians, including 9 children, and wounding more than 100 others.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/picture><\/picture>\n

Hypocritical Response<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US \u2013 instead of denouncing the child-murdering bombing of Gaza- hypocritically decried the rockets fired by Palestine on Israel, saying it recognizes Israel\u2019s right to defend itself. Speaking at his daily press briefing, US State of Department spokesperson Ned Price glibly\u00a0said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me start by saying that the United States condemns in the strongest terms the barrage of rocket attacks fired into Israel in recent hours. This is an unacceptable escalation.\u201d \u201cWhile we urge de-escalation on all sides, we also recognize Israel\u2019s legitimate right to defend itself and to defend its people and its territory.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This is pure doublespeak, modeled after US President Joe Biden\u2019s\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cIsraelis wake up every morning facing an existential threat. That\u2019s why we always have to be adamant that Israel must be able to defend itself.\u201d Price well knows that the situation in Palestine can\u2019t be \u201cde-escalated\u201d as long as Israel vilely uses the principle of \u201cself-defense\u201d to rent the Gazan air with cries of agony.<\/p>\n

While the USA was engaged in verbal skullduggery, Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0all IDF units must prepare for a wider campaign of \u201cindefinite\u201d duration. He ordered that attacks continue on Hamas facilities for weapons manufacturing and storage \u2013 and for the onslaught to be expanded to additional targets. In other words, bloodbath on a larger scale.<\/p>\n

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Inversion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The bombing of Gaza can continue because powerful countries like USA shamelessly invert the roles of Israelis and Palestinians: the Israeli aggressor once again becomes the persecuted victim, as per the Exodus story, while the Palestinians, strangled, wounded and immobilized in the open air prison that is Gaza, enclosed within electrified walls and fences, are transformed into terrorists, relentlessly and heartlessly persecuting the innocent Israeli victims. This inversion has real effects: it serves to reinforce the image of the Palestinian as an enemy, as sub-human, an entity not entitled to any dignity.<\/p>\n

When the inversion schema is formalized, we are presented with the concept of Israel\u2019s \u201cright to self-defense\u201d. The issue is framed as Hamas shooting rockets into Israel and Israel retaliating to defend itself. Here, the context \u2013 Israel\u2019s murderous occupation of and continuing war crimes against the Palestinian people \u2013 disappears into thin air. It is also forgotten that the resistance of democratically elected Hamas to Gaza\u2019s illegal occupation is just and according to international law.<\/p>\n

First, Israel has\u00a0occupied<\/a>\u00a0the Gaza Strip since 1967 in violation of international law.<\/p>\n

While Israel withdrew its illegal colonies from Gaza in 2005, it maintained the military blockade, which is\u00a0an act of war<\/a>\u00a0and a violation of the IV Geneva Convention, which\u00a0prohibits<\/a>\u00a0collective punishment. As long as Israel continues its occupation\/annexation of the Palestinian territories, it cannot use force in \u201cself-defense\u201d from resistance attacks coming from Gaza.<\/p>\n

The issue of legality was neatly\u00a0summed up<\/a>\u00a0by international jurist John Dugard in 2014: \u201cGiven the fact that Gaza is an occupied territory, it means that Israel\u2019s\u2026assault is simply a way of enforcing the continuation of the occupation, and the response of the Palestinian militants should be seen as the response of an occupied people that wishes to resist the occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second, under\u00a0UN Resolution 3246<\/a>, the Palestinians have the right to liberate themselves from foreign occupation through \u201carmed struggle\u201d. In fact, the resolution reaffirmed\u201dthe legitimacy of the people\u2019s struggle for liberation from colonial and foreign domination and alien subjugation by all available means\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is pertinent to note that Hamas\u2019s weapons are no match for Israel\u2019s military might. Its limited rockets are miserable devices. They fly erratically and scare their adversaries, but kill very few, and destroy very little. They are almost like slingshots, compared to Israel\u2019s over 90% effective anti-rocket protective Iron Dome, and land, sea, and air power.<\/p>\n

And while Israel attacks on the ground, from the sea and in the air with far superior weapons, Hamas\u2019s only other recourse is underground, using tunnels to fight back. Considering all this, it becomes clear that moral outrage over Palestinian resistance is a part of propaganda efforts to portray Israelis as vulnerable, terrified victims of Hamas rockets.<\/p>\n

As is evident, the terrorist bombing of Gaza is completely untenable. No amount of obfuscation can conceal the fact that Israel\u2019s occupation of the enclave is entirely\u00a0synonymous<\/a>\u00a0with the endless dehumanization of Palestinians. The\u00a0settler-colonial<\/a>\u00a0state of Israel has to be dismantled; the occupation has to end.<\/p>\n

Yanis Iqbal is an independent researcher and freelance writer based in Aligarh, India, and can be contacted at\u00a0yanisiqbal@gmail.com<\/a>. His articles have been published in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and several countries in Latin America.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This article was first published in May 2021.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>\u00a0http:\/\/normanfinkelstein.com\/2019\/11\/06\/congratulations-to-norman-finkelstein-gaza-an-inquest-into-its-martyrdom-has-been-featured-in-a-list-of-best-human-rights-books-of-all-time\/.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Norman Finkelstein,\u00a0Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom<\/em>\u00a0(Oakland: University of California Press, 2018), preface.<\/p>\n

___
\nhttps:\/\/www.vtforeignpolicy.com\/2023\/10\/israel-must-be-defeated\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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