Our Wednesday News Analysis | ‘Are we the baddies?’ Western support for genocide in Gaza means the answer is yes

An injured Palestinian woman hugs an injured girl child in hospital following the Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on 15 November 2023 (AFP)

In a popular British comedy sketch set during the Second World War, a Nazi officer near the front lines turns to a fellow officer and, in a moment of sudden - and comic - self-doubt, asks: “Are we the baddies?”

For many of us, it has felt like we are living through the same moment, extended for nearly three months - though there has been nothing to laugh about.

Western leaders have not only backed rhetorically a genocidal war by Israel on Gaza, but they have provided diplomatic cover, weapons and other military assistance.

The West is fully complicit in the ethnic cleansing of some two million Palestinians from their homes, as well as the killing of more than 20,000 and the injuring of many tens of thousands more, a majority of them women and children.

Western politicians have insisted on Israel’s “right to defend itself” as it has levelled critical infrastructure in Gaza, including government buildings, and collapsed the health sector. Starvation and disease are starting to pick off the rest of the population.

The Palestinians of Gaza have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from Israel’s US-supplied bombs. If they are ultimately allowed to escape, it will be into neighbouring Egypt. After decades of displacement, they will be finally exiled permanently from their homeland...

Read more: ‘Are we the baddies?’ Western support for genocide in Gaza means the answer is yes

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‘THE HITLERYUGEND’ OR ISIS ISRAEL: THE TWO KOOKS WHO NATIONALIZED JUDAISM – ILAN PAPPE

Source: Palestine Chronicle
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-hitleryugend-or-isis-israel-the-two-kooks-who-nationalized-judaism-ilan-pappe/

By Ilan Pappe – The Palestine Chronicle
Published January 1, 2024

The phenomenon of religious Zionism originates in the teaching of two of the most respected Zionist rabbis, a father and son, belonging to the Kook family.

(Image: Palestine Chronicle)

Mainstream media and governments in the Global North insist that we should equate between Hamas and ISIS. This position is modeled around Israel’s insistence on such a reference.

Apart from the fact that this is a spurious comparison, it is particularly important to note that there is a much better case study that demonstrates the fusion of dogmatic messianism and violence. This comparison, however, is not a Palestinian phenomenon but an Israeli one.

This phenomenon originates in the teaching of two of the most respected Zionist rabbis, a father and son, belonging to the Kook family.

Let us first talk about the father, Avraham Itzhak Kook (1865-1935). He was born in Latvia, in a region that used to be Russian, and eventually became the father of religious Zionism.

This messianic, racist, and fundamentalist ideological stream is now growing in terms of presence and influence among Israeli political elites, who are trying to follow religiously the teachings and visions of Rabbi Kook and his son, Zvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook (1891-1982)...

Read more: ‘The Hitleryugend’ or ISIS Israel: The Two Kooks who Nationalized Judaism – ILAN PAPPE Israel

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OPINION | WILL ISRAEL'S SANE MAJORITY PLEASE STAND UP?

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-01-02/ty-article-opinion/.premium/will-israels-sane-majority-please-stand-up/0000018c-c6aa-ddba-abad-c6abc3080000

By Ofra Rudner
Published January 2, 2024

Israelis protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, last year.Credit: Rami Shllush

The vast majority of the Israeli public doesn't have confidence in the coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Every day that this coalition is still responsible for the fate of the hostages, or continues to send soldiers into battle, is total insanity.

That in itself is a good reason to stop the war and make a deal to bring back all the hostages we can, at any price. But it turns out that the sane majority is drugged by the war and the war propaganda, to the point that it's willing to sell its most basic values and to allow the coalition, in which it has no confidence, to drag us down into an abyss which has no bottom and no red line.

For example, let's examine the idea that Netanyahu put into the heads of Israelis, that "only more military pressure will bring back the hostages" – an idea that has definitely failed. Were there other options? And if there were such options, could we have spared the lives of soldiers? We have no idea. These questions have barely been asked, and anyone who dared asked them is written off as a hallucinating leftist.

Is there really nobody with whom to undertake a diplomatic agreement on "the day after"? And what is the red line, the pragmatic and ethical boundary for the pulverizing in the Gaza Strip? These questions have also barely been asked. And meanwhile the hostages and their families are paying the price, the soldiers and their families are paying the price, children on both sides of the separation barrier are paying the price, and only the coalition isn't paying the price. Why? Because it's war. You don't ask tough questions, you don't demonstrate against the government, and you certainly don't demonstrate against the war – nu, because it's war. Welcome to Catch 23...

Read more: Opinion | Will Israel's Sane Majority Please Stand Up?