Our Wednesday News Analysis | Opinion | Thanks to Its Regime, Israel Is Losing the Justification For its existence

Supporters visit an Educational Bookshop, after Israeli police raided two Educational Bookshops and made arrests, in East Jerusalem, February 10, 2025.Credit: Ammar Awad/ REUTERS

"The Israeli regime of 2025 suppresses criticism.

When my parents shared with me their experiences in communist Poland,
where the regime canceled theater performances, censored books, and imprisoned those who dared criticize it... I was fortunate to have been born in a country where none of this occurred.

Well, it's happening now.

It has always happened to Palestinians on both sides of the so-called Green Line.

Now, it's happening to everyone, and it's happening in the big time."

Israel is steadily losing its justification for existence. From a democratic and humanistic perspective, a state isn't an end in itself but rather a means to realize the rights of its citizens and subjects. Like a cooperative, the state owns nothing; everything it has belongs to its members, and all its powers derive from them.

A state is a political entity meant to serve human beings. If it fails to do so, significantly if it worsens its situation, the justification for its existence evaporates.

There are states whose regimes undermine this purpose, states that only serve the ruling class, that exploit those who don't belong to it and are indifferent to the welfare of their subjects. These are corrupt, criminal states, like a bank that steals its customers' funds.

There's no justification for their existence. Any flirtation with the concept of the state as an end in itself – as an entity with its purpose rather than as a means – is a dangerous flirtation with fascism. It may seem innocent at first, but it ultimately leads to gulags where regime opponents are imprisoned...

Read more: Opinion | Thanks to Its Regime, Israel Is Losing the Justification For its existence

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I STAYED UNTIL THE END, DR ABU NUJAILA. WE WILL REMEMBER AND REBUILD

Source: Al-Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/2/16/i-stayed-until-the-end-dr-nujaila-we-will-remember-and-rebuild

By Hend Salama Abo Helow
Published February 16, 2025

The self-sacrifice of Palestinian doctors in Gaza has inspired a new generation of medical students. I am one of them.

A man sits in the destroyed building of Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025 [Doaa Albaz/ Anadolu Agency]

In December, against all odds, 80 medical students at Al-Azhar University graduated and became doctors ready to save lives.

I am scheduled to graduate in 2028. I
am determined to become a neurosurgeon for Gaza.

For my grandmother was martyred last year.

For my parents, who sacrificed everything to help me pursue this dream.

For every stolen future.

For every destroyed hospital.

For every doctor lost.

I made it through.

Dr. Abu Nujaila, I will carry your story and the stories of
other brave Palestinian doctors.

We will not be defeated.

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Editor’s Note | How can I not shed tears reading this story?

How is it possible that so many Americans and Western Europeans are beguiled by Israeli atrocities veiled as goodness? Why do Christian nationalists wave the banner of Holy Goodness and support Israel's reign of terror?

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“Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could – remember us.”

These were the words Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila wrote on October 20, 2023, at al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia refugee camp. He scribbled them in blue ink on a whiteboard used for surgery schedules. They were a testament to resilience, a final message of defiance.

A month later, Dr Abu Nujaila redefined the moral dimensions of the medical oath not with words, but with his blood. An Israeli air strike on the hospital killed him and two of his colleagues, Dr Ahmad Al Sahar and Dr Ziad Al-Tatari...

Read more: I stayed until the end, Dr Abu Nujaila. We will remember and rebuild
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OPINION | HAMAS STARVED AND ABUSED PEOPLE. ISRAEL HAS, TOO

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-02-17/ty-article-opinion/.premium/hamas-starved-and-abused-people-israel-has-too/00000195-0f9c-d00a-adfd-6fdff7f60000

By Moria Shlomot
Published February 17, 2025

A Palestinian man pushes a child on a wheelchair amidst the rubble of buildings in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Sunday.Credit: Hatem Khaled / Reuters

On the Saturday before last, we looked on in shock at the sight of the three Israeli hostages Or Levy, Eli Sharabi, and Ohad Ben-Ami, who was released from Hamas captivity. The extreme gauntness resulting from long-term starvation and the pale faces that disclose the harsh conditions under which the three were held painfully jolted our collective memory. Three civilians who were abducted from their homes and returned as "Musselmen," gaunt, weak, and pale. It makes your stomach turn.

Starvation as a method, as a practice, as a way of breaking the body and soul being adopted by Hamas, is intolerable. The appearance of the three men was more than infuriating, more than painful. It isn't only an act that violates international law – it violates that elusive thing called humaneness.

Israeli hostages Ohad Ben Ami, Or Levy and Eli Sharabi on a stage before being handed over by Hamas to a Red Cross team in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.Credit: Eyad Baba/AFP

They starved people, and so did we. They denied them medicine, and so did we.
They abuse soldiers, and we abuse security prisoners.
They are cruel, and so are we.
When we swore "never again," – the intention wasn't only "never again”
to our people but "never again" to anyone.

Everyone felt the shock. There was nobody who wasn't heartbroken. But the truth is that Hamas is not the only political leadership that has behaved in recent months with inconceivable cruelty; not only has Hamas forces dispassionately denied food and water to innocent people.

Harsh pictures of hungry, emaciated Gazan children, fighting over every morsel of food, water, and assistance, have been published in the foreign media but barely penetrated the social and commercial media in Israel. That's why the shock on Saturday was so justified, but at the same time, also grating. To me at least...

Read more: Opinion | Hamas Starved and Abused People. Israel Has, Too