Israel’s war on Gaza “a textbook case of genocide”

By
John Minto
-
72
1369

It feels slightly surreal to see our politicians react to the violence in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on Israel two months ago.

Within the first two days of the attack Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, during the last week of the election campaign, was eager to speak out saying “New Zealand condemns unequivocally the terror attacks led by Hamas on Israel”. Brutal and horrific were other adjectives he used. At the time National leader Chris Luxon made similar comments saying the attack was “barbaric and unprovoked”. Mr Luxon didn’t explain why he thought Palestinians fighting back after 75 years of brutal, colonial oppression was somehow “unprovoked”.

It took a further six weeks and 12,000 Palestinians slaughtered before Chris Hipkins, as Labour Party leader rather than as caretaker Prime Minister, spoke out to criticise Israel. This time he called for an immediate ceasefire and said Israel’s response was “disproportionate and indiscriminate”. Few would dispute that. Even the Israeli military confirmed their bombing was focused on “damage over accuracy”. So much for going after Hamas.

Chrisopher Luxon, both before and after his election as Prime Minister, has still not uttered a single word of criticism of Israel. And neither has our newly-minted Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters.

Why did it take Israel killing the equivalent of all the students in 23 average-size New Zealand primary schools before Chris Hipkins spoke out? And why is Christopher Luxon still silent?

All the flashing red lights are saying that not only are Israel’s attacks “disproportionate and indiscriminate” but that they have the hallmarks of something more sinister which stems from Israel’s stated intentions and its follow-through military action.

Around the world the term genocide is being used widely to describe Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Numerous academics, senior United Nations officials, leading international human rights organisations and politicians across the globe are using this term to describe what we have seen on our TV screens for the past seven weeks.

Genocide always begins with words and there is a wealth of reporting on the dehumanising language being used by Israel’s political and military leaders to demonise the Palestinian people as a whole.

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For example Israel’s President Isaac Hertzog says “it is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” and two days after the attack Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant spelt out genocidal intentions saying “we are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we will act accordingly.”  Unsurprisingly Israelis generally have taken up this talk across social media with calls for Gaza to be “flattened,” “erased” or “destroyed”. More tragic is a social media post showing Israeli children singing “we will annihilate everyone” in Gaza.

Under the December 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the term is defined as “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group…”

Israel’s Defence Minister’s statement matches the UN Convention closely to the point where Israeli scholar of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Raz Segal, has described Israel’s rhetoric and actions as “a textbook case of genocide”

He says Israel is already perpetrating three of the five genocidal acts which fall under the definition of genocide, namely: “1. Killing members of the group. 2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group. 3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

It’s clear Israel’s political and military leaders have a case to answer before the International Criminal Court, just as does Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine.

Israel should also have to answer for war crimes such as “collective punishment” of Palestinians in Gaza which has been at the centre of Israel’s policy and practice.  Mass bombing of densely populated civilian areas, the bombing of ambulances, schools, hospitals and other community infrastructure and the targeting of journalists, doctors and health professionals must all be answered for. Using starvation as a weapon of war is the apartheid regime’s latest war crime.

And the war crimes list gets longer. Israel’s clear preference is to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian population and force the 2.3 million Palestinians into Egypt’s Sinai desert. Israeli soldiers are repeatedly telling their social media followers the plan is to “destroy, displace and settle”. In other words, destroy Gaza, displace the Palestinians and then annex the area as part of Israel.

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention Palestinians are “protected persons” because they live under Israeli military occupation but Palestinians they need protecting from those supposed to protect them!

Meanwhile, under the cover of war, ethnic cleansing of rural Palestinian communities is taking place in the occupied West Bank by heavily armed Israeli settlers with the backing of the Israeli military. At least 15 of these communities have been driven off their land over the past six weeks while at least 235 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem have been killed resisting the Israeli occupation since October 6th.

New Zealand is a small country which talks a big game claiming we are committed to “rules-based international order”.

New Zealand has a chance to be a champion of these international rules by calling for a swift, well-resourced International Criminal Court investigation into war crimes committed in the attack on Israel and the Israeli response. This investigation must also include investigation into the crimes of genocide and apartheid.

Staying silent in the face of genocide is complicity with Israeli war crimes, state terrorism and settler colonial abuses against the indigenous Palestinians.

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72 COMMENTS

  1. I totally agree, it’s amazing how so many people are blinded by various forms of propaganda to in essence believe that the Palestine people are less equal than other people. As a Christian I do not agree with all of the Muslim faith but see that it is essential that they be allowed to practice their faith without persecution. The saddest part is that many so-called Christians who should know that God is love then proceed to worship their own god of vengeance because it suits their limited world view & love of material things.

      • I am well aware that Christians suffer persecution however that is not an excuse to inflict or support persecution on anyone else we disagree with. You would think that the Man who said this “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,” would know something about how we should live. The apostle Paul reminds us “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore
        “If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
        If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
        For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
        Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
        which is based on Leviticus 19:18 so the Jews should know that but as I have already written their own selfish hearts control them.
        It seems odd that you use Mt 7:3-5 which is a warning not to judge others to try to judge me, try reading Romans 2 if you need help understanding the concept of not judging others.

        • Israel funds and propagates Islamic fearmongering and anti-Palastinian lies ( like the ‘Human shields Bullshit ,,,,, Anne E (E for extremists) is a big spreader of this ,,,,,

          Yet she absolutely refuses to condemn Israels support and empowering of Muslim Extremist?terrorists https://youtu.be/8clMNOmX_kk?t=189 ,,, instead she just calls Syrian girl ‘whiney ‘,,, without refuting any of her evidence ,,, and Ignores Israels support for terrorists ,,,, and the ethnic cleansing Zionists do to Christian Arabs https://youtu.be/8clMNOmX_kk?t=301

          The Zionist extremists are openly calling for Genocide in Gaza ,,, https://youtu.be/JBBhAsnme20?t=116 and and Anne E is all for it ….

          People like Gaby and Anne E use propaganda and lies to defend Israels far larger ‘vengeance bombing/terrorism’ ,,,, and the ethnic cleansing/Genocide/collective punishment war crimes that Israel officials are stating quite openly ,,, and committing with impunity ,,,, Is Israel Guilty Of Genocide? https://youtu.be/JBBhAsnme20?t=4

          With more and more evidence of Israels,bombing, shelling,burning and killing THEIR OWN citizens on October 7th ,,,, it seems clear the “Hannibal Doctrine” was inflicted by Israel upon Israelis ,,, and the IDF put the blame for self inflicted slaughter on ‘Hamas’ ,,,, Israel Media is openly questioning a mass Hannibal event https://youtu.be/NDk1TsQWmLo?t=278 ,,, with it not reported on in our media.

          1hr 29 minutes of this video for Israeli testimony and video footage of IDF killing hostages https://rumble.com/v427he8-gaza-war-update-israeli-trade-destroyed-by-yemen-siege-resistance-targets-o.html

          https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-idf-are-so-good-at-killing-israelis

          “IDF troops killed escaped Israeli hostages who were holding up a white flag, apparently because they mistook them for Palestinian civilians holding up a white flag (Israeli forces have a long and well-documented history of killing Gazans while they are waving white flags). The only reason they bothered to check if the abductees might be people whose lives they care about was reportedly because one of them had a “western appearance”, i.e. looked white.

          Imagine being held hostage by Hamas for months, finally escaping, trying to make your way back home, and then getting killed by your own military forces because they mistook you for Palestinian civilians.

          ❖

          Israel supporters always say “Hamas just needs to surrender and everything will be fine.”

          Surrender? You mean wave a white flag?”

            • Anne Extremist refuses to denounce Israel Govt support and military support for terrorists …. Or are you claiming THIS is a conspiracy https://youtu.be/8clMNOmX_kk?t=189

              Is Anne Extremist claiming THIS is a conspiracy https://twitter.com/docjazzmusic/status/1723568797427142861 …

              No wonder she wants to divert and whine on about Syrian girl being whiney ….

              I bet Anne Extremist is a frumpenstein monster with a face like a smacked arse ,,, what do I mean by this ?? …. Angry, red, hair in the wrong places and with the most foul breath ,, but particularly in Annes case she pumps out constant shit about Muslims ,,, that only Brenton Tarrent could match.

              Did you ghost write or edit his manifesto Anne Extrenist 😉 ….

              Heres a 10 month old video on Israels extreme right extremist Govt … Israel’s Most Racist Government Ever https://youtu.be/z4SL5EHHZfU

              And a more in depth look at the Kahanist zionist terrorist nuts that now infest the Israel Govt … Kahanistan https://youtu.be/YMlt9Si9Ti8?t=1740

                • The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal speaks at Boston’s Community Church on December 14, addressing the factors which made the October 7 attacks inevitable and unpacks the atrocity propaganda deployed by Israel to generate political support for its genocidal rampage against the Gaza Strip.

                  https://youtu.be/G2eu0sio23s

                    • Only a frumpy grumpy zionist extremist with a face like a smacked arse could possibly think that’s relevant to Israels present and ongoing mass murder of women, children and the elderly ,,, eh Anne

                      This is almost beyond belief – and underlines how depraved the propaganda machine about the onslaught against Gaza has become.

                      A special thanks to Iraq Body Count for their help in the research for this video…
                      The VILEST Lie About Gaza Yet https://youtu.be/pqz9YBiKpms

      • Solid point Ann – The Middle East was the once the cradle of Christianity until it’s conquest by Islamic forces in the 7th Century and the reason there are virtually no Christians left is because they faced the choice between having to covert to Islam / flee / or execution.

        • If you know history you will know that it was only the Islamic forces that diverted the medieval church from having the Inquisition destroy anyone who took a different viewpoint so that the reformation was allowed to happen. It is estimated that the medieval church did kill around 50 million people so while the Islamic forces were brutal they did not come close to that sort of evil.
          You should also know that while the Middle East was the cradle of Christianity it lost its way as error crept into the church, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition” was how Paul described what was to come & you could read the messages to the churches (Rev chpt 2-3) if you need more convincing.

  2. Yemen is a massive supporter of Palestine and are currently attacking ships in the ‘Bab el Mandeb’ which has disrupted international shipping. The Houthis are supported by Iran a major military superpower in the region and relevant on a global scale. The US has sort an international coalition to attack Yemen a country that has suffered at the hands of western sanctions along with its regional allies brutal aggression towards a poor nation. Apartheid Israel can be rightfully held responsible for this international disruption to the global shipping trade as this conflict historically exceeds the 7th Oct 2023 attacks by Hamas.

    Free Palestine.

  3. I despise Hamas but looking at what Israel has done in response defies belief. Saying the people of Gaza “deserve it” in some way in this hunt for Hamas militants is as asinine as saying the people of Ukraine “deserve it” as Putin hunts for his “nazis” there.

    Winston Peters can weasel around with words, but I’d call it genocide and our government should grow a backbone and do the same.

    Hamas may be murdering scumbags, but at this point Netanyahu is no better.

  4. Just one comment.
    Rather than the ICC, Israel needs to brought before the UNICJ, the court specifically set up by the UN in 1948 to hear cases relating to genocide.
    Israel is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Prosecution of the Act of Genocide.
    Israel is not a signatory to the ICC.
    Unlike the ICC, whose powers are limited, the UNICJ has the power to impose severe diplomatic penalties on any UN member country or territory found guilty of committing genocide, including expulsion from the United Nations, and complete diplomatic isolation from all international bodies. Including diplomatic missions to all United Nations member countries, like New Zealand.
    Not only this, any country in the world can take a case to UNICJ as “an uninvolved Country”.
    In fact New Zealand recently did just that, joining a group of “Uninvolved Countries” that gave legal testimony at the UNICJ hearing on the allegations of genocide made against Ukraine by the Russian Federation.

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/10/08/guest-blog-patrick-odea-ukraine-takes-itself-to-court/

  5. Chris Hedges:
    Israel will appear triumphant after it finishes its genocidal campaign in Gaza and the West Bank. Backed by the United States, it will achieve its demented goal. Its murderous rampages and genocidal violence will exterminate or ethnically cleanse Palestinians. Its dream of a state exclusively for Jews, with any Palestinians who remain stripped of basic rights, will be realized. It will revel in its blood-soaked victory. It will celebrate its war criminals. Its genocide will be erased from public consciousness and tossed into Israel’s huge black hole of historical amnesia. Those with a conscience in Israel will be silenced and persecuted.
    But by the time Israel achieves its decimation of Gaza — Israel is talking about months of warfare — it will have signed its own death sentence. Its facade of civility, its supposed vaunted respect for the rule of law and democracy, its mythical story of the courageous Israeli military and miraculous birth of the Jewish nation, will lie in ash heaps. Israel’s social capital will be spent. It will be revealed as an ugly, repressive, hate-filled apartheid regime, alienating younger generations of American Jews. Its patron, the United States, as new generations come into power, will distance itself from Israel the way it is distancing itself from Ukraine. Its popular support, already eroded in the U.S., will come from America’s Christianized fascists who see Israel’s domination of ancient Biblical land as a harbinger of the Second Coming and in its subjugation of Arabs a kindred racism and white supremacy.
    https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/17/chris-hedges-the-death-of-israel/

    • “…So what can Hamas do to stop this? Israel has already told them…” Nathan

      You are so full of shit Nathan. Israel has no intention of stopping “this”. Israel has told Hamas, and the whole world for that matter, that they will allow only a pause (not a stop) in exchange Hamas must agree to release more hostages. But, after five days the IDF will then resume their full assault on the Gaza strip.
      For Palestinians this means getting killed next week instead of this week.
      Hamas have rejected Israel’s offer of a “pause” and has demanded a “stop” before releasing any more hostages.

  9. Mind-numbing ordure. The appalling atrocities of 7/10 perpetrated by the brutal, barbaric Hamas terrorists illustrated exactly what the next Holocaust would look like, and emphasises how vital it is that Israel wins this war and crushes them forever…which is happening, of course. Comparing Israeli actions of self-defence to the Nazis is just an obscene form of Holocaust denial. It’s an historical fact that the Palestinians supported the Nazis in WW2, and have become their seamless successors. They will be cast into oblivion just as their inspirers were. The IDF is the most moral army in history.

      • Funny Nathan, because there are Israelis that are none too happy with dodgy Netanyahu’s handling of the situation. As in why not have a ceasefire until all the hostages are returned? Probably because he doesn’t seem to care.

      • Or on something more Psychedelic. Self defence by an occupying force. Gaby needs to stupid harping on about the holocaust. There’s no sense in saying Israel can commit atrocities because of the atrocities that occurred 80 odd years earlier. Gaby is the one in denial.

      • Nah taken far to many ecstasy pills.
        Israels brutality since 1947 bred the Hamas response .
        1/ LETS NOT FORGET ISRAEL CREATED HAMAS in the 1st place .
        2/ It was Israeli friendly fire that created most of the casualty numbers on Oct 7th.
        3 / in my opinion the far right in Israel got the response they bred.
        Treat people like shit you get Shiite right back

    • “The IDF is the most moral army in history.”

      Killing their own people waving white flags.

      Hate to think what you think is amoral Gaby.

    • “The most moral army in History” shooting at three unarmed men stripped to the waste carrying a white flag, killing two and wounding one. Then hunting down the wounded man in a nearby building where he had sought shelter and executing the helpless man as he begged for his life.
      And we only heard about this, Why?
      Because he wasn’t Palestinian.

      The army that is so sure of its morality and confident of its impunity that they film themselves looting and vandalising Palestinian homes and properties and upload it onto the internet.
      And that is not even mentioning the sickening genocide.

    • Hamas has destroyed ova 30 Israeli tanks and killed 1000s of IDF. They destroyed the feared ‘Golani brigade’ who minutes before their demise were filming themselves for social media standing together like amateurs talking themselves up. The IDF are use to beating up unarmed woman & children but are weak against a Palestinian that well trained motivated and armed.

      • ‘are weak against a Palestinian that well trained motivated and armed.’
        Bwahhhh good one, keep the jokes coming Tipine, always a good laugh reading them.

    • Define morality Gaby, is it bombing hospitals where people seek urgent medical care from indiscriminate Israeli bombings? how about “refugee” camps and bulldozing homeless people under the ground? Seriously define Jewish ” Morality” in plain terms.
      The undeniable truth is Israel is an apartheid racist state that is a stain on Humanity.

    • Gaby, 20,000 Palestinian’s & counting, mostly Women & Children, all non Military targets, including Hundreds of UN workers, Media Reporters & Health workers have been indiscriminately targeted & slaughtered by the IDF in Gaza, the cowardly, thuggish & hopelessly inept IDF have even killed their own Israeli people, so whose committing the real atrocities & War crimes here you fucking idiot, there is no excuse for this level of genocide, despite what Hamas did, you have to be really evil, morally depraved & deranged to make the entire Palestinian Race pay the price using Collective punishment for the crimes done by a small bunch of Hamas fighters, there’s no legal justification for Israel’s illegal behaviour in Gaza but the real reason is because they were absolutely humiliated by Hamas on Oct 7th, their much vaunted Military caught asleep on the job & had their asses spanked by a bunch of Arabs on Paragliders & Hamas continues to humiliate them!

    • Gaby is an offensive genocidal racist who complains that Palestinians are breeding like rabbits, inferring that they need to be exterminated like vermin.

    • Have you never asked yourself why Hamas hates Israel so much? You presumably know a definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing but expect a different result. Very few people here support the violent actions of Hamas but if all Israel does is provoke people then more enemies are the guaranteed result.

  11. if you want to call it a holocaust fair enough but it’s NOT genocide linguistic exaggeration is not clever or impressive

  12. I appreciate this. So much context. Should be a column in a national newspaper.

    We wait for you, John, here. And I’ve been watching every utube there is on this massacre.

    You kept to the straight truth over 50 years and Trotter has gone off — somewhere — which puts you in the league of Corbyn and Sanders, and him — somewhere.

    I wish the foul beliefs of the current Israeli govt were more clearly on view. Some MSM (baseless) complacence prevents it. Morality isn’t central to world affairs but every now and then we need a reset to know up from down. Note how the Ukraine invasion produced instant renewal of democratic values in the West. The leaders’ only context was WW ll, very rightly.

  14. John, you had me up to the point you mentioned the “Rules based International Order”? This is a American misnomer & word salad created by the US Govt to describe a International Order in which America is the sole Superpower ruling over the World & that only they, as this indispensable exceptional Nation gets to make the Rules to suit its Geopolitical Hegemony as the US Empire & everyone & every Nation must follow their Imperial rules & dictates OR ELSE! Fortunately for the World, Russia & China & most of the Global South majority reject this premise? If you were to try & look for those US Rules & dictates, you won’t find them written down anywhere, it’s a unspoken, unwritten set of values that is implied, usually by coercion, soft power or outright Military force! But the United Nations is the only recognised arbitrator of International Law & Rules that Nations follow, not America’s phoney & illegal Rules based International order, the Americans unconditional support for Israel using their phoney & made up rules based order enables Israel to commit genocide & mass murder in Gaza! America & Israel are joined at the hip & the US is complicit in Israel’s War crimes, Terrorist activities & blatant ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian race!

    • Well shit Israel says, so i must be true eh Gaby in the interest of balance will the IDF fess up to plowing Palestinians under a bulldozer? Didn’t think so. Social media is awash with the video of the IDF murder of a Palestinian, ain’t no coming back from that atrocity.

    • More stupid as fuck comments from the nutty as a jar of peanut butter gaby, the only second Holocaust the World is witnessing in realtime is the one Satanyahu & his Zionist Nazi Regime are doing to the Palestinians in the largest open air concentration camp in History called Gaza & in the West bank! This ongoing murderous genocide of Arabs & Palestinians by this illegitimate little scumbag Nation State called Israel has been going on for over 70 yrs, ever since it was shat & excreted into existence as a Nation in 1948 by the dregs of European Jews after WW2, none of these Jews came from the Land they refer to as Israel in what has been called Palestine for over 2000 yrs ever since the original Israelites were kicked out by the Romans back in 70 CE! The Zionist State is a Evil, out of control & morally deranged & corrupt Apartheid State that is committing War crimes & atrocities that would make Hitler & the Nazi’s blush, what Hamas did on Oct 7th was revenge, giving Israel a dose of their own murderous medicine!

    • “…they [Hamas]proudly boast they will repeat 7/10 “again and again and again”. Gaby

      More bullshit from Gaby in support of genocide.
      How about giving a link or a citation to back your claim that Hamas proudly boasted they will repeat 710 “again and again and again”.
      Some hearsay from some Zionist who invented a slick meme and then attributed it to Hamas doesn’t qualify.

  17. The “human shield” argument
    We all know that a human body offers no protection against artillery shells or aerial munitions. Therefore, what do we mean when we say that people are being used as “human shields”?
    Quite simply, the human shield tactic is based on the understanding that if the baddies put innocent people between themselves and those who are seeking to apprehend or punish them, the forces of good will not fire at the risk of taking innocent lives.
    But if the “forces of good” show that they will not hesitate to take innocent lives then “human shields” become totally ineffective. Hamas cannot be using civilians as human shields because they know as well as we do that the IDF will drop their bombs and fire their artillery shells regardless of whether innocent civilians (Christian or Muslim, Arab or Jew) are in the way.
    The only remaining moral argument against Hamas is that they should not have entered into a conflict in which they knew that the enemy would deliberately kill vast numbers of non-combatant men, women and children, but that is entirely different to the “human shield” argument. It is an argument against self-defence, a purely pacifist argument which cannot be applied to Hamas separately from the rest of humanity.
    So let us be clear. Hamas is not using human shields because it cannot. Not against the IDF or the USA. Human shields might work against the military forces of civilized states, but then civilized states would not be trying to do what the the State of Israel and the United States of America are trying to do to the people of Palestine. Civilized states do not embark on long remorseless campaigns of genocide. And that is why human shields cannot found in the military inventory of movements challenging the US or the State of Israel.

  19. The Israeli govt pretends so poorly it has to be told off by America. It’s all a puppet show. They want the Palestinians gone.

    Both countries have no hearts. We had hearts briefly after WW ll.

    Israel is over.

  20. Palestine is suffering but all may not be going well for Israel
    “The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Monday that five brigades would be pulling out of Gaza in the coming weeks for training and rest, while fierce fighting continued in areas of Gaza”. (News report 1 Jan 2024).
    Apart from “training and rest” Israel is also saying that the reservists are being withdrawn because “The war has taken a toll on the economy, preventing reservists from going to work, running their businesses or returning to university”.
    The talk is designed to give the impression that it is business as usual for the IDF. However the withdrawal is not in line with the IDF’s normal strategy of using overwhelming force to secure a stunning military victory. The “long war” has been the political reality for the Israeli state since 1945, but its military, the IDF, has worked on the exact opposite principle and has usually succeeded.
    Why is it different now?
    The argument that the withdrawal is for “economic reasons” does not stack up. The Israeli economy is strong, and the US underwrites it. In any case, a war economy always takes precedence over a peace economy, and Israel’s mobilization would have been carefully designed to allow the war economy to function.
    More credence can be given to the “training and rest” explanation, but with a caveat. Commanders do not withdraw troops from the thick of battle for training unless unless those troops are failing to perform, and they do not withdraw troops for rest unless the troops are at the point of exhaustion or suffering a serious loss of morale. The morale of Israeli troops, especially the reservists, will be tested in two ways. First, by the losses they may be sustaining, and second, and more significantly, by the crimes that they are being ordered to commit. Not all Israelis are cut from the same cloth as the current leadership under Benjamin Netanyahu. As Jewish people they will not find it easy to be a party to genocide, and that will particularly apply to the withdrawn reserve forces.
    So it would appear that despite the great destruction Israel has wreaked on Gaza, it has a problem with its troops and with the progress of the war. It is now looking to a long and indecisive war to which it will only commit a moderate proportion of its hardest and most experienced military units. Up till now Israel has always enjoyed the luxury of being able to manage a long term political conflict through the application of short sharp and conclusive military operations against its Arab enemies. The IDF seems to be admitting that it no longer has the capacity to carry out such decisive military operations against Hamas.
    Which brings us to the latest terrorist atrocity committed against mourners during commemorations of the death of the Iranian hero Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated four years ago on the orders of President Donald Trump, undoubtedly with approval from the State of Israel. Accusations have been leveled against the United States, Israel and ISIS, which has allegedly claimed responsibility through twin suicide attacks. The supposed ISIS claim of a suicide bombing (a standard ISIS tactic) conflicts with reports that the explosions were remote controlled (a technique previously employed by Israeli agents to carry out assassinations in Iran). Irrational motives for the atrocity could include such things as revenge for the Iranian execution of four Mossad agents a few days earlier, or an abiding resentment towards Soleimani and his sympathizers from ISIS or the US. However Israel is the only party which had a rational motive for carrying out the Kerman massacre. That would be to provoke Iran into a strike which would then bring the US fully into Israel’s current war. The direct military intervention of the US would only be necessary if Israel was on the backfoot in the Gaza fighting, as it may be, but the consequences of US and Iranian involvement would be anything from a wider regional war up to a nuclear Armageddon. The world, and New Zealand, needs to pause and take a deep breath before embarking on such a course.

  21. Grand to see Minto’s column in Stuff. I remember how the new Key govt threw out Geoffrey’s alcohol report. This govt seems to have thrown out idealistic foreign policy along with much else not in the manifestos. But, yes, we should join South Africa in their case against such an obvious vileness.

    Israel is following its lights, as it sees it, of its origins, we– who gave support — can see now we were wrong. Will it crumble like a vampire with a stake through its heart without us? It’s an open question since we created it.

    Israel is doing what Israel demands. But nil support from us foreign founders. America’s general support no matter what says bad things about them.

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