It is very clear that Hamas are evil: I'd agree with you on that & most people would & they are a danger- it's after that where your polemic loses its course, although you are right to say they're a danger & and oppressive agent against their own people.
-There are a number of verified accounts of starvation of those who live in Gaza & these are not Hamas inspired.
- As far as I can see, Israel isn't been held to a higher standard, but the standard that we'd apply to a democracy in the west/near West.
- Oct 7th was a war crime & some of the positioning of where they are based, yes. However, it would be hard not to in Gaza: Israel has squeezed the Palestinans into ever smaller territory. Since Israel do not allow foreign journalists into the country, some of their assertions are suspect.
- You refer to Hamas continuing its campaign as long as Hamas remains Muslim: I'm really not sure about that- this murderous terrorist organisation gets much of its oxygen from the way the current regime in Israel acts & the historyof illegal settlemens (yes; even if it acted in a better way, Hamas would still be a threat, but the actions of Israel are likely to be its best recruiting aid).
- Genocide? The case isn't proven yet, but the excessive force used, coupled with elements of the Netanyahu govt calling for the destruction of Palestinians pushes it in that direction.
- I'd be concerned if bishops didn't say something about the loss of life & starvation: is it really necessary to take a sideswipe against your bishops at almost every opportunity?
Some of my opinions of Israel changed after I'd spoken to people who've been there, particularly a friend who is a noted photographer (not an extremist) who'd experienced being shot at by the IDF- he said that the IDF routinely shot at journalists.
THE SERVANTS OF AN EXPANSIONIST, ZIONIST MILITARY INDUSRTRIAL COMPLEX
PEACEFUL
Before we even look at recent events - let us remember that Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews all lived relatively peacefully together for centuries before Zionism took over in the 20th century. That was of course before Zionism illegally claimed their own territory in Palestine, and started generations of persecution and ethnic cleansing of the land they stole to be theirs.
AUSTRALIAN ISRAEL?
As the anti-Jewish pogroms spread across Germany and Russia during the 20th century, Israel had also been investigating OTHER areas of the world to settle. Imagine how different world history could have been if Australia had seceded a territory for "New Israel" to settle? This reminder is from Australian Jewish journalist Anthony Loewenstein. His book has been broken down into a 4 part podcast he calls “The Palestine Laboratory.” https://www.thepalestinelaboratorypodcast.com/
Many of the following points are informed by this podcast. When considering the Palestinian question, Loewenstein would have us remember that:-
1. RACIST
Western democracies value multi-culturalism and tolerance and the rule of law for the majority. While Israel can be analysed as a modern democratic state, the Zionism behind it and influencing it is implicitly an ethno-religious system preferencing Jewish people and faith over any other ethnicity or religious identity. Even Islamic theocracies - which the west is hypocritically so horrified by - can accommodate those from other races as long as they profess Islam. But when it comes to Zionism - for some reason we have been conditioned to turn a blind eye to illegal racist ethnic cleansing of a patch in the Middle East. After all - they are are 'Democratic eyes and ears' in the Middle East - a foothold.
2. EXPANSIONIST
Zionism is inherently as expansionist as any militant Islamic claim on the Middle East. There are repeated calls from members of Israel's government to cleanse Palestinian territory of any Palestinians - to finish the job - "from the river to the sea."
3. DEFYING INTERNATIONAL LAW
Israel has defied international law since their inception. They have illegally practiced settler-colonialism, taking so much of the West Bank that it now resembles Swiss-cheese. The Palestinian parts are the ever-shrinking holes.
4. LARGEST OPEN AIR PRISON
Gaza is a whole other situation - the world's largest open air prison with decades of restricted trade, and even limited fresh water and power. Israel has denied Palestine "Jus Post Bellum" for generations. It is sociology 101 that if you occupy and persecute a people group for generations, they will retaliate. The west sympathises with the Jewish plight after the horrors of the Holocaust. We are only recently waking up to the fact that they are now perpetrating the very same crimes that were perpetrated against them just a few generations ago. All that are missing are the trains and gas chambers! But the ghettos and systematic prejudice and persecution and now illegal weapons testing on their populations are all there.
5. BATTLE TESTED
Which is where Loewenstein's term the "Palestine Laboratory" comes from. Gaza is the lab where the Expansionist Zionist Military Industrial Complex tests their new weapons. Israel are ECONOMICALLY addicted to testing new weapons in Gaza. They avoid using a tactically local effect smart bomb that would only take out the building in question. Instead, they use illegal thermal devices with an enormous thermal blast wave that fries the lungs of women and children up to 300 meters away! These are then marketed at international arms expos as “Battle tested Israeli arms.” Asking Israel to give up their annexation and terrorism of Gaz is like asking Americans to give up oil!
6. APARTHEID
Israel supported the Apartheid governments of South Africa and the Pinochet regime in Chile. (See podcast above.) They trained them! They ran workshops on how to promote a victim culture and present their practices to the world as 'self-defence'. Indeed - the 20% of Israeli citizens that are Arab are dealing with almost as much prejudice as black South Africans suffered under Apartheid.
7. OCTOBER ATTACKS: This is not to minimize the horror of a weaponised Islamic terrorist event, the repugnant Hamas October attack! The intentional targeting of non-combatants is always to be condemned. On the other hand, in Just War Theory there is this idea of proportional response.
As well as the testing of illegal thermal weapons:-
Why is Israel banning international journalists?
Why do they have strict rules on not filming as the recent air-aid drops flyover Gaza?
Why did Israel stop 400 United Nations aid points - and only supply 4?
Why do they then blame the Palestinians for Israeli soldiers repeatedly shooting Palestinians just wanting food?
Why do doctors without borders report that there appears to be some sort of co-ordinated target practice on a given day, almost a gamification of firing on Palestinians queuing for aid? One day appears to be head-shots, the next day leg wounds, the next day testicles.
9. PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE
Part of “Just War” theory is proportionate response. Limiting civilian casualties is one of them. The Israelis lost 1,342 civilians in the horrific original terrorist attack - the Palestinians in Gaza are now over 50,000 - most of them women and children. Any pretence at 'self defence' ended within a few months of this war starting. It has now gone on for 2 years. The war crimes are escalating. The world is watching. City areas outside the combat zones are being systematically bulldozed.
Does that sound like "Proportionality" or "Military Necessity" of Just War Theory?
Why did Israel brand a recent United Nations conference as “rewarding Hamas” when 157 nations (to 7 who disagreed) voted for this conference back in December last year? It was due in June but delayed due to the 12 day war between Israel and Iran.
France, the UK, and Canada don't just suddenly jump up and shout "I want to reward a terrorist organisation!" Hamas committed an atrocity. OF COURSE these countries acknowledge that! Simplistic Zionist lies to the contrary ignore the facts. These countries will ONLY offer Palestinian recognition when Hamas is completely disbanded and a newly reconstituted Palestinian Authority is implemented, one that acknowledges "Israel's right to exist."
11. THE IRONY
Let us remember that asking Palestinian's to acknowledge "Israel's right to exist" is like asking Ukrainians to acknowledge Russia's "right to exist" in the right half of their country. However, unlike today's Israeli situation, the Russian situation is still unfolding - still being contested - still in play. Zionism won. They have a state. Israel is now historically a thing. The 'left' across western democracies are now just asking that ISRAEL ACKNOWLEGE PALESTINE's right to exist! That Zionism has so twisted the language that everything is about getting Hamas to acknowledge ISRAEL'S right to exist shows how successful their campaign has been.
12. The ANTI-SEMITIC IRONY
Benjamin Netanyahu would call me antisemitic. That word is being flung around so regularly it has become trite. It's like Donald Trump calling anything he does not like "fake news". I have not said anything racist about Jewish people! I do ask why the GOVERNMENT of Israel continues to defy international law as detailed above. However - why does Israel have the second highest rate of skin cancer in the world? It seems that due to matters of ancient history under the Romans, modern Jews lived for long periods in Europe and intermarried with Europeans. The irony is - modern Palestinians are genetically far more semitic than the Jews! They should not throw around the term 'antisemitic' so liberally.
13. EGPYT DOES NOT WANT THEM EITHER!
The Zionist right claims that there is something so wicked and faulty with the Palestinians that even the Egyptians have sealed off that small part of their border with Gaza, lest these terrible people all come flooding through!
A: What has Egypt got to do with Israel's illegal annexing of Palestinian land and using both slow motion settler colonialism in the West Bank and ghetto blockading of Gaza to run the world's largest open air prison? It's a Geopolitical Shell game, using rhetorical sleight of hand to take our eyes of who is really responsible for what.
B: The Irish invasion of Wales! Imagine Ireland suddenly invaded Wales, and someone from another ethnicity on the other side of the planet observed: "Well - the English don't want to take 2 million Welsh, and they're even part of the same kingdom!? What's up with that? There must be something really wrong with the Welsh!" Our supposedly distant and uninformed commentor may as well utter the immortal line, “After all - they're all white! They all look the same to me!”
The point should be clear. It's not the UKs responsibility to take the Welsh - it's Ireland's responsibility to get the heck out and give the Welsh back their land and sovereignty!
14: A MASTERS DEGREE IN ALL THIS SUMMARISES THE 3RD AUGUST SYDNEY PROTESTS:
A friend of mine with a Masters in International Relations focussing on Palestine said of today’s 100,000 strong march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in FULL rain:
“Fabulous turn out today at the March for Humanity. End the starvation, end the occupation, end the genocide. Sanction Israel now. From 2005 Israel and its leaders have spoken about “putting Gaza on a diet” and “mowing the lawn” all the while controlling Gaza’s borders, water and electricity. If you don’t know what was happening in Gaza pre 2023, or what has been happening to Palestinians since 1948, find out. Because blaming Palestinian resistance movements, however repugnant, is like blaming the French resistance in WWII or the Warsaw ghetto leadership for the Holocaust.”
That's not your best article Imho.
It is very clear that Hamas are evil: I'd agree with you on that & most people would & they are a danger- it's after that where your polemic loses its course, although you are right to say they're a danger & and oppressive agent against their own people.
-There are a number of verified accounts of starvation of those who live in Gaza & these are not Hamas inspired.
- As far as I can see, Israel isn't been held to a higher standard, but the standard that we'd apply to a democracy in the west/near West.
- Oct 7th was a war crime & some of the positioning of where they are based, yes. However, it would be hard not to in Gaza: Israel has squeezed the Palestinans into ever smaller territory. Since Israel do not allow foreign journalists into the country, some of their assertions are suspect.
- You refer to Hamas continuing its campaign as long as Hamas remains Muslim: I'm really not sure about that- this murderous terrorist organisation gets much of its oxygen from the way the current regime in Israel acts & the historyof illegal settlemens (yes; even if it acted in a better way, Hamas would still be a threat, but the actions of Israel are likely to be its best recruiting aid).
- Genocide? The case isn't proven yet, but the excessive force used, coupled with elements of the Netanyahu govt calling for the destruction of Palestinians pushes it in that direction.
- I'd be concerned if bishops didn't say something about the loss of life & starvation: is it really necessary to take a sideswipe against your bishops at almost every opportunity?
Some of my opinions of Israel changed after I'd spoken to people who've been there, particularly a friend who is a noted photographer (not an extremist) who'd experienced being shot at by the IDF- he said that the IDF routinely shot at journalists.
A work in progress! It is indeed a vice that I sideswipe the Bishops. I just can't help myself sometimes :(
I used to do that with Methodist leaders!
You write very well. Very well said.
THE SERVANTS OF AN EXPANSIONIST, ZIONIST MILITARY INDUSRTRIAL COMPLEX
PEACEFUL
Before we even look at recent events - let us remember that Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews all lived relatively peacefully together for centuries before Zionism took over in the 20th century. That was of course before Zionism illegally claimed their own territory in Palestine, and started generations of persecution and ethnic cleansing of the land they stole to be theirs.
AUSTRALIAN ISRAEL?
As the anti-Jewish pogroms spread across Germany and Russia during the 20th century, Israel had also been investigating OTHER areas of the world to settle. Imagine how different world history could have been if Australia had seceded a territory for "New Israel" to settle? This reminder is from Australian Jewish journalist Anthony Loewenstein. His book has been broken down into a 4 part podcast he calls “The Palestine Laboratory.” https://www.thepalestinelaboratorypodcast.com/
Many of the following points are informed by this podcast. When considering the Palestinian question, Loewenstein would have us remember that:-
1. RACIST
Western democracies value multi-culturalism and tolerance and the rule of law for the majority. While Israel can be analysed as a modern democratic state, the Zionism behind it and influencing it is implicitly an ethno-religious system preferencing Jewish people and faith over any other ethnicity or religious identity. Even Islamic theocracies - which the west is hypocritically so horrified by - can accommodate those from other races as long as they profess Islam. But when it comes to Zionism - for some reason we have been conditioned to turn a blind eye to illegal racist ethnic cleansing of a patch in the Middle East. After all - they are are 'Democratic eyes and ears' in the Middle East - a foothold.
2. EXPANSIONIST
Zionism is inherently as expansionist as any militant Islamic claim on the Middle East. There are repeated calls from members of Israel's government to cleanse Palestinian territory of any Palestinians - to finish the job - "from the river to the sea."
3. DEFYING INTERNATIONAL LAW
Israel has defied international law since their inception. They have illegally practiced settler-colonialism, taking so much of the West Bank that it now resembles Swiss-cheese. The Palestinian parts are the ever-shrinking holes.
4. LARGEST OPEN AIR PRISON
Gaza is a whole other situation - the world's largest open air prison with decades of restricted trade, and even limited fresh water and power. Israel has denied Palestine "Jus Post Bellum" for generations. It is sociology 101 that if you occupy and persecute a people group for generations, they will retaliate. The west sympathises with the Jewish plight after the horrors of the Holocaust. We are only recently waking up to the fact that they are now perpetrating the very same crimes that were perpetrated against them just a few generations ago. All that are missing are the trains and gas chambers! But the ghettos and systematic prejudice and persecution and now illegal weapons testing on their populations are all there.
5. BATTLE TESTED
Which is where Loewenstein's term the "Palestine Laboratory" comes from. Gaza is the lab where the Expansionist Zionist Military Industrial Complex tests their new weapons. Israel are ECONOMICALLY addicted to testing new weapons in Gaza. They avoid using a tactically local effect smart bomb that would only take out the building in question. Instead, they use illegal thermal devices with an enormous thermal blast wave that fries the lungs of women and children up to 300 meters away! These are then marketed at international arms expos as “Battle tested Israeli arms.” Asking Israel to give up their annexation and terrorism of Gaz is like asking Americans to give up oil!
6. APARTHEID
Israel supported the Apartheid governments of South Africa and the Pinochet regime in Chile. (See podcast above.) They trained them! They ran workshops on how to promote a victim culture and present their practices to the world as 'self-defence'. Indeed - the 20% of Israeli citizens that are Arab are dealing with almost as much prejudice as black South Africans suffered under Apartheid.
7. OCTOBER ATTACKS: This is not to minimize the horror of a weaponised Islamic terrorist event, the repugnant Hamas October attack! The intentional targeting of non-combatants is always to be condemned. On the other hand, in Just War Theory there is this idea of proportional response.
(more points below)
8. ETHNIC CLEANSING AND WAR CRIMES IN GAZA
As well as the testing of illegal thermal weapons:-
Why is Israel banning international journalists?
Why do they have strict rules on not filming as the recent air-aid drops flyover Gaza?
Why did Israel stop 400 United Nations aid points - and only supply 4?
Why do they then blame the Palestinians for Israeli soldiers repeatedly shooting Palestinians just wanting food?
Why do doctors without borders report that there appears to be some sort of co-ordinated target practice on a given day, almost a gamification of firing on Palestinians queuing for aid? One day appears to be head-shots, the next day leg wounds, the next day testicles.
9. PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE
Part of “Just War” theory is proportionate response. Limiting civilian casualties is one of them. The Israelis lost 1,342 civilians in the horrific original terrorist attack - the Palestinians in Gaza are now over 50,000 - most of them women and children. Any pretence at 'self defence' ended within a few months of this war starting. It has now gone on for 2 years. The war crimes are escalating. The world is watching. City areas outside the combat zones are being systematically bulldozed.
Does that sound like "Proportionality" or "Military Necessity" of Just War Theory?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_war_theory
10. REWARDING A TERRORIST ORGANISATION!?
Why did Israel brand a recent United Nations conference as “rewarding Hamas” when 157 nations (to 7 who disagreed) voted for this conference back in December last year? It was due in June but delayed due to the 12 day war between Israel and Iran.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_New_York_Peace_Conference_on_Gaza
France, the UK, and Canada don't just suddenly jump up and shout "I want to reward a terrorist organisation!" Hamas committed an atrocity. OF COURSE these countries acknowledge that! Simplistic Zionist lies to the contrary ignore the facts. These countries will ONLY offer Palestinian recognition when Hamas is completely disbanded and a newly reconstituted Palestinian Authority is implemented, one that acknowledges "Israel's right to exist."
11. THE IRONY
Let us remember that asking Palestinian's to acknowledge "Israel's right to exist" is like asking Ukrainians to acknowledge Russia's "right to exist" in the right half of their country. However, unlike today's Israeli situation, the Russian situation is still unfolding - still being contested - still in play. Zionism won. They have a state. Israel is now historically a thing. The 'left' across western democracies are now just asking that ISRAEL ACKNOWLEGE PALESTINE's right to exist! That Zionism has so twisted the language that everything is about getting Hamas to acknowledge ISRAEL'S right to exist shows how successful their campaign has been.
12. The ANTI-SEMITIC IRONY
Benjamin Netanyahu would call me antisemitic. That word is being flung around so regularly it has become trite. It's like Donald Trump calling anything he does not like "fake news". I have not said anything racist about Jewish people! I do ask why the GOVERNMENT of Israel continues to defy international law as detailed above. However - why does Israel have the second highest rate of skin cancer in the world? It seems that due to matters of ancient history under the Romans, modern Jews lived for long periods in Europe and intermarried with Europeans. The irony is - modern Palestinians are genetically far more semitic than the Jews! They should not throw around the term 'antisemitic' so liberally.
13. EGPYT DOES NOT WANT THEM EITHER!
The Zionist right claims that there is something so wicked and faulty with the Palestinians that even the Egyptians have sealed off that small part of their border with Gaza, lest these terrible people all come flooding through!
A: What has Egypt got to do with Israel's illegal annexing of Palestinian land and using both slow motion settler colonialism in the West Bank and ghetto blockading of Gaza to run the world's largest open air prison? It's a Geopolitical Shell game, using rhetorical sleight of hand to take our eyes of who is really responsible for what.
B: The Irish invasion of Wales! Imagine Ireland suddenly invaded Wales, and someone from another ethnicity on the other side of the planet observed: "Well - the English don't want to take 2 million Welsh, and they're even part of the same kingdom!? What's up with that? There must be something really wrong with the Welsh!" Our supposedly distant and uninformed commentor may as well utter the immortal line, “After all - they're all white! They all look the same to me!”
The point should be clear. It's not the UKs responsibility to take the Welsh - it's Ireland's responsibility to get the heck out and give the Welsh back their land and sovereignty!
14: A MASTERS DEGREE IN ALL THIS SUMMARISES THE 3RD AUGUST SYDNEY PROTESTS:
A friend of mine with a Masters in International Relations focussing on Palestine said of today’s 100,000 strong march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in FULL rain:
“Fabulous turn out today at the March for Humanity. End the starvation, end the occupation, end the genocide. Sanction Israel now. From 2005 Israel and its leaders have spoken about “putting Gaza on a diet” and “mowing the lawn” all the while controlling Gaza’s borders, water and electricity. If you don’t know what was happening in Gaza pre 2023, or what has been happening to Palestinians since 1948, find out. Because blaming Palestinian resistance movements, however repugnant, is like blaming the French resistance in WWII or the Warsaw ghetto leadership for the Holocaust.”