The Wests response to Gaza, put to the sword any pretence that we are a civilised race of creatures.
I don't know for sure. But my gut has started to tell me a new ledger item in humanity's litany of genocide is being written in Gaza. The signs are all there pointing towards crimes against humanity having been committed and still ongoing.
Our leaders have begun to circle the wagons and light propaganda fires that create plumes of smoke that obscure our ability to see the truth. I am not a lawyer with a legal understanding of what red line must be crossed to make instances of enormous destruction and death an annihilation of a people- rather than a run-of-the-mill massacre.
But the moral compass for Israel's conduct of this war has been demagnetised by the West's blanket support. America has become like the three monkeys of the fable. They hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil, when it comes to Israel's wrathful combat.
Hospitals in Gaza are all gone now. They were eradicated by bombs and artillery. Medical care has become like something from the Napoleonic wars where children injured in bombardments that require their limbs amputated undergo the sawing of arms and legs without anaesthetic. Unarmed civilians brandishing white flags are shot dead by IDF forces.
Toilets are so scarce that for every 400 Gazans, there is just one available to them to piss and shit in. Most people just defecate on the streets as if they were feral dogs. Women have run out of sanitary products and instead use rags during menstruation. A million people are displaced, homeless camped out in rubble-strewn streets or living in cramped tents. Famine has crept into the Gaza enclave thanks to Israel and there are fears mass death will befall many from hunger or disease. The only retort we hear from our governments to these outrages against civilised society is “ yes but Hamas” It is as if Hamas was a combination of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. Our politicians, political pundits and journalists have made Hamas a Marvel cartoon character of such evil proportion that only weapons of greater evil used against them and nearby civilians can destroy it. They don't even control a fucking nation. But we are made to believe they are more dangerous than the Nazis after they had occupied all of Europe.
This is no longer a war of self-defence but on of retribution.
But what did we expect when our Western leadership who label themselves as the "guardians of democracy and the rule of law," gave Bibi Netanyahu their unreserved financial and moral backing? Stupidly, I expected a little bit better from neoliberalism if not from a sense of fair play at least from instinct for self-preservation. But I learned my lesson from the last three months, they possess neither.
There was no wisdom or long-term strategy shown this past weekend by the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia when they dislodged from the news cycle' coverage of the International Criminal Court's provisional ruling over the plausibility that Israel may have or could commit genocide in Gaza. Through spin and news media connections there are replace that news with faux outrage over allegations "there may be terrorists employed at a UN Agency.".
Yes, Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau and Rishi Sunak spun the news cycle away from discussing Israel's possible genocide in Gaza. They shifted it towards allegations that 12 employees at UNRWA, a UN aid organisation for Gaza ,with thirteen thousand on its payroll, might have been involved in the October 7th attacks. It was a Hail Mary pass that the corporate news media handily caught because it isn't a source for journalism but manufacturing consent.
Three days after the ICJ provisional findings on charges of Genocide against Israel, Liberal Democracies had diminished and delegitimised those accusations as insignificant in comparison to the possibility that a dozen employees of an organisation that employs thousands might be terrorists. Most Western nations have now cut off funding for UNRWA over these allegations, whilst continuing their military support for Israel. Gazans will assuredly die in large numbers owing to the suspension of funds to UNRWA as the organisation was the region's main supplier of medical, humanitarian and educational assistance and it makes me sick to my stomach that the government who represents me is to blame for this.
It's appalling how Western governments have implicated themselves and their citizens with these catastrophic tragedies. Even it if turns out to be not genocide by the conventions of law. Whatever is happening in Gaza at the hands of Netanyahu- a corrupt fascist- is a mortal sin against human decency. I am mindful that our aiding and abetting Netanyahu ensures that all wars to come from now on whether waged by us or our, so-called, enemies will be without any rules of war. Neoliberalism put to the sword any pretence that we are a civilised race of creatures.
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All great points made, particularly about Hamas being portrayed as the super-villains of all time to justify genocidal acts against Palestinians.
I would urge everyone to go to Craig Murray's website and read his recent article "Has International Law Survived or has the Western Political Class Killed It?" Craig is a historian, a former UK ambassador, and human rights activist. He explains in detail the significance of the ICJ's ruling. Most importantly, the ICJ has not affirmed Israel's right to self-defence. "Now the ICJ did not repeat that an occupying power has no right of self-defence. It did not need to. It simply ignored Israel's specious assertion."