He is prolonging the genocide to stay out of prison
September 1, 2024
Six Israeli hostages have been killed in a failed rescue effort in the tunnels below Rafah. The IDF’s version of events is that Hamas fighters chose to kill the hostages without instruction from their leaders because they would not have had time to escape had they taken the hostages with them.
This is tragic news, and assuming the IDF’s story is true, the killings should be condemned, but we should not overlook those hostages were killed because Netanyahu chose military action over negotiation. If someone has a gun to your head, the last thing you want is people bursting into the room with more guns. That’s the thing that is most likely to get you killed.
Given the IDF lies so much, and has killed Israeli hostages in the past, including hunting down and shooting three escaped hostages in one incident, and killing 274 civilians to rescue four hostages in another, we can’t be confident their story is true. Even if it is true, it doesn’t change the fact that trying to rescue hostages instead of negotiating their release was incredibly stupid. It’s not just me who feels this way, many family members of hostages have echoed the sentiment.
“The leading group of hostage family members expressed outrage at Netanyahu, saying he ‘abandoned the abductees!’ The group has called for a cease-fire so hostages can be released.”
My heart goes out to the families of the killed hostages and I certainly share their anger and sadness. One tragic aspect of this story is that Hamas had agreed to release five of those six hostages in a deal that Netanyahu rejected.
Things are now so strained in Israel that Netanyahu reportedly had a shouting match with Yoav Gallant who accused the Israeli prime minister of endangering the hostages. In a security cabinet meeting, Gallant expressed concern that getting bogged down in Gaza leaves Israel vulnerable to regional threats and increases the likelihood of the war spreading. As has been pointed out many times, this seems to be Netanyahu’s goal.
“We have to choose between Philadelphi and the hostages. We can't have both. If we vote, we might find out that either the hostages will die or we will have to backtrack to release them,” Gallant reportedly said. The security cabinet then voted to continue with the current strategy, prioritising control of the Philadelphi corridor (that borders Egypt) to the rescue of the hostages.
Were it not for the Israeli prime minister and the lunatics around him, there is every chance those hostages would be safely home with their families. You would hope our leaders would apply the above context, but they have been predictably useless.
Sir Keir Starmer has expressed far more outrage about the hostage deaths than he has about 16,000 children (very low estimate) being murdered by Israel. By all means condemn the hostage killings, but if you’re not condemning the genocide with even stronger language, all you’re doing is pro-genocide propaganda. If you express fury about six deaths on one side, you don’t get to express mild disapproval of the genocide on the other side.
As Caitlin Johnstone so rightly pointed out on Twitter:
One story has emerged of a doctor who wrote about trauma surgery in Gaza for the Lancet Journal. Dr. Khaled Alser was kidnapped and tortured by the IDF, presumably because his work makes Israel look bad. He is currently being held in an unknown location after spending three months at Sde Teiman rape camp, a place many hostages leave in a body bag.
Not once have I heard Starmer, or any western leader, express the same level of anger when the IDF kidnaps doctors, or rapes and murders hostages. Not once has our prime minister said this shows Netanyahu’s regime must be stopped. Not only do our leaders see all Palestinians as terrorists, they see even those who support Palestine as terrorists. This is why so many people in the UK are getting their doors broken down by counter-terrorism police.
Here’s the thing, even if you don’t sympathise with Palestinians, if you have sympathy for Israeli hostages, you should be demanding an end to the war. Whosever side you’re on, and personally, I’m on the side of humanity, peace is far better than continued war. The only people who disagree are the people who are prepared to sacrifice Israeli hostages to continue the extermination of Palestinians. Anyone who wants this war to continue is a monster.
The Times of Israel has reported that Hamas agreed to a US ceasefire plan on October 9th, which involved releasing all civilian hostages, but the Israeli government said no, and all that achieved is the deaths of 20 hostages.
Yet instead of seeing sense and agreeing to a ceasefire, Netanyahu is spreading his genocide to the West Bank where there is no Hamas presence. This has prompted even an EU diplomat to say: “Israel's right to defend itself has a limit”. I’m unclear why that limit wasn’t reached 16,000 children ago, but better late than never, I guess.
The IDF shot an 82-year-old man in the Jenin refugee camp and stopped paramedics from rescuing him, leaving him to bleed to death. The IDF later ran over his body with an armoured vehicle. They are bulldozing entire streets, cutting off power and water, and digging up roads for no other reason than to make Jenin unliveable. Dozens have been killed or injured and the number is rising all the time. What we are seeing is more ethnic cleansing, yet the BBC is disgracing itself by referring to this brutality as a “counter-terrorism operation”.
To be fair to the BBC, it’s now reporting the UN has called for an end to the “deeply concerning” operation, but it’s deeply concerning the BBC’s first instinct is to echo Israeli propaganda. It has been reported that BBC reporters are not even allowed to say the word “Palestine” (although they are allowed to say “Palestinian”). The point is they don’t want you thinking of Palestine as a country.
While our leaders have so far refused to do anything meaningful to stop Israel’s onslaught, hope has come from an unlikely source. The Histadrut union in Israel, which represents 800,000 workers, has called a general strike starting Monday. Given attitudes within Israel, I’m guessing most are driven by concern for Israeli hostages or self-interest, rather than the welfare of Palestinians, but that doesn’t matter. If they force Netanyahu to agree to peace, they will have achieved something our leaders didn’t want to.
A reported 300,000 Israelis have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv, and a similar number have turned out in Jerusalem, in protest of Netanyahu’s madness, but of course, he is not acting out of madness. The Israeli prime minister is betraying his own people because continued war is his best chance of staying out of prison. And our leaders, who talk like they’re loyal to Israel, have betrayed the Israeli people in order to protect him.
Here is what’s important to understand: our leaders are no more supportive of the people of Israel than of their own people: they are simply standing by those who have corrupted them.
“Every citizen knows that if they were to be kidnapped from their bed in their pajamas on a Saturday morning, their Prime Minister would do everything to keep his seat, even at the cost of leaving them to die in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza.” – Hostage and Missing Families Forum of Israel
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The following is a reposting of the archived version of an interesting article published by Haaretz regarding the ongoing instability in Israel with Netanyahu as Prime Minister.
You bet he is. He's a war criminal of the first order and he has the U.S. taxpayer on the hook to fund his atrocities and he'll continue as long as Zionist, sell out politicians continue to feed the beast.
You bet he is. He's a war criminal of the first order and he has the U.S. taxpayer on the hook to fund his atrocities and he'll continue as long as Zionist, sell out politicians continue to feed the beast.