Adam Smith, ISL – RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 17.10.2023
There is a famous saying by former MK Zahalka of the Ballad party that “the secular Zionist believe there is no god – but that God gave them Israel.” The current war is going on for a week and half and it is already clear that it is even more destructive than the 2014 one. Already more Palestinians died in a week than in the 50 days of fighting in the 2014 war. Let’s look at a couple examples:
1. Ground fighting: Street fighting door to door is going to be very intense, so rules of fighting have been relaxed – no doubt also to inflict revenge, not just out of “security” concerns.
“Hamas also plans to ambush Israeli forces from behind by emerging suddenly from hidden tunnel openings dotted across northern Gaza, according to a Hamas officer who was not authorized to speak to the news media.
To make it easier for its soldiers to operate, the Israeli military’s rules of engagement have been loosened to allow soldiers to make fewer checks before shooting at suspected enemies, the three Israeli officers said, without giving further details.” [1]
2. Air Bombings:
“The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have seemingly stopped the “knock on the roof.”
The euphemism describes a military tactic first developed in 2009 and used in several conflicts since then. How it works: IDF forces will alert a building’s occupants that they are targeting the structure for an airstrike by dropping a small, non-explosive munition on the roof before a larger strike is executed. Its objective is to minimize civilian casualties by allowing for evacuation in buildings where militant groups keep rockets or ammunition stashed.
Despite the ultimate goal of saving lives, the technique is controversial and has been criticized by human rights groups, who argue dropping a munition on a building should not be considered a warning..” [2]
“The Israeli Air Force (IAF) said Thursday that it has dropped “about 6,000 bombs against Hamas targets” in Gaza since Saturday’s attack, which nearly matches the number of bombs the US used in Afghanistan in one year.” [3]
3. Attacks on Infrastructure:
“Human rights groups said Gaza’s health system, already stretched to its limits by a 16-year blockade, is on the verge of complete collapse. The enclave’s only power plant was forced to shut down on Wednesday after it ran out of fuel.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Gaza’s hospitals “risk turning into morgues” as severely wounded civilians, including infants, are rushed inside its crowded wards, where beds and medical supplies are running out.” [4]
Trying to fight Hamas from door to door is going to be very bloody, not to mention the potential of booby traps(IED), or Hamas fighters emerging from underground tunnels. This is why the Zionist state hesitates so far with a full on invasion, but it is clear that public opinion in Israel will force it to embark on a ground invasion.
It is also clear that Israel and Israel’s supporters around the world are highly reactionary. For example, Henry Kissinger said that:
“Hamas’ attack against Israel being celebrated on the streets of Berlin indicates that Germany has let too many foreigners into the country, according to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
“It was a grave mistake to let in so many people of totally different culture and religion and concepts, because it creates a pressure group inside each country that does that,” the 100-year-old ex-top American diplomat said in an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner for Germany’s Welt TV. Axel Springer is POLITICO’s parent company.” [5]
Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace prize just after the Yom Kippur War, of which he was a principal actor. The biggest winner from that war was the United States, as Egypt shifted from the USSR camp to the US camp. We recently saw a similar attempt, with the latest Armenia(traditionally allied with Russia) – Azerbaijan war.
I would like to point out the hypocrisy of the Zionist fighters as they hold about 5000 Palestinians prisoners at any given time, most of them on dubious charges, and about 1600 in “administrative detention”(without a charge or pending trial) – so dubious that even the Zionist courts don’t believe them(if there was one, the prosecutor would have pursue charges a long time ago). But no one in the Western media calls those Palestinians “kidnapped”.
Whatever criticism we might have of the way this operation was executed, we stand with the Palestinian people in their struggle against Israel. Concretely, this means calling for the defeat of Israel, and the victory of Hamas(without giving political support). Now, more than ever, the “secular”/”left-wing” supporters of the protests movement against Netanyahu’s judicial reform and “soft” Zionist “socialist” groups expose themselves as morally bankrupt, as the masses of the oppressed, especially in the Arab world, but also in Europe and US, protest against Israel’s atrocities.
The protest movement has even decided to suspend its protests against the judicial reform, and join the war effort. The Israeli public, as well as the ruling classes of the West are moving sharply to the right. US President Biden says he fully supports Israel and has even said nothing of the usual rhetoric of “showing restraint”. With Israel’s latest plan to try to move the Palestinians from the north to the south of the Gaza strip, the genocidal danger of a new Nakba is looming. Of course, there is a possibility that the weakened strength of Israel and the threat of Hezbollah/Iran intervention turning into a regional war will prevent Israel from carrying out its plans. However, I think that Israel’s perceived weakness is likely to cause it to escalate the war, as Dayan said “Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother”.
For a Palestine Red and Free from the river to the Sea!
Defeat Israel! For a Hamas victory!
Down with Zionism – a settler-colonialist and genocidal ideology!
Endnotes:
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/14/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-invasion.html
[2] https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-10-11-23/h_b213ec9e2882bc819f20cb6a96bcec92
[3] https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-drops-6-000-bombs-in-gaza-in-6-days-nearly-matching-us-total-in-afghanistan-in-1-year-report/3017833
[4] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/israel-says-6000-bombs-dropped-on-gaza-as-war-with-hamas-nears-a-week
[5] https://www.politico.eu/article/henry-kissinger-germany-let-in-way-too-many-foreigners/