Genocidal intent of apartheid regime confirmed: Israeli minister warns Palestinians of holocaust
After murdering 33 over 60 78 112 (as at 3 March) Palestinians since Tuesday (whose names and family status are rarely mentioned like the Israeli “father of four”, and two others, combatants), the Israeli regime and blight unto nations has now confirmed to the world its genocidal intent against the indigenous Palestinian population: the Deputy Israeli Defense Minister Matan Vilnai has threatened a shoah (holocaust, disaster) against Gazans, telling Israeli Army Radio:
“The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.”
This is not about “defence”, of course. Stopping the rockets — which are a response to the occupation, control and strangulation of the Palestinians — could be achieved by talking to the elected government of Gaza, and ending the longest-running military occupation in modern history, and one of the most brutal.
The Israeli hafrada state has never really considered more jaw-jaw for less war-war—despite the clear indications more ordinary Israelis now favour ceasefire talks with Hamas—and until it does, its genocide and occupation of the Palestinians will be the undoing of this increasingly revolting zionazi regime. To his credit, Yossi Beilin, former minister and ex-leader of the left of centre Meretz Party, is one of the few public voices calling for the only thing that will work: a diplomatic rather than military solution.
Beilin confirms that Hamas has at least twice offered a truce via a third party, adding: “My solution is to reach a ceasefire with Hamas.”
Current analysis:
- Ali Abunimah, Israeli minister threatens “holocaust” as public demand ceasefire talks, who points out the damage minimisation surrounding the story (eg shoah also means ‘disaster’ in Hebrew — as if that much mitigates these abhorrent words and actions). Abunimah also includes a reminder that incitement to genocide is a punishable crime under the international Genocide Convention, adopted in 1948 …. after the Nazi holocaust
- Khalid Amayreh, Jews and the Gaza holocaust, on the importance of calling a spade a spade, a massacre a massacre: “Israel claims that it doesn’t murder innocent civilians deliberately. But this is a big, obscene lie, of which even most Israelis are aware. Mistakes happen a few times, but when the wanton slaughter of children occurs each day and every day of the year, it means it is policy. In addition, when the number of victims, especially innocent victims, as in Gaza, even intent itself becomes irrelevant. In the final analysis, murdering knowingly is murdering deliberately, regardless of the prevarication and the verbal juggling.”
Related in the news:
- Israeli forces pound Gaza, killing 32 (Saturday AEST)
- Israel kills at least 31 Gazans today, including 8 children
- Mohammed Omer, Israel Kills Some More Children
- Quotes from the Israeli government’s (c)harm offensive
- Killed while they played football, the child victims of Israel’s revenge on Gaza
- Death toll in Gaza rises to 33 as Israel continues third day of attacks
- Ongoing Israeli raids on Gaza claim 28 Palestinians, including 8 children and 5-month-old baby
- Gaza buries its dead
- “Could they really kill a baby in his bed?”
- Egyptian girl killed by Israeli fire near Gaza border
Older recommended pieces:
- Warsaw Ghetto 1941, Gaza 2008
- Yossi Wolfson On Israel’s Warfare Against the Palestinians
- Uri Avnery, Help! A Ceasefire
- Amira Hass: A moment before the lights go out
- Seamus Milne, The siege of Gaza is going to lead to a violent escalation
- Ilan Pappé, Towards a Geography of Peace: Whither Gaza?
- Pepe Escobar, Welcome to Planet Gaza
- Chris Marsden, Israel’s Collective Punishment of Gaza
- Sonja Karkar, The Quality of Mercy in Gaza
- Chris Doyle, Life Behind the Wire
The 33 anonymized Palestinians, versus the humanized rocket victim, remings of that film with Tom Cruise yelling “show me the money”. When figuring out rights, wrongs, and even more wrongs, we should yell out “show me the body count”.
That’s right, and the body count ratio has actually widened enormously in the last few years, yet the perpetrators still try to claim a monopoly on the legitimating language of victimhood and “self-defence”.
I’ve added links from the Maan News Agency, one of the few sources who do actually name names and family details and humanise the Palestinian victims of Israeli regime terror.
You’re reading what you want to read into this. In truth, what Vilnai said is not very different from another often distorted quote – that of Barack Obama who said that nobody has suffered more than the Palestinians for their leaders’ mistakes.
Threatening that a disaster/ holocaust would befall the Gazans (what your administration has called a ‘hostile entity’) is not I think at all “reading” into it, Vilnai is rather clear on his own.
I think there’s a world of difference between Vilnai’s appalling and telling statement and Barack Obama’s, who threatens nobody, at least not in the statement you cite.
Enough about the Palestinians. Has anyone (except the
thoughtful Arnon Soffer) considered the psychological
effects on the Israeli soldiers who have to kill and kill and
kill and kill … OK, so they have the comfort of being
righteous and justified, … and kill and kill and kill
… of knowing that there’s no other way, … and kill and
kill and kill … of knowing they are the real victims, …
and kill and kill and kill … that at least one Israeli
has died for every few dozen Palestinians … and kill and
kill and kill … though of course it’s not the numbers,
it’s the principle that counts … and kill and kill and
kill … after all, they are dealing with terrorists …
and kill and kill and kill … you can’t reason with
terrorists … and kill and kill and kill … I mean,
just look how they reacted to being denied electricity,
food, medicine … and kill and kill and kill … the
logic of the siege was so simple, even dimwits expected
it to work … and kill and kill and kill … but then
the Israeli forces are dealing with irrational Arabs …
and kill and kill and kill … so, yes, what they’re doing
is necessary … and kill and kill and kill … it’s
just, well, it’s just the mind-numbing monotony of it …
and kill and kill and kill … so maybe they could organize
it better … and kill and kill and kill … you know,
streamline the process, automate it somehow … and kill
and kill and kill …
I must say I totally agree with Vilnai, and I certainly don’t have genocidal tendencies.
The Palestinian rockets are counter productive and only bring suffering on the Palestinians. The longer the range of the rockets, the deeper inside the Palestinian population will militants be able to launch them from, and thus in clashes between Hamas/Islamic Jihad/et al and Israel more Palestinian civilians will be killed – not because Israel wants to kill non-combatant Palestinians but because it has to defend itself inside population centers.
Agreeing with Vilnai means you implicitly agree with collective punishment, illegal in international law and employed by the Nazis in Germany.
This view also is myopic because it implicitly sees primary causality as the rockets — which I do not condone — but they in turn are a response to the daily attacks by Israel, its assassinations of Palestinian leaders and the ongoing occupation, from which Palestinians also have every right to defend themselves against Israeli strangulation and terror.
Ending the military occupation would remove the motivation for the rockets, which astute analysts such as veteran Avnery in any case argue convincingly are a pretext and that Israeli policy would not be substantially different even without them.
As Michael illustrates so well, the terrible internal logic of military occupation is such that Israeli policy is in effect serving to kill innocent civilians with intent, be it through air strikes, indiscriminate attacks, denial of movement of the infirm of any age past checkpoints, denial of medicines, electricity and food, and it goes on.
See also Ilan Pappe in a recent ei piece, The mega prison of Palestine
Agreeing with Vilnai means you implicitly agree with collective punishment
No, it means I believe we need to keep fighting terrorism and not target the civilians, but it is very hard to seperate between combatants and non-combatants. We should try harder to make sure civilian casualties are as minimal as possible.
Ending the military occupation would remove the motivation for the rockets,
Since most Palestinians see all of Israel as an occupation, Israelis are worried that ending the occupation in the West Bank would only bring more of Israel into missile range. It is a legitimate concern.
This view also is myopic because it implicitly sees primary causality as the rockets — which I do not condone — but they in turn are a response to the daily attacks by Israel and the ongoing occupation
The rockets and Israeli strikes are a cycle, like the chicken or the egg. It isn’t as simple as you put it. Sometimes Qassams are a response to Israeli actions, sometimes they aren’t. There have been many rocket attacks that were not prompted by any particular Israeli attack.
As for fighting the occupation – the only way to end it is through negotiations, not violence, especially not violence aimed at civilians.
I’m not a representative of Israel here. I don’t agree with every policy. The use of too many checkpoints is one of them. But even the policies I disagree with are not intended to kill innocent people. We’re not the Evil Ones you present us as being.
That’s the official and hasbara rhetoric too, it is vastly different from what we have seen in practice. “Trying harder” is rather flimsy as an undertaking and excuse in Israel’s war of (T)Error that doesn’t cut it. “Fighting terror” becomes a catch-all term that effectively kills people indiscriminately, over half of them civilians, rather than non-violent and good-faith negotiations.
What evidence and figures have you got to back up this baseless assertion, romantic songs notwithstanding? Most of the Palestinian leadership and Arab states have repeatedly said they’ll recognise 1967 borders, that’s the West Bank and Gaza as Palestine, and yet Israel keeps building illegal settlements in the West Bank and the wall that further takes Palestinian land. These undertakings are stated policy and are agreed to by all or most Arab states, which means it will be backed up regionally. Israel, already armed to the teeth, can claim little fear that ending the occupation will result in Palestinians wanting all of Israel, and in any case this can not be used as an excuse to continue this brutal occupation.
Again, Israeli intransigence is most at fault (I never said ‘evil’, by the way, and featuring Israeli voices of conscience ensures I do not demonise Israelis whilst holding their government responsible, as it should be).
See above, moreover, this is where and why not acting unilaterally and having track two talks achieves security for both parties. Yet Israel’s policies serve to do exactly the opposite.
Fighting the occupation can be done through non-violent means yes, but the right to military defence can not be denied to Palestinians either. To repeat, the Qassam rockets are in reaction to the military occupation and daily Israeli attacks that happen every day, not simply the bigger ones that make the news. The murderous effects of the occupation kill and hurt civilians daily, it is low intensity warfare that need not fall into the category of an airstrike to constitute an attack.
Many analysts disagree with you and have furnished ample evidence to the contrary (featured elsewhere here and pointed to several times now), which you to date have not.