As the World Turns Away, Israel Renews Its Genocidal Assault on Northern Gaza
9.10.24
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Today, October 9, 2024, two days into the first anniversary of the start of the State of Israel’s genocidal assault on the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, almost unimaginable horrors are taking place yet again, in the devastated northern half of the beleaguered territory, where around 400,000 of its residents remain, as Israel implements a plan for its complete ethnic cleansing, prior to it becoming a “closed military zone.”
Those who remain are those who resisted, or were unable to comply with orders to evacuate the north, which were implemented a week after the genocide began, to the consternation of US State Department officials, whose concerns about war crimes and the trampling of international humanitarian law, revealed by Reuters last week, now look like missives from a lost world in which morality still existed.
Over the last three days, untold numbers of Palestinian civilians have been killed in relentless bombing attacks, or have been murdered in the streets by armed drones and quadcopters, assassinated by snipers, and, it appears, summarily executed in house raids. The area’s three surviving hospitals — brought back into operation through the tireless dedication and ingenuity of Palestinian workers after they were shut down last November — have been ordered to evacuate, even though there is no place for the seriously ill to go, while journalists have been relentlessly targeted, with several of those who have survived Israel’s relentless execution of journalists over the last year being shot and wounded by snipers, while others have been murdered.
The situation has been accurately described as constituting “no end to hell” by Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), the main relief agency for Palestinians, which Israel has been persistently seeking to portray as a terrorist organization since January, and yet western media have, to date, failed to take this horrendous escalation of Israeli hostilities seriously.
The ethnic cleansing plan
The plan for the comprehensive ethnic cleansing of the north of the Gaza Strip was first revealed in English by the Israel-based +972 Magazine three weeks ago, on September 17, in an article entitled, “A plan to liquidate northern Gaza is gaining steam”, in which it was noted that it had originated with Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, who, just a few weeks before, had proposed “ordering all residents of northern Gaza to leave within a week, before imposing a full siege on the area, including shutting off all supplies of water, food, and fuel, until those who remain surrender or die of starvation.”
+972 Magazine added that other prominent Israelis had also “called on the military to carry out mass extermination in northern Gaza”, citing the example of Professor Uzi Rabi, a senior researcher at Tel Aviv University, who stated, in a radio interview on September 15, his hope for the implementation of a program to “remove the entire civilian population from the north, and whoever remains there will be lawfully sentenced as a terrorist and subjected to a process of starvation or extermination.” It was also noted that, in July, according to a report in the newspaper Ynet, “government ministers had already started pressuring Netanyahu to ‘cleanse’ northern Gaza of its inhabitants.”
Western media caught up with the story a few days later — Reuters on September 22, and the Guardian on September 23, when they spoke to Avichai Buaron, a parliamentary representative of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, who stated that it was ‘‘currently being evaluated by the government.”
Nothing more was heard of the plan until October 6, the day before the first anniversary of the deadly attacks on Israel by Hamas and other militants, when Israel immediately began its unprecedented and ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip. On X, Buaran announced that, the night before, the IDF had “launched an operation in northern Gaza with the objective of completely eliminating all Palestinians from the area.”
Also on October 6, as the Palestinian NGO Al-Mezan reported, “the Israeli army dropped a new leaflet to redraw the ‘evacuation map’ of northern Gaza, announcing a ‘new phase of the war’”, and, the day after, on the anniversary itself, “issued a new forced displacement order for the entire North Gaza Governorate.” As Al-Mezan also explained, a new total siege was also imposed, preventing the entry of food, water, fuel and medical supplies.
The timing was cynical and opportunistic, designed to bolster support within Israel, and to take advantage of rigid silence from the west, whose leaders had all been carefully groomed to mark October 7 with more of the appallingly one-sided sorrow that they had expressed for Israel’s losses a year before, without mentioning at all the death toll in Gaza, where Israel has, over the last year, murdered at least 50 times as many Palestinians — mostly civilians — as the Israeli victims of the attacks on October 7. Israel also took advantage of another convenient smokescreen — its ongoing Gaza-like assault on Lebanon, and the sabre-rattling for war with Iran that is exciting warmongers in the west.
The renewed war on Gaza’s hospitals and other aspects of genocide revived
Yesterday, Israel stepped up its horrors, ordering the evacuation, within 24 hours, of the three surviving hospitals in northern Gaza — Kamal Adwan Hospital, the Indonesian Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital — and, as was the case eleven months ago, when its war on hospitals began, showing no interest whatsoever in how it was supposed to be possible for severely ill people and other especially vulnerable patients, including premature babies, to be able to evacuate, when there was nowhere for them to go.
Outside the hospitals, meanwhile, one of the surviving journalists, Hossam Shabat, described the murderous chaos of Israel’s focus on Jabalia refugee camp, which had been persistently attacked in the first few months of the genocide, including by “bunker buster” bombs that destroyed entire apartment blocks. The IDF claimed that their renewed attacks were “intended to stop Hamas fighters staging further attacks from Jabalia and to prevent them regrouping”, but, as Shabat described it, “[They] first destroyed then besieged Jabalia refugee camp, and when people tried to leave, they were shot at by snipers. Many residents are on the streets, bleeding, as Israeli forces have destroyed ambulances and are targeting anyone who tries to help. The situation in the north is horrific and very dangerous; there are currently hundreds of thousands trapped, and the shelling is nonstop.”
Today, the situation has degenerated still further. On X, as the Martyrs of Gaza account reported, “The Israeli army sets traps for families by giving them false evacuation orders, and when they move to [supposed] humanitarian areas, they are directly executed by Israeli soldiers”, while the psychiatrist and psychotherapist Dr. Mustafa Elmasri posted a video of Israeli soldiers “documenting their crimes in Jabalia”, moving “from house to house to finish the remaining families.”
Israel also succeeded in successfully targeting some of the remaining journalists, killing a cameraman, Mohammed Al-Tanani, seriously injuring another, Fadi Al Wahidi of Al Jazeera Arabic, who was shot in the neck by a sniper, and also severely injuring another, Tamer Labed. Over the last few days, Israel has also killed 20-year old Hassan Hamid, and severely wounded another Al Jazeera cameraman, Ali Al Attar, who is still in critical condition, deprived of the medical care he needs because of the siege. No one should need reminding that this has been the deadliest conflict ever for journalists, as Israel, with great deliberation, has targeted and killed over 175 journalists in Gaza over the last year.
Today, Dr. Hossam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, swore that he won’t obey Israel’s evacuation orders, stating, “I’ve been here since the genocide started, and I am determined to continue helping my people.” Somehow, he also — almost miraculously, it seems to me — secured the release of premature babies from the neonatal intensive care unit, supported by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), who have been evacuated to the Patient Friends Hospital, further south in Gaza City, although as MAP explained, “ambulances are being detained at military checkpoints.”
Despite this positive news, MAP pointed out that, throughout northern Gaza, “Hospitals, clinics, and humanitarian workers remain under siege as medical facilities run out of fuel, medical supplies, and safe passage, leaving more than 300 critically ill patients trapped.”
While I’m grateful that this handful of vulnerable babies have been moved to safety (so long as they have arrived without incident, and the Patient Friends Hospital doesn’t endure further attacks), everything else that is happening in northern Gaza is almost unspeakably horrendous, and, to those on the ground, must be like a terrifying revisiting of the traumas of the last year — the imposition of a “complete siege” and the relentless attacks, including those on hospitals.
Preventing “mass extermination”
More importantly, the notion that, according to Maj. Gen. Eiland, there will only be a week of this before those who remain are subjected to the “mass extermination” encouraged by Professor Uzi Rabi is chilling beyond belief, as what is already taking place seems to be a trailer for its horrors, with imminent and sweeping slaughter blithely endorsed by Israel because anyone who remains will inevitably be regarded as a terrorist.
The west needs, finally, to act to prevent Israel’s renewed pursuit of its genocidal aims in Gaza, but neither politicians nor the mainstream media seem either to have noticed, or to be paying it the attention it deserves. In the US, in particular, the driver of the west’s uncritical support of Israel, it is no longer clear who is actually in charge, as Joe Biden’s mental health has declined so alarmingly since the genocide began.
This is, perhaps, a perfect metaphor, politically, for the events of the last year — of a murderous, messianic, solipsistic Israeli regime, living only to inflict death, supported by a coalition of western nations led by a man who has almost entirely lost his mind — but it won’t help the Palestinians trapped in northern Gaza.
For that, people with power and influence in the west need to remember why international humanitarian law was established after the Second War, and to recognize that its supposed ally in the Middle East has become an uncontrolled genocidal monster, and a dangerous liability.
* * * * *
Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer (of an ongoing photo-journalism project, ‘The State of London’), film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose music is available via Bandcamp). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign (see the ongoing photo campaign here) and the successful We Stand With Shaker campaign of 2014-15, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here, or you can watch it online here, via the production company Spectacle, for £2.50).
In 2017, Andy became very involved in housing issues. He is the narrator of the documentary film, ‘Concrete Soldiers UK’, about the destruction of council estates, and the inspiring resistance of residents, he wrote a song ‘Grenfell’, in the aftermath of the entirely preventable fire in June 2017 that killed over 70 people, and, in 2018, he was part of the occupation of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, to try to prevent its destruction — and that of 16 structurally sound council flats next door — by Lewisham Council and Peabody.
Since 2019, Andy has become increasingly involved in environmental activism, recognizing that climate change poses an unprecedented threat to life on earth, and that the window for change — requiring a severe reduction in the emission of all greenhouse gases, and the dismantling of our suicidal global capitalist system — is rapidly shrinking, as tipping points are reached that are occurring much quicker than even pessimistic climate scientists expected. You can read his articles about the climate crisis here.
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34 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
When I posted this on Facebook, I wrote:
My latest article, providing urgent updates about deadly new developments in northern Gaza, largely ignored in the western media. Coinciding with the anniversary of the October 7 attacks, and the start of Israel’s year-long genocide, a horrific new plan has been initiated by the Israel military — to empty the whole of northern Gaza of its remaining 400,000 inhabitants, comprising those who resisted or were unable to comply with the initial evacuation orders nearly a year ago, which caused the first vast exodus to the south.
The plan, first publicized last month, is intended to create a “closed military zone” in the whole of the north of Gaza, with those still living there given just one week to comply with evacuation orders before they will, inevitably, be regarded as terrorists who can be killed.
To secure its aims, however, Israel is already killing civilians, in bombing raids, through the use of armed drones and quadcopters, and via snipers on the ground, with additional reports that soldiers are going house to house and summarily executing those they find. A total siege has also been imposed, preventing the delivery of any food, water, fuel or medical supplies. Evacuation orders have been issued for the last three hospitals in the north, even though 300 critical ill patients have nowhere to go, and journalists have been specifically targeted, with one killed today, and several severely wounded.
Please share this news as widely as you can, to raise awareness in the hope that someone somewhere in the west with power and influence will recognize that Israel must be stopped.
...on October 9th, 2024 at 10:46 pm
Andy Worthington says...
When I posted this, I was immediately trolled by someone claiming that Hamas had admitted that 80% of the 41,000 killed were Hamas operatives and their family members, to which I replied:
It’s a shame to be so instantly trolled with such idiotic black propaganda, but it very evidently doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Hamas has made no such admissions, and any objective analysis of the death toll demonstrates that at least 90% were civilians, although Israel has desperately tried to pretend that everyone who worked administratively in Gaza was Hamas, when, that is, it’s not dropped any pretence of military targeting, via claims that everyone over the age of 4 is Hamas, for example, or when Isaac Herzog, Israel’s President, said in the early days of the genocide, “there are no innocents in Gaza.”
In addition, of course, anyone in future looking at the unprecedented destruction of the whole of the Gaza Strip isn’t going to be fooled by any arguments that this carnage was proportionate or involved any kind of meaningful targeting. It’s clearly nothing less than sweeping genocidal slaughter.
...on October 9th, 2024 at 11:44 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Paul O’Hanlon wrote:
Could US policy be shifting a little? Referring to reports of squalid conditions in south and central Gaza, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “These catastrophic conditions were predicted months ago, and yet, have still not been addressed. That must change, and now.”
“We call on Israel to take urgent steps to do so,” she said in a blunt statement.
...on October 9th, 2024 at 11:45 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for that, Paul. I hadn’t seen that statement, which was made today. I’ve not seen language like this from Ambassador Greenfield before, describing a conflict that “continues to inflict tremendous suffering and pain on the Palestinian civilians in Gaza and destabilizing the region”, and adding, “Tens of thousands have been killed in a conflict they did not start and cannot stop. Civilians have been displaced over and over again by the fighting. Parents don’t know where they’ll get their next meal, or if they’ll find a safe place for their babies to sleep. There are children whose earliest memories – whose only memories – are the sights and sounds of war. Who are orphaned, injured, traumatized.”
She also stated, as you noted, “The United States is concerned by the situation in northern Gaza, including the announcement by Israel of a new evacuation order for several communities. We are particularly concerned that Palestinian civilians have nowhere safe to go. Already, there are devastating reports of the squalid conditions in the humanitarian zone in southern and central Gaza, where more than 1.5 million displaced civilians have fled. These catastrophic conditions were predicted months ago, and yet, have still not been addressed. That must change, and now. We call on Israel to take urgent steps to do so.”
She added, “And I reiterate the United States’ expectation that Palestinian civilians, including those evacuated from the north be permitted to return to their communities and rebuild. Consistent with Resolution 2735, there must be no demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza.”
She also spoke about the urgent need for increased humanitarian aid, noting that the US is “concerned by recent actions by the Israeli government to limit the delivery of goods into Gaza. When combined with new bureaucratic limits placed on humanitarian goods arriving from Jordan, and the closure of most border crossings in recent weeks, these restrictions would only have the effect of intensifying suffering in Gaza. We need to see fewer barriers to the delivery of aid, not more of them.”
And finally, she noted that the US was “following with deep concern the Israeli legislative proposal that could alter UNRWA’s legal status, hindering its ability to communicate with Israeli officials, and removing privileges and immunities afforded to UN organizations and personnel around the globe.” Although she conceded that “Israel has alleged – and the UN, in some cases, has confirmed – that a small percentage of UNRWA employees have ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups”, she added that “we know that UN personnel, including from UNRWA, are vital to the humanitarian response in Gaza and face tremendous danger while performing their work.”
https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-by-ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-at-a-un-security-council-briefing-on-the-situation-in-the-middle-east-29/
...on October 9th, 2024 at 11:46 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Russell B Fuller wrote:
Oooh ooh, the USA is “concerned,” Andy. Well, the families of 42K+ dead Palestinians (almost all civilians, most women and children) aren’t impressed. But who knows, maybe with another 10,000 murdered, maybe the USA will sit up and be “REALLY concerned,” even though it is USA weapons that are doing almost all of the killing.
THAT’S what the rest of the world is “concerned” about.
...on October 10th, 2024 at 9:37 am
Andy Worthington says...
Everything you say is correct, of course, Russell, but I do think it’s worth noting that Ambassador Greenfield actually discussed the suffering of the Palestinian people in the type of emotive, descriptive language that I’ve only ever seen used before for the suffering of Israelis. I also think that specifically criticizing the new evacuation orders in northern Gaza is noteworthy, as is making a point about Israel not stealing Palestinian land in Gaza, or preventing its people from returning to their former homes to rebuild their communities.
Of course, none of this means much when the US continues to be the most complicit partner imaginable in Israel’s genocide, but I think it’s important to be aware of subtle changes in language, and the focal points of discussion, as were made evident in this speech.
...on October 10th, 2024 at 9:37 am
Andy Worthington says...
S Brian Willson wrote:
Andy, the Zionist Israelis have violently terrorized Palestinians for at least 80 years, even before the Nakba. Hamas’ military wing is not a terrorist group, but a liberation army fighting the illegal IDF occupying army. Since Zionist Israel illegally occupies Palestine, it has no self defense available to it legally. The Palestinians have every legal right to resist in any way that is feasible to liberate themselves from their criminal occupiers.
...on October 10th, 2024 at 9:38 am
Andy Worthington says...
These are all extremely important points, Brian, and, of course, we haven’t really heard a word about any of them from our mainstream media – or even much of the sentient independent media – since the genocide began.
As someone who’s British, I’m aware, from the example of Northern Ireland that resistance movements necessarily have a political and administrative aspect, as well as a military one, and it’s clear that one of the particular horrors of the last year is that the failure to recognize this in the west has allowed the Israelis to pretend that everyone in Gaza is Hamas, and that has now emboldened Netanyahu – while the media pliantly describe Shia and generally Hezbollah-supporting areas of Lebanon as “Hezbollah villages” – to threaten the entire Lebanese population as being terrorists, and therefore a target for collective elimination, if they don’t somehow overthrow Hezbollah in the coming weeks.
I’ve noticed that almost no one ever talks about the practical implications of an occupied people having the legal right to resist their occupation, and I need to write more about this, as it’s very clearly part of a long effort by our leaders and the media to brainwash people into refuting this principle. I’m old enough, for example, to remember how this used to be discussed widely in the 1980s, but I note that, in the intervening decades, it has largely been erased, as – quite deliberately, I think – people have been encouraged to only accept resistance that is non-violent.
As for your points about Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, and their obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention, these are also points that are ignored by the western media, although they were spelled out very clearly in the International Court of Justice’s resounding condemnation, in July, of Israel’s occupation, its calls for Israel to withdraw from the whole of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and to dismantle its settlements, as well as its condemnation of other countries supporting Israel. I wrote about that opinion here, but, again, it was, shamefully, largely ignored in the west.
https://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2024/07/23/what-now-after-the-world-court-condemns-as-unlawful-israels-entire-57-year-occupation-of-the-palestinian-territories/
...on October 10th, 2024 at 9:40 am
Andy Worthington says...
Deborah Emin wrote:
Andy, I don’t think anyone has ever doubted the plan to fully ethnically cleanse Gaza. Nor do I think any Western government will stop them. What matters now is how this horrific action is seen by Hezbollah and Iran. If this kind of wholesale bulldozing of Palestinians is meant to provoke a confrontation. I don’t know. It makes me worry.
...on October 10th, 2024 at 9:41 am
Andy Worthington says...
I’m genuinely not sure that our leaders have properly grappled with the implications of Israel’s intent, Deborah, because it’s so clearly genocidal, and if they could be bothered to properly dwell on that, they’d recognize that there’s not really any way that they will be able to argue, in future, that supporting the killing millions of civilians was justifiable.
They’re unable to think about this properly, I think, because their notion of ethnic cleansing involves the notion of expelling people from their land, as happened in the Nakba, but that’s been the stumbling block from the very beginning, because it’s been abundantly apparent that Egypt won’t open its border to untold numbers of refugees, and it was laughable, in the early days, seeing Israeli officials blithely suggesting that western countries should take in Palestinians as refugees, with, apparently, no idea at all of the levels of anti-immigrant sentiment throughout the west, which made this impossible.
What this means is that the complete erasure of Gaza and its people can only involve total annihilation, but, as I say, that’s not an outcome that they can legitimately endorse, and so they’re caught up in a problem without a solution, while persistently pretending that that’s not the case.
...on October 10th, 2024 at 9:42 am
Andy Worthington says...
Deborah Emin wrote:
I understand what you are saying, Andy. But it also seems, as horrible as this is to say, no Western government cares what Israel does anymore so long as they don’t start a nuclear war with Iran. I don’t understand this level of hate. I saw it when I lived in Israel. But I confess it was so frightening, I could not stay. (I had wanted to go to graduate school there.) The racism was more repressive than what I had witnessed of East Germany’s oppression.
Secondly, if the US cannot allow a Palestinian voice to be heard for fear of its truth telling, it is pretty clear that the US government will continue to finance this genocide.
...on October 10th, 2024 at 12:44 pm
Andy Worthington says...
I’m sure they’re concerned about the nuclear option, Deborah, but I’m also sure that – beyond the emotion-driven response of Biden and Blinken in particular – there are wiser heads within the administration who are concerned about the ramifications of endlessly indulging Israel when it comes to America’s standing throughout the whole of the Middle East, for practical geopolitical reasons at least, if not for any quaint notions that international humanitarian law still ought to stand for something.
I’m at a loss, really, to understand how any western leaders can be so simplistic and one-sidedly “emotional” in their attitudes to Israel. Perhaps, as I tried to explain in a recent article, it really is because our culture has now collectively replaced reason and nuance with “feelings” and a permanently-stoked sense of outrage, and also because our leaders have all, collectively, fallen into a state of derangement, primarily triggered by the realities of climate collapse, which they desperately don’t want to confront, that has made them all respond by embracing total war and destruction instead – first with Ukraine, and now with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
https://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2024/09/01/if-we-should-live-our-scribes-will-record-2024-as-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-humanity/
...on October 10th, 2024 at 12:45 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Deborah Emin wrote:
Andy, if you get a chance to listen to Scott Ritter, I think you might find his analysis of where Israel is headed and why to be quite interesting.
...on October 10th, 2024 at 12:58 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Deborah. I follow Scott on X, and frequently see his posts, but I hadn’t come across his latest article, which is definitely worth a read.
‘The Fall of Israel’: https://consortiumnews.com/2024/10/08/scott-ritter-the-fall-of-israel/
...on October 10th, 2024 at 1:22 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Anita Tuesley wrote:
Andy, this is very new language from Greenfield who until now had left myself and my colleagues with our jaws dropped at the sheer hypocrisy of her propaganda-filled statements – as she vetos or abstains on UNSC resolutions against Israel. The Biden administration is also concerned, it seems, by the courting of Trump as Netanyahu ceases any sort of cooperation despite the huge arms shipments and €bs in military aid.
...on October 10th, 2024 at 1:23 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for your assessment, Anita, confirming my suspicions that there’s definitely something significant about this new language. I’m not sure what it indicates, although three things spring to mind – firstly, that treating Lebanon like Gaza crosses a line because it’s a sovereign country (that shouldn’t matter, but it does because the US has so rigorously refused to accept the Palestinians as having any rights to their occupied land) – and perhaps because Netanyahu has been acting unilaterally and arrogantly without properly consulting the US. And in addition, there must be concerns about the implications of Netanyahu’s hunger for war with Iran.
Secondly, I wonder what’s happening with regard to the evident power vacuum at the top of the government, with Biden so evidently incapable, but still nominally in charge. I don’t have any great hopes for Harris – if she wins – but it would make sense that, behind the scenes, there’s a a jockeying for power and influence in any incoming administration, and different viewpoints might be being discussed, especially with regard to an endgame and the “day after.”
And thirdly, as you note, there may indeed be tensions regarding Netanyahu’s position regarding Trump.
...on October 10th, 2024 at 1:23 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Heartbreaking news from Gaza, where it has been confirmed that Fadi Al Wahidi, the Al Jazeera Arabic cameraman shot in the neck by an Israeli sniper yesterday, has been paralyzed for life, because the bullet caused severe damage to his spinal cord.
176 journalists have been murdered by Israel in Gaza over the last year, and yet some so-called journalists in the west have never uttered a word to condemn Israel’s actions. Never have journalists been as unsafe – and deliberately targeted – as they have been in the Gaza Strip for the last year.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10162372417568804&set=p.10162372417568804&type=3
...on October 10th, 2024 at 4:20 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Anita Tuesley wrote, in response to 16, above:
Andy, I think ME strategy is probably more a matter for Jake Sullivan with Biden just being a mouthpiece. And I totally agree, Harris will be no better than Biden, but gods forbid, might be better than Trump who will not flinch at the conditions being suffered by Palestinians in OPT. Nor will he flinch at Israel’s attacks on Lebanese citizens or Irish peacekeepers! In fact he will almost certainly be the nail in the coffin of the beleaguered UN. This UNGA has seen many calls for reform of the Security Council. I hope that happens.
...on October 11th, 2024 at 1:01 pm
Andy Worthington says...
One day, perhaps, we’ll get a proper behind the scenes analysis of what’s been happening within the Biden administration over the last year, Anita. I do think that the key to the US’s complete complicity in Israel’s crimes is Biden, because it doesn’t seem to be the case, as sometimes with George W. Bush and Trump, that some government decisions were taken without their knowledge, but that, I can only conclude, is because the fixations of his broken mind – on Israel’s extraordinary importance, and on Hamas atrocities that never happened – echoes what others in the administration believe; especially, I would say, Antony Blinken, who, as a Jewish person, has shown no signs of concern whatsoever about the far-right drift of Israeli politics.
As for Trump, I share your concerns. While it seems conceivable that he’ll be bad news for NATO and Ukraine and the unwinnable, nuclear-war threatening morass of that particular conflict, it seems likely that he’ll be even more monstrously supportive of Israel – as well as being a domestic menace for the American people. It’s going be a grim election for people of conscience.
...on October 11th, 2024 at 1:02 pm
Andy Worthington says...
And as for the UN, Anita, I’d say that the coming year is going to reveal whether it has become irretrievably broken by Israel and the US, and whether anything can be done about that. Removing the Security Council vetoes wielded by the US, the UK, France, Russia and China is so desperately needed, but I just don’t know if meaningful reform is possible.
...on October 11th, 2024 at 1:06 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Russell B Fuller wrote, in response to 16, above:
Andy, you’re right. Getting, um, just a tad cynical in my old age.
...on October 11th, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Andy Worthington says...
I don’t think anyone can be blamed for being thoroughly cynical about everything to do with US politics and both the main parties, Russell, but Greenfield’s statement does seem to be a sign of some shifting of perceptions somewhere behind the scenes in the Biden administration, although whether it leads to any significant changes remains to be seen.
...on October 11th, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Joan S. Livingston wrote:
Thank you, Andy!
...on October 11th, 2024 at 1:08 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for your interest, Joan. Our mainstream media in the west is now so thoroughly corrupted that most news outlets aren’t even covering this scandalous escalation of genocidal ethnic cleansing in the north, even though a few outlets – the Guardian, Reuters, CNN – noticed the plan when it was first floated last month.
...on October 11th, 2024 at 1:08 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Anita Tuesley wrote, in response to 20, above:
Andy, the effects of a disintegrating UN (the HRC side) would be catastrophic. People have no idea of the amount of good done by the organisation as states and companies whose abuses are highlighted in OHCHR comms seek to discredit its work. It would be catastrophic. And it’s not just US and Israel destroying the principles the UN tries to uphold. But the most destructive is the US.
...on October 11th, 2024 at 4:26 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Agreed, Anita. The Human Rights Council’s work – and that of the Special Mandates – is hugely important; one of the only manifestations we have of a global, rights-focused system of accountability.
Since I wrote earlier, I’ve had a few moments of wondering if Greenfield’s position reflects unease within parts of the administration – those individuals who still respect the UN and its mechanisms – about the implications of the International Court of Justice’s opinion in July about the illegality of Israel’s entire occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Only a handful of Biden officials have resigned since the Gaza genocide began, but as a hugely significant Reuters report explained last week, a year ago there was widespread consternation at high levels within the administration that, when Israel first ordered the evacuation of a million Palestinians from the north of Gaza, it “would be a humanitarian disaster and could violate international law, leading to war crime charges against Israel”, as Dana Stroul, then the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, wrote in an Oct. 13 email to senior aides to President Joe Biden.
Opinions like this – and others cited in the article, from within the White House, DoD and the State Department – cannot have all been extinguished, despite internal critics evidently being effectively silenced by Biden, Blinken and Austin.
Check out the article here: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/emails-show-early-us-concerns-over-gaza-offensive-risk-israeli-war-crimes-2024-10-04/
...on October 11th, 2024 at 4:28 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Astonishing hope, bravery and dedication from Fadi al-Wahidi, the Al Jazeera cameraman paralyzed after being shot in the neck by an Israeli sniper, who, in this video, expresses his hope that he can receive the medical treatment necessary to resume his work chronicling Israel’s genocide of his people. https://x.com/GuantanamoAndy/status/1844770292867932634
...on October 11th, 2024 at 4:51 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Anita Tuesley wrote, in response to 26, above:
interesting, Andy – and the self interest when it comes to the unconscionable suffering is truly remarkable. It’s not “my god we can’t allow this dreadful suffering”. It is, of course, “could we be deemed complicit”, “could we look really bad here”. Our ruling elite, economic and military elites are sociopaths, as well we know.
You may find this depressing, but interesting: – ‘Who Is the Ex-Israeli Soldier Serving as Biden’s Lebanon Envoy?’: https://zeteo.com/p/who-is-the-ex-israeli-soldier-serving
...on October 12th, 2024 at 7:05 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Yes, well said, Anita – although I suppose that was a major part of the introduction of human rights mechanisms; to encourage states to behave better not for moral reasons, necessarily, but to avoid punishment.
Thanks for the link to the article about Amos Hochstein. It is, sadly, infuriatingly revealing about the Biden administration’s priorities when a former Israeli soldier is appointed as “one of the most influential members of Joe Biden’s foreign policy team”, and is one of two officials who, reportedly, “privately told Israel that the US would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah.”
...on October 12th, 2024 at 7:06 pm
Andy Worthington says...
An update on the critical situation in northern Gaza by the brave young Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat, who has endured, in the last week, the targeted killings of two of his colleagues, and the severe wounding of two others, including the complete paralysis of Fadi al-Wahidi, as well as being a witness to renewed genocidal crimes on a scale not seen since Israel’s western-backed policy of eliminating Gaza began a year ago.
These renewed genocidal assaults are focused on Jabalia refugee camp — which has been besieged for the last week — but also throughout the whole of the north, as Israel implements the so-called “Generals’ Plan” for the extermination of the 400,000 surviving residents of northern Gaza.
Technically, the plan involves issuing evacuation orders, and then, after a week, starving everyone who remains, and killing them all as “terrorists” — or, as Jeremy Bowen described it for the BBC, “Anyone left behind [will] be treated as an enemy combatant.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1e82yy0wxno
Bowen didn’t make it clear, but the tainted “enemy combatant” description — which, of course, the US government used to justify the imprisonment without charge or trial of men and boys at Guantanamo Bay — may reflect the wording used by Major-General (ret) Giora Eiland, the soul-dead genocidal monster behind the plan, who Bowen interviewed.
In reality, however, as residents and the few surviving journalists on the ground have been reporting, the plan has involved widespread extermination and starvation from the very beginning. No food, water, fuel or medical supplies have been allowed into northern Gaza since October 1, and, while evacuation orders have been issued, those trying to obey them are being murdered in the streets, by tanks, snipers, and armed drones and quadcopters, while bombing raids also continue to be widespread.
As Hossam also posted on X this morning, around the same time as his longer IG post, “Very bloody night in north Gaza. I made it but hundreds didn’t.”
Please keep amplifying the reports about what is happening to all these innocent souls trapped in Israel’s new extermination zone in northern Gaza. We need to do all we can to let the western media and our leaders know that this is what happens when, for a year, they have let what can only be described as their racist indifference to the suffering of the Palestinians allow Israel to indulge in the most depraved actions that any of us have ever seen, and to believe that they can now proceed with a second wave of genocide that, if they get their way, will be even more horrific than the innumerable crimes of the last year.
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10162380370058804&set=p.10162380370058804
...on October 13th, 2024 at 3:57 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Anita Tuesley wrote, in response to 29, above:
Andy, the more you know, the more you wish you didn’t know …
...on October 13th, 2024 at 4:00 pm
Andy Worthington says...
I wouldn’t want to live in ignorance, Anita, but it’s difficult to keep up with the scale of Israel’s atrocities, and the complicity of the west, and to know what to do with the realization that the mask of civilization has been so thoroughly destroyed by Israel, the US, the UK, Germany and so many other countries.
...on October 13th, 2024 at 4:00 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Anita Tuesley wrote:
It’s all very traumatising as we think of our children’s future, Andy. The US allowing itself to be laid bare like this is a cage rattling show of strength. They actually don’t care that we know now. With climate change, corporatocracies in charge of the west, and the international system of law and universal human rights in tatters I have to say I’m terrified for my daughters.
...on October 13th, 2024 at 4:03 pm
Andy Worthington says...
I’m with you all the way, Anita. I have a son who’s 24, and it’s clear that, over just the last few years, as ever-escalating climate collapse has exposed the delusional arrogance of the entire neoliberal experiment, those in power – who have been defining themselves and their notions of success solely through its lens for the last 40 years – have been responding in an increasingly deranged manner – first in Ukraine, and then in Gaza, embracing war above all, and responding to critical voices on climate collapse with punitive anti-protest laws. I don’t know if there are enough of us who have retained our sanity, amongst those who cannot bear that their illusions have been exposed and are reacting with violence, to save ourselves, and a liveable planet, but I can only hope so.
No one can read the future right now. Collapse is all that’s certain, and how we respond will be crucial. I can only hope that people are developing bonds of human solidarity above all the distractions (including the very basis of capitalism) that prevent us from uniting in a way that we have never had to before.
...on October 13th, 2024 at 4:14 pm