NefeshBarYochai
2023-12-21 04:14:56 UTC
by JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER
I do not believe that anything I say about what is happening in Gaza
will affect Israeli or American policy in that conflict. But I want to
be on record so that when historians look back on this moral calamity,
they will see that some Americans were on the right side of history.
What Israel is doing in Gaza to the Palestinian civilian population
with the support of the Biden administration is a crime against
humanity that serves no meaningful military purpose. As J-Street, an
important organization in the Israel lobby, puts it, The scope of
the unfolding humanitarian disaster and civilian casualties is nearly
unfathomable.[1]
Let me elaborate.
First, Israel is purposely massacring huge number of civilians,
roughly 70 percent of whom are children and women. The claim that
Israel is going to great lengths to minimize civilian casualties is
belied by statements from high level Israeli officials. For example,
the IDF spokesman said on 10 October 2023 that "the emphasis is on
damage and not on accuracy." That same day, Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant announced: "I have lowered all the restraints we will kill
everyone we fight against; we will use every means."[2]
Moreover, it is clear from the results of the bombing campaign that
Israel is indiscriminately killing civilians. Two detailed studies of
the IDFs bombing campaign both published in Israeli outlets
explain in detail how Israel is murdering huge numbers of civilians.
It is worth quoting the titles of the two pieces, which succinctly
capture what each has to say:
A Mass Assassination Factory: Inside Israels Calculated Bombing of
Gaza[3]
The Israeli Army Has Dropped the Restraint in Gaza, and the Data
Shows Unprecedented Killing.[4]
Similarly, the New York Times published an article in late November
2023 titled: Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed
at Historic Pace.[5] Thus, it is hardly surprising that the UN
Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said that We are witnessing a
killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any
conflict since his appointment in January 2017.[6]
Second, Israel is purposely starving the desperate Palestinian
population by greatly limiting the amount of food, fuel, cooking gas,
medicine, and water that can be brought into Gaza. Moreover, medical
care is extremely hard to come by for a population that now includes
approximately 50,000 wounded civilians. Not only has Israel greatly
limited the supply of fuel into Gaza, which hospitals need to
function, but it has targeted hospitals, ambulances, and first aid
stations.
Defense Minister Gallants comment on 9 October captures Israeli
policy: "I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will
be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are
fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly."[7] Israel has
been forced to allow minimal supplies into Gaza, but the amounts are
so small that a senior UN official reports that half of Gazas
population is starving. He goes on to report that, Nine out of 10
families in some areas are spending a full day and night without any
food at all.[8]
Third, Israeli leaders talk about Palestinians and what they would
like to do in Gaza in shocking terms, especially when you consider
that some of these leaders also talk incessantly about the horrors of
the Holocaust. Indeed, their rhetoric has led Omar Bartov, a prominent
Israeli-born scholar of the Holocaust, to conclude that Israel has
genocidal intent.[9] Other scholars in Holocaust and genocide
studies have offered a similar warning.[10]
To be more specific, it is commonplace for Israeli leaders to refer to
Palestinians as human animals, human beasts, and horrible inhuman
animals.[11] And as Israeli President Isaac Herzog makes clear, those
leaders are referring to all Palestinians, not just Hamas: In his
words, It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.[12]
Unsurprisingly, as the New York Times reports, it is part of normal
Israeli discourse to call for Gaza to be flattened, erased, or
destroyed.[13] One retired IDF general, who proclaimed that Gaza
will become a place where no human being can exist, also makes the
case that severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring
victory closer.[14] Going even further, a minister in the Israeli
government suggested dropping a nuclear weapon on Gaza.[15] These
statements are not being made by isolated extremists, but by senior
members of Israels government.
Of course, there is also much talk of ethnically cleansing Gaza (and
the West Bank), in effect, producing another Nakba.[16] To quote
Israels Agriculture Minister, We are now rolling out the Gaza
Nakba.[17]Perhaps the most shocking evidence of the depths to which
Israeli society has sunk is a video of very young children singing a
blood-curdling song celebrating Israels destruction of Gaza: Within
a year we will annihilate everyone, and then we will return to plow
our fields.[18]
Fourth, Israel is not just killing, wounding, and starving huge
numbers of Palestinians, it is also systematically destroying their
homes as well as critical infrastructure to include mosques,
schools, heritage sites, libraries, key government buildings, and
hospitals.[19] As of 1 December 2023, the IDF had damaged or destroyed
almost 100,000 buildings, including entire neighborhoods that have
been reduced to rubble.[20] Consequently, a stunning 90 percent of
Gazas 2.3 million Palestinians have been displaced from their
homes.[21] Moreover, Israel is making a concerted effort to destroy
Gazas cultural heritage; as NPR reports, more than 100 Gaza heritage
sites have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks.[22]
Fifth, Israel is not just terrorizing and killing Palestinians, it is
also publicly humiliating many of their men who have been rounded up
by the IDF in routine searches. Israeli soldiers strip them down to
their underwear, blindfold them, and display them in a public way in
their neighborhoods sitting them down in large groups in the middle
of the street, for example, or parading them through the streets
before taking them away in trucks to detention camps. In most cases,
the detainees are then released as they are not Hamas fighters.[23]
Sixth, although the Israelis are doing the slaughtering, they could
not do it without the Biden administrations support. Not only was the
United States the only country to vote against a recent UN Security
Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but it
has also been providing Israel with the weaponry necessary to wage
this massacre.[24] As one Israeli general (Yitzhak Brick) recently
made clear: All of our missiles, the ammunition, the precision-guided
bombs, all the airplanes and bombs, its all from the U.S. The minute
they turn off the tap, you cant keep fighting. You have no
capability. Everyone understands that we cant fight this war without
the United States. Period.[25] Remarkably, the Biden administration
has sought to expedite sending Israel additional ammunition,
by-passing the normal procedures of the Arms Export Control Act.[26]
Seventh, while most of the focus is now on Gaza, it is important not
to lose sight of what is simultaneously going on in the West Bank.
Israeli settlers, working closely with the IDF, continue to kill
innocent Palestinians and steal their land. In an excellent article in
the New York Review of Books describing these horrors, David Shulman
relates a conversation he had with a settler, which clearly reflects
the moral dimension of Israeli behavior toward the Palestinians. What
we are doing to these people is actually inhuman, the settler freely
admits, But if you think about it clearly, it all follows inevitably
from the fact that God promised this land to the Jews, and only to
them.[27] Along with its assault on Gaza, the Israel government has
markedly increased the number of arbitrary arrests in the West Bank.
According to Amnesty International, there is considerable evidence
that these prisoners have been tortured and subjected to degrading
treatment.[28]
As I watch this catastrophe for the Palestinians unfold, I am left
with one simple question for Israels leaders, their American
defenders, and the Biden administration: have you no decency?
NOTES
[1]
https://jstreet.org/press-releases/moment-of-truth-for-israels-government/
[2] Both quotes can be found in:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-09/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/the-israeli-army-has-dropped-the-restraint-in-gaza-and-data-shows-unprecedented-killing/0000018c-4cca-db23-ad9f-6cdae8ad0000
[3]
https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
[4]
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-09/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/the-israeli-army-has-dropped-the-restraint-in-gaza-and-data-shows-unprecedented-killing/0000018c-4cca-db23-ad9f-6cdae8ad0000
[5]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-death-toll.html
[6]
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/press-encounter/2023-11-20/secretary-generals-press-conference-unep-emissions-gap-report-launch
[7]
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/
[8] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67670679
Also see:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/opinion/international-world/us-government-gaza-humanitarian-aid.html
[9]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/opinion/israel-gaza-genocide-war.html
Also see:
https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/11/20/an-open-letter-on-the-misuse-of-holocaust-memory/
[10]
https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-currents/statement-of-scholars-7-october/
[11]
[12]
https://news.yahoo.com/israeli-president-says-no-innocent-154330724.html#:~:text=It%20is%20an%20entire%20nation,It%27s%20absolutely%20not%20true.
[13]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-war-rhetoric.html
[14]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/opinion/israel-gaza-genocide-war.html
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-11-23/ty-article-opinion/.premium/giora-eilands-monstrous-gaza-proposal-is-evil-in-plain-sight/0000018b-f84b-d473-affb-f9eb09af0000
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/influential-israeli-national-security-leader-makes-the-case-for-genocide-in-gaza/
[15]
https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-minister-says-nuking-gaza-an-option-pm-suspends-him-from-cabinet-meetings/
[16]
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/israeli-think-tank-lays-out-a-blueprint-for-the-complete-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/
[17]
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-12/ty-article/israeli-security-cabinet-member-calls-north-gaza-evacuation-nakba-2023/0000018b-c2be-dea2-a9bf-d2be7b670000
[18]
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-israeli-children-sing-we-will-annihilate-everyone-gaza
[19]
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-public-library-destroyed-bombing
https://mearsheimer.substack.com/p/death-and-destruction-in-gaza
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"
I do not believe that anything I say about what is happening in Gaza
will affect Israeli or American policy in that conflict. But I want to
be on record so that when historians look back on this moral calamity,
they will see that some Americans were on the right side of history.
What Israel is doing in Gaza to the Palestinian civilian population
with the support of the Biden administration is a crime against
humanity that serves no meaningful military purpose. As J-Street, an
important organization in the Israel lobby, puts it, The scope of
the unfolding humanitarian disaster and civilian casualties is nearly
unfathomable.[1]
Let me elaborate.
First, Israel is purposely massacring huge number of civilians,
roughly 70 percent of whom are children and women. The claim that
Israel is going to great lengths to minimize civilian casualties is
belied by statements from high level Israeli officials. For example,
the IDF spokesman said on 10 October 2023 that "the emphasis is on
damage and not on accuracy." That same day, Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant announced: "I have lowered all the restraints we will kill
everyone we fight against; we will use every means."[2]
Moreover, it is clear from the results of the bombing campaign that
Israel is indiscriminately killing civilians. Two detailed studies of
the IDFs bombing campaign both published in Israeli outlets
explain in detail how Israel is murdering huge numbers of civilians.
It is worth quoting the titles of the two pieces, which succinctly
capture what each has to say:
A Mass Assassination Factory: Inside Israels Calculated Bombing of
Gaza[3]
The Israeli Army Has Dropped the Restraint in Gaza, and the Data
Shows Unprecedented Killing.[4]
Similarly, the New York Times published an article in late November
2023 titled: Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed
at Historic Pace.[5] Thus, it is hardly surprising that the UN
Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said that We are witnessing a
killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any
conflict since his appointment in January 2017.[6]
Second, Israel is purposely starving the desperate Palestinian
population by greatly limiting the amount of food, fuel, cooking gas,
medicine, and water that can be brought into Gaza. Moreover, medical
care is extremely hard to come by for a population that now includes
approximately 50,000 wounded civilians. Not only has Israel greatly
limited the supply of fuel into Gaza, which hospitals need to
function, but it has targeted hospitals, ambulances, and first aid
stations.
Defense Minister Gallants comment on 9 October captures Israeli
policy: "I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will
be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are
fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly."[7] Israel has
been forced to allow minimal supplies into Gaza, but the amounts are
so small that a senior UN official reports that half of Gazas
population is starving. He goes on to report that, Nine out of 10
families in some areas are spending a full day and night without any
food at all.[8]
Third, Israeli leaders talk about Palestinians and what they would
like to do in Gaza in shocking terms, especially when you consider
that some of these leaders also talk incessantly about the horrors of
the Holocaust. Indeed, their rhetoric has led Omar Bartov, a prominent
Israeli-born scholar of the Holocaust, to conclude that Israel has
genocidal intent.[9] Other scholars in Holocaust and genocide
studies have offered a similar warning.[10]
To be more specific, it is commonplace for Israeli leaders to refer to
Palestinians as human animals, human beasts, and horrible inhuman
animals.[11] And as Israeli President Isaac Herzog makes clear, those
leaders are referring to all Palestinians, not just Hamas: In his
words, It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.[12]
Unsurprisingly, as the New York Times reports, it is part of normal
Israeli discourse to call for Gaza to be flattened, erased, or
destroyed.[13] One retired IDF general, who proclaimed that Gaza
will become a place where no human being can exist, also makes the
case that severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring
victory closer.[14] Going even further, a minister in the Israeli
government suggested dropping a nuclear weapon on Gaza.[15] These
statements are not being made by isolated extremists, but by senior
members of Israels government.
Of course, there is also much talk of ethnically cleansing Gaza (and
the West Bank), in effect, producing another Nakba.[16] To quote
Israels Agriculture Minister, We are now rolling out the Gaza
Nakba.[17]Perhaps the most shocking evidence of the depths to which
Israeli society has sunk is a video of very young children singing a
blood-curdling song celebrating Israels destruction of Gaza: Within
a year we will annihilate everyone, and then we will return to plow
our fields.[18]
Fourth, Israel is not just killing, wounding, and starving huge
numbers of Palestinians, it is also systematically destroying their
homes as well as critical infrastructure to include mosques,
schools, heritage sites, libraries, key government buildings, and
hospitals.[19] As of 1 December 2023, the IDF had damaged or destroyed
almost 100,000 buildings, including entire neighborhoods that have
been reduced to rubble.[20] Consequently, a stunning 90 percent of
Gazas 2.3 million Palestinians have been displaced from their
homes.[21] Moreover, Israel is making a concerted effort to destroy
Gazas cultural heritage; as NPR reports, more than 100 Gaza heritage
sites have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks.[22]
Fifth, Israel is not just terrorizing and killing Palestinians, it is
also publicly humiliating many of their men who have been rounded up
by the IDF in routine searches. Israeli soldiers strip them down to
their underwear, blindfold them, and display them in a public way in
their neighborhoods sitting them down in large groups in the middle
of the street, for example, or parading them through the streets
before taking them away in trucks to detention camps. In most cases,
the detainees are then released as they are not Hamas fighters.[23]
Sixth, although the Israelis are doing the slaughtering, they could
not do it without the Biden administrations support. Not only was the
United States the only country to vote against a recent UN Security
Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but it
has also been providing Israel with the weaponry necessary to wage
this massacre.[24] As one Israeli general (Yitzhak Brick) recently
made clear: All of our missiles, the ammunition, the precision-guided
bombs, all the airplanes and bombs, its all from the U.S. The minute
they turn off the tap, you cant keep fighting. You have no
capability. Everyone understands that we cant fight this war without
the United States. Period.[25] Remarkably, the Biden administration
has sought to expedite sending Israel additional ammunition,
by-passing the normal procedures of the Arms Export Control Act.[26]
Seventh, while most of the focus is now on Gaza, it is important not
to lose sight of what is simultaneously going on in the West Bank.
Israeli settlers, working closely with the IDF, continue to kill
innocent Palestinians and steal their land. In an excellent article in
the New York Review of Books describing these horrors, David Shulman
relates a conversation he had with a settler, which clearly reflects
the moral dimension of Israeli behavior toward the Palestinians. What
we are doing to these people is actually inhuman, the settler freely
admits, But if you think about it clearly, it all follows inevitably
from the fact that God promised this land to the Jews, and only to
them.[27] Along with its assault on Gaza, the Israel government has
markedly increased the number of arbitrary arrests in the West Bank.
According to Amnesty International, there is considerable evidence
that these prisoners have been tortured and subjected to degrading
treatment.[28]
As I watch this catastrophe for the Palestinians unfold, I am left
with one simple question for Israels leaders, their American
defenders, and the Biden administration: have you no decency?
NOTES
[1]
https://jstreet.org/press-releases/moment-of-truth-for-israels-government/
[2] Both quotes can be found in:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-09/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/the-israeli-army-has-dropped-the-restraint-in-gaza-and-data-shows-unprecedented-killing/0000018c-4cca-db23-ad9f-6cdae8ad0000
[3]
https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
[4]
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-09/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/the-israeli-army-has-dropped-the-restraint-in-gaza-and-data-shows-unprecedented-killing/0000018c-4cca-db23-ad9f-6cdae8ad0000
[5]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-death-toll.html
[6]
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/press-encounter/2023-11-20/secretary-generals-press-conference-unep-emissions-gap-report-launch
[7]
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/
[8] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67670679
Also see:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/opinion/international-world/us-government-gaza-humanitarian-aid.html
[9]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/opinion/israel-gaza-genocide-war.html
Also see:
https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/11/20/an-open-letter-on-the-misuse-of-holocaust-memory/
[10]
https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-currents/statement-of-scholars-7-october/
[11]
[12]
https://news.yahoo.com/israeli-president-says-no-innocent-154330724.html#:~:text=It%20is%20an%20entire%20nation,It%27s%20absolutely%20not%20true.
[13]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-war-rhetoric.html
[14]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/opinion/israel-gaza-genocide-war.html
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-11-23/ty-article-opinion/.premium/giora-eilands-monstrous-gaza-proposal-is-evil-in-plain-sight/0000018b-f84b-d473-affb-f9eb09af0000
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/influential-israeli-national-security-leader-makes-the-case-for-genocide-in-gaza/
[15]
https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-minister-says-nuking-gaza-an-option-pm-suspends-him-from-cabinet-meetings/
[16]
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/israeli-think-tank-lays-out-a-blueprint-for-the-complete-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/
[17]
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-12/ty-article/israeli-security-cabinet-member-calls-north-gaza-evacuation-nakba-2023/0000018b-c2be-dea2-a9bf-d2be7b670000
[18]
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-israeli-children-sing-we-will-annihilate-everyone-gaza
[19]
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-public-library-destroyed-bombing
https://mearsheimer.substack.com/p/death-and-destruction-in-gaza
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"