Fighting the monsters at the gateway to a hellish place
United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, appearing before the UN Human Rights Council on July 3, 2025, had not only accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza, but also of profiting hugely from their destruction.
Her report to the council was warmly welcomed by the League of Arab States, Venezuela, Palestine, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Qatar.
But, when Hillel Neuer from the UN Watch organisation demanded to know why, in her entire report, there was not a single mention of the October 7, 2023 massacre, Hamas, Hezbollah or that leading sponsor of terrorism across the Middle East, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ms Albanese had nothing to say.
Surrounded by allies and friends, she was under no compulsion to answer Neuer's questions. Hence her brief, but highly communicative, little smile.
Israel's fury at the rest of the world's failure to call its enemies to account is easily understood.
Less easily forgiven is the Israeli state's apparent loss of interest in trying to appraise the rest of humanity of its enemies' ultimate purpose.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his allies, clearly prefer to concentrate all their nation's resources upon securing the complete destruction of Hamas and its allies. Very early in the Israel-Hamas War, a decision was made that civilian casualties would no longer be permitted to impede Israel's extirpation of Palestinian terrorism.
Previous forays into Gaza had been restrained by Israel's sensitivity to global opinion. It understood that the civilian population of Gaza had become Hamas' human ammunition against "the Zionist enemy".
The more casualties inflicted by the Israeli Defence Forces, the less international support there would be for the Israeli state. Hamas knew this. Indeed, Hamas was counting on it.
The Israelis might slap its face, but they were not prepared to endure the consequences of cutting off its head.
The horrific atrocities and the unprecedented death toll — 1200 people — of the October 7 pogrom put an end to Israeli restraint.
On paper, Israel's winning move was to do nothing. It should have refrained from firing a single bullet into Gaza, and from dropping a single bomb.
Borrowing from Hamas' own strategy, Israel should, instead, have taken on the role of victim, and used the massacre as a grisly illustration of the true nature of Palestinianism.
On paper.
But October 7, 2023, did not unfold on paper. Rather than allowing the world to discern the true nature of Hamas, Israel opted, instead, to avenge its dead and abducted citizens by destroying the terrorist organisation completely — regardless of the civilian cost.
The warning of the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche: "have a care when fighting monsters, lest ye become a monster yourself", went unheeded by Netanyahu and his bloodthirsty Zionist allies.
Month by month, the breadth of their vision narrowed, until they could no longer perceive how decisively world opinion was being turned against Israel by a Hamas enemy whose supply of human ammunition showed every sign of being inexhaustible.
As Gaza was steadily transformed into a trackless waste of rubble, and the body count climbed inexorably towards 60,000, it became increasingly plausible for the likes of Francesca Albanese to prosecute their charges of genocide. Certainly, the Muslim world raised no objections to such claims.
Israel was now in the terrifying predicament of Shakespeare's Macbeth: "I am in blood Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
Seized by that grim realisation, Israel plunged on. Soon it was pummelling Lebanon — and then Iran.
Darkness now gathers around Israel as, methodically, Gaza is being flattened out. In the desolation that used to be Rafah, Israel's military is preparing to build a "humanitarian city" of tents for 600,000, rising to 2million, Palestinians.
Around these tents, the Israelis propose to string coil after coil of razor wire. Doubtless, there will be searchlights and watchtowers.
Certainly, once the Palestinians are driven into this terrible encampment, they will not be suffered to leave.
Imagine the terror of the Gazans, as they shuffle under the tutelage of Israeli firepower towards the gates of this hellish place.
■Chris Trotter is an Auckland writer and commentator.
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