Latest news with #GideonLevy
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Deadly partnership: US, Israel share blame for Gaza catastrophe
For decades, countless U.S. officials have proclaimed that the bonds between the United States and Israel are unbreakable. Now, the two countries function as accomplices while methodical killing continues in Gaza, with both societies directly — and differently — making it all possible. On Monday, the Israeli human rights organizations B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel released reports concluding that genocide has been underway. Their intervention is significant. According to the New York Times, they are the first such Israeli groups to make this designation. Documenting 'coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip,' B'Tselem flatly declared that 'Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.' Many respected legal scholars, political leaders and aid groups are increasingly making the same declaration, as Julian Borger reported Monday in The Guardian. An official declaration has been referred to the International Court of Justice, with some experts predicting a decision in late 2027 or early 2028. The policies of Israel's government, however, still appear aligned with the attitudes of a majority of Jewish Israelis. In a recent survey released by the aChord Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, three-quarters of Jewish Israelis, and 64 percent of all Israelis, said they largely agreed with the statement that 'there are no innocent people in Gaza' — nearly half of whom are children. This week, the Times also noted that 'a majority of Israelis have long wanted a deal that would end the war in exchange for the release of all the hostages still held in Gaza and relieve soldiers exhausted by months of deadly conflict.' But the majority's primary concern is for the well-being of Israelis, with scant regard for the Palestinian people facing slaughter and famine. 'There is no more 'permitted' and 'forbidden' with regard to Israel's evilness toward the Palestinians,' dissident columnist Gideon Levy wrote three months ago in the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz. 'It is permitted to kill dozens of captive detainees and to starve to death an entire people.' The biggest Israeli media outlets, he said, echo and amplify sociopathic voices. 'Genocide talk has spread into all TV studios as legitimate talk. Former colonels, past members of the defense establishment, sit on panels and call for genocide without batting an eye.' Last week, Levy provided an update: 'The weapon of deliberate starvation is working. The Gaza 'Humanitarian' Foundation, in turn, has become a tragic success. Not only have hundreds of Gazans been shot to death while waiting in line for packages distributed by the GHF, but there are others who don't manage to reach the distribution points, dying of hunger. Most of these are children and babies…They lie on hospital floors, on bare beds, or carried on donkey carts. These are pictures from hell. In Israel, many people reject these photos, doubting their veracity. Others express their joy and pride on seeing starving babies.' Amid reports and horrific images that have appeared in recent days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said no one in Gaza is starving and denied a 'policy of starvation' on the part of Israel, instead blaming Hamas for the lack of food. His claims about Hamas, however, have been debunked. 'The Israeli military never found proof that the Palestinian militant group had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations, the biggest supplier of emergency assistance to Gaza for most of the war, according to two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved in the matter,' the Times reported last weekend. And in comments on Monday from his golf course in Scotland, even President Donald Trump broke with Netanyahu to acknowledge there was 'real starvation' happening: 'Based on television…those children look very hungry.' Beyond food, a daily process continues to exterminate more and more of the 2.1 million Palestinian people who remain in Gaza — bombing and shooting civilians while blocking all but a pittance of the food and medicine needed to sustain life. After destroying Gaza's hospitals, Israel is still targeting health care workers — killing at least 70 in May and June — as well as first responders and journalists. The barbarism is in sync with the belief that 'no innocent people' are in Gaza. A relevant observation came from Aldous Huxley in 1936, the same year that the swastika first appeared on Germany's flag: 'The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.' Kristallnacht happened two years later, inaugurating the Nazi regime's organized persecution of Jewish people, which culminated in the Holocaust. Renowned genocide scholar Omer Bartov explained during an interview on 'Democracy Now!' in mid-July that genocide is 'the attempt to destroy not simply people in large numbers, but to destroy them as members of a group. The intent is to destroy the group itself. And it doesn't mean that you have to kill everyone. It means that the group will be destroyed and that it will not be able to reconstitute itself as a group. And to my mind, this is precisely what Israel is trying to do.' Bartov, who is Jewish and spent the first half of his life in Israel, said: What I see in the Israeli public is an extraordinary indifference by large parts of the public to what Israel is doing and what it's done in the name of Israeli citizens in Gaza. In part, it has to do with the fact that the Israeli media has decided not to report on the horrors that the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is perpetrating in Gaza. You simply will not see it on Israeli television. If some pictures happen to come in, they are presented only as material that might be used by foreign propaganda against Israel. Now, Israeli citizens can, of course, use other media resources. We can all do that. But most of them prefer not to. And I would say that while about 30 percent of the population in Israel is completely in favor of what is happening, and, in fact, is egging the government and the army on, I think the vast majority of the population simply does not want to know about it. A large majority of Israelis — 82 percent, according to a recent poll conducted by Pennsylvania State University — want their government to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza. That displacement would be on a scale even larger than the Nakba, or mass displacement, that occurred in Palestine during the late 1940s. Netanyahu is now moving to fulfill those wishes. 'Netanyahu is expected to propose to the political-security cabinet a plan to annex areas in the Gaza Strip,' Haaretz reported on Monday. 'The process will continue gradually until the entire Strip is annexed. According to details presented by Netanyahu in talks with ministers, the plan has received approval from the Trump administration.' In Israel, 'compassion for Palestinians is taboo except among a fringe of radical activists,' Adam Shatz wrote last month in the London Review of Books. At the same time, 'the catastrophe of the last two years far exceeds that of the Nakba.' The consequences 'are already being felt well beyond Gaza: in the West Bank, where Israeli soldiers and settlers have presided over an accelerated campaign of displacement and killing (more than a thousand West Bank Palestinians have been killed since 7 October); inside Israel, where Palestinian citizens are subject to increasing levels of ostracism and intimidation; in the wider region, where Israel has established itself as a new Sparta; and in the rest of the world, where the inability of Western powers to condemn Israel's conduct — much less bring it to an end — has made a mockery of the rules-based order that they claim to uphold.' The loudest preaching for a 'rules-based order' has come from the U.S. government, which makes and breaks international rules at will. During this century, in the Middle East, the U.S.-Israel duo has vastly outdone all other entities combined in the categories of killing, maiming and terrorizing. In addition to the joint project of genocide in Gaza and America's long war in Iraq, the United States and Israel have often exercised an assumed prerogative to attack Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran, along with encore U.S. missile strikes on Iraq as recently as last year. Israel's grisly performance as 'a new Sparta' in the region is co-produced by the Pentagon, with the military and intelligence operations of the two nations intricately entangled. With at least 70 percent of its arsenal coming from the U.S., the Israeli military has been able to turn Gaza into a genocide zone. Last year, while writing an afterword about the war on Gaza for the paperback edition of 'War Made Invisible' — which details how America has shifted to a perpetual state of war — I mulled over the relevance of my book's subtitle: 'How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.' As the carnage in Gaza worsened, the reality became clearer that the Orwellian-named Israel Defense Forces and U.S. Defense Department are essentially part of the same military machine. Their command structures are different, but they are part of the same geopolitical Goliath. 'The new era in which Israel, backed by the U.S., dominates the Middle East is likely to see even more violence and instability than in the past,' longtime war correspondent Patrick Cockburn wrote this month. The lethal violence from Israeli-American teamwork is of such magnitude that it epitomizes international state terrorism. The genocide in Gaza shows the lengths to which the alliance is willing and able to go. While public opinion is very different in Israel and the United States, the results of the governments' policies are indistinguishable. American public opinion about arming Israel is measurable. As early as June 2024, a CBS News poll found that 61 percent of the public said the U.S. should not 'send weapons and supplies to Israel.' Since then, support for Israel has continued to erode. In sharp contrast, on Capitol Hill, the support for arming Israel is measurably high. When Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders' bills to cut off some military aid to Israel came to a vote last November, just 19 out of 100 senators supported the measures. Very few of his colleagues have voiced anywhere near the extent of Sanders' moral outrage as he keeps speaking out on the Senate floor. In the House, only 26 out of 435 members have chosen to become cosponsors of H.R.3565, a bill introduced more than two months ago by Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., that would prevent the U.S. government from sending certain bombs to Israel. 'Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II,' the Congressional Research Service reports. During just the first 12 months after the war on Gaza began in October 2023, Brown University's Costs of War project found, the 'U.S. spending on Israel's military operations and related U.S. operations in the region' added up to $23 billion. The resulting profit bonanza for U.S. military contractors is notable. So is the fact that the U.S.-Israel partnership exerts great American leverage in the Middle East — where two-thirds of the world's oil reserves are located. The politics of genocide in the United States involves papering over the enormous substantive gap between the opinions of the electorate and the actions of the U.S. government. While the partnership between the governments of Israel and the United States has never been stronger, the partnership between the people of Israel and the United States has never been weaker. But in the U.S., consent of the governed has not been necessary to continue the axis of genocide. The post Deadly partnership: US, Israel share blame for Gaza catastrophe appeared first on
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Israel's denials don't change the fact that children are starving
The Israeli embassy says there's no starvation in Gaza. That the images are fake. That the dying children aren't real (' Israel's denial of starvation reports in Gaza 'beyond comprehension' ' July 29). But they are real. And we know it. Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, calls this a policy of starvation. It has documented the blockade of aid, the bombing of bakeries, the shootings at food queues. Wasted bodies. Children dying slow, preventable deaths. Journalist Gideon Levy goes further – he calls this denial 'no less vile than Holocaust denial.' Because it erases the victims. Because it adds insult to the unimaginable cruelty. So how many more must die before Australia acts? Before we impose sanctions? Cut military ties? Recognise Palestine? How many photos of starving children do we need before Anthony Albanese does more than speak? Words don't fill empty stomachs. Lila Malagi, Flinders (Vic) The Deputy Israeli ambassador should read the two reports released on Monday by two Israeli human rights groups, the Israeli-Palestinian human rights group B'Tselem, and the Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, which have concluded that Israel's conduct in Gaza constitutes genocide against the Palestinian population. Or is this just another case of fake news? Joe Collins, Mosman Israel's denial of starvation in Gaza is to be warmly welcomed. It is such a blatant untruth that it reinforces our scepticism about all of Israel's assertions. A government that is prepared to brazenly contradict the plain and heart-breaking evidence clearly cannot be trusted. Claims that the devastation of Gaza and the slaughter of its people are in self-defence, that civilians are never targeted, only Hamas terrorists, that Israel's army is the most moral in the world, that Hamas is solely responsible for the failure of ceasefire negotiations, and so many more, all without evidence, cannot be taken seriously. We should be grateful that Israel's relentless public relations campaign has been so nakedly exposed. Tom Knowles, Parkville (Vic) If the Israeli government insists that the starvation inside Gaza is Hamas propaganda, then why not let the international press in to report independently? Wayne Fitness, Rankin Park Israeli Deputy Ambassador to Australia Amir Meron should be informed that the international media is poised to descend on Gaza and reveal the starvation hoax. It's ready when you are, Amir. Garry Feeney, Kingsgrove In all the talk on Israel and Hamas and Palestine, there has been little mention of the horrors of October 7, 2023, when more than 1200 men, women and children, including citizens from 30 countries were slaughtered by Hamas. Girls and women were sexually assaulted, and physically and mentally damaged. And there are still hostages being held by Hamas. Selwyn Suchet, St Ives Chase No, Alex Nikulin (Letters, July 28), my point is not that 'the picture of the starving child is fake news', but that media outlets have a duty and responsibility to uphold factual integrity. Printing context-lacking photos risks legitimising anti-Jewish hatred under the guise of political criticism. In the case of Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, his mother is reported to have told the media that her son suffers from a muscular disorder that results in wasting. In other words, Muhammad's condition stems from a medical disorder, rather than an embargo by Israel on food distribution. George Fishman, Vaucluse Building bridges Presumably the NSW government profited from the closure of the Sydney Harbour Bridge when Hollywood and the Formula 1 organisers came to town (' Pro-Palestine activists vow court action over march on Harbour Bridge ', July 29). Rather than Sydney 'descending into chaos', the record shows we revelled in the excitement of those particular Sunday mornings in 2005, on one occasion seeing Mark Webber zoom across the bridge a dozen times. Notice periods aside – since the premier could counter-offer a future date for a protest march – does our desire for entertainment and profit trump the human and compassionate urge to peacefully protest over a human catastrophe which we cannot unsee: the preventable starvation and killing of thousands of innocent children and adults? C'mon, Premier Minns. Jane Woolford, Marrickville Premier Minns, surely you see that a couple of hours of disruption for Syndeysiders is meaningless against the suffering of the people of Gaza. As governments worldwide stand by, bound up by their fear of antisemitic accusations, seemingly powerless to act, everyday people are feeling anguish and outrage, in need of a collective voice and sense of action. Why wouldn't our most well-known landmark be the right location to show that Australians are not blind or numb to this atrocity? Kathryn Bates, Ashfield Until a letter writer Dale Bailey wised me up, I'd thought the main function of the Harbour Bridge was to allow people to get from one side of the harbour to the other, while collecting revenue (Letters July 29). But then, I'd once thought the Opera House steps were mainly for starstruck groups taking selfies. Now, our bridge is seen as a possible 'leverage' opportunity for controversial causes. Thankfully, Premier Minns sees it differently. Rosemary O'Brien, Ashfield Coal mining doomed Correspondent Bruce Johnson thinks we will have a choice about giving up our income from coal and gas (Letters, July 29). He is mistaken. Just last year, China installed about 300 gigawatts of new green generating capacity. For comparison, our total capacity, according to the market operator, is about 65 gigawatts. China will need a total of about 1500 gigawatts for its large population and will reach that capacity in renewables in a few years. It will then begin to reduce coal generation to just enough for firming, so it will shut down hundreds of generators and the price of coal will plummet, leaving our mines as worthless, stranded assets. The only remaining coal exporters will be low-wage producers like Brazil and Indonesia. What our government does about mine approvals or net-zero targets is irrelevant in the face of this market shift. A more important question is who will pay to remediate our bankrupt mines? And where will the 18,000 workers go? Alan Stanley, Upper Corindi Correspondent Bruce Johnson is correct that the export revenue from coal and gas is $55 billion and $90 billion respectively, but how much of that revenue remains in Australia? The gas extraction sector is more than 90 per cent foreign owned, and it has been determined that they pay no royalties on over half of their exports and invariably pay no company tax. The net benefit to Australia is a much smaller number. Graeme Finn, Campsie Danger on wheels With proposed legislation regulating e-bikes and e-scooters being considered by the state government, the concerns of your writer about the need for enforcement of penalties is timely (' Reckless food delivery riders making footpaths 'lawless' ', July 28). Given that many such riders are unlicensed and may not carry any ID, the only effective penalty would appear to be provision for police and council rangers to seize and impound illegally used e-vehicles. They would then only be returned with proof of ownership and payment of a penalty. Lee Cook, Orange As an e-bike rider, I would like the option of taking it on a train at some time. I have a reputable brand for electronics and would be happy to get the equivalent of a 'test and tag' once a year to prove it is safe, with an appropriate, easily visible tag (' E-bikes and e-scooters face Sydney train and metro ban', July 27). Graeme Finn, Campsie I have recently witnessed two incidents while doing school drop-off with my grandchildren – a rider on an e-scooter in the middle of the road without a helmet while using his mobile phone in one hand and vaping with the other, and a young mother with a baby in a carrier on her back and a young child in front of her on the e-scooter on their way to school. Again, no helmets. Colleen Northam, Taree Good news stories I agree with Peter Hartcher and his views on journalism (' Good journalism can seek solutions ', July 29). I subscribe to a weekly newsletter called Fix the News. It reports stories that do not hit the mainstream. For example, Senegal has eliminated trachoma, which can cause blindness. A new six-in-one vaccine has been developed to protect against diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, polio, pertussis and type-B influenza. New Zealand engineers have worked out how to turn Earth's most abundant mineral, olivine, into zero-waste battery materials, and global coal cargoes shrank by 6 per cent in the first half of this year. The sum of this news leaves me with feelings of hope, rather than despair. News outlets could do more to promote these stories. Tom Meakin, Port Macquarie Peter Hartcher's article is a refreshing take on what news could be. The gruelling reporting of death, corruption, misery and self-interest is depressing. While such reporting won't go away, balancing it with meaningful writing on how we can contribute to societal improvement will lift our outlook, our mental health and our world. Might the Herald lead by starting a daily double page spread of positive news? I'm sure it will become the go-to section (after the letters pages, of course). Wayne Duncombe, Lilyfield I have written here so many times highlighting that journalism has become reporting opinions about issues but not offering a solution (what next, what should we do). It has taken Peter Hartcher to tell us that we have a media problem and there are people trying to do something about it. Jenny Greenwood, Hunters Hill Healthy masculinity Apparently, men lifting weights at Bondi is a public safety issue. 'Too much testosterone', we're told (' Tension over the Bondi Beach gym crackdown ', July 29). Right. Because the real danger is men getting strong together, instead of sulking alone watching Andrew Tate videos. Outdoor gyms offer routine, connection and a sense of purpose. Mocking that only pushes men toward isolation and resentment – fertile ground for misogyny. If we want fewer angry, disconnected men in society, let's stop treating healthy masculinity like a liability. Walter Lee, Ashfield Unhappy new year It is a sad time when North Sydney Council chooses to charge people $50 to watch the iconic fireworks (' Council debates charging for NYE Sydney Harbour fireworks ', July 29). Their greed has successfully removed the 'happy' from 'happy new year'. It would be interesting to know just how many of the councillors will pay the $50 if they choose to watch themselves. Peter De Silva, Essendon (Vic) Given that North Sydney Council received $10 million from a federal government grant originally designed to build female change rooms and upgrade community swimming pools in rural and regional areas, might it discount the price charged for us country folk for New Year's Eve fireworks? Graham Fazio, Cootamundra Who nose best? Emily Kowal's article on the so-called childcare 'mouth taping incident' goes too far (' Sydney childcare centre censured for taping toddlers' mouths shut ', July 29). Taping the mouth is a common way to encourage nostril rather than mouth breathing. Asthmatics breathe through their mouths and so do kids with allergies, and that's a bad thing. If they learn to keep their mouths closed and breathe through the nose, allergies and reactions to things like carpets, dust and cat dander decrease dramatically. I got over my own asthma as an adult using this method. So did my son. It's a Russian system called Buteyko. The article suggests it's some weird cult practice and dangerous, which it isn't. People could avoid a lot of ENT surgery if they breathed through their noses more. Karen Halabi, Tamarama Downsizing disincentive Jane Caro's article on downsizing was a good read (' Downsizing was just the best move ', July 29). She mentions the benefit of the tax incentives for downsizers to boost their super funds. However, over the horizon is a looming additional tax on unindexed super balances above $3 million. This new tax may mean that seniors and retirees will not want to downsize and put their excess cash into super while they can stay in their current home tax-free. The unintended consequence could be more pressure on the housing market, unless of course the government decides to tax the family home. Wilfred Gay, Middle Cove Sky's the limit An egregious example of harbour exploitation, as described by Richard Spencer (Letters, July 29), lies in Taronga Zoo's latest attempt to Disneyfy its operation. A new Sky Safari is certainly needed, but Taronga's plans to build pylons 10 storeys tall in the middle of the route are clearly an attempt to create a totally non-zoological entertainment – 'views from the Heads to the Blue Mountains' – that will stick out like a sore thumb above the trees on its harbour slopes. It will be illuminated and run night and day. Odd that everyone else on the harbour slopes is restricted to eight metres in height so that views from the harbour remain a delight. Jeremy Eccles, Clifton Gardens Tariff tanty Another day, another tariff tantrum from you-know-who (' Trump signals tariffs of up to 20 per cent ', July 29). It is a mystery to me why we are not getting together with Canada, Mexico, Japan, Britain, the EU, India and any other nation that wants in to create a trading bloc that sells to America anything it wants, but only buys from it if no other supplier is available, and sell only to each other. Also, no retaliatory tariffs. Why should we punish ourselves they way the Americans are punishing themselves? Nicholas Triggs, Katoomba Refund required If the US can't supply the Virginia-class nuclear submarines as stated in the AUKUS agreement, do we get back the $1.6 billion we have already paid? Daniela Catalano, Haberfield Land clearing Unfortunately, many people of NSW believe that they have the right to do whatever they like on their private land, while the 'leaders' they elect allow the ongoing devastation of this once-magnificent landscape and the unique wildlife it nourished (' NSW land clearing on par with Indonesia ', July 29). As usual, there's a handful doing the right thing – environmental groups, progressive crossbenchers, protesters and activists, who, in this shamelessly capitalist climate, are treated as radicals or criminals. If you are not protesting, lobbying, donating or voting for change, you are complicit in the extinctions and carnage we are facing. Marie Healy, Hurlstone Park Cheaper childcare The response by David Rose for more council-run childcare centres piqued my interest (Letters, July 29). I recently asked our local councillors why childcare services could not be restored in the Pittwater ward, given that the merged Northern Beaches Council has nine council-run centres in the former Manly and Warringah wards. I was assured that Pittwater residents were not subsidising childcare provided elsewhere on the northern beaches because the services were 'cost neutral'. If these services are indeed cost neutral, then why the heck are we not establishing more centres for struggling parents, especially given that this council recently increased rates by 25 per cent? Wendy Janssens, Newport
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Gideon Levy: 'I want to live in a just state'
Why is it important that Jews such as yourself speak out against Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories? Israeli author and journalist Gideon Levy (Courtesy Jaipur Literature Festival) The reason is quite simple and straightforward. I want to live in a just state! As long as occupation and apartheid go on, I will continue to live in an unjust place. There is injustice on a daily basis towards millions of people. Through my work as a journalist, I try to change this. This is not only my right. It is my duty to do so. Judaism places great emphasis on the concept of Tikkun olam. How can Jews seek inspiration from this principle to do the right thing in this contemporary political environment? Tikkun olam means 'correcting the world'. I don't think that I am capable enough to do that, so I do not even aspire to it. My inspiration is more modest. Let me try to correct my own country, which is going in the wrong direction. I criticise ideas like 'Jewish morality' and 'Jewish values'. Let us follow international law without getting into philosophy. Let us stick to moral principles that are universal. Don't kill innocent people. Don't punish a whole piece of land for the actions of some individuals who did something bad. You do not need any concepts. You only need a conscience to do the right thing. Israelis who have spoken out in solidarity with Palestinians have had to face repercussions such as losing their jobs. With the growing fear of a potential backlash, to what extent is it really possible for Israelis to raise their voice? I am the best example of an Israeli person who has raised his voice in support of Palestinians. I live in Israel and I continue to write for Haaretz, the most respected Israeli newspaper that gives me the freedom to write. I have the privilege of being a Jewish journalist. People like me have more rights than Palestinians. I do not take them for granted. 320pp, ₹1936; Verso Books You have also received death threats, haven't you? Yes, I have. I receive them all the time. But that will not change anything about how I think and what I write. Where do you draw your courage from? Well, I don't think that you need much courage. I cannot keep silent when I see what is happening. People who live in the occupied territories face a lot more danger every day. I am only doing my job as a journalist. Even an electrician who climbs ladders to fix wires faces danger on a daily basis while he is doing his job. I do not like to think that I am a very courageous person. What, according to you, is the role of journalists in seeking accountability after the announcement of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas? We have a big responsibility as always. First of all, our job is to give our readers and viewers the whole truth; not opinion and propaganda. Journalists must be professional in their approach. We must free ourselves from the agenda of the government as well as its rivals. How did you end up writing your new book The Killing of Gaza? My publisher thought that my pieces should be published as a book, along the lines of my previous one called The Punishment of Gaza. I liked the idea because compiling the pieces in this form gives readers a concentrated picture of what I have seen in Gaza through the years. I have written a foreword and an epilogue to lay out the context. In India, we don't get to hear many stories of 'conscientious objectors' from Israel who are protesting against apartheid and genocide. Could you tell us about the resistance movements in Israel? Right now, the opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu is very strong, vocal, active, and devoted. There are demonstrations every week. Unfortunately, what's almost totally absent is an opposition to the war and crimes of war. Only a handful of people in Israel are raising their voices against apartheid and genocide. In my view, this is very unfortunate. After the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, it has become harder to talk about what is Israel is doing in the occupied territories. The conversation is more focused on what Hamas did to Israelis. What kind of impact do anti-Zionist organizations in the United States, such as Jewish Voice of Peace, have on the actual situation for Palestinians? You cannot measure the impact of their work but you can see a process that is the outcome of a long-standing activity. Even in Israel, there are small organizations that are devoted to their work. We cannot seek immediate results. Everyone is doing whatever they can. We will see some changes gradually and eventually. Your father fled the Nazi regime to protect himself from persecution. Would you say that this family history helped you empathize with Palestinians who have been forced to abandon their homes? My father was trying to get to Palestine from the Czech Republic with other Jewish people. They were on a ship for months because they were not allowed to disembark in any port. They ran out of food. I cannot even imagine how they survived. Finally, the British sent them to a detention camp in Lebanon. After that, they were sent to Israel. My father felt like a refugee all his life. He belonged to Europe because that's where he was brought up. He did not even speak Hebrew. How do you view the idea of a two-state solution in West Asia? Are we moving closer to that or does it seem far away? In my opinion, it is not far away; it is dead. I don't see it being implemented. There are several hundred thousand Jewish settlers in the West Bank. The two-state solution will never happen. I wish it would have happened. There is no room for it. That train has left the station. There could be a Palestinian Bantustan like independent states in South Africa that were created for black people. Israel promotes itself as a very liberal destination for LGBTQ people around the world. Is this a way of whitewashing its human rights violations? Israel is very liberal. I have no doubt about it. But being liberal about one thing does not give you the right to be so cruel and immoral in other matters. Israel is using its liberal image for propaganda. It is constantly reminding everyone how Hamas treats gay people. Yes, what they do is horrible. But that does not mean that Palestinian people don't have rights. Chintan Girish Modi is a journalist, educator and literary critic. He is @chintanwriting on Instagram and X.
Middle East Eye
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
‘Israel now has a plan for ethnic cleansing,' says Israeli analyst
Israeli political commentator Gideon Levy has accused the government of orchestrating a deliberate plan of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. In a Haaretz opinion piece, Levy wrote: 'Someone conceived it, there were discussions of pros and cons, alternatives were suggested, options of total cleansing vs. stages, and all done in air-conditioned conference rooms with minutes taken and decisions made.' He said this marks a turning point in the war. 'For the first time since the war of revenge in Gaza began, it's clear that Israel has a plan – and it's a far-reaching one. This is no longer a rolling war.' Levy added: 'There is a purpose to this war, and it's a criminal one. One can no longer tell army commanders that their troops are dying for no reason: They are dying in a war of ethnic cleansing.' The article refers to reported Israeli military plans to force Gaza's entire population into a southern zone, which Levy likened to a concentration area.
Express Tribune
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
The 12-day Iran-Israel war
Listen to article The 12-day war between Iran and Israel must have convinced the Iranian regime that only in the possession of a nuclear bomb lies the security and deterrence of their country. Had it possessed a bomb it is most unlikely that Israel would have launched an attack on it on the 13th of June 2025. In an interview with Karan Thapar, the internationally renowned award winning columnist Gideon Levy stated that in case Iran possessed a bomb just as in the case of North Korea and Pakistan it would've provided a guarantee and deterrence against a nuclear attack by an adversary. Although the ceasefire between Iran and Israel may last for a short while, a permanent peace is inconceivable in the absence of a lasting solution to the Palestinian issue. Resolution of the Gaza, Lebanon and Western Bank problems may bring some respite yet complete peace in the middle east will be fraught unless a two-state solution is not implemented. The killing of 100 innocent Gazans every day by the Israelis cannot be called anything like self-defence or security but clear genocide. The best one can say about the 12-day war is that it was short and did not deteriorate into a war of attrition like the brutal war in Gaza. This raises the question whether the war was necessary. The staying power of Iran would've been far greater than that of Israel in a protracted standoff considering that Iran withstood a war for eight years with Iraq. In the 12-day war, Israel and its population had begun to feel the brunt and dismay. The US must've realised that Israel couldn't withstand a long war due to economic pressure and the great drain on its arms and ammunition. The ceasefire is likely to last and hold not because of the goodwill of any party but because it is in the interest of the two sides. The far more important question that arises is whether the war was necessary at all. After the ceasefire the status quo ante is most likely to revive with the same nuclear deal as existed between Obama and Iran. Both the sides suffered militarily, Iran more than Israel, yet the question arises is: for what outcome was the war fought? The ceasefire is likely to hold on since both sides were eager to end the war. After the ceasefire Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Israel had achieved two of its goals: undoing the nuclear capability and removing the Iranian ICBM threat. A US Intelligence Agency report leaked by CNN just one day after the ceasefire informed that the Iranian nuclear capability had only been set back by a few months and not completely obliterated. There were also reports that some nuclear facilities and materials had been removed from the three sites – Ferdow, Natanz and Isfahan – and the bunker busters GBU-57A, carried by US B2 bombers, could not completely exterminate nuclear facilities nor were any radioactive signs traceable over the sites. Some scholars of the middle east argue that if Iran does obtain a nuclear bomb, it may add to stability in the region in the sense that everyone will be deterred from using the bomb due to the horrible consequences of such a conflagration which will be suicidal for all sides. Possession of a nuclear bomb by Iran may lead it to change its mind from extermination of Israel and diversion of its resources towards socio-economic development. Prof John Miershiemer has averred that the long-term policy and goal of Israel, with the support of the US, is to break up and fracture the Middle Eastern countries like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran. That is why Israel is hell bent on depriving Iran from becoming a nuclear power and thus depriving it of its nuclear monopoly. For similar reasons Iran wants to establish a Kurdish state so that Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran are fragmented. The US and Israel also hold countries like Egypt and Jordan by the gullet so that they are dependent upon America for their economies. Any threat to Israel will lead to economic strangulation of these countries. The Israel-US goal of regime change in Iran has proved a failure. Regime change without boots on the ground and merely through air power is impossible as was seen in Iraq. In fact, the Iranian regime has gained in strength and popularity due to rallying of the population around the flag. Even if a regime change was possible the consequences would be disastrous as is clear from the examples of Syria and Iraq which led to a power vacuum and acute social dissensions within the country and conditions of civil war. If Iran had a nuclear bomb, it is unlikely that it would use it as at the end of it all, Iran is not a suicidal country and its leadership is no less rational than that of the US and Israel despite some of the illegitimate policies it pursues like repression of opposition and attitude towards women freedoms. Avi Shlaim, the leading Israeli historian, states that: 1) Iran has never attacked any of its neighbours, while Israel has; 2) Iran doesn't possess a nuclear bomb and Israel does; 3) Iran is a signatory of the NYPT whereas Israel is not; and 4) Iran allows IAEA inspections and Israel doesn't. Israel is treated differently from other countries in so many ways which are morally illegitimate. Some people justify this special treatment of Israel on account of the Holocaust but the latter provides no justification for any country to treat other nation as in the holocaust. Trump and Israel spoke of eliminating Ayatullah Khamenei and hunting nuclear scientists which can only be regarded as morally and legally repugnant. If there was a justification for assassinating Khamenei, what prevents the same treatment not being meted out to Natanyahu not the least for the vicious and amoral genocide in Gaza.
