Imperialism
Israel
Palestine
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[1] fair use.
The Washington Post analyzed satellite imagery, airstrike data and U.N. damage assessments, and interviewed more than 20 aid workers, health-care providers, and experts in munitions and aerial warfare. The evidence shows that Israel has carried out its war in Gaza at a pace and level of devastation that likely exceeds any recent conflict, destroying more buildings, in far less time, than were destroyed during the Syrian regime’s battle for Aleppo from 2013 to 2016 and the U.S.-led campaign to defeat the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, in 2017.
The Post also found that the Israeli military has conducted repeated and widespread airstrikes in proximity to hospitals, which are supposed to receive special protection under the laws of war. Satellite imagery reviewed by Post reporters revealed dozens of apparent craters near 17 of the 28 hospitals in northern Gaza, where the bombing and fighting were most intense during the first two months of war, including 10 craters that suggested the use of bombs weighing 2,000 pounds, the largest in regular use.[2]
The Washington Post report emphasizes damage Israel’s bombs have done to hospitals. These bombings are almost certainly war crimes.[3] The evidence the Israeli Defense Force offered from the al-Shifa hospital is not even remotely exculpatory.[4] The absence of medical facilities forces a population to leave a territory[5]—ethnic cleansing is indeed the goal.[6]
Binyamin Netanyahu has promised Israeli troops that the war on Hamas will continue until total victory has been achieved.[7] As this is unlikely to be an achievable end,[8] and Netaanyahu wants a wider war anyway,[9] the war will continue indefinitely. I suppose that’s one way of avoiding an election.
When that election happens, Netanyahu likely loses his job, but it remains my expectation that Israelis will elect another right-wing government because Zionists are getting away with calling their detractors names—“terrorist,” “anti-Semite”—rather than being forced to acknowledge their own social justice traditions and to do the hard moral thinking that those traditions demand.
Summer Said, Margherita Stancati and William Mauldin, “Hamas Rejection Sours Israeli Bid to Revive Hostage Talks,” Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-offers-one-week-cease-fire-in-exchange-for-more-hostages-336ae59a
Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel is struggling to destroy Hamas, but it’s destroying Gaza,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/20/israel-battlefield-gaza-defeat-hamas/
Julian Borger, “US says it is ready to support amended UN resolution aimed at boosting aid to Gaza,” Guardian, December 21, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/22/un-security-council-resolution-boosting-aid-gaza-usa-america-support
Louisa Loveluck et al., “The case of al-Shifa: Investigating the assault on Gaza’s largest hospital,” Washington Post, December 21, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/21/al-shifa-hospital-gaza-hamas-israel/
Paul Rogers, “Israel is losing the war against Hamas – but Netanyahu and his government will never admit it,” Guardian, December 21, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/21/israel-losing-war-against-hamas-netanyahu-idf
Andrew Silow-Carroll, “What is antisemitism? At a Jewish studies conference, scholars use the archives as a guide — and a warning,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 21, 2023, https://www.jta.org/2023/12/21/ideas/what-is-antisemitism-at-a-jewish-studies-conference-scholars-use-the-archives-as-a-guide-and-a-warning
Emma Graham-Harrison and Julian Borger, “UN security council backs resolution on large-scale aid to Gaza but not ceasefire,” Guardian, December 22, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/22/un-security-council-backs-resolution-on-large-scale-aid-to-gaza-but-not-ceasefire
James Politi and Felicia Schwartz, “Biden’s troubled Gaza strategy: ‘the US looks feckless,’” Financial Times, December 22, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/edebf6ef-155e-4aad-a41b-7e31016cad96
Robin Stein et al., “A Times Investigation Tracked Israel’s Use of One of Its Most Destructive Bombs in South Gaza,” New York Times, December 22, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-bomb-investigation.html
Adam Taylor, “More than 20,000 dead in Gaza, a historic human toll,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/22/gaza-israel-war-20000-dead/
Deborah Danon, “‘The safest place to be Jewish’: 2,600 people have moved to Israel since Hamas invaded,” Times of Israel, December 23, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-safest-place-to-be-jewish-2600-people-have-moved-to-israel-since-hamas-invaded/
Evan Hill et al., “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza,” Washington Post, December 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/
Vivian Salama, Dion Nissenbaum, and Benoit Faucon, “Biden Convinced Netanyahu to Halt a Pre-Emptive Strike Against Hezbollah,” Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/how-biden-averted-a-second-front-by-convincing-israel-not-to-attack-hezbollah-on-oct-11-e14a0a3b
Neri Zilber, “Benjamin Netanyahu vows to fight on despite mounting Gaza death toll,” Financial Times, December 24, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6e7a8788-6a30-4686-abd4-0b7496e86bff
Polina Ivanova, “Benjamin Netanyahu visits Israeli troops in northern Gaza and tells them war will not stop,” Financial Times, December 25, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/40c6e678-eeca-4346-9c1b-83d90e38f823
Neri Zilber and Raya Jalabi, “Israel warns of regional conflict risk as Iran tensions increase,” Financial Times, December 26, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6932a369-f3f6-46e5-be1f-ce47e14e5ece
Illiberalism
Gilead
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Fig. 1. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,[10] public domain.
Marshall Cohen, “Michigan Supreme Court rejects ‘insurrectionist ban’ case and keeps Trump on 2024 primary ballot,” CNN, December 27, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/27/politics/michigan-supreme-court-rejects-insurrectionist-ban-case-and-keeps-trump-on-2024-primary-ballot/index.html
- [1]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
- [2]Evan Hill et al., “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza,” Washington Post, December 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/↩
- [3]Evan Hill et al., “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza,” Washington Post, December 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/↩
- [4]Louisa Loveluck et al., “The case of al-Shifa: Investigating the assault on Gaza’s largest hospital,” Washington Post, December 21, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/21/al-shifa-hospital-gaza-hamas-israel/↩
- [5]Evan Hill et al., “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza,” Washington Post, December 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/↩
- [6]Ryan Grim, “Netanyahu’s Goal for Gaza: ‘Thin’ Population ‘to a Minimum,’” Intercept, December 3, 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/12/03/netanyahu-thin-gaza-population/; Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel’s Gaza war raises fears of a Palestinian exodus into Egypt,” Washington Post, December 12, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/12/12/gaza-displacement-egypt-palestine-israel-flee-rafah/↩
- [7]Polina Ivanova, “Benjamin Netanyahu visits Israeli troops in northern Gaza and tells them war will not stop,” Financial Times, December 25, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/40c6e678-eeca-4346-9c1b-83d90e38f823↩
- [8]Loveday Morris, “Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas. Yet the group remains largely intact,” Washington Post, December 5, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/05/israel-military-offensive-hamas-destruction-gaza/; Alon Pinkas, “Netanyahu is stuck as he battles Hamas: he can’t afford to lose, yet can’t find a way to win,” Guardian, November 30, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/30/netanyahu-hamas-lose-win-israeli-public-us; Paul Rogers, “Israel is losing the war against Hamas – but Netanyahu and his government will never admit it,” Guardian, December 21, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/21/israel-losing-war-against-hamas-netanyahu-idf; Jeremy Scahill, “This Is Not a War Against Hamas,” Intercept, December 11, 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/12/11/israel-hamas-war-civilians-biden/; Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel is struggling to destroy Hamas, but it’s destroying Gaza,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/20/israel-battlefield-gaza-defeat-hamas/↩
- [9]Vivian Salama, Dion Nissenbaum, and Benoit Faucon, “Biden Convinced Netanyahu to Halt a Pre-Emptive Strike Against Hezbollah,” Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/how-biden-averted-a-second-front-by-convincing-israel-not-to-attack-hezbollah-on-oct-11-e14a0a3b; Neri Zilber and Raya Jalabi, “Israel warns of regional conflict risk as Iran tensions increase,” Financial Times, December 26, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6932a369-f3f6-46e5-be1f-ce47e14e5ece↩
- [10]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html↩