Israel’s Barbaric Crusade to Expand

By David Starr

 

There is a major problem in the Middle East that still hasn’t been resolved: Israel giving up the occupation and settlements of Palestinian land. 

 

If Israel were to do this, it would improve the situation. Instead, Israel is attempting to do the opposite for the sake of establishing a “Greater Israel.” This would encroach on the territory of neighboring countries. Besides Gaza and the West Bank, this crusade, based on the myth of religious supremacy, would affect Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen which are all Arab countries, where their sovereignty would be violated, and Israel would have committed yet another violation of international law.

 

To top it off, Iran and Israel have been conducting strikes against each other. Israel claims that it’s been the “victim” of military actions by Arab countries because Israel has been the recipient of months of attacks. The recent attacks by Israel on military targets in Iran is supposed to be a justifiable response, but it’s Israel that has made the initial moves by assassinating individuals in neighboring countries, prompting tip-for-tat actions.

 

Israel has also justified the killing of not only members of Hamas and Hezbollah, but doctors, teachers, journalists, and worst of all children, claiming that it was killing “terrorists.” The Hamas excuse, for example, has reached absurd heights. This, while Israel continues its attempted genocide against the Palestinians, which is way out of proportion compared to Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack in Israel.

 

Iran stated that the damage from Israel’s recent strikes is minimal, and there were two soldiers killed. Most of the strikes were intercepted by Iran’s air defense system. 

 

Iran, no doubt, is preparing a response. According to Camille Gus and Jamie Dettmer in Politico, “Tehran said it is ‘entitled and obliged to defend itself’ and that Israel’s attack is a ‘clear violation’ of international law. Not surprising, given Israel’s aggression against the Palestinians. Gus and Dettmer writes that “Iran reported ‘limited damage’ from Israel’s airstrikes amid fears of retaliation and escalation in the Middle East conflict.”

 

In a response to the Israeli attack, Gus and Dettmer quote National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett:

 

“Iran [needs] to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation. The United States was not a participant in this operation. It is our aim to accelerate diplomacy and de-escalate tensions in the Middle East region. We urge Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of violence can end without further escalation.”

 

It's worth to note that Iran is singled out here, as though it’s the aggressor. But it’s Israel that is responsible for the root causes of the conflict based on its decades of occupation and settlements. 

 

There are many words to call Israel’s crusade. One is reprehensible. Another example of that, according to a report in Al Jazeera, is the fact that “[a]t least 17 Palestinians were killed, including an 11-month-old baby, and 42 wounded in an Israeli attack on a school-turned-shelter in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp.”

 

Going further, another word is disgusting, as “The Israeli army killed at least 19 people in Lebanon, bring the death toll since of the start of the war [with Hezbollah] to 2,593.” 

 

Monstruous: “Gaza’s Government media Office says more than 770 Palestinians have been killed and 1,000 wounded as the Israeli military on Jabalia and the siege of northern Gaza enter their 20^th day.”

 

But perhaps the key word is evil, not only for Israel’s fascists, but U.S. officials. Al Jazeera quotes Adam Shapiro, director at the U.S.-based group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN): “We really can’t believe anything the secretary of state [Antony Blinken] says at this point. What Blinken says about Israel’s war goals doesn’t match what Israelis say are their war goals. Further, “there’s reason to believe the settlement of southern Lebanon is on the table.”

 

On Democracy Now!, host Amy Goodman co-interviews B’Tselem spokesperson Sarit Michaeli. Here’s an excerpt:

 

Goodman: I want to go to that issue of the call of the international community, and particularly the U.S. Blinken has just left Israel, his 11^th trip there, saying he’s pushing for a ceasefire, yet at the same time the Biden administration continuing to arm Netanyahu. [Y]our thoughts on that kind of approach, saying we should push for a ceasefire, but we’ll continue to arm you?

 

Michaeli: It’s absolutely clear we must have a ceasefire. We need a ceasefire, and we need a hostage deal now. But this isn’t going to happen unless Netanyahu is placed in a situation where he has to accept this. And we do not see this happening at the moment. I think that the thought that somehow the U.S. administration can urge Netanyahu for a ceasefire, and this will actually happen, is unrealistic. There needs to be intense pressure to get Israel to currently accept a ceasefire. And it has to come from action by the United States and the international community. Otherwise, they will also be complicit in what we’re seeing now.

 

While there’s B’Tselem pushing for an end to Israel’s genocidal war, Rabbis For  Ceasefire (RFC), according to Mark Gruenberg in the People’s World, “will keep at their campaign to pressure the U.S. government to change U.S. policy towards Israel ‘for as long as it takes.”’ RFC’s co-leader Rabbi Elissa Wise, quoted by Gruenberg, said, “Israel, fueled by the U.S., in the name of safety, is destroying homes, universities, hospitals, schools, and more.”

 

Gruenberg writes that, “Netanyahu’s so-called retaliation alone killed more than 42,000 in Gaza [and that’s a minimal death count]. Pro-peace groups have condemned it as genocide and call it completely disproportionate to what Hamas did in Israel last year.”

 

An appropriate title in an article for Israel’s genocidal crusade was published in The Progressive, “Israel’s War on the World.” Written by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies, they state, “Each week brings new calamities for people in the countries neighboring Israel as its leaders try to expand the state’s borders through violence.

 

“On October 21 and 22, Israeli cabinet ministers and settler movement leaders held a rally on the other side of the fence, with sounds of combat in the background, to demand that all of Gaza be handed over to them. May Golan, Israel’s Minister for Social Equality, explicitly called for ‘another Nakba [Catastrophe].”’

      

And in “Lebanon, millions of people are fleeing for their lives and thousands are being blown to pieces in an offensive that bears striking resemblance of the first genocide in Gaza.”

 

International organizations have concluded that Israel is violating the U.N. Charter and the Geneva Conventions. Benjamin and Davies write: 

 

“[T]he International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem since 1967 is illegal, and must withdraw its military forces and settlers from all those territories. [T]he U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution giving Israel one year to complete that withdrawal. If, as expected, Israel fails to comply, the U.N. Security Council or the general Assembly may take stronger measures, such as an international arms embargo, economic sanctions, or even the use of force.”

 

The resistance against Israel’s war crimes continues. On his show, Cyrus Janssen gave details that Israel has a new enemy. 

 

And the Times of India had a report detailing the significant deaths of Israeli soldiers. 

 

It doesn’t appear that Israel will stop its attempted genocide. But the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, as well as the international community, must continue to put the pressure on, even with the use of force against the Israeli military, if it comes down to it. The occupation and settlements must end.

 

Postscript: over the weekend, Israel launched attacks on Iran, claiming to have hit military targets. Iran issued a warning that there would be “bitter consequences” for the attack.