My head has been exploding all week from the stunning statements emanating from academia, journalism, “the Squad” and a sickening number of alleged progressives and Democrats calling for a “cease fire” in the war, which is code for “make Israel wait for the next terrorist attack by the murderous regime next door that has vowed to wipe it out.”
In fact, it is a good time to review the rhetorical tells coming from these people and groups as they show the filthy underside of a metaphorical rock. Just as I will not trust or respect anyone who frames the abortion issue as a matter of “choice,” or the gun policy debate as one of “common sense gun control,” any commentator, activist, reporter or politician (or Facebook friend) who uses these terms has outed themselves as historically ignorant, irresponsible, and quite possibly anti-Semitic, or at least a willing dupe of anti-Semites:
- “Two state solution.” Unbelievable. Biden has endorsed this mirage again. The Palestinians have had the “two state solution” within their grasp several times since 1948, and rejected it. Israel, not being suicidal or insane, requires an effective declaration that any such “solution” involves an official acknowledgement that Israel has a right to exist where it exists, and will not be the target of another genocidal attack. Framing the “two-state solution” as a reasonable “compromise” is nothing more than a device to make both adversaries seem equally responsible for the endless conflict and violence. One is. The other is not.
- “Occupation” and “occupied Palestine/Gaza.” There is no occupation. There are no Israeli soldiers in Gaza.
- “Settlers” and “Colonization” These terms assume a fact not resolved. Israel claims the land it effectively won in the 7 Days War, though the U.N., over-stocked as it is with nations that wanted Israel to lose that war, claims that the nation keeping the West Bank and the Golan Heights is illegal. Turning over more land to people who vowed to wipe it out does not appeal to Israel, so it permits citizens to move there. (Good.)
- “Apartheid state.” Israel is not apartheid. Law abiding Muslims and Christians as well as non-Semitic races live there, work there, and vote there.
- “Resistance” means “terrorism.”
- “Indiscriminate bombing.” Hamas uses Gaza civilians as shields, stores weapons and hides leaders in hospitals, and thus makes “discriminate bombing” impossible as well as foolish. Nor are Gazans devoid of responsibility for their own plight. They support and installed a terrorist government, and endorse its mission and methods. They are not “innocent.” Their children are, but their parents are the ones who placed their children in mortal peril. Israel has no ethical or moral duty to sacrifice its own well-being to remedy Palestinian cultural poison.
Writers, being over-overwhelmingly left-biased and addicted to “it isn’t what it is” ideologies, had already issued one mass open letter (“Writers in Solidarity With Palestine”)exposing their ethics rot on this topic, which I discussed here. Sample rhetoric:
“Any form of Palestinian resistance is in no way equivalent to the daily violence of “Israeli” settlers, the IOF, and the entire “Israeli” state apparatus. Palestinian resistance exists because settler colonial occupation exists.”
In other words, beheading babies is justified. Palestinian terrorism [See: “resistance” above] exists because generation after generation of Palestinians have been raised to hate Jews and to pledge Israel’s destruction.
Now another letter from a different group of anti-Israel writers has surfaced, this one called “Writers Against The War on Gaza,” with the catchy acronym WAWOG, “an ad hoc coalition committed to solidarity and the horizon of liberation for the Palestinian people.” (Who wrote THAT?) It, like the other letter, contains many of the “tells” above. Here’s an excerpt from that screed:
We stand with their anticolonial struggle for freedom and for self-determination, and with their right to resist occupation. We stand firmly by Gaza’s people, victims of a genocidal war the United States government continues to fund and arm with military aid—a crisis compounded by the illegal settlement and dispossession of the West Bank and the subjugation of Palestinians within the state of Israel.
Jazmine Hughes, “an award-winning New York Times Magazine staff writer,” whatever that means today given thebiases of the people who hand out journalism awards (The phony “1619 Project” won an award for a Times writer) resigned under pressure signing the letter, thus violating Times policies against reporters taking public positions on current issues. They are support to use their biases the approved way, by inserting them into their reporting.
Jake Silverstein, the editor of The New York Times Magazine, wrote in announcing her departure. “This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence.”
I thought I’d end Part I with a bit of levity…
Ethics Alarms 
These writers need to be confronted with the images of Hamas’ atrocities. Make them justify images of burned and decapitated children publicly. I have grown weary of letter signers who lob rhetorical grenades but are unwilling to face down any opposing voices.
Let’s be honest there was a humanitarian pause until October 7 so Hamas and the Palestinians can reap what they have sown. At this point, the only reason for Israel to stop is if the various anti Israel belligerents accept Israel’s right to exist. If the U.N. will not enforce the sovereignty of Israel then it has no right to enforce demands on Israel.
I have come to the conclusion that Hamas is not exploiting its people. The Palestinian masses are using Hamas to maintain their victim status and are willingly allowing their children to be sacrificed as martyrs for the global jihad. If these parents were so damn concerned for the welfare of their children they would not want them to be martyrs. The fact that martyrdom is of higher value than their kids lives exposes the relative values they place on life.
Begging your pardon, but there are Israeli soldiers in Gaza now, as the war has moved into the gritty business of rooting Hamas out of their tunnels. But of course there were no Israeli soldiers in Gaza when Hamas sent out its terror squads.
Dave, Jacks point was that there were no occupying troops in Gaza beforehand. The pro-Palestinian propagandists use the word occupation to justify the October 7 attack and the rocket attacks that were routine before that. The occupation that they mean is that Israel is carved out of their claimed land which in turn means that the nation state of Israel must be eliminated to end the occupation.
Using the word occupation in our lexicon denotes armed alien soldiers controlling the streets of a geographic location and establishing governmental control over the citizens of that land. For journalists to use the term in their writing it is a lie intended to confuse the ignorant college students and others who have no understanding of what is going on there. Furthermore, armed soldiers on foreign soil are not considered occupying forces until they install some provincial governing body.
Good Neil Dorr impression, Dave! Now do “A Friend.”
If I may be presumptuous, I believe much of the Anti-Israel sentiment amongst Americans can be found in this quote:
“We stand firmly by Gaza’s people, victims of a genocidal war the United States government continues to fund and arm with military aid—a crisis compounded by the illegal settlement and dispossession of the West Bank and the subjugation of Palestinians within the state of Israel.”
They hate Israel because they are an American ally. That makes this a genocidal war because the US is genocidal.
If the US did not support Israel, they probably would not care about this.
Or, they might actually sympathize with Israel.
But, they have hated American foreign policy since at least Vietnam.
So, Israel is guilty by association.
-Jut
I think I might agree with you up to the sentence “If the US did not support Israel, they probably would not care about this.”
The anti-Israel sentiment would exist regardless of US support. The references to US government involvement are merely a smokescreen, a very thin veil by which they attempt to cover up their real feelings for Israel by suggesting that “our issue is with US support for a genocidal war.” That’s so ridiculous as to be laughable.
I don’t think for one second that the genocidal war being fought would cease to exist if the US withheld support. One side (Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran…really most of the Arab nations) still wants that genocide to happen to the other side (Israel). The war would continue and Israel would continue to fight it, albeit with greater disadvantage.
And those anti-Israel Americans would STILL refuse to support Israel. Israel would still be considered guilty, only by something other than association. And then we could truly say that those Americans are little different – in their thinking at least – than Hamas itself. They would prefer to have Israel eradicated.
““Occupation” and “occupied Palestine/Gaza.” There is no occupation. There are no Israeli soldiers in Gaza.”
Well, there are now, but you’re right in that there weren’t any before October 7th.
This is something that I think gets lost in translation. Gaza is not the West Bank. Gaza *was* autonomous, and while Israel does control a lot of what goes in and out of that country, it could not control all of it, even if it wanted to, if for no other reason than it does not control Egypt’s border.
What was eye opening for me, in this conflict, was the absolute lunacy of Palestinians who told us to look at the Google images of areas effected by the attack.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some very rough images to look at.
But… You can go on a journey. Google streetview through Gaza city. The level of opulence mere blocks away from people living in mud huts is a level of income disparity that even the most vividly LARPing American Socialists would have a hard time conceptualizing.
The realization that there is a serious amount of money in the area, and that they are more than able to source enough materiel to accomplish this lavish lifestyle is staggering.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.962788860472124&type=3
Homes with full front glass displays of a dozen sportscars. Hospitals with art deco facades, homes with ballrooms, marble floors, don’t believe this page… Look for yourself, take a Google Streetview trip through Gaza City’s affluent neighborhoods.
And then ask yourself some questions:
Why don’t they have their own water treatment plants? Why don’t they have their own electricity generation? Israel doesn’t control Gaza like it controls the West Bank. Israel doesn’t control building permits in the strip. There are 11 countries smaller than the Gaza strip, most of them have their own water treatment and power generation. Why not Gaza?
And then the answer:
Because that would cut into Hamas’ rocket and tunnel budget, and once Hamas attacked Israel like it’s wont to do every now and again, they’d just bunker in it so that Israel would be forced to bomb it anyway.
Gaza isn’t in the situation it is in because of Israel. Gaza is in the situation it is in because they elected a terrorist organization as government, and terrorists aren’t famous for being good administrators.