TWO WRONGS
12/11/23
by Tom Benthin, Indivisible Sonoma County
As the bombing in Gaza continues, a number of things have become clear. Yes, Hamas’s savage attack on October 7thwas monstrous. But now so is Israel’s response. And it’s twelve times bigger, and growing. As has been said so many times, Israel has a right to defend itself. What hasn’t been said nearly enough is, that right doesn’t mean at any cost.
Likewise, it is often noted that Hamas has made clear its desire to wipe Israel off the map. However, Hamas, despite the horror of October 7th, doesn’t have the power to do that. In fact, Israel had all it needed to protect itself even against that attack. Instead, it ignored multiple warnings, even having a copy of the plan a year in advance. It was only because of Israel’s massive intelligence failure that Hamas was able to wreak so much destruction.
In contrast, Israel is fully equipped to completely destroy Gaza. And that is plainly their intent. As Eric Levitz notes in “The Price of Hamas’s Destruction Is Too High”:
In truth, there is simply no way for Israel to disempower Hamas by force without killing an enormous number of Gazan civilians. The actually existing Israeli government, meanwhile, is not interested in either minimizing harm to innocent Gazans or facilitating a two-state solution.
Israel is interested, instead, in “thinning” the Palestinian population in Gaza “to a minimum”, to quote Netanyahu. It’s worth watching this video with professor Raz Segal, as he explains why Israel’s actions in Gaza are a textbook example of genocide.
It’s time to stop pretending. Israel knows exactly what it is doing with its “mass assassination factory”. In two months its destruction of Gaza has exceeded that of the infamous carpet-bombing of Dresden in WWII. The “civilian proportion of deaths is higher than that in all world conflicts in 20th century”. Beyond the bombing, Gaza is now “on the cusp of a major wave of secondary mortality” of starvation and disease. This devastation, as Secretary of Defense Austin warns, will lead Israel to strategic defeat, as it “drives [Gazans] into the arms of the enemy”. Netanyahu’s government doesn’t care.
Complicit
Israel has a partner in its genocide: us. The United States is deeply complicit, providing, as Netanyahu has said, “munitions, munitions, munitions” without restraint. The bombs that have killed over 17,000 Gazans were ours. The death of war criminal Henry Kissinger should have been cautionary. Instead, we’re as heedless as ever.
Despite an increasing willingness to say that Israel should be more careful with our bombs, our actions still belie those words. The administration just blocked a UN resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and bypassed Congress to keep the supply of bombs flowing. It appears the administration is committed to saying Israel should use restraint (knowing full well they won’t), while exercising no restraint over the number of bombs we send them. Don’t fall for it.
There are certainly Israeli citizens who do not want any part of genocide. But their government is committing genocide anyway. As is ours, by extension. If we don’t want to be a part of it, we need to stand up and say so. We can support the 13 senators who are, finally, demanding that we condition aid to Israel - a small but necessary step. And we must continue to call for a permanent ceasefire and an immediate end to the genocide.
Slight of Hand
When a magician or a pickpocket wants to deceive you, he directs your attention away from his actions. MAGA Republicans are doing that now with Gaza and using the misdirection to achieve broader aims. What they want you to look at is “antisemitism”. Their hidden, real objective is: to get you to look away from both Gaza and Trump; to attack students, people of color, and universities; to criminalize protest; and to expand the surveillance state - none of which have anything to do with antisemitism. This is not to say that antisemitism isn’t a problem that is getting worse. It is to say, however, that Republicans, who this last week defeated a bill in Texas that would have banned them from associating with Nazis, are not to be trusted or joined with when they’re pretending to care about antisemitism.
Not that it’s stopped Democrats from getting duped. Our Congressmen, Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman, fell for it, voting for a MAGA resolution that says anti-zionism = antisemitism (it doesn’t). Many others fell for Elise Stefanik’s congressional hearing grilling college presidents. It’s worth taking the time to read Ken White’s short piece about how getting hoodwinked by Stefanik’s ploy makes one a useful idiot for bigots.
Democrats must do much, much better. Because the Republican attack is clever. It’s driving a wedge in the Democratic Party and most elected officials are on the wrong side - against young voters, people of color, and anyone else who wants the murder to stop.
Ultimately, it comes down to Presdient Biden. And right now, he’s failing the test. Hamilton Nolan puts it in the starkest terms. “Joe Biden bears responsibility for what is happening, and what continues to happen every day [in Gaza]” and “his recklessness is risking a return to Trump”. Challenging, but worth the read.