Update on Palestine: IDF Claims Gaza City Victory

Today Israel announced that they have finally taken “full control” over Gaza City

By Simplicius The Thinker

I remain skeptical of their claims, but we’ll indulge them at face value for the sake of the report. Even if they did manage to fully secure it, keep in mind it has now taken nearly three months to capture a territory the size of the small red speck inside the Gaza Strip seen below juxtaposed within Ukraine for comparison:

The “world’s most advanced military” took three months to manage a claimed capture of that while fighting a completely technologically outmatched foe who they outnumber 500k to ~10k.

The IDF also has now used this capture as excuse to explain the dismissal of several top brigades to the rear for reconstitution. Instead of being made combat ineffective, the line is now that they have valiantly completed their mission and are taking a rest. They claim that in capturing Gaza City, they have eliminated 8000 Hamas fighters. However, John Kirby himself appears dubious regarding this, as he implies that Hamas has not been measurably attrited:

Netanyahu is again agitating for war with Lebanon next. In the meantime, radical Israeli politicians continue pushing for the total ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Most alarming is the fact that they are basing their policies on the alleged popular support amongst Israeli society for same. Here’s Likud party and Knesset member Moshe Saada openly stating that the people in the streets, the Kibbutz-dwellers, etc., are all shouting in unision: “Annihilate them (Gazans).”

Where does such inhuman barbarity stem from, you wonder? I believe it is a case of simple unrestrained human nature. Those who’ve read books like Lord of the Flies know that humans can very quickly devolve into quite immoral, depraved, and Machiavellian brutes if there are no checks in place to restrain some of human nature’s darker impulses. You see, it’s not that all humans are necessarily mindlessly depraved by nature per se, but rather that it’s very easy to set off a cascade event of unethical behavior when only a small pilot group initiates it.

Think of baseball, boxing, or any sport in general. It takes only one guy to be juiced up on steroids to create a cascade that sees the entire league begin juicing due to the power creep nature of the realization that if you don’t do this too, you won’t be able to compete. Likewise, in an environment where there are no restraints, a small ‘contagion’ of bad behavior can set off a chain reaction as it spreads to others by a variety of vectors.

How does all this pertain to the utterly breathtaking criminality and inhumanly racist hatred seen in the Israeli society toward the Palestinians? For a long time now criticism of anything remotely related to Israel or Jewish-ness was highly verboten due to the black mark of “anti-Semitism” being cast against anyone who dared criticize their actions. In the same sort of way that the modern liberal movement has created blowback in the form of liberal fragility and the complete inability to debate or face facts, nor take any criticism whatsoever—a fact we see often, as liberals melt down into fits of feral screaming or crying when refuted by reality—the modern Israeli state, its inhabitants, and proponents likewise have never had to deal with genuine structured criticism because the West has generally been so obsequiously permissive toward it. Most importantly: they’ve never had to deal with accountability.

Israel can be viewed like one of those overly-pampered babies—the golden calf of the family—which never hears the word ‘no’ and whose every squall brings mommy dashing over to immediately coddle it. Israel has carried out terror and crimes for decades that any other country in the world would have been immediately reproached, condemned, and sanctioned for. This has created a sense of unparalleled historical entitlement and exceptionalism in Israeli society such that they feel no qualms whatsoever about glibly and openly calling for genocide. In any other society, it would not only make instant headlines but would make the top docket at the UN human rights council meetings. But in Israel, you can call for genocide, you can demean the Palestinians with open racism as Israeli TV so often does, and it doesn’t get so much as a passing glance or shrug.

Some consider such a viewpoint to be “anti-Semitic”, but there are two things to consider:

1. The Palestinians are the original Semitic people of the region. There is in fact nothing in the world more pro-Semitic than such views.

2. Most worldwide Jews appear to be in support of Palestine and are becoming increasingly anti-Zionist. I don’t know what the actual statistics are, and would be interested to see them. But even much of Israeli society is now openly rebuking the IDF, thus making the hateful portion of the population the true anti-Semites.

The last point obviously goes to show that not all of Israel can be characterized in such a negatively broad stroke. But of course the highly vocal and radicalized segment of it which are the bad seeds still account for such a staunch amount of violent racism and pro-genocide views that it still justifies the earlier characterizations.

As I said, when left to their devices, when a people’s most cruel and malign inclinations are left totally unchecked without any pushback or repudiation, it creates an enabling effect that essentially communicates to those people: “Keep going, what you’re doing is totally normal and acceptable.” Israel has been the favored son for so long, its most transgressive acts ignored and tacitly allowed for such a length of time, that it has simply developed a natural sense of entitlement and divine exceptionalism. Now, when the world suddenly stands up to it for the first time, Israel is dumbstruck with feigned shock like a child caught with its hand in the cookie jar.

---

THANK YOU! to Everyone Who Contributed to our 1^st Ever Fundraiser for the Art of Liberty Foundation!  As of January 2^nd we have raised $34,568 or 69% of our $50,000 goal!  Donations are still coming in via postal mail and the internet so we will announce the final total next week BUT I wanted to thank everyone who contributed and/or went “Paid” on Substack.  We simply couldn’t do this work without the folks who support us financially!  It is so very much appreciated!!  Happy New Year to All!! - Etienne