Israel has been on an unprecedented attack on the babies and children of Gaza. (Photo credit: AP)
Israel has murdered nearly 15,000 babies and children in the Gaza Genocide so far, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
That is in the space of 10 months. Which is 1,500 per month. 50 every single day.
By contrast in the Russia-Ukraine war, around 500 babies have been killed in Ukraine, in 30 months of fighting. That’s 16 per month and 0.5 per day.
Today, Israel has killed two twin babies, along with their mother and grandmother.
This is de-facto targeted murder of babies and Palestinian civilians – I can’t keep going into a shop and say I had no intention to steal, but then end up stealing anyway. They are intentionally killing babies and civilians, and then claim they don’t.
If Russia is breaching international law – then where does that leave Israel?
In fact, Israel justifies its genocide and makes light of murdering so many babies and children.
It is certainly is not doing this based on any interpretation of international law – so what is it basing it on?
This provides the answers.
This is not a fringe viewpoint. It is the mainstream – how do we know it is a mainstream view?
Because there is overwhelming support amongst Israelis to continue the genocide – in fact, many believe Israel has not gone hard enough.
For them, Gaza and Gazans are “Amalek”; something that needs to be completely wiped out – this has little to do with politics for many Israelis – most Israelis – this is a radicalised religion inspired genocide for them.
But this is Zionism. Zionism is a political ideology, indeed, however, it is not a monolith. Like all ideologies, it has different strands – just like socialism, conservatism, liberalism, etc. do.
Zionism specifically has a number of different organised strands:
- 1 Political Zionism
- 2 Practical Zionism
- 3 Synthetic Zionism
- 4 Labor Zionism
- 5 Liberal Zionism
- 6 Revisionist Zionism
- 7 Religious Zionism
- 8 Cultural Zionism
The Religious Zionism strand is the big ‘elephant in the room’ that too many in the pro-Palestine camp refuse to address – in fear of offending people, including anti- Zionist Jewish people. They should not be offended unless they subscribe to similar interpretations of Judaism – I believe they don’t.
Not addressing this is doing a great disservice to the long suffering Palestinians.
Someone far smarter than I is reported to have once said: “doing the same things over and over again, and expecting different results, is insanity”.
The pro-Palestine movement in general has been consistent with the strategy it has adopted over the past decades – focus on BDS, political Zionism, colonialism, imperialism, capitalism… in its efforts of fighting Zionism.
Yet, concurrently Zionism has been stealing more and more Palestinian land, and has been making the lives of Palestinians more and more unbearable.
Is the movement insane? No, I do not believe so – but I do believe it is heavily influenced by the make-up of the movement, which is largely, very largely, left-leaning.
If we are to really achieve positive change for the Palestinians then we must be prepared to delve into areas that have historically been avoided, expand our horizons – nothing should be off the table at this juncture – if not now, when.
Because Religious Zionism is the key driver and motivator behind many of the most abhorrent things we see today being perpetrated by Zionist Israel – it is the driver for murdering Palestinian babies and civilians at unprecedented rates – it is the driver behind illegal settlements – it is the driver behind the greater Israel ambitions – it is the driver behind not recognising a Palestinian state, because Religious Zionism says the West Bank should be ‘Judea and Samaria’ as per their religious scriptures.
If we are afraid to offend people then what kind of support is this for the Palestinians – are we saying we will only support a Palestine and Palestinians if it doesn’t offend people. Why should it offend people? The truth offends?
This is a nonsensical position to adopt – but it has no doubt been adopted – and look where it has led the Palestinian cause… into the abyss.
Look at it this way – some people steal – they are thieves – but if we want to really solve the problem of people stealing then we need to address the root causes, the motivators, on WHY people steal – some do it for greed, but some also do it to feed themselves and keep themselves alive – looking at these two types of thieves as the same, as a monolith, will not ever solve the real problem – the motivating reason why one steals neds to be addressed.
Similarly, trying to denounce Religious Zionism as merely Political Zionism, and providing counter-arguments and reasonings to the world merely based on Political Zionism – is folly – it makes no sense.
The root cause, the motivating factors behind the highly influential Religious Zionism has to be addressed.
The start point for that is making others aware of WHY Israel and many Israelis do and justify the things that they do.
Israelis are openly telling us what motivates them.
We better start listening and taking them seriously when they say it.
