Friends + Interlocutors,

Indeed, it is unprecedented. Is the International Court of Justice the only entity that sees the ongoing atrocity for what it is, and has the gumption to say so? Now that Ivy League student protests have been silenced by intimidation from the White House, from Congress and from billionaire Jewish donors to the universities, I see no one on the skyline—aside from the remarkable Francesca Albanese, Special UN Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory—speaking out against the massacre. 

It is a massacre made possible by gifted American mega bombs and comprehensive USG enabling. In sum, the American taxpayer is financing the operation. Did we vote for this? Really? Following in the footsteps of Joe Biden’s free pass for war crimes, the Trump White House has green-lighted Netanyahu's renewed operation for yet more war crimes. Has anyone considered the blowback?

I speculate that Hasbara cheerleaders and USG officials must finally be in a quandary. The cruelty of the Jewish state is so extreme, so out in the open. It amounts to a blood lust. This conclusion is not a blood libel. It is an objective observation of what has been happening as chronicled by the International Court of Justice and by some courageous elements of the off-ramp media. What accounts for it?

Seymour Hersh’s current Substack entry, Israel Prepares Another Invasion, may supply the answer. The answer is not just the madness of Netanyahu, not just the result of the moral bankruptcy of one misguided, corrupt politician. It is the mindset of Israel as a whole which Netanyahu personifies. His major accomplishment over decades is to get brainwashed Americans of all stripes and the USG to cheer him on, to embrace the slaughter, and to pretend that nothing out of the ordinary is happening. That is why he is in office.

Item. Hersh: “A well-informed American official with experience in Israel reminded me recently that he had predicted at the outset of the war that the Israelis, under Netanyahu’s leadership, ‘would not stop until all of Hamas was dead. The cease fires were ruses of war to draw Hamas fighters out of hiding. They were dead men walking, which they are. Bibi wanted to get as many hostages out by pretending settlement, but now that ploy has run its course…. We are going to watch and wait until Hamas is no more, then step in to ameliorate the suffering, but not until the Israelis decide it’s over. I say Israelis, not Bibi, but say what you will about his character, the nation of Israel is speaking with one political voice and would do so whatever party and leader was running the show.’” [My emphasis]

Conclusion. This is not just Bibi’s war.

Item. Hersh: “A retired senior IDF officer... made it clear that he has little sympathy for the plight of the Gazans.  ‘The Gazans deserve everything they got. No genocide, though. I hope you know there was none. They have been educating their babies to slaughter us or die, or to slaughter us and die. Marauding Jihad and martyrdom have been their highlights at all levels of education. Hating the Gazans, all of then, intensely, is the only common denominator between me, a liberal in my own eyes, and [Bezalel] Smotrich [the far right Treasury Secretary of Israel, who advocates annexing the West Bank and occupying Gaza].’”

Conclusion. This is not just Bibi’s war. 

Item. Hersh: (The senior IDF officer continues) “‘...The Gaza Strippers are the ultimate enemy, all of them Islamo-Nazis of the worst kind. Their children are Islamo-Nazi Hitlerjugend [Hitler Youth] fighting in Berlin, 1945, for their Führer in the collapsing, burning rubble. But we are not Nazis, and our duty is to find a way to change. You [Americans] did it from 1945 to 1950, and present-day Germany is no Nazi Berlin any longer. The West Bankers are no friends but not the same as Gazans.’”

I conclude that we are dealing here with an intractable mental health crisis, not just a foreign policy issue. Special attention is required. The Israelis have come to believe their own lying propaganda because it serves their interests. 

Did the senior IDF Officer and the “well-informed” American official forget David Ben-Gurion’s 1956 observation, “Why should the Arabs make peace? If I were an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country.” No, probably not. But like Israel’s first president, the veteran IDF officer and his “well informed” American sidekick don’t give a damn.

Ben-Gurion’s factual statement is the crux of the problem along with the all-important subsequent fact that the Zionists have evidently gained working control over USA, Germany as well as England's foreign policy. It is a noteworthy achievement that has prevented the Zionists from coming to any reasonable settlement with the Palestinians. Why should they? Israel has all the cards and there is no incentive to compromise.

Patrick

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