Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 57, Palestinian health officials say – Reuters
Israel seeks to rewrite the laws of war – Neve Gordon/Al Jazeera
“If the world accepts the way Israel now interprets the principle of proportionality, then genocide will become justified.“
“When looking at the long list, it is impossible not to notice that the number of assassinations and assassination attempts Israel has carried out over the years has increased exponentially: from 14 in the 1970s to well over 150 in the first decade of the new millennium and 24 since January 2020.
“I was reminded of this list when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a news conference on July 13 to celebrate Israel’s attempt to kill Hamas’s military commander Mohammed Deif in Gaza. Israeli fighter jets and drones had just hammered al-Mawasi camp, which now houses an estimated 80,000 displaced Palestinians living in densely populated tents.
“Within just a few minutes of the fusillade, the pilots had massacred at least 90 Palestinians, including scores of women and children, while injuring an additional 300 people. All of this occurred in an area Israel had previously designated a “safe zone”. As gruesome images of dead bodies charred and shredded to pieces filled social media, reports surfaced that Israel had used several United States-made guided half-tonne bombs.”
Questions of values: Does US funding and arming Israel’s deliberate campaign to exterminate Palestinian civilians indicate that Americans have moved far away from the teachings of Jesus and Christian values? If the goal truly is to live peacefully side by side, why not see and treat Palestinians as human beings with spiritual equality and connection with Israelis and Americans? Isn’t there a better way forward than pulverizing an entire people into the ground? Or is the strategic goal simply to reduce their numbers, settle their land, and injure to provoke eventual retaliation, more conflict, and further justification for killing and territorial expansion? The Old Testament offers an eye for an eye. The standard now is hundreds of eyes for each eye.
Israel can longer practice apartheid and ethnic cleansing behind a curtain of international ignorance. Jews everywhere will suffer as more people associate them with an Israeli government whose policies toward minorities echo what the Nazis did to Jews. Now that the world is paying attention, Gaza and the West Bank need a new generation of leaders with the skills to negotiate the path toward independence, statehood, and coexistence with their neighbors.