{"id":3008,"date":"2023-10-17T13:28:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T12:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/?p=3008"},"modified":"2023-10-17T13:28:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T12:28:26","slug":"six-thoughts-on-gaza-and-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/six-thoughts-on-gaza-and-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Six thoughts on Gaza and Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI got a head full of ideas, that are drivin’ me insane,\u201d sang Bob Dylan. I know the feeling. It\u2019s been more than a week now, and with an extended family and close friends living in Israel, I can think of little else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s column will therefore not be an orderly, three point analysis ending on an optimistic note. It will be impressions and thoughts and maybe will help others understand how many \u2014 probably most \u2014 Jews and Israelis are thinking and feeling right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. A friend, someone I respect, posted a tweet on behalf of an organisation that I like and support on the day that Hamas massacred over a thousand innocent Israeli civilians including children and babies. The tweet read: \u201cSolidarity with the Palestinians AND Israeli internationalists.\u201d First of all, while the massacre was happening, long before there was any significant Israeli response, who thinks first and foremost about \u201csolidarity with Palestinians\u201d? And second, as the tweet says, solidarity with (presumably) all Palestinians, but only with some Israelis, those who might be considered \u201cinternationalists\u201d. What an obscene message \u2014 and despite explanations and apologies that I\u2019ve received, it still appears on the organisation\u2019s Twitter feed, followed by several similar posts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Some people \u2014 who I don\u2019t necessarily agree with on most things \u2014 had a different gut reaction on the day of the massacre. One of those was Ukraine\u2019s president Volodymyr Zelensky, who gave full-throated support to Israel from the beginning. He instantly identified with the Israelis as the victims of a fascist death-cult, something he is intimately familiar with thanks to Vladimir Putin. Zelensky showed his solidarity with the Jewish state in spite of Netanyahu\u2019s stupid pro-Russian attitude and his refusal to provide any meaningful support to Ukraine. No, I don\u2019t agree with everything Zelensky says and does, but compared to people who are busy tweeting about \u201csolidarity with Palestine\u201d while the blood was still fresh on the ground in Sderot and Be\u2019eri \u2014 compared to those people, Zelensky is indeed a comrade.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Another organisation, not in the UK, that I respect and support is sharing on social media an appeal to support protests against \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza. The \u201cgenocide card\u201d is played every time Israel carries out any military operation in Gaza, no matter how small or large. Israel is obviously not carrying out genocide because if it was, you\u2019d know about it from the casualty figures. The Israeli Air Force dropped many tons of bombs on Gaza this week and the result was several hundred deaths. Either the bombs don\u2019t really work, or the aiming was very poor \u2014 or maybe Israel really was trying to destroy Hamas and not just randomly kill thousands of Gazans. It\u2019s a possibility, right?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Many people, even those who support Israel, are very concerned about the Israeli order to Palestinians to evacuate the northern part of Gaza, where ground operations are likely to take place. Some are calling this a war crime. I find this absolutely baffling. A war crime would be to target those civilians. To warn them of an imminent attack, to tell where to go for relative safety, is the opposite of a war crime. Many of those who consider the evacuation order to be a war crime believe that the Hamas attack on 7 October was not a war crime, but instead was a legitimate act of \u201cresistance\u201d which should be applauded. Think about that.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. One tiny bright light in the darkness has been the reaction of leaders of the world\u2019s main social democratic and labour parties. Keir Starmer, Bernie Sanders, Jagmeet Singh, Olaf Scholz and Anthony Albanese have all spoken out clearly against Hamas terrorism and for Israel\u2019s right to self defence. Most on the \u201chard Left\u201d including Corbyn and Melenchon have covered themselves in shame.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. And finally, from a man who is completely shameless \u2014 Vladimir Putin \u2014 we get Israel compared once again to the Nazis. According to the Russian President, Israeli actions in Gaza are no different from the German siege of Leningrad, which lasted almost 900 days and led to the deaths of 1.5 million people. Putin sees Nazis everywhere \u2014 in Ukraine, with its Jewish president and prime minister, and now in the Jewish state itself. The only place he doesn\u2019t see Nazis is in Russia, which has launched the biggest land war in Europe since 1945 with an illegal attack against its sovereign neighbour.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Thinking back to how I opened this article, let me re-phrase that. I do have a headful of ideas. But maybe it\u2019s not me that\u2019s gone insane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

    This column appears in this week’s issue of Solidarity.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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