If you can't see the causal link between the Israeli abuse of generations of Palestinians and Hamas' crimes, then you have no insight into human nature. You don't even understand yourself
What's even worse is the US is busy pouring weapons into more horrors right now, and thinking nothing about that is the inevitable blowback from being party to a genocide.
Muchas gracias Sr. Jonhathan Cook por traer la verdad a la luz. Yo he llegado hasta aquí por la mención de vuestro colega, el Sr. Rafael-Poch-de-Feliu. Es increíble como acá en Occidente, en donde nos jactamos de valores tales como "Democracia" y "Justicia", luego vemos que indivíduos tales como el inefable ''Bibi'' Netanhyahu, ahora con el triste apodo de "carnicero de Gaza", responsable directo del genocidio de 50 mil mujeres y niños palestinos y sobre el cual pesa una orden de arresto internacional emitida por el Tribunal Internacional; sin embargo este sujeto anda suelto y paseándose por Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea sin que nadie haga nada, sin que nadie le arreste y le entregue a la justicia. Es una verguenza como está el mundo, es una verguenza Occidente, la vara del doble rasero y la falsa moral de los gobernantes... Todo esto quedará en los anales de la Historia como otro episodio vergonzoso de nuestra civilización occidental.
Well, Jonathan, you have succeeded in getting the attention of a whole gang of white supremacist apologists who are dutifully if not mindlessly regurgitating the disinformation they've been groomed to spew. This is the hallmark of excellent independent ethical reporting, which you've been delivering tirelessly and flawlessly without fail.
I am observing in the comments all the cheap tricks, koolaid-drinking disinformation, and dismissals. It is old and tired and baseless as usual, and we see it repeated again and again whenever occupiers and their supporters continually try to keep hold of the mountain of lies used as foundational material to build a colony or colonies. From the US to South Africa to Australia... wait, the list would be far too long. You get my meaning. Well done!
Yeah, well... here’s my response, Jonathan - this is just the first part because, let’s face it, there’s a lot to unpack. And after reading the comments here, I’m astonished at how many people have fallen into your trap!
This is a worthwhile article, but I object to the association of Islam with "extremism" and "Islamism". Neither of these have a place in Islam, which long before the Geneva Conventions laid down humane ways of fighting war and oppression. Whether Hamas follows this or not is another question.
In this particular conflict the concept of kill or be killed is a valid one. It has been proven you cannot negotiate with anyone who ultimately seeks your extermination, so why would you? (Accepting that Israel actually has tried).
This is so well written. Thank you. This is exactly the form and the words I need to share with the people I know who choose to not just close their eyes, but shield themselves with a veil of social discomfort…as if it’s other people they are trying to protect with their complicity in silence.
Oh I see. It’s not Hamas vowing to destroy all Jews. Or killing more in one day than since the holocaust. Oh and taking a few hundred prisoners hostage. Of course they were exemplary in their treatment of those prisoners weren’t they. In case you hadn’t noticed, Israel has Muslims in the Knesset. Not many Jews in Hamas. You’re an anti semite.
- criticizing behavior of israelis and/or jews is NOT antisemitism.
- does mr cook mention "exemplary treatment of hamas hostages"?
- he acknowledges that what occurred was disturbing - which is
- PRECISELY WHY he explains how decades-long israeli oppression led up to october 7, 2023.
- 'operation protective edge', 'operation cast lead', 'regularly moving the grass', 'knocking on roofs', 'straw widow tactics', 'shooting to maim', 'shooting to kill', gradual mass starvation, plus countless other strategies have killed thousands of palestinians over many decades now.
- thousands more have been languishing in israeli prisons, some for years, w./o. charges.
- imho, equating victims of october 7, 2023 with six million victims of the holocaust utterly dishonors EVERY SINGLE shoa victim.
- as to "muslims in the knesset": the israel/palestine conflict revolves around religion only on the surface, so muslims serve as the arch-enemy. deep underneath it's always about LAND. settler colonialists want land for themselves which they refuse to share with others.
- remember israel's prime minister at the UN general assembly in september 2023, where he presented the map of his 'new middle east': palestine was nowhere to be found on that map.
Occupation….Every Jewish person left Gaza in 2005. Gaza became independent. The people of Gaza voted for Hamas on a ticket of genocide for Jews. There are Muslims in the Knesset. There are no Jews in Hamas. And if Israel is committing genocide it’s a strange genocide. Gaza’s population growth has far exceeded Israel’s. From not even 200,000 in 1948 to over 2 million now.
There was a ceasefire. Hamas broke it on October 7th. It is now a war. A war that has recorded the lowest civilian casualties in history. 1:1 combatant to civilian ratio. To put that in perspective, the losses during the Second World War were 4:1.
Incidentally it was Israel that facilitated the recent polio vaccination drive in Gaza. No other country at war has ever helped the civilian population of a country it as war with in this fashion
Of course this all could have been avoided in 2000 if Yasser Arafat had agreed to the peace deal brokered with Barak and Clinton. They were literally offered everything. A two state solution, and access to all religious sites in Jerusalem. Arafat declined and strangely he died with 8 billion in the bank. It seems peace isn’t profitable.
Personally I see Israel as not only defending itself whilst surrounded by hostile nations ( why hasn’t Egypt opened its border? Could it be when anyone does to Palestinians war quickly follows? Syria, The Lebanon ) but I also believe they are defenders of Western values, which are far superior to the monstrous values of Islam and the fascism that medieval religion asserts in every poverty stricken authoritarian country it infects.
But if it’s about innocent Muslims getting killed, where is your ire about Syria? Assad has killed far more Muslims. As has Erdogan. Or are you only bothered if it’s Jews killing people whilst they defend themselves. There’s a name for people like that.
Finally. Israel have a right to their homeland. Palestine has never been a state.
thank you for taking the time to respond. our views differ widely, alas.
of course, israel has a right to a homeland! according to international law - which nobody seems to care much about anymore - an occupation must be temporary. israel has constantly been expanding the borders of its homeland. which other country on earth does that?
what is "Palestine has never been a state" supposed to say or justify? international law grants occupied people the right to fight their occupation, by all means at their disposal. peaceful co-existence - hard to come by - would save lives ...
Israel has contracted. It gave up Gaza. It would have given up the West bank too in 1980 had Arafat accepted the peace deal. And as for occupation? Who is occupying? Palestinians or Jews? How far back do you want to go? Before it was declared a Jewish state it was under British jurisdiction. Before that it was part of the Ottoman Empire. It’s been occupied by one invader or another since Egyptian times. And always the Jews kicked out or oppressed.
What's even worse is the US is busy pouring weapons into more horrors right now, and thinking nothing about that is the inevitable blowback from being party to a genocide.
Muchas gracias Sr. Jonhathan Cook por traer la verdad a la luz. Yo he llegado hasta aquí por la mención de vuestro colega, el Sr. Rafael-Poch-de-Feliu. Es increíble como acá en Occidente, en donde nos jactamos de valores tales como "Democracia" y "Justicia", luego vemos que indivíduos tales como el inefable ''Bibi'' Netanhyahu, ahora con el triste apodo de "carnicero de Gaza", responsable directo del genocidio de 50 mil mujeres y niños palestinos y sobre el cual pesa una orden de arresto internacional emitida por el Tribunal Internacional; sin embargo este sujeto anda suelto y paseándose por Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea sin que nadie haga nada, sin que nadie le arreste y le entregue a la justicia. Es una verguenza como está el mundo, es una verguenza Occidente, la vara del doble rasero y la falsa moral de los gobernantes... Todo esto quedará en los anales de la Historia como otro episodio vergonzoso de nuestra civilización occidental.
Well, Jonathan, you have succeeded in getting the attention of a whole gang of white supremacist apologists who are dutifully if not mindlessly regurgitating the disinformation they've been groomed to spew. This is the hallmark of excellent independent ethical reporting, which you've been delivering tirelessly and flawlessly without fail.
I am observing in the comments all the cheap tricks, koolaid-drinking disinformation, and dismissals. It is old and tired and baseless as usual, and we see it repeated again and again whenever occupiers and their supporters continually try to keep hold of the mountain of lies used as foundational material to build a colony or colonies. From the US to South Africa to Australia... wait, the list would be far too long. You get my meaning. Well done!
And thank you.
Thank you for keeping people informed of the reality of what's happening in Palestine and of the West turning a blind eye to it.
Yeah, well... here’s my response, Jonathan - this is just the first part because, let’s face it, there’s a lot to unpack. And after reading the comments here, I’m astonished at how many people have fallen into your trap!
https://morethanleisure.substack.com/p/the-truth-shall-set-you-free-eventually
This is inedible well done! And i love the reading, too. Thank you.
What a repulsive take.
Not true
This is a worthwhile article, but I object to the association of Islam with "extremism" and "Islamism". Neither of these have a place in Islam, which long before the Geneva Conventions laid down humane ways of fighting war and oppression. Whether Hamas follows this or not is another question.
https://open.substack.com/pub/itsallaboutlogic/p/israel-vs-palestine?r=p5po3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
In this particular conflict the concept of kill or be killed is a valid one. It has been proven you cannot negotiate with anyone who ultimately seeks your extermination, so why would you? (Accepting that Israel actually has tried).
This is so well written. Thank you. This is exactly the form and the words I need to share with the people I know who choose to not just close their eyes, but shield themselves with a veil of social discomfort…as if it’s other people they are trying to protect with their complicity in silence.
They don't look emaciated to me. They look remarkably well fed.
and the sick culture of raping male prisoners
Oh I see. It’s not Hamas vowing to destroy all Jews. Or killing more in one day than since the holocaust. Oh and taking a few hundred prisoners hostage. Of course they were exemplary in their treatment of those prisoners weren’t they. In case you hadn’t noticed, Israel has Muslims in the Knesset. Not many Jews in Hamas. You’re an anti semite.
@john beck:
- criticizing behavior of israelis and/or jews is NOT antisemitism.
- does mr cook mention "exemplary treatment of hamas hostages"?
- he acknowledges that what occurred was disturbing - which is
- PRECISELY WHY he explains how decades-long israeli oppression led up to october 7, 2023.
- 'operation protective edge', 'operation cast lead', 'regularly moving the grass', 'knocking on roofs', 'straw widow tactics', 'shooting to maim', 'shooting to kill', gradual mass starvation, plus countless other strategies have killed thousands of palestinians over many decades now.
- thousands more have been languishing in israeli prisons, some for years, w./o. charges.
- imho, equating victims of october 7, 2023 with six million victims of the holocaust utterly dishonors EVERY SINGLE shoa victim.
- as to "muslims in the knesset": the israel/palestine conflict revolves around religion only on the surface, so muslims serve as the arch-enemy. deep underneath it's always about LAND. settler colonialists want land for themselves which they refuse to share with others.
- remember israel's prime minister at the UN general assembly in september 2023, where he presented the map of his 'new middle east': palestine was nowhere to be found on that map.
Occupation….Every Jewish person left Gaza in 2005. Gaza became independent. The people of Gaza voted for Hamas on a ticket of genocide for Jews. There are Muslims in the Knesset. There are no Jews in Hamas. And if Israel is committing genocide it’s a strange genocide. Gaza’s population growth has far exceeded Israel’s. From not even 200,000 in 1948 to over 2 million now.
There was a ceasefire. Hamas broke it on October 7th. It is now a war. A war that has recorded the lowest civilian casualties in history. 1:1 combatant to civilian ratio. To put that in perspective, the losses during the Second World War were 4:1.
Incidentally it was Israel that facilitated the recent polio vaccination drive in Gaza. No other country at war has ever helped the civilian population of a country it as war with in this fashion
Of course this all could have been avoided in 2000 if Yasser Arafat had agreed to the peace deal brokered with Barak and Clinton. They were literally offered everything. A two state solution, and access to all religious sites in Jerusalem. Arafat declined and strangely he died with 8 billion in the bank. It seems peace isn’t profitable.
Personally I see Israel as not only defending itself whilst surrounded by hostile nations ( why hasn’t Egypt opened its border? Could it be when anyone does to Palestinians war quickly follows? Syria, The Lebanon ) but I also believe they are defenders of Western values, which are far superior to the monstrous values of Islam and the fascism that medieval religion asserts in every poverty stricken authoritarian country it infects.
But if it’s about innocent Muslims getting killed, where is your ire about Syria? Assad has killed far more Muslims. As has Erdogan. Or are you only bothered if it’s Jews killing people whilst they defend themselves. There’s a name for people like that.
Finally. Israel have a right to their homeland. Palestine has never been a state.
thank you for taking the time to respond. our views differ widely, alas.
of course, israel has a right to a homeland! according to international law - which nobody seems to care much about anymore - an occupation must be temporary. israel has constantly been expanding the borders of its homeland. which other country on earth does that?
what is "Palestine has never been a state" supposed to say or justify? international law grants occupied people the right to fight their occupation, by all means at their disposal. peaceful co-existence - hard to come by - would save lives ...
Israel has contracted. It gave up Gaza. It would have given up the West bank too in 1980 had Arafat accepted the peace deal. And as for occupation? Who is occupying? Palestinians or Jews? How far back do you want to go? Before it was declared a Jewish state it was under British jurisdiction. Before that it was part of the Ottoman Empire. It’s been occupied by one invader or another since Egyptian times. And always the Jews kicked out or oppressed.
Bullshit.
Assholes blowing themselves up is a primemover.