Indeed, there is no
comparison: Israel’s crimes
are far worse than Hamas’
Benjamin Netanyahu is right to dismiss as “absurd and false” the suggestion that there is any equivalence in the atrocities committed by the two sides. Here’s why
There is one thing we should all be able to agree with Benjamin Netanyahu on: Any comparison between Israel’s war crimes and those of Hamas is, as the Israeli prime minister put it, “absurd and false” and a “distortion of reality”.Here’s why:
* Israeli war crimes have been ongoing for more than seven decades, long predating Hamas’ creation.
* Israel has kept the Palestinians of Gaza caged into a concentration camp for the past 17 years, denying them connection to the outside world and the essentials of life. Hamas managed to besiege a small part of Israel for one day, on October 7.
* For every Israeli killed by Hamas on October 7, Israel has slaughtered at least 35 times that number of Palestinians. Similar kill-ratios grossly skewed in Israel’s favour have been true for decades.
* Israel has killed more than 15,000 Palestinian children since October – and many tens of thousands more Palestinian children are missing under rubble, maimed or orphaned. By early April, Israel had killed a further 114 children in the West Bank and injured 725 more. Hamas killed a total of 33 Israeli children on October 7.
* Israel has laid waste to Gaza’s entire health sector. It has bombed its hospitals, and killed, beaten and kidnapped many hundreds of medical personnel. Hamas has not attacked one Israeli hospital.
* Israel has killed more than 100 journalists in Gaza and more than 250 aid workers. It has also kidnapped a further 40 journalists. Most are presumed to have been taken to a secret detention facility where torture is rife. Hamas is reported to have killed one Israeli journalist on October 7, and no known aid workers.
* Israel is actively starving Gaza’s population by denying it food, water and aid. That is a power – a genocidal one – Hamas could only ever dream of.
* Israel has been forcibly removing Palestinians from their lands for more than 76 years to build illegal Jewish settlements in their place. Hamas has not been able to ethnically cleanse a single Israeli, nor build a single Palestinian settlement on Israeli land.
* Some 750,000 Palestinians are reported to have been taken hostage and jailed by Israel since 1967 – an unwelcome rite of passage for Palestinian men and boys and one in which torture is routine and military trials ensure a near-100% conviction rate. Until October 7, Hamas had only ever managed to take hostage a handful of the Israeli soldiers whose job is to oppress Palestinians.
* And, while Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by western states, those same western states laud Israel, fund and arm it, and provide it with diplomatic cover, even as the World Court rules that a plausible case has been made it is committing a genocide in Gaza.
Yes, Netanyahu is right. There is no comparison at all.
Jonathan Cook, based in Nazareth, Israel is a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). Read other articles by Jonathan, or visit Jonathan's website.
There is one thing we should all be able to agree with Benjamin Netanyahu on: Any comparison between Israel’s war crimes and those of Hamas is, as the Israeli prime minister put it, “absurd and false” and a “distortion of reality”.Here’s why:
* Israeli war crimes have been ongoing for more than seven decades, long predating Hamas’ creation.
* Israel has kept the Palestinians of Gaza caged into a concentration camp for the past 17 years, denying them connection to the outside world and the essentials of life. Hamas managed to besiege a small part of Israel for one day, on October 7.
* For every Israeli killed by Hamas on October 7, Israel has slaughtered at least 35 times that number of Palestinians. Similar kill-ratios grossly skewed in Israel’s favour have been true for decades.
* Israel has killed more than 15,000 Palestinian children since October – and many tens of thousands more Palestinian children are missing under rubble, maimed or orphaned. By early April, Israel had killed a further 114 children in the West Bank and injured 725 more. Hamas killed a total of 33 Israeli children on October 7.
* Israel has laid waste to Gaza’s entire health sector. It has bombed its hospitals, and killed, beaten and kidnapped many hundreds of medical personnel. Hamas has not attacked one Israeli hospital.
* Israel has killed more than 100 journalists in Gaza and more than 250 aid workers. It has also kidnapped a further 40 journalists. Most are presumed to have been taken to a secret detention facility where torture is rife. Hamas is reported to have killed one Israeli journalist on October 7, and no known aid workers.
* Israel is actively starving Gaza’s population by denying it food, water and aid. That is a power – a genocidal one – Hamas could only ever dream of.
* Israel has been forcibly removing Palestinians from their lands for more than 76 years to build illegal Jewish settlements in their place. Hamas has not been able to ethnically cleanse a single Israeli, nor build a single Palestinian settlement on Israeli land.
* Some 750,000 Palestinians are reported to have been taken hostage and jailed by Israel since 1967 – an unwelcome rite of passage for Palestinian men and boys and one in which torture is routine and military trials ensure a near-100% conviction rate. Until October 7, Hamas had only ever managed to take hostage a handful of the Israeli soldiers whose job is to oppress Palestinians.
* And, while Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by western states, those same western states laud Israel, fund and arm it, and provide it with diplomatic cover, even as the World Court rules that a plausible case has been made it is committing a genocide in Gaza.
Yes, Netanyahu is right. There is no comparison at all.
Jonathan Cook, based in Nazareth, Israel is a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). Read other articles by Jonathan, or visit Jonathan's website.
Ongoing Massacres
On May 15, we will commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Nakba amid another catastrophe. Since 1948, Palestinians have suffered a profound and enduring trauma, as families were forcibly uprooted from their ancestral lands by Zionist militias, villages were destroyed, and communities were torn apart to create the settler colonial state of Israel. The Nakba represents not only a historical event but an ongoing reality, as it laid the foundation for the continued colonization and occupation of Palestinian land and violent dispossession of the Palestinian people. This series captures how the genocide and mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza is an extension of the 1948 Nakba.
Visualizing Palestine is the intersection of communication, social sciences, technology, design and urban studies for social justice. Visualizing Palestine uses creative visuals to describe a factual rights-based narrative of Palestine/Israel. Read other articles by Visualizing Palestine, or visit Visualizing Palestine's website.
Western Governments’ Submission: From Assisting Israel to Obeying Israel
How did it happen and how can it be opposed?
Israel’s ongoing destruction of the Palestinian community distressed much of the world but hope and optimism that the destruction had a limit, the oppression would exhaust itself, and the destruction would not reach beyond its present borders contained the anxieties. An overly aggressive and duplicitous response to the October 7 attack changed attitudes from that of tolerating oppression to confronting an apparent genocide. The realignment of international coalitions shifted into high gear with the Russia-China bloc recognizing that Israel is a racist, militarist, supremacist, and supra-nationalist entity, a country without borders that solicits assistance from a well-organized network of cadres who control media sources and manipulate governments. Its constant aggression has no end and is leading to additional conflicts in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran, and, maybe Iraq. Russia and China, who tried to maintain good relations with Israel, cannot tolerate the genocide. Aggression against their partners will be aggression against them. External appearance of cordial relations with Israel masks their animosity toward the Zionist regime.
Alignment with Israel in its oppression of the Palestinians has reduced US credibility as a nation that respects justice and defends freedom. Supporters of the Israel foreign nation attacked peacefully protesting American students and police stood aside and permitted the aggression to occur. This happened on the University of California, Los Angeles campus when an unruly group attacked students and their encampment. LA security officers stood by for hours before halting the attackers and then arrested dozens of student protesters and not any of those who attacked the students. The 1930 Nazis and their stormtroopers have been resurrected. US “democracy” follows Israel “democracy.”
In an interview, Georgia Senator Lindsey Graham says, “Israel, do whatever you have to do to survive as a Jewish state.” indicating Israel could nuke Gaza. Why is a Georgia Senator intensely involved with Israel and willing to recommend the genocide of Palestinian people?
The deliberate killing of the convoy of World Central Kitchen Workers on Gaza soil, one of hundreds of massacres committed by the Israeli military in Gaza and the West Bank, gets a rebuke and then fades from the public mind.
The October 7, 2023 attack on Israeli soil, used as an excuse to demolish all of Gaza and its people, is mentioned daily in the press and is not allowed to fade from the public mind.
Protests on U.S. campuses against a horrific genocide by Israel, which calls itself a Jewish state, are nullified by insinuating the protests are anti-Semitic ─ Jewish students claim that nobody likes them anymore. This claim moves the US Congress to hold hearings on “campus anti-Semitism” and deem Jewish feelings more serious than the destruction of the Gazan community.
Who are these 21st century stormtroopers and how did they obtain the power to act freely? Who influences nations, governments, and citizens to ignore Israel’s racism, militarism, supremacism, and supra-nationalism and permits Israel to commit genocide. The who, how, and what to do to counter the submission of Western nations to Israel’s dominance has been the leading question for those who strive to obtain peace and justice in the Middle East.
Reaction to the genocide concentrates on what is done to the Palestinians and what can be done for the two communities to live together. A strategy of what should be done to prevent the destruction of the Palestinians has been overlooked. Failures to challenge the deception and prevent the consequences have been the greatest failures of the supporters of Palestinian rights. Failure to challenge the traitorous actions of American legislators, who sacrifice American lives and American interests for the advancement of apartheid Israel, is the greatest failure of the American people. Israel lives by organizing the failures of others.
Start with defining the elements used to gain Western submission to Israel’s dictates. Planned infiltration by Zionist supporters in the US and European institutions — media, government, entertainment, financial, and educational — and Israeli immigration to Western nations, where the immigrants spy, propagandize, and become voting citizens that decide elections have enabled a distorted presentation of the Middle East crisis and deceptively allied populations with Israel.
The Unholy Trinity
In the United States, an unholy trinity guides US policy to favor Israel, searches out its antagonists, and charges “anti-Semitism” in every truth concerning apartheid Israel.
- American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) funnels campaign contributions to politicos who take the Faustian pledge and are willing to sell their souls to protect Israel.
- Committee for (In)Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) promotes inaccurate and unbalanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East. Staffers directly contact reporters, editors, producers, and publishers, giving them distorted and inaccurate coverage, and offering errors to refute factual information.
- Anti-defamation League (ADL) is the first line of defense for Israel’s oppression. The ADL turns truthful condemnation of Israel into charges of anti-Semitism, provides exaggerated statistics by 100 fold to make it appear that US Jews are victims of a massive conspiracy, and identifies anti-Zionists as anti-Semites.
Special relationship
Commentators go to great lengths to explain the “special relationship” between Israel and the United States, treating it as a unique affair, in which both benefit. This slogan is a hoax, which originated during World War II as a description of the relationship between embattled Great Britain and a still neutral United States. Somehow and somewhere, a clever someone adapted the World War II slogan, applied it to Israel, and managed to insert it in the everyday lexicon of several nations. Some examples:
“The Netherlands maintains excellent relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and a constructive partnership through our development cooperation programme, while the special relationship with Israel allows for political openings.”
“The minister met with Israeli Minister of Military Affairs Moshe Ya’alon in Berlin on Thursday. Ya’alon is on a two-day visit to Germany. ‘This is the first foreign guest I have the pleasure of welcoming here in my function as defense minister. It shows the special relationship between Germany and Israel,’ the German defense minister stated.”
“Some members of the EU were against the deepening of relations with Israel without the progress in the Peace Process. The Czech plan did not materialize, yet, the ‘special relationship’ between the Czech Republic and the Jewish state remains strong.”
Placing the words “special relationship” in government conversations, speeches, reports, articles, and documents so they become part of the everyday vocabulary of Europeans is a significant thrust of Israel’s public relations effort. The words seem harmless but they have a psychological impact. Parental relationship with children is special; parents warn and forgive children for their misdeeds, after all, they are special, which describes Western nation relations with Israel. Constant warnings to Israel for its oppressive actions followed by tacit forgiveness allow Israel to continue its despotic behavior.
Infiltration
During the last decade, more than one million Israelis left their nation. Some are fleeing a Zionist cause that has betrayed them. Others migrate and continue their allegiance to Israel. Why did they migrate? These immigrants are a cadre of weaponless soldiers, who behave benignly but are propagandists who labor to align foreign institutions in accord with Israel’s interests.
I have witnessed immigrants inviting fellow workers to their homes and convincing them why they should support Israel. I knew of them going to synagogues and urging the Rabbis to place the Israeli flag next to the American flag. Previously refused, having the two flags together is now routine
In public schools, efforts are made to gain support for Israel by emphasizing the World War II Holocaust (nothing on the Nakba). I have seen the Diary of Anne Frank placed on empty desks. Librarians gather students in the library to choose general biographies to read. Seven out of ten are biographies of personalities from the World War II Holocaust. One librarian showed her ignorance of the topic by referring to Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg as a Nazi officer who helped the Jews. The World War II Holocaust has a vital place in history but treating it as a purposeful commodity demeans the lost lives.
U.S. citizens and Israeli “immigrants” act as research centers for Israel, accumulating social, political, and economic statistics on American industrial and commercial life and sending the data to Israel ─ unregistered foreign agents whose activities are illegal.
Students and visiting professors from Israel arrive with more objectives than learning. I have seen them at university conferences encountering Palestinian expressions of grievances with statements such as, “The West Bank roads that Israel is building are meant to serve Palestinians one day,” and then congregate after the meeting to discuss what they can do to counter the remarks made at the meeting. A visiting professor to St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, to whom school authorities refused use of his grant to teach Holocaust studies, sued the university for anti-Semitism and won his case. St. Cloud now has a Jewish Studies and Resources Center but no courses, only a document center.
Georgetown has a Center for Jewish Civilization (what is Jewish civilization?). Some typical courses have no relation to a “Jewish Civilization.”
JCIV-1031-01 German Catholics in Hitler’s Army Fall 2023 – This course will examine the role of Catholics in the Wehrmacht, including its crimes against Jews and other civilians.
JCIV-291-01 Combating Terrorist Financing Spring 2023 – Spring 2023 – This course explores how terrorists and terrorist organizations are funded and resourced, how they move and access money, and how governments and other international actors seek to combat the financing of transnational threats.
The Center for Jewish Civilization has periodic meetings, open to the public whose topics have nothing to do with any Jewish civilization and have much to do with Israel. Some examples:
April 20, 2023: “2023 Andrew H. Siegal Lecture by Professor Ed Husain – Berlin, Baghdad, and the Beltway: Democracy, Dictatorship, and the Dilemmas.”
November 3, 2022: Saints and Soldiers: Internet-Age Terrorism, From Syria to the Capitol Siege.”
Many talks are on the World War II Holocaust and anti-Semitism. No talks on Maimonides and other Jewish philosophers. No talks on past Jewish life in Spain, Tunisia, Iraq, and Europe.
Think Tanks
Political, “think tank,” peace, and cultural organizations in Washington, D.C. are unusually populated with Israelis and Israel supporters. Most prominent are Hudson Institute, Heritage Foundation, Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), and American Enterprise Institute (AEI), all pushing the Israel line. One route that I have noticed for becoming a ”think tank expert” is obtaining credentials from an Israeli institute, being awarded a grant to visit the United States by a sketchy organization, and eventually receiving an invitation (by a friend) to lecture at a university and becoming recognized as an expert on the Middle East. This leads to a recommendation for a fellowship at a Middle East “think tank,” more recognition, and soon we have an artificially prepared “Middle East expert” who ingratiates with peace groups and tries to steer everyone, including those at the institutions and universities, to lessen aggressive attitudes toward Israel. Nothing too extreme, only a neutralization of activity.
Agents
During 2010, the FBI uncovered 10 unregistered Russian agents living in the U.S. as ordinary citizens, engaged in harmless activities, such as meeting people in high places to influence their attitudes and reporting American views on foreign and domestic affairs to Moscow. Multiply the number of discovered Russian agents by tens of thousands and you will have the number of Israeli expatriates in the U.S., many of whom take the opportunity to do the same for Israel, become U.S. citizens, and vote for Israel-friendly candidates.
It all seems harmless and operates smoothly. However, considering the number of Israelis who have migrated to the U.S. and other Western nations in the last decades the amount can form a massive propaganda organization that steers westerners to favor Israel. Previous estimates by the Israeli government ministries and the Los Angeles-based Israeli American Council, which represents Israelis across the United States and promotes their interests, had between 500,000 and 800,000 Israelis living in the U.S., about 150,000 living in the New York area, 120,000 in Los Angeles, and 80,000 in Miami.
What are the more important voting areas in the United States? New York, California, and Florida are significant. Enough dual citizens and American-Israelis can shape the ballot in those regions and may have done that in the disputed 2000 presidential election. If Al Gore had won the 2000 presidential election, would the US have attacked Iraq?
This immigration needs intensive investigation and a full report. Americans deserve protection from foreign influence. Anyone representing the interests of a foreign nation should be registered as a foreign agent. Those placing the interests of a foreign nation before their own nation’s interests should be exposed.
Global Influencers
Extend the most deceptive propaganda mechanism in history from AIPAC, ADL, and CAMERA in the United States to the international scene.
A report titled: The Israel Lobby and the European Union, researched and written by Public Interest Investigations and Spinwatch, and published by EuroPal Forum, “seeks to explore a number of Israel lobby groups in the European Union, the power they wield, and the dubious sources that fund them, while also uncovering the secretive transatlantic networks behind them. Perhaps the timeliest chapters in this report are the ones that deal with the issue of criminalizing resistance and silencing dissent.” A few examples will be mentioned.
In France, Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) gathers an assortment of groups dedicated to Israel. An example of their thrust and how they operate.
French Jewish group CRIF fined for defaming pro-Palestinian charity, April 8, 2014.
(JTA) – France’s largest Jewish organization defamed a pro-Palestinian charity by accusing it of financing Hamas, a French court ruled. The ruling against the CRIF umbrella group handed down by the Nancy Court of Cassation last month was first reported Sunday by the news site al-kanz.org. CRIF staff were ordered to pay the equivalent of $4,140 to the Committee for Charity and Support for the Palestinians, or CBSP – a group that CRIF researcher Marc Knobel in 2010 wrote “collects funds for Hamas.”
Former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar (why him?) leads The Friends of Israel Initiative (FII), which defines its thrust as “countering the growing efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel and its right to live in peace within safe and defensible borders.” A July 2014 working paper, “Understanding the Issue of Israeli Settlements and Borders,” claims that
…settlements have become an exaggerated issue in the diplomatic discourse over Israel. Settlement activity, like the construction of homes and schools, does not constitute a violation of Israel’s signed agreements with the Palestinians. The assertion that settlement activity is a violation of international law is not universally accepted, though it is frequently stated in UN debates and in the declarations of the European Union.
A July 2017 event featured this statement:
As goes Israel – so goes the United States of America and so goes Western civilization. And so many of our adversaries and enemies know that. That’s what we’re facing all across the Middle East and, truthfully, all across the world.
The United Kingdom has almost as many pro-Israel organizations as Israelis. Some of these are:
Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a parliamentary group affiliated with the Labor Party, promotes support for a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel.
We run and promote campaigns to help create a lasting peace in the Middle East with Israel safe, secure and recognised within its borders; living alongside a democratic, independent Palestinian state.
Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) is a parliamentary group affiliated with the Conservative Party and dedicated to strengthening business, cultural, and political ties between the United Kingdom and Israel. CFI has given £377,994 to the Conservative Party since 2004, mostly in the form of fully-funded trips to Israel for MPs, according to the Electoral Commission website. Directors of CFI have also given money directly to the Tory party.
Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) seeks to present Israel’s case to journalists.
Our Strategic Assessments provide expert analysis of the ever changing challenges to Israeli security. From sub-state actors and foreign states to domestic concerns, the strategic threats to Israel and the Middle East are explored in depth.
Russia, yes Russia, has formation of a new lobby.
Jerusalem Post, Pro-Israel caucus forming in Russian parliament, By GIL HOFFMAN, 05/25/2013
A select group of Russian parliament members will soon be urging their colleagues to say “da” to Israel after a delegation of Israelis took steps to initiate the formation of a pro-Israel caucus in the Duma in meetings last week in Moscow.
Conclusion
Digest all of this. Why is there a plethora of foreign groups aiding one small country that has a strong military and is prosperous? Do equivalent assemblies of forces that promote a specific nation exist in the world? The questions answer themselves; these groups do not elevate a weak and destitute land; they shield an apartheid land from being exposed as a militarist and oppressive nation that is committing genocide.
Devising strategies for countering the pro-Israel groups, who proudly announce their agendas, is priority number one for those who realize the perilous situations of the Palestinians and their principal allies. Although pushed for many years in other articles, no strategy has been offered. Without an effective strategy, Western governments continue their “special relationship” with Israel, Israel continues its oppressive relationship with the Palestinians, and the Palestinians are doomed. Why will anything change?
Time to not concentrate entirely on how many Palestinians were killed today and concentrate more on how many Palestinians can be saved tomorrow. Let’s learn of strategies to change the direction of the Middle East crisis. I’ll make my contribution in a subsequent article.
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