A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #337 - Despite the ongoing massacre, Israel is failing in Gaza (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The brutality of the Israeli attack against the civilian population of 
Gaza has several causes. It is of course the result of the 
dehumanization of the "other", of the Palestinian. When Israeli leaders 
call the Palestinians "human animals", when they dream out loud of 
returning Gaza to the Stone Age, of dropping an atomic bomb on them, of 
burying them alive, of starving them or sending them in Congo, they have 
the support of a significant part of public opinion. Israel is a toxic 
society. Years of impunity and colonization have fascisized the 
population. There is support for the settlers who are increasing the 
pogroms in the West Bank with the complicity of the army. There is a 
majority feeling towards "Arabs": "we don't want to live with these 
people". Israeli leaders have theorized that women and children are also 
targets. Gaza society must not reproduce itself.
Another reason that explains the ongoing genocide is that October 7 
shattered an Israeli myth: that of its invulnerability. For the first 
time, Israeli colonial society paid a price for the suffering inflicted 
on Palestine. The ferocity of the Israeli army in Gaza is intended to 
drown this affront in blood. The myth of Israel's identification with 
Jewish security has collapsed. Israelis will never be safe as long as 
Israel destroys Palestine.

Netanyahu and the assassins around him have announced big plans by 
invading Gaza.
First "eradicate" Hamas. Purely propagandistic sentence. Hamas is not an 
army. The tunnels exist but the network the Israeli army speaks of is a 
fantasy. Resistance, peaceful or armed, is part of the Palestinian 
population. In every family, there are resistance fighters, often from 
different parties. The incredible ferocity of the Israeli aggression and 
the fact that entire families were knowingly exterminated have united 
the Palestinian population. There is no other choice than resistance. 
Each wanton murder creates new resistance fighters.
The Zionist project has always been ethnically pure "Greater Israel." 
But to carry out a new Nakba, we must be able to send the Palestinians 
somewhere. This deadly project is off to a bad start. No country, even 
Egypt, will agree to participate in a new deportation.

The images of the atrocities perpetrated in Gaza, despite the complicity 
of many media outlets, have largely destroyed the image of Israel. The 
BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement is gaining strength. He 
achieved success with Puma's decision to stop sponsoring the Israeli 
soccer team. Carrefour, which opened stores in Israeli settlements and 
sent packages to Israeli soldiers, is the subject of a campaign that 
will surely force this multinational to change its policy. Western 
countries that claim to be democratic and respectful of the law in the 
face of states that trample it (Russia, Iran, Syria, China, etc.) have 
discredited themselves by denying the genocide, arming and protecting 
Israel. South Africa's complaint against Israel for genocide has a huge 
resonance and raises a lot of hope in Palestine. Even if international 
justice has no power, this complaint, coming from a Southern country 
crowned by its victory against apartheid, seriously undermines the 
supremacy of the West.

A Palestinian leader once told me: "Israelis are afraid that they are no 
longer afraid." This sustained fear is the cement of Israeli society. 
Certainly, there is consensus in Israel on the Palestinian question. But 
the clashes (secular versus religious, Sephardim and Oriental Jews 
versus Ashkenazim, Europeanized Israelis versus settlers, Russians 
versus all the others, etc.) are more and more evident. The far right is 
certainly hegemonic in Israel but it is very deeply divided. The 
post-war period in Israel will give rise to harsh clashes.
Especially since Biden shot himself in the foot by responding to all of 
Netanyahu's wishes at this point. This war has already cost more than 50 
billion dollars. Who will pay ? How will a society as divided as Israel 
face the coming crisis?

One of Israel's strengths has always been the exploitation of 
anti-Semitism. This worked well after October 7 when demonstrations were 
banned in France. We even had a prefect declaring: "supporting the 
Palestinian cause is an attack on human dignity". This campaign which 
regularly claimed that the Palestinians were anti-Semitic and that 
October 7 was a "pogrom" is failing. In Israel itself, hundreds of 
people signed a text in support of South Africa's complaint. 50 
researchers working at Yad Vashem (the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem) 
signed a letter urging the director of the memorial to denounce the 
ongoing genocide. In the United States, where 40% of the world's Jews 
live, Jewish organizations occupied the Statue of Liberty and New York 
Central Station shouting "Stop the genocide in Gaza."
In short, despite the terrible suffering suffered in Gaza, we can always 
hope.

Pierre Stambul on January 16, 2024

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4079
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