Israel: A cornered rat

Kissinger: “In 10 years, there will be no more Israel.”

Israel is especially proficient at mass-murdering children. Israel constantly reminds us that it can exercise the “Samson option” and drop nuclear weapons on the capitals of Europe and the Middle East. Israel has even colonized America, the world’s most powerful nation, exacting billions of dollars a year in tribute. What a stunningly prepotent entity! The world stands in awe of the great and terrible Israel.

That, at least, is what the Israelis would have us believe.
But it is just an illusion. Israel is not behaving like a confidently powerful nation. Instead, it is desperately lashing out like a cornered rat in the final throes of rabies.
Israel’s genocide against the people of Gaza is sparking a seismic shift in world public opinion. Former New York Times journalist Philip Weiss, a noted Jewish critic of Israel, recently wrote: “There are more signs today that what the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2008-2009 did for the left, the latest assault is doing for the mainstream: solidifying a perception that Israeli leadership has lost its moorings, opening the floodgates of criticism.”
Netanyahu’s decision to crucify Gaza has backfired. Israel has attained none of its announced strategic objectives: It cannot destroy Hamas, cannot stop the rocket fire, cannot stop Gazans from digging tunnels. In short, it cannot stop the Palestinian resistance from building on Hezbollah’s accomplishments in its 2006 victory over Israel.
Nor can Israel attain its unannounced strategic objective, which was to destroy all prospects for Palestinian unity. Netanyahu had apparently hoped that when Israel slaughtered Palestinian children, the Palestinians would blame Hamas. Instead, the Palestinians (and the world) blame Israel. After all, it is Israeli soldiers who are murdering and maiming their children. Every last bit of Zionist-inflicted suffering elicits more strength and determination to resist Zionism by any means necessary, and to support whoever promises to fight the Zionists the hardest. And that goes for people all over the world, not just in Palestine.
University of Victoria professor John Dolan, writing under the pseudonym of “war nerd” Gary Brecher, recently republished views from a few years ago that are even more true today:
“Israel may win this battle, but it’s lost the war already…(In 2009) they killed 1400 Palestinians, and it didn’t do much but make everybody sick to their stomachs…In a situation like this, the real winner is likely to be the Gazans…Israel had lots of chances to deal with (the Palestinians) but they had a mandate—nothing worse than a mandate—and didn’t need to make a deal with anybody. Now it’s too late. There isn’t always a good solution at this point in the game. Maybe ten moves back you could’ve won, but not now.”
Most other strategists agree, though not all have the courage to say so in public. Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brezekinski says Netanyahu “is making a very serious mistake…he is isolating Israel. He’s endangering its longer-range future.”
What longer-range future? asks another legendary National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger. In a 2012 interview with the New York Post, Kissinger made the following blanket statement:
“In 10 years, there will be no more Israel.”
Even Israel’s most rabid supporters admit that it is failing in Gaza. Neocon Zionist Jeffrey Goldberg admits as much in his article “Why Is Israel Losing a War It’s Winning?” Goldberg’s attempts to answer his own question are preposterous; he lashes out like a cornered rat at Hamas, at the world’s Muslims, at anyone who is “anti-Semitic” enough to oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide.
And genocide it is. Even the Zionists admit it. Yochanan Gordon spoke for the vast majority of Israeli Jews, and their supporters around the world, when he published an opinion article in Friday’s edition of The Times of Israel openly advocating genocide. Gordon’s article, entitled “When Genocide Is Permissible,” is far more extreme and revolting than anything Adolf Hitler ever wrote.
As Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said last week, “Those who condemn Hitler day and night have surpassed Hitler in barbarism.”
Some Zionist rats are lashing out at Obama and Kerry. They believe the American President and Secretary of State are sending the wrong signals by not supporting Israel’s assault on Gaza with sufficient fervor. That is one of the main reasons Israel is losing in Gaza, according to Jeffrey Goldberg. He accuses Kerry of “indulging” Hamas.
Other Zionist rats may not be just blaming Obama and Kerry, but actually conspiring against them. Last year American Zionist Andrew Adler, editor of the Jewish Times, published an editorial calling on the Israeli Mossad to kill President Obama. Many Zionists are probably entertaining the same notion today – despite the fact that Obama has exerted even less actual pressure on Israel than previous presidents did.
Once again, the cornered rats are lashing out at the wrong target. Israel’s real political problem in America is not Obama himself, but the young people who voted for him. Israeli journalist Peter Beinart just published an article in Ha’aretz headlined: “On Gaza, Israel is losing the Obama coalition. As America grows less nationalistic, less hawkish, and less religious it will grow less sympathetic to an Israel defined by exactly those characteristics.”
Beinart notes that Israel’s American supporters are gradually dying off: “According to Gallup, while Americans over the age of 65 support Israel’s actions by a margin of 24 points, Americans under 30 oppose them by a margin of 26 points.” It seems inevitable that in the not-so-distant future, the US – Israel’s lone supporter on the world stage – will turn against the Zionist entity. When that happens, Kissinger’s prophecy that Israel will cease to exist will be fulfilled.
Israel’s leaders know that time, history, and demographics are working against them. They know that apartheid South Africa, a racist regime that was not nearly as vicious or genocidal as Israel, was erased from the pages of time by a changing current of global public opinion very similar to today’s rising tide of anti-Zionism.
The rats in Israel have their backs to the wall. They are cornered, and they know it. And as they blindly lash out in useless fury by mass-murdering ever-increasing numbers of helpless women and children, they are simply hastening their own inevitable demise.
Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist, is one of America’s best-known critics of the War on Terror. Dr. Barrett has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications. Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin, where he ran for Congress in 2008. He is the co-founder of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance, and author of the books Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie (2007) and Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters (2009). His website is www.truthjihad.com
Gaza genocide and Arab fratricide
By: Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
According to Article 3 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, persons committing genocide or being complicit in genocide shall be punished “whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.” The United States not only supports and funds the ongoing genocide in Gaza, replenishes Israel with more funds and weaponry, but it also uses its political clout to enable Israel to continue its ruthless crimes against humanity.
While many have not been shy about calling these crimes genocide, they have come under attack for using the “G” word. Is genocide an appropriate term to use? Well, it is if one has respect for international law and the rules of the genocide convention. Article 2 of the Convention clearly spells out:
“In the present Convention, genocide means any [emphasis added]of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part [emphasis added], a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
• (a) Killing members of the group;
• (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
• (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
There is little argument and ample evidence that Israel’s actions against the people of Gaza in particular, and Palestine as whole, constitute genocide.
While the pro-Israel Western media has been unable to conceal the daily, indiscriminate killing of anything that breathes and moves in Gaza (Article 2a) and the terrorization of children, the young and the old (mental harm) with the constant bombardment, bulldozers, and drones (Article 2b), the media has been apt at hiding the horrific effects of the blockade – the deliberate infliction of condition of life calculated to bring about physical destruction in whole or in part (Article 2c).
In 2010, Amnesty International’s report Suffocating Gaza – the Israeli blockade’s effects on Palestinians detailed the reality of life in Gaza including restricting the entry of basic goods, food and fuel. On January 28, 2014, the daily Haaretz ran an article entitled “In Gaza, water – and time – are running out; Experts say Gaza water shortage likely to bring about illness.” The situation has only exasperated.
Yet, in spite of the evidence, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, ignoring all other atrocities, calls an attack on a UN school which killed innocent civilians “outrageous.” Perhaps he ought to be reminded of, and heed his predecessor, Kofi Annan who acknowledged responsibility for not having done more to prevent or stop the Rwanda genocide. In his July 2004 address to the Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Annan said:
“If we are serious about preventing or stopping genocide in future, we must not be held back by legalistic arguments about whether a particular atrocity meets the definition of genocide or not. By the time we are certain, it may often be too late to act. We must recognize the signs of approaching or possible genocide, so that we can act in time to avert it.”
Ban ki-Moon must have missed the speech and the memo; although in July 2012, he did appoint Adam Dieng of Senegal as his Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide – only to refrain from the “G” word it would seem.
The American government is not alone in its complicity in genocide or in inciting it. Mainstream media networks and commentators who paint a picture of an Israel “self-defense” to give room to the continued genocide are complicit and must be punished. But in the opinion of this writer, the vilest partners in this crime are the Egyptian and Saudi leaders committing fratricide.
Egypt’s military coup leader and the illegitimate president of Egypt, al-Sisi, whom the Israel ambassador called a ‘hero for all Jews,’ has trapped the Gazans so that Israel can eliminate them all. Genocide will prove to be lucrative business for the Egyptians. Piping Israeli gas (stolen from Gaza) to liquefaction plants in Egypt to be converted into LNG and exported across the world.
[SIDE BAR: In 2009, David Wurmser writing for the Jewish policy Center opined, “Israel and its neighbor now sit atop roughly two years’ worth of European consumption.” He further suggests “even modest amounts of Israeli gas exports can carry significant strategic leverage.” Citing Europe’s gas vulnerability, Wurmser wrote, “Europe’s grim reality could represent a unique window of opportunity for Israel to nail down long-term agreements and align export policy with a broader effort to reset Israeli-European relations.”
The MH-17 was brought down four hours after Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza. Europeans reluctant to enforce further sanctions on Russia were no longer so reluctant.
Israel’s interest in Egypt and its opposition to the elected president of the Egyptian people, Mohammad Morsi, went beyond a gas transit and the Palestinians. On May 30, 2013, The Times of Israel reported that the construction on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (on the Blue Nile) had sparked a major diplomatic crisis with Egypt – a concern shared with Saudi Arabia and its plans to divert water from the Nile. In 2012, it was reported that Saudi Arabia had claimed a stake in the Nile.
The Saudi regime showered the coup government with aid after the overthrow of Morsi. In January, Egypt received a further $4 billion, and in May, Saudi Arabia showered the Egyptians with another $3billion while Egypt trapped Gazans to be slaughtered by Israel.
Never has the world witnessed so much impunity. The United Nations refuses to acknowledge genocide and takes no part in preventing or punishing it. The silence of those guarding our rights and our laws makes them the silent partners in this crime against humanity. As Jonathan Swift said, “I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.”
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is a Public Diplomacy scholar, independent researcher and writer with a focus on US foreign policy and the role of lobby groups.