The Israeli Genocidal Operations Against Gaza Are Becoming Clearer by the Day

As the death toll in the Gaza Strip surpasses 61,000 (over 18,000 of which are children, and around 153,000 people have been injured) since the Israeli government began its operation in response to the October 7, 2023 attacks, it is no surprise that Israel is losing support among the general American population, even if politicians continue to force our taxpayer dollars to be used to support the bombings (President Trump received $100 million from Miriam Adelson, so the current administration is entitled to do the bidding of her pro-Israel agenda). An “eye for an eye” mentality is bad enough, as Mohandas Gandhi once opined, “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind,” but the Israeli military is engaging in fifty plus eyes for an eye (it is estimated that 1,195 lives were lost during the Hamas attacks, and though this is horrific, the death count in Gaza only keeps climbing).

Ardent defenders of Israel will say that this is a war and that war means casualties, but this is not simply a war. Gazans have no military and are not able to fight back or perform operations to challenge the strength of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), so it is a one-sided “war,” which equates to a slaughter. As I wrote previously, the Israeli military has pinpoint accuracy with delivering bombs, so the fact that it is destroying mosques, hospitals, and schools means that it is either intentionally killing and levelling buildings to the ground, or it is being reckless (none of it is by accident). For Christians who tirelessly defend Israel’s every actions, how do you defend the destruction of the only Catholic Church in Gaza and the senseless massacres (surely a just God could not defend these actions)?

If destroying the majority of buildings in Gaza and displacing ninety percent of the once 2.1 million population (some of the people in Gaza have been displaced more than ten times) were not enough, Israel is engaging in a starvation strategy to ensure that the butchery continues and Israel can eventually occupy the land without seeming too homicidal to the rest of the world. So far, 217 people (including 100 children) have already been confirmed to have starved to death, and this is a direct result of Israel intentionally blocking aid from getting into the territory. At the end of July, it is estimated that another 12,000 children under the age of five were “acutely malnourished” and on the verge of starving. Israel not only halts food from getting to starving people, but when it does allow aid in, it receives praise for its benevolence while also opening fire on those waiting in line to get the supplies, like it is playing some kind of sick hunger game. These massacres likely killed as many as 1,561 people, 400 of which have been since May of this year, and this includes 859 people slaughtered at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites and 514 killed in lines at convoy routes (the so-called “Flour Massacre” of February 29, 2024, for example, involved Israeli soldiers shooting Palestinians in cold blood, killing 100 and injuring 700, while they were waiting in line to bring back flour to their families).

It is astounding that people can overlook such savagery on the part of the Israeli government, but those same people will cry that Hamas killed or kidnapped Israeli citizens (believing the unconfirmed rumors that Hamas beheaded babies and threw them in ovens). Of course, the killing on both sides is wrong regardless of whether Hamas or Israel is doing it, but imagine yourself living in Gaza just trying to get by in your daily routines. You are constantly being told by the IDF that you need to evacuate your home so that it can destroy your neighborhood and eliminate your churches and hospitals, forcing you to have to escape to the other side of town and seek shelter elsewhere, and when you are starving, Israel prevents the food from reaching your area. Even if you do get food trucks, you must risk your life standing in line hoping that you do not get shot by soldiers with itchy trigger fingers. You have nothing left of your own, and no other country wants you because you and your family and friends are labelled as terrorists. Americans have very low levels of empathy for victims of war crimes, and they have been largely conditioned over the years to view the aggressor as the victim (Israel did not just begin its brutality after October 7^th, and it has been doing it in both the West Bank and Gaza for many years).

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, of course, denied that his government is utilizing a strategy of starvation to keep the war effort going (perhaps to avoid being held accountable for corruption charges) and that it is Hamas’ fault for people not getting food, but even President Trump did not buy it, as he saw the pictures of the people starving for himself and said that the children “look very hungry” and “you can’t fake that.” Still, even despite Netanyahu’s lies, Trump will continue to send aid to Israel unconditionally, even if he pretends to dislike the prime minister publicly (he is obligated because he took Israeli funds during the campaign). Even if empathy is not your thing and you do not care about Palestinian lives being lost, do you really want your taxpayer dollars going to fund an operation that causes enemies within the Arab world and puts American lives at risk because of the potential for increased terrorist attacks?

Israel does not just specialize in killing children under the guise of hunting terrorists. No, it even goes after journalists trying to expose war crimes. Just recently, the IDF targeted Al Jazeera reporters in a tent during a bombing run, and everyone in the choir scream (so those in the back can hear) the talking point of why the Israeli government was justified in killing reporters: “they were members of Hamas hiding amongst the population.” Right, and again, the Israeli government has one of the most sophisticated militaries, special forces, and intelligence apparatuses on the planet, so if it wanted to eliminate Hamas members or journalists covertly, it could. Israel claimed that it had proof that one of the Al Jazeera journalists, Anas al-Sharif, was linked to Hamas and was showing the terrorist organization how to build bombs (Al Jazeera denies this, and given Israel’s lies and fabrications, it would be hard to believe anything that it says).

Of course, Israel does not respect a free press and would prefer if the world was not aware of its genocidal actions, and it has even gone as far as raiding and shutting down Al Jazeera offices in the West Bank and prohibiting the organization from covering any events inside Israeli territory, formal or occupied. The IDF has killed roughly 192 journalists since October 2023 (most of which were not associated with Al Jazeera). In the United States, we would call this a violation of the First Amendment (universal right to free speech and press), but the authoritarian Israeli government gets sympathy from American politicians instead. What kind of regime openly assassinates journalists? The answer: not one that can claim the moral high ground.

The barbarity does not stop there, and in fact, the Israeli government is now planning to fully invade and occupy the Gaza Strip in its entirety (with the endorsement of the Israeli security cabinet), even breaking up shelter camps throughout the territory where displaced Palestinians are seeking refuge (basically displacing those same people once again, and can you imagine being forced to lose your home to a bombing campaign, only to set up a camp away from where you once lived and then be forced out of that camp to a new unknown location?). What other word would you use to describe displacing the native population of an area and then occupying the land for yourself than to call it genocide? After all, President Trump suggested that Gaza could be developed into an Israeli resort, and Netanyahu’s Likud Party believes in the “Greater Israel Project,” where Israel would eventually expand to conquer the West Bank, Gaza, and parts of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey.

Israel may have imperialistic intentions and be interested in removing the Palestinians from Gaza for its own use, under the guise of cleansing the land from Hamas (a creation of Israel in the first place), but genocide is never acceptable from a moral standpoint. Yet, here we are praising Israel for being brave for blowing up starving children. Israel is clearly not defending itself. It is wiping out a group of people. Just in case I was not clear before, Israel has the technology and military power to clandestinely eliminate Hamas leaders without destroying everything or displacing the native population, but it is actively choosing not to employ that strategy so that it can grab the land for itself. When it comes to American unconditional support of Israel, you have three choices: live your life and not care about what is happening, speak out against Israel, or go down in history as a supporter of genocide. It will be interesting to see which countries, if any, will begin to recognize Palestine as a state in the upcoming months.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, or website.