You can’t understand this conflict if you at all if you adopt any kind of parity between the two sides. Because it’s very simple: there’s an occupier and an occupied population. (Aaron Maté)
Ausschnitt aus „Nobody is safe – The Grayzone live“
Aaron Maté:
If the terrorism that Israel experiences comes from the fact that it’s been occupying millions of people for more than 50 years, does Israel have the right to defend itself against that terrorism or does it have the obligation to end the occupation which is a form of terrorism in itself?
And in fact you can’t even compare the terrorism that Hamas was responsible for to the terrorism that Israel was responsible for, and again it’s not morally equivalent because hamas’s terrorism is a response to a criminal occupation and a siege whereas Israel is the inciting party by occupying and committing state terror not just in one day as we saw Hamas but over 50 years.
Unless you can have that unless you can recognize that there’s no parity between an occupied people and an occupier you shouldn’t be able to speak on this conflict it’s better just to say nothing.[..] You can’t understand this conflict if you at all if you adopt any kind of parity between the two sides. Because it’s very simple: there’s an occupier and an occupied population.
Max Blumenthal:
It’s as though history started on October 7th, 2023, it’s as though 750,000 Palestinians were not ethnically cleansed between 1947 and 1948 with over 200 villages already destroyed by the time Israel declared its „independence“ in May 1948.
It’s as if Israel didn’t massacre hundreds of Palestinians at Kfar Kasem in 1956, under a curfew, who were Palestinian farmers who were simply returning home from their fields
It’s as if Israel didn’t massacre 300 people in the Gaza Strip in 1956 during its assault on Egypt, lining men up against the wall and killing them for no reason other than the fact that they were Palestinians.
It’s as if Israel didn’t wipe out three villages – Bayt Nuba, Jalo? and Imas? – in Palestine in 1967 driving hundreds of their residents at gunpoint to Ramallah, after Israel initiated a two-prong war against Egypt and Syria.
It’s as if Israel didn’t kill hundred thousands and thousands of Egyptian civilians during the war on attrition during terror attacks, including bombing Egyptian oil facilities.
It’s as if Israel didn’t kill tens of thousands of Lebanese people during its illegal invasion of Lebanon, and then occupy Lebanon in a bid to extend Israel’s illegal territory all the way up to the Lani? river, only being driven out by the armed resistance of Hezbollah in 2000.
It’s as if Israel didn’t carry out operation „Grapes of Wrath“ and destroy an entire town and UN- facility were civilians, who were sheltering, under orders from Naftali Bennett, who is now a top Israeli political figure.
It’s as though they didn’t kill thousands and thousands of Palestinians and destroy the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, as though they didn’t blanket Lebanon with high-powered US bombs, and in 2006 destroying half of Beirut, the entire Dahia neighborhood and much of Southern Lebanon.
And then they waged five military operations on the Gaza Strip, under their so-called withdrawal, placing Gaza under siege in 2007, literally counting the calories each resident was entitled to.
I mean all of this history was erased, though tens and tens of thousands of dead, countless atrocities and indignities experienced, and hundreds of Palestinians killed in the West Bank already this year.
But history according to Bernie Sanders and everyone on Capitol Hill began on October 7th and the Gaza Strip wasn’t under siege. It was just a regular country that was just sitting there. And they went into Israel just to kill Jews because they like killing Jews. That’s the history lesson that we’re getting from the best and brightest in US government, including the self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders.
I think those of you who know history, who believe in facts and actually also believe in humanism and empathy should break from these figures, because they’re not only creating space for one of the worst atrocities of our time. They’re making us stupid and that offends me a lot. That’s part of what offended me about Zionism in general when I would encounter all the indoctrination. [I thought] you’re just lying to me and I’m not stupid and Jews are not supposed to be stupid. Zionism is trying to make Jews into stupid people who support mass killings …
Aaron Maté:
… and chauvinist supremacists who literally believe that they were exceptional, were the chosen people. All that chauvinistic rhetoric that we get as Jews growing up – it’s sick and it undermines, I mean on top of basic humanity, it undermines so much what is great about Judaism: Its critical thinking, there’s so many critical thinkers that have come out of Jewish culture, and all this is geared towards undermining that.