THE RATIONALE FOR REFRAMING THE ISRAEL/HAMAS CONFLICT

Every protestor against Israel’s response to October 7 needs to re examine her attitude. No one but no one does not cry for the Palestinians in Gaza but it is Hamas who bragged that they had set them up for sacrifice.They correctly reckoned that the world would condemn Israel when the inevitable civilian casualties would result as the “brave warriors” shielded behind them in the war that had to follow.

The narrative that the reason for the October 7 savage onslaught was that Netanyahu had axed the Two State solution is bogus because Hamas does not believe in it anyway.

Whatever the future may hold, Israel after October 7 had no alternative other than to neutralize Hamas at least to the extent that ISIS has been. Hamas has as THE cardinal provision in their constitution a genocidal threat against Israel which they have illustrated just how they will effect it.

The allegation that it is Israel being the genocidal agents in this conflict is reflective of the anti semitic “blood libel” thrown at the Jews throughout the ages.The argument that Hamas are freedom fighters against a neo colonial fascist regime that has deprived them of their country is reflective of a moral depravity of the accusers who are openly supporting an ISIS like terrorist organization.

With regard to some of Hamas’s supporters there is a cognitive dissonance. Under Hamas, LGBT people receive the death sentence while there is scant respect for women’s rights as illustrated by Hamas’s paymaster Iran. Marit Mayor, a police superintendent in Israel, believed the brutality against women illustrated Hama’s hatred against the Jews and women. It also bears mentioning that the October 7 massacre gave the green light for the perpetration of anti semitic hate crimes which increased over a thousand percent in Europe and close on four hundred percent in the USA.

 In this blog the current accepted narrative against Israel will be discussed. The fatally flawed leadership in the region will be highlighted as well as the political climate in Israel even before October 7 and what is taking place in the country at the moment. The “Day After” needs airing. Israel’s position is in flux while Hama’s as yet has not deviated from its position from “the river to the sea”.

THE GENERAL NARRATIVE OF ISRAEL’S ALLEGED CULPABILITY AND THE MEDIA’S REINFORCEMENT OF IT.

A sober analysis of the current Middle East tragic events has not been aided by the Western media that have implicitly maintained that the Israelis’ policies inevitably led to the barbarism of the October 7 attack on Israel. Apparently Hamas’s objective was to enforce an independent Palestinian state.  Hamas and the other members of the Iranian led “Resistance” don’t believe in a two party state. Rather they maintain that their State should be from “The River to the Sea”. Hamas incidentally have repeatedly declared that all Jews should be killed. Their spokesmen have also said they will rerun October 7 again and again. “The Palestinians are prepared to be martyrs”, argue Hamas’s leaders. Some of the “freedom fighters” from the killing fields of October 7 proudly boasted that they had slaughtered Jews. 

Just to point to a glaring imbalance.of coverage. viewers are spared from the barbarism of  October 7 where bodies were burned, limbs pulled off, women gang raped and where there was violent hostage taking from babies to the elderly. However the scenes are given the full blast, with all the usual warnings, of the inevitable pathetic collateral destruction and loss of life in Gaza. 

The New York Times, not the most sympathetic newspaper to Israel, has produced an expose entitled, “How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence  - a pattern of rape, mutilation and sheer brutality” - nails in women’s vaginas and the like.To quote the NY Times, “Many of the accounts are difficult to bear, and the visual evidence difficult to see”. It took the UNO Women’s Movement weeks to issue an insipid comment on the desecration, notwithstanding that the organization celebrated “The International Day For The Elimination Of Violence Against Women” on November 25. 

 It has reached the stage where the Hamas Ministry of Health’s figures of those killed which are issued immediately after an attack are accepted. Several announcers are not even bothering to say that “the figures have not been independently verified”.The numbers, such as they are, do not include that up to ten thousand Hamas fighters, regretfully including "children", eliminated to date. It took Israel weeks to gauge the exact number murdered by Hamas. To the best of Jay H. Ell’s knowledge Hamas did not drop leaflets to warn the kibbutz members and those attending the Peace Festival warning them that they were about to be murdered, brutalized and gang raped and they needed to move North. 

Another fact that barely surfaces is the political philosophy of those living in the Kibbutzim on the Southern envelope of Israel. That fraternity was famous for their championing of Palestinian aspirations. As the extent of their betrayal became more and more evident, the depressive cloud that enveloped Israel following the aftermath of October 7, thickened. And in case the watching public missed it, the festival where a massacre took place was a “Peace Festival”

 The appeal to call a halt to the war is only directed at Israel while the culpability for the ongoing slaughter in Gaza lies with Hamas who by not surrendering are sacrificing the Palestinian women and children, which they were ready to do from day one. In fact the greater the mortality and wounded the more it feeds into their narrative fueling more protests. While their attempts to block the movements of their citizenry following warnings from Israel was extensively reported in the latter’s media they barely raised a mention in the West.

The Israeli answer to the unwitting fatalities in Gaza is that they have irrefutable evidence that Hamas operates under the cover of civilian establishments. The poverty of the Palestinians is the outcome of Hamas diverting the massive payments from their benefactors to build tunnels and ammunition factories rather than for the social purposes that they were allegedly designated for. 

This is a proxy war between Israel and Iran where its other five entities are mixing in and attacking Israel. They all form “The Resistance” . So those who are backing Hamas because they are David to Israel being Goliath, next to Iran and 6 proxies Israel is not the Goliath.

The public and the media don’t seem to get what October 7 has done to the psyche of Israelis. They are shell shocked comparing the coldblooded cruelty to the holocaust. Cruelty that was essential to underline their hatred. There is also a displacement of a quarter million Israeli citizens. While it is not nearly equivalent to the predicament of a million and a half Palestinians in Gaza but nevertheless the South of Israel sustained an even worse worse destruction coupled with desecration. In the North, Hezbollah are busily destroying the villages and towns on that border. The only one who “gets it” is President Biden. He like other government officials has seen the real happenings of October 7.

Finally, as Zionism, the belief in Israel as the Jewish homeland, is now equated with anti semitism, this non nuanced approach has reinforced the longstanding anti semitism that has been festering on the University campuses, (Blog: July11, 2021:The Silent Epidemic of Campus Anti Semitism”), as well as on the extreme right and left. 

THE DAY AFTER AND JUST BEFORE AND FATALLY FLAWED LEADER NETANYAHU

The Israeli Prime Minister is the most fatally flawed leader of the unholy three dramatis personae in this arena. He has orchestrated this unholy mess. 

As Hamas’s official position is that they have no negotiating position, the initiative is in Israel’s hands. The latter have to balance their twin objectives of the release of hostages and winning the war. They also have to move into a new phase of targeted objectives now that have eliminated Hamas's ground operations. 

In Israel there are competing solutions for "The Day After". These range from a one state solution - an apartheid one from the right and an integrated one from the extreme left - to an eventual two state solution or at least have that as an end goal. While it has been the right wing narrative that has dictated Israeli policy for almost two decades there has been a massive shift in the landscape. 

For months prior to October 7 there have been crowds of hundreds of thousands every weekend protesting the Netanyahu’s right wing coalition’s attempt to subvert Israel’s democracy. These would meet the dual purpose of no longer protecting Israeli Palestinian rights and keep Netanyahu out of jail.

 It is fair to say that Netanyahu and his extremist coalition partners are becoming more and more isolated. There are protests daily as to his apparent disregard for the hostages - a criticism that is reflective of the mood’s anger towards him. As the death rate of the Israel Defense Force rises fuel is added to the fury. 

Netanyahu supports the apartheid solution for “The Day After”. Not only is he out of sync with the majority of the country and what happens next, he is repeatedly blamed for October 7 for his total misreading of the “Palestine Future”. He backed Hamas carrying suitcases of Qatar's cash to them. He created the political environment that allowed the intelligence to be ignored. If it wasn’t was for the protestors' infrastructure the massive relief effort would not have happened. He not only had sent the army brigade on the Southern border to protect Minister Smotrich’s thugs on the West Bank, Netanyahu had axed every decent civil servant for his lackeys. 

Michael Oren the former Ambassador to America and a close confidant of the Prime Minister has publicly told him not to contradict Biden in public. The general consensus is how fortunate it was that the American President in this crisis was Joseph Biden. Oren points out that Biden is alone in his party and alone in the world. It is obscene that the Prime Minister is running an election campaign while the war wages. Central to his strategy is that he wants to pick a fight with Biden as to “The Day After”.

The most respected institutions in the country are the Intelligence Agencies and the Armed Forces.. The immediate past officers of the Shin Beit, Mossad and the armed forces have joined organizations one of which asks for the immediate resignation of the Premier. The highly respected former Head of Mossad and the National  Security Agency, Ehud Halevi, who also incidentally brokered the Israel/Jordan peace treaty, is scathing in his criticism calling for the Prime Minister's resignation.

There is a group which has five hundred members made up of retired Generals and their equivalents in the Intelligence Agency and the Police, “The Commanders of Israel’s Security". They believe in the Two State solution. Initially there should be consolidation of the West Bank territory and for now a separation between Gaza, The West Bank and Israel. 

What has been mooted for “The Day After” is that Israel’s Sunni partners form the political entity which oversea the rebuilding of Gaza and act as a transition group. The majority of opinion makers don’t support Netanyahu’s vision of Israel occupying Gaza.

To add insult to injury Ehud Olmert a former premier and member of the Likud, Netanyahu’s party, is calling for a permanent halt to the war for a return of the hostages. The latter is a solution floated by Tom Friedman of the NY Times and to compound the War Cabinet’s woes is gaining currency. Netanyahu has appeared totally unempathetic to the families involved and was booed by them in the Knesset.

Well what about the other two fatally flawed leaders?

HAMAS’S FATALLY FLAWED LEADER,, YAHYA SINWAR AND THE FATALLY FLAWED  PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY’S, LEADER, MAHMOUD ABBAS

Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar is a highly intelligent sociopath who served 22 years in an Israeli prison for six murders. In prison he murdered two inmates. His favorite execution method is with his “own hands”. He "terminated" a leader of his organization for homosexuality. Another priority is the “elimination” of anyone suspected for collaboration with the enemy. Sinwar fostered Netanyahu’s narrative that Hamas sought peace. His brother is an engineer who built tunnels with the money designated for social services. 

It is a myth that the Palestinians in Gaza are behind Hamas, the latter not having held an election since 2007. The Dean of Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, Amanda Jamal, reported on a poll completed fortuitously on October 6, 2023, “Sixty - seven percent of Palestinians in Gaza had little or no trust in Hamas”. The population’s biggest gripe - corruption. The war may well have changed perceptions but that was the verdict before.

The Palestinian Authority’s Mahmoud Abbas at 87 years old is basically only controlling the town of Ramallah. Abbas took over from Arafat in 2004. He is also a victim of Netanyahu’s grand plan to control the Palestinian territories. Netanyahu would finance Hamas and control and weaken Abbas. Hamas does not recognize Abbas’s leadership So Netanyahu can argue that the Palestinians were divided so he has no one to talk to. He did not have to do much convincing with regard to Abbas who is hopelessly corrupt.

Abbas openly rues refusing the two state solution offer made in 2018, by Ehud Olmert, who was the Prime Minister in Israel in one of the rare Bibi respites since 2000. Abbas obtained his Ph. D. with a dissertation denying the holocaust. Not so long ago he hinted that he was on message then.

Maybe in “The Day After”, “The Commanders For Israel Security”will hold sway. If so Abbas’s image among Palestinians will improve and he can act as an interim negotiator. He, for lack of no one else around, is regarded internationally as the leader of the Palestinians. (Sinwar has been designated a "terrorist" by the United States and the EU).

AT THE END OF THE DAY

It is sad that the extreme left is now ad idem with the extreme right. 

It is hard to believe that student activists have so lost their way. While it is difficult to gauge their numbers, the New York Police Chief stated that the anti Israeli protests had only between one and five thousand participants. 

Jay H. Ell firmly believes that TV viewers, adults only, should not be spared, the October 7 barbarism. If the legislators can scan it so can their constituents. Perhaps they may then understand why Hamas must be taken out. Understandably for the Jews, who have a long never ending history of persecution and genocide, October 7 has to evoke an overwhelming fear of doom. They have to respond to this arm of “The Resistance”. In Iran there is a doomsday clock which ticks down the time when Israel will be no more. 

We have to pray that “The Day After” will be the beginning of a two State solution. The solution has to take place in the region with the Sunni nations who too are praying that Israel will knock out Iran’s proxy. 

The war cabinet has to take into account the imperative to bring home the hostages as well as winning the war. 

The war cabinet owe it to Biden to finish this in a few months. They need to overrule the Prime Minister who has long overstayed his welcome. 

THE “GOP” IS UNRESISTANT TO TRUMP'S FASCISM

Vladimir Putin is a fascist. Donald Trump the leader of the “GOP” has common cause with Putin. The 45th President is a wannabe fascist. This weekend he doubled down on his racial purity spiel and "proved" his authoritarian argument by quoting Putin as labelling the USA a "rotten democracy". For good measure he once again sung the praises of Kim Jun Un and Victor Orban. He spoke about camps and mass deportations..... Nobody in the "GOP" legislature condemned this dark rhetoric. 

The “GOP” in Congress have failed to support a personal desperate urgent appeal from Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in his defense of fascist Russia’s neo - colonial armed attempt to incorporate Ukraine into Russia. Trump has made it quite clear on whose side he is on. While sooner or later enough of the "GOP" may relent but there is very little doubt where Trump ventures the lemmings ultimately follow. Ukraine is just a symptom of the current terminally ill “GOP”. The latter no longer support democracy, period. 

Jay H. Ell believes that the immediate future of democracy in the USA is dependent on the third branch of Government, the Judiciary, which to date have answered the challenge. The final arbiter the Supreme Court, face a crucial test as to whether they will hold Trump and those responsible for the January 6 insurrection accountable. If that attempted coup, the gravest abrogation of the rule of law, has no legal consequences American democracy will receive a blow that will take eons to recover from. `

All this is in the context that the current ideological battle in the world is no longer between Communism and Democracy. It is between Authoritarianism/Fascism versus Democracy. The 45th President is a would be fascist dictator and the former Republican Party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Ike Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan are followers of their wannabe fascist leader. 

However this is not the USA’s first venture into authoritarianism/fascism. This is a recurring malaise.

FASCISM AND THE MORIBUND “GOP”.

Firstly, what characterizes fascism. Central is an ideology which Trump certainly has - he believes first and foremost that the President is above the law and should have absolute authority. He has all the other accoutrements, such as the white race is superior, no government bureaucracy, no rule of law or any safety net for the less fortunate. Fascism needs a dictator and he is applying for the job. (Even if he claims he wants to be one for only one day). The ideology does not believe in any political opposition and the individuals’ rights are subordinate to that of the nation. While Trump’s friend Vladimir goes the whole nine yards with his militarism, Trump qualifies to be on the spectrum of autocracy/fascism with Xi, The Rocket Man - whom he loves and Victor Orban.

The “GOP” in effect are backing Putin by not urgently aiding Zelensky in his struggle. They don’t care if Europe is conquered by fascist Putin. Nor do they give a hoot that they are attempting to foist minority viewpoints on the majority because they are the “ubermensch”.They are in enthrall of the “Orange Jesus”. They are initiating an impeachment of Biden at Trump’s behest, an act that guarantees a Democratic take over of the House of Representatives. It bears repeating that the majority o the “GOP” in Congress did not support the peaceful transition of power and voted against accepting the valid election results in 2020.

The new “GOP” House of Representative’s Speaker, Mike Johnson, who looks the type of guy you would buy a used car from, is evil incarnate. He is the author of an amicus brief where a number of States challenged the legitimate election results and has not publicly accepted that Biden is the duly elected President even though he has given the go ahead to an impeachment enquiry of him. Mitch McConnell, the Minority Leader of the Senate, who has claims to respectability, was the midwife delivering the Supreme Court that Trump ensured his followers would axe Roe v Wade. He has changed his attitude in the face of the apparent inevitability of Trump being the “GOP” nominee for President. In spite of the fact that he opined that Trump should be held accountable civilly and criminally for the January 6 insurrection, he is now committed to support the “GOP” nominee whoever that may be!

But this is not fascism's first rodeo in the USA.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF AMERICAN RACISM/AUTHORITARIANISM

The historians and the commentators argue as to the genesis of this transformation of the party of Lincoln. There are some that maintain that it was always there and the South really won the war. Others put forward that the foundations were laid at the end of the 19th Century with Jim Crow laws and the Klu Klux Klan. Then there was the massive support of Germany’s Nazism in the thirties, the McCarthyism in the fifties and Nixon’s Southern Strategy in the seventies. The modern day theorists claim it begun with Newt Gingrich in 1996 who had an anarchist attitude to government. But whenever it began, here we are today and the Grand Old Party is an authoritarian cult. 

Jay H. Ell believes that there is synthesis between Heather Cox Richardson’s viewpoint as articulated in her recent book “Democracy Awakening” and Rachel Maddow’s ”'Prequel”. They both seem to accent that the nineteen thirties was a forerunner to the present day scenario.  Richardson points to the emerging of a forgotten document, "The Conservative Manifesto”, while Maddow focusses on the massive support the Nazis had in the thirties.

The Conservative Manifesto

At that stage of history there were many Democrats that were ad idem with several  Republicans who were dead against Franklyn Roosevelt’s “New Deal”. “The Conservative Manifesto”,  written in 1937, broadly outlined the view of small government, low taxes especially no capital gains,, no coercion of labor to gain higher wages, decentralization of government - state and home rule, unnecessary competition by government of private enterprise, local non political aid for unemployment and “Reliance upon the American form of Government ” - code for the whole ton of bricks. 

Needless to say this “Manifesto” was at odds with “The New Deal” which sought to level the playing field, begin to provide a protective shield for the unemployed, bargaining rights for labor and a far more centralized form of Government and certainly no relief on taxation. 

Fascism in America in the 1930’s

Rachel Maddow's expose is an eye opener as to the extent of Nazi Germany and concomitant rabid anti semitism support in America making Franklyn Roosevelt’s job of supporting the Allies in WW11 extremely difficult. In addition it helps explain why the 900 Jewish Refugees on the St. Louis were not allowed to disembark. Ken Burns the famed cinematic historian who did a three part series on the holocaust estimates if America would have been open to the fleeing Jews, 2,000,000 might have been saved.

There were a slew of Congressmen and Senators directly in the pay of the Nazis who were openly propagating fascist propaganda. They were searching for a potential dictator in the mould of Hitler. Maddow focuses on three prominent figures who were leading the charge. Henry Ford that scion of industry who brought the motor vehicle to the masses was a rabid anti semite. It was he who influenced Hitler and not vice versa. The Furher had a portrait of Ford hung above his head. He quoted Ford in the first edition of Mein Kamf. Think of Ford as being as influential as Elon Musk. The motor giant had episodes from the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion on the front seat of every car sold. 

The America’s hero of the day, the charismatic, Charles Lindbergh, the aviator led the powerful America First movement, with all the connotations that the name might conjure up - sound familiar. Lindbergh was a close friend of Ford. Like Ford he was  not in favor of democracy to put it at its kindest and in spite of his denials was an anti semite. Lindbergh for his efforts was a willing recipient of the Order of the German Eagle which was presented to him by Herman Goring, no less, on behalf of Adolph Hitler. He was fully fledged vocal anti interventionist in the War a self admitted racist but there were apologists galore for him and there still are. His name recognition in America was equivalent to that of Trump and was magnified by the kidnapping and murder of his baby. He shut up after Pearl Harbour and Germany declared war on America.

Finally there was Father Coughlin the anti semitic Pro Nazi propagandist. Coughlin would have made Fox News envious. He had 30,000,000 followers of his radio broadcasts and backed all the protagonists of German indoctrination which was being directed from Nazi Germany which in many instances was financed through their embassies. There was sophisticated mailers from Germany and even from Congress Members' Offices. 

Pro Nazi paramilitary groups armed to the teeth abounded, the principle entity being The Silver Shirts who had chapters all across the country. The fore runners to the modern day Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. 

SO WHERE ARE WE NOW? 

So in December 2023 the world is where it was in September 1938 on the verge of an attempt to takeover Europe by a fascist ruler. Anti semitism, fascism’s natural accompaniment is on the rise. Chamberlain the UK Prime Minister orchestrated the agreement with Hitler, who after conquering Czechoslovakia, undertook to attempt no more territorial expansionism. The attempt at appeasement failed as soon after Hitler invaded Poland. Today’s equivalent is Russia invading Ukraine where they expected, in a week, to overrun their equivalent of Czechoslovakia, but have met with incredible resistance. Poland incidentally have little doubt that should Ukraine fall they are next. 

Like President Roosevelt before him President Biden has provided the wherewithal to fight fascism. So the circumstances are different but what is happening in America bears stark similarities to those of fascist pre WW11 days. America was riddled with pro Nazi movements and anti semitic sentiment.

All this taking place to the background of Donald Trump, a “GOP” party that yearns for a dictatorship and a racist leader who wants all authority to accrue to himself. The country is experiencing historic post war anti semitic hate crimes and Trump has all but sown up the “GOP” nomination. In some ways the situation is worse than in 1939 because this noxious ideology has the support of one of the two major American political parties. In addition the Leader Donald Trump attempted a coup and was and still is supported by the majority of the party’s elected representatives. 

WHAT MIGHT HELP THE SITUATION

Heather Cox Richardson points out in all these other incarnations of anti democracy none of the leaders were brought to account. From Lincoln, who said that there should be no recriminations and hangings to Nixon who was pardoned by Ford to “Heal The Nation”.

The situation is on its way to be different now. Over a thousand of Trump’s stormtroopers have been found guilty and have been sentenced and he is facing criminal charges. The Courts to date have stood firm but it is ultimately up to the gerrymandered Supreme Court to decide whether Trump who has caused an insurrection should be able to even run for office. Whether or not he is immune for any crime he may have committed as President is central to a nation of laws and is before the high court now. More obliquely and even more dangerously is that the legislation under which Trump and the insurrectionist army have been charged is being argued as not being valid. 

Should the Supreme Court decide one way or another that these seditious acts should go unpunished America will take far longer to recover from this current anti democracy wave. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Even if Biden wins and the Democrats sweep the House and hang onto the Senate the Grand Old Party ain’t grand. it ain’t a Party anymore and ain’t old, it is dead. That is not terribly good for democracy either. 

Oh by the way at the end of the day Ukraine may still get its money. This being the last hurrah of pro democracy of the Grand Old Party.

Where fascism lurks rabid antisemitism is not far behind.