One of the dumbest things we are asked to believe about Israel’s genocide in Gaza is that all these civilians are being butchered because the Palestinians are evil and not the Israelis. That it’s the victims doing evil things and not the perpetrators.

That’s all this gibberish about “human shields” and “self-defense” is meant to do, you know. To make it look like the victims of siege warfare and carpet bombing are the ones responsible for all the death and destruction we are seeing and not the people who are actually doing it.

We’re Basically Being Asked To Believe That The Palestinians Are Genociding Themselves

One of the dumbest things we are asked to believe about Israel’s genocide in Gaza is that all these civilians are being butchered because the Palestinians are evil and not the Israelis. That it’s the victims doing evil things and not the perpetrators.

Caitlin Johnstone

Can you think of anything more insulting to your intelligence? So self-evidently counter to common sense? They’re seriously asking you to believe that the people who are being starved, shot and bombed to death are the perpetrators of their own genocide, and that the side which has attacked every hospital in Gaza are just the innocent bystanders responding to unprovoked acts of aggression in the most ethical and responsible way they can manage. 

Off the top of my head I really can’t think of anything more absurd.

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Everyone who reacted with more sympathy or outrage over October 7 than they have over the last year of Israeli atrocities has just spent a year confessing that they don’t see Palestinians as human beings.

I am not a dog person or a cat person, but if I saw dogs or cats being treated the way Palestinian human beings are being treated I would care more than the average western liberal cares about Palestinians.

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A liberal is someone who thinks the moderate position between being pro-Israel and being pro-Palestine is giving Israel everything it needs to genocide the Palestinians and then watching the genocide and saying “Oh how heartbreaking and tragic, this is all very complicated.”

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Israel to continue blocking humanitarian aid from Gaza on the grounds that the aid could fall into the hands of Palestinian civilians.

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Imagine getting into journalism school thinking you’ll change the world for the better, finally graduating and making your family proud, getting into a prominent news outlet, spending years working your way up to editor, only to wind up spending your days writing headlines like “Gaza children perish after chance encounter with missile.”

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Here’s what it would look like if the media had used the same methods they use to report on Israel’s crimes to report on WWE star Chris Benoit strangling his wife and son to death in 2007:

Model and professional wrestling manager Nancy Benoit has been found deceased in her residence in Fayetteville, Georgia, along with her son Daniel, a seven year-old man.

Police report that both Nancy and Daniel appear to have perished from asphyxiation as a result of some tremendous force having been applied to their throats, obstructing their breathing and leading to their demise.

Authorities report that the body of Nancy Benoit was found with her legs bound with duct tape and her arms tied behind her back with coaxial cables. Toxicologists say a sedative agent was found in Daniel Benoit’s system.

Nancy Benoit worked in various professional wrestling promotions prior to her untimely demise, first with World Championship Wrestling from 1989 to 1990, with Extreme Championship Wrestling from 1993 to 1996, then returning to World Championship Wrestling for a year before departing from the promotion in 1997.

Also found on the scene was the body of World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Chris Benoit, who law enforcement officials claim appears to have committed suicide by hanging himself in the weight room.

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When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When all you have is an arsenal of military explosives and the unconditional support of a globe-spanning empire, everything looks like a problem that can be solved by mass murder.

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Probably doesn’t help matters that the Old Testament is chock full of stories about Jews being at war with their neighbors all the time. Jewish Israelis and their Christian Zionist backers in the US have been conditioned by religion to expect all this military violence and see it as normal.

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The Iraq invasion was about more than just advancing geostrategic objectives; it was also an information-gathering operation. It answered a lot of questions. What happens when we do this? What happens when we completely obliterate international law in front of everyone to do something extremely evil? Are there any consequences? Do we lose any allies? Does the world turn against us? Can we continue advancing our stranglehold of this planet by any means necessary, with any amount of violence and depravity necessary, without having to pay any meaningful price? 

The answers to those questions explain why the US empire has continued to behave in the way it’s behaved in the years since.

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https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/10/16/were-basically-being-asked-to-believe-that-the-palestinians-are-genociding-themselves/

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