I’m sick of this.
Truly, I am absolutely fed up with the State of Israel. My patience with this nation has worn thin — and it was a remarkably strong patience that I, an ethnically Lebanese man, had for this country.
I’m sick of being told “Israel has a right to defend itself.” This statement is problematic. Every country has a right to defend itself. It isn’t a special question nor consideration that is reserved for Israel. Indeed, any country under attack deserves the right to defend itself and its people (see Ukraine, as a recent example).
The reason Israel seems to get this preferential treatment, is because of their history. Three major wars with neighbouring, belligerent Arab states in 1948, 1967, and 1973, lent to this idea of Israel’s special need to defend itself. In the wake of the Holocaust, humanity’s greatest crime, it was a tough question. And you know what? They, at the time, had every right to act hard and fast in self defence. They were a young nation, facing threats from all around them from their border states — namely: Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, coupled with Palestinian resistance movements.
But we are in 2023. Israel’s existence is not under threat like it once was. They don’t face existential crises like they did all of those decades ago. Egypt and Jordan have since signed peace treaties with Israel and have acknowledged its right to exist. Syria poses no threat to Israel, given its instability and fracturing from the civil war over the last twelve years. And Palestinian resistance is a pipe-dream, given that the Palestinian Authority have long since believed in the two-state solution, and terror groups such as Hamas cannot seriously challenge the IDF, as we have tragically seen over the last three months.
In fact, we have seen what Israel is all about now. They are not about defending themselves. That notion hasn’t been a real question for at least thirty years. No, they are all about supremacy and annihilation of Palestine, and if possible, other Arab states. Waving the Holocaust in our faces does not change the fact, nor excuse the fact, that Israel are currently engaging in their own, now clear to see, genocidal campaign against Palestinians.
Riddle me how Israel’s plans for Gaza revolve around levelling the strip into rubble. Is this the future for the Gazans? No homes and no infrastructure? Is this how you improve their lives, and “liberate” them from Hamas, by terrorising those poor souls even further? Explain to me how you can refer to the residents of the Gaza Strip as “human animals” — looking at you, Yoav Gollant — yet still try to maintain the veneer that you are the innocent victims that are terrorised by jihadists. Enlighten me on how you are targeting Hamas, when the most charitable interpretations state that at least 75% (perhaps even more if the numbers are truly scrutinised) of the deaths in these attacks are civilian deaths, with almost 9,000 of them being children. Last I checked, but explain how further settlements, harrassments, attacks, and encroachments in the West Bank will defeat Hamas, where they have no authority nor serious presence. Perhaps I’m stupid, but tell me how you tell Gazan residents to flee south towards Egypt, then bomb those areas anyway.
In fact, educate me on where you developed the audacity to bomb a building in Beirut, in order to assassinate a top Hamas leader. Sure, take out a terrorist, but do so with precision. You got the man, but also took out a building in the process, attacking a neutral country that is already suffering so much. How oxymoronic. On the one hand, you clearly know how to pinpoint where Hamas leaders are, but on the other hand, you still want to wage death and destruction, across a broad area of impact. You/ve clearly demonstrated that you can be precise, but rather than use precise attacks, or even special forces operations to get your targets, you’d rather just bomb everything you can. But that’s okay, because you warn residents you’re about to blow up their houses. How thoughtful.
Hell, let’s not pretend that people do not know what you’re doing. You want to drag Hezbollah, and thus Lebanon, into this war. Brilliant. Provocateurs, but also the victims.
And to the apologists, defenders, supporters, admirers, of these actions: history will judge you. Stop pretending, or fruitlessly claiming, that any criticism of Israel is antisemitism. It is not antisemitic to criticise the Israeli government for its actions and attitudes. Critics of Israel do not hate Jewish people. Jewish people — Israelis, in fact — criticise Israel, do they also hate Jews? A criticism of a government’s actions is not inherently prejudiced, it’s just exactly that: criticism of a government. Shall we be considered Islamophobic if we criticise the actions of the Saudi Arabian or Iranian governments?
To support what Israel is doing, are you shameless? To support forceful removal of residents from their homes and places of worship, to support carpet bombing of a densely populated, small strip of land, bringing on death and destruction not seen in years, are you without remorse or humanity? I suppose I shouldn’t try to shame these people: they are either ignorant, abhorrent, violent, or a combination of the three.
And, lastly, to Benjamin Netenyahu. Your day will come. You are not a defender of Israel nor of the Jewish people. You are a criminal and a liar. When all other reason fails, just remember: who was it that got Rabin killed?
