The speech on Israel last week by Chuck Schumer, the most senior Democrat in the Senate, was a clear sign of exactly how far the country has fallen in the eyes of the world since it began its retaliation for the attacks of 7 October 2023.
As well as being the most senior Jewish politician in the US, Schumer has been the longest-standing supporter of Israel in the Democratic Party. He voted against the Iran deal, siding with Benjamin Netanyahu over Barack Obama.
Last week, however, he called for Netanyahu’s hardline government to be replaced, accusing him of weakening his country’s “political and moral fabric” and being an “obstacle to peace”.
Netanyahu had been “too willing to tolerate the civilian toll” in Gaza and was “pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows”, the Senate majority leader said.
“Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah,” he said.
This is, of course, just the latest criticism from an increasingly tired and frustrated Washington.
Last week, President Joe Biden accused Netanyahu of doing more to harm than help his own country, describing the Israeli government’s plan to attack Rafah — currently home to as many as a million refugees from the war — as a “red line” that must not be crossed.
There was a time when the term “red line” in Washington was reserved for murderous autocrats like Bashar al-Assad.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Israel-Palestine War
There are three serious consequences of this.
First, the damage to Israel’s reputation is geopolitically disastrous for the Jewish state – potentially existentially so.
Its actions over the past six months have cost the lives of more than 31,300 people, according to Palestinian officials, displaced more than 1.7 million of the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza and caused a humanitarian crisis that has left many in the enclave on the brink of starvation.
It is clear that there can be no return to the status quo ante 7 October, ever.
Now, outside of the lunacy of Trump’s GOP, Viktor Orbán’s Hungarian illiberal democracy and Holocaust-guilt-ridden Germany, it is hard to find any Western country openly willing to defend Israel’s actions.
Even a Tory foreign secretary of the UK, David Cameron, has been harshly critical of Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza.
More than 80% of people in Arab countries across the Middle East have experienced “great psychological distress” over the war in Gaza, according to surveys by the Doha Institute.
The Abraham Accords, the much-mooted pact between Israel and Saudi Arabia, are now unthinkable without a two-state solution.
Needless to say, in the Global South – particularly in Latin America and Africa – it has become commonplace to accuse Israel of genocide. The mass pro-Palestine marches which continue to be seen all over the world are a clear sign of the scale of the shift in global opinion.
Perhaps the most long-standing impact of the war will be to shatter the narrative – so well propagated in the US and beyond by the pro-Israel lobby and by John Mearsheimer in his book “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy” – that criticism of the state of Israel is equivalent to anti-Zionism and, by implication, anti-Semitism. Now, in many parts of the world, defending Israel is an anathema.
Second, the economic impact has been brutal.
Israel’s economy has suffered one of its worst-ever slumps as the war has paralysed businesses, forced people to evacuate their homes and caused the military to call up hundreds of thousands of reservists.
GDP shrank an annualised 19.4% in the final three months of last year, in seasonally adjusted terms, according to preliminary figures released last month. That was worse than every estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts, whose median forecast was for a decline of 10.5%.
Israel’s government was downgraded for the first time by Moody’s last month as it plans to ramp up bond issuance to fund the conflict.
While economic activity is expected to stabilise, the long-term impact on the foreign direct investment-dependent tech sector, formerly the driving force of the Israeli economy, could be permanent.
Already damaged by the judicial reform protests of 2023 and a general slowdown in tech investment given higher interest rates, tech FDI was down 29% in the final quarter of 2023 compared with 2022, according to the Bank of Israel.
“There will be a long-term impact of the ongoing war in Israel which we anticipate will last at least five years,” says prominent Israeli tech investor Entrée Capital.
“Israel is thus facing double the challenges of other global tech hubs.”
Finally, there are the broader-based effects of the war on all Israelis and indeed Jews.
Anti-Semitic incidents in the US hit an unprecedented record in the two months after Hamas’ shock attack on 7 October, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The organisation said it recorded 2,031 incidents between 7 October and 7 December, the highest two-month number ever and a 337% increase over the same period in 2022.
The scale of the surge in anti-Semitism in the UK since Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October has been even greater, with data showing a 589% increase in the number of incidents between October and February compared with the same period in 2022.
The Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Jewish abuse, said the unprecedented increase was a “watershed moment for anti-Semitism in the UK”.
Netanyahu and his government believed that the appropriate response to 7 October would be to obliterate Palestinian resistance through unprecedented military aggression and civilian harm.
This strategy has proved to be not only morally wrong but delusional.
Its effects have been precisely counterproductive to its stated aim – to make Israelis safer.
Similar to 9/11 and the response of the US, many warned last October that the end effect of the Hamas attacks would be to trap Israel into damaging itself more profoundly than Hamas itself ever could.
Now, with Israel more isolated than at any point in its history, it is clear, at least in that sense, that Hamas has achieved exactly what it set out to do. DM
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An accurate assessment. Sadly so.
Netanyahu and his acolytes have been a catastrophe for Israel.
Hamas is pure evil but that is now largely irrelevant in the way the world regards this conflict.
Thank you, Errol, for a very pertinent comment, and thank you, Mr Labia, for a very thoughtful assessment of the situation. Yes, President Netanyahu and his government are certainly acting contrary to the interests of Israel economically and in terms of international support, and for any hope of longer term stability.
The Israeli government, however, seems determined to carry on with the destruction of Gaza and an offensive in Rafah and the achievement of its stated objectives (which seem ideally to desire pushing the Palestinians out of Gaza and into Egypt and Jordan), despite the increasing objections from the international community.
The only option to stop the tragedy and blkodshed, which some countries are now adopting, is to stop providing arms to Israel. However, it seems unlikely that the US will stop its arms support. The Netanyahu government has become so emboldened by the US’s stance, the US’s more recent shift in tone has had no effect.
You are proposing banning selling weapons to the jews to defend themselves, sounds something like the nazis would do, dont you think.
Defend themselves?? Is THAT what they’re doing? I must’ve got it all wrong then.
This genocide of people to kill an ideology that lives in the minds of some people is the stuff of delusional six year old’s. There may have been a fair amount of Hamas supporting people within those boundaries before the invasion, there are now 100% of that population that will support any sort of revenge against Israel, including tens of thousands of other people around the world who are now sympathetic to their cause and will financially back future attacks on Israeli’s what kind of idiocy does it take to not see this?
You said it, antisemitism increased after 7 October when people celebrated Hamas on the streets. Nothing to do with Israel’s response, which came much later. Haters are going to hate, and they love hating Jews more than anything. Israel has been dealing with Hamas attacks for decades, how long can they be expected to put up with it for?
Oh really. And the settler attacks on the Palestinians in the West Bank? Unfortunately for Zionists like you – and apparently many thousands of your people, the not-really-South-Africans – the cat is well and truly out of the bag, and the ‘antisemitic’ stuff you peddle is actually against the true Semites, namely the people of the Levant, the Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians and of course the Palestinians. Oh, and a few ‘true’ Semites, maybe, the Sephardics. Not the carpetbagging Ashke-nazis.
And you are one of thrm
You need to read more, with respect. Their have been many many many attacks by the people in the so called west bank against the Israelis. Random and unprovoked. They are reported in Israeli mainstream media, usually not picked up by the international press. No idea what you are saying about the spehardis and the Ashkenazis, but the Palestinians have been preaching hatred and martyrdom against every jew living in Israel since before 1947.
And Israelis have been killing Palestinians since 1947 and in huge numbers. Why shouldn’t people on the West Bank attack settlers? Wouldn’t you attack someone stealing your land? You are defending the indefensible.
Thanks for the response. Probably won’t make much use, but at least we tried.
Jordan annexed the West Bank in 1950. Lost the plot in 1967 to Israel. Israel should give it bank to Jordan. Oh wait. Jordan is already Palestinian.
The problem is whoose land is it? if you far enough back you will find it is Jewish land, but those two groups have to find a way to live together.
Huge numbers? Rubbish! Assad killed more in a year of the Syrian civil war than Israel has killed since 1947
Provoked by the illegal occupation we like to have selective amnesia about.
Understandable given the continued oppression of the Palestinians by Israeli government. By your logic the apartheid state in South Africa shoikd have killed millions of oppressed in the name of self defense. Your level of hypocrisy knows no bounds
I would suggest that you too do more reading on the Israel situation & the expropriation (without compensation) of Palestinian owned land on the West Bank, by Israel. Tom Segev’s (who is Israeli) autobiography of David Ben Gurion (Israel’s first prime minister) called ‘A State At any Cost’ gives a good background to this conflict.
Unfortunately you are right about one thing….the Koran calls for death to all infidels and the Muslims take this seriously…..I don’t know of any other religious order that requires the killing of those not of the same faith….Just saying….
Have you read the Old Testament?
Agree. It’s time the Jewish people dropped their persecution complex and realised the world is not against them just against their attitude. Their actions in the Gaza War simply cannot be tolerated. How do they sleep at night as a genocide is inacted in their name?
I would say recent events have shown the Jews that the world doesnt like them and reinforces the point “never again”
True, but not just recent events, over the last 1800 years, they have been kicked out of virtually every country in Europe, and those who didn’t flee got slaughtered. And you can’t blame Netanyahu for that.
Great comment
Well said Steve
Stick with Hindutva Modi ! Another Netanyahu !
I am guessing from your comments your comments you dont like the Jews.
Amazing assumption
BTW Ashkenazi Jews in Israel are in the MINORITY
Sure, but how do they think this situation can be resolved? Shock and awe tactics are not going to work here. There is a good model for Israel and Hamas and other actors in the Middle East to consider: Northern Island. A negotiated settlement, despite the ideological differences between the two sides, despite Britain’s distate for dealing with those they considered terrorists, despite the bombs the IRA had used. In the end it was diplomacy, no matter if distasteful to two sides who didn’t trust each other, that put an end to the bloodshed.
That shouldn’t really have been a response to October 7th (“oh… we should talk about this”), it should have been a process started years ago. Northern Ireland shows how enemies can beat swords into ploughs, how they can work towards a new future that their shared past was never going to get them to.
I get the sentiment behind having dialogue but I cannot see how one can equate “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland to that of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They are literally and figuratively world’s apart. The Irish themselves would disagree but just the Oct 7th attack accounted for almost half of ALL the deaths during the Troubles.
Firstly, there have been countless attempts at dialogue and if one is being factual, the leadership of the Palestinians starting with Arafat and ending with Abbas have done nothing other than to reject every attempt at initiating a two-state solution. The Palestinians leadership should be charged for crimes against their own people in my opinion.
Secondly, Palestinians have shown throughout their 100-year history that they prefer the sword to the pen and that does not include their fight against Israel, but rather Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. They literally have tried to overthrow every one of those country’s regimes in the last 50 years.
Thirdly, the Israelis are 100% consistent since 1948. You attack Israel, you kill Israelis then they will respond with a force 100x greater and to be fair that is understandable considering over half of the Jewish race was exterminated in their lifetime.
Finally, the international community couldn’t give a damn about the Palestinians, nobody does, and I think Arab regimes are very keen to trade and invest with Israel.
Considering Iran, perhaps it is the Palestinians who are the pariahs in the Levant?
I agree that dialogue is needed but as long as the USA give unconditional military support to Israel, nothing will change. The USA have long held the power to force Israel to the negotiation table.
If you look at the history of the Oslo Accords and the repeated attempts by the US, it has failed at every turn with the Palestinians in trying to get them to accept any form of a 2-state solution. So if the US turns off the armament / protection taps (sanctions) to the Israeli’s to get them around the negotiating table, what will be the outcome? What will the Israelis give the Palestinians that was not offered in the past? If the Palestinians were offered all of this and they rejected it time and again, why would they accept it now? So it is a flawed assumption to think that the US has the power to do anything when history proves it not capable. You are thinking the US and Israelis hold all the keys. Even with a liberal Israeli government it is highly doubtful whether the Palestinian leadership would accept anything. In fact there is so much division in the Palestinian leadership that Mahmoud Abbas of the PA does not even represent the majority of Palestinians, between the PA, FATAH and HAMAS they would sooner wipe each other out first and then talk about Palestine. And sanctions against any country, which is what you are suggesting for Israel, has never worked…ever…and never will…ever.
But who has the power to get the Palestinians to the negotiating table to NEGOTIATE not demand.
Since when does the parting a war and losing get to demand the outcome to go their way?
I agree that dialogue is needed but as long as the USA give unconditional military support to Israel, nothing will change. The USA have long held the power to force Israel to the negotiation table.
Muslims have a “Jewish problem”, which they now made a world problem.
South Africa lays 109th on the Human Development Index. Palestine 88th. (2020)
The Apostate Prophet on YouTube has opened my eyes to the world of apologists and defenders of a violent ideology.
And Christians and Jews have a Muslim problem, religion is not known for tolerance of it’s competition.
Jews & Christians doesn’t have a God calling for the extermination of their competitors. Like Islam.
I suggest you read the old testament which is full of violence towards non believers.
The Jews, Christians and Muslims essentially share the same god, just different prophets.
You clearly don’t know your own (Western) history. The muscular, medieval church’s Pope specifically launched the Crusades at the end of the eleventh century to literally wipe out people we would today call Palestinians. The bloodbath of that first Crusade (the only ‘successful’ one from the Western Christian perspective) is well recorded – tens of thousands of those living in Jerusalem were slaughtered by the western crusading army. The fourth Crusade in 1204 also included the Byzantine Christians and was the greatest destruction and theft of art until WWII; it saw Richard the Lionheart (so-named) have an affair with the Muslim Sultan Saladin, that, and their repetitive losses, saw the crusades gradually trickle to an end….but not before causing disastrous pain and destruction and leaving a stain on the history of the region ever since. Do check your history before making incorrect allegations. I am not commenting now about the current catastrophe in Palestine – but nothing happens in a vacuum, including anti-Western/Christian resentments. Also – Ireland still isn’t solved; – we still don’t have all the land back from the colonising England; but the way forward is now thankfully a more peaceful route. Diplomacy does work with willing partners.
Beverly I think you misunderstood my reply. The violence towards non believers was intended to mean violence against non Jews.
Apologies, John P. I was attempting to reply to whoever Ek Se is (hiding behind an anonymous handle…), certainly not you. My techie mistake 🙂 Beverley
All good, your were 100% on point with your comment generally regarding the Palestinians and Western history.
Techie error aside your point was well made.
Christians and Muslims “have a Jewish problem”. Christians regard Jesus as their Saviour, and Muslims revere Jesus as one of the great messengers of God. History proves the Jewish opinion on Jesus. There has always been “a” driving force to pit Christians against Muslims. Muslims, like Christians strongly believe in the second coming of Jesus. What is the Jewish stand on the second coming???
Religious Jews believe fervently in the coming of Moshiach. It is a cornerstone of Judaism.
Wrong. He’s an ex-muslim. An Atheist who knows Arabs and their customs inside out.
You like Norman Finkelstein.
Better a pariah than murdered raped and slaughtered
Israel must destroy every element of Hamas, as simple as that.
Define Hamas, won’t you please?
Israel is doing to Palestinian’s what Hitler tried to do to the Jews, to exterminate a race.
For the Jews to now cry foul when the entire world is against what they are doing, is just pathetic.
I don’t believe Israel is trying to exterminate Palestinian civilians as you suggest. Israel is trying to eliminate Hamas, whose stated intention is to destroy the state of Israel. I believe it was Netanyahu who said: “If Hamas lays down their arms there will be peace. If Israel lays down their arms there will be no Israel”. I am fully in agreement about the Crusades. A war crime if ever there was one, like the bombing of Dresden. I have come to the conclusion that as long as there are human beings on this planet, there will never be peace. War, hate and greed are in our genes.
How I love the ‘selective’ quote to confirm you personal biases .. of “no Israel” or “there will be peace” on Israel’s terms ! Israel was the ‘construct’ of the British who had no business ‘owning/occupying’ the territory in the first place … let alone ‘giving’ it to Zionists .
If Israel was trying to exterminate Palestians then they would have done that by now and would have dropped large bombs to destroy Gaza.
They have been dropping bombs
The biggest ‘non-nuclear’ ones that the US makes !
The Arab population in Gaza has increased dramatically since 1948.
As a potential state, they can’t provide their own water and electricity, but rely on Israel for that as well as medical support.
Some genocide.
You really need to read up on the history of Israel. You really think Hamas can be destroyed? For every Hamas member killed, far more Palestinian civilians are killed too. Each of these deaths spawn another generation of people filled with hatred for Israel.
Natale you might not know this but there are 300 000 Israelis that have been displaced from their homes since October the 7th.
Until it is safe for them to return Israel will continue to do whatever is needed regardless of foreign pressure.
This is not just Netanyahu this is the entire population that demands this.
His hands are tied as any politician that does not deliver a complete and decisive victory against Hamas and Hizbollah is toast.
There is also the return of the hostages that has to be resolved.
In short Israel is in an existentialist war.
Believe it or not!
Did you forget about the thousands of Palestinian ‘hostages’ (over many decades) rotting in Israeli jails ?
Hamas have played the propaganda game better than Israel. One day of horror quickly forgotten, followed by months of wailing Palestinians on our TV screens, with death figures and stories of starvation supplied by – you guessed it – Hamas. Similar conditions in Sudan and Ukraine are minimally reported.
Well, it’s easy to win the ‘propaganda game’ when the other side slaughters 20 times as many women and children as your initial horrifying attack did…
And of course, how many thousands of orphaned Palestinian children are going to grow up to now desire to join Hamas in order to gain revenge against Israel – they have literally created the next two generations of enemies that seek their nation’s destruction, while at the same time destroying their own reputation in the eyes of many countries that would otherwise have been erstwhile allies…
Absolutely! Hamas have played and won the propaganda war. Labia’s article and many of the comments are clear proof of just how successful their propaganda has been. The truth has no traction. But write Israel off at your own peril Mr Labia and all those who agree with him…..
Israel behaves like a terrorist state and is a threat to world peace.
For defending themselves against a large massacre.
This has always been Netanyahu’s war and not Israel’s war. It is interesting that this all started when he was at his lowest even becoming as desperate as wanting to take away some judicial powers from the judiciary and giving those to parliament where he has more control. Isreali’s were already on the streets calling for his removal. I always want to chuckle when people sitting in their cosy living rooms keep urging Isreal to keep fighting very far from the action. How about you hop on a flight to Israel and go fight too?
I think it’s the world that has changed. The accessibility of information, mass migration and easy access to different cultures. I feel people ‘in general’ are less threatened by those from a different culture. This openness makes it harder to manipulate opinions. As far as I’m concerned “about time”
Israel’s official policy towards Palestinian statehood has been un-acceptable for decades. Opinions against Israel have been hardening, but the carnage of the last few months have concentrated these opinions.
Anti-Semitism is wrong. One of my best friends is Jewish, he is sincere in his faith but he strongly believes in equality.
There is a deliberate conflating of anti-semitism and anti-zionism! It serves the Zionist agenda perfectly !
Any Jew who points that out is conveniently dismissed as ‘self-hating’ … like they did those who refused to serve in the apartheid SA military .
“heading for FULL pariah status”
Are you saying that Israel was already a pariah state, but not a fully-fledged one… Yet, before the 7th of October 2023?
I am always interested in what the “appropriate response” should have been with regards Oct 7th. Labia says it has proved to be not only morally wrong but delusional. Well we are 5 months in, so with hindsight, Labia should have a good solution strategy for how Israel should have responded to Hamas. I would be interested to hear what that would be considering he has based his article on the premise that Israel fell into the Hamas trap. Yet he hasn’t provided his opinion, perhaps because he doesn’t actually know what Israel should have done.
And therein lies the crux of the matter.
The only country that is left to deal with the Palestinians are the Israelis, no Arab country wants to touch them nor do they want them anywhere near them. The UN has never bothered to implement UNSCR 1701 to protect the Israeli northern border. It is thus convenient to leave the Israelis holding the Palestinian “can”, yet then lambast every action or decision they take (dependent on UK/US elections). When the US does get involved (Oslo, Camp David et al) the PLO under Yasser Arafat then Mahmoud Abbas are the ones looking a gift horse in the mouth.
So rightly or wrongly, the Israelis (Jews) are damned if they do and damned if they don’t (sound familiar). Which inevitably brings to mind the Millwall FC chant: “No one likes us, no one likes us, we don’t care”.
The change in the world’s views on Israel only prove how effective Palestinian and Hamas propaganda has been. The media have been against Israel from day one, advancing every false trope about it fed to them by Hamas and the woke Palestinian lobby. Hamas’ statistics and claims are uncritically accepted by the media who have been totally captured by the oppressor/oppressed victimhood ideology of the far left. The media is supposed to inform opinion not shape it. Furthermore the whole anti-Israel narrative has been actively shaped by Islam and the Islamists and is blindly accepted by the self-hating west who are too polite to assert the superiority of western culture over Islam and its violent Jew-hating culture.
Israel, a terrorist state!
Palestine was a British administered territory from 1917. Sometime thereafter a British politician by the name of Lord Balfour produced a document encouraging the creation of a Jewish State it became known as the Balfour Doctrine. In 1947 after the holocaust, The League of Nations/United Nations encouraged by the USA and Britain created Israel by dividing up Palestine into a section for the Jews and a section for the Palestinians. Both Jews and Palestinians lived in Palestine, the Palestinians were in the majority. The Palestinians and the Arab world rejected the division outright. The future of Palestine could only be decided by the Palestinian people.
Many wars have been fought and millions of people have been displaced, killed, starved to death, or denied medical attention at the hands of the Jews occupying Palestine. On day one in 1948 the Jews displaced 750 000 from their homes in the new Israel. The Jews occupying Palestine have brutally abused the Palestinians for 75 years. These are crimes against humanity. They have done this by dehumanising the Palestinians, these constructs made it easy to slaughter 25000 women and children, almost a journalist a day and describe it as being ‘caught in the crossfire’. This is in the short period from October 7 23. The Jews have in the process dehumanised themselves. They have lost their humanity; they no longer have moral integrity and are no longer behaving like human beings. Evidence supports the claims that the Jews are starving the Palestinians by frustrating aid into Gaza. They are also denying them medical attention by destroying hospitals and other medical facilities. The IDF members slaughter anybody and everybody they come into contact with, including unarmed young children and old people and then celebrate.
The Israelis have destroyed cultural sites, archives, education sites, medical facilities and homes, the evidence supports genocide. In addition, they are building settlements in Palestinian territory notwithstanding many UN resolutions declaring them illegal. The Jews now occupy the whole of Palestine.
Recently an old Jewish person wrote ‘we were the victims now we are the perpetrators’, what he did not speak about was the past 75 years where the USA, the UK, their European allies together with the Israeli propaganda machine, the Jews around the world and the Western media have provided cover for all the atrocities committed by Israel. The propaganda machine attacks everybody that is not pro-Israel. The attacks are relentless, truth is not important. The latest is an attack by the Israeli Foreign Minister discrediting the UN Secretary General. Israel sounds a lot like North Korea, unhinged and isolated.
We all wonder why the USA and their allies unconditionally support Israel, why Israel is never held accountable. Israel has been described as ‘lawless’ by legal scholars, as in criminal. The US is providing the bombs and ammunition that are used to slaughter the Palestinians. Israel is their frontman in the Middle East, there is more US military hardware in Israel including nuclear than anywhere in the world. The USA has provided hundreds of billions of dollars in support of Israel over the years. Also, there are a lot of Jews in the USA, and all have a vote. This is about politics not morality. How did the promoters of Israel expect the creation of a Jewish state to be a success without the support of the Palestinians and the Arab world?
Israel will have no legitimacy until there is an agreement with the people of Palestine. Remarkably, the Israeli’s never speak about a solution only more violence and atrocities. Israel will be an illegitimate state in the minds of many people around the world until there is an agreed solution. There are no Nelson Mandelas in Israel so don’t expect a solution soon. The Palestinians in whatever form, Hamas or Hezbollah or the ordinary people of Palestine have few options to deal with the injustice they have been dealt. The accusation that UNRWA, the UN aid organisation, is supporting terrorism is another cynical example of the Israeli’s taking every opportunity to exterminate the Palestinians. Of course, the Palestinians support Hamas and Hezbollah who else is batting for them. The UN should declare Israel a terrorist state and sanction it’s leaders. Hezbollah and Hamas are the consequence of the Jews occupying Palestine.
Thank God, Israeli aggression is now on the world stage it is out of the exclusive hands of the Israeli propaganda machine and the USA, the Teutonic plates around this issue are shifting, the best thing that could happen to Israel is that it is dismantled. At least it’s existence should be challenged in a world court. The existence of Israel is a threat to world peace and has bought death and misery to millions of people The cover provided and encouragement of these crimes against humanity by the USA, its allies, the western media, the Israeli propaganda machine, and the Jews around the world will go down in history as a crime of its own.
Israel deserves it’s status as a pariah state, but to dismantle it? NO, that is wrong! Israel is denying Palestinians the right to statehood, to suggest doing that to Israel is hypocritical.
The only moral solution is the “two state” solution.
Here’s a question? What do you think the Palestinians want?
I ask this because you, the US, the UK all think that a 2-state solution is what the Palestinians want? It is the same with the cease-fire in Gaza. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I have yet to hear Hamas ask for, or request a cease-fire in Gaza. Those requests seem only to come from the other governments such as the US, UK, Qatar etc. But not once from Hamas itself.
And all the supporters of Palestine shout for Palestine to be free, from the river to the sea. And Hamas (which polls suggest, has a 75% approval in the West Bank) have made their feelings on the matter very clear on numerous occasions that there is to be no 2-state solution.
So I ask you again…what do you think the Palestinians want? And is the mantle of “pariah” only reserved for Israel alone?
Hamas keeps calling for a cease fire and negotiations to exchange hostages for political detainees in Israel. Netanyahu keeps refusing.
“The only moral solution is the ‘two state’ solution”
ONLY!!?
How about a single secular-state with equal rights for both the Israelites and Palestinians?
I think the problem is that it would be non-starter for either side in negotiations, even though, in combination with a strong human-rights-focused constitution for the new state, it would likely be the best solution.
How was the Northern Ireland conflict resolved?
Please do not say that it is because the Northern Irelanders are homogeneous, because the Israelites and Palestinians are more homogeneous than the Bantu and Afrikaners for example.
My take is that the conditions for a two state solution have been disappearing each day since 1948.
Lastly, a two-state solution with one let by the likes of Hamas/Hizbollah and the other one being led the likes of Netanyahu would not guarantee peace for either side.
In a single state with a secular constitution the extremists will not enjoy the kind of popularity they currently command.
Ordinary people will have no reason to follow extrimists, so long as you have a capable government.
You must have noticed here in RSA that extremists, racist and xenophobic organisations like the EFF, PA, BLF, etc, did not emerge during Mandela and Mbeki Era.
Do you think Hammas would allow a secular state, they are islamic nut jobs who support ISIS ideals.
The Palestians have walked way from statehood many times, their decision nothing to do with the Jews. Blame the Palestian leaders for making the wrong decisions muliple times.
This hate filled bigoted rant of yours is obviously not only a function of the current conflict. By your triumphant declaration “Thank God Israeli aggression is now on the world stage”, what you really mean is that you welcome the deaths of 30 000 by their count of the people of Gaza and Labia’s assessment Hamas knew what the result would be to October 07. And not one tiny word about perhaps the pariah status of Hamas. Wow. How much hatred of Israel does justification of that need to encompass. For 3 500 years, except when they have ruled themselves in their ancient Israel/Judah homeland, the Jewish People have known how it is to be pariahs in their “benevolent” host nations. You totally misconstrue Israelis current mood of caring nothing of hostile opinion and being pariahs or not. You massively overreach in your wishful thinking to de-legitimize the Jewish state. As it is said, one week is a long time in politics. Let us speak in another 3 500 years.
I am astounded that the “Israel has caused the death of 31,000 Gazans” narrative continues to be pushed. Hamas is solely responsible for what has transpired there. There is hard evidence of this. According to the writer’s logic Hamas are winners whether Israel responded or not to the disgusting attack on their and other countries citizens. If this was a Hamas “trap”, as the writer suggests, then it is clear for all to see what vile bottom feeders Israel is dealing with.
The person shooting or bombing is responsible. Very common for abusers to blame the victim, as in, you made me do it.
Shaw – you are very selective in your history and if you are open-minded to want to go back much further in history, then you will learn that the Jews were there over 3000 years ago in Judea and Samaria. It was always Jewish land and will always be! Israel has offered numerous times the two-state solution, including under Labour governments (not right wing governments), only to be spurned at the last minute by those not bold and statesman enough to want to make peace. Israel even handed Gaza as a gesture of peace only for Hamas to turn it to snake pit and war zone with tunnels, weapons etc. It takes two to tango, but when one side, Hamas & co with the evil Iran as main sponsor and director, are hellbent on destroying Israel and killing every Jew there, which they would have done on October 7 if they could have, then Israel has every right to protect themselves from extinction.
Yes people of the Jewish faith were there thousands of years ago. That does not make it Jewish land forever. With your logic everyone except the San should be thrown out of Southern Africa, or perhaps non Celts out of Britain?
People of the Jewish faith with a direct line to those of thousands of years ago are few and far between, the large majority of Zionists are Russians and Ukrainians who also happen to practise the Jewish faith.
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Schumer speaks for Democrats, not nearly the majority in the USA. Hamas leaders have repeatedly said that they would attack again as they did on October 7th. Ah, yes. Those “brave Muslim warriors” attacking women and children. Mohammed would be proud of them.
Labia, your economy with the truth belies your ability as a journalist. Your attempted defence of a terrorist organisation, makes of you a subscriber to the horrors that they perpetrate. My heart and many others is with Israel and the defence of their sovereignty. Why not cast your jaundiced eye a little south, to the Sudan and tell us a story of Islamic glory. Tell us (if you care) of the eight million displaced humans (men,women and children) and tens of thousands that have been slaughtered in the Sudan. You are much like the anc, who seek to glorify themselves on a stage they haven’t earned.
Agree 💯%. It’s easier for this dumber and dumber bunch of ANC wombats to pick on Israel because it’s a Jewish country. I’ve never heard any condemnation of the actions of Muslim terrorists in places like Sudan, as you mention. The genocide in Sudan is all but ignored by the media and ANC. Pandor should resign as she is demonstrating undiplomatic behaviour by “descending into the arena”. This Israel scenario is now personal for her. ANC “non-aligned” in Ukraine war but totally aligned on the side of Hamas. Great diplomacy!
As a Jew with extended family living in Israel, I appreciate the need for security in light of malevolent actions by Hamas against innocent civilians. But this massacring of the Gazan people? On top of decades-old brutality against Palestinians living in the occupied territories? Aside from the inhumanity of it all, how in heck is this meant to provide lasting security to the Israeli populace? The staggering cruelty of the Israeli regime belies a pathetic lack of intellect: a stupefying incapacity to imagine a future based on dialogue, cooperation and compromise instead of vengeance, subjugation and death.
Golda Meir once said:
If it is a choice between being pitied and dead, or hated and alive, I’ll choose to live.
What the West fails to recognise is that if Israel had not protected its citizens via the iron dome and bomb shelters, there would have been over 300,000 dead Israelis, and if Hamas had used the tunnels to protect civilians then Arab civilian deaths would have been barely over 1000.
The West also assumes that Hamas et all want a solution that accommodates Israel. A ceasefire merely postpones fighting until the next Hamas attack.
And don’t believe the rest of the Arab Sunni states love Hamas and its Iranian backers.
Looking at this conflict through Western eyes doesn’t work.
I don’t believe that the remit of the iron dome includes bulldozing and bombing civilian homes and infrastructure and turning Gaza into a living nightmare.
I think there needs to be some acknowledgement of the scale of suffering of the Palestinian people under the Israeli occupation. I do believe that it’s possible for Israelis and Palestinians to talk to each other and resolve disputes like adults, but such talks cannot happen in good faith as long as Israel is unwilling to relinquish its iron grip on the territories and recognise Palestinians’ right to independence and self-determination.
Ek onthou hoe in 1963± die opstandige Natte op Stellenbosch Universiteit my – en andere -‘onSuid Afrikaans’ genoem het, Its good to seen so many ‘unIsraelis’ demonstrate against Netanyahu et al,