Death and Destruction in Gaza
By John J. Mearsheimer
I do not believe that anything I say about what is happening in Gaza will affect Israeli or American policy in that conflict. But I want to be on record so that when historians look back on this moral calamity, they will see that some Americans were on the right side of history.
What Israel is doing in Gaza to the Palestinian civilian population – with the support of the Biden administration – is a crime against humanity that serves no meaningful military purpose. As J-Street, an important organization in the Israel lobby, puts it, “The scope of the unfolding humanitarian disaster and civilian casualties is nearly unfathomable.”[1]
Let me elaborate.
First, Israel is purposely massacring huge number of civilians, roughly 70 percent of whom are children and women. The claim that Israel is going to great lengths to minimize civilian casualties is belied by statements from high level Israeli officials. For example, the IDF spokesman said on 10 October 2023 that “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.” That same day, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced: “I have lowered all the restraints – we will kill everyone we fight against; we will use every means.”[2]
Moreover, it is clear from the results of the bombing campaign that Israel is indiscriminately killing civilians. Two detailed studies of the IDF’s bombing campaign – both published in Israeli outlets – explain in detail how Israel is murdering huge numbers of civilians. It is worth quoting the titles of the two pieces, which succinctly capture what each has to say:
“‘A Mass Assassination Factory’: Inside Israel’s Calculated Bombing of Gaza”[3]
“The Israeli Army Has Dropped the Restraint in Gaza, and the Data Shows Unprecedented Killing.”[4]
Similarly, the New York Times published an article in late November 2023 titled: “Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed at Historic Pace.”[5] Thus, it is hardly surprising that the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said that “We are witnessing a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict since” his appointment in January 2017.[6]
Second, Israel is purposely starving the desperate Palestinian population by greatly limiting the amount of food, fuel, cooking gas, medicine, and water that can be brought into Gaza. Moreover, medical care is extremely hard to come by for a population that now includes approximately 50,000 wounded civilians. Not only has Israel greatly limited the supply of fuel into Gaza, which hospitals need to function, but it has targeted hospitals, ambulances, and first aid stations.
Defense Minister Gallant’s comment on 9 October captures Israeli policy: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”[7] Israel has been forced to allow minimal supplies into Gaza, but the amounts are so small that a senior UN official reports that “half of Gaza’s population is starving.” He goes on to report that, “Nine out of 10 families in some areas are spending ‘a full day and night without any food at all’.”[8]
Third, Israeli leaders talk about Palestinians and what they would like to do in Gaza in shocking terms, especially when you consider that some of these leaders also talk incessantly about the horrors of the Holocaust. Indeed, their rhetoric has led Omar Bartov, a prominent Israeli-born scholar of the Holocaust, to conclude that Israel has “genocidal intent.”[9] Other scholars in Holocaust and genocide studies have offered a similar warning.[10]
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To be more specific, it is commonplace for Israeli leaders to refer to Palestinians as “human animals, ”human beasts,” and “horrible inhuman animals.”[11] And as Israeli President Isaac Herzog makes clear, those leaders are referring to all Palestinians, not just Hamas: In his words, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.”[12] Unsurprisingly, as the New York Times reports, it is part of normal Israeli discourse to call for Gaza to be “flattened,” “erased,” or “destroyed.”[13] One retired IDF general, who proclaimed that “Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist,” also makes the case that “severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer.”[14] Going even further, a minister in the Israeli government suggested dropping a nuclear weapon on Gaza.[15] These statements are not being made by isolated extremists, but by senior members of Israel’s government.
Of course, there is also much talk of ethnically cleansing Gaza (and the West Bank), in effect, producing another Nakba.[16] To quote Israel’s Agriculture Minister, “We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba.”[17]Perhaps the most shocking evidence of the depths to which Israeli society has sunk is a video of very young children singing a blood-curdling song celebrating Israel’s destruction of Gaza: “Within a year we will annihilate everyone, and then we will return to plow our fields.”[18]
Fourth, Israel is not just killing, wounding, and starving huge numbers of Palestinians, it is also systematically destroying their homes as well as critical infrastructure – to include mosques, schools, heritage sites, libraries, key government buildings, and hospitals.[19] As of 1 December 2023, the IDF had damaged or destroyed almost 100,000 buildings, including entire neighborhoods that have been reduced to rubble.[20] Consequently, a stunning 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes.[21] Moreover, Israel is making a concerted effort to destroy Gaza’s cultural heritage; as NPR reports, “more than 100 Gaza heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks.”[22]
Fifth, Israel is not just terrorizing and killing Palestinians, it is also publicly humiliating many of their men who have been rounded up by the IDF in routine searches. Israeli soldiers strip them down to their underwear, blindfold them, and display them in a public way in their neighborhoods – sitting them down in large groups in the middle of the street, for example, or parading them through the streets – before taking them away in trucks to detention camps. In most cases, the detainees are then released as they are not Hamas fighters.[23]
Sixth, although the Israelis are doing the slaughtering, they could not do it without the Biden administration’s support. Not only was the United States the only country to vote against a recent UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but it has also been providing Israel with the weaponry necessary to wage this massacre.[24] As one Israeli general (Yitzhak Brick) recently made clear: “All of our missiles, the ammunition, the precision-guided bombs, all the airplanes and bombs, it’s all from the U.S. The minute they turn off the tap, you can’t keep fighting. You have no capability.… Everyone understands that we can’t fight this war without the United States. Period.”[25] Remarkably, the Biden administration has sought to expedite sending Israel additional ammunition, by-passing the normal procedures of the Arms Export Control Act.[26]
Seventh, while most of the focus is now on Gaza, it is important not to lose sight of what is simultaneously going on in the West Bank. Israeli settlers, working closely with the IDF, continue to kill innocent Palestinians and steal their land. In an excellent article in the New York Review of Books describing these horrors, David Shulman relates a conversation he had with a settler, which clearly reflects the moral dimension of Israeli behavior toward the Palestinians. “What we are doing to these people is actually inhuman,” the settler freely admits, “But if you think about it clearly, it all follows inevitably from the fact that God promised this land to the Jews, and only to them.”[27] Along with its assault on Gaza, the Israel government has markedly increased the number of arbitrary arrests in the West Bank. According to Amnesty International, there is considerable evidence that these prisoners have been tortured and subjected to degrading treatment.[28]
As I watch this catastrophe for the Palestinians unfold, I am left with one simple question for Israel’s leaders, their American defenders, and the Biden administration: have you no decency?
NOTES
[1] https://jstreet.org/press-releases/moment-of-truth-for-israels-government/
[2] Both quotes can be found in: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-09/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/the-israeli-army-has-dropped-the-restraint-in-gaza-and-data-shows-unprecedented-killing/0000018c-4cca-db23-ad9f-6cdae8ad0000
[3] https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
[4] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-09/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/the-israeli-army-has-dropped-the-restraint-in-gaza-and-data-shows-unprecedented-killing/0000018c-4cca-db23-ad9f-6cdae8ad0000
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-death-toll.html
[6] https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/press-encounter/2023-11-20/secretary-generals-press-conference-unep-emissions-gap-report-launch
[7] https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/
[8] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67670679
[9] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/opinion/israel-gaza-genocide-war.html
Also see: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/11/20/an-open-letter-on-the-misuse-of-holocaust-memory/
[10] https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/global-currents/statement-of-scholars-7-october/
[12] https://news.yahoo.com/israeli-president-says-no-innocent-154330724.html#:~:text=“It%20is%20an%20entire%20nation,It%27s%20absolutely%20not%20true.
[13] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-war-rhetoric.html
[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/opinion/israel-gaza-genocide-war.html
[15] https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-minister-says-nuking-gaza-an-option-pm-suspends-him-from-cabinet-meetings/
[16] https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/israeli-think-tank-lays-out-a-blueprint-for-the-complete-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/
[17] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-12/ty-article/israeli-security-cabinet-member-calls-north-gaza-evacuation-nakba-2023/0000018b-c2be-dea2-a9bf-d2be7b670000
[18] https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-israeli-children-sing-we-will-annihilate-everyone-gaza
[19] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-public-library-destroyed-bombing
22 days ago · 481 likes · 174 comments · Chris Hedges
[20] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67565872#
[21] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-gaza-attacks-north-south-us-veto-un-ceasefire-resolution/
[22] https://www.npr.org/2023/12/03/1216200754/gaza-heritage-sites-destroyed-israel
[23] https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-says-groups-of-hamas-militants-surrendered-amid-gaza-fighting-7891bc22
[24] https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-vetoes-un-security-council-resolution-demanding-immediate-gaza-ceasefire/
[25] https://www.jns.org/biden-is-the-primary-obstacle-to-israeli-victory/
[26] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/world/middleeast/us-israel-tanks-ammunition.html
[27] https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/12/21/a-bitter-season-in-the-west-bank-david-shulman/
[28] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/11/israel-opt-horrifying-cases-of-torture-and-degrading-treatment-of-palestinian-detainees-amid-spike-in-arbitrary-arrests/
John Mearsheimer is an American political scientist and international relations scholar who belongs to the realist school of thought. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He has been described as the most influential realist of his generation.
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Views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
Comments
23 responses to “Have WE No Decency?”
Powerful, on-point writing from John Mearsheimer…
Very true, however politics, is a real lie funny and dirty game. In fact the 75 years slow death, torture, oppression and every other indignity that you can imagine discharged on the Palestinians, needed radical change at any cost. I repeat again, the parallel between the Palestinian uprising and the suicidal 1943 Jewish revolt against their Nazi torturers in Warsaw Ghetto’s, is undeniable. They were condemned to die and die they did, so they have nothing to lose. On the contrary, the Palestinian revolt have not only great chances of success but solving the Zionist problem by erasing that evil entity from the map. Unfortunate, but unavoidable solution to the root problem. Please keep pace of unfolding events, to see that Israel is under attack from several fronts, economic, diplomatic and most important militarily.
The cost in death, suffering and destruction is high as is to be expected in any successful revolution, but victory is on the Palestinian future, finally.
We’re one “USS Liberty” away from WW3.
Why are these words and others like them dismissed, when what they are elucidating is that we Americans are acting so blatantly wrong? How can we, this great country, make the same gross missteps over and over, backing a horse that only exists for exacting revenge and chest thumping? What is it going to take before we take a humanitarian stance? Thank you for your courage and clarifications, John Mearsheimer.
What is it going to take? It’s going to take the Military Industrial Complex no longer making money off of killing foreigners.
It will happen only when the ball squeezing grip of the US Jewish Lobby is removed from the US government and society.
Great comprehensive article. Every American needs to read this. I have shared it widely.
No, they have no decency.
No, they have no decency, they have nothing. I think we are finally seeing the barbarism of the Israelis unmasked. They have been what we have always thought they were, monsters.
Thank you Professor Mearsheimer for condemning this ongoing atrocity-along with the footnotes, and the simple ending statement. Your voice of reason and humanity is sorely needed now!
So important to have your voice, Professor.
Stay safe.
I have seen many behind the scenes videos of Israeli atrocities upon the Palestinians
yet have never seen even one video showing a Palestinian doing harm to an Israeli.
Don’t hang the simian Zionist puppet dancing to the organ p£ay€r’$ tune…shoot the organi$t.
John Mearsheimer you came to Australia 5,6 years ago and threatened this Nation with ” you are either with us or against us. If you go with China we will destroy you.” There is nothing worse than hearing people with the claim of professor or army authority ,play with words and false pretenses. If you do have a voice, go back to the people that sent you to Australia, and get to go and do something constructive to stop your country being so careless disruptive. Stop playing with words, for caring goes beyond words.
John Mearsheimer, thank you for speaking out! Be safe.
I have been following the killings by Israel for nearly the whole of my life, 64 years. How can one group of people fighting this sort of terror be heroes, in the case of many US supported groups fighting their governments, yet here they are terrorists. Since Israel has existed, there has been war after war, yet they continue to ignore the UN, or to comply with what was agreed on, and steal land and kidnap and kill children among others. What is wrong with the rest of the world, are we so dumb as to believe their propaganda, or just too lazy to find the truth? Stop the murdering now, before even more may become involved, and give back what belongs to Palestine.
I also have observed the Israeli Holocaust upon the Palestinians for 60 years and counting. The current Israeli genocide upon the Palestinians is the only time that I’ve seen mass protests against it and I’m grateful to finally see “God’s chosen called out”. The white Jews of Israel should all be incarcerated in a prison far away from humanity, maybe somewhere where their murders, thefts, and torture would be appreciated. How about an island somewhere that they can murder each other and rid the earth if their presence.
How about addressing that simple question, “Have you no decency?” to Congress as well: No, of course they have no decency. But they do have big stock market investments, and are apparently being rewarded for fueling Israeli atrocities as DOW, pumped up by the Jewish controllers, hits a record high today. Kill for money? America loves it.
Is it fair to say there’s a connection between today’s stock market surge and the US Congress supporting Israeli atrocities? Could the stock market controllers be rewarding big investors in Congress?
Impressive
Thank you for sharing
Here something I wrote.
https://mywisdom.substack.com/p/humanity-vs-genocide
This ethnocide was pre planned, and the UN is fully complicit in its actuation and continuation.
Time to say stop and march on them
I’M TALKING TO YOU, TRIBE
That’s right, I’m talking to you, Jewish Tribe, inventor of Zionism, of Israel, and Conqueror of Palestine, which you smashed apart, kicking out nearly a million of its indigenous people into refugee camps while occupying their homes, farms, and inventing your own version of settler colonization and Apartheid. You were relentless, squeezing Semites, Arabs, Christians, and Druids into smaller and smaller Bantustans, stealing more and more land. And now you’re making a mad dash to the finish line, finally pounding into mincemeat the Palestinians who remain in those last remaining islands that are in the way of Greater Israel, in an apocalyptic combination of Nakba2, Holocaust2, and Dresden2, in a blast as great as three atomic bombs, accompanied by the misty spray of blood now settling over Gaza.
And in the process, over nearly a hundred years, you have lied and obfuscated, bribed and deceived, with profound dishonesty, like “A land without a people for a people without a land,” from the halls of the money class, to buy America, its people, its government. You stop at nothing, condemning anyone who has a different moral perspective from your own. No one is safe. Ordinary people, admirable people, leaders of our most respected institutions, university presidents, the Pope and other religious leaders, say the truth and you arrogantly and openly without shame in a show of Jew power demand confessions in your Inquisition2 for them to explain why they violated your sense of Jewish superiority and your God-chosen status. Then they cave, bend down in obeisance to the superior Jew, and woe be to them if they don’t.
It’s out in the open now, your acts of genocide, your brainwashing of the bulk of American society, your control of its mass media, your ball gripping squeeze on most all our political leaders, your supreme confidence that you will supersede all political, legal, moral, social, and monetary obstacles to herd the sheeple Jews within you towards that Greater Israel.
Yes, I’m talking to you, Tribe, you monstrous political entity. I’m telling you to take your self-righteousness and shove it up to that place warm and moist where sunlight never goes and sit on it, squirm until you feel the bulge and set yourself off to an orgasm to end all orgasms, with the hope that its intensity will blow your heart apart and once and for all smash your superior political controls on all the humanity whose minds you have strapped inside of straitjackets.
Great summary John Mearsheimer ! Respect 🫡
I and many in the world admire your honest and brave work to expose the lies of Israel’s government as well as the ongoing escalation by Israel’s lobby groups that did not stop at influencing and finally subjugating the political decision-making in USA; but continued to terrorize honest American citizens who speak out against Israel’s policies using media provocations and ‘creative’ false accusations, threatening their livelihoods and preventing them from expressing their opinion and practicing their right under the constitution for freedom of speech.
Thank you for your honesty Prof. Mearsheimer.